Going through my boys' psychology book with them...it reads "Psychology is more than just lying on a therapist's couch discussing why you hate your mother." They bust up laughing.
One child thought he would escape Logic homework by declaring that it was too confusing. Maybe by class completion, his excuse repertoire will have expanded.
Perusing the shelves at Barnes and Noble yesterday, I noticed that the MENSA crossword puzzles were in the same section as the Rubik's Cube, which included a How-to-Solve DVD.
That's how my week is going. How's yours? ;-)
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Sometimes I'm a Bit Spacey
If you're studying astronomy right now, be sure to dust off your telescope this weekend. You might be able to catch some pretty cool stuff.
Monday, November 10, 2008
I'll Take Mine Drug-Free
Stubbornness doesn't have to be seen as a character flaw. In our house, we see it as a sign of brilliance. The key to it becoming brilliance is another great trait - patience. Therein lies the problem for Preston and Mom.
He isn't joking. Seriously.
He's 16 - he has better things to do with his time, obviously.
Just today, I threatened to take his door off it's hinges if he doesn't clean up this mess. He peered quizzically at me, most likely pondering if my brain had sunk into my abdominal cavity, as I attempted to explain why I would be better able to monitor his housekeeping skills if I could actually see into his domain. Fortunately, he's slim, so it's easy for him to squeeze through the small opening, formerly known as a doorway, created by the monstrous pile of laundry and jumbled shoes preventing a proper entrance.
But - upon closer observation, it appears that somewhere along the line, the boy has developed an appreciation for books! Books! BOOKS!!!
Can this be the same child who, just 4 years ago, was nearly saddled with a diagnosis of ADHD by an educated, credentialed child psychiatrist?
Could this Specialist have been wrong, in her 15 minute first-time (and only) interview, to suggest potent stimulants to control his curiosity and lack of focused motivation? We thought so - so we walked out and shortly after, pulled Preston from the parochial school he'd been attending.
He couldn't read well. He hated it. He struggled. He failed tests. He worked with intervention teachers. Day after day after day...until we brought him home. He still struggled with reading. But he reeeeaaally wanted to watch Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. First, though, we told him he had to read the books. I honestly didn't think he'd ever get to watch the movies. I think I had visions of him numbering the days on his calendar till his 18th birthday, so he could Do What He Wants To Do - and celebrate by having a LOTR and HP marathon! We started letting him chose the books he wanted to read for school work. Soon, the history books were disappearing from our shelves and relocating to Preston's floor. He started handing me lists of books he wanted me to pick up at the library for him. He put BOOKS on his Christmas lists! The History Channel became one of his favorites. His artwork began reflecting medieval weapons, suits of armor, and castles. He began working on his own stories. He started developing his own characters. He started designing his own Middle Earth maps and languages.
He got to watch the movies.
I have tried to read Tolkien. Failed miserably. Just. Not. My. Style. I love to read. I hate to WORK to read! I had no clue that he wrote so many books! If Preston runs out of J.R.R. Tolkien's works, his son Christopher has written more in a similar genre.
This is what I find now when I go to Preston's room.
My children have to do nothing...but BE...to make me proud to be their mother.
And I am so proud he's my son.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Fridays Are Test Days - In More Ways Than One
To clarify - my children are not responsible for these tests. A friend sent them to me.
To clarify - I would not put some similar nonsense past my children's minds.
To clarify - I think the big fat ZERO is hilarious!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
*&^&*^!!#$
I love a good bargain. I'm cheap that way. If you're in the market for home school paraphernalia, here's a good place to find lots of group buy discounted resources.
Until the end of August, Discovery Education has a huge discount on their streaming subscription. Alas, due to the condition of my computer, I won't be purchasing this particular item at this point, but I'd like to. My kids would love it! I need a new computer, first. It's on my list of Seriously Need to Think About Getting items. Right below Bigger Van, Dishwasher, Garbage Disposal, and Fourth Trash Can.
