Bending the Twigs

"The Well-Trained Mind" Then vs. Now Pt. I

2011-07-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

I first read The Well-Trained Mind when my oldest, Miss Scarlet, was 4 1/2. Being the Type A personality that I was (and still am, albeit to lesser extent), I read the entire 764-page first edition cover-to-cover. That's right, I read not only the "grammar" (elementary) section, but also the "logic" (jr. high) and "rhetoric" (sr. high) ones as well.

In retrospect, that probably wasn't the best idea because I felt rather overwhelmed and intimidated. My oldest wasn't even starting Kindergarten for several months, and I was reading about classical rhetoric; studying the Great Books (only some of which I had read myself); algebra, trigonometry, and calculus; high school science including reading original sources like Hippocrates, Archimedes, Copernicus, Kepler, Gallileo, Harvey, Darwin, Newton, Einstein, etc.; and studying both a classical and a modern foreign language. Yikes! It was akin to a couch potato reading about a training regimen for a double Ironman ultra-triathlon. Very inspiring, but completely intimidating.

It didn't help that in the first edition of TWTM, the authors listed a 6 hour daily schedule for 1st grade. I have since learned that it was the publisher's idea to include the schedule; in the 2nd and 3rd editions of the book, it has been replaced by more general guidelines.

I sat there having just finished TWTM, thinking to myself simultaneously "WOW! What an amazing educational philosophy!" and "How on Earth am I going to be able to pull this off?"

To be continued...

My Journey to "The Well-Trained Mind"

2011-07-11T17:09:00.000-07:00

This month marks the 5th anniversary of when our family began homeschooling. Five years ago, we had no plans to homeschool beyond pre-k, and we weren't even sure we'd do that as we were on the waiting list at several preschools. Miss Scarlet's name never did get off the waitlist anywhere, and by February it had become clear that our search for an elementary school was going very poorly while homeschooling was going very well.

One of the books that I read while trying to find a school for Miss Scarlet was former Secretary of Education William Bennett's The Educated Child. I came across it at my local library and found his vision of the "Core Knowledge" model of schooling very inspiring. It had all the elements I wanted in a curriculum for my children- classic literature, phonics, old-school grammar, mastery of math facts & traditional algorithms, real history with an eye towards cultural literacy rather than political correctness, and so on. I came away from the book very much wanting a Core Knowledge school for my child- and feeling dismay at how far short of that the options we had available to us were.

I was seriously considering enrolling Miss Scarlet in the local K12 online school, the California Virtual Academy, for the following year because it offered a Core Knowledge-based curriculum and Mr. Bennett sat on its board. Then a veteran homeschooler I had met at a local park day suggested that I read The Well-Trained Mind. I requested the book through the inter-library loan, and read the whole thing through.

I was both awe-inspired and totally intimidated.

To be continued...

The Case for (Ugly) Cursive

2011-05-03T06:44:00.000-07:00

I'll admit that I do not have great penmanship. It was one of the few areas in elementary school where I consistently got a "needs improvement" grade. Most of the time these days, I type or print, though I do still use cursive upon occasion when writing a letter or a card.

I do believe that cursive is an important thing to learn, however, since it's faster than printing and even with the widespread use of computers, my kids will still be required to hand-write certain things like the essay portions of standardized tests. The New York Times had an interesting recent article on the subject.

I'm not 100% certain which style of cursive I learned growing up, but the one I've seen that's the closest is Peterson Directed Handwriting. It is a very "pretty" font IMHO with lots of loops but more legible than something like Spencerian (which is gorgeous but harder to read).

Last spring, I got Miss Scarlett the 2nd grade Peterson kit. However, every time I tried to do it with her, it was like pulling teeth. She went into meltdown mode and I ended up shelving it within a few weeks.

Going into the spring semester of 3rd grade and with the 4th grade California STAR writing test looming next year, I decided to resort to bribery. I promised to buy her a game for her Nintendo DS if she learned cursive. I thought that would be incentive enough, but she still resisted. It was getting to the point where I was seriously considering taking her to an occupational therapist for a dysgraphia assessment.

Last week, I had to go to Sacramento on an errand for DH, and while I was there, I stopped by A Brighter Child Homeschool Supply store. They had a copy of the level one workbook of Memoria Press' New American Cursive. Miss Scarlett's biggest complaints about Peterson cursive were "there are too many loops" and "it's too slanty". NAC has only a slight slant and has simplified the letters.

I *DETEST* the look of NAC. But by this point, I was willing to give it a try as an ugly cursive is better than no cursive.

Miss Scarlett loves, loves, *LOVES* NAC. She has cheerfully completed at least 30 minutes penmanship practice per day, and can now write all the letters in her full name (10 different ones) both capital and lowercase. At this rate, she'll have earned the DS game by the end of the month.

I am insisting she learn a more traditional capital F, Q, T, and Z. I can live with the ugliness of NAC but put my foot down on their print-like versions of those particular letters.

Lesson learned- if a student really complains that much about a particular program, it might just be a bad "fit" rather than a "needs more time to mature" thing.

Spring Semester Update

2011-03-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

We're now a couple months in to our spring semester, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on how things are going. For the most part, we're cruising right along.

