Caliope the Argiope

We have a new pet.  So far the boys are enjoying helping her catch food, wrap it up and we know later devour it since we wake up to find some missing.   When we looked her up....gotta love Google we found out that she is an Argiope (rhymes with Caliope).  They are common to the area and completely harmless.  She eats grasshoppers, butterflies, and we know for a fact dragonflies.  In real life she is bigger than the picture.

We hold your children's minds in our hands more than you do

I watched "This Week with Christine Amanapour" yesterday and the discussion centered around teachers, achievement by the students, and the gap socioeconomically and by race.  The opening sequence showed teachers responding to the issue of merit pay for the teachers who have students that are growing academically while in their classrooms.  One section really resonated in me.  A teacher was quoted as saying that she had our children's minds in her hands more than we do (as parents). 

I respect teachers. I think that it is a calling in some cases, and that the vast majority teach because they want to help children.  But the test scores while not showing the whole picture are the only concrete measure we have to go by, and there are some teachers who are not performing for the students.  We can not keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result.  The solution can not be throwing more and more money at the problem.   Teacher pay is not the answer.  Unless we tie performance to pay.  The teachers who are innovative within the confines that tie their hands need to be rewarded.  Others need an incentive to find out what they are doing right, and parents deserve to know what type of teacher 'holds their children's minds in her/his hands more than we do.

We as a nation do need to view this an economics problem, because until we do no one really pays attention.  There is a reason why we are comparable until 4th grade with other nations and then the gap begins to widen.  It isn't that our children are less intelligent.  It isn't TV because may nations that out perform us also have children with all time high viewership.  It can't be just family life or poverty, because other nations have equal social problems.  So what is it?

As a home school parent I need to know that answer.  It is imperative that I find that answer because the responsibility is on my shoulders to make sure that my son is thriving academically, socially, and civilly.  I started researching home education because of first hand experiences in my own education and that of my older children.   My two older boys were extremely smart, and my equally bright daughter had a learning disability, so I was able to see the schools from different ends of the spectrum.  My boys were often bored, and my daughter often felt like she was stupid and would never catch up.  In fact when my daughter was in high school and could not pass algebra after her 3rd try and absolutely could not pass the Standard of Learning test for the subject, she went to her teacher to discuss things that she should do and the teacher took a piece of paper and wrote GED on it.  Then she kept the paper.  Did that teacher think a GED was the only and best option for T?  Did she feel comfortable telling a teen to quit school and pursue her GED?  I don't think so.  I can't help but wonder if she thought it was best for T, or best for the school's score?  My sons took two different tracks.  The innately most intelligent became a problem child.  He didn't see the point of what he was learning, and he certainly didn't respect school.  Until middle school he jumped through all the required hoops and made fantastic grades without even trying.  After Middle School he quit even putting forth an effort.  He did quit school and took his GED test without even studying and had the highest recorded score in the history of our county.  Our second son lucked out in part, I believe because of sports.  He wanted to play so that is where he found the value of school.  He also had a few teachers that thought outside of the box and allowed him to stretch.  Instead of just having him just read Animal Farm he taught his classmates an entire period where they discussed how it related to the Cold War.  Yet even though he seemed to 'get' school, he never appreciated it or respected it either.  He could sit down the night before a semester project was due, grind it out, and get an A.  Both boys have learned more in their time out of school then they ever learned inside their walls, and both excel in their professions.  T on the other hand refuses to read a book, or do anything that resembles school. 
So now I have younger children and I want to and need to be more involved in their education.  Before I didn't know there were options and choices.  I blindly followed the prescribed education track because it was all I knew.  I didn't know enough.  I still know I don't know everything, but I am trying to know enough.  We are deciding year by year, what is the best option for our children.  I am reading everything I can find about theories in education, comparisons of curriculum, and even more important, examining what we thing a well educated child needs to learn.  It is freeing and terrifying all at the same time.  I want to hold my children's minds in my hands more than a teachers, because one thing I know without question is that I care more about my children than they do.

