Bullying, A rite of passage?

The people who used to complain that homeschoolers were not socialized enough are now insisting that homeschoolers are missing out on the important rite of passage of bullying.  I feel like it is mostly bullies not people who have been bullied that are spouting this nonsense.

Our current presidential administration, thankfully, disagrees.

The Obama administration is launching a campaign to prevent anti-gay bullying and other

I don't like this language arts curriculum at all (video)

I am not going to go on about it, the video says it all. 

But I just wish I could find a good quality language arts program for 11th and 12 grades. 



FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor

Teenage Rants from a Homeschooling Mom

 I just got home from driving my kids to the other side of the county in Metro Atlanta traffic for their homeschool elective classes.  Their day starts at 8am and ends between 5 and 7 pm depending on Drama Club calls.

On the way home I called my husband who was also driving and we spent about 40 minutes complaining about our kids.  (Sorry Oprah, but the talking while driving conversation was much needed.)

Anyway, I called him to complain that while our daughter knew that our washing machine needs repair and leaves the clothes too wet, she still didn't wash her required

If you think the way they dress doesn't matter...

I read a very good article that speaks of how young black men feel pushed out of Tampa Bay schools.  No one is interested in their success.  They are being pushed through and pushed aside.  They are not treated as individuals they complain.  ... And their complaints are very true. 

One statement bugged me though.

Bernard Scott is the only person in his family who graduated and pursued

observations on pronunciation and spelling

Spelling really is about pronunciation.

There was a time when my daughter's spelling was atrocious.  I realized that she was spelling words like she pronunced them. 

birfday (birthday)
whut (what)
wint (went)

Upon training her to pronounce words properly and even relearning how to pronounce things again myself, her spelling improved. 



So pronunciation helps a whole lot.. except the the entire country is beginning to pronounce words wrong and the wrong pronuciations are becoming commonplace thereby screwing up spelling completely.   Here's a video demonstration



FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor

Some things are more important than curriculum

I am still tweaking the kids' language arts curriculum because I feel like they need to spend more time on writing and less time on following someone a curriculum word for word.  It drives me crazy that I spent so much on a curriculum that was just wayyyy more than I was looking for.  It is really more of a worldview religion course than a language arts course... so I need to extract the language arts parts and have the kids focus on writing good essays. 


FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor

I think they may be on to something- 75 students, 7 teachers

I have been blogging about this for ages or at least something close to it.  In my special little world (in my head) school classes would be workshops with numerous teachers per classroom.

My reasons are: 

Deadlines are so important for homeschoolers

As a homeschooler, it is important to set deadlines for projects.  I admit this is my weakness.  I tell them I want something done by a certain time and I feel like they pat me on my head and say "ok, mama".. then they don't do it. 

This is one of the reasons I have had them take outside classes over the years, to have someone else put a fire under their butts and make them get assignments done.  This is imperative for anyone who plans to go out into the workforce. 

There are other ways to set deadlines that kids won't ignore.  Something my son just completed, barely under the wire, was a scholarship competition for SCAD.  He had to create a video to submit to the competion.  There was planning, setting location, working with the actress, filming, and editing.  He got it done on time, but barely.  But that's OK.  Win or not, he has the sense of accomplishment of meeting a deadline (without taking any shortcuts either).



FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE MY BUSINESS WEBSITE WalletPop Contributor

They say kids need to be bullied

I have read numerous comments that say kids need to be bullied in order to know how to stand up for themselves.  I disagree.  I think kids get enough ribbing from friends and families to cause them to stand up for themselves and shut down the more aggressive in the group. 

I was bullied as a child.  I was in Catholic school.  I remember being frozen out of clicks as early as 2nd grade, and by 4th grade, I was the target of a mean group of girls, and at least 1/2 of the class turned against me, with the other 1/2 afraid be my

Is this teacher pervy or is it me?

I realize some people will think I am over reacting, but I ventured onto the youtube education page yesterday, and started clicking around to see what was available.  I came upon a lipdub  done by a high school class.  A lipdub is supposed to be a video done in one take that keeps moving from person to person as they lip sync a song.  I am pretty sure this video was part of an editing project as it was not a true lipdub but clips edited together. 

Anyway, it is all good and well except for the song that was chosen... for a class project...  in which a teacher participated.

If you have to use bleeping, it probably shouldn't be used for a classroom project.

Parents, see this for yourself and let me know what you think.


FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE MY BUSINESS WEBSITE WalletPop Contributor

School Buses Not Safe

There was a horrible bus accident here in the Atlanta area yesterday.  An incompetent bus driver trainee who already had the parents and kids concerned, flipped a school bus yesterday.  A teenager was crushed under it and died.  Two other kids were badly injured. 

As a homeschoolers, I want to think, "I am glad my kids don't ride school buses, so I don't have to worry about that".  But I do.  Anyone with a heart beating in their chest should be concerned about the clear callousness that allowed this tragedy to happen.  The driver had hit a dog just that morning, a student reported.  The dog wasn't even in the street. 

This guy could not drive, yet he was handed the lives of our children, and a life was lost.

After wanting to know exactly why this guy was driving, I would love to ask why we still don't have sea tbelts on school buses.

FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor

Using Elementary workbook pages for High School Students

 Mrs. C has left a new comment on my post "Teach it Till They Learn It":  in which I talked about my kids struggling with the Cells chapter in biology.  She thought the lesson created for younger kids might be too simplistic but she was wrong.   See here. http://www.ellenjmchenry.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/botanyfirstchapter.pdf






While the chapter was on plant cells, and they are studying animal cells, so I will save it for later.


So let me explain why the worksheet sent from Mrs. C was soooo right. 



Things are best explained on an elementary level. I have found over the years, when the kids don't get something at a sophisticated and advanced level, to head to the bookstore and pick up a children's picture book.  Once the kids get the simplistic basics, you can them build on it.  So I will be using this unit if necessary when we get to animal cells... so, Thanks Mrs. C.




FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor

Teach it Till They Learn It

When my kids and their cousins were babies, my father-n-law used to sit all the babies in a circle (aged newborn to about 10) and say the following. 

"My Grandpa is the best Grandpa in the Whole Wide World".  He would say this over and over for about 10 minutes.  The older kids, the ones who could talk, would begin to repeat with him. "My Grandpa is the best Grandpa in the Whole Wide World".  When he was happy with the chant (which is what it became), he would bow out of the room leaving the instructions:  "Say it till you know it."

The kids are all teenagers and young adults today.  If someone where to stand near them and say, "My Grandpa..."  They would continue by saying "is the best Grandpa in the Whole Wide World".  The programming is complete.

This week is the third attempt at testing my kids on The Cell, a biology unit.  They have been completely frustrated from trying to learn all of the little parts and what they do. We did the curriculum unit week 1... they had learned 30% of it.  Week 2, we reviewed the units using sparknotes.com, they had learned 60% of it.  After another after a week of doing internet research and videos on the cell, are much closer to full understanding, but not quite there.  They will do a 3D project next before moving on to the next unit.

This would never work in a classroom.  They would have had to take a failure for the unit and move on.




FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
MY BUSINESS WEBSITE
WalletPop Contributor