Home*School*Home: Starting out slowly.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Starting out slowly.

I was so tired last night that I couldn't go to sleep and consequently slept in this morning to almost 9:00. It's after 11:00 a.m. right now and I haven't even started work. I'm having to do an update which I should have remembered to do yesterday and with our slow internet, it's probably going to take a while. While it's doing whatever it needs to do, I'm trying to plan the science day I agreed to do for the homeschool group on June 2. The main problem with it is deciding what to do. I want to out-do Mad Science. Remember when they came to our homeschool group meeting and I was completely underwhelmed. I want my science day to be more fun and more educational, actually, come to think of it, that shouldn't be all that hard. Even twice as fun and twice as educational isn't much to aim for. (Can you tell I was really, really not impressed by Mad Science?)

2 comments:

Freakmom said...: The last Mad Science program Violet went to was through the Girl Scouts. It was pretty good.

Do you have a topic in mind? I did one here for a few friends once that was about air pressure, flight, kites, that sort of thing. They made whirly gig helicopters and dropped them over the edge of our loft. That was a big hit.; 9:42 PM
Fatcat said...: We will see Mad Science again next week and maybe they'll be better.

I want to do alka-seltzer rockets, mentos and coke and somehow tie them in together with a nice little chemistry lesson. Got any ideas?; 10:42 PM

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Homeschooling Advice.

1. Try it. You might enjoy it. It might change your life. It might not be your thing, but you won't know if you don't ever try.

2. Find out what your state (or country) requires, the bare minimum. Do this and then with the rest of it, have fun with it. It doesn't have to be all serious and it doesn't have to look like the inside of a classroom. You're at home. Relax. Play. Read. Learn together. Enjoy your kids. They grow up way too fast.

3. Don't let a written curriculum boss you around. If it works, great. If it's not working for you, throw it out. If only parts of it work, use those and throw the rest out. It's not the boss of you. When shopping for curriculum, read reviews. Try to go somewhere where you can actually hold the book in your hands and look through it. Print out a sample day or week and try and implement it or borrow it before buying. It's kind of hit and miss buying books without being able to see them.

4. Find a homeschool support group. Or two. If you can't find one in real life, find one online. Get support where ever you can.

5. Make a mess now and then. Go outside and put some mentos in coke. Make alka-seltzer rockets. Make some great art. Make a timeline and a map. Grow some borax crystals. Use levers to lift things. Make a trebuchet out of whatever you can find around the house.

6. Go on as many field trips as you can.

The point of this blog.

"there is a theme, if you read, you'll get a growing conviction that homeschooling is a lifestyle that is worthwhile, that it is extremely good for kids and families, that it promotes bonding, is a personalized education that is superior to what you can get anywhere else for your kids, is fun and can be done even if you have a 400 track mind, no math skills (thankfully my husband does though), through working, job changes, bad hair days, home remodeling, deaths, illness, surgery, broken bones and various other things and it actually makes dealing with these things easier, not harder, than it was when we were in the public schools, because homeschooling is so incredibly flexible. That's the point I've been trying to make for the last 5 years or so."

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Starting out slowly.

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The point of this blog.

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