What we've been reading: We just finished Johnny Tremain. Ollie's feelings were that he really liked the human interest part of the story and was less happy when it drifted off into history textbook style. But overall, it was a great experience. We spent the better part of the week really delving into this, adding in other reading from Story of US, poetry, and another book on Paul Revere's ride, which was ever so much more meaningful after we had the context of Johnny Tremain in our own personal backgrounds. Ollie is finding it laborious that we aren't yet at the War of 1812, but I want to finish Volume 3 of Story of US before we move on. We have a decent ways to go.
My new scheme is that I'm having the kids read it, aloud, to me. This helps keep Walter at least marginally paying attention, and it gives Ollie reading practice. I picked up a Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader as well that I think Walter will respond to. I haven't done a lot of required reading, and because I was comfortable that they were reading solidly most of the time, I had dropped specific reading instruction. Now I'm thinking that it doesn't hurt to give it a little more extended attention, just to make sure they are as comfortable with reading as they should be. I gave the DONA test on the website www.letsgolearn.com, and their results were both what I expected and better than I expected. The test was broken down into a number of subtests--word recognition, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, vocabulary. Both were extremely high on word recognition--late 12th grade and middle of 11th. Ollie was super high on reading comprehension: grade 11.5, and Walter was above grade level at grade 6.5. Both had vocabulary a few grade levels ahead. But spelling. Oh, our perennial bugbear, spelling. Ollie was at early 2nd grade, and Walter was at middle 2nd grade. Both also had results saying that they were "poor" at phonemic awareness, though after I went back and re-read, I saw that they probably weren't even tested on this because they are too old and their grade level too high based on the other tests It did make me stop and think about how proficient they are at what is jargonically termed "word attack." And I do think there is room to work there. To that end, I've started doing the "Advanced Code" Reading Reflex chapters with Ollie (I haven't actually snagged Walter long enough to do much with him yet; the weather is good and he's out making fairy houses and rigging up pulleys to hoist things into the trees in the yard). It's obvious that most of the work is too easy for Ollie, so I may need to modulate it much more than I have, but he really needs to make some prolonged contact with the types of word patterns and combinations of letters that trip him up in spelling. Nonetheless, I have to say that so far, the tincture of time has been helping us more than anything else. We've started breaking down words into chunks and shoving together the chunks we've already decoded so that we're not having to hold ten sounds in succession in our brains.
That's the boring part of our homeschooling life. The exciting part is the many park days, the play dates, and the spate of recent birthday parties. Welcome spring!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Here it is, 1:30 a.m., and I'm still flying on the caffeine I took for an earlier headache. And there's tennis tomorrow. Yawn!
Finally, the weather broke. It wasn't exactly a perfect day outdoors, but I'm not complaining. We're back at the park, and that's where I want to be in April.
Time sure is winding down on the schoolyear. I'm not ready to stop by any means--in fact, I'm feeling energized by my new commitment to doing things in the way that has worked for us in the past, which means fewer workbooks, more time spent on the things that matter to us. It has been more or less successful in the past, and perhaps I was wrong in looking down another path thinking it offered some kind of insurance. We owe it to ourselves to choose what makes us happy, and not some list of "shoulds" that come from the great beyond or someone else's paradigm. I don't want to lose sight of why we chose this lifestyle in the first place, which was so that we could do something different, so that we weren't tied to anyone else's timeframe, so that our standards didn't have to be dictated by someone else, especially a someone else over whom we have no control.
Writing was more painful than usual tonight for us. The assignment felt pretty straightforward, but Walter was just not in the game at all. Maybe it's spring fever. Maybe it's that he wasn't invested in his topic. Or it was just too late--too much swimming, too much time running around it the park, too much time since he had woken up in the morning. But he was just out of it, and his writing seemed to come from another world. I see this as an area where we need to continue to focus, and maybe I need to scale things back.
Kerry and I did something a bit out of our normal range--we instituted an incentive system to try to encourage greater effort on what they do for school. I don't want to call myself skeptical, because that isn't the right word, but I know that it will be challenging to fight against some of their personality tendencies, traits that seem pretty deeply ingrained in them. Ollie has always had a hard time embracing tasks that he can't master with little to no effort. It is not simply perfectionism, it's that he really expects things to come easily to him or that skimming the surface is enough (I can strum a few things, therefore I know how to play the guitar). They have a harder time seeing the value of long, steady practice, that this is how people get to be experts, how they get to be successful. So we are offering points/stars for accuracy and completion on a number of our regular educational pursuits, and when they reach 100, they can choose a Wii game. I've been having this feeling that they wonder what the point of doing better on their math might be. So I guess we'll see how this goes.
