Having a blast with magnets. The kit we have came with 2 bar, 2 ring, and one ball magnet. They are OK, I suppose... they're doing mostly what they should. But today, we went to one of my favorite local shops. Children's Bookshop and Teaching Supplies. It's about 20 minutes away, and while it is indeed a children's bookstore, it is primarily geared towards the teacher, homeschool or otherwise. Lots of posters, kits, charts, decorations, you name it. One could easily go broke in this place. What did I buy today?
I bought rare earth button magnets. Super strong, these guys.
I bought iron filings. Iron dust would be more descriptive, but again, the kit that the curriculum supplied had a demonstrator that they called "filings" but really, picture clipped staples. A bit heavy in conjunction with the weak magnets they sent, and very hard to make the magnetic force lines appear. You really had to know what the end result was supposed to be before you could make the experiment work. But with the stuff I bought... aha! It became very obvious.
I bought a globe. Really, I had planned on saving a globe for this Christmas as a suggestion for a friend/family member to buy... but then I realized I was very picky on what type of globe I wanted. So I just bought one. Earlier this week I had already bought a bunch of map posters on Amazon (several for $0.99 plus shipping) so I didn't go crazy for the maps like I could have. When doing Shannon's 13 Colonies exercise for the Ben Franklin book, I realized how low we were on maps. Ta dah, not any more!
I bought art supplies. Mostly stuff we needed anyway, so nothing particularly exciting, just posterboard, tempera paints, and such. I also bought clay, not to be confused with PlayDoh. Again, one of the things that you see and wonder how you've managed to raise your child to this age without having any in the house.
I bought a Scholastic book, "If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution" to go with our current Ben Franklin book.
But back to the magnets. Today's "fun" activity was using magnets to paint. Take one 7x12 tupperware style container, line the bottom with a piece of paper. Best to tape it on each end to hold it in place. Place a few blobs of paint in strategic locations. Drop in ferrous items: paper clips, nails, screws, washers, ball magnet (her favorite), things like that. Then, while mom holds the bin in the air, daughter holds a magnet under the bin and slides it along the bottom, causing the ferrous items inside to slide through the paint and across the paper. Voila, instant abstract art. Truth? It looked like a 2-year old's finger paint job. Not the best or prettiest art Shannon's ever made. But she had so much fun making it, playing with the magnetic forces. And thus is the connection made.
Tomorrow we make our own magnet out of an iron nail and find two ways to demagnetize it, test the effect of temperature on magnetism, and make a magnet-powered boat.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
And the beat goes on...
So one day (oh, maybe a month or so ago) I noticed that I wasn't getting my emails from my homeschooling support group any more. Technically, I'm on two lists, but one is a subsidiary branch of the other, and they both were no longer getting through. It took me quite a while to notice they were gone, because for the hectic summer that this household went through, I confess that I completely ignored most of the mails.
So when it finally occurred to me to notice they weren't coming, I dug through my emails to see when my membership in this group lapsed. All I could find was a single email from March saying it was "due soon." I'd heard rumors of subscriptions getting crossed up, renewals not always processed, and the email list not necessarily reflecting reality. I assumed the worst, of course, and that I was no longer a member, dropped without follow-up emails, because I certainly wasn't organized enough to remember to renew off of email. I even found a blank membership form in my "big ol' pile of papers to sort and file" so it was obvious I'd never sent it in. So I did last month. About 2 weeks later, I get it back in the mail. I had indeed renewed. Apparently. Great! But why was my email off the list? She had no idea, it all looked fine to her.
Long story short (heh) the Yahoo group has pretty tight bounce controls, it just takes a very few bounces from a list to get yourself automatically unsubscribed. It took me about an hour to figure out what happened and fix it.
Just in time, too. In today's email was an opportunity of the type that a lot of the homeschool moms forward to the list. "Hey, my kid's in this great group for dance/choir/drama/music/sports lessons and they have openings, thought someone else might be interested..." This one was for Irish Dancing. Shannon adores dance. I thought it might be right up her alley. But, when I broached the subject to her on the way to ballet in the car this afternoon, she pooh-poohed the thought. She does enough dance during the week. It doesn't sound very fun. She wouldn't be interested in the competitive side. "OK," I said. "But remind me to show you a sample of what Irish Dancing is on YouTube when we get home, it's hard to judge based on my description."