In math, I decided to continue on with MEP Yr. 1 for "Rusty", my Kindergartner. He loves the puzzle aspect of MEP but finds all the workbook exercises challenging from a fine motor skills standpoint. So we're going slowly, alternating the formal MEP lessons with "hands-on" activities and lots of "living books" like the Sebastian Pig series from Jill Anderson and Stuart J. Murphy's Math Start series. He just turned 5 in November, so in most places he would be pre-k this year. So I'm fine with taking a longer time to finish a K math program (MEP follows the British system so Yr. 1 is equivalent to U.S. Kindergarten, Yr. 2 would be U.S. 1st, etc).

"Miss Scarlet" has one chapter left in Singapore 4A (area and perimeter) but I've decided to re-arrange the sequence to hit the decimals chapters in 4B prior to her having to take the STAR test in April. I don't put a lot of stock in the STAR as an assessment, but at the same time, I don't want her to score below her potential because of something like not knowing how to properly read decimals. I got her Life of Fred: Decimals, which she loves; however, it does not seem to be enough by itself to get her to answer the practice STAR questions correctly. So I figured it made sense to do the first 2 chapters of 4B before finishing the last chapter of 4A.

In terms of language arts, "Rusty" is making fantastic progress. The biggest relief is that he has finally made a breakthrough in his writing. He went from not being able to print his name to writing multi-page "books" with full sentences. His lower case letters are still hit-or-miss and his legibility could be better, but I'm thrilled with how far he's come over the past couple of months.

He has 4 lessons left in All About Spelling Level 1 and should start Level 2 soon. I wish Marie Rippel would hurry up and complete the higher levels of the new All About Reading program because the first level looks great! Sure would've been nice to have had on hand last summer when "Rusty" was at that stage. I'll definitely be interested in giving it a try when Princess P. is ready. And no, I have no affiliation with the company other than being a satisfied customer :-)

"Rusty" has also started First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 1. It's going okay, but he seems to have better retention with "living books" and watching old Grammar Rock clips on YouTube. C'mon everybody, sing with me: "Conjunction junction, what's your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses."

"Miss Scarlet" is loving Killgallon Grammar for Middle School, Figuratively Speaking, and surprisingly she also likes that Drawing Inferences reading comprehension test prep booklet that looked pretty dull to me. Go figure!

I haven't gotten a handle on how to implement the Adventures in Fantasy book, so I signed her up for a creative writing class about which I've heard raves. Personally, I tend to agree more with Susan Wise Bauer's approach to writing but DH feels strongly about wanting "Miss Scarlet" to do this. He read in either Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers or Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code (I forget which) about the Bronte sisters writing massive amounts as young girls and thinks that starting early is the key to developing the talent he's convinced that DD has. No pressure or anything :-p

In history, we're having fun studying the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers. "Rusty" loves that so many of them had red hair like he does (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, etc.) LOL! "Miss Scarlet" loves hearing about the heroines- Margaret "Molly Pitcher" Corbin, Deborah Sampson, Sybil Ludington (known as the "female Paul Revere"), Betsy Zane (who smuggled gunpowder into a fort under siege), Patience Wright (an artist in London who spied on the British and sent her dispatches hidden in her sculptures), Phoebe Fraunces (George Washington's African-American housekeeper who saved him from assassination by discovering a poisoning plot), and Abigail Adams.

In science, we are currently doing a unit on sound, and the kids have been enjoying making musical instruments out of household objects. DH, who has been working from home doing consulting projects and writing a book, is less than thrilled about this particular unit ;-)

The kids are also going to be starting art classes at the end of the month. Art is just one of those subjects that doesn't really get done in any kind of formal way unless we outsource. "Rusty" especially could use the fine motor practice. I signed him up for a clay class since I've heard that is one of the more helpful media for improving hand strength and coordination. "Miss Scarlet" is going to be doing nature art class, which is done in coordination with the local Wildlife museum. She has talked about possibly wanting to be a veterinarian when she grows up (if her first choice of fashion design doesn't pan out), so I thought she might like it.

Princess P. has been diagnosed with a speech and language delay like her big brother had (fortunately he seems to have outgrown it but he spent a year in speech therapy). She just started attending a developmental preschool through Early Intervention 4 morning per week that includes 2 sessions per week of speech therapy. She seems to enjoy it and I've noticed that she has been using more words even after just one week in preschool. She still has a long way to go, but the improvement makes me feel better about putting her into the preschool at only 25 months old. There is a 3:1 student-teacher ratio so that is really isn't that different than being here with her two siblings and me.

Build a Stronger Vocabulary with Two Excellent Word Roots Programs

2011-01-20T09:20:00.000-08:00

One regret I have about my own schooling growing up is that I didn't begin my study of Latin until my sophomore year of high school. By that point, I was already taking my PSAT's. While I am glad that I decided to study Latin at all (my parents were not particularly gung ho about it), I think I would have benefited from starting earlier had that been an option. My alma mater normally allowed 9th graders & above to enroll; in retrospect, I wish that I had tried to petition my way in as a 7th grader.