Who knew that adding 2 babies to your house would double the amount of trash a household can produce in a week!!
The computer alone is about to take up the space in one trash can! And you can just forget me being Environmentally Friendly and recycling this stupid thing! Going green is exactly what this heap-o-junk has done - every picture I see on this screen looks like the best man in my sister's wedding, which took place in a (non) air-conditioned church on a hot July afternoon.
It has me seeing red. Red and green combined produce brown. Brown is the color of...well, this is supposed to be a family-friendly joint, so we'll leave that word up to your imagination. But it's equivalent to how I endearingly speak of my computer.
Until the end of August, Discovery Education has a huge discount on their streaming subscription. Alas, due to the condition of my computer, I won't be purchasing this particular item at this point, but I'd like to. My kids would love it! I need a new computer, first. It's on my list of Seriously Need to Think About Getting items. Right below Bigger Van, Dishwasher, Garbage Disposal, and Fourth Trash Can.
Who knew that adding 2 babies to your house would double the amount of trash a household can produce in a week!!
The computer alone is about to take up the space in one trash can! And you can just forget me being Environmentally Friendly and recycling this stupid thing! Going green is exactly what this heap-o-junk has done - every picture I see on this screen looks like the best man in my sister's wedding, which took place in a (non) air-conditioned church on a hot July afternoon.
It has me seeing red. Red and green combined produce brown. Brown is the color of...well, this is supposed to be a family-friendly joint, so we'll leave that word up to your imagination. But it's equivalent to how I endearingly speak of my computer.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Not Just Killing Time
I don’t generally say a lot about the fact that we home educate our children. There’s plenty of information available, and I don’t think I have anything particularly new or useful that hasn’t already been covered.
However...
...people who actually know us, people we spend time with, people we see face-to-face ask us why we home school. Most of the time, while they might not understand, they are at least respectful of our decision. Sometimes they say stupid things, although I think it’s usually out of ignorance as opposed to rudeness. You know - “Oh, I could never do that! I don’t have the patience.” or “My kids are so involved.” or some such nonsense. It’s painfully obvious that these are parents that speak without thinking. If you can get through potty training a stubborn little boy, you can handle a few hours a week doing “schoolwork”.
But here’s a big part of the problem. Because WE were sent off to school for 30+ hours a week, and because that’s still the accepted norm, society views home education as a full-time sit-at-a-desk-with-a-textbook job. They think we slap pictures of Washington and Lincoln onto the wall, arrange cutesy posters of the cursive alphabet around a chalkboard, produce the obligatory science fair project about Planets, and take a field trip to the zoo at the end of the year.
They’ve probably never heard the term “unschooling” but if they have, the picture conjured up probably involves kids running amok with no adult supervision and frequent trips to Juvenile court, at the least.
We teach our children at home. We don’t have to stick to a prescribed set of rules to accomplish giving our kids the tools they need to function in the real world. We are always changing what we do and how we do it to meet the needs of each individual living in our family. In our world, unschooling means we let our children learn the way they are capable of performing their best. For my sanity and because it works for all of the kids, the math video program we use is very structured. While I understand math, I get very frustrated trying to explain it to someone who does NOT understand it. We follow a semi-structured program for language arts. Pretty much everything else is varied according to the learning styles of each child.
People just don’t understand this. And with few exceptions, unless someone is genuinely interested, I don’t try to explain.
I was talking with a church acquaintance a couple of years ago. We were discussing the fact that her youngest daughter was graduating high school and would be attending the local community college. I asked her if her daughter had been participating in the state’s program that pays for students to go to college instead of high school. (Here in Ohio it’s called Post-Secondary Option, I think. I have no clue if other states have similar programs. Students are still enrolled through their local school district and are therefore eligible for sports and other typical school situations, but their classes, or some portion of classes, can be through a college, if eligibility requirements are met.) This mother nearly gasped when I asked her this question. “Oh No! I could NEVER do that to her! She’s too involved!!” I had an invisible eye-rolling moment and changed the subject.
