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caffeineandbooks

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Posts posted by caffeineandbooks

  1. Thanks fellow Aussies, I hope you are right.  I suspect, though, that Queensland is going to try to become the new record holder for tightest regulation of home education.  Over the weekend, we've become aware of a report in the background that seems to have prompted this.  Two years ago, a child known to the Department of Child Safety committed suicide after repeated attempts and a stay in a mental health unit.  The death was investigated by the Child Death Review Board and it was noted that the child was homeschooled.  The Board recommended that Queensland strengthen its legislation so that children known to Child Safety could be refused registration for home education on the grounds that it was not in the best interests of the child, and also recommended there be a means for government representatives to interview home educated children to be sure they are not being harmed.  Home education is a legal choice in Queensland, but that didn't stop the Government spokesperson at this morning's public briefing from admitting that the Government wants to look into the increased uptake of home education "and change that uptake".

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  2. My home state of Queensland, Australia is in the process of introducing new legislation that will have negative effects for homeschoolers.  It's open for public comment at the moment, and anyone can have their say.  You don't need to be an Australian citizen, or an adult, or a homeschooler.  The parts that many homeschoolers object to are:

    * A new requirement (section 217) for us to follow the National Curriculum, as is already required of homeschoolers in many Australian states.  The National Curriculum is much narrower that homeschool curriculum I am aware of - it doesn't fit with Story of the World, Writing With Ease, Writing With Skill, etc.  It will require my kids to all study history, science etc separately as they will have to complete the content for their individual grade level - Ancient Egypt is for Grade 7, not Grade 6 or 8.  It also doesn't suit kids who are gifted, asynchronous or with learning difficulties (so, most homeschoolers) because it assumes a classful of same age kids working at an arbitrary given level in all subjects.  For older kids who might be doing dual enrolment, it appears to accidentally cancel that option (university study is not one of the approved options listed).

    * An expanded requirement to report on 8 subject areas per child every year.  Currently, I submit a plan for each of my kids and someone from the Department assesses whether it will provide a "high quality" education.  At the end of the year I report back with work samples in English, Math and one other area of my choice.  When the consultation paper was released in 2022, the Department was suggesting they were snowed under and that although we should continue preparing reports, they should only have to read 1 in 8 (!!).  Enrolments have continued to grow and staff numbers have not, yet now they want to more than double the amount of reporting and have it keyed to curriculum standards as well.

    * A new requirement that children remain enrolled in school until the Department has assessed and accepted the parents' plan for home education.  This is not a big deal for continuing or intentional homeschooling, but parents who need to suddenly remove children due to bullying or other school trauma previously had the option to keep them home while their application was processed.

    * A new requirement that homeschooling be "in the best interests of the child", without defining who gets to make that call.  Worth noting that there is no comparable clause requiring state education to be in anyone's best interest.

    Would you be willing to make a submission to the Parliamentary Committee responsible for this legislation, telling some of your own homeschooling story and asking them to listen to the Queensland homeschooling community?

    You can follow the "click here to make a submission" link on the Parliamentary Committee's webpage, here.

    You can see an explanation of the changes and how homeschoolers could be affected, put together by parent volunteers, here.

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  3. Today I came across a recent survey of homeschoolers in Queensland, Australia.  A huge increase in homeschooling numbers over the past 4 years has been a factor in a decision to overhaul the state education laws - a bill is before Parliament for debate right now.  The survey was conducted in 2022 by inviting all parents registered to homeschool to participate.  This would exclude those using distance education schools or homeschooling "under the radar", without following the requirement to register.  A little over 10% of registered parents responded, and the results have just recently been published.  I thought it was interesting reading, and also that it shows the change made by covid: there's a clear distinction between those who were already homeschooling pre-2020 and those who've begun since then.

