Linda's Homeschool WebLog
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Today I took my son and one of his friends (another homeschooler) to the Grant's Pass Skate Park. Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera - but I have these photos I took last month when my daughter and I stopped there to check things out.
There's nothing like this here in the small mountain town we live in.
Aaron said this was a good field trip for science since he was able to experiment with centrifugal force. I think that's stretching things a bit but it was definitely a good field trip for physical education. Both Aaron and his friend got totally worn out on their BMX bikes along with about thirty other boys on bikes and skateboards (amazing how they never ran into each other).
We stopped at a bike shop and got parts to fix his mountain bike. He says I can use it to take rides alongside the local river.
On the way home we saw a bear cub sitting in the middle of the road. It was the first bear I'd seen in the nearly-five years I've lived here. When it saw our car it scrambled to the side of the road, climbed a hill and hid under a bush. Aaron advised me not to stop... "The next bear you see may be that one's mother," he said.
Aaron's favorite section... the bowl:
There's nothing like this here in the small mountain town we live in.
Aaron said this was a good field trip for science since he was able to experiment with centrifugal force. I think that's stretching things a bit but it was definitely a good field trip for physical education. Both Aaron and his friend got totally worn out on their BMX bikes along with about thirty other boys on bikes and skateboards (amazing how they never ran into each other).
We stopped at a bike shop and got parts to fix his mountain bike. He says I can use it to take rides alongside the local river.
On the way home we saw a bear cub sitting in the middle of the road. It was the first bear I'd seen in the nearly-five years I've lived here. When it saw our car it scrambled to the side of the road, climbed a hill and hid under a bush. Aaron advised me not to stop... "The next bear you see may be that one's mother," he said.
The meeting with the principal at the high school went well. He seemed to understand my concerns about my daughter's school attendance. I told him she wants independent study at home at least until the IEP on the 7th and then we will discuss any options the school can offer. Ideally she would like to study at home most of the time and attend school on days she's feeling up to it. The special ed teacher suggested an alternative program. Though the alternative school is meant for older students the teacher thought with special ed she might be able to get my daughter in. It is taught by someone I know, respect and trust.
My son's learning session went good. We got a lot done: reading/writing Spanish and English numbers plus Roman Numerals, reading and discussing article 1 of the U.S. Constitution (about the legislature), vocabulary writing and study (we went over the words "sanguine" and "totalitarian"), and 1984... we read the rest of chapter one.
While I was reading 1984 he made this artistic creation:
He calls it "Magneeto". I plan to use this picture on his website when we get it started. The website will have a lot of short movies he'll be making this year.
I asked him to write an essay about the movie he watched last night but he wasn't ready for this unexpected assignment. All I got was that he didn't believe it and didn't know why. I told him that its okay to disagree and in fact I'll be giving him material I don't agree with too - but that when he reads he should be able to say whether he agrees or disagrees, and why. It should be interesting, over the course of the coming year, to see him develop this ability more.
Now I'm going to bed (at 12:48am) and will let him use the computer to explore bicycle websites for a while.
My son's learning session went good. We got a lot done: reading/writing Spanish and English numbers plus Roman Numerals, reading and discussing article 1 of the U.S. Constitution (about the legislature), vocabulary writing and study (we went over the words "sanguine" and "totalitarian"), and 1984... we read the rest of chapter one.
While I was reading 1984 he made this artistic creation:
He calls it "Magneeto". I plan to use this picture on his website when we get it started. The website will have a lot of short movies he'll be making this year.
I asked him to write an essay about the movie he watched last night but he wasn't ready for this unexpected assignment. All I got was that he didn't believe it and didn't know why. I told him that its okay to disagree and in fact I'll be giving him material I don't agree with too - but that when he reads he should be able to say whether he agrees or disagrees, and why. It should be interesting, over the course of the coming year, to see him develop this ability more.