Walter is speeding along in trumpet. I didn't hear a lot from his lesson this morning, but the reports I'm getting are that he is going to be ready for intermediate band when the fall comes, especially if he keeps up with some lessons over the summer. I'm really proud of his progress.
My teeth are feeling filthy now. I must go brush. TMI, I know!
Finally, the weather broke. It wasn't exactly a perfect day outdoors, but I'm not complaining. We're back at the park, and that's where I want to be in April.
Time sure is winding down on the schoolyear. I'm not ready to stop by any means--in fact, I'm feeling energized by my new commitment to doing things in the way that has worked for us in the past, which means fewer workbooks, more time spent on the things that matter to us. It has been more or less successful in the past, and perhaps I was wrong in looking down another path thinking it offered some kind of insurance. We owe it to ourselves to choose what makes us happy, and not some list of "shoulds" that come from the great beyond or someone else's paradigm. I don't want to lose sight of why we chose this lifestyle in the first place, which was so that we could do something different, so that we weren't tied to anyone else's timeframe, so that our standards didn't have to be dictated by someone else, especially a someone else over whom we have no control.
Writing was more painful than usual tonight for us. The assignment felt pretty straightforward, but Walter was just not in the game at all. Maybe it's spring fever. Maybe it's that he wasn't invested in his topic. Or it was just too late--too much swimming, too much time running around it the park, too much time since he had woken up in the morning. But he was just out of it, and his writing seemed to come from another world. I see this as an area where we need to continue to focus, and maybe I need to scale things back.
Kerry and I did something a bit out of our normal range--we instituted an incentive system to try to encourage greater effort on what they do for school. I don't want to call myself skeptical, because that isn't the right word, but I know that it will be challenging to fight against some of their personality tendencies, traits that seem pretty deeply ingrained in them. Ollie has always had a hard time embracing tasks that he can't master with little to no effort. It is not simply perfectionism, it's that he really expects things to come easily to him or that skimming the surface is enough (I can strum a few things, therefore I know how to play the guitar). They have a harder time seeing the value of long, steady practice, that this is how people get to be experts, how they get to be successful. So we are offering points/stars for accuracy and completion on a number of our regular educational pursuits, and when they reach 100, they can choose a Wii game. I've been having this feeling that they wonder what the point of doing better on their math might be. So I guess we'll see how this goes.
Walter is speeding along in trumpet. I didn't hear a lot from his lesson this morning, but the reports I'm getting are that he is going to be ready for intermediate band when the fall comes, especially if he keeps up with some lessons over the summer. I'm really proud of his progress.
My teeth are feeling filthy now. I must go brush. TMI, I know!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Puppy Love!
This is Bilbo, Mr. Baggins. Pride of the Clendenon family. I can't believe he's actually here with us. To be honest, in some ways it feels like we've always known him, and in other ways, it seems like he'll never quite integrate so that he can roam freely.
Monday, Monday
Rain, rain, go away. It's been raining since Saturday night, rather hard at times, and the end isn't quite in sight yet. It's a good thing in some ways. I don't need to be spending all morning tomorrow at a tennis clinic, even though I'd like to be, and I don't need to be spending any more money there, either. I have Sarah and Rebecca coming over tomorrow afternoon to do some LLL stuff, and I need the morning to get our regular stuff at home done. What is most exciting is that we don't have much of anywhere to go tomorrow--people are coming to us. Except for gymnastics, we're operating from our base here, which is, sad to say, comparatively rare.
Frances and I read Latin Ballet books tonight--The Steadfast Tin Soldier, which is her performance coming up in a little over a month, and The Legend of the Poinsettia, which was danced in this winter. Poor little tin soldier--melted down into bare metal at the end, even if he did turn into a heart and his love into a lone sequin. I can already picture the show--will Allison be the one-legged ballerina (Frances immediately pointed out that the ballerina did not have one leg, she was just doing an arabesque)? I was impressed today at how far Frances has come now in flamenco. She was not only keeping up, but has real verge when she dances, which I think is why Ana supports her so much--she has a lot of stage presence and a keen body sense, when she's not fooling around. Ana also told me today that Frances is going to be featured on the front of the year-end program. Last year, she managed to get up on her toes, nearly en pointe, if she only had pointe shoes, and she looked lovely. She's the youngest girl by quite a bit in her class, and though she has moments where she is overwhelmed by the desire to kiss herself in the mirror, she keeps up extremely well.
