Time sure does fly when your kids are growing up. It seems like yesterday that Corey was Karl's age, and in homeschool himself. Now, Corey's a quarter of a century old!
Wow, that makes me feel a bit old, lol. Even though Corey won't be coming into town, and he has his Facebook privatized so nobody,not even his friends, can post on his Wall, I've sent him a couple of messages.
We also made him a cake, and Karl wanted to put 25 candles on it, but I told him we didn't have that many. I'm using this as an opening to move him up to 25 in addition. In about a week, we'll start the subtraction up to 25, but I have to make some of our own flashcards for that.
Making your own flashcards is quite easy, just use heavy paper or light cardboard, and a marker. Make them all the same size, and write in very small size numbers at the top the numbers, with the answer, on the opposite side, using a pen.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Packing China
Guest post from: Constance Rodgers
I had so much to do today. When I woke up this morning, I was totally over whelmed. I have been putting things off for our big move for quite sometime. Now, with the move only two weeks away, it was time to really get moving. I had to meet the painter at the new house, to make sure that the baseboard work they the previous owners were doing before we moved in got finished. Then, I had to call and make sure that the boarder’s had the reservations for our dogs for the next few weeks. We still don’t have a fence up at the new house. I also had to meet Home Security 101 at the house so that they could install the security system. The last thing and biggest thing that I had to do was finish packing up the china. I was really beginning to regret my habit of collecting vintage patterns when five o’clock rolled around and I was still not done packing up the china. I do know one thing, I am definitely not going to be collecting anymore china unless we decided that we are NEVER going to move again. It is just way too much work.
I had so much to do today. When I woke up this morning, I was totally over whelmed. I have been putting things off for our big move for quite sometime. Now, with the move only two weeks away, it was time to really get moving. I had to meet the painter at the new house, to make sure that the baseboard work they the previous owners were doing before we moved in got finished. Then, I had to call and make sure that the boarder’s had the reservations for our dogs for the next few weeks. We still don’t have a fence up at the new house. I also had to meet Home Security 101 at the house so that they could install the security system. The last thing and biggest thing that I had to do was finish packing up the china. I was really beginning to regret my habit of collecting vintage patterns when five o’clock rolled around and I was still not done packing up the china. I do know one thing, I am definitely not going to be collecting anymore china unless we decided that we are NEVER going to move again. It is just way too much work.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Reasons Why We Homeschool
1. Socialization in most public schools is of extremely poor quality. Parents have no idea who their child is going to meet, interact with, be influenced by, or if the other children are who they want their child associating with. Worse, bullying is on the rise, and educators seem to be uneducated on not only what bullying is, but how to deal with it when it happens.
2. Educational standards are slipping, and quickly. More and more children leave school with no skills, including the very basics of reading and writing.
3. Pressure to perform, and also to conform, fails to intrigue me, except for the passing fancy I have of it and why so many parents are fine with it being aimed at their children. Then I remind myself, there is no logic behind it, except it's easier to control people who conform. I want my child to grow up to be a leader, not a follower. Nothing wrong with followers, it's just the day and age that's bad for followers. At the rate things are going, it might be harder on those who end up being leaders.
4. I enjoy being with my son, day in and day out. He doesn't seem to mind my company, either. I know what he's learning, what methods are being used, I never have to worry about the dreaded PTA meetings, nor the parent-teacher conferences, where all of a sudden, your child, who you've been told all grading period is near saintly, now has problems that you've never been told about. and I also know what he's eating, without ever having to pack a lunch.
5. Flexibility is wonderful. I can teach at a bowling alley, lecture while he's laying down to go to bed, help him write better while talking on the phone, use his favorite TV shows to reinforce something we covered before, and combine subjects into lessons however I think he'll learn best.
6. Risk of several things is eliminated, and even though they may have been low-risk if he attended 'regular' school, there's no chance of him being bullied, ending up in a poor quality school system (FWCS, where we live, is rated a 4 out of 10!), being a victim of violence, or failing. That's right, he has no risk of being held back a grade. I teach him at what level he is capable of learning, not by his age. He also doesn't risk becoming ill from other students, and I don't mean the flu or colds, I mean contagious diseases that run long-term health risks, such as e-coli. He also doesn't run the risk of being kidnapped while on his way to or from the bus stop.
7. Lack of his time being wasted while a teacher catches other children up with the rest of the class. He's not forced to learn at the average rate of the other students in his class.
