Today is my mom's birthday, and we spent the day at her house. I clean for her every other week so that is one reason we went over, but it worked out that we could do it on her birthday too! The girls made her cards, and LB terrorized her house. He knocked the phone off the hook several times, got the toilet brush, and was just a busy boy! It was a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun!
I think LB must be getting another tooth. He barely ate anything today, but he chewed on his fingers a lot and went to bed at 6:00. He has already gotten two of his molars so is probably getting another one. Yay.
So I have some laundry that now must be folded (hopefully in front of the Dick Van Dyke Show) and some hot tea to drink for my sore throat. Hopefully I will have some pictures tomorrow!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
I went to my curriculum meeting Saturday night, and I am really excited about what I think we are going to start doing. It is a big commitment, but I think anything is going to seem that way starting 1st grade as we are only doing math and reading right now!
Pnut had her last basketball game on Saturday, and she made a basket! Everyone was so excited, it was really cute! I am thankful that she got to play and also thankful that it is over. I do not deal well with parents who are competitive over kindergarten basketball. Of course, I did forget to take the camera, but at least I remembered the one game!
Joel fixed the bigger bike we have today and Pnut and Pilly are now both riding regular bikes, and they are having a ball. Up until now, Pilly has been riding a 12 inch bike with pedals on the front tire, which worked well, her legs are just getting a little long. Yesterday we took a walk and the girls rode their bikes. I had the backpack on, but LB walked most of 6 blocks. He was having a ball and did not want to get in. He kept trying to climb up on the porches we passed. When he was tired, he was beat. He had no desire to walk anymore and cried when I tried to put him down so into the backpack he went! Joel wants to try to teach Pnut to ride without her training wheels...we'll see! She is very afraid of falling. Pilly may master that skill first!
Well, I have some more reading about this curriculum to do!
Pnut had her last basketball game on Saturday, and she made a basket! Everyone was so excited, it was really cute! I am thankful that she got to play and also thankful that it is over. I do not deal well with parents who are competitive over kindergarten basketball. Of course, I did forget to take the camera, but at least I remembered the one game!
Joel fixed the bigger bike we have today and Pnut and Pilly are now both riding regular bikes, and they are having a ball. Up until now, Pilly has been riding a 12 inch bike with pedals on the front tire, which worked well, her legs are just getting a little long. Yesterday we took a walk and the girls rode their bikes. I had the backpack on, but LB walked most of 6 blocks. He was having a ball and did not want to get in. He kept trying to climb up on the porches we passed. When he was tired, he was beat. He had no desire to walk anymore and cried when I tried to put him down so into the backpack he went! Joel wants to try to teach Pnut to ride without her training wheels...we'll see! She is very afraid of falling. Pilly may master that skill first!
Well, I have some more reading about this curriculum to do!
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Lovely Sunny Day!
It was another lovely day today, and the girls again spent over 4 hours outside. Tonight, however, it totally caught up with them. The girls went to bed a little after 6:30 since they haven't had a nap in two days. Pnut was a mess! I'm not sure how people with kindergarteners in full day school handle it! Aren't the kids exhausted every day? Needless to say, we will be having nap tomorrow, and even when the weather is nice, we will still do it every other day! I let the girls eat their lunch outside today:
They only made it halfway through as it was so windy that all their food was getting dirt blown in it! LB just ate inside, which he probably preferred anyways:)
Once he went to bed, we took the bikes into the alley:
It is nice as there isn't too much traffic, and since it is the middle of the day, there aren't other kids out there.
You can't really see it, but I made Pnut's skirt last night. I need to fix the waistband once it goes through the wash. I didn't put elastic in as it is a knit material and I hoped it would just be tight enough, but I think to prevent any mishaps I'll put some in!
