Unschooler WifeSwap: Response and Concerns

It needed to be said and she did it very well!!!
Unschooler WifeSwap: Response and Concerns

Movies as Literature - Not quite what I had hoped! - Official Review ~~~ Recycled Post

I have decided to recycle some of my reviews in order to help out those that are looking for resources and information for the upcoming "academic year".

Once again, I have found myself having to rework our literature program for the year. I had Movies as Literature and was already to use it this year, but after a long discussion with KM, we decided to pass on it. 

Here are the main reasons it just didn't feel like a good fit for us: 

• It is not secular, we could have easily gotten passed that, but it could be of concern to some. 
• It has a good deal of older films - which we both generally like, but KM was not really interested in this particular selection. 
• It does feel as if it would be better suited to a group dynamic - like a movie group along the lines of a book group. 
• The outline was a bit intensive - read the first page of lesson before you watch, watch the movie start to finish no stopping or talking, review the questions, watch the movie again to answer questions, discuss answers and review movie again to find supporting details - just seemed like a bit of an overkill to me.  

As I love the idea of this program and will definitely be putting something together myself along these lines, this one was just not what we needed. There are some great websites that have free and inexpensive educator guides for movies - http://moviesheets.com/; http://www.teachwithmovies.org/ http://www.filmeducation.org/resources/ and many more - I have found the best way to find them is "free movie teacher guides" or "free teacher guide" & name of whatever patricular movie you are looking for. 

Write Guide - Official Review ~~~ RECYCLED POST

I have decided to recycle some of my reviews in order to help out those that are looking for resources and information for the upcoming "academic year".
This review was originally posted on 9/18/10.

I was contacted at the beginning of the summer by Write Guide.com's founder to do a review of their site and was given a one month trial account for my daughter to try it out. As writing is the most stressful subject in our household and the program sounded intriguing, I thought we would give it a whirl ~ I also managed to get KM to agree to try it.
Here is some company info -

WriteGuide.com, also known as Ludwig Education Services, LLC, is a small, family-owned business that serves homeschool families and adult learners, providing them with their own private writing teachers. We also work with many independent-study charter schools in California and Alaska. Founded in 1998, we remain devoted to providing homeschoolers with daily, 100% individualized writing instruction. To learn more about our teaching approach and methodologies, please review our Homepage, and our company's philosophy and mission statement. All schools, businesses, and individuals are welcome to contact our main office via the information on our Contact Us page.

What to Expect During the Course

Every time a student or parent writes to his or her writing consultant, the writing consultant will always respond within 24 hours (unless it's a weekend or holiday), providing whatever lessons or feedback are necessary to help the student move forward with the project. Enough instruction will be provided to give the student about half an hour to 45 minutes of work per day, so that the student can then write back to his or her writing consultant to receive more instruction. Ideally, students should write to their writing consultants every day, Monday through Friday, so that they'll receive five sets of individualized lessons, feedback, and instruction per week. Students can take as much time as they need before responding to their writing consultant, but please be aware that the consultant won't write back until the student has responded to his or her last message! Upon hearing back from his writing consultant, a student should complete the assigned work, and should respond with a message and a draft of his paper. Parents can also send one message per day to their child's writing consultant, in addition to the message or paper that the student sends. We like to view our course as a partnership between two teachers (the parent and the writing consultant), and so frequent parent input is both anticipated and appreciated.

I started out by describing KM and the issues that she has had with various writing programs as well as the situations that had occurred in PS. Then they assign a teacher based on this information. When we first were contacted by the teacher I was unaware that they hadn't passed the information on, but expected me to reiterate it. This made no sense to me because I had put a lot of time and thought into the description of my daughter because I thought the teacher would be seeing it and using it to set up a plan of action for her. Instead once the teacher was chosen she contacts both the child and parent through the mywriteguide portal not knowing anything about the child(ren).

There are a lot of really great options available - see four approaches, about midway down the page - and I choose for the teacher to decide what she thought would be a good place for KM to start, given her reluctance to write and it was decided that she should work on a simple report. The teacher did a great job of getting KM to pick a topic, ready to research and explained how to collect bibliography information thoroughly. She then gave her an extremely well thought out outline to use to organize her information. KM decided to research Neptune and then, after researching and with the help of the teacher, decided to focus specifically on the Voyager 2's missions and info collected on Neptune.

We lost a day of the program because KM and I were unaware that she had to respond to the teacher after her first initial "Hi there" email in order for the teacher to email her back. While I understand the want and need to ensure the anonymity and security of our children on the Internet, as well as keeping a record for the program and teachers' safety, but this portal thing is a bit of overkill in my opinion. The teachers "can't" send a message to the student unless the student replies to the previous message. I really think it would be beneficial if the system emailed you when you had new messages, there were 3 days that she had to keep checking back in throughout the day in order to see if she had gotten a message yet and didn't get responses until very late in the day.

