April 2010

Wow! I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a month!!! I was blogging on our adoption site, and, of course, we were in China for almost 3 weeks. That is its own story, and you can read about that on Petersadoption.blogspot. com. Our home-schooling has taken a strange twist. I say strange, only because it was completely unexpected. Connor is seriously considering returning to public school. Every year at this time, we begin to look at next year's curriculum. John and Ben, our newly adopted sons, have been going to Geneseo Central everyday now, and I think Connor feels "out of the loop." In the interest of saving money, I've cut back on several of the extra-curricular lessons, and now Connor has (maybe) too much time at home alone. Or maybe he just wants to be more like his brothers. Whatever the reason, Connor says he wants to go back to "regular" school next year. One part of me is relieved (I could go back to work full-time, and we need the money), but another part of me is disappointed and sad. I asked Connor to name the advantages and disadvantages of public school, and he admitted that home-schooling has a ton more advantages than public school. However, when he compiled his written list on his blog, he made certain that the pro and con lists are equal in length. I think he's just forgotten the inconveniences of public schooling. For instance, last week he told me that he was "into" his writing piece and was going to just write most of the day. I reminded him that if he was in public school he would not have that flexibility. As a matter of fact, if he were in public school he would have been assigned a specific writing topic, and he would have a specific outline to follow. I can't imagine how Connor would fare in such a constrained situation. Like most creative people, Connor is a fabulous writer, when simply left alone to write for hours. Then later in the week one of his friends (also home-schooled) called and wanted to come over to play. It was around noon, and normally I would have said yes. We could finish his work in the evening if necessary. Instead, I decided to tell Connor that he can't even call his friend back until after school. I told him that at public school you can't just decide to call a friend, and you certainly cannot have a playdate in the middle of the day!!

Upcoming Trip!

It's Saturday, but Connor is doing school-work all day because of our upcoming trip to China. He has to finish his vocabulary up to lesson 10, and he is spending extra time on Chinese lessons too. Of course while we are in China he will be learning a TON of stuff, just not the things I have listed on my IHIP plan.

On the cheap

Now that we are adopting two children, I've been trying harder to home-school on the cheap. There are many families that do not spend a ton of money on tutors and lessons, and they do not lack for educational resources. I know it can be done, I just didn't spend enough time trying to save money, and I never took the time to add up exactly how much I spend to home-school. When I add up all his lessons, books, tutors, curriculum materials, field trips etc., I spend as much on Connor as we do to send Austin to a private school. Yikes! We do need to economize now that our family is expanding. Recently, I discovered how much money I can save by taking Connor to the library in Rochester, instead of to the bookstore. Our public library in Geneseo is quite small, so up until last month I would let Connor order books online, or I'd take him to the bookstore every week or so. Well, as I mentioned before, Connor reads constantly, and I'm spending a fortune on books. On Tuesday, I returned 18 books to the library, and I let Connor check-out 9 more. That will get us through the next two weeks. I also took him to the bookstore to buy books for our China trip. I read online that Borders gives its educator's discount (25%) to home-schoolers, with proper ID. I saved $26.00 on one trip to the bookstore with my new educator's discount card!! I'm also starting to cut coupons and shop for groceries at Tops, instead of Wegmans. Last week I entered my name in a drawing, and we attended a performing arts show in Rochester because I won the tickets. That show would have cost us $150.00 or more. Yep, I'm going to cut-back on nonessentials while still giving Connor the best education possible.

The one who has the most words...

Walking out of the library today, with our arms literally overflowing with books, a woman stopped to say to Connor, "Wow! That is a whole lot of books for one little boy." I replied, "Don't worry. He'll read them all before they are due back at the library. " She walked around the van specifically, just to tell Connor her philosophy on life. She said, "You know who wins the game of Life? The one who has the most words. " Yes, it was a little strange, but interesting too. I often tell Connor that it is important to write well because people have changed the world with their writings, and I think that is sort of what this woman meant today.

