Curriculum completed and revised. Now what????

We finished Missy's curriculum in early January and then went on revising. And we revised and then revised some more. ad nauseam...Now what? I grabbed other non-text books of the shelves and we are working on those. We are currently learning in detail about our planet and our most precious resource ... Fresh Water. We have moved into early medieval history (dark ages) in our early history studies and Missy decided to learn more about DaVinci. Of course he is further ahead in our medieval studies but so what... Now I am trying to find out which mathematics curriculum to get next. In regards to science I found the 5th grade book on Science from Foresman Pearson online. It's the same publisher she has used for the past several years and we like it. We are, however, augmenting it since I feel that it is much too basic and could stand more detail and specifics. My dd is technically a fourth grader but ahead of the curve. We do more 5-7 grade stuff as a rule. We are strictly secular and non-theist.

 

• So here is what I still need :
• Early American History and Revolution
•  Geography
•  Civics/Social Studies (more Civics)
•  
• Math (I heard that Singapore math is great - any other recommendations?)
•  
• English Grammar
•  
• English Comprehension
•  
• I wonder if anyone ever tried the 'Lord of the Rings' lessons (here are link ONE and TWO
•  
• I am covered on the science front.

 

English Comprehension is a challenge. She gets bored with the 'Open Court' reader and I can't blame her. She is an avid reader and reads a lot of stuff from our local library's young adult section. Any one have any tips?

 

BearBear is still easier to please but then he is only 4½ years old. some math and reading, some science, plenty of legos, toy cars and pretend play.... I love that age!!!!!

 

Any feedback at all is appreciated.

 

Sorry for the incontinence... or a case for studying vocabulary

Missy takes after her dad and is into science and math and computers. She is an avid reader but doing her vocabulary studies or grammar is like pulling teeth and equally accompanied by moaning and groaning. But Fortune smiled upon me today and I received a copy of an e-mail sent to my office earlier this morning. A client had to cancel an appointment on short notice and concluded her sentence by writing: 'Sorry for the incontinence.' Talk about a howler. Oh my!
I, of course, immediately seized upon this heaven sent opportunity to impress upon my darling offspring the importance of a good vocabulary. Now I can't wait to call my friend and philologist who loves nothing more than a good malapropism.

Reasoned Spirituality ....a must read site for any thinker.

I grew up in Germany and was raised in a non-theistic fashion. That wasn’t because my parents didn’t have any religion in their lives. My father is a theist. My mother a lapsed catholic and devout atheist. And so, when I grew up amongst my theist friends I always felt a bit odd. As though something was missing. I felt that I had to have a religion to be complete. My catholic grandparents (maternal side) were all too happy to enforce this belief. My parents didn't mind my dabbling in religion. They felt I needed to find my own way and so quietly waited on the sidelines whilst I stumbled about. I dabbled in Catholicism. And then a friend’s daughter tried to pull me into Scientology. My normally tolerant and reasonably supportive mother quickly pulled me out of that. She told me later it took some effort and threats of legal action on both sides. But my mother is a force of nature and endowed with a (tested) near genius level IQ. I have never seen anyone prevail against my mother. So that was that.

When I went to a boarding school I enrolled into Bible school. That is until I was requested not to come back. I didn’t misbehave or anything. I never skipped classes and I never failed to turn in homework or to learn some scripture by heart. But I asked questions. And I argued. And I argued so successfully that the kindly Irish priest with his white hair, sparkling blue eyes and florid face asked the headmistress to stop me from coming. He failed argument after argument with me and that, of course, was a problem for him. After all, I wasn’t the only kid there. There were a number of other students who thought our verbal spars to be quite entertaining. And I am sure my arguments made them think. For the catholic priest that was a problem.

Obviously, I was never meant to be a catholic.

I tried Catholicism, I tried Hinduism, I looked into Wicca (very half hearted and by then already convinced it wasn’t for me)and at the end of the road I found myself.

Years after I found myself I happened upon this website. Reasoned Spirituality. I had finally found what I believe put into words. So has my mother and one other lapsed German catholic. I had mailed my mother printouts of the site. When she received her first laptop and internet connection this was the first site she asked me about. The author of this site is anonymous. The author refuses to provide any information as she or he wishes people to refrain from making preconceived notions about him or her based on gender, race or age. And as maddening this is, it’s one of the things I so tremendously admire. I view the essays, thoughts and mindgames as one of the most amazing things the Internet has allowed to be created and can’t recommend it enough.
 
http://www.reasoned.org/

Molly the Owl Momma Webcam

Addictive is the appropriate term. My daughter and I love watching Molly care for her newly hatched owlets whilst still incubating the remaining eggs. Here is a link.

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Owl_Nest_Box_Cam.html

Molly is a Barn Owl Located in California in a nesting box 15 feet off the ground. Her chicks just started to hatch 2 days ago. Her mate McGee comes by every now and then with offerings of food.

This is most certainly entertaining and a wonderful teaching tool.

I am including a few pictures I captured.

READ ALL ABOUT IT! 'No Child Left Behind' is going to be left behind.... about time too!

So here's the latest on the public education front. Obama's administration is moving towards nixing the legacy of Bush's 'No Child Left Behind'. Here is a link from  msnbc.com

While I am thrilled to hear that 'No Child Left Behind' (which was an admitted failure)  will be made history,  I am concerned about the continued involvement of the federal government in education. Why? Because politicians bow to lobbyists and the teachers union has already shown its colors. Until parents are given the ability to choose schools via financial incentives (vouchers),  schools can continue to remain in a state of relative mediocrity as long as they stay above the mentioned 5% of worst performing schools.

So far I have not been a fan of the Obama administration but at least they are getting one thing right, get rid of the abysmal failure called 'No Child Left Behind' .

