IT’S FINALLY OVER–CO-OP

I’m planning material for next year’s class. I will be teaching American History and Literature to 9th graders–two hours per week. I think it will be fun. We’re using Notgrass American History, The Grammar of Poetry, and Short Stories in American Literature. The students will be reading the Notgrass literature selections as part of the History work. For literature, they’ll be studying the short stories and analyzing these. We’ll spend a 1/2 semester on poetry analysis. And we’ll finish up the year with something like The Red Badge of Courage, so that they can analyze a longer work.

The reason for this is many, but the greatest benefit is that I don’t have to read a whole bunch of material during the summer and during the school year to be able to teach them literature. I wish I had time to do more, but I don’t. I still have to keep up with my own children’s work at home. I try to read as much of their material as I can during the summer. I’m still writing my own material.

So we’ll be analyzing many of these short stories per the Teaching the Classics material. It’s a great program.

Overall, besides the benefit to me and my time, I think this will be much better for the students as well. They will cover more authors, more selections, and hopefully, will have a clearer view of the various literary periods.

I have to admit, I have not checked to see if the book is arranged by literary periods. This is my next task. I assume it is; but, if it isn’t, I’ll have to rearrange the order in which we tackle the stories.

And I don’t know about everyone else, but I think shorter works are easier to work with especially for 9th and 10th graders. They’ll learn the techniques of analysis much easier,. They shouldn’t be overwhelmed by the reading material itself. So the longer works of Notgrass are basically becoming readers for us in the vein of the Sonlight readers.

CHRISTIAN AND SECULAR RESOURCES

I am a member of yahoo groups for christian and secular homeschoolers. (By the way, I am Christian) What I find to be interesting is that there are members in both communities that try to avoid the other community and its influences on their children at all costs. And I understand it. I really do. I know that I want more than anything in this world for my children to follow my and my husband’s example of following Christ. It is the only thing I consider to be truly important in this world.

But to encourage that, I am planning on introducing my middle school student to more secular materials. I know this is controversial to many. But I really think it’s important for her to be able to see clearly the differences and similarities between different beliefs. At this point, I’m not introducing other religions or atheism in so much that I am introducing different views of history. My goal is to have spines for history with a contradictory world view along with a more in depth study of Christianity and why it is truth.

If I were an atheist, I think I’d do the same think but bulk up the reading on the atheist side.

My reasoning is, how can a child make connections when everything agrees and says the same thing? At least, connections that are deeper and broader than while this was happening here, this was happening there. I really want her to understand the human condition. And I want her to understand it enough to understand the opposing point of view.

I won’t be doing this with my son. He’s not ready, but he’s close.

For medieval history next year, it may simply involve including The Story of Science. But I’m not sure. I just want some opposing point of views for us to analyze and dissect from a Christian world view. So even so, it’ll still be done under a Christian umbrella.

ICE CREAM MADE IN A BLENDER

Well, almost. To my children at least. I received a powerful blender for Mother’s Day (early this year). And I made a smoothie so thick my kids ate it with a spoon. They said it was as good as ice cream. And they were right. It really was as good as ice cream.

Here’s what I used.
These measurements aren’t exact, because I didn’t measure. But to the best of my memory, here is what I did.

Coconut Pineapple juice (about 1 cup)
Apple juice (about 1/2 cup)
Frozen mixed fruit (about 2 cups)
Frozen bananas (1.5 to 2)
2 cups of ice

For the mixed fruit, I usually use strawberries, grapes, mangoes, cantaloupe, peaches, and pineapples. Anything except for papaya and berries.

I’m thinking maybe we should experiment with a chocolate frozen smoothie. That would be awesome!

I’m also going to try to make a banana nut smoothie with more frozen bananas less of the other fruit and then add some walnut or pecans. Mmmmm!

It’s like I can have ice cream every day and it’s still good for me. Yeah!

TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ

It’s so funny, but it’s taken me 3 children to really feel like I know how to teach a child to read. It’s really not that hard, but I didn’t quite do it right the first two times.