    You can access it here: https://education.qld.gov.au/schools-and-educators/other-education/Documents/research-insight-report.pdf

  4. 11 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

    It's pretty and people like it because it's pretty. And there are free units, so free, pretty...it makes them feel good about doing school.

    This.

    Moms are being distracted by "free and pretty" and aren't looking deeper to "insubstantial, shallow".

    I'm outside the US and online academies aren't big here yet, but I think a majority of local families who started post covid here are using TGTB.  They like the lifestyle of having their kids home and not having to do school drop off/pick up, but many don't seem interested in increasing their own knowledge or developing their own philosophy of education.  It's a lifestyle, not an academic, decision.

  5. This is not the first time you've posted things like this.  I'm curious to know what happens between these posts. 

    To a poster who was hitting school goals moderately well for a few months, then being derailed for a week by big feelings or unusual circumstances, I might say "This happens to everyone" and talk about how to get through it.  I have homeschooled through multiple terminal illnesses among our immediate family and a probably related burn out for myself, and I understand the need to give yourself grace and cut back to the basics sometimes.

    Gently, I would not take this approach with a poster who was consistently struggling to complete the basics over a period of months and years, and whose "not working" posts reflected the usual atmosphere of their home and not an exception.  I would be more likely to ask what their goals were for their kids, and explore whether other options besides homeschooling might be suitable, even for a short term period or for just some of the kids. 

    If you manage to keep your kids home for K-12 but your marriage, family relationships and mental health are harmed and you don't even have the cold comfort that a minimum level of education has been achieved, that sounds like a bad deal to me.

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  6. Hello, and good on you for working ahead like this!  @HomeAgain has given you a great list to start with.  This is also a great time to shore up your own education in literature.  Deconstructing Penguins gives a really enticing view of what it can be like to discuss literature with your own kids.  If you're then left wondering how to learn to do that, there are a couple of possibilities that come to mind.

    1. Use a program like Teaching the Classics from Center for Lit to teach yourself how to read and discuss a book well.  It's not too soon for you to do this, because you can apply their approach to even the picture books you're reading with your lap-sitter, and it's a huge advantage to have time for these ideas to sink in.

    2. Use a book list - perhaps The Well Educated Mind, or perhaps select from a K-12 sequence like Reading Roadmaps (another Center for Lit product; I love their stuff) or The Classical Reader - to stretch your own reading.  Maybe to start with you read mainly middle grade chapter books and slowly add in a couple of classics each year.  Maybe you're already a reader and your list is mainly great books from the get-go.  It doesn't matter where you start, your ability will build and when your kids are in high school you'll still be equipped to teach them.  I highly recommend you also take brief notes on your reading, including what grade you think it might be appropriate for.  It's amazing how they all blur together after a while and you can't remember if that series was perfect for your 9 year old or had some graphic scenes that you'd rather wait on!

    3. Join a book club.  Practice thinking and talking about books with other adults now.  You could simply listen in on an online book club like Circe's Close Reads or join in live with (again) Center for Lit's Pelican book club, or maybe you have an in-person option available to you.  This is enjoyable, lets you process what you're reading, and gives you practice discussing a book with like-minded people for fun.

    Best wishes for your self-educating and home-educating journey!

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  7. On 2/8/2024 at 11:10 PM, LauraClark said:

    It's February-are we ready to talk about next year yet? I gave ds 12 the option of doing 7th again or pushing on to 8th (he's an early fall birthday) and he wants to do 8th. My current thoughts:

    <snip>

    History: we're going to do another geography year. This year we did 2 weeks per country and that was too fast. Maybe 3-4 weeks this next year. I'm thinking doing a geography-related meal with another family(s) every 6 weeks or so. And requiring some kind of output: papers, books, drawings. Not sure. This year we've just done a book and it's getting a little boring-I'll probably change it up for March/April.

    I always appreciate hearing your choices, because we have several same-age kids and tend to make some similar choices.