Pilly brought the car out after a while and was being especially funny in it. They are all just a trip:)
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Spring Day in March
We had such a lovely day today! The weather was absolutely wonderful, and we spent an hour at the playground this afternoon. Then when we got home, the girls rode bikes in the alley for half an hour and then played outside all afternoon. In total, I think they were outside about 4 hours. And they went to bed and didn't make a peep! (Especially since they missed nap!) I got some fun pictures!!
LB played outside for about 45 minutes after he got. He loves to be out there and gets really mad if he knows the girls are out without him.
He was crying when they first put him in the wagon, and I asked them if he liked that. They said yeah! Ha! After Pnut started pushing it around he started to like it, but he was not thrilled at first!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Apple Raisin Bread
So very good!
1 apple, shredded and squeezed dry-ish
1 c (or up to 1 3/4 c) raisins
1 1/4 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
2 eggs
1/2 c cooled melted butter
1/2 c plain yogurt or sour cream
1 t vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 and butter or spray bread pan. Combine all dry ingredients and raisins. In separate bowl, whisk eggs, butter, sour cream, and vanilla. Whisk in apple. Combine with dry ingredients until just wet. Put in pan and bake for 55 minutes or until knife comes out clean.
I really enjoyed this bread, especially with the cinnamon and nutmeg in it, but I couldn't taste the apple really. It was still very delicious.
I realized why I have no pictures....Joel is taking the camera to work every day to take pictures of things for his etsy shop. Hopefully one of these days he will let it here!
1 apple, shredded and squeezed dry-ish
1 c (or up to 1 3/4 c) raisins
1 1/4 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
2 eggs
1/2 c cooled melted butter
1/2 c plain yogurt or sour cream
1 t vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 and butter or spray bread pan. Combine all dry ingredients and raisins. In separate bowl, whisk eggs, butter, sour cream, and vanilla. Whisk in apple. Combine with dry ingredients until just wet. Put in pan and bake for 55 minutes or until knife comes out clean.
I really enjoyed this bread, especially with the cinnamon and nutmeg in it, but I couldn't taste the apple really. It was still very delicious.
I realized why I have no pictures....Joel is taking the camera to work every day to take pictures of things for his etsy shop. Hopefully one of these days he will let it here!
Monday, March 5, 2012
An Inside Day
Today was a pajama day for the kids. For some reason, it was really cold outside. Goodness, isn't winter over yet? I wanted LB to be warm enough so I was putting pajamas on him, and the girls wanted to wear them too. Since we weren't going outside into the frigid air, that was okay! We finished school quickly today, and they played a lot, especially with the princess tent. I think they enjoyed the day quite a bit. LB loved having the tent up and was giggling about it. He also giggled, danced, and clapped his hands when he turned a bag of pretzels upside down on the kitchen floor. Then he made a mad dash to eat them before I swept them up. That boy just won't stay out of the cabinet!
I made some apple raisin bread today, and I'll have to post the recipe for that because it is good! I am trying to come up with some different things for breakfast. I don't really like cereal very much so I'm trying to make some things that are more appealing. We enjoyed the bread tonight, and I'm sure we will tomorrow morning as well!
Joel took the camera to work today so I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow to spruce things up around here! Now I have to go fold two loads of laundry!
I made some apple raisin bread today, and I'll have to post the recipe for that because it is good! I am trying to come up with some different things for breakfast. I don't really like cereal very much so I'm trying to make some things that are more appealing. We enjoyed the bread tonight, and I'm sure we will tomorrow morning as well!
Joel took the camera to work today so I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow to spruce things up around here! Now I have to go fold two loads of laundry!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
I got sick yesterday...sort of. Joel had this yucky stomach bug that lasted for about a week and the girls kind of had it too, but not quite as bad. I felt really awful yesterday and laid on the couch most of the day, but nothing ever happened. I'm thankful to not actually be sick, but it wasn't a fun day!
