Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Please Pray!
Please pray for Kim, a Catholic homeschool mom of eight (three in college) who died of complications relating to the flu (apparently not the swine flu) a few days ago, and for her grieving family.
Ugh!
Remember that gorgeous tomato vine picture I posted a mere five days ago? This is what it looks like today. Blight stinks.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
A Delightful Surprise
Our local parish has always been decent, but honestly, it looks like a hospital. Everything is white and plain (it was an early 1990s complete rebuild of a 1950s Church - not a lot to work with). The tabernacle is raised up and relatively in the front, but to the side of the altar. The priest and altar servers sit in a half-circle shaped area under a little dome behind the altar. There's nothing on the wall behind them. Though a processional cross is placed on the altar during Mass, we've felt the lack of the focal point of a crucifix during the Mass (there's a statue of the resurrected Jesus way off to one side on the wall and a statue of the Holy Family on the far side. Because it's kind of a sideways-facing Church, the "front" wall is extremely wide.). The lovely crucifix from the old Church is presently located on the side wall of the Narthex/vestibule (with some nice votive candles underneath).
Anyway. We got a new pastor this summer and he's really great. Solid, engaging and gives the BEST sermons. One of the first things he did when he came to our parish was to pray with the Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours each weekday morning with anyone who was interested. Nice!
But what happened this morning at Mass blew me away. First of all, very diplomatically, he made the announcement that he's interested in making a few changes to the church and was open to input from everyone. That got everyone's attention! :)
He had some background explanation (which was at the same time diplomatic, practical and spiritually helpful), but basically what he wants to do is move the tabernacle to the central area behind the altar. (John and I, surprised, smiled at each other.) He wants to move the priest's chair to the place where the tabernacle was. Next, even more cautiously, he explained that when he started talking to the parish council about the whole idea, they were also interested (and he thought it was a great idea) in moving the big beautiful old crucifix from the Narthex (duh!) to the front of the Church. I could hear a bunch of people around me whispering "Yes! Yes!" and suddenly the entire congregation erupted into applause. It was truly an amazing moment (I cried.).
Anyway. We got a new pastor this summer and he's really great. Solid, engaging and gives the BEST sermons. One of the first things he did when he came to our parish was to pray with the Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours each weekday morning with anyone who was interested. Nice!
But what happened this morning at Mass blew me away. First of all, very diplomatically, he made the announcement that he's interested in making a few changes to the church and was open to input from everyone. That got everyone's attention! :)
He had some background explanation (which was at the same time diplomatic, practical and spiritually helpful), but basically what he wants to do is move the tabernacle to the central area behind the altar. (John and I, surprised, smiled at each other.) He wants to move the priest's chair to the place where the tabernacle was. Next, even more cautiously, he explained that when he started talking to the parish council about the whole idea, they were also interested (and he thought it was a great idea) in moving the big beautiful old crucifix from the Narthex (duh!) to the front of the Church. I could hear a bunch of people around me whispering "Yes! Yes!" and suddenly the entire congregation erupted into applause. It was truly an amazing moment (I cried.).
Friday, September 25, 2009
Seven Quick Takes
I've been very here-and-there with the Seven Quick Takes, especially since we had so much company in August and lots of things on the calendar for the beginning of the school year. Things are a bit quieter today, so I thought I'd give it a try.1. It's been a big year for prayer requests it seems and this week is no different. Please pray for Kevin Sinnott, a student at Southern Catholic College, who drowned while swimming in a lake this week. We were delighted to learn that two dads who had been out of work for awhile that we've been praying for have found jobs. Others have been added to our job prayer list this week too. Two close friends have learned this week that their mothers have serious forms of cancer. Please pray for them!
2. We had our first Lit discussion of the year this week - on Homer's Iliad. It's exciting to be finally getting to the ancients (we've been talking about doing it for a lot of years), but boy did we end up with a lot of mythology enthusiasts in the group! I've been reading up on my mythology stories the last few days just to get an idea of what they're talking about. ;)We've also been re-watching (about half-way through at the moment) Michael Wood's In Search of the Trojan War which, happily, is available on Netflix Watch Instantly.
3. What with helping with the upcoming history issue of mater et magistra magazine and helping Ria prepare for the SAT Subject test in World History (her choice, even though it's probably more work to prep for than the U.S. one), we've been encountering a lot of history around here as of late. We're particularly fond of the board game Perspective: The Timeline Game and have played it multiple times this week. It bugs me that I can't quite figure out whether it's still in print. Anybody know?4. We have three Girl Scouts in the family! A mom from our local homeschool group who has been involved with scouting for many years decided to start her own troup. It's close by and the girls are thrilled! It is also connected with the Catholic scouting organization and so, among other things, they get to earn some gorgeous badges on different mysteries of the rosary. They're working on a patch for the Luminous mysteries for next month (the month of the Rosary). We'll be hosting an event at our house once maple syruping season comes around. I keep running into more and more people who are interested in tapping their maple trees. What fun!
5. As you can see from my two most recent posts, our gardens are overflowing in a few spots. The only things that are still producing are the tomatoes and the zucchini, but the tomatoes are really going. I picked about 25 tomatoes yesterday (most of them not quite ripe, but I was a little worried about the vines that were withering in places and thought I'd play it a little safe). I think there are at least 50 green tomatoes still on the vines. Hope the weather and the vines hold out!The apples are also well on their way. We need to start making some applesauce this weekend with the new Kitchenaid mixer attachment (we've owned a Kitchenaid mixer for almost 20 years and just finally bought our first attachment!).
6. Ria's working her way through a new book offered by Catholic Heritage Curricula (and published by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, TN) called The Human Person: Dignity Beyond Compare. It combines religion, ethics and philosophy and looks really great so far!