The parents have to log into there own portal in order to see what is going on as well, which while easy enough to do, is just another thing to check on. The other drawback to this is that they can only respond back and forth once in a 24 hour period. KM is very much a seize the moment type of learner and when she has a question she wants the answer fairly quickly. This lapse in time caused a lot of momentum to be lost. I felt like I had to hold back from stepping in in order to see what was going to happen and I have to say it was agonizing for me as she was putting a lot of effort in, but then had to wait for so long to get the responses or feedback that she needed to move on to the next step.

Things get hectic in the summer and in case you haven't been to my blog lately, they were totally kooky here for a bit. So there was a Monday to Thursday stretch that KM didn't log into her account and I was surprised when I logged into mine that the teacher hadn't sent me a note asking anything about whether she was okay or if she was having trouble and afraid to ask or anything. The program runs on a month to month payment basis and if your child is missing a good junk of days, I would kinda expect some sort of acknowledgement to the lack of participation.

KM worked very hard on this report and she really seemed to be understanding what the teacher was saying. I helped her stay on task as I was hopeful that she would complete the entire paper before the month was up. Even with some of the previous hurdles, she did manage to keep progressing. On the day that the program was to expire, the teacher sent a message asking her to send her final draft and any last questions in her final email. KM was excited to have it completed, get final feedback and wanted to know how to complete the bibliography, however the program email interface did not allow us to do so. If I had know that this was how the program worked I would have had her email the full draft the day before with her question about the bibliography, instead of just the tweaks she had made to her conclusion paragraph. I emailed the office in regards to this and they gave a very timely response of "Thanks for writing! Your course was scheduled to end today, but we're going to extend it by a day so that Mrs. xxx can review the final draft. " which I was happy with. I do not however know if this is something that would have been done for everyone or just something that was done for me because they knew I was reviewing the site ~ I try to not be cynical, but the person that responded was the person that initially contacted me to do the review.

The teacher was very encouraging and really gave some great feedback, formats and suggestions in a very positive way. I think that in theory this program is a good idea and although it was a great learning experience for KM, she picked up some good tips, and the final paper that she produced was far better than she or I expected, it just isn't for us. I am super picky about where I spend my money and with my homeschooling dollars even more so. It might be a good fit for more advanced and/or independent writers, but from the stand point of the parent of a reluctant writer it just doesn't seem to be what we need. It must have some sort of staying power that I am missing as they have been around since 1998. I think that the biggest issue is that I feel if I am going to be paying $75 a month for a writing tutor I don't want to have to teach writing at all. With this method and the lack of instant information, guidance and direction I think I would have to step in far more than I would be willing to.

Thanks to Write Guide for allowing us the opportunity to review your product!

Liebster Award

Thanks so much to Krysten and the ladies over at Out The Box Homeschoolers for thinking of me for this Liebster Award!  -  (Liebster= sweetheart, beloved, darling). 

The rules for the award:

1. The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

2. Each blogger should post 11 random facts about themselves.

3. Each blogger should answer the 11 questions given to you.

4. Choose 11 new bloggers to pass the award on to and link them in your post.

5. Create 11 new questions for the chosen bloggers.

6. Go back to their page and tell them about the award.

7. No tag backs.

11 Random Facts - most of these are pretty commonly known and can be found on my blog, but when you it simply says "random" so here goes ---

1. I ALWAYS knew KM should be home educated.
2. I am a director of MHLA.
3. I detest the texture of rice pudding.
4. I was only 18 when I had KM.
5. I have no idea what color KM's hair will be on any given day.
6. I did NOT graduate from high school.
7. I contribute to a number of blogs and have been published on many sites.
8. I can definetly never spell defintely correctly.
9. I eat a fried egg on toast nearly EVERY morning for breakfast.
10. If I don't have an egg for breakfast I am sure to have one at some point later in the day.
11. My camera is my FAVORITE gift EVER!

Questions for me to answer from Outside of The Box Homeschoolers

1. What is your favorite table top game or video game?

I would to say Just Dance for the Wii. We have all 4 of them and it is a super cardio workout! 

2. What is your favorite quote?

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. - Albert Einstein

3. Dogs or cats?
Currently I would be forced to report that we are a cat only household, but this is the first time EVER and hope that won't be the case for much longer because although are cats are great we really are dog people.

4. Who is your favorite artist or art style?
This is another tricky one - I love Monet's painting style, but I think my favorite artist and art style would have to be Matisse's paper cut methods.

5. What is your favorite family outing or memory?
Our first trip to Disney World.

6. What is your favorite Olympic sport, and why?
I was a gymnast for quite a long time and this is honestly the only sport that I ever watch so....

7. Are you a “planner” or are you more “spontaneous?”
I am DEFINITELY a PLANNER!!! Did I emphasize that enough! 

8. If you had just one wish, what would it be?
That my daughter will grow up to be exactly the person she wishes to be! 

9. What is at the top of your “bucket list”?
I don't have a bucket list as I try to live my life to the fullest every day because you never know which will be your last - also it would be very difficult for me to make a list and NOT complete it in an efficient manner! Did you see how much of a planner I am...I am even more of a completer.