    We're doing Art of Argument at the moment (7th) for logic and I'd recommend it, but particularly if you can get a few kids together so there are more opportunities to discuss.

    For your geography year, perhaps you'd find some good ideas in Beautiful Feet's new World Geography and Ecology course, aimed at 7th-9th graders?

    My tentative plans are:

     

    Dimensions 8 + Mindset Mathematics 8

    Writing With Skill 3

    Monthly Center for Lit style book club with friends

    CAP's Everyday Debate and Discussion

    K12 Human Odyssey ancients plus WTM style reading list... I have SWB's History of the World Ancients as well...

    Earth Science.  Undecided whether to use the Berean book which is aimed at 8th grade, or try the K-6 Apologia one with siblings and beef it up to 8th grade level with extra reading and writing.  

    Foreign language: we'll finish up Keep Going With Latin this year.  I'd prefer to continue on to Linney's Latin Class, but I could be convinced to let this kid swap to German if the desire is still there in a couple of months.

    Extracurriculars: rocketry club, karate.

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  8. I hesitate to post because I only have 3 and I know it's not the same.  However, I also have one who does best when read to, so I thought it might be worth reminding you that audiobooks can be your friend.  I use them to give my voice a break, or so my hands are free to wash dishes etc while we all listen, or assign them to that kid instead of a physical book sometimes.

    I also want to acknowledge that toddlers and preschoolers are tough!  Once my youngest was big enough to play with siblings, things got much easier.  Hugs to you in a difficult season!

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  9. We love the Center for Lit approach.  There are no workbooks, you just read good literature and discuss it using a list of Socratic questions they have curated which will work for any book.  They have a variety of options: you can enrol in one of their online classes and have them teach it for you; you can purchase ad hoc recorded classes from previous years; you as the parent can complete their Teaching the Classics seminar to learn how to read a book and lead a discussion yourself; and you can purchase their "Ready Readers" (teaching notes) to help you lead a good Socratic discussion.  They actually have mid-year registration open at the moment where you could enrol in their live classes for a significant discount, and you get access to the already recorded classes from the year too.

    In our family, my boys are part of a monthly junior high book club with several of their friends that I lead using the Teaching the Classics model.  I love how the kids are generating a shared collection of stories that they all know and during book club I often hear them comparing the current read with a previous one, noting similarities and differences.  I've also seen the skills they learn at book club spilling over into their other reading.  When I ask about their free choice reading they're likely to answer in literary terms, telling me what they thought of the conflict, or why the protagonist was or was not admirable, and so on.

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  10. We do something very similar to @Clarita, only we use free printable picture cards from https://homeschooling2e.com/2017/01/20/timeline-figures-for-k-6-free-printable/.  They're not identical to SOTW but have worked well for us and having a bit of color on them is a plus.  We print as-is for a wall timeline or two sheets to a page for a book of centuries, and we glue them on in batches once a month or so (@Clarita, sticker paper would be a nice upgrade - thanks for that idea!).  It's a good opportunity for me to ask the kids "Who was that guy again?" or "Can you tell me what else was happening in the world at that time?" or "When was the last timeline entry we had for this country?"

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  11. Seconding the cave painting and the chicken mummy from the activity guide - the mummy took a good six weeks (we started it at co op and then families continued changing the salt and finishing it off at home) but was the highlight of the year.  The archaeology dig and Hammurabi monuments (we used free giant tubes from a curtain and blind store) from the activity guide.

    DIY: Minoan Crete - similarities between the archaeology (palace at Knossos, bull jumping frescoes, horn-like decorative structures) and the Labyrinth story.  Egypt/Mesopotamia: we built a functional, life-size shaduf in the backyard and used it to transport water from one place to another.  Rome: we made a blanket fort in a hallway to be a catacomb, climbed inside and made symbols to represent ourselves like the early Christians.  We made a model section of Hadrian's Wall.  We painted an imitation Greek vase, a fresco from Tutankhamun's tomb and a Chinese terracotta warrior using kits.  We raised silkworms.

