Garden of Your Mind

I grew up watching Mr Rogers' Neighborhood. Did you? Well, today, I received a link to this "remix" which I thought was WONDERFUL! It reminded me of the things he taught me as a little girl...   Enjoy!

"You can't study for the Stanford"

Today I went to a 'moving up' meeting at Alex's private school. (And, we are really leaning heavily towards homeschooling again next year!!!) Part of the talk was about the 'math tracks' and the fact that the 6th graders will be taking an "Alegbra readiness" test at the end of April. The Dean said "you can't study for it. It's a test to see if they're ready. They're either ready, or they're not."

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Alex will be taking the Stanford next week, and she was told there was "no way to study for it." REALLY???

I've heard this before! Another 'biggie' is "you can't study for the PSAT." Ugh! My sister and brother both studied pretty hard for the PSAT, and guess what? They were BOTH National Merit Finalists! And, I honestly don't know why I didn't study for it. I was really more laid back about my education and didn't care that much about it. But, I digress!

I bought Alex a test booklet to help her prepare for the Stanford. I found out she doesn't remember grammar topics such as direct objects and indirect objects, so we studied those. She doesn't remember helping verbs, so we went over that. She's having difficulty going back and forth between percents and fractions. So, we studied!!!

I'm just shocked that any person in education would believe (or say) you can't study for these tests!! And, yet it is something you often hear! Ugh! If you look at the tests (especially something like the Stanford), it looks just like a test you take in school! So, would you say you can't study for a test in math? You either know it or you don't? Or do you tell kids to STUDY?!?

Whew!

"Practice Makes Permanent"

You've heard the saying "practice makes perfect." But, is it true?

Alex took 1.5 years of piano several years ago. Every once in a while, she will sit down and play her favorite piece. She has played it perhaps a hundred times. But, there is one place where she tends to hit a wrong note. And, she practices this wrong note over and over. She corrects herself after playing the note, but usually misses the note while playing the piece. In her case, the practice of the wrong note has become semi-permanent.

I started swimming last year to participate in a triathlon. I didn't have a coach and just did the best I could with learning freestyle. Now, I'm in a Masters Swim class and the coach is trying to teach me the correct way to swim. I have learned so many parts of my stroke incorrectly that it is frustrating to try and correct my form. My body is 'used to' the wrong ways I've been swimming. I am trying to undo what I've learned, through practice. But, I feel it..."practice makes permanent."

Of course, in both cases we can undo the harm of practicing our skills incorrectly. But, it won't be easy! It's best to practice things correctly...because what we practice becomes permanent!
(This is insight I gained while listening to Andrew Pudewa's lecture, Reflections on Redeeming Repitition: Rut, Routine and Ritual.)

Traditions: Doughnut Shop

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about traditions. I really love how Robin at martinzoo has so many traditions! She is often saying, "we always..." I would love to have traditions like hers. So, I've been thinking about traditions that we have and hoping to start some new ones.

One tradition we have involves visits by Nana and Papa, my husband's parents. They were here this past weekend while my husband and I went on a short vacation. This time, they brought along my 1.5 year old nephew, Hunter. Our tradition is to go out to doughnuts on the morning they leave (which was yesterday). (This photo is from a PowerPoint slideshow I made about a month ago. Alex and I both made slideshows called "Our Traditions." We thought about all of the holidays and special days where we share traditions and created slides for those. Our last slide was entitled "traditions I wish we had..." It was really a great project and I hope to work harder at keeping traditions!)

This tradition started when Alex was very small. She used to get really upset when it was time for Nana and Papa to go home. She would cry and have a horrible day. So, we decided to give her something to look forward to - a rare treat of doughnuts! And, it worked. She would get excited when it was time for them to leave because we'd be having doughnuts. (I didn't get any great shots inside the doughnut shop, so these photos are from us saying goodbye in the parking lot.)

1,000 posts!

Hi, everyone. I wanted to let you all know that this is my 1,000th post! I can't believe I have posted that many times. I started back in July of 2005 as Alex "started" kindergarten.

(1st photo I posted of Alex, age 4. Aug 2005. 3 states of matter)

So, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who read my blog. You encourage me and keep me blogging!

(2nd photo - comparitive size of planets)

I appreciate all of you who faithfully read my blog, who occasionally read my blog, who post comments (I love comments!), and who tell me in person that you read my blog.

(owl pellets)

So many of you have given me inspiration and encouragement through the years. I hope I encourage and inspire some of you, too! And, I'll see you again on post #1,001!

Tiling

Between visiting our 2 families, we were gone for 8 days for Christmas. We got home Monday afternoon. Since then, we have been busy. I bought and put together two new sets of shelves for Alex's room and we've been orgainzing her things, including her new Christmas presents.