7. The inner geek in me is having way too much fun trying out the
Eye-Fi Memory Card (via the Amazon Vine reviewer program). John and I bounced around town last night, trying to get a download from a "hotspot" and seeing where it worked. The geotagging is great (though bloggers need be aware of the potential security hazards of letting people know exactly where a particular photo was taken), but we haven't fully downloaded a picture yet from a "hotspot". It is pretty neat, however, to take a picture at home, and have the picture automatically and wirelessly download onto the computer and then onto Flickr (or other photo site of your choice). It took a bit of set-up initially (ours isn't the most friendly camera to the technology), but I was able to do it without bringing in my tech-savvy husband and it's working great now. Fun stuff!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
College Stuff
(cross-posted from the Love2learn Blog)
We're starting the college admissions process with my oldest, and there's a lot of good stuff we've been running into of late, so I thought I'd collect some of it here.
Catholic College Month: Homeschool Connections is hosting "Catholic College Month" next month with free webinars hosted by representatives of Catholic Colleges. What a great service! Check out the details at the Homeschool Connections website. I'm really looking forward to these!
Catholic College Guide: The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College has just been released in its new second edition - and is available in its entirety free online (my alma mater is pictured on the front of the print book with their beautiful new chapel). Take a look at the Newman Guide website. The guide offers lots of helpful information on 21 exceptional Catholic colleges in the U.S. and a handful of overseas and online schools.
Another Excellent College Guide: I stumbled upon the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Guide to Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth About America's Top Schools when I found a copy of their 2008-09 guide at a local thrift store this summer. I am very impressed by the thoroughness and depth of the content. The guide provides helpful and critical information (approximately 7-8 packed pages) on 134 "top" schools in the U.S. You will find the ups and downs of each school's academic quality, political makeup, student culture, safety of campus life and even recommended professors and courses to get a solid liberal arts foundation (and much more). Very honest and very eye-opening! The Intercollegiate Studies Institute is a Catholic-friendly organization dedicated to promoting solid college academics, free of political nonsense. (Their Student's Guides to the Major Disciplines are also highly recommended.) Their College Guide website is also very helpful. There's a lot of free information, including a guide to "Entry Requirements for Homeschool Students", and you can purchase an online version of their college guide for $25.
We've been navigating the waters of standardized testing for college admissions and I thought I'd share a few tidbits here in the hope that they'll be helpful to others.
ACT Test: This is one of the two most common required standardized tests and covers the following subjects: English, mathematics, reading, and science as well as an optional writing segment. I found the website quite easy to navigate and the homeschool options were very clear. Apparently this is the more common admissions test in the Midwest, while the SAT is more common elsewhere. My daughter is taking both.
SAT Test: The SAT Test covers Math, Critical Reading (including Vocabulary) and Writing. We found their website somewhat difficult to navigate. We had a very difficult time finding the "homeschool code" which we finally got from a friend. (The code is 970000). Also, if you sign up for the SAT test first, it won't show you the options for the SAT Subject test on the same day (since you can't take them on the same day), so you should probably schedule your Subject tests first - especially if you're taking a Latin or World History Subject tests which are only made available twice a year (in December and June).
SAT Subject Tests: A few colleges (a very few as I understand it) require these, particularly for homeschoolers, as an objective assessment of subjects not covered, or not covered as thoroughly, by the SAT and ACT tests themselves. SAT Subject Tests are available in five basic subjects: English (Literature), History (U.S. or World), Mathematics (Level 1 or Level 2), Science (Biology, Chemistry or Physics), and Languages (Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Japanese, or Korean). You can take up to three Subject tests in one day (though not on the same day as the SAT itself, and taking three on one day is the most cost-effective way to do it).
You also may want to sign up for the free SAT Question of the Day on the SAT website.
Test Preparation: Finally, Ana recommended the Princeton Review Guides for test preparation. We picked up a few of these and I'm very impressed so far. I particularly like how they have you take a test and then explain a little about all the choices (these are multiple choice tests) and why the correct answer made the most sense even if you didn't quite know what it was.
Also see on Love2learn:
Homeschooling High Schoolers Section
Homeschool-Friendly Catholic Colleges
We're starting the college admissions process with my oldest, and there's a lot of good stuff we've been running into of late, so I thought I'd collect some of it here.Catholic College Month: Homeschool Connections is hosting "Catholic College Month" next month with free webinars hosted by representatives of Catholic Colleges. What a great service! Check out the details at the Homeschool Connections website. I'm really looking forward to these!
Catholic College Guide: The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College has just been released in its new second edition - and is available in its entirety free online (my alma mater is pictured on the front of the print book with their beautiful new chapel). Take a look at the Newman Guide website. The guide offers lots of helpful information on 21 exceptional Catholic colleges in the U.S. and a handful of overseas and online schools.
Another Excellent College Guide: I stumbled upon the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Guide to Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth About America's Top Schools when I found a copy of their 2008-09 guide at a local thrift store this summer. I am very impressed by the thoroughness and depth of the content. The guide provides helpful and critical information (approximately 7-8 packed pages) on 134 "top" schools in the U.S. You will find the ups and downs of each school's academic quality, political makeup, student culture, safety of campus life and even recommended professors and courses to get a solid liberal arts foundation (and much more). Very honest and very eye-opening! The Intercollegiate Studies Institute is a Catholic-friendly organization dedicated to promoting solid college academics, free of political nonsense. (Their Student's Guides to the Major Disciplines are also highly recommended.) Their College Guide website is also very helpful. There's a lot of free information, including a guide to "Entry Requirements for Homeschool Students", and you can purchase an online version of their college guide for $25.
We've been navigating the waters of standardized testing for college admissions and I thought I'd share a few tidbits here in the hope that they'll be helpful to others.