Child #1 I overtaught. I read to her for hours a day, since she was my first for a while. And when I taught her to read, I used a boxed program. Well, I overtaught her. I didn’t realize this until it was summertime and her 8 yo cousin showed her some books and her reading took off. At that point, I had only covered long vowel sounds with her. I was planning on doing blends next. We never did get to those blends.

Child #2 I undertaught. I made the assumption that all I had to do was teach him the same way I taught her. It didn’t work. I should have tried Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with him, because the traditional route did not work well with him. So, eventually, his reading finally took off when he started reading the bible with his father at night.

Child #3 is doing great. I started with 100 Easy Lessons up to about lesson 70. At that we switched to The Original Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. That was okay, but way too detailed and broken down for me. So I went through my materials and found some beginning readers that I really liked. They were by Christian Liberty Press. We went through all 4 of those books, and his reading was great. We just read through them, one page at a time.

After that, I came across the Webster’s speller, and we began covering the syllables. From there his confidence has just grown leaps and bounds. He is now working on decoding 2 syllable words. And we are just simply reading through the tables. After 2 syllable words, then 3.

He is having so much fun reading. He feels like a big kid. He reads everyday for fun. And he is even reading to his 3 yo little brother.

It was so cute yesterday when I caught the two of them reading. The 5 year old (6 next week) reads the page and the 3 year old narrates it back to him. It was so encouraging to see them practicing, on their own, what I have been trying to do with them for the past few months.

I can’t say I am very consistent. In fact, I can only handle focusing on one subject intensely at a time. So since January, the intense focus for my 5 year old has been reading. Before that it was manuscript writing. This summer the whole family will be focusing on Spanish. But while we have one area of intense focus, we do keep plodding along in math and the other subjects, just not with the same intensity. They’re scheduled and we do it. And not every child has the same intense focus.

For my 10 yo daughter, it’s outlining. For my 9 yo son, it’s reading. And for my 5 yo it’s reading as well. Spanish for everyone during the summer and in the fall, it will all switch again. Probably Latin for the older two. Math for the younger tw

MORTON’S NEUROMA UPDATE

I’m still battling it.

Here’s where I am now.

My foot was very slowly starting to bother me again. I had been completely pain free for about 6 weeks because of the MBT’s and the zymessence. But now I’m back to square one because the pain came back.

When the pain came back, I switched to Vitalzym. But that didn’t make a difference. It worked the same as Zymessence.

As it turns out, I think my problem was my MBT’s. I had been wearing them since around November. The same ugly pair of white unisex shoes. I think my MBT’s had lost their firmness and were becoming too flexible for my injury.

So, I went out and bought a 2nd pair of MBT’s some that were on sale for $150 rather than the original 250. BIG MISTAKE! The 150 dollar shoes had a high pivot point of 1.5 inches. That extra .5 inch was painful to walk on. This is why I think the shoes were on sale. They were also too narrow. And even though I have narrow feet, the narrowness was a problem.

When I walk, without pain, I tend to walk from the outside of my heel and roll forward to the outside of my forefoot and then on to the ball of my foot. With the narrower MBT’s I was walking exactly this way. Well, this caused a slight bend between toes 3 and 4 where the neuroma is. (Big toe is 1.) The extra bending there was aggravating the situation. I was so upset yesterday I was beside my self with frustration. The other thing the 1.5 inch shoe did was cause a humongous blister on the heel of my foot. It was more painful that the neuroma simply because it was constant. I was walking like a 90 year old lady.

Anyway, my husband said forget the money and go and get you another pair of mbt’s. Then he asked can I get a refund on the other pair. The answer was no. So what, he says, go and get another pair of mbt’s. In fact, get two pairs. Get you a pair of sandals too. And that’s what I did. Instant relief.

My heel no longer hurts and the sandals are stiff and won’t let me roll off the side of the shoe. When I walk on the outside of the heel, the shoe rocks me back to the ball of my foot immediately. Now, the second pair I purchased are just like my ugly white pair, but they are black this time. I know they’ll work for at least 4 months.

It’s expensive and I am a Payless kind of person. I hate to spend this kind of money on shoes. But this is a medical necessity. MBT’s are allowing me to walk without pain until I decide whether or not I want surgery.

