Since that co-op isn't working out for me I got together with a couple moms and worked out a mini option on Tuesdays. Still have something bigger in the thought process for Thursday..prolly not gonna do it right off the bat though.

Should be a good chance for the kids to get a few topics in and happens to be right before the GS meetings will be in fall. decent timing.

Though does make Tuesdays full!

In the co-op there was discussion of offering piano and or voice lessons. I checked and GMC still wants piano (has been asking for a long time, either piano or violin or recorder)

And JC recently heard a teen girl sing opera and the Aladdin theme, JC was absolutely enthralled and wanted to learn how to sing that way.

Since I can't read music, nor sing beyond passable I figured they would have to get their lessons from someone else.

We are no longer doing the co-op, organizational issues, so I don't know if we can afford the piano or voice lessons.

Seems to be about $80 a month each. Which sounds like quite a lot.

Today my husband came home with two different kinds of bread. One a dollar more a pack.

All because the kids want to know it is worth the dollar more.

I haven't yet compared nutrition in each (though both are whole wheat).

Should be interesting to see if the kids really compare and certainly hope the cheaper bread is good enough!

Pandora is the best radio station!

But for hearing a specific song it sucks, or at least I haven't figured out the trick

youtube is where it is at for a song request. But it is a bit annoying to have to keep choosing songs.

In short depends what you need, but either way it is free

Did you know tons of music is on youtube?

I just discovered, from the co-op that you can find tons of classical music, and since my cousin was up, I peeked at newer stuff as well.

There is tons of songs. All sortable and searchable.

Though it doesn't quite reach the ease of having your own licensed songs, it sure is free.

This morning we have been listening to half a dozen Beethoven piano songs and a few concerts.

And every night this week I have been soothing L with a variety of favorites.

My kids have a book we use to record/write/draw everything. It is part nature journal, part drawing notebook, part journal, part copywork, part scrapbook for other work.

And GMC has been using it for a 'encyclopedia' of fish, meaning drawing one or two fish per page with or without names, and using up the pages ultra fast. (BTW did you know a sole was a fish version of a chameleon? I didn't.)

So I am fast approaching decision time. Do I spend money for a book without lines (because most entries are scrapbook photos, or drawings) or do I let his next book come from the same stash of free lined bound notebooks.

So a typical day here involves many more questions than I have answers to. In general I try to file interesting ones away to google search, becuase if I am online I am not doing housework, which means I tend to avoid googling things till later on.

Anyway by the time I get L down for nap, lunch finished and maybe cleaned up, checked on emails and tried to sludge through some work for the scouts or CE or whatever, I have forgotten the interesting question. Not surprising as I have a terrible memory, but also not helpful.

So today I had a novel idea...I could write down the questions then when I have my hands free go google them with my kids. (usually GMC, U has to short an attention span and JC is more interested in drawing and making up stories)

I know this is an old idea, but for me, it just might be the beginning of a homeschool breakthrough! Sometimes the simple things escape me.

reading this blog: crazy mom I realized I have friends in both camps

I used to say that there were two camps within homeschooling and I did not fit into either - these were the "Granola-Crunching Tye-Dye Brigade" and the "Bible-Toting Denim Jumper Brigade". I have absolutely no problems with either of these two 'camps', other than the fact that I did not 'fit' into either of them very well.

And I don't fit well into either, though I have traits of both. (bible yes, jumper no...Granola yes, tye dye no). Though I am willing to bet most folk have some traits of both groups. Homeschooling has cliques. You would think a comon goal of educating our children outside the system would be something to relate to.

But since there are about as many reasons to homeschool as their are homeschoolers we just don't all agree.

Don't get me wrong we can in general get along fine. We just have to search around for the right type of homeschooler to hang with, or at least the right kind for the right event.

Working on the co-op is an eye opener on just how different homeschoolers can be, and just how hard it can be to get them all to agree on anything!

And sometimes when you boil education down to the common denominator, you lose something. you lose what makes homeschooling so unique, the differences of folk doing the schooling!

