Celebrating Unification

We had an enrichment class this evening on making our homes "Christ Centered". It was an awesome meeting and I truly left feeling not only inspired to make changes but extremely proud of myself and my husband and family for the changes we have made. The first lesson was on the words and language you use within your home. How we speak to our spouses and children, the tone of our words and the lasting impact this leaves on them. Of course, I know and have known for sometime that this is something we need to work on. Our home is loud and I tend to blame it on the fact that first of all neither Matt nor I are very quiet people, add our four children to the mix and you can imagine. Latley I have come to see this as an excuse for being lazy and for not wanting to make the effort to change. I will work on this by setting the example myself.
The second class was on keeping evils and distracting things of the world out of our home. Here, is where I felt the pat-on-the-back was well deserved. The teacher gave statistics on the various effects of TV watching, internet surfing, and over-scheduling that our children are exposed to. When we moved last Nov. we took the "dramatic' step of not hooking up our TV. Yes, you heard me right, we have not had television programing in our home for almost a year! Do I regret it? Depends on if there is a reality show on. :) Just kidding. No, I really don't. There are times when I think it would be nice to watch some of my favorite shows. There are times when I am bored and it would be so much easier to occupy the void with tv than it would be to find something productive to do. But then I watch my children as they imaginate worlds and play for hours literally. Not with store bought toys or video games, but with eachother. My eleven year old still has an awesome imagination that her peers have lost a long time ago. This, I would not trade for the world. They read to eachother all the time, not because they are told to. They play, physically, running, jumping, gymnastics, etc........ We have great discussions all of the time. We have wonderful family meals where we are focused on eachother. There are moments when I consider getting programming, but then I watch my children and think,"would we be doing this if it was competing with TV? Many times, I think we would lose a lot, a lot more than it is worth....... Along the same lines, with Christmas coming up I hear a lot of my friends talking about what their children want and whether they should get it, whether they can afford it. Funny, I can't relate.....my children ask for so little. Maybe because they are not watching all of the commercials or going to a school where it is the fad to have the latest gadget. Are they missing out, nope, definetly not!!!
The last class talked about how society and the schools, etc, are now "celebrating individuality", Look at our world, do we really need more individuality? A majority of our children are lost trying to figure out their individuality. The teacher suggested that perhaps it was time to start celebrating unification. Our family is great at that!! We are extremely unified and much more comfortable, secure and happy for it. Anyone who has seen our children can tell right away how unified they are. Do not offer one something without the intent of offering it to their sibling also. I have seen times where they have refused the item because their siblings did not recieve one. It is common for one to come back with a small candy bar and share it with the other three meaning they each only get a tiny piece....... My eleven year old recieved some money from her Grandparents with a note telling her that they wanted her to spend the money on herself an not her siblings. They wanted her to enjoy something that was hers. What a dilema this brought to her young mind........ She eventually added the money to her brothers to buy a hamster for all four of them. She contibutes by far the largest part, never once mentioning this fact.
As far as over-scheduling, with four children I have learned that our family is sacred, our time is sacred and we only have a short time with our children to instill in them all that we want, to ensure that they are able to enjoy a childhood, to love them and be with them......There is not enough time to farm them out to other sources which may not be beneficial but rather just fill up time, or ensure our place among the popular, our standing among other parents. I have nothing to prove to other parents who think my children should be involved in some sort of "great" activity. I do have something to prove to my children..... Not that all the activities are bad or don't have something to offer but we have come to a point where we are no longer choosing between good and bad but rather between good and good. Yes, I pick and choose, yes I say no to things, to a lot of things actually. Yes, other parents sit and wonder at how I could choose not to allow my child to participate in such and such. It is a scary time to be a parent and far scarier still to take a stand for what you know is best for your children despite oppostion from those you trust or even respect.
Are my children in a plastic bubble? No, far from it, although secretly sometimes I do wish they existed. They are "socialized" they do participate in some activities, they are able to relate to others of all ages. Most impotantly they know their home is a safe haven and they feel secure, respected, encouraged and loved.. What more could I want for my children than that?

OK

While we are on vacation to Texas this summer my Father-In-Law opened a discussion about why we homeschool. Got to love him for that ! He is one of those guys that I enjoy discussing (debating)with because if you present a good case he is willing to listen and consider, that doesn't mean you will change his mind. He also forces you to think about exactly why you stand where you do on a given position, in my opinion any conversation that makes you think is a good one.
Anyhow, at one point he posed what I have since come to think of as the pivotal question. He asked with regards to our having been publicly school educated, "Well, we turned out OK didn't we?" since then I have really thought about the question. Yes, we did turn out OK. But at what point does OK become satisfactory enough for us not to strive for more. "Well, you did OK on that surgery", "Your math on the new Hubble programming was OK". I guesse what I am asking is, why is OK enough? Is there nothing more than OK? There is no pride or fulfillment in being OK. There must be something more. My children deserve more than to be taught by an OK teacher and turn out OK. I want so much more for them than that. I want them to be passionate about learning. to be passionate about something. Almost ever PS kid I meet has no passion aobut anything, they are just serving their time until they are released, literally.
I love our conversations or debates around the dinner table, I adore how we are stuck on a question until we find the answer, the reason why, and then the fulfillment that comes from now knowing. For example in Seri's math she came across word problems dealing with fractions and was confused about when you multiply and when you divide in regards to fractions. She knows how to do both operations very well, but doesn't always understand when to use which application. Matt knew she needed to multiply but could not explain to her why. I plumb didn't know. So I asked around and tried to figure it out. One person told me that" when it asks you to find a part you divide". But that didn't fit, so finally I found a math tutor online (love the king county library system) and asked his reply was "anytime you are finding a fraction of anything even another fraction, you multiply". there you have it. And now we all understand. Because we were diligent about knowing why. We werent satisfied with the fact that she could do the problem, it wasn't a matter of just getting the problem right. We wanted her to have an intimate and firm knowledge of the material. This she would not get from a PS school. They dont have enough time or energy to deliver this kind of experience to 20+ children whom they will probably never see again.
So, in response, yes I turned out OK, but OK no longer meets my expectations or desires.

Jen's rants

I was thinking today that maybe I should change this to a rant blog..... Not that it is my intention to always rant about the little things that annoy me and cause me dismay, but it seems that is what I have been doing lately. Reminder to self....come here to blog about the wonderful things also.....
With that said there was an event that happened on the fourth just fifteen minutes from us. You can find the story here, http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_071207_news_amber_alert_death.6d4192ee.html. Seems that a 12 year old girl's father asked her to go get her siblings from the house while the family was enjoying fireworks and she was snatched while in the ally that runs to her home. Her body was found less than a week later. Scary stuff and my heart goes out to her parents. At times I wonder if I keep my children too close to me, if it is good for them or if I am being overzealous about protecting them. Then something likes this reminds me that it is my obligation to protect my children and at all times do what is best for them. I count my blessings every day and that includes my children being safely at home with me.
Secondly, in my endeavor to be learned about the choices I am making on behalf of my children I have found this article. Some anti- immunizers can come off as radical or somewhat of a crackpot. Here is one who knows his stuff and presents it in an educated manner. At the same time he recognizes the benefits of some immunizations and has offered an immunization schedule that even I can almost live with. It calls for no immunizations under the age of 2, no immunizations that contain live viruses or mercury, and Pertussis (acellular, not whole), Diptheria, Tetanus and Polio be given starting at age two, every six months, one at a time. Hmm......that may be acceptable :) Find the whole article here http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller15.html
I have decided that I hold a greater and deeper respect for individuals whose choices run counter to communities dictates. For instance with both homeschooling and deciding to not immunize our children I have found that those people who have made the same choices I have are really quite learned on the subjects and have investigated in depth. In contrast, those that I get objection and flak from have often not researched or studied their opinion very well. Seems they just follow the crowd without asking questions because in our society you are not encouraged to ever think for yourself and much less research a topic to find your own opinion. Nope, much easier to just pick the popular thought and jump on the bandwagon. Then if something happens you are not to blame, the school is, or the Dr. is. but you have succesfully absolved your responsibilitie by following along.

