Finished!

The 2012-2013 school year,

• the year in which I taught my first year of high school 
• and in which one of my children was diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia
• and in which my oldest child got behind the steering wheel of a moving vehicle
• and in which I had a child in elementary school, one in middle school, and one in high school
• and in which I came close, very close, to enrolling my oldest in public school
• and in which I've cried
• and in which I've had some of my most rewarding moments as a mom and homeschooler
• and in which  I've laughed
• and in which I've been appreciative of all the family and friends that support us

Yeh, that year...IT'S FINISHED! 

Things My Kids Are Learning From Zoo Tycoon

My kids have been spending nearly all of their screen time lately playing Zoo Tycoon. I picked up the game at Office Depot for $5 and it's been $5 well spent! Ben and Luci are the primary ones playing, but Gavin has spent considerable time helping his sister build her zoo empire.


If my kids are going to spend time playing video games, I like knowing that there is some kind of educational value in the game. In the past they've played things like MineCraft, Roblox, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Medal of Honor. (Ok, that last one might not be so educational, although my oldest tries to convince me that he learns a lot about individual battles in WWII).

Out of all the games they've played, I think Zoo Tycoon might be one of the most fun to watch. And, it just might be the most educational. They are learning about:

Animal Species ~ All sorts of animals are available for purchase. Animals as exotic as Lion's Mane Jelly Fish, and as common as a Bottle-nose Dolphin are included in the Marine option. And land animals include camels, giraffes, and an assortment of bears, just to name a few. There is even a collection of dinosaurs for those interested in creating their very own virtual Jurassic Park.

Animal Habitats ~ Once Tycoons select their animals they begin to learn about that animal in order to design the ideal exhibit to make the animal happy. All sorts of grasses, plants, rocks, sediment, hills, valleys, shelters, caves, and more are available to add to the exhibit. But Tycoons must be careful to use items that are native to that animals natural habitat in order to have a happy animal.

Biomes ~ In addition to creating the ideal habitat, the overall environment can be altered to suit the animals. Trees, vegetation, and water sources can be added, altered, or removed. Snow and ice can be added as well as desert terrain.

Animal Care ~ Tycoons must learn how to properly care for their animals and to know what kind of specialists are needed to provide it's daily care. They must be fed properly, and monitored. The animals can become sick, and they can even die. They can also reproduce! Luci gets so excited when she checks on an exhibit and learns there are babies!

Money Management ~ There is big money in running a zoo! There is also great potential in earnings when running a zoo! Tycoons must learn to build exhibits in a cost effective way, without waste. They must also set prices for admission (neither too high nor too low), and provide bathroom facilities, concession stands, and seating. Money can also be made by selling the babies.

Managing Employees ~ It takes a large staff of zookeepers, maintenance workers, concession stand workers, and specialists to run a zoo and care for the animals. They must all be hired, assigned work, and managed. Their pay might need to be adjusted if they are underperforming, or they might need to be dismissed.

Customer Satisfaction ~ And if all of the above isn't enough, they have to make their customers happy! Your zoo must be nice, clean, interesting, and well equipped.

For my animal lover, this game has been perfect for her! She aspires to be a vet one day and wants to work in a zoo.

Science Fun--Water Rocket

 How a homeschool family does homeschool science experiments:

What are we doing? This is a science experiment from SuperCharged Science. It involves modifying the lid of a 2 liter bottle and equipping it with a tire valve. The bottle, with the modified lid, is then filled with water and the air pressure is increased using a bicycle pump (or in our case, an air compressor). The lid is twisted off quickly, and, if you did it right, you should have a rocket!



Our First Launch



Ben is speechless!



Just for fun we experiment a few different ways...First, with no water in the bottle.



Why didn't it work?



Luci's explanation...



Ben hypothesizes what will happen if more water is used...



Launch:



More water just meant we got wetter!



Final Launch...Just for fun!

Time4Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

The Hard Stuff

Homeschooling is not without its challenges.

Homeschooling three different children, each with a different set of needs, a different set of skills, a different set of interests, and all with different ways of learning is challenging.

Go ahead and add in the daily distractions like laundry, pets, and that pesky need to eat three square meals a day and the challenge grows.

Throw in the cell phone, emails, text messages, and FaceBook and the challenge grows even more.

Add in one homeschooled teenager who is pushing pretty hard to go to public school and it almost seems insurmountable.

Of course, as the parents, we do feel that we know what is best for him and ultimately the final decisions regarding his education belong to us. But a teenager who is bent on the idea that he's missing something by not going to public school can make things difficult. Very difficult.

