2012-2013 - Final Adjustments - I THINK

If you have read more than just one or two of my posts, I am sure that you have realized that we never seem to make it more than a few weeks without changing something up and this of course is no different. Our summer session begins in just under two weeks and I think this is going to be the last change for the summer.

KM has decided to change her volunteer days around a bit and wants to make sure that she stays on top of her History, so has asked that I schedule it in each day for her to know she has to work on the assignments by the end of the week. Scheduling really is one of her weakest areas and a serious point of animosity between us. She is also adding in LiveMocha to her Japanese studies, which I think will help her a lot with her proficiency. You can see the entire outline by clicking HERE!

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Frog Update - Not too much...

Charlie in his terrarium.

 ...has changed over the last few weeks. Charlie is doing great in his new habitat and seems to really like the pinhead crickets from our local pet store, but is not so crazy about the meal worms. Bertie seems to be on the cusp of metamorphism and should have his front legs at anytime now. Number 3 is doing well, he is substantially smaller than Bertie which is difficult to tell because of the angle of the shot below. 3 does have rear legs coming in, so it appears he is just morphing at an even slower rate. Number 4 is still tiny and although he has stopped floating upside down - possibly caused from a bacterial infection - he doesn't seem to be growing very much.   
Once Bertie has his front legs and perches on the piece of wood we will be turning the 10 gallon tank into a terrarium for the two frogs and will move 3 & 4 into the two smaller tanks. The one drawback to the kit that we got was that didn't realize at the time that we would need to upgrade the facilities to be able to keep the frog's long term. If I had known that at the time, I may have just gotten the eggs and food and not the whole kit, as the tank is not even big enough to keep one frog for more than a month or two.

Number 3 above & Bertie below

Number 4

You Tube Monday - The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1

Love, love, LOVE this series!!!!

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	It's Not the Degree, It's What You Know Andrew Pudewa Director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing
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You Tube Monday - GCK 11-12 Recap

Our version of a yearbook!!! 

Just see how FAR we have declined!!!

I was awed by this and thought I would pass it along. 

Could You Have Passed the 8th Grade in 1895?

This is the 8th grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, Kansas. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, Kansas, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

Imagine a college student who went to public school trying to pass this test today, even if the few outdated questions were modernized. This gives the saying of an early 20th century person that "She/He only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning!

PLEASE NOTE: There is a lot of controversy over this test - in particular whether it was administered as a test for eight graders. We have used the evidence presented at the Smoky Valley Genealogy Society's website. Their notice is presented below.
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/saline/society/exam.html --- 

EXAMINATION GRADUATION QUESTIONS
OF SALINE COUNTY, KANSAS
April 13, 1895
J.W. Armstrong, County Superintendent.

GRAMMAR (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza, and Paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of do, lie, lay, and run.
5. Define Case. Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

ARITHMETIC (Time, one hour)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 feet deep, 10 feet long, and 3 feet wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 pounds, what is it worth at 50 cts. per bu., deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000.
What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at 20 cents per sq. foot?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. HISTORY (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates:

1607
1620
1800
1849
1865

ORTHOGRAPHY (Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e'. Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, super.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Ball, mercy, sir, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences,

cite, site, sight
fane,fain, feign
vane, vain, vein
raze, raise, rays

10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

GEOGRAPHY (Time, one hour)

1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall, and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.

Answers

50 Ways homeschoolers can get physical education -

Physical Education is one of those areas that is soooooo important yet often left on the back burner. This article can give you some great ideas to get you and your kids moving -

50 Ways homeschoolers can get physical education - Mankato Homeschooling | Examiner.com:


Our big PE things are bowling, tennis, yoga and Wii games - Exerbeat and Just Dance are the ones in the high rotation these days. What do you do for PE?

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You Tube Monday - Why Math Instruction Is Unnecessary

Frog Update - Moving to the Terrarium

Charlie was found upon the piece of wood this morning.

 So KM went out and gathered some greens and dirt from the yard to create a terrarium for our little friend.

We used the smaller tank for now and once the next froggy finishes morphing we will have to swap things around again, but for now we hope Charlie will be happy.

GED Prep Resources

As I have mentioned before, KM and DN are both planning to take the GED for differing reasons, so I wanted to share the resources we will be utilizing over the next few years in order to prepare for the test.

• GED For Free - a large amount of free resources and information available online for free
• FREE GED Practice Tests - Great to find what areas should be focused on! 
• Complete GED Preparation
• GED Mathematics (Steck-Vaughn Ged Series) 
• Steck-Vaughn Ged: Language Arts, Writing (Steck-Vaughn Ged Series) 
• Ged Essay (Steck-Vaughn Ged Series) 
• GED: Language Arts, Reading (Steck-Vaughn Ged Series)
• Ged Science (Steck-Vaughn Ged Series) 
• Social Studies: Ged (Steck-Vaughn Ged Series)

I really like the format of the Steck-Vaughn series and appreciate that they have additional booklets of exercises in each area. I feel this is the most thorough GED prep out there.