While I don't start my kids on Latin as young as some homeschoolers choose to (Miss Scarlet will probably begin in 5th grade), I do start them learning Latin roots by the time they are working at a mid-elementary level. Miss Scarlet has been working her way through Caesar's English 1 from Michael Clay Thompson. It's an excellent book- one that is engaging and intellectually challenging at the same time. One can really tell that Mr. Thompson loves words. The one drawback is that CE does not really have that much in the way of practice exercises. To beef up that aspect of word study, Miss Scarlet has been supplementing with the Red Hot Root Words workbook from Prufrock Press.

Yesterday, our second semester materials arrived. Among those were the second volumes of the Ceasar's English and Red Hot Root Words series. I was a bit disappointed to discover that virtually all of the roots covered in RHRW1 are repeated in RHRW2. The main difference between the two books is that in Vol. 1, each exercise covers only 1-2 roots vs. 3-4 in Vol. 2. Had I known this, I would've skipped the first RHRW book and just purchased the second.

I went through and made up a list of which lessons in CE1 and CE2 correlate with which practice exercises in RHRW2. Of the 101 roots covered in the two CE volumes, 45 are also in RHRW2. There are 125 additional roots in RHRW2 not covered in the CE series. Therefore, a student who completes all 3 books will have learned a grand total of 226 roots. There are 20 chapters in each of the CE volumes (the odd ones cover roots) and 54 lessons in RHRW2. Here are the correlations:

Caesar's English 1/Red Hot Root Words 2
Chapter 1- lesson 12, lesson 1, lesson 15, lesson 3, lesson 2
Chapter 3- lesson 14, lesson 17, lesson 9
Chapter 5- lesson 5, lesson 3
Chapter 7- lesson 27, lesson 33, lesson 20, lesson 39
Chapter 9- lesson 37
Chapter 11- lesson 31, lesson 6, lesson 8
Chapter 13- lesson 33
Chapter 15- lesson 23
Chapter 17- lesson 28, lesson 36, lesson 13
Chapter 19- lesson 27, lesson 11, lesson 16

Caesar's English 2/Red Hot Root Words 2
Chapter 1- lesson 9, lesson 6
Chapter 3- lesson 26, lesson 22, lesson 43
Chapter 5- lesson 2, lesson 11
Chapter 7- lesson 41
Chapter 9- lesson 27, lesson 36
Chapter 11- lesson 30, lesson 1, lesson 39
Chapter 13- lesson 6
Chapter 15- n/a
Chapter 17- lesson 7, lesson 37
Chapter 19- lesson 24, lesson 34

Fall Semester Recap and Looking Ahead to Spring Semester

2010-12-20T05:29:00.000-08:00

I have been very neglectful of this blog and have no idea if anybody is still reading it. I'm probably just rambling to myself at this point, LOL! Having a very active toddler in the house plus starting formal homeschooling with my 2nd child kept me very busy in 2010 and regular posting fell by the wayside. But if I want to keep Google from considering this blog "abandoned" and at risk of deletion, I do need to occasionally post. So here goes :-)

As California has a kindergarten cutoff of 12/2 and my DS "Rusty" has a birthday at the beginning of November, I had been unsure whether to start him this year or wait until fall 2011. Then in July, he started showing readiness for and a strong motivation to learn to read. So I decided to go ahead and start K5 this year. As his fine motor skills are lagging (can't even write his name yet), he'll most likely need a "transition" year next year between K & 1st but I won't need to make a decision on that for a while.

I had used Romalda Spalding's The Writing Road to Reading with my oldest mostly because we were flat-broke at the time and it was the most appealing-looking option that our local library had. WRTR worked well but it wasn't all that user-friendly so this time around I decided to give Hooked on Phonics a try. I got a great closeout deal on the older version and the whole K-2 kit cost me about $30. Good thing I didn't pay the regular price as he flew through the entire HOP program in 3 months. He went from S-L-O-W-L-Y sounding out BOB books word by word in August to fluently reading Henry and Mudge type books now. I started him in the All About Spelling program at the beginning of November after he finished HOP, and he's flying through Level 1. Next semester, he'll do Level 2 and possibly start Level 3.

In math, I tried starting Rusty on Right Start A. However, while he seemed to like the secondary topics, he experienced difficulty with the main thing of visualizing numbers as 5 + some quantity. He could say the words to the "Yellow is the Sun" rhyme but it was clear that he didn't grasp the underlying concept. So after a month, I decided to shelve RS A and switch to MEP Reception. It's a pre-k program and much of it is a bit on the easy side for Rusty but he absolutely *LOVES* it. I think he's a visual learner and does much better with all the colorful pictures in MEP than he did with the minimal black & white ones of RS. He's just about done with MEP Reception so I have to decide what to do for the spring semester. Rusty seems to be doing great with MEP but I have heard from other homeschoolers that Yr. 1 gets pretty advanced. I also really love the RS program plus DH paid a good chunk of money last summer to buy level A (my oldest had started RS at level B). Decisions, decisions.

The other things I'll be doing with Rusty in the spring semester are:

Handwriting Without Tears Pre-K. I'm hoping to get him started on HWOT K by the end but we'll have to see.
Start First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind minus the copywork/dictation exercises.
Follow along with his big sister in her unit studies in American History and physics.

