7th Week and Mr. Father Hates Math

We're getting into our 7th week of homeschooling.  I'm not sure if I told you that we wouldn't be taking a break this week or next week.  Since Beauty started first grade over we have to work year round to keep her on schedule.  This could change if she advances through some activities.  

This week, due to working, Mr. Father had to teach Beauty yesterday.  He usually teaches on Mondays and it's all about handwriting, creative writing, and reading.  Yesterday he got a taste of the math.  He didn't like it.  They worked their way through it.  He lived to tell the tale.

Mr. Father and I grew up with Old Math.  You know, the kind actual ancient mathematicians used.  We are not fans of Divergent Thinking.  We grew up learning 1+1=2.  End of discussion.  Accept it.  Move on.  If you want to think creatively about it you can do it when you're a grown up and have a job.  

Yesterday was Mr. Father's first exposure to this new math.  It had him confused and thinking too much about it.  "It had 1 monkey plus 1 monkey makes 2 monkeys, and 1 kitten plus 1 kitten makes 2 kittens, but what happens if you get them mixed up and then you have 1 monkey plus 1 monkey makes a kitten?!"  

I told Mr. Father this is why we do a little bit of Reasoning math but supplement a lot of drill work for math. 
It's easy.  We know how to do it.  Beauty knows how to do it.  We can move on.

This got Mr. Father and I talking about Math.  We wonder how will there be great mathematicians in the future if they are slowed down from advancing by all the possibilities of arriving at the same answer?  Maybe we don't understand the benefits of divergent thinking.  Maybe we're just too practical.  Maybe we still believe the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

http://www.funny-games.biz/pictures/1185-smart-mouse.html

New Blogs I've Found

I'm sure you've noticed my lack of color and design on this blog.  It was done for a reason.  I get a lot of blog traffic from sites that use it as an example of how not to do your blog.  That's o.k.

The reason I did things this way was for genuineness.  Just the bare bones.  I visit a lot of blogs that are entertaining and informative.  Sometimes there's too much...stuff.  Ads and flashy banners.  So much color.  It becomes distracting.  I have a hard time seeing through all that and figuring out what they are trying to say.  In the pursuit of originality they all start to look and sound the same.

I was blog hopping through the list of Top 10 Homeschool Dad Blogs 2012 Awards.  Here are the ones I decided to give a try.

Tales of a House Husband

Home School Dad

A Family Runs Through It

Enjoy!

Send A Snowflake

The Day That School Was Not

After a very long night of a cold front blowing in, no one is in the mood to get down to business. 

 We are relaxing.  The Passing Time by Steve Roach, and Concerto for Viola and Orchestra in F by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf are helping.  

There is some slow progress on cleaning the house.  We keep getting sidetracked by contemplation.

What will be for dinner?  Hopefully something warm and filling.

Some craft projects try to take flight and after awhile land to dream away the afternoon.

There is some talk of where homeschool may take us.  Daydreams of adventures and places to see.

 

 

I hope everyone else is having a peaceful, relaxing day.

*All photos attributed to Wikimedia Commons*

Language Lessons for the Very Young

To cover language arts we are using Language Lessons for the Very Young by Sandi Queen.  It came in our curriculum kit.

 

So far we have studied this painting and a poem by Robert Frost.  The book is nicely put together and the pictures are beautiful.  We will probably cut them out when Beauty is done with the book.  This course is probably great for those kids who look like the girl in the picture.  Calm, introspective, with manners.  Not like the knuckledragging neanderthal that Beauty is on occasion.   She actually does do well with this book.  It takes a minute for her to get into art appreciation mode.  Once I start asking lots of questions she can come up with very good answers.  She decided for this painting the little girl was in trouble for taking her mother's necklace.  

Today we'll be working on understanding a poem.  This is a little more difficult for her to comprehend.  We'll also work on poem structure.