We had co-op today, and we only have two more weeks of it. We are off next week and then on the following two. With today, I officially used all of my ideas for the class and now have to come up with two more. I'd also like to start coming up with some things for next semester so that I am not scrambling for activities then! I think I will try to find two more animal activities as we have done animals all semester.
I'm starting to do some really thinking and planning for next year with school. I think it is going to be fun to add some more things in, and I am also planning to change up how we school, not taking all summer off so we don't forget everything we have worked so hard on! I have some ideas for introducing Spanish as well without actually buying a Rosetta Stone curriculum yet! I think as we get closer to the end of the school year I'll write a post about all my plans! I have a curriculum meeting with some friends from the co-op in a couple of weeks, which I am excited about too. I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I actually entered college to be a teacher, but I realized quickly (read...the first day) that I didn't want to do that. I don't enjoy other peoples' children that much. But I do enjoy my own and enjoy teaching them. So curriculum and school things really get me excited! A little weird, but hey, you don't have to read this!
I read a really good response to how it is that home-schoolers can think they are giving their children a better education than sending them to public school and I thought I would share it here. I thought this man explained it very well!
A friend of mine asked me to give him answers to a public school administrator who claims that homeschool parents can't possibly teach as well as teachers with multiple specialized degrees. In the case example he posed, the issue was a chemistry teacher vs. a homeschooling parent. I thought that some of you might like to see my answer. I don't think anyone (at least not Brian Ray or me) would claim that an average homeschooling parent can teach chemistry better than a person with two chemistry degrees. If a person with two chemistry degrees would teach a student one on one--there would be no comparison. But that is not what happens. The public school teacher is teaching 1 on 30. We are teaching 1 on 1. That is the comparison. And the comparisons from standardized testing are not in course-specific comparisons like chemistry. We need to remember that in K-12 education there are really three goals: 1. Master the tools of language 2. Master the tools of mathematics and 3. Get a good broad exposure to other key topics--history, science, foreign language, etc, etc. No student is going to become a specialist in any of the these subjects in K-12. English and mathematics are the two languages of learning. Math and science fields use the language of math. All other fields use the language of words. Students must have mastery in these two languages if they are going to succeed at the college level. The success of homeschooling comes from the mastery of the two languages. It is a demonstrated fact that homeschoolers do better in these core competencies than institutional schools. It is not because we are smarter or better looking than public school teachers. This is true because one-on-one instruction works better than one-on-thirty instruction. When it comes time to teach mastery of a specialized topic--that is where a specialized instructor cannot be beaten. But, homeschoolers even have somewhat of an advantage here. Because homeschool students have mastered the tools of learning to a greater degree, their ability to learn the specialized subject benefits from this advantage. This hypothetical example makes the point--I am just making up all of these numbers but I believe they reflect the truth. If a public school chemistry teacher puts out 100 units of chemistry per hour to students only capable of absorbing 40 units of chemistry per hour, but because there are 30 students there is a distraction which results in a slower rate of absorbtion, the average chemistry knowledge acquired might be 30 units of chemistry per hour. The homeschool parent trying to teach chemistry is only capable of producing 65 units of chemsitry knowledge per hour. But because of mastery of the tools of learning, their child is actually capable of absorbing even more than this--perhaps 80 units per hour. Since it is one-on-one instruction there are no distraction factors and so the average student in homeschooling acquires 65 units per hour. So the net amount learned in homeschooling is greater than in public schooling, not because our teachers are better, but because we have students with better tools of learning and we have fewer distractions. This is why homeschool kids do so well in college and why PHC is so successful. At PHC have specialists who are teaching specialized knowledge. Our students have mastered the tools of learning and they suffer from fewer distractions. And they do very, very well. Homeschooling works.
To wrap that up succinctly, the biggest benefit to homeschooling is that it is one-on-one. No matter how good the teachers in school are, they just have too many kids to deal with!
If you have made it this far, I am amazed! I hope you have a lovely weekend!
