Homeschool Advice for covid: What is your learning style!

Hello, ladies and gents.  We are in an unprecedented time in which many, many parents are being asked to homeschool their kids for a while.  We started homeschooling our son in kindergarten and although we didn't plan on it, continued all the way through until he graduated from high school.  I won't say it was easy, but you really get to know your child, his learning abilities, his interests, and yes, the things he hates.  I decided to share a bit from our years of homeschooling in hopes it will help you, if even a tiny bit.  This is a repost from 2007.  

What is your Learning Style? 

The ladies and gentlemen (yes, there are stay at home dads) from the Well Trained Mind forums are a font of information. Some had been home schooling their children for a couple years to eighteen years. Yes, some people do home school their kids from kindergarten to High School. They guided me to so many different books to read about learning styles and everything else imaginable.

One of the first things I thought about was James learning style? Did I know my learning style? Once again with God as our guide and leading us down this home school path, I read Dreamers, Discoverers and Dynamo’s by Lucy Palidino.

According to Psychologist Lucy Jo Palladino:

“20 percent of children have what she calls the Edison trait: dazzling intelligence, an active imagination, a free-spirited approach to life, and the ability to drive everyone around them crazy. She named the trait after Thomas Edison, who flunked out of school despite his obvious brilliance. Edison-trait children think divergently, while school is geared to children who think convergently (one idea at a time).”

“He was a boy who learned only by doing. At age six, he had to see how fire worked and accidentally burned his father's barn to the ground. The next fall he began school, where he alternated between letting his mind travel to distant places and keeping his body in perpetual motion in his seat. Because he was distracted and restless, he did not last long in a formal classroom. His teacher called him "addled." Eventually, his mother had to home-school him. As an adult he would recall: "My father thought I was stupid and I almost decided I must be a dunce."

Who was this boy? Thomas Edison!

The book asks these questions:

"If your child is a Dreamer
1. Does he get absorbed or intensely involved in his own ideas much of the time?
2. Is he prone to saying things out of the blue?
3. Does he procrastinate to an extreme?
4. Are his interests and activities eclectic?
5. Does he start at least three projects for every one he finishes?

If your child is a Discoverer
1. Is he easily attracted to sights and sounds around him?
2. Is it vital for him to express his opinion?
3. Does he crave novelty, power, and excitement?
4. Is he always ready to speak, especially if you're talking?
5. When he wants his own way - which is almost always - is he relentless?

Or, if your child is a Dynamo
1. Does he get aggressive or intensely emotional about his own ideas much of the time?
2. Is some part of his body always in motion?
3. Are chances to run and climb as vital as the air he breathes?
4. Does he have boundless energy, enough for about three children his age?
5. Do you find yourself wondering if he lacks common sense?"

Remind you of anyone you know? Hubby and James have a combination of all three.


“It is a natural human tendency to assume that all minds work the same way. We tacitly agree that all minds should naturally be able to follow through on one idea at a time, from beginning to end, with attention to detail. We call convergent thinking the norm and we presume it's what comes naturally if a brain is "normal." Divergent thinkers are viewed as having "attentional problems."

”We label convergent thinking as right and divergent thinking as wrong. We base the methods we use to train our children on this premise. We expect children to focus in a linear fashion for as long as we say they should. This is true at home and at school. And at school, as class sizes get larger and children get more diverse, a teacher's tolerance for a student's divergent thinking necessarily diminishes. The same curriculum gets taught to all students in the same way and at the same pace.”

”The brains of Edison-trait children are misunderstood, not inferior. As students they are attentionally disadvantaged because we punish, and fail to appreciate, their unique creative slant. They get blamed for not completing desk work in the allotted time. They are scolded for not staying in their seats until recess. They are forced to work at an unsuitable tempo, and then get graded down for poor handwriting, and errors in grammar, spelling, and math facts. These outcomes are inevitable artifacts of a mismatched approach.”

”We teach to their weaknesses, not to their strengths. We insist that they see things our way, but we won't see things theirs. These children are stunningly divergent. They are on a quest for discovery, exploration, and stimulation. Surely we can be flexible and accommodate their style. They can and will develop convergent skins, but only if their desire to learn is protected and kindled with success.”

Excerpted from Dreamers, Discoverers and Dynamos by Lucy Jo Palladino


James is a divergent thinker. So, homeschooling allows us the flexibility to cater to James learning style. We have discovered that I am a divergent thinker and hubby is a convergent thinker.


Then someone told me about Upside Down Brilliance: The Visual Spatial Learner by Dr. Linda Silverman. Amazing, awesome book because I discovered something about myself, I am a visual spatial learner.

“Do you know things without being able to explain how or why?”
“Do you solve problems in unusual ways? “
“Do you think in pictures rather than in words?”

“Dr. Linda Silverman coined the term “visual-spatial learner” in 1981 to describe the unique gifts of people who think in images. They get the big picture because they see the world through artists’ eyes. 

