angrysuperheroes

Continuing the blog elsewhere ...

2007-01-17T17:59:00.000-08:00

Well, in an effort to consolidate my life, I'm now posting about pretty much everything, including homeschooling, at my new blog. Hope you pop over!

Here's the link: http://writes-and-wrongs.blogspot.com/

Test Post

2006-10-29T06:16:00.000-08:00

Testing!

FLEX TOURS -- CHECK IT OUT!

2006-10-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

FLEX TOURS has donated two walking tours to the fundraiser, and although one has been bid on, one remains available! Come on folks, this is great for someone in the NYC area, or someone who has friends up there. What a cool gift, right? Check it out! Here's the link: NYC WALKING TOUR DIRECT TO YOUR CELL PHONE

And the fundraiser has just over a day left, and is only a few hundred shy of $6,000. Please keep bidding! Let's break the 6K mark!

Fundraiser is Live!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-10-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

Check out my fundraiser for Love Without Boundaries! And please bid generously!

Higher Education: Excellence without a Soul

2006-09-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Crosswalk.com - Higher Education: Excellence without a Soul: "Higher Education: Excellence without a SoulS. Michael CravenFounding Director of the Center for Christ & CultureAnother school year has begun and an estimated 15 million young men and women will be pursuing studies at the college and university levels. However, this may not be as beneficial as we have historically believed higher education to be.

C.S. Lewis once wrote, 'Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.' This point was echoed in a recent Dallas Morning News article under the apt heading, All Brains, no Soul. The author, Thomas Hibbs is a philosopher and dean of the Honors College at Baylor University."

We've been so busy with school and getting ready for China that I haven't followed up on my promise to finish writing up last week! But I just had to post this article.

Kindergarten! Week One!

2006-09-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

What a week! September 15, was C's last day in day care, and this week was her first week of homeschooling. We're doing kindergarten work (she's 4; will be 5 next month) and we're both loving it. It's a challenge for me, as I've lost my daytime work/writing time (mostly) but I've got that worked out (I think!).

Check out what we accomplished in week one:

Five in a Row, THE STORY OF PING – This was especially fun for us since we leave for China next month. For those of you not familiar with Ping, he's a little duck who lives on the Yangtze River. We learned what ducks eat, what type of duck Ping is (Pekin), that that type came to the US in 1870. We talked about China in general, found it on the map (again!), found the Yangtze River on the map, found YC's orphanage near a bend in the Yangtze.

We talked about the art in the book, and looked at how the artist used colored pencils. We tried that out, then drew our own picture, using squiggle lines to make things move through the water.

We looked at the drawings of reflections and then pulled out a mirror and looked at various things reflected. C's initials – CEK reflect "right" because if you write out only half, bisecting on the horizontal. Mine don't (JBK), but daddy's do (DBK). Isabella's don't either (IYK). C learned (and was using for hours but has sense forgotten) the word "symmetrical". We did the reflection thing with mommy drawing half butterflies, ants, eggs, hearts, stick figure girls, etc.

We did a whole lot more, too, but I have to get some writing work done before the weekend is up!! Will post more later!

WSJ.com - No Teacher Left Behind

2006-09-22T22:59:00.000-07:00

WSJ.com - No Teacher Left Behind An interesting article in that it pretty much states what we already know -- that colleges are producing untrained teachers. The suggestion at the end, though, scares me: testing at each grade level so that what the kids have learned can measure what the teacher has learned. Um, gee? Does that sound like even MORE beaurocracy and even MORE "teaching to the test"? Yes, I think it does. A disaster waiting to happen, imho.

Junk food, TV and the internet 'are poisoning childhood' | News | This is London

2006-09-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here's an article that is ... in my opinion ... right on the money!

Junk food, TV and the internet 'are poisoning childhood' | News | This is London

Writing Off Reading

2006-08-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Writing Off Reading

A sad commentary ... and all the more reason to homeschool ...

Lydia Joyce - this is great!

2006-07-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

(I am not trying to convert anyone to homeschooling. I have said before and will say it again–if you don’t want homeschooling, then it is automatically not right for you! But I still want to share my thoughts–as an individual in an individual situation, not as an evangelist but as person.)

One of the most delightful parts of knowing that I will homeschool is seeing the joy the Bear takes in new things and new knowledge and to never have to worry, “But what about Kindergarten?”

for the rest ... click here! Lydia Joyce - Blog

Red Thread Chronicles

2006-05-29T22:41:00.000-07:00

We've been knee-deep in adoption paperwork, which partly explains why I've been less than diligent about posting here. If you're interested in following our adoption journey, here's the link! Red Thread Chronicles

In homeschooling news, just one summer to go before we "officially" start! In the meantime, C is loving math and reading. Today, in the car, she asked if we could practice "two, too, to" -- we make up sentences and she tells us which version of the word is the proper one. I love it when whatever we're working on engages her!

A Homeschooling Goal ...

2006-05-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a homeschooling goal ...

I want my kids to grow up to be Athenians ...

Childhood Ends at Puberty by Charley Reese

2006-04-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

Childhood Ends at Puberty by Charley Reese

Here's a fascinating essay that hits a lot of important points.

Home Schooling / Eragon, Christopher Paolini, Author

2006-02-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

Home Schooling / Eragon, Christopher Paolini, Author

Check out this article written after a New York Times article praised Paolini's book "despite his lack of formal schooling."

Sigh.

Rolling eyes.

The article says perfectly everything I would want to say in response.

Neil Postman:Stirring Up Trouble About Technology, Language,

2006-02-18T12:51:00.000-08:00

Neil Postman:

Stirring Up Trouble About Technology, Language,

I've been reading THE END OF EDUCATION by Neil Postman, and finding it fascinating, thought-provoking, and a little scary in terms of the societal reflection that it casts.