Today was our next to last class at RES. It admit, it's a little frustrating that it seems like everyone else fudges heavily on the age ranges for classes, something that has affected the classes I've taught (skewing ages lower in classes intended for older kids) and making us not really get our needs met particularly well. I wonder if Ollie would be given more opportunities if he was taller and bigger? I guess I don't do a very good job of advocating for him, insisting that he's a child prodigy, but what makes it frustrating is that others do, leaving him behind with younger kids and not with a true peer group all the time, especially when I am seeing that a situation isn't optimal. If all the prodigies kept their prodigies mostly together, think of what interaction might go on! So I'm kind of over the situation now, having some regrets that I signed up again, and wondering whether I'll use our membership for next year. I'm happy to get a break from the stress of it for a while, happy to be able to be ourselves by ourselves so that we can do what works for us without worrying about placement, grade level, age ranges, etc. It seems like suddenly "middle school" is the place to be--strategic game clubs, debate teams, Model U.N. It leaves a nearly 10 year old with interests in those areas kind of lost in the zone of less challenge, a situation I was trying to avoid by homeschooling. My leading edge of problem solving lately has been making sure that we're not just covering bases, but really making life interesting and providing opportunities, especially as the boys get to a point where they are starting to show their talents and, for lack of a better term, areas of specialization.
Ollie is still struggling some with multidigit multiplication--multidigit times multidigit. He has a lot of trouble remembering procedures, and his continuing difficulty with handwriting and controlling placement of things on a page isn't helping him. I have started making worksheets on the Math-U-See website for him because we've used up almost all of the Gamma book with Walter and I don't want to order him a brand new one when he is only about 5 lessons from the end of the book. The used curriculum sales can't come soon enough--I really need the fraction overlays and the next math books up for the boys and some Bob Books for Frances. Her reading is coming along. Maybe not at the pace or with the enthusiasm I had hoped, but it's coming.
Poor little puppy spent way too much time today in the car and in his crate, due to the rain. I am hoping that tomorrow will be nice enough that we can take him outside for some good long walks and to run around. It's still pretty high maintenance having him in the house, since he has lots of accidents, and I know that I'm not supervising as well as I should. I need to go out and get a book on housebreaking, but I'm concerned that it's not lack of knowledge that is my problem, but lack of motivation to get off my butt and let him out or watch him as intently as I need to so that he doesn't have an opportunity to make mistakes. He is really a super dog--quiet, great with the kids, calm, so very happy to see us. I think we may indeed have gotten what we were looking for!

Frances and I read Latin Ballet books tonight--The Steadfast Tin Soldier, which is her performance coming up in a little over a month, and The Legend of the Poinsettia, which was danced in this winter. Poor little tin soldier--melted down into bare metal at the end, even if he did turn into a heart and his love into a lone sequin. I can already picture the show--will Allison be the one-legged ballerina (Frances immediately pointed out that the ballerina did not have one leg, she was just doing an arabesque)? I was impressed today at how far Frances has come now in flamenco. She was not only keeping up, but has real verge when she dances, which I think is why Ana supports her so much--she has a lot of stage presence and a keen body sense, when she's not fooling around. Ana also told me today that Frances is going to be featured on the front of the year-end program. Last year, she managed to get up on her toes, nearly en pointe, if she only had pointe shoes, and she looked lovely. She's the youngest girl by quite a bit in her class, and though she has moments where she is overwhelmed by the desire to kiss herself in the mirror, she keeps up extremely well.
Today was our next to last class at RES. It admit, it's a little frustrating that it seems like everyone else fudges heavily on the age ranges for classes, something that has affected the classes I've taught (skewing ages lower in classes intended for older kids) and making us not really get our needs met particularly well. I wonder if Ollie would be given more opportunities if he was taller and bigger? I guess I don't do a very good job of advocating for him, insisting that he's a child prodigy, but what makes it frustrating is that others do, leaving him behind with younger kids and not with a true peer group all the time, especially when I am seeing that a situation isn't optimal. If all the prodigies kept their prodigies mostly together, think of what interaction might go on! So I'm kind of over the situation now, having some regrets that I signed up again, and wondering whether I'll use our membership for next year. I'm happy to get a break from the stress of it for a while, happy to be able to be ourselves by ourselves so that we can do what works for us without worrying about placement, grade level, age ranges, etc. It seems like suddenly "middle school" is the place to be--strategic game clubs, debate teams, Model U.N. It leaves a nearly 10 year old with interests in those areas kind of lost in the zone of less challenge, a situation I was trying to avoid by homeschooling. My leading edge of problem solving lately has been making sure that we're not just covering bases, but really making life interesting and providing opportunities, especially as the boys get to a point where they are starting to show their talents and, for lack of a better term, areas of specialization.