They remember what they see, but forget what they hear. They’re disorganized, can’t spell and have no sense of time, but they have an infectious sense of humor, wild imaginations and can lose themselves completely in the joy of the moment. Visual-spatial brilliance created the computer and the Internet, the vivid displays at the Olympics, and the International Space Station.”

Oh My Gosh! Doesn’t everyone think in pictures? I have always thought in pictures and didn’t realize that it was different. No wonder I was bored by literature that was poorly written. While reading I literally see and get into the story. No wonder I had been so darned bored by classroom lectures.

When ever hubby would go into a long explanation of a new electronic gadget, I would catch about half of it, then my mind would wonder off because I couldn’t picture what he was talking about. Now, when he describes a gadget, I have him draw a picture of it and I see what he is talking about.

James is like me in so many ways and is also a visual spatial learner. So these books were real eye openers. I discovered something new about myself and was actual able to make changes in my life to improve it. Life is so full of discovery and changes and no matter how old you get, you need to be open to it. Father and I dove in Home schooling without knowing how much it would change our lives. All I can say is hang on for the ride, because it is amazing what you learn and discover about yourself along the way.

There are many books out there that will help you determine not only your learning style, but your child as well which will help you figure out how best to teach them. 

Good luck and stay safe.

12th Grade! Check!

From this 

First Grade 

to 

High School senior -  class of 2018 

James graduated from high school today. When we began our home school journey, little did we think we'd continue all the way through to the 12th grade.  With the help of Vision in Education,  the home school division of San Juan Unified School District, who held our hands and kept us on track, he earned a 3.97 grade point average and  graduated with honors and a Golden State Seal merit high school diploma.  I am so very proud of him and all he has achieved. 

Sunday Salon: Productive and Creative

Happy Sunday!  I am quite proud of myself although it's only been four days.  I've automatically, without help of the alarm, woken up an hour early every day.   Except for today of course.  I have spent at least 10 minutes daily working on the first scene in Chapter one. I'm ready to type it up and move on to the next scene.  Yesterday I had been thinking that since it had only been four days and the month started midweek, I should give myself extra time and continue to work on that one scene for this week.  However, I'm ready to move on.  Hubby's been quite useful as a sounding board, bouncing ideas off of him.  He's being quite encouraging.  

So the goal for this week is to review and rewrite Scene 2 from Greg's point of view, plus write and schedule posts for this week.  I'm almost caught up with my book reviews, have three more to write and then I'll schedule them for the coming weeks.  

James and I are going out this afternoon for our annual Super Bowl Shopping trip.  It became a tradition when our wonderful neighbor starting putting off an air horn every time his favorite team made a touchdown.  Drives both of us up the wall.  We have fun going to the comic book store, Barnes and Noble, and picking up something for dinner.  My book buying ban is still in force (which a friend quickly reminded me of when she heard about our shopping trip) so I'm going to try and resist temptation.  Maybe I'll pick up a book for Hubby.  *grin*

My 52 Books group is traveling through England for the month of February and this month's flower is Rose.  I shouldn't have too much trouble spelling that one out.  

I'm still reading Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War (dusty and chunky) which is quite interesting and Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase (ebook) and as always, his books are off the wall.   I just finished listening to Faith Hunter's Blood of the Earth from her Soulwood series and will begin Curse on the Land tomorrow during my drive to work.   

It's the beginning of the end of our homeschooling journey.  We are down to the wire as we begin James 2nd Semester of 12th grade. Never imagined we'd end up working through all 12 years.  Hubby, who always swore he wasn't a teacher, now happily embraces his position and is learning just as much as James this year with Geometry and Chemistry.  I'm in charge of the two e's this semester -- English and Economics.   We still have half our budget given to us by Visions to spend, so going to have some fun shopping for biographies, memoirs, poetry, as well as more chemistry materials.  

Off to shop, then plan lessons for the week.  

~Cheers~

Writerly Wednesday: Getting Organized

Our two week Christmas break from lessons is over and time to get back into the groove of learning. Every Sunday I fill out James weekly assignment sheet. The other evening I sat down to fill out his schedule as usual. I happened to look at the pile of books and notebooks in my writing nook, thinking how I'd fit my writing and blogging and everything else in for the day while he's busy working on his stuff, when the idea hit me. To do's and notes and bullet journals just were not working. I needed something simple and always accessible, not buried in a notebook. 

I should make an assignment sheet of my very own to follow weekly! 

I ignored the voice of the editor in my head saying it's another way to procrastinate from what I really needed to be working on, which is the story board. "Hey you," I say to the criticism, "I printed out the story, put it my notebook and I bought a trifold bulletin board so I'm ready to jet. Lots of changes are percolating around in my brain, so shut it." *grin* Besides, I'm being creative.  The lines aren't perfect and that's a bit annoying which I'll blame on paint and having to do a bit of rework since Word wouldn't let me save it in jpeg for some reason.  Pdf yes, Jpeg no.  *facepalm*

I'm psyched and ready to roll! 



