First impressions of the Calvert Curriculum

I will let my extended absence from my blog speak first and foremost as to how the whole ‘Calvert thing’ is going.  I have no time anymore, it seems.  I knew it going in that it would be a tough transition from how we used to do things, but I think there have also been some unintended consequences as well as some positive results as well.  Here are my impressions so far..

Attendance

Colorado Calvert is officially an online public school, so they have to take attendance.  For a homeschooler, the Colorado State Statute requires a minimum of 174 days, at 4 hours per day, for a total of 694 school hours per school year.  The state, of course, never checks that you actually met this.  The way a public school takes attendance is by counting heads every single school day.  (a fellow homeschooling friend jokes that she take attendance by noting if any of her boys have gone missing, lol...)  The way Calvert handles attendance is to require that the student do something called a checkpoint.  A checkpoint is a short 1-5 question review that covers the material taught in a particular subject that day.  In Jordan's case, a typical day means he has a checkpoint in each category that he worked on in that day's lesson: math, grammar, composition, reading comprehension, history, science.  As long as Jordan completes at least one checkpoint on a given day, he is marked 'present'.  The checkpoints are time-stamped.  We can do school on any day of the week, even on holidays, and if he completes a checkpoint that day, it is considered a day spent in school.  This is where online school gets brownie points for being flexible.  So far, attendance, with the exception of October Count has not been an issue for us, and it's that 'thing' I needed to hold my hand to the fire and keep me accountable, and hold my kids accountable too.

October Count

October Count is the God-forsaken day that the bean-counters in the Ed. Dept. devised to tie actual attendance to per-pupil funding.  If the child is present on that day, the school will get funding for that pupil for the year – something in the range of $7-8 K.  October Count for most public schoolers is on Oct. 1^st.  Parents get a slew of letters and emails in the weeks before reminding parents that only death should prevent their child from attending school that day.  Otherwise, they had better damn well show up.  I received much the same communication (in a much nicer tone), but because Calvert is an online school, their October Count window was from September 24^th to October 8^th.  I was in charge of making sure that each of my children completed a checkpoint, watched a video, attended class on class days, played a game and did an enrichment activity BY NOON, every. damn. day.  Only problem is, we unfortunately have scheduled activities most every morning that require us to be out of the house, so getting stuff done in time has taken just about every last ounce of sanity I had left.    I had never intended for these activities to be on the schedule in the first place, when I first signed up for Calvert.  I had made a strict personal rule: NOTHING ON THE ACTIVITY SCHEDULE BEFORE 3 PM.  I had visions of unrestricted mornings that required no rushing, yelling, searching for clean underwear or breakfast-in-a-baggie in the car just to get to some class or group activity on time.  That madness was reserved for kids that went to public school!  Well, that was the grand plan before I blew out my knee (which requires multiple daytime physical therapy sessions) and before I received a Lego practice schedule that meets for 4x a week in the mornings, (it used to be late afternoons).  L  It has been pretty ugly around here getting this October count requirement met.  Early mornings make for cranky kids.  Tight schedules to get kids where they need to be make for cranky moms.  The kids were doing checkpoints on half-finished lessons because it was 11:59 a.m. and we HAD to.  That is no way to get an education!  It’s not Calvert’s fault.  It’s the bureaucratic we-need-data bullshit I ran screaming away from 8 years ago.  Anyway – it is past October 8^th and I am celebrating.

Lessons

Each Calvert 'Lesson' equals a full day of school.  Each child's teaching manual contains a list of the subjects and activities to do for that day's lesson.  In Jordan's case, he has a list that rotates just a bit, adding in computer on this day, or switching back and forth between history and geography... so every lesson is not exactly the same lineup of stuff to do - which he and I both like.  I like that he can at least get part-way through a lesson, complete a couple of checkpoints to get his attendance logged for the day, and then we just pick right back up where he left off on the next day.  The only issue with this is that he is really supposed to be doing an entire lesson in one day.  We have a pacing guide that we are supposed to follow.  We are now significantly behind, but Jordan has made great personal strides in the past week or so, and is now getting through about 80-90% of a lesson in a day.  He’s almost there!  

Rylan has the same lesson line-up, except there is one major annoyance.  Her checkpoints, with the exception of math, have all been combined into one big one.  So even if we manage to do 5 of the 7 things she was supposed to cover, we can't do the checkpoint yet because we didn't finish.  So that day's attendance is screwed, unless we flub her answers and get to those activities we missed on the next day.  But, again, we are really supposed to do it all in one day.  It is Rylan's schedule that I am most concerned about because she is by far the busiest kid with her insane activity schedule.

Owen’s lessons are the easiest, but I have zero time to do any of the enrichment activities with him – which are the activities that make Kindergarten so awesome in the first place!  I don’t know how families with multiple kids in this program do it, I really don’t.  I am exhausted.  Each kid needs one-on-one, which means - after bouncing back and forth all day, about a 12 hour school day for me.  (not them..me.)  This includes taking what work we can in the car to fill whatever length of time we will be gone and so forth.  Every minute of every school day, somebody is working on something with me, unless I have made the blessed escape to physical therapy.  So far, this really sucks.

Math

Okay, no offense to any of you Singapore fans out there, but Calvert uses Singapore and we all hate it.  We have used MEP up till now, with Teaching Textbooks and Khan Academy as a resource.  Who ever heard of a 14 year old begging to do math 'the way we used to'?  I have!  I have no idea if I can pull some strings or not, but we can't do a whole year of this.  Singapore does such an awful job of presenting material (a short, difficult-to-understand paragraph) followed by a mind-numbing amount of repetition that calls for no variation or creativity....  MEP WE MISS YOU!  I am vowing right now that we are picking up with MEP again and carrying onward in our own way.  I can't do this to my kids.  Singapore will kill math for them, and I have been fighting like mad to keep the wonder and magic of math alive as they progress.