Books

The other day Connor blogged (entitled My Wish Upon a Star) that he wished that he had more time to just read books. I find that rather humorous, considering that we checked 18 books out of the library when we last went to Rochester, and he finished all but one of them within the three week loan period. Yes, he definitely gets enough time to just read. He reads while he's eating, he reads while we are in the car, and he reads for at least an hour every morning, before our school day officially starts at 9am. I'm grateful that he enjoys books, and considers reading a reward, rather than a punishment. When we get home from Tae Kwon Do today, I'm going to let Connor go online and order a bunch of books to take with us to China. I don't want to risk losing Library books, and we should bring soft-cover books to lighten up the luggage. All I have to do now is figure out how many books we can jam into a carry-on bag!

Another person's view of home-schooling

I cut and copied this from another person's facebook. The author is Collette Deneault/Oldham
My views on homeschooling were the typical concerns:
(1.) I felt they weren't being socialized (based on one family I knew
whose kids did not know how to socialize.)
(2.) I felt they couldn't possibly be learning as much as I was
"teaching"……..I was sure every kid was dying to know their
multiplication tables through music…..
And (3.) to top off my ego, I was sure that I was doing a much better
job with 25 kids, than a mom could possibly do one-on-one with no
curriculum bought materials.
Then it happened. I became a grandmother and my grandkids were going
to be, not just homeschooled but unschooled. This required some re-
direction on my part. But fortunately, I didn't need too much
persuasion as my last few years in the classroom were convincing
enough. This together with reading lots of books, magazines and sites,
I was able to re-define what education meant to me.

First of all, teaching to the test had become the cornerstone of
"teaching". And if a student scored lower than a 4 on standardized
testing, he/she would be pulled out for extra "help". Any time for
planning fun activities got taken over with the recording and
analyzing of data. I slowly went from teacher to secretary in four
years. Each day became more cloned until everyone had to be on the
same page in order to compare/contrast. More workshops were brought
into the school, business consultants were hired (education having
become a business I suspect), and more curriculum was put into our day
with nothing removed. Recess was slowly taken away and kids were
forced to read or at least hold a book…..to help state scores.
Eventually, the school day was extended by a half an hour, a double
guarantee that more structured time would definitely help scores. No
school wants to be a school in need.

At one point in my teaching career, I decided to graph actual
"teaching" moments. Not necessarily learning moments but "teaching". I
came to the realization that I had about 2 hours a day where I had all
the kids at the same time. Pull out programs, designed to help kids,
were doing anything but that. Whether they needed it or not, these
kids were removed from a rich literature discussion and were made to
sit around a round table learning the sounds of the vowels and reading
rhyming books with absolutely no plot and no interest level. Anyway,
of those two hours of "non-interrupted time" in my class, kids were
still going in and out of the room for various reasons (nurse, school
store, bookmobile, banking, bathroom etc.). Moreover, any "new"
concept from our richstate driven curriculum was not necessarily a new
concept for everyone and for some it wasn't even important. Educating
children at school was practically becoming synonymous to torture for
both the teacher and the student. So you can imagine when the concept
of unschooling came up, I was more than ready to embrace a system of
learning that could indeed be called learning (and keep my grandkids
out of this bureaucratic mess).
And now back to my 3 original concerns:
(1.) I now see that socialization in a classroom may not be the
socialization you want your kids to model. Besides, contrary to
belief, there's little time in the day for kids to be kids and no time
in the day for kids to interact with adults. In a school setting,
adults are the people who tell kids what to do. A teacher does not
have time to have a conversation with each child every day. A home/
unschooled child, on the other hand, learns to communicate with
everyone, no matter what the age. I've come to realize and more
importantly witness, that socialization in the real world happens in
the real world and not behind closed doors with a bunch of other kids
the same age waiting for a teacher to tell them what to do. I'm
speaking from experience. I did that. I'm guilty! I'm glad I'm living
long enough to see the other side of the coin.