 

Not resting on my laurels!

Courtesy of BBC: The Runaway Bride

What exactly does that mean, resting on your laurels?  It basically means glorifying what you've accomplished in the past and not try to further yourself.  I've written a lot of essays, flash fiction and little stories over the past couple years for classes and the temptation to pick one when I'm having an off day or busy day is hard to resist.  However, the point of this exercise, posting everyday is to work on my writing and I don't want to regurgitate or revise something just a little to do a quick post.   I did that a couple years back with most of the posts for an A to Z monthly writing challenge and it was most unsatisfying.   I didn't feel any sense of accomplishment.   So, I'm promising myself not to rest on my laurels.  

Today's goal:  clean up the bookshelves, box up all the 11th grade books, notebooks and papers and make room for the new.   There are always a few books or things that simply disappear through a black hole and no matter how hard I look, they can't be found.  I've been looking all over the house for months for the Artograph Light pad we'd gotten for James to help with his drawing. Something I liked to play with as well.  Just a side benefit of home school.  *grin*   It wasn't in the box nor in his room, my room or anywhere else I looked.  Guess what?  Yep, it was hiding between two large books on the bottom shelf all this time.  Sigh!   It's now in residence in my writing space to play with during the summer.   Yeah!   

James has turned me into a Whovian.  We've been watching the older seasons out of order, which means they sometimes don't make much sense to me.  One of these days he will get tired of me pausing the show to say "Wait, what happened when..."  :)     A few weeks ago  I wanted to know where Donna came into play so watched The Runaway Bride by myself.  Guess what he picked for us to watch today? Yep! 

11th Grade is officially over!

Congratulations to James for completing 11th Grade with all A's

Woot! Woot! 

Sunday Salon Chit Chat

Happy Sunday!  June is turning into a very busy reading month. My 52 Books group is celebrating all things fantasy including the 20th anniversary of the publication of J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  Bloomsbury Publishing has come up with 4 special editions, each with the house flags on the cover. I'm trying to decide which one I want or if I should just get all four.  *grin*  We are also celebrating Father's Day and well as the June Solstice which ushers in Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and Winter in the Southern Hemisphere. With the beginning of Summer, we will be also diving into a summer long read of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace starting on June 18th. 

June means I have three birthstones to choose from for the Birthstone Bookology reading challenge: Pearl, Moonstone or Alexandrite. 

I'm going to work on spelling out Pearl since I have a few P books and L books as well as chunky books on my shelves waiting to be read.  On my reading plate for this month are: The Girl who Played with Guns (chunky), A Crown of Swords (Chunky #7 Wheel of Time), as well as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone  and other fantasy novels.  I'm working my way through Seanan McGuire's October Daye series and next up is  # 4 Late Eclipses.  
I'm currently reading Devon Monk's Gods and Ends, #3 in her Ordinary Magic Series. I so enjoy Devon's creative mind and have read all her books. 

Writing wise:  Also decided I want to experiment more with poetry, so reading In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poets Portable Workshop by Stephen Kowit.   Plus added Fire Up Your Writing Brain: How to Use Proven Neuroscience to Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Writer by Susan Reynolds to my writing stacks.   

I've been getting back in morning pages, freewriting, journaling - whatever you want to call. it. Synchronicity is at work since a writerly friend, Molly Totoro,  just published her book - Journaling toward Wholeness: A 28 day to Develop Journaling Practice.  Woot! Woot! Congratulations Molly! 

Plus War and Peace. It will be a second read for me, this time a bit more slowly as I consumed it the first time in a couple weeks.  Yes, I know Tolstoy isn't fantasy but quite a few people in my book group wanted to spread it out over the summer.  We'll probably be doing a volume a month, along with some discussion.  Thank goodness for spark notes.

Eleventh grade is wrapping up as of Wednesday.  Hubby and James are doing a mad dash to finish up Algebra 1.   This year was a mish mash with math as we started the year with Saxon, segued into Starline Press, then ultimately settled on Mathusee mid year. We discovered teaching math is not my forte' so hubby took over completely   He was determined James would complete the whole book, learn everything there is possible to learn about Algebra 1.  Somewhere along the line, things started to click for James and he's been zooming through the lessons.   It's coming down to the wire, however and they are doing a full court press to finish up Wednesday, the official end, rather than easing through to the end of Friday.  I think they are going to make it.  

Off to enjoy our beautiful sunny, breezy day! 

Happy Fall!