10. Name something you have always wanted to learn?
Italian

11. What is your favorite “guilty pleasure”?

Grey's Anatomy and a bowl of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream - can't have one without the other! 

My nominations are ---- 

1. Homeschool Atheist Momma
2. The Hmmm...schooling Mom
3. What Happy Is
4. Outside the Box
5. Adventures of a Homeschooling Mom
6. Learning Adventures
7. You're Not Lost, You're Here
8. Living and Learning At Home
9. Only Passionate Curiosity
10. Living Life at Home
11. Our Educational Journey

My questions are ----

1. What is your favorite season?
2. Who is your favorite author?
3. Which method of home education do you identify MOST with?
4. If you could only eat one thing for an entire week what would it be?
5. What is your favorite musical genre?
6. What is the last movie you watched?
7. Are you a scheduled poster or do you schedule your posts?
8. Have you ever won something in a blog giveaway - if so what was it?
9. What would your ideal vacation be?
10. Have you ever ridden a motorcyle?
11. Do you think milk chocolate should be considered a dairy product

Thanks again to Outside the Box Homeschoolers for bestowing this super fun award upon my blog! 

April is Poetry Month - Here are some FREE Resources from Poetry.org

Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets throughout the United States band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

Below is a great list of resources from poets.org and THIS is a direct link to their educator's page where you will find a wealth of ideas, lessons, units and so much more! 

What is National Poetry Month?: Frequently asked questions about NPM. 30 Ways to Celebrate: A month's worth of poetry activities that any community can take part in.
	THIS YEAR'S PROGRAMS
	Dear Poet Project: The Academy of American Poets invites students to engage with poetry by handwriting letters to poets serving on our Board of Chancellors. Poetry & the Creative Mind: Each April, the Academy of American Poets presents a star-studded celebration of American poetry. Poem in Your Pocket Day: Thousands of individuals across the U.S. will carry a poem in their pockets on April 18, 2013. Poem-A-Day: Great poems from new books emailed each day of National Poetry Month. Sign up for your daily dose of new poems from new spring poetry titles.

The History of April Fools Day

Some Points of Contention--- Response to a recent article on Children's MD

I am writing this in response to an article written by Kathleen Berchelmann titled 18 Reasons Why Doctors and Lawyers Homeschool Their Children. Now you might think, "How could she possibly have a problem with a list that is promoting homeschooling?", but the thing is as I was reading this list many of the responses simply rubbed me the wrong way. I have to hope that the point was to try to connect with the "mainstream", but I really just couldn't let it go. I felt a need to address each of the 18 points. I am gong to try to not dwell on the fact that she is using the word "homeschooling" because she does seem to be speaking of "schooling at home", which I don't advocate for, but will try to just move past that to get to the gist of her points. Each of the points is listed below in bold face and my responses follow. It really would be most helpful to read the original post first to really get what I am saying.

1. We spend less time homeschooling each day than we used to spend driving.  ~~~ This can be true, but can also NOT be! When KM was in school we walked to school most days as the elementary school is less than half a mile from our house and her friends were right around the corner. Now KM has friends all over, some live well over 45 minutes away. We also are out to go to classes, library activities, hangouts, bowling, ice skating, chess club --- and the list goes on and on. I have put FAR more annual mileage on my vehicle since we have been home educating than I did when she was in PS. I only have one child at home and therefore can only assume that this would be multiplied by however many additional children a family has. 

2. We can't afford private education. --- I agree with this, but also feel that in most cases private education is not any better than public. 

3. Our kids are excelling academically as homeschoolers. --- I also agree with this one. No need to pull it apart, simple and clear. 

4. Homeschooling is not hard, and it's fun! --- OK this is one of the top 3 that really irked me a bit. It was very matter of fact with little substance. So many families feel like they have to live up to this "Perfect Homeschool Image" where everything is sunshine and roses. That is not the reality in the home ed families I see, speak with, tweet with, and read about daily - home learning can be hard, it can be REALLY HARD!!! There are going to be days when you want to throw in the towel or you think "wouldn't it just be easier to send them off on the bus!" and you would be right. But easier doesn't mean that it is better or right. The "boxed curriculum" fallacy is another point of contention - it is not going to work 100% of the time for any child and often is a huge cause of the frustrations for families. They are also super expensive and not at all worth it when you get nearly all resources you could possibly need online, for FREE! Home learning is FUN! School at home --- not so much. 

5. Use whatever public school services you like. ~~~ This is not true in quite a number of states. Some do allow home educators to pick and choose, most do not and some staunchly deny home ed families access. Not only that but it contradicts a few of her other points - like #11, #12, #16 & #18

6. I like parenting more, by far. ~~~ This is one of those that makes me think she is trying to reach the "mainstream mommies" and convince them that they could do it. You know the ones that ask you "HOW can you spend ALL day with your kids?" I do understand her point, I felt more like a warden than a mother when KM was in PS, constantly trying to meet their requirements and conform to their schedule. But the tone is just a bit....not quite as bad as #8 though.