Overall, though, the fascination is winning out, and I've been seeking out other things by Postman to read. I have several of his books in a pile on my desk, and today I did a quick search for interviews and what-not. Found this, which I think is -- like the books and articles by Postman that I have read -- fascinating and thought-provoking.

Postman has moved to the top of my list of People I Would Have Loved To Have Lunch With.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum : Programs : For Teachers

2006-02-14T10:50:00.000-08:00

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Lesson Plans

Now, how cool is this? Considering how much C loves music, I think we're going to have to squeeze a few of these into the overall Trivium.

And, of course, it ties nicely into our Tuesday night ritual -- the watching of American Idol and the raising, lowering, or sidewaysing (!) of the thumb.

The Story of an Experiment, I-III

2006-01-31T08:12:00.000-08:00

The Story of an Experiment, I-III

This is a really interesting article on postponing the teaching of formal math until the 7th Grade. The article makes a lot of sense, but I can't see doing it with my child. It goes too much against the way I was raised, I think (and the fact that she really loves numbers and begs to do 'maf' -- we did some this morning. Math With The Big Bad Wolf.

Even more, though, I think a classroom experiment is different than a hs experiment. It seems to me that if the problem the author noted was an inability of the child to express him or herself properly, that that is a problem that can be nipped in the bud with homeschooling, where more time can be devoted to the author's 3 R's: reading, reasoning, and recitation. Time and emphasis can be shifted in a way that helps a child grow to be well-spoken and thoughtful ... without sacrificing math early on (as I child I remember I LOVED math; that's not to say I would have missed it had it not appeared until 7th grade, but knowing it was there, not having it would have left a hole).

At any rate, my thesis is that the author's findings (which I do not dispute) do not hold true to the same extent when one is homeschooling. As C is 4, obviously I will not be able to test my thesis for many years. At the same time, though, I have to wonder: Am I right, or am I justifying my own position?

C's Stories

2006-01-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

Over the Christmas holiday, I discovered that my new iBook can talk. (It really is pretty cool!)

So I told C to tell me one of her stories, and that I'd type it, and that the computer would read it back to us.

Here are the stories she told (notice the theme!!!)

The kangaroo hopped down the forest and then he found the monster and then he saw his mommy and daddy. And then he went home.

The black cat and the white cat ran through the forest. And then he jumped up and saw the bear. And then he ran home.

The doggie knows that his mommy and daddy are around here. And then he ran to his house.

I love mommy; I really want to stay with her and not get lost. {Note, during this trip, we had C memorize her address; guess the getting separated from mommy and daddy thing was on her mind!!}

I love you mommy

{Awwww......

I love that little girl!!!!!}

My Little Reading Girl!!!

2006-01-26T09:03:00.000-08:00

I am LOVING The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading: Books by Jessie Wise,Sara Buffington! So, for that matter, is C!

She is doing so great! We're on about Lesson 30, and she's able to spell pretty much any CVC word I throw at her (we play the "spell it" game in the car), and can read them, too! (When tired, I will confess that she "just doesn't know!!"). Blending the sounds is still hard for her, but she's working at it and is so proud of herself! It's such a joy to watch her face light up as she reads a word and then a sentence!

So far, we've read the first three Bob books (followed by much racing around the house to tell Daddy "I can read! I can read!"). Then she realized that the red books are easy, the green medium, and the yellow the hardest. So she insisted on reading from one of the hardest ones. We pulled it out even though I told her there was stuff in there she didn't know. And, what do you know? She made it through (she needed help, true, but she did most of it by herself!).

Yay!

She's also gotten over her "I don't know which coin it is" thing recently (which baffled me b/c this kid's memory is a thing of wonder). Apparently, if I tell her "you can have this coin if you tell me what it is," all confusion b/w nickels, dimes and quarters vanishes in a poof! I have a little financier on my hands, I think :)

(Going back to the reading thing, I'm also reading Reading Reflex, and taking bits and pieces that I think are useful and mixing it in with the OPR method. It's giving her the reinforcement she needs, and is increasing her confidence.)

And, in even more miraculous news, SHE CLEANED HER ROOM UNSUPERVISED YESTERDAY. Wow. Color me proud!

The Trouble With Homeschooling ...

2006-01-10T14:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, I can already see my first problem: I'm having way too much fun researching and planning what we're going to do in kindergarten! And we haven't even officially started homeschooling yet. (That starts in August; right now, C goes to day care and we're "afterschooling". Actually, we're "before & afterschooling" with basic phonics in the morning and "life stuff" -- currently working on money -- in the evening). Honestly, I'd love to start now, but I have to get my work schedule under control.

Too many interesting things out there to learn, plan, do! (Still, I have managed to write 1.5 chapters today ... so that's encouraging!)

The Founding Fathers & the Classics

2006-01-10T08:11:00.000-08:00

The Founding Fathers & the Classics: "Whether at home or in a schoolhouse, the goal of education in the early days of
our nation was to instill virtue in the students. The Founders were
taught that free societies were sustained by a virtuous populace, and that, if a
society were to abandon a study of the classics, that same society would
eventually abandon the virtues championed by the classical authors."

Click the link to read the full article -- which is fascinating. One of the most interesting elements in the article, I think, is the description of college entrance requirements in the 1700s. How many students enrolled in those same colleges today would have been admitted?

The Death of Classical Education

2006-01-04T13:48:00.001-08:00

The Chronicle: 1/6/2006: A Very Long Disengagement

There are a lot of reasons that my husband and I have chosen to homeschool our daughter. This article hits on a number of them.