PJ's Home School

Running Totals

2008-08-15T01:00:00.002-05:00

I'm keeping this just to have one central place I'm tracking all my expenses. I list links and/or vendors and prices for the stuff I get in the posts that mention them. This is just a summary and I'll be editing this post each time I add new stuff.

Summary:
__26.00 How-To/Encouragement
_115.00 Mathematics
_181.00 Social Studies (2-year curriculum)
__48.00 Study Skills
__45.00 Science
__52.00 Arts & Crafts
__17.00 Music
_______ Health and Safety
__37.00 Personal Skills
------------
$521.00 RUNNING TOTAL (not counting $975 for 1yr karate)

How-to/Encouragement
_11.53 } . . . First Year of Homeschooling...
_13.60 } . . . Teenage Liberation...
__8.00 } . . . ~shipping/handling (used items)
-------
~26.00 for Initial How-To and Encouragement

Mathematics
_63.00 } . . . Grade 7 Complete Set, Singapore Math...
_10.20 } . . . Math Doesn't Suck: How to...
_10.39 } . . . Mixed Skills in Math Grade 7-8...
__2.99 } . . . Word Problems Grade 7-8...
__2.99 } . . . Math Step by Step Grade 6...
__2.99 } . . . Math Step by Step Grade 8...
_22.00 } . . . ~shipping/handling (Singapore + Used items)
-------
~115.00 for Math

Social Studies (History & Geography)
110.00 } . . . A History of US: 11 Volume Set...
___.99 } . . . YR Companion to American History...
__4.71 } . . . A History of US: Book 1 Teacher's Guide
_18.95 } . . . A History of US: Book 2 Teacher's Guide
_18.95 } . . . A History of US: Book 3 Teacher's Guide
__9.10 } . . . The World and Its People: Eastern Hemisphere...
__5.12 } . . . TW&IP: Activity Workbook...
_11.99 } . . . Discovering...Geography Grades 7-8...
__1.22 } . . . World Amanac for Kids: WGH Grades 6-7...
_16.00 } . . . ~shipping/handling (used items)
-------
~181.00 for Social Studies

Study Skills
__6.99 } . . . Note Taking & Outlining, Grades 6-8
__5.45 } . . . Learning to Use the Library (and Dewey Decimal System)
_16.95 } . . . Write Now: The Complete Program for Better Handwriting
_11.04 } . . . The 100+ Series Proofreading & Editing, Grade 7
__8.00 } . . . ~shipping/handling (used items)
-------
~48.00 for Study Skills

Science
__4.98 } . . . Science by the Grade, Grade 7: Essentials and Exploration (workbook)
__9.95 } . . . Spectrum Science, Grade 7 (workbook)
_16.95 } . . . Experiments You Can Do in Your Kitchen (book)
__4.95 } . . . (DVD) 30 Years of National Geographic Specials
__8.00 } . . . ~shipping/handling (used items)
...............Planning a lot of video/audio/online additions for this topic
-------
~45.00 for Science

Arts and Crafts
__8.50 } . . . Kid's Book of Creative Lettering
__8.50 } . . . LMNOP More Creative Lettering
__8.50 } . . . 123's of Creative Doodling
_13.57 } . . . Doodling for Papercrafters
_13.57 } . . . Hair: A Book of Braiding and Styles
...............Planning a bunch of online "tutorials" with Photoshop & Bryce for this as well
...............Planning a lot of video/audio/online additions for this topic (classical art edu)
-------
~52.00 for Arts & Crafts

Music
__8.31 } . . . The Ultimate Recorder Collection (Audio CD - from classical to modern)
__7.95 } . . . Recorder Fun! Teach Yourself the Easy Way!
...............I will have her join me to listen to my classical collection, mostly baroque, some chorale
...............Violin: -- we will be getting her a rental violin and violin lessons
...............Planning a lot of video/audio/online additions for this topic (classical music edu)
-------
~17.00 for Music

Health and Safety
~975.00 } . . . Martial arts: Gojo Ryu Karate (1hr/wk + belts/meets), $69/mo, + ~150 misc, next 12 months
...............Considering getting the intro pilates for her
...............Planning, hopefully, mostly online or local resources for this subject
-------
~975.00 for Health and Safety

Personal Skills (Home Ec & More)
__1.03 } . . . Roasting-A Simple Art
_16.29 } . . . Sew Fast Sew Easy: All You Need to Know When You Start to Sew
_15.61 } . . . Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes
__4.00 } . . . ~shipping/handling
-------
~37.00 for Personal Skills

The First (Real) Week's Assignments

2008-08-10T23:33:00.001-05:00

I thought I would give a copy of this week's assignment schedule. We did some work last week already. Intro reading in several books, initial easy assignments in a few, etc. That was an 'intro' week... this is the real thing. :-)

It's important to know this doesn't represent our whole curriculum. There are things we are doing later in the semester or next semester, and there are things I don't have the curriculum for yet (particularly english, but also a variety of other add-in workbooks to various topics). Plus most the audio, video, field trip, experiential stuff is one-off things, so they just appear in a given week and aren't constant so aren't seen here.