Happy Fall!   The days seem to have gotten away from me.  Summer passed in a blur and don't feel like I accomplished very much.   Fall is here and for some reason feeling more inspired.   The majority of extended family crises have passed which is a very good thing.  I'm feeling a bit more creative and actually missing my writing time.  We're slowly settling in to our new routine with 7th grade lessons.   With the addition of P.E., James and I are spending an hour or so outside, playing catch and discussing a variety of things. My son  is thoroughly taxing my brain to the utmost extent jumping from subject to subject, mainly history.  I find myself saying 'wait a minute', running inside to get the encyclopedia.  *grin*  

Hubby is working on a new, improved version of his latest widget which means we've been working on advertising and websites and all the things that go with new and improving something.   I'm in the process of learning all about ecommerce and online shopping carts.  I'm thoroughly hating FTP protocols and wysiwyg editors when what you see isn't what you get.  Way too buggy for me.   Makes me really appreciate blogger.  Now I'm trying to figure out a way to just do our business websites in blogger instead and save myself a lot of headaches.  *sigh*

I've been ignoring my poor characters lately and never did finish the 2nd, or is it the 3rd edit,  of Eyes in the Ashes.   November is on the horizon and ready to start a new story, so......  Decided to take F2K's online 7 week creative writing course through Writer's University to give my creativity and imagination a bit of a jumpstart.   Loving it already and this week, the task is to have one of the character's you created, tell a little about you.   I'm going with Hunter who will be my lead in my newest story "Green Ice."  He was supposed to have played a small part in Blue Steel as an old love interest.  However, his part grew and threatened to takeover the story, so promised him a story of  his own.  Yep, the creative juices are flowing and I'll be doing a lot of brainstorming the next few weeks.  

The next round of a Round of Words in 80 Days will be starting October 1st and I'm determined to do a better job with my goals this round.  I unintentionally ended up sitting out Round 3.   Now I just have to work on getting up a hour or two earlier in the mornings to fit in my writing time.   Life is in an never ending state of flux.   Wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Fall!  

7th Grade

7th Grade has officially started and we are off to an interesting start.  We are already making changes and fine tuning the schedule.  Originally planned on changing from Voyages in English to Saxon's Grammar and Writing.  James did a couple lessons and decided he hated it, so back to Voyages we go.  Will be supplementing the writing portion with Susan Wise Bauer's Writing with Skill and continuing with Spelling workout.  

After much research, decided to go with History Odyssey for History.  In the process discovered K12's history book Human Odyssey and fell in love.   Thanks to the ladies on WTM, some had matched up already with Story of the World and some with History Odyssey.   After much debate decided to go with Human Odyssey as our History Spine and a blend of lessons from the other two activity guides.  I spent the past two weeks working up a schedule in order to match up with Visions in Education's calendar of things to study for each learning period.  So much fun and finished the plan last night.  James decided he likes Usborne's Encyclopedia of World History over Kingfisher, so we will be utilizing it for timeline and additional info.  We have a bunch of fun historical fiction books including Door in the Wall, Adam of the Road, Trumpeter of Krakow, 1001 Arabian Knights, King Arthur and his Knights, plus a few others. 

Math wise, James is still not ready for Algebra and my wonderful counselor at Visions said anything before Algrebra is pre-algrebra so don't sweat it.  *whew.  We are continuing with Saxon 6/5 and supplementing with Life of Fred Fractions, Decimals and Percents and Pre-Algebra with Biology.    Love, love love Life of Fred.  The series has changed James attitude about math and he doesn't dread it anymore. 

James and hubby will be doing Life Science together and have fun doing experiments from Pandia Press's Logic stage biology course Classiquest. We'll be doing straight biology for the first semester and the 2nd semester will be studying evolution, earth history and light.  Still have to work on resources for 2nd semester.

Elective wise going to continue with Thomas Kincaids Drawing Basic and will try out Alfred's Essential Music Theory for the 2nd semester.   For faith, character, life skills, I have a few fun things picked out to do and even snagged a copy of Game Maker's Apprentice to get James started in Video Game Design.  All in all, shaping up to be an interesting year. 

Sunday Salon: Celebrations and planning

We've had a wonderfully busy week.  Thursday the 23rd was our 15th wedding anniversary! Truly, our wedding doesn't seem that long ago.  I guess the saying "time flies when you are having fun" is true.  We went out to dinner at Ruth Chris steakhouse.  It was our first time there and the staff was truly friendly and the food delicious.  James had fun flirting with all the girls and talking video games with the guys.  They comped our dessert - a very chocolatey creation called chocolate explosion which just melted in our mouths.  Then Saturday the 25th was hubby's 53rd birthday.  I promised him when we got married I wouldn't combine the dates and do a duel celebration.  Have kept my promise so far. *grin*   Yes, he's spoiled.  

Finally received all of James 7th grade curriculum and spent the weekend organizing, going through all the books, setting up notebooks, figuring out lesson plans and schedules.  85% done.  We were supposed to officially start on Wednesday the 22nd, but since we didn't have any books, starting on Monday. 