And now that I know the Vitalzym is the same as the zymessence, I’ll probably switch back and forth between the two. Hopefully that will work.

CHARLOTTE MASON AND PERFECTIONISM

I’m a perfectionist to the point of being paralyzed. It’s only during my middle thirty’s that I began to realize that perfection isn’t necessary in every situation and that it’s okay to do just good enough. It’s okay to fail.

Knowing this about myself makes life a lot easier. I can attack my housework knowing it’s okay to just do rather than having to do it perfectly. In fact, I coined the phrase “people perfect” with my own children.

When my kids were little, I stressed that we do things “people perfect” because only God is truly perfect.

When I read curriculum that stresses doing things perfectly the way Charlotte Mason does, my heart races, my jaw clinches, and my stomach knots up. It really stresses me.

I cannot fully embrace Charlotte Mason’s methods because of this.

And while I dont like the “doing what a child can do perfectly” I really love narration because the child doesn’t have to be perfect.

Charlotte Mason’s methods are complicated. I’ve learned to take what I like and leave the rest.

Actually, I wish I could embrace the idea of perfection because it is what I aspire to be, but it is that same idea that prevents me from being my best. I cannot see burdening a child with the burden of having to be perfect.

The dark side of my avoidance of perfection is that I risk teaching my students to not try their best.

That is why co-op has been so good for me. I typically have high expectations but I have to put aside my own fears and still require the attempt at perfection from my students (co-op and home).

It’s such a fine line to balance between doing your best and trying to obtain the unattainable. Because of my tendencies, I have to err on the side of good enough rather than perfect.

For a perfectionist though, good enough is often not good enough.

By the way, I don’t think Ms. Mason was trying to burden everyone with perfectionism. I just think that for those who suffer with this tendency, the wording used by Ms. Mason and by those that interpret her work must be taken with a grain of salt or a handful. I have to know who I am as a teacher and, just as importantly, who my students are as people. No program is perfect for everyone and should be adjusted for each student according to his or her needs. By and large, Charlotte Mason’s methods are beneficial to students everywhere. The student just must be the focus of the teaching and not the method–whether it’s Charlotte Mason’s methods or classical or any other method.

MORE ON GRADING–I DON’T KNOW HOW I FORGOT THIS INFO

Obviously, I was in a hurry. But a few posts earlier, I wrote up the grading rubric that I’m using with my students at co-op.

Before implementing this scale, all of the elements addressed were taught. And the students received grades for their work, but over time I noticed that there wasn’t much improvement on the part of half of my class of students.

Now, I am getting emails from some parents that want to thank me for the improvements they see in their children’s papers. I wish I could say that I was receiving this type of feedback from everyone, but that simply wouldn’t be true.

About half of my students aren’t progressing as much as I would have liked them too. They are improving, but they keep reverting to the same mistakes over and over.

So, I decided to purposely give lower grades to all of the students for rough drafts. The drafts are checked by me for the elements I listed in the previous post. After they receive their initial grade, I give them their papers back to revise and edit. After the edits are complete, they turn in both papers. (I have had a couple of papers turned in to me twice with no revisions. To eliminate this temptation, they have to turn in the first draft and the revised paper.)

The second time around, I regrade the paper and when the edits are complete, they get at least a 10 point increase. I’m not sure how much I want to give them an increase, because I’m sure that some “thinking” child will throw together an awful paper over a one hour time period and let me edit to my heart’s content, with the hope that I will point out all of his or her mistakes for him or her and thereby eliminate the need to self-edit.

So I’m thinking a ten point increase for edits, with an option for extra credit for the extremely hard worker.

I came across a blog somewhere with a pretty profound thought. He said, and I paraphrase,

–Children will learn what is needed for testing–

Yes, I think that all of us do this in areas that aren’t our passion. So I’m trying to teach to the reluctant writer, the student that doesn’t want to put pen to paper. And I’ve got to think of all the ways he is going to try and get out of it.

See, this is one of those issues that is different between co-op and home. At home, there is no easy way out. My kids do it my way, because I’m involved with every step of the process. At co-op, I’m having to learn how to be involved in as many steps as possible, without being there.

