Road Trip

DrS and myself have to go on a road trip so he can spend the holiday with his paternal family. This involves a lot of driving on my part, a lot of whining on my ex-husband's part, and a lot of data usage on DrS's part.

It feels a lot like this but it's actually much, much worse.

This also means that homeschool is officially/unofficially on holiday break. Except that DrS and I are leaving on Monday and Reo isn't going on break until Wednesday. So, with my oldest son - an eighteen year-old public high school senior - on break for the week and the husband continuing to work from home, I can enlist the help of substitute teachers for two days of valuable learning.

This can be best achieved with more traditional methods so these men can plug 'n play teacher with no difficulty and Reo can complete tasks without much assistance or additional guidance.

In Geography and History, Reo is going to learn the US State capitals as well as the capital cities of Ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, I haven't found any handouts or worksheets that are suitable for learning the Ancient Egyptian capitals and their unique qualities so I've been writing this material this evening. This is not the first time that I've had to structure my own curriculum so I could teach the appropriate information, but this is the first time I've had to create an original and informative hand-out that anyone could read and understand as a solitary lesson.

If I'm in the position to do this more often, especially if Reo responds positively to this format, I will likely create a folder in my Google Drive to share these docs. Time will tell.

Insomnia. I have a cure for that!

The fourteen year-old homeschooler, who shall be known as DrS, has been suffering from Summer Vacation-itis since homeschooling began. His schedule has crept into nightowl territory. The Facebook status updates noted at 3am were a big tip-off that he was headed in the wrong direction. This is something I do not want happening, but insomnia can't be turned off like a switch.

When Reo has difficulty sleeping, I take away the laptop and restrict the use of his Kindle Fire to just reading books. No videos, no games. While he enjoys reading, there's something about reading in bed at the end of the day that really puts him out for the night.

It's not that simple for DrS, who can be kept awake all night with a good book.

So, I gave him one of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors:

Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
[Buy it here]

Who is the monster and who is the man?

Notre-Dame de Paris, or The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, by Victor Hugo is one of my favorite novels. I have been in awe of the dynamics, the moral and ethic challenges that he posits for people in positions of power versus those who are in a less privileged circumstance, and the way Hugo unfurls the heavy curtain that covers the corruption, greed, and base gutteral humanity of those who present themselves as most pious. You are meant to read his words about his beloved France and then apply them to your own world, then challenge it. Disney's talking gargoyles nowhere to be found.

So, to make sure DrS reads it, I've assigned it. He must read the novel and write a full book review by the end of the second quarter.

In the meanwhile, I think Hugo's knack for sharing the detail of every inch of architecture present in the buildings of his beautiful city will really help DrS out with that insomnia and get his circandian rhythm back on track.

New Student

After reviewing my posts, I am surprised that I have not mentioned this, yet. My fourteen year old has decided to homeschool. He is my child with high-functioning autism and there were a few aspects of this school year that were very difficult for him to connect and make work. Since I could see the pattern emerging where this turns into a downward spiral, I decided to allow him to remain home for his education and we'll see if we can work him ahead for the next school year.

To avoid the mess with a portfolio and remain in compliance with Florida's homeschooling laws, he is going to continue taking the FCAT. These scores will suffice for his academic achievement for the school year.

I have not consulted him for a blog pseudonym at this time so he will remain nameless until I do.

I've picked up a reputable Algebra I textbook and keep him working on Khan Academy for his mathematics. It is important to me that he completes and excels at both Algebra I and Geometry before the next school year begins.

He remains ahead in both history and science so I'm finding it difficult to challenge him. I have finally decided on an assignment for this quarter.

First Quarter Essay Assignment

Compare and Contrast two Nations geographically located on two different continents. These nations can be from different eras and do not need to exist during the same period of time. They should be superficially distinct from each other.

• Include a general review of history, culture, religion, political climate, and governments, then choose a specific aspect to compare/contrast for these nations, explain why your chosen aspect is significant for each nation.

• Cover the ways in which these nations are similar to and are different from each other in the chosen aspect.

• Include 3 graphic aids that are relevant and help illustrate the information of the essay.

• Minimum 4,000 words, Maximum 6,000 words.

• Spelling, grammar, and vocabulary will impact your grade. To get more information on how to write at a 10th grade level, use:

http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/files/2011/09/grade10.pdf

• Cite sources using CMS. To reference how to use this citation style properly, use:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20110928111055_949.pdf

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

* access this assignment sheet through Google Docs to easily follow links.

