(on) The Road (to becoming a) Scholar

Excellent video: "Changing Education Paradigms"

2012-01-19T14:17:00.002-06:00

UPDATED: I removed the video from my blog. When you view it via Youtube as I had originally posted it, there are "suggested videos" that appear on the screen afterwards. One is bothersome. So I have replaced the video with a link. The video is directly on TED.com, so no offensive recommendations come after it. I apologize. I have no control over the recommendations made by Youtube.

Have you ever heard of TED.com? TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

It has grown and now there are 900 on-line presentations that are fascinating! For example, my first visit to TED was based on a Google search about math and origami. Up came a great video by Robert Lang looking at a new approach to origami that is rocking the Science world with new solutions to big problems. And then, as usual, I went down rabbit holes and came up with other treasures, like this:

Sir Ken Robinson - Changing Education Paradigms - Totally worth 12 minutes of your time
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html
Not only is he right, but my question for you is: Should we go back to our agarian methods of education or something totally new? I think it is a combination of both. We need to step off the conveyor belt and rethink our approach. Ah, the beauty of homeschooling is that we are not stuck on their conveyor belt. But how has your conveyor belt education hampered your job of educating your children?

And - the presentation style is absolutely fascinating! I wish I could do a presentation like that...I would have to work on my drawing skills!

Gone Fishin'

2012-01-18T17:19:00.001-06:00

My 6 year old has a way of keeping me on my toes. He does not want to do school anymore because it's "no fun." So, it was time to get creative.
He got a cheap dollar store fishing pole with a magnet for a hook from his sister for Christmas. Inspiration!
I got out his flashcards and had HIM put paper clips on each. (Great skill for developing fine motor skills.) Before hie could completely finish, enter two year old. She found the fishing pole and WOULD NOT give it back. She had "gone fishin'" for his flashcards. He was LIVID. The scene he created was loud.
The result of the ruckus? Enter four year old. "I want to fish, too" he declared.
I ran out to the garage and grabbed the two kiddy fishing poles we had. I cut the hooks and managed to tie slip knots on the line. I added a couple of magnets to the lines.
Four year old and six year old now were putting paper clips on Disney Princess Math flashcards for the two year old. She switched to fishing for princesses instead of reading words.
Four year old and six year old casted and fished for reading words, with four year old trying to say the letter names or sounds and six year old reading the words. Two year old was still picking up princesses.
In the end I used:

3 fishing poles (kiddie or play type with magnets on the line)
box of paper clips
flashcards

Result: three happy kids under 7, fine motor skill activity, gross motor activity (fishing), reading, letter recognition and PRINCESS recognition (don't all two year old girls need that?) :-)
What have you done for fun lately? Leave some creative ideas here. Help us all out.

Some excerpts from other books on Motivation...

2012-01-14T21:06:00.002-06:00

Quick tips from some other books I'm perusing:

Some kids are not motivated to achieve in school because they do not value the outcomes of school, nor do they enjoy completing the homework. To reverse underachievement that stems from an apparent lack of motivation, educators must first determine how to build task value into the student's scholastic experiences.
Students must believe they have the skills to perform a task before they will attempt it...The term self-efficacy is the individuals' judgment of their capacity to perform specific activities.
The way in which parents and teachers compliment students has an impact on how successful students perceive themselves. (Read Mindset for more help on that one!) Try "Good work!" rather than "You are so smart!"
If a child attempts a task and fails, they may determine, after that one attempt, that they can never succeed at that task. This logic occurs because they fail to recognize how abilities are developed.
Biblio-therapy can be great for kids who lack motivation by reading stories about famous people who have overcome hardship. (Also from Mindset.)
Believe it or not, the lack of motivation may stem from the opposite problem - lack of intellectual stimulation. This does not mean piling on MORE work. This means finding work that is challenging and of intellectual interest to the child.

Book Review: Drive:The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us

2012-01-13T17:23:00.000-06:00

Have you ever gone down a rabbit hole to find a treasure for which you were not looking? I found this book while reading through the Amazon reviews for Mindset by Carol Dweck. I had checked out the library copy and kept it passed the due date, incurring a fine close to the cost of the book. I am fully convinced I needed to own this book because it is just so good. So, while I was reading the Mindset reviews again, about to purchase the Kindle version, I came across this book. But this is not a review of Mindset. I've done that already.

This book is relevant to me because I am often asked at talks that I do or in helping other moms that are new to homeschooling how they can better motivate their children. The ratings on Amazon for this book are very high. What caught my eye was this from one of the 266 reviews:

This is a great book for teachers. As an upper elementary teacher (I've taught 4th through 7th grades, primarily 5th and 6th), I've long struggled with the emphasis on extrinsic motivation. I think that and the enormous pressure to raise test scores, thus narrowing the curriculum, are doing great damage to our children. They are told what they must learn and how they must learn it every day of their education. Their curiosity and interests are not respected and they are responding accordingly with apathy. This book is a clear, readable summary of the research of motivation and clarified many things for me. It also made me think deeply about my classroom and my practice and what it is I want for my students, which is to be able to think for themselves and love learning. Thank you, Mr. Pink, for a boost before I start another school year!

It is that age group that I believe struggles the most with motivation. And it is this time of year I need motivation.

And so now my review. I started this book this morning. It is not a long book. It is engaging, however, and my kids have enjoyed the day off due to the illness of one child (who is on the mend). All of our book clubs and activities were canceled because he was contagious until today at 5pm.

The book starts out with the thesis that Carrot and Stick motivation is dangerous. Study after study and example after example show the reasons why and the Seven Reasons that Carrots and Sticks (Often) Don't Work. My favorite part of the book is the Type I Toolkit. He spends one third of the book explaining how to create an environment that supports Intrinsic motivation over Extrinsic motivation.
Perhaps the part that hit me hardest upside the head was this:

Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement...While complying can be an effective strategy for physical survival, it's a lousy one for personal fulfillment. Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in control. Yet in our offices our classrooms we have way too much compliance and too little engagement. The former might get you through the day, but the latter will get you through the night.

I thought of this with relationship to my parenting style and homeschool environment. While obedience is a good think, I want my children to obey me because they are motivated to do it, not because of fear of punishment. I want my kids to learn because they are curious, not because they will get some "reward" for doing so or they will receive punishment if not successful. I once heard someone say at a homeschool workshop that you only need to provide extrinsic rewards for a short while before intrinsic rewards set in. I don't believe that works for my kids. Daniel Pink also provided proof that indeed, that is the case - extrinsic rewards do not lead to intrinsic motivation!

Please keep in mind this book is written more for the professional world, but there is really no reason the ideas he gives can not be used in the home and homeschool. Perhaps what appealed to me the most was that he wrote this book from the perspective of a software release, which is something to which I can relate.

I am in the process of writing two new talks. One talk is on motivation which has no title yet, but I was asked to put together for a homeschool group. The other I'm writing because of the number of requests I have had from parents about Special Needs and Special Gifts. This book will figure in heavily in the first talk and I can see it being extremely useful in helping our kids with Special Needs develop the mindset to grow and succeed even when it's difficult.

Recipe for an on-line co-schooling experience

2012-01-12T22:16:00.001-06:00

Have you ever dreamed of doing a class with another family, but are intimidated at the idea of trying to get together on a regular basis? How about doing an on-line class with another family or two? It's easy and if you are using the same curriculum, no extra books are needed!

For each family you will need:

1 computer with Skype* installed and an Internet connection
1 web cam
1 or more willing students (and one teacher)

*If more than two families are participating, ONE family will need Skype Premium.

Once both parties have installed Skype and created Skype accounts, they need to invite each other to Skype. After that is completed, you can connect to one another and start! You can lecture, discuss, have a Socratic seminar or share screens.
Did you know that if it is just a two-way conversation, you can share screens (meaning you can):

Show a presentation (done with PowerPoint or some other presentation package)
Watch a DVD together (the person with the DVD must share screens)
Watch YouTube videos or listen to audio together
Use educational games or software together

Group Screen Sharing (more than two people talking) is not available on Skype Premium for Windows unless you install Yugma or some other web conferencing tool. Group Screen Sharing IS available for MAC with Skype Premium.

If you want to check out a free on-line test service, visit examgeneral.com and sign up for a free account. Your students will need accounts, too.

I run several classes on-line (in a co-schooling manner) with three other families right now. We meet one time or more a week. Then I will assign, for certain classes, on-line quizzes.
Here's what we do every week:
3X a week - Lingua Latina
1X a week - Latina Christiana
1X a week - Earth Science for grades 5-8
1X a week - Earth Science for grades 1-3
1X a week - Catechism class
1X a week - Bible Study
1X a week - Composition class

This has been a grand experiment for me. My older kids, at 12 and 13 are interested in more social schooling, but have no desire to go to a brick and mortar school. This has given them the opportunity to study with other kids their age on topics we would cover anyway! I have the Science class for the younger kids because they think it's really cool. And, no, I am not taking any more students ;-). I have seven other students between three other families so I'm sufficiently obligated. However, if you have questions about doing this, please let me know.

Special Thanks!

2012-01-10T23:43:00.000-06:00

I wanted to thanks the members of TEAM for having me over to give the Technology in the Homeschool talk. It was not only my pleasure but my privilege to share that which my husband and I have a passion - technology!

If you have any questions, feel free to post them here and I will try to post answers for you!

Girl's Book Club Year-by-Year

2011-11-17T15:12:00.001-06:00

My oldest daughter, who helps with my middle daughter's book clubs asked an important question:
What's next for them? So, we came up a year-by-year plan. I thought I would post it here and ask for feedback.

2nd Grade
American Girl - Josephina
3rd Grade
American Girl - Felicity
4th Grade
American Girl - Kirsten and Kit
5th Grade
Anne Pellowski Series of books
6th Grade
Hilda Van Stockum - Mitchell Series & Cottage at Bantry Bay Series
7th Grade
Louisa Mae Alcott Little Women Series
8th Grade
Anne of Green Gables
9th Grade
Baroness Emmuska Orczy Books

10th Grade
Jane Austen Books

What do you think? I'll be back soon with my boy's series to see what you think of those.

Brainology: Getting Kids Past the Fixed Mindset

2011-11-03T08:26:00.001-05:00

I read Mindset by Carol Dweck last spring and have been trying to figure out how to afford this program for my two fixed mindset middle school aged kids. I reviewed the book here. Here's what Brainology is about, from the Brainology website:

Brainology^® is a research-based, blended learning curriculum that increases student motivation and engagement and instills a positive view of effort. It teaches students about the brain, how to strengthen it, and how to apply brain-friendly study skills. It helps them cultivate a growth mindset, which leads to learning-oriented behavior and higher student achievement.

Right now, homeschoolbuyersco-op.org, a free membership buying group, is offering 20-50% off the program. If you have kids that get hung up on new challenges or collapse (figuratively) when they fail, check out Brainology. This may be our "Christmas break" curriculum this year.

iPad Apps We Use

2011-10-29T09:44:00.000-05:00

I have had lots of requests for the iPad apps we use the most around here. Here's a quick and dirty list:

The Kindle App for iPad (The 13 year old and 12 year old read their CK-12 textbooks there…CK-12 is an organization that provides FREE textbooks for eReaders.) for Science, Spelling and Literature

CK-12 Earth Science Quiz App (to go with our Earth Science text from CK-12)

Spelling Test (Weekly spelling tests and quizzes)

Math Drill, Math Ninja, Rocket Math and Math Bingo

ABC Cursive

Stanza (to read pdf files)

Edupad iTooch 5^th Grade English LITE (grammar reinforcement)

TextVook Exploration (History Supplement)

GeoBee (Geography)

Ultimate History Quiz (thank you, History Channel)

RC Calendar (a part of Religion is to look up if there are any feast days and read the daily readings)

Apps that we like that are not part of school, but get used regularly:

Go Skywatch Planetarium - AWESOME app for looking at the constellations.

GoAtlantis – shows where the International Space Station is currently located, along with its flight patterns.

Intellicast.netHD – Weather forecast and current satellite images

GoogleEarth

Dragon Dictation

Apps I’ve been reviewing for use this year:

Constitution (explains the preamble and each article and section of the US Constitution)

Latin Word of the Day (Like Latin flash cards)

Pocket Latin Lite

Free Greek Essentials

Apps I use:

Google Books app

iBooks app

Kindle app

Exciting New Series (not) Coming to a Channel Near Me

2011-09-30T09:11:00.000-05:00

Father Robert Barron is one of my favorite radio personalities. He delivers a homily through his program "Word on Fire" on our local Relevant Radio station on Sundays. I rely on it because I'm struggling right now with understanding our new priest. Our new priest is lovely, but he is not from this country. I find it very difficult to concentrate enough to truly understand all he is saying during the homily. Thankfully, he writes up notes from his homily and places them in the bulletin.
Did you know that Fr. Barron was instrumental in creating a new series that is running on many PBS stations around the US? The title of the series is: Catholicism.
Lucky are they who will have portions of it aired on their local PBS station. Our local PBS affiliate is not carrying the series. I see EWTN is carrying portions, too. Has anyone seen any of the videos? I would love to hear what you think. This might be a family purchase!

Inspire, Not Require: The Handbook

2011-08-17T23:52:00.001-05:00

In reading about TJEd (Thomas Jefferson Education), have you ever been throughly frustrated by the fact that they tell you to "Inspire, Not Require," but never tell you how to do it? My friends, I think I found the answer.
Behold, the handbook. See? It's called Bringing Out the Best in Others! You can buy it for $0.01 plus shipping.

BUY IT!

NOW!

Okay, I'm done yelling at you. I feel better.

I found this little gem at the local library book sale for $0.05. It's worth so much more. This little book, presented to you as a case study of five individuals' stories about needing to motivate others, is well laid out, with examples. Particularly useful are the two examples of motivating students, one by a parent and one by an educator.

Here's a little outline of the process:

1) Expectations - The Power of the Positive
2) Responsibility (Accountability) - The Strength of Discipline
3) Feedback - The Focus of Self-Awareness
a) Motivational Feedback - Accelerating Improvement
b) Informational Feedback - Road Map to Success
c) Developmental Feedback - Course Corrections

I hope you give it a try. Let me know if you have read it and what your thoughts are. I've been applying this process with my kids lately and WOW! I can't wait to do it with school, once we're started.

