English/Literature/Etc.

So, shall we move on?

English/Language/Grammar...whatever you want to call it.

Last year we used the PS textbook. It was okay. Informative but B-O-R-I-N-G.

This year, as you know from an earlier post, J.T.'s first English assignment was an essay for a library contest "What My Library Card Means To Me". I'm happy to announce that we received word just today that the essays had been judged and J.T. won an honorable mention :) J.T. is invited to a pizza party/award ceremony Nov. 5th for some free chow and to be awarded his honorable mention. We are going, of course, and I will do the mom thing and take pictures! I just need someone to remind me to take my camera because I always forget it.

I have a library book ready to continue with English. It is Extraordinary Emails, Letters, and Resumes by Marc Tyler Nobleman. It's time for J.T. to learn about different types of correspondence and I like that this book includes emails in that. We will probably skip doing resumes for a few years. While learning about and writing different types of correspondence, spelling and grammar happens naturally.

I haven't decided yet what we'll do after we finish with correspondence. I think English is learned best with practical applications...figuring out things that you might want to do "in real life" and why it's important to learn how to do that correctly.

For Literature, J.T. always picks out what he wants to read. He is a reluctant reader, so it's important that I don't force him to read something he might not be interested in when it's reading that is independent of other subjects. At the start of this year, he read some Stephen King short stories and has now moved onto Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. To insure comprehension and to help prepare J.T. for tests he may take in the future, for each short story I either have him answer a few questions about the story or have him come up with questions to ask me. For Harry Potter, we'll probably do that every few chapters. And for all that he reads, J.T. always orally summarizes what he read each day.

What now? Oh, spelling. I am very nonchalant about J.T.'s spelling. Spelling came easily and naturally to me when I was in school, but it never has for J.T. We struggled every single week he was in public school. I would drill him on his spelling words, he would spell them correctly, and 20 minutes later would have forgotten how to spell every single word. I do give spelling "tests" to keep J.T. practicing spelling correctly. Each week I pick out ten words from whatever he is reading for literature. He has a pretest to see if he knows any of the words already (almost always the answer is "no" lol) and any words he misses he copies three times. The next day he practices them orally or does a word search. After that, he writes each word in a sentence and copies missed words a few times in cursive (to get some cursive practice in too). On test day, we review orally right before the test. The test is *not* me saying the word and him writing it...we would never be able to progress that way. Instead each word is in a sentence and I have two types of questions...he either picks the correct spelling with multiple choice or he has to decide if the spelling word in the sentence is spelled correctly or incorrectly. If he misses any test questions, those words get moved to the next week's list and that continues until he gets them right. But, like I said, I don't put much emphasis on spelling. There are plenty of bad spellers out there and it doesn't negatively affect them. There's always spell check (though not the best choice) and looking up correct spellings and, as an adult, how often do we have to spell words correctly on the spot without a chance to look them up?

Last year, we started a typing program that is really fun and easy: Dance Mat Typing and we need to get back into that this year. I'd also like J.T. to start a second language, it just seems there's so much "English" stuff to do that I don't want to overwhelm him with subjects.

If you got this far, thanks for reading! Tomorrow will be History.

And Now ~ Science

To start off the year, J.T. and I read a library book The Birth of the Earth by Jacqui Bailey and Matthew Lilly. A small, easy-to-read-in-one-sitting book. We chose this book because we've read and watched so many scientific theories about the beginning of the Earth that it was nice to have a compact, concise explanation to get us started with this year's Science.

And then we moved onto our "real" science book for the first part of the year. It is also a library find. It's one of the Eyewitness Science series titled Evolution. I really like this book because it's chock-full of information...from people of the time, timelines, types of animals and fossils, etc...but is still easy to read. We read about half the book then had a few days of review and a test before J.T. left on his "working vacation".

I should probably explain our tests and grading. I don't do grades. I don't see the point. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that J.T. does a subject or concept until he gets it, so he'd eventually get As on everything. The reviews and testing are mostly because we're so brainwashed by the way public schooling happens that it just feels "right" to have a conclusion for each chapter or section of a subject. And J.T. likes the casual way we do tests...if the tests caused anxiety we wouldn't do them at all. He gets a kick out of showing off what he knows though ;-)

Back to Science. We'll finish up this book on Evolution and head back to the library to figure out what we want to learn next. J.T. is torn between anatomy and learning more mechanical science. He has been dying to dissect a frog and I'm hoping that he'll be satisfied with a frog dissection CD-ROM.

We also use tons of TV programs and DVDs for science. There's so much good stuff out there! I bet J.T. watches three times as many programs that could be considered science than I actually keep track of. With library DVDs, the Discovery channel, the Science channel, National Geographic, and PBS we could probably do nothing but programs for science. The only problem is how it skips around from the different branches of science.

This year I simply let J.T. lead the way and pick out books that looked "cool" at the library. For Math, there are certain concepts he needs to learn in more or less a specific order. But, for just about everything else, he'll naturally learn best when he's picked out subjects that interest him. And with all the great websites, library options, and tv programs, I have yet to see a need for an actual science curriculum.