7. Our family spends our best hours of each day together. ~~~ And the worst and everything in between. I again see her point, but this is another one that makes you think all the hours are going to be rosy, the kids are going to get along and every day will be blissful! Don't even get me started on the fact that she said "At recess time, the kids are actually excited about playing with each other!"

8. We yell at our kids less. ~~~ All I can say is did she seriously ADMIT that she spanked her kids???? Did I just get transported into the twilight zone....
 Apparently I need to clarify this better although I thought I was pretty clear in that I am shocked that someone would actually spank their children in hopes of coercing them to do something or the fact that I am even more shocked that a doctor would openly admit to spanking their children? Spanking should NEVER be an option and it is shocking to me that someone who is intelligent enough to become a pediatrician would actually think that that would be a means to a positive end.
Is that clearer?

9. Our kids have time for creative play and unique interests. ~~~ No issues with this one at all. It is extremely important and I am very glad that she is allowing them time to follow their interests, once they have completed her assigned tasks for the day.

10. We are able to work on the kids' behavior and work ethic throughout the day. ~~~ I agree with her main point here, but not her explanation. "we’ve been able to push him to his full potential" - really because the parent has the all powerful insight to know what the full potential of their child well before they have reached adulthood. At 34 I don't even know what my "full potential" could be. 

11. Get rid of bad habits, fast. ~~~ Ok I see this in a similar light to the previous one, I  agree with the main statement, but not her tactics in implementing. Didn't she say in a previous post that "loving authority" and "loving obedience" needed to be established and she seemed to want to emphasize free play, but I guess that can't work if you aren't "dressed properly." 

12. Be the master of your own schedule. ~~~ Couldn't agree more with statement, as long as you are also taking into consideration your family as a whole when you are mastering your schedule. 

13. Younger children learn from older siblings. ~~~ This is a tremendous benefit of home learning and I have no complaints here. 

14. Save money. ~~~ I don't really know where to start on this one.  You can save money if you are currently sending your kids to private school, but you could be spending more money if you send your kids to PS. This could really go either way especially for those of us who live in states where you can't pick and choose what you want your kids to participate in at the local PS - note #5.  I know many families who are home educating on incomes of less than $40K. It can be done at any income level, but you may not be saving.

15. Teach your kids practical life skills. ~~~ This is necessary in all kids and seriously lacking in many families.  So many parents are doing a disservice to their kids by coddling and pampering them. If your kid is 12 years old and doesn't know how to use the washing machine I consider that neglect. If your 16 year old thinks that toilet fairies clean the bathroom I consider that neglect. If your 18 year old is getting sent off to college without knowing how to eat nutritiously I consider that neglect.  You are a negligent parent if you are not teaching your children how to be responsible for meeting their own basic needs.  

16. Better socialization, less unhealthy peer pressure and bullying. ~~~ This one she has hit right on the mark with the one exception that although they can be far and few between there are bullies in the home ed world - there are bullies in every world, that is just part of reality. It does feel as though it can be easier to deal with the home ed community as it is usually addressed immediately and the higher level of parental involvement can help to make it a less scaring scenario.  

17. Sleep! ~~~ I have written several posts on this one, check the archives if you like! 

18. Teach kids your own values. ~~~ This is a good point and works into the freedom and managing your own schedule ideas. I was a bit surprised that she had no issue with the "values taught in either our public or private schools" but to each their own. 

All in all I think this article was a fairly decent way to connect with "mainstream parents". I don't however think that it was an excellent representation of the vast and widespread demographic that encompasses the home ed world as a whole, but really how could it. The amount of attention that it is getting is good, but the propagation of stereotypes is a bit disheartening. I think the tone and title of the article was more than a bit condescending - as if we needed approval from the white collar world to validate home education.

I would love to hear what others think so please leave comment and let me know which one you 

Why didn't anyone tell me there were more Crash Courses????

I haven't had much time to poke around You Tube lately, so I missed the fact that Crash Course added MORE COURSES!!! YIPPEEEE!!!

They now have U.S. History, Chemistry, World History, Biology, Literature, and Ecology. So whether you are looking for a full course or a supplement to what you are using, be sure to check out Crash Course!!

An Incredible New Experiment - The Puzzle School - Official UM Review

Despite the fact that I try to stay as far away from anything with the word "school" in it, here is a site you NEED to check out!!! 