Knex, Legos, Ramp jumping and room cleaning

This week we went light on actual schoolwork.  Summer is wrapping up and we will have plenty of time once the neighborhood kids and Grinmaster are back in school.   Although now that I listed everything I realized that the only thing we didn't cover was our Science.  Oh and I haven't started another literature read aloud yet.  Instead we played.  A lot.  The kids are building towers, roller coasters, cars that walk across the floor with a flipping motor, and garages.  They also built a larger ramp to jump with their bikes.  I guess that learning that the smaller the bike the higher in the air they can jump is learning.  They also learned the value of gravity and that when you fall midair and hit the ground you will say ouch.  Our other project is clearing out all of their broken and useless toys.  And yes I saw Toy Story, and yes it bothered me a little bit.  I figure that was sorting and hands on classifying for G-Baby.  Broken toys in this bag, donations in that box.....yeah that is classifying.  Next up we will cover Art when we paint the playroom and make it a second family room. 
As for book learning, G-Baby began the letter M and is working hard to tell the difference between words that begin with the F, B, or M sound.  He knows what they look like and he knows what sound they make but it is a bit more complicated to then decode words and match the letter sounds up.  As for math skills he knows his numbers, can recognize them when written and is doing some very simple adding.  I am beginning to introduce the number symbols for 10-20 and he is motoring right along. 
Allboy continued with his normal subjects and there wasn't anything exciting or new learned.  I can see his writing improving as his spelling improves.  We don't have a formal writing program because he uses his imagination to create his own stories, and it is working fine so far.  He likes creative writing and is filling his journal so no complaints or concerns there. 
Grinmaster finished his book and needs to decide on a project to complete before public school begins.  Each child in 6th grade has to turn it in the first week of school.  He tackled a book that stretched him, and I am proud he stuck with it. 
Our history lesson took us to the Great Plains, where we met the Sioux last week.  This week they learned about the mighty Buffalo and all of its uses.  They built a book with the different tools, weapons, and clothing that buffalo provided the Sioux.  They also created their own Wampum's using beads and their wishes for the upcoming year.  That was fun and listed everything as serious as wishing there were no more Wars, to as silly as wanting more food to eat.  (Of course Allboy didn't really mean food.  He meant junk food).  All in all a really good week.

Secular does not mean Atheist

I am a secular homeschooler.  I also live in the South and it seems that most of the people I meet in the home schooling community, are home schooling for religious reasons.
That can make a get together interesting.  My first co-op meeting was at Beaverdam and overall the families there were a microcosm of our County, but there was the woman we all picture when we think fundamentalist.  Denim jumper, white bobby socks, long hair, and a slew of little ones all matching depending on gender.  Her little girls looked like mini hers, and the boys wore dress white shirts, and navy blue pants.  I sat on the bench at the playground next to her since I knew her husband through my time working as a legal assistant.  She politely excused herself rather quickly, and now that I have been around for awhile I am sure that my Mommy shorts and biracial son screamed that I wasn't part of her flock. Thank goodness that I didn't have my completely black son with me, or her head might have exploded trying to figure out that relationship.
My next co-op was rather uneventful and welcoming and I still belong to that one, even if on the fringe.  A woman was ejected from the previous co-op because she is 'gasp' Mormon and therefore not the right type of Christian.  Never mind that she is smart, organized, a well known published writer, and a great Mom and teacher. So she started her own Co-op.  I went to a get to know everyone meeting where the Mom's chatted about concerns, problems, and solutions and it felt great.  I happened to mention feelings of isolation based on being secular and it was fine.  Big exhale.  Then came snack time.  The wonderful host came up to me and asked if I was offended by prayer.  Arrrgh....this intelligent, warm, woman wanted me to feel comfortable and that was wonderful.  But no I am not offended by prayer.  I pray often.  I pray privately, I pray at family gatherings, I pray irreverently and I pray reverently. I am secular not atheist. 
Secular homeschooling to me means that I teach Science and history based on facts and then I teach religious belief while at the same time I explain how my beliefs meld the two.  I will admit that homeschooling materials are written mostly for the religious homeschooler and I spend more time than I like examining curriculum looking for religious bias.  See my problem isn't religion or faith, but whose religion and faith becomes the question.  One highly touted American History program expounds on it's first pages that the savage Indians didn't believe in God and that the women did all the work in a way that made the men seem like bums.  It also paints a life for their children in a heavy handed way that would make any child reading it disdain Native American traditions.  I think it is important to teach that there were many different types of Native Americans and they they didn't all live in teepee's and count coup.  They also had a set of fascinating spiritual beliefs.  Because the book was written from a Christian slant, any other culture is seen as not only wrong but inferior. 
Science is even more tricky.  I think some curriculum providers are trying to be neutral and not offend any group.  But instead they leave out huge chunks of facts for the secular homeschooler, and leave the creationist unsatisfied as well since they do not begin with Adam and Eve and everything was created in 6 days. 
But how did math and spelling become 'religionized'?  Seriously.  Isn't math just math?  Apparently not.  Even math curriculum can be used to glorify God.  Okay....but seriously.  Does every single subject have to be God based and sprinkled with scripture to be acceptable?  That screams brainwashing instead of faith to me.  Okay maybe now I am being every bit as critical and judgemental as I feel some fundamentalist home schoolers have become.  I admit it. I will own it.  When people on classical homeschooling boards start discussing segregating little boys and girls while swimming and modesty bathing suits for little girls so as not to tempt their boys, it is easy to be judgemental.  But there are also the snarky, sneaky comments that suggest that if you are teaching your children in any way that differs from their plan which must have been handed down to them directly from God like Moses received the Ten Commandments, then you are somehow harming their little minds.  I try to skip those posts.  But sometimes it is hard.  I also find myself approaching it like a sociologist.  I feel like I have landed in an alternative universe and not only do I not know the rules but they scare the Bejesus out of me. 
At the same time I write this though I recognize that there are other families in our area that fall in between.  Very few mothers are as liberal as I am, and even fewer are where I am on the political spectrum, but luckily they aren't trying to convert me, they are just there supportive and open.  So I do my best not to convert them either.  I am glad that we live in a neighborhood where the children are diverse and numerous so the boys can see how different people live and what other people believe.  I am also glad that there is an online community that I can anchor myself to when this journey seems to hard.  I am also happy that I know some other homeschool mommies that also just want what is best for their kids education, and are happy to share their knowledge and kids with us.