ACT Test: This is one of the two most common required standardized tests and covers the following subjects: English, mathematics, reading, and science as well as an optional writing segment. I found the website quite easy to navigate and the homeschool options were very clear. Apparently this is the more common admissions test in the Midwest, while the SAT is more common elsewhere. My daughter is taking both.
SAT Test: The SAT Test covers Math, Critical Reading (including Vocabulary) and Writing. We found their website somewhat difficult to navigate. We had a very difficult time finding the "homeschool code" which we finally got from a friend. (The code is 970000). Also, if you sign up for the SAT test first, it won't show you the options for the SAT Subject test on the same day (since you can't take them on the same day), so you should probably schedule your Subject tests first - especially if you're taking a Latin or World History Subject tests which are only made available twice a year (in December and June).
SAT Subject Tests: A few colleges (a very few as I understand it) require these, particularly for homeschoolers, as an objective assessment of subjects not covered, or not covered as thoroughly, by the SAT and ACT tests themselves. SAT Subject Tests are available in five basic subjects: English (Literature), History (U.S. or World), Mathematics (Level 1 or Level 2), Science (Biology, Chemistry or Physics), and Languages (Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Japanese, or Korean). You can take up to three Subject tests in one day (though not on the same day as the SAT itself, and taking three on one day is the most cost-effective way to do it).
You also may want to sign up for the free SAT Question of the Day on the SAT website.
Test Preparation: Finally, Ana recommended the Princeton Review Guides for test preparation. We picked up a few of these and I'm very impressed so far. I particularly like how they have you take a test and then explain a little about all the choices (these are multiple choice tests) and why the correct answer made the most sense even if you didn't quite know what it was.
Also see on Love2learn:
Homeschooling High Schoolers Section
Homeschool-Friendly Catholic Colleges
Friday, September 18, 2009
Contemplating 25 Years... Part Three (Very Rambly!)
First, I wanted to say a little more about that "It's about the family" thing. It concerns me that this concept is easy to misunderstand. What I mean is that the family's faith, attitudes, culture, habits, personalities and whatnot have a stronger influence on the child's educational outcome than their general educational choices. For example, a family with lots of engineers (ours falls into this category) will probably tend to have strong math students whether those students go to public school, private school or are homeschooled. Also, though our society tends to think that everyone should be strong in Math, the reality is that each person (and each family) has their own unique gifts to be developed and appreciated.
The second thought swirling around in my head today is another educational concept that I started thinking about in high school and still have a similar belief today. I think there are some that will disagree with me, but perhaps if I explain it clearly, some of the disagreement will turn out to be just a misunderstanding.
The way I thought of this in high school is that children sometimes need to be "pushed" (I'm sure a nicer word would be required or even encouraged, but "pushed" is what made sense to me at the time). What I meant by this might best, perhaps, be explained through an illustration I had in my head at the time. I remember having trouble understanding certain math concepts until I had completed a number of problems and then suddenly the concept became clear. While I was wading through the problems, I would sometimes be frustrated, but knowing I had to get through a certain number (even if it was simply to turn in the homework assignment the next day) or sometimes having a parent or teacher encourage me to do a few more was precisely what I needed to get through just a few more until I understood it.
This is part of a tricky educational concept of keeping a balance between freedom and non-freedom (whether that be limits, respecting authority, fulfilling certain requirements, etc.). I've spoken a bit about the freedom aspect of things and I think it's something often underappreciated by society today - particularly in the realm of education. And yet, I think it's possible to go to an opposite extreme too. I always loved Montessori's concept of "Freedom within limits" because it helped me make sense out of some of my questions about whether or not children should sometimes be "pushed".
I don't have a final answer on this, but I've seen some things that work with myself and with my children. The parts with affecting my children are a lot easier to explain.
It seems that my children are more eager to learn when they have some reasonable requirements and some structure to get them interested in things and perhaps keep their brain moving. This plays out in different ways. I've noticed that the freedom of unscheduled days after Christmas actually leads to some wonderful days of learning, but I strongly suspect that this still relates to some requirements on other days and the joy of having time to freely choose what to do. It also seems that if we have a few strong hours of formal school, the rest of our day tends to be used in good ways too.
On the other hand, some of our requirements are very basic, more like "limits" within which we require them to work for a time. For example, this year the kids have six "essential" subjects that I want them to work on a little each day (this applies primarily to the four older children - grades 4-12, though Ria, in grade 12, makes quite a lot of these sorts of decisions for herself at this point).
The different subjects have different kinds of structure, for example:
Reading is required for an hour a day. They get to choose the book, but I have to approve it (the requirement being mostly that I want it to be something at their reading level, somewhat worthwhile for school). So this has a double structure of time and parent approval.
Math varies according to the student and the particular material they're studying. It's generally a certain quantity of math (like a lesson or two pages), but can sometimes be based on the amount of time.
Music - They're supposed to work on a musical instrument for about 20 minutes each day. They get to pick the song and the instrument (piano and recorder are the basics). Though most of them are reluctant to either take lessons or work on it on their own (with another huge exception with Ria who is a completely self motivated piano student), having a little nudge is really motivating for them. After two weeks they're starting to enjoy playing again and are getting back into working on learning how to read music.
A general thing I've learned about myself is that if my expectations are too high, things fall apart quickly because I get overwhelmed with the size of the list. I've found that a balance of requirements and freedom works best for our family and keeps us the most productive. The balance point is affected by things like personality and learning style.
The second thought swirling around in my head today is another educational concept that I started thinking about in high school and still have a similar belief today. I think there are some that will disagree with me, but perhaps if I explain it clearly, some of the disagreement will turn out to be just a misunderstanding.