Can I get a 'Mom Was Right?' I showed her everything from 5-7 year old beginners at a recital to the flashy Lord of the Dance to the World Championships for 17-21 year olds. She fell in LOVE. That's just what she wants to do. Wow.
So, an email has been sent to the admissions guy for the school I was first pointed to. We'll see how it goes. Just what we need, right? Yet one more hour of dancing a week? ;) Yup. Can't hurt to try.
So when it finally occurred to me to notice they weren't coming, I dug through my emails to see when my membership in this group lapsed. All I could find was a single email from March saying it was "due soon." I'd heard rumors of subscriptions getting crossed up, renewals not always processed, and the email list not necessarily reflecting reality. I assumed the worst, of course, and that I was no longer a member, dropped without follow-up emails, because I certainly wasn't organized enough to remember to renew off of email. I even found a blank membership form in my "big ol' pile of papers to sort and file" so it was obvious I'd never sent it in. So I did last month. About 2 weeks later, I get it back in the mail. I had indeed renewed. Apparently. Great! But why was my email off the list? She had no idea, it all looked fine to her.
Long story short (heh) the Yahoo group has pretty tight bounce controls, it just takes a very few bounces from a list to get yourself automatically unsubscribed. It took me about an hour to figure out what happened and fix it.
Just in time, too. In today's email was an opportunity of the type that a lot of the homeschool moms forward to the list. "Hey, my kid's in this great group for dance/choir/drama/music/sports lessons and they have openings, thought someone else might be interested..." This one was for Irish Dancing. Shannon adores dance. I thought it might be right up her alley. But, when I broached the subject to her on the way to ballet in the car this afternoon, she pooh-poohed the thought. She does enough dance during the week. It doesn't sound very fun. She wouldn't be interested in the competitive side. "OK," I said. "But remind me to show you a sample of what Irish Dancing is on YouTube when we get home, it's hard to judge based on my description."
Can I get a 'Mom Was Right?' I showed her everything from 5-7 year old beginners at a recital to the flashy Lord of the Dance to the World Championships for 17-21 year olds. She fell in LOVE. That's just what she wants to do. Wow.
So, an email has been sent to the admissions guy for the school I was first pointed to. We'll see how it goes. Just what we need, right? Yet one more hour of dancing a week? ;) Yup. Can't hurt to try.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Excited
I'm very much looking forward to this next unit of Moving Beyond the Page curriculum. We're done with the first concept of Interdependence, and now we're moving into Force and Power. The first book we're reading is "Ben and Me" by Robert Lawson, a historical fiction novel told from the perspective of Ben's good friend Amos, who just happens to be a mouse. The corresponding science unit jumps into magnets and electricity. We're touching on everything from Ben's inventions to the 13 colonies to even parts of the French Revolution. What does it mean to be an inventor? How do you start a new nation? What is diplomacy? The science kits with many kinds of magnets, the circuits and resistors, lighting a fluorescent bulb with a balloon.... What a fun filled next couple of weeks.
I know Shannon will be thrilled, Science is her favorite subject. In fact, she was very saddened last week at Girl Scouts because she was the only girl in the troop to say it was her favorite subject. "What's wrong with liking science, I ask you?" she demanded of me. I was worried, did anyone make fun of her for liking it? No, just apparently they all stared at her when she said it was her favorite. Ah, well. This will be a great hands-on unit, more exciting than the plants and ecology units we've been covering so far this year.
We'll be doing this three-week unit, then going on vacation. When we get back, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" will be waiting, as well as studies of the power of people, voting, and citizenship.
I'm still happy with this curriculum. It's working out so much better to have the notebooks in hand rather than the online version where you activate one unit at a time. I love browsing ahead late at night to see what's coming up. It makes such a difference to go into depth with these topics, I love the social studies and science units being inspired by the literature we're reading. Shannon is so sad to see our Native American stories go away, they really inspired her.
I know Shannon will be thrilled, Science is her favorite subject. In fact, she was very saddened last week at Girl Scouts because she was the only girl in the troop to say it was her favorite subject. "What's wrong with liking science, I ask you?" she demanded of me. I was worried, did anyone make fun of her for liking it? No, just apparently they all stared at her when she said it was her favorite. Ah, well. This will be a great hands-on unit, more exciting than the plants and ecology units we've been covering so far this year.