We had co-op today, and we only have two more weeks of it. We are off next week and then on the following two. With today, I officially used all of my ideas for the class and now have to come up with two more. I'd also like to start coming up with some things for next semester so that I am not scrambling for activities then! I think I will try to find two more animal activities as we have done animals all semester.
I'm starting to do some really thinking and planning for next year with school. I think it is going to be fun to add some more things in, and I am also planning to change up how we school, not taking all summer off so we don't forget everything we have worked so hard on! I have some ideas for introducing Spanish as well without actually buying a Rosetta Stone curriculum yet! I think as we get closer to the end of the school year I'll write a post about all my plans! I have a curriculum meeting with some friends from the co-op in a couple of weeks, which I am excited about too. I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I actually entered college to be a teacher, but I realized quickly (read...the first day) that I didn't want to do that. I don't enjoy other peoples' children that much. But I do enjoy my own and enjoy teaching them. So curriculum and school things really get me excited! A little weird, but hey, you don't have to read this!
I read a really good response to how it is that home-schoolers can think they are giving their children a better education than sending them to public school and I thought I would share it here. I thought this man explained it very well!
A friend of mine asked me to give him answers to a public school administrator who claims that homeschool parents can't possibly teach as well as teachers with multiple specialized degrees. In the case example he posed, the issue was a chemistry teacher vs. a homeschooling parent. I thought that some of you might like to see my answer. I don't think anyone (at least not Brian Ray or me) would claim that an average homeschooling parent can teach chemistry better than a person with two chemistry degrees. If a person with two chemistry degrees would teach a student one on one--there would be no comparison. But that is not what happens. The public school teacher is teaching 1 on 30. We are teaching 1 on 1. That is the comparison. And the comparisons from standardized testing are not in course-specific comparisons like chemistry. We need to remember that in K-12 education there are really three goals: 1. Master the tools of language 2. Master the tools of mathematics and 3. Get a good broad exposure to other key topics--history, science, foreign language, etc, etc. No student is going to become a specialist in any of the these subjects in K-12. English and mathematics are the two languages of learning. Math and science fields use the language of math. All other fields use the language of words. Students must have mastery in these two languages if they are going to succeed at the college level. The success of homeschooling comes from the mastery of the two languages. It is a demonstrated fact that homeschoolers do better in these core competencies than institutional schools. It is not because we are smarter or better looking than public school teachers. This is true because one-on-one instruction works better than one-on-thirty instruction. When it comes time to teach mastery of a specialized topic--that is where a specialized instructor cannot be beaten. But, homeschoolers even have somewhat of an advantage here. Because homeschool students have mastered the tools of learning to a greater degree, their ability to learn the specialized subject benefits from this advantage. This hypothetical example makes the point--I am just making up all of these numbers but I believe they reflect the truth. If a public school chemistry teacher puts out 100 units of chemistry per hour to students only capable of absorbing 40 units of chemistry per hour, but because there are 30 students there is a distraction which results in a slower rate of absorbtion, the average chemistry knowledge acquired might be 30 units of chemistry per hour. The homeschool parent trying to teach chemistry is only capable of producing 65 units of chemsitry knowledge per hour. But because of mastery of the tools of learning, their child is actually capable of absorbing even more than this--perhaps 80 units per hour. Since it is one-on-one instruction there are no distraction factors and so the average student in homeschooling acquires 65 units per hour. So the net amount learned in homeschooling is greater than in public schooling, not because our teachers are better, but because we have students with better tools of learning and we have fewer distractions. This is why homeschool kids do so well in college and why PHC is so successful. At PHC have specialists who are teaching specialized knowledge. Our students have mastered the tools of learning and they suffer from fewer distractions. And they do very, very well. Homeschooling works.
To wrap that up succinctly, the biggest benefit to homeschooling is that it is one-on-one. No matter how good the teachers in school are, they just have too many kids to deal with!
If you have made it this far, I am amazed! I hope you have a lovely weekend!
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