Duel Enrollment, Art Masters, Turkey Chili & Paya Beach

Finding the right learning environment for our children is one of the largest challenges for parents. Turning our children over to the "professionals" and trusting they will get the best possible experience is most certainly the easiest route, but unfortunately, that doesn't mean the experience will be a good one. Click here for the latest example in the news.

Parents who choose to take on the challenge of homeschooling find the choices can be daunting. There are so many choices! This is were the researching starts and seeking knowledgeable and experienced homeschoolers comes in handy. (Note for those curious why as an Unschooler, I use the term Homeschooler: Keep in mind, that Unschooling is only a sub-set of Homeschooling.)

Today's parents are so fortunate as we have the internet. It provides connections to people that we otherwise would have a slim chance to ever learn from. Instead of reading through older books, we can get up to date information just by going online. Not to say that I don't love books! So many homeschooling parents currently blog which is a wonderful way to take a peek into what life outside of institutional school looks like. The internet also provides a community forum allowing for local groups, co-ops, and even the area's program directors, to keep in contact with each other. Parents can come together to get advice, plan classes,and get-togethers just to name a few of the benefits.

I use my blog as my personal reference Library. I'm always coming across interesting and or helpful links that may or may not be useful at the current time and my blog gives me a place to store them until such a time I may want to use them. I have made my blog public so others may benefit from it, too.

So today's useful links come from a few places. First, since my last post was about Early College/Duel Enrollment I will start with more information about this topic from the Davidson Gifted ~ Educators Guild. In the March 2010 Educators Guild Post, they explore the reasons for Dual Enrollment and have further links to more articles on the topic. If this is something you are considering, I highly recommend popping on over there and having a read.

The next interesting link is from Meet The Masters. Meet The Masters is an Art Education based on the work of Master Artists: Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Michelangelo, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Leonardo da Vinci. Normally, I steer away from posting resources that are not free. I'm bending that rule as I'm wishing I would have come across this link back when my son first started homeschooling as this was what he wanted to learn. Even though I had studied art myself, I found my teaching skills on the subject not very engaging. This course seems like a well put together learning tool.

The teen years bring on topics that not all parents are comfortable teaching. As I'm always looking for information I believe my son will be interested in, and he is interested in Biology, I didn't hesitate to record Sizing Up Sperm which is currently playing on the National Geography Channel. The National Geography Channel can provide all sorts of great learning on a wide variety of topics, so if you haven't tuned it recently, I'd suggest you do!

As a working mom, making dinner can become burdensome. It's not that I'm against cooking as I actually love to cook but having the energy or the time or the creativity to come up with something new can sometimes be stressful. I've been trying to carry cookbooks to work so during my downtime, I can think about what I'm going to make for dinner. (The daily phone call home to ask, "What are you in the mood for tonight?" is really more stressful then successful.) Recently, someone made the suggestion to use the crock pot. I happen to have a crock pot which was bought just for this purpose yet figuring out what to put in it, still seemed troublesome. Well today I have come across The Crock Pot Blog! There is a wonderful index of all the posted recipes here. I'm thinking tomorrow night, we might be tasting the Turkey Chili posted the other day.

I have one more link I'd love to share. This is a place I dream of visiting but doubt I will actually ever go there. The Paya Beach Resort comes highly recommended by my friend in Singapore. Her family vacations here every year. Doesn't it look like paradise?

Calling for all links!

I'm looking for all useful links to resources, books, and games for learning. Free is the operative word. User friendly is nice, too. Over the years, I've gathered quite a few links and they are currently spread out over four or more computers. I am going to attempt to tame them by listing them on this blog so they will be available to anyone who has use of them. Feel free to leave links in the comments and I will get them added. Thanks! This will be left as a sticky post for awhile.

Resources

Bright Kids at Home

Camp Resource

CM Summaries

Color Matters

Core Knowledge Foundation

Core Knowledge Lesson Plans

CurrClick

Ed Helper

Gifted Homeschoolers

Homeschool Christian Curricula Resources and Learning Links

Internet for Classrooms

Khan Academy

Kids Know It Network

Let's Homeschool

Lesson Pathways

Library of Books, Links & More

Living Math

MIT Open Courseware

Study Skills

Theme Units from Homeschool Network Library




ACT & SAT Sites:

A Student Site for ACT Test Takers

ACT Test Prep

SAT

SAT test Prep


Free Printables:

Prim Doodles ~ Free Fun Printables

Weather Printables


For the U.S. Department of Education's website click here.

Career Information

Florida Department of Educational Standards

Unschooling Resources

I get asked quite often about homeschooling and, particularly, about Unschooling so to help new unschoolers out, or for those who are simply curious, here are a few of my favorite sites for reading on the subject.

