Trades Job

I took the kids to a trades expo today. It was a simple expo with a few booths that had trade workers there to explain their jobs, what they do, and what education you need for those jobs. Over all the kids were not impressed. I think they are perhaps still a little young, but I thought I would give it a try. Some of the booths shared what you make to per hour starting out. Knowing this caused my kids to ask what would a video game designer or cartoon animator would make to start. We researched it and the kids were surprise to see that a game designer starting out after several years of college would be making about the same as a plumber that could go to school at night and work at his trade during the day. Of course with these trade jobs we are talking about union jobs. I know some are pro unions and others are not. Personally, I'm on the fence. I think for some things like trade jobs, factory jobs, and other jobs along that vain they are a good thing. For teachers, schools, doctors, hospitals and other jobs along that vain they are a bad thing. Of course that is a post for another day. In the end I'm glad we went to the expo. It open my kids up to the idea of other jobs that are out there. Jobs that still require you to have a good education and be good at things like math, but not necessary a college degree. I wanted them to be aware that there are other avenues for higher education.

Complete Curriculum

So over Christmas the kids received tablets from Santa. I'm looking more towards ebooks because they have their tablets. I came across Complete Curriculum.


First I know it's "secular" curriculum. All these years of homeschooling I've been using things that are Catholic/Christian based and over all I've been reasonably happy with my choices.  I could do what I have been doing and more, but I'm also looking at price.  What appeals to me about the Complete Curriculum you can use any 10 ebooks you want for $29.95 per calendar year.

The books they offer are just core subjects math, social studies, English  and science.  With two kids I could have age/grade material for them for a very cheap price.  I've heard that for the $29.95 fee you get access to the whole book, materials, but they are broken down into 180 lessons and each lesson is its own pdf file. So  for the math material, for example, I would have to download 180 different files to get the complete math book.  For an additional fee you can get the whole book, all the lessons, in ONE file.  Or you can just spend the money for the book, one file, without the membership fee. (Buying each book as one file cost more then the yearly membership fee).

I really don't have anything more to say about Complete Curriculum. I'm wondering if any of my readers have heard of it? Have used it? Or know someone that has? What are your thoughts?

Or do you know of other whole curriculum options that uses primary ebooks. I would want access to their books and teacher manuals/answer keys. I'm really interested in making their tablet more of a learning tool and not just a gadget to play angry birds or watch Netflix!

SB 136 and Illinois Homeschoolers

I'm sure by now you have heard the buzz regarding SB 136. If not let me briefly fill you in!  Sen. Maloney wants to change IL state laws to require those that enroll their kids in non-public schools (ie. homeschools, private schools, parochial schools) to register with the state. Those that have read the bill and understand what it means are deeply concern and rightly so. This bill goes a vote to the committee on Feb 15th at 10:45 am in room 212 at the State Capitol.

If after reading the bill still not sure exactly what it means you can attended a FREE webinar that HSLDA is hosting tomorrow (Feb 11) at 9 pm. In the webinar you'll learn why this bill would threaten all private school and homeschooling families with unprecedented state regulation.

That's right even those that choose to send their children to private/parochial schools could be also be infected by this bill. You see the way the bill is written currently BOTH parents that homeschool and those that send their kids to private school, (example Catholic School) will have to register every year with the state. Sen. Maloney has already stated that he plans to amend the bill's wording so that it will only apply to homeschoolers. However as it is now that is NOT the case as of today.

What do you use to teach a Foreign Language?

Foreign Language Help! Do any of you know of curricula or program that will be helpful? We over the years have had people give us various version of Rosetta Stone, but the kids don't like them! They want to learn things like French, German, but I don't know what to use to teach them.  I don't know much myself; so I need a program, curricula, that will teach them (and me) everything including proper pronunciation. 

Any suggestions you have would be great! Thanks for the help!!!

Quote of the Day!

‎"Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being...It is up to you as teachers to make all of these sick children well–by creating the international child of the future." ~ Dr. Chester M. Pierce, professor (now emeritus) of education and psychiatry at Harvard.

It is my understanding that quote came from Educating for the New World Order (1973).  If that was the thought then I shutter to think what it is now. I doubt that this line of thinking has done a 180; if anything it most likly holds true today as it did then.

