The Knitted Ear

Course Correction

2009-09-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

So to speak. And yes, already.

I was planning to use K12's 4th grade language arts course for the Cub this year. The whole shooting match, the literature piece, which I love, and also the rest of it: composition, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling.

After two weeks I've come to the conclusion that it requires simply too much writing. Too much writing of word lists and rewriting of sentences, things that don't really further his knowledge much other than the knowledge of how to complete worksheets. Because the Cub is 7 years old (and a boy) I need to get as much instructional bang as I can from each task involving writing or else he dissolves into a quivering puddle of angst.

So we will keep the literature piece from K12 but ditch everything else. I had the Michael Clay Thompson language arts materials on the shelf (Island level) and we will try those. These language arts materials teach grammar and writing through story. It is such a unique approach that I finally decided last year after reviewing the materials extensively that I simply could not implement it effectively. But now I've decided to try, mainly because I think the Cub will at the very least respond to the approach. The K12 materials were sucking the joy out of learning about the English language and I'm hoping that the MCT materials will resurrect that joy.

As for spelling, I've decided to go with Spelling Power. Spelling Power is another one that I've reviewed extensively and finally dismissed because it seemed too complicated. With the K12 program requiring way too much writing of words that the Cub already knew how to spell, I knew I needed something that only targets those words that he needs to practice. This is the approach Spelling Power takes and so we'll try it. I think it will work for him, I'm just not sure if it will work for me.

And writing. I used K12's 3rd grade composition course for him last year because he was feeling very disgruntled about having to do (age appropriate) copywork. He produced some wonderful pieces using the program, though I think he needed far more hand-holding than the K12 people were envisioning. I've decided that I'm not ready to do that much hand-holding again this year, so we are switching to Writing with Ease. This program combines listening to passages from good books with narration, copywork, and dictation. We will start with level 2 but depending on how he does we may accelerate that and move on quickly to level 3. The Cub has also been writing his own narrations from his history book Story of the World this year. And the thing that he is finding most wonderful is that he is writing in a journal every day. So far he is loving this task as he uses the journal to write all kinds of information about cars, his current obsession.

So that's it. The first curriculum change for the year.

Human Geography

2009-08-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

After following the Well-Trained Mind history rotation model faithfully for five years, Digger and I have decided to break away and do a year of human geography. Well, actually, we won't be breaking away altogether because I still intend to finish reading the Human Odyssey (K12) series and read several pieces of historical fiction, but aside from those minor things, we won't be doing history at all.

Anyway, for those of you who are interested in such things, we will be using de Blij's Human Geography text, as it got a good review on the AP Central website. And we will be reading several other books to supplement. I also got a new curriculum called Mapping the World with Art that looks fun and interesting.

Here is a photo of the books we'll be using.

And yes there are three books about food.

Random Musing

2009-07-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

With summer just starting and also being half over, now seems to be an appropriate time to update my much neglected blog.

First--I am now a homeschooler myself, having enrolled in an online master's degree program at the beginning of the summer. I am working towards an MEd with an exceptional student specialization. This means that I will be studying both special *and* gifted education, though, oddly enough there are no classes about twice exceptional students. Anyway, I'm about halfway through the first course, and finding it challenging but not overwhelming. It is nice to be working towards legitimizing all this knowledge I've acquired about education over the years.

Second--speaking of twice exceptional students, we've decided that it is time for Digger to officially enter high school. He will still be homeschooling but all of his courses will be high school level, the output requirements will be high school level, and, most importantly, it will *count*! So, I guess this means that in addition to graduate school, I will now be doing high school again too.

Third--the Cub will be doing fourth grade level work across the board next year--K12 Language Arts 4, Singapore math 3B/4A/4B, Lively Latin, K12 Science 4, and history 400-1650.

That's it on the academic front. I'll try to keep the blog updated a little better from now on!

The Cub's First Paper

2009-02-17T18:48:00.000-08:00

The Cub has been using K12's grade 3 composition course for the past month or so and he completed his first piece of writing yesterday. He learned how to use (and became quite enamored with) the thesaurus.

Here it is:

The Math Contest

by The Cub

Yo! Everyone who has not tried Singapore math, listen to me! Singapore math is excellent!

I like Singapore math because it is more difficult than Saxon. I feel happier because harder math is easier for me. Singapore creates a focused picture in my mind. When I used Saxon there was no picture in my mind to help me. I find it easier to concentrate because Singapore math is more interesting. Saxon is too simple AND it makes me feel very young.

Try Singapore math. It’s fabulous!

Curriculum Changes Part 6: The Cub and Literature

2009-02-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

See, I knew I was forgetting something when I said that Part 5 of this series was the final installment. But I really think this is the last one this time.

Though I ordered K12 Language Arts 3 for the composition part (see Part 4), the Cub and I are also using the literature portion. It's pretty good, the Cub likes it, and we are getting the reading comprehension piece that we lost when we stopped using the dreaded Read and Understand workbooks from Evan-Moor. The Cub is even learning some literary terms. And they have poetry integrated so I don't have to come up with anything for that either.

Actually, what I like about the whole K12 language arts deal is that I don't have to come up with anything at all.

So for Digger, I ordered K12 language arts for the literature and the composition was a bonus and for the Cub, I ordered it for the composition and the literature was the bonus.

Go figure.

Book Review: Beowulf

2009-02-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

I recently had the best time reading Michael Morpurgo's adaptation of Beowulf to Digger. The language is relatively complex, yet it seems to have been written with reading aloud in mind. The words roll off the tongue, and the sentences end where a breath is needed, but not desparately so. I love the use of hyphenation: Grendel is the terror-tyrant, Beowulf has battle-friends, the monster escapes to his marsh-pool. Then there is the use of alliteration: wind-wild, fire-fury, rage-roaring, death-dealing, grief-gripped. The book steeps the reader in the music of the oral tradition.

The illustrations by Michael Foreman echo and augment the vivid language; monsters hideous, heroes majestic, battle scenes fiery and blood-spattered.

And this from the book--

That day the poet wove his word-song, told the story of the hero in glowing, golden language, rang the word-changes, and all who were there remembered and told it again and again, so that their children, and their children's children should never forget his daring deeds, nor the noble name of Beowulf either.

And so we have not.

Curriculum Changes Part 5: Latin

2009-02-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

This it the last of the curriculum changes posts, I promise (I think!).

Digger and I have been using Galore Park's Latin Prep for Latin this year. It started out great. Digger liked the jokes and the crazy translation passages. But as time went on, things got more and more disconnected. They seemed to be throwing new concepts at us randomly. Maybe it's just my inexperience with Latin, but the order things were presented in just didn't make sense to me. Digger was getting confused and it was difficult to find information in the book. Worst of all, there is no summary of grammar in the back of the book for reference.

So I started to think about switching. But to what? I know that a reading program will not work for Digger, because again they are too random. So that left out two of the four first year Latin books that I just happen to have on the shelf, Ecce Romani and Oxford. But the other book, So You Really Want to Learn Latin, also by Galore Park, fit the bill. Grammar is more logically presented and there is actually a grammar summary at the back. And most wonderfully, at the end of each chapter it specifically states what the student should know.

We are starting at the beginning of the book (obviously). Digger was horrified that we were starting over. But he was consistently getting about 90% of his translations terribly wrong. And he was refusing to systematically look at the endings of the words. Hence, the getting things wrong problem. He seems to have accepted the starting over now, especially because the translations in the beginning of the book are one word sentences like "amat." (Do I capitalize that when it's in the context of an English sentence?)

I am also doing *all* of the exercises myself the weekend before (as I am for geometry). And I am making sure that we take some time each day to do grammar drills, not just vocabulary like we were doing. I'm hoping that these changes will ensure success going forward because I think *another* curriculum change would do me in!

Curriculum Changes Part 4: The Cub and Composition

2009-02-05T14:09:00.000-08:00

The Cub has been crying off an on for months now about doing his copywork. He complains that it makes him feel little. Normally I just ingore children who cry about schoolwork because I'm a mean homeschool mom.

But he had been saying similar things about Saxon math (see yesterday's post) and when we switched to Singapore, a more difficult program with more thought provoking problems, his whole attitude about math changed. Now he is definitely feeling warm and fuzzy in the math department!

So I thought perhaps he might be ready for a real writing program. So I signed him up for K12's 3rd grade language arts course. He is still on the first assignment, which is basically writing a piece on something about himself or something that interests him.

He chose to write about liking math. Seriously. I had absolutely nothing to do with his choice of topic. I was nowhere near when he came up with it. Together, we refined the topic to give it focus. And here it is: Singapore Math is good (and Saxon Math is bad). It turns out that he has some strong and, I might add, well articulated, feelings on the subject.

But that's fodder for another post.

Curriculum Changes Part 3: The Cub and Math

2009-02-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

You didn't think that the Cub would let me get away with staying the course with him curriculum-wise, did you? Well, you would be right!

We finished the year last year, worked through the summer, and started this year using Saxon Math 3. At first the Cub thought it was wonderful.

It's so easy!

Then along about lesson 40 he started grumbling about it.

It's so boring!

Finally, at about lesson 70 he was crying almost every day.

I hate math!

We went through 20 more lessons this way and then I got a clue and called it quits.

We switched to Singapore 2B which I just happened to have on the shelf (one of the benefits of being a curriculum junkie is "just happening" to have all kinds of things on the shelf). Not only did I have the textbook and workbook, I also had the instructor's guide, the Intensive Practice book, and the Challenging Word Problems book. The whole kit and kaboodle!

The problem we had last year when the Cub was doing 2A is that he simply wasn't retaining the material. That was why we moved to Saxon with its abundance of review. I wanted to use Singapore in a way that would involve lots of review and I think I've developed a scheme that works.

Singapore math books are divided into topics. So I had the Cub do all of the lessons and workbook exercises for the first topic in the book. In the evenings, I had him do half a page of mental math with me. This doubled as fact practice even though in this case the problems were addition and subtraction of two-and three-digit numbers (with regrouping!). Then once that topic was completed, I added the IP and CWP problems on the first topic while we were doing the second topic. I'm thinking this will be enough review as it seems to be carrying us through to similar topics. For example, topic one was mental addition and subtraction and topic three is addition and subtraction of money amounts.

The difference has been profound.

Ironically, the work he is doing in level 2 of Singapore is much more difficult than what he was doing in level 3 of Saxon.

The Cub now loves math. He loves it so much that he is writing an essay about how much he loves Singapore Math. His choice, seriously! Not only does he constantly proclaim his love of math, he now feels like he is good at math.

And he is.

Curriculum Changes Part 2: Digger and Literature

2009-02-03T14:23:00.000-08:00

Another big curriculum change we've made this month is in the area of literature. Digger and I started with Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings. This is a gigantic study guide for the Lord of the Rings that is intended to last all year. It is *very* thorough. The problem is that neither Digger nor I could reliably answer the comprehension questions. I knew things were needing adjustment when our literature sessions were reduced to him not being able to answer the questions whereupon I would read the answer out of the answer key and tell him to write it down.

That's just no way to run a homeschool.

So we dropped everything from LLLOTR that wasn't enriching our educational experience. What this means is that we are still reading LOTR and we are reading the "Additional Notes" section of the study guide. But the worksheet days are over!

Much better.

But I still wanted Digger to have to produce some output related to literature. Enter K12. I signed Digger up for their seventh grade literature and composition course. It's working wonderfully so far. They have some good selections and the assignments aren't too long. The bonus is that Digger is doing *very* well with the composition portion of the course. He wrote a fabulous essay about his robotics mentor. I was really pleased, and more importantly, he was proud of his work.

Curriculum Changes Part 1: Geometry

2009-02-02T17:03:00.000-08:00

We have made some curriculum changes here at the Dragonfly Academy. Digger started Jacobs Geometry in November after doing fabulously well with Jacobs Algebra. We were using the new (3rd) edition of Jacobs Geometry which is in full color and has lots of real world overlay in the problem sets. Well, the color was nice, but having essentially every problem wrestled into some sort of real world application simply wasn't working for Digger. Digger's dyslexia made it very difficult for him to get to the heart of the problems. In fact, *I* was having trouble figuring out what many of the problems were getting at, and I had to have the answer key open full time to be sure of what was going on.

It got to the point where I was having to sit with Digger, read every problem aloud to him, and then interpret every problem for him before he could attempt to do it. Now, I don't mind going over the lesson and doing several problems with Digger to be sure he is getting it, but it's not working if I have to help him every step of the way.

So I figured either he is too young to be doing geometry or we need to try something else. I was frustrated because Jacobs Algebra had worked so well that I figured the Jacobs Geometry book would have the same approach. Luckily, I was able to get a copy of the 2nd edition at the library and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! It's like night and day! The 2nd edition is like a geometry version of the algebra book. So, we're starting over with the 2nd edition and after some grumbling on Digger's part, he is liking it and he is getting it.

Best of all, *I* can teach it easily, though I have come to the realization that that ALEKS geometry course that I took last summer isn't cutting it. I'm going to have to do all the problems in Jacobs the weekend before I teach the lessons to Digger. At this point, the book isn't as transparent to me as the algebra book was.

So there you go. New isn't necessarily always better. Sometimes old and tattered is just right.

You know you're a homeschooler when...

2008-12-22T15:44:00.000-08:00

Your kitchen begins to resemble a laboratory.

Here's a closer view.

PopPop

2008-12-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

One of the most dedicated readers of this blog passed away the week before Thanksgiving: the Fuzzman's father, my father-in-law, and most especially, PopPop to Digger and the Cub. Starting about a year ago, PopPop became ill with Parkinson's disease and cancer. But in healthier times, you could find him in the garage with Digger, building with the tools he loved and had accumulated over a lifetime. One time they made a giant letter--Digger's first initial. Another time they built a sturdy box that we still use to hold pencils and rulers and scissors for school. And most recently, they cut out all the pieces for a full-sized wooden go-cart and had it shipped 1500 miles so that Digger could assemble it at home.

On the last visit we had to PopPop's house before he got sick, the Cub wanted to get in on the building action. The Cub decided that he wanted to build an airplane with PopPop and he was absolutely sure that when it was finished he would be able to get in it and fly away. After all, PopPop could build anything. So they built the plane, and though it was small enough to hold in your hand and it couldn't really fly, the Cub still thought it was wonderful. The Cub got his garage time with PopPop just in time.

We miss you, PopPop.

First Day

2008-08-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

OK so he surprised me.

In fact they both did. Everything got done in a reasonable amount of time and there was only one sobbing attack when I graded something incorrectly. My fault, really! Once that was made right the sobbing stopped.

The biggest problem today wasn't the schoolwork, it was afterwards when all of the sudden they had nothing do do. How could they have nothing to do?

I'll have to make being bored a federal offense.

School Starts Tomorrow

2008-08-17T16:42:00.001-07:00

For some reason, I am mostly looking on the start of this particular school year with dread. All of the other years I felt optimistic, thinking that this year would be the one where I would figure out the system that would work, the magic schedule or curriculum or something that would get Digger to get with it and get his work done without whining and arguing and dawdling.