May look like a lot but it's only 7 subjects.  Really!  ahem....  The bottom shelf contains the curriculum for mandatory courses along with teachers manuals.  The top shelf contains all the extra stuff:  character, faith, creating writing, photography, nature, game development, etc -  the fun stuff!!!  We'll get round to them eventually.  I'll be posting a "what we're doing for 7th grade" soon!

Hubby also has an ad coming out in Tapeop magazine for his latest Warmenfat design in late september so we've been working like mad on the copy for the past week.  Done, submitted and we can breath for the moment.  Now we just need to redesign the website.  Never a dull moment in the household. 

More later, guys and dolls! Have a wonderful week!

6th Grade Wrap up

Finished reviewing, organizing, and figuring out James final grades for 6th grade and he did pretty darn well, better than I expected.  6th grade became a year of growth, both physically and mentally.   James finally began taking initiative, worked independently on the majority of subjects, even those that required teaching by hubby or I.  He'd get up in the morning and dive right into his lessons which pleased me to no end.  We had more hits than misses this year which was a good thing.   I did discover than James and hubby think a lot alike and curriculum I thought would be easy to do wasn't because their brains just didn't get it.  

What we accomplished:

Voyages in English is a hit as always and plan on continuing with it in 7th grade.  I like the layout and most of all James gets it, most of the time.   The grammar part is excellent, the writing section leaves a bit to be desired however.  Kept writing pretty informal since James enjoys writing, especially stories as long as it relates to one of his video games. Plus he likes writing letters to the various video game or tv show creators and getting responses back.  I do my best to give him careful and constructive feedback in order not to squelch his creativity. In addition we tried Wordsmith Apprentice and I'm still on the shelf about it. As long as I geared the lessons toward the topics (video game characters) he was interested in, it worked.  Otherwise, it was like pulling teeth.  He's eventually going to have learn to write about topics he really has no interest in so we'll be working on that in 7th grade. 

A big miss was Hayes Outlining, Note Taking, Report Writing Skills.  Hubby had difficulties with it because it wasn't how he had learned it in school and it just didn't make any sense to him.  So that one was shelved and hubby taught outlining his way.  

Spelling Workout is a major hit. One of James best subjects and he consistently got an A on every quiz and test.  We'll will be continuing with Level G.    Continued Cursive with Horizon's Pensmanship which combined a bit of history with writing out presidential inaugural addresses or proclamations.

Mid year we started working on reading comprehension with Peace Hill Press's Writing With Ease and following directions with Creative Teaching Press's Following Directions. James seems to prefer reading non fiction over fiction unless it is a comic book.  Discovered he's a fast reader but doesn't remember what he read so working on his comprehension skills.   And following directions - just a case of selective listening.  *grin*

Math wise, we continued with Saxon and discovered Life of Fred mid year which really changed James attitude about math and he started enjoying math, looking forward to it and practically devoured the Elementary series in 6 months.   Fred is a 5 year old genius teaching math at Kitten's University and each book tells about Fred's life in novel format and is quite humorous.  James still isn't ready for pre-algebra so we are going to continue on with the next book - 6/5 Saxon and supplement with Life of Fred.  

 

Holt, Science and Technology's Earth Science is a fantastic book and James and hubby studied about the earth and minerals, rocks, and energy.  They didn't complete as much as I wanted and thinking we may continue with it in 7th.

James and I read Our Golden California together and surprisingly, I learned a few things myself about the history of California. 

James and I continued with Thomas Kincaid's Drawing Basics and happy to say James drawing improved over the course of the year.  He loves drawing and  his walls in his bedroom are a testament to that fact.  Not sure what we are going to do for 7th grade yet, but I definitely would enjoy taking an art class or two myself.  

James and hubby finished the 2nd half of The Story of the Orchestra and learned all about the instruments.  Great book with an accompanying musical cd with samples of music and the instruments.  Now when they listen to the stereo they are pointing out to me the various instruments in the the songs.

I have to say it's been an interesting time homeschooling James.  Both hubby and I have discovered things we have either forgotten or possibly never learned.  It's fun doing interest based learning and I so enjoy seeing the gears turn in James's head, see the spark when he gets it or discovers a new interest.  Yes, there are frustrating days when you want to tear your hair out because it seems he's forgotten every single thing he's learned.  And then there are those days when he's flying and it makes those hair pulling days all seem worth it.  But you know what?  I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  

Time to start planning 7th grade.....

Sunday Salon: Life - no matter where you go there you are!

Road by Etrusia UK

Happy Sunday!  I'm still here.  Just been contemplating several directions life could take us right now and as with all things, change can be stressful.  We've never been ones to take the straight road or the road most taken.  We pretty much follow our own path.  Some folks don't like or agree with our choices and you know what. That's just too damn bad.  It isn't their life is it.  We've been homeschooling James all the way through Elementary school.  We took it one year at a time to start with and considered that by the time he reached 7th grade, he'd be ready to go to middle school.