Reading

In Jordan's case, I am thrilled with the Language Arts component that Calvert offers.  He is learning so much with each lesson (which illuminates for me all the stuff I wasn't covering, but should have).  Jordan read Jack London's To Build a Fire during the first week. You know?  Of all the literature I read in Jr. High and High School, it was THAT short story that I remember.  Any time I tromped through the snow, I would think back to that story.  Jordan has a special appreciation for it since he has done the Klondike scout campout every year, and can personally identify with dealing with intense cold.  He is recognizing that literature does not take hold of you, unless you can make a personal connection with it.  He has also read a slew of short stories by various authors such as Edgar Allen Poe, Ray Bradbury and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  He’s checked out a couple Sherlock Holmes mysteries at the library because he really likes that literary style in particular.  Bless him.

In Rylan's case, she uses a standard classroom reader.  I do like the activities associated with it, and there is some writing involved, which makes me happy.  The rest of her work is pretty standard, and sort of uninspiring, if you ask me.

With Owen, I am reading stories or poems to him and then we discuss them.  He is learning  his letters and sounds...finally.  This is all stuff he has been working on with Reading Eggs for the past year, but only now has he been willing to sit down and actually move a pencil around on paper.  Ever since we finally broke through that barrier, he is now a willing participant in coloring, writing, cutting and pasting.  He is a whiz with shapes and counting.

The Assignments

Not only do the kids do a checkpoint for their subjects, they also have work to turn in.  Each week the teachers post a list of assignments (that are a part of the regular lessons anyway) that are due.  I have to scan them, save them to a separate file folder for each kid, and then submit them.  The first couple of weeks were tough, because it was almost 20 files.  Now it is about 8-10 that I send in on a weekly basis.

The Teachers

I love Rylan’s and Owen’s teachers.  They are real pros at this, and have easily made a connection with the kids through the online classes.  Each kiddo has class twice a week – one is math and the other is language arts.  Owen’s class is about 20 minutes long.  He puts on headphones and talks part of the time.  His teacher has the ability to turn on each student’s mic as she chooses – that way they are not all talking at once and producing feedback.  So every now and then I will hear his voice pipe up with an answer to a question she asked.  It is the same way with Rylan’s classes.  Her classes last about 30 – 45 minutes.  Owen’s class is also interactive, so he can use the mouse to do different things on a work surface on the screen, when it is his turn.  I think that is really cool.  Jordan’s classes last about an hour, and they don’t chat via headphones, except in his small-group math enrichment class.  Jordan’s teacher is new this year and I can see that she is learning the ropes just as we are.  She is a very nice lady, but a bit reserved and hard to read.  Jordan likes her well enough, but there is not a personal connection yet.

The Fieldtrips

We have had two ‘fieldtrips’ so far.  The first was a school picnic that met the Friday before the first day of school.  The kids got to meet their teachers face-to-face for the first time, and meet any other students that came.  We had a good time.  Owen’s teacher gave him a pencil and a lucky penny, and you would have thought he had won the lottery.  Rylan’s teacher has a very lively personality and she took to her immediately.  Jordan joined a game of soccer with the older kids, within five minutes of arriving.

Our second ‘fieldtrip’ was a gathering at a library about a month after school started.  The kids split off into two groups – older and younger, and did literary activities for a couple of hours with their teachers.  They had a fun time and could now connect better with classmates since they had seen them online a few times.  Jordan made quite the connection with a girl, actually.  They now exchange multiple texts every day.  Unfortunately (for Jordan, not for us) she lives over an hour away.  They have been trying to figure out a way to meet up ever since the library gathering.  We’re suggesting the families meeting up for dinner or ice cream at some half-way point.  We’ll see…

The Backlash

Unfortunately, a stinging remark or two about making Calvert our chosen way to homeschool has been directed my way, and left their mark as I have incredibly thin skin when it comes to that type of thing.  Well, any type of criticism, really.  It’s bad enough that I already question absolutely everything I do as the right thing to do every second of the day.  There are definitely opinionated camps as what is the correct path to follow in regards to how organized you should be.  Homeschooling is starting to feel as lonely as ever.  I’m worried about my mental health with the amount of stress I am under to get the work done, and how the schedule leaves zero time to fit in anything that could be considered down time with the kids – like a play date or a nature walk.

So that is Calvert for us at this point in time…I’ll reassess in a few more weeks.  By that point both Lego and my physical therapy will be done, so we will have gained back some crucial daytime hours that are so negatively affecting us right now.  

The New School Room

The school room is finally finished and ready for sharing!

After negotiating with Dean for some more space, we decided to clear the front room to make a dedicated room for homeschool. (Surprisingly, even after 7 years of homeschooling, we never had a dedicated space to work in. We would either cram around a desk in the office, or the kitchen table, or spread out in the living room... it was never ideal.) Our supplies and books were never all together in the same place. The piano got moved to the living room (sorta sad about that because now that room looks and feels cramped), and Dean and Jordan's maker space was taken down and may be set up again in the basement. It was a problem anyway because the little boys would not leave the tools alone. With the room clear, in the two weeks before my knee surgery I painted the walls like a mad woman, completed an art project, we made a trip to Ikea and we hung up new window treatments. I am so excited with the results!! I have dreamed of this room for years...

Here is the before. This was a golden yellow paint. I loved this color... In the mornings, when the sunrise would light up this side of the house, it would just glow - not in an irritating way..more like a soft glow, like warm baked bread. I remember picking out this paint. I was newly single, and picking out some chairs at LazyBoy. This yellow was used in the showroom in a little family room setting, and I just knew I had to have it. I got the paint (Benjamin Moore), and painted some rooms this color, and chose a softer yellow for other walls. Over the years, it got a bit dingy. Well, a lot dingy. I had also unfortunately used a flat paint, so I couldn't scrub pencil, marker, greasy hand prints or anything else off of it. By painting day, I was overjoyed to see it go. I was also excited that the very ugly brass light fixture that illuminated *nothing* was on its way out the door as well.

