NEW CLASSROOM

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VALIDATION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL

I may have mentioned before that Alexander is shy. We had no doubt when he was four/five that if we had thrust him into a traditional school, he would not have reacted well. Another facet of our "go with the flow" approach to both parenting and education is that we never pushed him into extracurricular activities. Kathleen has been in dance for years and Grace started in the fall, but Alexander always declined our offers of classes he might enjoy. That changed at the end of last summer when HE decided to take gymnastics.

Except for the lack of boys in his class, Alexander has loved gymnastics. The place I chose teaches Acrogymnastics (think acrobatics). They focus more on using the body to perform tricks, rather than lots of equipment. Alexander has happily attended his classes, practiced his moves at home, shown off to relatives, and all around been a great success.

The great Let Our Kids Decide When They Are Ready for things expirement culminated last week when Alexander's class had an exibition to mark the end of the semester. My shy son, who has always hated to be put in the spotlight (unless he wanted to be there) was amazing. Group display? No problem. Solo trick of skill? Breezed through. Feat of daring? Stood on his coach's shoulders as calmly as could be. This was all with an audience of at least twenty adults staring at him.

It felt good.


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THIS TIME I MEAN IT

Last year, I mentioned that we were going to switch our upstairs classroom with the downstairs playroom, but we didn't go through with it. Just before Christmas, I decided that it is the right thing to do. We will get more done at one time because the computer is downstairs. I will be able to work on other things during school, when Kathleen is doing stuff on her own. Grace will have more options for entertainment. Now, I just have to go through the insane amount of work it will take to actually move all of the stuff!


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JESUS IS MULTIPLIED

I understand that many families who choose to homeschool are extremely Christian. I understand that the All-Inclusive homeschool group I belong to includes some of these families. What I don't understand is why anyone who is so Christian that they can't offer a multiplication tutoring program without both including and advertising the "five minute devotional" that will precede each lesson would want to belong to an inclusive group. There are several All Christian All The Time groups in town. Are the families who seem to tolerate the non-religious in our group trying to spread the Word, or do they truly not see that Jesus and multiplication facts don't automatically go together?

I know that to some, I might be stuck on the topic of Christians in the homeschool group. I really am surprised and annoyed every time this happens. I would never join a Christian group and then hold a Buddha/Reading Lesson, that would be rude and pushy (I'm not buddhist, just an example). I did belong to the local Catholic homeschool group for a year. When they prayed before PE every week, I bowed my head out of politeness (and conditioning from Catholic school). I accepted that part of the group and never brought up topics that might lead to religious disagreements. Why don't the religious families in our group extend the same courtesy?



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MORE USES FOR MY IPHONE

I know I'm beginning to sound like an Apple commercial (I happen to be a PC who loves iPods and iPhones), but I remembered more applications that the kids use. Google Earth has many educational uses and is just plain cool to use. Touch Physics in another amazing app. Alexander really enjoys that one and uses problem solving skills, creative thinking, and a basic understanding of the laws of physics.

I have to admit that I just downloaded an app that allows me to blog from my phone. An entry about the joys of my iPhone inspired my search for a blogging app...I am a giant nerd.


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HOMESCHOOLING? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT

To begin, we need to go back to December 2008.  I received an iPod Touch for my birthday (I love it so much that I find it necessary to capitalize the name).  We already have a wireless network in our house, so it was easy to check email and update my facebook status from the luxury of the couch, or bed, or back porch.  It didn't take me long to start searching the App store for more than just the Koi pond and Tetris...I realized that there had to be educational apps that the kids could use.  This year, I received an iPhone for my birthday because I am such a giant nerd that going without the internet in between my house, my parents house, and hotels was too big a burden.  That, and after using my mom's to instantly email a photo from Disney World to my sister-in-law opened my eyes to the beauty of the unlimited data plan.  Anyway, I have now downloaded several useful educational apps for the kids.

Flashcards are boring for both the teacher and the student.  Flashcards on a handheld computer are wonderful.  It sounds simplistic, but the immediate feedback of sounds and colors makes the work seem fun for the kids, and the computer keeps track of the answers so the teacher doesn't have to.  Kathleen's multiplication facts are kept fresh through several sessions a week with the iPhone.  Alexander loves practicing adding and subtraction on it too.  Last month, I discovered a great app (Flash Racer) that allows up to four players to compete in math facts!  Alexander sticks to + and -, while Kathleen and their older cousin use the x and / cards.  It keeps track of the time it takes, as well as the percentage of correct answers to create a running total.  I have also enjoyed TriFacts, which presents simple math equations within a triangle to show the properties of reciprocity while they work (2 + 3 = 5,
3 + 2 = 5, 5 - 2 = 3, and 5 - 3 = 2). 

GeoMaster is excellent for practicing geography; I have actually been learning a lot.  Apparently, I don't know where any of the tiny countries in Europe are, I'm worse in Asia, and almost hopeless in Africa. 

I have probably mentioned that spelling is Kathleen's Achilles heel, and I have even found an app for that...Scrabble!  She already loves to play the board game, and the iPhone version comes with us wherever we go.  She and I play while her brother has gymnastics and her sister has dance class, we play on vacation, we play in bed before falling asleep.  There's nothing like the drive to beat your mother at a word game to make a nine year old want to spell :)

PROJECT INDOCTRINATION

Well, the good, old homeschool group is at it again.  A newbie is setting up a visit from Project Creation to hold a Creation "Science" Workshop.  You know, they have kids dissect frogs and owl pellets and talk about how God was so kind as to create owls to vomit up such educational pellets for us to study.  So far, she has half a dozen interested parties and no location to hold the workshop.  She's looking for a church because, as we all know, the best scientific discovery occurs in such places.

My husband wants to "call the group out" over this, but I have been argueing against it.  First of all, the group is actually labeled as All Inclusive, which means that we take all types.  Secondly, I am the one who sees these people face to face, and I don't want to be viewed as a troublemaker.  I can't help but wonder, though, why we need to be All Inclusive when we are the only non-religious group in our area.  I did join the email group of a truly secular group located on the South Shore, but we haven't managed to get over there to attend anything or meet anyone. 

I think that the only way to combat this sort of thing is to set up a workshop teaching the basics of evolution and offerring it to the group.  Perhaps my indignance at having fake scientists claim to be teaching scientific falsehoods as facts will finally compel me to get things going.