The way I thought of this in high school is that children sometimes need to be "pushed" (I'm sure a nicer word would be required or even encouraged, but "pushed" is what made sense to me at the time). What I meant by this might best, perhaps, be explained through an illustration I had in my head at the time. I remember having trouble understanding certain math concepts until I had completed a number of problems and then suddenly the concept became clear. While I was wading through the problems, I would sometimes be frustrated, but knowing I had to get through a certain number (even if it was simply to turn in the homework assignment the next day) or sometimes having a parent or teacher encourage me to do a few more was precisely what I needed to get through just a few more until I understood it.
This is part of a tricky educational concept of keeping a balance between freedom and non-freedom (whether that be limits, respecting authority, fulfilling certain requirements, etc.). I've spoken a bit about the freedom aspect of things and I think it's something often underappreciated by society today - particularly in the realm of education. And yet, I think it's possible to go to an opposite extreme too. I always loved Montessori's concept of "Freedom within limits" because it helped me make sense out of some of my questions about whether or not children should sometimes be "pushed".
I don't have a final answer on this, but I've seen some things that work with myself and with my children. The parts with affecting my children are a lot easier to explain.
It seems that my children are more eager to learn when they have some reasonable requirements and some structure to get them interested in things and perhaps keep their brain moving. This plays out in different ways. I've noticed that the freedom of unscheduled days after Christmas actually leads to some wonderful days of learning, but I strongly suspect that this still relates to some requirements on other days and the joy of having time to freely choose what to do. It also seems that if we have a few strong hours of formal school, the rest of our day tends to be used in good ways too.
On the other hand, some of our requirements are very basic, more like "limits" within which we require them to work for a time. For example, this year the kids have six "essential" subjects that I want them to work on a little each day (this applies primarily to the four older children - grades 4-12, though Ria, in grade 12, makes quite a lot of these sorts of decisions for herself at this point).
The different subjects have different kinds of structure, for example:
Reading is required for an hour a day. They get to choose the book, but I have to approve it (the requirement being mostly that I want it to be something at their reading level, somewhat worthwhile for school). So this has a double structure of time and parent approval.
Math varies according to the student and the particular material they're studying. It's generally a certain quantity of math (like a lesson or two pages), but can sometimes be based on the amount of time.
Music - They're supposed to work on a musical instrument for about 20 minutes each day. They get to pick the song and the instrument (piano and recorder are the basics). Though most of them are reluctant to either take lessons or work on it on their own (with another huge exception with Ria who is a completely self motivated piano student), having a little nudge is really motivating for them. After two weeks they're starting to enjoy playing again and are getting back into working on learning how to read music.
A general thing I've learned about myself is that if my expectations are too high, things fall apart quickly because I get overwhelmed with the size of the list. I've found that a balance of requirements and freedom works best for our family and keeps us the most productive. The balance point is affected by things like personality and learning style.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Contemplating 25 Years... Part Two
Funny, I thought this series was going to be so easy, but it's really hard to sort out thoughts and ideas in a chronological way. The thing that comes to mind at the moment is something I thought would make an ideal homeschool situation back when I was being homeschooled.
I remember specifically thinking that more formal work in the morning and more relaxed work in the afternoon (reading, field trips, outdoor time), etc. would be an ideal balance. I still pretty much think of this as an ideal. I was fascinated years later, when I met my friend Ana, to learn that in Brazil, the norm for schooling is to go to a school in the morning and spend the afternoon with your family. That background was a part of her own family's decision to homeschool. Makes a lot of sense to me!
And a slightly tangential note relating to my earlier thought on how it's easier to follow a schedule someone sets up for you than to hold yourself accountable... To me this partly involves giving our children enough freedom to take responsibility for themselves.
I've mentioned before that my 14 year old son has struggled with reading to some extent, though audio books and read-alouds are fabulous! We've put a lot of effort into helping him read through works of literature for study groups and such (and those things are SO motivating for him!). It's partly a focus difficulty for him as he reads clearly and smoothly out loud (and also the fact that he's a very strong auditory learner - really the opposite of his mom!).
Well, this summer we read Pope Benedict's book on St. Paul for our catechism discussion group. We missed all of August and had 5 chapters to finish discussing last night. Gus had quite a bit of reading left yesterday afternoon when I was reading to myself, so I offered to read it out loud to him. He politely declined because, he told me, he was aiming at reading the entire book to himself. It took a great effort and quite a bit of his time before the class started, but he did it! (I'm so proud!)
I remember specifically thinking that more formal work in the morning and more relaxed work in the afternoon (reading, field trips, outdoor time), etc. would be an ideal balance. I still pretty much think of this as an ideal. I was fascinated years later, when I met my friend Ana, to learn that in Brazil, the norm for schooling is to go to a school in the morning and spend the afternoon with your family. That background was a part of her own family's decision to homeschool. Makes a lot of sense to me!
And a slightly tangential note relating to my earlier thought on how it's easier to follow a schedule someone sets up for you than to hold yourself accountable... To me this partly involves giving our children enough freedom to take responsibility for themselves.
I've mentioned before that my 14 year old son has struggled with reading to some extent, though audio books and read-alouds are fabulous! We've put a lot of effort into helping him read through works of literature for study groups and such (and those things are SO motivating for him!). It's partly a focus difficulty for him as he reads clearly and smoothly out loud (and also the fact that he's a very strong auditory learner - really the opposite of his mom!).
Well, this summer we read Pope Benedict's book on St. Paul for our catechism discussion group. We missed all of August and had 5 chapters to finish discussing last night. Gus had quite a bit of reading left yesterday afternoon when I was reading to myself, so I offered to read it out loud to him. He politely declined because, he told me, he was aiming at reading the entire book to himself. It took a great effort and quite a bit of his time before the class started, but he did it! (I'm so proud!)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Christ as Head of the Cosmos
We're finishing up Pope Benedict's book on St. Paul for tonight's catechism discussion. This quote is amazing:
Therefore there is not, on the one hand, the great material world and, on the other, this small reality of the history of our earth, of the world of people: it is all one in Christ. He is the head of the cosmos; the cosmos too was created by him, it was created for us to the extent that we are united with him. It is a rational and personalistic vision of the universe. I would say that it would have been impossible to conceive of a vision more universalistic than this and that it befits the Risen Christ alone.