I know that this is only one professors line of thinking, but I'm sure he taught this to the education majors and in turn I'm sure they either taught it or believe it. Thus I wouldn't be surprise if there are teachers teaching that honestly believe this, not only that but I'm sure HOW they do their job is greatly effected by it.

Changing Education Paradigms

This is a talk given my Sir Ken Robinson. This one is about "Changing Education Paradigms". It's about 12 minutes long and a must watch if you care about children and education!

Debt: Cutting 12th Grade

Yesterday we went to IHOP for FREE pancakes. It was a special that IHOP had yesterday and they were yummy! We met up with another homeschool family. After our free pancakes we decided to take the kids to BK (burger king) to play in the indoor play structure. We both got a coffee while at BK.

We sat and enjoyed our coffee as the kids play. In all honestly we were killing time before our co-op started. Our co-op started at 10 and it was 8:30 in the morning. So we had some time to kill. Yes we were at IHOP very early, but that was because we were afraid if we came later the wait would have been too long and we would have been late for our co-op.

We and another lady with her young child were the only people in the BK play area. Toward the end of our visit the other lady started to talk to us and ask if we heard the news about IL and UT wanting to cut the 12th grade because of the state debt.

We said no. She didn't have any real specifics to share with us other then she "heard" it on the news and that she "heard" that IL was looking to pass the bill later this month. She said that "they" wanted to get rid of the 12th grade to help balance the budget. Well anyone that is somewhat aware of Illinois politics and Illinois debt should not be surprise.

I did some Google searching yesterday when I came home. I could not find anything regarding IL, but found that in UT there is senator proposing that 12th grade be cut. Actually that was his original proposal but it wasn't getting the support he needed for it so he is now proposing that 12 grade be totally optional and that if a 11th grader has the credits they should be allow to graduate.

Many argue that in UT there is already that option, so I guess the senator is saying he would like to see more of a push to encourage the kids to graduate by the 11th grade. I could NOT find anything about IL wanting to do the same thing.

I know that Illinois budget is a mess, the state has no money, and things aren't going to improve any time soon. I know that state parks have been closed and that the state of IL owes each school district MILLIONS of dollars! The schools know they aren't going to see this money so they are making serious cuts. 

We have several local school districts here and I know the state owes the one local school district alone 12 million dollars! So it wouldn't surprise if the state of IL is really looking to cut its education expense by either getting rid of the 12th grade or HIGHLY, HIGHLY encouraging high schoolers to graduate early!

I don't know if cutting 12th grade is the answer to the debt, but I find it interesting that there are law makers that feel it is. What about head start programs? What about funding day (child) cares? I understand the need to make cuts and believe me I know the value of those programs, but I'm thinking that if cuts have to be made perhaps those early education programs should be the first to go?  Just a thought......

Mulitpling by 5s

I work with the kids. I give them math problems, I go over the short explanation on how to do it (if needed), and send them on their way. If they NEED help I will help them. However for the most part I leave them to do it on their own, especially Superstar!

Superstar has been working on multiplication this is the typical course work for "3rd graders". We have just finished his multiplication chapters and the next chapters covers things like Geometry (solid and plane figures, triangles, lines, rays, angles, and congruent figures) and Graphing (making and using bar and line graphs).  Once the the Geometry and Graphing Chapters are done we will start working with Division, followed by Fractions and Decimals.

Seeing we are taking a break from the multiplication and it's going to be awhile before we start the dividing I thought I would take advantage of this time and help Superstar memorize his multiplication facts. We will do the book work followed by going over the multiplication flash cards.

We used the flash cards yesterday and he actually knows them pretty well. Some of them he takes longer then I would like to see, but I know with practice he'll know them better and will not need so much time to come to the answer.

We discuss which ones he knows really well and which one he still struggles on. He then shared with me that 5s are easy because of "his method". I asked him to explain his method.

Well it's simple if the number is even you just 1/2 it and times it by 10

• 16 x 5 = 8 x 10
• 24 x 5 = 12 x 10
• 112 x 5 = 56 x 10
• 6 x 5 = 3 x 10

If the number is odd then you take away 1, 1/2 the rest, times it by 10, then add 5 for the one you took away

• 17 x 5 = (8 x 10) +5
• 25 x 5 = (12 x 10) +5
• 221 x 5 = (110 x 10) +5
• 3 x 5 = (2 x 10) +5

This method works for ANY (whole) number times 5. We tried it on several numbers. I gave him all kinds of numbers odd and even and asked him to use his method to test it. He was able to give me the answer to any number multiplied by 5 using this method.