My experience with the Cub last year made me realize that it's not the schedule or the curriculum or whatever that is the problem. It's the kid. And after five years of not changing, I don't think he is going to start now.

Who knows, he could surprise me.

Homeschooling Myself Part Two

2008-08-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

I have written before about homeschooling myself. Well, I'm back at it. I started with ALEKS Geometry. Digger is frighteningly close to completing Algebra I and so I realized I'd have to get with it if I was going to have any clue at all about geometry. Thankfully, geometry was as easy as I remembered it to be (both times I took it, don't ask!) and it only took 20 hours of concerted effort to get through the course. I highly recommend ALEKS to any homeschooling folk who need a refresher prior to teaching high school math.

Speaking of high school, I am also attempting to get ready for Digger being in high school, which will be happening, whether I like it or not, in two years. I want to do high school history the WTM way, at least in some respects. For those of you who don't know, the "WTM way" means using a spine, usually a good high school or college world history or Western civilization text (or Susan Wise Bauer's new history series) and then reading lots of period literature. It means doing things chronologically over the four years of high school. Unfortunately, I have never read any literature from any period prior to the year 1800! So, I figure I have two years to get it together on this. For ancient history (9th grade), I intend to read the following books (and write summaries for each chapter/section):

The History of the Ancient World
The Making of the West (a textbook, the prehistory-400 AD part)
Gilgamesh
The Five Books of Moses
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Physics
The Metaphysics
Poetics
On the Nature of Things
Metamorphoses
Tha Annals of Imperial Rome

There might be more but that's all I have for now. I figure that I have to read more than I actually assign to Digger just to make sure the things I assign are reasonably interesting. Also, I intend to read some adult-level historical fiction (to preview it for Digger) because it's always good entertainment and good for really understanding how people lived.

I am also doing Rosetta Stone Spanish along with the kids. Now, that is a great program. I know it needs to be supplemented with a textbook and conversation, but I am really impressed with the product. We are all getting a lot out of the program.

And then, of course, there is the violin. Big news here, folks. I just started Suzuki Book 3. I've been playing violin for 2 1/2 years and I still feel like I'm mostly just fumbling around. But, hey, if nothing else, I'm setting a good example. Especially when I manage to practice regularly. Which I have been. For the past two weeks.

As if it isn't enough work just to plan this stuff and then to get the kids to actually do it, this learning things ahead of time just adds more complication. Of course it reduces complication when I actually go to teach whatever it is. But still, I'm really rather exhausted.

And school starts in two weeks.

Curriculum Plans

2008-07-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Since I know you all are wanting to know all about my curriculum choices for the coming year, I thought I'd post about them. Here they are:

Digger (7th grade)

Math: Jacobs' Geometry and Teaching Company's The Joy of Numbers
English: Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings, Sequential Spelling 4, writing with a tutor (who is not me, YES!)
History: Spielvogel's Human Odyssey with lots of output plus some historical fiction and period literature (adapted) and Teaching Company DVDs (Big History, World History, and Early American History)
Science: Conceptual Physical Science-Explorations (physics only) with lots of output plus some activities and Teaching Company's Physics in Your Life
Latin: Latin Prep 1
Spanish: Rosetta Stone 1
History of Science: Hakim's The Story of Science

The Cub (1st grade)

Math: Saxon Math 3 and Singapore 2B/3A
English: Growing with Grammar 3, Spelling Workout B, copywork and narration, Evan-Moor workbooks, random literature
History: Story of the World with Activity Guide, lots of supplemental reading
Science: K12 Science 2
Spanish: Rosetta Stone 1

History Cycle Complete

2008-07-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

Digger and I started this whole history thing four years ago with a unit on the Big Bang. Today we finished with a book on the space race, the moon landing, and the space program. Next week we start over with the Big Bang, this time older and wiser and with an expanded attention span.

The Way Back

2008-05-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

We did a leisurely drive home for once, combining the coast route with 101 up to southern Oregon where we cut over to 5 and zoomed home.

Our first stop was Jalama Beach, a bit north of Santa Barbara. What a magical spot. It is just about the same as it was 20 years ago. Spring was out in full force. Mustard colored whole hillsides yellow. Some places were carpeted with purple and orange wildflowers. At Jalama, we camped by the play equipment and barbecued steaks.

The next day we drove up the coast to the Santa Cruz area. Here are some pictures taken just south of Big Sur to prove it.

The boys posing with the view.

The view.

The ground squirrel that apparently comes with the view.

We camped that night in the Santa Cruz mountains, then made our way up 1 through San Francisco, over the bridge, and then up 101. We came upon the Real Goods store in Hopland, California. Digger is a big fan of Real Goods. He even gets his own catalog from them. Real Goods sells sustainable living products and also has a demonstration area outside the store. The boys loved it and even bought solar flashlights.

Outside the Real Goods place.

Nathan playing with a solar panel.

We camped in the redwoods. Our campsite had some huge trees in it.

I love these trees with the burn holes in them. They remind me of Winnie-the-Pooh.

Here are the boys posing with their solar flashlights.

The whole kit and caboodle.

And now for the highlight of the whole expedition. We did something we NEVER do. We stopped at a roadside tourist trap. And here it is.

Trees of Mystery has it all.

It has a giant statue of Paul Bunyan (who we just happened to have recently studied in K12 history!). It also has a giant statue of Paul's blue bull but it seems that the photo I took of the bull highlights its...er...bull parts a little too well, so I left that one out.

It has crazy and amazing trees.

And it has this. This, folks, is what we came for.

A gondola through the canopy.

At the top it has a view of more trees. And binoculars to see the trees more closely.

It has another gondola to take you back down the hill.

And it has history to make it all count as school!

After all, isn't that what its all about around here?

Now that we're home from our adventures, I have been finishing all the ordering for next year. In the next few weeks I'm hoping to put up some posts about specifics for first and seventh grades (did I say seventh grade? Oh my!)

There

2008-05-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

After rolling into San Diego at close to midnight, we got right up the next morning and started homeschooling. Only kidding on that one. We started the homeschooling the day after!

Both boys kept going with their math. Digger made it through all the lessons in chapter 8 of Jacobs Algebra. It was an easy chapter (thank god!), operations with exponents. The Cub did 11 lessons in Singapore PM 2A. That also proved to be easy as it was about multiplying by 2s and 3s, something the Cub had already memorized.

I also had both the boys do copywork. The Cub read the Cynthia Rylant book The Storm to me and then did an oral narration of the plot at the end.

I also had the brilliant idea to do a mini unit study of the ocean. So I read Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Pagoo, and One Small Square: Seashore aloud and we did the Oceans Alive! Science in a Nutshell kit. And we visited the Scripps Aquarium. I have no idea if they learned anything from all this, except perhaps what a hermit crab is.

We did school most every day for a few hours in the morning. In the afternoons the boys would go swimming, watch TV, and play computer games. Digger occasionally trimmed the hedges and, true to his name, dug a hole.

Oh yeah, and we went to Legoland. We took the kids there a few years ago when the Cub was four and all he has wanted to do is go back when he turned six so he could do this:

Drive the Lego car!

Digger drove too, and while he was within the age range, he was mostly spilling out the sides.

Flying a helicopter.

And flying the other helicopter.

The guys and some firemen.

The scary rollercoaster. I went on this with Digger many years ago when he was six and it scared the heck out of me. I was convinced that he was going to fall out.

Especially on these awful curves. So the Fuzzman went with them and it was the highlight of the day.

All in all, it was a good visit. The boys behaved well and for the most part were a pleasure to be around. Oh, and quite unlike what was going on at home, it didn't even snow!

Stay tuned for Part 3: The Way Back

The Way There

2008-05-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, we went on an almost three week long trip down to San Diego at the end of April to visit the Fuzzman's family. The Fuzzman had planned to drive down there with us but he ended up flying down early and Digger, the Cub, and I met him there.

Here are some very interesting pictures of the hotel room in Medford, Oregon, on the first night of our trip.

Here is Digger with one of his favorite things.

And here are both of them with another favorite thing. We stayed up late watching Mythbusters together.

And here is the Cub posing with what he told me was his favorite thing in the room. Let me tell you, the pickings were slim in the favorite thing department.

What this lovely photo series does not show was the wonderful dinner we had the night before. There was a Carls Jr right across the street from the hotel. Digger and I had chicken sandwiches (sounds healthy, right?) with bacon and about a gallon of mayonaise. The Cub had fries. We all had milkshakes. The Cub is still talking about it.

But I haven't gotten to the most wonderful part of our journey. On the last trip we took with our FORD campervan, we ended up getting towed because a hose clamp broke and allowed all of the coolant to gush all over about a mile of highway just east of Port Angeles. Here is a picture.

Any hoo--

I was stressed that this was going to happen again. Call me paranoid. It didn't help that the Fuzzman came home one day after driving the campervan a few weeks before our scheduled departure date saying that it had leaked a drop of coolant. A drop of coolant? That couldn't really mean anything could it?

Well.

I looked at the temperature gage every five seconds that first day. It was perfect every time. No problem! The only weird thing that happened that first day was that the heater mysteriously failed along about four in the afternoon. Thank you FORD! Yet another thing to get fixed. I thought nothing of it, other than that I was annoyed at being cold.

I carefully looked under the van the morning of the second day. Nothing, nada, except an empty bottle of some sort of watermelon liquor. Yes, watermelon.

So, we were on our way. As we are approaching Ashland, both Digger and I heard the sound of the turbo fan coming on just after we went over about 60 mph. Now let me explain about the turbo fan. We have a diesel engine in this van of ours and that means NOISE. It sounds like shit all of the time. It can be very difficult to tell what is normal-sounding-like-shit and what is needing-to-go-to-the-FORD-service-department-sounding-like-shit. Anyway, the turbo fan coming on is a normal-sounds-like-shit sound when you are going up a very long hill. It is helping to cool the engine. Hearing the turbo fan is not normal under any other conditions.

Back to the story. So, we thought we heard the turbo fan but we we weren't sure if it was really the turbo fan. Could it be road noise? Did the road surface change? It seemed to go off after I slowed down. Whatever. I decided to get off the freeway in Ashland. One of the symptoms the Fuzzman and I experienced during our wonderful pre-towing experience in Port Angeles was that the turbo fan came on for what appeared to be no reason while driving at low speed through town. I figured if it really was the turbo fan, it would do it as we were driving through town.

We drove around Ashland for about fifteen minutes and nothing. So I decided that we had been hallucinating and I got back on the freeway. On the onramp, Digger tells me that it smelled like a "hot glue gun" in the van. I didn't smell anything for a few seconds and then--whammo--the smell of hot metal. Was it something from outside? I opened the window to clear the air and never smelled it again.

Anyone who is familiar with the drive south from Ashland knows about The Hill. It's long. It's steep. Need I say more? I kept checking the temperature gage. It was fine. One mile. Two miles. Really it was fine. Then Digger screamed, "Steam!" And so it was. Temperature rising, I managed to get safely to the side of the road. My nightmare, what I had been worried about for weeks, had begun.

But hey, I have AAA! No problem! I whipped out my cell phone and... no signal.

And now folks, I will admit to a brief moment of panic.

Then Digger said, "Mommy, why don't you walk down the road?" Brilliant boy. He's either brilliant or brain dead it seems.

So I did. And after walking a bit I discovered that I could get one bar on the phone if I held my elbow in the air just right. And while I was talking to AAA, this wonderful state police officer drove up and I knew that we would be ok.

We spent six hours loitering around the FORD dealer in Ashland.

You know, those folks there were so nice. I know they pushed some other jobs back to make way for our van. I'm pretty sure the mechanic went way farther than he normally would to find every last leak. He even indicated to me that he replaced "good" hose clamps (there were three official leaks). Because you see, the manager told me after the thing was fixed that the hose clamps that came with my 2005 FORD seem to fail quite a bit. Now, don't you think hose clamp technology would be pretty much at its zenith? Anyway, apparently FORD has done a redesign and come up with a better hose clamp since the 2005 model. Maybe they could study Toyota's and save themselves the trouble.

So anyway, that evening we drove to Mount Shasta City. And I know you're expecting that we drove to San Diego the next day and everything was hunky dory and that is true except for one thing.

Right before we were about to leave, at eight in the morning, Digger announced that he felt like he was going to throw up. He stayed in the bathroom for two hours very distressed. (I suspect Carls Jr.) He never threw up but I wasn't going to take a chance in the car. Anyway, we got on the road at ten and rolled in to San Diego at 11:30 that night.

Stay tuned for Part 2: There.

And More Writing

2008-03-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

Digger recently finished this piece about FDR. He created an outline on his own (rather than use the keyword outline approach) and then wrote from it. I have simply pasted it into the blog. There are still some rough spots but they will have to stay; we're moving on!

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt helped this country get through so much. FDR helped us get through the Great Depression and he helped us win World War II, but over all he helped raise our spirits.

FDR was born on January 30, 1882 in Springwood, New York. His father was the head of a railroad company. His family was rich, and Franklin had a pony. In college FDR was the school reporter. After he graduated from college he went on to marry Eleanor, who was his cousin. Then, in 1929 FDR ran for New York Governor, and he won!

When FDR was 39 got up one morning and his leg felt a little numb. It got worse over time until finally he could not move both of his legs. Later a doctor said he had polio. FDR spent two years just trying to move his big toe. Finally, he could walk with braces but was never able to walk on his own again.

The first time FDR ran for president was during the great depression in 1932. In the next 12 years he ran three more times and he won every time. Even today, he holds the record for the number of terms in office. It is going to stay that way because after he died in 1945 they changed it so that a president can only serve two terms.

Some things that FDR did to help get through the Great Depression were to start some programs to help get this country going again. This was called the New Deal. The New Deal was a set of laws passed to help ease the worst of the Depression. The Work Progress Association was one of the most famous. It set up a lot of construction projects to help get people jobs. A lot of the construction projects are still used today. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration helped raise farm prices. The Great Depression didn’t get all better until World War II. It had lot of places for jobs.

During World War II FDR proved to be a great war president because he met with Stalin and Churchill to plan for the war and because he talked with the people to tell them what was going on in the war.

Three weeks before the end of the war, at 12:55 pm on Thursday, April 12, 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage. The vice president, Harry Truman took office and he had to make the decision to drop the atomic bomb the summer of 1945.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the best presidents in this country because he led us through two disasters, the Great Depression and World War II. But most of all FDR connected with us.

On Coddling and Disability

2008-02-23T12:26:00.000-08:00

I think that in the long run we do a disservice to our kids with learning disabilities by making the homeschool environment fit their every need. Over the past 5 years of homeschooling I have tried many things to get Digger (who has dyslexia, APD, SPD, and has been diagnosed then undiagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's) to work more effectively. I have spent huge amounts of energy to get things to "work" and whatever I come up with tends to work for a while (a few days to a few weeks) but then we're back to the same old thing.