Our Mission:The Puzzle School was started with the mission of creating educational environments that will inspire a greater love of learning. We strongly believe that learning is something people truly love to do when it is presented in a way that gives the learner a sense of progress toward their learning goals.
We focus on puzzles as they provide one of the most effective ways of creating a learning environment that is interactive, giving students an immediate sense of progress as they try to "figure out" the material they are learning.
The methods we use at The Puzzle School mimic the learning environments that children thrive in while learning how to walk and talk. This model can best be summed up as hypothesis and error driven learning, where students develop a hypothesis toward solving a problem and are able to test that hypothesis using feedback loops, learning from a success or failure as they move closer to a solution.
This model has been used successfully in thousands of schools around the world, most notably Montessori Schools. We simply want to highlight this method and make it so that all students have access to environments where they can learn in this way. We believe this will encourage a love of learning in all students.

This site has so many great resources to help introduce or reinforce a number of concepts. One of my favorites was the XYFlyer which requires no previous math experience. A beginner can start out playing and, with the help of immediate feedback loops, gain some basic understanding and familiarity with equations and graphing. Now I might be partial to this because of my love of graphing, but I really think even those who don't like it or don't get it would be able to have a clearer understanding of the properties behind graphing equations. 

Code is something that I know VERY little about - which is why I use blogger...- but I am starting to understand a little now that I have started using Peanutty. This is an experiment in teaching people how to code. People can solve physics-based puzzles sort of like Angry Birds, while watching their actions create code. Once people realize that their actions are creating code they can start to tweak the code and see what happens. Small tweaks lead to larger and larger tweaks until they are capable of designing their own Peanutty levels. Now I am no where near ready to design my own level, but I am having a whole lot of fun learning more about it! 



KM saw me playing on the site and asked me to send it to her. She tried out Light It Up, Language Scramble and Code Puzzles. She would have really preferred that Language Scramble was in Japanese - HELLO have you seen that she is OBSESSED with all things Japanese - but seemed to really pick up on the words far quicker than either of us thought she would. She thought that Light It Up was fun, but that it could have been a bit more challenging - I did explain to her that these are still in the testing phase and did not have complete levels -, but she also said that if she didn't understand the concepts it probably would have helped her "get it." She knows NOTHING about coding, but seemed to really cruise right through the Basic HTML and jumped into the Basic Javascript with a maniacal giggle --- "maybe I should be a computer hacker!" After 45 minutes on the site she was done and said "I liked it!" - which is pretty high praise from a 15 year old! 
I applaud the efforts of Jared Cosulich to create an environment that engages and excites learners. He has recognized that mainstream education tactics are overrated and outdated! I will be keeping abreast of new developments and look forward to seeing what else he comes up with!
When you head over to the site don't miss out on the great list of other resources that they have reviewed HERE!

They don't need socialization! They need FRIENDSHIP!

I wanted to recycle this post that originally appeared on Unplugged Mom after a number of posts I had seen on local lists. It is a good one and should be shared!!! 

As my daughter has gotten older, I have seen more and more of her acquaintances heading off to the halls of high schools and have sat bewildered by the number of veteran home educators giving up at this late stage of the game. The number one reason for teenagers and kids to head back to school is the idealistic concept of socialization in schools. Even successful home schoolers, home educators, home learners, unschoolers, independent educators or whatever other name they are going by, seem to have this image of school being the only place that their kids can be around other kids on a regular basis in order to build relationships. I am here to declare this is not the case! These kids don't need socialization they need friendships. This is what they are longing for and this is not something they are guaranteed or even likely to find by sending them to any school environment.

In schools kids are herded together by age and required to study subjects based on a core curriculum. Even in high school the majority of the classes that kids take are mandatory and do not tend to be based on an interest for learning the subject matter. During class they sit in their seats and listen to the teacher, discussing the topics of aforementioned uninteresting subject, sometimes being allowed to carry on dialogue  but quite often not – they are just expected to regurgitate the information back to the teacher on the test. Between classes there is no time for them to interact with others as they generally need to get from one end of the building to another in less than 3 minutes. Lunch is about 20-25 minutes long and though they do get to choose where they sit and who they sit with it is a crap shoot as to whether their friends will be in the same lunch period, most cafeterias have volume sensors which regulate the levels of noise and often they don't even get to their table with enough time to eat nevermind hold an actual conversation. There are of course afterschool activities, sports and clubs, but these types of things are generally available and can be formed rather easilly for the home ed community as well. As with everything there are always exceptions, but from my own experience in school, working in schools, and from the mouths of current students, this is basically what goes on.

I won't even get into the negative social interactions at this point as I would like to quickly back up and clearly define some terms before we move on -

• socialization   n - 1. (Psychology) Psychol the modification from infancy of an individual's behaviour to conform with the demands of social life 2. (Sociology) the act of socializing or the state of being socialized
• so·cial·ize v. so·cial·ized, so·cial·iz·ing, so·cial·iz·es - v.tr. 1. To place under government or group ownership or control. 2. To make fit for companionship with others; make sociable. 3. To convert or adapt to the needs of society.
• friend n. 1. A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts. 2. A person whom one knows; an acquaintance. 3. A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade. 4. One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement: friends of the clean air movement.
• friend·ship  n. 1. The quality or condition of being friends. 2. A friendly relationship: formed many new friendships over the summer. 3. Friendliness; good will: a policy of friendship toward other nations.