School Room Tour

2011-08-11T00:57:00.005-05:00

Dorian is having a Show-n-Tell Your Homeschool Contest. Here are my submissions with descriptions. I will be mailing the photos to Dorian as I don't have a Flickr account.
Our Homeschool Room doubles as a Family Room. I have a sweet set-up, thanks to my dear hubby who loves all things techie. Here are some things you should know before I post the pictures:

We have a 40" TV that can display the output of my laptop. We also have the TV connected to a Web-connected Blu-Ray DVD player, TiVO and a surround sound. I also have the web cam rigged up there, too, so we can Skype on the big-screen. Many, but not all, our CDs and DVDs, both school and leisure, are stored in this room because this is also the Family Room.
I'm embarrassed to say that this room is FULL of books, but there are many, many more around the house. This room holds kid's books and school books.
This room also needs to accommodate a preschooler and a toddler. Hidden in the cabinets under the books and printer are all our Little People, assorted Little People accessories and assorted animals. We're considering a play mat with roads to entertain my Little People during school, but I'm not sure if we have the space!
While I only have six children, four of which are "doing" school, my school tables seat eight in total; two at each table. With the tables and the inside seating, we have spots for fifteen to sit in this room. That allows us to do book club here or in the living room. The tables are kept in place by the connectors from bulk apple juice purchased at Sam's Club and there is painters tape on the floor to indicate where the furniture belongs. I know that sounds kind of weird, but I have a rambunctious crew that moves furniture around more than I like. So, our agreement is that they can move it, but they have to move it back when they are finished.
Each school table has two chairs and a three drawer storage unit. The top drawer is for pens, pencils, etc. The middle drawer is for notebooks, papers and folders and the bottom drawer is for text books, literature books, etc. I can sit next to any of the kids if I need to work with them individually. Something not terribly evident in the picture are the two chairs sitting next to my desk. That's our "recitation bench," so to speak. If I am working with two kids (which I often do), they can come to me.
We need to have a place to accommodate some toys. The stacking unit with toys next to the book shelf is used for storing toys picked up during the day. They do go down to the toy room regularly. The Blue Bins are my favorite item from Ikea. I think we own about 50 of them.
While I am not completely set up for the new school year, our schedule is posted between the white board and world map. I also do not have my books organized for the school year, either. So much to do, so little time!
The brown chair and couch do fold open to a bed. While it's not possible to open them both at the same time in the given configuration, they do open up for fort building and fun during read a-louds.
The green chair is "Daddy's Chair." It used to be "Mommy's Chair," but since the brown furniture is "kid sized", Daddy has claimed it.
We have an interesting project on going. My older daughters are putting colored electrical tape in different combinations on the bindings of our books. This allows the littlest people to help put away books where they belong, even when they can't read. I just ordered a CueCat bar code scanner. The next project is to scan each of the books into Librarything so I have access to my list books from anywhere, like Barnes and Noble, via a smart phone AND when I recommend books, I can send people right to my bookshelf on Librarything.
Games and puzzles are put WAY UP high so that permission must be asked to use them. I just got tired of losing pieces or having games pieces turned into toys and then lost. I decided they would be put up - HIGH.
The Kitchen is off the West side (behind the white board). The bathroom is off the South side (behind the shorter dark brown book case). This makes it very convenient for quick coffee refills and potty breaks.

So, here's the tour:

The top is a shot of the North East side of the room and the bottom shot is of the South East. Along the East side I have a white board, schedule and 72" world map on the wall. Below I have a book case of little kid books, an Ikea book shelf unit turned on its side for my manipulatives, teacher's manuals and current reading materials. I also have two small Ikea computer desks in an "L" shape for my desk and storage. I have drawer units and a file cabinet tucked underneath. I have a three unit stacker next to my desk that holds three Blue Bins (Ikea) for little kid activities, Opening Time activities and miscellaneous stuff, like periodicals I'm reading.

On the North wall is the 40" TV, all the electronics to go with it, a multi-purpose printer and cabinets full of DVD's as well as manipulatives or currently-unused school materials. The picture you see on the display is Google Earth, which we frequently use for geography.

The fireplace is covered with bookshelves full of periodicals and textbooks. The magazine boxes are $1.99 for five at Ikea. We have lots of them. We've only used the fireplace two or three times since we moved here ten years ago. So, I took the space. On the other side of the fireplace is more bookshelf space full of curriculum, a duplex laser printer, the toys I mentioned for the toddler and preschooler and extra paper supplies. What you can't see on the floor in front of the cabinets are the two wicker laundry baskets used for library books. We keep them there so they don't get mixed up with our books.

This is the view to the South East. In the foreground is the "inside seating." We sit there to watch TV and do read alouds. Outside the desk area, I have two more large book cases which hold more books, games and periodicals and the toy storage area for lost toys. The bathroom is right behind the shorter bookcase.

Here' s our tape labeling project. The books are color coded by shelf with electrical tape so everyone can help put away the books.

Here's a shot of the school tables. The tables and chairs are from Ikea, of course. The white things on the tables are timers (yes, Ikea, too). My right-brained kids have NO sense of time, so setting a timer for them makes life easier for all of us. You can see the drawer units underneath the table (Ikea, again). Okay, this is beginning to sound like an Ikea commercial. We slide them under the legs to make it harder for the toddler to empty them. We also have these nifty chair covers that the kids keep their various arts-n-crafts projects in to keep them out of the desk (NOT Ikea!). Our arts-n-crafts cabinet (Ikea) is in the kitchen, though, because I want the mess on a tile floor, if there's a mess to be made. Also, it's easier to justify putting the markers and crayons away RIGHT away when the kitchen table (Ikea) needs to be clear for breakfast, lunch and bed time snack.

Lastly, the door to the basement is on the South Side. On one side it has a duty roster and on the other side I have storage (Ikea) for flashcards and dry erase supplies so the little people can't get into trouble messing with Mommy's stuff.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting!

Links for This Old Schoolhouse

2011-07-25T13:55:00.000-05:00

In This Old Schoolhouse, I talk about how the old School Marms (and Masters) provided kids in grades K-8 with an excellent education. One of the contributing factors was the curriculum. Here's what I presented in the handout about FREE, OLD curriculum.

Free “Old” Curriculum Resources:

· Books.google.com

· Archive.org (Download the ePub reader or Kindle Reader if using your PC)

· www.gutenberg.org (Download the ePub reader or Kindle Reader if using your PC)

· openlibrary.org (Download the ePub reader or Kindle Reader if using your PC)

· manybooks.net (Download the ePub reader or Kindle Reader if using your PC)

Catholic Books List with links to their locations for free or small fee:

· http://www.thinveil.net/2011/06/building-catholic-ebook-library-on.html

Ambleside – Free Charlotte Mason Curriculum:

· http://www.amblesideonline.org/index.shtml

Free Catholic Books:

· http://books.google.com/books?lr=&uid=14945307001783253416&as_coll=1001&sa=N&start=0

For-fee “Old” Curriculum Resources (Collections of old curriculum put together for you and available on CD):

· Accelerated Achievement (A2) – A K-12 curriculum based on Classical model

· Dollar Homeschool - Old curriculum, available by subject on CD (i.e. Ray’s Arithmetic, McGuffey Readers, etc.)

Linky List of Book Clubs

2011-07-25T13:36:00.003-05:00

I just went through and made a list of all the book clubs I've posted. I owe a link for one more. I will add that when its finished.

Book Club for 6-8 year old girls

Book Club for 6-9 year old girls

Book Club for 8-12 year old girls

Book Club for 9-12 year old girls

Book Club for 7-12 year old boys

Book Club for 8-13 year old boys

Book Club for 10- 13 year old boys

Great Big List of Book Clubs (Group of 4)

A Sneak Peak at Socrates Meets Homeschool Mom

2011-07-25T12:34:00.002-05:00

I did a talk about using the Socratic Method for literary analysis at RMCHEC this month. For those that attended, I had a book list available on the handouts. I didn't expect to run out of handouts. So, I'm posting some of the information here. The handouts will end up on the RMCHEC site.

First, the book list includes links to either FREE resources, the vendor link or the amazon.com entry for the resource:

Apology by Plato

Teaching the Classics by Adam and Missy Andrews

The Gift of Fire by Richard Mitchell

Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

Trivium Mastery by Diane B. Lockman

The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar and Rhetoricby Sister Miriam Joseph, C.S.C.,Ph.D.

Paideia Program by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

Classics in the Classroom by Michael C. Thompson

A Beginner’s Guide to the Socratic Seminar by Jerry Chris,Ed. D.

Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia by Bruce Murphy

Don’t forget! You can use Cliff Notes or Sparknotes AFTER you have read the book yourself.

Things to remember:

Literature Analysis:

1 Goal:

1. Teach children to understand Literature and uncover the message the Author has hidden for them. By learning more about the human condition, we grow closer to God.

2 Rules:

1. YOU must read the book.

2. Be sure YOU can answer the questions you are prepared to ask first!

3 Step Lesson Plan:

1. Read the book.

2. Discuss the book and fill in the analysis form.*

3. Write a report or paper.

Poetry:

· Take Poetry one line at a time.

· Context and Authorship is still important.

· Great opportunity to learn and start identifying Literary Style like alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, and poetry form.

Beginning Homeschooling Link List

2011-07-25T07:55:00.000-05:00

I will be adding pieces of my talk handouts, parsed and easier to understand with some context.

I mention many books and links in my Beginning Homeschooling talk. Here's the list of links:

Homeschool LegalDefense for Home Educators

CatholicHome Education resources

Literature resources

Messageboard for Catholic Charlotte Mason

FREE Catholic Charlotte Mason

Another FREE Charlotte Mason

Keepingit Catholic Links

Links toCatholic Resources

PlanningSoftware for scheduling, record keeping, etc. - FREE

Freeplanning forms for all aspects of home education

New and used homeschool materials, announcements for homeschool groups, activities, and events

Top 100 Educational Websites and tools

A greatway to keep the toddlers happy

Read aloud lists for all grades

I'll add my Socrates Meets Homeschool Mom book list next.

Back from RMCHEC with a to-do list!

2011-07-18T23:14:00.004-05:00

First of all, I wanted to thank all the attendees of my talks at RMCHEC. I brought 50 copies of hand-outs to each talk and ran out at all four! You can go to the conference site to pick up a new copy if you missed one in a few days.

I did come home with a few to-dos. I hope to catch up and have them posted this week. The list includes:

iPad apps that are actually "good"
Review of a couple of books on Learning Styles/Learning Modalities
Create a list of links for each of the talks I did (so you don't have to enter the links yourself)

An annotated list of book clubs I've run in the past, including age/grade levels
A by-learning-modality post of tips and suggestions for home educators
A by-curriculum check list for learning modalities
A short discussion of the Tactile Learner and 2e giftedness

Here's one I didn't promise, but I can save you the work of digging through the Google Books for textbooks discussed in the This Old School House talk. Check out my Google Bookshelf. Scroll down on the left side to see the book organized by subject. Once I move them to the subject shelf, I move them off my main bookshelf. I will be organizing the bookshelf this week by subject.

This will probably take more than a week to get the to-do's done, and given I've been gone for days, I have to catch up on the home front first. Laundry does NOT do it self, it appears.

Again, I want to thank all the folks in Colorado for the absolutely warm and wonderful treatment. I hope I have the opportunity to visit you all again!

p.s. If I've missed something or you would like to add something to my list from the talks this weekend, please feel free to add them to the com-box.

RMCHEC - Day 1

2011-07-15T22:39:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful day in Denver! The Rocky Mountains are stunning and I just couldn't do them justice with my cell phone camera. So, no pictures. Sorry.

My first talk went great and I had the great pleasure of spending time with Maureen Wittmann and her lovely daughter, Laura. I also got to hear Dr. Ted Sri give a presentation on his book The Biblical Walk Through the Mass. Our parish offered a study of the book using Ascension Press' Study Guide and our host was Jeff Cavins. He's no slouch. However, hearing Dr. Sri's words about the book were very powerful. He's an animated speaker and totally in love with our Catholic Faith. What a blessing. He and his wife also homeschool their six children. Our venue was the location at which he video recorded the DVD Study Program. I'm tempted to purchase it since it's $25 less here than on Amazon!

Speaking of spending money. I found some great finds at the used curriculum table. I found the Teaching Company's Great Course on the Iliad for $4. That's right $4. I also picked up a couple of presents for my kids. Kids, if you are reading this, you will have to wait until I get home! Oh, I could spend more money, but I will be so busy tomorrow doing three talks, I will not have time to cruise the vendor floor.

The talks tomorrow are: This Old School House, Socrates Meets Homeschool Mom and How to Get Your Kid To See the Light! I can't wait and must sign off now to get a good nights sleep.

Good night from Denver!

Deadlines

2011-06-22T23:19:00.002-05:00

As some of you may know (or not), I'm speaking in Denver, CO at the Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educator's Conference in July. I'm giving four talks. I'll be updating the sidebar (of available talks) after Denver, but I thought I'd give you a preview.

I'll be adjusting my Beginning Homeschool talk to remove the Minnesota demographics and Minnesota reporting requirements. I'm also giving my very favorite talk on Learning Modalities (How to Get Your Kid to See the Light). I'm updating it with a new style. My husband and I produced our technology talk using the Presentation Zen method. I then upgraded my Beginning Homeschool talk to that format and I'm SO hooked. Love the method. I hope my audience does as well. I'll write more about that later.

My two new talks are exciting for me. The first one I've been working on for about three years, even though I haven't had a gig at which to present it. I am so in love with using the Socratic Method for literary analysis. I have been having Socratic Dialogues (also known here as book clubs) since 2007. For the last four years, I have anywhere from six to sixteen kids here on Fridays discussing books. I have done entire series of books on many topics. I love picking Catholic books, but it has not been my primary focus. Mostly, we've done author studies. I pick an author and we spend the year reading books by that author. It's actually great for the kids to do this because the concepts of "authorship", "context", and "literary style" become so evident after reading four or five books by the same author. In fact, many kids have thanked me for the opportunity to do that very thing because they then begin to see patterns. They understand how the time an author lived, and their very life influences the "setting", "theme", and "conflict" in the story. I struggle between making them really think things out about a particular topic and wanting to go through the book chronologically. So, my talk "Socrates Meets Homeschool Mom" will be a lot of fun. It involves not just Socrates but also Tomie dePaola and Robert Frost. How's that for a cliff hanger?