The results are in................

According to Washington state law regarding Homeschooling, all children must either be tested or assessed by a licensed teacher each school year. Well, my views on testing have already been expressed, so as you can guesse we choose to have Seri assessed. A certified teacher came over to the house and in a seperate room evaluated and tested Seri using materials I had no knowledge of.
I was once told that one should not debate over issues or points of view with others who are just as passionate about opposing views, instead they told me to "Lt the excellence of your work be your protest".
Seri is definetly the "excellence of my work". Since I have nothing to hide from either those who oppose or support my views here is her assessment in it's complete form.


Serenitie Olson, Grade 5

students become proficient using non-negative rational numbers to solve problems. Fifth graders demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of divisibility including prime and composite numbers, fractions, and multiples. They apply procedures to measure a variety of geometric figures and collect, display, and interpret data. Students develop understanding of the likelihood of simple events and possible outcomes of simple experiments. They solve problems involving area and perimeter and further develop algebraic sense by using variables to write expressions and equations that represent familiar situations. They continue to check for reasonableness of answers. Students define problems by identifying questions to be answered when information is missing or extraneous and what is known and unknown in familiar situations.

EALR 1: The student understands and applies the concepts and procedures of mathematics.
1. Number sense – Serenity has mastered the concepts in number sense. These include understanding of decimal representation and their relative values, adding and subtracting like-denominator fractions, multiplying and dividing whole numbers, and estimation strategies. She has developed a strong foundation in number sense. She was directly tested on the skills she learned from the Epsilon level of Math-U-See. She completed 41 out of 49 questions correct, giving her an 84%. This information combined concludes that Serenity is definitely working at an independent level in number sense.
2. Serenity is still working to complete her fourth grade math curriculum. Measurement, probability & statistics, geometric sense, and algebraic sense will be covered later in the summer.
3. Algebraic Sense – Serenity shows strong pre-algebra skills. Again, she is still working to complete her fifth grade math curriculum and algebraic sense will be covered in depth later in the summer. She already shows the ability to apply algebraic properties to solve equations involving multiplication, division, addition, or subtraction of whole numbers.

I believe that Serenity functions at an instructional/independent[1] level in 5th grade math and is on track to finish her 5th grade year with an independent level of proficiency. Since she began the internet program in January she has completed her learning activities, quizzes and chapter tests with an average 86% accuracy, with the majority of the skills mastered.

EALR 2: The student uses mathematics to define and solve problems.
This section involves defining problems and constructing solutions. Seri is working at an independent level through the Internet Academy math program, as well as the Epsilon level of Math-U-See. These programs offer opportunities for students to work with problems in a familiar setting.

She must identify questions to be answered, determine missing information and identify the known and unknown. The programs challenge her to construct solutions for problems using concepts and procedures from number sense. This will continue to happen for measurement, geometric sense, and statistics and algebraic sense.

Both programs make use of pictures, charts, calculators as well as internet technology (drop down menus, internet games and animation). The programs Serenity uses allow for her to check her work, rework problems, and ask for additional help when necessary. The skills to define and solve problems were also observed during her math assessment.

EALR 3: The student uses mathematical reasoning.
This section involves analyzing information, making conclusions and verifying results. These components are all found in both of Serenity’s math programs and her instructional/independent abilities in mathematical reasoning were observed during her assessment.

EALR 4: The student communicates knowledge and understanding in both everyday and mathematical language.
This section deals with using mathematical language to explain or describe procedures and strategies. Serenity has a lot of experience with mathematics and in discussing her assessment she is clearly able to communicate using a mathematical language.

EALR 5: The student understands how mathematical ideas connect within mathematics, to other subject areas, and to real-world situations.
This section includes relating mathematical concepts and procedures to other disciplines and relating mathematical concepts and procedures to real-world situations. This year Serenity has participated in several cross-curricular math explorations. She attended the UW Engineering Day Expo, which included lots of hands on experiments combining both math and science. She also took a business class at her home school co-op, which included learning how to run a cooperative business. She presently has a family assignment of meal planning. She plans the meals and doubles recipes in order to accommodate the entire family. Her math skills are very important in order to help her keep the meals within a prescribed budget. This is a wonderful, real-world math situation for Serenity.

Reading—Grade 5

In fifth grade, students broaden and deepen their understanding of informational and literary text.
Students reflect on their skills and adjust their comprehension and vocabulary strategies to become
better readers. Students discuss, reflect, and respond, using evidence from text, to a wide variety of
literary genres and informational text. Students read for pleasure, choosing books based on personal
preference, topic, genre, theme, or author.

EALR 1: The student understands and uses different skills and strategies to read.
1. Use vocabulary strategies to comprehend text.
Serenity completed units on synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, homophones, idioms and Greek and Latin roots this year with an average 100% accuracy.
She is independent in this level.
2. Apply word recognition skills and strategies to read fluently
Serenity read three selections with a word recognition accuracy (decoding) percentage of 99%. Independent reading level is normally marked by an accuracy rate of 99-100 percent.

Serenity read at a reading fluency-automaticity rate[2] of 123 words correct per minute. The target norm for 5th grade readers in the spring is 110 – 150 wcpm. Readers who perform at or near these target norms should be considered as progressing adequately in automaticity.

Lastly, she earned a score of 14 out of 16 on the multidimensional fluency scale[3]. This scale rates the reader on the dimensions of expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness and pace.


EALR 2: The student understands the meaning of what is read.
1. Demonstrate evidence of reading comprehension.
Serenity excelled in this area. She earned a score of 5 out of 6 on the comprehension rubric. Her recall was a comprehensive summary of the passages, presented in a logical order. She included a strong set of details along with a statement of main idea.

In assessing Serenity, I reviewed her Internet Academy work for 5th grade Language Arts. She completed guided instruction assignments at an independent level of instruction, including the following topics; theme, main idea, predict and infer, summarizing, fact and opinion, author’s purpose and compare and contrast. All of these topics are critical to reading comprehension and understanding and Serenity’s independent level is determined by her average 94% accuracy on her assignments.

EALR 3: The student reads different materials for a variety of purposes.
Read to learn new information
Serenity continuously has more than 50 books checked out at once. She is an independent reader with varied interests. She chose to study such varied topics as Hubbell Telescope and George Washington this year.
Read to perform a task
Serenity uses reading to perform such tasks as cooking, playing board games, participating in PC enrichment programs (Gettysburg, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego) and social studies workbooks.
Read for literary experience in a variety of genres
Serenity visits the library twice weekly. She enjoys survival stories and mysteries (such a Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys). She picks her own reading selections and has a rotating set of interests.

Writing―Grade 5

In fifth grade, students have developed a strong personal voice in their writing. This is demonstrated by the way they sometimes inject humor into their narratives and how they add emphasis or opinion into informational and persuasive writing. Students use precise, specialized vocabulary appropriately in content-area writing. They experiment with sentence length and complex sentence structures and vary leads and endings. Collaborative writing efforts are taken seriously, often with assigned responsibilities and checklists. Scoring guides, often student-initiated, provide criteria for critiquing their own work and that of others. These guides are often detailed, addressing content, organization, style, and conventions.