I was simply FLOORED that he came up with this on HIS OWN!!! I did NOT teach him this and it is NOT in his book. I didn't know what to think, other then he must just have the brain for math and no wonder it comes easy to him and I don't have to explain much to him. Web-princess on the other hand is a different story. Most of the time I just give Superstar his book and he goes to town. I often do not need to instruct him on what to do.

That's one reason I'm happy I'm homeschooling him because I know he doesn't have to sit through long boring instructions on how to do math problems. He can just get to work on them without me holding him back with long boring instructions. If he doesn't know something or gets stuck I'm here and I DO help him. However if he can look at the book and know what to do then that's fine with me. (Besides it allows me to sit with Web-princess more, without feeling guilty, because she need more help.)

I'm sure that Superstar really didn't come up with this method for the first time, I'm sure there are math wizards out there that know what this method is called.

I'm just amazed that my 8 year old discovered it on his own, without it being taught by me or the book. It's interesting to see how his brain is processing math.

Making And Capturing Carbon Dioxide

Recently in science we have been discussing gas, along with other things like solids and liquids. We have been discussing how gas has a volume; how it takes up space. One easy way of showing this to the kids is to make and capture carbon dioxide.

To make and capture carbon dioxide you will need:

• some narrow neck bottles (we used some beer bottles, but any narrow neck bottle will work)
• Vinegar
• Baking Soda
• Balloons

I'm sure most of my dear readers are aware of the bubbling, explosive reaction that baking soda and vinegar have together. That same bubbling, explosive reaction makes a carbon dioxide and you can capture that gas by placing a balloon over the bottle as soon as you mix the vinegar and baking soda.

Web-Princess after doing the vinegar and baking soda several times wanted to see what happened if we mixed the baking soda with other liquids: Water, Milk, and Apple Juice. She chose these other liquids because it was what we had here at the house.

To our surprise we had a reaction, a gas produced, when we mixed the apple juice and baking soda. The picture ABOVE shows that. The bottle in the middle is milk and baking soda, the bottle at the end (left side) is the water and baking soda. The bottle at the other end, with the green balloon, is 100% apple juice and baking soda. So when you mix baking soda and apple juice you get a gas too.

However baking soda and vinegar produces more gas as seen in this picture BELOW:

The bottle with the  blown-up yellow balloon is vinegar and baking soda. The bottle with the green balloon is vinegar and apple juice.

Of course we wonder now if would get a gas with baking soda and other juices like grape, cranberry, orange. However we don't have any more juices in the house. So we would have to wait until we get one of those juices at our next shopping trip. OR you could try this at your house and let us know the results!!!

FYI: We had to shake the juice and baking soda really well after we put the balloon on to get the result we got. If you decided to do this please blog about it and share your results with us! It will be fun to see what others did or what they observed!

Another Side Note: It was great that we decided to do this today when Daddy was home. It was great because often Daddy doesn't see how they react to the hands on activities such as this. It was also great because Daddy got to see our daughter get excited about the reaction of apple juice and baking soda. She went on and on how she discovered it. (After all it was her idea to mix the two items.)

I'm sure they would have had the chance to mix baking soda and vinegar in brick and mortar school. However I don't think they would have had the chance to say okay now lets see what happens when we mix the baking soda with other liquids. Homeschooling allowed us to take this to the next step and start mixing the baking soda with other liquids to see what happens!

Of course you could just blow up a balloon the "normal" way to show how gas has volume, but frankly it's more fun to mix vinegar and baking soda and capture the carbon dioxide!

Are they behind? Homeschooling vs. Public Schools

A while back I gave my opinion about Public Schools, Homeschoolers, and Socialization. Now I feel as if it's time to give my opinion about comparing homeschoolers to public schooler in general. This like the other post is a bit of a rant! Let's just say you have been warn!

I love my kids and like most moms I think my kids are the best! I'm often very proud of what they can do, and perhaps time to time will boast about their accomplishments just like any other mother would do. I will also at times will compare what my kids are learning here at home to what some of my friend's children are learning at pubic and private schools. I do this really for myself and not as a means to say my kids are smarter, more advance, etc.