Monday, September 14, 2009
That Old Woodchuck Question
Daddy asked Kate today: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood."
Kate responded academically: "I don't know, but I know that woodchucks make nests of trees and so a woodchuck must be able to chuck at least that much wood."
Kate responded academically: "I don't know, but I know that woodchucks make nests of trees and so a woodchuck must be able to chuck at least that much wood."
Frankly Speaking: Defining Terms
Speaking to Ria:
"Trading is kind of like a good kind of revenge."
;)
"Trading is kind of like a good kind of revenge."
;)
After Making all of Those Lists...
and because I had nothing better to do (heehee), I made a new label for "Lists of All Sorts" and labeled a bunch of my old posts (there sure are a lot of them!).
Contemplating 25 Years...
It occurred to me tonight (while I couldn't get to sleep) that it's 25 years ago this month that I first became a homeschooler. Well, really it was a few months before that, when my mom pulled my two younger brothers out of school and my sister started the three of us on an intensive Lit program, even while I was still finishing up 8th grade and preparing to graduate. (It was a great lit class, by the way. I still have some of the study questions around and posted on Love2learn (they're not all hers, but quite a few are).
I want to always remember a few of the things that happened when we first got started. Especially those lovely, funny little things. One that stands out happened on the first day that my brother didn't return to school with me (the youngest hadn't started at that school yet). In religion class that morning, before I think my teacher could have even known the big news yet, Sister Helen was talking about the Church's teaching on education and parenting and mentioned that the Church's position was so strong on the parent's role that they even taught that parents could pull their children out of school and teach them themselves. Dang, I should have asked her if she had already heard the news or not. :)
Mostly, I wanted to try to catalogue some of the things I've learned about education and homeschooling over the course of these 25 years and many experiences and many conversations - starting with intense discussions on the potentials of homeschooling with my younger brother (In part we were critiquing our own present reality, but it was an extremely formative experience!) and going all the way up to a phone conversation on Friday with a mom just starting out with her oldest in kindergarten. I'll start with the things that clicked for me during those high school years. I'm sure some of them will seem silly. I've had a lot of "duh!" moments over that time, though perhaps because I have to deliberately think out each of these points, I'll actually remember them and they'll be useful to someone else too!
One of the first ones I remember figuring out in my head was a piece of the socialization question. I was thinking about the peculiarities of some of the homeschool families we had met and started falling into the mental trap of assuming that their quirks or whatever were related to the homeschooling. Then I realized (duh!) that people in schools have quirks, there are always students who work their way more or less (sometimes much more or less) smoothly than others in the schools. It's not about homeschooling, it's about the family!
That thing, "It's about the family!" was a big one that I've continued to stew on over the years. Even early on it was clear to me that that factor was much bigger than things like which curriculum you used, whether or not you used a formal homeschool program, etc. (The big "secret" of course, is that it's not even about whether you homeschool or not!)
Another thing I noticed from those years (though I didn't necessarily put it together until later on) was that attending a traditional grade school (quite a good one in fact) did not automatically make me a self-disciplined person. In fact, though it was beneficial in many ways (and I got a very decent education there), it tended to feed my laziness and I had a tendency to try to get by with the minimum. I was a good student and never got into any real trouble (well aside from a chewing out in front of the class in 5th grade for a messy spelling note book - one of the Sisters was pretty old school and was she ever mean!), but I did all of my homework at the ridiculously last possible moment and wasn't a particularly eager or enthusiastic student otherwise. Though my homeschool years were messy and chaotic in a number of ways (as are my children's at times, though not in quite the same ways), it was, in the end, a great gift to be given a great deal of responsibility for my own education - to actually start to make an attempt at real self-discipline (not that I've mastered that even now, far from it!). Having a formal structure and schedule put together by someone else for my benefit is, at least for me, much easier than holding myself accountable day in and day out.
...to be continued...
I want to always remember a few of the things that happened when we first got started. Especially those lovely, funny little things. One that stands out happened on the first day that my brother didn't return to school with me (the youngest hadn't started at that school yet). In religion class that morning, before I think my teacher could have even known the big news yet, Sister Helen was talking about the Church's teaching on education and parenting and mentioned that the Church's position was so strong on the parent's role that they even taught that parents could pull their children out of school and teach them themselves. Dang, I should have asked her if she had already heard the news or not. :)
Mostly, I wanted to try to catalogue some of the things I've learned about education and homeschooling over the course of these 25 years and many experiences and many conversations - starting with intense discussions on the potentials of homeschooling with my younger brother (In part we were critiquing our own present reality, but it was an extremely formative experience!) and going all the way up to a phone conversation on Friday with a mom just starting out with her oldest in kindergarten. I'll start with the things that clicked for me during those high school years. I'm sure some of them will seem silly. I've had a lot of "duh!" moments over that time, though perhaps because I have to deliberately think out each of these points, I'll actually remember them and they'll be useful to someone else too!
One of the first ones I remember figuring out in my head was a piece of the socialization question. I was thinking about the peculiarities of some of the homeschool families we had met and started falling into the mental trap of assuming that their quirks or whatever were related to the homeschooling. Then I realized (duh!) that people in schools have quirks, there are always students who work their way more or less (sometimes much more or less) smoothly than others in the schools. It's not about homeschooling, it's about the family!