We'll be doing this three-week unit, then going on vacation. When we get back, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" will be waiting, as well as studies of the power of people, voting, and citizenship.
I'm still happy with this curriculum. It's working out so much better to have the notebooks in hand rather than the online version where you activate one unit at a time. I love browsing ahead late at night to see what's coming up. It makes such a difference to go into depth with these topics, I love the social studies and science units being inspired by the literature we're reading. Shannon is so sad to see our Native American stories go away, they really inspired her.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Picking battles
Ah, the joys continue. Today's topic, lying to your children to protect your sanity (and quite possibly theirs, too.)
Math is not generally considered one of the 'fuzzy' subjects. Things are either right or they're wrong. Shannon is currently having difficulty with basic math. We're starting to get into more and more advanced concepts, and she's sailing right through those. Fractions? Simple, she loved them. Geometry? Well, not her favorite, but she plodded through and was bored silly. Last week though, we started adding large columns of numbers. Suddenly, her mind seemed to reel... no longer able to add 5 and 7 together. She's building a block that 'math is hard' ... and I'm doing my best to bust that block down as fast as she can build it. That's why I loved that she took to fractions like a duck to water. But this column thing... yeah, it looks scary, so therefore it must be hard.
The introduction technique we've done is to look for easy numbers, like groups of tens in each column before you just start adding the ones, tens, hundreds like we were all taught. I'm struggling with terminology, trying to teach the way this curriculum wants. It actually makes more sense to teach the way they want it, but when you grew up "carrying" a one, suddenly "trading for a ten" is hard to get to come out of your mouth. So we worked on this lesson for two days. Today was definitely a case of two steps forward, one step back. She finally got it... the concept of *why* she was doing things a certain way made sense and she was no longer totally bogged down by the actual adding part of it. Boom, her mood soared. Then, on the next practice problem, (adding a column of eight 2-digit numbers) she made a simple notation error, failing to make a 'dot' for one of the tens she found. This led her to have one fewer hundred to "bring down" ... making her final answer wrong by a value of a hundred. Or one, if you're simply counting how many hundreds you're adding, as we were.
Discovering the error led to tears. She's at the stage where ANY mistake is the end of the world. OK, she's been at that stage her whole life, it seems. She insisted she did it right. She wailed that she hates being corrected. I calmly fell back on my "relaxed" mom persona. Explained for the hundredth time that mistakes are a part of learning, we analyze what the mistake was and determine how serious it is, why did we do it, how do we avoid it. I told her (again) that in NO way should she ever feel bad about making mistakes while learning. I explained (again) that if you never make mistakes, you're most likely only doing the things you already know, and are not stretching your brain, not learning, not accomplishing. She finally settles down, and we make another attempt. It goes slowly, but well. I load up the last problem for her to work... and this time a straight math error while adding the ones position has her final answer incorrect. But, this time I was watching her, and she genuinely made progress on understanding the technique, the why, the how. So, luckily I was able to read her answers upside down, and when she asked me the answer, I lied. I made the answer match what she had written. I felt that in this case, the technique I was teaching was more important than the actual math follow-through.
Then, I put in my notes to add more time for card games. With repetition will come mastery without thought. Eventually. :)
Math is not generally considered one of the 'fuzzy' subjects. Things are either right or they're wrong. Shannon is currently having difficulty with basic math. We're starting to get into more and more advanced concepts, and she's sailing right through those. Fractions? Simple, she loved them. Geometry? Well, not her favorite, but she plodded through and was bored silly. Last week though, we started adding large columns of numbers. Suddenly, her mind seemed to reel... no longer able to add 5 and 7 together. She's building a block that 'math is hard' ... and I'm doing my best to bust that block down as fast as she can build it. That's why I loved that she took to fractions like a duck to water. But this column thing... yeah, it looks scary, so therefore it must be hard.
