Learning in the Sunshine State

I usually don’t do memes because, well I don’t know why. I just don’t. This one from Meg seemed easy enough though.

Two names you go by: Kathy, Kat (oh wait, does Mom count?)

Two things you are wearing right now: shorts and a tee shirt

Two of your favorite things to do: spend time with my family, read

Two things you want very badly: a minivan (sad, isn’t it?), a digital SLR camera

Two favorite pets you have had/have: I’ve had cats and/or dogs continuously since I was 7, and all were my favorite. I guess whatever pets I currently have are my favorites. Right now that’s our dog, Dingo and our cat, Simba.

Two people you think will fill this out: I have no idea

Two things you ate today: ruby red grapefruit from the backyard tree, roast chicken

Two people you last talked to today: Bill, Dennis

Two things you’re doing tomorrow: juicing some backyard oranges if my mom brings my juicer back; planning for the upcoming week

Two longest car rides: Florida to Dallas, TX in 1995, New Jersey to Hallandale, Florida when we first moved down here.

Two favorite holidays: Christmas, 4th of July

Two favorite beverages: Alcohol–Irish Cream, Non-alcohol - water

If you want to do this meme, consider yourself tagged. Just leave a comment if you will, so I can read your answers.

It’s been about 15 hours since our printer gave out, and I’ve already needed it about a half dozen times. We can’t complain. It was a cheap Canon i560 and it gave us 4 years of almost daily printing. These days I suppose that’s pretty good. We did a little research and settled on the Canon Pixma iP4500. It has what we need from a home printer, and the price is decent. The problem? No local stores carry it. We found it on sale on Amazon.com, and paid extra for expedited shipping, but even at that we won’t get it until Tuesday. I hope I make it that long.

I finally got new glasses. The ones I had are two years old, and I had them two years too long. I hate them for many reasons, the main one being they’re extremely uncomfortable. Also, I was too cheap to pay for the transition lenses, so I’ve had to carry around sunglass clips for the past two years. I can’t even remember how many pairs of clips I lost. I’ve worn glasses since fifth grade, and this pair ranks in the top 3 of my most hated glasses. So, anyway, it was time for an eye exam and time for new glasses. So far I like the new ones. They’re titanium; nice and light and comfortable. But the best part is I went back to transition lenses. So of course, we haven’t seen the sun since I picked them up at 8 am yesterday. It tried to come out a few times today, but each time I ran outside to test my glasses, it hid behind the clouds. My neighbors probably wonder what I’m doing.

Thirsty Squirrel

Most of the time these guys annoy the hell out of me. They eat all the birdseed, climb up the outside of the screen porch making little claw holes in the screening, and taunt our Sheltie, who continues to try and herd them. It was hard not to feel sorry for the little fella though. Yes, he shamed me into filling the birdbath, but not before I grabbed my camera.

Time to go now. The sun is out. Must find out how dark my glasses will get.

Since we took all but the first week of December off, it made sense to start back on January 2. Bill went back to work and we went back to school. We started a new type of schedule, and began our main focus of the next few months — the American Revolution. School kids start Monday, but we don’t follow a traditional schedule so that doesn’t matter to us.

But then…

Wednesday afternoon the doorbell rang. When I answered, there stood a friend of Dennis’ who lives 2 streets away, AND Dennis’ best friend who had to go to school this year. They go to the same Catholic school, and Best Friend was visiting Neighbor Friend, so they decided to come and see if Dennis was home. No problem. We were done with school for the day anyway.

Thursday, Neighbor Friend called to see if he could come over. We were in the middle of spelling, and still had some reading to do. I caved. There aren’t many kids in this neighborhood, and our homeschool friends are all at least a half hour away. When a kid knocks on the door to play with my kid, it’s hard to say no.

This morning we have P.E., and this afternoon was going to be Art and a read-aloud related to the Revolution. Except now the plans are for Neighbor Friend to have a sleepover. I told his mom I’d call her when we get back, so he can come on over.

So much for new plans. But the beauty of homeschooling is that we can change plans at the last minute. We’re not on anyone’s schedule but our own. So we start next week instead of this week. No matter. In the long run it won’t make a bit of difference whether or not we “did school” three days this week. On the other hand, the memories of playing with friends on Christmas break can last a lifetime.

He was supposed to be doing this:

Instead he was doing this:

The final product looked like this:

He was surprised when I told him that many public and private school teachers don’t appreciate decorated math pages. He now has another reason to be glad he’s homeschooled.

Note: If you’re wondering about the eights, he doesn’t like the way he makes them. He keeps trying to make a “better eight”.

The next time your child complains about math, maybe you should bring this up.

Team Cracks Century Old Math Problem

Here’s the opening sentence:

PALO ALTO, Calif. Mar 21, 2007 (AP)— An international team of mathematicians says it has cracked a 120-year-old puzzle that researchers say is so complicated that its handwritten solution would cover the island of Manhattan.

Now I think math is useful and necessary in life, and it can occasionally be fun. However, I prefer word play over math play. While others are going crazy over Sudoku, I have no interest in even trying it. So I tip my hat to those who would spend four years working on a math problem. I just can’t wrap my mind around that.

The best part of the story, as far as I’m concerned, is the final sentence.

The calculation does not have any obvious practical applications but could help advance theoretical physics and geometry, researchers said.

Um, yeah. Researchers validate the age old question, “When are we ever going to use this?”