I am NOT going to get sidetracked

Week 2 and we are moving around geographically in our Native American portion of US history.  We are studying the Iroquois and reading The Birch Bark House.  This book has a two week schedule and is a fictional account of an Ojibwa village.  I really like that the main character is 7 years old and has a lot of responsibility to her family and respect for nature.  Both of those themes keep coming up when we talk about what we are reading.  All 3 of the boys are interested in the story.  Math is about sequencing and again Allboy is flying through it.  I have started the supplements but if MUS remains this easy I am going to need to rethink the curriculum.  So far I am pretty sure that after giving him the DVD instruction on Monday I could skip to the test on Thursday and he would ace it.  In Science the kids are measuring wind speeds and graphing rainfall.  They have weather journals and it is fun when they act out as weathermen and tell me how much precipitation we have gotten, the temperature, how fast the wind is moving and in what direction.  Our deck is beginning to look like an outdoor science lab.  Spelling is Allboy's  favorite subject so far, and I give all the credit to All About Spelling.  He feels incredible when he learns a new spelling rule, and I can see him get something new almost every day.  This week he is in love with wandering around breaking the largest words he can think of into syllables. 
Grandbaby Supreme's letter of the week is B....Each letter we learn the sound it makes, and then try to find words that begin with the b sound.  We also review F.  If he can keep retaining the letters and their sounds we can move into reading about half way through the year.  At least simple BoB books.
Grinmaster is concentrating on his Writing this week.  I don't think he has a great grasp on how to write a strong sentence or paragraph, so we are reviewing topic sentences.  I have to say I am amazed that he doesn't mind doing "school" with us since he doesn't start School until next month.  But I know he likes the Science and History and doesn't complain about writing.  I am going to keep working with him on his writing skills even after he begins traditional school.  I find myself wondering which subjects and what curricula I would use if he came home to school, so I am curious to see how this will play out.

Our first week--Thoughts and Rants

So we are actually finished with two weeks of school but I didn't get a chance to write it up until now.