Joy Fetteroll

Sandra Dobb

Unschooling Curriculum

Unschooling in Florida


Here's a nice comparison of traditional and natural learning

English Links

TSL Books

Essay Rater

Internet4Classrooms Language Arts for Elementary

Internet4classrooms Language Arts for Middle & High School

Learning Station

Story Starters


Spelling:

Everyday Spelling

Free Spelling Course

Spelling City

Useful Spelling Rules



Games:

Learning Vocabulary Fun

Paint By Idioms

Have You Seen This Site??

Hey there everyone! As you know, I'm always looking for new and interesting ways to promote further exploration of many things. Well, today I feel like I've come across a gold mine!! So of course, I have to share.

Studio 4 Learning is a website that explores and explains Math, Sciences, English, Languages, Business, Arts, Test Prep, Find a Job, and Tutor Corps. How's that for being an awesome site for teenagers and young adults (and those of us who like to believe we're young adults still, hehehe)?

Oh....you want the link?? (Almost forgot...)

http://studio4learning.tv/index.php
Check it out!

Math

 There have been some great discussions going on in some of my homeschooling groups about just how a child learns math.  This is a discussion that is important to me as I still have one more child to educate.  Well, I can’t teach him as I don’t believe you can make anyone learn that which they don’t want to learn so I guess I should rephrase that as one more child to guide or facilitate along his journey. 

   

So what have my homeschooling groups been discussing?  Well, one topic is about the essay Just Do the Math excerpted from Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love, by David H. Albert .  In this essay David Albert explains how a child can learn math in only eight weeks!  Now you will have to read the article for yourself to gain the full picture, but the basic gist is children learn quickly when they desire to learn.  

     

When my children were young, I remember taking them to the toy store and my spouse giving them a challenge.  He would give them a number amount that they could spend any way that they chose.  The only rule was they could not go over the amount.  If they did, they got nothing.  At some point, as they grew, he added in that tax was included.  Hmmm….  I find it interesting that Mr. Albert suggests this same type of real life math.  Oh.  The kids never failed to spend near the full amount not once going over, lol, better to be a little shy then to go over.

   

Another discussion is going on about simple verse complex math.  It seems that many parents of the gifted child are finding a great deal of trouble and frustration over trying to teach rote math.  The kids hate doing worksheets and multiplication drills. I was surprised I must say, at how many parents besides me, have decided to jump math levels!  It seems that many of these parents found that their children could understand the complex math and enjoyed the complex math before they wanted to bother with the simple math.  But that is what we did before my youngest hit school age. Once he was school age, we became traditional and sent him to school which ended in school at home which became unschooling and back to where we started with him learning in his own way.  Whew. 

  

Here is an excerpt from ‘Anna’ about her child’s journey:

We did the same thing (skipping ahead). Actually it wasn't my idea at all. My son insisted because he only can learn math through higher level conceptual thinking. He would make up little algebraic ways to learn arithmetic. Anything rote stumped him. Higher level stuff...no problem. I wonder how many kids learn in a similar way. If you're right than quite a few.



If I had tried to make him learn math "in order" he would have hated it. So I just let him do what he liked and skip the stuff that annoyed him.



Years later I don't think he is any worse for it. He can do "the annoying stuff' most notably long division and long multiplication problems. He doesn't usually make mistakes and he seems to know his times tables. I did make a point to eventually walk him through long division so he would understand it but the other stuff he picked up mostly from working with algebra.



Its interesting to read opinions on math education. The debate is so impassioned. It never fails to surprise me how invested people get. There are many educators out there that strongly believe that children need hours of drilling basic math in order to ever be mathematically literate.

I love this post!  I have found this so true of how my son is learning and it’s nice to hear that another child was successful in learning this way.

 

Katherine writes:

 

Seriously. Algebra should be part of math instruction from the beginning. Since it's *in there* anyway.

    

We included Algebra in early education.  We just didn’t call it Algebra.  Math is everywhere.  Would you like one cookie or two?  If I gave you three cookies and Dad gave you some cookies so you had five total, how many cookies did Dad give you?  My son learned acceleration and triangulation as practical knowledge when he was little.  He had a use for them so he learned them. 

  

Another interesting article I’ve come upon is The Teaching of Arithmetic I: The Story of an experiment by L. P. Benezet, Superintendent of Schools, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1929.  In this article Mr. Benezet tells of an experiment he conducted and the findings of this experiment.  Mr. Benezet in Part III  writes:

 ‘They saw what we were trying to do and were surprised at the ability to reason and to talk, shown by children whose minds had not been chloroformed by the dull, drab memorizing of tables and combinations.’

 

In this article, arithmetic wasn’t formally taught till seventh grade!  Instead, the teachers concentrated on teaching the children to "read, reason, and recite”.  When I read this, it made me think of some of the reading I’ve done about the Thomas Jefferson approach to education and the Charlotte Mason approach.  I’m not an expert at either of these approaches but from what I’ve gathered, they focus on literature and building up the character through these readings.  By teaching the child to think and reason, the child learns and can apply concepts to more areas of understanding.  Hmmm…That explains quite a bit about how my son is learning.