My second talk is something I've always talked about with my family. That is how my homeschool is really a one-room schoolhouse. I've always sought advice from my mom, grandma, mother-in-law and others that attended one-room schools about how classes were managed, discipline, curriculum and character development. I've gotten great feedback and now I get to tie in about 50 hours of research on top of that feedback. I also get to share real data I have from my grandmother-in-law who was a one-room school teacher before she married my grandfather-in-law. I have found some great examples of curriculum from the 19th century that actually puts some current curriculum to shame. And, I will be talking about the 8th grade examination and how kids would fare these days taking that very test. One of my greatest finds is a book written in 1922 called _The Rural Problem and the Catholic School_ by T. Leo Keaveny which talks about what Catholic schools in rural areas. I will be talking to Catholic homes educators, so there are many tidbits I can take away from this on running Catholic schools in rural areas that apply to our Catholic homeschools. One of the many sources sited is Archbishop John Ireland, the founder of the Archdiocese of St. Paul (my home diocese.) I can't wait to present this topic because there is so much great that we can learn from those one-room school teachers!

So, with all this said and lots of fun stuff ahead of me like refreshing the slides for my learning modalities talk and finishing hand outs for my other talks which are due in eight days, I will be taking a short blog vacation unless something so fabulous pops up between now and then. Okay, I MIGHT have to give a report on Saturday about the class I'm taking Friday night (taught by a Latin professor from Temple University), but other than that I'll be off finishing off my handouts and making my presentations minimal (really.)

I hesitate to tell you the truth, but it must be told.

2011-06-11T15:18:00.001-05:00

Have you thought the books of Plato are above you? Perhaps you thought it would take too long? Maybe you don't think you need to read Plato, but have you given him a chance? If not, why?

A Classical Education encourages one to understand our Western Civilization from the roots up and that includes the writings of the Greeks. I thought I would have a hard time understanding it. I thought "what would I learn that I haven't read somewhere else?"

If you have not read Plato, I implore you to take one hour and read, what I believe to be the most important piece he's written, as it pertains to our vocation as home educators. You should read Plato's Apology. What is stopping you? It is not an apology in our everyday understanding of the word. It is apologetics, the defense of a belief. This very brief writing is an account of the trial of Socrates in 399BC.

Plato’s account of the examination of Socrates have so influenced thought in the more than two thousand years since Socrates’s death, that Alfred North Whitehead said the entire history of western thought is nothing but a series of footnotes to Plato. It is by this careful, questioning examination that we learn and influence our souls and minds.

Socrates didn't write. Any accounts we have of Socrates are from the writings from Plato. From these writings, we learn the methods of Socrates and his main contention:

Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy exhorting anyone whom I met after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this? And if the person with whom I am arguing says: Yes, but I do care; I do not depart or let him go at once; I interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue, but only says he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater and overvaluing the less. -Plato, Apology

The Socratic method is Socrates' gentle way of respectful questioning to search for the truth and to achieve an improvement of the soul. This method can be applied to any subject.

“The unexamined life,” Socrates said, “is not worth living.”

Mortimer Adler, in his "Paideia Proposal" (Paideia means "nurturing the whole child") suggests taking one entire day per week for nothing but Socratic Seminars. A Socratic Seminar is dedicated time to ponder and question a particular subject, topic or literary work. If you could employ one tactic to ensure your children learn to care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of their souls, take time for a Socratic Seminar. I recently spoke to the headmaster of a prestigious, Catholic high school in our area. He firmly believes the capstone of a Classical Education is the Socratic Seminar. So you wonder, how do you, a homeschool mom pull it off?

Perhaps the possibility of getting a group of students together to discuss a topic or work of literature just doesn't exist for you. That would be the ideal way to pull off a Socratic Seminar. Maybe you could employ the Socratic Method within your regular school day instead.

If you are unfamiliar with this method, I would encourage you to take the time to read Plato's Apology. Read it twice. Read it three times. It won't take you long. It's only 30 pages in it's entirety. You won't regret it and you will understand why it's imperative to use the Socratic Method with your child. If I can't convince you, let Socrates. The next time your child asks you a question about something they are working on, even a Math question, instead of giving the answer, take the time to ask questions and help the child find the answer on their own, with your gentle guidance. Like Socrates.

I hesitate to tell you the truth, but it must be told. - Plato, Apology

p.s. If you would like to see the Socratic Method in action, watch the 1973 movie "The Paper Chase."
p.p.s. A copy of the Apology is available on line here.

iPad NO Disorder

2011-06-07T19:54:00.001-05:00

This is all in humor. Really.

One child, tonight at the dinner table, started displaying this problem. When asked a question, to which the answer was no, he proceeded to swiped one finger across his face, drawing his head to the side. He let go and then wiggled his head side to side.

On the iPad, if it thinks you are moving an icon, all the icons will wiggle side-to-side until you hit the back button. My kids sometimes do this in error and have named that the "no" function because you can't do anything while the icons are "shaking their heads" back and forth at you.

So, after this, all the kids over 5 are now doing the one finger sweep across their face and the side-to-side wiggle to indicate no. iPad what have you done?

Alternatives to Wikipedia

2011-06-06T18:45:00.000-05:00

Those that attended our workshop on Technology in the Homeschool know we don't recommend Wikipedia for use by kids. If you didn't attend, perhaps you are wondering why. Let me give you a "lite" example.

Let's say your child hears the word "fetish" and puts it into Wikipedia. We must first remember that Wikipedia is maintained by the world, so it is therefore, worldly. I don't know about you, but I don't feel comfortable with my kid reading the world's perception of fetish. What is more dangerous than that, though, is where the information will lead them. As you know, you can keep clicking and clicking to delve deeper into subjects as you go along. Do you really want your child to dig deeper into what that means? I don't. Period. The End. They can do what I did with words like that when I was a kid...sneak the dictionary and look it up themselves. At least there aren't hyperlinks at the end that SHOW what a fetish might be about and look like. Yikes!

Now, a parent mentioned to my husband that he uses Wikipedia at the table during dinner discussions. He had no idea. That practice would be okay to me, if the parent was driving and sharing the information rather than the child driving the computer and following link after link. So, when Wikipedia is used by a parent for the purpose of sharing information, that is a different story. Kids shouldn't be using it by themselves.

So, when asked if I could give alternatives to Wikipedia, I suggested Encyclopedia Britannica Online. We jokingly suggested we needed a Catholicpedia, but something close does exist. I decided to look up alternatives. Here they are:

Conservapedia
Conservapedia is a conservative, Christian-influenced wiki encyclopedia that was created as a response to Wikipedia's worldview. The information found on this site is free of foul language, sexual topics and anything else deemed offensive by the site's editorial staff. If you feel that Wikipedia shows a strong bias toward liberal views, then this site may suit your needs. All Conservapedia users are asked to follow the site's seven Commandments.
Scholarpedia
Scholarpedia is a site made from the same software as Wikipedia. It almost appears like a mirror site, but there are some significant differences. Scholarpedia is written by scholars. Experts must be either invited or elected before they are assigned certain topics. The site is still editable by anyone like a wiki but updates must first be approved before they are made final.
Encyclopedia Britannica Online
This is my "for pay" recommendation. When it comes to trusted and unbiased facts, this site is your best option. Every volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica has been transferred to Web format. All updates to the site's entries are made by professionals. This is not a wiki community. Unfortunately, it's also not free. A subscription fee of $69.95 a year will give you full access and is cheaper and easier to store than a set of book encyclopedias. Major universities will accept the site as a reliable source when citing information in a research paper, something unlike Wikipedia.
MSN Encarta
MSN Encarta is another online encyclopedia. All entries have been written and fact-checked by professionals. It, too, requires users to pay a subscription fee. For $29.95 a year, you can access MSN Encarta in its entirety, including the site's accompanying thesaurus, world atlas and other research tools for students.
Infoplease
Infoplease is a free online encyclopedia that is a part of Pearson Education, the largest educational book distributor in the world. All of the information found on the site is gathered from trusted sources. Although entries may be limited in size when compared to Wikipedia, you can be sure that all the information is accurate and incapable of being influenced by outside users. Also, Infoplease has many multimedia features that assist researchers, particularly students who are attending distance education courses.

Challenge Based Learning

2011-06-05T13:39:00.001-05:00

My husband, an Eagle Scout, and I were talking last night how much the Challenge Based Learning is like an Eagle Scout Project.

Eagle Scout rank is earned after completing a series of merit badges, various other ranks and completion of a project. The project is community service based. They have no other guidance than it needs to be community service.

They have to pick a project, research how to do it, plan its execution, manage the execution, document what was done and then present the project to a board of review. That, in a nut shell, is what challenge based learning is all about.

So, the next question is - what can my child do as a challenge based learning project? Well, there are a variety of community service projects that would qualify, and there are religion/social justice projects galore. The beautiful part is getting your child started and letting them go after something that is of interest to them. When they are personally invested, they take ownership and want to succeed.

We're going to start some challenge based learning here. Their first attempt will be small scale. It must be something they can accomplish on their own. After trying it solo, I will be having the kids work with others (either through BSA, AHG or other homeschoolers) to develop their collaboration skills.

What could you have your kids do?

I've started a list which is based on the Corporal Works of Mercy. This would also be a great confirmation service hour project.

Corporal Works of Mercy

Feed the hungry
Give drink to the thirsty
Clothe the naked
Shelter the homeless
Visit the sick
Visit those in prison
Bury the dead

Technology in the Homeschool: To Boldly Go Where No Homeschool Has Gone Before

2011-06-04T23:58:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I would like to thank those who attended our presentation today on Technology in the Homeschool. As promised, here are our links. Enjoy.

NETS STANDARDS (http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx):

Digital Citizenship

http://www.ncpc.org/resources/files/pdf/internet-safety/?searchterm=internet%20safety

http://www.gomcgruff.com/

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

http://ikeepsafe.org/

http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec04.pdf

http://www.onguardonline.gov/

http://www.katyisd.org/parents/Documents/Digital%20Library.pdf

http://web2011.discoveryeducation.com/

http://opendns.org

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/internetsafety

http://itsallaboutcharacter.com

Research and Information Fluency

http://www.diigo.com/

http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

http://www.studygs.net/research.htm

http://infomine.ucr.edu/

http://www.ipl.org/

http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/

http://google.com/

http://bing.com/

Creativity and Innovation

http://goanimate.com/

Storytelling Alice - http://www.alice.org/kelleher/storytelling/

Ruby - http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/

Sandbox - http://sandboxgamemaker.com/what-is-sandbox.html

Scratch - http://scratch.mit.edu/

Python - http://www.python.org/

Java - http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/java/index.html

Shoes - http://www.supershareware.com/basic-edition-shoes-free/

Logo - http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/

http://w3schools.com/ - learn to program in almost any language

http://www.creax.net/

Technology Operations and Concepts

http://www.gcflearnfree.org

http://csunplugged.org/

http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Jefferson_HS/lscomp.htm

http://h30187.www3.hp.com/

http://www.zencollegelife.com/50-free-computer-science-classes-online/

http://www.intelligentedu.com/cat1-computer-hardware.html

http://u.about.com

http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/

http://www.openoffice.org

http://www.google.com/options/

http://sites.google.com/site/cliotech/google-docs

http://learnthat.com/computers

http://educationonlineforcomputers.com

Communication and Collaboration

http://www.edmodo.com

http://edu.glogster.com/

http://p2pu.org/

http://www.nixty.com/

http://Iuniv.tv

http://www.ocwsearch.com/

http://www.ning.com

http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/

Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making

http://ali.apple.com/cbl/index.html

http://www.bie.org/

http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning

http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/

http://www.bie.org/index.php/site/PBL/pbl_handbook_introduction/#standards

Textbooks free online:

http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/

http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/

10 Digital Commandments for Kids

I promise to follow these commandments while using gadgets, phones and the Internet to keep my family, my friends and myself safe:

1) My parents will decide when I am allowed to use the computer, cell phone, gaming system and the Internet. I promise not to nag or ask for more time. I will only visit places they say I can and do things we agree are appropriate.

2) I will never tell anyone that I am home alone, give out my last name, home address, phone number, parent’s work or work phone numbers to anyone without getting my parent’s permission first! I will also keep this information about my friends as private as I keep my own information.

3) If anyone does or says anything that bothers me, I will tell my parents. I will not use bad language, say bad things about others or send mean messages. I will tell my parents if someone does any of those things to me. If I use code words online, I will tell my parents what they mean.

4) I will never post or send pictures of myself, my family or friends when I use email, instant messaging, chats or on web sites. If I set up a blog or online profile, I will tell my parents where it is and how they can read it.

5) I will never, ever meet with anyone I’ve talked with online without first talking to my parents.

6) If my parents ask for my password, I will give it to them. I will never give out my password or any others that I know to anyone, not even my friends or others besides my parents.

7) If I want to download anything (applications, games, music, movies or programs), I will ask for permission FIRST. I know I must pay for these things. If I take them I am stealing.

8) I will not try to win free things or buy things on my phone or on the Internet. If I get a message that I have won something, I will show my parents. If I ever get an email asking me to enter my password or other private information, I will ask my parents FIRST. I will not forward emails or messages that tell me bad stuff will happen to me if I do not forward them.

9) I will not open any of my parents’ files. I will not change any settings or install any new software without my parents’ permission.

10) I give my parents’ permission to look on the computer, at my phone or any other device to see where I have gone on the Internet, what emails and text messages I’ve sent and received, the things I’ve downloaded or what I do. I will not erase my browsing history or record of sent messages. If my parents install programs that track what I do on the computer or limit where I go online or on my phone, I promise not to turn them off or alter them. I will not close a window when my parents come into the room to hide something I’m viewing.

Child’s Signature	Parent’s Signature
I have read the above and follow these rules. If I do not make good choices, I understand I will lose the privilege to use electronic devices and the Internet based on my own decision not to follow the above rules.	I agree to let my child use electronics so long as these they make good choices and follow these rules.

10 Digital Commandments for Kids modified from www.KimKomando.com where you will find LOTS of great resources for parents keeping kids safe on the Internet. http://www.komando.com/kids/parent-tips.aspx

10 Things You Can Do Right Away to Use Technology Safely

1) Start using Opendns on your computers. Install monitoring software like McGruff Safeguard. Lock down YouTube and Google with SafeSearch.

2) Have your kids read and sign the 10 Digital Commandments. Explain Good Choice, Poor Choice and Your Choice.

3) Password protect all PCs and make sure they are in a public location where everyone can see (not in bedrooms).

4) Create accounts for your kids separate from yours. Give your account admin rights and don’t give admin rights to the kids.

5) If your kids have Facebook accounts (or any other social networking accounts), get one yourself, friend your kids and get their account info and passwords.

6) Find a smart friend in your support network who can help you make your equipment more secure.

