Science Planning

My planning for this coming school year is nearly complete. The subject that I both enjoy and dread when it comes to planning is definitely science. Don't get me wrong...I love science. It has always been my favorite subject. At one point in my life I was registered as a biology major, but life doesn't always follow the path you expect and that's another story. The biggest challenge here is narrowing down what we are going to study for the year. There are just too many choices!

At the beginning of last year, I had set a goal to spend more time focusing on specific topics of interest in science and less time jumping around from topic to topic the way most elementary science text books tend to do. I also tried to incorporate as much hands-on learning and experimentation as possible. As the year went on, I started to worry that the boys wouldn't be on target for what they should know in science if I didn't use a grade appropriate text book as a guide. So I pulled one for each boy from my supply and started the tedious process of reading from a text book.

This year, there will be little need for text books in science! My overall plan currently looks something like this:

I will have a grade appropriate text book on hand for each of the boys. I will give them free rein with those books. They can read them, page through them, or completely ignore them.

We chose four major topics we want to cover for the year. Entomology, marine biology, cells and their structures (definitely spending considerable time on microscope use) and finally, geology with a dose of paleontology. As you can see, this year leans heavily on the biology side of the science spectrum.

At this point, I am working hard to outline what I really want to cover in our first unit. JT has been after me for 4 years to have an 'entomology course'. He will finally get his wish. I am using the book The Practical Entomologist as the backbone of our study. We certainly have a large selection of reading material covering the insect world. I hope to tie our study of word roots with the scientific names of the insects. I am shopping on the Home Science Tools website for all of the fun accessories we may need to create a spectacular collection of insect specimens. Also, we will be going to The Great Insect Fair held in State College on the Penn State University campus. We have wanted to attend the last two years, but our schedule prevented it. They also sponsor a Build-A-Bug contest that both boys are planning to enter. When I look at everything we could possibly do with this unit, 45 days (1/4 of the required 180 school days in PA), will never be enough!

One last thing I am planning for our science studies this year, involves nature journaling. I am buying a copy of The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie for each of the boys AND one for myself. This book comes highly recommended and when I looked through it, I could certainly see why. After two introductory chapters titled, "How to Be a Naturalist" and "Learning the Sky" Leslie launches into Part Three, "Exploring Nature: A Month-by-Month Guide". The book is designed so that you can record your observations directly on the pages. Readers are encouraged to add drawings and photos to the journal. Each section covers a different month and discusses different plants and animals that you might encounter at that time of the year. It also has a place to record temperature, weather and astronomical data. I plan to hold these books in reserve until December. We will begin our data gathering at the start of the calendar year. I'm hoping that will encourage us to get outside when we might prefer to stay indoors and hibernate.

The more time I spend planning this year, the more excited I am about our prospects. My expectations are not always accurate. But I know that's part of the learning process...and I'll accept whatever comes my way.

The Best Week of the Year

My children look forward to Kids' College week almost as much as Christmas week. Kids' College is a local enrichment program offered for one week in the summer to students from second through fifth grade. This year, as always, the program was fantastic. This was EM's first year as a student. I wasn't sure if he would enjoy it as much as JT does. When I asked what he thought after the first day he told me it was 'alright'. By the second day, he was hooked.

The schedule included three classes in the mornings: Wiggles, Squiggles, Fun and Giggles; Medieval Magic and Foreign Forensics: CSI East Asia. Each day was jam-packed with exciting hands-on activities. EM, who is not the biggest fan of drawing, even enjoyed the creative drawing activities in the Wiggles, Squiggles, Fun and Giggles class. JT had an especially good time trying new foods in the CSI East Asia class.

Two things come to mind as I file away this year's experience. First of all, I really appreciate the way the instructors treat the students with respect. I understand that in a regular classroom, order must be maintained or mayhem would quickly result. However, too often I have seen adults 'in charge' take this to mean that the children are lesser human beings and that their individual needs come after the need for conformity. But one example from Kids' College shows that the adults here are ready to listen to the opinion of the students.

The program is held on the campus of a local university. The building that is used for Kids' College is also being used by university staff. The children need to be respectful of the employees while traveling through the building from one room to another. One way the instructors remind them to behave is by placing sets of Styrofoam eyeballs in strategic places throughout the building. This helps the kids remember that there are eyes on them at all times. One set of eyeballs ended up in the boys' bathroom. A few of the boys decided that this was not exactly 'appropriate' to have the eyes 'watching' them while they were in there. When they brought their concerns to the instructors, it was discussed and determined that it would be best to remove the eyes from the bathroom. This may seem like a minor issue, but it really shows the attitude of the teachers. The students' opinions were given value. They were treated as thinking beings that could provide input to the community.