That thing, "It's about the family!" was a big one that I've continued to stew on over the years. Even early on it was clear to me that that factor was much bigger than things like which curriculum you used, whether or not you used a formal homeschool program, etc. (The big "secret" of course, is that it's not even about whether you homeschool or not!)
Another thing I noticed from those years (though I didn't necessarily put it together until later on) was that attending a traditional grade school (quite a good one in fact) did not automatically make me a self-disciplined person. In fact, though it was beneficial in many ways (and I got a very decent education there), it tended to feed my laziness and I had a tendency to try to get by with the minimum. I was a good student and never got into any real trouble (well aside from a chewing out in front of the class in 5th grade for a messy spelling note book - one of the Sisters was pretty old school and was she ever mean!), but I did all of my homework at the ridiculously last possible moment and wasn't a particularly eager or enthusiastic student otherwise. Though my homeschool years were messy and chaotic in a number of ways (as are my children's at times, though not in quite the same ways), it was, in the end, a great gift to be given a great deal of responsibility for my own education - to actually start to make an attempt at real self-discipline (not that I've mastered that even now, far from it!). Having a formal structure and schedule put together by someone else for my benefit is, at least for me, much easier than holding myself accountable day in and day out.
...to be continued...
Friday, September 11, 2009
Yet Another List
We're at our fullest capacity yet in our homeschool and run the gamut of K-12. We've got Kindergarten, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 12th grades running all at once (and sometimes all over the place!). I've been attempting to collect a list of the different curriculum and educational resources that we use (And like - at least so far.) for the sidebar of our learning notes blog, Age Quod Agis. It's really helpful for me to write it all down. I'm sure this is still incomplete, but it's a pretty good start (and a significant update to my very old list) and, I think, covers most of the big stuff.
- Architecture for Kids
- Art of Construction by Mario Salvadori
- Audible.com
- Bethlehem Books
- Blue Number Counting Book
- Bob Books
- Building Big with David Macaulay
- C.S. Lewis
- Cartoon Guide to Chemistry
- Catechism of the Catholic Church
- Catholic Heritage Curricula
- Catholic National Readers
- Catholic Textbook Project
- Cursive Connections
- Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum by Laura Berquist
- DK Math Made Easy Series
- Faith and Life Religion Series
- Footprints of God Series with Steve Ray
- Free Audio Books at LibriVox
- Friendly Defenders
- Fun Geography Sites
- G.K. Chesterton
- Henle Latin
- Homeschool Connections
- Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments
- ISI College Guide
- Jacobs' Algebra
- Jacobs' Geometry
- Learning Wrap-Ups
- Let's Read-and-Find-Out Science
- Life of Fred Math Series
- Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization
- Lyrical Life Science and Lyrical Earth Science
- Map Skills - Continental Press
- mater et magistra magazine
- Netflix
- Northern Rain Studio (Audio Dramas)
- Pope Benedict XVI Writings
- Princeton Review Guides
- Questions for the Thinker Series by Fran Rutherford
- Reading Your Way Through History
- Red Letter Alphabet Book
- Secrets of Lost Empires
- Shiller Math
- StartWrite
- Teaching Company Courses
- Thinkfun Games
- Vision Saint Stories
- William Shakespeare
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Review: Nurture Shock
I finally wrote up a more complete review of Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children, which was published last week and is now available in bookstores.Here's a great quote from the book which homeschoolers will particularly appreciate:
We thought that aggressiveness was the reaction to peer rejection, so we have painstakingly attempted to eliminate peer rejection from the childhood experience. In its place is elaborately orchestrated peer interaction. We've created the play date phenomenon, while ladening older kids' schedules with after-school activities. We've segregated children by age - building separate playgrounds for the youngest children, and stratifying classes and teams. Unwittingly, we've put children into an echo chamber. Today's average middle schooler has a phenomenal 299 peer interactions a day. The average teen spends sixty hours a week surrounded by a peer group (and only sixteen hours a week surrounded by adults). This has created the perfect atmosphere for a different strain of aggression-virus to breed - one fed not by peer rejection, but fed by the need for peer status and social ranking. The more time peers spend together, the stronger this compulsion is to rank high, resulting in the hostility of one-upmanship. All those lessons about sharing and consideration can hardly compete. We wonder why it takes twenty years to teach a child how to conduct himself in polite society - overlooking the fact that we've essentially left our children to socialize themselves.You can read my review at Love2learn.net
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Happy Feast of the Nativity of Mary!
Today is our first day of school. We made it to Mass, celebrated with donuts, finished some basics (with an emphasis on Math) and are now listening to the Children's Homer thanks for Audible.com while the kids color or work quietly.
I was delighted to realize last night that I had managed to save up six credits at Audible. Last night we downloaded the Iliad and the Odyssey (went with the highly rated unabridged recordings), Padraic Colum's The Children's Homer and The Golden Fleece, Chesterton's Wisdom of Fr. Brown (the one Fr. Brown audio we were missing) and C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity.
Most of our group activities start next week, so we're easing our way in, but we are looking forward to Leonardo de Fillipis' one-man show on St. John Vianney on Thursday.
I was delighted to realize last night that I had managed to save up six credits at Audible. Last night we downloaded the Iliad and the Odyssey (went with the highly rated unabridged recordings), Padraic Colum's The Children's Homer and The Golden Fleece, Chesterton's Wisdom of Fr. Brown (the one Fr. Brown audio we were missing) and C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity.
Most of our group activities start next week, so we're easing our way in, but we are looking forward to Leonardo de Fillipis' one-man show on St. John Vianney on Thursday.
Monday, September 07, 2009
And a Movie List Too
"School" Movies We've Seen This Year (08-09) - This one is particularly incomplete as I wasn't very good at keeping up with it.