7) If you have Internet anxiety, set up a pc for your kids to use that is not connected to the Internet for typing software, word processing, and other computer software.

8) Have your kids start using Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or GoogleDocs to do their homework.

9) Consider using a service like www.mediafire.com to back up your data.

10) Set up a Yahoo! Group to get your feet wet in collaborative schooling and invite another homeschooling family to join you.

Follow Up to Theraputic Listening

2011-05-27T15:09:00.000-05:00

In December, I posted that I was starting one of my children on The Listening Progam, a theraputic listening program for auditory processing disorders. I preceded symptoms on a check list with X's on it representing areas in which I though the LP could help. I've now remarked it with an O if the problem is significantly better or gone.
X 1. Difficulty paying attention
X 2. Poor short-term memory
0X 3. Poor reading comprehension
0X 4. Difficulties spelling
0X 5. Low academic/job performance
X 6. Difficulty starting and/or completing projects
0X 7. Easily distracted in presence of background noise
8. Is oversensitive to certain sounds
0X 9. Misunderstands directions or instructions
0X 10. Confuses similar sounding words
    11. Difficulty understanding jokes/puns/humor
0X 12. Frequently asks “huh” or “what”
0X 13. Difficulty discriminating sounds
    14. Flat and monotonous voice quality
    15. Speech lacks fluency and rhythm
0X 16. Difficulty sounding out words
0X 17. Mispronounces words
0X 18. Difficulty summarizing a story/expressing thoughts
X 19. Hyperactivity
   20. Has poor posture, including slouching or slumping
   21. Has coordination problems
X 22. Difficulty with organization and planning
   23. Is overwhelmed with sensory information
   24. Confusion of right and left and/or location and direction
25. Lack of tactfulness
26. Poor social skills
0X 27. Feels overburdened with everyday tasks
28. Low stress/frustration tolerance
29. Difficulty reading non-verbal communication
30. Poor self-image or low self-confidence '

It took us 20 weeks to get through the program with a few fits and starts in between. The progress has been significant, especially in the area of spelling.

Confessions of a former Apple Hater...

2011-05-22T18:30:00.000-05:00

My technical background is in Unix. In case you don't know what Unix is, it is an operating system. It is one of the most configurable, useful, versatile, multi-processing, multi-threaded operating systems around and there are as many flavors of Unix as there are ice cream. I'm a certifed, card-carrying Unix System Administrator and Network Administrator. I taught Unix and Network Administration for 10 years or so. I was even a system administrator on a Cray supercomputer once. Part of what comes with being a Unix geek is a, well, ummmm, rather bigoted opinion about operating systems and hardware platforms. Really, I had almost convinced my husband to install Linux on our home PC, but he rightfully reminded me there were no apps to run on it (this was back pre-Java and OpenOffice.)

I've since been talked off the ledge and brought into the Windows world (albeit kicking and screaming.) And then there was that time between baby number two and baby number three where I got to develop and teach a post secondary degree program on Unix System and Network administration. I got to work with a real operating system again. Those were the days...

But, since baby number three came along more than eight years ago, my use of Unix has been limited to a short summer job helping configure and specify Unix equipment for a local reseller and the Linux running on our old EEE PC. It's a shame, too. Because I feel like I've lost something.

Here's my confession. After the announcement of the iPad 2, we made a joint decision (the boss and I) to buy an iPad 1 (refurbished.) We had many, many reasons for doing so, but I was expecting to be very disappointed. It was an apple, after all. Much lower down there than a Windows device. I.WAS.SO.WRONG. The iPad is a game changer. Really it is. What I have to clarify, though, is that it is a consumption device, not a production device. What does that mean? If you are taking in data (video, playing an app, music, browsing, etc.) the iPad is the most intuitive, approachable, well thought-out device I've ever seen. It is not, however, a device to do wordprocessing or spreadsheets. My 22 month old daughter could use it without instruction. What is up with that? My kids have to earn screen time, which they share with the now almost two year old. But, really? She gets it? I am amazed at the draw it has for all of us in our house, this Unix geek included.

I'll close with one last thought on the iPad. One of our many reasons for buying it was for testing out whether the iPad was a viable device for home education. It's so much more than that. When my kids are FIGHTING to have 10 minutes of time to do math drills, I think we are on to something (especially when similar drills are available on the PC.)

How are NETS, CBL and PBL related?

2011-05-22T08:36:00.000-05:00

I wanted to put out a little preview about what our Technology in the Homeschool talk will cover for those checking in from the Minnesota Catholic Home Educators Conference happening on June 3-4.

We'll be talking about using the National Education Technology Standards (NETS)to put technology into your core classes, and preparing your middle through high schoolers for real-world, 21st Century problems using Challenge Based Learning (CBL) and its close cousin, Problem Based Learning (PBL). Within those concepts, we will also explore technology platforms, on-line safety, and social networking. All of those items are addressed within NETS*S.

I'm guessing you all have an idea about our State Education Standards. NETS follows the same concept. However, those who are familiar with TJEd, will really get CBL and PBL. Think about Scholar phase. On what does a scholar work? They are working on a specific topic of interest, reading and writing about it more like an MBA student than a high school student. It is depth. The belief is that by studying a topic deeply, developing an expert level of understanding, naturally draws the scholar into deeper study of other core subjects. CBL and PBL do that as well as tying in technology.

What does this all mean to the homeschooler? I will be talking about how to incorporated technology into your core classes and even take it a step further, showing how CBL/PBL naturally incorporated core classes into technology.

Hope to see you there!

Do You Moodle?

2011-05-04T01:57:00.000-05:00

I'm curious if anyone in the home education community uses Moodle? Moodle is a social learning tool that is FREE and akin to using Lego blocks for building. Moodle is a platform with many different "blocks" that allow the teacher to design a learning environment that is engaging and on-line. My mind reels with the possibility.

You see, I'm all about sharing. Really, I am. That is why I do many, many book clubs and invite others into my house for classes or co-schooling. What I'm curious about is if I created classes using Moodle, would others be interested in using it. For free. If I build it, will they come?

I am not a fan of social networking unless its controlled. By controlled, I mean you join a group of like-minded individuals, passwords and authentication is required. Not just everyone can browse your profile or "ask to be your friend," Participants must be invited or if they ask to join, must be approved. I'm not an elitist. I'm just careful.

I'm really curious. Please leave a note in the combox about how you feel about social, interactive learning. I would like to know whether Catholic Home Education content I created would be of interest to others...

Love of Learning - Dweck Style

2011-05-02T12:13:00.000-05:00

My current library read is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. I got it after researching the difference between gifted learners and non-gifted learners. There are two schools of thought on intelligence. One - IQ doesn't move and you can never get smarter than you are (or better at anything than your natural ability.) Two - you have to work hard at something. If you don't get it right away, keep working. Practice. Don't give up. I'm sure it is a little of both, but we all know that practice is necessary to be come an expert an anything. I wrote about the 10,000 hour phenomena a while back.

What I was more interested in was finding out what turns a kid off of learning and success. What can a parent or teacher do? We often, unconsciously, use language that paralyzes our children. We assume the praise is helpful, but instead it can build barriers. Sometimes frustration appears because a child feels something is "too easy" but when given a challenge gives up. Some people have a "can do" attitude while others have an "I could never do that" attitude. Dweck studied this phenomenon for 15 years. I was interested in how my interactions with my kids was affected by my reactions to their success. So, I reserved the book.

Dweck's studies found there are two prevalent mindsets: fixed and growth. A fixed mindset says something like, "Oh, they think I'm smart in Math. If the problem is too hard and I can't do that they won't think I'm smart in Math anymore..." Whereas a growth mindset says, "Oh! I didn't get this the first time. I must need to practice to understand it better."

Ultimately, her book agrees with Talent Education (that of Suzuki), TJEd (Love of Learning) and the 10,000 Hour Phenomona. Here's a synopsis:

World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea–the power of our mindset. Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success–but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn’t foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals–personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area. “If you manage any people or if you are a parent (which is a form of managing people), drop everything and read Mindset.” –Guy Kawasaki, author of _The Art of the Start _and the blog _How to Change the World_ "Highly recommended . . . an essential read for parents, teachers [and] coaches . . . as well as for those who would like to increase their own feelings of success and fulfillment.” _–Library Journal (_starred review) “A serious, practical book. Dweck’s overall assertion that rigid thinking benefits no one, least of all yourself, and that a change of mind is always possible, is welcome.” _–Publishers Weekly_ “A good book is one whose advice you believe. A great book is one whose advice you follow. This is a book that can change your life.” –Robert J. Sternberg, author of _Teaching for Successful Intelligence_ “A wonderfully elegant idea . . . It is a great book.” –Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., author of _Delivered from Distraction_

So, if you are struggling with "Inspire, not Require," I highly recommend this book, especially the chapter written for Parents, Teachers and Coaches. I attribute my turnaround in school in the 6th grade to Ms. Kunz, who challenged me to do better because she knew I was a hard worker, unlike the teachers up to that point who told me I was too smart to be doing so poorly.

A few book suggestions

2011-04-15T08:17:00.001-05:00

I went book shopping at Border's Going-Out-of-Business sale. I didn't expect to find much (and neither did my husband, which is why I think he let me go ;-) but I did. I saved 60%. I've only browsed most of them, but started reading Here's Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos, which is a fun, Right-Brain way of looking at Math. Anyone who loves Math will love it, too. I'm only through the first chapter so far and loving it (I love Math, though!)

CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION! The following was a book I bought for me. I do NOT recommend it, but I cannot return it and thought that I would warn you so you don't make the same mistake as me (even though you probably wouldn't.) It is NOT for children's eyes as I realized after I got it home that it has some adult language in it. The book is called X-Treme Latin: All the Latin You Need to Know For Surviving the 21st Century by Henry Beard I'm not a visual person, so I did not even notice the picture on the front was of Roman soldiers making several offensive hand gestures. See, I told you you would never make that mistake. Seriously, I am so not a visual person that just missed me. What sold me was the chapter entitled "Latin for Trekkies" as my kiddos and husband are big Star Trek fans. While it is a shame I cannot return it (due to the foul language and cover art), there is some really funny stuff in there that I WILL give my kids to translate as they get further on in their Latin studies because they appreciate humor like this for when we're studying Roman History (like the books never written in Boy's Life Magazine):

Semper, Gallia C. Iulius Caesar scripsit (translation - Toujours, Gaul by Julius Caeser)

E Troia Viri, Ex Graecia Feminae Oriuntur P. Virgilius Maro scripsit (translation Men Are from Troy, Women Are from Greece by Virgil)

Let's just call it making lemonade out of lemons, shall we?

Next is for my son, who when he approaches his fellow scouts with a particular look on his face hears, "Nate's random fact time!" We all know the look. And I just gave him some more material. My education background is in Physics (lasers and fiber optics, actually). So, anything that will get my kids interested in Physics is a go, especially when it's 60% off. The Instant Physicist: An Illustrated Guide by Richard A. Muller is a hoot and information packed to boot. My kids found out that organic food causes cancer because the produce that is naturally resistant to bugs (cause it kills the bugs and pests that eat it) is because it contains certain poisons, that when we eat enough of them build up in our system. Produce naturally resistant to pests contains natural poisons as a protection mechanism. While eating a little won't kill us (because we're a lot bigger than a bug), eventually it might. So, see? You just learned something to!

In high school, I did everything I could to avoid biology. Not because I didn't want to dissect a frog. I did that in Anatomy and Physiology along with cow eye balls, fetal pigs and some-animal-I-can't-remember hearts. I did it because it was a repeat of what I had learned in 7th and 8th grade Science (and I knew already.) I am a Science girl, if I'm anything, so I just really didn't want to take it. I took Ecology instead of Biology. That was fun because we mucked around in ponds and creeks taking fish samples. So, I really appreciated both the conciseness of the following book and the humor. Painless Life Science by Joyce Thorton Barry (for which I can't find an Amazon link, so I used the Biology link instead) is a hoot. It's totally right brained with funny illustrations, hints and quizzes. It will be our 7th/8th grade Science class next year before we move into serious Science. I will use that and the Earth Science book.

There are more I will have to chronicle later. The trip was a treat because I brought a good friend with me who also home schools her five children.

Lastly, I did want to tell you that I just finished Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo I loved it. As a Catholic, I was not surprised that this little book that tells the story of a boy's three minutes in Heaven with Jesus, would not talk of Purgatory. However, it's credible (putting on my logic glasses) as it's clear in the book that God's time is not the same as Earth time. I really enjoyed the story. I will be reading it aloud to my kids and we will be discussing it within the framework of Catholicism. It's an easy read and the chapters were short, making for a good read-aloud book in our house.

Finally: A Review of 10 Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child

2011-03-24T08:54:00.000-05:00

Late January, I mentioned this book. I finished it a couple of weeks ago, then 2/3 of my children got sick. So, this review was put on hold until life started to resume some kind of normalcy.

Anthony Esolen has a biting style similarly adopted by C. S. Lewis in Screwtape Letters. The premise of his book is to give you a list of 10 premises that will destroy your child's imagination. Of course the book is actually full of bits and pieces of beautiful classical literature and ideas that one would never want their child to read should they want them to mature into a thinking adult! Heaven forbid!

What I think I loved most about this book was that it gave words to me to explain several things I have always inherently felt, but could not articulate. One example is why, oh why, boys don't want to altar serve anymore now that girls are doing it (in a parish that allows both genders the opportunity.) Really, I've always felt it was important for boys to be up on the altar and had even resisted the possibility of having my daughter serve. Upon reading this and sharing it with my husband, we've pulled our daughter from that activity. No spoilers, sorry.

So here is a list. I assure you he offers many ways to counter these methods throughout the book:

Method 1: Keep Your Children Indoors as Much as Possible (or They Used to Call It "Air")
Method 2: Never Leave Children to Themselves (or If Only We Had a Committee)
Method 3: Keep Children Away from Machines and Machinists (or All Unauthorized Personnel Prohibited)
Method 4: Replace the Fairy Tale with Political Clichés and Fads (or Vote Early and Often)
Method 5: Cast Aspersions upon the Heroic and Patriotic (or We Are All Traitors Now)
Method 6: Cut All Heroes Down to Size (or Pottering with the Puny)
Method 7: Reduce All Talk of Love to Narcissism and Sex (or Insert Tab A into Slot B)
Method 8: Level Distinctions between Man and Woman (or Spay and Geld)
Method 9: Distract the Child with the Shallow and Unreal (or The Kingdom of Noise)
Method 10: Deny the Transcendent (or Fix Above the Heads of Men the Lowest Ceiling of All)

I was initially drawn to this book after reading Wall Street Journal editorial contrasting this book with a book written by Amy Chu, Battle Hymm of the Tiger Mother which I do not recommend if you are looking to raise thinkers. But perhaps it was more reviews like this that really drew me in:

"This book made me want to jump up (very high) and cheer, or run around (very far) and shout warnings. The best way I can think of to save Western culture, next to everyone deciding to become saints, would be for all educators to take this uncommonly commonsensical book to heart. A worthy successor to C. S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man." -- Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy, Boston College

I started reading his book on Western Civilization while the kids were sick and LOVE IT. I had no good education in history, so reading this book has been both enlightening and entertaining. I got my copy from the library, but the hubby insisted I buy a copy after reading a few selected sections.