So, after several months of him pushing, and us pushing back...I stopped and listened. I asked him to share with me all the reasons he wanted to go to public school and what he thought he would gain by doing so.

Let me preface this by saying none of his reasons were academic in nature, nor were any of his reasons related to having his mom as a teacher for most of his courses. Almost everyone of his reasons were "social" in nature.

For the first half of his homeschool education, the social part was easy enough. Along with being active in church, frequent park days, coop classes, and the occasional field trip more than met that need. But somewhere along the way, as his needs grew different from his siblings, I stopped making the effort to make sure those "social" needs were met. Having children in three different age groups prevents a bit of a challenge and it becomes a matter of geography (can't be two places at once) and time (it's not a renewable resource!). Don't get me wrong, he is far from isolated. He's very active in our church youth department, attends two homeschool classes with other students, plays guitar with friends, and has a lot of "friends" that he talks to via text message and FB. For me, that would be more than enough. But he's a lot more social than I am and he feels like he is missing out on the normal things like football games, school dances, drama team, etc... Will he suffer academically or socially in the long run for missing these things? Probably not. But would it help make him feel a little better about it? Maybe.

No, we are not going to enroll him in public school. But, we are going to make a greater effort to help him get more involved, to give him more opportunities to spend free time with friends, and try to find ways to help him feel less isolated. Our local homeschool group offers many of these things he feels like he is missing and we plan to help him take advantage of those opportunities in the coming year and throughout the remainder of his high school years.

He feels a lot better about things now that he has been "heard", his concerns have been validated, and compromise has been reached.  And so do I.

Note: I'm almost hesitant to post this blog entry because it deals with one of the more notable concerns of homeschooling naysayers. When people use the socialism issue as the major flaw in homeschooling, it is strictly out of a lack of awareness. There is so much for kids to do and get involved in that the problem can easily be TOO much socializing and not enough academics! Homeschool moms and dads just have to find the balance between the two. So it goes...

2013-2014 Curriculum Plans

It's that time of year when homeschool parents start thinking about finishing up the school year and making decisions for the next year. I know some families who never stray from their chosen curriculum and each year they just order the next level. In some ways I envy those parents and the ease with which they can make their plans. But, at the same time, I do kind of enjoy the process of choosing our curriculum each year, learning what new things are available, and what 'old' things I never paid attention to before. Keeping things new and varied also helps me stay interested and prevent burn-out.

One thing that's on the mind of many homeschoolers this year is the "Common Core" push across the nation into homeschool materials. Many curriculum providers have revised their curriculum to align with Common Core standards, some are releasing statements to explain how they were already aligned, and some are not even acknowledging the Common Core standards. While I do not agree with the Common Core push or what it means for the education of our nation, I did not necessarily let it sway me on our curriculum decisions. In other words, if I found something to be right for our family, then it didn't matter to me whether it aligns or not, or whether the curriculum company acknowledges Common Core or not.

When we chose our curriculum for the 2012-2013 school year it was heavy on computer based learning complete with automatic scheduling and grading (Switched on Schoolhouse). At the time, I really felt like it was what I needed after a crazy hectic year the previous school year. What I discovered, is that the approach is too 'hands-off' for me. I didn't like not knowing what each days lessons were, what material they would be reading, etc... Of course, I could have gotten on their computers and pre-read the lesson. But, I didn't--that seemed like too much trouble. The automatic grading feature was wonderful, but since it didn't grade 100% of the questions I was left to grade the open ended sentence type answers. I found it harder to grade these without knowing just how thoroughly the curriculum had covered the material. I think I will really miss the automatic grading, but I'm ready to be the teacher again instead of a "supervisor".

The 2013-2014 school year, which for us will start mid-summer, I will have a 10th grader, a 7th grader, and a 4th grader. We will once again outsource for high school math and, of course, for piano, but the rest of our subjects will be done at home.

Gavin ~ 10th Grade, age 15
Notes: Gavin plans to study music in college (performance, music education, and music therapy are all options he is considering).

Algebra 2 (1 credit) -- outsourced

English/Literature (1 credit) -- Easy Grammar Ultimate 10th grade, Excellence in Literature, and the Elegant Essay

Biology (1 credit)-- Miller/Levine Biology (Macaw Edition) using iBooks (interactive textbook), digital teacher resources through Pearson Learning (publisher of the book). Labs will be done using The Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments and the lab kit from TheHomeScientist.com.