Today was a rather good day, we managed to get chores, and some education in with minimal fighting/fussing

The kids were cooperative so life was smooth and things were completed quickly. I love when that happens.

I also am amazed at how much can be accomplished when it does:
-kids rooms cleaned, beds made
-living room clean/vacuumed
-kitchen clean/vacuumed (no, not swept/mopped)
-dishes, laundry, breakfast, lunch
-math for the older three
-writing for all (yes L sat in my lap playing with a pencil, cute red scribbles .)
-geography game for the older three
-bible story, verse, copywork
-Drew Monet's 'water lillies' from memory
-worked out on Wii fit (borrowed for week)
-All three played on wii, and some other free time.
-family tree by G, with some notes about Gma when she was his age.
-chapter of book on Braille
-L down for nap, and other had some quiet time.

Outside G is squirting the grill, which nearly instantly dries, it is rather fun to watch how fast the water evaporates. I asked him why and he said 'cause it is metal' which is kindof right. Though frugally it is a waste of water....I should tell him to squirt the plants.

So I was at the computer with plans to stop the Myzoo action and go to some sort of school like lesson with the kids.

I turned around to find my oldest curled up on the couch with a book about ancient Egypt. hmm don't want to disturb him.

Checked on JC, curled up with a book reading aloud to her dolls. Ah nope.

UE was also 'reading', and almost asleep in bed. EL was already asleep.

So there went my school plans, their (self directed) education was getting in the way!

For Scouts 'world conservation' badge, G has to keep a bird chart and name 10 birds, 5 'IRL' (In Real Life).

At first I was a bit worried, not that he can't name birds, he has an amazing memory. But worried that we wouldn't see 5 different birds around here.

So far, since Tuesday, he has seen Wrens, Black birds, Crows (how does he know they are different?) Blue birds (or Jays?), a robin or two, and a cardinal.

Never knew there were so many different things right here.

One thing I am learning to do different with the Charlotte Mason, is to look right here for nature. One of my weakest subjects.

NWF has a national backyard camping day, June 27th.

Our cubscout pack will be participating, with each den gathering at one fellows backyard.

The boys will spend some time working on outdoor skills, like setting up tents, and cooking, plus maybe some rank work.

So I thought I would see what the girl scouts could do, at the Daisy level, they have no official camping/outdoor skills. But I figure you are never to young to enjoy some outdoor fun, and go over some outdoor safety.

Now if I can only manage to borrow an air mattress before then so I don't have to be woken up by EL all night long!

This is an exciting time in my sons life. He has discovered beer. And requested we buy him some to try.

I follow the theory that my kids are better off expiramenting at home while I am there to watch, rather than secreting it away.

So we shall buy some this week and see what happens. I expect a bit of a mess, but I am sure he will enjoy the fun. I might save it for Thursday or Friday when we will have several of his friends over and make it a party.

Cracked.com recommends Corona While I wish they would swear less, I do think they have a good point.

Today we had folks over for Science

The focus was Light, we broke it, bent it, and mixed it up.

I found a how stuff works article last night to read a bit of (mostly I paraphrased for smaller kids)

then we talked about how waves are NOT objects moving, but energy..prolly went over their heads, but playing in water was fun.

-broke light with a prism, wish I had enough for each kid .

-bent light with water (pencil in clear glass) and magnifying glass (wish I had one for each kid)

-mixed light (filters over flashlights in dark rooms) had enough for them to take turns (yellow, blue and red light combines to white if you do it right)

-told the rainbow boy story, and they drew pictures about it.

And since I happened to have this big bucket of blue water I just had to add some baking soda and popcorn and red vinegar just because.

Next month we are going to do some fun optical illusions.

So my son had a birthday, recieved some gift money, and then all the kids got some for the holiday.

Now what would any sane boy do with all that? Dunno, but just as I insist they brush teeth every night, I insist they deposit some in long term savings, some for the church and do think about what they buy.