When I get around to reading Dante, it is Esolen's translations I will seek.

Keeping Latin Interesting

2011-03-01T21:42:00.001-06:00

We have five Latin students at our house. The Kindergartener and Second Grader are no longer enjoying, but rather enduring Song School Latin. The Kindergarter, who has an impeccable ability to memorize things, has all the songs memorized, but does not have the attention span to sit and do book work. The Second Grader is still working through some other issues and has dropped doing the workbook in order to keep up on other things. She's impetuous and loves something while it's new, but the second it becomes "work," she's over it. That's life with a Second Grader.

The other three students are the Sixth and Seventh Graders along with me. I have not had the ability to "keep up" with them. One of my children is gifted and despises repetition and has found this Latin program (Latina Christiana I) to be extremely boring. The other finds it an adequate challenge, although, I sense they, too, could progress much faster than I had planned. I need to make time to get "caught up" because they are going to blow past me and I want to be able to help them. I love learning Latin.

So, a good friend of mine, who is a smarty pants (and I love her for it), gave me some great suggestions for "spicing up" Latin. Is that possible? I thought it was pretty exciting, myself. Here are a few suggestions:

Start a Latin Journal - give the child a translation assignment each day like "Write what you had for breakfast in Latin." Or, "Write the date in Latin and describe the day's weather."
Work on Latin translation - Find stories in Latin and work through translating them.
Get some of the kids' books written in Latin for them to read aloud to the other children.
Translate some popular current sayings into Latin.
Translate comics into Latin or vice versa.

She also pointed me to a great web site. If you are interested in improving your Latin skills, check out this blog.
I will be doing these as well as exploring Our Latin and Greek Roots with all the kids (as a read aloud.) It's actually a short, seven Unit book exploring the origins of many of our vocabulary words. It will also look at Roman and Greek history, as well.

I'll also be throwing in a study of Gregorian Chant with Lingua Angelica from Memoria Press. I love Gregorian Chant and this program has 4 prayers and 12 hymns for students to translate. Lingua Angelica II has another 12 hymns. I'll be looking for that on the used market.

Those children who are interested will be starting Orberg's Lingua Latina on top of LC I. I'm not sure who will do it (me, and both the older students or just one of them.) We'll start off with Familia Romana and work our way from there. These are Latin texts that need to be translated, but don't require translation. It's called the direct method whereby the child learns the Latin "per se". The text and diagrams are almost self-evident, making the translation quite easy. I think this will be a good challenge for all of us. The kids loved Minimus and have worked their way through translating the entire story by themselves, for fun. I think this will be enjoyable and it was a recommendation from many parents who participate in a Yahoo! Group on Latin Centered Curriculum. If I can find the money, we will also pick up Minimus Secundus. The kids cannot resist Minimus.

Lastly, one of my children has asked me to do a "Latin Club" next year. I don't know how I can say no when I relentlessly remind them how important learning Latin is for their education. Said child came up with a list of things to do at club meetings from doing plays to translating fables. I will have to see how I figure this in with schooling five kids next year (the soon-to-be Four Year Old deserves some preschool time.) I'm not sure it will be of interest to anyone else. We're kind of nerdy about Latin at our house. In fact, the Seventh Grader memorized, "Rident stolidi verba latina" (Fools laugh at Latin language. -Ovid) so he could recite it to his fellow Boy Scout buddies who claimed Latin is a dead language. Maybe someone can translate the following for me: "Foolish mothers push Latin and then regret it when the kids ask for more!"

My Little Monastery

2011-02-17T20:26:00.000-06:00

I was asked to read an address from the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI from September 12, 2008 given to the College of Bernard in Paris France. One of the loveliest young women I know asked me to read it as she will be using it for a essay writing contest that could reduce her college tuition significantly if she wins. The topic of her essay must use this address to answer this question:

How does a renewed “culture of the word” offer hope to the world today?

While I gave her some of my thoughts, this article spoke more to me about how I see an education in Western Civilization, Latin and the Catholic Religion to be the right education for my children. All along, I have felt like homeschooling my children was like having my own little monastery. Some friends might jokingly agree because I don't do play dates much (wink!) However, isn't it what all homeschooling parents are trying to accomplish? A little monastery of their own?

"Benedict calls the monastery a dominici servitii schola. The monastery serves eruditio, the formation and education of man – a formation whose ultimate aim is that man should learn how to serve God. But it also includes the formation of reason – education – through which man learns to perceive, in the midst of words, the Word itself."

One recent development for us in the inclusion of Latin into our curriculum. After reading Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin along with Andrew Campbells's Latin Centered Curriculum, I was a convert. We had to learn Latin.

What I have been enjoying most is Gregorian Chant. I just purchased Lingua Angelica from Memoria Press on the used book market. Can I just say it relaxes me ALMOST as much as a massage? So, I understand it when the Holy Father talks about chant and it's importance in the monastery, both in terms of their creation of the melodies and how singing them lifted one to a level above any prayer. Singing these would place one on the plane of the angelic. More importantly, pride was never a part of its creation. It was about men finding music worthy of God and his word, for men. It was the beginning of music in the Western tradition.

"Two chants from the Christian liturgy come from biblical texts in which they are placed on the lips of angels: the Gloria, which is sung by the angels at the birth of Jesus, and the Sanctus, which according to Isaiah 6 is the cry of the seraphim who stand directly before God. Christian worship is therefore an invitation to sing with the angels, and thus to lead the word to its highest destination. Once again, Jean Leclercq says on this subject: “The monks had to find melodies which translate into music the acceptance by redeemed man of the mysteries that he celebrates. The few surviving capitula from Cluny thus show the Christological symbols of the individual modes” (cf. ibid. p. 229)...

For Benedict, the words of the Psalm: coram angelis psallam Tibi, Domine – in the presence of the angels, I will sing your praise (cf. 138:1) – are the decisive rule governing the prayer and chant of the monks. What this expresses is the awareness that in communal prayer one is singing in the presence of the entire heavenly court, and is thereby measured according to the very highest standards: that one is praying and singing in such a way as to harmonize with the music of the noble spirits who were considered the originators of the harmony of the cosmos, the music of the spheres... This intrinsic requirement of speaking with God and singing of him with words he himself has given, is what gave rise to the great tradition of Western music. It was not a form of private “creativity”, in which the individual leaves a memorial to himself and makes self-representation his essential criterion. Rather it is about vigilantly recognizing with the “ears of the heart” the inner laws of the music of creation, the archetypes of music that the Creator built into his world and into men, and thus discovering music that is worthy of God, and at the same time truly worthy of man, music whose worthiness resounds in purity."

Those familiar with the principles of A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille, might remember he talked about Central Classics, those books which are family's source of truth. Ours are the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I also have always felt bible study was as important as the Catechism. I grew up in an age where I learned neither. It wasn't until I started homeschooling that I realized how little I knew and started a quest to better understand the Word of God. I had always looked at the Bible as bunch of little stories that not only illuminated the Word of God, but a significant part of our understanding of Western Civilization. I learned more about Western Civilization from attending Jeff Cavins' Great Adventure Bible Timeline study than I did in all my history classes combined. Here the Holy Father reinforces what I feel, but says even more. God is revealed in the world through history and history is revealed through the word of God in the Bible. I think the Holy Father takes it even a step further. This means that, unlike Fundamentalists, we see God in more than just the Bible.

"Only within the dynamic unity of the whole are the many books one book. The Word of God and his action in the world are revealed only in the word and history of human beings."

Here's one place I know I need work (so to speak) and that is on the topic of "work". When I speak of "work" I mean the "work" needed to keep up a house. Now, my house isn't a pig pen or anything. It is, however, cluttered. I also will do school work, school planning, school teaching, school reading...anything rather than house "work". While my husband and I have agreed that in this vocation of my as home educator, our children's education comes before just about anything else. So, he's not scandalized to coming home to toys on the floor. But is my next task to work on the "school of God's service" with respect to keeping our house. I am supposed to raise scholars, but I also need to raise people who can live with others and keep a home. So, we'll be working on the labora, that second component of monasticism next.

" Thus far in our consideration of the “school of God’s service”, as Benedict describes monasticism, we have examined only its orientation towards the word – towards the “ora”. Indeed, this is the starting point that sets the direction for the entire monastic life. But our consideration would remain incomplete if we did not also at least briefly glance at the second component of monasticism, indicated by the “labora”. In the Greek world, manual labor was considered something for slaves. Only the wise man, the one who is truly free, devotes himself to the things of the spirit; he views manual labor as somehow beneath him, and leaves it to people who are not suited to this higher existence in the world of the spirit. The Jewish tradition was quite different: all the great rabbis practiced at the same time some form of handcraft. Paul, who as a Rabbi and then as a preacher of the Gospel to the Gentile world was also a tent-maker and earned his living with the work of his own hands, is no exception here, but stands within the common tradition of the rabbinate. Monasticism took up this tradition; manual work is a constitutive element of Christian monasticism. In his Regula, Saint Benedict does not speak specifically about schools, although in practice, he presupposes teaching and learning, as we have seen. However, in one chapter of his Rule, he does speak explicitly about work (cf. Chap. 48). And so does Augustine, who dedicated a book of his own to monastic work. Christians, who thus continued in the tradition previously established by Judaism, must have felt further vindicated by Jesus’s saying in Saint John’s Gospel, in defense of his activity on the Sabbath: “My Father is working still, and I am working” (5:17). "

Seriously, everyone at our house needs to work on that virtue.

I've always felt that apologetics are an important piece of our religious education. Having a background in debate, and being surrounded by Evangelicals everywhere, my kids need to be able to stand firm in their faith and the truth of the Catholic church. Peter Kreeft's books are my favorite for starting to study apologetics. My kids have started their studies with the "Friendly Defender" cards. We will move up to the Handbook of Catholic Apologetics in the ninth grade. 1 Peter 3:15 has always stood out as a call to study apologetics, so seeing the Holy Father point it out here made my heart sing!

"The classic formulation of the Christian faith’s intrinsic need to make itself communicable to others, is a phrase from the First Letter of Peter, which in medieval theology was regarded as the biblical basis for the work of theologians: “Always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason (the logos) for the hope that you all have” (3:15). (The Logos, the reason for hope must become apo-logía; it must become a response). In fact, Christians of the nascent Church did not regard their missionary proclamation as propaganda, designed to enlarge their particular group, but as an inner necessity, consequent upon the nature of their faith: the God in whom they believed was the God of all people, the one, true God, who had revealed himself in the history of Israel and ultimately in his Son, thereby supplying the answer which was of concern to everyone and for which all people, in their innermost hearts, are waiting. The universality of God, and of reason open towards him, is what gave them the motivation—indeed, the obligation—to proclaim the message."

Lastly, our homeschool's mission is to seek God through prayer and work and to cultivate literate, confident, well-grounded scholars.

" Quaerere Deum – to seek God and to let oneself be found by him, that is today no less necessary than in former times. A purely positivistic culture which tried to drive the question concerning God into the subjective realm, as being unscientific, would be the capitulation of reason, the renunciation of its highest possibilities, and hence a disaster for humanity, with very grave consequences. "

A Must-Read For Anyone Involved In Teaching Literacy

2011-02-11T10:54:00.001-06:00

I read this book in two days! Having two children with dyslexic tendencies, I am always interested in reading books that claim to have "the solution". I finally get why traditional spelling programs fail our children and what to do about it.

The book Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide is the most concise appraisal and explanation of the English language I have ever read. It clearly lays out the foundation of our language, the phonogram, along with the 30 spelling rules used to assemble those sound pictures (what a phonogram really is) into words. English is NOT an illogical language and her book proves it.

Really, I have tried many programs, including Orton-Gillingham and methods based on Romalda Spaldings' Writing Road to Reading. While we landed on Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri and have seen much progress, there are still too many "exceptions" for my logical, science minded kids. Logical kids like to know the rules and possibilities up front instead of constantly being faced with "exceptions" or more new rules at every turn.

I'm going to go out on a limb and link two books together. The last book I recommended, "10 Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child," the author distills for the reader where rote memorization is necessary and not in the chapter titled, "Why Truth Is Your Enemy, and the Benefits of the Vague or Gradgrind, without the Facts." Rote memorization has its place. And, when used in it's place leads to developing a logical, efficient, yet imaginitive thinker. Our schools have dropped rote memorization for the important things like math facts, poetry, music and phonograms, in place of rote memorization of words (sight or whole word reading), spelling lists, as well as facts on history and science. Eide is not shy in saying we MUST, MUST, MUST have our children memorize those phonograms and associated spelling rules in order for them to truly understand the logic of English. Once they have those phonograms and rules memorized, they can logically spell AND decode words, thus improving their literacy.

I don't know about you, but I would rather give my child the tools to figure out how to spell and read rather than fill their brain with only a few of the words they need to survive, as whole word reading does. And, memorizing spelling words doesn't work for anyone but the visual learner. Visual learners can memorize the "shape" of the word, not the way the word is constructed with a roots and affixes. Most kids that learn by this method run out of "capacity" and stop advancing in their reading and spelling skills past the fourth grade.

The author mentions she will have a curriculum available in the Fall of 2011. I look forward to seeing it. If it follows the logic in the book, it will be a "logical" next step for my family.

Book recommendation

2011-01-27T22:48:00.002-06:00

I was appalled when I read a Washington Times article written by Amy Chua as a teaser for her new book Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother. I won't even link to the book, it's so bothersome. You can read my blog post on it at my other blog.

My husband knew this article bothered me. He knew I blogged about it (thank you for reading my blog, honey!) So, when this article entitled Roar of the Lion Father appeared in the Washington Times yesterday written by Toad Zywicki, I was ecstatic. Hooray! The article contrasts Anthony Esolen's boo, release in November 2010 called Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination to Chua's Battle Hymn.