To Build Your Essay Properly

Contributing work should include*:

• Notes of material to use with citations
• Outline with revisions through writing drafts
• First Draft
• Second Draft

* does not need to be included with essay assignment

Completed Essay Due: November 21.

Subject Credits:

History

Social Studies

Political Science

Geography

I was impressed with his interest and eagerness to begin. He was impatient while I typed out the requirements and details of the assignment for him. Giving a young teen with HFA so much freedom to learn and write will yield positive results. And, just to make sure he doesn't slack, I reminded him that I will fail him and he will end up repeating the nineth grade, if he does not do his assignments on time and as expected. That is a choice he makes, not me. HFA kids are not lazy. Sometimes they feel overwhelmed or exhausted by a project and will become slap-dash to be done with it. While this essay is not easy, he's well within his realm of ability. By providing him the ability to choose his own elements and focus for this essay, I've empowered him the ability to write well over 6,000 words. I know he will learn editing skills with this assignment.

Overall, I'm pleased with my new student. He's getting along with his little brother very well and is assisting in Reo's lessons, as well as taking a positive energy with his own education and work. This is becoming a tremendous homeschooling year!

Upgrading Science and Literature

The Science class was pretty heavy on astronomy and agriculture, focusing on the Ancient Civilizations' understanding and research of earth and space with contrasts to what we know now.

Spoiler Alert: this was going to be very awesome.

After a lot of research, I picked up R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Earth & Space (Level One) by Pandia Press. [Buy it here] This is supposedly for grades 1-4. There's not a lot for fourth graders. In fact, this is a good first grader science book and that's it. However, not losing hope, this book contains some solid experiments that can be used to apply to more advanced lessons. Then I added another resource material to help broaden the imagination: "What If?" by Randall Munroe. [Buy it here]

I'm pretty sure this is exactly what Randall Monroe did NOT want
to happen with his book, but here we are and my nine year-old is loving it.

This week for science class

This week is energy sources. Last year, we covered fossil fuels, what they are, how they are found, what they provide, how they are harnessed for energy, and the damage that they can cause when used in different ways (or just in the manner that they're extracted from the earth). So, we dove right into renewable energy, what they are, how they are found, what they provide, how they are harnessed for energy, and the damage that they can cause when used in different ways. Additionally, we have an interesting exploration of the natural ways the Earth has been using renewable energy since the beginning. Reo is interested in learning how other planets use renewable energy. Venus, and its possible metal snow, is an intriguing concept to him.

There will be experiments! Oh, the experiments! Sun, Water, Wind, Soil! From what can we extract energy and what is the measure of how renewable it is. Is it safe? Is it prevalent? Is it productive? Can we cook a hotdog?

This week for literature

Reo has finished Per-Bast and furnished his book review. He's identified the fact from the myth, the non-fiction elements from the fictional story, and provided a good summary of what he gained from reading this book. I think Lara-Dawn Stiegler would be pleased at his approval and insight into her clever novel and I would thank her kindly for that opportunity.

Now, he wants a change of pace. Something different. I didn't want to throw the Narnia series at him so I took a lighter edge and provided a book that gave insight into serious subjects with an incredible amount of humor.

You have no idea how hard it was to wrestle this book away
from my older kids. I'm lucky to still have my life.

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem, and other things that happened by Allie Brosh. [Buy it here] I am reading this with Reo for age-appropriate censorship. Allie Brosh's subjects are fine enough but sometimes the language is a bit adult. An occassional profane word is not going to destroy my child but he takes offense to it, so to provide some general comfort for his personal preferences, I read this to eliminate the occassional uses of profanity. He's sitting right by me. He can see the words are there. I don't get it, but it's what's working.

The important thing is that he's gaining some personal insight into how emotions can behave for other people, how situations can be different, how others can feel and respond differently to the world around them, how depression creates chaos for his big sister... He's learning compassion and understanding. And he's laughing his ass off while he's learning because Allie Brosh is funny.

This will channel into an assignment but I haven't decided what it will be, yet. We have time.

Cultural comparisons

I was impressed this morning. As Reo and I were running errands, we discussed what we were going to have for lunch, we discussed what Ancient Egyptians ate, what benefits those meals provided, their labor-intensive lifestyle, the differences in how we live now, and why the plates are so small for gourmet "meals".

