Nov. 21, 2009 - Global Warming Fraud Exposed

A few days ago hackers got access to a wealth of information that had been denied to the public.  It seems as though some global warming proponents know that the data contradicts their theory…but they were not willing to share that information.

You can read more at SDA.  (Caution:  Although this award-winning blog contains valuable information, it often has language issues and it is not Christian.)

On a similar note, recently  der Speigel published an article entitled “Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time Out.”

Nov. 20, 2009 - Our New Filing Cabinet

Today we had to go out, and since one of the thrift shops had a 50% off sale, we popped in.  There we found a two-drawer filing cabinet for $7.50!  Afterwards, we walked past similar filing cabinets in Walmart, and the girls were awed by their $53+ price tags. 

When we got home, I went through many messy binders and piles of papers and tucked them into that neat cabinet. I also collected a whole garbage bag full of useless and outdated papers.  Within a few hours the room went from being a discouraging mess to looking so pristine that I pop in once in a while just to enjoy the sight.    

Whoever first said, “Don’t pile it, file it,” was certainly right! 

Hopefully we’ll manage to do more decluttering tomorrow...but the kids are begging to go to a local second-hand book sale and that will have the opposite effect.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy weekend.

Annie Kate

Nov. 18, 2009 - Homeschool Crew Review: AVKO Membership

AVKO (Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, Oral) Educational Research Foundation offers a wide range of help for those struggling with dyslexia or other reading and spelling issues.  Its mission is “to provide free and low-cost resources to home and school educators in order to achieve literacy for all, even despite learning challenges or dyslexia.”  Don McCabe, the founder of AVKO, is dyslexic himself and has spent much of his life working with illiterates, dyslexics, and others who cannot learn in usual school system. 

Here’s the key to McCabe’s method:

If a struggling student hears the word (Audio) and sees the word (Visual) as he writes or types it (Kinesthetic) and says it (Oral), he will be using a multi-sensory approach to learn spelling patterns.

Other keys aspects of the AVKO method include

• daily practice (absolutely no days skipped)
• learning spelling by writing words in logical sequences, rather than by studying (this is really cool!)
• encouragement, as typified by the motto, “Mistakes are opportunities to learn.”

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Now, AVKO is not only, or even primarily, for young children.  It seems to be largely for older ones who are having difficulty, and for adults who cannot read or spell.  But can it be used with younger children?  Yes, it can.  It provides a phonics system and it involves a unique and appealing spelling system.  If a child is having difficulty learning to read, the AVKO approach would most likely help.

The Homeschool Crew Reviewers were asked to review an AVKO membership which includes the following freebies:

• five downloadable books (described below)
• discounts on other AVKO books
• audio conference presentations
• readings for comprehension
• supplemental curriculum materials

The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: Starting at Square One by Don McCabe  $59.95 in book form or free as a download with membership

This handwriting/keyboarding curriculum teaches reading and spelling as the alphabet is being taught.  It is essentially a phonics program and was made for students who have difficulties reading. As each letter is taught, its name, sound, and shape are taught, and words involving the sounds are included.  Words are listed in families such as

            at, bat, cat, rat, sat, tat (p 22)

            paper, papers, papered, papering, wallpaper, wallpapers, wallpaper, wallpapering (p 206)

After completing this program, a student can begin Sequential Spelling 1 (not included in membership).  He or she can also read some pretty significant sentences like

Nine winners had dinners and dined in the diner. (p 104)

The nose knows the difference between a rose and rows of stinkweed. (p 165)

Pros are professionals.  Can professional poets write prose? (p 208)

I love the upbeat character of these sentences.  The author obviously had a lot of fun making this program, and that shines through these books time and again. 

Notice, however, that these sentences seem too sophisticated for six year-olds. McCabe says it’s important for a struggling learner to be able to read and spell words even if he doesn’t know what they mean.  He also points out, quite logically, that a student is more likely to learn from these sentences than from simpler ones like, “See the pretty red balloon.”