Anthony Esolen is a professor of Renaissance English Literature and the Development of Western Civilization at Providence College. A senior editor for Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, he writes regularly for Touchstone, First Things, Catholic World Report, Magnificat, This Rock, and Latin Mass. His most recent books are The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (Regnery Press, 2008) and Ironies of Faith (ISI Press, 2007); he is working on his next title, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child (ISI Press, forthcoming 2010). Professor Esolen is the translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy (3 volumes, Random House), Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered (Johns Hopkins University Press), and Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things (Johns Hopkins University Press). How can I NOT like this guy?

If you don't have time to read the article, please know Esolen's book and philosophy sounds very TJEd. So, if your methodologies for homeschooling your children include 3 hours of mandatory instrument practice, required rote memorization of everything and no social outside interested, you won't like this book. You should read Amy Chua's book. Here's a snippet of an interview with Anthony Esolen. Pay particular attention to the last answer.

What is wrong with “rote memorization”?
Nothing at all, so long as what you are memorizing is immediately useful (multiplication tables), or beautiful (poetry, ballads, songs in general).
What is the place of technology in education?
That depends. Are we talking about the tool known as a book, that offers a whole world to the young reader, or are we talking about the jitters of the Internet, that offers a lot of sludge?
What does sex have to do with imagination?
Ask the great artists and love poets. Much indeed; but little of it has anything to do with “sex education”, which I believe is destructive.
What difference does it make whether the child is a girl or a boy?
If we have to ask that, then already we have missed the wonder that is girlhood and boyhood.
What do heroes have to do with the imagination?
They are its lifeblood; children need heroes; it is a miserable thing, to destroy in children their natural longing to look up to greatness.
What role does faith play in the development of the imagination?
It is essential, not just for understanding the great art of the west, but for that drive in human beings to look always for what is more, gratuitous, exuberant, and mysterious.
Why do schools set out to ruin the imagination?
They do so because imaginative children are by nature difficult to herd. Schools are built for a certain kind of efficiency and anonymity; they look like factories, and serve many of the same functions.

My hubby bought me the book. I'll write a book report when I finish!

Sesquipedalian

2011-01-22T17:46:00.002-06:00

With the homeschool Spelling Bee coming up in two weeks, we are doing a lot of spelling enrichment at our house. Even though this game does not contain words from our Spelling Bee, it is still one of our favorites!

I think what I like the most about it is that my non-speller loves it too. Here's why - the dictionary that comes with the game is divided into fun sections and most of the words are hilarious. The kids can't resist these:
1) Fancy Words for Regular Things
2) Tongue Tang
lers and Ticklers
3) Idiotic Insults and Captivating Compliments
4) Parts, Farts and Functions
5) Astonishing Actions
6) Wacky Wordplay

It has drawn in my non-speller because, while he is not a speller, he loves silly words, too. I'll give you a few examples:

coprolite: -n, fossilized dung
omphaloskepsis: -n, contemplation of one's belly button
alektorophobia: -n, the fear of chickens

Believe it or not, I've found the dictionary that goes with this game in the oddest of places (like the magazine rack in the bathroom and in the back seat of the van.) I think that's testament enough to how captivating it is to kids. I'll add a few words, every now and again, for you to impress your kids with and see if they don't like these silly words, too.

p.s. sesquipedalian: -n, one who uses long words

Even the public schools are doing it!

2011-01-12T21:23:00.000-06:00

Several school districts in the Twin Cities area are trading in textbooks for high-tech e-readers.

Take a look!

More free book sources for Kindle

2011-01-06T18:53:00.000-06:00

Here are a few other resources for free books:

Amazon's Free Kindle Books

Google Books Free Books

Internet Archive: Texts

Open Library

Manybooks

Textbooks free for Kindle!

2011-01-06T10:17:00.000-06:00

A Yahoo! Group that I belong to just started a discussion about free books for the Kindle. Besides the places I've pointed out, I found these:
CK-12 Textbooks - AP level texts for Science and Math at Amazon

The organization that is behind the program is CK-12. CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the U.S. and worldwide. Using an open-content, web-based collaborative model termed the "FlexBook," CK-12 intends to pioneer the generation and distribution of high quality educational content that will serve both as core text as well as provide an adaptive environment for learning.

Check it out!

Technology meets the Classical Literature List

2011-01-05T15:52:00.000-06:00

I'm currently composing a list of classical literature for my homeschool. I'm using a wide variety of sources, including the Accelerated Achievement curriculum CD, The Latin Centered Curriculum by Andrew Campbell, Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum by Laura Berquist, The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessi Wise, the curriculum lists from Ambleside as well as suggestions from Books to Build On by E.D. Hurst and book lists from Creation to Present: A Catholic World History Resource by Marsha Neill.

What I am doing, really, is finding out what books are available for download for the Kindle. We got one because one of our children has a vision difficulty. The Kindle allows you to increase both the font size and line spacing on the screen. It also has a text to speech option with a headphone jack. Probably the best feature for me is the fact that you can move the cursor to ANY word on the screen and it brings up the definition from the built-in dictionary in the header or footer, allowing you to keep reading instead of having to put down the book to look up the words.

The Kindle has been an object of contention lately because everyone is enjoying using it. Really, I didn't think I would like it, but I, too, am one of the contenders. My emerging reader is using it to look up words in the dictionary and have it read the definitions to her. My super speller is having fun using the Kindle for word games like Word Smith or Word Up (like solitaire Scrabble). My husband takes it with him to Adoration to read a book he has downloaded. I am using it to keep up with my book club reading. The Little Women book club books are all pre-1920, therefore public domain. So, using the browser in the Kindle (new test feature), I can go to Project Gutenberg and download directly from the website to the Kindle.

I have some pros and cons for anyone considering a Kindle for their homeschool.

Pros:

Reasonable cost at $139. It's the cost of 10-20 books I would have normally bought in paperback, ones that are freely available already.
Very user friendly - my 7 year old figured it out in 5 minutes
Great for visually impaired individuals - text-to-speech and the ability to adjust font size and line spacing
Holds mp3's so if you like to listen to music while reading, you may do so
Very easy to organize books. We have them organized by reader. Each user has a book folder. It uses real pointers, so that there is a pointer from each person's folder to the bookso multiple readers may have the book in their folder at the same time.
Web browser allows for easy download
Downloads a variety of content (mobi, mp3, doc, pdf) via the USB cable
Downloads a variety of content via users' kindle account (you email the file to your kindle account and the file is downloaded the next time the Kindle connects to a wireless network)
Kindle downloads are cheaper than the actual paper books and always backed up on your account online
The eInk technology is very readable in sunlight and I simply bought a clamp on book light for reading at night while nursing the baby.

Cons:

It has a web browser, which can't be turned off or moderated (no content filtering allowed)
Can't download mp3's via the web
Haven't found a good protective cover that allows me to use the text keyboard easily. We've resorted to just using a neoprene sleeve while not in use (and most of the time it's not in the sleeve).
You can't share books among Kindles. Not a problem for us since we only have one but we may find it troublesome in the future.
.pdf files are hard to adjust to fit the screen. All the content from Accelerated Achievement is .pdf, so I've had to download originals from Project Gutenberg to make them more accessible and easy to use.
If drop it, we're done for...

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I will. I am considering an iPad as well, since it is multi-functioning. I have had Apple products in the past and found their "ease of use" almost condescending. I come from a Unix, command-line world, folks. I'm always suspicious of things that are "too easy". Now, that being said, I am all for making things accessible for the kids. I just don't want to have to port everything to Apple and I'm not a fan of mixed platforms. When I was in the desktop support field (20 years ago), mixed platforms were my biggest nightmare. But, I'm willing to give it a try since things have changed tremendously since then.

Cooperative Fun Learning

2010-12-12T13:38:00.002-06:00

Here's a fun way to keep two age groups busy...

First - the back story. My 3 year old son is superhero obsessed. So much so that my pediatrician jokingly asked me if he owns more than one shirt. The 3 year old was wearing his Superman Underoo shirt, AGAIN. I explained, that no, he has four Superman Underoo shirts along with two batman Underoo shirts and two Spiderman Underoo shirts. Most of them are hand-me-downs from his older brothers, but some are new. Literally, that is all he would wear if I let him. We've come to an agreement that he CAN'T wear a superhero shirt to church, but otherwise he can wear them. He's now fond of wearing the Superman shirt under a button-down shirt so he can be just like Superman OR wear a turtleneck under the Superman Underoo.

My 11 year old daughter loves to draw. One day, I needed both of them busy and SHE came up with this idea. She drew a picture of random Batman images, including Robin, words in bubble letters like Zap and Pow all while the 3 year old told her what he wanted on the picture he wanted to paint. She outlined them in Sharpie marker, then she colored them in with watercolor pastels. She gave the picture to the 3 year old with a brush and water and he had a custom Superhero coloring page.

You could make a coloring book as a gift, if you are looking for a way for the older kids to gift the little ones. You could also use watercolor colored pencils. I've even heard you could make dots using washable markers. What a nice way to get a big kid helping a little one!

This kept them busy for a good hour, with the big 11 year old helping all the way.

Replacement Book for Boy's Book Club

2010-12-09T11:39:00.000-06:00

One of the mom's in our Boy's Medieval Book Club suggested a great replacement for The Mabinogian for our last book. She and her son just read Men of Iron by Howard Pyle. I've started reading it and LOVE the fact that Myles' religion plays the primary role in his decision making. It's the kind of book 10-12 year old boys need to read. I've also read that it is a very good depiction of the training a squire received. I'll provide a full book report when I finish.

Check List for Auditory Processing Problems

2010-12-09T11:24:00.000-06:00

I promised I would include a checklist for Auditory Processing Problems. I poked around and found one from The Listening Program website. It's exactly the same checklist our OT clinic used. I've placed X's next to the items of concern with my target child. It is on those items I will be judging their progress. Here it is:

X 1. Difficulty paying attention
X 2. Poor short-term memory
X 3. Poor reading comprehension
X 4. Difficulties spelling
X 5. Low academic/job performance
X 6. Difficulty starting and/or completing projects
X 7. Easily distracted in presence of background noise
8. Is oversensitive to certain sounds
X 9. Misunderstands directions or instructions
X 10. Confuses similar sounding words
    11. Difficulty understanding jokes/puns/humor
X 12. Frequently asks “huh” or “what”
X 13. Difficulty discriminating sounds
    14. Flat and monotonous voice quality
    15. Speech lacks fluency and rhythm
X 16. Difficulty sounding out words
X 17. Mispronounces words
X 18. Difficulty summarizing a story/expressing thoughts
X 19. Hyperactivity
   20. Has poor posture, including slouching or slumping
   21. Has coordination problems
X 22. Difficulty with organization and planning
   23. Is overwhelmed with sensory information
   24. Confusion of right and left and/or location and direction
25. Lack of tactfulness
26. Poor social skills
X 27. Feels overburdened with everyday tasks
28. Low stress/frustration tolerance
29. Difficulty reading non-verbal communication
30. Poor self-image or low self-confidence

Theraputic Listening and Auditory Processing Problems

2010-12-09T10:59:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the long absence. Life with six kids, three book clubs, Spelling Team, choir, preparation for First Confession, American Heritage Girls, Boy Scouts and homeschooling has kept me plenty busy. I'm happy to say we are on track with our school work (week 14) and we are looking forward to our school break during Christmas.

Now, on to the topic at hand. Katherine Bowman, a Speech and Language Pathologist has this to say about Auditory Processing Disorder:

An auditory processing disorder (APD or CAPD) is a disorder in “how” auditory information is processed in the brain. It can be thought of as a “listening disorder” not a hearing disorder. The problem is in the brain – not in the ear.

Symptoms
The symptoms of APD are extremely varied, however, some of the most common are:
Children who say “huh” or “what” frequently
Children who don’t look or respond when their name is called
Children who give slow or delayed responses to people talking to them
Children who mispronounce typical word sounds
Children who have difficulty following oral directions
Children who misunderstand what is asked or said to them …these children usually answer off topic or don’t answer at all.
Children who are easily distracted or become confused especially when there is background noise
Children who avoid loud noises (cover their ears) even around common household noises
Children who show delays in acquiring language
Children who evidence difficulty learning phonics, reading and spelling
Symptoms of APD can actually be seen in infancy, however, they usually become noticed at about age 18-24 months.

APD can not be formally diagnosed by an audiologist until age 7 years, when the auditory system has maturated (fully developed). However, by age 5 speech-language pathologists, audiologists and/or psychologists can administer a sound based screening test along with auditory based language tests and determine if the child is “at risk” or “showing signs of APD.”

I believe that one of my children is experiencing auditory processing problems. Said child has difficulty hearing certain sounds in words (phonetic awareness) as well as reproducing certain words. Mispronunciation is a common indicator of this problem. It also will manifest itself in their ability to spell and read. Attention issues, due to auditory distraction, can show up as well.

I used this program as part of an Occupational Therapy program with my oldest two. My son's inability to see properly affected all his senses. It heightened his sensitivities such that he was having a hard time functioning in the world. Everything was too loud, too smelly, too itchy-scratchy-twisted-wrinkled-hurt. My daughter has a food sensitivity that was affecting her as well. She probably didn't need the therapy, but she wasn't going to let him do anything without her

The logic behind the program seemed sound to me, so we decided to make the tremendous investment and use it. We saw results right away. It was astounding, but like all OT and Vision Therapy programs, it took diligence. The child needed to listen to the program at least half an hour a day, five days a week for eight weeks.

The program we used was The Listening Program- Guidebook and 8 CDs. We also invested in some top-the-line headphones. The right headphones are important because the specially-created compact discs produce sounds at a high frequency that many headphones can't carry to the user.

So, we've started this program with my 7 and 5 year old children and I've convinced my 12 year old to try it again, too. He was all to happy to include in his school day a half hour of time to play with Legos!

I'll post bi-weekly with results. When I have time, I will post some common indicators, used in our OT center's evaluation process to determine if a child has Auditory Processing issues.

Update to Boy's Book Club Listing

2010-10-20T23:50:00.001-05:00

I ran into a little trouble this week with some of the planned reading for my Boy's Medieval Book Club. We were planning on using _The Mabinogion_ by Sioned Davies for our next book. I took this recommendation from my very favorite curriculum guide, Latin-Centered-Curriculumby Andrew Campbell. I made a major mistake in not reading that particular version of the book prior to recommending it because it was specifically called out in the curriculum guide.