Miss Scarlett is now in 3rd grade and is cruising along. She participated in an online literature class through Johns Hopkins' CTY program this fall, which was a fantastic opportunity. She's always been a very strong reader and writer and I've struggled to challenge her appropriately. This class did just that and it really helped her grow as a student. I hope that we will have the financial resources to do another one this spring but that's a bit TBD at the moment. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll be in a position to afford the pricey tuition ><

She has completed the "town" level of the Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts program with the exception of Caesar's English. She'll complete that next semester and start the sequel, Caesar's English II. The rest of the "voyage" level books I'm going to wait on until she's ready to handle the writing in Essay Voyage. In the interim, she'll use Grammar for Middle School, the next book in Don Killgallon's applied grammar/sentence-writing series. She'll also be using Figuratively Speaking to learn about literary terms, Evan-Moor Daily Paragraph Editing Grade 4 for practice on grammar/usage/mechanics, Curriculum Associates Drawing Conclusions & Making Inferences workbook for reading comprehension (since this is the area where she tends to have the most difficulty on the Iowa and similar standardized tests), and the Adventures in Fantasy creative-writing curriculum.

The last one is at DH's insistence. He has delusions of grandeur about Miss Scarlett's writing (cue visions of her being the next Christopher Paolini). He really wanted her to use the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum but as that's high school level not to mention $200, I convinced him to have her work through the Adventures in Fantasy program first.

In math, she's continuing on with Singapore Primary Math with the Intensive Practice and Challenging Word Problems books supplemented in places with the Math Mammoth single-topic "blue" worktexts. She's 2/5 of the way through 4A, which is great progress considering she only started 3A last January. My goal is to have her finish 4A and 4B plus Life of Fred: Fractions by the time she starts 4th grade this coming August. Ideally, I'd like to have her finish up the Singapore Primary Math series by the end of 5th grade so that she can do pre-algebra in 6th (probably online through Stanford's EPGY) and Algebra I in 7th.

In history, I made the decision to switch our focus from world history to American history. As we got to the Reformation era last spring, I decided that world history was getting rather darker and more complex than I'd prefer in the elementary years. Also, I feel that whereas my own history education was far too-U.S. centric (basically the entire thing except for 6th grade when we studied ancient & medieval times; 7th grade when my teacher decided that the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the first Persian Gulf war, and other then-current events were much more interesting than whatever was normally covered; and 10th grade when we studied world geography), the Well-Trained Mind/Story of the World cycle IMHO doesn't have enough American History. So we'll be doing 2 years of U.S. history before starting the next time through the cycle.

As "spine" for American History, I decided to go with From Sea to Shining Sea: The Story of America from the Catholic Schools Textbook Project. It's a textbook but is written like a narrative and I like how it is generally optimistic without glossing over the areas where America has fallen short of our ideals. The one complaint I have about it is that since it has a Catholic focus, it spends too much time discussing the Spanish and French colonies in North America and not enough time talking about the English ones. Jamestown and Plymouth get short shrift IMHO while the book goes on and on about Mexico and Canada. Fortunately, I was able to find plenty of library resources to beef up our study of early Virginia and the Pilgrims.

In science, we are at physics in the 4 year WTM cycle. We're doing a "unit studies" approach, with Miss Scarlett using relevant chapters from the Prentice Hall Science Explorer and Singapore My Pals are Here Science 5/6 series as her "spine" and Rusty using Singapore Earlybird Start Up Science Vol. 2. They're both loving the Young Scientist Club experiment kits, watching DVD's of Bill Nye the Science Guy and other documentaries, and reading library books including the Max Axiom, Super Scientist graphic novels, Let's Read and Find Out Science series, and The Magic School Bus series.

Even though I am somewhat following The Well-Trained Mind, I have decided to hold off for now on Latin. My plan is to have Miss Scarlett get a thorough grounding in English grammar first and then use The Latin Road to English Grammar in lieu of further English grammar study. I know that many homeschoolers don't feel that LRtEG is enough for both English and Latin but Miss Scarlett is the type of kid for whom I believe it could probably suffice. After completing Michael Clay Thompson's elementary LA series, the Killgallon series, and the Warriner's book I have on my shelf, she ought to have the basics down. I personally learned more about the English language through studying French and Latin in high school than I did in my "English" courses (which were mostly literature). If it turns out that LRtEG isn't enough, I can easily add back in formal English grammar. Perhaps something with a "structural"/linguistics approach like Rhetorical Grammar by Martha Kolln & Loretta Gray.

Good Site for Free Language Arts Worksheets

2010-06-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

When my DD took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills this spring, one of the sections where she scored a bit lower (though still very respectably) was on capitalization. The grammar programs we've used haven't really gotten into this topic all that much beyond the basics (i.e. proper nouns, the pronoun "I", the first word of a sentence, etc). So I went looking on the 'net for some capitalization worksheets. I came across a great site with lots of different free Language Arts worksheets. Be forewarned that the answer keys are NOT included, but I personally found I didn't really need a key for the worksheets I have used so far.

