Posted in Reviews

I'll say it up front - the title of this book made me leary of reading it.  It has so many potential interpretations - positive and negative.  So, I was pleasantly surprised by the contents.

 

"Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschool Movement" by Mitchell Stevens is a marvelous read. 

 

However, a disclaimer before proceeding.

 

Stevens' book seems to ring true to my own experiences and observations regarding the American homeschool movement.  But much of his research (though by no means all) was conducted in the Midwest, which is also where I live.  Thus, we share observations, geography, and understanding of the values of this region of the country.

 

Stevens is an ethnographer studying a specific phenomena within American culture - the rise of the current homeschool movement.  His purpose isn't to critique it specifically, though he does come to some pretty insightful conclusions.  And he doesn't "bash" homeschooling in any way (despite the potentially negative play on the title's words).

 

He defines two primary "camps" in the homeschool world - the secular (which he terms "inclusives") and the fundamentalist Christian views (termed "believers).  Stevens acknowledges that there are all sorts of shades between these two camps and that these are simply alternative ends of a theoretical continuum. 

 

Based on these identifications, he analyzes how these two viewpoints, with their corresponding national organizations, function, promote, and act as spokespersons for homeschooling in general. 

 

I found the book useful on several fronts - primarily in that it outlined in some detail the "history" of the current homeschool movement: when it started, the major figures, the legal issues, etc.  And, I found that it generally "caught the mood" of how homeschooling is developing between these two camps. 

 

One of the more interesting points he makes concerns the "why" of which camp (believers or inclusives) seem to be "leading" the homeschool movement. 

 

He argues that the believers (whose leaders he identifies as Mike Farris, James Dobson, Mary Pride, and others) have been "more successful" in the promotion of and political arena surrounding homeschooling because as a group their religious beliefs support the concept of hierarchy - lower order members accepting subordination to higher ones in imitation of the hierarchy of God over mankind.  This makes, he argues, for a stronger, more agile organization.

 

He compares this to the inclusives - people or groups who insist on the inclusivity of everyone regardless of any social/cultural/ethnic variances.  These groups are often structured on a truly democratic scale - everyone must be able to vote and/or agree on what is to happen with the group at large.  Such forms of organization are unweildy and tend to be unable to act in a large arena due to their general structure, which is indicitive of their mind set.

 

Indeed, Stevens found that some inclusives resisted being categorized in any fashion.  "I found also that the extent to which these homeschoolers even thought of themselves as a 'group,' or wanted to be one, was very much an open question" (19). 

 

Stevens conclusion is that these groups will retain their now historic roles primarily because of their social organization.  And, that homeschoolers have been and will remain a diversified group.

 

I would not suggest Kingdom of Children for those "just starting" to homeschool or researching the possibility.  While the content neither promotes nor denigrates the homeschooling option, some of the observations Stevens makes requires context. 

 

For those who are still uncertain of their homeschooling options and, possibly, direction, the discussion it presents could make one "self-concious" about homeschool decisions.  For instance, evaluating a homeschool group requires as much consideration of the practicalities of the group in question as much as as theory on which the group is based.

 

To read the promotional excerpts, click here.

 

Posted in Reviews

We used Galloping the Globe, a geography unit study program written for grades K-4 by Loree' Pettit and Dari Mullins, this past year as the spine for our kindergarten studies.  It was a fabulous resource for our first year of homeschooling and I'm extremely pleased that we ended up using it.

 

Galloping the Globe (commonly referred to as GtG) is neither a workbook nor a consumable text.  It is series of unit studies organized by continent focusing on a selection of countries from around the globe.  The book contains lists of suggested materials, organized by subject, and reproducible pages of word games, puzzles, flags, maps, and other relevant items suitable for notebooking. 

 

The subjects suggested for each country vary, but usually include general overview materials, biographies, literature selections from or about the country, science suggestions (often animal based, or habitat oriented), internet resources, and additional cultural activities like recipes, maps, flags, and poems.  The countries studied are selective - it would be impossible to study every country in the world - but fairly representational.

 

In addition, there is a Yahoo Group that provides a lively forum for discussion and information sharing as it relates to using this study.

 

GtG does have a bundle of supporting materials that is available to go with it.  However, this is, by far, not all that you need to successfully complete the program.  To provide the variety of materials for the history, literature, and other aspects on each country, your local library will be your primary source for materials.

 

As a teacher, what I particularly liked is the guidance of the text as we began our studies.  I had proven suggestions at hand for what to use to cover the culture, history, and geography of the country we were studying.  I liked the literature suggestions best - we found some absolute gems through using this text in books I might not have bothered to look at without this recommendation!