We began our first day with logic.  I call it warming up the brain. Both Grinmaster and Allboy are working on classifying objects, except Grinmaster's are a little more difficult.  Other worksheets we used were Reading Detectives.  I like these because instead of just reading and answering questions, the reader must infer certain ideas from what they read.  Hopefully it will help with both of their critical thinking skills.  This is one of the big areas that I think traditional schooling skips over in favor of multiple choice answers.  The ability to think and reason.  How refreshing.
Next was Phonics.  At least for Alboy. We began with Explode the Code worksheets with review of short vowel sounds, and cvcv words.  He hated every second of it.  I think in part because it is too easy and too repetitive.  I threw away a couple of the sheets once I knew that he understood the phonics rules.  I have now decided to drop Explode the Code since we are using Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.  I actually bought the book to use with Grandbaby Supreme, but once I looked at it I realized that if we skipped the first half we were right where Allboy is in reading ability. He likes it and I think it is helping a lot more than ETC.  He also gets plenty of phonics instruction with our Spelling choice, All About Spelling.  This is a multisensory spelling program that uses the phonics rules to teach spelling.  We use magnetic tiles, a white board, and letter and word cards to learn spelling.  I tried Spelling Workout last year, and bought Sequential Spelling this year thinking that I would use it, but I didn't like either and I feel like I hit the jackpot with AAS.  We are still in review lessons so I can't say that any majot lightbulb moments have occurred but I think this is going to work with the way Allboy learns.
Next we moved on to Math.  We are using Math-U-See Beta.  It comes with a DVD showing the instructor explaining the lesson.  I thought it would be a dry lecture, but he moves quick and has a sense of humor that the kids enjoy.  It uses base 10 blocks for manipulatives, and the first lesson was on place value.  We even built "decimal" street using a units house, a 10 Apartment, and a hundreds castle.  Alboy totally clicked with the program.  But I can tell that the constant use of the blocks are going to get old.  Once he gets it, he doesn't want to use the blocks anymore.  That it okay by me.  We are also going to use Miquon to supplement MUS.  I like the different way that Miquon thinks about math and want Alboy to have another way to do computations.  They call it the Asian way of doing math, and since Asia is kicking our butts in math scores, there might be something to it.
Our favorite subjects are History and Science.  We began our History on Monday and we are studying US history in depth.  We began with the humans that crossed the Berring bridge 40k years ago and settled throughout North America.  Then we began our first Native American Geographical area.....SouthEastern USA.  We read Nightbird, and learned about the Seminoles.   We made history pockets and learned about their type of shelter...Chickees, and food sources, alligator and corn, and clothing, light cottons or not much at all.  The big idea that I wanted them to understand is that all Native American's were different and that where they lived determined what they ate, where they lived, and what they wore.  I remember thinking as a child that all Indians were the same, and lived in Teepees, and dressed in buckskins.  I also want them to explore their spirituality; mainly how important nature was and is to their beliefs.  Science began on Tuesday.  We are using R.E.A.L. Science Oddessy; Earth, Rock and Space.  We read Crash Rumble and Roll and then for their lab all 3 boys got familiar with a weather themometer.  They took readings in the sun, in the shade, from a bowl of room temperature water, and from a bowl of ice water.  On Thursday they created Rain, using condensation, and I knew they got it when we went to get in the car early Monday morning and Grandbaby Supreme told me he was dancing in a cloud (fog), Allboy said they were water molecules, and Grinamaster told me that the warm air pressure forced the cloud to the ground.  I love homeschooling.  Next week they make rain guages and measure rainfall, and wind direction.  We will read Magic School Bus, Inside a Hurricane.  Hopefully we won't get any up close and personal experience with hurricanes this season.

As for Grandbaby Supreme he is working on Get Ready for the Code and learned all about the letter F.  We are also using Starfall to reinforce his letter of the week.  He hangs out with us for Science and History and also is doing some Kumon math and numbers.  We are also using Leapfrog Letter Factory and lots of natural math with him. 
Grinmaster is concentrating on reading and comprehension and is reading Life of a Dog right now.  He is also using Creative writing and reviewing how to write powerful paragraphs and papers.  He enjoys History and Science with us and I think he is worried that he will miss out on some fun when he goes to school.  i am going to keep reading our History literature at night so that he can enjoy the stories. 
We haven't really done anything concrete for Art or Music yet.  I am waiting for us to get a good grasp on the subjects we are doing so far.  We do a lot of crafts for History and I want to start Art Sketch Tuedays soon.  I am not sure we are going to do anything with music, other than Kareoke and listening to music.  I think I will wait until next year to decide about Piano lessons.   As for PE....that is hilarious if you know our boys.  They all swim like fish, each of them has ridden a bike since they were 3, and spend lots of time outdoors.  Grinmaster is on a bowling league, Allboy has football, and G-Baby Supreme is keeping up with the other two. They are all active and can do more pushups, pullups, and situps than other boys their age.  I am quick to have them outside and active instead of playing video games so I believe that we are fine there.
Now the biggie.....at least in most people's minds.  Socialization.  Oh how are these kids going to be norrmal if they are schooled at home?  I think most people who ask that question must think we live in caves.  We are active in the community.  The kids play sports, they have tons of pals they play with in the neighborhood and we attend Vacation Bible School, camps for sports or Art, and of course Scouts.  If anything I need them less socialized.  At least that way every kid in the neighborhood wouldn't always be over here most of the time. (smile).  I am also going to make sure that we stay active in Homeschool activities during the school year.  There are field trips, co-ops and get togethers with other families that also homeshoold during the day, and they will still be active in sports and scouts in the evenings.  I also question people who think that they are missing out by not being in school.  Have they been to school lately?  With budget cuts, teacher turnover, less and less arts, and little playtime I don't feel they are missing much.  Also if I remember correctly I spent most of my school life being told not to socialize.