Ollie is still struggling some with multidigit multiplication--multidigit times multidigit. He has a lot of trouble remembering procedures, and his continuing difficulty with handwriting and controlling placement of things on a page isn't helping him. I have started making worksheets on the Math-U-See website for him because we've used up almost all of the Gamma book with Walter and I don't want to order him a brand new one when he is only about 5 lessons from the end of the book. The used curriculum sales can't come soon enough--I really need the fraction overlays and the next math books up for the boys and some Bob Books for Frances. Her reading is coming along. Maybe not at the pace or with the enthusiasm I had hoped, but it's coming.
Poor little puppy spent way too much time today in the car and in his crate, due to the rain. I am hoping that tomorrow will be nice enough that we can take him outside for some good long walks and to run around. It's still pretty high maintenance having him in the house, since he has lots of accidents, and I know that I'm not supervising as well as I should. I need to go out and get a book on housebreaking, but I'm concerned that it's not lack of knowledge that is my problem, but lack of motivation to get off my butt and let him out or watch him as intently as I need to so that he doesn't have an opportunity to make mistakes. He is really a super dog--quiet, great with the kids, calm, so very happy to see us. I think we may indeed have gotten what we were looking for!

Sunday, April 20, 2008
I have a new identity as nantwins. I'm terrible at those moments when someone is staring right at you, telling you that right at this very moment you need to choose you email handle and you will *never* be able to change it. Then your first four choices of a handle are already taken, and the next thing you know, you're something like nantwins. Forever.
We are watching the movie Tom and Huck right now after both of the boys have finished reading Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I think Frances is enjoying the movie more than either of them, but both very much liked the books. Ollie and I finished Little House on the Prairie this week as well, though I think we'll take a break before setting upon Farmer Boy. In the interim, we've settled on another Nancy Drew novel.
I realized about two weeks ago that Frances has never really played a board game. It's shameful, I know. Third child syndrome at its worst. So tonight we played Jungle Run (our preferred version of Chutes and Ladders using multicultural children on bent paperclip stands) and Monopoly Junior. While she had no problems whatsoever with the actual game play, making change, or adding money together for payment, she has a long way to go in sportsmanship! One advantage of waiting until she's 6.5 to play is that she at least has no problems with the workings of the game itself.
Tomorrow at RES I'm planning to give the board games class a choice of games. We have such a wide range of ages and interests that letting them create their own groupings seems to work best. I'll have Great States, Great States Junior. Clue, Monopoly, Lego Creator, and Sorry available to them. For Goop and Glue, we'll make our own no-cook play-doh. That sounds messy, but it is satisfying and time consuming, which are kind of the keys to success in that class--make the activity take time and have high enough interest that they can get plenty of mileage out of just mucking around in it. We only have two more weeks of class, and I'm ready for the break. I'm in winding down mode when it comes to regular schoolyear out of the house activities. I'm ready for summer and time freedom!
Whoo-hoo! We are finished with all of the requirements for the Bear Badge for Cub Scouts. We knocked out a last few things and filled in all of the requisite lines and boxes with signatures and checks, and we're well beyond the basic requirements. From now on, it's nothing but electives, if we choose them, though there are plenty that sound interesting and challenging, so they might make nice summer projects; I'm wondering if they can get arrow points past the May Pack meeting, since we'll have more time on our hands to do things like build crystal radios and tin can generators.
This weekend was the big campout, bigger still because we took the puppy with us. He did great--fell right to sleep in his crate as soon as we put him in there. Crate training makes everything so much easier. now if only we could get him to stop peeing on the floor in the house when he has his "free" time. No matter how high my supervision, it's never quite enough. Yesterday was one of those all-out days for everyone. We arrived at camp around 9:30 a.m. and were out in the sun playing dodgeball and tug of war, fishing, and riding bikes and running through the abandoned mine and pirate cave all day long. It was a wise, wise call camp was broken up at sundown because rain was coming. Even by the time we went home there were drops falling, and by this morning, it was soaking outside with occasional bursts of thunder. We got out just in time!
Now we're off into another busy week--Spanish homework tonight for tomorrow's class, board games, ballet class in the afternoon, and a puppy in tow through it all.