After reviewing Serenity’s work and assessing her writing skills on a one-on-one basis, I find her to be an instructional level writer in all areas of her writing. She is currently working her way through the Internet Academy Language Arts program for 5th grade. She completed, not mastered, the language arts units she began. She still has several units that deal with writing, specifically the Elements of Writing extension, to complete. Serenity has an expansive imagination, but finds it hard to apply conventional rules to her writing. This is an area that is still developing for her.


EALR 1: The student understands and uses a writing process.
All of these elements (1-6) will be addressed in the Elements of Writing unit which Serenity has yet to complete for Internet Academy. She completed a prewriting (graphic organizer) activity during her assessment. She showed that she understands and uses a writing process and is relying on skills learned from previous years. Her rough draft, My Favorite Pet, was enjoyable and written with a lively voice in which she used a varied vocabulary to describe her fish.
1. Pre writes to generate ideas and plan writing
2. Produces drafts
3. Revises to improve text
4. Edits text
5. Publishes text to share with audience
6. Adjusting writing process as necessary

EALR 2: The student writes in a variety of forms for different audiences and purposes.
In reviewing her Internet Academy work, Serenity has completed writing assignments in persuasive, descriptive, informative and narrative writing as well as character sketches, creative writing and book reports.
1. Adapts writing for a variety of audiences
2. Writes for different purposes
3. Writes in a variety of forms/genres

EALR 3: The student writes clearly and effectively.
Again, I find Serenity to be instructional in this area. She has great ideas for her writing and her style is generally appropriate for the genre in which she is writing. Her handwriting is legible and she spells with relatively good accuracy. Any unconventional words were spelled phonetically (e.g., algey, adventuress) and were understandable. She needs to continue to work on capitalization, punctuation and usage rules. She was not consistent during the assessment in sticking with previously learned usage rules such as writing in complete sentences. This is especially true for her use of paragraph conventions. Her mother stated that this is an on-going problem for Seri and will continue to be an educational focus for her 6th grade year.
1. Develops ideas and organizes writing
2. Uses appropriate style
3. Knows and applies appropriate grade level writing conventions
- legible handwriting
- spells words accurately
- applies capitalization rules
- applies punctuation rules
- applies usage rules
- uses complete sentences
- applies paragraph conventions


[1] Emerging – this skill has not been taught at all this year
Instructional – the student has yet to master the skill and it may be carried over as a goal into the next school year
Independent – they have shown an ability to work by themselves in this area and are considered proficient or
above-average in their skills
[2] Reading Fluency-Automaticity. Reading rate provides a measure of the extent to which a reader can automatically decode words, thus leaving cognitive resources free for the more important task of comprehending a passage. To determine rate, simply count the number of words the student has read correctly during the 60-second oral read.


[3] Scores range from 4 to 16. Generally, scores below 8 indicate that fluency may be a concern. Scores of 8 or above indicate that the student is making good progress in fluency.

So there it is, in all it's technical, scholarly language, put our life in little boxes glory. But don't let it be said that I have not complied with the law. Did it tell me anything I did not know, of course not. Did it really say anything at all? That's debatable. The thing that gets me is we are also required by law to teach eleven different subjects, however the assessment only covered two! Secondly, I had to pay $45.00 for this assessment that was required when we pay taxes and had my children been in public school the money used to educate them would have been a heck of a lot more than $45.00. Don't you think that since we pay taxes they should be have the courtesy to at least foot the bill for something they require?

And, for the last of my rant. The children also recieved their report cards from IA. What a joke!!! Ser recieved two A's and two B+'s and Michael recieved all A's. On the surface this is all good news, but for those of us that know better it just proves that the system is a crock!! First of all I wasn't very diligent about them doing their work so they did not complete the years work, not even close....but this was not reflected in their grades at all. Secondly they were required to do no projects, book reports, writing assignments, essays or anything of the such.... Bet their PS peers would be a little irate to know that my children pulled off better grades with a lot less time and effort in the same Federal Way School District!! And yes folks, these grades are real and will be accepted as valid by any PS school in the states! Scary huh?
Back to those "required eleven subjects"that homeschooling parents agree to teach. IA,while a Public School prgoram carrying all the benefits and validity of said program, only teaches four!! Why then am I required to teach my children more than they are required to teach? Hmmmmm. Double Standard Anyone?

Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education

Here is a paper That Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote. I am going to paste it in it's entirety because I was having a hard time trying to decide which points to include.

As I engage in the so-called "bull sessions" around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the "brethren" think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.
It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the ligitimate goals of his life.
Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.
The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
The late Eugene Talmadge, in my opinion, possessed one of the better minds of Georgia, or even America. Moreover, he wore the Phi Beta Kappa key. By all measuring rods, Mr. Talmadge could think critically and intensively; yet he contends that I am an inferior being. Are those the types of men we call educated?
We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.
If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!
PD. Maroon Tiger (January-February 1947): 10. Copy in GD.

Makes me think how sad he and some of the other great minds from history must be to see how our education system is working now and the students that it is turning out.

I tend to get on my soapbox on this issue and those close to me often get tired of me wanting to discuss it. But here I am free to talk at length, so if you get bored or irritated navigate elsewhere.
We as a country have different children emerging from our Public schools. There are the "Jack of all trades", those who have been taught via the philosophy that to expose children to every thing will make them more rounded. In the end they know alot about everything but nothing substantial enough about anything. A good analogy is that of a tree. The roots can go broad and cover a lot of area but at the first sign of trouble it will fall over. Versus the tree whose roots don't go nearly as broad but reach down deep, way deep beneath the surface level. The people who I really respect intellectually are those who are very passionate and knowledgeable about an area. Their knowledge runs so deep that they could spend days talking about it, and their passion usually runs just as deep so they often do. They are succesful at what they do, because they don't try to do everything. As I heard one mom say sometimes it is good to work with obsessions. Imagine the possibilities if we would let our children learn and work in compatibilitie with their passions and obsessions instead of being so concerned that "everything" is covered. Besides, as any educated person will tell you, there is not enough time in this life to cover everything anyways (which is an overwhelming thought in itself).
You also have those who are missing pieces. They have great intellect but no moral ground stabilizing them. They have trouble figuring out right from wrong or deciphering what may appear gray. Give them a question involving academics, they'll peg it. But as far as anything else.....well, I guesse we just hope they can make it through life on their knowledge.
There are so many things that fall through the cracks because parents don't have enough time to teach them when they are at school all day and assume the school will teach it, but the school doesn't have enough man power, time, or desire to teach them and wishes the parents would. Each side feels the other side will pick up the slack, you can see where this is going.
Thus, the child falls through the proverbial crack and is left with no idea of what he really learned anyways. Usually those subjects include responsibilitie, work-ethic, symathy, initiative, and others; not math, science, history and reading. We must decide which is more important. Or find a way for both to be taught. But I will guarantee this, it will not come from the Public Schools!