Thanks Mrs. Hatzigeorgiou, whoever you are! :-)

A Salute to Those Who've Paid the Ultimate Price for our Freedom

2010-05-31T21:29:00.000-07:00

I heard the following at the county Memorial Day observance we attended today, and thought it was a great reminder for all of us:

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

by Charles M. Province

Brief Update

2010-05-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

We've been on the East Coast visiting DH's and my relatives for the past few weeks. It's been fun but a bit chaotic, hence the lack of blog updates.

Miss Scarlett's 25 year old uncle, who makes a good living as an IT administrator, has helped her to create her own blog. She blogs at "Balderdash and Things Like That". I tried to set her up as a separate author but got an error message (and this was after my brother had left so I didn't have the tech support, LOL!) So if you see my name on a post that appears to have been written by a 7 1/2 year old girl, that's why :-)

"Thinking Through Grammar" by Dr. Arthur Whimbey

2010-03-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

I mentioned earlier that I've made some changes for the 2nd semester in our homeschool. One area where I've made some changes is in Language Arts. Miss Scarlet has finished Story Grammar for Elementary Students and has started the "town" level of the Michael Clay Thompson (MCT) program. We're loving the vocabulary and poetry components of the program but the jury is still out on the grammar & writing portions. That's a post for another day, however.

As Miss Scarlet was doing an exercise in one of her MCT books today, I noticed she was struggling with a prepositional phrase. So I decided to have her work through a chapter in Thinking Through Grammar: 5th and 6th Grade by Dr. Arthur Whimbey. This is the book I'm planning on having her do once she's done with MCT. I had taken a chance on ordering it sight unseen as I wasn't able to find any samples on the web of the middle school level book.

Thinking Through Grammar is a solid, no-nonsense consumable work-text. It is designed to be self-teaching. Because Miss Scarlet is much further ahead cognitively than her physical writing skills, I allowed her to dictate the answers orally while I transcribed. You can see one of the pages she did today here.

Sample page from "Thinking Through Grammar" -

Required Reading for Toyota Owners!

2010-03-09T16:50:00.000-08:00

My mom owns a Prius so you can imagine how nervous the story of the runaway Prius in San Diego made me :-0

We also own a Toyota and while it hasn't shown up on any of the recall lists so far, we keep hearing rumors that the true problem may date back well before 2004 when we bought our car.

If you or anybody you know drive a Toyota, make sure you read this article on how to stop your car in the event the throttle gets stuck.

Are the Doubters Right about Homeschooling for High School?

2010-03-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

Critics of homeschooling often question the ability of parents to effectively teach their high school aged children: "It's one thing to be teaching addition and subtraction but what about Algebra II and Trigonometry?"

I've never really worried about this issue since I'm familiar with the multitude of options for teaching high school level math. Everything from DVD/CD-ROM courses like Teaching Textbooks or Chalk Dust to online courses through Stanford EPGY or Johns Hopkins CTY to enrolling in classes at the community college, etc.

But today I came across some numbers that gave me pause & made me wonder if perhaps the doubters might actually have a point. For various reasons that are outside the scope of this blog post, I was looking at the CA Dept. of Ed's Standardized Testing and Reporting website for a local virtual charter school. What leaped out at me was how poorly the high school students did on the state tests relative to the performance in earlier grades. While few of the elementary and middle school students in the charter scored in the "below basic" or "far below basic" categories, a large percentage of the high school students did- and the percentage increased dramatically from 9th to 10th to 11th.

I wondered if this was a problem at the other virtual charter schools in the area so I checked the results for those. Here's what I found:

English	% Below Basic or Far Below Basic
	Grade 9	Grade 10	Grade 11
School A	21%	37%	52%
School B	20%	28%	31%
School C	14%	25%	45%
School D	12%	12%	35%
Average	17%	26%	41%

Math	% Below Basic or Far Below Basic
	Grade 9	Grade 10	Grade 11
School A	54%	80%	94%
School B	61%	78%	71%
School C	74%	94%	92%
School D	47%	63%	*
Average	59%	79%	86%

*Too few students to report.

At first glance, I found these numbers pretty disturbing. It appeared that the longer the children homeschooled, the worse they did, especially in math. By the time they reached 11th grade, between roughly a third and half were scoring low in English and the overwhelming majority were scoring low in math.

When I came across the asterisk in the results for the 4th school, I suddenly realized that the numbers of students enrolled in the charter school decreased pretty significantly each grade from 8th-onward:

Number of Students	8th	9th	10th	11th
School A	711	497	299	136
School B	197	161	138	122
School C	111	102	72	63
School D	93	58	46	23
Average	278	205	139	86

Suddenly it all made sense- there is adverse selection going on. In the area where I live, it is common for homeschooling families to enroll their teens in either a brick-and-mortar high school or to just go straight to community college. I was aware of this, but didn't make the connection with the lower test scores at first.

It makes sense that the higher-achieving students are the ones more likely to move on from homeschooling to another option. The ones left behind in the charter are disproportionately the ones who are either behind academically or just from families with different educational priorities than standardized tests & Ivy League admissions.