The Mabinogion is a group of Welsh/Celtic myths surrounding King Arthur, passed down orally and written at a later date. Lady Charlotte Guest translated them in the 1800's. I had read her translation and found the vocabulary too challenging for our 5th-9th grade boys. So, I took the recommendation from the book because Campbell specifically called out the Davies translation because of the wonderful introduction and awesome vocabulary guide. He also said any "in-print" version of the Mabinogion tales were acceptable. To his credit, he recommended a children's version, Tales from the Mabinogion by Gwyn Thomas and Kevin Crossley-Holland. However, that version is out of print and sadly looked a little more juvenile than my group would like. They resisted the first book, Favorite Medieval Tales by Mary Pope Osborne because some felt it was rather "baby-ish". It really was well done, but these are boys who want some meat to their reading. So, I mistakenly picked The Mabinogion (Oxford World's Classics) which is clearly written for adults based on the content (sexual in nature) in many of the stories.

To his credit, Andrew Campbell exchanged several emails with me. He indirectly chastised me (rightfully so) for not reading it before recommending it. He did offer me some good advice about proceeding, however. Here it is:

Unfortunately there really is no way to sanitize these stories to remove all references to pre-Christian morals. The Arthurian legends themselves center on adultery as the reason for the fall of Camelot. People have different levels of comfort with this aspect of older literature. Campbell said he once taught the Arthurian legends to a group of very devout Catholic children, grades 4-7. They simply noted how unfaithfulness led to tragedy for all of the characters. They didn't dwell on the topic, but he said they didn't avoid it entirely either.
Now obviously if there are boys in the group who don't yet know the facts of life or recognize euphemisms for sex, the passages in the Davies version would no doubt confuse them. Check in with the other parents (and yourself!) and ask whether they would be comfortable with the story as it is. If not, it is certainly fine to skip it.
When it comes to the Arthurian legends themselves, you can always focus on the better-known stories: the sword in the stone, the founding of the Round Table, Lancelot (as a knight, not in his relationship with the queen), Galahad and the Grail.

So, lesson learned. We are skipping it for now. I am quickly trying to decide how to proceed so we don't miss our next reading deadlines. Stay tuned!

Preparing for the Spelling Bee

2010-10-11T21:42:00.002-05:00

I just finished my FAQ for our homeschool co-op's spelling team, which I lead.

Part of what I do is prepare fun workshops to help improve spelling skills and build vocabulary. One of the best places to start are with some great on-line resources. Check them out for your aspiring Spelling Bee Champ.
First off, I love Free Rice. We LOVE being able to practice vocabulary while helping to feed the poor.
Then check out Spelling City. You can enter in your own spelling lists and learn, test and play games to reinforce spelling skills.
Now head over to Spelling Bee The Game for a real-life competition. The words are incredibly challenging.
Then go to Big IQ Kids for some fun. You need to click on Spelling Bee Free Game. You can do all kinds of fun stuff there like US Geography, Math and Vocabulary games as well. Kids get rewarded with fun logic games for doing well.
Another site we like is Word Plays. There are many options for word play there.

I'll post more ideas here after I present them to our team, but for now, here's the gist of how our Spelling Team works:

Who can participate?

SCRIPPS will allow any child that is in grade 4-8, up to the age of 15 (as long as their birthday was/will be AFTER 8/31).

What does it cost to participate?

I had originally projected a cost of $10 per child. I’ve amended that to $10 per child with a cap at $15 per family.

What does your $10 buy?

· Access to the Spelling Team Yahoo! Group

Participants will have access to all the group materials via a Yahoo! Group. Invitations will be sent following payment for the family.

· Access to the SCRIPP spelling lists and rules

All of the resources available from SCRIPPS will be available at the Spelling Team Yahoo! Group. SCRIPPS provides lists for all the grades. It also provides spelling guides for the difficult words we will move onto during the Spelling Bee when we exhaust the words on the grade lists. It’s extremely helpful to use these spelling guides to prepare for our Bee and the SCRIPPS Regional Spelling Bee. It is also imperative that the participants be aware of the rules so they are not disappointed when we move on to our practice Bees and the final Bee.

· Participation in fun spelling workshops

Twice a month we will meet for OPTIONAL spelling workshops. The workshops are a lot of fun, filled with games, group lessons (advanced phonograms and word etymology), practice Bees and supplemental homework. All supplemental homework and activities will be available via the Spelling Team Yahoo! Group.

· Participation in Spelling Bee

We will hold a Spelling Bee at the end of January. The judge and pronouncer’s schedule along with facility availability and speller availability will determine the date.

Last year, the Spelling Bee took approximately 2 hours to complete. I will allot three hours this year in case we have a great match!

We will have a small reception at the conclusion of the Spelling Bee to hand out awards and thank you’s.

· The First Prize Winner will go on to participate in the SCRIPPS Regional Spelling Bee

The first prize winner of the Spelling Bee will receive a trophy, a free one year membership to Encyclopedia Britannica online and will go on to the SCRIPPS Regional Spelling Bee in the spring.

The second place winner will receive a trophy, a free one year membership to Encyclopedia Britannica online and will be a stand-in in the event the first place winner cannot participate.

What the tests reveal...

2010-09-25T13:24:00.000-05:00

We did standardized testing yesterday. I am both excited and afraid of what will be revealed (although I usually already know). It was MOSTLY a glorious report. I know where we need work and am thankful for the hard work my children have put forth in their studies. The "achiever" in me wants to only go after the lower scores and bring them up but my husband reminds me that where their high scores are we find their highest interests - those things that will lead them to learning more and more (a la TJEd). I will stay on course and not do much different than work on bringing score up only if they were below grade level.

What always surprises me most (and after years of doing this it shouldn't), is how much my kids pick up from just reading. During the general knowledge portion of the test I am amazed by what questions they know. I think to myself, "I didn't teach them that!" When I ask them later, they can usually site the source of their data right off the top of their head. I just love that.

I ran into a lovely lady who attended one of my seminars at 2010 MCHEC. I wanted to post this link for the handout to my talk on Learning Modalities for her. Melanie - it's here. Please speak up in the com box if there are other handouts you would like and I'd be glad to share.

2010-2011 Book Club for 5th - 8th Grade Boys

2010-08-15T17:25:00.002-05:00

Medieval Book Club

UPDATE: We replaced The Mabinogion with Men of Iron by Howard Pyle. The version of The Mabinogion we were going to use was to advanced (in more than one way) for this age group. Men of Iron is an excellent replacement, or you could use Tales of the Mabinogion instead.

Join us as we immerse ourselves in medieval European legend with the stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood. We will meet once a month. We will use the Socratic method of literary analysis to discuss each book. We welcome young men in 5^th – 8^th grade.

Here is our reading schedule. Please have the reading done BEFORE the meeting date:

Oct. - Read Favorite Medieval Tales by Mary Pope Osborne

Nov. - Read the Introduction, Translators Note and Chapters 1-5 of The Mabinogion by Sioned Davies Oxford University Press

Dec. – Read Chapters 6-11 of The Mabinogion by Sioned Davies Oxford University Press (Click to see the link on Amazon.com)

Jan. - Read the author’s note, Book 1 and Book 2 of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

Feb. - Read Book 3 and Book 4 and the epilogue of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

Mar. - Read the prologue and Chapters 1-15 of The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

April - Read Chapters 16-24, plus the epilogue of The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

2010-2011 Book Club for 9-12 year old girls

2010-08-15T17:21:00.002-05:00

Little Women Book Club

Join us in reading the Little Women Trilogy by Louisa May Alcott. We will meet once a month to discuss approximately 200 pages worth of reading. We’ve included the schedule below. Each book discussion will include a Socratic style literary analysis along with some stitching and snacking.

Here’s our schedule:

Oct. Preface and Chapters 1-15 of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Nov. Chapters 16-32 of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Dec. Chapters 33-47 and the Afterword of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Jan. Read the beginning through the chapter called Naughty Nan of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

Feb. Read from Pranks and Plays through the chapter called Goldilocks Nan of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

March Read from Damon and Pythias to the end of the book of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

April Read Chapters 1-10 of Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

May Read Chapters 11-22 of Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

2010-2011 Book Club for 6-8 year old girls

2010-08-15T17:17:00.001-05:00

Josefina - Catholic American Girl Book Club

Program Outline

October – Book: Meet Josefina

Program overview for the girls
Narration sign up
Historical introduction
Craft – Memory Boxes for All Soul’s Day
Snack – Tortilla chips and dip and a discussion about grinding corn with a stone
Play DESIGNATIONS (Roles will be assigned by picking names out of a hat)

November – Book: Josefina Learns a Lesson

2-3 Narrations
Historical discussion on clothing of the period and culture
Craft – Knitting Looms.
Snack – Bizcochitos
Play practice

December – Book: Josefina’s Surprise

2-3 Narrations
Historical and cultural celebration of Advent and Christmas (Los Posadas)
Craft – Christmas gift for Mom
Snack – Churros
Play practice

January – Book: Happy Birthday, Josefina

2-3 Narrations
Historical and cultural look at medicine
Discuss Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego
Craft – Make a fabric covered book
Snack – Sun butter (made from sunflower seeds) dip with tortilla chips
Play practice

February – Book: Josefina Saves the Day

2-3 Narrations
Historical and cultural look at music
Craft – Lace-up leather pouches
Snack – Sopaipillas
Play practice

March – Book: Changes for Josefina

Historical and cultural look at dancing and art
Craft – Pottery w/Mexican clay
Snack – Nut free Mexican Wedding Cakes
Dress Rehearsal for play

April – Play: Josefina’s Gift

We will have a final dress rehearsal
Refreshments and entertainment for the whole family

The Liberty Girls will present Josefina’s Gift (20 minute play based on the story Happy Birthday, Josephina) and talent show for family and friends. We will display the things we have made in our club. Refreshments will be served.

All the rage this Summer...

2010-07-17T00:21:00.001-05:00

I found out about this on a Yahoo! group about Latin Centered Curriciulum. Minimus is a Latin program written by Barbara Bell from England. My kids are absolutely loving it. We have two student guides and one CD. The girls pair up and the oldest boy sit and listen to the CD and read the book. It's a bit of a graphical novel (read Comic Book) about a mouse that lives in Roman Briton with a Roman family. The story is based on historical artifacts found at a settlement called Vindolanda. So, it's not only Latin, but a small unit study on Roman History in Britain.

I haven't used it as a text book. I simply put the books and CD out on our school table, which is in our family room, and the kids found it on their own. They are noticing on their own the differences in pronunciation from Prima Latina and pointing them out to me. We talked about Ecclesiastical and Classical pronunciation.

My seven year old will be using Song School Latin next year and now I am struggling with which pronunciation to use. Song School Latin has both on the CD. For those of you who have taught Latin before, what have you used? I could use some help here.

I will now, most definitely be getting Minimus Secondus, if not for a Latin text, then just to leave out again for the kids to find and enjoy on their own.

Where you are going and how you will get there! Advice for a Home Educator providing a Classical Education

2010-07-14T20:33:00.000-05:00

I just read this article by Stanley Fish of the New York Times, and opinion piece titled "A Classical Education: Back to the Future." Fish talks about his education and where he thinks we are and need to go. Here's my favorite part:

I wore my high school ring for more than 40 years. It became black and misshapen and I finally took it off. But now I have a new one, courtesy of the organizing committee of my 55th high school reunion, which I attended over the Memorial Day weekend.

I wore the ring (and will wear it again) because although I have degrees from two Ivy league schools and have taught at U.C. Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Duke, Classical High School (in Providence, RI) is the best and most demanding educational institution I have ever been associated with. The name tells the story. When I attended, offerings and requirements included four years of Latin, three years of French, two years of German, physics, chemistry, biology, algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, English, history, civics, in addition to extra-curricular activities, and clubs — French Club, Latin Club, German Club, Science Club, among many others. A student body made up of the children of immigrants or first generation Americans; many, like me, the first in their families to finish high school. Nearly a 100 percent college attendance rate. A yearbook that featured student translations from Virgil and original poems in Latin...

Here's a man that realized all the hard work paid off. He goes on to discuss three current books on Classical Education, but finishes with this:

In short, get knowledgeable and well-trained teachers, equip them with a carefully calibrated curriculum and a syllabus filled with challenging texts and materials, and put them in a room with students who are told where they are going and how they are going to get there.
Worked for me.

I like Stanley Fish. He's a professor of humanities and law at Florida International University in Miami and the dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He's taught at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Duke. I like him. He's in my camp.

But more importantly, he's on to something. I think some kids (like me) need to hear where they are going and how they are going to get there. No one ever explained to me WHY I needed humanities or Latin. In fact it is one of the reasons I went to technical college instead of a four year school. I did end up going later, but that's another story. Had someone told me then what I have had to learn the hard way now, I think my life would have been so different. I can fix that for my kids, though.

I ask my kids and the kids in my book clubs why we need to learn History, Latin, Music, Art, Math. You'd be surprised how many kids are like me. They don't know WHY. Tell your kids. They will gladly step on the bus. Okay, maybe not gladly, but they will thank you later. Like Stanley Fish.

Worth Passing On to those with Preschoolers

2010-07-01T07:30:00.014-05:00

I belong to a Yahoo! Group about Catholic Homeschooling. Someone sent this list of 60 things for Preschoolers to do on their own and said to feel free to distribute it! It's wonderful. Now, you may not have all the toys she mentions, but she has links! Enjoy.

For what it's worth, I've compiled my list of 60 activities for my preschooler to do independently while I'm doing lessons with my other children. (If you're not homeschooling but still have a preschooler at home, this may help you get some "just for you" time...)

My preschooler will be encouraged to participate with our lessons as she wants to or is capable (like listening to stories during Language Arts or History; she can certainly "do art" but I'm not going to force it and hopefully these activities will keep her occupied and out of trouble.

Feel free to pass this on to anyone else whom you think may find this helpful.

Preschooler Ideas for Younger Siblings - 3 and up

Since I'm using all the provided curriculum boxes for the kids (from K12), I decided to take the biggest box --the one that the art clay, plaster of Paris, etc. came in, and designate it my three year old's "school box". This way her school box is just like her siblings'. This box will ONLY be used at school time, and will only be used at the table. You can take any box and decorate it and make it the "special" box...brought out only at certain times and each time having something different in it.

Inside will be her own pencil box that will have a set of markers, (crayola washable, naturally) a pair of Fiskars kid scissors, a box of crayons, a pencil, a pen, and a glue stick. Each day I will put some papers in there for her to either color, cut up, paste things on, or practice writing (simple mazes and such for her to follow, etc.)

