Dec. 1, 2009 - A, B, C, D, & F Too Hard for Parents?
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
Apparently the Spokane School system thinks letter grades are the cause of ongoing problems with communicating how a child is doing in their subjects. Numbers on the other hand make everything clear. Read the article to find out how.
I have nothing against numbers, and I have nothing in favor of letters--as grades, but the problem the Spokane schools are hoping to solve won't be cured because of their preference for numbers over letters. They could do the exact same report card using the letter system. Nor will telling parents how their children are doing after the term help. Parents need to know how their children are doing during the term. Unfortunately many teachers never communicate that at all and leave it to the report card to do their "dirty" work for them.
Just a few weeks ago I spoke with a mom whose son had been placed in a new school. She thought her son was doing well. She had signed up to be a substitute teacher's aide and one day she was called in to help in the remedial math class. She was shocked to find her son in it. At first she thought he'd lost his way or something, but he soon let her know that this was his math class. It was a rough day for her as she waited for the day to end to find out the answers as to why her son was in this special class and why hadn't she or her husband ever been told?
While the parent should always be the one to keep tabs on their children and not leave it up to the teachers to relay how a student is doing, parents have been conditioned to believe that they have put their children in safe hands and that until they are notified, by report card, everything is fine and dandy.
Communication among parents and teachers is bound to get worse, not better, no matter what grading system is used as long as parents continue to blindly follow the blind.
November for us is all about Mangoes. We pick, pack, freeze, dehydrate and eat. In fact we've eaten so many mangoes over the last month we are nearly over them. (I know it is a terrible thing!!)
My favourite recipe for mangoes at the moment is a mango green smoothie:
1 orange
1 mango
1 handful of leafy greens - spinach, bokchoy etc
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
It's really no surprise to anyone ever that the NEA was more interested in protecting its power than educating children. What is surprising is that they actually feel confident enough in their power to admit it. Here's the NEA's General Counseladmitting as much in his retirement speech this past summer.
"Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power....
This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary. These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.
If you're a parent with children in the public schools you can voice your objections here. But the best way to object is by removing your children from their schools. Without your children they have no real power.
In a related story, future teachers in Minnesota are being "reducated" and become "culturally competent"
Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin in order to obtain a teacher certificate.
This morning I looked through my blog for some links for a friend so I thought I would share them here with you too.
Intentional Training - bootcamp - an intense period of training for a purpose.
These blog posts are simply my thinking processes. I share them on my blog not so much to be copied (as each child will have different heart attitudes) but rather to share the thought process and the intentionality that is needed if we are to help our children succeed.
I’ve had several pages open in my browser for the last little while waiting to share them with you.Since I have to shut down my computer for a while now seems like a good time to post them.
I love the idea of these Narration bookmarks. These prompts help the children to think as they are reading.Most of my children are sharing their narrations in their reading journals these days, but they go through seasons of needing prompts. This post was listed in the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival – if you haven’t read it yet – there’s plenty to read!
I love this list of what a true friend is like – as per scripture.These are good scriptures to remember for anyone – not just us ladies!
Not sure how I came across this site though it has been open for a week or so – neoK12 – Educational videos and lessons for k-12 school kids.This will be a handy link to keep!
I’ve printed this off to keep in my Bible study folder.Not sure when I’ll get to this study but I’d like to do it myself or help my older ones to do it as their Bible Study.Getting to know God through His Names and Titles.I like the list in that it is just some prompts/scriptures – you have to do the thinking and applying.
Also need to bemore diligent with Scripture Memorisation with my younger two – not sure how I’m going to do this yet, but with AmblesideOnline’s list and this one I think we’ll have enough to work with.
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
For all my homeschooling friends who think ObamaCare will solve their financial and health insurance woes, think again. It may give you temporary relief for your financial headache, but it may also invite government nannies into your home to improve your child's well-being and health.
HR 3200 that passed the House of Representatives, currently has a provision for funding states that implement a "voluntary" home visitation program for parents with young children or who are expecting. (See Sec. 1904 sec. 440)
The intended purpose is to " improve the well-being, health, and development of children by enabling the establishment and expansion of high quality programs providing voluntary home visitation for families with young children and families expecting children."
"Health and safety inspectors are to be given unprecedented access to family homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from household accidents.
New guidance drawn up at the request of the Department of Health urges councils and other public sector bodies to “collect data” on properties where children are thought to be at “greatest risk of unintentional injury”.
Council staff will then be tasked with overseeing the installation of safety devices in homes, including smoke alarms, stair gates, hot water temperature restrictors, oven guards and window and door locks.
The draft guidance by a committee at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has been criticised as intrusive and further evidence of the “creeping nanny state”.