Here is the after...

I have True Confessions of a Homeschooler to thank for the inspiration for the desk. Had our bank account been able to take the full hit, we would have done the four separate drawer units as well, but....in using it for the past few weeks as it is right now, I like the airiness of it just being the table, alone. We made the trip to Ikea in late July, making a day of it. We purchased the following items:

2 Linnmon table tops, in white, with soft green trim around the edges
8 Adils table legs, in silver
3 Jules Jr chairs, two in white, one in pink ;)
1 Vilgot Swivel chair, in black, for Jordan
1 KNAPPA pendant lamp, 2 spotlights and the Sanda track

I love the black chair as it is super-comfy. I am buying another one for me, in fact, tomorrow, as we will be driving right by Ikea on our way to a school picnic. The one in the pic is Jordan's, the other three are for the little kids. The table tops are terrific. In the past few weeks they have been subjected to pencil, crayon, acrylic paint, ModPodge, Elmer's Glue and cat puke. It all cleaned up beautifully. Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser is your best friend.

We love the new light. I affectionately call it the Giant Cauliflower. It took some considerable dexterity to put it together, but it puts out a ton of soft light on the work surface below. Here is a pic I took at night... The light looks like it is glaringly bright, but that is just the way the picture turned out - but look at how well it illuminates the entire table! The table measures 5' x 5', so it is a pretty big surface.

This is my pride and joy. I first encountered an alphabet wall very similar to this in our pediatrician's office about three years ago.  Ever since I saw it, I wanted to make one for our home, but there was never the appropriate wall space for it. It does take a serious amount of wall space. When this room came to fruition, I thought it would be the perfect place for it. Most of the letters came from Hobby Lobby, the rest from Michael's, and the plate from Target. It took about three solid days of shopping, designing, painting and so forth to finish it. Some letters were as-is, but most of them were embellished in some way. It was hard to get a good shot of the wall from straight-on because of Giant Cauliflower, but here it is. I think my favorite is the letter "B". It is a fancy box from Michael's that is in the shape of a Book, with Butterflies on it. I painted a wooden letter B, in Black, and glued it on. :)

Alphabet Wall Art

This bookcase was built many years ago, and had been banished to the garage a couple years back. I painted it with a fresh coat of white paint, and it lives to see another day! The math manipulatives, which have  lived forever in two large wicker baskets, are now properly sorted and easy to find in their new containers, from the Container Store. LOVE that place, and they were a nice price, too! The shelf next to it holds three stacks of Calvert teaching manuals, one for each kiddo. The other four shelves hold each kid's pile of school stuff.

And that's it! School is in session, and so far, so good. We had a lot of discussion about personal work habits before pulling this room together. Having one giant table won't work for everybody, as some kids need their space. We addressed the needs and concerns for each kiddo.  No, we don't all sit around this table and slog away in our work for hours and hours until it's done. I think over the past week we maybe spent a grand total of 1 hour all sitting at the same space.  During the day the kids come and go as they rotate turns working with me, and it's nice to have such a large table surface to push some work to the side, and pull another pile closer and spread out. Calvert is especially manual-heavy, so I may be managing four different books at one time - plus the kid's stuff!

Many, many thanks to my husband for putting the tables and chairs together and installing the new lights.  The kids helped with the chairs, each getting a turn putting their own chair together.  I feel very, very fortunate to have this space for us to work in. :)

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A change is on the horizon..

Colorado Calvert Academy

yep

It's no secret that this year has been difficult on the homeschooling front.  Or last year.  Or the year before that.  Or the year before that.  Each year has presented its own unique challenges, and the majority of them were mine in the making.  Apparently I thought that since I was a HSAHM, (homeschoolingstayathomemom), I had oodles of free time on my hands.  So I volunteered up the wazoo for whatever I could get my hands on in an attempt to prove myself to my toughest critic: me.  It totally backfired.  I learned that being too busy with fluff means that you won't have time to educate your kids.  My kids are not lacking in ability, but they are severely lacking in instruction time, and as the years have flown by, the accumulative effects are showing.

The lack of time can't be addressed until I clear my schedule.  This year has shown a very sharp decline in doctor appointments, thanks to resolving my shoulder issues last spring, and my BR last fall.  These appointments have been sneaky time-wasters.  I am resigning from our homeschool association's board, effective in May.  I am stepping down from leadership in the Girl Scout troop, also effective in May.  After three years, it's time for another mom to take the helm and share the burden.

So with all the 'free time' on the horizon, I intend to fill it with the things that had been desired all along -long lazy trips to the library, museums, afternoons spent reading, playing games and craft projects.  And I will have this time because someone else will be doing the legwork of the planning, the curriculum procuring, the grading, the feedback (some), the record-keeping.  That someone is Colorado Calvert Academy.

The clouds of discontent have been looming for years.  We knew the present situation wasn't working, but the answer was never to stop homeschooling.  We (Dean and I) love the freedom it provides, and we want the kids to stay at home.  But.  With days and days going by with minimal progress, what was going to be the catalyst for change?

For one thing, I have trouble getting things done when there is minimal accountability.  I am not the type of person that ever tried to sneak sloppy work by the boss in the hopes of squeaking by.  I was a type-A, straight-A student.  Sloppy is not acceptable.  But when there is no one looking over my shoulder, reminding me that I really need to stop surfing the internet and get schoolwork going, or that I need to stop wasting time in a fruitless effort to communicate with the unwilling masses of our homeschooling association, or that working on the finances of our Girl Scout troop during school time is not necessary...I will fritter away the hours.  Day after day.  I need accountability to keep me on track.  After seven years of not punching a time clock, I got lazy.  Very lazy.

Looking down the road, in the long-term, I feel a rise of panic when I realize, deep down, that our children will not be prepared to lead the kind of life we are hoping for, if nothing is done to change our course.