Along about the beginning of the January, I finally realized that whatever I do, it will still have the same result. The problem is that Digger seems to think that it is my responsibility to make things work and that he'll just do whatever. Well, nothing will work if he doesn't meet me halfway.So we are now doing things in a way that works for me and the family as a whole (I have the Cub to school also). Digger is just going to have to adapt. He is going to have to meet me halfway. If he has some issue that is making it difficult to get his work done, he is going to have to figure out what the problem is.

I have, frankly, had it.

In the real world, in a job situation, the boss is not going to say, "Oh you need to have a break every five minutes? Oh, you don't like that I presented your tasks orally, you'd rather I wrote them down for you in different colors so you could tell one from another at a glance? That's OK!" I know, I was a boss once; people with too many issues get fired.

What's funny, is that in going over to doing it my way, Digger is doing as well (or better even) as he ever did when I tried to discover his way.

Further Adventures in Writing

2008-02-23T09:09:00.001-08:00

Digger wrote another story this week for his writing club. Here it is:

Grumble's Rock

On the planet of Grumblock, it is just like the badlands of Arizona. It is very rocky, dry, and sunny. It has just enough water to quench the inhabitants’ thirst and just enough food to feed them. But the only thing that there is in abundance is the caves; they are everywhere. They are Survivorman’s dream-come-true, big with lots of rooms that are lit by holes in the ceiling.

Now, in one of these caves lives a troll named Grumble and he is very smelly. He wears a toga that has gathered dirt and debris from the last fifty years. He is shy, so he lives alone. He is small for a troll and his face is wrinkled with years of hard work.

Once, when Grumble came home from his yoga class there was a big shake and a roar and a crumbling sound. Then, with a roar, his cave collapsed. For at least 24 hours he didn’t do a thing; he just sat there. Then, with a sigh, he said, “I want to go home!!!” And he hit himself in the head and said, “Uh?” Then he knew what to do. He had to find a new home.

He set out to find anything he could, scouring from the rubble. He managed to find a knapsack, some food, and a blanket. So, Grumble set off.

Grumble had traveled far when he came upon a patch of lava. He had never seen lava before so he touched it and the next sound out of his lips was quite heart breaking. Then he said, “OUCH!!!” and backed away immediately and cooled his fingers in a nearby creek. After that, the lava hardened into a rock.

So now Grumble has a rock on the end of his hand.

The End!

Adventures in Writing

2008-02-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

Digger is involved with a writing club called Druidawn. Druidawn is a game, a bit like Dungeons and Dragons, where the players earn points and advance levels by writing. The more words they write, the better they do. They are supposed to write the stories at home between meetings.

A few weeks ago, the assignment was to write a story about anything. Digger doesn't do well with nebulous assignments. This coupled with his propensity to try to get away with working as little as possible produced this gem:

David and His Friend

There was is a caterpillar named David. David lived in a small hole and he would crawl out of it and walk to his friend’s house. But one day when he got there his friend was gone so looked around the room and saw a cocoon and he thought to himself, “I wish I could be in a cocoon.” So that night after eating a leaf he tried making a cocoon, and he succeeded.

So now David is flying with his friend!

I informed Digger that this was barely acceptable, as far as I was concerned. He went to his meeting ready to turn this in. When we got there we found out that the instructor was sick, so the meeting was cancelled.

Aha! A chance to do this thing properly.

So, with the meeting cancelled, I decided to use that time to have Digger write a new, better story. We talked about what makes a story interesting. I asked Digger to tell me who his story would be about and where it would take place. Then I made him give me details about these things. I wrote all this down on the white board as an outline of single words. Then I left Digger to write. When he was done, I asked him to tell me what he wanted to have happen in the story. He told me. And I left Digger to write some more. Then he typed it this week, adding and editing as he went. Finally, this morning, I did a last edit for spelling, punctuation, and awkward phrasing. There was really very little for me to do.

Here is the final piece. Digger is very proud. It's amazing what a little scaffolding will do!

Zach's Adventure

Far from Earth on the planet of Zubu, it is very different from Earth. It has a green swampy climate and every possible sign of life. If you were to go there, you would be surprised to find it like prehistoric Earth. It is hot and humid with a smell that smells like algae.

Now, on the other side of Zubu, there sits a hideous beast that is Zach. He sits on his throne all day watching the sky filled with all the Zubun space ships that blast off to find jewels for him. Now, Zach is a very important Zubun, he is the only Zubun that can swim to the bottom of the swamps to get to the Zubun god. So they made him king.

Once, suddenly, there was a big bang and then all the space ships were gone. Then Zach felt an urge to cry because if all the Zubuns were gone, he couldn’t survive. And then he knew what to do. He had to go down to the god for help.

So he slithered down the corridor leading to the tunnel leading underwater through kraken territory. So, for the first fifty miles it was fine, but dark and scary. As he entered kraken territory, he heard a bang and saw a very bright light. And there in front of him was the daddy of all kraken. It was one hundred thousand feet long and it weighed one trillion tons. Zach could hear his heart beating one hundred times a second. The only way to go past it was to kill it, so Zach got out his Uno-Cube (a thing you can put everything in) and he shot one hundred shots of the finest explosives at the kraken. It did it! It killed the kraken! Since Zach killed the father of all kraken, all the other kraken were afraid of him. So for the rest of the way, there were no more disturbances.

When Zach got to the god’s realm, he asked the god where all his subjects went. The god said: “They are in a wormhole and will be back tomorrow.”

So Zach went back to await their return!

The End!

News Flash

2008-02-11T16:01:00.001-08:00

Yes, folks, this is just what it looks like. The Cub is actually consuming animal flesh. And it's not ground up and disguised like the pork in a pot sticker either. Here you see him eating hunks of chicken off of a bone!

This has happened more than once recently.

The Cub did tell us, over and over in fact, that he would indeed eat meat when he turned six.

Indeed.

Online Courses

2008-02-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

So I've had this rather gigantic change in the way I homeschool: I've started using online courses for my kids.

I feel somewhat embarrassed about this.

I spent 4+ years carefully choosing every thing we did. And I did a pretty good job overall. My dyslexic kid actually enjoys reading and is showing signs of being able to write too. The other kid can read and write, but he can also breathe and it seems to be all the same for him.

But I had trouble with developing and maintaining appropriate pacing. It's not that we would get bogged down or stop, it was that I would want to go too fast. This is probably why Digger was able to go through 6 levels of math in 3 years. Using three different math programs. I also had problems with knowing what was appropriate in terms of output at a certain level. It seemed as though I would either expect too much or too little.

Anyway, back to my point. It started in December when I realized that the Cub needed something different. I had known about K12 for a while. I knew they were somehow connected with Core Knowledge and ED Hirsch. I knew that they presented history chronologically (and isn't that really the most important thing?).

Anyway, I finally decided that the Cub needed more in the way of Language Arts (his Thing) than I was giving him. So I enrolled him in K12's Language Arts 2 course (2nd grade, where he placed according to their placement test taken in September).

The K12 Language Arts is so easy to implement. I print out what we need for the week and go. No planning. Everything is in bite-sized pieces. Sometimes there is a bit too much filling in of worksheets, which taxes the Cub's developing writing skills. When that happens, I'll pick the most important ones for him to do himself and have him do the rest orally with me doing the writing.

I was so pleased with the Language Arts course that the next week I enrolled the Cub in their History and Art courses for kindergarten. Again, these are easy for me to implement. Bite-sized pieces. No planning. The material is interesting and the Cub is even learning how to draw better.

Just last week I realized that with all of the easiness of K12 I had been completely forgetting about doing any science. That and the fact that it was seeming like all the activities were involving things that work better in warmer weather and/or live animals. We don't have warm weather here now, nor will we any time soon, and as for the live animals, well, I don't do live animals.

So, I signed the Cub up for K12's 1st grade science course. And again, we've got bite-sized, no planning (well, maybe a little planning for materials), interesting lessons. And it is getting done! Since we started on Wednesday, the Cub did all the subjects: language arts, math, history, science, and art. I'm so happy. And nobody was feeling taxed.

And I also am having Digger do K12's middle school Life Science course. Again, bite-sized, no planning, interesting material. And he can't complain that I'm making him do something above his level.

So next year I'm planning to have the Cub do K12 language arts (2nd-3rd grade), science (2nd grade), history (1st grade), and art (1st grade). He will also do Singapore Math 2A/3B and I will rely heavily on the Home Instructor's Guides for pacing.

Digger will do K12 World History A and Physical Science.

And I'm going to try my hardest to not feel embarassed or guilty about using a prepackaged curriculum. Because it's working and because I've had so much experience with every curriculum under the sun it seems, I know that K12 is good enough.

Changes for 2008

2008-01-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

I've made some changes to our homeschool for the new year. Here is what the boys are doing these days:

Digger

English: Sequential Spelling, Hake Grammar 8, some kind of BraveWriter approach to writing (read: I'm winging it), and Druidawn writing club.

Math: Stopped Saxon 8/7 in December. Enforcing getting "all those" problems done was about to send me straight over the edge. More than I already am, I mean. We tried VideoText Algebra for about 6 weeks, and made it through the first unit but I am certain that VideoText is not the program for Digger, though on the surface it seems to be. We're back to Jacobs Algebra, starting over with the first chapter. This time Digger will be doing the problems sets completely independently. So far it has been easy for him, which gives me hope. It is such a relief to be back to Jacobs; the man writes about math in English and doesn't take himself so seriously.

Science: Big changes here. We stopped using the high school text Visualizing Life because Digger was unable to answer questions about the topics we were covering. He is now doing K12's Life Science course (for middle school) independently and enjoying it. He still has trouble with the output element but no longer has the excuse that it's at high school level.

History: Same stuff. I read, Digger listens, something sticks. We are in the middle of the Great Depression now.

Latin: Still plugging away with Getting Started With Latin. I love this book.

The Cub

English: We were doing HWT My Printing Book, Explode the Code, and reading. I decided that the Cub needed a little more input in this area (his area of strength). I knew that he was advanced but I am terrible at figuring out how much work is "enough" for each day. I had him take the K12 placement test for language arts back in September and he placed into their 2nd grade course. Anyway, I finally signed him up for the Grade 2 Language Arts course. We've been at it for two weeks and so far it seems to be the perfect level for him. The most challenging aspect is the act of writing. I generally have him do the writing for the spelling component and then give him a choice about who writes for the rest.

Math: We got most of the way through RightStart B and just recently switched back to Singapore. We are now beginning the 2A book and I'm using the Home Instructor's Guide (or whatever it's called) for the first time and it is making things much easier for me. It is also helping with my special challenge of knowing how much is enough for one day.

Science: We are staying with R.E.A.L. Life Science. Right now we are studying arthropods.

Geography/History: We were wrapping up our geography study in December and I was wondering what I should do for the rest of the year when I noticed that K12's kindergarten history course covers geography and a bit of American history. Perfect! We started the course a few weeks ago and it is just what we needed.

Art: I added K12's kindergarten art class just for fun.

There is a theme developing here. At the moment I'm pretty happy with K12.

The Year in Review

2007-12-31T18:10:00.000-08:00

So what has happened on the home education front in 2007?

Digger was diagnosed as gifted with dyslexia in January; everyone's understanding of what was up with Digger improved about a million fold with this diagnosis, most especially, Digger's own.

I started officially afterschooling the Cub in February, using kindergarten and first grade materials.

In March, after battling breast cancer for 6 years, one of my closest friends from my college days became severely ill when the cancer spread throughout her central nervous system. From March until she died in June, the boys learned much about terminal illness, love, and letting go.

Digger finished 5th grade and the Cub "graduated" from preschool in June.

In August, we decided to homeschool the Cub for kindergarten, rather than send him to the Montessori school he'd been attending since he was two.

Digger began 6th grade and the Cub began kindergarten in September.

In October, the Cub started reading for pleasure.

In November, Digger read his first book written in modern times that was actually intended for adults: Jurassic Park.

In December, I bought a laptop to enhance the homeschooling experience. It came today.

Worm Experimentation and the Most Brilliant Idea I've Ever Had

2007-11-30T14:58:00.000-08:00

I've been having a problem lately getting to science activities with the Cub. One reason is because we just have too much going on but another (big) reason is that we have come to the section in the science curriculum on creepy, crawly critters. When we came to the activity titled "The Great Earthworm Hunt," science ground to a screeching halt! You see, the problem with this activity is that it involves actually touching the earthworms. Hence the halt.

But today I had a Brilliant Idea. I hired Digger to do the Hunt with the Cub. So they romped in the woods and I thought that they would just peer under rocks and fallen logs, find some earthworms, and call it a day. But no! Digger read the instructions for the Hunt and carefully did what they said to do. The boys actually brought the critter box with them into the woods and collected worms.

You see, I was just going to skip the next activity, "Earthworms Are Sensible" where we would use the collected worms because it involved, well, collecting worms. But now that we actually had worms in the critter box and seeing as how the Hunt worked out so well I asked Digger if he would like to do the Sensible activity as well. He was up for it.

So Digger and the Cub performed experiments to see if earthworms would appear to prefer various conditions such as light or dark, smooth or rough, and vinegar or no vinegar.

Here they are getting ready for the final experiment involving the vinegar.

The Cub is writing down his prediction about whether or not the worm will like the vinegar. He decided that it would not like it because it smells bad.

And here is the worm carefully avoiding the paper soaked with vinegar.

I paid Digger quite a bit. Ten dollars per hour, in fact (I figure since the going rate for tutors in this area is something like $40/hour, this was actually a bargain). Digger did a fabulous job, the Cub got his science, and not only did I not have to deal with worms, I was also able to do something besides teaching the children this afternoon.

One Down...

2007-11-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

Nineteen to go!

The Cub wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy. Here is a transcription:

Dear Tooth*,

I want you to bring $5 for the tooth. Thank you. This is the first tooth I lost.

Love, Cub

*We had a big discussion at dinner about the Tooth Fairy's first name; the consensus was that it must be "Tooth."

It's As Easy As...

2007-11-14T16:32:00.000-08:00

The Cub rode his bike without training wheels completely unassisted for the first time this morning! He was looking for something to do while I finished up lessons with Digger and he decided to ride his bike. When I reminded him that we had taken the training wheels off and that I wouldn't be available to help him, he paused then informed me that he would do it himself. The next thing I knew Digger was yelling that the Cub was riding his bike on the driveway. This disrupted my lesson plans a bit, as I had to run and get the video camera.

Digger, meanwhile, ran outside to instruct the Cub in the finer points of starting without the aid of gravity. About five seconds later I looked outside and the Cub was starting from a standstill perfectly.

So there you go. Another milestone.

YAY!!!

A Light Week

2007-11-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

Digger and the Cub had two days off from lessons this week. My parents came and stayed with the boys while the Fuzzman and I went camping BY OURSELVES for two whole nights! (Thank you Mom and Dad!) It was wonderful, of course, and the boys had fun with Grandma and Grandpa, the highlight being a trip to the Pacific Science Center and an IMAX movie!

Halloween was rain-free, a big plus around here. Digger was a builder (he put his costume together in the 5 minutes before we left for trick-or-treating) and the Cub was a firefighter. Again. For quite a while the boys had been talking about being a solar array or perhaps a solar panel and a wind turbine. But that would have involved cardboard and cutting and paint and secure attachment to various body parts and unfortunately they have a mother that was boycotting that particular aspect of Halloween this year.