The Reading Teacher’s List of Over 5500 Basic Spelling Words by Don McCabe   $29.95 for printed pages in a binder or free as a download with membership 

Mr. McCabe lists the 5500 basic spelling words in four ways

• in order of difficulty according to the scale developed by Dr. Harry Greene of the University of Iowa
• alphabetically, with the difficulty score listed beside each word
• alphabetically, with percentages of students, grades 2 to 8, who can spell the word correctly 
• alphabetically, referenced to the relevant page in The Patterns of English Spelling

This book is handy for spelling review, since I can go directly to the words of appropriate difficulty for each individual child.  It’s also great for teaching spelling since each word is linked to similar words in The Patterns of English Spelling.  Thus, rather than teaching only the one word the student can’t spell (or read), you can easily teach a whole family of words. 

I’m using these words to help some of my children prepare for a spelling bee.  At this stage, I hate to get them started on a different spelling program, but we may do so in the future, if necessary.

Patterns of English Spelling, Volumes 1-10 by Don McCabe (huge, over 1600 pages!) almost $400 for printed pages in binders or free as a download with membership 

These ten volumes are not easy books to be picked up and used within fifteen minutes.  They take a while to understand, partly because they are so comprehensive, and partly because they are so thorough.  They are not difficult to use, though.  Each pattern of spelling in the English language is represented, with lists of word families put in sentence context.  Words are classified by families and difficulty, and entries include spelling demons, related families, homophones, homographs, and heteronyms.  (Yes, I learned a bit of vocabulary today!  I’m running out of space to share definitions of these three ‘h’ words in this post, but I can post them later if anyone asks.)  This is priceless for teaching spelling, and I encourage you to look at some of the samlples.

On top of all this, Patterns of English Spelling is a fabulous rhyming dictionary for poets, since it lists words by their end patterns and has cross references between rhyming patterns.

The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: A Continuum from Kindergarten to College by Don McCabe  $59.95 for printed pages in a binder or free as a download with membership

This book is for “College Education Majors,  Parents Who Want to Homeschool Their Children, The Training of Adult Literacy Volunteer Tutors, & Especially College Reading Instructors Willing to Try New Approaches to Old Problems.”  It includes information about phonics, reading, writing, spelling, and testing, and could be helpful to parents of dyslexic children.

For me, the most fascinating part of this book was the discussion of what dyslexia actually is.  There I read a description of Littlest Miss who becomes incredibly frustrated when words don’t follow rules!  Instantly all my reading for this review became personal.  We’ll give our current phonics and spelling systems some more time.   (As the Moores point out, some children just aren’t ready to read competently at the age of seven—none of our other children were.)  If necessary, however, we’ll be switching to AVKO methods in the future. 

Nov. 17, 2009 - Feel Better with Garlic

Our family often enjoys garlic as food, whether in bruschetta, in soups, added to stir fries, or with meat. 

When we’re sick, however, we take large amounts as medicine: chopped up raw (my husband makes a very garlicky bruschetta when he’s feeling off), simmered in chicken soup, or even added to mashed potatoes.  Garlic is known to have significant antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and anti-parasitic properties, and it helps us feel much better.   

The main drawback to using garlic as a medicine is, of course, smelling funny.  If you’re sick in bed, a garlicky odour won’t offend anyone, but when we’re well enough to be involved in outside activities, the children and I eat less.  To reduce the odour, we also occasionally raid our parsley patch (which, by the way, is still flourishing this late in the year!).

What’s more, garlic also has significant cardiovascular and anti-cancer benefits.  That’s exciting news to me, because I have a higher cancer risk due to celiac disease. 

So whether we enjoy it in moderation for its pungent taste, or occasionally eat huge amounts to reduce the impact of a cold, our family is hooked on garlic.  It’s yummy, healthy, and inexpensive.  

The internet is full of all sorts of informative and practical garlic links, many of them advertising various forms of purified garlic supplements (we just buy the bulbs from the grocery store).  However, I only included two (impractical) National Institute of Health links in this post to show you reliable and verifiable research results.  Some people may need this ‘ammunition’ to convince sceptical family members and others.

For more helpful hints, see Being Frugal’s Tightwad Tuesday , We are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday, and Life as Mom's Frugal Friday.