Secondly, during the week the boys were at camp, I read a wonderful blog post at Scientific American titled, The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience. The author explores the question of whether our traditional methods of instruction, including memorization of facts and imitation of instructors, help or hinder a child's ability to learn. It was a fascinating article. The studies that are referenced throughout the post hammer home the idea that allowing a child to figure out for themselves the best way to do something helps them to get the most value out of their education. When I look at the experience Kids' College provides to the students, I see how well they are applying the principles these researchers are touting. The following excerpt from the post by Andrea Kuszewski explains how learning really happens:

You need to make mistakes in order to learn. If you never know why an answer is wrong, you will never be able to come across a novel situation and make a good decision about how to act. Making errors and struggling through problems is what increases cognitive ability . Spending time pondering a question, weighing choices, thinking about whether or not an answer fits, and why—this is what drives positive change. That’s what learning is. That’s what our education system should be focusing on. (source)

Kudos to the creators of Kids' College for allowing that sort of learning to happen. It may be messy, it may be a great deal of work...but the kids are gaining more than can be measured.

When I asked EM and JT if there was anything they would like to say about Kids' College, JT said, "It was awesome!" EM said, "I wish it could go on forever...until I grow up."

Suffering From Lack of Motivation

My long-awaited planning week has finally arrived. The boys are both attending Kids' College for five days. Theoretically that should mean I have a large pocket of free time each day. When I wrote that on the calendar several months ago, I assumed I would use this week to get the classroom, and myself, ready for our next school year.



So far this week I:

1. Looked over math books on Monday.
2. Did a huge pile of laundry.
3. Ordered books from three separate websites, despite my previous promise to do no such thing. (In my defense, I did order Singapore Math and Key Curriculum materials from one site.)
4. Went to see the Harry Potter movie with my mom and daughter.
5. Had lunch after the Harry Potter movie and went to another book store to buy more books. (Buy 4, get 1 free! You would have done it too!)
6. Briefly stepped into the classroom to consider whether I should be doing more planning.
7. Went to a HUGE library book sale and came home with a large bag of books for only $20.
8. Went swimming because it was still 96º at 6pm!
9. Figured I'll do a little planning tomorrow since it will be the last day the boys are out of the house.

This is a picture of just one table at the book sale I went to today. The near bursting bag on top of the books is my daughter's bag. She really knows how to pack them in. Even after her handles broke, she kept re-organizing to stuff it completely.





My bag looks like this. Not quite as impressive, but I'm happy with what I found. Among the haul I have a handful of science books, three books I hope to use for music instruction and a cool book called Fantasy Cartooning, that I really think the boys will like for art.



Next week I plan to blog about the boys' week at Kids' College. I will also explain why after reading an interesting study about learning, I decided planning wasn't as essential as I originally thought. It was very convenient that I read this during the week I should have been planning. It certainly cut down on the guilt I probably should feel right now. Tomorrow we are expecting temps near 100º so I might just end up in the pool again. Or not. I don't want to make too many plans...

Summer Activities

You might say that we like games in our house.

This picture is a portion of the 'game closet' in my husband's office. He also keeps his own personal stash in our bedroom closet that includes such marathon games as Twilight Imperium. If you think Risk takes a long time to play, you have never experienced Twilight Imperium. This summer the boys discovered a few old favorites of ours...Super Mastermind, Mancala and Memory. All of these are excellent thinking games. EM blows us away when we play Memory. He has always been good at finding things we misplace around the house. Now he has another way to put that talent to use.

It has been a struggle to keep myself from allowing the boys too much screen time this summer. I'll let them get on the computer and suddenly I realize a couple hours have flown by. Then I need to shove them out into the sunshine for a bit. Board games have made a great filler for when it's too hot to be outside.

One computer related activity that I have been allowing this summer is Gamestar Mechanic. This is an excellent teaching tool if your child is interested in game design. You can read the teacher's FAQ here. There are two different options for accounts, free and premium. The premium is about $50 a year. So far, both boys are only using the free membership. However, I think JT will soon be moving to premium. I made a deal with him. If he will enter the local newspaper's history essay contest, I will buy him the premium account. He needs to write an essay about what social issues could cause a civil war in the United States today and what the outcome might be. He has a good idea with solid arguments, so I think it will turn out to be an interesting essay. So far his motivation is good. The deadline for submission is August 19th, so he has plenty of time to finish it.

Back to Gamestar.... I like this site for a few reasons, but my favorite is the level of monitoring going on there. Because it is designed to be used in educational settings, they really keep a good eye on the online community. The users design games which are then played and reviewed by other users. The reviews are watched for any unsportsmanlike comments. JT actually received a warning once for a fairly mild negativity he made on one game. We used that as an opportunity to discuss online etiquette and how important it can be. He has really taken off with the game design and is always coming up with new ideas for his next project. EM also opened an account and has made a few games. We think he might be ready to try out Scratch when we get back to our regular school schedule.

