Lexical Light

A Socialization Funny

For my homeschooling friends - there's a hilarious cartoon and a nice post on socialization at Do Life Right. Take a minute to go read it. The cartoon illustrates something I'm hesitant to articulate because I don't believe it for every child, but it strikes a chord with me. (I couldn't get the cartoon to post here, though the artist gives permission to use his work on blogs.)

No offense to my dear friends and readers who choose to use public schools. I know plenty of awesome kids who go to public school* -a few of them might even be yours.

*Reminds me of the, "I even have colored friends" line people use to prove they aren't racist. 

3 for 1 Blog Post

Ahhhh. This 20 minutes of calm brought to me by the Round Rock Public Library and the RR Y. Since they are so close to each other, Ninjaboy & I were able to zip down here and enjoy some computer time. I usually discourage the kids from getting on the library's computer becuase they get plenty of computer time at home. So, it's a treat for Ninjaboy. The condition was he must complete a blog post before perusing the web. He wrote a nice post about his new bike.

So from just 20 minutes w/my blog I get 3 benefits:

blogging

being at the library

teaching

Suhweet.

An Energy Plan Based on Your Personality Type

“I keep the encyclopedia in the kitchen so we can look up things together while we eat," says the INTP Mom. (per the Mothering Styles Quiz)

I don't have the encyclopedia in the kitchen, but I do have this:

That quote was so me. Viewing motherhood through the Meyer-Briggs Type Indicator, Janet P. Penley and Diane Eble help women utilize their strengths to become better moms. Just using the quick online quiz and "Energy Plan" have given me some good food for thought over the past few days. I'll have to pick up their Mothering Styles book soon.

Of course, I grinned when I saw I was an INTP or "Love of Learning" Mom. Learners for Life Academy is how I refer to our home school when I feel like throwing around an official sounding name. BTW, INTP stands for

Introvert
iNntuitive
Thinking
Perceiving

Go take the quick, four question quiz and let me know what type you are. Subscribe to their free newsletter and get the energy plan, then let me know if it resonates with you. I expect to hear from at least four or five of you. For my FTF friends, I will harass you in person if you don't play along. For my blog friends....I may cut you some slack because I'm so terrible at doing MEMEs.

They also have a blog.

What Should Kids Learn?

"Today's learner will have 10-14 jobs...by the age of 38."*

*Per the U.S. Department of Labor via this shifthappens slide presentation.

That's just one of the mind boggling group of facts, statistics and projections in the presentation. Besides making me feel really, really small, (as opposed to really, really good-looking) it made me think of how to prepare my kids for the future.

What should I teach them?

First and foremost, the Word of God and the importance of following Jesus. From those things they will learn wisdom and how to treat others.

After that, teach them to be learners - able to discern, process and communicate information.

Basic facts and skills are essential, but more important than memorizing specific dates, etc. is a general understanding of history and a relationship with the Author of HIStory.

HT: Guy Kawasaki.

My 1st Virtual/Online Conference

I've been spending a few hours today in front of the computer at the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, but together by Cindy Rushton.

Cindy has done a great job of utilizing technology. It has been incredibly encouraging, cost effective, convenient, and efficient. Completely worth the $35. Cindy put together lots of goodies for a virtual goody bag. Being able to chat during the workshops is fun. I can also multi-task while listening to the workshops.

Hearing from a few home school grads, Eric Novak and Crystal Paine, encouraged me so much.

It's National D.E.A.R. Day! Hooray!

Anyone know what D.E.A.R. is? I'll give you a few seconds and a hint - it's not Don't Eat a Reader.*

It's Drop Everything And Read. Today is the 2nd Annual National Drop Everything And Read Day. Why April 12th? Because it's Beverly Cleary's birthday. Why her birthday? Per the DEAR site:
   

"Beverly Cleary receives thousands of letters a year from young readers, many who have participated in D.E.A.R. at school. Their interest in and enthusiasm for this special reading activity inspired Mrs. Cleary to give the same experience to Ramona Quimby, who gets to enjoy D.E.A.R. time with the rest of her class in Ramona Quimby, Age 8."

In addition to Emily's birthday, we'll celebrate National DEAR Day by reading instead doing our usual schoolwork. Hooray!

FYI, the DEAR site has loads of activities to host your own DEAR celebration. I'll have to do that later in the summer, once birthday season has passed.

*1000 points to cite the source for Don't Eat a Reader

A New Punctuation Mark

"What does a rhetorical question mark look like?"