So enter Colorado Calvert Academy.  A fellow homeschooling mom has been using Calvert since her daughter was in K.  She has talked about their experiences over the years, but for whatever reason it never really appealed to me.  She used Calvert via a virtual school, and I think that was my turn-off.  I didn't want the pressure of staying on someone else's schedule.  Now I see that that very thing is what I need most.  In return for joining an online school and jumping through their hoops, I get a top-notch curriculum for free (you can do Calvert curriculum at home - to the tune of $1200/year/student), the teaching support, field trips, potential school friends for the kids, and relief from the financial burden of purchasing my own curriculum from at least 15 different sources on an annual basis.  The $$ savings will be huge.  HUGE.  Also factor in the time saved researching different curriculums - I have spent HOURS trolling the internet for new stuff, different stuff, ways to use stuff... on and on...  Not to mention, knowing how much to do in a day, pacing, working in too much of a subject area into the schedule or not enough... well, staying on schedule period...  I have always been akin to planning waaaay too much into a day.  The kids get burnt out and so do I.

We start when school officially begins, just after Labor Day.  I can't wait!!!

A staggered start

 

 

You would think that after 6 years of homeschooling under my belt, I would have this gig all figured out. Not so. Every year has consisted of different circumstances, schedules and temperaments.

I want this to be *the* year that we take the 'schooling' part of school a little more seriously. I've got my plate full now, as Owen has joined the ranks and will begin doing regular work, just like his older brother and sister. Jordan is now an eighth grader, and I've got a lot of ground to cover. Rylan is in second grade, and not quite where I had hoped she would be. So, this is the year for change.

I know from past experience that doing the full schedule on the first day is a huge mistake. The kids need to transition out of their lazy days just as much as I need to. It was surprisingly easy to put homeschool out of my mind for June and July. As much as I had planned on schooling through the summer, my heart was just not in it, and with Jordan gone and our general summer activity busyness in the way, schoolwork was just not going to happen.

So here we are. It is August (and it's almost over !?!?), and our school year is well underway. I thought about school in short snippets here and there, and one of the decisions I made was that we would do a staggered start. Each week, as August progressed, I would add another kid to the schedule. And as each day passed by, we would add another item or two to the work load.

I began with Jordan, and after three weeks, he is running at almost full tilt. The only exception is World History. Neither of us are really grooving on History Odyssey. We cannot seem to move beyond ancient history!! After six years of homeschooling, we have left all the world history beyond ancient history virtually untouched, with the exception of what we read about in the yearly Core Knowledge books. I think that of all of the school subjects, history is my absolute favorite, and so I don't know why I am struggling with this. I need to figure out what my issue is with History Odyssey is, and fix it. Quickly.

We are using Homeschool Schedtrak again this year to track our hours, and Jordan has logged over 40 for this month already, so I think we are off to an excellent start. Please don't roll your eyes or secretly hate me when I tell you this, but Jordan has remarked, on numerous occasions over these past few weeks, that he is really enjoying the work - especially Physics, and looks forward to checking off his schedule as he goes. I am only making note of it here because I understand how fleeting and remarkable it is for a 13 yr. old to say something like this in the first place, and I need it here to remind me of the good times. I know that hard and difficult times are to be expected. I just want to be prepared. Now, I am not going to lie, there is a dangling carrot for motivation here. A completed schoolwork checklist = Minecraft, so that is truly what is pushing him here, at the moment.

Rylan's turn came up, and, just as I expected, she was less than thrilled. We are working at about half the desired work load right now. I think it is going to take a while to get her into a comfortable routine. The one highlight came last week, when upon the completion of a math lesson, she remarked in an astounded and pleased voice that she was excited to be doing 'real math' at this point, 'just like Jordan'. Not sure why solving the same sort of problems all of a sudden feels like the real thing, but there you have it. Another happy customer, so I'll file it away in the Good Times folder, for later use to remind me why it was a good idea to homeschool in the first place.

Owen is officially known to the school district now, as I just added his name to the Notice of Intent to Homeschool letter we have to send to the local district each fall. Owen loves his big yellow pencils and putting stickers on things. I no longer think he will be a lefty, he is most definitely a righty. I am a little disappointed...I thought that would have been kind of cool. We have only started up two things at this point - Reading Eggs and Explode the Code, so we will just continue to work on adding stuff as we go.

It has been a very good start - our best ever, to date. I think that it has also helped us that the extra stuff doesn't really start up until next month. Jordan has joined our homeschool Lego NXT group, and will meet twice a week until the month of November, when they go to competition. The group just started up meetings this past week, and he is enjoying it. He is also doing Boy Scouts, of course. And that's it! I think that not going to karate five days a week will make a huge difference for him. I'm still sad about that, but in the big picture, it's a good thing. Rylan wrapped up her summer tumbling session a week ago, and is enjoying not having anything to do at the moment. And I hope she does, because in another week's time, she will be a busy, busy girl. She will have three nights of dance in a row - jazz, tumbling and ballet, plus violin, and then Girl Scouts starts up in October, along with extra Nutcracker practices. I am glad we are not starting up scouts in September - I still need to get my feet on solid ground before I take on seven little Brownies!

So that's it! Things have been quiet here on the blog as I got stuff rolling - not much down time as of late. I have been keeping up with how fellow homeschoolers - both local and on the blogosphere have been ramping things up, making changes here and there - always good to self-evaluate and know that we are all in the same boat, just carrying different cargo...

 

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Building Legos with 6,000 friends

We did something new last week. I don't remember now where I saw it, but I read somewhere (I think it was in my Facebook feed) that CurrClick has clubs that you can join. Specifically, a Lego club. All you do is register and it's FREE. You don't have to bundle up your kids, (hunting down coats, mittens and snow boots), just to drive across town and mess around with millions of tiny pieces of Lego and referee the occasional disagreement between kids and stretch the truth about it being an 'educational' endeavor. Nope. We got to stay home, commute to the computer desk, log in and click a couple of links and we were golden.