Recently, one of our neighbors moved a few miles out of town. She is a pastor’s wife, in her 60s and grows a great garden. The boys have earned quite a bit of money helping her around her house and yard. Out of all the strange and stupid things I’ve heard people say about home schooling, she made a comment to me a few months ago that, the more I thought about it, didn’t make me angry so much as puzzled and quite sad, actually. She has, in the past, questioned why we won’t put our children in the local public school, attempting to justify it by saying “There are lots of Christian teachers in the district.” (I have given up pointing out that their Christianity doesn’t change the fact that they teach in a very non-Christian environment using God-hostile materials.) We were discussing our busy lives during a phone conversation, and she was telling me she didn’t think her daughter would be successful at home schooling her two children. I defended her daughter’s decision and questioned her on why she puts her daughter down instead of encouraging her. (an on-going problem I’ve observed several times) She immediately became defensive and said “Don’t tell ME about home schooling. I did it with one of my children. IT CONSUMES YOU!!”
(Interesting enough, her daughter’s decision to home school lasted all of two months, and the children are now in the local school district where there are lots of Christian teachers.)
What got me was the “it consumes you” mentality.
I’ve watched this woman in her yard for four years. It is immaculate. There are no toys left out at night. No weeds are penetrating through the rose bushes. The flowerbeds are beautiful. Her vegetable garden is ever so much neater than mine is. She has a manicured hedge along her chain link fence over which I’ve heard more than one tidbit of business that’s not mine. But she is not in good health. She’s had at least one heart attack and numerous trips to the hospital with stress-related issues. She never sits still.
Who is consumed?
The dictionary defines “consume” this way: to take up, use up, eat, devour, waste, squander, destroy
I am not squandering my life by teaching my children. I realize she most likely used a word out of context. I’m pretty sure her thought pattern was more along the lines of how much time she assumes I spend on bookwork.
Or was it?
In speaking to her daughter, it appears that this lady expects other people to live their lives as she does hers. She does not say that out right, but she expresses her displeasure when things don’t go her way.
Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about pleasing her. And I don’t have to be consumed by home schooling if I don’t want to be. I can do an excellent job educating my children if I allow God to direct my path instead of thinking I can do it on my own. What a scary thought! Some days I have absolutely no desire to be a home schooling family. Those are the days when I have to rely on God’s strength even more. This isn’t something I can quit because it’s boring, I’m tired, or the kids are driving me nuts.
For the record: When we pulled our kids from a private school 4 years ago, our oldest had some very serious reading deficits. He was failing most of his classes. He hated school. He refused to pick up a book for pleasure reading. Our youngest had daily headaches and stomach aches and was absolutely bored in class. We have let each of them self-direct much of their learning and now our oldest spends the better part of his day with a book in his hand. Our youngest can transplant entire flower gardens, prepare tasty, balanced meals and produce original designer handbags. Our second child has worked hard and earned enough money to pay for expensive musical instruments and lawn equipment. I am not consumed by home schooling.
Let me just make something perfectly clear - if I’m going to be consumed by something, it sure isn’t going to be something like home schooling! It’s going to be something really REALLY fun - like planning my escape to a private island where Tom and I can run around naked all day without winding up on the cover of the National Enquirer because, as very famous people, inquiring minds want to know what we look like.
However...
...people who actually know us, people we spend time with, people we see face-to-face ask us why we home school. Most of the time, while they might not understand, they are at least respectful of our decision. Sometimes they say stupid things, although I think it’s usually out of ignorance as opposed to rudeness. You know - “Oh, I could never do that! I don’t have the patience.” or “My kids are so involved.” or some such nonsense. It’s painfully obvious that these are parents that speak without thinking. If you can get through potty training a stubborn little boy, you can handle a few hours a week doing “schoolwork”.