- A Man for All Seasons
- Ancient Mysteries: Lost Castles of England
- Battlefield Britain: The Battle of Hastings (not for younger children)
- Battlefield Britain: The Spanish Armada (not for younger children)
- Bill Nye the Science Guy (Various Episodes on YouTube)
- Emma
- Great Ideas from Classical Physics Series (Ria finished this)
- Magic School Bus: Bugs
- Magic School Bus: Human Body
- Magic School Bus: Space Adventures
- Microcosmos
- NOVA: How the Towers Fell
- Secrets of Lost Empires: Inca
- Secrets of Lost Empires: Pyramid
- Song of Bernadette
- The Footprints of God: Paul
Time to Move the Booklists Around
Every September I empty the booklists from the sidebar of my learning notes blog and store them elsewhere (including print copies, when I'm that organized). So here are our 08-09 lists (I really wasn't good about writing down the ones we read at the end of the summer - there were quite a few picture books, especially in the history realm):
Picture Books We've Enjoyed This Year (with the younger set - not a complete list!)
- A Cache of Jewels by Ruth Heller
- A Day on Something-something Farm
- A Picture Book of Jesse Owens by David Adler
- A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard
- Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
- Animals Do the Strangest Things
- Baby Animals by Garth Williams
- Billy and Blaze
- Blaze and the Gray Spotted Pony
- Blaze and Thunderbolt by C.W. Anderson
- Blaze Shows the Way by C.W. Anderson
- Caedmon's Song by Ruth Ashby
- Cat and Canary by Michael Foreman
- Crinkleroot's Guide to Animal Habitats
- Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing Butterflies and Moths by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Birds
- Crinkleroot's Guide to Walking in Wild Places
- Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac
- D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths (in progress)
- Danny and the Dinosaur
- David and Goliath (another one - can't remember the author)
- David and Goliath (Little Golden Book)
- Eloise Wilkin's Poems to read to the Very Young
- Father Bear Comes Home by Elsa Holmelund Minarik
- For the Children: Words of Love and Inspiration from His Holiness Pope John Paul II
- Fossils Tell of Long Ago by Aliki
- Growing Up in Ancient Egypt by Rosalie David
- Hokusai: The Man Who Painted a Mountain by Deborah Kogan Ray
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
- Katy and the Big Snow
- Kites Sail High: A Book About Nouns by Ruth Heller
- Little Bear's Friend by Else Holmelund Minarik
- Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip
- Magic School Bus Gets Eaten
- Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
- Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
- Paddle to the Sea
- Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow, illustrated by Monica Vachula
- Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai
- Pocahontas: Girl of Jamestown by Kate Jassem
- Simpson and Sampson by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson
- Sir Kevin of Devon by Adelaide Holl
- Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi
- Starfish by Edith Thacher Hurd
- The Art lesson by Tomie dePaola
- The Blue Number Counting Book
- The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse
- The Frog and Toad Treasury by Arnold Lobel
- The Good Man of Assisi by Mary Joslin and Alison Wisenfeld
- The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie de Paola
- The Librarian Who Measured the Earth
- The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn Branley
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
- The Red Letter Alphabet Book
- The Story of Babar: The Little Elephant by Jean de Brunhoff
- The Story of Jonah (Little Golden Book)
- What Lives in a Shell?
- Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs
Night Time Read-Alouds with Daddy 2008-2009
- Anne of Green Gables
- Canadian Summer
- Friendly Gables
- The Mitchells: Five for Victory
Bernie:
- Canadian Summer
- Friendly Gables
- The Last Battle
- The Mitchells
- Thomas Edison (Childhood of Famous Americans)
What Mommy Read (2008-2009)
- Better Off by Eric Brende
- Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love by Myron Uhlberg
- King Lear
- Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Murder in the Cathedral
- The Ball and the Cross (in progress)
- The Good Land by Loula Grace Erdman
- The Midnight Dancers by Regina Doman
- The Wide Horizon by Loula Grace Erdman
- What it Means to be a Christian by Cardinal Ratzinger
Recent Movie-Watching
I've been extra negligent of my blog lately as we had a family staying with us for quite a bit of August (as well as taking a trip to Oklahoma) and Ria and I have been busy working on the latest issue of mater et magistra magazine (which is dedicated to history studies!).
Partly because of these history projects, we reinstated our Netflix account and have watched quite a few movies in the last month or so. Here are some really brief notes (on the ones I can remember, at least):
Captains Courageous (Spencer Tracey) - Based on the story by Rudyard Kipling. This is a great old flick that was recommended to me by my sister-in-law and we finally got around to watching just a few weeks ago. A spoiled, wealthy lad is kicked out of his exclusive boarding school for obnoxious behavior and his single father hopes to spend more time with him to help improve his ways. The boy ends up getting in a situation with some boys aboard an oceanliner and falls off the ship unseen. He's is rescued by a Portuguese fisherman and forced to help out onboard a working boat for three months.
Henry Poole is Here - An interesting, understated movie about a man who finds a waterstain on the house he's just purchased that everyone else thinks is an image of the face of Christ.
Mary, Queen of Scots - A quality period piece (made in 1971) about Mary, Queen of Scots and her rivalry with Queen Elizabeth I of England. Not very family friendly (especially one disturbing scene that I couldn't make sense of from other historical sources), but surprisingly balanced in historical viewpoint.
Tucker: The Man and His Dream - Fascinating story of an inventor who attempted to market a new line of cars in competition with the big three automakers in the late 1940s.
The Boy in Striped Pajamas - A Flannery O'Connor-ish piece about the young son of a Nazi commander who is overseeing one of the Nazi concentration camps. Quite good, in a somewhat disturbing sort of way.