 

Also, once you've worked through a few countries, you start to get the feel for how a unit study is put together.  Indeed, many users of the program have created their own country units for countries not covered in the text.  We eventually did a unit on Sweden and found it just as much fun to create and do as a pre-made unit! 

 

My daughter found all of the literature-rich options so enticing!  And the activities suggested by the book were a big hit as well.  Her favorite country that we studied was China - I'm not sure why, but it probably had to do with the Chinese crafts we did, building the Great Wall of China from Legos, and the wonderful books. 

 

I've encountered several folks who have been interested in combining GtG with another geography or history program.  GtG is, in large part, what you make of it in your homeschool.  On its own merits, GtG would be sufficiantly "meaty" to use with students in its intended age range, and maybe slightly beyond with age appropriate additions.

 

As a companion to a four-year classical rotation, I think GtG might be difficult to work with because of its contemporary cultural and geographical focus.  Certainly, some of the countries covered in the ancient and medieval classical studies are included in GtG, but bridging the time period between, for example, medieval England and modern England are several hundred years, simply packed with history no less.  And, including history that will be covered later in the classical rotation. 

 

We chose, instead, to use our GtG studies as an introduction to basic map-reading, geography, and cultural awareness.  The history studies we saved until we could really dig into them at a later time.

 

Overall, we found it to be a highly satisfying program to work through.  I strongly recommend it for new homeschoolers as an excellent program to begin with.

Posted in Reviews

I love serendipity! 

 

I happened across Professor Noggin's Card Games at an "educators'" store last week while visiting family.  Because we are doing Apologia Elementary Astronomy this summer (and into the fall, it seems!), I picked up the "Outer Space" game on a whim. 

 

What a great find!

 

There were several reasons why this product appealed to me after playing a few games. 

 

There are two levels of play - "easy" and "more advanced."  This has an advantage in that my 6yo and I can play together, but we can play at different levels at the same time!  She can actually win a "trivia" style game against me because of this. 

 

Another thing I liked was that the cards are themed (in the Space version) with one planet or concept per card.  There are 30 cards, including one on astronauts, asteroids, general questions, each planet, and the like.  This roughly corresponds to the layout of the Apologia book, which was nice. 

 

Theoretically, you could remove those cards that you haven't covered in your studies as yet, keeping the game focused on review of materials covered.

 

The rules are relatively simple - you take turns asking questions from themed cards based upon the roll of a 3-numbered die.  The correct answer wins you the card.  The player at the end with the most cards wins. 

 

The average game has taken us about 20 minutes, with a few replayed cards.

 

The reading level for the questions is probably around mid-2nd grade, with occasional help on unfamiliar words or names. 

 

There are numerous other versions of the game, which I'm very seriously considering.  These include Ancient Civilizations, Creatures of Myth and Legend, Medieval Times, American Revolution, Countries of the World (I and II), Earth Science, Famous Inventions, and Wonders of Science. 

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find a game that so well reflected our subject matter, without a lot of fluff.  What a fun way to review material and move ahead a bit on new ideas!

Posted in Reviews

Originally posted May 2006

 

One of the things I enjoy about homeschooling is the opportunity to do stuff I never got to do as a child.  I have to admit, the Antworks ant farm is one of those things.  

 

I justify this by remembering that my enthusiasm for learning or doing something new will be noticed by my six year old daughter, and that's a great thing to teach her.

 

That said, ants give me the heebie-geebies most of the time.  However, they are fascinating creatures and this seemed like a great way to study them. 

 

Antworks is an acrylic container, about 3/4 inches wide, filled nearly to the top with a solid gel.  The gel is the key. 

 

Developed by NASA to allow astronauts to carry tunnel-building insects into space, the gel is stationary within the "tank," so the Antworks farm can be carried or moved as needed.  The gel provides the perfect nourishment for the ants, plus it is also the tunneling medium. 

 

The best thing is that the gel is a clear blue, so you can see the ants' tunnels as they develop.  We've measured the tunnels, guessed where they might tunnel next, and watched with fascination as the ants pulled really large pieces of gel to the surface.

 

The lid of the container fits solidly, so there are no escapees!  You need only open the lid occasionally to let in fresh air, but there are very small air holes in the lid as well. 

 

You may also need to remove the occasional dead body, which the ants bring to the surface from the tunnels.  Once our colony was "established," we haven't had to do this very often.

 

The kit comes with a certificate to purchase harvester ants by mail.  We, however, chose to collect our own ants.  This, in itself, was the first learning step with this project - determining what ants were native to our area and would be large enough to observe easily. 

 

We discovered that the only ant large enough to not escape the tank (via the air holes) were carpenter ants.  They have been an excellent choice.  Their mandibles (mouth parts) are large enough to see them work, they began digging tunnels within a few hours, and they are relatively hardy.