WALDSFE

One of the support groups I belong to (Washington Latter Day Saint Family Educators) had their annual conference on Saturday.
The Keynote speaker was great!! I got so much from what she said. I took four classes and didn't really feel like I walked away with very much. The classes were all good, it's just that I guesse I am finally in a comfortable place with homeschooling and am not looking for or needing that much advice or support now.
There were a few things the keynote speaker touched on that really got me thinking. The first was that we should never instill fear. Fear of us, fear of not meeting expectations, fear of failure.... I realize that with my children, especially Seri I do tend to do this. When she has done an assignment and gotten some wrong you can physically see her preparing for the wrath of mom. "Were you not paying attention?", "What happened? You knew this stuff yesterday?", "why would you make such a silly mistake?" and the infamous "haven't you learned anything I have taught you?". Yes, I have said all of these things and many more. Persumably as a tactic of fear to make her want to do better next time. But it really does not have the desired effect. Instead, I am making my child fear me..........
In another workshop entitled "Your mother doesn't work here.... instilling work ethic in your child" she asked us what this phrase entails. We all said it meant "do it yourself, noone will do it for you". this was right however it implies so much more. It implies that you shoud do it yourself because your mother is not here, but if she were, she would do it for you. Wow! That is true with me in many ways. As much as I think I am teaching my children to be responsible when I really look at it I have done a lot for them that they could do for themselves and have in the process trained them to know and expect me to do those things.
On another note, we have all heard the saying that "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach". It always seems to have a ngeative conotation, like a slap in the face to those who do teach. In our coop I teach math. Now if anyone knows me they will likely have the same reaction that my mother had when I told her, to laugh out loud. I am self-proclaimed, math illeterate. However, I teach math well. Why? because I had to struggle and learn it. In the process of learning I became able to teach. Those who are natural at things often have a hard time teaching others. Just think of a time when someone who was really good and natural at something tried to teach you. "It's easy, just...." Because it is natural for them they have not struglled to learn it and therefor have a more difficult time trying to teach others that skill. It works for everything I think, knitting, computers, math, guitar......... So the next time someone uses this saying in a negative manner, you can show them how true it actually is.
The keynote speaker explained that she once talked to youth and told them that they should listen to their parents who truly do love them, the youth replied "when they respect me, I will start respecting them". Later she talked to the parents and told them to try to listen to their children who were really reaching out to them. their reply? "When they can show us respect, we will show them respect". Well, you can see where this was going. Noone was willing to do it first, so the cycle would continue. I have taken on the challenge to always be first. First to respect, love, understand, forgive, and smile. Imagine the possibilities.
The thing that really got me is when the speaker told a story of a boy watching an artist carve a figure in stone. He watched him every day and when the statue was finally finished he asked the artist, "how did you know he was in there?" So often I think of my children as people to be molded, crafted, shaped into what I desire them to be. This made me realize that who they are is already there. It is my job to help them find that. Thus I am reminded that when my child is old I want others to look at them and ask me "how did you know he was in there".

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them".
Albert Einstein

Testing

When we signed the children up to go through IA we were told that voided our homeschooling status and they would be considered publicly enrolled even though they never set foot in a PS. We weren't thrilled about that, mostly because that required Seri to take the WASL, the standardized test in this area.
Well, we recieved a call last week stating that she was the only fifth grader from IA taking it and would we mind if they just tested her with the fourth graders. I asked why she was the only one as I know there must be more fifth graders participating in IA. They replied that the others had a letter of intent filed and so could not be made to take the test, hold up! Waite, she is not required to be tested? "technically no, but it would be beneficial if she was, then you could see how she ranks with other fifth graders in the state and in what areas she may be weak." Now let's put aside what the Govt. and PS schools would like us to believe and see if this makes any sense.
First of all, we could see how she ranks against other fifth graders in the state. What would that benefit? Do I really care? I have seen a lot of those PS fifth grade kids and could tell you right off the bat where my daughter ranks! Especially since I know from teaching third grade in a PS that they teach to the test, no matter how they try to cover it up by saying they don't. Ranks in what, ability to regurgitate information? Information that has been forced fed? Will it show me what I really want for my daughter to accomplish? That being, having a work ethic, how to properly communicate with others, empathy, responsibility, loyalty, pride in the knowledge that she has succeeded, a passion about learning and discovering, logical thinking, problem solving in real life situations, how to contribute towards a common good.....the list goes on. No, the test does not cover any of this, therefore they do not teach any of this.
For a little background info. I started teaching a third grade class in early Jan of 2003. One of the first things they did was hand me a list that contained all of the subjects and areas that would be on the standardized test. When I questioned whether this was teaching to the test they told me "no, because we do not have the exact questions that will be asked". However, in addition to this list that tells me exactly what to teach them so they will get the scores, is a practice test booklet which does contain a lot of the questions that will "probably be on the test". I am told to skip parts of the curriculum that do not relate to these topics in order to have time to teach all those that will be covered. But, nope we don't teach to the test, definetly not. We cover test taking strategies such as eliminating answers you know can not be possible and then choosing the one that looks probable, trying to figure out how the question is tricking you in it's wording. I even know of a few teachers that told their kids, "remember, the people who write these tests are trying to trick you".
Before testing I am told to supply the school with a list of those children whom I do not think are prepared for the test. Some get excluded from test taking because they are ESL, others becasue they supposedly have issues documented in their IEP's (individualized education plan) that will prevent an accurate assessment even if they took the test, the others have parents that recieve notes asking them to exclude their children on the basis that it is war time and they have parents who are deployed so they are under unusual stress and taking the test would not benefit them. Allrighty, well now that you have eliminated all of those children whom we know probably wont score well, let me rejoice with you when the test comes in and we have one of the highest scores in the school district.
Come test time a huge deal is made. Among other preperations turning this whole thing into a circus, notes are sent home telling parents to make sure their children get enough rest, eat decent meals and how to help them deal with the stress of test taking. the counselor een comes in and gives them a pep talk.
When the actual testing commences, these children are placed in their rooms with one or two teachers overseeing and have to reamin quiet and still while they endure an average of three hours a day for one week of filling in little dots. Oh, but it is OK because we let them have snack breaks every forty-five minutes. Why is this whole scenario accepted and even encouraged? Some will say they need it to teach them test taking skills in college, that's all fine and dandy but they start on kids who are about 8-9! Who thinks that at this age they are going to get an accurate assessment in this situation?
Secondly, if my daughter is weak in an area, I probably already know this and do not need a test to tell me. See, I spend enough time with my child to know how she best learns information, what she wants to learn and what she has trouble with. I am her parent. There is probably nothing that an outsider "professional" or a contrived test could tell me about her that I do not already know.
Yes, the test would show she is behind in Social studies (at least the parts they would test her on). She can not name all the states or their capitals, she can not name all the presidents, I don't think she even knows very much about the thirteen original colonies, but you know what, neither can I and I went through school with a B average. What does that tell you? However, she knows a ton about World War 1 and World war II. She knows about incidents that really tell you about our history, that tend to be watered down or not mentioned in text books. She knows intimately about the USS Indianapolis, the greatest Naval disaster ever, she knows about the depression and immigrants and the Orphan train. She knows what she wants to know about history and I truly think that matters more than whether she can name the states and their capitals, or whether she knows about ancient civilizations when she has no desire to learn about them.
It would reveal that she is behind in writing. So, she can't write worth a dang. She is not a writer. No matter how much they want to force writing on her, she will not enjoy it unless she discovers the joy of writing on her own. That could be tommorrow, that could be ten years from now. I could force her so that it would look good on a test, would she want to write for enjoyment later, odds are probably not. So, let's force her to write so that she "passes" in this area and in the process give up any chance she may ever have of writing for the sheer enjoyment of it. Yes, that would be so much better..... What kind of convoluted crud is that?
The test would also tell me that she is a great reader with good comprehension skills, it would reveal that she has a mathmatical mind and is excelling in science.
But, you see, the joke is on them. I already know all of this information and much more. More than that test would ever be able to tell me about the beautiful girl I am raising.

