The Lamp looks like it could be fun:
Has anyone seen it? Do you recommend it? I'm surprised that out of the 50 votes on Youtube for the trailing, there are 16 dislikes. It is available on Netflix.
Hat tip: Home School Courier.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
The May 2012 Home Educator's Family Times is up
The Home Educator Family Time's May 2012 edition is up. There are a number of good articles.
I especially enjoyed:
Has Something Come Between You and Your Children? by Barbara Frank
Barbara makes the point that driving our children to places gives us a unique chance to get to know our children better. She warns against ignoring our children an escaping into cell phone land.
Why Aren’t you Homeschooling? by Jim Willson
Jim warns that public schools today are not fair in their teaching of American history and then addresses three common excuses for not homeschooling.
I especially enjoyed:
Has Something Come Between You and Your Children? by Barbara Frank
Barbara makes the point that driving our children to places gives us a unique chance to get to know our children better. She warns against ignoring our children an escaping into cell phone land.
Why Aren’t you Homeschooling? by Jim Willson
Jim warns that public schools today are not fair in their teaching of American history and then addresses three common excuses for not homeschooling.
The "Friends of Stossel in the Classroom" mailing list
I like John Stossel. He does a good job of framing important issues in ways that are easy to comprehend.
He has a "Friends of Stossel in the Classroom" mailing list. You can enter your email address at here.
If you haven't watched this recently, or every, you might enjoy John Stossel's 2007 Stupid in America:
I love his line: "Most Americans don't know what stupid schools are doing to American kids."
He has a "Friends of Stossel in the Classroom" mailing list. You can enter your email address at here.
If you haven't watched this recently, or every, you might enjoy John Stossel's 2007 Stupid in America:
I love his line: "Most Americans don't know what stupid schools are doing to American kids."
Friday, May 18, 2012
Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling
Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of
Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held next week at Dewey's Treehouse.
This will be the 334rd edition. We'll be just over a third of the way to the first 1000 carnivals! :-)
BlogCarnival seems to be having trouble again, so please email your submission.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
This will be the 334rd edition. We'll be just over a third of the way to the first 1000 carnivals! :-)
BlogCarnival seems to be having trouble again, so please email your submission.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up
Katherine is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at No Fighting, No Biting!
She starts the carnival with:
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This week is my 3rd time hosting the carnival of homeschooling and it also happens to be the 333rd carnival, started over 6 years ago. If I think about what I was doing on that very first day the Cate family published this weekly collaborative resource, it was, of course, homeschooling. My two oldest children were just learning how to read and write the most simple of book reports and I was also coping with a toddler and expecting baby #4.
Today we have our oldest child in Catholic school, are homeschooling four of the others and still have a toddler underfoot. But it won't always be like this, in another 6 years I will have graduated two children and the youngest will be finishing 3rd grade.
But we must focus on what today asks of us and so...
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She starts the carnival with:
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This week is my 3rd time hosting the carnival of homeschooling and it also happens to be the 333rd carnival, started over 6 years ago. If I think about what I was doing on that very first day the Cate family published this weekly collaborative resource, it was, of course, homeschooling. My two oldest children were just learning how to read and write the most simple of book reports and I was also coping with a toddler and expecting baby #4.
Today we have our oldest child in Catholic school, are homeschooling four of the others and still have a toddler underfoot. But it won't always be like this, in another 6 years I will have graduated two children and the youngest will be finishing 3rd grade.
But we must focus on what today asks of us and so...
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Experience
From Dan Galvin's Thought
For The Day mailing list:
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Homeschooling will change for us this fall
Our oldest daughter will be graduating from homeschooling in the next couple weeks. She has been taking classes at the local junior colleges and will start full time this fall. She is excited to start. And I think she is well prepared. She has been doing just fine in the classes she's taken so far.
It will be a bit weird for me. Ever since she "started" kindergarten we have been homeschooling her. The current plan is she'll live at home for the next year or two. She isn't gone yet, but she is taking her first steps to moving on with her life. I'm already missing her.