Froglet Update

I awoke this morning to discover two things - one sad, one happy. Little Ozzy did not make it, this morning he was found on the bottom of the tank, barely moving and I felt it was time to end his suffering. He will be missed. Charlie, on the other hand has sprouted his front legs, so we have added the floating piece of wood to the tank. I think he will need to be moved to another tank soon. The second largest - still unnamed at this point - definitely has his hind legs sprouting and the twins are holding stable.

The second largest - still unnamed at this point - definitely has his hind legs sprouting and the twins are holding stable. This continues to be one of the most educational and interesting projects yet. I must do in all home ed households!

Transitioning a Family from School to Home Education – Tips from the Rearview Mirror

Transitioning a Family from School to Home Education – Tips from the Rearview Mirror
I wrote this article last year, but as it is getting to the end of the "school year" I thought I would repost it for those families who are new to my blog and making this transition over the summer months.

Transitioning a Family from School to Home Education – Tips from the Rearview Mirror

When I made the decision to remove my daughter from public school, I delved into research mode. Learning all that I could about curricula, educational philosphies, "socialization", standard courses of studies, how to get into college without a diploma and anything else that came to mind.  While there are many articles out there that go over the “hows” of taking a child out of school and where to begin home educating, I had a very hard time finding any that went much beyond the standard “be sure to allow the child to deschool.” and many were written by people who have never actually gone through the process themselves.  I am not an expert, but hindsight is priceless.  It is my hope that you will find these inside tips helpful to you, as you begin your Home Ed journey.

Decompressing vs. Deschooling

While deschooling of the child is very important, deschooling the parents should really be the first step in the process.  When you are raised to believe that only accredited teachers can help someone learn, you have to build yourself up and realize that no one is more qualified than you are to teach your child.  Parent's need to break away from the thoughts of what “school” looks like and begin to realize that “education” and “schooling” are not one in the same and often, detrimental to the other.  Most sources will advise that one month of deschooling is needed for each year a child has been in a school system, however for the parents I would, at the very least, double that amount of time.

I like to think of this process more as a decompressing of the learner within – the learner that generally gets squashed away in order to conform and fit in within classroom settings.  Both the parent and child need to be allowed freedom to discover what being educated means to them.  What is truly important for your child to know? This is a question that only the parents and the child can answer.  Often the answer is very different from one family to another and even from one child to the next within the same family. Children who have been schooled need the chance to remember that learning is fun and begin to enjoy learning again. When you take away rote memorization drills and allow a child to explore what they find interesting, or what is needed to solve a real problem, they rediscover the curiosity and enthusiasm that is frequently surpressed by a system that needs everyone to remember the same information in order to pass the test.

A common misconception that the word deschooling brings to mind is that the child is allowed to just “do nothing” which can make a lot of parents uncomfortable.  It is better to think of this time as allowing the family to discover how they learn, what their interests are and what they want their lives to be like.   The child should be allowed freedom to discover what interests them and how they best absorb information. Parents can encourage this discovery by providing a multitude of resources, from traditional workbooks, to living books, to field trips, to television series, to co-op classes and anything else that might pique their interest in a subject.  Learning styles can vary greatly and often a child will enjoy math through hands on manipulation of blocks, but enjoy reading a great historical fiction series to learn about the revolutionary war. This time will allow you and your learner a chance to see what fits for them.

It should also be a time when the child's circadian rhythms are allowed to return to a natural state.  Often a child who is used to being told what to do with every second of their day, has no idea when they are hungry, thirsty, tired or even need to go to the bathroom. They have become trained to sleep when told, eat when told, and hold “IT” for extended amounts of time when necessary.  This causes circadian rhythms to become nearly dormant in a child's body.  When given the chance, these natural feelings will return and a child will have control of their bodies again, often leading to children who had discipline and attention issues to become far more content and attentive.  This is a factor that is very often overlooked by behaviorists within a school environment, but has been noted time and time again from parents who have removed their children from the system.

Swiss Cheese Knowledge Base

The most frequent question I see on home education forums from parents who are thinking of taking this step is some variation of “What curriculum should I use?” For the person asking this seems like such a simple question and they believe it should be fairly easy to get an answer to. Surely, my 4^th grader in Wyoming should be learning the exact same information as the 4^th grader in Dakota. This could not be further from the truth.  Not only do different states teach different things at different ages, different counties and even different schools within the same town teach things differently.  No matter what standard base is being used, not all 4^th graders in any system are going to learn the same information.  For most home educators this is even more of a widespread question because they tend to realize the individual needs of each child and therefore can't tell you what curriculum to use without having any idea what type of child would be using it.  When you take a child out of a system where they are being taught from one set of principles or standards, it is not possible to pick up a catalog and order the 4^th grade school in a box set because you have no idea if that system is going to be aligned with the previous one.