GMC figured out the percents (math class in target) to give and deposit, then with what he had left he went to the store with an eye to buy.

We hit the after Easter Sales, nothing good. Though the boys both wanted dino heads shaped like eggs. Like I need more eggs.

GMC found a game some sort of star wars board/collectible card game. He was very interested until we explained he would have to buy extra sets for the game to be fun, so that $15 game could turn into a $45 game or more before he had all the fun parts.

Then he found a computer game on sale for $10, and wanted a book. Normally I find books the best investment, but a jedi book? Do we really need the in depth 'science' behind light sabers and droidekas? Oh well it is his money.

JC found a simple recipe game with her money, good skills for UE to learn, but he wasn't interested she was..oh well they will both play it.

UE found a book he wanted about dinosaurs, nothing fancy, but a decent book he can mostly read himself, doesn't hurt anyway.

Husband found chocolate, and robins eggs.

And they may or may not be on their way over.

Don't you just love information?

I may or may not get off the computer to go clean.

Or I may go read with the kids and ignore the dishes.

I have been thinking lately about 'true unschooling' and I am not actually a proper unschooler. The trouble with un-schooling, to me, is that it assumes a child will learn all they need to know without interference...and while that is true it isn't good enough for me.

I know for example that EL will learn English without my help, but I also know that if I point interesting things out to her stressing the name (Apple, would you like Apple? have an Apple, more Apple? all in the space of 5 minutes) she may learn quicker, (or not), she aught to learn what apple is at least. On the other hand she isn't very likely to learn kumquat..but then she doesn't need to. If I wanted her to learn kumquat I aught to go get one and treat it like I did the apple.

I think the same thing applies to older children, they will learn plenty on their own, but if I want something in particular. I prolly aught to teach it (like phonics) but I shouldn't try without relating the lesson to the kid (like getting an apple to eat)

Which is why I like much of Charlotte Masons teaching, while we can't always take a kid to the past or another country, we can use what she calls 'living books' to help bring kids reasons to learn.

She also tends not to place emphasis on what you don't know so we can fill in the gaps (really like in Gods world we could ever hope to know all of it?) instead asking kids to share what they did learn, might not be the exact high points we found, but it is bound to be interesting what they learned.

Bringing kids into the nature we teach them about, and placing real items in their hands, helping the lessons mean something to them (you pick a tree to learn about, doesn't have to all be the same tree for all kids) these are the parts of CM that appeal to me. And in some ways it looks like unschooling, because we are not to terribly worried about having the exact right lessons according to state, and are not taking these lessons out of the real world, (from the real world not out of it). But because we bring interesting lessons to the kids it isn't unschooling.

On the other hand the most important lesson an unschooler can give us is that it will be ok, a child is designed by God to learn, no matter what you do they will, and for the most part they will learn all they need in the world, without a single drop of interference.

So if one lesson isn't sinking in, that is ok, they either wont need it or it will sink in later. When they want-kids have to choose to learn for it to stick, we forget that often because children naturally want to learn, from birth, and I bet before they are naturally inquisitive, it is only after when one drills the curiosity out of them that they stop wanting to learn. (though all children are different, one may be a fountain of questions another more scientist exploring without asking, a third content to skim the surface, a fourth who knows?)

Visits to the dentist really take a bite out of your wallet, especially now that we have 3 going. (EL has only two teeth, not much to clean!)

But good news all three have no cavities, and all were praised for being good at brushing.

Since I am there to see them spend way to little time and be sent back every night, either it doesn't take much, or the kids have good genetics. Or they eat the right kinds of things?

I am not sure, but we have no plans of changes, so I guess we can expect the healthy teeth to continue for a while.

Before the appointment and during the wait we finished a full days worth of learning. (though there was some learning going on during as well)

Then after, my oldest spent 4 hours with my husband at work. I heard he had a lot of fun, I hope he learned something.

JC will get a turn later this month.

Just found out the homeschool enrollment for 09 is open.

book-it

Who is eligible for the BOOK IT! Program for homeschools?
Any student in grades K-6 (5 years old by September of current school year) that is homeschooled and does not attend any other educational facility.

