Friday, August 31, 2007
Worship means different things to different people. “The Greek word for worship is "proskenuo." It means, literally, "to turn and kiss." It implies turning away from ourselves and turning toward our Lord in an intimate and affectionate way. It implies an emotional expression of love.” ~Jon CoursonI love worship. Ask my children. I sing all of the time! Everything makes sense to me in songs. Recently the whole family went to Greg Laurie's Harvest Crusade. It was such an amazing worship experience. Allison and Jonathan were dancing in their chairs. Worship is a personal time with God and is never about us. Here is a clip of some awesome worship with Chris Tomlin, a favorite in our house.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Excited for our break
I can't believe six weeks have passed and now we get a two week break. We have had a great start and I feel good about our accomplishments, but I am always looking for ways to improve. I will spend some of my time off relaxing on the beach but I will also be reading and preparing for the next block of school. My goal is to get to the point of more independence for the high schoolers. Morgan does really well in this area but I still keep on her to study for her PSAT that is coming up in Oct. She has really developed a good habit of managing her time. Bryan is a bit different. He is just starting high school and he is a boy. With that comes some challenges. I am still micromanaging him with the goal that if I do this it will become habit for him. I think we have made some progress but there is still work to be done. However, I have learned that if I can do the hard stuff now it will pay of the long run.
Allison did really well with her Charlotte Mason style of teaching this week. I will spend some more time reading her original works over the next few weeks so I can begin implementing more of this style.
Jonathan is now able to read the first two Bob Books! It is amazing how quickly they learn. He still seems to have a much better handle on numbers than on letters but that seems to be a theme in my home.
Aaron has finished up the first two modules of Apologia Physical Science with perfect scores on his exams. He doesn't seem to be challenged with the material but it is new information. Algebra is also continuing to go well.
So we will enjoy our break and hopefully all be ready to dig in when we return to school.
Allison did really well with her Charlotte Mason style of teaching this week. I will spend some more time reading her original works over the next few weeks so I can begin implementing more of this style.
Jonathan is now able to read the first two Bob Books! It is amazing how quickly they learn. He still seems to have a much better handle on numbers than on letters but that seems to be a theme in my home.
Aaron has finished up the first two modules of Apologia Physical Science with perfect scores on his exams. He doesn't seem to be challenged with the material but it is new information. Algebra is also continuing to go well.
So we will enjoy our break and hopefully all be ready to dig in when we return to school.
In defense of Teaching Textbooks
When I stumbled on to Teaching Textbooks I was overjoyed. This program has been amazing for my children. Then while reading some comments on TWTM board I was somewhat concerned that it was not rigorous enough to prep for college math. This really puzzled me because the writers of this program seem to be more than qualified to write a high school math program. One of the brothers has two degree form Harvard and has tutored college level students. Surely he would know what was needed to prep for college math. Someone wrote to them and voiced the concern about all of this. Here is their response....
This is from Greg Sabouri..
