So Sad

I saw that the links for the Science Songs post were broken and when I went to investigate I found out they are no longer on the site. You can still get the "Space Songs" CD on itunes, but I didn't see any of the others.

If you are still looking for a great free geek song, there is the Elements Song by Tom Lehrer.

Update

Now that school is over I have sent in my LOIs and I'm writing my IHIPs (that's an individualized home instruction plan for those lucky ones of you who don't have to write one) and letting the kids just play. The IHIPs are taking a lot longer than I thought they would. I've never done one before and I'm not really sure what to write. Thankfully, I have the internet and other wonderful homeschoolers who are willing and happy to share what they have done. I'm betting that next year it won't be as stressful or time consuming.

We watched some of "America: The Story of Us" when it was on TV and now I'm not so excited about getting the DVD. I just couldn't watch anymore. I really hope teachers don't end up showing it in their classrooms. Having pop culture icons, news anchors and politicians as the

majority of the commentators was ridiculous to say the least. The graphics were cheesy and the things that they chose to focus on seemed random and not always accurate. Obviously entertainment was valued over any attempt to actually portray history. Do you remember when the history channel actually had shows about history?

We still haven't gone to the mummy exhibit in NYC. I think we will wait until school starts and go in the middle of the week. I love that I can do that now. We have gone to Boston and DC in the last few weeks and it was a lot of fun. I did make one rookie mistake. The Boston trip was a little spur of the moment and I didn't really prep the kids for what we would be doing. Other than a good workout, they didn't get much out of walking the freedom trail. That's okay, because I can do it again another time, if the kids will let me. As you can see from ET's face in the picture, Bunker Hill really is a hill and it's a long walk.

Grade Skipping

Out of the blue I got a call from Hanachan's principal saying that they would be accelerating her next year. WHAT THE !?!?!?! I'd been trying to get them to do that for the last year and now with a month of school left they are having her "push" (I hate all the jargon) into a third grade class for half the day to help her "transition". I was so shocked that this happened that I didn't have the presence of mind to tell him that, everyone knows you shouldn't push.

If anything I think it's making it harder. Kids in her second grade class wanted to know why she was going to the other class, so she told them. Naturally, they wanted to know why she was getting to do that and they started asking more questions. A little while later I get a call from the principal saying that she's being a distraction with all this grade skipping talk. I'm sure my little one was proud of herself and was excited to talk about it and therefore talked too much, but she's 8 people! What did he expect to happen?

They haven't had a kid skip a grade in this district in over 10 years and we are their test case for full grade acceleration. I'm glad that my cordial badgering got the district to come up with a policy to address the issue of acceleration, but it has been a full year of meetings for me and tests for her. Sadly, having your child held back a grade is much much simpler.

You may think this has changed my mind about homeschooling her, but it doesn't. This whole experience has made me realize that the flexibility and individuation that comes from homeschooling is what my quirky kids need. However, I don't want to sabotage anyone else who wants their child accelerated, so even though it isn't required, I will talk to the principal and telling him that we will be homeschooling and why. I just hope it doesn't blow up in my face.

Why I Chose Homeschooling

I started to write the whole saga of what led me to decide to homeschool. It was very very long. This was not an impulse decision. I have been thinking on and off about it long before school was even an option. Every time I got a book about homeschooling from the library I would ponder it some more.

I finally reached my breaking point this year. Hanachan is still stagnating in second grade when she tests well into fourth grade levels on everything. It's taken them a year but her school has finally developed criteria for grade acceleration because of my insistence on it for her. They will most likely not be accelerating her, but I'm not sure because I still haven't gotten a definitive answer. Aki is bored bored bored and actually started backsliding in his reading at one point. ET is old enough and has all the skills he needs but is not emotionally ready to start full-day Kindergarten. Red-shirting him is not an option, he'd be reading chapter books by the time he started school.

Going to the school to talk about Hanachan felt like a part time job as it was, I can't imagine doing the same thing for all of my kids. I know our principal is very busy. Our school is quite large and I feel selfish taking so much of his time. Plus, because the school is so large they have pretty rigid requirements on what is taught at each grade level.

It all boils down to this: schools can only teach to a narrow spectrum of students. If your child does not fall within the parameters of "normal" for their grade, they will be bored and/or frustrated. Schools and teachers have a very difficult job and our government and parents don't make it any easier.

I know that my kids can have an education tailored to their educational needs and styles at home. I have no guarantees of that from school.

Curse of the Mummy!