We are watching the movie Tom and Huck right now after both of the boys have finished reading Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I think Frances is enjoying the movie more than either of them, but both very much liked the books. Ollie and I finished Little House on the Prairie this week as well, though I think we'll take a break before setting upon Farmer Boy. In the interim, we've settled on another Nancy Drew novel.
I realized about two weeks ago that Frances has never really played a board game. It's shameful, I know. Third child syndrome at its worst. So tonight we played Jungle Run (our preferred version of Chutes and Ladders using multicultural children on bent paperclip stands) and Monopoly Junior. While she had no problems whatsoever with the actual game play, making change, or adding money together for payment, she has a long way to go in sportsmanship! One advantage of waiting until she's 6.5 to play is that she at least has no problems with the workings of the game itself.
Tomorrow at RES I'm planning to give the board games class a choice of games. We have such a wide range of ages and interests that letting them create their own groupings seems to work best. I'll have Great States, Great States Junior. Clue, Monopoly, Lego Creator, and Sorry available to them. For Goop and Glue, we'll make our own no-cook play-doh. That sounds messy, but it is satisfying and time consuming, which are kind of the keys to success in that class--make the activity take time and have high enough interest that they can get plenty of mileage out of just mucking around in it. We only have two more weeks of class, and I'm ready for the break. I'm in winding down mode when it comes to regular schoolyear out of the house activities. I'm ready for summer and time freedom!
Whoo-hoo! We are finished with all of the requirements for the Bear Badge for Cub Scouts. We knocked out a last few things and filled in all of the requisite lines and boxes with signatures and checks, and we're well beyond the basic requirements. From now on, it's nothing but electives, if we choose them, though there are plenty that sound interesting and challenging, so they might make nice summer projects; I'm wondering if they can get arrow points past the May Pack meeting, since we'll have more time on our hands to do things like build crystal radios and tin can generators.
This weekend was the big campout, bigger still because we took the puppy with us. He did great--fell right to sleep in his crate as soon as we put him in there. Crate training makes everything so much easier. now if only we could get him to stop peeing on the floor in the house when he has his "free" time. No matter how high my supervision, it's never quite enough. Yesterday was one of those all-out days for everyone. We arrived at camp around 9:30 a.m. and were out in the sun playing dodgeball and tug of war, fishing, and riding bikes and running through the abandoned mine and pirate cave all day long. It was a wise, wise call camp was broken up at sundown because rain was coming. Even by the time we went home there were drops falling, and by this morning, it was soaking outside with occasional bursts of thunder. We got out just in time!
Now we're off into another busy week--Spanish homework tonight for tomorrow's class, board games, ballet class in the afternoon, and a puppy in tow through it all.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Bad Boys, Bad Boys
Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
I have some seriously bad boys in my house. There's Rutledge, one man wrecking crew. There's Ollie, who got beat up not once, but twice today, and who hit back. And as usual, I was off in la-la land, hanging out with adults while my child was bullying other kids. I am feeling like a very bad parent these days. And it's not just with the humans. The wee pup also had an accident on the kitchen floor today, which is totally my fault.
I am at my wits' end with Ollie. I don't know what he needs to get his basic social needs met, but it's not happening. It's not that he never gets an opportunity to meet other kids, but he doesn't get along with anyone. I cannot figure out why. He has interests that are all wrong, especially for a homeschooler. I think he might be able to get into a scene with some jock kids, but they don't really exist in homeschooling. I think he'd have a great time playing a game of pickup basketball, 21, kickball, baseball, but the only way to do it is in more organized, adult-managed team sports, and that isn't quite his cup of tea. He likes history, social studies, archaeology, "true" stories. I think he'd like a day of playing Risk or Monopoly with friends, but doesn't have any friends who would want to play given any other option. I really don't know what to do with him. I'm ending up being his favorite playmate, and that's not my job. I'm the person he throws a baseball with, I'm the person who reads the books he likes with him, I'm the person who can't often find the time for a three hour game.
I'm wondering if he wouldn't thrive in school. Not necessarily elementary school, but if he was in a middle school with lots of club and activity options, he might connect with people who share his interests. Of course, there's lots to not like in middle school, but there are also opportunities for things that we can't necessarily provide at home. I think he'd love debate team, model UN, elective options, language classes. I think he'd benefit from access to people who are his age and in his grade, and maybe even some a little older to learn from. He's just too young, and like me, he may go through life being "too young." It's frustrating.