It may help to give you a little background on the TT series. We first developed the curriculum while running a school for academically-gifted students. We used the same techniques with them that are now used in the TT books. The academic performance of our students was outstanding. Their test scores were extremely high and a large percentage ended up attending very prestigious colleges. For instance, one student went to Dartmouth where he made the highest score in history on their math placement exam. Four years later, he graduated first in his class in math, and he s now getting his Ph.D. in math. With this background, it should be obvious that we would never produce materials that are not college prep. As for our personal backgrounds, I have two degrees from Harvard and tutored graduate students in statistics, probability, and game theory while I was a student there. My brother attended Swarthmore College in Philadelphia, which is one of the very best colleges in the country. We both have 12 or 13 years experience teaching math, and several of those years were spent teaching homeschoolers exclusively. So we're very familiar with homeschooler's unique needs. A few people asked whether TT would prepare a student for college algebra. The series will not only prepare a student for college algebra, but he/she may be able to test out of that course, because there is a lot of overlap between high school Algebra 1 and 2 and college algebra. You asked why our Algebra 1 does not include quadratic equations. It absolutely DOES include quadratic equations. A quadratic equation is just a second-degree equation. We have an entire chapter on that subject in Algebra 1 and all the subsequent chapters of the book review quadratic equations (in the problem sets). Quadratic equations are covered even earlier in our Algebra 2 book. It is true that we don t cover logs. But that is only because the TT series is not finished yet. The same is true of the 2 or 3 other topics that were mentioned. Our Pre-Calculus is coming out next year and that book will cover all those topics extensively, along with many others. The TT series, once it is finished, will cover ALL of the topics that a student needs, no matter what his/her future career plans (including science, engineering, medicine, etc.). Why is it that we put some topics in Algebra 2 instead of Algebra 1 or vice versa (or wait to do logs until Pre-Calculus)? We introduce topics in the order that we think will help the student learn the most. And we've had quite a lot of experience teaching math, as I've discussed. I don t think the goal should be to race through the most number of topics in the shortest time. What's more important is to really learn what you cover. Our approach is to help students gain mastery over foundational areas before moving on to new things. More generally, there are always differences in the sequencing of topics when you compare publishers. For example, to get through all of Saxon s geometry lessons you would have to take Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Advanced Mathematics. And even then, you wouldn't get a complete high school geometry course. Videotext covers Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 in only 180 lessons, whereas most books take about 260 lessons to cover the same material. But I'm not saying that Saxon or Videotext is bad because of their sequencing or the small number of lessons. When choosing a curriculum I think it makes more sense to focus on how well the book EXPLAINS the concepts, rather than just count up the topics. If topics covered were so important then public school students would have high test scores. That's because the public school books are full of topics. In reality, of course, many public school graduates can't multiply or divide or solve even the simplest algebra equation. And the U.S. is near the bottom of the international math rankings. The biggest problem we have in math education is not that topics aren't introduced early enough. It s that the books don't give enough explanation and the instruction they do contain is usually very poor (maybe because mathematicians are often bad communicators.) Inadequate explanation is an especially big problem for homeschoolers, who are often studying independently once they reach middle school age. The TT series is designed to deal with this problem. We cover all the major topics and we do so in depth, with full explanation so much explanation, in fact, that the student can pretty much teach himself! I am convinced that a student who uses the TT series will be BETTER PREPARED for the SAT and ACT and for college than if he/she uses any other series on the market. And the reason is the quality and quantity of our instruction. It doesn't hurt that we make math enjoyable either. Everybody knows that the more interested a student is in a book, the more he's likely to learn. As for the Jay Wile e-mail, I already told you that we will cover every one of the extra topics he mentioned in our Pre-Calculus product. And for those students who don't want to go all the way through our Pre-Calculus, we ll post certain topics (like logs) on our website for all users to access. The physics lesson that was mentioned was not on imaginary numbers. It was on complex numbers. A complex number can be viewed as a vector in 2 dimensions (and in the lesson we used a two-dimensional example). Also, the addition and subtraction of complex numbers and vectors are the same. This gave us a rare opportunity to show, in a way that a high school student can understand, how complex numbers (a very abstract and difficult concept) could actually be used in a real-world context. Other math authors have taken a similar approach.
Greg Sabouri
This makes so much sense to me, and I have seen this in my own children. It is an outstanding program and we will continue with it all the way through Pre-Calculus.
You can view samples on their website TT
This is from Greg Sabouri..