We are now moving into the part of the academic year that I find most psychologically difficult. We are still at the beginning of our books but it seems like we have been at it forever and should be farther along. The holidays in November and December only add to the feeling that we are not moving quickly enough because of all the time off. Along about February I'll start feeling like we're making significant progress. Then, if we stay on track, we will begin to finish things in March and April. Aaaahhh! So satisfying.

Ten Weeks In

2007-10-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a snapshot of what's going on academically with Digger and the Cub.

Digger

English: Digger is about a third of the way through Hake Grammar and Writing 8. It is challenging for him but he is doing well with it. He does the review sets independently and gets good scores on the tests (>85%). We switched over to the BraveWriter approach to writing (from IEW) and it has been a bit rocky, mostly for me. Digger is just now completing a paper on how the use of new technologies helped the Union win the Civil War. Part of the BraveWriter philosophy is to only pick one or two issues to work on with each writing project so that the child doesn't get overwhelmed with negative input. This is very difficult for me, as I want everything to be perfect. So this is my own personal challenge.

Literature: We read aloud to Digger each night. In addition, Digger is choosing to read classic literature on his own. Since mid-August, we have read/are reading Around the World in Eighty Days, The Mysterious Island, and The War of the Worlds to Digger. Classics that Digger has read on his own since the beginning of the school year are: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Time Machine, and he is currently reading From the Earth to the Moon.

Math: Saxon 8/7 is tedious but Digger is doing well. Since he knows just about all of the concepts covered in the book, the challenge is to do the problems quickly and accurately. Doing anything quickly is always a challenge for Digger, though he is pretty good about accuracy. I am hoping that his speed will improve throughout the year.

Science: We have finished the first nine chapters of Visualizing Life, which were about molecular and cell biology. Digger did very well with the material; he has a real knack for understanding science. We are now moving into evolution and ecology and then on to animals and plants and the human body. A few days ago I assigned Jurassic Park to Digger to read.

History: We made it through the Civil War and in the last week or so have moved into the post Civil War period. Digger really enjoyed Rifles for Watie. He said it was the best piece of historical fiction that we have ever read. Now that's saying something! I am continually amazed by Digger's retention of the history he has learned over the years. We have never actually studied history, never tried to memorize dates or the names of English kings, or anything, we have just enjoyed the story. I am sort of trying this approach with science this year. We read the textbook and talk about the concepts and do the experiments but I don't quiz Digger or give tests (this also means that I won't be awarding high school credit even though we are using a high school text). It has made our science time far more enjoyable and I think that Digger is learning, and will retain, just as much as if I did it the other way.

Latin: I am thrilled with Getting Started With Latin. It is sort of like the Saxon Math of Latin. One new concept is introduced every day and then there are only ten sentences to translate. Digger is doing well, and that's saying something, given his dyslexia. The author of the book claims that it is equivalent to about a semester of high school Latin. It should give Digger the confidence he needs when we start with a "real" Latin course in 7th grade.

Outside Classes: Digger is taking classes in computer technology, art, and swimming at the homeschool center. He is also taking aikido and violin lessons.

The Cub

Reading: The Cub is reading up to four books each night before bed independently. He also reads aloud to us daily.

Literature: We read aloud to the Cub each night. Since the start of the school year we have read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Currently, we are reading The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle and Beezus and Ramona.

Explode the Code: We finished ETC 4 this week and are taking a break before moving on to ETC 5.

My Printing Book: Still chugging along. When the Cub wants to, he can print beautifully. When we finish this book we will do copy work before starting Printing Power, the next in the series.

Math: We are about 3/4 of the way through RightStart B. The Cub has been getting bogged down in the sums from 10-20. In order not to frustrate him (or me) too much we have been playing math games and doing some of Singapore Primary Math 1A to take the pressure off a bit.

Geography: We have completed North America, South America, and Africa. We are now studying Europe. He was particularly taken with the African folktale Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples Ears.

Science: We are about a third of the way through R.E.A.L. Life Science (with lots of supplemental reading). The Cub is enjoying it and I love that it is so easy to implement. He also really loves the Magic School Bus books.

Outside Classes: The Cub attends gymnastics, a general kindergarten class, art, music, and swimming at the homeschool center. He is also taking aikido and violin lessons.

Goals

2007-10-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

My goals for Digger's home education have begun to crystallize recently. What prompted me to take a hard look at the next few years was Digger's desire to attend high school at this school. Yes, it is a boarding school. Yes, it would be a huge adjustment going from homeschool to boarding school. But given Digger's intense interest in sustainable living and in doing real work, I think it might be just the place for him.

So instead of homeschooling him for seven more years, I can now only count on another three. And I don't like having loose ends, which means that I probably wouldn't be able to stand stopping in the middle of the history rotation. The mere thought makes my toes curl. Seriously.

Even if Digger doesn't end up going away, or even down the street, to high school, it just makes sense to me to have some closure by the end of eighth grade. With that in mind, these are my goals for Digger's pre-high school education.

Math: Develop a deep and flexible understanding of concepts and fluency with procedures through the level of first year algebra.

English: Be proficient with eighth grade level grammar concepts and be able to write a coherent essay independently without significant angst.

Literature: Complete Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings and read literature from the historical periods we study.

History: After finishing the history rotation this year, complete another full rotation in seventh and eighth grades using college level texts as spines for Western civilization and American history.

Science: Complete biology, chemistry, and physics using high school or college (non-major) level texts.

Geography: Complete a study of world geography using middle school level texts, novels and movies set in places around the world.

Foreign Language: Complete one year of high school Latin.

Just a note about college level texts: The ones I've reviewed so far seem to be vastly superior to their high school counterparts. They are coherent; the authors seem to be making a real effort to communicate about their topics. The reading level seems to be about the same but more effort seems to be made to engage the reader. The college level texts that I have in mind are The Making of the West (Western civilization), Nation of Nations (American history), and Conceptual Chemistry.

DNA Daze

2007-10-12T16:34:00.001-07:00

We've been studying DNA here at the Dragonfly Academy. As I teach Digger about genetics, chromosomes, and nucleotides I am reminded of a fellow biochemistry student back in college remarking that DNA is a "big, boring molecule". Back then (and now too) I was drawn to proteins, the molecules actually carrying out the dance of life; DNA just lurked in the background, inscrutable and ever boring.

Now I am thankful for the simple, even boring, quality of DNA. Digger gets DNA. After reading the textbook and doing Punnett squares and dihybrid crosses for a few days we made a model of the double helix. Here Digger is posing with it. He is very protective of it; if someone messes with it and breaks some of the hydrogen bonds holding the "zipper" together he gets very upset!

And then we made a model of a nucleotide. The molecular model kit we used has got to be the worst one in the world but Digger thought it was great.

And finally today, for a Fun Friday kind of thing, we extracted DNA from an onion. The end result of this exercise was a glop of goo. Which of course evoked another college memory. My biochemistry professor described purified DNA as looking like "honey...or something else". I'll leave it to my readers to decide what "something else" might be.

Sad but True

2007-10-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

The Cub would do very well in school. He listens, follows instructions well, can sit still, and catches on quickly. He likes being around the other kids and being part of a group. He is thriving in the classes he takes at our homeschool support program and is making friends quickly.

Unfortunately I do not feel like I have the option to send him to our local elementary school. Our school district, one of the "best" in the state if you go by standardized test scores, has chosen TERC Investigations for its math program. I will not send either of my children to a school that uses the Investigations program (or Connected Math in middle school).

The reason that our district has such great standardized test scores is that the parents here can afford Kumon. Just about every one I know with kids older than eight is doing some sort of tutoring. It's the tutoring that is getting the scores, not the math program! I can't imagine putting my kid in school for 6-7 hours a day only to give him extra work each evening because the school isn't doing its job.

Rant over!

Digger Then and Now

2007-09-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been marveling at Digger's academic progress since we began this homeschooling thing at the beginning of what was theoretically his second grade year in September 2003.

At that time he could barely read a Bob Book. He had just learned to count to ten reliably over the summer. He knew no history, had never been exposed. He was fascinated by physical science. The photo below was taken a few weeks before beginning homeschooling in 2003. Digger is showing off his model geyser.

Digger went to a Montessori elementary school for first grade. As the months wore on, it became increasingly apparent that something was just "not right" with Digger academically. He was not learning anything by way of reading and math in the classroom, and he seemed to know it, to know that he was vastly behind the other kids. Around November I got the first phone call. The teacher was telling me that they wanted to have a conference, that Digger was being disruptive, and, furthermore, he couldn't read.

"But I thought you said that reading wasn't a requirement for entering first graders."

"It's not," she told me, "but he really needs to be reading to get the most out of the program."

I am still not sure if this school actually provided reading instruction. I do know that Digger's reading skills were weaker at the end of first grade than at the beginning.

The head of school diagnosed Digger as "immature". This would be the first in a long string of diagnoses, some of which held pieces of the truth. A few sucked the air out of my lungs when I first heard them; fortunately, these also turned out to be wrong.

And so began a quest, my quest, to find out just what was "not right" with Digger.

"He's just slow," the psychologist at the public school informed me. "And he has an attention problem."

"Vision problems," said the developmental optometrist, "he needs vision therapy."

"Motor planning problems," said the occupational therapist, "he needs occupational therapy."

"Auditory processing disorder," said the audiologist, "he needs accommodations."

"Asperger's," announced the child psychologist, "he needs a social skills group. He also seems to have an attention problem. And by the way, he might be gifted."

"Anxiety," determined the pediatrician, "he needs medication. And by the way, he might have dyslexia."

"He's obviously gifted," the neurologist told me, "and he has dyslexia. We didn't see any sign of Asperger's or a primary attention problem. He's what we call a 'late bloomer'. You're sure to see a huge improvement in the coming years."

Funny, we didn't get the dyslexia diagnosis until Digger was reading well, on a high school level, in fifth grade.

The little boy who struggled with learning the alphabet, who labored to sound out every letter of Green Eggs and Ham, who worked so hard and yet read so dysfluently for so many years, that little boy chose to read The Time Machine a few weeks ago.

I mark the time in Digger's life by the books he reads. End of second grade? Magic Tree House. End of third grade? Boxcar Children. Fourth? Harry Potter. Fifth? Eragon and Eldest.

What will sixth grade bring?

Little League Trophy

2007-09-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

Last June Digger's Little League team (the Mariners) won the AAA championship. As you can imagine, this was a very exciting event. Each boy on the team was allowed to keep the huge trophy for a week. Because I had some trouble contacting the next family, Digger actually got to keep it for more than one week. But today, alas, it went on its way to the next little Mariner.

The Art of Photosynthesis

2007-09-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well, Digger and I were going to do the chlorophyll and photosynthesis lab in Experiences in Biology, but when I actually read the instructions I discovered that we had to boil alcohol with leaves in it to extract chlorophyll. Oh, yes, and it said to be careful, as the flash point of alcohol is rather low.

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN IN THIS HOUSE.

When the kid goes to a real school, he can play with heat and flammable liquids all he wants.

So I decided to have him copy the diagrams of the light and dark reactions of photosynthesis from the text, except they don't call them that now, they call them stages 1, 2, and 3. At least they do in the book we're using. And Digger freaked out! So many arrows! So many molecules! It's madness, truly!

So I made him a coloring sheet. I used the computer for the large lettering and a few of the shapes and I drew the rest by hand. Not bad, if I do say so myself! We have the Biology Coloring Book, but it doesn't do well with biochemistry. Didn't he do a nice job coloring? Hopefully he learned something too.

I think I'll do this more often. The next diagram I'm planning is for mitosis.

Did I mention that I'm loving teaching a subject that I actually know something about?

How 'bout that Classic Literature!

2007-09-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Cub: Mommy! I want to look up "snuff" on the computer!

Me: (thinking how do I explain "snuff" to a five year old?) Where did you hear about that?

The Cub: Doctor Dolittle!

Giftedness, Pencils, and Fluency

2007-09-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

The topic of how much it is appropriate to help our gifted kids with the act of pushing a pencil around pops up from time to time on the message boards that I frequent. Another is whether gifted kids actually will "forget" the basics if they zoom through lower level material with pencil assistance. As the mom-teacher of a gifted dyslexic (Digger), this issue is constantly coming up. It is one thing to act as scribe for a five year old, it is quite another when the kid is eleven; it is one thing to forget how to subtract properly when you're eight, and quite another when you're factoring polynomials.

Writing is a complex process. I never realized how complex until I tried to teach my struggling dyslexic son how to write. Writing is so much more than getting words out there. To write independently, you not only need something to say, you need to be able to find the right words to express it, get those words down on paper in the right order to make a coherent sentence, get the sentences in an order that makes sense and that flows and that sounds good. You need to be able to spell correctly and punctuate correctly and use appropriate transitions. You need to hold the reader's interest, not only with the subject itself, but with word order and choice. You need to know how to form letters (or type) and this really needs to be automatic enough to allow your brain to focus on the words, the sentences, the paragraphs, the spelling, the punctuation. And you need to be able to handle the frustration of needing to rewrite a piece, expanding here, contracting there, correcting somewhere else.

Of course, this is the end result of becoming a decent writer. But it illustrates just how many things need to be in place to write easily and well.

Many people never get there. In my opinion, a child who "writes" with the parent acting as scribe is not really writing. It is a valuable exercise, to be sure, but is not actually writing. Some kids will have very little trouble going from this dictation stage to actually writing themselves; they will be able to hit the ground running at whatever level they are in when it happens. There are other kids, like Digger, who can dictate beautifully, but when you ask him to write it down, what comes out is garbled and simplistic. The writing process has to be broken into steps and each of the steps needs to be reinforced again and again. If I had him do a writing program orally, he'd probably be several grades ahead by now and still be completely unable to write. And the problem is that when it becomes necessary to hand the pencil (or keyboard) over to the kid because he is now too old to be having Mommy write everything for him, he won't be able to do the high level stuff that he could do with a scribe, and going back to the baby stuff is, well, for babies.

This same dyslexic son (Digger, in case you've forgotten) is very good in math, gets concepts easily, was understanding algebra at age 7, ranked 99th+ percentile on any math achievement test he ever took. He started algebra last year at age 10 and did well, getting 90% or better on all his tests. And while we were doing all this algebra he was forgetting his arithmetic. (Apparently the dyslexia can make him "forget" things. I think this is more that memories are misfiled or inaccessible, rather than truly forgotten, because he can be reminded and he gets up to "mastery" level again very quickly. When he was younger and we were going through arithmetic the first time, he would get the concepts very quickly and only need to do a few problems to become proficient. Then he would get cranky if he had to keep doing them. At the time I didn't understand that he could actually forget after demonstrating proficiency. But he did, and then after being reminded he would do a few problems and be good to go again. And the process would repeat itself over and over. I think what systematic review does for Digger, and maybe for everyone, is that it makes his ability to access the memories smoother and more automatic.) So in the middle of the year I added ALEKS to do yet another review of arithmetic. He finished that in June. A few weeks ago we started up with the second half of the algebra book and he was doing fine, however I noticed that he was forgetting the arithmetic again, things that should be automatic by now, that should be in his mind, helping him understand the algebra. He appears to understand the algebra anyway, but he frequently doesn't seem to make the connection between the algebra and what he is supposed to know from arithmetic. Also, he has major handwriting issues and can't deal with the need to legibly write out multistep problems. Whether I like it or not, his ability to push a pencil around easily, properly, and automatically is integral to his success in algebra.