Dennis has always loved to draw, and we’ve always provided him with drawing supplies. So, when I heard that a local artist and studio owner offers classes for kids, I asked him if he was interested. The nice thing about it is that it’s a “drop in” class. You show up when you want to or can, and when you can’t… oh well. There’s no sign up, no commitment. The class is one afternoon a week, and is for kids 8 and up. In each lesson, they discuss a style, an artist, then they create their own piece. In most cases, they can do what they want (though she chooses the medium), but once in a while, she tells them what to do. That was the case in the Degas Ballerina style chalk.

Lately we’ve been taking his friend with us too, but with both of them there, they tend to play around a bit too much. I talked with the teacher about this and she said that yes, occasionally she has to get on them about being on task. But she also said that they’re both talented enough for her to not complain too much. She’s great with the kids and has her own ways of getting them to behave.

So, here are some examples of his work. No, the misspelling was not intentional. Yes, we’re working on it.

lunch. That’s right, lunch. Dennis’ 4H club is beginning a project on solar power. At one of the club meetings, the leader brought a solar oven that one of her teens had made. The kids all made s’mores, put them in the oven, and we set the oven outside while they held the rest of the meeting. Eventually the kids will make solar cars and race them, but solar ovens are a good introduction to solar power. After the meeting, each club member was then supposed to make his or her own solar oven at home. Dennis made a pizza box oven. Part of the fun of a pizza box oven is that you have to have a pizza night in order to get the box.

We started out with the basic plan, using plexiglass instead of plastic laminate. Yes, that’s a piece of Hot Wheels track holding it open.

We checked the temperature with an oven thermometer and noted that it reached a respectable 150 degrees.

Now we can’t just use the basic model — we have to kick it up a notch. Actually, we read in a library book that adding an extra panel is a good idea if you want to make more than s’mores.

Dennis made us each an English muffin pizza. We “preheated” the oven, then put our pizzas in. Now it’s time for the sun to work its magic.

After about 20 minutes, we enjoyed our solar cooked lunch.

Well, after Dr. Phil’s one-sided show (which I admit I didn’t watch), here is a more balanced view of unschooling.

Homeschoolers content to take children’s lead.

The link is going around the homeschool cyber world this morning, so you might have seen it on a list, or on some forums. I think the article was fairly well balanced, considering that it came from mainstream media. Homeschooling itself is only just becoming understood as a viable option. I don’t think we can expect the general public to instantly embrace unschooling. Dialogue is good, and an article like this helps to get the dialogue going in a positive direction.

As for the Dr. Phil episode, don’t validate it. If someone you know (someone not exactly homeschool friendly) mentions it, remind them that it’s a TV show. Remember they’re concerned with ratings, not truth or balance. Keep the light on the fact it’s a TV show, not on the content. If the person wants real conversation about homeschooling or unschooling, direct him or her to articles like this one instead.

Those of us who wish to teach the science of evolution to our kids, know how difficult it is to find homeschool resources for the subject. Thankfully, Ave from The Denim Jumper, has decided to do something about it.

Evolved Homeschooling is an attempt to bring together news, books, links, and other resources to help you teach evolution. There are already some good book recommendations and links up. Anyone can make a suggestion, and you don’t have to be a homeschooler to participate. Hopefully, as word spreads, this blog will grow. Please pass this along to your like minded friends.

Though it sure looks like one, doesn’t it?

I started this blog to encourage myself to write about our homeschool adventures, among other things. I read somewhere that the average time before a blog is abandoned is about 4 months. If you make it past a year with regular postings, you will likely keep it up.

I don’t want to feel like I have to blog. That would take the fun out of it. On the other hand, going for weeks at a time without blogging takes the motivation away. So I’m going to give myself a goal of once a week from now until the end of the year. If I do more, great. If not, I don’t feel guilty. After the first of the year, I’ll up it to twice a week, and see how that goes.

As for what we’ve been up to, we’ve been busy with activities. We’re lucky to get the 3 R’s in, but they seem to find their way into general life anyway. Yes, we’re in unschooling mode for now. We’ll probably stay there until after the holidays.

We’ve been reading about the Civil War and Underground Railroad, because of 2 related activities. Yesterday we went to see a play called

A Midnight Cry — The Underground Railroad to Freedom

In a few weeks, we’re going to a Civil War reenactment in the center of our state, a town called Palatka. We’ll be camping there with our Cub Scout pack for the weekend.

In preparation for the play and the camping trip, we’ll be reading a few books about the Civil War, slavery, and the Underground Railroad. We read Follow the Drinking Gourd, watched a video of it narrated by Morgan Freeman, and will be reading a few of the “If You” books about the time period. (grrr. I can’t get this thing to underline without looking weird and putting it on a separate line).

Other than that, field trips, 4H, P.E., karate, and guitar lessons are keeping us busy. Oh, and the Academic Fair our homeschool group held on Monday, Oct. 30. And there was Halloween, which was great fun, but gave Dennis candy overload. Seems a lot of people gave out chocolate this year. Think he’ll notice if I raid his candy bucket?

Now we’re about to get on that holiday roller coaster that lasts from mid-November to the end of the year.

Oh yeah. Did I mention the weather is beautiful? This is our outdoor time of year. I’d rather do bookwork school stuff in the hot, humid summer, and take advantage of the outdoors during Florida’s version of fall and winter.