World History (1 credit) -- BJU World History

Music Appreciation & History (1 credit) -- Interactive Listening (an interactive iBook)

History of Modern Art (.5 credit) -- Modern Art History (iTunes U course)

Digital Photography (.5 credit) -- Digital Photography (iTunes U course)

Driver's Education (.5 credit) -- private instructor

Piano (.5 credit) -- (4th year) private instructor

Total: 7 credits

Ben ~ 7th Grade, age 12
Notes: Ben has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD. His curriculum has been planned with that in mind. Ben does very little written work because of the dysgraphia. Any work that must be written is done via keyboarding or dictation using the iPad. I have been tutoring him for the past 6 months using Barton Reading. That is going well and he is currently working on Level 4.

Language Arts -- We will continue Dyslexia therapy with Barton Reading, but will be adding in IEW Student Writing Intensive B.

Math -- Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra (this computer based program accommodates his dysgraphia)

Science -- SuperCharged Science Mastery Program (Silver)

History -- BJU World Studies using 2nd edition

Electives -- Digital Photography for the Middle Schooler (iTunes U course) and continued keyboard training

Luci ~ 4th Grade, age 9 (She will actually turn 9 about a month after we get started)

Notes: Luci may also be dyslexic, but we do not have a diagnosis for that. I do know that she has many indications so we started her on Barton Reading a few months ago.

Language Arts -- Continue with Barton Reading, A Reason for Handwriting, and IEW Student Writing Intensive B (Using Level A source texts)

Math -- Teaching Textbooks 4

Science -- Biology II (NOEO) (note: she specifically requested a life science this year AND asked to be separated from her brother for all of her subjects. However, I expect she will be drawn in to the science Ben will be doing on Supercharged Science as well!)

History -- A History of our United States (Abeka), with readers added from Sonlight Am. History cores that we own.

Electives -- We have not decided whether or not to leave her in piano. This was her first year and the teachers comments suggest that she is just not quite mature enough. We may stop and then let her start again in a year or so. If that is the case, I'm sure we'll have no problem finding another elective for her.

New Year, New Goals

We had a wonderful Christmas break, lasting a full four weeks. We packed that time full of fun, food, family, love, and laughter (not necessarily in that order). I always plan to take the month of December off, but it never works out that we manage to get the whole month because we are usually behind and have to use that time to catch up so we can finish our first semester. But, this year, we managed to finish the first semester the week after Thanksgiving which gave us an entire four weeks to enjoy. It almost seemed like it was six weeks because our Thanksgiving break fell so close. Here are a couple of photo collages to show a little of our Christmas Break...

Also during our time off I spent some time thinking about our school year. how it is going? what things need to change? what things are working out great? And as a result there are a few new goals/changes that we are going to be making this semester.

Literature
This was our first "non-Sonlight" school year in about 6 years. We've been using Sonlight since Gavin was in 3rd grade. Honestly, we'd grown bored with it. I was tired of reading aloud all the time (I seriously should count up all the books I've read aloud! I bet the number would be staggering!), the kids were tired of the stacks of books they had to work in each day, and after a very difficult year, I needed to simplify things in a big way. It had the desired effect and our first semester was definitely less stressful! However, now I am missing the strong literature component to our homeschool, so one of my goals this semester is to work in more literature.

Take an MIT OCW course
One of the electives I had for Gavin to take this year was Music Theory using a software program. That proved to be so simple and easy that he finished in no time at all and I can't really use it for a high school credit. I've been looking at MIT's Open Course Ware choices and we've narrowed it down to a few choices that Gavin can take for a music elective credit. I think this is a good chance to get familiar with the OCW website, how to use it, etc... and potentially use one of these courses for a Core subject next year.

More Field Trips
The thing with homeschooling is that you can just as easily take too many field trips as you can take too few field trips. The first semester of this school year we did not take a single field trip, unless you count vacations (visiting Ft. Pickens in October, Children's Museum in December, etc...). The plus side of that is that we finished all of our school work in time to take a long Christmas break, but the down side is the lack of fun, enriching activities. Part of this was just problems with scheduling. Our homeschool group did have several field trips planned, but they always ended up being scheduled on dates that we could not attend.

Getting Active
I think I make this a new goal every year. I'm terrible at this and it is my biggest weakness when it comes to educating my kids. The Homeschool PE class is a 30 minute drive, twice a week and with all of the other things on our schedule that just won't work for us. None of my children play sports, and they really aren't interested in them at all (Except for Ben's karate). So, it's up to me (and their dad) to try to get more physical activity into their (our) lives. Just like anything, I have to learn how to make this a priority and just get it done!

Taking More Photos!
I have precious few photos from our first semester, so I'm vowing to do better about capturing our days on camera. With my iPhone, instagram, and other apps it's just too easy to take pictures! I have no excuse! Here are a few from today...