The Discovery Times Square Exposition is showing a King Tut exhibit from now until January 2011. Even though it is relatively close, we haven't been to NYC yet. This seems to me to be a really good excuse to go.

I've read several books about King Tut and ancient Egypt to the kids the last few days. We're learning about the Egyptian gods, kings and mummies. I want to print out some pictures of various Egyptian gods that they will be able to look for while we are at the exhibit. There is also a website with science, art and writing curricula to go with the exhibit.

It's kind of gross, but the kids have also enjoyed Discovery Kids mummy making game. The kids have already put their own potato "kings" in salt to mummify them. I'll post pictures and instructions if they turn out.

This seems to me to be a great way to start our study of history this summer. Any suggestions of other things we can do?

Best Science Songs Ever

My family has been listening to these since my oldest was a wee one and they are so much fun.

Singing Science Records

Someone who grew up listening to these LP's found them in his parents basement and posted them online as MP3's. They are sputnik era songs that have great lyrics. If you have ever heard the They Might Be Giants version you might recognize, Why Does the Sun Shine?.

I think hearing a toddler talking about gravity and the sun being a mass of incandescent gas is just about the best thing ever. They've learned how far away the sun is, 93 million miles; and how big the earth is, 25,000 miles around. As my kids have gotten older they've asked questions about things that are mentioned in the songs initiating science discussions.

Ballad of Sir Isaac Newton (I promise, I'm not making these up!)

E-lec-tri-city

Kinetic and Potential Energy

What's Inside Our Earth

These are a few of my personal favorites. I could list about a dozen more, but I won't.

Well worth a listen.

The Soccer Mom Dilemma

Last night I went to a local homeschooling group meeting. Oh, how to describe it. I was expecting it to be an open house type get together: a chance to chat with various people. Nope. In a small windowless meetingroom in the basement of a library were about 12 people, looking very serious, sitting around a table. I walk in to hear one woman loudly proclaiming that she thought her local public school was ridiculous for not wanting people to bring their children to the parent's information night and that she would bring her kids with her where ever she darn well pleased. I noticed that she only had one baby with her and found out later that her poor husband was stuck at the library late at night during this two hour meeting with three other very tired looking kids.

I will admit I felt rather out of place at the meeting. I know that groups tend to be generalized by the loudest and usually most extreme voices. I am definitely not one of those voices.

I'm not a "rage against the machine" kind of girl. I'm a suburban soccer mom. I don't think that schools are built, (I'm not kidding someone at the meeting said this) "to just train kids how to follow orders." I will admit I skew toward granola; I have a big veggie garden, I planted fruit trees and what we don't eat will be canned and stored. Unlike most of my neighbors, I don't hire people to do things around the house or yard. We do just about everything ourselves. So, I guess it's natural that when school done by others wasn't working, we just decided to do it ourselves.

I know there are others out there like me. I've seen your blogs! I'm not just whining, I'm planning to start a co-op in my area so I can find more of the quiet middle people like me with a few louder voices to keep things interesting. Anyone upstate (yes, I know it's a big place) that's interested?

You're doing WHAT?!

Should I just wear a sign around my neck and save myself the trouble?

I don't know how or when to tell people we are going to homeschool. My two oldest are going to finish out this school year, so it's kind of weird to say that we are homeschooling.

I have spoken to a few friends about it and the ones who know us best aren't very surprised. I did tell one old school friend via Facebook that I haven't had much contact with otherwise and she was pretty shocked and little horrified. I will admit I was a little irritated by that, but at the same time I found it funny. I should just start randomly telling people at inappropriate times and see what happens.

"Hi, nice to meet you. I homeschool my four kids. You wanna make somethin' of it?"

How and when did you tell people you were close to and how did they take it? Leave a comment by clicking the number at the upper right hand corner of this post.

Free "America: The Story of Us" DVD from the History Channel

The History Channel is mailing free copies of their new 12hr program, America: The Story of Us, to all educators. That also includes homeschoolers! I love free stuff!!!!!

HISTORY is offering America The Story of Us on DVD to every school in the

United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school,
grades K-12 and college. DVD requests must be made prior to July 1, 2010.
DVDs will be mailed around August 2010, and free shipping is included in
this offer.

Sign up here

Latin for Dummies AKA Me

We've been on vacation visiting family, which isn't really a vacation. We live in a tiny town in NY and so it was nice to do some shopping in a big city. After checking out the language section of a huge Barnes and Noble, I found some Latin flash cards. Even though I hadn't yet done any research on how I wanted to teach Latin, I impulse bought them. I really shouldn't have done it since I don't qualify for their educator's discount yet.