Some special notes:

For arts: We're starting simple on this with 'fun kid stuff' because she does 3D graphic design (!) and I feel like she missed a chunk of childhood, somewhere between nearly stick-men with severely oversized heads, and half-naked faeries graphically modified in World-of-Warcraft style...! I'll get to other things later in the year.

For music: She wants violin but I can't afford it right now, so we're doing voice and recorder now and hopefully drums eventually, and then hopefully for next semester I can work out violin lessons and rental.

For foreign: Still looking for a decent book on greek/latin roots of english. She insists on learning Japanese (been a japanophile since she was 5) and her sensei speaks it, so... we got her stuff for Japanese. Which means I need to learn it too or how can I help her and talk to her? Aurgh! She couldn't have wanted something EASY like spanish, right??

For home-ec: Waiting on a paycheck so I can buy some stuff to start her with in a variety of forms of cooking. We have sewing stuff already.

For study skills: She has a heavy load in that until end of the semester and then she is done and IMO doesn't need to do much of that again till much older. We're getting it out of the way up front.

This week school starts, officially at 8/11/08 Monday. Ry has this week to get all the following done, at her own schedule:

Week of 8/11 - 8/15/08

Curriculum Materials for this week:

MATH:
Word Problems Homework Booklet Grade 7-8
Singapore New Elementary Mathematics (text exercises)
Mathematics, A Step-By-Step Approach Grade 8 (workbook)
The 100+ Series Mixed Skills in Math, Grades 7-8 (workbook)

SOCIAL STUDIES:
A History of US: The First Americans

SCIENCE:
Spectrum Science, Grade 7

ENGLISH:
Unjournaling: Daily Writing Exercises

HEALTH:
Weekly Karate and practice
Pilates DVDs
Documentary collection

FOREIGN:
Japanese for Dummies (book+CD)
Japanese (Tell Me More software)
Japanese (Rosetta Stone software)

STUDY SKILLS:
Learning to Use the Library (DDS)
Write Now: Print/Cursive Italic Penmanship
Proofreading & Editing, Grade 7

HOME EC:
Sew Fast Sew Easy
Hair: A Book of Braiding

ARTS:
Kid's Book of Creative Lettering
123's of Creative Doodling
Doodling for Papercrafters

MUSIC:
Voice Lessons on CD
Recorder and Intro Book
Classical Recorder Music CD

Assignments for this week:

MATH:
NEM: Chapters 1&2 to be fully done by 9/5
Word Probs: p.5-8, 2 problems per page
StepByStep: p.6-10, 2 problems per page
Mixed Skills: p.6,11,20, 1 problem per section (3 sections per page)

SOCIAL STUDIES:
TFA: Read p.1-51

SCIENCE:
Spectrum: #1.1 - 1.2

ENGLISH:
Unjournaling: 1 exercise from #11-20

HEALTH:
Gojo Ryu Karate (Tuesday nights)
Black Tar Heroin: HBO Documentary

FOREIGN:
Install JfD CD software
Install TMM CD software
Install RS software

STUDY SKILLS:
WriteNow: 2cc ea p.14-19
Proofing: p.5-6
Library: p.2 + Case Study

HOME EC:
Hair: basic braid & french twist
Sew: Read&Measure p.6-10
Kitchen: Using bar blender & magic-bullet
Kitchen leftover from last week: SliceDiceShredZestPeel
Cooking: probably not this week, waiting on $, makeup next week

ARTS:
Lettering: p.6 tricks, style, embellish
Doodling: p.7-8
Papercrafters: p.11,19,25

MUSIC:
Voice: practice with CD
Recorder: #s 1-4
Audio: Classical Recorder

That's it for this week. The NEM math is actually a lot of work, so I assigned 2 chapters in 5 weeks as doing that consistently would get us to the end of it by the end of the school year. It is fairly complex and has a ton of work in the textbook, then in a homework-like book. History she has to read 50-80 pages a week to get through that series this year. (Fortunately she reads rapidly!) And some of the 'little stuff' like study skills and art actually take significant time to just "do". So she has a good week of work there.

When we get the other science book, the geography book, and the English curriculum in, there will be a little more.

PJ

Prep and Planning: Intro week 8/1, School 8/11

2008-08-09T12:42:00.002-05:00

One of the primary issues I face as a homeschooling mom is that I work during the time my kid is in school.

I can stop to help her briefly with something... and there's several things we do in the evening when I'm off... but for the most part, she has to work through it on her own. This isn't so easy even for an older kid, let alone one who is turning 12 in two days.

It means that on one hand, I need to be sure she is doing the work I feel is required for academic learning (which I personally consider important), yet I am not babysitting her with it, nor am I supervising more than "from the other room which is my home office".