(2.) Yes, I now realize that kids at home ARE learning at home and as
a matter of fact, they are learning much more at home. They may not be
learning the government regulated curriculum, but who says you have to
read at 6, study eskimos at 7, egyptians at 8, the solar system at 9
and the constitution at 10. And when's the last time someone asked you
what 3/4ths of 7/8ths is? I find it much more rewarding to have my 6
year old grandson (who can't read yet ….and is not coded for this
"flaw"), to come flying in, in the morning to show me how his magnet
under the table moves his magnet over the table. From this we had a
discussion on magnets that would have taken me a day to set up in a
classroom and two days to deliver to a 3rd grade class, (certainly not
to be taught to a 2ndgrade class).

(3.) Lastly, yes, my ego took a much needed face lift. I no longer
believe that my 30 plus years in the classroom was more beneficial to
any child whose parents chose to homeschool. If I had to do it over
again with my own kids, it would be really wonderful to not have to
wake them up from a warm bed, stuff breakfast down their throats and
put them on a noisy bus only to be delivered to some other adult who's
in charge of 25 other kids, and then have them sit there all day being
told what to learn with little socialization. And in addition to
sitting on a hard seat most of the day next to some kid who may be
annoying, they all must walk down the hall quietly, hurry to eat, rush
outdoors to play in a 15 minutes recess disguised as socializing in a
sea of kids who are exactly the same age. Very realistic! And you
mustn't forget the kids who never get recess because the teachers keep
them in for extra help or better yet, take away their recess as a
punishment OMG! This really really does happen!

In summary:

A day in the life of my grandkids would go like this: Happy engaged
kids learning everything they WANT to know, eating when they are
hungry and resting when they are tired.

A day in the life of a schooled child: Happy or unhappy kids engaged
or not engaged in learning or not learning, eating when they may or
may not be hungry and unable to rest if they are tired.

IN SCHOOL I believe that

Some kids learn all the time

All kids learn some of the time

But not all kids learn all of the time

But for unschooled kids, they ARE learning ALL of the time. They are
living life and learning everything that need and want to learn.

The choice is evident to me!

Collette Deneault ~Teacher for 30 plus years & Grandma to 5

Jeopardy

So....last night at 7:30pm Connor and I hurried home from Tae Kwon do lessons so that Connor could tryout for the kids' Jeopardy Game. A few months ago, we saw that tryouts for the TV show Jeopardy were going to be in our area in Feb., and we signed Connor up to take part. At 7:45pm sharp we logged into our account. We watched the clock tick down. All Connor had to do was answer 30 questions correctly (each within 20 seconds) and he would be entered into the pool of contestants considered for the show next year. If he was drawn from the pool, he would be interviewed and go through another round of questions in NYC. We just decided it would be fun, and a learning experience. Yes, it was. Nervously, Connor waited for the game to begin. About 4 minutes into it, he started yelling and calling himself an idiot. Oops. What happened? Well, instead of hitting the "submit" button after each question was asked, he realized (after 10-15 questions) that he was hitting the "skip" button. When he figured out his mistake, it was too late to do anything but exit out of the game. Of course, he was upset and disappointed, but really, the odds of him actually getting onto the show were slim anyway. He did, however, learn the importance of reading the directions carefully, even on a timed test.

The Box

I am a traditional, linear thinker. If I have a project to do, I plan out the project, buy the materials, write it on the calendar, and complete the project in the "normal" linear way. I plan out almost everything, and our calendar is enormous (color-coded by child) and it carries Biblical weight in our home. If it's not on Mom's Master Calendar, it is not going to happen. In fact, the activity simply doesn't exist. Poor Cheng (our exchange student) has found that out the hard way this year!! Unfortunately for me, my organized way of tackling things often contradicts with Connor's outside the box thinking. Take yesterday's lunch, for instance. In the cupboard I have at least 10 cans of soup. Connor asked me around noon if he could have soup for lunch. Sure, no problem. I went upstairs to shower. But does Connor open up a can of soup and microwave it, like I expected? Of course not. He decided to create a new type of soup. He opened up a can of V-8 juice, added garlic, hot pepper flakes, crispy onions (that I bought to put on top of a salad), and a few other magical ingredients. Granted, he ate his creation and he was happy, but things like that drive me crazy. He even wrote his new recipe on a card and named his soup. I just had to hold my breathe, count to 10, slowly exhale, and remind myself over and over that I should not stifle his creativity. I even managed to comment on his interesting compilation of flavors, instead of yelling. It helps me to remember that people thought Einstein was retarded, and that Galileo was crazy; Connor just can't seem to do things in the "normal" way. This is WHY we home-school. If he was in public school full-time they would manage to make him conform, or he would fail. God grant me patience.