Contentment

I adore having my children with me. This morning I got out of the shower and saw this. What more could you do than just stand there and watch them with your heart overflowing?

Michael loves to read to his siblings, and they love to be read to. Maybe they like to be read to a little too much. I am grateful that I have readers who read to each other and their siblings thus saving mom some time. I really think that they all benefit from this. The readers and the listeners.

Hard to believe that when Michael was in the first grade it was such a chore to get him to read. His teacher and the reading specialist were so "worried" about his reading that they suggested he be held back. "He would make a wonderful first grader next year" they told me.

I asked how he was doing in other subjects such as math and science and they replied that he couldn't do his math or his science because he was unable to read the worksheets! I as his mom knew that he was solid in his mathmatical operations and had a firm grip on scientific natures as well. Guesse it didn't matter because he was not on par with his age group in reading, forget the other subjects! How sad. One of these days I may sit and vent out that whole situation.

Now I see him reading all of the time. Cozied up in a corner, looking in the rear view window as he reads in the van, sitting at the kitchen table while eating his cereal, curled up next to me, his father or one of his siblings. No pressure, just pure enjoyment. Yes, this is how learning should take place........

Random events.

I realized I haven't posted in awhile so figured I would make an update. Last week was so full! Monday we spent at the Children's Museum and at the Pacific Science Center. Daddy was off on holiday and so we wanted to show him everything. Unfortunately everyone else was on holiday also. There were so many people!!! It was truly frustrating!! My first reaction was of "where did all these people come from and why are they in our areas?" Kind of a terretorial feeling. I was later ashamed of this feeling and knew that other people had as much right as we did to give their children these experiences, but it didn't make it any less frustrating. I wanted to tell them all to come back on the weekend when it was "their time" for I felt like the weekdays were ours. Maybe we have just been spoiled in that we get used to going places and having all the activites availiable for us to use at our leisure without waiting in line forever. One of the perks of home-schooling. Still I have to keep a logical head and try to remember to not get frustrated in moments like these.
Tuesday was our coop day. The children are really enjoying it now. I am an aid in a science class for 5 and 6 year olds who are studying volcano's. The teacher was out sick and asked if I would fill in. Little did I know that she wanted to do paper mache volcano's before I said yes! But I survived and we actually had fun.
Wednesday one of the local radio stations was airing from the Seattle Aquarium and was offering admission for a dollar, so of course we were all over that! Again there were a ton of people, I think mostly due to all the daycares and day camps as this was "mid-winter break" (what that is I have no idea- didn't they just have christmas break?). But we figured out the secret, stay late, after everyone else goes home, for it seems they do not have as much staying power as we do :) The children had a blast and really loved watching the seals. At one point I left Isaac and Ser in an area coloring octopus tentacles, when I came back I was surprised to see Isaac's name written on each tentacle he had been coloring. I knew it wasn't Ser's writing but asked her if she had written his name on them, she said "no, he did". So, I asked Isaac to show me how he wrote his name. I'll be danged if that child who just turned four at the end of Dec was writing his name!!! Funny part is, I do not remember specifically sitting down with him to teach him this task. We have had many impromptu moments where we have discussed how to spell and write his name, but nothing substantial. Definetly one of those moments that confirm that children can learn to do something outside of a small room with twenty of their peers and one authority figure. They can even learn it without being "formally" taught how. Go figure....
Thursday we went to an exhibit on Leonardo DaVinci at the museum of flight. It was a fascinating exhibit for me and Michael, unfortunately the other two lost interest really quick. I would love to have explored it "kid-less" but a time and season to everything, right? After the exhibit we looked around a bit but the kids were antsy. You can definetly tell we have a membership and visit often, the kids were just not in the mood to look around at all. I think we may have been running to hard over the week.
Friday Isaac had science class with the Audobon society, but we all joined in. They studied birds and were shown several stuffed birds. Discussed the different purposes that feathers have such as flight, decoration, warmth, stability, etc... They also talked about the different calls and migratory habits. We were then armed with binoculars and went on a bird watching walk, it was so much fun!!!
So that was our week, lest we forget the wonderful adventures we have been on.

Busy......

The past two weeks have been really pretty busy. We did Coop last tuesday and then on wednesday went to the White River Valley Museum in Auburn. It is a small museum, but very interesting.
It describes the founding of Auburn and the different people and events that shaped the city. They had a life size replica of a cabose and so of course that was the childrens favorite thing!! Here also they had a game for the children in which they were given a bookmark with a picture of a significant person and an "interview" of them. The children had to look at the displays until they found "their person".
Thursday we went to Soundbridge which is a musical experience for children. They took a small group class on beat and rythm ( ok so how do you spell that word, I'll have to look it up later). Then, they went into another area that had all the musical instruments that they could play and get aquainted with. The children really enjoyed it.
From there we went to the Pacific Science Center to meet Laurie and her children. The new exhibit "grossology" was opened and we learned more than I ever wanted to about the "impolite science of the human body".
We then went to Red Robin (our favorite dinner place) and met daddy there and then headed to the flight museum. There is always a ton to see here, and daddy thought it was about time that we got a membership instead of just going on the free night. So now we will be there a lot more often.
The kids were all not feeling good so we called a sick day on friday.
Daddy left for San Fransisco on Monday and we took Nana back to grossology, we also saw an Imax film of the human body. The film was very well done, but again somewhat more than I wanted to know.
At the science center we watched a presentation on Combustion and the different elements required for combustion and the different fuels, complete with explosions of different sorts.
At lunch we happened to be near the Seattle Tram station and the children have never ridden on the sky tram so I thought it would be fun to take them. While on the tram we heard them say that Pike Place Market was not far from one of the stops so this began our trek through Seattle to go to the market.
Pike Place is a very interesting old-fashioned market where people hand make things and set up booths to sell them, they also have flower vendors, fish vendors and vegetable vendors. Luckily since it was in the middle of a school day there were not very many tourists which gave us a chance to really look at things and talk to the vendors. One of them was making jewelry with designs painted on them out of rocks. He explained that he was attempting to make miniatures of art that is indeginous to the Pacific Northwest. So he talked about that art for awhile and then showed the children how the rock was prepared, and designed and then he sent them off with a rock of their own to make something out of.
Farther down there was a lady selling bee products and she had jars of bee comb and honey "natures candy". We had just finished reading "Sign of the beaver" as a family and are halfway through "Birchbark house" so this gave them a chance to taste some of the things the natives enjoyed and talk about the differences between this and modern candy.
Tuesday was back at Coop and then mom got sick, sick, sick..... So I called in a sick day and stayed in bed all day.
We have started on a disabilities unit and the children and matt are taking sign language classes. We also watch sign language videos and peruse books on baby sign. The children are excited about the prospect of Sariah learning to communicate with signing before she an talk.
So, that was our week.
It got me to thinking though. I feel bad that the kids and I get to run around having fun all the time, while Matt has to work and often misses out on the great experiences we have. I am so grateful to him for being such a great provider and for letting the kids and I learn by having fun, even if he doesn't get to join in. He will probably never know how much that sacrifice means to me.