Our Curriculum

I spent a long time comparing different materials and tried to keep Alboy's learning style in mind while choosing.  Hopefully we came up with his best choices.

Reading----We are using the Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading.  I bought this almost by accident.  One of the Mom's on a home school forum sold it for a very low price and I thought I might use it in the future for Grandbaby Supreme.  Instead I discovered that even though Allboy is reading, the lessons in this book will help him improve even more.  I can't say enough about how much I like this resource.  At first I thought it would be more like 100EZ lessons, or Phonic Pathways but it isn't and it is working out great.

Spelling----I didn't concentrate on spelling last year because I really wanted to get Allboy reading on level.  If I had AAS then I would have went for it because it meshes so well with phonic instructions.  It is phonic instruction, just with spelling and it reinforces all the phonemes.  It can get boring since we are starting with level 1 and most of it Allboy already knows but I would rather review then find out there are gaps down the road.







Grammar and Copywork----We chose to continue with First Language Lessons.  It can get repetitive but when a child finishes the program they should really know elementary grammar.  I also use it for memorization and copywork.  I bought Writing with Ease, but I like the passages in here more, and I think that WWE is just busy work if you use this as it was written. 

I also bought and planned to use Explode the Code.  But I discovered after the first week of school that we don't need it.  At least not yet.  Later in the year if he has problems retaining certain letter combinations and needs the reinforcement I still have it, but as of right now I am taking it out of the schedule.  Allboy already has nice handwriting, and gets lots of practice with the narrations we do.  He gets phonics from AAS and OPGTR and we read morning and night.  So keeping ETC at this point is overkill.

Math----We switched from Saxon Math to MUS Beta.  I liked Saxon and feel it was quite thorough, but I kept modifying it so that it wasn't so repetitive.  The jury is still out on MUS, but so far we like it.  I was surprised that the DVD guy didn't get on my nerves.  He is pleasant to watch and it doesn't feel like a lecture and I like the hands on manipulative's and how easy Isaiah seems to catch on to the process.  I won't know for sure until we get further into the year.

My all time favorite lesson is United States History!!!  But of course I love history so that isn't a surprise.  Last year I followed Story of the World and I like the concept of learning History from the beginning of time on, but in reality it just didn't translate.  Of course we did some cool hands on activities and learned some cool stuff but it didn't feel like History to Allboy.  I think it felt more like a fairy tale because it was too far away and too long ago.  So instead this year I am hoping to light and then feed a fire in him about history around us.  We are into our Native American Unit and will work up to the Civil War.  We are blessed to live here where history can come alive and we can actually experience where it happened.  In September we are going to a PowWow in Hampton and we are learning about the first Americans by geographical location.  I couldn't possibly list all the resources we are using because I go to the library weekly but there are a few I couldn't have put this together without.    http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/americanhistoryindex.html    This is a complete curriculum using History as the spine but I took a lot of her recommendations for resources and mapped out how I wanted to present it using the materials I have on hand, could find at the library and the field trips we can take.  Her hard work is a Godsend and I am VERY grateful.   I also am using  these to make notebooks and maps.

For Science I had a harder time.  It is hard to find a great science curriculum that isn't too dry, but also is based on science instead of religion.  I am a Christian and I believe that God created the world, but I don't think he did it in 6, 24 hours days.  To believe that I have to suspend all the credible evidence to the contrary.  I think the creationism debate is a dead horse and I refuse to beat it, but I want my kids to get science in science class.  So we found R.E.A.L. Science , Earth, Rock and Space and after looking over it in depth I couldn't be happier.  My partner in crime is in charge of labs and he and the kids will hopefully enjoy it.  I don't care about rocks and weather, but when they get to astronomy I will get interested again.

So these are our cores.  But I wouldn't say they are all the materials we learn from.  We learn on walks, from movies, as many books as we can delve into, and each other.