In our culture there is a serious misunderstanding and misuse of the term socialization as meaning to "hang out with friends and build relationships." This is where the confusion of school being the only place for kids to socialize comes from. I, for one, don't want my child, or any child for that matter, to be socialized. I prefer that their natural behaviors and personality be left intact. I don't believe there is any need for children to be placed under government ownership or to convert to meet the needs of the society. I do feel that social interactions are imperative to a child's development. True friendships feed the soul! They encourage you to become a better YOU, not something else altogether.

The confusion among adults as to how friendships are formed is another issue that seems to arise quite often and leads to children feeling alone and unconnected. Friendships are not formed in the classes that our kids take, be it co-op, public school, dance classes, swimming lessons or whatever. Friendships are not formed during organized field trips to museums with docents leading the way, pointing and lecturing as they go. Friendships are not formed during book clubs, at the movies, at lego league, or during math club. You meet people at these various outings and events that are interested in similar things as your family - that is why you both choose to partake in the event! These things allow for introductions and common ground to be formed, but friendships are formed during down time! Friendships are formed at playground days, at intimate meetings with another family, at the picnic in the park after the trip to the museum, at the pizza parlor discussing the movie you just saw, by getting together with no plan in mind and seeing where the afternoon takes you.

Instead of packing your child's week with extracurricular activities so that he/she will be "socialized" allow free time in the schedule for them to get together with friends, plan field trips with playgrounds or parks near by and invite the families to come hang out after,  organize an afternoon park day where kids can choose what they want to do and give freedom of interaction with their peers, allow for snack breaks during math club so that kids have time to chat and joke around. These are the situations that home educators are missing. Relax on the academics and let the friendships form. Is it more important for your child to be well-adjusted, happy, fulfilled and satisfied or that they can recite the preamble to the constitution and identify all the elements on the periodic table by atomic number? You, the parent, need to decide, but I implore you to take steps in this direction as soon as you can. For the betterment of your children and the home educating community as a whole!

IEW - Student Intensive Writing Course - Official Review

I recently borrowed the IEW - Student Intensive Writing Course Level C, from a very dear friend of mine to try to help KM prepare for the writing portion of the GED. My friend's children, whom KM is very close with, enjoyed the program and highly recommended it. I also have heard many rave reviews on several of the larger home ed lists that I am, but was always hesitant because of the price and some potential negative outcomes that I had heard of. So when my friend eliminated the cost issue by lending it to me, I figured we would give it a try.

Here is the description of the program from the website - Recorded live with Mr. Andrew Pudewa, this four-DVD writing course for students lays a solid foundation of writing skills, based on our Teaching Writing: Structure & Style syllabus. Over the course of 15–30 weeks, students will learn how to effectively use a wide range of structural models and stylistic techniques in their compositions, as they write on a variety of enjoyable fiction and non-fiction topics. Included with the student handouts are complete teacher's notes, source texts, assignments, and checklists.

As I mentioned previously, we decided to take some time to focus specifically on KMs writing skills this month, so I thought this would be the perfect thing to start with. We decided to do about a lesson a day, but that we would keep it open ended in case KM needed more time on something. The videos were recorded over four days, but that is more than a little TOO intensive for us.

The program starts out by explaining an outlining technique that helps you jot down a two or three words to remind you of the content in the sentence so that when you go to summarize you don't look at the actual paragraph, article or whatever source you are using. This worked out very well for KM. It allowed her to have something to write about without the stress of having to "think" of something on the spot. Here is what she came up with -

How Music Shaped our Nation

The committee in charge of writing the Declaration of Independence consisted of John Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, who all agreed on the main points of the first draft, but decided that the final draft should be more artistic and precise. Jefferson received this task because Adams was too rough, Franklin too sick, and Paine was too controversial. Jefferson’s landlady recorded his struggle in her journal, which was him pacing and seemingly accomplishing very little. He sent home for his violin which he would play for a while and then quietly work on the Declaration. After a few days it was completed and ready. Music helped him unlock his linguistic genius and helped him find the words of destiny which few people know about today.

The next lesson covers structure and explains the "story sequence". The kids were given a story to outline and they could either rewrite it or create a similar one with the same sequence. Again KM liked this outlining format and found it very helpful. Here is the story she came up with -

Le Chef Foo

Once upon a time in Cheshire, Mongolvia there was a young, simple Chef de Cuisine. He had finally graduated from culinary school and opened a new restaurant. Chef had was working on a recipe for a stew, that his grandma used to make, for the grand opening. He was about to put in some pepper when his sous chef said “No, no, no! You should use the onion powder instead.” And so the chef did.

Next, the chef tried to put in some potatoes, but his chef de froid told him, in a very knowing tone, “You mustn’t use those, put in some artichokes.” Well the chef de froid seemed to know best, so the young chef put in the green thistle.

