Ready for some questions in Math? There are three age categories of questions today. Be sure to email the answers to me at thogate@thehomeschoolmagazine.com.
Correct answers will be entered into our drawings at the end of the month. We will be giving away two gift certificates to the Schoolhouse Store.
For more information on the contest, please see: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HSBCompanyBlog/674688/
Okay, here are your questions:
- Elementary (Grades 1-5) What 3 consecutive integers will add up to 27?
- Middle Grades (Grades 6-8) The town of Hippity-Hoppity has a population of 17,480. Five percent of the people are one-legged. Half of the remaining population goes bare-footed. Sandals are the only footwear. How many sandals (not pairs) are worn in Hippity-Hoppity?
- High school and adults: A boy agreed to work one year for $240 and a horse. At the end of seven months he quit and received $100 and the horse. What was the value of the horse?
Alrighty, email me your answers. Also on the email, I will need your name, age, state you live in, and email address. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
To enter you must live in the US. Click here for full contest rules.
Blessings,
Tandy Hogate
~TOS Marketing Assistant
As my children become older and my teaching load increases due to more students, teaching from a place of rest seems quite inviting to me. It is like an oasis in the middle of a teaching storm. I yearn to be able to teach with a sense of calm and peace. I think I have reached the tip of this iceberg but I am always eager to listen on conversations (usually cyber ones) that deal with rest.
As I noted a few weeks ago, teaching with a sense of rest can mean many things. It can mean a sense of contentment with how you are teaching your children and the curriculum you are using. It can also mean paring down the subjects you are teaching to the bare minimum. This concept scares many homeschooling moms. This idea is equivalent to academic suicide to the minds of many. This flies in the face of modern education. Today in public schools, the students' days are filled with numerous classes that are not just academic in nature but vocational as well. The premise for this is that the schools are trying to prepare the student for the world and a job, hence, computer classes, home ec. classes, welding classes, etc. In overloading the student in this manner, we are increasing the odds that he or she will not be able to learn anything very well. The basics will be pushed under the rug, so to speak, to make room for the extras. Therefore, we end up with young adults that do not know much about anything. We, then, wonder why Johnny can't write or read when he graduates high school.
When we focus on the basics and a few extras, we have time to teach in a thorough and effective way. When your child is doing the basics of math and language arts (grammar, spelling, writing, lit. study, vocab) plus the extras of foreign language (some are doing 2 or 3 different language studies) and content subjects (history, science, geography, etc,) there is no wonder that it is taking them much longer than 6 hours to get their school work done. Also, what are they truly learning?
Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simmons and The Latin-Centered Curriculum by Andrew Campbell speaks to simplifying our academic expectations of our children. In doing this, we can teach more deeply and effectively. There is a sense of rest in teaching this way. Also, teaching this way requires trust. We need to trust that God will fill in the gaps in the way that only He can. Trust is key in rest.
The first few years of our homeschooling was chock full of various subjects like geography, science, vocab, Latin and Spanish plus all of the CM variables of picture study and composer study and we haven't even gotten to the basics yet. Our days were full and I taught with a cloud of pressure hovering over me the entire time. When we didn't finish all of our plans (which happened regularly) I felt like a total failure. Another consequence to this kind of schedule was children who were burnt out come the end of the first term. They were beginning to hate learning. This is not how I had envisioned our homeschooling to be. Again, failure.
It has taken me a few years to clue in, but I am seeing now that less is better. I am able to give more time to my kids to teach them. We do not have time pressures anymore. Our frantic, crazy days have been replaced with a relaxed, calm atmosphere. It is a soothing balm to my soul.
Our days are now focused on math, reading, writing and grammar. We do one content subject which is history. We do science but in a very relaxed manner. We will not do science as a formal subject until my children hit Grade 7. I do teach Latin to my children but it, too, is done in a relaxed manner as my children are dyslexic and foreign langauages are tricky for them. We also do Plutarch, Greek Mythology, Poetry, Recitation, and Shakespeare but they are done one a day. Even this sounds like a lot but it is do-able for us. We do not feel the familiar pressures of days gone by. There is that sense of calm and peace that I have been trying to attain for the last 5 years. I am sure that I will always have to strive for this rest every year that we homeschool but I think I am up to the challenge.
Julia lives on the Canadian Prairies with her husband, homeschooling their 3 children (10,8,6) and is attempting to give them a Classical Education. You can read more at her blog.
- Woven Potholder ~ This lovely is bound to fill you with delight every time you have to rescue cookies, or protect your tabletops.
- How to Make a Rag Quilt ~ A rag quilt inspires me, and makes me think of a warm fire, a delightful book, and knitted slippers. Can't you just imagine one of these draped across your bed?
- Practical Endpapers ~ Do you have a favorite cookbook? Fit it out to be even more useful and user friendly!
- Homemaking Journal ~ This isn't exactly a craft, but I love the idea so much! Pass down your own tips, tricks, and favorites to future generations, with this charming idea.
Tonight's workout: Dumbbell Complex - the Bear!
(i don't know what it means, but T got it from crossfit.com)
We set up each child with their own little area, and their own kettlebell or dumbbells - we made a safe place for baby to play, but she ended up wanting to be with us, so everyone had to be really careful. Finally, Wyatt ended up trading his heavy weight for a 20 lb baby, much to her delight...
We did five reps each of deadlifts, cleans, and thrusters, every minute, for 20 minutes. I fell behind a couple times taking video (it was so cute!) - but i probably was the most pooped - the little guys had a blast!
T says this is our new after dinner activity :) before any glowing boxes are lit... (tv, video, computer, etc etc)... Nobody is complaining!