But the bigger change this fall is we'll start homeschooling our son.
Our long time readers know that Baby Bop joined our home over four years ago as a foster care placement. It was supposed to be short term. For over a year it was supposed to be short term. Then two years ago we were able to adopt him. Now this fall we'll be officially homeschooling him.
It is a bit weird to be starting over, after all this time.
He seems ready. Recently he has started asking for his school work. He is excited to start. He likes to write his name.
I'm looking forward to the next chapter in our homeschooling adventure.
It will be a bit weird for me. Ever since she "started" kindergarten we have been homeschooling her. The current plan is she'll live at home for the next year or two. She isn't gone yet, but she is taking her first steps to moving on with her life. I'm already missing her.
But the bigger change this fall is we'll start homeschooling our son.
Our long time readers know that Baby Bop joined our home over four years ago as a foster care placement. It was supposed to be short term. For over a year it was supposed to be short term. Then two years ago we were able to adopt him. Now this fall we'll be officially homeschooling him.
It is a bit weird to be starting over, after all this time.
He seems ready. Recently he has started asking for his school work. He is excited to start. He likes to write his name.
I'm looking forward to the next chapter in our homeschooling adventure.
Claiming to be busy relieves us of the burden of choice
I like this article: Are You As Busy As You Think?
Laura Vanderkam makes some great pionts.
If you feel overwhelmed by all you are trying to do, take five minutes and read column.
Laura Vanderkam makes some great pionts.
If you feel overwhelmed by all you are trying to do, take five minutes and read column.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Charity Navigator
A friend at work was in a really nasty car accident two weeks ago. A drunk driver going around sixty miles an hour in the wrong direction hit the car. My friend is lucky to be alive. They airlifted him to a hospital. It looks like he will evidently be OK, after a few months of recovery.
His family has been providing updates via CaringBridge.org. This is a nonprofit group. One of the things they do is to help people set up a temporary blog to share information as a patient progresses. The web site asks for donations. At lunch recently we got talking about CaringBridge and wondered how much money they receive and how it was spent.
One of the guys at the lunch whipped out his phone and went to Charity Navigator. This site provides easy access to financial information on non profit organizations.
Charity Navigator reports that last year CaringBridge brought in $7.37 million dollars. The CEO has a salary of $138,000. They spend about 80% of their money on "Program Services" and only 6.5% on fund raising. Charity Navigator says these are in a reasonable range. I dug around a bit and found the 2011 financial report.
The next time some "charity" asks you for money you might use Charity Navigator to see where the donations go.
His family has been providing updates via CaringBridge.org. This is a nonprofit group. One of the things they do is to help people set up a temporary blog to share information as a patient progresses. The web site asks for donations. At lunch recently we got talking about CaringBridge and wondered how much money they receive and how it was spent.
One of the guys at the lunch whipped out his phone and went to Charity Navigator. This site provides easy access to financial information on non profit organizations.
Charity Navigator reports that last year CaringBridge brought in $7.37 million dollars. The CEO has a salary of $138,000. They spend about 80% of their money on "Program Services" and only 6.5% on fund raising. Charity Navigator says these are in a reasonable range. I dug around a bit and found the 2011 financial report.
The next time some "charity" asks you for money you might use Charity Navigator to see where the donations go.
Life is good
My son and I went on a father and sons activity yesterday. We had a good time. My son would be happy to go camping again next week!
We just returned to find our internet access has been restored.
Life is good.
We just returned to find our internet access has been restored.
Life is good.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling
Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held next week at No Fighting, No Biting!
This will be the 333rd edition.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
This will be the 333rd edition.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up
The NerdMom is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at NerdFamily Blog.
She starts the carnival with:
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Welcome to the Carnival of Homechooling! Won’t you come on in, get a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable? We have quite a few great entry’s this week so lets jump right in!
No matter what your education style is we all agree that life happens. One of the blessings of homeschooling is that homeschooling can work with the chaos of life! We have some great entries that specifically look at life and the flexibility of homeschooling!!!