What are the program dates for 2009-010?
October 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010.

When will the 2009-10 materials be shipped to enrolled homeschools?
Materials will arrive by early to mid-September.

The parents and I had our first planning meeting, and at first glance, we are very different.

I am very driven about the three Rs, but beyond that I am very much an unschooler.

Not that I don't teach, just than in general I am not to picky what we are learning so long as we are.

So what if a kid is interested in Abraham Lincoln at 5, I do not plan on repeating or making him wait til 6 just because the 'plan' says 6 year olds have to study him..it is fine if they do, but fine if they don't.

And if they don't study him till 8 or 9. it is ok I might object if they never do study him though. But then again I might prefer they not to the current glamorized version of him.

Same with sciences, beyond life skills I see no need to insist that kids know how to classify birds or flowers, though I see no reason not to. I see no age requirements on Gods world, why do we impose them on children?

On the other hand I could get some Language and I would love for my kids to learn about nature from someone who knows....

Next week we meet again, I shall see how it goes.

I have heard some good things about Co-ops and have a couple friends that are interested in starting one of the Charlotte Mason variety.

We will have to read up on CM, plus more info on Co-ops, but I am hopeful we can start one in the fall. There are several subjects I hate and would gladly entrust to another. Would be nice to not have to care about if antelope's was a noun or adjective.

"The Antelope's vision was good"

vision is the subject...Was is the verb, Good definitely describes the noun..but Antelope's?

Seriously I have never in my adult life cared, except when checking children's English papers.

(see English is an adjective telling what kind of papers..but is Children's?)

Oh well, off to see if the kids want to hear another chapter of the Island Story.

I just learned of a home school co-op that literally right up the street from me, It would be a long walk, but I could prolly do it.

I have to do a bit more research into it, because I am mostly an un-schooler, I like to take things easy and slow and I am not all that worried if my kids skip certain skills.

for example I spoke of cutting awhile back, by oldest has poor skills, I just discovered my daughter (almost 2 years younger) cuts almost as well as I do! I am ok with GMC not doing well, figure if he needs to he will learn better.

I did a bit of research into Charlotte Mason, the program the co-op is based on. Some of the info is interesting, some a bit more than I care to do.

For example copywork, I have terrible handwriting and I recall my mother wanting me to do copywork, I recall copying books, I prefered to read them to copying them.

Anyway, all that effort and I still have lousy handwriting, not to sure it was worth it.

But I thought I could at least see if a little interest could improve my kids. So the other day I set the kids a simple task of copying for 15 minutes just to see how they would do, I told them I didn't care how much they got done, so long as they were working and it was neat. within 2 minutes JC was in tears, carried that on for the rest of the time. GMC on the other hand worked for the whole 15 minutes, and at the end said he wanted to finish copying the section!

I was amazed at the difference, GMC after all is my boy with lousy hand writing while JC has comparable writing (at almost 2 years younger)

Oh well, I learn something new about the kids every day.

This was a rant by a friend in reply to an email of a friend

I think it is worth sharing so here you have it:

> People are not going to vote for universally-mandated home schooling,

That's a blatant red herring. Unlike the Soviet Union, we didn't collectivize the farms. Does that mean everyone is mandated to grow their own groceries? In reality, only a few percent grow their own groceries; the rest rely upon the market, which (burdened though it may be with taxes, food stamps, and other nonsense) is still a lot more free than a soviet-style collective.

If we stop collectivizing education, that does not mean home schooling will be mandatory; it means that people won't be coerced to pay for or send their children to educational collectives. They'll be perfectly free to teach kids at home, or send them to free-market schools - which will be better and cheaper than the collectives.

Historically, free-market education has worked very well.. One of the key planks of Karl Marx was the collectivization of education. I'm sure he is absolutely thrilled with your support.... His propaganda campaign was so successful that people now forget that free-market alternatives are actually possible.

