Answers to Questions

I have been asked questions, lately, by other homeschoolers, about how we do some subjects in our homeschool. So, I thought I'd take on those questions here, and post the answers. I hope you don't mind.

First of all, let me say that I am a firm believer in eclectic homeschooling. We have our overriding philosophy of Thomas Jefferson Education, but we don't use one curriculum for all of our subjects, or even the same location for all of our subjects. We pick and choose and do what is best for each student at that time.

History

The most recent question was about history. First, Jayne and Frost. For them we rely heavily on Story of the World, Middle Ages for this year. We read a chapter from this book once per week, and while they listen they color the maps and coloring pages from the Activity Book. We go to the library once per month and get a stack of books listed in the Activity Book just to have on hand. Sometimes they look at those, and sometimes they don't, but having them in the house increases the chances that they will be looked at. :D I will also have story time from books written about that time period, like The Sword and the Stone and Tales From Shakespeare. This may not sound very comprehensive, but we cover the same history time periods, while increasing the difficulty of the story time books, two times before they are high school age.

Emerson is a little different. He chose his history text from two choices that we had around the house; a secular one - Story of the Ancient World, and a religious one - The Fourth Thousand Years (an LDS perspective). He chose the religious one. (I'm still not sure what we can do for the Middle Ages era - something better show up in the next few months!) He has also taken two American History classes through our Commonwealth School - one about The Founding and the Constitution, and one about The Civil War. These classes are wonderful, and he has learned a great deal - much more than I did about the same topics at his age. We also add in books from the history and literature book-list in The Well-Trained Mind in the 9th - 12th grade section as original sources.

I really like to have a lot of stories when it comes to history, and original sources as they get older. The more "pre-digested" and diluted history gets, the more boring it gets, and the less we learn. History is so vital! We can't let boredom win!

Math

Math has been easy for me, material-wise. Emerson has used Saxon math all the way through. He is in Algebra 1 now, and is fully able to learn the concepts by himself. Since we don't take a full summer break, I allow him to skip the lessons in the first part of the book and just get to the stuff he hasn't learned yet. It doesn't feel quite so daunting when starting a new math book if you can start 1/3 or 1/2 the way through! We have now added a new math series to his curriculum - The Life of Fred . These books have a wonderful way of explaining the why's and wherefore's of math philosophy and when added to the practice-heavy Saxon provides well a rounded mathematical education. Also, when using Saxon, I don't have Emerson do all the lesson and review problems - I find it is just too many. So we have a deal. He does all of the "new concept" problems - the problems for that day's lesson, and on the review problems he does the even numbered problems on even numbered days, and odd on odd. It still gets the practice in, without overloading the student too much.

For Frost, Jayne, and Pinocchio I have found a better series for younger students. Singapore! I have found this program to be just fun enough (with cartoons, fun pictures, puzzles, etc) while still maintaining the rigor needed for mastery. I have been up and down on how many or how few lessons to ask my children to do in a day. At the moment, I ask them to do 2 lessons per day, unless it is a review and then I only ask for one. But with Pinocchio this is not enough. He tends to to a lot more than 2 lessons at a time in his book, he loves it! I plan on using the Singapore Math series through level 6, then add in Fred and Saxon at that time. At least, that is the plan right now - who knows what the future brings!

I know that the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy says that we shouldn't require anything of our students before the age of 12. But, when it comes to math, I disagree. And since I am the "expert in my home," I get to choose! :D

I am going to stop here for the day, but I will continue this post! (I am sure you are thrilled!)

1st Class

I think the class went really well. The students were taking notes, asking questions, getting involved in the discussion. It was fun! We even had plenty of material to fill the two hours - it's amazing how short two hours is when you are having a great discussion!

I was a little surprised at the time it took most of them to complete the multiplication table. I gave them a blank 100-chart and a blank multiplication table and had them fill them in and find the patterns in the numbers. We spent a half hour on this activity and a few of them were unable to finish. I really need to learn not to base this kind of stuff on Emerson's abilities; however, memorized multiplication tables is supposed to be a pre-requisite for this class.

But when we got into the discussion of patterns, they had a lot to contribute. It always amazes me that these kids, mine included, who don't seem "up to par" on the "public school schedule," can find wonderful connections, and find meaning in things that I have never thought of. These guys can think! To the rest of the world, it may not seem like they are successful students, but really they far excel their peers in their ability to think and problem solve. Very cool!

I have been comparing that with my Sunday School kids (they are just slightly younger, 12 and 13 rather than 13 and 14) the past couple of weeks. We try to have very meaningful discussions about the various gospel topics, and it is very difficult to get them to think past the "standard Sunday School answers" of pray, read your scriptures, go to church, etc. I hope to inspire them further; to treat them like I would the Pyramid students, and hope that they will reach for it.

Anyway, looking forward to my next lesson, I will be teaching about equations. I need to get working on it, so I can be inspired like I was for the last one.

Patterns

So, the topic for my lecture this week is "Seeing Patterns." I found the usual info for this topic in Mathematicians Are People, Too, the story of Galileo - the balls dropping from the Tower of Pisa, the chandeliers swinging in the cathedral, etc. But I felt I needed some more information.

