Bored

I guess it is a good thing when your blessing wants the teaching to hurry up so it can get done faster or when she asks how much longer does she need to do this?

She must be learning the concepts!

 

 

Organization

I am on an organizing kick for my school room.  Usually I do this in August, but this it did not happen before school due to illnesses, then traveling, then holidays.  Now things have settled down and we are back in the swing of things with school and now I can finally tackle the organization aspect of the room.

I started with clearing things that had been pulled off of shelves and left there and I worked hard on two shelves specifically to move things.  Now the workboxes have a shelf to live on instead of being on the floor.  One other shelf looks great if the books would just stay upright, but for some reason they don’t want to do that.

My husband said it looks good too.  I still have a few more shelves to go and the pile on the desk , but it is so much better than it was.  Yes we do have space to work on the desk-there is one section that needs work.

Good Day

We have been utilizing the workbox system and I am timing her on each grammar section and it worked great.  We got all the boxes done and had only a moment or two of whining which was due to frustration.

Some privileges had been lost earlier in the week due to taking too long and attitude so I wrote what her goals were for the day on the board and had her read them before starting.  I told her that she can earn back what she lost by having a good attitude and not taking too long and it worked!

I think I will do that every day-set her goals and then tell her it is up to her whether she keeps privileges or loses them.

Workbox Lite

I am away from home so I am doing two subjects for school with two workboxes. I did not bring the numbers or strips as we will use this system in earnest when we are home. To keep things streamlined here I put everything needed for the two subjects in one box for the day and the extras stay in the other one. It is working well and it is easy to keep track of where all the school things are.

At the end of the day I look ahead to see what we need and add or take away whatever we will not use for the next day. It is a gentle way for us to get used to the workbox idea before we get into it full blown at home.

Math

Today was our first day with RightStart Mathematics. Wow what a difference it makes!  Some of it was review, but we are starting at the beginning because they have specific ways they want you to count which she seemed to get.  We did three lessons today that took about half an hour total.  She asked to do the third one as she saw that lesson used the abacus and she wanted to use it so how could I say no?

She even said that it was fun and she is now playing with the abacus in her free time.  This was the reaction I wanted from her –  to have fun and want to do it.  Now our grammar program is not as fun, but I have to use it as we already had it from last year and we can not change that program this year.  Perhaps if I break it up and we do something different in between the grammar pages that will help her.

She can do it and she can advance quickly when she does not drag her feet.  The trick is to get her to stop dragging her feet or rush too quickly to get to the fun thing.

Still, I’m quite pleased that math went so well today.

This Year

I am making changes this year to the way we use and what we use for curriculum.  I am using Tapestry of Grace for history/lit/geography/bible.  I will do hands on things mostly and reading and go light on everything else.  Here is a neat resource for those of you using TOG-all the years are on this site but I chose year 1 to get you started.

For math I am using RightStart Mathematics.  I chose it because the manipulatives are smaller and easier to store  than Math U See.

I will also use the workbox system this year.  I purchased the 6.2 quart sterilite boxes because they can accommodate the extra tall books.  They also have covers and I purchased one of the really useful boxes, mainly for the lid.  Their lids are flat and can be used as a writing surface -I love double duty items!

We started school last week but did it very lightly and without using the workbox system as I have been ill most of this month and have not been able to set them all up.

But hopefully we can start them this week or next.

Learning Styles

I have heard much about learning styles over the years, but have had a hard time discerning which one or ones my blessing is.  I heard a most interesting talk from someone who does this and learned a bit more about it.

I knew the basics of auditory, visual, kinesthetic (hands on learners).  I did not know that these were divided further-for instance one can be an auditory verbal or auditory listening.  One can be visual print or visual picture. Kinesthetic can be hands on, whole body, sketching or writing.  And one can be one learning style for one subject, and a different style for other subjects.

It is fascinating to me and I plan to study this a bit more this summer. Learning styles are not just for children or students.  Many people can learn about themselves and those close to them by figuring out learning styles.

Red Eared Slider

We found a baby turtle in our yard today.  It is a  red eared slider. So now we will be getting a tank and a light, and a thermometer and other things.  My wonderful neighbors gave me a bigger plastic tank with a rock in it for now until we get a tank.

My blessing was so excited to find him as our neighbors are always finding neat things in their yard.  This time it was her turn to find something.  Our neighbors said they had never seen one this little before.

If you would like to know more about red sliders, here is some information on them:

One

Two

Three

The last link has videos and shows how to determine a male from a female.  In this species, the female is larger than the male.  I believe we have a female as the triangle behind her eyes is more orange than red.

Understanding Kids Text Messages

You might be interested in knowing what some of the symbols and numbers mean when your children are texting.  For instance, this %\

means someone has a hangover.

For more enlightenment, go here:

http://knol.google.com/k/how-to-understand-your-kids-text-messages#

I can’t do  a hyper link-I don’t know why and it is too late to fuss anymore with it.  You’ll have to copy and paste it in your browser-sorry about that.

Students Are Now Considered Personnel

Mrs. C has a post about  happenings in one Kentucky county for home educators.   The gist of it is that the new Pupil Personnel Director wants to come into homes to check on the progress of the students….presumably to make sure they are getting the same education as everyone else.

So many troubling things about this…first off when did students become personnel?   According to Merriam-Webster,  the first, and therefore the most common usage of the word is”: “a body of persons usually employed (as in a factory, office, or organization)”.   I think the parents should ask the DPP  when their students will be getting their wages?  I’d love to see the reaction to that question.

Secondly, asking the community to report to her all children out and about during school hours is atrocious.  This is not the way to foster good relationships in the community, when everyone could be spying on everyone  else.

Later on the article states that the parents have the option to meet the DPP on neutral ground. Notice that there is presumably no option for not meeting with her.

She also says later that parents who do what they are supposed to should have no fear.   Translation is that if you do what she tells you to do, you’re fine.  If not, then I guess she will show you who’s boss.

And as if this wasn’t enough, now she will have access to your child’s medical records.

“Upon Williamson’s recommendation, the board adopted a new attendance policy and medical excuse form that must be turned in for students that miss in excess of 10 days.

The form is a more in-depth response from doctors, detailing the reason a child is or must be absent.”

So if you have a child with a serious medical issue, you now have more forms to fill out and the knowledge that other people will have access to this personal information.  And Williamson ( the DPP)  thinks this is going to be less stress for families?