The Soviets finally abandoned collective farming when they saw how much better free-market alternatives were. I am hoping that our brains haven't been turned into such collective mush that we can't recognize the advantages of liberty.

Last year I didn't participate, not because I didn't like the idea, but because my kids are always asleep about 8:30 so the lights are always out.

I could carry the lights out to no TV while I put my youngest to bed, but..what else am I supposed to do? Computer time is the same amount of electricity, playing the Wii as well. I could read, but by candlelight that is rough on the eyes, and if I just go to bed she is likely to stay there all night, which while not terrible, she tends to wake me up with funny noises in the wee hours of the morning if she sleeps with us. Oh and conversations keep her up, so no to that either. Most crafts require both hands, or at least more freedom of one.

So This year I had a revelation..why not move it back an hour or two?

Yeah simple thought, but took me all year to come up with it!

So I wont be joining in the proper hour of 8:30, sorry, but I will be doing my own at 7:30

I thinkg etting ready for bed without alight in the bathroom while you brush teeth, or to read by, would be a good for them to try.

Found a link to this site with some info and even lesson plans.

Now I have to be honest, I am not a chicken little thinking the sky is falling, in fact I see plenty of evidence it isn't, but I do feel there is no need to pour excess junk into our air, and I feel children should experience life without electricity sometimes, even if only for an hour. So join in, even if only for a little old fashioned fun.

***Do you know where your highschool diploma is? I do, I just had to copy it to register my son as a homeschooler here. I do not however have a copy for my husband, so I guess he wont be allowed to teach, hope the kids don't need to now anything about physics or chemistry since I certainly don't. (just so you know that was a joke, I never bothered to wait for the govt to tell me when/if I could teach my kids)

***I wonder when folk will say '800K isn't that much'. wonder what the avg postal worker makes?

***How are you supposed to glue 'pipe cleaners'? they don't stick!

So today my son had the age old doubling question in his math book.

There are many ways to word it, from rice bowls to pennies, to gold pieces, but in general everyone should know the answer.

one version
the gist is you can have one penny the first day, then it doubles each day, 2 the second, 4 the third and so on. Or a large flat fee. Which is better?

I know the theory, but I am not a fan of numbers, so I generally let excel do the math.

But today doing the math, "How much will you make on day 30?" was the question so some number crunching was in order (he can do the math himself but I have to check it)

After discovering day 30's amount, he wanted to know what day you would get over 1 billion, so off he went to crunch numbers. Wasn't done with his other work, but it is prolly better to let him do math when he wants, than to force him to do work in any particular order.

here is a one grain rice
doubling with a moral.

On a related note I keep finding that boy reading when he could be working..still rather hard to make him stop reading for little things.

What would the world say if I told EL (7 months old) she had to learn to talk right this minute, no matter how interested she was in walking?

I have read many folk who define themselves by their jobs (paid or unpaid) and I find that sad.

I am more than a sum of all my roles.

Mother, teacher, lover, housekeeper, maid, cook, Education director, scout leader, committee member, bookkeeper, reader, writer.

Whichever task of the day I am on, I could make a title for.

But it wouldn't change who I am.

If I drop a job, such as finances I would still be me.

If I take on a new role, such as plumber, I would still be me.

Though at the heart of it all I am a teacher, just as much as my son is a math-magician, you can't change that by changing our jobs.

So how do I know I am a teacher? I constantly do it.

I don't sing 'this little piggie' (not that there is anything wrong with it) I talk about "Tickling Toes" that start with "T" you have Ten of them!

I don't make 'airplane noises' (not that there is anything wrong with it) when I want my baby to open up, I make animal noises "cows say Moooooo" (or letter ones, A says AAAA)

I don't listen when placement tests tell me 'this is not a teaching opportunity' YES IT IS! Everything is a teaching opportunity! Whether you use it or not, ALL of life is a series of teachable moments.

Just as my son sees all numbers as things to be manipulated and played with, I see all life as opportunity to share.