It is my understanding that this online 'club' meets live, twice a month - the second Monday and the fourth Wednesday. Both classes are exactly the same, so if you miss one, you can do the other - AND, the classes are recorded, so you can actually do it any time you please - if you don't really care about the live chat bit.

The moderator is a homeschool mom of two boys, and she runs the class. There are several windows open on the screen during class - a window with a webcam on the moderator, a large screen that displays videos and various graphics that relate to that month's build, a live chat window, and a window that shows who is present for the current class. The attendees can communicate via the chat window, either with the moderator or the other club members.

Each month has a different theme and build that goes with it. This month the theme is snow, and the kids constructed a rather intricate snowflake. Next month it is a section of the Great Wall of China. The moderator posts a materials list (various Lego pieces) way ahead of time (like weeks), so you have plenty of time to gather the correct number of pieces before the class. The color of the pieces do not matter in the builds. You can, if you choose to, order a kit for that month's build - and the prices seem very reasonable. Fortunately our kids own an obscene number of Legos, so I think we will be okay.

For our class (we did this last Monday), we got our pieces gathered up over the weekend. We logged in five minutes before class, and things were already up and running, with more attendees logging in at a fast pace. I think there were about 50 in attendance by the time the class started - and there are over 6,000 in the club worldwide. The moderator came on right at 2 pm, the appointed time for the class (which lasts an hour long). She introduced the month's theme, did a little bit of housekeeping, and then launched into the subject: snow. We first watched a video about the formation of snowflakes, and looked at a series of microscopic images of snowflakes - all categorized by structural form. They were absolutely breathtaking. Then a short presentation about the different types of snowfall, avalanches and the destructive force of massive amounts of snowfall. Finally we got to the build. The pace was reasonable and the difficulty level was fairly easy for Jordan. Rylan....not so much. I think she was frustrated by the constant chatter from the instructor as she helped other students, and got lost fairly quickly. An advantage of watching a recorded session versus live, is that you can pause the video and take your time to complete a step before you continue on.

The kids enjoyed it very much (when they weren't busy fighting over the chairs and grouching at each other). I enjoyed the fact that the other people in the session could not hear the kids bickering and my subsequent yelling at them to pay attention to the moderator. A win-win situation all around!

A short video presentation about a scientist's perspective on snowflake structure.

A snowflake...

Working on the build...

The finished product!  (If you had purchased the kit, all of the pieces would have been white.)

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Weekly wrap up: I need some self-discipline...

 

 

In regards to self-discipline: if you don't use it, you lose it. 

 

I am sadly not using it when it comes to games on my iPad (I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually), blogs and newsfeeds, and endless email.  The iPad and computer are constant teaching companions during schooltime - it's just so hard for me to resist a peek at the other stuff too.  I need to flex my self-discipline muscle more often. 

 

I'll start with one rep and work my way up from there.

 

Okay.  Two reps.

 

Three... tops.  But then I'll need a massage afterwards.

 

 

 

We have had a fairly decent school week.  Monday morning we squeezed in some math before we met up with the Daisy scouts for our first service project of the year - pulling weeds from the sand at a local playground.  I've got to share a conversation I posted on Facebook about our math lesson that morning...

 

"In the midst of math this morning, Owen walked by Rylan and handed her one of the play phones and they proceeded to have a long, drawn-out pretend conversation. So I put my hand to my ear like a phone and "dialed" Rylan.

Me: Hello? Miss Rylan?
Rylan: (Giggle) Yes?
Me: Can you please answer problem number four?
Rylan: Um... Rylan can't come to the phone right now. Can you call back later?

(Sigh)

 

 

After a not-so-productive math lesson we headed to the park and we all worked away in the hot sun (it was nice in the shade).  It was reassuring to see all of the girls working so hard and helping each other out.  It's a great mix of girls!  It also gave the moms a chance to chat.  I miss talking shop (homeschool) - so it was a great way to pass the time.  I also have to say that I am one lucky, lucky mom.  Jordan is twelve - and he is the oldest sibling that comes along.  There is only one other older brother, but I think he is like seven.  So considering all of that - Jordan does not complain about it.  In fact, he rather likes it.  He seems to prefer playing with younger kids - and does not mind a bit if they are girls.  The games he comes up with are quite fun - usually involving a chase of some sort - and the little girls love it.  Most other twelve year-old boys would probably give their moms serious grief over having to tag along to a girl scout meeting (unless of course it was for Cadettes...)

 

We had to dash off to Rylan's violin lesson straight from the park.  During the lesson Rylan practiced several new things - touching her fingertips and clapping out a rhythm (Miss-iss-ip-pi-hot-dog) and singing an 'A' (or la).  Rylan was low on the first attempt, and on the second she hit it.  I about. fell. out. of. my. chair.  Then, after a couple of near-misses, she hit it again.  My mother and my aunt both have perfect pitch (able to produce or identify a given note without a reference pitch), and nobody yet (kids or grandkids) has it too, so far... Rylan's teacher showed us that (if your violin is in tune) if you hold your violin close to your mouth as you sing an 'A', the 'A' sting will vibrate and hum along with you - and it does!  How cool is that?!

 

On Tuesday we did school and karate and not much else worthy of note.  I kept the tv off and did minimal news checking.  The anniversary of 9/11 is not something I want to dwell on too much - and the little kids don't really need to see those horrible images.  It can wait until they are much, much older.