    It's a super fun year and grades 3-6 are just perfect for it!  You didn't ask for book recommendations, but major hits here included Ludmila Zemin's Gilgamesh trilogy, D'Aulaires Greek Myths and, surprising me because it's aimed at older kids, Genevieve Foster's wonderful Augustus Caesar's World.

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  12. This thread has informed and inspired me over several years, @lewelma, so thank you for the time you put into researching and writing it!  Based on your reviews, I chose WWS for my 6th grader last year and it was a great fit.  The topics were truly fascinating and included a variety of history, science and literary analysis topics, including poetry.  My student moved from writing 200 word papers at the beginning of the year to several 1000 word papers near the end and even a 2000 word (passion topic) paper for the final.  I’ve appreciated that WWS has provided a variety of forms to write (chronological narratives, biographical sketches, descriptions) and some elocution tools as well (similes and metaphors, using a thesaurus, copia exercises).  I also appreciate that it covered some beginning research and footnoting skills.  I’m looking forward to seeing this develop as we move into WWS2 in January.

    I recently got my hands on LToW and was glad to be able to see for myself some of the things you’ve said about it.  It does provide a very structured introduction to invention with its ANI chart and lots of practice – the same Narnia exemplar essay gradually expanded from a paragraph to a full essay over 2/3 of the school year.  Tools are slowly provided to build a better essay without overwhelming the student.  And its three week essay cycle does a good job with the classical principle of not teaching more than one difficult thing simultaneously: they practice invention, then arrangement, then elocution separately in a predictable pattern for each essay.

    Not being a classical rhetorician myself, I am not familiar with the fancy terms they use (exordium, division, distribution, antithesis and others as specific parts of an essay).  Some students would probably appreciate the traditional terms, feeling that it gives a gravity or sophistication to the task.  I found rather that it obscured and complicated a pretty simple process.  The teacher’s guide says that the program is aimed at 7th graders but can be successfully used at a slower pace from 3rd grade up (!!) and certainly it seems that younger students would get lost in the weeds of all the new terms.

    My biggest complaint, though, is that LToW doesn’t seem to teach or use research.  The expository essays (the bulk of the book, with only 3 being comparison essays) are generated from CIRCE’s beloved “should” question, “Should X have done Y?”  Perhaps this is why invention is such a focus; “Should Edmund have followed the White Witch?” is not the kind of question you can answer with research, whereas SWB’s “Describe deep ocean hydrothermal vents and write a chronological narrative of their discovery” (from week 15) certainly is.  I felt that LToW might equip a student to write moral essays but that something more would be needed for history, science or even literary analysis papers (they agree in the teacher’s guide that true literary analysis is outside the scope of their text).

    In the end, I am glad that I followed you and began with WWS, and I will continue with WWS2 next month without taking a break for LToW.  My next student is more of a whole-to-parts learner, and I have wondered whether the details of WWS will be too much, but having read LToW, I still think WWS is the better program and that will be my plan A.  Since I’ve taught it before, I feel equipped to provide that big picture perspective for kiddo #2 as we go along.

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  13. 22 hours ago, Ellie said:

    A true co-op would be a few families who get together and all the parents teach all the children.

    This has been the kind of group we've been involved with, and it's been great.  With just 3-5 families everyone feels a sense of ownership and makes it a priority to attend and to lead well when it's their turn.  We meet every other week for an afternoon, for one subject, and there is time built in for the moms to chat and the kids to play afterwards.  And it's small enough that we can genuinely get to know and support one another, without the need for covenants and policies and insurance.  I'm thankful for larger group activities that we have also participated in, but it's this smaller group that has been our anchor.

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  14. 9 hours ago, Malam said:

    What's the 3rd edition?

