Monday, July 22, 2013
Splash Pad
Last week, when Ezra was at scout camp, I took the other little kids to the splash pad. It was a local homeschool gathering. The kids had a great time. Except for poor Matthias--he hit his head hard on the slide and cut it open. He spent the rest of our time there on the bench putting pressure on his wound and eating treats. (Thankfully he was fine the rest of the day.) After the splash pad, we went to the library to stock up on books--one of our favorite things to do.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The kids and I finished reading Island of the Blue Dolphins yesterday. What a terrific story! I first read it as a young girl, probably around 4th grade, and have read it many times since. It never gets old or boring to me. After we finished reading it, we watched the 1964 movie version on youtube. I was pleased when the kids were appalled at how many details the movie left out or completely butchered. They all liked the book better. And that makes me proud!
We also did some research on Jauna Maria or Lone Woman from San Nicolas Island, the woman the book is based on. Apparently she lived on the island alone for 18 years and then died seven weeks after being rescued. They are pretty certain they have found the cave she lived in and there is a dig and research going on right now to prove it. It is all so fascinating to me. I would love to know exactly what happened to her and what her life was truly like living alone all of those years.
We also did some research on Jauna Maria or Lone Woman from San Nicolas Island, the woman the book is based on. Apparently she lived on the island alone for 18 years and then died seven weeks after being rescued. They are pretty certain they have found the cave she lived in and there is a dig and research going on right now to prove it. It is all so fascinating to me. I would love to know exactly what happened to her and what her life was truly like living alone all of those years.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
2006
I found this post on an old blog of mine from 2006 and wanted to post it here:
Today at church I was visiting with a neighbor of mine. She was talking about something and all of a sudden said, “It’s like homeschooling. I could never homeschool.” It was so out of context that I almost said, “And what does that have to do with homeschooling?” However, I said nothing at all. Then she started talking about this talent show at a junior highschool she had attended. She said that this large Black boy came onto the stage and played this beautiful piece on the piano. She remarked that she was moved to tears it was so good. When he was finished, she was dismayed to see kids laughing at him, and barely praising his talent (half-hearted clapping). She said that another girl stumbled across the stage, threw a phone book onto the piano bench, and played a ridiculous song. This girl was cheered and applauded. My neighbor was saying how it angered her that just because that girl was popular and cute, she was praised, even though her talent paled in comparison to the Black boy’s. I made a comment about how sad it was and that it was too bad. Then I said, “There are some not-so-great things about public school.” It was a comment I would have made whether my kids were in public school or not. In fact, when my kids were in public school, I made disparaging remarks about the public school system quite often. My neighbor instantly responded with, “Well! Those things are good for kids to experience. It’s necessary for when they are in the real world, so that they know how to deal with it. When you homeschool kids, and try to integrate them back into high school or into college, they need to know how the real world works.” I wanted to laugh, but instead I said, “From my experience, college is nothing like that.” She then said, “Well no, but high school is and kids need to know about the real world if they’re going to be in high school.” I replied, "If they go to high school.” I could tell I was speaking to someone with a homeschool prejudice. She stared at me and said, “Well, I just know a lot of homeschooled people, and I know that their kids have had to take high school courses in order to qualify.” I let that statement go, because I knew I would be wasting my time if I refuted it. Qualify for what exactly? College? You don’t have to have high school courses under your belt in order to qualify for college. (In fact, I know of a homeschooled family that had three of their kids get accepted into Harvard with nary a high school course). I also knew that I needed to stop discussing homeschool with her or I would get angry. I am really tired of everyone saying that my kids are lacking “real world” experience by being homeschooled. In the “real world” (which must mean after high school), if someone beats the crap out of you, you call the police. You don’t just take it, because it makes you a stronger person. The same goes for being made fun of or being harassed. As an adult in the “real world,” I know that I don’t have to take that kind of treatment. So why are our little children expected to deal with it? Why is it good for them to experience these types of things? Why do people think it's essential for children to experience such harshness? I really get tired of people acting like my children are so deprived because we homeschool them. They are not lacking in social unfairness (or rather, "real world" experience), believe you me. Even our homeschooling cannot keep them from being made fun of or excluded in church settings, or by neighborhood children. They get plenty "real world" experience, thank you very much.