It may help to give you a little background on the TT series. We first developed the curriculum while running a school for academically-gifted students. We used the same techniques with them that are now used in the TT books. The academic performance of our students was outstanding. Their test scores were extremely high and a large percentage ended up attending very prestigious colleges. For instance, one student went to Dartmouth where he made the highest score in history on their math placement exam. Four years later, he graduated first in his class in math, and he s now getting his Ph.D. in math. With this background, it should be obvious that we would never produce materials that are not college prep. As for our personal backgrounds, I have two degrees from Harvard and tutored graduate students in statistics, probability, and game theory while I was a student there. My brother attended Swarthmore College in Philadelphia, which is one of the very best colleges in the country. We both have 12 or 13 years experience teaching math, and several of those years were spent teaching homeschoolers exclusively. So we're very familiar with homeschooler's unique needs. A few people asked whether TT would prepare a student for college algebra. The series will not only prepare a student for college algebra, but he/she may be able to test out of that course, because there is a lot of overlap between high school Algebra 1 and 2 and college algebra. You asked why our Algebra 1 does not include quadratic equations. It absolutely DOES include quadratic equations. A quadratic equation is just a second-degree equation. We have an entire chapter on that subject in Algebra 1 and all the subsequent chapters of the book review quadratic equations (in the problem sets). Quadratic equations are covered even earlier in our Algebra 2 book. It is true that we don t cover logs. But that is only because the TT series is not finished yet. The same is true of the 2 or 3 other topics that were mentioned. Our Pre-Calculus is coming out next year and that book will cover all those topics extensively, along with many others. The TT series, once it is finished, will cover ALL of the topics that a student needs, no matter what his/her future career plans (including science, engineering, medicine, etc.). Why is it that we put some topics in Algebra 2 instead of Algebra 1 or vice versa (or wait to do logs until Pre-Calculus)? We introduce topics in the order that we think will help the student learn the most. And we've had quite a lot of experience teaching math, as I've discussed. I don t think the goal should be to race through the most number of topics in the shortest time. What's more important is to really learn what you cover. Our approach is to help students gain mastery over foundational areas before moving on to new things. More generally, there are always differences in the sequencing of topics when you compare publishers. For example, to get through all of Saxon s geometry lessons you would have to take Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Advanced Mathematics. And even then, you wouldn't get a complete high school geometry course. Videotext covers Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 in only 180 lessons, whereas most books take about 260 lessons to cover the same material. But I'm not saying that Saxon or Videotext is bad because of their sequencing or the small number of lessons. When choosing a curriculum I think it makes more sense to focus on how well the book EXPLAINS the concepts, rather than just count up the topics. If topics covered were so important then public school students would have high test scores. That's because the public school books are full of topics. In reality, of course, many public school graduates can't multiply or divide or solve even the simplest algebra equation. And the U.S. is near the bottom of the international math rankings. The biggest problem we have in math education is not that topics aren't introduced early enough. It s that the books don't give enough explanation and the instruction they do contain is usually very poor (maybe because mathematicians are often bad communicators.) Inadequate explanation is an especially big problem for homeschoolers, who are often studying independently once they reach middle school age. The TT series is designed to deal with this problem. We cover all the major topics and we do so in depth, with full explanation so much explanation, in fact, that the student can pretty much teach himself! I am convinced that a student who uses the TT series will be BETTER PREPARED for the SAT and ACT and for college than if he/she uses any other series on the market. And the reason is the quality and quantity of our instruction. It doesn't hurt that we make math enjoyable either. Everybody knows that the more interested a student is in a book, the more he's likely to learn. As for the Jay Wile e-mail, I already told you that we will cover every one of the extra topics he mentioned in our Pre-Calculus product. And for those students who don't want to go all the way through our Pre-Calculus, we ll post certain topics (like logs) on our website for all users to access. The physics lesson that was mentioned was not on imaginary numbers. It was on complex numbers. A complex number can be viewed as a vector in 2 dimensions (and in the lesson we used a two-dimensional example). Also, the addition and subtraction of complex numbers and vectors are the same. This gave us a rare opportunity to show, in a way that a high school student can understand, how complex numbers (a very abstract and difficult concept) could actually be used in a real-world context. Other math authors have taken a similar approach.
Greg Sabouri
This makes so much sense to me, and I have seen this in my own children. It is an outstanding program and we will continue with it all the way through Pre-Calculus.
You can view samples on their website TT
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Abstract random thinker......