Where are the safety devices for the "creeping nanny" who keeps sticking her nose into our personal lives?
Why homeschoolers support this bill or President Obama is beyond my understanding.
I was recently asked what do we 'use' for homeschooling so I've compiled a list. It isn't a complete list as it would take me forever to walk around the house and list everything that the kids use, or have used over the years. I prefer to use resources other than curriculum (at least I make this distinction in my head). When you use a resource you are in control, you use what you want, what you find helpful and what solves your problem and then you move on. With a curriculum we tend to have this inner commitment to use it all, to be solely dedicated to it, to be honour bound to it (obviously that is a bit extreme but there is a glimmer of truth there!) So we these are some of the resources we use:
Bible - I have not used a set curriculum for Bible though I have drawn heavily from Heart of Wisdom's approach - read, discuss, research, record etc. We've done both chronological readings as well as topics. We cover a lot of our language arts in the writing/notebooking/narrations that happen in Bible. By older two (15/16) have been doing Bible independently for a year or so - they have used various studies but our main goal has been to teach them to use Bible study tools for themselves.
Character - we study one character trait a month and have done so for many years. We use primarily Character First material.
Language - We've used a variety of methods for teaching to read, but largely guided by Ruth Beechick (even if we were using a curriculum such as Jolly Phonics, or an Australian one - LEM) For writing we've used Charlotte Mason's ideas of oral narration and then written narrations. We use notebooking or Lapbooks. Once the children are comfortable with writing we've used Institute of Excellence in Writing.
Math - our core is Math U See though I supplement that with math literature, drawing on livingmath.net
Science - this is one of my weakest areas. I have largely relied upon Magic School Bus dvds, and anything Peter (dh) wants to show them. He is the scientist. We have probably focused on Creation Science in the primary/elementary ages and used magazines, dvds, audios to help the children see the importance of this aspect of science. As the children have got older we've used Noeo Science and Apologia for different children. Next year I intend to use God's Design for Life by Answers in Genesis as my spine/core guide. I also use Topscience intermittently - it also covers some math concepts.
History - Josh has used Diana Waring as a spine/outline. Jess is using Mystery of History. We read lots of historical fiction, biographies and non-fiction books. Notebooking is our primary output for history (and science)
Geography - another weak spot for me and a strong point for Pete. We do a lot of this by talking around the dinner table as well as taking notice of things in the books we read. Currently we are reading through Exploring the World around you by Gary Parker.
Each of our children pursue a variety of different interests and we've all sorts of curriculum and resources but this covers the main stuff.
-oo0oo-
If you are thinking about homeschooling I have some thoughts and ideas for you over on the homeschool section of my website, Lifestyle Homeschool
If you are looking at curriculum and wondering, then this article may help you: Choosing Curriculum
Nov. 16, 2009 - State Mandated Parental Interference
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
Mike Huckabee, Chuck Norris, and Michael Farris talk about how the new health care bill that will allow the government to enter our homes and tell us how to parent our own children.
You can read Chuck Norris' article about the bill on World Net Daily.
Huckabee, Norris, and Farris also discuss how international law may be used to judge a case on juvenile heinous crimes instead of American law. This is important for homeschoolers to know because because the international law that may be used is from Europe and Europe has made the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. So Europe is telling us how we have to judge our juvenile criminals and that can lead to telling us how we have to raise our children as well.
As my previous post said, I had my plans all laid out for today. We were going to have a good day. Well, we did have a good day, but it had nothing to do with my plans!
Pete had to get his plane back into town and pick up his car so that meant a trip to town for me. We got talking and it was so tempting to head out for coffee but because I'd made plans I decided to head back home and carry on with whatever we could.
I wasn't home long before we got a phone call from a friend who was able to drop in to help Nomi with a craft project she is making for my Christmas present (which is why I couldn't help her!). So there went Nomi's study.
Then Pete needed help down in the paddock and Daniel was the best kid for the job so there went Daniel's study!
Josh was processing mangoes and listening to an audio and Jess was busy with her studies. After lunch Jess took over with the mangoes and Josh took in a little study. Then there was "Bedroom Bless" the time when the kids deep clean their bedrooms, and then we headed over to a friend's house for swimming practice.
While I was in town the kids all (except Josh) worked on their independent work so their basic skills were covered today but the Bible lesson, the character lesson, and the living math lesson I had planned just didn't h\appen! But lots of good stuff did and that is what we have to remember when life happens - that if it is good stuff then we need to make the most of it, if on the other hand it is drivel that happens we need to get control of our day - but for us today, it was good stuff.
I have homeschooled 17 years. I am still learning!! I hope I can share some things here that will be helpful to someone...and I hope I can continue to learn from my fellow homeschool moms!