 

Wednesday was supposed to be a very busy day with schoolwork, piano lessons, Park Day, a potluck and evening karate and dance.  At 7 a.m. I went out to the garage to fetch something from the car and noticed that all of the interior lights were on.  Right then I should have thought about testing the battery by turning on the car, but I did not.  My mom came and went for the piano lesson and then we decided to skip Park Day.  It was cool and rainy, and plans were falling through right and left.  Afternoon nap didn't happen until 3:30 because Colin fought it every step of the way, so that meant that our plans to attend our homeschool groups annual not-back-to-school potluck was going to be a no-go - there was no way in hell I was taking a small child with only a 45 min. nap under his belt.  He is a holy terror in that state.  He finished his nap, we finished school and the kids got ready for their respective classes.  We were even going to make it on time!  Went out to start the car and nothing but clickclickclickclickclick.  Damn.  So even IF we had wanted to go to Park Day or the potluck, we wouldn't have been able to anyway.  Dean was on his way home in the vanpool, so we just waited for him to arrive home and then jump the car for us.  It was too late to leave for lessons at that point, so the day was pretty much a wash.

 

Thursday brought big disappointment for Jordan when he found out in karate that he was not going to be able to test for his belt this weekend.  He simply does not have the class time in - and through no fault of his own, either.  Visitation time with his mom plus a couple of scouts outings interfered with his ability to get enough classes in during this past 9 week cycle.  They require a minimum of 14 on-level classes, 3 review classes, and 3 sparring sessions.  Jordan got the 3 and 3, but he only had maybe 5? 6? of the on-level classes.  This makes two belt promotions in a row that he has missed.  He knows that it's just how it has to be, but he is still taking it hard.

 

Friday brought the most awesome revelation - ever!  As Jordan and I were sitting down to do his math lesson, the thought occurred to me to check to see if I could bring up his math website on the iPad.  You see - the way we 'do math' is that we sit down at the computer for his MEP lesson, and Jordan sits where he can see the computer screen - for the occasional times that I need to swivel the screen in his direction if he needs to see a graphic or something.  I print off the practice book pages for him to keep in his math notebook, but I don't print off the teacher's lessons - that would be 3-4 pages a lesson, for 175 lessons.  No way.  So I just read off the lesson and instruct as we go.  This has limited us to getting math done in the mornings only - and if something is scheduled in the morning, then math does not get accomplished at all.  The office/schoolroom is located directly underneath Colin/Rylan's room, so we can't school in there during naptime.  So portability is key.  Math was not portable.  (I really do have a lot to say about math - I need to get my curriculum posts done!).  So, long boring story short - I CAN get MEP on my iPad, so that means we can do it wherever, whenever.  And - the graphics that I need him to look at from time to time can be expanded with the zoom feature, and we can pass the iPad back and forth as we talk about them.  Case in point - Friday's lesson was about angles - in relation to clock faces, an actual orienteering compass and so forth.  We discussed fractional amounts and their related number of degrees (5 minutes on a clock is 30 degrees and so forth..) fractional compass amounts  (from N to NE is 45 degrees, NNE to ENE is 45 degrees...)  It helped that he could look at the clock and compass graphics as we talked about them.  Thank goodness he has already had orienteering with the scouts - that made it a lot easier to talk about.  We just spread out a map of Arches NP and talked about getting from point A to point B.

 

I also figured out that we can do IXL math practice on the iPad too - so that means that I can keep more kids going at one time, instead of cycling them through the one computer that we have, one at a time.  Unfortunately, the iPad does not support flash, so we can't do Reading Eggs.  They do have an app, but it is not the same thing.

 

We also used the iPad earlier in the week to discuss the sun and the movement of the planets in relation to the sun.  Solar Walk is the most awesome app I have ever seen.  It out does any 2-dimensional discussion  - the kids just can't wrap their head around what the rotations look like.  It is like having your own personal Planetarium show!

 

One more week to go and then a very much-needed break!

The First Day of School

I love seeing the pictures that have been flooding Facebook and blogosphere for the past few days - so many kids looking so excited for all that is in store... kids in front of school buses, front doors, school signs, in their classrooms, at home at the kitchen table... lots of different firsts, and all of the them look pretty wonderful!

Yesterday marked our first day for this year as well.  My homeschool calendar runs from August through July, schooling throughout the year and taking the last week off each month.  And then, here and there, we take off an extra week (or two or three) depending on the ebb and flow of the seasons.  Jordan just got home from his visitation with his mom in Oklahoma, so we took off the beginning of August and waited until he got home to officially start.  We'll go straight through and take off the last week of September.

So here is our "First Day Picture"....

Fantastic....

They look super-excited, don't they?

Here was my soundtrack all day...

1.  How many of these do I have to do?

2.  Can I play Minecraft now?

3.  Hey!  This is actually good so far!  (Jordan, talking about The Phantom Tollbooth)

4.  I have completely forgotten how to do Roman Numerals... what do I do again??

5.  I want to do Math!  (Owen)  (He means 'play' with the new balance scale we got)

6.  Can we watch Phineas and Ferb now?

7.  I'm hungry!

8.  What time is it?

9.  There is gross stuff all over my pencil.  Can I have a new one?

10.  Ewww!  Mom!  Jordan put his eraser up his nose!!!!!!!!!!!!

11.  Why don't you check your email, while we go out and play????

12.  What composition book?

sigh.

I don't think I am ready for day two just yet...

I need another shot of espresso in my mocha.

Hope your 'first day' went better than mine!!!



Curriculum catastrophies



I remember that the first summer before we started homeschooling I spent a minimum of 6-8 hours a day (or as long as 14 mo. old Rylan would let me) digging around on the Internet to look at curriculum and figure out how I was going to homeschool a (then) second grade Jordan.

Two regrets:

1.  I missed out on several precious weeks of Rylan's sweet babyhood - weeks I should have savored after working a full-time job during her first year of life.

2.  Five years later, I haven't learned a damn thing.

I hate the curriculum vortex that happens on the Internet.  You could spend hours.  Days.  Weeks.  And still not be any closer to a decision about what you want to use.  I have spend MONTHS trying to decide what direction we should take this coming year.  And I am still on the fence about a few items.  I want things simple, yet effective.  I've got three kids to school this year (four, if you count the 1on1 activities that I should be doing with Colin), so I need to make maximum use of my time.