   

My youngest son’s unschooling math journey:

  

My youngest really didn’t enjoy the repetition system. He felt that once he read it, he had it.  I must say, that seemed to be the case.  My oldest was a firm believer in the repetition system as that’s how she learned.  I was tired of the fussing so I went looking for other ways.  At first, my spouse was adamant that I could unschool everything except math.  So I did what every practical Mom does and I turned that subject over to him!  He wanted it his way, so I let him at it.  That didn’t last long.  In fact, I don’t even think it went two consecutive days!  Being me, I wasn’t going to just ignore the situation so I went to the unschooling groups and learned some more. 

 

The Life of Fred series was suggested and since I love books, I went looking.  The books are suggested for about fifth grade and up so I had time.  I finally bought the complete series last year when my son, by age, would be considered fourth grade.  They sat on the shelf for a period of time after the initial interest and the opening giggles the Story of Fred creates.  Then one day, my son came to me and asked if he could just read them as a novel and skip the problems.  I told him of course!

 

He sat down with the first book and giggled his way through it.  Then he moved on to the next book and while reading that one, he went back on his own, and started re-reading the first one, doing all the equations along the way!  I must add, he got them all right, too!  He has since moved on to the third book ‘Beginning Algebra as serious as it needs to be’.   This book really caught his attention and he ran to me to share what he had just read:

Here in print, was EXACTLY how he was feeling about ‘normal’ math books!  WoW!  This author gets it!  So here I am, with an unschooling ten year old, who loves math!  He always DID love math but those redundant math books would have beaten the love of math out of him.  Do I assign him a certain amount of pages he must cover in a given day?  Absolutely not!  Why would I set limits?  Sure there are some weeks that he doesn’t open up a math book and that’s OK.  There are days he does.  Besides, just how advanced do I need him to be?  If without prodding, he is still learning at an accelerated rate, why would I interfere?  No.  I see my job as always being on the lookout for more interesting things that will continue to enrich his world.    

 

Vicki

Preparations for Back To School

I'm giggling as I'm sure that title made a few eyebrows raise of people who know we unschool. I mean really, what unschooler prepares for back to school? Well, I'm not really, but since I'm always looking for great information, I figured I'd share.

Homeschool Reviews is an online resource where many homeschoolers have posted their thoughts on the different curriculums that they have used. Since I'm always looking, I found the personal experiences very useful.

What have we been doing?

This Summer has been filled with game play: Dwarf Fortress , Pirates of the Carribean , Runescape, Funorb, and the current favorite, World of Warcraft. Along with these online games, there's been lots of books read, stories told, and costumes made. The thing that always jumps out at me whenever we start a new game or project is that my youngest graps the manual and reads it through. That might not sound impressive till you realize that the manuals are usually at least 358 pages long! Some are four times that size, and many have dedicated web pages just to explain all the rules, abilities, and strategies of game play.

This skill might not seem all that important but take a look at Dwarf Fortress. That game is mind boggling. My spouse and I were just discussing it, and he was saying that it takes a computer programmer type brain to be able to play it. On Wiki they state,"It has a very steep learning curve, partly due to its ASCII graphics, but also due to the fact that it is one of the most complex games ever released." Their slogan is "Losing is fun." This game is near impossible to win and you better just accept that before playing otherwise you won't enjoy the game.

I've found my son researching all types of things. How mines really work, the textile industry, economics, interest rates, glass blowing,.... the list is long for he researches everything that he is curious about and that's a non-ending list. I love unschooling!

Geography

Geography games online...what a concept!

Boy, when I was a kid, we were introduced to computers and how they worked. Does anyone out there remember flow charts? Simple yes or no choices which lead to one path or another? How about punch cards? Geesh, when I was a kid, my father would bring home these huge boxes of no longer valid punch cards for my siblings and I to turn into monsterous card houses. Back then computers needed whole buildings just to store them in. Point being, back then in the age of no homes having PC's, Geography was learned from a textbook, studying maps, or reading National Geographic. That was pretty much the range unless you were lucky enough to have parents who liked to travel and were kind enough to take you along. ;)

Today's children (and adults who are still open to learning) have so many ways to learn! We still have textbooks (many, many, more textbooks), we still have maps (many, many, more maps), and we still have National Geographic magazines. But along with all these wonderful resources, we now have the INTERNET!!

Via the internet, we have Google Earth. Have you played with Google Earth lately? We also have sites from National Geographic! They have kid friendly sites, with games and information which engage young minds to explore. Along with these known sites, I've also found some other fun sites that make learning fun. Here's a new one for us that my friend Debbie told me about: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm

For Sheppards Software main page click here. They have a wonderful assortment of all types of learning fun. I love that they state that their goal is to make learning fun and memorable! That's my goal, too! Who says learning has to be boring. Honestly, when you were a child, which lessons did you enjoy and learn the most from?

Remember to check out my sidebar for more Learning Fun!