                                    

While in Oklahoma, I learned a new skill... how to tile a floor! My mother- and father-in-law are building a new house 'next door' (they live in the country) to my sister-in-law's. They are doing a lot of the work themselves. My sil was busy tiling the floor and asked if I wanted to help. She said it was like a giant craft... she knows how to get my interest! Anyway, I had a lot of fun, though I got very sore!

This is my in-laws master bathroom. Don't you love the tile? Anyway, I wish I would have been able to stick around and get more done, but I did enjoy helping with this room. We got about 3/4ths of it done.

Here's a vew of the back of their new house.

And a view from their front porch. They hope to move in by the end of February.

Stop Motion Animation

Alex and I went to a Halloween party at the Children's Museum last night. One of the neatest things we did was to make our first stop motion animated film!

Our idea was to have a story where the cat was going to attack the bird but the dog stops the cat. This was harder than we thought! We took over 100 photos, and the video was only a few seconds long. Also, in this clip, the man helping us has it where it keeps circling back to the beginning, so it is hard to tell where the story starts. And, he was in charge of taking the photos (we moved the characters) and we couldn't see what was happening so I got my hand in a few shots.

I was excited to see how the process works, though. And, he was using a free program called Monkey Jam. I just need to buy a camera for the computer and we'll be ready to try a "real" show!

Where Do Your Kids Get Their News?

Heather at Blog, She Wrote mentioned in a post that her children use God's World News as a news magazine. This year, Alex had been using Scholastic News. We might continue with it, but I was wondering what other news magazines there are for young children. (Alex will be in "4th grade".) So, where do your kids get their news?

It's Raining... It's Flooding

In the Houston area we have gotten a LOT of rain in the past 24 hours with someplaces receiving over 11 inches in 3 to 4 hours! Thankfully, we got to stay home though my husband had some problems getting to work. Later, we went to the library and saw some flooding at one of our parks.

In the picture below, you can see the gazebo that has picnic tables under it - which are completely under water. There is also a picnic table closer to the front that is almost underwater. And the "log" lying in the foreground is usually up in the air a few feet and is used as a balance beam.

Here's another picture of the gazebo where you can't see the picnic tables. The red toy in the middle of the photo is a slide for little kids. there is also a rocking toy next to it that is underwater.

Thankfully, we're doing just fine here. We think we got between 7 & 9 inches and the creeks in our area are flooded. We are praying for no more rain! We have a fair chance of more rain almost every day this week!

A Day with Workboxes

I thought I'd share more about the workboxes as I've gotten several comments about them. First of all, I would again suggest that you check out Sue Patrick's site as she came up with the idea of workboxes. I bought her ebook and it has more in it than what I'm sharing with you.

Here's a phoot of our 12 boxes (they are see-through shoeboxes bought at WalMart for less than $1 each). I actually bought my shelves too big but I like having the bottom shelf for storage. I need to get some kind of crates for it, though. This picture shows the boxes set up for today. As the day goes on, each box is emptied and stacked up so it really shows visually how much we've done and how much is left.

I thought I'd show a sample day of what I put in our boxes. I really feel its a little like setting out Easter baskets! I always put a couple of things that I know Alexandra will get excited about. Anyway, we do the boxes left to right.

#1 - Our current read-aloud (for our Gold Rush study) - "By the Great Horn Spoon" - it's a great book and we finished it today!

#2 - We are participating in an 8 week co-op right now and one of Alexandra's classes is a math facts class. We do 4, 5-minute drills EVERY DAY for 8 weeks! She is working on mastering her addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. I print off her worksheets from this site.

#3 - Jonathan Park study guide. If you aren't familiar with Jonathan Park, we HIGHLY recommend it. It is a great series of audio stories that teach creation in a wonderful, entertaining, in-depth, scientific way. We're using this as our Bible study right now, too.

#4 - Our memory book. I will write more about this later as this is the other thing that is totally changing our homeschool!


#5 - Cool "Fact Monster" worksheets I found this week. Each worksheet has 10 questions about various subjects that you use to look up online at the Fact Monster site. It's fun and educational!

#6 - Lapbook parts to the Invention class I'm teaching. I'm using a free lapbook from A Journey Through Learning and adding my own acitivies.

#7 - Another part of my Invention class -making our own example of the Gutenberg Bible. (I'll try to share it tomorrow)

#8 - Our Greek workbook -Greek for Children. We're studying Greek and Westward Expansion with another family.

#9 - Grammar workbook - Rod & Staff.

#10 - We have used these "Which Way USA?" workbooks off & on for years. We bought them for $1 each at Half Price books, I think.