As a result, my idea (eventually, because I thought long and hard about this) has been to mix pre-assigned work with casual, flexible scheduling. Like so:

Make up assignments for the whole week, rather than by day. She has the whole week to do them. Once something is finished it is crossed off and there is that much more free time she'll have. If she worked long and hard each day and finished all the week's work by Wednesday at 10am, then she'd be "off" until the next Monday. But if Friday arrived and she had a bunch of work unfinished, she'd be working nights and weekend to get it done.

This way if she has to stop on something because she needs my help later, it's really no big deal. That way if she "feels like" doing art but not math at any given moment, that's fine. That way she has a lot of control over her own schedule. She is responsible for getting it all done by the end of the week and asking for help where she is stuck and the textbooks and workbooks aren't clear. But I'm letting her flex.

So if she wants to work from 10-2 on Monday and then play World of Warcraft for the rest of the day, as long as she gets all the assigned work done--and well--by the end of the week, I really don't care. Should she end up not getting stuff done then I'd start caring, but we're beginning with some trust, and me looking over her list of assignments done/remaining every couple days.

I'm a project manager by trade at the moment and the job is somewhat similar. Deadlines are as absolute as possible; sometimes you only work a little and sometimes you work every waking hour, because the job is to get done what needs doing by the time it is due. Your butt in a chair 9-5 is not the point. Until the last few years, I've always worked in entrepreneurial start-up companies where you have too few people, too much work, wear a dozen 'hats' in terms of duties, and do what needs doing just because it needs doing. I'm a big fan of competence-based anything.

Over at Western Governor's University, sponsored by industry leaders and many Governors, it's an online college with the same philosophy. You have to learn the material and prove you know it. But how long it takes you is up to you. You can do it faster and get done sooner and it's cheaper that way. You can adjust your schedule as needed (within reason). You are expected to put at least 15 hours a week into it (the main reason I am not doing it... I haven't got that), but how you arrange everything is up to you. They don't care about your hours, or your butt in a chair for four years, or whatever. They care that you know the material.

That's what education should be about. Some people (like me) can read a book at light speed and understand something very well and be fluent at using that knowledge. Other people can do rote work for three years to 'get it'. It takes what it takes. The point is supposed to be education, not wasting all your time for 12 of the most formative years of your life. I think the whole Carnegie system of measuring schooling by hours rather than education is one of the fundamental flaws in American schooling.

Here's what I did to prepare the lessons:

1. In a simple spreadsheet (OpenOffice is free & for all platforms) I made a tab for a study topic.

2. I made some 'sections' in the left column for different kinds of curriculum materials.

3. I made a column for weekly dates, with holiday notes, and on each row, put the dates for that week.

That's a 'template', and I save that for use on all the topics. Here's a screenshot of the simple template:

4. I made a tab for every topic and copied the template (click corner edge between '1' and 'A' to copy whole sheet) into every topic page.

5. Right-click on the tabs at bottom and rename each to the topics.

6. Then I put in the curriculum we have (so far) for each subject, on the left column. If I was planning something but didn't have it yet, I just wrote: planning: before it... so I won't forget. :-)

7. To the right, I made a column for each curriculum-item we had, such as each different book, and then a column for 'other' (like audio, video, field trips, hands-on, etc.).

Then I went through each book (or curriculum source) in detail. I considered how much seemed reasonable to get through per-week given all the other subjects. I considered how much of the book I felt we should get done by the end of the school year. I considered how much of each page/exercise/etc. really "needed" to be done in my opinion to demonstrate that she knew the material. I considered how it might mesh (or not) with what else was going on that week in that subject. If there was more than one major book she was working on, and some week had a big test or what seemed like a lot of work, I made that week easier for the other books. That sort of thing.

8. Then on each weekly row, on the column for that book, I typed in an assignment. I did this for each major curriculum item we had.

9. Then at right, in the column for 'other' stuff, I wrote in those too. As I get more of these (Bittorrent piratebay.org is my friend!) I'll write them in.

Everything is subject to change if convenient or needed. I'm not trying to set this stone -- I'm just trying to make a very clear outline that we can follow for convenience.

At the end of the year, adding in stuff we do on the fly as time goes on, I'll have a complete list of our days in school, our detailed curriculum, her assignments and projects, etc.

Here's a couple example subject pages:

Do you want a copy of this template? You can right-click, save-link-as to your hard drive.
Template for MS Excel here. Template for Open Office here.

Each Monday morning she comes in and I pull up the spreadsheet and write down the weekly assignments for each topic. As she goes along, she crosses out what she has finished. She shows it to me if she wants, or saves it to show me at night or end of the week. When everything's crossed out, she's "free". ;-)

We found these two nifty white-board-like things at Walmart. They are squares, one is pink and one blue (neat-o). They have two strong 'magnets' so you can attach a note or paper if you need to, is that groovy or what.

Here's a terrible web-cam pic of the assignment board, unreadable here alas. Basically I have each topic at left and then the various assignment(s) down the board. A small column at right lists daily chores and any weekly projects.