China trip

Lately, I've been spending unbelievable amounts of time coordinating our trip to China. Connor has been diligently studying Mandarin, and we are all counting the days until we bring our new sons home. We've decided to stop doing the daily "SAT Prep" questions that we do for half an hour a day, and spend even more time on Chinese. Today I found that I can custom order M & M candies with phrases and photos. I'm thinking of buying some to give as gifts while in China. Connor can write out the Chinese characters for Thank You, for instance, and we can have them printed on the candy. Might be fun. Also, Connor called Canon to request the manual for our camera, and then he spent quite awhile figuring out all its functions. He already knows more about operating the camera than I do, and I've owned it 7 years! I didn't even know it could tape short videos!! I told him he can have the camera in China, and that proved quite an incentive to learn photography. Cooking is another thing that has captured Connor's imagination lately. He made hickory bark syrup last week, and everyone loved it so much that it's gone already. It's better than real maple syrup, and not too difficult to make. Next up, homemade bread. Yum.

Performing Arts

Tonight I took Connor to the performance of the Harlem Gospel Choir at SUNY Geneseo. I have to admit, at first I wasn't thrilled with the idea of spending a Sat. evening away from my husband, listening to gospel music with my son. That said, it was a wonderful, uplifting, and exciting evening. We even bought the Choir's Cd and had it autographed after the show. To be entirely honest, I probably would have skipped the concert tonight (David had a headache and did not want to go), except that I knew that I needed to fit a few more "performing arts" into Connor's curriculum. I'm not a big art, music or theater person, and I sometimes attend performances a bit grudgingly. I do always enjoy them in the end, however. I can't help but notice how home-schooling forces me to do things I don't want to do, and it is always a good thing. As a matter of fact, I recently read a quote (and I don't remember the author) that went something like this: "You should do something you don't want to do every single day, just because you don't want to do it. That way, when you are forced to do something you don't want to do, you will just tackle it as a matter of habit. "

NYS textbooks

I recently decided that Connor should work out of the "official" NYS textbook for Social Studies, "Mastering New York's Grade 5 Social Studies Standards." Previously, I was using Austin's 7th grade textbook, Call to Freedom, and it was getting a bit boring. Well today, Connor declared the new book dumb, and I tend to agree with him. For instance, there is a pie graph showing the percentage of exports from the US Colonies to Great Britain, Ireland, Africa, British West Indies, and Germany. The question asked is, "Using the pie chart above, which continent received the largest percentage of goods shipped from the American colonies in 1770?" Connor, naturally, pointed out that truly the answer should be Africa, since it is the only CONTINENT shown on the pie graph. Luckily, he realized that the correct answer is supposed to be Great Britain, which is NOT a continent, but a country. Yep. The book is going to be a problem. I'm just happy that he doesn't get totally frustrated and over-think these types of errors in books.

Interesting article today about how kids learn

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By SUSAN ENGEL

Published: February 1, 2010

New Marlborough, Mass.

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Hollis Duncan

THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science: developmental precursors don’t always resemble the skill to which they are leading. For example, saying the alphabet does not particularly help children learn to read. But having extended and complex conversations during toddlerhood does. Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on.

So what should children be able to do by age 12, or the time they leave elementary school? They should be able to read a chapter book, write a story and a compelling essay; know how to add, subtract, divide and multiply numbers; detect patterns in complex phenomena; use evidence to support an opinion; be part of a group of people who are not their family; and engage in an exchange of ideas in conversation. If all elementary school students mastered these abilities, they would be prepared to learn almost anything in high school and college.