You can't build a pyramid with this in your stomach but you'll be able
to say things like "explosive flavor" and "visually intriguing".

You may naturally assume that this discussion was mostly me rambling on in my likely know-it-all manner to impart knowledge upon my child, however, I did most of the listening. Reo had done this research on his own, completely independent from me. While I did contribute to the discussion, he had thoroughly examined these differences between Ancient Egypt and now, including the technological differences, environment influences, political climates, foreign affairs, and survival mandates. There was a tremendous amount of factual information in what he said. I have fact-checked him and he's entirely correct. What I was most impressed by was his initiative to compare the food and lifestyle in 2000 BCE Egypt to 2000 CE United States, particularly with the elite treatment of food and his concluding opinions about this broad-scope comparison as it relates to our food as a culture, based solely on his curiosity.

I've asked him to write a document as he feels is most appropriate to convey this information in an interesting and creative way. This is due Friday. This is solely for the portfolio and to help him stay sharp in producing written materials for class assignments.

Since I have taken a part-time job, it is important that he remain confident in his ability to perform well in a traditional education format in case public school comes back into his life for the next school year. Plus, it's not only important to have these materials for his portfolio, but also to help silence a discussion with my mother where she once again reminds me that she has no confidence in my ability to teach my children. Yes, I have one of those parents. Thankfully, Reo doesn't.

Walk like an Egyptian...

...which turns out to be not too dissimiliar to how we walk now so, I guess, just walk like you normally do.

As I'm prone to do, I download an enormous amount of ebooks through Amazon Kindle and then let Reo decide what direction he'd like to go.

Per-Bast: A Tale of Cats in Ancient Egypt by Lara-Dawn Stiegler. Buy it here.

Reo chose to begin reading, "Per-Bast: A Tale of Cats in Ancient Egypt" by Lara-Dawn Stiegler. It's a mythological/historical hybrid fiction that places cats front and center in ancient Egypt. It's a marvelous, creative novel that captivates and compels. I was impressed by his choice. Reo had officially decided the first quarter material of his fourth grade year.

Ancient Egypt

These things are actually the least interesting parts of ancient Egypt.

Beyond the egos of the pharaohs, we have a rich and prosperous civilization. Language, art, math, economy, cities, farmland, markets, schools, music, dance, marriage, celebration, funerals, families, traditions, religion, architecture, food!

First stop: Scribe School

Reo will get nowhere if he can't read and write the language, so it's a crash course at scribe school for both of us to get the gist of some hieroglyph basics. How do you have a crash course for a written language so intricate and articulate that it surpasses in beauty and originality any other language on earth? Clumsily, of course! But my job is to drive his curiosity wherever it wants to go. If he wants more than this crash course, he'll get more. Our school isn't about "getting by" or "just getting through it". It's about learning, understanding, and having permission to seek more.

Math is always fun!

You can probably understand why few people went to scribe school.

Reo already has a handle on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. So, we implemented all those mathematic methods with hieroglyphs. Does it work? Is this a more or less efficient way to calculate sums and communicate numbers?

We will continue using hieroglyphs in our following lessons as we explore more ancient Egypt. I'm especially interested to introduce him to geometry and how the ancient Egyptians used it for architecture.

The fourth grade curriculum

Putting your life on a grid is so exciting.

With the help of Evernote and this archaic device known as a notebook (and pen), Reo and I constructed an outline of his curriculum for his fourth grade year. Suffice it to say, I am always impressed by this boy's openness to adventure.

That's it.

I had to borrow from fifth grade standards to pull together a full curriculum that will give him everything he wants to know about Ancient Civilizations this year and we were more than supplied for material and directions in the core subjects, as well as "electives" like Art, Music, P.E., Health, and Animal Studies.

The year writes itself.

Animal Studies

Reo's choice for Animal Studies, which was a course he independently added to his curriculum, was to focus on animals featured in vanilla Minecraft. He has research and reporting requirements for each animal, as well as lessons for how they fit into the Ancient Civilizations in his scholastic theme. His introduction of Minecraft into his curriculum gave me a big gift in inviting him to create ancient cities in Minecraft, appreciating the architecture and great accomplishments of the people in their time.