Should we as a society worry about these kids? That's a tough question. To me, it depends on the reason for the low score. If the student just has different priorities I'm not really concerned. After all, not every kid is destined for college. A teen who wants to be a mechanic may be perfectly successful in life even if he never manages to pass the CA state algebra test.

The homeschooled children I worry about are those whose parents are failing in their responsibility to provide an adequate education. Is this a widespread problem? Probably not as much as critics of homeschooling fear. And it is almost certainly dwarfed by the number of children failed by government-run schools. Still, those of us who support homeschooling need to acknowledge that it isn't always the best option for every single child.

Spring Semester Update Pt. 1

2010-02-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

It's been forever since I did an update on how our homeschooling is going, so I figured now would be a good time. We've made some curriculum changes for the new semester, which I'll be detailing in a series of posts.

The biggest change has been switching Miss Scarlett's math curriculum from Right Start to Singapore. Both programs are based on the Asian way of teaching math, to which I've always been drawn because of the combo of stressing both the underlying concepts AND mastering traditional algorithms. I'd originally been a bit intimidated by Singapore as a new home educator who didn't have a strong background in the subject. By contrast, I found the scripted lessons of RS very appealing. Also, Miss Scarlett was only 4 yrs 10 mos. when we started and I thought the "hands-on" nature of RS would be a better "fit" than the workbook-heavy Singapore.

I loved, loved, loved RS Level B. I think it laid an excellent foundation for Miss Scarlett in math. The challenge level was good, too. It did take her 13 months to get through it because we had to "sit" on certain concepts for a while. But on the whole, I felt the pace was appropriate.

When we finished RS B midway through the fall semester of 1st grade, I was in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy. So rather than starting up Level C right away, I took a relaxed approach to math for a few months. Not exactly "unschooling" since I did require Miss Scarlett to do math every day, but I allowed her to choose what she wanted to do from among the various supplementary workbooks & games we had on our shelf.

We started RS C last March. It was just okay. Somewhere in the middle of the book, I noticed Miss Scarlett had started to prefer pencil-and-paper work to using the manipulatives. Her eyes lit up when she learned the algorithm to do subtraction with borrowing rather than physically trading the beads on the abacus. When we took a break from RS to do Hands-on Equations, she figured out all on her own how to solve the algebraic equations on paper rather than using the little pawns, dice, and "scale".

She also seemed like she would benefit for a greater challenge level than what RS C was offering. I found myself compacting the RS lessons and using the extra time to work on more challenging problems related to the topic studied from the Singapore Challenging Word Problems series and Edward Zaccaro's Primary Grade Challenge Math book.

I looked over the final 2 levels in the RS elementary series and it just seemed like there was too much review and not enough new material for her. It struck me as having about a year's worth of material spread out over the 2 books. I understand that many students do need lots of repetition and a gentler pace, but she's not one of them.

So after Miss Scarlett finished RS C, I switched her to Singapore. She's using the 3A textbook with the Intensive Practice book rather than the regular workbook. She'll also complete the portions of the CWP books that she has not already done.

I've been fairly impressed by what I've seen of Singapore so far. For example, here's a problem from the Intensive Practice 3A book that I suspect many adults in this country would have difficulty solving: The sum of A & B is 4215 greater than C. C is 1833 less than A. What is B? I don't think I saw problems like that until my jr. high algebra class!

I do think that Miss Scarlett may need a more thorough explanation of multi-digit multiplication & division than what's in the Singapore textbook and my Home Instructor's Guide. So I downloaded the Math Mammoth single-topic workbooks on those. I like the way Maria Miller walks the student through the concepts explicitly step-by-step-by-step whereas Singapore assumes the child can make the leaps in logic. Even if Miss Scarlett doesn't turn out to need the extra explanation, she may benefit from having additional practice problems on those particular topics. The MM downloads were cheaper than buying the regular Singapore workbook and focused exclusively on only the areas where I suspect she may need the extra help.

I'm planning to start "Rusty" in RS, probably with Level A some time next year. I really do like the program for the primary grades. If that turns out not to be a good "fit" for him, I'll try Singapore or possibly the full Math Mammoth curriculum. Stay tuned!

Tell CBS You Support Focus on the Family Tim Tebow Ad!

2010-01-29T17:06:00.000-08:00

As you probably already know, CBS has come under fire from pro-abortion groups for agreeing to run a Focus on the Family ad during next week's Super Bowl featuring the story of homeschool graduate and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. Tebow's mother had received pressure from her doctor to abort but her Christian faith led her to continue her pregnancy. It's a heartwarming story, and one so compelling that it's really frightened the pro-abortion lobby.

The folks over at Catholicvote.org have put together a petition to CBS in support of their decision to run the ad. Please consider signing it to let the network know you stand with the Tebows and Focus on the Family in defense of those innocent unborn babies whose very lives are at stake.

Prayers for the People of Haiti

2010-01-14T07:43:00.000-08:00

A bit late I know, but I just wanted to throw my appeal out there to pray for the people of Haiti. If you haven't already heard the news, Archbishop Serge Miot was among the tens of thousands killed in Tuesday's devastating earthquake. I know that January is a lean month financially for many families, but please donate as generously as you can to Catholic Relief Services or another disaster relief agency. A list of some of the earthquake relief efforts can be found here.