We're going on another outing today once Beauty finishes her school work.  She was invited for lunch and playing at the Jumpy Place with some other homeschool/personal friends.  

Mr. Father desperately wants to do the rocket project but the weather is not cooperating.  We need clear sunny skies and low wind.  Maybe tomorrow.

Week 6 of Homeschool Happiness

Here we are in week 6.  I can hardly believe it.  Where has the time gone?  Part of this blog is to write my real opinion and feelings about homeschooling.  So how am I feeling?

I feel like I made a pretty good decision.  I still have some lingering doubts.  I think this is probably normal and a source of inspiration to always do better and try harder.  I haven't had any moments of melt down and I haven't cried.  

I feel like I have saved Beauty, and maybe myself, from a years long battle fighting a system we just don't belong in for now.  Perhaps we have avoided an all too often traveled road of counselors and medication.  Perhaps I have jumped to conclusions or maybe I saw the future with a little too much clarity.  I don't know.  

What I do know is that we are having a time of happiness in our house.  Happiness about learning.  I'm seeing things that make me proud and my heart swell.  I see a little girl who wakes up and voluntarily picks up a school book or works on an art project of her own initiative.  The fact that Beauty does this means I'm doing something right.  She wouldn't do this if I was overbearing or too controlling.  Kids do not voluntarily do things they don't like.  

Does Beauty miss school?  Yes.  The recess part.  We have to drive by the school on our way to town.  There's usually some kids outside playing.  Her feelings don't last long.  I remind her the day is only half way over and she's already done all her work.  The benefits we have gained in exchange for the 30 minute recess are peace of mind and a classroom with no boundaries.  We are usually on the way to a play group or field trip.  She doesn't see what I see.  Those kids are surrounded by a large fence that looks like prison bars.  

I'm also happy because through my researching homeschooling I've been able to help another mom seriously consider homeschooling as a viable option.  She's running into some of the same problems we did.  Here's a link I gave her to watch:  RSA animate: Changing Education Paradigms.

How do I feel about the future?  Cautious.  I believe we'll continue to have success.  I know we are only at the beginning of climbing a very large mountain.  It's a mountain I will happily climb.

MiniLUK

I'm still not feeling well today.  This makes me happy that I wrote out the lesson plans last week.  It paid off big time today.  We were able to get through school without me hardly thinking.  

Another item Beauty received in her curriculum is the MiniLUK. 

Beauty loves to do these puzzles.  She plays with them whenever she wants to.  There are 8 books.  Each book deals with certain skills.  The skills are:  Critical Thinking, Concentration, Everyday Knowledge, Visual Perception, Math & Geometry.  It works by lining up the playboard, matching the pictures with the tiles, and then checking correctness by flipping all the tiles over to see if it made the color pattern picture.  Beauty will usually do about 3 of these before she is tired of it.  

This week I'm hoping we'll get to see some of the Geminid Meteor Shower.  I'm trying to get us talking about astronomy.  So far nothing has been heard by Mr. Father except that he gets to shoot a rocket. 

Weekend News

Friday, Mr. Father and Mrs. Mother thought it would be great to celebrate anniversary night since we were both available in our hectic schedules.  We had a wonderful brunch (that means IHOP).  I tried one of their seasonal coffees and it was very good.  The food was delicious.  The ambiance typical.

Next I had a doctor appointment for regular stuff.  So Mr. Father took me to get drugs.  Are you following this?

All that out of the way, we were on our way to the "surprise" spot for an outdoor adventure.   We visited a campground/park and hiked around in the woods.  Sans Beauty.  That's right.  Alone.  We discovered we could each still speak in complete sentences.  We fished.  We declared it would be a good camping spot to bring Beauty back. 

Mr. Father made me hike around in non-hiking shoes.  Bad Mr. Father.  So in conclusion:  He fed me, got me drugs, and then took me out into the woods.  Romantic in a hillbilly way.  I had a very nice time. 