Each week I'll put one or two interesting books that she will enjoy looking at. There will also be one or two "special activities" that will change from day to day, made up of (mostly) educational toys and stuff that I currently have on hand but has been "put away" for a while.... Each day there'll be something different to do, either loose in the box or in a zipper top Ziploc bag (the kind with the slider zipper is easier for the kids to manipulate than the traditional ones).

The idea of this box is for her to entertain herself with little or no guidance from me while I work with her older siblings. She will more than likely be participating with us during some lessons (she likes to play "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" with the phonics tiles, LOL) .

Here are some ideas for the activities. Some will be in a zippered bag, some won't. I have 60 activities, so that I'll have enough for 2 per day per month. At the end of the month I'll start over again. The key to the success of these is to keep them a surprise and limit access to them so that the novelty does NOT wear off. Some seemingly obvious things, like legos and matchbox cars are missing from this list because they play with them almost every day. I got the ideas for many of these activities from various websites with preschoolers in mind. I do not have these in any particular order. Obviously they need to be mixed up so there aren't a whole slew of similar activities piggy backing day in and day out......Also, I'm not going to insult your intelligence by reminding you about choking hazards, which some of these activities may contain...use your common sense based upon your child, and you'll be fine!...

1. sock match...several pairs of colorful infant socks that she's outgrown in the bag to match up or just play with. If I know her she'll have them on her hands and feet for half an hour.

2. dominoes...to build with and do who knows what with...

3. Discovery Toys Tinyville Magnets (these are magnets in shapes like people, vehicles, animals, buildings, cloud, stars, moon, etc...) and the magnetic white board

4. Play Doh, with geometric shaped cookie cutters

5. Play Doh with farm animal cookie cutters

6. Paint in a bag...put two colors of paint in a doubled Ziploc bag, seal it with clear tape, and let her squish them to mix the colors. There will be a couple of different color combinations

7. More magnets --from a magnet kit...lots of different plane figures and a magnetic base to build upon

8. Blues Clues Cards there are nine sets of four cards, three "clues" that go with one card. Got these at a dollar store that was going out of business...got them for 50 cents! :-)

9. Mixies cards (11 sets of three different cards that form a picture...these came from somebody's birthday party favor bag)

10. Puzzle Pairs (Discovery Toys two piece puzzles of things that go together, like a sock and foot, sink and soap, etc)

11. Memory...for The Preschooler I'll probably only give her 24 cards at a time as opposed to the full set of 72; this way I can get 3 activities from one memory game and she won't be overwhelmed!

12. Animal Lotto..she can match up all the animals on the boards...

13. Spirit "jigsaw" puzzle...I printed out a horse picture colored to look like Spirit and am gluing it to felt, then cutting it out in simple shapes for her to put together. I will probably put a couple more like this in
there too.

14. Pattern blocks (mine are from K12; easily obtained from curriculum suppliers for a few bucks)

15. Wooden Geometric Solids...these will keep her occupied for at least a half hour; as with above, easily obtained from suppliers, often for under $10 for a nice set of 12 hardwood blocks

16. Math linking cubes- these are the multi link cubes, not unifix cubes. The multi link cubes are connectable all the way around, unlike unifix cubes that only connect one way.

17. Lincoln Logs

18. dry rice with a funnel, measuring cup, measuring spoon, and containers

19. Lacing beads with shoe laces (the long heavy duty ones from ds's old workboots work really well)

20. Giant pegboard and rubber bands

21.Rubber stamps with farm animals

22. Rubber stamps with numbers

23. Discovery Toys Playful Patterns

24. Discover Toys AB Seas alphabet fishing game

25. Discovery Toys Itsy Bitsy Spider Game

26 Discovery Toys Bright Builders (being a former consultant has its advantages!)

27. Stickers! Lots of STICKERS. Draw shapes on a piece of paper and give lots of tiny stickers to fill in the shapes with. You could also write the child's name on there to put stickers on each letter...so the name shows up in stickers. the smaller the sticker the better as it takes more time to fill them in.

28. Animal cards...you know those "clubs" where you get wildlife cards? Well I picked up half a set at a yardsale and the kids love looking at the pictures...that should keep her busy for 20 minutes

29. Mr and Mrs Potato Head Not sure if it's educational, but it should keep her busy for a half hour, hopefully. LOL

30. Bucket of Goop (three parts cornstarch to one part water) in a small empty oxyclean bucket with a scoop, funnel, graduated cylinder from K12, and another container to pour the goop into. Messy and fun but easy to clean up.

31. Watercolor paints I miss those old "Paint with water" books where all you had to do was have a paintbrush and water. The new ones come with a set of watercolors attached, but in this case, I'd really like the books with the pictures already "colored" and you just swipe it with a wet brush to "paint." Maybe lacking in creativity, but hey. After painting one picture The Preschooler will probably have the paint set ruined by not rinsing out the brush...my idea here is for her do to something WITHOUT guidance from me...oh well...

32. Lacing cards. Using the shoe laces from the lacing beads. I'll cut out shapes from light weight cardboard and cover with contact paper before punching holes in it. Someone else suggested using old bleach bottles but
I'm afraid that cutting them up will ruin my scissors. LOL

33. Felt shapes and felt board...using cookie cutters and other things as patterns, I'll make some little people and geometric shapes for her to play with. I'll cover a piece of sturdy cardboard with felt.

Bananas for the Monkeys Original Author Unknown: Cut five monkey shapes out of brown felt and fifteen banana shapes out of yellow felt. Number the monkeys from 1 to 5 and place them on flannel board. Have the children identify the number on each monkey and place that many bananas in front of it.

34. Puppets in a Bag --yarn, facial features already cut out, a brown lunch sack, and some glue...a puppet kit!

35. Glue, Yarn, and shapes...sorry, no creative name for this. I'll draw some shapes on construction paper and give her a small (the tiny size) bottle of Elmer's glue to squeeze onto the lines I drew (helps build small
motor coordination) and then she can put the yarn on the shapes. Other times, do this with her name, or a house, or something similar. I buy the tiny bottles once, then get the more economical bigger bottles to refill
with later as needed. I don't even buy Elmer's half the time.

36. Collage in a bag...rip out some magazine pages with interesting pictures for her to cut out and paste on a piece of paper...maybe following a certain theme...like one time have it all healthy foods...another time, families and kids, animals, flowers, etc.

37. Bean Sort - Since she's pretty much beyond sticking a bean up her nose and requiring dh to remove it with needle nose pliers, I figure this is now a safe activity for her to do with only moderate supervision. (yes
that's what happened and I got rid of our "Don't Spill The Beans Game" after dd and I were traumatized by this.dd was much more mortified by the sight of her daddy heading toward the preschooler's nose with those pliers...I didn't look. :) ) Lots of different beans in a bucket for her to measure, pour, sort, and throw on the floor for me to vacuum up.

38. Eyedropper, small container of water, and a mini ice cube tray or Styrofoam egg carton. If you're feeling adventurous, use colored water to make it interesting. Demonstrate how to use the eyedropper both to fill and
empty the cups... Would also work well with mini muffin tins, I suppose...

39. Colored Pasta - color your own pasta, using wheels or any other pasta that has large openings (easy to lace.) Use small amount of rubbing alcohol and several drops of food coloring in an airtight container or Ziploc. Leave the pasta in for a few minutes ; shaking it up or stirring a few times. Take it out to dry in a single layer. . then provide laces to string them up. You could provide some color or shape patterns on cards to duplicate.

40. Penny Count (source: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/3446/keeplittleones.html) I will make a more compact version on a single sheet of paper, and use circles the same size as the counting tokens (bingo chips)...match the colors and number amounts! But I thought the whole idea was pretty neat:
Make a poster board showing "cells" of numbers. Example: Draw a square, write "1" in it. Draw or tape down "1" penny in the square. Do the same with each square...up to ten or twenty...your choice. I'd start with 10 first and then draw two more squares at a time up to twenty as child gets better at this skill.
2) Give your child a basket or plastic container of pennies and have him match up pennies that you have put down with the picture in each square. (Ex. In the "2" cell, he would put below your example 1, 2 pennies in a
one-to-one correspondence. Check him when he is done by having him count each cell with you. Repetition is what teaches counting!
3) Eventually "test" your child by showing him only a number "3" printed on a index card and have him lay down 3 pennies and say "3". You might even write the word "three" along with the number "3" back in step one so that the child is learning a sight vocabulary word along with the printed "3". You would only do this if your child already knows the alphabet though. Then you could hold up a card that says "three" and see if he can lay the correct pennies down when seeing the word too.

41. Super ball or small car and a paper towel or Christmas paper tube. If you feel creative you could make a marble run of sorts with a couple tubes (see www.familyfun.com) I probably won't...she'll be happy enough with this. Why get more complicated than you need to? I could also let her color it with markers if she wanted.

42. Magnet and paperclips, washers, a nail, etc.

43. A large (big enough to climb in) box. 'Nuff said.

44. A giant piece of paper (or PAVCS posterboard) to color on...whatever desired...just give the paper and markers and you're set.

45. Lots of colored pom poms and tweezers to sort them out...look for tweezers that will be easy for little hands to manipulate, like the ones that come with the game Bed Bugs...heck, look for the Bed Bugs game. LOL

46. Treasure Hunt: large pot or box filled with corn meal, oat meal, rice, etc, with small "treasures" hidden inside...individually wrapped candy, coins, Barbie shoes, game pieces, etc. Make a picture checklist with all the items to find!

47. Colored Straws and scissors: nothing more to say. LOL straws are good for scissor practice because one snip and you have instant results. Provide Elmer's glue and paper and it's time to make a mosaic!

48. Discovery Toys Busy Bugs This can be duplicated with any manipulative, but I just got the game off eBay for $10. Might be able to find something similar in a homeschool catalog... kind of like the penny poster above, just using something different to play with and put the "problems" on index cards instead of the poster. You could use stuff around the house like coins, counters, buttons, pasta...make up index cards with patterns to duplicate/put simple problems on there: show items with number and number word under it, or do a simple problem like 2+2= etc...... This activity will be accompanied by a couple bug books and hopefully a neat bug video from the library!

49. Sticks, chunks of moss, rocks, leaves...with small rubber animals or dinosaurs...add some sand in a 9x13 baking pan...don't worry about sand on the floor...that's what vacuum cleaners are for!!!!! On a nice day do all your school work outside...heck, let the older kid SKIP schoolwork to do this outside... :-)

50. Magnetic Treasure Hunt: like the treasure hunt (#46) above, only this time use metal items and a magnet to attract them! Be sure your magnet isn't too strong or your kid will get several treasures at once!

51. Memory 2 see activity 11

53 Memory 3 see activity 11

54. Checkers and a small purse/canvas bag.... Checkers are cool cause they stack. If you can get more than two dozen, that's even better. Dollar stores often have checker games.

55. Chess pieces. Get a cheap chess/checkers game or two at the dollar store. Rachel likes to play with the pieces like they're alive. :-)

56. Magnetic Marbles I picked these up at a dollar store. Amazing the things you find at these places! I know that they'll be interesting for at least fifteen to twenty minutes...maybe more.

57. Popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue. Bob the builder at your service! Real cool if you have colored sticks...or just color them with markers when done. This is great for eye hand coordination and small motor building. You could put the glue in a small plastic cup or on a paper plate and have child apply it with a cotton swab to avoid "excessive" glue....

58. Rubber Stamps with letters

59. Viewmaster and reels --I'm trying to collect educational rather than twaddle reels (cartoon characters = twaddle). I want to find reels of animals and places that are real.

60. Farm Animals and Barn. Our barn was being abused (read: animals left all over the house) plus we really don't have shelf space for the barn to be out all the time. So I'll bring it out from time to time...maybe when nothing else is working and the Preschooler is being a real pill.

One thing I am going to try not to worry about is "THE MESS" with some of these activities. Messes happen. Elmer's, crayola markers, and watercolors wash off. Sand and rice vacuums up. (You'll note I didn't put finger paints or tempera paint activities here...#1, that's not recommended without supervision...because tempera stains...and #2...well, tempera stains. LOL I've chosen things that will have a moderate clean up factor, if any. I may even let the Preschooler use the vacuum hose to clean up any spills...the other two will probably fight her for the "privilege". LOL And when they're old enough to actually handle the vacuum, it's no longer "fun" for them and they don't want to do it!

Multisensory Math Facts

2010-06-30T00:56:00.001-05:00

The gist of my talk, "How to Get Your Kids to See the Light!" is really multi-sensory learning. It's unlikely a homeschool with more than two children will be made up of learners that all use the same primary learning modality. Besides, using a multi-sensory technique to teach increases the chance of retention.

Learning Math facts can be tedious. But, I assure you that if you can find a way to hit on that primary modality, it will stick. My favorite multi-sensory Math weapon is the Math Machine. My dear friend Julie gifted us with the Multiplication Math machine and Division Math machine that her girls were done using. They are the most pleasing tactile Math manipulative I have ever used. All of my children love them. Each of the buttons are spring loaded and release with an almost pleasing ping when depressed. My little boys make car tracks with them or patterns, even though they are too young to understand them. More importantly, the kids that needed them love them and have gotten good results using them.

For your auditory learners, you might consider Audio Memory Systems' math songs. There are the Wrap Ups which come with Wrap Up Raps. My visual learner finds both of the audio selections horrible, so you might want to consider that if you have a visual learner. There is School House Rock which has several Math Fact songs that are more pleasing than the Raps or AMS options. Just remember to check in with your child to make sure that it is working.

Lastly, I want to put in a plug for Finger Math. I am a tactile learner. Math facts never came easy for me until I learned the Korean method of finger math called Chisenbop. I swear, without it, I would have never excelled as far as I did in Math and Science. I have the book (on the left). I have used Finger Math, to some degree, with my older kids. My daughter, the visual learner, did not need it. My son, wasn't terribly interested, but my middle daughter is interested, so we'll be taking some more "secret finger Math lessons" over the summer to see how it sets with her.

Ultimately, you need to find something that works because life without memorizing these facts, or finding some way to quickly do the operations will be slow and tedious. One of my children dragged their feet on learning those facts and now understands, when Math takes a painful amount of time, that had those facts been memorized Math would be done sooooo much more quickly!

By the way, for a truly multi-sensory Math program, check out Math-U-See. My kids did not like it but not because it was multi-sensory. They still used the MUS blocks. One child is overwhelmed by big pages full of Math problems. Teach Textbooks is a good choice for that child because each question is presented separately. The other child found it BORING. That child needs more challenge and has returned to Singapore Math.