[There is actually a post about this math issue a bit farther down; it's my blog and I can repeat myself if I want!]

So after doing half of the algebra book (and having an A average), it is now on the shelf. Last week Digger started with Saxon 8/7 because I think Saxon will actually get all this math into his long term memory. Even Digger agreed that he needed to get the arithmetic stuck more firmly in his brain. Because even though the dyslexia doctor said to just reteach every time he forgets something, that's not going to work forever. So we are going sideways on our math journey for a year and I think it is a very good decision. And hopefully, his pencil skills will improve some in the next year as well.

So now, back to my point. I did have one, really!

There are various levels of mastery. There is being able to do whatever it is at the time it's taught with support for weaknesses. Gifted kids are frequently great this way and will fly ahead. Then there is being able to do the same thing automatically and independently some time after it is taught. That's true mastery. My experience is that true mastery can be elusive.

Visiting Grandma

2007-09-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at Grandma's house this past weekend. It's Grandpa's house too, but he was away on a trip most of the time we were there.

We went to English Camp:

and hiked in the woods...

And then we went to Roche Harbor...

And wrestled in the garden there...

And explored their general store...

We did other stuff too, like go to the wonderful toy stores and book store in town. The Cub bought some vehicles and a grabber and Digger bought the new Charlie Bone book. He convinced me (I didn't take much convincing) to buy him Five Children and It. Here are the boys with their treasures:

Plant Cell Lab

2007-09-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

Digger and I did our plant cell lab today. We very loosely followed the lab outlined in Experiences in Biology. When I say very loosely I mean that we looked at the suggested slides and used the slide preparation procedures in there but Digger didn't answer the questions in the lab and mostly just observed the cell structure of the plants under the microscope and attempted to draw what he saw.

Here are Digger's drawings of the prepared specimens that I bought from the science supply place. Thank goodness for prepared slides!

And here are Digger's drawings of the specimens that I attempted to prepare myself. As I said before: Thank goodness for prepared slides!

News Flash!

2007-09-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

The Cub is reading independently.

Today during lesson I brought out our old ragged copy of the first in the Magic Tree House series and asked the Cub if he wanted to try reading it. This is a real chapter book, folks, with lots of words on each page and few pictures. The Cub said, "A magic tree house! Sure!" He read the first chapter to me with no problems. I told him that if he wanted to he could read in his bed before going to sleep. "You mean like Digger does?" he asked, looking hopeful.

Yes.

So, he just finished reading the next four chapters. I think he might have read until he finished the book if I had let him. He read for about a half hour. He told me it was exciting.

It is.

Biology Lab

2007-09-03T14:10:00.001-07:00

OK, so I admit, I was a little nervous about our first biology lab. I have had way too many science kits and activities be less than wonderful and I was worried that this would be more of the same. And I'm a trained scientist. Really! But happily, it turned out quite well.

Our activity for the day was to observe animal cells under the microscope both unstained and stained. We looked at cells from inside our cheeks as well as blood cells. Digger got to see his own cheek cells but chickened out of donating his blood cells to science. So, we had to make do with mine. They were really quite lovely, if I do say so myself.

We saw everything that the book said we would see. The microscope worked well. We had all the materials we needed. It's amazing what a little planning will do.

Here are Digger's drawings from today.

After All Those Mean Things I Said About Saxon...

2007-08-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

All day I have been trying to decide if we should keep on keepin' on with the algebra plan or jump ship and go with Saxon 8/7. Digger just isn't retaining the arithmetic he is supposed to know. Even after Saxon 5/4 and 6/5 (didn't do all the problems), Math-U-See Beta - Zeta, and (most recently) ALEKS Essential Mathematics. He scores great on standardized tests, gifted in math, 99.9th percentile and all that. But if he hasn't seen a topic in a while it's... just... gone. Out of his brain. Today he needed to know what number divided by 10 equals 6. Couldn't do it. This is the 99.9th percentile kid. This happens way too often. He can't use his understanding of arithmetic to help him with algebra because he can't remember the arithmetic! Yikes!

So, I had pretty much made the decision to go to Saxon 8/7 this year and resume our algebra journey next year but I still had some anxiety about it. I was just checking the blogs that I normally read and lo and behold... I found this! Wow... Freaky...

I'm thinking Saxon is the way to go because we used Hake Grammar last year which has the exact same incrimental approach to Saxon and after three months of no grammar, Digger has retained all of it. Grammar is easy for him now. We even went from the 6th grade book last year, which was difficult but doable, to the 8th grade book this year. If the incremental/massive review approach works for Digger with grammar then I would think math would be the same way.

LATER: After much discussion, Digger seems to be on board with the Saxon idea. We're going to give it a go. Since much of the first half of Jacobs is really prealgebra, the Saxon will provide the needed review of that as well. I think that after doing 8/7, Digger will probably be able to go through the Jacobs more quickly and with greater confidence too.

Beam... Up!

2007-08-28T16:24:00.001-07:00

We have experienced a miracle; the first beam for the tree house is actually attached to the trees! And it is fairly level! And it wasn't too horribly difficult to do!

This tree house has been a much discussed, much planned, much dreamed of project since Digger first became enamoured with building several years ago. For a long time we told him that he needed to be 12 before he would be allowed to build it but this spring we decided that 11 was old enough. The Fuzzman actually did the muscle work in putting the beam up, and I assisted by holding it in place, but Digger pre-drilled the holes in the beam and the concept for the design is his.

So far this has been an exciting project. To say that none of us in this family know anything about building a tree house would be an understatement; the learning curve is so steep here it's almost vertical!

Cell Happy

2007-08-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

We're studying cells here at the Dragonfly Academy. The boys made Jell-O cells last week and today the wonderful, squishy foam model cells arrived in the mail! We have a model of both an animal and plant cell. The Cub will mostly just enjoy them, squeezing them and pointing out the nucleus in both and the chloroplasts in the plant cell. Digger will have a more complicated relationship with the cuddly cells; he will be writing a nice long report on eukaryotic cells. How wonderful! I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it!

The First Week

2007-08-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

We made it! Yes we did. Here's what we accomplished this week:

Digger
Sequential Spelling: Lessons 1-5
Hake Grammar: Lessons 1-4
Writing: Finished solar system essay from last year
Getting Started With Latin: Lessons 1-5
Jacobs Algebra: Chapter 9, Sections 1 and 2
Visualizing Life: Chapters 1 and 2
History: Liberty for All Chapters 1-14, A Christmas Carol Chapters 1-3, Charles Dickens biography, Mark Twain biography
Geography: World Studies: Africa Chapter 1
Assigned Reading: Charles Darwin biography (completed), Captured! (ongoing)
Free Reading: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Read Aloud: Around the World in Eighty Days
Other: Violin, aikido

Cub
Handwriting: Some copywork and a few pages in My Printing Book
Spelling: Lessons 1 and 3 in Explode the Code 4
RightStart Math B: Lessons 45-49
Geography: Maps and globes, continents, hemispheres, began North America
Life Science: First four activities in R.E.A.L. Science, microscope fun, read book Cells Are Us
Reading: The Long Way to a New Land, Greg's Microscope
Read Aloud: Little House in the Big Woods
Other: Vision therapy and homework, aikido

That's pretty much it.

Today the boys did the Cub's science activity together. They made Jell-o models of plant and animal cells. The plant cells were in square molds and had chloroplasts (grapes) and the animal cells were in round molds without chloroplasts. Both cell types had nuclei (strawberries). I made the unfortunate mistake of pointing out the the strawberry nuclei looked like noses (the points were sticking up out of the Jell-o) and now the Cub keeps calling the nucleus the "nose". Yikes! Here is a photo:

And here is the worksheet the Cub completed for the activity:

And here is Digger's solar system report in all its glory. I copied and pasted it in here with no changes, so both the good stuff and the bad stuff are his (as it should be!). I am very impressed with how his writing has matured in the past year.

The Solar System

The solar system consists of the sun and eight planets and their moons orbiting around it. The solar system also contains comets and asteroids.

The sun’s interior has three main parts: The core, the radiation zone, and the convection zone. The core produces an enormous amount of energy by nuclear fusion. The core temperature reaches as high as 15 million degrees Celsius. The radiation zone is just above the core. Energy from the core moves through it. Surprisingly energy can take more than 100,000 years to move through it. The convection zone is the outer most layer of the sun’s interior. Hot gasses rise from the bottom and gradually cool as they approach the top. Cooler gasses sink forming loops.

The atmosphere of the sun contains the photosphere, chromosphere, and the corona. The photosphere is the inner layer of the sun’s atmosphere. It gives off visible light because the gasses are so thick, that they are visible. The chromosphere is just around the photosphere and is the reddish glow at the start and end of a total eclipse. The corona is above the chromosphere. It looks like a white halo around the sun during a total eclipse. It extends into space for millions of kilometers and thins into streams of electrically charged particles – called solar wind. The four features on the sun are sun spots, prominences, solar flares, and solar wind. Sun spots are dark spots on the sun’s surface that are made of cooler gasses. Prominences are huge reddish loops of gases that link different parts of sun spot regions. Solar flares form when loops of sun spot regions suddenly, connect releasing large amounts of magnetic energy that causes gas to erupt into space. Solar wind is greatly increased by solar flares. Solar wind is often called the “Northern Lights”. Solar wind can affect Earth’s magnetic field and can disrupt radio and television signals and electrical power problems.

There are eight planets in the solar system. The one that is closest to the sun is Mercury. It is the smallest terrestrial planet and it has no moons. The interior is probably made up of iron. A single probe, Mariner 10, flew by Mercury three times in 1974 and 1975. It saw many flat plains and craters. Mercury’s gravity is weak so it does not have an atmosphere. It is sometimes called the planet of extremes. It has a greater temperature range than any other planet. During the day it reaches 430ºC and at night it reaches -170ºC.

Venus is the next planet from the sun. It is sometimes called the “Evening Star”. Venus is similar in size and mass to Earth, and is some times called “Earths Twin.” Venus’s density and internal structure are similar to Earth. Venus is very different from Earth. Venus takes about 7.5 Earth months to go around the sun and takes 8 months to revolve around its axis; its day is longer than its year. Venus’s atmosphere is so thick that it is always cloudy. The clouds are made of sulfuric acid. A person would be crushed by the wait of its atmosphere. Venus’s atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide. Because Venus’s atmosphere traps heat so well it has the hottest surface of any planet (460 ºC) This is called the green house effect. Many space probes have visited Venus. The first probe to send back data melted in a few minutes. Later probes were more durable and sent back pictures and data. Venus is covered with rock and has broad plains formed by lava flows.

Next is Earth, our home planet. Earth has three main layers: a crust, a mantle, and a core. Earth has a dense core and is unique because it has liquid water. Earth’s surface is 70% water. We have a stable temperature range that supports liquid gas or solid water. Water is important shaping Earth’s surface. Earth has enough gravity to hold onto most gasses and is atmosphere extends 100 km into space. Our atmosphere is rich in oxygen (70%) nearly all of the rest is nitrogen.

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. Mars is called the “Red Planet” because it has dust from iron rich rocks. Mars’s atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide and is similar to Venus’s atmosphere, but thinner. The temperature ranges from -140 ºC – 20 ºC. A large amount of liquid water flowed on Mars’s surface in the distant past, but now the water is in Mars’s two polar ice capes. Many space probes have visited Mars and all of them have found strong evidence of liquid water. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. Mars has two vary small moons Phobos and Deimos. Scientists predict that Phobos will smash into Mars in 40 million years.

Jupiter is the biggest planet. It’s mass is 2.5 times greater than all the other planets combined. People often call Jupiter a “gas giant”. Jupiter has a thick atmosphere. consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium. Winds blow hundreds of kilometers per hour. The great red spot on Jupiter’s surface is a storm that is bigger than Earth, and it shows no sign of going away soon. The structure of Jupiter is the same as all the gas giants. It has a dense core of rock and iron at the center and a thick mantle of hydrogen and helium around the core. Jupiter has dozens of moons. The largest were discovered by Galileo and they are: Europa, Icons, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Saturn, also a gas giant is the second largest planet and, and is mainly made up of hydrogen and helium. Saturn’s rings are the most spectacular rings of any planet. Saturn’s rings were first observed by Galileo. The rings are made up of chunks of ice and dust, each having its own orbit. Saturn has at least 48 moons, the largest of which is Titan. Titan is larger than Mercury, and has a thick atmosphere so no light can pass through.

Uranus is 4 times the diameter of Earth and is much smaller than Jupiter or Saturn. It is twice as far from the sun than Saturn. There are traces of methane in its atmosphere making Uranus look aquamarine Uranus was discovered by William Hershel in 1781. Voyager 2 flew by Uranus 200 years after its the discovery . The images taken by voyager 2 show a few clouds. Uranus rotates every 17 hours and has 27 moons.

Neptune is a cold, blue planet that has visible clouds and is slowly shrinking. The discovery of Neptune was made in 1849 because of a mathematical prediction by mathematicians in England and France. Voyager 2 flew by Neptune in 1989. Neptune has at least 13 moons the largest of which is Triton. Triton’s south pole is covered in nitrogen ice.

There are other bodies of matter in the solar system. Pluto is one of them. Pluto was discovered in 1930. It has one moon, Charon. Charon is more than half the size of Pluto. Pluto’s orbit is far from the sun. One revolution of Pluto is equal to 248 Earth years. Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet on August 24,2006 by the International Astronomical Union; it was given a number 134340.

Comets are collections of ice and dust and small rocky particles that orbits in long narrow ellipses. The head of a comet consists of the coma and the nucleus. The coma is a fuzzy outer layer of gas and dust and the nucleus is the solid core in the center of the head. The trail of the comet forms when it gets close to the sun. The trail always faces away from the sun. Comets come from the outer most part of the solar system, places called the kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.

Asteroids are rocky bodies that are too small to be planets Astronomers discovered four small objects between 1801 & 1807 and in the next 90 years they found 300 more. Asteroids are rocky bodies that are too small to be planets. They revolve between Mars and Jupiter in the Asteroid Belt. More than 100,000 asteroids have been discovered and scientists are continuously finding more. Scientists hypothesize that they are leftover pieces of the solar system.

First (Well Actually Second) Day of School

2007-08-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

We started school yesterday, but that wasn't exactly official because the Cub went to vision therapy all morning so Digger and I were by ourselves. Then I did some work with the Cub in the afternoon. But the real challenge for the year, for me at least, is going to be having them both at the same time. Up until now the Cub has been in preschool in the mornings while I work with Digger.