Imagine, for instance, a third-grade classroom that was free of the laundry list of goals currently harnessing our teachers and students, and that was devoted instead to just a few narrowly defined and deeply focused goals.

In this classroom, children would spend two hours each day hearing stories read aloud, reading aloud themselves, telling stories to one another and reading on their own. After all, the first step to literacy is simply being immersed, through conversation and storytelling, in a reading environment; the second is to read a lot and often. A school day where every child is given ample opportunities to read and discuss books would give teachers more time to help those students who need more instruction in order to become good readers.

Children would also spend an hour a day writing things that have actual meaning to them — stories, newspaper articles, captions for cartoons, letters to one another. People write best when they use writing to think and to communicate, rather than to get a good grade.

In our theoretical classroom, children would also spend a short period of time each day practicing computation — adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Once children are proficient in those basics they would be free to turn to other activities that are equally essential for math and science: devising original experiments, observing the natural world and counting things, whether they be words, events or people. These are all activities children naturally love, if given a chance to do them in a genuine way.

What they shouldn’t do is spend tedious hours learning isolated mathematical formulas or memorizing sheets of science facts that are unlikely to matter much in the long run. Scientists know that children learn best by putting experiences together in new ways. They construct knowledge; they don’t swallow it.

Along the way, teachers should spend time each day having sustained conversations with small groups of children. Such conversations give children a chance to support their views with evidence, change their minds and use questions as a way to learn more.

During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else’s perspective and thinking of alternate solutions.

A classroom like this would provide lots of time for children to learn to collaborate with one another, a skill easily as important as math or reading. It takes time and guidance to learn how to get along, to listen to one another and to cooperate. These skills cannot be picked up casually at the corners of the day.

The reforms suggested by the administration on Monday have the potential to help liberate our schools. But they can only do so much. Our success depends on embracing a curriculum focused on essential skills like reading, writing, computation, pattern detection, conversation and collaboration — a curriculum designed to raise children, rather than test scores.

Susan Engel is a senior lecturer in psychology and the director of the teaching program at Williams College.

Thank you cards!

We received this email from Connor's former 3rd grade teacher, regarding the China presentation.
Connor & Sandy,

Your presentation was GREAT!! The class loved it and so did I. You really knew your material and presented it well. All of your artifacts added so much to what you were speaking to and I think it really helped the class to understand. I do have an envelope of "ThankYou" notes from the class that I will drop off to you after school today. I realize that no one may be home but I will leave them hanging on a door or something. Again, you did a fabulous job and I really appreciate you sharing what you know. You were actually the first of a bunch of lessons I am doing about what cultures value and how they are so different from ours. Everyday we meet a different family in the "Material World" series. By studying pictures and family photo albums we can figure out alot about their culture and what they value. So, thanks SO much for coming in to share with us! It was great to see you!

Sue Hurd

Library

On the way to pick up Austin at McQuaid today, I briefly stopped by the Brighton Library. I was talking on the phone with David as I pulled in the parking lot, so I sent Connor in ahead of me for a minute, even though he had never been in that particular library. We only had 15 min. before we had to fetch Austin, so time was of the essence on this trip. When I entered the library, Connor was standing in front of the reference desk rattling off all the books that he wanted the librarian to "find" for him. All the books he wanted were newly released, therefore the library did not yet have any of them on the shelves. I had to update my library card, and I let Connor wander off with the librarian to find alternate books. When I finished at the circulation desk, I went to collect Connor. He had a stack of 6 Brian Jacques books, and he was chatting away happily with the reference librarian about various authors, books and genres. As we were leaving, the librarian remarked, "He is just the most Amazing child!" I conceded that he does know and appreciate literature, and left it at that. I almost added that he's home-schooled, but I decided to leave well-enough alone.