When I sit here at the computer (also the 'school room'), all I have to do is cast my eyes upward and side-to-side as I scan our bookcases to see some of my spectacular (ie. expensive ) curriculum failures.  Even though I have spent hours this summer combing through the shelves and purging several boxes worth of stuff I won't use, the shelves are loaded to the max.  I don't even have room for the new stuff that will be arriving any day!  Most of what I purged were things I didn't purchase anyway.  They were relics from my teaching days - and mostly just full of 'busywork'.  Kids don't need 'busywork' - they need to get the meaty stuff and then go off and play.

Why so many failures??

1.  I am a curriculum crackhead.  I love new books.  They're shiny.

2.  Unfortunately, teachers-in-training do not take a college-level course called "Choosing an Effective Curriculum".  When you are a public school teacher, the district's so-called *experts* make the choices and you unpack the boxes that were dumped on your work table, number the books with your trusty Sharpie, and make nice, neat stacks on each student's desk in preparation for the first day of school.  And then you take home the teacher's manual and cram the night before you teach the lesson, while you eat Chinese take-out and watch CSI.

3.  I love the 'idea' of a comprehensive curriculum that pulls in multiple resources and materials.  Case in point: The Story of the World.  I love, love, love how in depth the curriculum goes, and all of the different books you use and the numerous projects and mapping exercises that you complete over the year.  And every year we fail to get very far.  This will be Jordan's FOURTH year learning about Ancient History (and Rylan's first!).  I totally suck.   Also - what I love does not necessarily translate to what they love.

4.  I fail to be realistic.  I always over-plan and under-execute.

5.  I didn't think about the type of children I had... I read the reviews based on other people's children.

6.  I based my opinion on the merit of a workbook by the one stinkin' lousy page that was available under 'preview'.  The rest of the pages to preview were, of course, the empty boring pages at the beginning of the book and the table of contents.  WHY do they only let you see one or two actual work pages?  It doesn't matter if you use Amazon, Rainbow Resource or even the publisher... there are very few companies that let you page through the entire thing.  Life of Fred is a very nice exception, as well as Real Science-4-Kids.

7.  I used the "We might use this... someday...." excuse.  No more.  If it's not being used now, or its proven its merit and is sticking around for the other kids, it's going to a new home.

So... what are we using this year?  I think I have made some pretty good, solid choices, but a post about it will have to wait for another time - so much to do today, and so little time to do it in!



Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... It is snowing!!!  After such a dry month of March, this is wonderful.  Except that all of the apple trees are currently in full bloom.  :(

I am thinking... I knew it was too soon to pack up the hats, gloves, boots, and coats.  They are only placed in the family closet upstairs, but still.... I should have waited.  I was just tired of Colin emptying everyone's winter gear bin on a daily basis. 

I am thankful... For the moisture.  I haven't watered yet, with the exception of my rhubarb that is coming up and my chives.


From the Learning Rooms... We did *almost* a full day yesterday.  Owen had a follow-up Dr. appt in the morning, so we had to skip math.  We just picked up where we were in the schedule when we got home.  I did AAS with Rylan - we are working on the consonant teams 'th', 'sh' and 'ch'.  It's not quite sticking yet.  Owen did his first official preschool work yesterday.  He completed two pages in his new workbook, Developing the Early Learner, and the first page in his Core Knowledge Activity Book 1.  We also spent some time doing Reading Eggs.  I LOVE Reading Eggs.  Owen can't quite manage the computer mouse yet, so he points to the screen, and I position the mouse and then he clicks.  We ran through our Geography index cards, and one of the words was "Bay".  I started to sing Down by the Bay, and could only get as far as the first line, so I looked for it on YouTube.  I love YouTube.  Every single time we come across a song that is referred to in Core Knowledge (and there are a lot), I can find a sample within seconds.  In the past month Jordan has listened to slave spirituals, Wayfaring Stranger (Johnny Cash's version - watch out for the nasty comments on the page), We Shall Overcome - an absolutely breathtaking rendition performed by the Morehouse College Glee Club, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition - a nice version where you can see an orchestra perform up close, Git Along, Little Dogies - (The Kingston Trio version with beautiful artwork and the Arlo Guthrie & The Muppets version - and in typical Arlo fashion he talks, and talks, and talks...), and Peter, Paul and Mary's rendition of If I had a Hammer - I just love that song!  And now we added Raffi's rendition of a song about a watermelon in the sand.  We finished up the day with a lesson from MTM about American artist Mary Cassatt.


In the kitchen... Absolutely nothing because I need to go grocery shopping.

I am wearing... pj's.  Time to get going this morning.


I am creating... this post and not much else at the moment...

I am going...  grocery shopping of course, and to karate lessons this afternoon.  Tonight I am going to hang out with other homeschooling moms and supposedly knit.  I'll just drink coffee.


I am wondering... how this house gets so completely wrecked so fast.

I am reading... What Alice Forgot, by Liane Moriarty for bookclub next week. (my pick).  I'm also finishing up Quiet.  I breezed through books 2 and 3 of The Hunger Games last week.  Oh my, that was good.  The only weakness I can find is that the author, Suzanne Collins, seems to use the literary device of removing Katniss from a dangerous situation only to have her wake up in a hospital bed a little too much.  I don't know if you can actually call that a 'device' but it sort of seems to take a predictable path after awhile.  Katniss gets hurt, she escapes, she recovers in the hospital, she's weak and then gets stronger.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat....

I am hoping... to have some time this week to put out spring/Easter decorations.  I forget EVERY year.  At least I remembered to get some candy a couple of weeks ago - before all the good stuff disappeared from the store shelves.

I am looking forward to... Easter Dinner with family this weekend.