So yeah, I do define myself as a teacher, but not because I home-school, nor any other role I fill. I define myself as a teacher, because in 20 some years it has proven to be the thing I am best at.

But you know...I am still more than that, you would miss a large part of me if all you looked at was my teaching habits.

Just as you would miss a large part of GMC if all you looked at was his math ability.

I have been contemplating what to do with math as my children near the end of their workbooks.

First I must explain why I care about a math workbook. While we are mainly an eclectic/un-schooling family I do believe in formalish work for the 3R's - Reading wRiting, and aRithmetic.

In my experience computation requires repetitiveness so we have solid math courses. Though most of the education and such for math is done with games, daily written computation sans calculator is required. The same with writing, all the fun games, and making letters out of duplos wont help when you are filling out an application or writing a resume. As for the reading, done daily but no formal program.

So back to my need for a math program.

I found this site and had my kids take the placements for Saxon math and the free reading one.

Now for the brag...

Are you ready for what GMC placed at?

Really ready?

Algebra 1........

If you know the kid you are prolly not that surprised,he is a math genius, but I just have to say it again, Algebra 1!!!!!

I actually hunted the test because he is about to finish his Saxon 7/6 book and when I said Algebra 1 was next he said he wanted the MAth 8/7 first. I thought about compromising with the Algebra 1/2, but figured I would let the test tell him how good he was. He is a number cruncher, so he dislikes throwing letters into the mix, I prefer the logic of letters, so we shall see how much we can get Daddy to help him (Daddy is also a number cruncher)

JC placed midway between Saxon 2 and Saxon 3..mainly because she is doing Horizons math now and they do not do as much with clocks or with temperatures. That and she STILL writes numbers backwards.

I decided to try the Singapore tests for JC, and decided to try the Horizon test for UE. Tomorrow though.

Now I am off to hunt up a Saxon Algebra book for GMC (and prolly soon Singapore and something for UE)

The Girl Scouts are gearing up for World Thinking Day by studying up on Pakistan.

So far we built a model home, colored pictures of the prime ministers house, learned a bit about the culture and dress.

Next week we will be making a head scarf and decorating it with jewels.

I printed a few details about Girl Guides there, and am printing a map and 'hello' in Urdu.

The other half of my morning is googling and printing info for my Cub scout. He is earning his 'citizenship belt loop'. So he has to make a poster about what makes a good citizen. He asked for the pledge, a flag, and a recycle symbol. I insisted he have something about voting as well.

You can do anything with google and a printer

I am holding a very nice crayon drawing of a flower.

JC traced a mirror shaped like a flower, then she shaded it..really with crayon. IT has dark 'highlights' on the bottom of the leaves, and a line through the stem that sorta makes it look more real. Or at least like real art anyway.

Kinda neat, since I have no artistic talent I am often amazed by little things.

GMC meanwhile did a self portrait...with orange skin. and a miniature head compared to the rest of the body, first glance it looks like a cartoon of a shrunken head skit or something, and he comments 'I made the feet really big I guess' whitch is true, about as big as his legs, but still goes to show what a kid thinks of. The body is also a box, nearly perfect square, fingers are lines. cute picture. (JC did one earlier, her head was huge, almost as big as the rest of the body combined, less boxy)

Yesterday while working on valentines I had two thoughts.

1. UE is cute, he made a 'valentine Clementine'. because when he tried to cut out hearts they looked more like clementines (the look like scraps of orange paper really, but hey why not)

2. When do grown ups cut? When was the last time you needed to cut a shape out? I iumagine scrapbookers, and of course teachers of the very young do quite frequently. BUt my husband in computers, as far as I can tell only opens packages, or cuts labels. No fancy shapes. And looking at the jobs of all the folk I know....no special need to cut out hearts or lions in the computer field, pastors, grocery work, baking, electrical repair, medical records, nurses, masonry, ...

You get the idea. Cutting is not really much of an adult skill (unless you work with small children) So why does it bother me that my son is subpar in that area? (though improving with all the heart practice he is getting this week)