First Impressions on 'Unschooling'

2008-07-23T11:02:00.004-05:00

I think I already know this might not be for me, so maybe I shouldn't wax on about it, especially since I am so new to the ideas that I'm still surely ignorant of most of it. But I made this blog to wax on about all things homeschooling, so I guess it falls into that category. Maybe people expert at this will eventually find this blog and comment with more info.

First I have to say that I admire people willing to really do whatever it is they believe in, and not be constrained so much by all the expectations of culture.

But on the other hand, I think maybe 'unschooling' as they put it, is going a little too far in the other direction for me personally. I don't mean I think it's wrong, I mean I think my own psychology isn't right for it. This may be as much an issue with me as anything.

It seems less a schooling than a philosophy. Maybe this is a radical example, but I thought the philosophy was well summed up by this one woman's comments:

I'd rather have dentures than horrible memories of a parent forcing me to brush my teeth.

I have a hard time understanding why getting your kid to develop a few healthy habits, like teeth brushing and study skills, is going to ruin their life or something. I mean maybe in some rare extreme circumstance, but not in any halfway normal family, and certainly not in a tiny family like me and Ry that really love each other. I think failing to teach and instill in your kid a small, easy discipline that will have a great effect on their health (or lack) is a big deal.

This website http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/ has lots of responses to questions asked by people trying to unschool. I think it did more to convince me it wasn't for me than anything else I've read. The idea that you should let your kid watch TV and play videogames for months, because they've been "deprived" of that by being in school (hello? my kid spends nearly all her not-school time on WoW, Sims2 and so on, she is hardly deprived of them), and that there is really any argument in favor of letting your kid watch TV most of the time rather than do something deliberately educational -- because apparently they don't want to -- I guess I can't wrap my brain around that.

In the working world, there are all kinds of things where discipline and focus and doing things you do NOT want to do, is simply necessary. If you raise a kid to do nothing they don't find interesting at that moment, how do they learn the discipline to do what they must at times?

I was so good at things in school -- exceptional reading speed and memory -- that I seldom studied or needed to. My friends agonized over tests, and I breezed through them. But as a result, I never really learned the discipline of daily working on something hard, consistently, persistently. Let alone keeping-on keeping-on, when there is no positive feedback, when you're still bad at something, when it's so overwhelming you don't feel like dealing with it at all.

That I was able to do this in the working world was something of a miracle, and only due to other significant personality factors overriding my innate lackadaisical approach.

I did like one thing that someone said:

Kids want to learn. They just do. Get the hell out of the way, and leave an interesting trail behind you.

That part I somewhat agree with. Not to the degree that I would resist any deliberate 'edu' in favor of playing so your kid will be "happy," mind you. In part because I think a kid should be happy even if they have "deliberate academic edu". Public school is a nightmare, sure, but that isn't because of the materials (though many of their materials suck), that's for 101 other reasons. I think if a kid has to learn math, and it makes them "unhappy" or fundamentally repressed in some way, there's a problem larger than the math going on.

Even though I agree education is to be found everywhere, I don't really think that kids will learn geometry and geography without deliberately teaching them that. It's not the kind of thing that inspires one to learn it rather than play frankly. Or learn it really well.

And might she survive without geography and geometry? Certainly. But if merely 'surviving' was all I wanted for her, I'd have left her in public school. Wanting her to learn all the "classical educational" things really well, so she can have/afford higher education and a good living as an adult, are part of the goal of this.

Here is a page that has a much more intelligent discussion and example of "unschooling" than I could possibly give (6 page article): http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/19413/2976/1

I'm not sure this has to be an "either/or" choice. If she has a good environment, a loving parent, creative time and personal time and so on, surely that helps at least some; better than the stupifyingly dull school room or socially traumatic hallway of public schools. If she can work at her own pace, and ask for what interests her to be included, that seems like a good thing.

Perhaps not as good for her "freedom of childhood" as "saving her from" actual academic-education in favor of computer games and running around the farm or something. And I totally agree that there are a million things to learn, that kids do it naturally, that interest is the primary driver of any real learning, and that 'running around the farm' can be a whole world of education in and of itself. And yet --

-- if it doesn't cover a foreign language and higher math and more, that kid is never going to get into a good college. I understand they may not care about that when the time comes, but how does a parent make that decision for them when they are little? "Sorry, I didn't bother educating you even like the rest of the world let alone more thoroughly, so you'll have to work as a proletarian your whole life. Hey, you might be slinging burgers or waittressing for a living and struggling for money 'till you die, but at least you had a happy childhood!"

And this might be my ignorance at work: maybe I'm assuming a lot about the future of kids-with-no-serious-academic-education. I've known a whole lot of them, not from homeschools, just from people who didn't get it in regular school, and it didn't bode well for their adult life. It just doesn't seem like a good situation. I definitely fail to see how anybody could become, let's say, an architect, engineer or whatever--at least at any decent college--without having a hefty, solid foundation in basic academic education.

Or maybe I'm assuming that they don't have enough serious academic education to matter, because of the presentation of unschooling as what seems like a whim-driven day of "whatever", ranging from not-much to computer-games to outings, which while fabulous on several levels, still aren't covering "serious academic" subjects in enough depth to matter. Is it possible that the presentation is causing me to misconstrue what's really going on?