Conference

Well, I attended my first WALDSFE (Washington LDS Family Educators) conference yesterday and it was great. Made for a long day, but I enjoyed it. There were 19 other ladies there ranging from those who have been homeschooling for 25 years (with two having graduated college, two in college, and three at home) to those of us who just rank in a year or two.
It was very refreshing to learn that those I would deem succesful aren't really doing things that much different than we are. At the same time I saw a lot of things that I would like to incorporate into our school.
Laurie (my friend from highschool that teaches Michael in Coop) was there and we were able to spend quite a bit of time getting to know eachother again, which was nice.
I left with a lightened feeling and an overwhelmed feeling. Not really overwhelmed about schooling my children, but overwhelmed at how much there is out there to learn, and how little of it I am familiar with. Reminds me of that saying "The more you know, the more you know you don't know."
So true, I have learned more about things in general in the last six months than I ever cared to know, and yet I have this sinking feeling that there is just not enough time to learn everything I want to.
Speaking of that, there was a lady who was knitting socks! I immediately became intrigued and watched her probably more than I should. I had visions of my family running around in knitted socks next fall and winter. I may have to ask her to teach me how. (she is the wife of Seri's science teacher).

Coop

We signed up for an LDS homeschooling coop awhile ago, but due to the snow and such their first day was yesterday. The kids really enjoyed it.
It meets once a week and the children have three periods. Each period they get their choice of three different classes when they register and the classes are taught by the mothers.
Seri is taking Intro to dance, Survival stories, and physical science. She is really enjoying all of them but wont stop talking aobut the physical science. I guesse he made almost pure oxygen by mixing hydrogen peroxide and yeast, and then did another "really awesome" experiment. When I picked her up, Seri and the teacher were talking about the SRB's on rockets and how much liquid oxygen the externals tank use, how it is stored, etc..... It's all a above me, but I guesse she found her niche.
Michael is in Pirates, Math and art, He is still hollering at me for not putting him in chess, maybe next sesmester. Of course his favorite class is Pirates.
Isaac is in the pre-school session and they worked on the letter A the whole time.
All the children are a little nervous about not being together the whole time, especially the boys. They are very close and the Coop is probably a good thing because it forces them to do things apart.
On an interesting note, one of the mom's and Michael's teacher for Pirates is a friend I went to highschool with. It was nice running into her again and we have a play date for next week.

Couldn't have explained it any better

One Little Boy

Once a little boy went to school.
He was quite a little boy.
And it was quite a big school.
But when the little boy
Found that he could go to his room
By walking right in from the door outside,
He was happy.
And the school did not seem quite so big
Anymore.
One morning
When the little boy had been in school awhile
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make a picture."
"Good!" thought the little boy.
He liked to make pictures.
He could make all kinds:
Lions and tigers,
Chickens and cows,
Trains and boats-
And he took out his box of crayons
And began to draw.
But the teacher said: "Wait!
It is not time to begin!"
And she waited until everyone looked ready.
"Now," said the teacher,
"We are going to make flowers."
"Good!" thought the little boy.
He liked to make flowers.
And he began to make beautiful ones
With his pink and orange and blue crayons.
But the teacher said "Wait!
And I will show you how."
And it was red, with a green stem.
"There," said the teacher,
"Now you may begin."
The little boy looked at the teacher's flower.
Then he looked at his own flower.
He liked his flower better that the teacher's.
But he did not say this.
He just turned his paper over
And made a flower like the teacher's.
It was red, with a green stem.
On another day
When the little boy had opened
The door from the outside all by himself,
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make something with clay>"
"Good!" thought the little boy.
He liked clay.
He could make all kinds of things with clay:
Snakes and Snowmen,
Elephants and mice,
Cars and trucks-
And he began to pull and pinch
His ball of clay.
But the teacher said: "Waite!
It is not time to begin!"
And she waited until everyone looked ready.
"Now," said the teacher.
"We are going to make a dish."
"Good!" thought the little boy.
He liked to make dishes.
And he began to make some
That were all shapes and sizes.
But the teacher said "Waite!
And I will show you how."
And she showed everyone how to make
One deep dish.
"There," said the teacher
"Now you may begin."
The little boy looked at the teacher's dish.
Then he looked at his own.
He liked his dishes better than the teacher's.
But he did not say this.
He just rolled his clay into a big ball again.
And made a dish like the teacher's.
It was a deep dish.
And pretty soon.
The little boy learned to wait,
And to watch,
And to make things just like the teacher.
And pretty soon he didn't make things
Of his own anymore.
Then it happened
That the little boy and his family
Moved to another house
In another city,
And the little boy
Had to go to another school. This school was even bigger
Than the other one,
And there was no door from the outside
Into his room.
He had to go up some big steps
And walk down a long hall
To get to his room.
And the very first day
He was there,
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make a picture."
"Good!" thought the little boy,
And he waited for the teacher
To tell him what to do.
But the teacher didn't say anything.
She just walked around the room.
When she came to the little boy,
She said, "Don't you want to make a picture?"
"Yes," said the little boy.
"What are we going to make?"
"I don't know until you make it," the teacher said.
"How shall I make it?" asked the little boy.
"Why, any way you like," said the teacher.
"And any color?" asked the little boy.
"Any color," said the teacher.
"If everyone made the same picture,
And used the same colors,
How would I know who made what,
And which was which?"
"I don't know," said the little boy.
And he began to make a red flower,
With a green stem.
-Helen E. Buckley
Moore, Raymond. The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, INC, 1994.

Frustrated!!!

The children seem to like the new Internet Academy program but I am starting to get frustrated.
The other day Seri did a chapter on the Olmec's. I came to check her test and she had not passed, getting nearly half of the questions wrong. She asked to take it again stating that she was confident she knew the material. Once again she bombed. In sheer frustration I made her sit with me and go back through every lesson. Now the lessons are presented just like pages in a book that she has to read through. We drew maps, I constantly asked her repitious questions, we looked up things we didn't know but were curious about and generally did everything I could think of to make it sink into her brain. So after two hours she took the test again and did not miss a single question.
So why did she have such trouble the first two times? I think I have narrowed it down to a few reasons. First, she was in a hurry to "get through it". The material was just another obstacle for her to pass in her quest to stay on time with her assignments. There was no incentive to actually know the material, just to pass the test and move on, not to remember any of it beyond the day. Secondly, she could care less about the Olmecs and thus had no desire to truly learn it just because someone told her to. Besides, what is she going to do with her very limited knowledge of the Olmec people?
Somewhere along the line, love of learning for the sake of satisfying curiosity has been rejected for the sake of "well roundness". Let's make you a well-rounded person who knows a lot of crud about everything, but nothing significant about anything. The all to familiar "Jack of all trades, Master of none".
I truly regret that I did not homeschool from the beginning. That my children were exposed to these traditions of force-fed education. That passing a test means more than having learned, really learned- not reguritate, something new. Seri is in such a hurry....... she doesn't even grasp the true meaning of everything she reads. She now has this uncanny ability to memorize things she thinks will be on a test without really knowing anything. How is this OK? No wonder half the children the schools are producing really know nothing.
Michael on the other hand truly tries to learn but is so afraid of failing. Every time he answers a question, even if he knows it, he does it hesitantly, trying to see in your face any kind of sign that he is going to get it right. Such a response to the fear he felt during the short time we had him in PS.
It is amazing how much I am having to "de-school" my children. Finding ways to bring back their curiosity, question why about everything, become passionate about a subject or two, find joy in solving problems and peace and securtiy as they grow up way too fast.
So in spite of all of this, why can I not let go of some "formal" education. I have this fear that keeps me tied to some sort of resembalance of Public education even though what I really want to do is break free completely and bunk the system all together. Is it my fear of failing and society telling me "I told you so?". Is it my lack of trust in God when he reasures me according to my constant praying that this is what he desires for my family?