 

Overall, we've been extremely pleased with this product and have already had many hours of enjoyment through using it. 

 

Added 5-28-06: We discovered the "ideal" way to add ants to our Antworks today.  You just need them to "chill" so they don't scurry everywhere when you open the tank.

 

We capture ants by putting baby food jars over them, then sliding thin cardboard underneath the opening.  Then we put the Antworks in the refrigerator, along with the new captures in their individual jars, for about 20 minutes.

 

After their brief chill session, the ants are semi-dormant and don't scurry around much at all.  We put five ants in the tank today in less than 2 minutes, with no escapees or hassles.  Thus far, everything in the tank looks good after their brief cooling session.

 

Added 6-28-06 - a photo!

 

 

This is the Antworks in our home after a couple of weeks.  The ants have added a few new tunnels since this photo and widened most of the ones you see here.  This has been so much fun!

 

August 7, 2006

 

Well, we've hit some snafus with the Antworks.  We're not entirely sure what happened, but we've conjectured that when the tunnels became extremely deep in the gel - and one-directional at that - air flow became and issue. 

 

The tank does have two very small air holes at the top.  The directions say to remove the lid once a week to allow fresher air into the tank.  However, once the ants tunnelled to the bottom, I don't think once a week was often enough.  Probably once each day or two was more reasonable.

 

At any rate, after leaving the tank unopened for a week, we had a huge ant extermination.  New ants placed in the tank simply didn't choose to "cope" with the quantities of dead bodies at the bottom and, unfortunately do not have a great survival rate in there.  But, in itself, that problem created a new issue - mold.  The dead bodies decayed and are molding in the chambers in more than one place.

 

Interestingly, the mold and accompanying decay are also turning the gel a gold color.  We're not sure what's causing this, unless it's acid released by the decaying ants that is making this change.

 

Also, we've discovered that the ants need a "motivator" ant - someone willing to set the example to do the work.  If the motivated worker ant dies, the rest seem to lapse into a torpor and do very little. 

 

All this said, we will continue with our experiment, possibly purchasing a new tank after Labor Day in order to have a fresh supply of ants and tunnels for my daughter's science experiment.  We will make a point of opening the tank daily though for fresh air.  And, I've taken to "fanning" the tank in order to circulate air through the tunnels.

Posted in Reviews

I keep telling everyone, "This summer we're studying astronomy." 

 

I think I'm losing credibility. 

 

What we've really gotten into this summer is insects.  Lots of insects.  My camera was full of photos of insects when I had the film developed, including a huge dragonfly that we found knocked senseless after a rain storm.

 

I've reviewed our Antworks project and added photos recently, but this time it's butterflies. 

 

I thought ants were neat, but this was awe inspiring.

 

We ordered our "Butterfly Garden" from InsectLore, which claims to have sold over 35 million butterfly catterpillars since they started in the late '60s.  Our five caterpillars arrived in excellent shape and time, which was a relief because the weather did turn exceptionally hot the week they came.  I imagined "broiled" caterpillars when we opened the box...

 

 

This is what the caterpillars looked like just a day or so before they formed chrysalids.  We'd had them for about five days.  The waxy looking stuff in the bottom is their food - they really go through it!  We drew them, photographed them, and marvelled at how fast they went from little 3/4" caterpillars to these 2+" things in such a short period.

 

 

Exactly "on schedule," our caterpillars began forming chrysalids.  They come with a concise, but informative, pamphlet on how to care for the insects at all stages.  They should grow to form chrysalids in 7-10 days; ours began forming right at 7 days. 

 

We had one caterpillar that was a bit smaller than the others.  This one did everything about two days later.  This had a benefit, however. 

 

Once the "older" caterpillars formed their chrysalids, the leftover one kept messing with these hanging formations.  We imagined s/he was thinking, "Where did everyone go?"  When this single caterpillar touched a chrysalid, it shook and swang violently!  It was startling the first time we saw it.  This is a defense mechanism for the chrysalids, to help them avoid being eaten.

 

Once all the chrysalids were formed, the instructions guide you to placing them into the net "garden," which is pictured below.  One of the chyrsalids fell off before we moved it - thanks to our inquisitive younger sibling!  It survived this, being crawled over by the only child caterpillar, handling by Kate and myself, and then an accidental (short) drop into the garden.  They must be pretty hardy.

 

We eventually had all five of them emerge this past weekend.  The "final product" looks like this:

 

 

 

My daughter really enjoyed this project, and recommends it like this:

 

 

Our poor ants have taken a back seat in our interests this past week, but I think they've managed just fine...