Hubby and I have been stressing over it for the past few weeks and finally realized it all comes down to James and what he needs.  He wants to continue to home school and frankly I'd prefer it that way.  He thrives learning one on one and we can follow his interests and make adjustments when he's not getting something or take a break when we need too.  He is super bright and then you have those 'duh' days. Aspergers shares a lot of commonalities with attention deficient syndrome so he has good days and bad days and you can forget about getting him to focus on anything.  I also have control over what he is learning and who he is hanging out with.

So, now that we've decided to continue for the time being, a new stress has set in.  James does enough to get by which drives me crazy.  But after giving it some thought, I realized I used to be the same way.  There has to be some incentive, a reason.  He's the type of kid who want to know the why and the what and the how.  I also discovered over the years that homeschooling is just as much me learning and discovering new things as well as him.  I have to lead the way.   In the past couple years I' realize I've gotten lazy and lowered my expectations. I've let doubts interfere. And usually when those doubts surface I go toMelissa of Mental Multivitamin's site and read It All Begins with Me.   When everything starts breaking down, the person I need to look at is myself.  Talk about a kick in the pants. 

Melissa on Well Trained Mind recently said:

"We have an obligation -- in fact, a legal responsibility -- to educate our children. While homeschooling certainly gives us some flexibility in terms of coping with life's challenges, it does not give us a "pass" on getting the job done. Teachers in traditional classrooms also experience life's upsets, great and small, but if our children were their students, we'd have every expectation that despite the other demands, those teachers would teach our children.

And so we must have the same expectation of ourselves.


Here's a challenge: This year, refuse to lower your expectations. Instead, raise them. And then exceed them. Enough of the whining and complaining and self-indulgence. Teach, **** it. Lead. Coach. Motivate. Inspire. Give your students the best that you have to offer every. single. day. Remember: The goal is a lifetime of excellence, not a day or two here and there. A lifetime. Begin, then, with raised expectations -- of yourself and of your students."

I'm accepting the challenge.  Going to Reread "A Thomas Jefferson Education" and just add "The Student Whisperer" by Oliver DeMille as well to my TBR pile.   Remind myself what it means to be a mentor.  

So, where do we go from here? Fortunately our school district has a charter school Vision in Education providing public support to home schoolers and they have teachers who will come out to your home and help you personalize your educational plan, provide feedback and help. One less stress to worry about.  We CAN do this. 

"We all have choices" my mother said.

One of my mother's favorite sayings our whole life has been "We all have choices." My brother recently posted this on facebook at the request of my niece. You never know it's getting through until suddenly they say yes, they were listening. My brother is the eloquent one in the family and says it best: 



"Throughout my life, I've had many mentors - my dad, martial arts instructors, teachers, friends - and learned a lot by making my own big mistakes. And each of these have taught me specific lessons, different details about how to continue to grow and change. But there is one person who taught me one lesson when I was very young. Who has throughout my entire life taught me ONE singular lesson. It's become such a common refrain that it's become sort of a joke among our family. And yet, I have recently come to realize it is THAT lesson which has become the foundation of all my other thoughts and how I've lived my life.

It didn't matter if it was clothing, dating, staying up too late, jobs or food. My mom's philosophy was unwavering: We all have choices. Which I have taken to mean: Know the implications of the options available to you, make a choice, and then accept the consequences. No excuses.

"We all have choices" sounds like a pretty basic idea, right? It's catchy, it would fit well on a bumper sticker or t-shirt. But it has far-reaching implications if you embrace it as a foundation for how to live.

The first implication is that options always exist. There are no if/then statements that are infallible. There is no set of circumstances that can result in one and only one response (we're talking interpersonal stuff here, not math). There are ALWAYS options beyond the ones that seem obvious to us.

One of the most memorable books I've read with this topic was Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Bartelby the Scrivener." One day Barteleby simply decides, "I'd prefer not to." He chooses not to work. When told to leave work, he chooses not to do that. He chooses not to eat. Eventually he dies in prison and starved to death. It's not a comedy. But it makes a good point - even the things we think of as "mandatory" are not. We always have choices, we just may not like the consequences.

Let me restate this again. There is no situation with only one response. We can choose to respond to anger with kindness, to betrayal with forgiveness. We can choose at any moment to eat differently, drink differently, dress differently. We can choose to drive on the wrong side of the road, rob a bank, or quit our jobs. There are always options.

The second implication of "We all have choices" is the reason most people cannot embrace this idea. It is the implication that WE create our lives. Where we are in life right now - our health, our jobs, where we live, our friends, every relationship - is a result of OUR choices.

Oh, I'm not blind to the fact that we are presented with various "stimuli" that create challenges for us or that may seem to bias us in a particular direction. But here's a few thoughts...

We do not control other people, but we do control how we react to them.
We do not control the genetics in our body, but we do control how we treat our bodies.
We do not control the economic status we were born into, but we do control our motivation, drive and work ethic.
We do not control the tragedies that are inflicted upon us, but we do control whether they make us stronger or destroy us.