It’s tough, but it’s worth it.

TEACHING AT CO-OP VS. TEACHING AT HOME

Not the same. It is so much harder to teach a classroom of children than it is to teach my own.

But teaching at co-op has been so good for me. I’ve learned to look further down the road to graduation. I’ve learned to be a stricter teacher and disciplinarian. And I’ve learned more about children and education in general.

It’s so easy to think that my kids are like kids everywhere or that kids everywhere are pretty much the same. Not true. Not true at all.

At co-op I have to try and meet children where they are. And they come from homes where the rules are different and the expectations are different.

What I take for granted in my kids, I realize now, is the result of the work that my husband and I have put into raising them. And my children’s weaknesses are also a result of that same training.

Because of co-op, I can see a little more clearly what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong.

What we’re doing right?

My kids know how to think. We don’t spend as much time as I’d like discussing deep concepts, but we do talk a lot–everybody at my house is always talking–and we’re all so loud. My husband and I love debating and arguing and having deep meaningful conversations, and my kids are beginning to get involved in some of those conversations. Our current favorite topic is the economy and the demise of America as we know it.

After spending a couple of years at co-op, I see that many, many homeschooled students are excellent thinkers. Most of the highschool students that I teach are amazing in their ability to research, filter through information, and write up their opinion(s) about the topic. But not all of them are capable of doing this on the same level. There are a few whom I have encountered over the years that have unclear, muddled thinking. They don’t know how to narrow down ideas to the crux of the matter. (This is why I like The Lost Tools of Writing so much. It’s not muddled.)

What we’re doing wrong?

~sigh~ There’s so much I don’t know where to begin. I’m working on discipline, scheduling, habit training, and the list goes on. My kids are good kids, but I didn’t learn about Charlotte Mason’s methods until I was an adult, and I am the one that needs habit training. I am working on all of those above issues for me, and as I get better in these areas, my children improve in these same areas as well. They catch my habits.

So more than anything, co-op is helping me to be more organized and together by requiring me to be more organized and together. The end result is that my kids are becoming more organized and together.

The biggest drawback to attending co-op is the fear it causes in me. I fear that my kids will not get as good an education because the teachers are not teaching my children the way I would. (This is huge!)

In some instances, I know it’s right. But in others, I know that I have seen the co-op teachers doing a better job in some subjects than what I would have done. And my children are benefiting.

Our co-op is worth the risk. The ladies who run it are amazing and are gifted at what they’re doing. I’m really looking forward to what is happening at our co-op.

TODAY IS JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHERE I FEEL SORT OF DIRECTIONLESS,

I don’t feel like cleaning. I don’t feel like working, and the older kids and I have already done school.

So we’re heading out to resell books. My goal is to get rid of 100 books. With the money, we’ll all pick out a new book to read. 100 for 5, not bad.

After that, we’ll go to the library for more books. Then the park, then the grocery store. And by then, we’ll all be exhausted.

And just in case, I have a booklist of possible medieval books for next year. I’ll be looking for good titles, used. It feels like summertime. I can’t wait for this semester to really be over.

SMALL CHANGE IN MATH FOR MY DAUGHTER WITH LIFE OF FRED AND DOLCIANI

The plan now, which I can change at any moment, is for her to do Chalkdust prealgebra. Most of it will be review after Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals. But as a 6th grader next year, I don’t think she’s ready for algebra. And even if she were, I want to make sure she’s ready. But every now and then, I see that she doesn’t really understand something minor, or she forgets. This tells me she doesn’t really care because she’s not asking herself the question, does this make sense.

For instance, she got an answer right in Fred and assumed it was wrong for 15 minutes. She didn’t ask herself does this make sense. She just assumed. She does stuff like this a lot in math, but not in reading. So I know it’s a maturity issue.

She’s doing the video prealgebra so I can spend more one on one time with my 5 and 3 year olds next year. My son will stick with Sinapore 4B and 5A next year. After that, he’ll be going into Fred. Unless he prefers Singapore and wants to continue it through 6B. That’d be fine with me too.