China presentation

Yesterday, Connor went to Geneseo Central to present
a project about China to a third grade classroom. Connor was awesome!
He had spent hours and hours creating a power point presentation, and
he had a huge table covered with artifacts from China. The
presentation was supposed to last 45 minutes, but Connor ended up
staying at least an hour and 15 minutes. The 3rd graders were engaged
and they had many insightful questions for Connor. He also taught them
how to count to 10 in Chinese, and how to write it in Chinese
characters. He spoke of Chinese history, geography, religions, art,
food etc. It was apparent that he knew his topic thoroughly, and all
the teachers that watched were impressed. Connor was at first nervous about
returning to his old school. He said he feels awkward now, whenever he sees
an old classmate. This presentation helped with that. He saw many of his old
friends, and everyone was welcoming and nice. The principal even gave Connor
a hug! No one tried to talk him into returning to the school, and no one said,
"Don't you miss school?" That is the question Connor hates the most. There is
no good answer to that question.He doesn't want to hurt their feelings by saying, "No. I don't miss school (or you)." But he also doesn't want to make it sound as if he is missing school, because he still attends school--just at other places now. Anyway, the visit was all good, and I'm glad that we went.

Extra curricular activities

We've noticed lately that extra curricular activities have become a large part of our home-school curriculum. With the upcoming adoption, we decided that we will need to cut back on some of Connor's "extra" activities. Currently, he takes Tae Kwon Do ( 4-5 times a week) , guitar (once a week and daily practice), Chess lessons (once a week), Chinese lessons (twice a week) and horse-back riding lessons (once a week). We also downhill ski, run and work-out together as a family. Whew! It makes me tired just typing all of that! All these extras have been wonderful for Connor, but even he sometimes feels that he is just too busy. Down-time is important too. So this week I asked Connor what activities he would be willing to forgo. We need to free up some money and some time, with our two sons arriving soon. We just need to slow down and give our new sons at home time to adjust. Connor decided that after we go to China, he will stop horse-back riding and Chess. He can horse-back ride occasionally at his friend's house, just for fun, and he can play Chess online or with his brothers. We don't want him to quit his guitar lessons or Tae Kwon do. Music and exercise are just too important. Chinese is important because of our adoption plans. What I find the most interesting about this whole "problem" is that Connor decided on the solution himself. He loves horses, and has begged me to buy him one in the past, but he recognizes that he can't make the commitment to that sport right now. So only six more lessons, and then Connor will take a break from both Chess and horse-back riding. Seems like a plan.

Part of a group

Tonight, on the way home from a late track meet, Austin (age 14) had an interesting thing to say. He told me that at McQuaid, he feels like he's part of something important. He said he never felt like that at Geneseo Central. And he doesn't feel like that with his other activities either. He's quite active in the Civil Air Patrol, and he's now an NCO with CAP, but he made sure to tell me he doesn't have it with CAP either. Austin very specifically told me, if it wasn't for that feeling of "membership" at McQuaid, "something important", he would decide to be home-schooled too. Austin has been for years telling us that because he is super athletic, he could be one of the jocks, but he's also super academic, so therefore, both the jocks and the athletes rejected him at the public school. Austin never felt one of any group at Geneseo. At McQuaid, it's just Assumed that every student is above average at academics, and the athletic students can play sports without pretending that they're dumb. Austin is now in 9th grade Science and Math (he's in 8th grade), but no one at McQuaid expects anything less.What they really want him to do is break the 5min mile (he's sooo close!). This all came up tonight because I reminded Austin that with our two sons coming from China in March, his tuition is on the line. If Austin isn't performing at the high honor roll level (over 95 GPA) it's easier for us to stop justifying the tuition, for one of now 4 boys.We can't afford to send all 4 boys to McQuaid (10k per year) and so if Austin isn't going to be the top 1% of his class, that is an easy out for us. Yep. It's a mean and gruesome reality. But, so far, Austin has always had a 96% GPA, and he is now ranked as the fasted 8th grader in the history of McQuaid. But still...if Austin wanted to be home-schooled, if, for instance, he wasn't quite so enamored with McQuaid, that would be a great thing for me. I remember the year we skied together, all the time. Austin was almost 5 and could've gone to Kindergarten that year, but I kept him back one more year, since he had a November birthday. We had the most fabulous time together. We skied, and colored, and read a million books!! Yes, I'm ok with McQuaid because it's what makes Austin happy...but NEVER in a million years would I have imagined that I'd say this....I'm also ok with home-schooling.