Nov. 16, 2009 - Reading Week

We’re still getting well, with sniffling and coughing and long nights in bed.  I don’t think it was the flu, since we had no fever...or perhaps all the vitamins and garlic helped more than we imagined.  

This week is scheduled to be our annual reading week.  Sure, the children will work ahead a bit in their schoolwork, and we’ll do some extra home projects, but the emphasis will be on reading—all sorts of books on all sorts of topics.  We’ll be picking up quantities of library books including a huge selection of Canadian picture books for everyone to enjoy.

Wishing you all a happy, productive week.

Nov. 12, 2009 - Tomatoes

Yesterday we finished the last fresh tomatoes of this year’s crop, chopped fine in a pot of garlicky chicken soup.  We’re all a bit under the weather, and that chicken soup was wonderful! 

All the rest of the tomatoes, and there weren’t that many this year, are either frozen or made up into salsa.  It seems funny, in the middle of November, to have no more trays of ripening tomatoes on our windowsills and elsewhere.  In the past I’ve collected salad tomatoes from our furnace room almost up to Christmas!

Our tomatoes had a disease this year and many spoiled, even while still in the garden.  We’ve been very careful to put all diseased tomato scraps into the garbage, not the compost pile.  We’ve also raked up all the plants themselves for the garbage.  I hope this will prevent the disease, whatever it was, from spreading.

Since we’re always careful to rotate our garden, there should be no difficulty with this tomato disease next year.  Just to be sure, we’ll be planting only disease-resistant varieties next year instead of a mix of heritage tomatoes and our own saved seeds.

I can hardly believe I'm thinking about next year's planting already! 

Thanks for stopping by for Tea Time with Annie Kate.

Nov. 11, 2009 - Remembrance Day

My parents were little children in the Netherlands during World War II, and they were freed by Canadians.  I am humbly grateful to Canadian veterans and thankful to be a citizen this great country.  As it is Remembrance Day, I want to share two verses of ‘O Canada.’  The first one is the official anthem; the second is the final verse of the original poem.

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North, strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free !
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

 

Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion whithin thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard.

God keep our land glorious and free !
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Nov. 10, 2009 - Microwaving a Pumpkin

Pumpkins are yummy.  They make great pies, delicious breads, and hearty soups. 

But there’s always the challenge of going from the round, orange pumpkin itself to the puree you need in recipes.  The quickest, simplest way we’ve found to prepare a pumpkin is to microwave it.

• Choose a small pumpkin (4”-6” across works for us, but it depends on your microwave)
• Wash it, remove the stem, and stab it all over with a fork (just like you do for a baked potato)
• Put it on a plate and microwave it on high for 10 minutes
• Turn it over, and microwave for another 10 minutes
• If the pumpkin is soft, it is cooked.  If the sides are still firm, you may need to turn it over again and cook it for another 5-10 minutes, depending on the size of the pumpkin and the power of your microwave.  (see Caution below) 
• Let it cool, and then peel off the skin (it will come off easily), cut it in half, and remove the seeds
• Depending on the recipe, we either mash the cooked pumpkin with a fork or blend it with the liquid ingredients in the recipe we're using

CAUTION:  Make sure that your microwave does not overheat!!   If the outside of the microwave is getting too hot, you must give it an hour or so to cool down.  If the pumpkin isn’t quite cooked, continue with the cooking later, and use a smaller pumpkin next time.

For more tips and hints see Canada Girl’s Tightwad Tuesday  and Being Frugal’s Tightwad Tuesday.   You should also check out Works for Me Wednesday.

Nov. 9, 2009 - American Math Challenge

This week US children can enjoy the free online American Math Challenge for students ages 9-14.  The Math Challenge is an exciting, interactive way to improve mental math skills; our children participated in the World Math event last winter and loved it. 

I’m assuming this US event will be similar, with kids playing in real time against others across the country. They will accumulate points for each one-minute game as well as for each curriculum activity they do.

Enjoy!

Nov. 7, 2009 - Homeschool Crew Review: America’s Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,

in a state of civilization,

it expects what never was and never will be.” 