Today was the first day where I had both boys at once. All in all it went pretty well. Digger was able to work on his own while I helped the Cub with his math, spelling, handwriting, and geography. Then the Cub played while I did biology and writing with Digger. Then the Cub wanted to be with us while I read history to Digger. History was to be the last subject before lunch.

After I had been reading for about a half an hour, the Cub came over with this sign:

Hurry up, I want lunch.

A few minutes later he came back with this sign:

Be done in 0 minutes.

And back again with this one:

Be done now.

There's a theme developing here. Here is the last sign:

Stop now.

Persistent little guy, isn't he?

School Starts Tomorrow

2007-08-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

Our official first day of school is tomorrow, though the Cub demanded a lesson today and I read tomorrow's history to Digger today. The Cub actually has a vision therapy appointment in the city tomorrow, so the Fuzzman will be taking him and I will have some alone time with Digger in the morning. Then Digger has a birthday party to go to in the afternoon (which is why we read the history today: 90 minutes worth!). I might work with the Cub in the afternoon, depending on how tired he is from the morning. Going to vision therapy is a four hour enterprise, so maybe we'll just do the geography and history that we didn't do today, if we do anything at all.

On another note, so far I'm pleased with my new system for keeping homeschool records. I went from using a composition book (2nd-4th grades for Digger) to using Homeschool Tracker last year. While I loved how I could track every last thing with HST, I didn't like how much time it took me to maintain everything. And if I got behind in entering our completed work, it became a nightmare to input. I couldn't imagine using HST for two kids and I didn't want to go back to the composition book method, so I made forms instead. I made Excel spreadsheets for everything I'm planning to do with each boy in the coming year, sort of like the lesson planning feature in HST, and I just fill in the date completed when it's done. And I have a planning sheet for the week with spaces to write whatever is planned. The beauty of this is that I can plan for the entire week or just one day at a time. This should work better because when I plan, say, math for the week and we get bogged down in something, I get very distressed that we aren't on schedule. So, with math, I will only plan one day at a time, based on how things went the day before. This planner will also serve as a record of what was done each day. When we complete a task, I will write the time we spent. That's it! I have high hopes for this system; I hope it works as well as I think it will.

Schoolroom Photos

2007-08-17T20:06:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd post some photos of our schoolroom before entropy takes over. Here is Digger's desk and associated stuff off to the left. This room doubles as a playroom, which explains the fleet of trucks. The playroom aspect gets downplayed more each year though.

This is the Cub's desk area, though his actual desk is going to be swapped out for a bigger one. This one will be relocated to his room.

Here is the sink with the science stuff above it. There is also a bunch of other junk that I don't know where else to put.

The reading area with our timeline.

I always put the next several weeks' worth of books in this book rack.

So there it is. Don't blink! Awww... You blinked, now the neatness is no more!

Camping: Just Me and the Boys

2007-08-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

The boys and I went camping over on the Olympic Peninsula for the past two nights and the truly amazing thing is that I am still alive to blog about it!

The weather was predicted to be absolutely clear on Tuesday, so we first went up to Hurricane Ridge to have a look at the view. For those of you who have only experienced Hurricane Ridge encased in fog, here is what you are missing:

So we walked around for a while. It was very warm and the whole thing had a modern-day, North American Heidi feel to it. Or maybe I mean The Sound of Music. At any rate, it was all very alpine.

At some point we made our way down the mountain and began our camping experience at the Heart O' the Hills campground. Here is our campsite:

And here the boys are in their PJs ready to go to bed. What you don't see here is that it is about 6:45 at night...

They went to sleep without any fighting. This is a huge milestone and proves that it can be done!

The next day we started by going to the main visitor's center for Olympic National Park. They had some good exhibits. Digger especially liked the one that shows on a round of an ancient tree when certain things happened. What was really cool is that he knew about all of the historical events. The Cub was fascinated by the stuffed animals they had on display. Once he found out that the animals were once alive, he kept pointing to each one and saying "This was once alive, but now it's dead!" Over and over, very loudly. Anyway, after looking at the displays, I proceeded to buy all the books in the store. I once read someplace that people who homeschool are really just control freaks who want an excuse to buy books. That pretty much applies here.

We then made our way to the campground on the west end of Lake Crescent. First, though, we hiked to this waterfall:

And we found this huge stump:

Then we made it to the Fairholm campground and pulled right in to the best campsite in the place. Seriously. Usually we have to drive around a campground at least twice before deciding on the best available space. This time, on the first trip around, without seeing any of the other loops, or even the rest of the sites in this loop, I just pulled right in. It was that perfect! Photos really don't do it justice, but here's one anyway:

Yes, that is a very long driveway and the site is on the outermost outer corner.

We wandered around by the lake and did some junior ranger stuff and visited the store. I read some of the books that we got at the visitor's center aloud. I learned something very important during all of this and that is: Have a planned activity for the morning and another for the afternoon. Do not under any circumstances plan to just wing it. Note to self and all that.

Anyway, after dinner we went for another walk and this time the boys tried to make friends with a duck.

Closing in on her:

What you don't see is that right after this was taken, she ran at the Cub and tried to peck him. Pretty exciting stuff! All in all, a good end to the day.

And so ends my first solo with boys camping experience. It was far less work than I thought it would be. In addition to that one note to self I mentioned, I would also bring some really good children's books to read aloud, some games that everyone can play, and some toys to play with in the campground like small shovels and balls. For some reason, the rocks and sticks just didn't seem to cut it on this trip.

Summer School

2007-08-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have found that a little bit of academic work on a regular basis will keep the Cub progressing well, whereas a lot of work sporadically means almost no progress. So, the Cub and I have been working 3-4 days each week over the summer on handwriting and math.

Here the Cub is working on his HWT My Printing Book. He completes two lines per day. Yes, that is four words. We will pick up the pace in the fall.

Here he is playing a RightStart card game. The cards have the numbers 4, 8, 12, 16, and so forth up to 40 and he is putting them in order. This is more challenging than it may seem, but not so much that it becomes frustrating. The best part is, if he makes a mistake, it's easy to correct!

Here the Cub was supposed to make a four-digit number using the place value cards and then show it on the abacus. The Cub was very proud of his "joke" here. He has been quite fascinated by the concept of zero lately.

And where was Digger during this fest of academic excellence, you may wonder?

In his favorite place.

Walk to the Pond

2007-08-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

At the Cub's suggestion, we went on a hike today to a small pond near our house.

Here are the boys on the trail.

This is the pond. At this time of year, most of the surface is covered with these tiny green leaves. At first it looks like some kind of scum, but on closer inspection the little leaves emerge.

The Cub brought his binoculars. He used them here, but he mostly looked through them at his feet while he was walking on the trail.

Going home. Yes, that is a pile of horse poop.

Two-Thirds Magic

2007-08-05T16:05:00.000-07:00

The Cub was so excited. He came running in to share this with me.

"Mommy look! I pushed two and I pushed this [divided by] and I pushed three and I pushed this [equals] and I maked all these!"

Vision Therapy

2007-08-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Cub is doing vision therapy to help him with tracking, convergence, and visual attention problems as well as visual-motor integration. Digger did vision therapy for some of the same reasons a few years ago and it really helped him with certain things. We are hoping that some of the Cub's coordination problems will be helped with the therapy. Also, even though he is a good reader (at 5 1/2) and reads well above grade level, given that he started reading when he was two, he seems stuck at a high second grade level. I think the smaller, more crowded text of the higher level books is a stumbling block for him and I'm hoping that the vision therapy will make it less of an issue.

So anyway, here is a peek into our "homework" exercises that the vision therapist assigns each week.

Here the Cub is reading with a "flipper." One side has + lenses and the other has - lenses. This is supposed to train his eyes to focus quickly and well at changing distances. I think.

Here the Cub is finding the letters of the alphabet (in order) in a paragraph of nonsense words. He needs to pay attention, track well, and do things sequentially. This is the most challenging of the current exercises.

Here the Cub is doing a "pencil push-up." Ok, so it's a popsicle stick, but what you don't see is the happy face that I drew on the other side. I don't think he is really looking at it the way he is supposed to here, but by the end of vision therapy he should be able to go all the way to his nose.

Here the Cub is doing a "finger thinking" exercise. He has a quarter between his thumb and forefinger and he is supposed to touch the quarter to the inside of his hand. This is for the visual-motor integration.

And here the Cub is doing "angels in the snow." This is just like making snow angels, except it has a certain sequence (arms first, then legs, then arms and legs alternating, then together, then some more complicated things). This is supposed to get both sides of his brain working together. I think.

So there you have it. A snapshot of our vision homework. We will probably be doing vision therapy with the Cub until sometime this winter. I hope it is as worthwhile for the Cub as it was for Digger.

The Cub's Geography: United States and Canada

2007-08-03T13:16:00.001-07:00

Here are the resources we will use for our study of the United States and Canada. We will actually begin our geography study by going over some general geography like continents, oceans, poles before learning in more detail about life in the various regions of the world. I will go in the same order as I did with Digger: United States and Canada, Mexico and Central America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Antarctica.

Just a note: You may notice that there are only two books about the US. I figured that just about everything we read is about the US and so I didn't need anything special there. Also, it was very difficult to find books set in Canada at the Cub's level. Most everything I could find was about the Arctic. Farm Year was the exception; I hope it is as good as it looks!

The Cub's Science: Human Body Unit

2007-08-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here are the extra books that I plan to use with the Cub when we study the human body in the fall. This will be in addition to the work we do using the R.E.A.L. Life Science curriculum.

Fire Station Finished!

2007-08-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Lego fire station is now finished! Digger helped the Cub with the third building and the ladder truck.

Well done, guys. They didn't even fight while they were building this. Very much, I mean.

Digger Builds a Workbench

2007-08-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

Since we've been homeschooling, at the end of each school year, the Fuzzman and I have given Digger something to acknowledge passing from one grade to the next. One year it was a science kit, another a new backpack. This year we got him this kit to make a workbench. The workbench is supposed to be a space where Digger can do things like build robots or work with his electronics lab. In theory, this will free up his desk for academic work. Like math problems. I am hoping that it won't turn into just another horizontal space to pile things on in his room. We seem to have a few too many of those already.

We went to the lumberyard and bought plywood and 2 x 4s. The guy at the lumberyard cut the plywood in thirds and Digger cut the 2 x 4s himself. Here he is using his clamps to get ready to screw in the screws.

And here he is using his cool battery-powered screw driver. That thing has gotten quite a workout recently.

It's almost done. Here is Digger posing with the plywood for the top.

Screwing in the final screw.

And voila! More horizontal space!

Digger Finishes Harry Potter

2007-08-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

The last two nights Digger has been staying up past midnight reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As he essentially never reads for longer than an hour, this is an incredible milestone. Unfortunately, since there are no more Harry Potter books coming, it may never happen again! Way to go Digger with the reading marathon and a big THANK YOU to Ms. Rowling for writing such a compelling series of books.

More Lego News

2007-08-02T15:31:00.001-07:00

And building two is finished!

Breaking Lego News!!!

2007-08-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Cub and I built the first garage in the Lego fire station. He has never really built anything before, but he really seems to get how to do it. All I had to help with was pressing the pieces on.

First Legos

2007-08-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Cub has anxiously been awaiting the arrival of his new Lego fire station. It came yesterday and he and the Fuzzman put together one of the trucks that came with it. Because of the earth-shattering quality of this breaking news, I will post updates as they occur.

Digger's Africa

2007-08-01T11:24:00.001-07:00

Because I know you all are interested, here are the resources that I plan to use with Digger in our study of Africa:

History Resources 1850-1865 (or so)

2007-07-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

These are the books covering the time period 1850-1865 that I plan to read to Digger:

And here are the books from the same time period that Digger will read to himself:

Digger and the Cub

2007-07-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

I just got a new camera and thought I'd try posting a photo (finally).

Here's Digger and the Cub in the garage today. They're lovey-dovey here, but they were fighting all morning.

Plans for Fall

2007-07-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

Now that I have (sort of) finished the end-of-grade report(s) for last year, I would like to post my plans for 2007-2008. Digger will be in 6th grade and the Cub will be starting kindergarten.

So here are the plans!

Digger: 6th Grade

Math: Second half of Jacobs' Algebra

English: Hake Grammar 8, Sequential Spelling 3, homegrown writing based loosely on IEW

Science: Visualizing Life with Castle Heights Experiences in Biology labs (plus a few of my own, gotta use that degree for something)

History: Period 1850-present--homegrown, ~45 books to read aloud to Digger, 11 assigned

Geography: Finish studying world geography by learning about Africa, Europe, and Asia. Spine will be the Prentice Hall World Studies series (terrible, but it's on the shelf). I will also read aloud 8 novels set in the places we're studying and am assigning 5 others. There is some mapwork to go along with this, obviously.

Latin: Getting Started With Latin (need I say more?)

Music: Violin lessons

Outside: Classes at the homeschool center, aikido

The Cub: Kindergarten

Math: Finish RightStart Mathematics B and start C

English: Sonlight 3rd grade readers (not the religious ones) and others, Explode the Code 4, 5, and maybe 6, and finish Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book (copywork after)

Science: R.E.A.L. Life Science with lots of supplemental reading

Geography: Homegrown with lots of children's books set in the places we're studying

Outside: Classes at the homeschool center, aikido

Neglect

2007-07-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting my blog for far too long. I've got school plans to post and I'm getting a digital camera of my own in a few days. I'll try to post some pictures!

Update on the Cub

2007-04-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

The Cub's reading seems to have made a jump. Yesterday, instead of finishing the Frog and Toad book he had been reading for the past few days, he announced that he did not want to read that book. I was a bit stunned because he seemed to be enjoying it. He then informed me that he was going to read The Littles. Now, The Littles is a huge step up from Frog and Toad. Frog and Toad is a picture book, written on mid-second grade level, with not too many words on a page. The Littles is a real chapter book (a short chapter book), with black and white pictures, written on an end-of-third grade level. And not all the pages have pictures. He asked to read more of it tonight, so I guess he's enjoying it!

Algebra Update

2007-04-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

I had Digger complete two Key to Algebra books over the past few months. Then a few weeks ago we started doing the Jacobs Algebra again. The difference in Digger's fluency doing the "solve for x" type work was amazing. It is now totally automatic and he was even keeping track of signs about as well as I do (meaning that occasionally he makes an error, but not routinely). We finished Chapter 6, which was the last of the prealgebra type material (Digger got an A- on the chapter test) and we began the chapter on simultaneous equations today.

Digger blew the first lesson on simultaneous equations away. He kept saying, "This is fun!" I can't tell you how long it has been since he has said that about math!

I also have him doing ALEKS for a half hour each day for arithmetic review and that is going well on the whole. The computer is completely unforgiving and doesn't let him get away with making silly mistakes. But he can't get mad at the computer when it tells him he is wrong for the millionth time. Well, actually, he can, and in fact I heard him yelling at the computer just yesterday, but, hey, that's not my problem!

Homeschooling Myself

2007-03-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

Ever since I began homeschooling Digger almost four years ago, I have been dreading the day that we would surpass my knowledge in the math department. Well, that day was coming and was going to occur any week now. I knew I needed to do something drastic! And so I did.