Today, not so much.  I was sore everywhere and a little raspy in the voice.  This has progressed to the plague.  I'm pretty sure it was Dengue Fever last night due to the excruciating body aches.  I feel "better" today but I haven't really moved and I'm pretty sure I'll die if I get out of bed. 

It school news, we did look at rockets on Friday and are coming up with a plan for doing a lesson on rockets and planets. 

Block Builders and the Outside Classroom

Here is the post on Block Builders that I promised.  This is another toy manipulative from the ordered curriculum.  I keep posting links in case you might be interested in getting some of these things.  According to the site I could be earning Doodle Dollar Points, except I'm probably too lazy to fill out things properly.  This means that I am not receiving things for talking about the products blah blah blah. 

 

One thing I must say is that I love nerdy toys.  A whole lot.  I like using my brain.  When I play video games it is always things like Mah Jong.  Does that even count as a video game?  Mr. Father is always talking about getting some new game and "it's so great and it's an MMO!"  I have zero spatial skills in those kinds of games.  This is why I Beauty loves playing with these blocks.  The set of 6 blocks come in a nice sturdy box which makes storage easy.  The six blocks all form a cube shape and then open up to form other shapes.  There are 50 challenge cards.  The cards are numbered, have a picture of the shape you are to create and the number of blocks to use.  The answer is on the back of the card.  The challenges get progressively harder.  Beauty works with these whenever she wants to, which is just about every day.  

Yesterday we did our weekly History lesson.  We are using The Story of the World.  The book reads well and keeps Beauty's attention.  We touched on the Nile River, pharaohs, and mummies.  Early into the evening I looked around on Netflix and found IMAX Mummies:  Secrets of the Pharaohs.  We watched it and found where the largest amount of royal mummies had been located, a little info about Ramses the Great, and how to make our own mummy, sort of.  Beauty colored a map of the Nile Delta and the Nile River.

Today we ventured out to a local river.  It was time to give Beauty some real world classroom experience.

Beauty takes it literally when I say, "immerse yourself in knowledge."  She had a blast.  We saw a crawfish and pointed out different things and poked a stick at him to see the little claws work.  The crawfish soon tired of our ignorance and swam away.

A pretty bridge across the water.

All the wonderful river grass things.  If I had thought of it sooner I could have had us pretend it was the Nile River.  We could have reenacted the story of Osiris and Let and sent a "coffin" down the river.  Beauty would have liked doing that.  

Tomorrow is homeschoolers park day.  I'm hoping the weather will hold out.  We had such a great time last week. 

Hypothesis of a First Grade Volcano

The first thing I did today was kick Mr. Father and Beauty out of the house.  There is a scientific black hole as to how 2 people can get a house so messy in 1 day while I was at work.  They were therefore sent out into the world to bestow their special mess making abilities elsewhere.  

On Friday we did science.  It was the special "Volcano Day!"  Mr. Father and Beauty were amazed at my ability to keep sending them outside and around the house to gather items needed.  Once all the items were gathered we created our scene.

Here we have our baking sheet covered with a piece of green poster board.  We made small trees from sticks.  Beauty collected a few unknowing victims to hang around the volcano.  Our first hypothesis was an educated guess about what we each thought the "lava" would do.  Would it shoot up to the ceiling, flow down one side or flow out all sides?  Our second hypothesis was who was going to be wiped out by the lava.  Our third hypothesis was was about which color lava is prettiest. 

So the mermaid got it first.  Don't be alarmed!  Mermaids typically do not live next to volcanoes. 

We tried green lava next and then yellow.  We thought that was gross.  Blue was last.  I thought it was prettiest.  Beauty yelled, "Again, again!" 

This was such a fun experiment for Beauty that I received a text the next day from Mr. Father saying he was having to do the volcano again since Beauty's friend had come over to play. 

Luckily this is a super easy experiment.  Half baking soda, half vinegar, and food coloring. 

*This coming week I'll review some more items from our Timberdoodle curriculum.*