Speaking of our regular school schedule... I have deemed August 22nd as our first 'official' school day. We will actually log about two weeks of time before the start date with outside learning opportunities, but our in home work won't start until the 22nd. Our first day will be a rough one! We will be taking a field trip. EM has an eye appointment that day and there just happens to be a geology museum near his doctor's office. Both boys whined a bit when I told them our start day, but when they found out a field trip was involved, they were appeased.

As usual, I can't believe how fast summer has been flying by. I'm hoping next week will provide an opportunity for me to really sit down and make some definite plans for the upcoming school year. Both boys will be attending Kids' College at our local university. This will be EM's first year there. I will have FIVE mornings of freedom! I wonder if I will actually be motivated enough to get to work...or if I'll just pour another cup of coffee and unwind.

Only time will tell.

Making a Difference

In early April, I took the boys to a homeschooling program about fish at a local state park. It was a great day. The boys spent the day learning about the anatomy of fish, habitats, etc. In the afternoon, they were each assigned a 'mystery fish' . Given a picture of a fish with no identification, they had to use the resources in the nature center to find out which fish they had. JT had the johnny darter, EM had the American eel. After finding their fish, they needed to put together a poster to present to the group.

A couple days later, as a follow-up activity, I had the boys watch BrainPOP's video about fish. Half way through the movie, JT yelled, "That's not right!" When I investigated the problem, I found out that the movie stated "All fish have swim bladders." JT knew that this was not correct because HIS fish from the homeschooling day did NOT have a swim bladder. I told him that he would have to write a letter to the producers of BrainPOP if he wanted to let them know their error.

When he started writing, I explained that he couldn't just tell them they had their facts wrong. He would need to prove it. He would need a reference to cite. He found the pamphlet that he brought home from the state park and found an online version. He wrote a very concise, professional letter. He was also sure to let them know how much he loves their movies. I was one proud momma!

Several months went by. I started to assume that BrainPOP doesn't do a whole lot to communicate with their fans. Then one day in June, the Federal Express truck rolled into our driveway.

BrainPOP not only replied to JT's letter, they also sent him a package full of BrainPOP swag! But more importantly, they changed the movie based on JT's information.

I see two important things that can be learned from this letter writing adventure. First of all, if you know someone is incorrect, and teaching others something that is incorrect, it is important to let them know about it in a professional manner. When you do that, intelligent people will look at your arguments and make a change to what they are presenting to others. The second is that those in teaching positions, whether it be 'real' teachers, parents or even cartoon robots, need to be willing to listen to the opinions of others. I try never to assume I KNOW the right answer. There's always a chance that I may be proven wrong. If the evidence is there, I need to remember that I am not the expert. And even if I was an expert on something, experts make mistakes too. I am on the same learning journey as my children and therefore should always be ready to learn something new.

Evaluation and Portfolios

Yesterday I delivered the boys' portfolios to our school district office. It was a little like the first time I dropped one of my babies off with a sitter...separation anxiety was setting in. I watched as the secretary walked back the hallway to deliver my creations to the superintendent's office. During the day, I would occasionally think about them and wonder if they would be returned to me intact. It's going to be a L-O-N-G month or two until they are returned.

Let me tell you a little about our portfolios. I spent far more time worrying about what to put in these portfolios than I spent actually putting them together. There were many reasons I worried, but the number one reason was because of a warning I received from nearly every veteran homeschooling mom:

Don't put TOO much in there.

This was most often followed by the advice to include only three samples per required subject, one from the beginning, one from the middle and one from the end of the year. I was warned that if I included too much, I would set a dangerous precedent.

My problem was that I couldn't decide which three samples would be the best possible demonstration of what we did for each subject. I finally ended up with three samples in everything except writing, history and science. In those, I had a little bit more. My completed portfolio looked like this:

I had a cover page, which I found on AskPauline. The next page was the evaluator's report, followed by our calendar showing that we schooled for 180 days. The next pages consisted of our book log. This particular part of the portfolio had me a bit worried. I read many different interpretations of exactly what the book log should be. My log ended up being a list split up by subject of all the books the boys read this year. I did not date the entries. Next year, I think I will. I'm not 100% sure I need to, but I would feel better if I did. The next part of the portfolio was the actual samples of work. I made up pages with the names of each subject to use as dividers. Then I included work for each subject. All samples included a name and date. For some of the trickier subjects, art, music and PE, I wrote up a short summary explaining how we handled our learning and then included pictures. For art, I laid out the boys' art work three different times this year and took a picture. I included each of those photos. For PE I included a picture of their Upward basketball team. Finally, I included a section I called supplemental. I listed all of our field trips this year. I also included a copy of their Mavis Beacon reports and their participation awards for the LEGO building contest. In JT's, I needed to include his standardized test results, as required for fifth grade. All together, JT's consisted of 93 pages and EM's had 77. I felt like that might be too much, but I was happy with what I had, so I decided to go with it.