Is it possible that most the unschooling info is associated with younger children? Where no formal academic edu and letting interest drive learning is a lot more reasonable to me, because kids will learn the basics like reading/writing/math because they WANT to at those young ages (usually).

I don't know any 12-17 year old that will deliberately seek out a sufficient amount of chemistry and history and maths to result in a 'good' academic education. They might do some. But a whole lot?

Maybe it is a choice between 'academic' vs. 'personal' education. I think there's a lot more to the latter, and it's a cradle to grave kind of thing. I agree it is critically under-appreciated in today's world, and nearly impossible within the context of forced schooling. But I feel concerned that the former happen, too, and I do want to make it as interesting and un-miserable as possible for my kid, but that doesn't mean telling her to forget it all if she doesn't feel like it.

A nice website with lots of links to other places too is Sandra Dodd's Unschooling page: http://sandradodd.com/help/ .

She actually knows something about it; I don't. Just waxing on.

PJ

Social Studies, Grade 7 - 8, Nailed Down

2008-07-20T06:57:00.003-05:00

Social Studies may be one of the more complicated curriculum to figure out, because it does not seem as consistently focused for grade 7 as math.

I have searched the internet and found innumerable "official" sources, state standards from around the country, etc. According to about half of them, the 7th grade focus is US History, from pre-1600 to the present day, including geography and a minor entry into politics. According to a little bit less than half of them, the 7th grade focus is "the Eastern Hemisphere", which most describe as "Europe, Asia and Africa", while some of those include Australia, and others put that in the "Western Civilization" category and so exclude it from the Eastern Hemisphere teaching focus. Some suggest that geography is the real emphasis for grade 7, while others suggest American Government (political development and government operation) as having a key role.

To complicate matters (and the main reason for this situation), in many curriculum grades 7 and 8 are combined. In a few others, grades 6 and 7 are combined. And in some 'middle school' primers, grades 6-8 are inclusive. Obviously this complicates things a bit if the study each year is different, but the overall inclusions are the same -- but different depending on the grade you start with. I have little faith in Ry having learned (memorably) a whole lot of anything last year, so while I don't want to force her to redo 6th grade at the same time she is doing 7th obviously, I do want to see if I can pick up at least a little, in each subject, that allows review of a little prior-year material.

In any case, 7th/8th combined "comes out to" (whichever way it's done) US History, American Government, Eastern Hemisphere, and Geography.

I came up with the following logic:

1. I needed something Eastern-Hemisphere focused;
2. I needed something Geography-focused;
3. I needed something America-development focused.

And as much as can be either
(a) stand-alone workbooks for mostly-independent study (please!), or
(b) in-depth "entertaining" reading for real edu she'll read and learn from, and/or
(c) have some kind of associated quizbook, workbook, teacher's guide, website ancillary, etc.
-- those factors are good for me.

The materials I have here, I believe cover both grade 7 and 8. I could use one focus then the other, or work more slowly through both.

***

I chose a substantial set of books for the main USA curriculum, this is for both 7th and 8th grade if I choose to do it that way. This is a 10 book series of American history from pre-1600 to near-present. The (softcover, they were cheaper!) highly-readable (great reviews for student/kid interest) books have review/question type inclusions in them. I also got Teaching Guides for the first three; they are expensive so I'll work on getting the rest later. There is an 11th book in there, of 'source materials' which has stuff like the Magna Carta, Constitution, etc.

Because these do not seem to have a great deal of late-modern-day info, and because they are so voluminous, I also got a stand-alone sort of "reference guide" to American History. It has an index, and entries range from 1/4- to 6- pages per entry. Kind of a readable encyclopedia just of events, people, etc. related to US history.

I found a formal fairly modern textbook specific to "Eastern Hemisphere" social studies, and while normally $72, there was a used copy for $9 so I got it--because I saw that there was also a good-shape "activity workbook" for that text for five bucks. Plus, I was able to find both a student and teacher website (free) that is an addition to that text.

Finally, I found some materials specific to middle school Geography. One is for grades 6-7, one for grades 7-8, and both are stand-alone workbooks she ought to be able to use fairly independently.

So aside from eventually affording more of the teacher's editions for the US History textbook, I think I'm done with "Social Studies". Whew, it's getting damn expensive. Here's the summary.