Now I'm going to bed (at 12:48am) and will let him use the computer to explore bicycle websites for a while.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Aaron came home last night at about 10:30pm and didn't want to study right away. He's a night owl so study in the evening is a good time for him. I told him it was too late for me and so I set him up with a movie to watch here on the computer. I chose "The Capitalist Conspiracy" - a classic filmstrip from the sixties that's been put into Windows Media movie format... I got it from PrisonPlanet.TV. When I got up this morning I saw he'd watched 3/4 of it and I'm looking forward to getting his reaction. This was for his political science class.
At 1pm today I have an appointment to talk to the principal at my daughter's school. She wants to attend a few more days of school then go on to independent study. I guess because of her bipolar condition she's finding that being in classes with lots of other kids (some who she doesn't like) is too upsetting. We have an IEP meeting set up for next week and by then should have a better idea of what should be done for her.
At 1pm today I have an appointment to talk to the principal at my daughter's school. She wants to attend a few more days of school then go on to independent study. I guess because of her bipolar condition she's finding that being in classes with lots of other kids (some who she doesn't like) is too upsetting. We have an IEP meeting set up for next week and by then should have a better idea of what should be done for her.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Today was my daughter's 4th day at public school and she spent half the day trying to get out of it. I'd given her a permission slip to come home but the office wouldn't let her go without phoning me. It was afternoon before I realized the calls were being picked up by my computer and I wasn't getting the message. She came home early, but not long before school ended.
Earlier in the day I phoned the guidance counselor about her placement in freshman classes when she's supposed to be a sophomore. The counselor insisted she wasn't being discriminated against because of being homeschooled last year but I didn't buy it 100%. She counted a lot of my daughter's homeschool classes as electives so they don't count toward graduation requirements. She and I did not see eye to eye on the value of her restrictive regulations. We have an IEP coming up in about a week and my daughter's therapist will be there to back me up. Meanwhile my daughter gives all signs of wanting to quit school already and the therapist and I both would like to see her try a bit longer. Though homeschooling is my favorite kind of education, you have no idea how miserable and lonely my child has been this last year and I don't want her to be stuck at home and totally friendless.
Meanwhile my son didn't come home for his evening of homeschool academics. He's at his friend's house (another homeschooler) and wants to spend the night there. I told him I am willing to be flexible but if he doesn't study tonight he has to make it up later. He offered to do two sessions tomorrow and I don't think that would work out right because it is very intense study this year and I don't want to overdo it. I told him he could make it up this weekend. I told him I want him to do 200 study sessions this year and that he'll be graduated from eighth grade when he's done them.
Summer vacation is over. I think the news shocked him. I told him to phone me again before 11 to let me know if he's staying overnight there or if he needs a ride home. I kind of like seeing him growing up and getting more independent.
Earlier in the day I phoned the guidance counselor about her placement in freshman classes when she's supposed to be a sophomore. The counselor insisted she wasn't being discriminated against because of being homeschooled last year but I didn't buy it 100%. She counted a lot of my daughter's homeschool classes as electives so they don't count toward graduation requirements. She and I did not see eye to eye on the value of her restrictive regulations. We have an IEP coming up in about a week and my daughter's therapist will be there to back me up. Meanwhile my daughter gives all signs of wanting to quit school already and the therapist and I both would like to see her try a bit longer. Though homeschooling is my favorite kind of education, you have no idea how miserable and lonely my child has been this last year and I don't want her to be stuck at home and totally friendless.
Meanwhile my son didn't come home for his evening of homeschool academics. He's at his friend's house (another homeschooler) and wants to spend the night there. I told him I am willing to be flexible but if he doesn't study tonight he has to make it up later. He offered to do two sessions tomorrow and I don't think that would work out right because it is very intense study this year and I don't want to overdo it. I told him he could make it up this weekend. I told him I want him to do 200 study sessions this year and that he'll be graduated from eighth grade when he's done them.
Summer vacation is over. I think the news shocked him. I told him to phone me again before 11 to let me know if he's staying overnight there or if he needs a ride home. I kind of like seeing him growing up and getting more independent.