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She starts the carnival with:
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Welcome to the Carnival of Homechooling! Won’t you come on in, get a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable? We have quite a few great entry’s this week so lets jump right in!
No matter what your education style is we all agree that life happens. One of the blessings of homeschooling is that homeschooling can work with the chaos of life! We have some great entries that specifically look at life and the flexibility of homeschooling!!!
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Monday, May 07, 2012
Life goes on
We have blogged several times about how homeschooling provides great flexibility. This week we have another example. Over the weekend we moved back into our house! Saturday was a long day. We are grateful for the family and friends who showed up to help us move out of the apartment.
It has been wonderful to be back in our home.
But we are not completely settled in yet. There are still many disruptions. We still have over hundred boxes to unpack. And we can’t do anything with about half of them because the contractor isn’t done yet. He still needs to build a set of shelves in the garage and the pantry. Another challenge we’re working around is not having internet access; our DSL line is still being setup.
Since we homeschool it is easy for us to adjust and keep moving forward. Janine has used our daughters as her minions to bring order out of chaos. They will spend several hours each day this week cleaning up the house, sorting through the boxes and putting stuff away.
Our daughters will continue to learn some important lessons about hard work and how to maintain a house.
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling
Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held next week at NerdFamily Blog.
This will be the 332nd edition.
Blog Carnvial was repaired for a bit but is now down again, so please send in your submissions directly via email.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
This will be the 332nd edition.
Blog Carnvial was repaired for a bit but is now down again, so please send in your submissions directly via email.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
We're home Auntie Em!
It has been a long three months. We moved out of our home on the first of February into an apartment across the street, and down just a bit. It was a small 900 square foot two bedroom apartment, on the third floor. It worked fine.
Today we moved back into our home. The apartment is cleaned out. We still have boxes and stuff scattered around everywhere. We're expecting it will be another month before we are truely settled in. But it is so nice to be home.
There is one small cloud. DSL hasn't been set up yet. I bought the children into work and set up the laptops so they can check their email and watch a favorite television.
Today we moved back into our home. The apartment is cleaned out. We still have boxes and stuff scattered around everywhere. We're expecting it will be another month before we are truely settled in. But it is so nice to be home.
There is one small cloud. DSL hasn't been set up yet. I bought the children into work and set up the laptops so they can check their email and watch a favorite television.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Pioneer Edition
The LaughingLioness is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Golden Grasses.
She starts off the carnival with:
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Each carnival writer has the option to put their compilation to a ‘theme’ if they so choose. I’ve chosen the on a Pioneer theme for 2 reasons. First, I live in the Territories and have some great pictures to share (I’m shallow like that). Secondly, because those of us who homeschool, chose, by intention or default, to Pioneer. One of the definitions for Pioneer is one who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or progress. Love that. And the synonyms for Pioneer are just as rich: leader, trailblazer, forerunner, pathfinder. Homeschooling is pioneering a new educational landscape and one that is and will change the face of the future. It takes a hardy soul to pioneer. And while each of us has our own unique hopes and dreams of what homeschooling might afford, we do so with the common effort of providing well for our children.
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She starts off the carnival with:
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Each carnival writer has the option to put their compilation to a ‘theme’ if they so choose. I’ve chosen the on a Pioneer theme for 2 reasons. First, I live in the Territories and have some great pictures to share (I’m shallow like that). Secondly, because those of us who homeschool, chose, by intention or default, to Pioneer. One of the definitions for Pioneer is one who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or progress. Love that. And the synonyms for Pioneer are just as rich: leader, trailblazer, forerunner, pathfinder. Homeschooling is pioneering a new educational landscape and one that is and will change the face of the future. It takes a hardy soul to pioneer. And while each of us has our own unique hopes and dreams of what homeschooling might afford, we do so with the common effort of providing well for our children.
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Friday, April 27, 2012
Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling
Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held next week at Golden Grasses.
This will be the 331st edition.
Blog Carnvial was repaired for a bit but is now down again, so please send in your submissions directly via email.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
This will be the 331st edition.