The coolest thing!

Connor today got to do the coolest thing (according to him)for his birthday. He went to the University of Rochester Life Science Center for his monthly science class, and there they got to test a new heart medication on water fleas. Did you know that water fleas have exoskeletons, so when you look at them under the microscope you can see all their inside parts too? After looking at fleas under the microscope, the kids learned about blood pressure and heart rate. They used blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes to find their own BP and resting HR. Then, they experimented with various new heart drugs to see how it affected the heart rate of the water fleas. I didn't get all the details, but again, I just want to reiterate--it is wonderful to live in a city with such a multitude of resources! Connor was in a working lab and a University assisting with a real drug trial. Wow!! What a great way to spend his birthday.

Flu Season

Recently, one third of our public school children were out sick with the Swine Flu. This is yet one more advantage to home-schooling. First of all, Connor has been sick only once since we began to home-school a year ago. I'm not even going to bother getting Connor the flu vaccine this year. He simply doesn't get exposed to quite as many viruses. I can also carefully monitor his hand-washing, his diet, and his sleep and exercise. All these, I'm truly convinced, make the difference in a child's health. Our friends' kids seem sick all the time, and we are very rarely sick with anything. Secondly, when Connor is ill, our school day doesn't just cease. Unless he's vomiting, Connor continues to read. And even ill, Connor can play on the computer; this translates to games on Biology4kids or freerice.com. Today is Connor's birthday. Do I miss sending in sweets for his celebration? NO!! We work very, very, very hard to provide our children with healthy diets that do not include excess sugar, dyes, and artificial everything. At public school there seems to be a party for something practically everyday. When he was at GCS, I just couldn't prevent Connor from consuming junk quite regularly.Even the school lunches were often based on junk food. A pretzel with artificial cheese sauce is a balanced lunch? Now, since it is his birthday,I will take Connor out to lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Tonight, I will let Connor bring in a birthday treat to his Tae Kwon Do class. He can celebrate with his TKD friends, and then get back to healthy eating tomorrow. Yippee.

Opportunities abound!

The other day I was chatting with another mother (York school district) while I was waiting for Connor during his Tae Kwon Do class. She was all excited about a field trip that her son was going on with school to the U of R to participate in a simulated "Crime Scene" and learn about forensics. She was going on and on about this wonderful field trip. Basically, she felt that Connor was missing out by not going to public school. I finally had to interrupt her to tell her that Connor goes to the same place (the Life Science Center) once a month for four hours. To date, Connor has studied, at the Life Science Center, the principles from the physical sciences and nanotechnology to create new biological tools,how snowflakes form, bacteria, and the effects of medicines on heart disease (and how the medicines are developed) and alternative fuels. The "Crime Scene" and forensics lab will be later in the year, I think in May. Connor doesn't miss out on the school field trips at all. Any field trip I believe is educational, is already on our curriculum. What we DON'T do, is waste a whole day on a field trip to watch the Disney movie "The Beauty and the Beast" (Katelyn went on that one,and we already own the video!) or go to the local park, Highland Park. Every year the school wastes countless days on absolutely useless field trips that have no relation to the curriculum. I remember when Katelyn went on a field trip to tour Main Street Geneseo. Please! Another time I chaperoned a trip to watch a skit of The Hungry Caterpillar at Genesee Community College. It literally took the entire day to watch the 30 min. skit, and the kids barely paid attention. It is a story written for kindergartners, and the kids were bored to tears. Katelyn also went on a field trip to the Arboretum when she was in 4th or 5th grade. An older biology student would get a whole lot out of such a trip, but the little kids spent the entire time playing tag through the gardens. So, back to my topic, Rochester has a million opportunities for field trips, and I feel grateful to live in a city rich with theatre, art, museums and science. No, we don't miss out on school field trips. In fact, on Thursday, we are going to the Rochester Museum and Science Center to view the Titanic display.