As the chef was slicing the beef, the old pastry chef walked over and shook his head. “What is the matter?” asked the young chef. “You shouldn’t use beef, my boy, rabbit would be far better.” replied the old chef. Since the Chef de Cuisine was so young he trusted his elder and added rabbit instead.

Finally it was time to serve it to the customers and boy, oh boy did they hate it! Every single dish was sent back. All the critics said it was the worst food in town. After everyone read the reviews no one would dine there. The restaurant had to close.

and

Who Won the West Side 

In a dark alley Mr.Duke, a big mobster, was patiently waiting for his rival Mr.Wallace. They were in a fierce battle over territory on the West Side. Mr.Duke heard a scuffle from the foggy opening, which made him whip out his shotgun. “Mr.Wallace has arrived.”, thought the mobster, as he fired his first of six bullets.

“Hello, Mr.Duke. One shouldn’t fire shots as a welcome.”, whispered a voice from behind him. Mr.Wallace walked up to Mr.Duke, who was quite scared, and held his gun against the mobster’s back.

“Surrender your turf to me now.” Duke swung around with incredible speed and as he grabbed the gun, he aimed for Wallace’s foot. He shouted, “Never.” when he shot the gun.

Although Mr.Duke had won the battle, there was another predator waiting around the corner. Agent McKinley had trained as a sniper during the Korean War, which allowed him to be unseen by the winning mobster. McKinley quickly fired 2 shots at Mr.Duke, who fell instantly to the ground. 

Mr.Wallace heard the shots and cautiously peeked around the corner to see what happened. When he saw Duke lying on the ground, he knew that all of the West Side was now his.

KM had no complaints up to this point other than the fact that she felt that Mr. Pudewa talked down to the kids, talked A LOT and didn't give them enough time to write down the notes as he was giving them.

The next skills that they covered were called "dress-ups" and these are things that Pudewa thinks should be added to enhance all writing and here is the point where I started to loose confidence in the program. The students are required to included certain things in each and every paragraph and this cause the writing to all sound very much the same - a potential negative outcome that I had thought might occur given the extremely structured nature of the program. 

The revisions are minor, but to me, they seem to be more distracting than enhancing. 

In my opinion, KM's story was better before she did the following rewrites to Le Chef Foo

Once upon a time in Cheshire, Mongolvia there was a young, simple Chef de Cuisine. He had finally graduated from culinary school and determinedly opened a new restaurant. Chef was working on a delicious recipe for a stew, that his grandma used to make, for the grand opening. He was about to dash in some pepper when his sous chef exclaimed, “No, no, no! You should use the onion powder instead.”, which convinced the chef to do so.

Although the chef tried to add some potatoes, his chef de froid told him, in a very knowing tone, “You mustn’t use those, put in some artichokes.” Well the chef de froid appeared to know many things, so the young chef put in the green thistle.

As the chef was slicing the beef, the old pastry chef walked over and shook his head. “What’s the matter?” asked the young chef. “You shouldn’t use beef, my boy, rabbit would be far better.” replied the old chef. Since the Chef de Cuisine was so young, he trusted his elder and added rabbit instead.

Finally it was time to serve it to the customers and boy, oh boy did they hate it! Every single dish was sent back quickly. When the critics said it was the worst food in town, no one would dine there. The restaurant had to close.

At this point they continued to cover more detail oriented things such as sentence openers, note taking, planning a paragraph, taking notes from live lectures, and writing full reports. As Pudewa read the students work, it was clear that the students in the class were catching on and KM was also noticing how similar their style was at just the point when they introduced more things that you should add and they called these "decorations". These included things like questions, dramatic openings or closings, similes or metaphors, and alliterations. KM agree with me on her pre-edited work being better, so was loosing gusto with the program. I told her to take things that she thinks will work and leave those that she feels are unnecessary. She should make it what she needs it to be.

After reports they proceed to more things that they recommend you put in each paragraph and these are denoted as "decorations" - things like questions, quotations, alliterations and similes or metaphors. While the program thinks you should have one dress-up in every sentence, they advice utilizing 1 or 2 of these in each paragraph. 

Finally the program heads into essay writing, which was the main area that KM was looking for assistance in. They begin with the basic 5 paragraph essay and give some tips on planning out how many paragraphs you need to write for an assignment if it is given to with required words or pages. They also cover the Rhetoric Model, Super-Essay Model and outlining and thinking skills. These are all things that KM is fairly familiar with so was feeling more than a little disappointed by the lack of new information.

All and all KM felt let down by the program. She felt although the description of the program was accurate, she had been expecting more time to be spent on essay writing and more suggestions on open prompt writing as 90% of the assignments were rewriting the work of others - short articles or stories that you used the outlines structures to recreate. I honestly feel that there were some positive benefits as she had a good time being creative and the program did get her to write which helped improve her confidence. I also think that the outlining, story sequencing and note taking will be very helpful to her reading comprehension and study skills. However it did not give her any sort of tools to help her get past that blank mind feeling she gets whenever she sees a writing prompt. This is generally called brainstorming skills and we are going to have to find something to help her work on that. I am glad that she had the opportunity to try it, but also glad that we borrowed it because I do not feel that it would have been worth the $109 + shipping.