I am learning... about coal mining this week, as part of Rylan's FIAR book: The Rag Coat.


I am hearing... The boys in the shower. Alternate screaming, yelling and crying - due to an unjust distribution of water toys, I'm sure.  Jordan does a sort of decent job getting Owen and Colin through the shower each and every morning. He also gets them dressed. I am very grateful for that - it makes my job of getting breakfast underway much easier.

Around the house... Our new trampoline!  It arrived via UPS last Tuesday, and Dean put it together that evening.  The weather was very mild, so we could stay outside and work on it.  We put the kids to bed after dinner, and went back outside to finish the job.  We were done around midnight.  We had a few celebratory jumps and then went to bed.  Our neighbors *love* us.

I am pondering... How long it will take for a serious injury to happen because of the trampoline.


One of my favorite things... Apparently, this morning it is YouTube.  Although I could do without all of the nasty comments people leave or the inappropriate video suggestions on the sidebar.  I wish there was a safe version of YouTube for kids.

A few plans for the rest of the week... the typical lineup of schoolwork, karate and archery.  Owen has an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist on Friday.  He had his four year old checkup last Monday, and because he was wheezy, he got a nebulizer treatment (with Albuterol).  After the treatment, when the doctor listened to his chest again, she detected a murmur.  So we are getting it checked out.  It is possible that it was never detected before because his heart/lungs weren't under stress at the time the doctor listened.  Albuterol excites the system for a short time, just after treatment.


Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Colin is now officially in charge of silverware.

To read more entries and visit a variety of other blogs, go here...

Keepin' it real...

Sigh.  One of my biggest complaints about my college education is that the pedagogy was weak on the how aspects of teaching.  HOW do you teach a child to read?  I got all sorts of ideas on how to support literacy, but not the nuts and bolts of the HOW.  Same with math.  I had one - O*N*E math class.  We mostly played games and had an incredibly boring textbook to read.  Ninety-nine percent of it was about aligning your lessons to the NCTM standards.  Super-helpful.

Most of the ideas I use (to compliment Rylan's MEP curriculum) with Rylan are either something I came up with on the fly or something I saw on some one's blog.  For me, the best blogs for ideas are Magic and Mayhem, No Time for Flashcards, and Homeschool Creations.  There are sooo many good ideas from these terrific moms!

Yesterday's math lesson was all about 0's, 1's and 2's -adding and subtracting, inequalities and writing practice.  We've been doing the same thing for the past two weeks, and each day it's just a little more involved.  I've noticed that Rylan does great when she is working with something tangible and not-so-great when she is working in the abstract.  Well, duh... kids aren't wired for the abstract quite yet.  I wonder why the curriculum developers, the so-called education experts that advise the curriculum developers, and some of the teachers that use the curriculum, keep pushing the issue that kids need to be reading, writing and completing abstract calculations at increasingly younger ages.  I think it is an issue of politicians needing quantifiable results to push their agendas - and true education just gets swept out the window.  I wish they (the out-of-touch politicians) could sit in the front lines and see what their unreasonable expectations are doing to kids.  I really, really do.  Once again, I am so thankful that I got out of public education.  But, still, even as a homeschooler, I feel compelled to get the reading/writing ball rolling - it is so hard to resist the pressure not to do so.

Rylan is five years and six months.  She can count to about seventy.  She can't skip count - and oh, how I have tried.  She can recognize odd and even, and knows about inequalities.  The 'Alligator Mouth' did the trick - except now she wants to draw the teeth in every time.  She can count objects, play along with a number story (I'll detail that in a moment), she can divide things out equally and group according to attribute.  She recognizes patterns and loves to play with unifix cubes and Cuisenaire rods.

But.

When I ask, pointing to the printed problem on the lesson's worksheet for the day, "What is one plus one?", I get a blank stare.  I pull out two counters and try again.  Then I get results.  I know this all takes time - but some days I just feel like abandoning the worksheets altogether because I feel like they are getting in the way.  I don't ever want math to become a negative thing between us.  She loves to do all of the activity stuff - and I want to keep it that way.

Yesterday we did the little flashcards for the first time (pictured at the top).  She happened to have her Lego Jessie with her, so Jessie 'helped' her count.  This is probably about the third time we have counted using a number line.  I've had this mat for a long time, I just never remember to pull it out.  We are working on jumping up the number line to add, and jumping down to subtract.  It just so happens that Jordan is also doing a lot of number line work lately- he is working with positive and negative numbers right now.  So he pipes up and starts telling her about negative numbers.  Then I have to send him to the kitchen table to finish his work before he completely confuses her.



In a part of her lesson we needed to demonstrate the concept of 'equal' with a balance.  That is a tool I wish we had... we had to settle for a good-old-fashioned wire hanger and plastic bags.  It worked for the most part.  I had to pull out the marble-jar, which has been in hiding for the greater part of a year.  Owen and Colin were delighted and of course begged and begged and begged for marbles.  I now have about 15 marbles to fish out from underneath the stove alone.  Doing 'real' activities like this works really well for Rylan, so I try and make the bulk of the lesson doing stuff like this.  I know that kids do this sort of thing in public school too, but with us, it's individualized.  Owen doesn't like using counters as much as Rylan does, give Jordan too much 'stuff' to work with and he gets completely distracted - keep it simple.  You can't quite expect that to happen in the regular classroom.

The dryer completed its cycle right in the middle of our math lesson.  (I have a hard and fast rule that you drop everything and tend to the clothes, immediately.)  So as Rylan and I stood in the closet and sorted and folded and hung up stuff, we counted.  "Rylan has three pants.  She puts one away (puts in on the shelf), now how many does she have?  Daddy has two pairs of socks.  If we put both pairs on the shelf, how many do we have left?  Two minus two equals zero."  And so on.  This works pretty well and we use this number story activity in sorts of different scenarios.

As long as we keep it real, a connection can be made.  I think that might be good advice for all facets of life.