Another thing that is often not discussed in regards to where to begin is the concept of a “Swiss cheese knowledge base.” Children who have been in schools have often been taught a lot of information in a very disconnected manner because the focus of so many schools is to teach to the test – CAT, FCAT, MCAS, SAT, ACT or whatever acronym your state has chosen to best “measure” output. This causes many children to have blocks of information scattered with all kinds of holes where the information is missing or has not been connected to anything to make it permanent in the child's memory. In order to truly learn something it must be digested and connected with a real world application or situation. This is why so many children learn from movies, activities and games – they are using multiple senses and therefore can more easily retain the information. I highly recommend approaching each topic as though the child has never encountered it before. This allows you to set the pace at which you move through things, skimming through content that seems to be coming easily to the child, focusing on areas of great interest for as long as the child wants, or slowing down and going deeper on something that needs more time to be fully understood.

What about socialization?

Inevitably the “S” word is always brought up during a transition from a school system to home learning. For families who have been traditionally educated it is hard to fathom how their children could possibly make friends or learn to be productive citizens when they spend every day at home with only their family to interact with. It may be hard for many parents to believe, but although they may not be as “socialized” as their public school counterparts, home educated children are generally more social and outgoing.  "Socialization" is manufactured, living and learning is natural.

A very important thing to keep in mind is also this, kids feed off of the fears of their parents so it is important for the parents to assure their children that they are not the only ones on the planet that have made the choice to learn at home.  Join online communities and local support groups to connect with other home educators in your area. You may need to put yourselves out there, even if it is outside of your comfort zone.  By getting involved with a wide variety of classes, hangouts, park days, co-ops, field trips etc. you widen your chances of finding families with common interests and outlooks. It can be difficult at times for kids to feel connected so try to not feel discouraged if after your first attempt you don't meet anyone that your child hits it off with. If you just keep trying you are likely to build friendships that are based more on common interests, than on what class you randomly got placed into.  Many families find that their children develop bonds with people in the community – local shop keepers, librarians, museum workers – because the kids have a true and honest interest in obtaining knowledge from experienced adults, rather than textbooks.

Just Live!

Once a family has their feet under them in this new world, they tend to come to the realization that learning and life go hand in hand. You will begin to see that kids absorb information when it is presented in a format that resonates within them. I have heard story upon story of parents being astounded at the accuracy of knowledge that flows from their child's mouths, often on topics the parents themselves know nothing about.

When given a chance to follow their own interests, children learn more quickly and deeply than is comprehendable by traditionally schooled parents. The greatest gift given to anyone is life and the chance to just live it!

JASON Live! -- Tracy Drain - FREE EVENT

JASON Live! -- Tracy Drain:

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2012 - 2013 Ed Plan revisited

In light of recent decisions and adjustments in regards to DN's direction over the next "school year" I have decided to repost a corrected outline for our ed plan which only lists KM's resources. I will also post what we decide to have DN use once that has been finalized, but for now here is what she will be doing -

Subject	Summer '12	Fall '12	Winter '13	Spring '13
ELA - Literature & Writing	Historical Fiction Steck-Vaughn G: Language Arts, Writing	Movies as Literature Steck-Vaughn G: Language Arts, Writing	Movies as Literature Steck-Vaughn G: Language Arts, Writing	Movies as Literature Steck-Vaughn G: Language Arts, Writing
Math	Hands on Banking for Teens	Applying Algebra (Applied Math Series)	Applying Algebra (Applied Math Series)	Applying Algebra (Applied Math Series)
Science		Chemistry (Science) Janice VanCleave's Chemistry for Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments that Really Work	Chemistry (Science) Janice VanCleave's Chemistry for Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments that Really Work	Chemistry (Science) Janice VanCleave's Chemistry for Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments that Really Work
Health & P.E.	Bowling ExerBeat	Bowling ExerBeat	Bowling ExerBeat	Bowling ExerBeat
Social Sciences – U.S. History & Geography	A History of US Books 5-9 Story of the US DVD U.S. History – Basic Not Boring	A History of US Books 5-9 Story of the US DVD U.S. History – Basic Not Boring People and Events: 1865-Present CNN Student News Election Study	A History of US Books 5-9 Story of the US DVD U.S. History – Basic Not Boring People and Events: 1865-Present CNN Student News	A History of US Books 5-9 Story of the US DVD U.S. History – Basic Not Boring People and Events: 1865-Present CNN Student News
Elective	Milady's Standard Cosmetology Theory Workbook Practical Workbook Japanese from Zero!	Milady's Standard Cosmetology Theory Workbook Practical Workbook Japanese from Zero!	Milady's Standard Cosmetology Theory Workbook Practical Workbook Japanese from Zero!	Milady's Standard Cosmetology Theory Workbook Practical Workbook Japanese from Zero!

This will be her summer schedule -

 and for the fall -