I enrolled myself in the Algebra I course at ALEKS. The computer did an initial assessment of my Algebra I knowledge and found that I knew 42% of the material. I worked every spare minute over the span of one week and finished the course! I can now factor polynomials. And I am ready to teach Digger the rest of Algebra I! Of course, I still need to get through Algebra II...

The First Week of Kindergarten

2007-02-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

Well, the first week of kindergarten with the Cub was a success. Actually, at first I wasn't sure he was going to be cooperative but part of his crankiness was because he was sick at the beginning of the week. Yesterday things went very well; we both had a good time.

We played some games this week (concentration and dominoes). We did two weeks worth of work in three days in Singapore 1A. The Cub just jams right through the math. He surprised me one day by what he knew. I had him put out seven bug counters. Then I asked him to put out five counters. The Cub, instead of laboriously counting out five more (like he would have done six months ago), just grabbed two and looked at me expectantly. Thinking this was a fluke, I asked him to show me three counters and he did the same thing. I think he understands a whole lot more about numbers than I am aware of.

I'm looking forward to our second week of kindergarten!

Kindergarten Starts Tomorrow

2007-02-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

The Cub will begin kindergarten here at home tomorrow. He is now five and it is time! I won't be telling him it is kindergarten, but in my mind I will know.

We have been "working" together for about an hour or so three days or more each week. Starting tomorrow, I will be adding a bit of structure to that work. I made index cards with different activities on them. The Cub will get to pick the order of the activities. I have only one truly academic activity in the pile for this week, the Math Lesson. I will add other academic activities every few weeks or months until we are up to a "full" load in the fall.

We are starting Singapore 1A. I bought the teacher's manual and everything and I am going to do it right this time! I did Singapore 4 and 5 with Digger, but we used it as a supplement and just did the problems with no activities and not really enough learning from the textbook. Anyway, I am ready for this. I bought counters! Number cards! Picture cards! Number-word cards! Lots of cards! We are all set.

The other academic activities I plan to add in fairly quickly are the Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book and printing practice as well as Explode the Code book 3. And that, along with the "fun stuff" like drawing pictures and playing with Play Doh and playing catch with Mommy will be what we do in our work sessions until the beginning of summer.

The Cub already is reading aloud daily from books like Henry and Mudge. He does this before bed before we read to him. I figure there is no need to change that routine.

Algebra Holding Pattern

2007-01-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

After much stress, I have decided to go into a holding pattern in Algebra for a while. After we finish the chapter we are working on in Jacobs Algebra, we will focus on getting operations with signed numbers, applying the distributive property, and simply solving for x so automatic that Digger doesn't even have to think about it. He is doing wonderfully with algebra, getting As on all his tests, really understands what is going on, but he makes too many silly mistakes and has to think too hard about basic things. I think it makes more sense to reinforce these areas now, while he still is doing well and has confidence about algebra, than to move ahead and have to backtrack later when he starts doing poorly. I am also going to take some time to work on ratio and proportion with Digger. Somewhere in all the curriculum shifts, that went by the wayside, and I think it might be the single most important thing I ever learned in arithmetic. My ability to set up ratio problems and cross multiply properly got me through a lot of science courses!

So that is what we will be doing for the next few months. We may continue on with Jacobs later this year or we may just put it off until the fall. I think once things are more automatic for Digger, algebra will again proceed quickly and well.

Back to School

2007-01-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

We got back to our schoolwork on Monday only to discover that someone had removed Digger's brain over the break. The same person also seems to have taken some of his good attitude away. I am in the process of tracking down the brain, but the attitude may prove more elusive.

It didn't help that many of the lessons scheduled for Monday and Tuesday seemed really long and difficult. We encounter long challenging lessons frequently, but usually only one in a day and on a bad day maybe two. On Monday there were four. On both Monday and Tuesday we spent two hours on schoolwork in the afternoon (we normally have none). Then on Tuesday evening, Digger took two hours with a homework assignment that should have taken a half hour. I finally sent him to bed at 9:00. Wednesday's and Thursday's homework went much better.

Today Digger has an algebra test on rational numbers. This basically means dealing with numbers that have decimal points in them. This chapter has been very challenging for Digger, not because he doesn't understand decimals, and not because he doesn't understand the algebra, but I guess putting the two together requires more thought than is comfortable for him. And I allow him to use a calculator. But even that requires thought--like how to push the right buttons. I hope he does well on the test though. He has had three tests so far and all have been above 90%.

UPDATE: Digger got an A on the algebra test! He also got an A on his vocabulary test and another one on his dictation test! I think we may have recovered at least half of his brain.

The Cub Dictates Two Stories

2006-11-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

On a whim today, I asked the Cub if he would like to dictate a story for me to type on the computer. He loved this idea! He understood how to do it right away. Once he finished one story he wanted to do another. He illustrated both of them. Here they are:

The Water Safe

There was a little guy in his property. And a tree fell down on his property. And his house got damaged. The fire department came. And the fire department cut the tree up with a chain saw. Now the guy was saved after all.

The Enormous Tree

There was a little truck named Nicodia. He drove with his driver in him. He drove to wonderful places. While he was on the way, Blakely School got blocked with an enormous tree. The power was out. The guy saved the day.

"I just remember you are the best cutter ever," Starney said to Rocker. Starney said, "The road was blocked by an enormous tree."

The First Typewritten Essay

2006-11-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

Digger typed the final copy of an essay for the first time today (instead of writing in cursive). It took over an hour. His assignment was to write a literary "critique" of Charles Perrault's version of Little Red Riding Hood. Since this was a new type of assignment, I provided a lot of support. (So don't get excited about how sophisticated it sounds.) Digger was pleased with his work, both the writing and the typing. He will write several more of these, first with other fairy tales from our historical period, and then with longer works of fiction.

Here is the essay:

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood is a fairy tale written by Charles Perrault. Charles Perrault wrote fairy tales for the members of the court of Louis XIV in 17th century France. Little Red Riding Hood was published as part of a group of fairy tales in 1697.

Little Red Riding Hood seems to take place during the Middle Ages in a typical medieval village and the surrounding woods. The main characters are a little girl wearing a red cape called Little Red Riding Hood, a hungry wolf, and Little Red Riding Hood's sick grandmother.

Little Red Riding Hood's mother asked her to deliver bread and butter to her sick grandmother. When she got into the woods, she was greeted by a wolf. Little Red Riding Hood told the wolf that she was going to her grandmother's house. The wolf used a short cut to get there first. When he got there, he tricked the grandmother into thinking he was Little Red Riding Hood. The grandmother let the wolf into the house. Then the wolf ate her. When Little Red Riding Hood got there, the wolf pretended to sound like her grandmother. Then Little Red Riding Hood came in thinking it was her grandmother and got into bed with the wolf. The wolf ate her too.

The moral of this story is: Do not talk to strangers. This version was exciting when the wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood. However, other versions are better when the wood cutter cuts Little Red Riding Hood and the grandmother out of the wolf's stomach.

Digger Makes Dinner!

2006-11-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Digger asked to be able to make dinner for the family. How could I say no to that? So last night, he finally made the dinner. He chose to make a pasta recipe with an onion/garlic sauce. It was wonderful! Digger chopped the onion, minced the garlic, sauteed everything, and cooked the corn in the microwave.

He was so cheerful and focused about the whole thing that I think we'll do it again next Friday evening. We both had a great time, and we got a good meal out of it!

The Latest and Greatest Essay

2006-10-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

Digger has been making great strides in his writing these days and all the credit goes to the IEW technique. Basically, what happens is that I give Digger a paragraph (or paragraphs) on the topic he is to write about. Digger makes a keyword outline where he is allowed to choose three or sometimes four keywords for each sentence in the example piece. Then the example goes away and (usually the next day) Digger writes his own paragraph using his outline, his memory, and his prior knowledge. Here is his most recent creation about the Salem witch trials.

Ergot and the Salem Witch Trials

It was winter in Salem in 1692 when eight girls fell ill. But their sickness was very weird. The girls acted crazy and spoke to no one. The people worried and searched desperately for an explanation. They came to the conclusion that the girls were under a spell. Still worse, by members of their own community. In February, the terrible witch hunt began. All together, 150 people were arrested and twenty were hanged. The executed did not confess to witchcraft. In October of 1692, the trials ended. But the accusers could not explain their actions. Historians are struggling to explain what happened in Salem. Was it dietary deficiency or mass hysteria? Or was a little fungus to blame? A common grain fungus might have been responsible for the terrible crime. Ergot is a kind of fungus that can grow on grain. The grain that spring might have been contaminated with ergot. The girls might have consumed the grain and started acting funny. Ergot grows in warm, rainy springs and that was exactly what the spring was like in 1691. Rye was the staple grain of Salem. The summer of 1692 was dry and that explains the endings of the symptoms.

Preschool and the Cub

2006-09-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Cub just started his third year in a Montessori preschool. The first year he "did the scratchy letters," as he called it. This meant he spent his whole time there tracing his finger over large letters that had a sandpaper surface. He did this just about every day for the entire school year. The next year (last year), he spent the whole year "doing the Boovoolean Alphabet." Translated, this is the movable alphabet. The movable alphabet is a set of wooden letters that the Cub formed into sentences, one per day. He used invented spelling and then copied what he wrote with the movable alphabet onto a piece of paper. Apparently he did this for a very long time each day. They don't believe in "pushing" at this preschool, and that's good...really... but a year is a very long time to work on making sentences with the Boovoolean Alphabet. I mean, that's like a quarter of the Cub's whole life!

So anyway, this morning Cub announced to me that he didn't want to do his letter work at school today. Ah ha! This was my opportunity! And so I told him that he most certainly did not have to do the Boovoolean Alphabet, that, in fact, his teacher has some other wonderful letter work for him to do. And so he informed me that that letter work was for little boys, the scratchy letters are for little boys! No, no--I assured him, this was different big boy letter work. Well, he liked that idea. And so he did his new big boy letter work today and he was very happy about it too. This work seems to be to put missing vowels into words. Today, apparently, the missing vowel was "e" and Cub was able to tell me all the words he spelled with "e."

I don't believe in pushing exactly, but a firm nudge in the right direction can do wonders. Perhaps this will be the year of the missing vowels.

Scratch That!

2006-09-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

I said that things would probably go to hell this week and lo and behold, they did! Yesterday Digger was totally spaced out all morning. He could barely concentrate on anything. It was driving me crazy! Then today, before we even began the lesson really, Digger was being rude and bratty so I told him I wasn't going to teach him if he was going to act like that. AND he was going to stay in his room. ALL DAY. So he proceeded to act rude and bratty some more. And WHAMMO--he found himself in his room. After about 15 minutes, he tells me that he really REALLY wants to have a lesson. Please, oh pretty please. So I compromised. I deposited all of the lesson work that he could possibly do independently, which turned out to be everything but science and spelling, and told him if and when he finished the work (properly) he could emerge from his room.

Digger was happy with this idea. And he worked and he worked, and he only had a few questions on the algebra, and he worked, and amazing wonder of wonders! he finished everything and did a good job too.

Does this make me obsolete?

Actually, it was a good experiment because when the Cub comes home to school in a year or two Digger is going to have to be able to work more independently. I think we are on the right track here and he should be up for it.

Yes.

By the way, here is a paragraph he wrote today (IEW style) with absolutely no input from me.

Studying Earthquakes

What makes an earthquake destructive? The answer to that question is seismic waves. There are three kinds of seismic waves and they are P waves, S waves, and surface waves. Surface waves ripple and cause the most damage. The other waves are called body waves because they travel through the earth's interior. The seismic waves are detected in seismographs. Seismologists study earthquakes. Understanding when earthquakes happen can save lives!

So Far the Homeschool Thing is Going Swimmingly...

2006-09-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

Of course, things could go to hell next week. Digger seems to actually be enjoying most of the academic things we are doing this year. This will be our sixth week of 5th grade coming up. I think part of what is making it good is that I am not fretting as much about basic skills now that Digger has blossomed into a good reader and has, to some extent, grasped the basics of arithmetic. At the moment it seems that moving on to algebra was a good decision; Digger just gets it, and the more abstract it is the better, it seems. He tells me he likes it when it's "all letters" because then he doesn't have to do any calculations! I understand that because when I was in Algebra I, I tried substituting letters for all the numbers, rearranging the problem to get things where I wanted them, and then doing one big calculation at the end. I seem to remember that it didn't work, most likely because I *still* had to do the calculation in the end. And calculating was my downfall. Just one of the many joys of junior high.

Back to Digger's lessons... He has stopped resisting me on the spelling. He spent most of last year turning a spelling lesson that should have taken five minutes into 30 minutes of pure torture. He actually enjoys dictation (where I dictate a few sentences from a book we are reading and he writes them down with perfect spelling and punctuation); he seems to like the challenge. He tolorates the grammar, which is quite rigorous and actually a 6th grade book. He loves the science and so do I. He really seems to be learning it this year, whereas in previous years the hands-on approach went in one hand and out the other. Geography is going well too. I am combining Digger's practice reading aloud with this subject--he reads the geography book to me. This works well because this book is right on the edge of his read-aloud comfort zone (it's a middle school text). Oh yes, and his writing has taken a giant leap forward!

Anyway, as soon as I post this I am sure things will change. But I hope they don't.

The Amazing Plate Tectonics Paragraph

2006-09-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

The IEW approach to paragraph writing seems to be working! They suggest having the student make a key word outline from an existing paragraph and then reconstruct the paragraph in their own words using only the outline. We started with this approach at the end of last year and Digger did just fine with creating the outlines but when it came time to write his own piece he would freak out. I'm not sure what happened to change this pattern. Perhaps me telling him that he could use what he knew about the subject in his paragraph as well as what was in his outline. The idea is to write a coherent piece about the topic, not to recreate the example paragraph exactly. Below is Digger's most recent effort. I corrected the spelling here but the only misspelled words were our, float, part, material, pulling, and occur. This approach is supposed to eventually lead to the ability to write research papers using multiple sources from an outline. My idea is to reach that point by the end of this year.

Moving Earth

The Earth is moving slowly under our feet. The lithosphere is made up of the crust and the upper mantle. The Earth has 17 plates that float on the asthenosphere, the semimolten part of the mantle. The word describing the moving plates is tectonics. The plates under the oceans are thin but made of heavy material. Continental plates are made of lighter thicker material. The plates are sliding, pushing, and pulling. The boundaries of the plates meet and interesting features occur. They form mountains, trenches, and earthquakes.