Last Friday, we met with our evaluator to go over the portfolios and discuss our year. It was a positive experience for all of us. She told me I didn't have the dreaded too much in my portfolio, so I was happy. She looked through each binder and asked each boy to tell her something they really wanted her to see in there. Then she asked questions about their favorite books and subjects. She asked me where I saw the most growth in each boy this year. That wasn't a question I had expected, so I really had to think for a few minutes. I finally decided that JT had grown in two ways. First of all, his knowledge of Greek and Latin roots has really grown this year. I regularly see him applying his knowledge to discover the meaning of an unknown word. He has also started spending more time looking for ways to learn new things on his own. The answer for EM was easier. He has greatly improved his reading ability this year. For years I worried about him because he never seemed to love reading the way my other two children had. I was concerned that his vision problems and his auditory processing disorder were hampering a potential joy. But now I see him reading chapter books with great intensity. He also has taken off in his math skills this year. I'm hoping that continues through the rest of his school years.

Now that the stressful part of the school year has ended, I'm ready for my vacation. I am very nearly finished with my grand cleaning project. At this point, I only have one large bin full of math papers to sort through. I also have two piles of things to sell online and one stack of books I must return to the school district. Then I will close up my classroom for at least a month and focus on the rest of my house. It needs attention! I will probably take a week or two off from blogging, but after that, plan to keep a fairly regular schedule throughout the summer beginning with July. I will be working out some ideas for the fall and hope to get all of your input.

Finally, I want to thank you for following our journey here. When I first started my blog, I did it as a way to record for myself what we were doing. Every now and then, when we are having an especially bad day, I can come here and read about some of the successes I have forgotten. So in that way alone, writing has been a success for me. But it's also been a joy to meet so many other moms who are on the same journey, struggling with the same kinds of doubts and insecurities, and rejoicing in the same victories. Thank you for all of the encouragement you regularly offer to me.

Advice I Ignored

When I first started considering this homeschooling idea, I did a great deal of research. I spent time reading books, following bloggers and talking with experienced homeschooling moms. Much of the advice revolved around the idea of taking it slow. Don't over plan. Don't get stressed out. It will all fall into place as you go. And don't buy too much stuff.

As you can see from this picture, I didn't really listen. I just couldn't see the harm in buying more than I would need. I had plenty of space to store the materials, after all, we built an addition on the house for the sole purpose of homeschooling. (Well, I also wanted a dining room, but the homeschooling need allowed for both.) I figured if I couldn't use the stuff right away, I would eventually be able to use it all. Plus, most of it was picked up at used book sales and through homeschooler resell lists, so the cost was not always a big deal. The problem here is not that I have too much stuff or that it cost me too much. The problem is that I can't plan efficiently when there are too many choices.

I have been cleaning out my classroom now that our official schooling days have ended. I have a fairly organized room; there are bins that I use to separate material by subject. Part of my clean-up has involved going bin by bin, subject by subject and writing up a brief summary for each boy so I'll know what we covered and where I want to start in the fall. As I went through each bin, I would find materials that we either didn't use or barely used. This brought on enormous waves of guilt, both for the wasted purchases and for the opportunities I felt we had missed. At first I tried to figure out whether I could use some of it next year. I found a Phonics workbook I had barely used with EM. It's labeled as a second grade book, so quite a bit of it is material he already knows. I moved it back and forth from the 'to use' pile to the 'pass on' pile several times. As I kept digging, I found that I had not only that unused Phonics book but FIVE of them that would have been appropriate to use this past year. As I flipped through each one, I found many perfectly wonderful pages I should have used. But I didn't. And now I have made the decision that I won't. Because no one can use all of the excellent material that is out there. No matter how many days and how many children you teach, there is too much available.

I have almost finished the classroom part of my cleaning. I'm rearranging a few things and cleaning as I go. The office is another story. It has been slowly filling with things I have picked up at sales this year. When I begin that project, I will not keep more than one version of any subject material. I will not be buying much for next year. There are about five things I know I need to fill in a few gaps in our math and writing plan. Singapore math workbooks, Key Curriculum Press workbooks and possibly Handwriting Without Tears. (I'm still on the fence on that one.) I will not buy things just because I might need them. I know that with internet access available, a fantastic local public library and loads of our own books, there isn't much out there we could need.

So this is my public commitment to cutting back from now on...





...unless I find a really GREAT bargain. :-D