American History, Constitution, Political Development:

The Young Reader's Companion to American History (Reference)
==} found it at amazon.com for $0.99 used

A History of US: 11-Volume Set Joy Hakim
(books have review, quizzes, highly readable)
Book 1: The First Americans Prehistory-1600
Book 2: Making Thirteen Colonies 1600-1740
Book 3: From Colonies to Country 1735-1791
Book 4: The New Nation 1789-1850
Book 5: Liberty for All? 1820-1860
Book 6: War, Terrible War 1855-1865
Book 7: Reconstructing America 1865-1890
Book 8: An Age of Extremes 1880-1917
Book 9: War, Peace, and all that Jazz
Book 10: All the People Since 1945
Book 11: Sourcebook
==} found it at amazon.com for $110.00

A History of US : Book 1 , The First Americans, Prehistory -1600
Teaching Guide (2nd Ed, older)
==} found it at amazon.com for $4.71 used

A History of US: Book 2: Making Thirteen Colonies 1600-1740
Teaching Guide (3rd Ed)
==} found it at amazon.com for $18.95

A History of US: Book 3: From Colonies to Country 1735-1791
Teaching Guide (3rd Ed)
==} found it at amazon.com for $18.95

There is a companion website:
Two page printable quiz/activity for book 3
Two page printable quiz/activity for book 6
Two page printable quiz/activity for book 7
Some instructor notes, lesson suggestions etc. for book 1
Some instructor notes, lesson suggestions etc. for book 2
Some instructor notes, lesson suggestions etc. for book 9
Simple Overall Quiz
Lots of related (free) weblinks

World History: Eastern Hemisphere

The World and Its People, Eastern Hemisphere, Student Edition
==} found it at amazon.com for $9.10 used (hardcover) (new is 72.64)

The World and Its People, Eastern Hemisphere, Activity Workbook, Student Edition
==} found it at amazon.com for $5.12 used

There is a companion website:
Student main website
Teacher main website
Student interactive websites with history (some related) info
Related (free) weblinks, ref: Eastern Hemisphere
Web Activities, Quizzes, Puzzles, for each chapter

Middle School Geography

Discovering the World of Geography: Grades 7 & 8
==} found it at amazon.com for $11.99

The World Almanac for Kids Puzzler Deck: World History and Geography: Ages 11-13, Grades 6-7
==} found it at amazon.com for $1.22 used

.99 + 110 + 181.04 + 4.71 + 18.95 + 18.95 + 9.10 + 5.12 + 11.99 + 1.22 + 16(s/h) = $181.04.
Though in fairness I do think this is more like 2 years of curriculum than one.

I'll say more detail about them when I receive them.

An Attitude of Earnest

2008-07-19T19:00:00.003-05:00

I think it's important that Ry and I both be really hung ho about this. I think it's going to take a lot of work, and adaptation, and that some degree of emotional momentum is going to help a lot.

So for my first reading assigment -- to myself! -- I got:

The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start

==} found at amazon.com [booklink] for $11.53 ($8 used)

And to encourage her to feel strong, excited about it, and determined to make it not just 'not doing public school' but actually 'proactively pursuing being well educated', HER first reading assignment is:

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education

==} found at amazon.com [booklink] for $13.60 (3.99 used)

3.99 + 13.60 + 7.98(s/h) = $25.57

Our official start date for school is August 1. However the first week is only reading that book and working out assignments and how to record stuff etc. The school here officially will start somewhere between the 10th and 15th.

Her 12th birthday is August 13th.

Math, Grade 7, Nailed Down

2008-07-19T17:11:00.020-05:00

Because I don't know how good (or bad) Ry's education has actually been in school, or how close it might be to what the materials I'm purchasing consider "seventh grade level", I purchased something for grade 6 and for grade 8 as well.

Also, I am not sure of her learning style. I don't know how to test for that, although I hear homeschoolers regularly referring to that issue.

Also, I work full time (even though at home); I am not going to be a full "teacher". She's going to have to get through a lot of this stuff mostly-alone. This means there are other considerations for content, either in complexity or in alternate resources.

To make sure that the primary math product wasn't her only resource, I also got several other small math products that explain math and provide practice. I figure this way, if it isn't clear in one place, she can try reading a few others and see if it sinks in.

It goes without saying that this first year I'm spending a whole lot more money on this than I likely will any other year. Frankly, I admit to being insecure. I think on some level I am trying to buy my way out of my fear. I have Amazon "Prime" so I don't pay much shipping, luckily.

I'll report on the detail of them when they arrive. But for now, here is what I have arranged for this year:

Primary study:
New Elementary Mathematics 1
Grade 7 Complete Set (Singapore Math)
This is a four-book set (textbook, student workbook, teacher's manual, and solutions). (There are four levels, grade 7-10, and this is level 1.) Singapore Math has three different variants of their math program, and the "New Elementary" version they classify as "the most challenging". Unfortunately this means it may require more parental involvement (hence all the other books for help).
==}} I found it at By Way of the Family for $63.00.

For help and encouragment:
Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail
A deliberately humorous book written by a teen math whiz that explains how to do 7th grade math challenges in plain language. It had good reviews.
==}} I found it at amazon.com [booklink] for $10.20.

Additional resources/practice:

The 100+ Series Mixed Skills in Math, Grades 7-8: Keeping Students Sharp With Daily Practice and Review (workbook)
==}} I found it at amazon.com [booklink] for $10.39.