8. He's also freed of permission slips for field trips, lunch money lost (or stolen), homework left at home, and so on.
9. His curriculum is actually increased, not decreased. He's learning how to cook, parasitology, beginning chemistry, beginning physics, and not only geography, but also topography.
10. His teacher, me, studied Liberal Arts, and I'm comfortable teaching many different subjects, even though I'm a bit rusty on the calculus.
2. Educational standards are slipping, and quickly. More and more children leave school with no skills, including the very basics of reading and writing.
3. Pressure to perform, and also to conform, fails to intrigue me, except for the passing fancy I have of it and why so many parents are fine with it being aimed at their children. Then I remind myself, there is no logic behind it, except it's easier to control people who conform. I want my child to grow up to be a leader, not a follower. Nothing wrong with followers, it's just the day and age that's bad for followers. At the rate things are going, it might be harder on those who end up being leaders.
4. I enjoy being with my son, day in and day out. He doesn't seem to mind my company, either. I know what he's learning, what methods are being used, I never have to worry about the dreaded PTA meetings, nor the parent-teacher conferences, where all of a sudden, your child, who you've been told all grading period is near saintly, now has problems that you've never been told about. and I also know what he's eating, without ever having to pack a lunch.
5. Flexibility is wonderful. I can teach at a bowling alley, lecture while he's laying down to go to bed, help him write better while talking on the phone, use his favorite TV shows to reinforce something we covered before, and combine subjects into lessons however I think he'll learn best.
6. Risk of several things is eliminated, and even though they may have been low-risk if he attended 'regular' school, there's no chance of him being bullied, ending up in a poor quality school system (FWCS, where we live, is rated a 4 out of 10!), being a victim of violence, or failing. That's right, he has no risk of being held back a grade. I teach him at what level he is capable of learning, not by his age. He also doesn't risk becoming ill from other students, and I don't mean the flu or colds, I mean contagious diseases that run long-term health risks, such as e-coli. He also doesn't run the risk of being kidnapped while on his way to or from the bus stop.
7. Lack of his time being wasted while a teacher catches other children up with the rest of the class. He's not forced to learn at the average rate of the other students in his class.
8. He's also freed of permission slips for field trips, lunch money lost (or stolen), homework left at home, and so on.
9. His curriculum is actually increased, not decreased. He's learning how to cook, parasitology, beginning chemistry, beginning physics, and not only geography, but also topography.
10. His teacher, me, studied Liberal Arts, and I'm comfortable teaching many different subjects, even though I'm a bit rusty on the calculus.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Last Thursday to today
Covered animal sciences, with Squeaky the mouse, as well as social studies through interactions and observations on the #9.
In beginning addition, in which he did surprisingly well, and even though he refused help, after begging for it, he got every equation correct on the first two pages of the Spiderman workbook he received for Christmas. For practical math, we went today with his sister and Dylan to a book store, where he sold some of his baby books, and received $8.75 for them. (I then turned around and spent about $7.50 on a couple of new books for him, one is a very well-rounded resource fact book, and the other is a bilingual workbook.) He's not as upset as he originally was about selling his baby books as he was before he got the money for them.
With reading, we covered a few different words again, and then he sounded out a few words on his own. We then discussed exclamation marks, because he thought it was an 'i' and sounded it out, as well.
Geography was covered in the usual way, by using the map on his wall. We also discussed the globe, and I again stressed that even though it looks like a ball, it's not able to bounce like one, and it will break. I'm really hoping he doesn't test me on that point!
In beginning addition, in which he did surprisingly well, and even though he refused help, after begging for it, he got every equation correct on the first two pages of the Spiderman workbook he received for Christmas. For practical math, we went today with his sister and Dylan to a book store, where he sold some of his baby books, and received $8.75 for them. (I then turned around and spent about $7.50 on a couple of new books for him, one is a very well-rounded resource fact book, and the other is a bilingual workbook.) He's not as upset as he originally was about selling his baby books as he was before he got the money for them.
With reading, we covered a few different words again, and then he sounded out a few words on his own. We then discussed exclamation marks, because he thought it was an 'i' and sounded it out, as well.
Geography was covered in the usual way, by using the map on his wall. We also discussed the globe, and I again stressed that even though it looks like a ball, it's not able to bounce like one, and it will break. I'm really hoping he doesn't test me on that point!
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