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Things That Have ChangedThings that have changed since I was on here blogging...
Fall 2009 Family Photos
We are back blogging I think.... To see the individual photos up close just scroll your mouse over the screen. My Jesus, I Love TheeHave been thinking about Chris Klicka this morning. I remember when he came to speak at the OCEANetwork Conference a few years ago. In farewell and blessing, we (all the conference attendees gathered in the sanctuary) sang him this song. It was beautiful, and poignant, and I'm glad the Lord gave him a few more years after that on this earth, to be with his family and friends. Still, it is a comfort that for him, "to live is Christ, and to die is gain."Praying God's peace for him and those who love him. My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine; Catching Up on Our Homeschooling This Year
Posted by Sheila Wray Gregoire
5:48 PM, Sep. 22, 2009 .. Posted in Homeschooling Trends .. 1 comments .. Link I have seen the future of schooling, and it is us. Let me explain. My oldest daughter, who's 14, is supposed to be going into grade 9. Our province allows students who wish to take their courses online, through one of the school boards. So we decided to have her do Math and Science online, while I continue to teach her English, History, Social Studies, etc. Last year she took French and Science, and she quite enjoyed it. This year she's doing grade 10 Science and grade 11 Math. She could have done grade 11 Math last year, but there was no room in the class. My younger daughter, who is 12, is ready for grade 11 Math next year, but I'm going to let her wait a year before she takes it online. But teaching them at home just let them whiz through most of Saxon Math's program, and we've loved it. They're so far ahead. So even though I love homeschooling, I'm letting my daughter do some public school courses (although they still are online). Why? It's simple, really. If she has six grade 12 credits from an acredited school, then getting into university is no problem. We don't have to jump through hoops. And I've decided that this just sounds easier, and I want to make it easy for her. Besides, I'm still teaching her the important stuff! We calculated it out, and she'll be finished her grade 12 credits when she's 16. And then she has a year and a half to work full time, or write a novel, or travel, or do missions trips before university. But as we've been watching this whole process unfold, it has occurred to me that this must be the future of schooling. Think about it: it's much easier to teach online. Sure, you still need a teacher to mark the papers, but there's no physical building. You don't need gym equipment. You don't need a library. You don't need to hire a janitor, or a secretary. It's a lot cheaper. And then the kids aren't exposed to all the crap they get in high school. Why wouldn't more parents have their kids do it this way? And as governments face more budget cuts, you can bet they'll start to look at more online alternatives. Of course there are Christian online options for high school, but here in Canada most of them aren't acredited, so we went with something that absolutely was. But it just makes so much more sense. Rebecca has two Science classes a week, of about an hour and a bit each. She submits one assignment a week. And they cover the entire course curriculum. In a regular classroom you'd do 400 minutes a week, instead of their 180. You just get rid of all the wasted time. So the kids have more time for their real life. Why wouldn't this catch on? Personally, I'm still having fun teaching History and English. We're using Veritas Press' Omnibus curriculum with both she and her sister this year, although I've added some books for her to read. Over the course of the year both girls will read approximately 27 books. Next year she's doing Sonlight's Survey of British Literature, which also has 27 books. That's serious learning and serious reading. In public school English (including online), they read 4. How is that education? I'm thrilled that I can find the best education that works for my girls, and for our family. We're taking a month long missions trip to Kenya this year, and we don't have to worry about missing school in the middle of it. I really think more and more people are going to clue in to how much time is wasted in school, how poor an education it is, and how much better your life can be with real educational alternatives. So let's not shirk when people ask why we homeschool. Let's be proud! We, after all, are the future. One, Two, Three, Four...
Posted by DanielleW
7:41 PM, Tuesday, August 25, 2009 .. Posted in Homeschooling .. 3 comments .. Link ...I declare a Math war. We are still waiting for Cameron's math book to arrive. I thought I would take this time to reinforce his basic math skills. A friend of mine has a math game that is played like the game of War. I thought that we could easily copy this game with the flash cards we have. Cameron LOVES this game. How we play.
Did I mention that Cameron loves this game? After playing this a few times, we changed up the rules. He could "steal" my card. I keep my hand over my card and, after he answered his card, if he could get the answer to my card in less than 5 seconds, very slow seconds, he could have my card, even if it was the higher card. Soon, he was getting ALL of the cards. He was pretty pleased with himself. But, there is a secret I'm not telling him... I'm not telling him I to am pleased that he is getting all of the cards. It means he is improving on his math skills in both accuracy and speed. If our math book doesn't come in tomorrow, I'm declaring another math war. School Rules
Posted by DanielleW
1:46 PM, Monday, August 24, 2009 .. Posted in Homeschooling .. 0 comments .. Link Today was very nice day of school. Things were accomplished, learning was done, attitudes were spectacular! I hope today was not a fluke. I began today with pulling out the portable dry erase marker board. I told Cameron that we would be coming up with some school rules for us to follow. If we broke the rules, there would be a consequence. He agreed with me that not following the rules would be disobedience. He came up with what he thought was a just consequence. Then I told him there would be a "grace." Grace is NOT getting what we deserve. Basically the grace was a warning. I think that some of the time he doesn't even realize his behavior, or subtitle attitudes that can quickly escalate. Hence the warning. So, we discussed different rules and wrote down some of his ideas. Then I tweaked them to come up with our list. Here are our school rules:
It was helpful to have this list before us and sitting with us during school today. I was able to refer to it. "Wow, Cameron. You were being pleasant even though you missed that word. Way to and not be grumpy!" "Be careful. You are starting to complain. Don't break rule number 3." He referred to it as well. "Mama. I really did number 1. I did my very best and I got 5 lines done in under 20 minutes!" (I was so proud of him for that one that it actually made me tear up a bit.) So, I'm praying that today was not a fluke. I am going to make our rules into a poster to hang on our wall so that they can be a reminder to us both. Lift and Thrust
Posted by DanielleW
7:55 PM, Thursday, August 20, 2009 .. Posted in Projects and Experiments .. 0 comments .. Link I always joke that I learn just as much as Cameron, if not more, as we go through our school work. Today in science, we learned about lift and thrust. I have heard these terms before but never really understood them. We did an experiment that shows what lift does for the flight of a bird. Because of the shape of its wings, the air on the top of the wing moves faster than that of the bottom. This creates different air pressures. The air on the bottom is pushing more than the air on the top.
When he blew, very hard, across the the top of the straw in the water, it created a lower air pressure. The air pressure on the rest of the water was stronger than that across the top of the straw and Cameron and I were surprised with a spray of water. AMAZING! The things I never knew! First Caterpillars of the Season
Posted by DanielleW
7:45 PM, Wednesday, August 19, 2009 .. Posted in Gods Wonderful Creation .. 0 comments .. Link Cameron and I consider ourselves Monarchologists. I'm not sure that is a real word but that's what we are. We look forward every year to when we can start looking for Monarch caterpillars. We were visiting my mom's house. Cameron was sent out to the mail box and RAN back to the house to breathlessly tell me that he found one. I wasn't even sure what "one" was yet. He wanted to drop everything and go harvest it. He had even already named it Edward. Today, Cameron measured Edward.
He may look small but he wasn't even 1/4 of an inch when Cameron found him. We were amazed with how much he grew in just a week. With Edward we ended up with two other caterpillars. They were so tiny, we didn't even spot them on the leaves at first.
We just love Monarchs. And even though we've done them for a few years, they are still exciting, interesting and a big learning opportunity for us. { Last Page } { Page 2 of 7 } { Next Page } |
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