The introduction technique we've done is to look for easy numbers, like groups of tens in each column before you just start adding the ones, tens, hundreds like we were all taught. I'm struggling with terminology, trying to teach the way this curriculum wants. It actually makes more sense to teach the way they want it, but when you grew up "carrying" a one, suddenly "trading for a ten" is hard to get to come out of your mouth. So we worked on this lesson for two days. Today was definitely a case of two steps forward, one step back. She finally got it... the concept of *why* she was doing things a certain way made sense and she was no longer totally bogged down by the actual adding part of it. Boom, her mood soared. Then, on the next practice problem, (adding a column of eight 2-digit numbers) she made a simple notation error, failing to make a 'dot' for one of the tens she found. This led her to have one fewer hundred to "bring down" ... making her final answer wrong by a value of a hundred. Or one, if you're simply counting how many hundreds you're adding, as we were.
Discovering the error led to tears. She's at the stage where ANY mistake is the end of the world. OK, she's been at that stage her whole life, it seems. She insisted she did it right. She wailed that she hates being corrected. I calmly fell back on my "relaxed" mom persona. Explained for the hundredth time that mistakes are a part of learning, we analyze what the mistake was and determine how serious it is, why did we do it, how do we avoid it. I told her (again) that in NO way should she ever feel bad about making mistakes while learning. I explained (again) that if you never make mistakes, you're most likely only doing the things you already know, and are not stretching your brain, not learning, not accomplishing. She finally settles down, and we make another attempt. It goes slowly, but well. I load up the last problem for her to work... and this time a straight math error while adding the ones position has her final answer incorrect. But, this time I was watching her, and she genuinely made progress on understanding the technique, the why, the how. So, luckily I was able to read her answers upside down, and when she asked me the answer, I lied. I made the answer match what she had written. I felt that in this case, the technique I was teaching was more important than the actual math follow-through.
Then, I put in my notes to add more time for card games. With repetition will come mastery without thought. Eventually. :)
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
So how do you like homeschooling?
It's inevitable. You mention to someone that you homeschool your kid(s) and they respond with, "Oh, really? How do you like that?" I know that most don't do it intentionally, but for some, you swear you see a gleam in their eye hoping to catch you lying when you say you love it.
Really, it's a lot like any other job, there are good days and bad days; anyone who tells you different is delusional. The key for me is starting to figure out what the bad days have in common, there are usually triggers. I'm the first to acknowledge when the triggers come from me. I'm in a bad mood, my back hurts, there are issues with parents or in-laws in the back of my mind. These days make me short with my daughter, and some of her sense of humor or, "I just want to have fun" moments are not well tolerated. I'm also adept at seeing patterns based on known issues in her life as well, how much sleep she's getting (she'll deny it's a factor), how well she ate breakfast (she'll deny it's a factor), how her mood reflects mine, and a lot of other things that while somewhat controllable, are starting to fall under her influence, not mine.
Last week, we had a run of really good days. There were still bumps, but overall the attitude was productive. She made progress, and more importantly, KNEW she was making progress, and on her own was able to identify some of the factors that helped her. We were on a roll. Then this week I threw my back out. I couldn't teach well between the actual pain and the chiropractor visit. Today instead of bouncing out of her top bunk at 8 ready to "get school over with sooner and make her free time longer," like last week, I was in her room every 20 minutes from 8:30 to 10AM. I tried to give her some slack due to last night being Halloween. But enough is enough, right? Finally at 10:30, I couldn't prod her with false cheer any longer. I had to resort to the parental "yelling and threats" ... I heard martyr mom words coming out of my mouth. I heard self-fulfilling prophecies of doom. I was frustrated with myself, because I was "failing" again. And yes, my back still hurt.
This is the biggest pattern. One bad day leads to another. One good day *usually* leads to another, but a bad day really tends to build on itself. A day where she consciously (or not) realizes we don't accomplish all we set out to do seems to make it OK in her book that we don't accomplish things. I really don't want to keep being the ogre mom, but ... I can't keep her in at recess, I can't take a school cupcake party away, I'm running out of things that can be consequences without actual punishment.
So this week.... yeah, today is a day I glimpse the yellow bus drive by and think, "there but for my stubbornness go I."