Homeschooling with Aaron is going good so far. I think he's able to concentrate much better now. I have him writing both Spanish and English. His handwriting is good - he should use it more often. He's enjoying some of the material we're reading but the scientific method site is a bit difficult to follow and I'll be looking for other sites that explain it.
He seems to like 1984. If I read ten pages daily on school days only we should be through it in two months.
We're taking one day off this week to go to the BMX park in Grant's Pass - we'll take one of his friends.
My daughter (age 15) came to me tonight and said she's already thinking it was a bad idea to go back to public school. Apparently she isn't happy there and hasn't been able to find any new friends yet. She's just as isolated, she says - only in a crowd. While others are having fun with their friends on their breaks, she's sitting alone. Not good.
I told her to give it a longer try. Last year she went two days and quit. This time she says she'll try to give it at least a month.
She said she didn't want to stay at school tomorrow because she's so unhappy (she was crying while we were talking about this)... so I gave her an all-purpose get-out-of-school permission slip from me. She's bipolar and I think if she's not feeling good she shouldn't be forced to stay there. Maybe some people think that's not a reason for special treatment, but I feel it is a debilitating illness that's caused her a lot of problems and she deserves special consideration when her moods make being at school difficult. She's taking her medication now but still seems to be having some problems.
He seems to like 1984. If I read ten pages daily on school days only we should be through it in two months.
We're taking one day off this week to go to the BMX park in Grant's Pass - we'll take one of his friends.
My daughter (age 15) came to me tonight and said she's already thinking it was a bad idea to go back to public school. Apparently she isn't happy there and hasn't been able to find any new friends yet. She's just as isolated, she says - only in a crowd. While others are having fun with their friends on their breaks, she's sitting alone. Not good.
I told her to give it a longer try. Last year she went two days and quit. This time she says she'll try to give it at least a month.
She said she didn't want to stay at school tomorrow because she's so unhappy (she was crying while we were talking about this)... so I gave her an all-purpose get-out-of-school permission slip from me. She's bipolar and I think if she's not feeling good she shouldn't be forced to stay there. Maybe some people think that's not a reason for special treatment, but I feel it is a debilitating illness that's caused her a lot of problems and she deserves special consideration when her moods make being at school difficult. She's taking her medication now but still seems to be having some problems.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Now that Aaron and I have settled on a list of subjects for the year - I'm working on pre-planning so I can give him meaningful lessons. I have always been an eclectic homeschooler bordering on unschooling... but not quite that liberal. In any case I don't go by a purchased curriculum because my most important homeschool philosophy is to let the children learn about what they are most interested in and to encourage them to indulge in freedom of thought. I don't like the public school theory that all children should learn what the teacher says they must study. Children learn much better when they choose the subject matter.
Anyhow, to get started I've developed a planning sheet. I used to use planning books from the school supply stores but since we live in the center of a forest and there's no school supply around here, it is easier for me to develop the documents on my computer. I always do the same for an attendance sheet (required of private schools in our state).
Here's the pre-planning documents I'll be using for Aaron this year (in Word document format). You're welcome to download them and alter them for your own use.
Planning Chart 1 :: Planning Chart 2
I will place these in a binder facing each other for easy reference.
Have a wonderful homeschooling day.
(Yes I know it is Sunday, but every day is a learning day around here.)
Anyhow, to get started I've developed a planning sheet. I used to use planning books from the school supply stores but since we live in the center of a forest and there's no school supply around here, it is easier for me to develop the documents on my computer. I always do the same for an attendance sheet (required of private schools in our state).
Here's the pre-planning documents I'll be using for Aaron this year (in Word document format). You're welcome to download them and alter them for your own use.
Planning Chart 1 :: Planning Chart 2
I will place these in a binder facing each other for easy reference.
Have a wonderful homeschooling day.
(Yes I know it is Sunday, but every day is a learning day around here.)
I'm redesigning my other homeschool web site. Here's the current site: Jefferson Homeschooling. The new design isn't complete yet but you're welcome to check out the site as I'm working on it. Site Redesign.