Seattle Asian Art Museum

Our coop was supposed to visit the Seattle Asian Art Museum today. After a morning of dental appt.'s (takes awhile when you have three children seeing the dentist), we headed down to seattle. Of course we got there a little late and did not see anyone else from our group there.
We had a great time though. They are featuring an artist named Vik Muniz from Brazil. Man, this guy is talented!!!
He works with very odd and yet common day mediums. Some of his collections included art from paint chip cards, clustered small toys, mounds of odd things, dirt, sugar, peanut butter, chocalet.........
Each work of art had meaning also, he did a set called "Sugar kids". While he was in the Carribean he met children that were in poverty and worked on the sugar plantations. When he came home he copied pictures of them by using sugar on brown pieces of paper, amazing......
He did WW1 images out of toy soldiers, Frankenstien out of caviar, Medusa out of spaghetti (The children accused him of playing with his food), and our favorite, a double Mona Lisa, one out of peanut butter the other out of jelly. Here is a great link to the artist and his work.
http://www.artnet.com/awc/vik-muniz.html
I am off now to find a frame for our new peanut butter and Jelly Mona Lisa poster :)

Binary code over dinner?

Seri was working on her IA work today and they taught a small section on binary code. Unfortunately the explanations were not all that great. I could figure it out only if the numbers were 1 and 0, throw in any other number and I couldn't translate it. So, I told Seri to wait until her father got home.
When he did I promptly sent him to Seri's aid. The whole time I was cooking dinner I heard their chatter and what was strange was that it sounded like they were actually having a good time!!! Go figure.
So they come downstairs and I am pleased to hear Seri say that she now understands it. So she sits down with a piece of paper on which her father has written numbers using the base ten system for her to translate into a base two and vice versa. she is enjoying it so much that none of her dinner gets eaten.
Now at dinner time we have a ritual of High points, Low points, where each member of the family tells of their days high and low. Seri's high......"learning binary code!!!!
After dinner they are so thrilled with this new concept that they set out to teach it to me. Now I purposefully avoid math to all ends. That is the one area I have always used curriculum for the children in. (Saxon, and now Math-U-See). But despite my best efforts I couldn't dissapoint them and really tried to understand. So, now I understand it but just can't muster up the enthusiasm that they share for it. Now they are duscussing hexadecimal and base eight systems! Oh the joy (literally) of homeschooling. I will let math be their own secret language :)

"Worlds Without Number"

" O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then, sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, how great thou art".
This was the opening song we sang to a presentation given by Robert K Wilson. How appropriate!
He is the project manager for SPITZER at jet propulsion labs, a contractor for NASA. This man and the amount of knowledge he holds is absolutely amazing!!
He has been involved in the 1976 Viking project that landed on Mars, Magelan, Galeleo, And Casini that went to Saturn.
SPITZER is one of four of the "great observatories". With the other three being the famous Hubble, Chandra, and compton. The hubble shows images in actual form, Chandra and Compton show images in X-ray form and Spitzer shows them in infra-red.
Herschel discovered infra-red when he was attempting to measure the temperature of the various colors of the rainbow. He noticed that one of the temperature markings had been jostled and was just outside the red line giving us infra-red.
The amazing thing about being able to see in infra-red, especially in space, is that you are able to see through all the clouds and space debris to see things that were never seen before because of the visual blockings.
Because of this advancement they are now able to see the actual evolutions of stars occuring.
The outside of Spitzer has to be maintained at -400 degrees farenheit so that it is cooler than the image it is focusing on.
He had slides that showed amazing pictures of stars that have never been seen brfore by the general public.
He also mentioned that the number of stars and/or planets is 70 sixtillion, that is a 7 with 26 zeros after it (or 700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, sorry just wanted to see what it looked like). To put that in perspective, if you were to take every grain of sand that is on the earth, it would still not be equal in number.
I loved listening to this man. He is so passionate and so knowledgable that I was left wondering what it would be like to sit and listen to him randomly talk about all the things he must know.
The best part was he tied these findings to things that we find in the scriptures.
* "And where it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations" Moses 7:30
* "And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words". Moses 1:38
* " But only an account of this earth, and the inhyavitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all tings are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them". Moses 1;35
And my favorite : " And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose;and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten". Moses 1:32

Doughnuts and book clubs

Yesterday was an odd day filled with errands. The children did some of their work on IA and then we were off. After a few hours and a few errands we passed a Krispy Kreme and decided to reward them for great behavior with a stop. Lucky for us this was a shop that had a large windowed area where you could watch them make the dougnuts and they had just started on a batch.
The kids and I were fascinated as we watched them come off the rack and into a tunnel of grease, they then went through an oven and then passed by a man who was holding a tube with chocalet covering. They went through another oven and then a man at the end packed them up. We were noticing that there were points when the chocalet guy would purposely hold the tube over an area where there was no doughnut and let the chocalet run through the slats. We pondered for quite awhile on what the reasoning would be and at the end asked him. He explained that he had to let the chocalet run until the next batch of doughnuts was in the perfect position because if he held it over a doughnut to long the weight of the chocalet would collapse the doughnut, who would have thought?
There was also another home school group there. Of course we got to talking and they use a different curriculum and were trying to sell me on how wonderful it was. That is the other thing about homeschooling, it is hard enough to make the decision, only to make it and then find yourself bombarded by the different styles, methods, and curriculum that are availiable. Everyone has their favorite and one can quickly become overwhelmed. I have discovered that we need to decide on a year curriculum and then remain solid on that and re-evaluate come summer if needs be. The other thing is finding your style, School-at-home, waldorf, unschooling, child-led, curriculum based, no curriculum, the possibilities are endless.
Today we attended a bookclub that our coop has once a month. The members are largely Members of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. This was our first time meeting them and we had a great time. A completely different type than our other group and yet we feel very comfortable with them also. The fact that we share the same religion really helps. We read "A Cricket In Times Square" and I am not afraid to say that I cried at the end when Chester had to say goodbye to his friends and his friends were left at the station with "a million things left to say".
We discussed the book and the characters and listened to some of the musical pieces which Chester had performed n the book. We made origami cats and mice, ate fried rice, and then were given "cricketers" of our own. So we are now the proud owner of five crickets, not just one, no five.... They are comfortable in their fish bowl and we are just hoping that they survive at least a little while.

School shooting

Yesterday an 18 year old shot a 17 year old in their highschool which is in the next school district from ours. Made me thankful that I know where my children are and who they choose to be with. They are safe at home with me.
Why on earth would I insist in sending my children to a place where the chances that they are exposed to some physical and emotional harm each and every day are great. A place where they will be made to feel as if they are in some way less than the person next to them, a place that makes them believe no matter what they wont do good enough. Somewhere where they understand that to learn means to memorize, regurgitate and get an A instead of recognizing that rush and enthusiasm that comes when you are truly learning. A place where they are told by others what to learn and what they are interested in, so much so, that they forget what they are truly passionate about. Here they will be led in a dictatorial manner by someone I don't even know, let alone know what their values are or what they are exposing my child too.
When given a choice between letting my kids be raised in this environment or raising them myself in the shelter of their home, under the guidance of parents who truly have a vested interest in their welfare, with security and love. A place that is secure. Where you can mistakes, be different or go at your own pace without fear. Well, there really is no choice to make after all.