Thomas Jefferson 

The United States is, undeniably, facing difficult times.   The American Heritage Resource Education Foundation says these problems arise partly because the citizens are forsaking their roots, expecting to remain civilized and free while being ignorant of the past. The website proclaims, “The experts agree--America is in such significant social, cultural, philosophical, governmental, and educational decline that, if continued unabated, it will result in the death of the country.”   

For a country built on the concepts of “individual rights and the four key themes  of Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility,” disaster looms when these concepts are no longer taught and reinforced in schools and institutions.

The mission of the American Heritage Resource Education Foundation, Inc. is to promote constructive citizenship among students and citizens by teaching, reinforcing, and practicing these four themes.  That is why they put together the Adventure in Liberty curriculum supplement for grades K-12.  In its three levels, Elementary, Middle School, and High School, it discusses basic US documents, songs, and symbols, and teaches some US history and citizenship. 

The elementary level of An Adventure in Liberty  features a silly radio play containing the chorus “We got to get independence."  It also includes the Independence Game (to understand the effects of colonial rule), some crosswords of poor quality,  a silhouette of Washington, pictures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence(poor quality), president cards (decent quality), a list of Presidential Fast Facts (very interesting), and finger puppets.  Topics such as Thanksgiving Day, the flag, the Star Spangled Banner, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the National Motto are discussed as well.  For us Canadians, the information about the presidents is worthwhile, but the rest of this curriculum level is quite nationalistic.

The middle school level   is much more appealing.  It contains the same Independence Game as the elementary level, but no poor quality puzzles.  Various documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Gettysburg Address are included and discussed.  The US motto is explained, with references to the Masonic affiliation of some of the founding fathers.  The Statue of Liberty and the Pledge of Allegiance are also included, as is a discussion of what a citizen is.

The high school level of An Adventure in Liberty contains the above documents, as well as the Mayflower Compact, a discussion of the First Amendment, and Federalist Paper #47.  These and other documents are carefully explained.  This level also includes a fascinating chapter about four successful entrepreneurs, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Hill, and Rockefeller.

I have a few issues with the premise of this curriculum.  The four values (freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility) were not, it seems to me, foundational to the vigor of the early United States.  The credit for that should go to the Christian beliefs of the majority of the people, and to God’s blessing.  You can’t expect to repair the structure of the country without going back to the foundation, Christianity, and this may not be taught in US public schools.  What is more, it was the people who were Christian; many of their leaders had abandoned the historic faith and hints of this are evident in the documents they drafted. 

For US citizens  this is a valuable collection of source documents, presented in an appealing way.  It would benefit both homeschools and day schools.  I also think that everyone could benefit from reading the preface (see page 9 in the link), which is identical in the different levels.

Being Canadians, we are not enthusiastic supporters of the revolution, and I was repelled by some of the nationalism in the elementary curriculum.  The other two levels are more factual and contain important information about the United States that can benefit citizens of every country.

The real value of this curriculum for our family is as a collection of source documents, often with illuminating discussions.  I also appreciate the mini-biographies in the high school curriculum as well as the Presidential Fast Facts in the elementary curriculum. An additional document, focusing on character education, has resource lists about famous men and women.  Since the topics in the elementary, middle school, and high school character education syllabus are similar, this is an excellent opportunity for the entire family to study the same famous person or topic. It is available on the website but not on the CD.  

You can read opinions of other Homeschool Review Crew members on the Crew blog.

Where to Get It

All three levels of America’s Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty (including the elementary level in Spanish) are available as free downloads from the website.  The chapters of each level can also be downloaded individually as needed.  To choose what you wish to download or to examine these curriculum supplements more closely, please see the elementary level outline,  the middle school level outline, and the high school level outline.

Those with a dial-up internet connection would be better off requesting the free CD that contains all three levels of the curriculum.  A printed version is available for $19.50 US per level.  

Donations and other support to the American Heritage Resource Education Foundation are welcome. 

Policies

Disclosure Policy:   As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a free CD with all three curriculum levels. 

Dial-Up Friendly Policy:  For the sake of my dial-up readers, this blog avoids visuals. Note that the files of this curriculum supplement are large; if you are on dial-up, you should probably request the free CD.