Physical Education

Instead of imposing some almost seemingly arbitrary set of exercises without any explanation as to why we are doing them, I allowed Reo to choose his fitness goals for the year. He set very realistic goals and phrased them in such a way that success is possible. To accomplish his goals, he will learn the best way to move his muscles, eat, drink, and exercise. He will be allowed room to figure out what works. For example, can he eat some potato chips and soda at lunch and still run the same as if he'd eaten all fruit and protein?

It would have been easier for me to have registered him for recreation soccer in the local club, but Reo does not really want to play soccer. Reo's sister is an amazing goalkeeper for the local club's competitive team, so he sees her success and would like to duplicate it but it's not in his heart to want to play for himself. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. He has to choose what is best for him. The goals he has set will allow him to better know his body and give him the confidence to perform in a team sport. Then he can decide if he wants to join soccer or baseball or something else entirely.

Homeschool Portfolio

KIDS IN BINDERS!

For a portfolio, I will be using a combination of a hardcopy binder and Evernote's beloved syncing system, which I swear I am not going to pay $45/year for but I can use the freeware stuff to suit my needs.

In addition, Reo will still be using notebooks to compile projects and information. He will have full use of the internet and be able to pull together information in Google Drive, as well as write documents, but piecing together binders and notebooks full of tidbits of information and tactile items for review and explanation is interesting. At the very least, it'll serve as an added bonus to the portfolio during the annual review and Reo's kids will get a kick out of all this 20+ years from now. Always thinking of the potential grandbabies.

How do ya like them apples?

I chose Christian Liberty Academy Satellite School homeschool program for Reo last year based on two bits of information. The first was that I had personal experience with CLASS. I had completed two grades in one school year, got placed ahead in school when I returned, and remember the curriculum as an excellent source of factual information. The second was that I believed CLASS' services to grade tests and provide transcripts would make my life easier during the annual evaluations.

I was wrong on both counts.

CLASS has now changed their curriculum, weaving religious influence into every single ever-loving subject. The science course was corrupt to the point where it was unteachable. The history had overt racism. The nature book taught us that even ants worship God. CLASS has also made it next to impossible to get proper records and transcripts from them. While it was easier in the respect that I did not have to create a curriculum since they just delivered the school year in a box on my doorstep, I already found that giving Reo the decision on what he wants to learn and then shaping an entire core curriculum around that scholastic theme hasn't exactly been difficult. In fact, it only took a couple days to figure out how to make his desires a reality while meeting fourth and fifth grade standards, put it all on the time grid, and call it done. 

Fourth Grade

Third grade was an awkward beginning to our homeschool adventure, but it provided many opportunities to understand homeschooling and gain confidence in both Reo's ability to learn and my ability to teach. The blogging became too absorbed in how ridiculous the curriculum from Christian Liberty Academy Satellite School [CLASS] was that, naturally, when we went into "just get through it" mode, I stopped blogging. CLASS' fundamental christian and anti-science curriculum did push me into going off-textbook a lot to make sure my son was learning Science and would continue to be above grade level.

Hey, you can't use omnipotent deities to cheat!

I have said time and time again that our local school district rocks. If it weren't for the budget cuts that massacred the wonderful programs that enriched children's lives in elementary school, I would have kept Reo in public school. The teachers and administration at his former school are still awesome. The homeschool office at the district has been fantastic and cooperative with me as I struggled with the difficult CLASS administration to get documents I needed - the "convenience" of those documents was why I chose CLASS in the first place, ironically - for Reo's annual evaluation. Now, Reo is ready to begin on September 1.

Fourth grade is exciting for both of us. We are venturing into unschooling territory, which will allow us to explore the world without sitting for hours pouring over workbooks. I will be blogging more about this year, from start to finish, as well as getting to maintain my first homeschool portfolio. The next post will be Reo's academic goals for his fourth grade year, my academic goals for his fourth grade year, and what our first week's lesson plans look like.

Spoiler Alert: It's all Adventure Class now

Our school year begins on Labor Day, which is a holiday and no school day for the public and private school kids in America. Over thirty years ago, I was younger than Reo, and I asked my father what the point of Labor Day was. He explained that Labor Day is the day we honor the people who made sacrifices to establish unions to protect American workers. He went into age-appropriate detail about the tragedies that happened at the expense of workers whose companies didn't care about their lives and the unfairness of pay for the work that people did. That day, I learned why we celebrate Labor Day and that my workaholic father was very smart and I could learn a lot from him. For both of those reasons, and the added fact that unschooling is a continuous, neverending experience, Labor Day is a perfect day to begin.