The First Day of Fifth Grade

2006-08-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

Digger and I had our first day of school today. We did all subjects full strength because if I ease into it Digger feels like he is being cheated for the rest of the year when we finally do carry a full load. Here is what we did today:

Jacobs' Algebra lesson and problem set
Evan Moor Daily Math Practice (Grade 6) problem set
HWT Cursive Success page 1
Dictation-one sentence from Anne of Green Gables
Grammar and Writing 6 (Hake)-Lesson 1
Vocabulary From Classical Roots 5-Began Lesson 1
Sequential Spelling 2 Lesson 1
Read half of The Lost Colony of Roanoke
Read 10 pages of The World of Capt. John Smith
Began Science Explorer Inside Earth, did a writing assignment from the book (Digger dictated), and watched the video preview that goes with the book
Began Foundations of Geography-Read Chapter 1 Section 1, did some work with the globe, and answered the questions at the end of the chapter orally
Violin practice
Aikido class
Read aloud-Anne of Green Gables
Free reading at bedtime (a Hardy Boys book)

Digger was a little spaced at first but he did well. I am trying to use what I've learned about Digger's learning style and strengths and weaknesses to make the lesson as painless as possible. For example, Digger has a hard time remembering big long words. So in the lesson today about declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences I put the definitions up on the board and he was able to look at them while he did the exercises. Digger was resistant to looking for the answer on the board at first but then it seemed to give him confidence because he shooed me out of the room so that he could do the exercises on this own. I figure that kids in school would be able to look back in the book or make themselves a cheat sheet when doing the exercises so this is the same thing. We'll see how much he remembers (after nine lessons worth of practice) when he takes the first test.

Oh--and Digger got As in the graded subjects today. He loved that! Let's hope tomorrow goes as well.

The Problem with Dictionaries

2006-08-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Digger was doing his math assignment today in his Review of Everything Arithmetic Workbook and it asked him to define "congruent." Well, Digger is not one to remember ANY math term so I told him if he looked it up in the dictionary and wrote down the definition I would give him full credit. So he proceeded to look in Webster's Collegiate and after several wails of "It's not in here!" he managed to find the word. Then he said, "But it doesn't tell me what it means!" So at this point I thought he was just being lazy or perhaps not understanding how a dictionary works. So I read the definition for myself. And here it is:

1. Congruous
2. Superposable so as to be coincident throughout
3. Having the difference divisible by a given modulus

I have to say, the kid had a point. So I had him look it up in a Saxon (math textbook) glossary. Here is the Saxon definition:

Having the same size and shape

Whereupon Digger tells me, "Well, duh, I knew THAT."

And the Winner Is... Homeschool Tracker

2006-07-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

I know all of my devoted readers have been anxiously awaiting my decision on the tracking software. Homeschool Tracker won hands down, mostly because I couldn't figure out how to do anything with Edu-Track. With Homeschool Tracker, I downloaded the Basic version for free and started inputting data right away. With Edu-Track, not only did I have to pay to get a crippled version of the software to evaluate, but when I finally got it in the mail and downloaded it, there were non-intuitive things popping up right away. I have no patience with non-intuitive software!

So I have been inputting data into Homeschool Tracker Plus for the past several days. The software isn't perfect, but it is so much better than my old system of scribbling down notes about how to use various resources on scrap paper that I would end up forgetting about by the time I needed them. With the software, I have been able to map out my entire history program for next year, day by day. Previously, I would get a pile of resources for history for the year (and I mean a pile 3-4 feet high) and sort of keep my fingers crossed that we would get through everything by June. This time I know that if we keep to the schedule we will be done with history absolutely by the first week in June.

Another benefit of the software is that I am able to keep track of grades. I didn't realize how much I would like this. But what really surprised me is how much Digger likes keeping track of his grades in the Key to Algebra workbook he is doing this summer (at the moment he is getting an A+). This grading thing seems to help in two ways. First, it keeps my expectations in line with reality. I have a tendency to freak out over every little mistake because I am a bit of a nut. If I see that overall Digger is getting an A or whatever, it calms me down. Second, it gives Digger feedback about his work that is more objective than my mood of the moment. Because this has been so successful with the math, I am going to use it in other areas too. The first place I am going to try it is in writing. I am going to give Digger a checklist with each writing assignment with my expectations for that assignment with points attached to each expectation. If he meets the expectations listed, he gets an A. I think this will eliminate some of the stress we both feel about the writing assignments. My stress is from not having a good feel for how much (negative) feedback Digger should get at any given time and I think some of Digger's stress comes from not clearly understanding my expectations up front. With it in writing before the piece is written, I think we both will do better.

Going High Tech With the Homeschool Records

2006-07-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

I finally managed to finish the fourth grade annual report. What a pain that was! I've been keeping paper journals (Mead composition books specifically) since I started homeschooling Digger three years ago and they have multiplied so that now I have ten of them sitting on the shelf above the computer. When I do these annual reports I scan back through a year's worth of entries to pull out history book titles, science book titles, literature titles, DVD titles, and don't forget all the titles of the books Digger reads on his own! It's a sea of loosely organized data. And it is usually incomplete, as I often forget to record the full title of a book or the author or something and so I have to look it up on Amazon or find the book on the shelf. It makes me nuts and it is totally my own fault. This is only going to get worse when I start keeping more detailed records on the Cub.

So I had this brilliant idea to try out some of that software that helps homeschoolers organize their lives...er... homeschooling lives. I found two (I'm sure there are more). One, Homeschool Tracker, allows you to download a basic version of the software for free. So I did that and spent all afternoon yesterday fiddling with it. The other one, Edu-Track, lets you buy a demo CD for $5. So I did that too and I'm going to compare the two packages by inputting our summer "school" data into each of them. So far I like the idea of just entering book data in one time (what a concept!) and being able to automatically repeat lessons or activities as I like for assignment sheets. Hey--I could even send the grandparents progress reports more often than once a year by simply pressing a button!

Introducing the Cub

2006-06-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

Although from my previous posts it might not seem like I have another child, I really do. Cub is 4 1/2 and is in many ways the opposite of Digger. The traits of Digger's that exhausted me are absent in Cub, though Cub has his own exhausting issues. For example, he asks approximately fifty million questions every day. Here is a typical interaction:

"Mommy, what does 'related' mean?"

After a fumbled answer on my part immediately: "Mommy, what does 'bomb squad' mean?"

Well, this was a little easier but directly after my answer, "Mommy, what is a horn?"

Now, I know he knows that one!

Cub started reading about a month before he turned three. This is another way he is different from Digger, who has just about every sign of dyslexia. Over the past eighteen months, he has progressed to reading easily on a kindergarten/1st grade level but can read on a mid 2nd grade level. What stops him with the higher level books is not reading the individual words, but rather the psychological aspect of so many words on a page. I am continually astounded that Cub does just fine with books that are not phonetically controlled; when Digger was in the same stage, words that weren't phonetically regular threw him for a loop. Once Cub gets over his issues with too many words on a page, I think his reading will take off and he will really enjoy himself.

Cub also asks for math lessons. I'm sure this is a combination of wanting to be like Digger and a way of getting mom's undivided attention. But he also seems to enjoy working with math manipulatives as well as learning the language of math. He even seems to like doing addition flashcards, as long as there aren't too many at once. I would say he isn't quite as advanced in his math as he is in his reading. We are very informally and very slowly working in Singapore 1A (he likes doing the workbook and actually writes in it himself) and Math-U-See Alpha (with the manipulatives only). Last year we did most of what I considered important in Saxon K, but it was really easy for him even then.

I will post more about homeschooling Cub as I do more with him. Though he will not be officially in kindergarten until Fall 2007, in my mind I'm thinking of this next school year as his kindergarten year and will probably teach him accordingly.

Annual Report

2006-06-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

It's that time again. Just when I think things are winding down school-wise, I need to write an annual report about what we did and how it went in our homeschool. Well, I don't really have to do this. The state doesn't require it. Actually, the first year we were homeschooling the state did require it because we weren't officially homeschooling. Digger was enrolled in public school but we were doing an alternative education thing at home and the school required something at the end of the year for the file. I don't think they were expecting a 15 page novel listing every last book Digger (a very beginning reader at the time who read lots of very short books) read and every last book I read to him! Last year, we were truly homeschooling, so the report wasn't required, but I did it anyway. I found that I referred last year's report a lot this year for book titles and test scores. I also sent copies to the grandparents so that they knew what the heck I was doing to their grandson. So I am writing another one and it is a big pain and I wonder why I kept such cryptic records all year. And I will vow that I am going to write parts of the report as I go along next year and of course I won't...

Today I typed up the titles of all the books we read for history this year. Now I get why I was always feeling pressed for time with the history reading and why we did only a few hands-on projects. We read almost 70 books, 20 of which were novel length! Yikes! I'm getting tired just thinking about it. And what's scary is that I plan to do the same thing next year. Some people never learn!

Musings on Standardized Tests

2006-06-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

I had Digger take the PASS test a few weeks ago. This is a standardized test designed for homeschoolers created from test materials used in the Portland public schools twenty or thirty years ago. The test does have items on it that seem a bit outdated, such as a reference to the USSR. I'm not sure if the norms are also outdated. According to the test, Digger gained two grade levels across the board in Reading, Math, and Language from last year at this time.

Since we started homeschooling, Digger's math achievement has been outstanding. He finished arithmetic this year and will be starting prealgebra in September. This, of course, places him in the 99th percentile for math in 4th grade. But what I find interesting is that one would expect this to be average achievement for an end-of-year 6th or 7th grader (at the latest). Actually, it is average achievement for an end-of-year 9th grader. (Really!)

One thing I like about the PASS test is that it allows me to give Digger out of level tests by subject. Every other standardized test that I know of requires the student to take all of the subtests at the same level. So Digger took the 4th grade Language test, the 6th grade Reading test, and the 8th grade Math test. This means that the scores measure (as much as a test like this can) actual achievement at the level of the test administered. So the grade level equivalents are more "real" than if he were to take a 4th grade test and get a grade level equivalent of 9.9, which just means that that is how a 9th grader would perform on the 4th grade test.

So we are moving solidly in the right direction in reading and writing mechanics. I knew this but it is nice to have outside confirmation. And Digger's math score makes me feel more relaxed about starting Jacobs' Algebra in the Fall.

Finished Sequential Spelling 1 Today--Yippee!

2006-06-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

We finished the first Sequential Spelling book today. I honestly didn't think we were going to make it there for a while. Digger had multiple meltdowns during spelling lessons this year. This program was created for dyslexics and teaches spelling patterns rather than specific word lists. The words change each day. The student tries to spell the word and if he gets it wrong he corrects it on the spot. Then on to the next word. That's it. There's about 25 words each day and on a good day we would get through them in about 5 minutes. On a bad day it was more like 35 minutes with much angst and sobbing. Around February I was ready to give up. But then a minor miracle occurred. I mentioned the spelling problem to an occupational therapist and she suggested having Digger spell the words aloud before writing them. After all spelling is a sequential act and Digger is by nature rather nonsequential. So we tried it. Things were immediately better. He was retaining the spelling patterns from word to word and from day to day. The better spelling carried over into his writing (somewhat, we're not out of the woods on that one yet!). I also changed the way I was correcting him. The Sequential Spelling protocol has the teacher write the word on a white board and the student is supposed to find his error and correct it. This would completely undo Digger. So instead I would listen to him spell the word and correct him verbally ("That's right except you need an 'a' instead of an 'o'"). He accepted this much more rationally. And because of this we could go on to the next word right away AND he was able to retain the spelling pattern from the previous word. It's amazing what a slightly different approach can do.

Looking Forward to 5th Grade

2006-06-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some curriculum choices that I am looking forward to implementing next Fall.

Elementary Algebra by Harold Jacobs--Digger and I will be launching into Algebra with some trepidation on my part. By every measure (except his age) he is ready for it. In preparation I have been working the problem sets myself and this has been an eye-opening experience. I plan to get through only the first half of the book, which is probably equivalent to a standard Prealgebra course plus a bit. I am still working on how I will accommodate Digger's copying and writing issues with this resource. I am leaning towards copying the problem sets myself the night before onto graph paper and leaving spaces for the answers.

Institute for Excellence in Writing--I have been slowly making my way through the DVDs for Teaching Writing: Structure and Style and so far I am extremely impressed. Most writing programs seem so contrived and this one decidedly does not! Already in the last few weeks Digger has been doing keyword outlines and even writing pieces from the outlines. This seems to be an extremely powerful technique and I am excited to try it fully next year.

Grammar and Writing by Curtis, Hake, and O'Rourke--This is the grammar text that uses the Saxon incremental method. The books even look like Saxon books! Yes, I know we dumped Saxon and its incremental approach to math last year but I think this will be just the thing for Digger in the Language Arts department, incremental learning and repeat repeat repeat!

Science Explorer by Prentice Hall--I am a little nervous going to a textbook for science but the kits have been a total failure. This series is targeted to middle schoolers, but I figure Digger will be ok with it. I can't stand the busyness of the books and the over-obvious alignment with standards but I think I can overlook it. The information seems to be presented well and the activities look simple yet informative. We shall see. For some reason, I would rather beat my head against a wall than teach science. And I have a degree in Biochemistry! Go figure...

4th Grade Curriculum Winners and Losers

2006-06-10T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well, Digger and I are finishing fourth grade in the next few weeks. Here are some of the things that worked for us this year:

Math-U-See--I can't stand the name, but it was very easy to customize. Digger needs lots of review and to go quickly all at once. I was able to accommodate this with MUS. We abruptly abandoned Saxon 7/6 at Lesson 60 in November and started MUS Beta. We finished Zeta several weeks ago.

Singapore--Still a big fan of Singapore's word problems.

Sequential Spelling--I have heard that once kids reach Lesson 60 or so in this program their improved spelling transfers to their written work. Well, it took until lesson 120 with Digger, BUT IT HAPPENED! I am so pleased. His spelling is far from perfect, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Handwriting Without Tears--We started with HWT last year using the Printing Power book because Digger's printing was awful. Not only did it look terrible but he was forming his letters any old way and it was taking forever. Within weeks of starting this book and using the special paper his printing was beautiful. We moved on to the cursive book this fall and now he is doing the final copies of his "essays" in cursive!

REWARDS by Sopris West--This program is for kids who have trouble reading multisyllable words. It is very powerful. We used the Secondary program, which is for kids who read on at least a fourth grade level. Digger's reading comprehension improved by something like five grade levels. And he is able to read aloud passages written on a 7/8 grade level fluently with excellent comprehension.

History--
David Macaulay's books--Castle, Cathedral, Mosque, Ship
Around the World in a Hundred Years by Jean Fritz
The World of Captain John Smith by Genevieve Foster
A History of US: The First Americans by Joy Hakim

Historical Fiction--
The Young Merlin Trilogy by Jane Yolen
Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
A Company of Fools by Deborah Ellis
Girl in a Cage by Jane Yolen
Secrets in the House of Delgado by Gloria D. Miklowitz

Shalom Uvrachah--This is a Hebrew primer from Behrman House that comes with an interactive CD-ROM and word and letter flash cards. Perfect for homeschooling Hebrew.

And here are some things that were disappointing:

Science in a Nutshell--We did the Simple Machines Cluster. It got very tedious very quickly but we plugged away and finished anyway. We probably won't use these again.

Saxon 7/6--This is not meant to bash Saxon because we used Saxon from Math 2 to half way through 7/6 and I believe it is a rigorous program. Digger just finally freaked out about it, the repetition, the frenetic changes of subject. So we dumped it and went with Math-U-See.