Breach - A gripping (though sometimes disturbing), real-life spy thriller about the capture of Robert Hanssen - an FBI agent who perpetrated the largest breach of security in U.S. History by selling government documents to the Russians over the period of several decades. Though the details of the spy's Catholic background seem a little muddled (for example, people who attend the Latin Mass don't tend to also hold hands for grace before meals), the movie treats it on the whole (and quite reasonably) as part of the enigma of the man. Also, not a bad reminder that people aren't always who they appear to be on the surface. I will probably let my teens see this only with a little editing. The sexual deviance stuff is definitely out there (even though it's a PG-13).
Love in the Afternoon - This was sort of a random choice, partly because I'm a fan of Gary Cooper. It's a quirky comedy/romance that made John and I laugh out loud in a number of places (and ended pretty well), but was a little creepy given the age difference between Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn. Very Billy Wilder.
Playing Elizabeth's Tune - Interesting documentary on Catholic composer William Byrd, who worked for Queen Elizabeth I in spite of Catholic persecution of the day (and is one of my very favorite composers - we had his Mass for 3 Voices sung at our wedding). Fascinating, very British (somewhat Protestant) perspective.
Catholic Heroes of the Faith: The Story of Saint Perpetua - Interesting and surprisingly substantial children's cartoon about the martyrdom of Saint Perpetua and some of her companions. The quality of animation is better than the CCC movies, though not fantastic, but the dialogue is excellent. My children enjoyed this very much.
El Cid (Charlton Heston) - Epic movie (co-starring Sophia Loren) about the legendary 11th century Spanish hero and warrior. Definitely worth a watch, though not entirely appropriate for family viewing.
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (directed by Franco Zeffirelli) - A beautiful film on St. Francis of Assisi, that moves and inspires in spite of a few (surprisingly few!) 70s moments. Some disturbing elements might make it inappropriate for younger or more sensitive children. Culminates in Francis' audience with the Holy Father.
Pride and Prejudice (Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier) - A sometimes laughable, though well-acted (I love Edmund Gwenn as Mr. Bennett!) 1940 version of the classic Jane Austen movie. Some of the rewrites seem a little funny after enjoying other film versions of recent years, though the film is probably most enjoyable if you're already somewhat familiar with the story.
Partly because of these history projects, we reinstated our Netflix account and have watched quite a few movies in the last month or so. Here are some really brief notes (on the ones I can remember, at least):
Captains Courageous (Spencer Tracey) - Based on the story by Rudyard Kipling. This is a great old flick that was recommended to me by my sister-in-law and we finally got around to watching just a few weeks ago. A spoiled, wealthy lad is kicked out of his exclusive boarding school for obnoxious behavior and his single father hopes to spend more time with him to help improve his ways. The boy ends up getting in a situation with some boys aboard an oceanliner and falls off the ship unseen. He's is rescued by a Portuguese fisherman and forced to help out onboard a working boat for three months.
Henry Poole is Here - An interesting, understated movie about a man who finds a waterstain on the house he's just purchased that everyone else thinks is an image of the face of Christ.
Mary, Queen of Scots - A quality period piece (made in 1971) about Mary, Queen of Scots and her rivalry with Queen Elizabeth I of England. Not very family friendly (especially one disturbing scene that I couldn't make sense of from other historical sources), but surprisingly balanced in historical viewpoint.
Tucker: The Man and His Dream - Fascinating story of an inventor who attempted to market a new line of cars in competition with the big three automakers in the late 1940s.
The Boy in Striped Pajamas - A Flannery O'Connor-ish piece about the young son of a Nazi commander who is overseeing one of the Nazi concentration camps. Quite good, in a somewhat disturbing sort of way.
Breach - A gripping (though sometimes disturbing), real-life spy thriller about the capture of Robert Hanssen - an FBI agent who perpetrated the largest breach of security in U.S. History by selling government documents to the Russians over the period of several decades. Though the details of the spy's Catholic background seem a little muddled (for example, people who attend the Latin Mass don't tend to also hold hands for grace before meals), the movie treats it on the whole (and quite reasonably) as part of the enigma of the man. Also, not a bad reminder that people aren't always who they appear to be on the surface. I will probably let my teens see this only with a little editing. The sexual deviance stuff is definitely out there (even though it's a PG-13).
Love in the Afternoon - This was sort of a random choice, partly because I'm a fan of Gary Cooper. It's a quirky comedy/romance that made John and I laugh out loud in a number of places (and ended pretty well), but was a little creepy given the age difference between Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn. Very Billy Wilder.
Playing Elizabeth's Tune - Interesting documentary on Catholic composer William Byrd, who worked for Queen Elizabeth I in spite of Catholic persecution of the day (and is one of my very favorite composers - we had his Mass for 3 Voices sung at our wedding). Fascinating, very British (somewhat Protestant) perspective.
Catholic Heroes of the Faith: The Story of Saint Perpetua - Interesting and surprisingly substantial children's cartoon about the martyrdom of Saint Perpetua and some of her companions. The quality of animation is better than the CCC movies, though not fantastic, but the dialogue is excellent. My children enjoyed this very much.
El Cid (Charlton Heston) - Epic movie (co-starring Sophia Loren) about the legendary 11th century Spanish hero and warrior. Definitely worth a watch, though not entirely appropriate for family viewing.
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (directed by Franco Zeffirelli) - A beautiful film on St. Francis of Assisi, that moves and inspires in spite of a few (surprisingly few!) 70s moments. Some disturbing elements might make it inappropriate for younger or more sensitive children. Culminates in Francis' audience with the Holy Father.
Pride and Prejudice (Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier) - A sometimes laughable, though well-acted (I love Edmund Gwenn as Mr. Bennett!) 1940 version of the classic Jane Austen movie. Some of the rewrites seem a little funny after enjoying other film versions of recent years, though the film is probably most enjoyable if you're already somewhat familiar with the story.
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