But here’s a big part of the problem. Because WE were sent off to school for 30+ hours a week, and because that’s still the accepted norm, society views home education as a full-time sit-at-a-desk-with-a-textbook job. They think we slap pictures of Washington and Lincoln onto the wall, arrange cutesy posters of the cursive alphabet around a chalkboard, produce the obligatory science fair project about Planets, and take a field trip to the zoo at the end of the year.
They’ve probably never heard the term “unschooling” but if they have, the picture conjured up probably involves kids running amok with no adult supervision and frequent trips to Juvenile court, at the least.
We teach our children at home. We don’t have to stick to a prescribed set of rules to accomplish giving our kids the tools they need to function in the real world. We are always changing what we do and how we do it to meet the needs of each individual living in our family. In our world, unschooling means we let our children learn the way they are capable of performing their best. For my sanity and because it works for all of the kids, the math video program we use is very structured. While I understand math, I get very frustrated trying to explain it to someone who does NOT understand it. We follow a semi-structured program for language arts. Pretty much everything else is varied according to the learning styles of each child.
People just don’t understand this. And with few exceptions, unless someone is genuinely interested, I don’t try to explain.
I was talking with a church acquaintance a couple of years ago. We were discussing the fact that her youngest daughter was graduating high school and would be attending the local community college. I asked her if her daughter had been participating in the state’s program that pays for students to go to college instead of high school. (Here in Ohio it’s called Post-Secondary Option, I think. I have no clue if other states have similar programs. Students are still enrolled through their local school district and are therefore eligible for sports and other typical school situations, but their classes, or some portion of classes, can be through a college, if eligibility requirements are met.) This mother nearly gasped when I asked her this question. “Oh No! I could NEVER do that to her! She’s too involved!!” I had an invisible eye-rolling moment and changed the subject.
Recently, one of our neighbors moved a few miles out of town. She is a pastor’s wife, in her 60s and grows a great garden. The boys have earned quite a bit of money helping her around her house and yard. Out of all the strange and stupid things I’ve heard people say about home schooling, she made a comment to me a few months ago that, the more I thought about it, didn’t make me angry so much as puzzled and quite sad, actually. She has, in the past, questioned why we won’t put our children in the local public school, attempting to justify it by saying “There are lots of Christian teachers in the district.” (I have given up pointing out that their Christianity doesn’t change the fact that they teach in a very non-Christian environment using God-hostile materials.) We were discussing our busy lives during a phone conversation, and she was telling me she didn’t think her daughter would be successful at home schooling her two children. I defended her daughter’s decision and questioned her on why she puts her daughter down instead of encouraging her. (an on-going problem I’ve observed several times) She immediately became defensive and said “Don’t tell ME about home schooling. I did it with one of my children. IT CONSUMES YOU!!”
(Interesting enough, her daughter’s decision to home school lasted all of two months, and the children are now in the local school district where there are lots of Christian teachers.)
What got me was the “it consumes you” mentality.
I’ve watched this woman in her yard for four years. It is immaculate. There are no toys left out at night. No weeds are penetrating through the rose bushes. The flowerbeds are beautiful. Her vegetable garden is ever so much neater than mine is. She has a manicured hedge along her chain link fence over which I’ve heard more than one tidbit of business that’s not mine. But she is not in good health. She’s had at least one heart attack and numerous trips to the hospital with stress-related issues. She never sits still.
Who is consumed?
The dictionary defines “consume” this way: to take up, use up, eat, devour, waste, squander, destroy
I am not squandering my life by teaching my children. I realize she most likely used a word out of context. I’m pretty sure her thought pattern was more along the lines of how much time she assumes I spend on bookwork.
Or was it?
In speaking to her daughter, it appears that this lady expects other people to live their lives as she does hers. She does not say that out right, but she expresses her displeasure when things don’t go her way.
Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about pleasing her. And I don’t have to be consumed by home schooling if I don’t want to be. I can do an excellent job educating my children if I allow God to direct my path instead of thinking I can do it on my own. What a scary thought! Some days I have absolutely no desire to be a home schooling family. Those are the days when I have to rely on God’s strength even more. This isn’t something I can quit because it’s boring, I’m tired, or the kids are driving me nuts.
For the record: When we pulled our kids from a private school 4 years ago, our oldest had some very serious reading deficits. He was failing most of his classes. He hated school. He refused to pick up a book for pleasure reading. Our youngest had daily headaches and stomach aches and was absolutely bored in class. We have let each of them self-direct much of their learning and now our oldest spends the better part of his day with a book in his hand. Our youngest can transplant entire flower gardens, prepare tasty, balanced meals and produce original designer handbags. Our second child has worked hard and earned enough money to pay for expensive musical instruments and lawn equipment. I am not consumed by home schooling.
Let me just make something perfectly clear - if I’m going to be consumed by something, it sure isn’t going to be something like home schooling! It’s going to be something really REALLY fun - like planning my escape to a private island where Tom and I can run around naked all day without winding up on the cover of the National Enquirer because, as very famous people, inquiring minds want to know what we look like.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Target the Witness
So, here's a couple of recent conversation topics with which I have challenges.
One:
An acquaintance who has two elementary age children made a comment about these children inviting friends from school to their church - "They're doing their best. School is a mission field in itself."
Choke - swallow...OK, the whole mission field thing just bothers me! I never have been able to comprehend sending a 5 year old to do spiritual battle with an atheist 52 year old playground supervisor! And don't point out "A little child shall lead them" - I'm not convinced that applies to public schooling!
Two:
People not understanding that having a "quiver full" of children, as referenced in the Bible, doesn't necessarily mean producing children at every available ovulation opportunity. I learned something from Preston this week. (Preston learned this from a non-traditional approach to schooling, not a boring textbook.) A "quiver" can hold different numbers of arrows, depending on what purpose the arrows will serve. For instance, apparently hunters had good enough aim that they only needed a couple of arrows. Warriors carried several more. Conclusion drawn? A man who was providing food for his family wouldn't have as many weapons as a man who was protecting his family, tribe, or nation. Hrm...
The doctor is in and open to discussion.....
One:
An acquaintance who has two elementary age children made a comment about these children inviting friends from school to their church - "They're doing their best. School is a mission field in itself."
Choke - swallow...OK, the whole mission field thing just bothers me! I never have been able to comprehend sending a 5 year old to do spiritual battle with an atheist 52 year old playground supervisor! And don't point out "A little child shall lead them" - I'm not convinced that applies to public schooling!
Two:
People not understanding that having a "quiver full" of children, as referenced in the Bible, doesn't necessarily mean producing children at every available ovulation opportunity. I learned something from Preston this week. (Preston learned this from a non-traditional approach to schooling, not a boring textbook.) A "quiver" can hold different numbers of arrows, depending on what purpose the arrows will serve. For instance, apparently hunters had good enough aim that they only needed a couple of arrows. Warriors carried several more. Conclusion drawn? A man who was providing food for his family wouldn't have as many weapons as a man who was protecting his family, tribe, or nation. Hrm...
The doctor is in and open to discussion.....
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Alternative Assessment
I would just like to say to all you Yokels Who Leave No Child Behind that I think you're full of bahlowney.
I would further like to say to all you People Who Actually Care that I appreciate you.
Gabe's first progress report from his new school, where he is a star, shows quite a different picture than all the reports from his old schools.
He is learning sign language. He walks well with very little assistance. He is learning spatial awareness. He recognizes his name in print. He knows colors. He holds a cup by himself. He uses a spoon well. He attends to group activities for extended periods of time. He actively and appropriately participates in group musical class. He relates well to adults and children. He is liked and attended to by his peers. He expresses his opinion.
When the focus is on what Gabe CAN do, as opposed to what he CAN'T, his list of accomplishments continues to mount.
How's that for education??
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