Let me share a couple of true examples:
There were 3 brothers, born into a family where the men traditionally died of heart failure by 45. 2 of the brothers accepted "fate" and lived normal lives, both dying middle aged. The third brother ate right, exercised regularly and reduced his stress with things like yoga and meditation. He is soon to celebrate his 85th birthday.

There were 5 siblings, born into a low-income family in a bad neighborhood. 2 died before 20 from drug overdoses. 2 were in jail multiple times before ending up in prison for life on various charges. One worked odd jobs to pay his way through college, became a counselor, got married, had a great son and is a joyful positive person who has passed on that gift.

Here's where I seemingly have a big disagreement with a lot of people. I look around us and see that we are trained to be slaves. Through school, society, our upbringing, our churches, television, movies, our political structure, you name it. There is a vested interest for lots of people in controlling us. Whether it's to get our obedience, our money, our vote, our affection, there's hundreds of motivations for other people and institutions to convince us that we are powerless. That only they can tell use what to do or think. To convince us that some stimuli have only one response. Or to convince us we can only choose from within a narrow range of options. In short, that we have little to no choice about anything.

And we buy into it. The iconic 80's band Devo said it perfectly when they sang, "Freedom of Choice is what we've got. Freedom from Choice is what we want.". We find comfort in allowing ourselves to be bound by structures because it absolves us of personal responsibility for our choices (and we give up our freedom for the comfort of being "part of something."). Those structures cross every boundary. The Liberal, the Libertarian, and the Conservative, the Christian, the Pagan and the Atheist all are capable of being mindless slaves to a structure. This is not to say these structures don't have value - it is to say that for too many people, once they choose to identify themselves with one, they then shut off their minds and allow that identification to become all that they are. I don't believe in "my side right or wrong." Everyone is right sometimes and everyone is wrong sometimes.

Where was I? Oh yes, ranting... So, we are raised to give up control - to accept that we have no choices in life. Even if we manage to retain our independent thought from a raft-load of "institutions" who can benefit from our mindless loyalty, we are brought low by the biggest lie of all - that we are not responsible for anything we do.

Instead, we have hundreds of reasons for our actions:
I have ADHD. I'm bi-polar. I was abused. I was ignored. I was an only child. I was abandoned. My parents were divorced. I'm just an angry person. I was raised in a bad neighborhood. I'm an alcoholic. I'm a drug addict. I have a disease. I'm poor. It's the government's fault. The rich people's fault. The poor people's fault. The aliens from Mexico's fault. The aliens from Mars's fault.

Or, "That's just who I am."

And the biggest radioactive-monster mother of all reasons, "That's how I feel."

All of that, by the way... all those reasons... those are crap. Those are not reasons that create behavior, they are excuses we use to rationalize that how we behave is acceptable. Yes, when you are a child in a kept environment your choices are very limited. And yes, we have programming from those experiences that haunt us through our lives. But some people choose to rise out of abuse and hatred, break the cycle and become wonderful people. And some people choose to wallow in their pasts forever.

That entity that enslaves us the MOST; that entity that whispers in our ear that we have no choices, that entity that tries to convince us we are not responsible for our own lives, is not an institution. It lives inside of us. There is no jail more effective than believing you are not free.

Call it whatever you want - the horse, the Shadow, the Anima/Animus, the Id - it is basically a collection of memories, experiences, childhood traumas, beliefs, biological programming, chemical reactions, even reactions to foods we eat, that creates an impulse. Those impulses manifest as unconscious thoughts and ideas that drive our behaviors. Most of the time we self-identify these impulse as our "feelings."

Guess what? There is absolutely nothing sacred about these feelings. Somehow, at some point, we bought into this crap that if we "feel" angry, we must act upon it. That saying, "I feel X" excuses any reactions that result from that feeling. People say, "Well, I'm just an ass," or, "I'm just a bitch," as if that excuses their poor behavior and decision-making. It does not.

Feelings excuse nothing. The belief that we have no options is illusory. And the very first choice is choosing to believe that we have choice. Because our programming is so strong, we may have very little choice how we FEEL. But we have tons of options on how we BEHAVE. Including not creating situations that elicit those negative feelings in the first place.

But I digress. Everything else is details. Choosing how we spend time. Choosing our external environment. Choosing our relationships. Self-control. Awareness. These are steps along the path - they are concrete tools to help us take control of our lives. Of living from Conscious thought rather than reaction.

But the first choice is deciding to choose. It is accepting that there are always options. It is accepting that we have the power to create options and make decisions. To be fair, this is a disquieting way to live. Because it means accepting responsibility. Understanding that we each live the life we've chosen. That each person is ultimately responsible for our own success or failure. For our own happiness. Whether we believe in God, Allah, the Goddess, Cthulu or the Great Space Turtle - they have better things to do than spend each day making us happy or miserable. Whether by science or miracle, we are each possessed of life and options. Everything else is up to us.