Word Problems Homework Booklet, Grades 7 - 8 (workbook)
==}} I found it at amazon.com for $2.99 used

Other grade levels, in case she is a little behind or wants to move ahead:

Mathematics, A Step-By-Step Approach Homework Booklet, Grade 6 (workbook)
==}} I found it at amazon.com for $2.99 used

Mathematics, A Step-By-Step Approach Homework Booklet, Grade 8 (workbook)
==}} I found it at amazon.com for $2.99 used

$63.00 + 10.20 + 10.39 + 2.99 + 2.99 + 2.99 + $22(s/h) = $114.56 for Math.

My best local friend has two kids in homeschool, in 7th and 6th grade, so it's possible we can share.

The Search for Non-Religious Curriculum

2008-07-18T08:05:00.005-05:00

I've been searching for curriculum (educational course materials) for home schooling.

I started with math because that is the subject I am most worried about remembering well enough to teach should my help be necessary. I'm pretty sure all the rest I can read it over and figure it out. And it's an important subject, one I want her to do really well in. So I made materials for math my first priority.

One thing has really started to bug me though. And darn it, I just know there's no way I can say this without people thinking, "You don't love Jesus!" or "You're a Heathen!" or whatever. I grant I am not as religious as many people are, but I've got plenty going on internally in a "relationship" with God, aside from the official church part which I don't participate in.

Now, I'm totally in favor of people who want to use religious instruction, being able to do so. I'm conservative enough politically to feel that people should have the right to do what they like for the most part, barring serious harm to others, and the government should get out of everybody's face about... well, about everything.

However, it has made me very grouchy that in the overwhelmingly religious homeschooling world, getting ordinary academic curriculum -- secular, in other words -- is a real pain in the butt!

There appear to be a few obvious conditions in the world of home-school-friendly educational materials right now.

1) There are so many options your head spins. You can spend endless hours on the internet looking for ideas, people, suggestions, used materials, new materials, comparisons, etc.

2) Most those of real quality are expensive, ranging from $350 per primary subject (5, we have in Oklahoma), to several thousand dollars for an online course per year. That doesn't even count the many 'auxilliary' topics that should be covered.

3) Most the materials are religious. And I don't mean that in addition to the basic educational subjects, they also have religion studies (like say, a Catholic school would do). I mean, in the words of one memorable publisher:

Our materials are pervasively Biblical; from Spanish to math, we have approached each subject from a thoroughly Biblical perspective[.]

Pervasively biblical. Now there's a phrase. Although I don't attend church, I pray regularly and I talk with my child about spiritual subjects and I live what I think is a relatively good, moral life. But that doesn't mean I think school should be church. Maybe it's that I attended public school in California and had my own 'indoctrination', in the opposite direction?

I just don't see why Math and Spanish need religion in the presentation. I can talk to Jesus about something all night, but I don't usually call on him for math. (Well, aside from a few memorable Algebra tests as a kid. ;-))I n my world, spirituality is inside me, and other things are outside me. You might say it's a "render unto Caesar" kind of thing.

If I don't find it necessary to make every accounting ledger or management report at work into a religious doctrine, why would I make school that way?

Anyway, the thing is, it made me cranky, because I would find some curriculum material that looked interesting and possibly worth buying, such as the full set for the Lifepac Math Grade 7 for example. But then I see that the four other topics they offer are seriously religious. I think, "Well this math book didn't actually mention it, but how do I know, if their whole company apparently exists to make religious edu, that this book's academic quality has not suffered in order to enable it to fill the religious bill as a priority?"

I don't. So I go and buy the Singapore Math New Elementary Mathematics 1 Grade 7 Complete Set instead. (Textbook, student workbook, teacher manual, solutions manual.) Because there were others, but that's the only thing I find that doesn't seem to be part of a religious media.

The thing is, it's not that I don't want my kid to know about God. It's that I don't want someone else indoctrinating her about it in the middle of differential equations. Is that so much to ask?!

Homeschooling Laws & Regs for Oklahoma

2008-07-17T08:30:00.002-05:00

I looked up the laws and regulations in the state of Oklahoma. Basically:

1) 180 days a year in school is the time-measured approach.

However, I'm using the 'competency' based approach to which actual days/time don't apply (competency does). This is similar to the approach of the groundbreaking WGU.edu online college, sponsored by Google and other huge industry leaders, which believes that your butt in a chair means little, and your actual understanding of the material means everything.

2) There are no curriculum requirements, and no requirement that you use any form of 'accreditation' in your sources.

However, it's suggested you cover the same ground public school does, which is noted to be: Math, Social Studies, Language Arts, Science, Health. So I will make a point to cover those, as well as other things.

3) If your kid has not yet been to public school, you do not need to tell the school district anything. If the child was previously in public school, you need to give them a formal notice specifying that you are now homeschooling.

4) The only thing anybody official has the right to ask is: (a) what quantity of days in your school year [this on the assumption of the time-based measure], and (b) what courses you are teaching. Officials do not have the right to interrogate, to visit, to inspect, to test, or anything else.

There's also a religious clause, not that I needed it, but it exists.

Oklahoma has some of the most homeschool-friendly laws in the nation, fortunately.