Really, it's a lot like any other job, there are good days and bad days; anyone who tells you different is delusional. The key for me is starting to figure out what the bad days have in common, there are usually triggers. I'm the first to acknowledge when the triggers come from me. I'm in a bad mood, my back hurts, there are issues with parents or in-laws in the back of my mind. These days make me short with my daughter, and some of her sense of humor or, "I just want to have fun" moments are not well tolerated. I'm also adept at seeing patterns based on known issues in her life as well, how much sleep she's getting (she'll deny it's a factor), how well she ate breakfast (she'll deny it's a factor), how her mood reflects mine, and a lot of other things that while somewhat controllable, are starting to fall under her influence, not mine.
Last week, we had a run of really good days. There were still bumps, but overall the attitude was productive. She made progress, and more importantly, KNEW she was making progress, and on her own was able to identify some of the factors that helped her. We were on a roll. Then this week I threw my back out. I couldn't teach well between the actual pain and the chiropractor visit. Today instead of bouncing out of her top bunk at 8 ready to "get school over with sooner and make her free time longer," like last week, I was in her room every 20 minutes from 8:30 to 10AM. I tried to give her some slack due to last night being Halloween. But enough is enough, right? Finally at 10:30, I couldn't prod her with false cheer any longer. I had to resort to the parental "yelling and threats" ... I heard martyr mom words coming out of my mouth. I heard self-fulfilling prophecies of doom. I was frustrated with myself, because I was "failing" again. And yes, my back still hurt.
This is the biggest pattern. One bad day leads to another. One good day *usually* leads to another, but a bad day really tends to build on itself. A day where she consciously (or not) realizes we don't accomplish all we set out to do seems to make it OK in her book that we don't accomplish things. I really don't want to keep being the ogre mom, but ... I can't keep her in at recess, I can't take a school cupcake party away, I'm running out of things that can be consequences without actual punishment.
So this week.... yeah, today is a day I glimpse the yellow bus drive by and think, "there but for my stubbornness go I."
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Quote of the Day
Random made-up quote of the day by Shannon:
I was giving her spelling test, and used the sentence, "Whatever floats your boat..."
She immediately hit back with, "Whatever tickles your peach!"
I laughed, and said I'd never heard that phrase before. She laughed as well and said she hadn't either, she had no idea why she said it. I don't know why I found it so funny, guess you had to be there.
I was giving her spelling test, and used the sentence, "Whatever floats your boat..."
She immediately hit back with, "Whatever tickles your peach!"
I laughed, and said I'd never heard that phrase before. She laughed as well and said she hadn't either, she had no idea why she said it. I don't know why I found it so funny, guess you had to be there.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Technology woes
It figures, doesn't it, that as soon as I make the mental commitment to blog more that my laptop would break down? Indeed, my hard drive on my main laptop has crashed. I have a friend trying to recover all that is saveable, but I'm most likely to end up reformatting or replacing the drive there. Ah, well. There go all my bookmarks, I've saved a LOT over the years.
During this, I had a really bad run of technology luck. I was sans computer for several days, but at least I could read email on my phone. I even set up my "other" account, the one that I use for more official things like girl scouts and just about anything else that really doesn't need to know I use "helltygr" as an alias. ;) But then, of course, my phone suddenly decided to stop syncing my email. I can browse the internet, use the Facebook app, read the news, but no more email. Then Sean brings his laptop home for me to use, and I crashed it. Luckily, it wasn't really crashed but out of battery due to miscommunication on where to plug it in, so that crisis was averted, but I thought it was serious. So I'm currently using the backup computer from his work. It's only about 7 or 8 years old, running Windows XP, and faster than my "real" laptop. I should have clued in months ago how slowly my computer was running. Ah, well!
During this, I had a really bad run of technology luck. I was sans computer for several days, but at least I could read email on my phone. I even set up my "other" account, the one that I use for more official things like girl scouts and just about anything else that really doesn't need to know I use "helltygr" as an alias. ;) But then, of course, my phone suddenly decided to stop syncing my email. I can browse the internet, use the Facebook app, read the news, but no more email. Then Sean brings his laptop home for me to use, and I crashed it. Luckily, it wasn't really crashed but out of battery due to miscommunication on where to plug it in, so that crisis was averted, but I thought it was serious. So I'm currently using the backup computer from his work. It's only about 7 or 8 years old, running Windows XP, and faster than my "real" laptop. I should have clued in months ago how slowly my computer was running. Ah, well!
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