Well, here we are 6 weeks into school and what I thought was the perfect curriculum isn't working for my abstract random right brain thinker. I have been reading everything I can about Charlotte Mason and her educational model. It is exactly what Allison needs. I am switching her science to Exploring Creation with Zoology She must draw to learn and this is heavy on notebooking. This is much more focused and in depth which will allow for more mastery.This immersion approach seems to be how she learns best. In order to see how the scientific world operates she will need to be provided with deeper more profound information. So I will make the change for her to meet her learning style. As for history we will focus on one time period at a time and stay with it as long as needed. As I mentioned before I downloaded a whole notebook full of notebooking sheets for the Viking time period. As much as I love Story of the World it skips around too much for her to remember what she has learned. I have ordered many books from the library on Vikings so who knows how long we will be studying this. We will stay with it until I feel she is ready to move on to something else. The beauty of homeschooling is that I am able to adjust for her needs. I have joined several CM yahoo groups to get more familiar with this teaching model. I have used it lightly in the past but now I will need to use it more with Allison and probably my little wiggly Jonathan.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Great find
I just stumbled on to this website while searching for notebooking ideas. You can purchase e-books of different time periods and subjects to use in your notebooks.You can view samples at homeschoolebooks . Allison is currently studying the Vikings and I was able to pay a small fee and download it instantly. This is a great way to enhance learning especially for our right brained children.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Our week
I can't believe another week is starting. Everyone is into a good rhythm and things are going fairly smooth. The co-op classes start for Morgan and Bryan this week. They are ready and excited. I have loved the low key of our schedule the past several weeks but I knew this time would come. Classes and the start hockey season changes everything for us. But in a good way too. But I must say I am ready for cool weather. We have been pretty trapped inside and Jonathan and Allison want their nature walks! It too will be here before we know it.
Jonathan continues to make progress with phonics and math. This week we will move to The Story about Ping in our FIAR book. I am skipping around in the three volumes picking and choosing books I love. He continues to listen to books on tape. But I have to say the most exciting thing for him is to see what the new sound will be to tell you when to turn the page. What a sweet thing!
Allison continues with Sonlight history and science. We stick pretty close to the schedule but I have replaced CHOW with SOTW. She likes the activity pages that go along with SOTW. We read a chapter, color the map and coloring pages, and then do a narration. We are studying the Middle Ages and in science we are studying birds. This is working well. We continue with Vivaldi and Van Gogh this week. Last week she created her own picture of Starry Night. It was amazing. She is moving to lesson 3 in Latina Christiana.
Aaron is continuing with Algebra 1 and so far no problems. He loves it and wants it to get a little more challenging. He still doesn't love reading but is pushing himself. He is keeping up with Latin and loves the BBC manual. He has been excited and reading his Bible each day.
Morgan and Bryan are also keeping up well with their load. Bryan is having to learn Excel and will really need it for his biology lab write ups. The Scarlet Letter is a challenge but they are making it through. Morgan is doing amazingly well with it and even says she loves the book. That just puts such a smile on my face.
So overall I am pleased with this week and looking forward to the week ahead. I am thankful that my attitude is one of thanksgiving. I can honestly say I love teaching them and watching them learn. I have been immensely blessed.
Jonathan continues to make progress with phonics and math. This week we will move to The Story about Ping in our FIAR book. I am skipping around in the three volumes picking and choosing books I love. He continues to listen to books on tape. But I have to say the most exciting thing for him is to see what the new sound will be to tell you when to turn the page. What a sweet thing!
Allison continues with Sonlight history and science. We stick pretty close to the schedule but I have replaced CHOW with SOTW. She likes the activity pages that go along with SOTW. We read a chapter, color the map and coloring pages, and then do a narration. We are studying the Middle Ages and in science we are studying birds. This is working well. We continue with Vivaldi and Van Gogh this week. Last week she created her own picture of Starry Night. It was amazing. She is moving to lesson 3 in Latina Christiana.