Thank Goodness for Blogging

2010-01-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

I'm a voracious reader and typically read 2-3 dozen books per year. It can be difficult at times for me to remember exactly which books I have read vs. which ones I've only heard about. On occasion, I've requested a book through the inter-library loan program only to discover I've already read it.

I almost did this again just now, but then I had this nagging suspicion I'd read the book in question. Sure enough, a quick check of my blog revealed that I had. Not even 6 months ago!

Is this a sign of getting old(er) or just that all this homebuying & moving nonsense has taken its toll on me?

We'll Officially Be Homeowners Tomorrow!

2009-12-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

The short version of a long, long, long story is that while we came very close to walking away from the deal (to the point where we had formally signed a cancellation notice), we did finally come to agreement with the seller on the price. All the paperwork has been signed, the money is in the escrow account, and the sale will be formally recorded tomorrow. We're picking up the keys on Thursday and will be moving on Sunday. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be a day of rest but we'll attend Saturday evening Mass. DH has to go back to work on Monday & really wanted to get moved before then.

A Dollop of Politically Incorrect Humor for the Season

2009-12-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

This came through on our local Catholic homeschooling support group e-list and I thought it was too funny not to share.

"To All My Liberal Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice/Chanukkah/ Kwanzaa/etc. holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere.

Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee, not to exclude joint tax-payers filing singly.

To All My Christian Friends:

Blessed Advent, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!"

I've Not Suffered Death by Paperwork (Yet)

2009-12-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

Buying a home has turned out to be a bigger pain-in-the-rear than I had imagined. Our offer was accepted on November 30th. The inspection, however, revealed problems with the roof, siding, and foundation. The good news is that the structural engineering inspection found that the foundation issues are minor. The bad news is that the roof and the siding need to be replaced. During our initial negotiations, the seller had forwarded an appraisal done in mid-September claiming that the roof, siding, and foundation were all in "good" condition. Since this turns out NOT to be the case, we're attempting to negotiate a fairly hefty price cut. We're willing to eat a certain amount of the cost of the needed repairs but not all of it. It remains to be seen whether we'll be able to come to agreement on a fair price for this home given its current condition.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry to be so quiet here lately, we've been bogged down in negotiations on a house purchase. We've been going back & forth with the seller for a week & a half. We almost walked away from the deal twice now but submitted our "final, final, did we mention- final?" offer yesterday at the same price as our 2 most recent counters. Ugh, what a pain! The seller has been stuck on the price the home was appraised at back in August. We told them that we were not bidding on what it was worth last summer but rather where we feel the market is heading in the near future. If the seller truly believes that they can find another buyer willing to pay a higher price than us, by all means tell us no. But the home has been on the market for 45 days already so I really don't think they've got folks beating down their door. They need to sell the home more than we need to buy it (it's an estate sale). We're not trying to take advantage of the situation, we just don't want to overpay given the very real risk of a further market decline. But enough real estate venting!

Hope you all are enjoying a nice holiday!

Funny Response to Writing by Formula Assignment

2009-11-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

I wish I could claim credit for this but it's one of Miss Scarlet's little friends. The girl is 8 and is enrolled in 3rd grade through a virtual charter school.

Her assignment was to write a 3+ paragraph persuasive letter using the following formula: first paragraph states the position and 3 reasons supporting it, the middle paragraph(s) provide at least one detail for each reason and acknowledges/counters the reader's concern, and the last paragraph restates the position/reasons and calls for action.

Her father is the one overseeing her work for the charter school and apparently he was getting a bit frustrated by how long it was taking the girl to complete the practice letters. For the last practice letter, he asked her to write a persuasive letter on whether she should have to do any more practice letters to be scored on a 4 point scale. Here's what she came up with:

"Dear Daddy,

I see that you are frustrated with me, but I think this should be the last
one. My reasons for feeling this way include, I am giving three reasons, my
details will support my reasons, and my reasons support my position.

First, I am giving three reasons. Because I gave three reasons, I believe I
should get a four. Moving on, my details support my reasons. For example,
I believe I should get a four because I gave three reasons. Last but not
least, my reasons support my position. Here is an example of a reason that
does not support my position: I love puppies. If you thought that I would
forget to acknowledge your concern, look here I did it!

I saw that you were a little upset with me, but I think this should be the
last one. This is why: my reasons supported my position, my details
supported my reasons, and I gave three reasons. Please make my score a
four.

Love,
[name]"

Isn't that a hoot? I'm so glad that her father gave permission for sharing it!

Why Does this Not Surprise Me?

2009-10-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

One of the subject areas I feel was majorly lacking in my own formal education is economics. My high school offered an elective course in economics my senior year but I did not have room for it in my schedule. My college alma mater had a well-respected economics program but again I did not take any of its courses. So whatever I know about the topic comes from what I've learned on my own or from my parents, both of whom were economics majors undergrad and pursued graduate studies in business administration.