There was an interesting talk tonight about how to determine if you child has learned something. I'll admit, I don't give tests at home as part of our schooling. I don't even think I like covering all of these "school" subjects that are taking time from us doing things that really are interesting to us and really would help their explore their own interests instead of someone else's list of what they need to know as a 3rd grader or 4th grader or whatever. To me, merely talking with them, knowing them, observing their play, and referencing something from earlier lets me know what they've retained, what is important to them, what they are making their own. I am not a very bright student myself, so I'm no authority, but I have forgotten a lot of things that I passed tests on 'back in the day.' I was good at getting an A on test day, but I couldn't necessarily list the rocks in Moh's Scale a semester later. I'm not sure it's fair to expect that of my kids. Most of what I've retained is what I've used, revisited later in some other resource (for example, I didn't remember all of the details I passed tests on at one time about the American Revolution); the lovely thing about most subjects is that there is always time to read about them again, watch a program about them again, search for some forgotten piece of info on a website. I'm probably deluding myself, but I feel like I have a decent handle on what they know, and their test results show, to the extent a test is able, that they have retention and mastery of the basics for their grade.
Ollie is writing a short essay tomorrow on a topic that I wouldn't have chosen--how to cheat on a lie detector test. Perhaps I'll post the results tomorrow. Walter wrote about a diamond that a 12 year old boy found in his backyard. His progress has been extraordinary! I'll post that one tomorrow, too.
I have some seriously bad boys in my house. There's Rutledge, one man wrecking crew. There's Ollie, who got beat up not once, but twice today, and who hit back. And as usual, I was off in la-la land, hanging out with adults while my child was bullying other kids. I am feeling like a very bad parent these days. And it's not just with the humans. The wee pup also had an accident on the kitchen floor today, which is totally my fault.
I am at my wits' end with Ollie. I don't know what he needs to get his basic social needs met, but it's not happening. It's not that he never gets an opportunity to meet other kids, but he doesn't get along with anyone. I cannot figure out why. He has interests that are all wrong, especially for a homeschooler. I think he might be able to get into a scene with some jock kids, but they don't really exist in homeschooling. I think he'd have a great time playing a game of pickup basketball, 21, kickball, baseball, but the only way to do it is in more organized, adult-managed team sports, and that isn't quite his cup of tea. He likes history, social studies, archaeology, "true" stories. I think he'd like a day of playing Risk or Monopoly with friends, but doesn't have any friends who would want to play given any other option. I really don't know what to do with him. I'm ending up being his favorite playmate, and that's not my job. I'm the person he throws a baseball with, I'm the person who reads the books he likes with him, I'm the person who can't often find the time for a three hour game.
I'm wondering if he wouldn't thrive in school. Not necessarily elementary school, but if he was in a middle school with lots of club and activity options, he might connect with people who share his interests. Of course, there's lots to not like in middle school, but there are also opportunities for things that we can't necessarily provide at home. I think he'd love debate team, model UN, elective options, language classes. I think he'd benefit from access to people who are his age and in his grade, and maybe even some a little older to learn from. He's just too young, and like me, he may go through life being "too young." It's frustrating.
There was an interesting talk tonight about how to determine if you child has learned something. I'll admit, I don't give tests at home as part of our schooling. I don't even think I like covering all of these "school" subjects that are taking time from us doing things that really are interesting to us and really would help their explore their own interests instead of someone else's list of what they need to know as a 3rd grader or 4th grader or whatever. To me, merely talking with them, knowing them, observing their play, and referencing something from earlier lets me know what they've retained, what is important to them, what they are making their own. I am not a very bright student myself, so I'm no authority, but I have forgotten a lot of things that I passed tests on 'back in the day.' I was good at getting an A on test day, but I couldn't necessarily list the rocks in Moh's Scale a semester later. I'm not sure it's fair to expect that of my kids. Most of what I've retained is what I've used, revisited later in some other resource (for example, I didn't remember all of the details I passed tests on at one time about the American Revolution); the lovely thing about most subjects is that there is always time to read about them again, watch a program about them again, search for some forgotten piece of info on a website. I'm probably deluding myself, but I feel like I have a decent handle on what they know, and their test results show, to the extent a test is able, that they have retention and mastery of the basics for their grade.
Ollie is writing a short essay tomorrow on a topic that I wouldn't have chosen--how to cheat on a lie detector test. Perhaps I'll post the results tomorrow. Walter wrote about a diamond that a 12 year old boy found in his backyard. His progress has been extraordinary! I'll post that one tomorrow, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