Today at church I was visiting with a neighbor of mine. She was talking about something and all of a sudden said, “It’s like homeschooling. I could never homeschool.” It was so out of context that I almost said, “And what does that have to do with homeschooling?” However, I said nothing at all. Then she started talking about this talent show at a junior highschool she had attended. She said that this large Black boy came onto the stage and played this beautiful piece on the piano. She remarked that she was moved to tears it was so good. When he was finished, she was dismayed to see kids laughing at him, and barely praising his talent (half-hearted clapping). She said that another girl stumbled across the stage, threw a phone book onto the piano bench, and played a ridiculous song. This girl was cheered and applauded. My neighbor was saying how it angered her that just because that girl was popular and cute, she was praised, even though her talent paled in comparison to the Black boy’s. I made a comment about how sad it was and that it was too bad. Then I said, “There are some not-so-great things about public school.” It was a comment I would have made whether my kids were in public school or not. In fact, when my kids were in public school, I made disparaging remarks about the public school system quite often. My neighbor instantly responded with, “Well! Those things are good for kids to experience. It’s necessary for when they are in the real world, so that they know how to deal with it. When you homeschool kids, and try to integrate them back into high school or into college, they need to know how the real world works.” I wanted to laugh, but instead I said, “From my experience, college is nothing like that.” She then said, “Well no, but high school is and kids need to know about the real world if they’re going to be in high school.” I replied, "If they go to high school.” I could tell I was speaking to someone with a homeschool prejudice. She stared at me and said, “Well, I just know a lot of homeschooled people, and I know that their kids have had to take high school courses in order to qualify.” I let that statement go, because I knew I would be wasting my time if I refuted it. Qualify for what exactly? College? You don’t have to have high school courses under your belt in order to qualify for college. (In fact, I know of a homeschooled family that had three of their kids get accepted into Harvard with nary a high school course). I also knew that I needed to stop discussing homeschool with her or I would get angry. I am really tired of everyone saying that my kids are lacking “real world” experience by being homeschooled. In the “real world” (which must mean after high school), if someone beats the crap out of you, you call the police. You don’t just take it, because it makes you a stronger person. The same goes for being made fun of or being harassed. As an adult in the “real world,” I know that I don’t have to take that kind of treatment. So why are our little children expected to deal with it? Why is it good for them to experience these types of things? Why do people think it's essential for children to experience such harshness? I really get tired of people acting like my children are so deprived because we homeschool them. They are not lacking in social unfairness (or rather, "real world" experience), believe you me. Even our homeschooling cannot keep them from being made fun of or excluded in church settings, or by neighborhood children. They get plenty "real world" experience, thank you very much.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Pompeii
We have been doing a little bit of school for about three weeks now. We decided to do school through the summer. Right now, our homeschool is fairly basic since it is technically our summer vacation. The highlight of yesterday's schooling was a spelling bee. Claire won. The older kids and Tim got into it too and we were all quizzing each other on our spelling. I'm proud to say that I am still a decent speller. ;-)
Today we worked on our journals, scripture study, silent reading (each child is working on a chapter book and they are also reading books on a couple of subjects that they were personally interested in), and the mile run (Ezra won). We did some math. The kids worked on their roly-poly habitat and we did a little online research about roly-polys (more on the roly-polys later). The kids have been interested in learning about Pompeii. Claire read a book to them and we're going to be watching a documentary on Pompeii on Friday (Ezra has scout camp the next two days).
In the next month, I will be figuring out our learning plan. We are using the Thomas Jefferson Education as our foundation. It is the program I started homeschooling with back in 2005. The years we stuck to it were the best homeschooling years we had. I need to take some time and re-read all of the TJed materials. I feel rusty on exactly what to do, so it will be nice to have a refresher course.
The goal of our blog is to share about what we are doing and for the kids to learn how to take pictures and post on the blog. So, we hope to have several posts per week. We hope you will come back and take a look soon.
Here are two pictures of Claire reading to the kids today:
Today we worked on our journals, scripture study, silent reading (each child is working on a chapter book and they are also reading books on a couple of subjects that they were personally interested in), and the mile run (Ezra won). We did some math. The kids worked on their roly-poly habitat and we did a little online research about roly-polys (more on the roly-polys later). The kids have been interested in learning about Pompeii. Claire read a book to them and we're going to be watching a documentary on Pompeii on Friday (Ezra has scout camp the next two days).
In the next month, I will be figuring out our learning plan. We are using the Thomas Jefferson Education as our foundation. It is the program I started homeschooling with back in 2005. The years we stuck to it were the best homeschooling years we had. I need to take some time and re-read all of the TJed materials. I feel rusty on exactly what to do, so it will be nice to have a refresher course.
The goal of our blog is to share about what we are doing and for the kids to learn how to take pictures and post on the blog. So, we hope to have several posts per week. We hope you will come back and take a look soon.
Here are two pictures of Claire reading to the kids today:
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Welcome to our homeschool blog. We plan to share all about our homeschool and what we're learning here.
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