Aaron is continuing with Algebra 1 and so far no problems. He loves it and wants it to get a little more challenging. He still doesn't love reading but is pushing himself. He is keeping up with Latin and loves the BBC manual. He has been excited and reading his Bible each day.
Morgan and Bryan are also keeping up well with their load. Bryan is having to learn Excel and will really need it for his biology lab write ups. The Scarlet Letter is a challenge but they are making it through. Morgan is doing amazingly well with it and even says she loves the book. That just puts such a smile on my face.
So overall I am pleased with this week and looking forward to the week ahead. I am thankful that my attitude is one of thanksgiving. I can honestly say I love teaching them and watching them learn. I have been immensely blessed.
Why study Latin?
That is question I often get when speaking about homeschooling. Why study a dead language as it is still sometimes called? Even with my lack of formative classical education this is one thing I can now speak of with complete confidence. I guess when we started learning Latin several years ago I wasn't completely sure about it either. But I kept reading about the benefits and became completely convinced this was a path my children would take. Allison is in the 3rd grade and is in her second year of Latin. After successfully completing Prima Latina we have now moved on the Latina Christiana I. These materials are put out by Memoria Press and samples can be viewed on their website. After the completion of Latina Christian we move to
Latin in the Christian Trivium. This is such an outstanding program. It is intended to be a high school level course but can be started earlier if the student has a strong Latin foundation.
So what good is all of this? Well, for starters Latin increases our English vocabulary. About half of our language comes from Latin. A ten year study showed that students that have a strong Latin background score an average of 157 points higher on the SAT. Latin also increases the knowledge of English grammar, which in turn creates better writers. Latin is also the key to the modern Romance languages so a knowledge of Latin will hasten your learning of other languages. Many careers require a knowledge of Latin, such as medical, legal and hard sciences. But most of all studying Latin requires an intellectual discipline that trains the mind. This is something that will enhance all learning. So even if they grumble about it and grow tired of the difficulty it is training their mind in a way that will help them for life.
Latin in the Christian Trivium. This is such an outstanding program. It is intended to be a high school level course but can be started earlier if the student has a strong Latin foundation.
So what good is all of this? Well, for starters Latin increases our English vocabulary. About half of our language comes from Latin. A ten year study showed that students that have a strong Latin background score an average of 157 points higher on the SAT. Latin also increases the knowledge of English grammar, which in turn creates better writers. Latin is also the key to the modern Romance languages so a knowledge of Latin will hasten your learning of other languages. Many careers require a knowledge of Latin, such as medical, legal and hard sciences. But most of all studying Latin requires an intellectual discipline that trains the mind. This is something that will enhance all learning. So even if they grumble about it and grow tired of the difficulty it is training their mind in a way that will help them for life.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Mary..The mother of Jesus
I just finished Unafraid by Francine Rivers. Anytime I study the life of Jesus, it always seems to be the most difficult for me studying it from Mary's perspective. Yes, He is the Son of God but He was her son too. She loved Him not only because of who she knew He would be but simply because of who He was to her. I believe that God is so gracious the Mary surely was spared the knowledge that her Son was born to be crucified for all of us. I don't see how she could have made it through if she had known. As I read the story I have read so many times, I just don't even have a grasp on all of it. That anyone would choose us and go to their death for even those who were crucifying and rejecting Him. The story has been written, and we all know the ending. But let us never get tired of studying the Scriptures from different perspectives. There is so much to be gained....
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Educational models
When I began homeschooling eight years ago I had no idea what an educational model was, or that there were so many. Over the years I have read everything I could get my hands on to gain insight. And I guess I have to say I haven't found one that is perfect. I do believe that classical education is the most effective educational model. That being said I don't follow it exclusively. I love Latin and it will always be a part of our studies. I love chronological history but I also think an in depth study of US history is needed. I love the Great books but I also think there are so many others that are worth reading that do not fall into this category. With my younger ones I love the Charlotte Mason model, but want more structure as they get older. So where does that put me in my educational philosophy? I guess if I were to give it a name it would be a Classical/Charlotte Mason/eclectic model. There is a great article by Susan Wise Bauer that compares the Charlotte Mason model to classical education. And where she differs with the CM Model I totally agree. You can read the article at http://www.welltrainedmind.com/charlottemason.html
I think for the younger ones learning has to be fun. It should be our goal to teach them a love of learning. And how better to do that than a nature walks, real books and learning the arts. This would never get old in our house.