Hubby and I spent some time looking at the cards and realized that we don't know jack about Latin. I started looking up Latin grammar and trying to figure out all the information on the cards. I am bilingual (I'm a white girl in upstate NY and I speak Japanese. How random is that?!) and thought that picking up Latin grammar wouldn't be hard. I was tremendously wrong.

Inspired by my ignorance and knowing that I want my kids to learn Latin, I started looking up language programs. It seems to me that the biggest ones used by homeschoolers are: The Big Book of Lively Latin!, Latin for Children and Latina Christiana.

I liked that Lively Latin had online helps, but their website looked abandoned by users. It is also pretty pricey (understand, I am cheap) and can only be purchased from their website. Latina Christiana had mixed reviews and minimal online support, but you can buy it from major retailers and it's very reasonably priced. I think Latin for Children is my big winner. They have a great website, Headventure Land, that has games that you can customized by what chapter you are studying. The books are well priced. The DVD is a little much, but you don't have to buy it.

I'll write a review of Latin for Children when I get a chance to use it this summer.

Glad My Kids Aren't "School-Homed"

This was pretty funny. Thank you The Onion.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/increasing-number-of-parents-opting-to-have-childr,17159/

Book It Program

The veteran homeschoolers probably know all about this, but I just found out that I can register my homeschool for the Book-It program from Pizza Hut. They ask for your name, address, phone, email and the number of kids (ages 5-12). If you have more than 5 kids they ask you to call to register. They are registering for the 2010-2011 school year until June 30th.

Thanks http://helpmyhomeschool.com/ for the info!

Registration form:

http://www.formspring.com/forms/bookitprogram-homeschool_enrollment_form1

Flip-Flop

If politicians can do it, why can't I?

No, no flip-flopping on homeschooling. If anything, I'm more committed than ever to do it. At first I decided to start hs next year, but then I thought, why wait? So then I figured I'd take them out at spring break. I got all fired up and started working on IHIPs and ordering curriculum materials, but it just didn't feel like the right thing to do. Now the plan is to wait until next school year.
I think it will work out better for the kids this way. There's no "clear and present danger" for them at school and this way they get to say goodbye to friends and teachers that they care about. The problem is that I don't want to tell them until the end of the school year, but I'm just DYING to tell them. I'm terrible at keeping happy secrets.

Books Books and More Books

The hardest part about getting started, is knowing where to start in the first place.  Lucky, I have gotten lots of recommendations of books, but most of them aren't sold at any of our local book stores.  Living in rural upstate NY has it's disadvantages.  I'm not comfortable spending a bunch of money on books that I haven't gotten to look through.  That's one where Amazon's "look inside" feature just doesn't cut it.

I went to Barnes and Noble on Monday and looked through their section of educational books.  They didn't have much of anything.  They did have a few of the Singapore Math books that I had been wanting to see.  I decided that they looked like they would be good for my kids, but I still went to Amazon to order them.  Search Amazon.com for singapore math

I think I'm set to go with math, but I still have a whole lot more to find.  I'd love to hear what has worked for you and why you liked it.

The Library is a Dangerous Place

Every time I check out a book about homeschooling at the library I start thinking about doing it all over again.  I've thought about it now and again for the last 4 years, but I just wasn't ready.  Then I picked up The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at home at the library.



Just a few pages into it, I realized that I had found what I was looking for.

I knew I wasn't an unschooler; I'm just not built for that.  I need more structure and order in my life.  I knew I couldn't do school at home, because that kind of defeated the purpose of removing them from school.  I wanted something different, but I didn't know what it was until I read this book.

Now I am getting myself organized and ordering books on the internet the way a drunk orders at an open bar.  I have joined various homeschooling groups on the internet and spoken to a few local homeschooling parents.  The only thing I haven't done yet is pull my kids out of school......or tell them that they won't be going back.

I have talked to them in the hypothetical about homeschooling.  My son, Aki, is excited about the idea of getting to do things at his own pace.  Hanachan wants to do both, which is not doable in the state of New York.  I still have lots of time to talk to them about it and discuss the pros and cons.

My hubby and I both want to let them finish out the school year (there's only about 50 days of school left).  I'm curious and nervous to see how the people in our lives react.  Most of them will probably think I've lost my mind.  I can't say that I entirely disagree with that.