Back to Curriculum ~ Math

Okay, the kiddo is home so it's time for my lazy non-blogging to stop!

Back to curriculum. More specifically, this year's curriculum.

Let's start with Math. Yuck! Okay, as "mom-teacher" I'm not supposed to say that! But Math has always been a problem for me and, so, not an easy subject for me to know how to help J.T. learn.

Last year, we tried the public school math book. What a joke! I've never been so confused. Especially without a teacher's manual to go with it. Technically, we're "supposed" to be provided with all books and workbooks that the public school kids have...so the parents should have access to the teacher's manuals. But, they always say there isn't enough and it's best to leave the public school alone as much as possible in hopes that they return the favor. Plus, I've had enough experience with my son in public schools to know that given other options, their textbooks aren't the best learning tools.

This year, after asking around for what other homeschooling families liked most, we decided to go with Saxon Math. Version 7/6 to be exact. With J.T.'s almost-month-long trip, we haven't gotten as far into the book as I would have expected so I can't make any hard judgements just yet. So far though, I like the repetition that some other families don't like. But I still feel like in the very beginning they don't provide enough instruction and explanation as to WHY you are doing things a certain way and HOW to make sure you're doing that correctly. Lots of practice problems are great for making sure J.T. grasped the concept, but do no good if the explanation isn't clear enough for you to even move onto the first practice problem.

I'd love to hear any and all math programs/curriculum/websites/computer games/etc. your family uses and what you do and don't like about those you've tried.

Another quick math issue...

J.T. has always gotten good grades in math, tested highly on math standardized tests, and never seemed to have any problems. But, I found out that his last year in school...EVEN THOUGH HE MADE THE HONOR ROLL EVERY SIX WEEKS...he was struggling all year long! He never "got" multiplying double and triple digits and being the shy boy he was, didn't ask for extra help. How he was able to move beyond that baffles me...not to mention still getting good grades. The best I can figure is that he would add, add, add, add numbers until he got an answer. How frustrating that must have been! As someone who still has fraction nightmares, I feel it is extremely important for J.T. to have complete confidence in the basics before moving on to harder concepts; so that is definitely what I'm trying to stress. And we will never, ever move on to the next concept until I'm sure he understood the last one. Just another frustrating discovery of what the public school *didn't* do for him.

J.T.'s October Trip

I know my posts just completely stalled after my last curriculum one, but that is because I haven't been an active part of J.T.'s schooling this month.

On Sept. 28, J.T. left with my mom's husband, Greg, to travel with him while Greg buys and sells used buses all over the U.S.

Since they left, they have been in OH, IN, IL, MI, KY, TN, AR, TX...and a few of those more than once. They are in OH right now. The main goal J.T. has before coming home is to be able to visit with my mom in FL for a few days. As of last night, it looked like first they might need to pick a bus in VA and take it to NJ before they can head down to FL.

Being the single mom of an only child...yeah...it's been pretty hard for me to have J.T. gone for so long. But, I'm trying to be *good mom* and not deny him such an awesome experience.

Gosh, what could J.T. possibly be learning while on such a trip? If traveling the country (well at least a small part of it LOL) and learning about buying and selling used school buses isn't real life learning, I don't guess I know what is. But, of course, the school board will insist on each little experience getting pigeon-holed into one of the 5 "big" subjects. I think having to assign every learning experience a specific subject is probably my least favorite part of homeschooling. (makes the LOSER sign at public schools)

But, anyhow, here's a rundown of some of the stuff that's J.T.'s doing while on the trip...I should have been posting this all along, because I need to remember it come portfolio time!

Naturally, J.T. has been learning U.S. Geography! He's studied at an atlas to help figure out how to get...for example...from Lima, OH to Peoria, IL. He is the navigator while traveling.

At some point during travels, Greg thought it would be good to give J.T. some agriculture facts about all the cultivated fields they were seeing along the way. J.T. called me one night and informed me of the three different types of fertilizer and how each one works differently in a field.

When J.T. and Greg go to OH, it's to a big bus yard there where Greg buys a large number of the buses he sells. J.T.'s job is to look at each bus for sale and take notes about it...the manufacturer, year, mileage, type of fuel, type of brakes, condition of tires, amount of rust, etc. He has to do this in a way that Greg can actually read his notes...which means while he's been gone, his handwriting must have improved 100% ;-) Then, when Greg gets a call from someone looking to purchase a bus, J.T. gets to go over his notes and figure out what's available that fits the needs of that particular customer.

The last time J.T. was with Greg (he's traveled with him before...just never for so long) he learned how to hook car to a tow bar to be towed behind a bus. He's expanded that now to also learn how to hook the lights up on the car. He's also learned all kinds of mechanical aspects of the buses...checking fluid levels, etc. And, last weekend, he helped fix a fan on Greg's daughter-in-law's van.

While in Indiana, Greg and J.T. visited the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum...full of vintage cars.

Last night, when J.T. phoned he was in the process of organizing around 400 receipts for Greg. "In chronological order" he informed me.

So, for the past month, I've had a break from schooling...but J.T. sure hasn't stopped learning!