We have a tiny camcorder. It's not even a camcorder - it's more like a cell phone camera that takes movies, wtihout the cell phone :)...
it's tiny, it cost less than 100$ and the quality isn't that great. Which means that i let the little guys take it and film their daily life whenever they want, and supposing i can find two alive AA batteries (the little thing eats batteries, so unless you remove them after every time you shoot something, they are dead by the next time you want to take a movie. which is a pain in the bottom, since that means if baby is doing something cute, you have to insert batteries, turn it on, wait for it to warm up, and then push record. by then, she's graduated from university...
but i digress...
I took some movies of the littles working out with me and T tonight - it was so cute, there was music pumping and baby got to be Wyatt's "weights" for part of it, and afterwards, i was looking at the movies and decided to title some of the other movies i've dumped into that folder.
At least half of them are not by me. Of the ones that are of me, they are mostly me filming baby's milestones - i don't want to miss any of them - but really, i need to start taking movies of the other children... They are shaky, and strangely colored (especially when we film in the basement - greenish cast to everything). They are chaotic, with people running into the frame to ask me a question about homeschooling, or to thrust a lego creation in front of the lens. Little men without pants, but wearing undone zip up ties (you know who you are...)...
And i realized - this is it - this is my life. No, it's not always pretty, yes it's messy, yes, it's chaotic. But it's a fun life, even if it's not perfect, or perfectly documented... I wish i had time to sweep before they film their "two feet off the ground" movies - i wish my children all wore pants! ( you know who you are!) - but this is good enough. I'm doing all i can, and we're still happy and sane and loving God and each other - and when i watch my littles on their home movies, i am so glad for each little one He's given to our family, and can't imagine a space where that child is...
We are in the process of adopting Kate from Latvia. She is a handicap girl who dresses herself with her teeth. She will be visiting us during Christmas. The orphanage doesn't want her any longer. They were putting her through training courses to learn "independent living" so they could ship her out. She is only ten years old. How do you live independently when you can only use your mouth to dress yourself, let alone use the bathroom? Her fate is certain death if she stays. The orphanage complained that she was too much for them to lift any longer. Our hearts hurt for Kate. If you would like to help us adopt her, send a check in care of Kate to :
Open Door Adoption
PHONE: (229) 228-6339 EMAIL: opendoor@rose.net
P.O. Box 4 218 E. Jackson Street
Thomasville, GA 31799
Thanks!!
This is a picture of her at eight years old. She is now ten years old.
Once a Homeschool Kid, Now a Homeschool Mom
November 5, 2009 by Elizabeth
I have been asked many times to compare what it was like being a homeschool student to what it is like now being a homeschool mother – what I do the same, what I do differently, and how my experiences as a child have helped me now that I am homeschooling my own children......
YOU CAN READ THE REST HERE!
This week's Featured Blogger is Diamonds In The Rough!
"Mrs. Diamond" and I have been getting to know each other through our blogs. Her "Diamondettes" (I refuse to cal them lumps of coal), have been blog friends with my girls for awhile now. It's fun to meet families as a family on HSB!
Now there are TONS of blog posts I could link you to, but I had such a hard time deciding what to go with. I've opted to link to categories, that way you can see a bunch of posts at one time.
The first category up is Emily's 400 Questions, and Mrs. Diamond isn't kidding when she makes that claim! Some of the questions her daughter comes up with will surely make you chuckle and wonder where that question came from. Others are very thought provoking. All are fun to read! Now if Mrs. Diamond would put the answers she'd have her own Q & A Encyclopedia!
Ever wonder what it's like to live in the desert? Then the category Life in the Desert is what you want to click on! It's hot, it's cold, and it's always full of blessings--and lessons from the Lord.
With the holidays coming up you are more than likely looking for some new recipes. Try this little recipe "book" Recipes From My Kitchen. The recipe that is a family favorite for my family is the Dutch Baby. Yummo!
My all time favorite category though is Diamonds and Other Gems. Wow! There are some lessons to learn here! Like the worth of diamonds--and souls.
Please click on over and say hello to my friend, DiamondsInTheRough!
Tia Linchied
Senior Editor of HSB
This reporting has gotten by the wayside because I have been so busy. I have been doing the FIRST Lego League. It is so demanding this program. I will not continue this next year. We spend two days a week and about 5 hours a week working on programming, building, and research. This is a tough job. The children do not know how to program a light sensor. So, I realize this is too hard. They will have to pray and seek the Lord as to how to make these missions work.
We manage to get reading Story of the World, Plutarch, and Shakespeare into our schedules. We have manage to get Primary Mathematics in for both boys. We have soccer practices, piano and violin practices too. Since the FLL has consumed a lot of my time, I realize that we need to do something different. I did summer school and then I did FLL in the fall. I really overextended myself. My children are learning a lot, but I feel it has come at some price.
My younger son got a staph infection. I do not know where. I pray the rest of us don't get it. I took him to the infectious disease doctor who put him on strong medicines and a body cleanser. This is hard. He has missed games this season due to illness and the staph infection. We are battling our bodies and our wits at the same time.
That is my report.
I always go back and forth with a plan, but I am sticking to this plan.
I am not going to continue with Classical Writing Homer B. I am going to trust the Charlotte Mason method. I am going to take the stuff from Ambleside Online and use to finish up Homer B myself.
I am going to teach my son how to write in a slow and progressive practice. He will learn how to write a draft and then rewrite what he has written. My struggle will be how to teach him how to write a persuasive piece. That is what I will work on with him starting in January. I how that I can find pieces that can teach you how to write persuasively. Pray for me. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.