We all have choices. What will you choose?"

6th Grade

6th grade officially started for James last week and we are easing back in to a full schedule slowly.  I think we've come up with a good mix this year.  Last year we tried a few new things which completely bombed and ended up going back to the tried and true mid year.  I just realized I never posted a wrap up of 5th grade.

The Plan:

Voyages in English

Spelling Workout F

For 5th grade switched to Learning Language Arts through Literature for Language arts and it was way too casual.  James needs a lot more structure and so do I.  We switched back to Voyages in English and Spelling Workout mid year.  Going to continue with the 5th grade book for VIE  since the only difference between it and 6th grade is exposure versus mastery. Starting Level F for Spelling Workout

Outlining, Note Taking and Report Writing

Horizons Penmanship

Writing wise, will be learning how to Outline and write reports.  Plus will continue practicing cursive with Horizons Penmanship writing out and learning several presidents inaugural speeches. 






James loves to create and write stories both longhand and for his blog which is fun for him, so take care not to criticize and only give feedback.  We will be working on the tools and  mechanics of writing with Wordsmith Apprentice in which he will be a writer for a pretend newspaper

Father is responsible for teaching science but needs a bit of handholding. I plan it out, he teaches it.  Casual living history and science books just don't feed James mind enough and I don't have time to write up a full plan.  Found a great secular earth science program through Saxon Homeschooling which provides lesson plans and worksheets.   Yeah!








Great comprehensive study of California including making a history notebook. We started 2/3rds of the way through last year and going to finish it this year.










Math is James most difficult subject but he is getting it now.  We'll be working to get him caught up to grade level hopefully by the end of this year. 

Father and James made it halfway through the book and finished all the composers. The second half of the book covers all instruments. I also have planned keyboard lessons this year. I'll need to teach myself first. a refresher from when I took lessons in 5th grade eons again.

Love, love, love this art course Drawing Basics by Thomas Kinkade.  We completed one unit so far and James is picking up a lot of pointers and using them in his drawings. 

Besides the above, we'll be reading, reading, reading and working on character and social skills.  Plus more physical education and field trips.  Leaving room for side trips and what ever crops up that sparks James interest. 

Sunday Salon: Education, reading mojo and Row80

Quick Row 80 Update:  Plugging away on WIP Red Thief.  Totally failed with morning pages - haven't been doing them at all.  *sigh*  Want to see how others are doing click here.

Life has gotten in the way this week with birthdays, father getting a cold, plus one of my technician's (who always manages to get whatever illness ten times worse) catching it, resulting in me having to work part of Friday and cover Saturday.  Thank goodness for my other technician who was able to cover and handle things at the shop on Friday afternoon.  I'm also in the midst of planning 6th grade and have been researching curriculum.  

Thought I'd see what the school system is using for science and interestingly enough, they have online textbooks and lessons.  Though James is computer savvy, the one thing he doesn't want to do is lessons online.  He's a have it in front of him, hands on, give me a workbook, type of learner.  Although he loves computer and video games and researches the heck out of them online, the same doesn't go for formal education.  He doesn't equate one with the other and believe me, I've tried.  Telling him, even showing him how to apply how he learns about his games to educational things and suddenly I'm getting the "duh" looks.  The computer is purely pleasure for him and he doesn't want to mix business with pleasure. 

He has to be able to touch it, see it, and feel it.  I'm almost at the point with all the stuff I've collected over the past couple years, that we're going to have an eclectic year, especially with science.  Makes it a bit harder and time consuming to put together, but the ends justify the means. Once I get it all figured out, will post what we will be doing for 6th grade.  

Speaking of James, check out his latest blog story - Yoshi Adventure.  He has quite an imagination. 

Reading wise, I think my decision making mojo has up and gone.  The last few reviews books I've chosen and read, haven't liked.  Centuries of June by Keith Donohue found myself asking what is the point and wanting to skip to the end.  Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy ended up skimming half the book.  The point of view switched midpoint to second person point of view - the narrator talking to "you" as the character and totally threw me out of the story. My reviews will up later this week with a bit more detail.   At least my saving grace is Lori Foster - one of my favorite steamy romantic suspense authors.  I received her latest series - The Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor and going to start reading the first book "When You Dare."     Next up in my A to Z challenge by Author is - Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak - and by Title - Night Road by Kristin Hannah


In the quest to read 52 Books in 52 weeks it is book week 32 and highlighting Ralph Waldo Emerson on the 52 Books blog.


Something neat I discovered this week online over at Rachelle Gardner's blog - WordServe Water Cooler. A new group author blog from Rachelle's Wordserve Literary agency with Jody Hedlund, Karen Witemeyer, Rachelle Gardner, Katie Ganshert.  Be sure to check it out. 


Have a great week and happy reading and writing!