Blog Carnvial was repaired for a bit but is now down again, so please send in your submissions directly via email.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - frost and forcythias
"Christine The Curious" is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Our Curious Home.
She starts the carnival with:
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I looked through our Archived photos from Aprils past, to see what a ‘typical’ April was like for our family.
We often had nice weather to get outside in (or else we had bouncy children who had to go outside whether it was nice or not).
This photo of M when he was young reminds me of the questions Dan asked me when I was first thinking of homeschooling. NerdWallet has some Questions for Parents: Is homeschooling right for Me?
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She starts the carnival with:
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I looked through our Archived photos from Aprils past, to see what a ‘typical’ April was like for our family.
We often had nice weather to get outside in (or else we had bouncy children who had to go outside whether it was nice or not).
This photo of M when he was young reminds me of the questions Dan asked me when I was first thinking of homeschooling. NerdWallet has some Questions for Parents: Is homeschooling right for Me?
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Graduation Announcements?
Our oldest daughter will be "graduating" from our homeschool. I hadn't really thought much about it since she is already attending community college. She passed the CHSPE (California High School Proficiency Exam) two years ago. In many ways, she has already moved on to the next step.
I'm a little ambivalent. My parents made me go to my high school graduation and I didn't attend my college graduation. (I regret not attending my college graduation since I think it would have meant something to my parents.)
There are no other seniors in our homeschool co-op or in our close circle of friends. There might be a few other seniors in the larger homeschool support group but my older daughters doesn't really hang out there. So, a graduation ceremony seems a little too much. Should we make a diploma and give it to her?
A friend suggest that we have party to celebrate and send out graduation announcements in the form of an invitation to the party.
So, what do other homeschoolers do when there children "graduate?"
I'm a little ambivalent. My parents made me go to my high school graduation and I didn't attend my college graduation. (I regret not attending my college graduation since I think it would have meant something to my parents.)
There are no other seniors in our homeschool co-op or in our close circle of friends. There might be a few other seniors in the larger homeschool support group but my older daughters doesn't really hang out there. So, a graduation ceremony seems a little too much. Should we make a diploma and give it to her?
A friend suggest that we have party to celebrate and send out graduation announcements in the form of an invitation to the party.
So, what do other homeschoolers do when there children "graduate?"
Monday, April 23, 2012
Homeschooling and the house remodel
Almost three months ago we moved out of our house into an apartment. Janine and I were married over twenty years ago. (One of the reasons she married me was because I already had a house.) From the beginning Janine has wanted to remodel the kitchen. We have had other parts of the house remodeled. The first job was expanding the master bedroom and fixing up the bathrooms. We had a couple other jobs which included turning the back porch into a screen room and splitting the upstairs room into a family room and an office. Now finally she was getting her dream to come true.
Living in a small two bedroom apartment has been an interesting experience. We have been a bit stressed in the tight quarters, but everyone has adjusted. I’ve been fascinated by how little we see our neighbors. Of the seven other apartments on the third floor with us I’ve only seen people go in or out of four of them. And we rarely see people going in and out of these four apartments. I heard that all the apartments are occupied, but I wonder.
Homeschooling hasn’t changed all that much. Janine still gives assignments to the girls. Our daughters do a fairly good job of staying focused and working through their topics. I think the biggest change is they have been operating much more independently. Janine has been greatly distracted by the dozens of decisions she has had to make.
Janine has been thinking about the new kitchen for years, but after the remodel started she was surprised to learn just how many choices she still needed to make. There were hundreds of little details. She has created a design committee on Facebook. Fairly often she would post a question about counter tops or appliances or what to put on the floor, and get dozens of comments. It has been an iterative process. For example once she decided on granite she then had to pick out which type of granite. Due to the marvels of technology she could take pictures of samples, post them on Facebook and get lots of feedback on which pattern people liked, and why.
We should be moving back into our home in another ten days. Soon this will just be a chapter in our family history. We’ll be able to look back and remember the fun things like having a pool!
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