#11 - One of the classes at our co-op is a science class and Alexandra is growing some seeds. The green booklet is where she is to record the growth of her plants (they haven't sprouted yet). And, there is also a seed packet of sunflowers. This is from The Great Sunflower Project. We just got our seeds and will plant them and then, this summer, observe them and count the bees several times. It is a research project based on the fact that bees have been dying off.

#12 - A math game. One of the classes I'm teaching is a math class for 1st & 2nd graders. A mom loaned me several games so this is one we needed to try out!

Sometimes, I place little notecards in the front of some of the boxes - like "go outside and play for 10 minutes before doing this box" or "you can have a snack while doing this box."

And, I need to make a list of what things we need to cover every day (math, Bible, read-aloud) and those I need to do several times a week, etc. I also want to make a list of fun things I can include, like the games, etc.

Hope this helps! And, let me know if you decide to try out these workboxes.

Workboxes

Besides Classical Conversations, we've had 2 other big changes to our homeschool this semester. One of them is something we call "workboxes." I first read about them in March on Blog, She Wrote. The workboxes are from a system developed by Sue Patrick.

When I took these photos, I didn't have my shelves yet (and I don't know why the photos are sideways!!!). Anyway, you basically use 12 boxes per child and the boxes sit on a shelf. You put one item in each box and that is school for the day!

Some of the benefits I've found:

• I plan ahead - each box is filled the night before and so I make copies, etc.
• Alexandra and I enjoy seeing exactly how much work we have left to do
• I use some of the "fun" items that have been sitting in the closet
• We are probably finishing earlier as Alexandra wants to get to the "fun" 12th box (usually a game or a video)
• It helps me visually see how things are laid out and spread out the more active subjects from the quieter activities

I'm really excited about this system and am still learning how to use it most effectively. Blog, She Wrote links to some other blogs and how they are using the workboxes, too.

Hang In There!!!

I have been so busy planning our fun-filled school days lately that I haven't had much time to blog! We are doing lots of neat things and I can't wait to squeeze in some new posts. In the mean time, please "hang in there" with me!

Oh, and here's a quick tip - I was at WalMart today and picked up 6 calendars for 50 cents to 1 dollar each. I'm using them to work on my drawings - like this cute kitty! So, you might keep your eye out for 2009 calendars - they are selling cheap! I especially like to pick up the Fine Art calendars, but this is the first time I've picked up cartoon and animal calendars to work on my own drawing skills.

Hippo Captions

I was in such a hurry to post the winner of my hippo caption contest, that I didn't post the captions! So, here is the hippo photo and the captions that were posted.

• "Hippoflatamus" by Barb
• "Just pooped" by Tiffany B.
• "Not * one * more * step!" by Robin
• "Momma Hippo collapses after a long day of homeschooling her little ones." by Shanna
• "Yoga pose 17, the Wallowing Warrior" by Sebastian (drawing winner)
• "Hippo-cratic Oath Syndrome!" by masterpiecemom
• ""Dislocated Hipp" by Mommy
• "No hipp-hipp-hurray here." by Holly
• "I've fallen and I can't get up!" by Shannon
• "When did they drain this pool? I hate belly flops." by Paula
• "Fatty, the bored hippopatamus" by JoJo
• "Meltdown" by Cindee
  

What a creative bunch! Again, thanks for playing along! I enjoyed it, and hope you did, too.

Hippo caption WINNER!!!

Sorry I didn't post the winner sooner, but my internet went down! I called today and (cheer!) I'm back online!!

I went ahead and held a random drawing and my winner is...

Sebastian!!!

So, Sebastian, email me at schoolforus @ sbcglobal . net, and I'll get your prize to you!

Thanks to all who participated! I enjoyed it, and hope you did, too! :-)

Thankful Thursday

I was reading Rare and Beautiful Treasure's blog tonight (see side bar) and she was doing a list for Thankful Thursday about why she's thankful to live where she does. My blog is usually more about what we're doing, but I needed this tonight, so here goes!

10 Things that I am thankful for tonight:

1. I am thankful that I can stay home and homeschool my daughter.
2. I am thankful that I can afford to take her on lots of field trips and museums.
3. I am thankful for homeschooling friends.
4. I am thankful for the internet, where I get so many wonderful ideas.
5. I am thankful for a wonderful library that puts the world at our fingertips.
6. I am thankful that I live in a city with so many opportunities (museums, fine arts, homeschool activities, etc).
7. I am thankful that I live in a city that is warm most of the year - it's been in the 70's the past 2 days, although it'll cool off tomorrow.
8. I am thankful for a creative friend who is doing a very small co-op with me ("Thanks, S!").
9. I am thankful for a husband who is very supportive of our homeschooling.
10. I am thankful for a loving God who loves me even when I act unlovable... like today.