A Big Decision

2008-07-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

For years, since third grade, my daughter, Ry, has begged me to put her in homeschooling of some kind. I have taken her seriously, and yet, not seriously enough. I think about it briefly, then default to the status-quo, to what's-expected, to what's-considered-normal by my peers, to what seemed easiest so I "didn't have to deal with it".

For years, I have said something that amounted to--not in these words of course, but it might as well have been--"It doesn't matter that you are miserable, that you are not learning much of anything, that your grades are poor, that you're demoralized, bored, and wasting your childhood away in an institution where you're a number to the staff and a target to the underage blossoms of violent-dysfunctional home lives who want to bully you. Hey, everybody else goes to school and it didn't kill us, so it won't kill you... you'll survive."

But this summer, something changed in her: some demarcation of maturity, of intelligence and thoughtfulness, made an impression on me. And as a result, one day something just changed in me. I suddenly realized I was looking at it all wrong.

Survival isn't enough. So what, "she'd survive" -- oh brother! I'm sure you could say that about children who graduate barely literate, too.

I'm sure you can say that about children who are so bored with the academics, and so traumatized by the social clime, that they flunk out, that they end up chronically depressed and angry. What would the modern assumptions say to that? "Clean up your attitude young missy. You're supposed to be miserable in this nearly pointless situation. I need a babysitter and the government wants to indoctrinate you and the school wants to get paid for you. What makes you think that YOU have anything to do with it?"

Gosh, and to think, when she was born, I wanted only to see her find joy and love in life, to learn like crazy and "grow like a weed" as Frank Zappa once put it.

Do we apply that 'survival' logic to other things? "Well yes, the dinner I'm making you eat is mildly poisonous and will make you vomit, but it's classified as food, and you'll survive. Don't complain. We all vomited sometimes when we were children, and we survived, so you will too." That's ridiculous, but it's equivalent logic. When you send a kid to school allegedly for education, and for every 35 hours they spend there, they get the equivalent of 2 hours education and 30 hours social drama, that doesn't seem like any genuine interest in their education was truly the issue there.

We all assume that however school was for us, it's that way for kids. But that isn't necessarily so. As kids and culture get more street-wise and hard, what we used to consider the schoolyard is starting to look more like a war zone. And sometimes, the overall neighborhood we lived in during school was fairly decent, whereas today, we may or may not live in an area that is as nice. It's not enough to 'assume' that 'whatever it is' my kid is dealing with, doesn't matter. "Aw, toughen up!" we say. "Suck it up, don't let people bully you, tell the teacher you're bored and want more work, everything will work out."

And if it doesn't? Then another year passes. And then another year. And then another year. And next thing you know, your kid is 12 and they seem slightly undereducated, severely disenfranchised, and they come home from school every day morosely depressed if not in tears, and unable to come up with a single thing they learned or found interesting that day. Every... single... day.

I doubted myself. I doubted home schooling because I knew nothing about it. I doubted my time (I work full time, though from home), and my qualifications (I have 'some college' but probably don't remember most of what I learned in high school, which wasn't much frankly), and I worried.

I worried my father and stepmother would freak out (and they probably will). They will Have An Opinion™ and anybody with parents knows what I mean. They often seem to expect the worst of me, and so I've come to expect the worst of them: that they will just be waiting for me to fail, that they will be dissing me, and the homeschooling. I'm 42 years old -- pretty old for a mother of a grade 7 middle school student -- but I still care what my parents think, especially as they are my only real 'support', economically and physically.

(I have a boyfriend but he's on the other side of the planet, so while it's nightly emotional support via phone or email, it's not much practical help at the moment!)

But I wondered: shouldn't there be a time that your child reaches a certain 'age of reason' when you're willing to believe in them? To give them the chance to prove that they can do something they've been begging you about for years? Just to TRY, while they're still young enough to actually make it matter?

I realized that all my reasons for refusing her for years were about me, and my insecurities, and what people might say, and not wanting to deal with it. They were not reasons based on the actual situation, that being "the quality of her education". That IS supposed to be the whole point of it all, right? And if I'm actually concerned about her education, environment and depth and rate, then home schooling is not only a consideration, but a logical choice.

I've looked for private schools. Charter schools. Other peoples' home schools. I live in a small town, and there aren't any to speak of. Home schooling is not my first choice; it actually is my last choice, but now I realize, if I actually care about her education (never mind her mental health), it is my only choice.

So I told her I would let her make the decision. I gave her all kinds of warnings about how it would probably be much harder work than school, would require discipline, that most would be independent because I'm working so I can't do a lot except in the evenings, that if I'm responsible then she is going to learn a LOT of stuff they probably wouldn't have bothered with in her public school, and so on. I told her I didn't know what I could afford in materials, I didn't know her level of edu (it varies a lot even within a given grade), or her learning style, and it was possible the first year would be chaotic.

She was very solomn when she assured me that I didn't need to wait for her decision; she had already decided, she wanted to do it. We shook hands on it. Then she hopped on her toes like The Frog Princess out of the room. So that was it: A Big Decision was made.