I, somewhat reluctantly, went to a seminar on body language and relationships, offered through the South Davis Commonwealth School (also know as SDLA). It was a whole day, and I really felt that I should be spending my time in other ways. But I also knew, that if I didn't go, I would never hear the end of it from my good friend Steph (thanks, Steph!). I expected the usual type of feel good seminar; what I found was a scientist.

See, he didn't learn about Body Language from books. He learned it by noticing patterns and asking questions. He would notice the way a person's eyes would move when thinking of an answer to a question, and then ask about the answer that resulted.

What a wonderful way to talk with my students about being a scientist! This man did not go to college to be a scientist. In fact, this man did not go to college. He has learned to be keenly aware of the people around him. In this, he is a scientist!

So, because of that example, I am going try to have a discussion about where we find patterns. We are supposed to discuss patterns in nature (and also go on a nature walk, but January is not a good time for that! :D), so we will do that with some pictures I found on the internet. But also, we will discuss other places where patterns can be found - besides math, nature, and science. Because I see them all the time in behavior, history, sports, etc. I think that will make for an interesting discussion.

At least I hope that will make for an interesting discussion.

New Direction

Well, I guess I didn't have much to say for the past few months. Either that, or I was so busy with trying out an online charter high school for my oldest son, another charter school for my two middle children, setting up a website and online registration for our Commonwealth School, starting extra gymnastics classes for the competition team, adding piano lessons for the 2nd child, planning to teach a class that never materialized, and surviving the swine flu. I think it may have been a little of both.

Anyhoo, I have decided on a new direction for this blog, at least for the time being. Starting Thursday, I will be teaching a math philosophy class called Pyramid Project in our Commonwealth School. This is a very overwhelming project for me, but I feel like I need to do it. So, my plan for this blog is to post my ideas, what I am studying, my lectures, my "I Wonder . . ."'s, my "A-Ha's" in my Core Book Studies, and all the things I am learning from my students. I might post some other things as well, but this will be my main focus, at least for a while.

In this opening post, I just wanted to post some thoughts about the charter schools that we experimented with this school year. First, the success: we enrolled our 10-year-old and 9-year-old with an online K-8 charter school, using K12 curriculum. The thing I love most about this school is that we have the freedom and the flexibility to take as few or as many courses as we want to! The two areas where I felt we needed the biggest boost were language arts and foreign language. So, those were the only two courses we signed up for. They have been really good. It took us a few weeks to get in the groove of it, and get used to the record keeping, but now it runs like clockwork. I have really seen an improvement in their spelling and grammar. We do have to participate in testing, but I think that is a small price to pay to receive the K12 curriculum at no cost to us. I am considering adding in science next year, but I'll have to think really hard about that.

As for the other charter school; the "not-so-success." Having a high schooler kind of changes the landscape for homeschooling, and it made me nervous. So last spring, when I heard about a new online charter high school, I really looked into it. I even attended a board meeting and talked with board members about my expectations and what they could offer. The promised an individualized curriculum, and concurrent enrollment during the junior and senior years. They promised that students would be able to move at their own pace, have access to BYU IS courses, and there would be no mandatory "seat time." What we got was 8 hours per day, on average, on the computer doing the work, and the work was of average quality at best (it was most often a "read the chapter then fill in the blank" type of "learning". It was a lot of busy work, much more than I am used to - homeschoolers don't do a lot of busy work! It was not individualized - at least not what I would consider individualized - but is was the first year, and they were still working on writing the curriculum. We did have access to two BYU IS classes per semester, but they were not the quality courses I was expecting. We lasted about 7 weeks (I was not happy after week 2, but my son still loved it at that point - he's the one who decided to pull the plug at 7 weeks.) I was really disappointed, I was hoping this would be a path to an associate's degree before mission - but maybe that's not an appropriate goal. So, now we have struck out on our own, and it is working quite well. I think it is one of those things where I need to trust this decision, this calling, to homeschool, and just keep plugging along at the path that He directed me to.

Math Series

I was just introduced to a series of math books at a recent homeschool seminar, and I just have to say WOW! I want all of these! I want to do them! They're simple, and engaging, and they don't overload the kids with practice problems. However, they are very rigorous, and make you think! I want to start with Geometry and head on up to Calculus!!! Anybody have an extra $300 lying around that you can give to me? No? Ok, I guess I'll have to buy them one at a time.

Life of Fred Math

Another Great Homeschooling Article

See, now, I'm getting lazy. I haven't written anything for this blog in almost a month!!! Maybe that's a good thing!

Anyway, here is a wonderful article. Can I just say "Amen!": from a video game playing, TV watching, fast food eating, tries to have a vegetable garden, but fails, homeschool family!!!

Enjoy!

Hope you had a great 4th!

A Great Homeschooling How-To Article

I love The Pioneer Woman blog anyway, but here is a homeschooling post that is just wonderful. This is exactly what I would tell a newbie - but more succinct and with better writing!

The Pioneer Woman Homeschooling

Enjoy!