Now I feel as though I should also mention that although this program would not be considered secular by many people there was only one small mention of the bible and it was in regards to there being a number of similes and metaphors within it's passages. 

Our favorite comedian is....

Adam Sandler! He is our absolute all time favorite. We have every single one of his movies and have been slowly exposing KM to his greatness!! The other night we watched a dvd of his best SNL clips and this one nearly had her gut busting!

 


and did mention we're CRAAAZZZYY!!!

Cosi Fan Tutte - Boston Lyric Opera - Review

We were fortunate to participate in the BLO's Final Dress Rehearsal For High School Groups program so that we could see Cosi Fan Tutte. We had 30 people in our group and they all had a great time! Below is KM's review of the performance!

 

Review of Cosi Fan Tutte

By KM

Cosi fan tutte is a very intriguing opera. Alfonso makes a bet with two young men, Ferrando and Guglielmo, that their girlfriends will not be utterly faithful to them. The men accept and pretend to go off to war, leaving their girls, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, heartbroken and full of grief. Suddenly two strange foreigners, Ferrando and Guglielmo in disguise, appear and try to woo Dorabella and Fiordiligi.

Of course the girls stay faithful, until the second act when they are encouraged by their maid Despina to give into a little “harmless” flirtation. In doing so the girls, unknowingly, choose the other’s true lover. The girls try to resist but eventually fall in love with the ones they chose. Hearing this Alfonso creates a fake wedding, in which Despina is a fake lawyer. After the ceremony Ferrando and Guglielmo “return” from war and reveal that they were the strange men. In the end no one goes back with their original partners nor their new ones.

I found this opera quite humorous but unnecessary in certain places. Often the actors would repeat lines over and over again, as if to make sure they had gotten their point across. The scenery was very nice but some of the objects suspended in air were crooked and unnatural. The lighting and costumes were very well done. All in all it was a very good performance.

Online Favorites ~ Resources we have LOVED

In our five years of home learning, my daughter has tried a myriad of resources so I thought I would create a post that highlighted some of her favorites. This list is in no specific order, other than how they came to my memory. These are not all free resources, but those that aren't are very reasonable priced! I have also included links to any full length reviews that I may have done in the past so be sure to click through the links in each section! ENJOY!!!

Khan Academy - This was a great supplement for Math, Science, and History. I think if we had found it earlier we would have used it as full curriculum core and we plan to do so in the future for things like Art History and Computer Science.

Science Jim - KM LOVES Science Jim!!! She has taken a number of classes with him and has watched every one of his webshows! Here is our full review.

Hippocampus - We used this to supplement her history program for a while and it really seemed to help solidify the topics. Here is a link  to the course that she used.

Manga High - Super fun ~~ and FREE ~~ games for improving math skills and increasing speed! A few of KM's faves were Sundae Times, Pyramid Panic, and Sigma Prime. For a list of all the games click HERE.

Mathletics World Games - These annual events are so much fun! Check them out here and here are links to our experiences.

Yale Open Courseware - KM felt like she learned a lot from Listening to Music. 

Ko's Journey - This is a fantastic supplement to any math program. It is so engaging and interactive! Check out the full review and screenshots HERE. 

BrainPop - We have loved BrainPop since before KM was officially a home learner, but it always drove me CRAZY that they didn't have answer keys available to their lessons. GUESS WHAT!! Now they do in their Educator's section and you can sign up absolutely FREE!!

CNN Student News - This is our 3rd year using this incredible resource and it never lets us down! From the site - CNN Student News is a ten-minute, commercial-free, daily news program for middle and high school students produced by the journalists and educators at CNN. This award-winning show and its companion website are available free of charge throughout the school year. At CNNStudentNews.com, you'll find a wealth of teacher materials presented free of charge, including Daily Transcripts for each show, Daily Discussion questions, the Media Literacy Question of the Day, downloadable Maps and additional support materials to help students understand the news. In addition, the educators at CNN offer Discussion Guides for CNN documentaries and initiatives, including Black in America, Latino in America and CNN Heroes. 

Check it out HERE! I should mention that I may be a bit partial as Carl Azuz tweeted with us and gave a shout out to homeschoolers! 

Scholastic Webcasts & Lessons - We have really enjoyed quite a few programs from scholastic, in fact I don't think there have been any that we didn't really like. Just a few that we have done are First Thanksgiving, 39 Clues Club, Iditarod Lessons, Winter The Dolphin, Science World and a link to view previous webcasts HERE

This really is just a small sampling of the things that she has used and enjoyed, but it is a great place to get started trying out alternatives!!!