Reading -- a whole lot

I just logged yet another book on Connor's reading log, and because I had a few minutes to kill, I decided to count how many books Connor has read so far this school year. Amazingly, Connor has read 46 books to date. Yes, 46 books, of more than 200 pages each. Actually, in that count were three short stories (all classics that I made him read; such as Flowers for Algernon). I guess that means he read 43 books really. All the books are at least 200 pages, and the ones he chose (the fantasy ones) are usually over 350 pages. Connor and I have reached a compromise about the books that he reads. Every other book he can choose, and he usually chooses fantasy, and every other book he reads must come from either the John Hopkins University List of recommended books, or I chose the book from the classic book shelf at Borders. After Christmas we went to Borders to shop, and I had a hard time finding a classic book that he Hasn't yet read (at his age-level). Certainly, Connor's reading ability is advanced enough to read other classics, such as Count of Monte Cristo, but I also have to consider the content. Connor is only ten, and his maturity level is that of an eight year old most days. But he does Love to read. It certainly makes our school days much easier. When I'm not "on," I simply tell Connor to go read for awhile. He considers that a prize. Lucky me!

New Year still

It's still the first full week of the New Year, and we are settling into our new schedule. I've begun a low-carbohydrate diet, and as a result, I've been more impatient than usual. I have had a headache every day (it's caffeine withdrawal) and I've had to take a nap every afternoon just to get through the day. Connor has been a good sport. He meets with a tutor everyday now from 9-10a, and that's working out well. Tonight, during dinner, Connor said that his "good thing" was that his biology tutor came today. I think he has a little crush on her. After church and the hour with the tutor, Connor wrote another fable. He read Aesop's Fables last week (a whole book of them) and decided to write his own fables. The first one was pretty good, and for once I praised his work more than criticized. Yeah, I've really got to work on that. The second fable was mediocre at best, and I wasn't overly enthusiastic. As a result, Connor decided to read the works of Edgar Allen Poe next, to help his writing branch out a bit. What a contrast to Aesop's Fables!! I just think it's wonderful that Connor imitates various writers after reading their works, and then moves on to another genre entirely. We talk quite a bit about genres and branching out in our reading and writing. On another note, I received a fantastic email from a listserve about an unschooler's day. One learning activity just naturally leads into another, almost effortlessly. As I've said a million times, I have a definite idea of our goals and our curriculum, and I'm quite structured and time-oriented, so I would never consider myself an unschooler. But it is great to see how it works for some families.

A New Year

Yesterday was the first official school day of the New Year, and it was quite productive overall. First of all, we went to church. We learned about the woman (Seton) who began the Catholic Church movement for the immigrants. Then, Connor's new math/biology tutor was here from 9-10a, and I went to the gym. It's wonderful to go work-out without guilt. Previously, all Connor's tutors came on Thursdays when I had to work. On my days off, when I wanted to go to the gym, I would give Connor independent work to do while I was gone. It wasn't a problem, and Connor did a wonderful job completing his work in my absence, but I always felt guilty leaving him. Independent learning is a cornerstone to home-schooling; however, I never felt comfortable being gone for 60 min. in the morning. Now that Connor's computer programming class is over and I'm not working, the tutors can come first thing in the morning. I can go to the gym without guilt, knowing that Connor has a teacher at his disposal. Connor still needs to do independent work when I shower and such, and he uses that time to practice his guitar. Yes, timing is everything. We work hard to NOT waste time. It's easy when you're home-schooling to fall into the sleep-in and relax in my PJs mode. Some home-schoolers cite this is a the best and most important part of home-schooling--the slower pace. For us, it's just the opposite. We feel that we can use every single minute. Schools waste hours of the day just lining kids up in a row for lunch, or having a drinking fountain break. At home, Connor reads while he eats. Of course, Connor thinks of reading as his "treat," not as school. I think that like everything else, home-schoolers need to define their own style. We pack more in a day than most schools pack in a week, but we like it that way. Otherwise, we're bored. So, to us, home-schooling is the opportunity to learn every minute, with no time wasted on busy work or changing classes in the hall.