Honestly, I'm really sick of those types of generalizations. It makes my stomach turn in disgust. As my regular readers will know my son, Superstar, is recovering from ITW Surgery. Over all he's doing good, but does have a bit of a break down in the afternoons, evenings, because he's overtired. I made mention these break downs in a live internet chat recently. I even mention  that at one of these break down moments Superstar flipped out crying that he didn't want to die.

You see he was complaining that his leg itched and we offered to blow-dry it for him. DH told him how blow drying it would take the water away and that's when he lost it and started to say "I don't want to die". When asked why he felt that he said "I need water to live, so if you blow dry it away I won't have any". Cute I know! When I mention this in the live internet chat a poster came on and said something along the lines. Got to love those homeschoolers they are so smart!

Really? I just wanted to say hey, hold on, wait a moment.... My kids are not smarter just because they are homeschooled! Sure homeschooling has it advantages, sure test scores for homeschoolers tend to be better; but lets be honest, homeschoolers are NOT any smarter then those in public schools. Let's get of our high horse and have a reality check!

Public Schools are NOT evil! I sent my kids to a public school and I would do it again tomorrow if I felt that was best for them. I have no real ills again public schools. As a matter of fact I have a vested interest in how my local schools do because I still pay taxes for these schools. I care about what is taught, how things are handled, who the schools employ, because I still support these schools via my tax dollars. Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water okay! Sure, they aren't perfect, but how can they be? Even homeschooling is not perfect! Nothing is perfect...

I have seen homeschoolers posse questions like "Is it normal for public school children to be so far behind?" Behind compare to what? To what your little Johny or Janey is doing? I thought I read in the parent manual, that came the day the kids were born, that we aren't suppose to compare our kids to other children. That they all develop and learn at their own rate, blah, blah, blah.

We tell ourselves that. We say we shouldn't compare, but then they hit school age and it all changes. All of the sudden it's my kids can do this, mine can do that, we can explain how quantum physics work at the ripe age of 7. We can write a paper, have proper grammar, we can....the laundry list goes on and on and on.

IN GENERAL homeschoolers get annoyed when their kids are compared to public school students, especially if their child seems "behind". (Behind compare to what exactly?) If a person was to compare a homeschool child to a public school child and the homeschooler seemed "behind", the homeschooler would automatically tell you "Well we learn at our own pace. We have plenty of time to 'catch up', etc". In other words it's okay, no biggie. BUT at the same time if the homeschooler is "ahead" then it's a in your face attitude: Homeschooling rocks, My kids are so much smarter, etc. These were GENERALIZED statements. I know NOT all homeschoolers feel this way, but I'm seeing it more and more and I'm disgusted with the attitude.

Perhaps some of it's a natural defense to defend our children and our parenting choices. Perhaps some of it's just plan pride. There is nothing wrong with either one of those things, but lets keep in mind how we feel about those things, when talking about public schools and public school students. Let's get off of our high horses, accept people for who they are, and learn to help each other grow and not stand around comparing and gossiping about how so much better we are because of...

Yes my kids are homeschoolers! Yes my kids have areas they exile in, but they also have areas that they struggle in. Yes I'm proud of my kids and will boast about their accomplishments. However I want to be clear my kids are NOT smarter just because they are homeschoolers.They are smarter because I am their mother! (FYI: that's a bit of a sarcasm there.)

Honestly, the statement my son made about dieing and water was made because that is his personality. It HAS NOTHING to do with the education he has gotten or where he goes to school. I know my son, and I know, he would have made that statement even if he was in public school.

If he was still in public school I know that response to that statement would not have been "Oh public school kids are so smart"; The response would have been something along the lines of "What a sweet kid" or "Poor thing, to have so much worries right now"; or "I hope he feels better soon". Or my personal favorite "LOL-Kids really do say the darndest things don't they!". They would have a chuckle and moved on, not make a statement about his education or where he went to school.

I just wanted to end with if you are going to compare your child's education to other child's education keep some things in mind.

• 1) Not all schooling methods are equal
• 2) Not all curriculum are equal.
• 3) Not all homeschooling curriculum are equal
• 4) Not all schooling methods follow the same scope and sequences
• 5) Each child is different and despite what they are expose to will learn at there own pace.
• 6) Not all schools have the same priorities
• 7) Not all homeschoolers have the same priorities.
• 8) What seems like a valid comparison could actually turn out to be comparing apples to oranges.
  

Does education kill creativity?

This is well worth the 20 minutes of your time!