Notebooking? I didn't know there was a name for it.

Surfing around I came across the term 'notebooking'. Forever on the outlook for inspiration is homeschooling I decided to investigate. According to 'Notebooking Pages.com' it  can be defined as

"Notebooking is the coined term for what one may refer to as educational journaling or scrapbooking. Essentially, the idea is to create a compilation of what has been learned and experienced in any number of subjects or activities and organize it in a notebook (or binder). It is generally up to the child to determine what he wants to include in this notebook, although you may want to provide some basic guidelines to help him get started. Written narrations, copywork, timelines, reports, lists, observations, drawings, maps, and photographs are just some of the items that he may include. The notebook pages he creates for his notebooks will capture the new knowledge he has discovered as well as his own personal reflections of what he has learned. The finished notebook will prove to be a treasure for years to come as the child reviews all that he has learned and admires the elements that he brought to the subjects in making his very own book."

The funny thing is that as it turned out Missy and I had been doing this all along. Not on pre-printed pages but blank or lined paper with her illustrations. I had started her on this method because it was the way I had been taught at the Pestalozzi Waldorf Schule in Germany. Thinking back I realized that we had no text books (I left after 8th grade). Instead our teachers wrote information on the boards which we then copied. We then had to neatly and with illustrations copy this information into another book. We were only allowed inkpens to encourage neat handwriting. Ballpoint pen were frowned upon and not allowed. (I wonder if that still holds true? ) The interesting thing is that we learned very well this way. Rather than reading to us from a text book our teacher compiled his or her information from various resources and presented to us a detailed, custom tailored educational experience. Writing the information twice re-enforced the data gained in our young heads. We practiced good handwriting, neatness and illustrating. Skills that I now try to foster in  my children as well.  I just had no idea that it had a name.

We use a folder with dividers and page protectors. She is very proud of it and has covered a variety of topics. Her favorites so far a dissertation on Bill Gates (yes, she is a techie even at 10 years old) and ancient history.

Bear-Bear my son (4½ years) also notebooks. He draws his observations etc in an artist tablet turned notebook.  I think he'll be an excellent artist some day. He is a better artist already than his sister was at the same age. Start 'em young.

For anyone interested I would recommend having your children do their own illustrating rather than only using ready made pages. For some technical subjects like say, the human cardiac system, using pre-made pages or illustrations makes sense but I firmly believe that there is something to be said for practising fine motor skills like drawing and sketching.  We like blank, unlined paper. I had a lined template which she puts underneath the blank paper. She sees the ghosting of the lines underneath to keep lines straight. That's how we did in back then. The advantages are obvious. Clean presentation on straight lines without lines blending into any illustrations. 

Give it a try. It's fun, creative, and effective.

Would people be as supportive if...

...we had elected to HS our children for other than our current reasons? I often wonder about that.

My daughter has severe environmental allergies. Her symptoms are asthma as well as severe and disabling eczema all over her body. Even the soles of her feet and palms of her hands at times. She cannot go outside at all during some times of the year. From the car to the house etc is fine but recess? Impossible. Public school requirements prevented her from being alone inside the building during recess or sports. And the only way she could get someone inside with her was to declare her a special needs person. That was and still is absolutely out of the question. I refuse to label my daughter 'special needs' for the obvious implications. How many of us have seen someone talk to the person pushing a wheelchair as for example, rather than the individual who sits in it? Just because they aren't able to walk doesn't make them handicapped in other areas. I was afraid that my daughter would be treated and tutored as a special needs person. She is highly intelligent. Gifted is what her private school teachers called her when she went there.
The thing I wonder about is this... if we were fundamental Christians or Pagans or whatever, would people still be supportive? Isn't it all, shouldn't it all be about the children and their education? Rather than focusing on why people may homeschool, shouldn't the focus be on enabling them to provide the best education possible? Am I a trained teacher? Nope, not in the least. I took my son out of his pre-school with their trained teachers. He didn't learn didley there. Nada, Nichts and Nothing. Now he is learning to decode words based on phonics, he does math (Kindergarten/1st grade) and can point out more countries on a globe and States of the US than most adults I know. Nothing is forced on him and he gets to say 'no more' when he feels he's done enough. Learning is initiated by him. When he wants to learn he'll come to me in the morning  or afternoon and ask to 'do school'. What he does is exclusively his choice. Dinosaurs are big on the list right now. Prior to these last few weeks I never knew there were so many different kinds of dinos.

I think its terrible that homeschooling seems to boil down to labeling individuals and their decisions to homeschool. I would think most people would agree that the majority of parents do this with only the best for their child in mind. Yes, there are the oddballs of course but they exist in the public school world too. Do we critize them there for their decision to send their kids to often horrible public schools? I have heard teachers complain about just every kind of parent. The parents that don't care, the ones that care, the ones that are just  too involved etc etc. But aren't overly involved parents better than those who don't care at all? My daughter went for one disastrous year to the local public school just down the street from us. That was her Kindergarten year. She had just completed 2 years at a marvelous private school and the result was that she was miles ahead of the rest of her class. What was shocking than just in her room alone were 3 kids who, at age 5, didn't even know how to write their own name. I don't think every child should have been able to read like my daughter did, but at least the very minimum a 5 year old child should be capable of writing their own name.

I am not a teacher. But there is one thing for sure, I only have to focus on 2 children and that alone makes the job easier. My children learn at their pace rather than that of the lowest common denominator in class. We seem to be making great strides and yet, oddly enough, because of the negativity swirling around home education I often find myself justifying myself when my son volunteers the fact that we homeschool. For now I'll stop doing that just to see if people will react differently. I would like to think that it wouldn't change peoples reaction, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I'll be proven wrong.