So I was interested to see a thread on the Well-Trained Mind bulletin board about materials to teach kids basic economics. Several of the books recommended have been ones I've used with Miss Scarlet- The Everything Kids Money Book by Diane Mayr, The Story of Money by Betsy Maestro, and If You Made a Million by David Schwartz.

There was one title mentioned in the thread that looked really intriguing: Capitalism for Kids: Growing Up to Be Your Own Boss by Karl Hess. I read a review of the book that made me think it would provide a great counterbalance to all the negative "spin" that we've been hearing in the elite media (e.g. the media blitz promoting Michael Moore's new movie).

Since I'm the frugal type, I checked the availability of the book at libraries in my area. First I checked the county inter-library loan system. Nope. Then I widened my search to the San Francisco public library since I drop my DH off in the city every weekday morning. Nada. Then I checked the Santa Clara county system even though that would be a bit of a schlep down the peninsula. Zilch. Turns out that the closest library that carries the book is 20 miles away, across the bay down in southern Alameda county.

Sadly, I'm less than shocked that none of the libraries in San Francisco, San Mateo, or Santa Clara counties carry a kids' economics book with a pro-capitalism message...

P.S. I'm most likely going to purchase the "Business, Economics, and Entrepreneurship" course from Bluestocking Press that includes Capitalism for Kids plus 2 other titles & a teachers' guide.

Not Everything That's Wrong Should Be Illegal

2009-10-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

A Louisiana justice of the peace is in hot water after declining to perform a civil wedding for an interracial couple and referring the couple to a colleague.

While I totally disagree with Keith Bardwell's refusal, I'm leery of the government forcing justices of the peace to perform weddings to which they object & not allowing them to refer the couples to a colleague. What if the situation were not an interracial couple but a homosexual one? Should the government force a Christian justice of the peace to officiate against his/her deeply held religious beliefs? At least 11 justices in Massachusetts resigned after that state legalized homosexual marriage and then-Governor Mitt Romney told justices they could not refuse to perform them.

What's so wrong about allowing a justice to say, "sorry, I can't help you but you can go to my colleague so-and-so"? The inconvenience of the couple having to go elsewhere should not outweigh the conscience right of the justice of the peace.

Do I think Keith Bardwell is flat-out wrong in his stance on interracial marriage? Absolutely. But he and other justices of the peace should have the right to refuse to marry a couple for whatever reason so long as another justice can be found to perform the marriage. Otherwise, Christian justices may very well have to choose between keeping their job and following their religion.

Look Beyond the Hype to the Actual Data

2009-10-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

How's this for a headline:

"99.6% of homeschoolers studied have had no involvement whatsoever with the child welfare authorities and 97.8% of homeschool graduates are employed or pursuing higher education/training"

Not going to sell very many papers, is it? Nor will it do much to support the governmental push in the U.K. to dramatically increase regulation of homeschooling in that country.

But what's the actual headline found in The Guardian?

"Children educated at home at severe disadvantage, study shows."

I wish that the above were a joke, but unfortunately it's real.

Graham Badman, the former education director of the town of Kent, recently provided a report to the U.K. Parliament committee for children, schools, and families on home education in Britain. The review looked at the status of 1,220 children (out of an estimated 40,000-60,000+ U.K. homeschoolers) from 74 local authorities (no info on how those were chosen).

The report claimed that:

"while 0.2% of children in the UK population were known to social services, the figure was 0.4% among those who were educated at home....The percentage of home-educated children who are not in employment, education or training [NEET] is more than four times the proportion in the national population".

First of all, the Financial Times in August quoted a report from the Department for Children, Schools and Families saying that the "NEET" rate in the U.K. is 16%. That would be almost EIGHT TIMES the rate found for homeschool graduates. I find it incredibly hard to believe that the NEET rate would plummet from 16% down to 0.5% over the past 2 months. The most plausible explanation is that at least one of the two government reports has an incorrect number. If I had to estimate the true rate, I'd say it has got to be closer to the 16% than the 0.5%.

But let's suppose for the moment that the claims made in the Badman report were accurate. Does a 0.4% rate of involvement with CPS (note that it includes the numerous investigations in which the parents are ultimately declared innocent) and a 2.2% NEET rate actually warrant the term "severe"?

To put the numbers into context, the teen pregnancy rate in the U.K. is TEN TIMES higher than the rate given for CPS involvement among homeschoolers. That number is nearly double what it was in 1990 (unlike the U.S. where the rate has declined 45% over the same time frame). Government ministers called the teen pregnancy rate "disappointing".

I would personally argue that the government has its adjectives backwards...

Awesome Chemistry Resources Link

2009-09-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

Our Rainbow Resource order finally came the other day and we got started on our study of chemistry. Miss Scarlet has been enjoying The Elements by Ellen McHenry. She's also been having fun doing experiments from the Thoms & Kosmos Chem 2000 chemistry set. We started off with simple "kitchen chemistry" ones- writing "invisible ink" messages using lemon juice & vinegar. Next week we're planning to try a more ambitious "invisible ink" involving Prussian Blue. Wish us luck!

While I was surfing the web, I came across an awesome page from another homeschooling mom with lots of great chemistry resources. Thanks, Jimmie!