So who is Charlotte Mason?
Charlotte Mason was born in England in 1842 and was educated at home. She was a devout Christian who spent her life teaching children and other women to teach using her philosophy. Charlotte loved children and believed that they should be taught with respect and gentleness. She believed in using living books, books about real people and things, and that children’s minds are fed on ideas. She also loved whole books and great literature. She would have a child narrate or “tell back” to her the story she had just read aloud thus increasing the child’s attention span and making the story his or her own. I love this approach to education and use her methods successfully with my own children.
You can read her book on line http://amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html
Also for more info on classical education visit http://www.welltrainedmind.com/activeboards.php
I think for the younger ones learning has to be fun. It should be our goal to teach them a love of learning. And how better to do that than a nature walks, real books and learning the arts. This would never get old in our house.
So who is Charlotte Mason?
Charlotte Mason was born in England in 1842 and was educated at home. She was a devout Christian who spent her life teaching children and other women to teach using her philosophy. Charlotte loved children and believed that they should be taught with respect and gentleness. She believed in using living books, books about real people and things, and that children’s minds are fed on ideas. She also loved whole books and great literature. She would have a child narrate or “tell back” to her the story she had just read aloud thus increasing the child’s attention span and making the story his or her own. I love this approach to education and use her methods successfully with my own children.
You can read her book on line http://amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html
Also for more info on classical education visit http://www.welltrainedmind.com/activeboards.php
Great Week!
It has been a great week for all of us. School is going better than it ever has before. We just all seem to have a rhythm about us. I think the heat outside is helping us all. No one wants to be outside. Jonathan is moving right along with his letters. He is starting to sound out some three letter words with assistance. FIAR is such a big hit. We have moved on the Katy No Pockets. This has got to be one of my all time favorites. We have expanded our study to marsupials and their way of life. He is loving all of the research we are doing and learning so much. We also went to the library today and he picked out a couple of books on tape. Amazingly he sits through the whole book. I think this is a good way to help with concentration.
Allison is still progressing with her multiplication tables. I am not sure why this has been so hard for her. She has already memorized some many poems, Latin prayers, and she has just learned the 24th Psalm in a matter of a couple of days. It must be the right brain dominance showing itself. We are still studying Vivaldi and his music. Art is such a big part of her life so she draws in every subject. If she writes a story it will have illustrations with it.
Aaron finished up his first module of Apologia Physical Science and of course got a perfect score on the exam. He is moving right along in Algebra 1 and high school Latin.
Morgan and Bryan have adjusted well to the new load. They both worked a lot this week so everyone is tired and ready for a nice weekend.
I am researching more about Charlotte Mason and her education model. It seems so wonderful and I guess you could say we use a CM/Classical model. More on Charlotte Mason's model to come.
Allison is still progressing with her multiplication tables. I am not sure why this has been so hard for her. She has already memorized some many poems, Latin prayers, and she has just learned the 24th Psalm in a matter of a couple of days. It must be the right brain dominance showing itself. We are still studying Vivaldi and his music. Art is such a big part of her life so she draws in every subject. If she writes a story it will have illustrations with it.
Aaron finished up his first module of Apologia Physical Science and of course got a perfect score on the exam. He is moving right along in Algebra 1 and high school Latin.
Morgan and Bryan have adjusted well to the new load. They both worked a lot this week so everyone is tired and ready for a nice weekend.
I am researching more about Charlotte Mason and her education model. It seems so wonderful and I guess you could say we use a CM/Classical model. More on Charlotte Mason's model to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)