Fifi asked me this while we were breaking down a word problem in her 2nd grade math workbook. It was a nice bit of comic relief.

We were having to proceed character by character to find the period in the problem. I didn't know if she was messing with me or if she honestly couldn't see the period. The first option was exasperating, the second option was alarming. Could she really not identify the period?

After finding the period, I told her to find the question within the problem.  When she let loose with the rhetorical question mark joke, I knew she was probably just toying with me about the period. Unless she was using humor as a cover up....

Weekly History Topics, TOG 2.1

I've probably spent an inordinate amount of time on this project. I figured if I posted it for others to use, my labor would not have been in vain.

Of what do I speak? It's the Table of Contents page for the weekly dividers of the kids' history notebooks.  Because I couldn't cram all the info I wanted on the regular tab dividers, I sprung for the Avery Ready Index TOC dividers. Being the office supply geek I am, I already had the Avery Wizard software. So I figured it would be a cinch to create the table of contents for Unit 1 to use in the kids' notebooks.

Not so. (Note to self: next time, start the Avery Wizard, create the list from there, save the list, edit the list in Word. Score another one for the Obvious Files.) Now I'll have a template for the next units.

In addition to the learning curve for the Avery template, the other time issues was finding the dates to go with the topics. I'm not sure why TOG didn't include those on their topic list, but I added them - as much as for me as the kids. I know the dates are in general and some are subject to interpreation, but even general dates will give them pegs to hang info on.

Now for the moment you've waited for:  Lexie's Table of Contents Cover Sheet for TOG Year 2, Unit 1, to be used w/the Ready Index Dividers. Here's the link to it: Download tog_2.1 weekly topic titles w title.doc (I really need to figure out how to clean up link titles at some point.)

1st Day of School

Woo-hoo! It's the first day of school and the kids are finally going ...oh, wait, they're not going anywhere. I'm thankful they'll be joining me at our kitchen table to learn. It did occur to me that if they were in a different school, they would all be gone during the day. (Have I mentioned that before?) Sound interesting, but I'll pass. I have my moments, many of them, when I simply get tired of referring, training, etc., but it's worth it. Now on to a bit about our day:

I would be remiss not to document the first day of school at Happy Jack Skool of Lurnin' in some way. This will be it, because I didn't take pictures. Dear Boo's 1st day of kindergarten will have only a blog entry as a testament. (Maybe we'll take one later this week.) She did a few pages in her Get Ready for the Code book and a Barbie number book. I'm easing her into it.

Songbird is in 1st grade or so. She easily gets her work done and is quite motivated by the monetary reward at the end of each workbook.

Fifi is in 2nd grade & coming along well. Amazingly, she was the first one up this morning and got to work first. She likes working w/her CD & headphones on, just like I do. Thanks to her Wordly Wise vocabulary book I learned that groom is also a word for someone who takes care of horse.

Gameboy is in 4th grade & had a hard time today getting started. I would too if I had a friend over. :) However, he managed to get his work done in time to have some quality Runescape time.

Our first day of school doesn't have a lot of the trimmings associated w/institutional schooling first days. No nerves about the new teacher & classmates. No new clothes. (I meant to buy the kids at least one new outfit. Maybe at the one month mark or something goofy like that.) We do have new books & some new school supplies, but not all the cool stuff other schools' students get.  We do have a new schedule of sorts. I'm pretty optimistic about it. I feel more prepared this year than any of the other five. :) Incorporating "home training," reality discipline, simple routines, & more reading, writing & P.E. are some of my main goals for this first unit of TOG.

School on the Brain

- or Schoolin' the Brain.

I've been gearing up for the new school year & new history curriculum. (Tapestry of Grace, Year 2) My biggest challenge will be staying focused on what I want to cover w/the kids in history and not get distracted by what I'm learning as I read up on the subjects. Just tonight I was learning about the origins & differences of the Eastern Orthodox Church & the Roman Catholic Church. (from The Byzantine Empire by Elsa Marston. Great book.)

One major difference is who they think the head of the earthly church is; the Roman Catholics think it's the pope and the Eastern Orthodox think it's the patriarch. (That's my amateur conclusion.) I thought it was kind of funny that in 1054 they pope & patriarch excommunicated each other from the church. I know it's not really funny. I guess it struck me as two members of a family arguing, though w/greater ramifications.

All of that to say my main focus over these next few weeks will be the Happy Jack Skool of Lurnin'.