Internet Academy

The children started a new program yesterday. Before Christmas I discovered that our school district offers the curriculum online. Your child is placed into an online classroom with a supervising teacher and does all their work online. It is much the same as when I attended UMUC online. Michael worked through math and loved it. It is suprisingly interactive for being internet based. Both children are really enjoying it so far, but it is new and as with all things we will see how long their excitement lasts.
Being in the program does change our status from homeschooling to public school enrolled, go figure. So according to the school district my children are enrolled in public school. The good points are that I now don't have to worry about those people who think my children are not recieving as much academic education as they should (I'll rant about that later), and that if they continue through highschool it is treated just like PS and they get a diploma and graduate officially (heaven forbid we don't document the accumulation of their knowledge with a piece of paper!). Another thing is that it is free!! So the tax dollars that should be going to educate my children actually are and I am not paying out of pocket for curriculum (again, a rant for another day).
On the other side I am a little wary. It goes against my child lead philosophy and back to force feeding information they may not care about and thus will not learn, such waisted time. It also demands quite a bit of time. I would rather my children be living life and learning through exploration then a slave to some timeline someone else thought was good for them. But, with an open mind we will try and see how it goes. In the summer we will reevaluate if neccesary.

New Year

I brought the children back home in mid Nov. I was going to leave them in public school (PS) for the rest of the year but I was so disatisfied with their behavior and what they were learning (or rather not learning) in school that I decided to bring them back home when we moved.
My major reason for thinking to leave them in was that I thought your Declaration of Intent had to be in to the school district before the year started. When I found out that you had a month to submit it after taking the kids out no matter what time of year, that cinched it. Now I don't have to worry about them starting another school, trying to fit in to a crowd that I would rather them not fit in, waiting for the school bus in the dark in the pouring rain and waisting their time at school being shuffled around with other children whom I do not know, under the care of a dictatorial adult whom I do not know.
After much prayer and discussion with Matt I am confident and secure that the right decision was made. If I ever had any doubts, they are gone as I see my children's behavior change for the better. Michael is much more active and talking with us more, Seri is no longer acting out in strange ways to try to gain attention from other people, and Isaac is estatic that he gets to be with his siblings again.
The past month has been crazy with the holidays and such and we didn't do much formal homeschooling. I felt bad at first but then when I thought about it the public school had a week of half days because of parent/teacher conferences and those don't really count (believe me I have taught and there is not enough time in a half day to do anything substantial with children who know they are going home in a few hours anyhow). Then there was Thanksgiving break followed by days off for a power outage that involved the whole west side of Washington, closely followed by Christmas break. Guesse the PS kids didn't have too much formal schooling for the month either.
We really focused on behavior, communication skills, manners, empathy, kindness.... things they seemed to have forgotten during their stint in PS. Amazing what the difference is. For one the name calling has dropped dramtically and so have the little tiffs that they tended to get into. They now do what is asked of them without throwing a huge fit or insisting that they shouldn't have to clean it up since they weren't the ones who did it, etc....... In fact a lot of times they will perform a service just because they want to serve their family and without being asked.
We attended a presentation of the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis. How amazing that was! Thing is, it was the greatest naval disaster in history and noone knows about it. Such a tragic story. I will post more about it on the family blog www.olsonclan.blogspot.com .
We went to the Pacific Science center twice, hard to tell about all the things we learned while we were there, there were somany things and they were so random.
The Dead Sea Scroll exhibit came to Seattle and we went to that, very enlightening. I am planning a unit study on this subject. It wasn't just about the scrolls but also about the ancient inhabitants of Kumran and how their civilization existed, and we learned about different dating methods used by researchers to determine how old an object is. One of them I found fascinating but am not sure I understand it enough to explain. I have to do some more research. I will attempt it though. When living things die their bodies decompose into a carbon I think is what it was. by measuring the percentage of something to identify how much of it has turned into carbon it can be determined how long ago this thing has been dead. The interesting part though is that this method can only be used on things that have died before the 1940's because experiments with atomic bombs and other radio-active endeavors have changed the way that substance turns to carbon. Hope I explained this enough that you have a sense of what I am talking about.
Another method they use involves measuring themagnetism in an item. When things are heated to a certain temparature (clay items and such) they take on the level of magnetism that exists in the earth at that time. You can figure out what period they come from by comparing the magnetism of the item to the time when the earth carried the same magnetism.
They also discussed how hard it was to piece together the scrolls because they were like puzzle pieces. Parts of one scroll would be written by different people and the same people would write on different scrolls. They used handwriting analysis to put them together but it didn't always work. They also discussed the difference between papyrus and parchment and the different methods used to make each.
We learned so much. I hope the children will always remember visiting the exhibit. It gave us a lot of jumping off points where we can learn more about the subjects.
We joined a homeschooling group and went to a few potlucks and a lego club and a drawing club. Sounds funny I know but they really learned a lot from each. At the lego club they were taught how to plot their ideas of what to build onto graph paper to make their design and then assign a point value to each square and them build it following the pattern. Not quite as easy as it sounds. At drawing club they discussed different drawing elements and drew some characters from Thomas the train.
Last week we visited the Morse Wildlife preserve and learned a lot, there is also a post about this on the other blog.
We started and finished reading aloud "Sheila the great" by Judy Blume and during reading time the children took turns reading to me. Michael's reading is amazing, I can't believe how much he wants to read. I often find him tucked away some where reading by himself or to his brother. This from the child whom all his teachers where concerned about because he wasn't on "grade level". He wants to read now, without being asked to. I think bringing him home took the pressure off of him to perform. At school he knew he was getting special help with reading and I think it made him feel like he couldn't do it or he was failing, he wasn't as good as the other kids. How it hurt to watch him go through that. Things are much better know.
Seri was a great reader, right on grade level. but when I had her read to me I discovered that she wasn't good at reading aloud. Her mind works quicker than her mouth and she didn't know how to slow it down which resulted in her running her words together and basically noone being able to understand a word she was saying. We really had to work on her slowing down and pronouncing each word individually. Who would have thought that learning to read aloud correctly would take so much time? I am happy to say that I now enjoy listening to her and don't have to concentrate half as much as I used to.
Reading time begins with me reading aloud and then each child takes a turn reading to me from a library book of their choice. We ahve read some excellent books that I would highly recommend.
-Why Explore? by Susan Lendroth. It is a rhyming book about why we need to always ask questions and seek answers.
-Is There Really a Human Race? by Jamie Lee Curtis
-A friend for dragon. by Dav Pilkey
-Train to Somewhere. by Eve Bunting. This is an emotional storybook that had both Seri and I crying by the end. It is about a girls journey on the oprhan train. Another subject we are now interested in and I am hoping to do a unit study on.
So I guesse when I take our life and fit it into their little boxes, we did study the 11 subjects that I am required to teach. After all that is what the PS does. Try to emulate life and teach it and then disect it so it fits into it's own category of Math, Reading, Writing, Social Studies, etc. I am just bypassing the emulate phase and living life (don't give me a story problem about buying apples, take me to the store and let me buy apples), and not being bothered by disecting it into the pre-determined categories.

Here we go.

We have once again brought our children home and are homeschooling them. I am finding that I need an outlet, a sounding board of types, just somewhere to get my random thoughts down... so here we go.
These are my personal thoughts, feelings and opinions about homeschooling, public schools and my children. They may change frequently. I in no way mean to be ofensive or hurtful to those who may come across these words. Join me on my journey and experience the lows (which I am sure there will be plenty of) and the highs (which hopefully there will be a lot more of).