    It was the edition before US.  Mine shows a copyright date of 1981.  The covers are the same as the US except without "US edition" in the top right corner, and the workbooks are split into part 1 and part 2 (so four books for the year).  It has the same content as the US edition, but the original Singapore context (names, foods, coins) is still there.  In the US edition, Mrs Brown might be making 600 hotdogs for a party, but in 3rd it was Mrs Wong and she was making 600 chicken satay sticks.  All measurements are metric - US edition adds extra questions using US measures.

    Edit to add: the 3rd edition is now out of print, the US line is still a current publication.

  15. Not quite the same as a live option, but how about a livestream that you could watch from your own lounge?  I received the following in a SQUILT newsletter this week:

     

    mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa.kajabi.com%2F9%

    Take Your Children to The Nutcracker!

    Did you know The Colorado Ballet graciously offers a FREE live stream of The Nutcracker ballet for school children (and this includes homeschoolers!)? 

    This performance is a wonderful opportunity to watch the ballet live with your children and have access to that live stream for a period of time. The signup couldn't be easier - just be sure to fill out all of the information required and selected "homeschool" in the dropdown box!

    Register for the performance here.

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  16. 40 minutes ago, Malam said:

    Unlike the US edition, the standards edition is also the first to have the home instructor's guide

    We use the 3rd and US editions, with the home instructor's guides created for them by Jennifer Hoerst.  These include scripts for explaining concepts "the Singapore way" and games designed for 2 players.

    It seems to me that as the later editions have come out, they've added more and more topics in so that you end up with not so much Singapore math as "US math plus bar models".  I like that the 3rd and US models are no frills and very easy to complete in a school year.  There are cumulative reviews built in along the way, but not the chapter tests and extra content that makes the more recent versions unwieldy.  No experience with the 2022 specifically, though.

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  17. If you do go with WWS, note that each "day's" work is not an equal amount.  The first 2/3 of the book has a narrative summary, an outline, and a "practising the topos" section (all shorter days) and a composition (longer day) each week.  You might consider having him do two of the "easy" days in one and then have an extra day that he can spend on the composition if needed.

  18. My (NT) kiddo finished up Primary Mathematics 6B at the end of 5th grade and I wanted to be sure everything was solid and also buy a little time before settling on a path forward.  I gave him MIF 6, and found it to be mostly review with a little new content (negative numbers, coordinate graphs) and some additional depth.  He finished the whole year in a semester because there was a lot of overlap.  My main complaint as a non-math teacher was that there were only worked solutions for a few problems, not all.  There were times when neither he nor I knew where we'd gone wrong and there was no support to understand why.

    For 7th and 8th, I've gone with Dimensions paired with a Singapore Math Live video subscription, and am really happy with it.  The video lady teaches the content and includes several random words that the kids write down - if you need to check whether they really watched the video you can compare their words to the parent list.  She also includes worked solutions videos for every problem in both the textbook and the workbook and tests that she creates for each unit.  The subscription buys 12 months access to each semester long course.

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  19. I don't have any advice, more some commiseration that I'm in a similar boat.  Your plan looks reasonable to me - but like you, I'm finding the tricky thing is not just the 7th grade work, but juggling that alongside everyone else's.  And I only have three!  Things that are helping me are being sure to check each subject each day (avoids unpleasant surprises on Thursday night!), making sure he eats well (rapid growth = brain fog) and limiting activities to after 3pm - even "school" activities like the book club and logic group.

    For comparison, if it helps, my 7th grader's plan is similar to yours.  Morning time, an hour of math (independent), Writing With Skill 2, Science in the Atomic Age, modern world history (SOTW plus K12), Art of Argument (with friends), Keep Going With Latin, monthly book club, reading list, sport.  I'm willing to stretch science over more than a whole year if needed, and Art of Arg will take the whole year even though it could be done faster.  Spelling and grammar were a bridge too far and we're not doing any.

    Looking forward to hearing what advice some more senior boardies have for you, because I could use it too 🙂

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