[Our first day homeschooling again]

18 minutes ago, bethben said:

I basically bucked the system.  I told my dd how to do math problems the "old fashioned way" aka the easy way.  I told her to ignore everything her teacher was telling her.  The way I see common core math is that they give a child five different ways to do the same problem and then assume they will pick the one that makes the most sense.  And then to add to the confusion, the student is responsible to understand how to do the five different ways and not mix them up in their head.  Yes.  Great idea.  Obviously, the people who created this have no idea how kid's minds work.  

That's what we would have done except another teacher in that grade told us that the math teacher expected it to be done that particular way. If it wasn't, it would be marked wrong.

That may or may not have played some factor in my decision to start homeschooling.

After all, if she can do the problem and get it right, I'm not sweating whether she knows four other ways to do it.

[Our first day homeschooling again]

4 hours ago, bethben said:

I never understood why the United States was so behind other countries in education until my daughter went to school.  Especially math.  Common core math was such a joke.  She got all As in math and learned absolutely nothing.  

My daughter was kind of the same.

Which surprised me a bit. I mean, she'd struggle with her homework--homework I couldn't help her with because I had no clue how they were wanting her to solve these math problems and it had to be done their way--and yet she'd still manage an A somehow.

At least now, I can see her grasping math.

[Sad... when a long-term friendship ends]

Once upon a time, it was fairly easy to separate a person from their politics. For most, it was one of those topics you simply didn't talk about in polite company and everyone knew that. Oh, people still talked politics, but you could also agree to disagree and then not see someone's political views outside of a bumper sticker on their car ever again.

Then social media rolled around. 

While it's great for so many things, it's also used by many to express their political views. That's certainly their right, of course, but there's a dark side to that. It makes it harder for people to ignore those differences anymore. It pushes them to the front and center.

My best friend and I don't share the same politics. We used to, but I grew a different direction. We don't really talk politics face-to-face because we know we disagree on it and we don't want to jeopardize the friendship over that. However, she still posts this stuff on Facebook which makes it much harder for me to ignore. I've been tempted to unfollow her, but she posts just enough other stuff--stuff we both enjoy and like talking about--that I don't.

I'm someone who discusses politics for a living, so getting into political debates on Facebook is the last thing I actually want to do. I'd rather stir up hate and disconent when I'm being paid for it. 😄 But the truth is, though, I do think we'd be better off moving political discussions into private rooms on Facebook meant for the topic. Yeah, even those social commentaries we all probably do from time to time, especially because so many of those do have political overtones. At least for some people. 

After all, none of us want to lose friends over this stuff.

It's especially hard when someone who has known you for so long says they can't see how anyone who thinks like you can be a good person. It would seem to me that the friendship is long over, though, if she can actually say something like that to you.

[Our first day homeschooling again]

20 hours ago, bethben said:

So, I’ve just learned to relax about her learning math and not worry about finishing the textbook like I had been in the past.  

Can't speak for schools in your neck of the woods, but here, they almost never finish a textbook in public or private schools anyway.

[my reading education inadequacies]

6 hours ago, square_25 said:

I think HOW the books are read is worse than the specific books. I actually liked most of the books we read at school, but I hated taking quizzes on them, I hated five paragraph essays, and I refused to read the books one chapter at a time.

Based on the informal survey I've taken of people in my social sphere, that wasn't really it, though that doesn't help.

It also is a case of how there's nothing universal in education. Some people loathe the books, some hate how they're taught. It really depends on where you are and who is teaching as to which is the big problem.

[my reading education inadequacies]

6 hours ago, MissLemon said:

My first choice was to send a book called "The Day My Butt Went Psycho" because a ridiculous book about butts will grab the attention of an 8 year old boy, but I don't think my sister would approve. 😆

She may not approve, but I think your suggestion would do a whole lot to fix the problem.

I mean, I know how many non-readers I've talked to who say they used to love books when they were little, but then they started having to read in school and grew to hate it. That's because of stuff like you just mentioned.

But if you let a kid read the books he or she wants to read--and yeah, throw in the occasional book you think they need to read even if it's not something they think is fun--you'll damage their love of reading far less than schools seem to screw them up.

That's just my thinking, anyway.

[TV/ Streaming Series that have ended]

Yeah, I'm not sure how I'll feel about it without Nate as a character, but since Elliot, Parker, and Hardison were my favorites anyway, I'm hopeful.

[TV/ Streaming Series that have ended]

50 minutes ago, Laurel-in-CA said:

Firefly, Eureka, Leverage or Miss Fisher

Good news, Leverage is coming back.

https://www.tvinsider.com/931862/leverage-revival-noah-wyle-original-cast-members/

And I've already seen pics of most of the cast hanging out for a bit.

[Would you have oral surgery right now?]

Dentists tend to follow clean and sterile procedures to reduce the chances of infection anyway, particular with oral surgeries. I wouldn't worry about it in the least.

I had my oral surgery before all this kicked off here in the U.S., thankfully, and have been delayed in getting follow-ups because of COVID, but I wouldn't blink about going to get the work done.

[TV/ Streaming Series that have ended]

Jericho would be a definite.

Firefly, even more so.

There was a TV show called Life where the main character was a cop who'd been wrongfully convicted of his partner's murder. He filed a lawsuit and got out of prison and was reinstated to the force with a multi-million dollar settlement, which he used to try and track down his partner's real killer. It ended after one season, but I'd LOVE to see more of that one.

I'd say Leverage, but we're getting more of that one, thankfully. 😄

 

[The Part Of Homeschooling I Didn't Hear About]

55 minutes ago, Patty Joanna said:

It's called "October."  Plan for a long-weekend in October.  

I was planning on restocking the liquor cabinet about then. Does that work? 😉

47 minutes ago, PeachyDoodle said:

And another one (or two or three) in February!

 

23 minutes ago, *Jessica* said:

Actually, prepare yourself to take a school break for all of February!  If you’re lucky it won’t happen to you, but it’s a thing.  February burn out and spring fever hitting at once makes for a rough month for a lot of us!

Oh, joy.

Seriously, I suspect there will be some degree of burnout from time to time. I'm going to play around with X number of weeks on, one week off to try and mitigate that, but we'll see what works and what doesn't.

And how well that liquor cabinet stays stocked.

[The Part Of Homeschooling I Didn't Hear About]

Just now, Jean in Newcastle said:

I hate to warn you though that there  can be times when your child who knew something backwards and forwards all of a sudden forgets that it even exists. . .    So enjoy those lightbulb moments when they come! 

Well, I can't judge. That happens to me all the time, so why wouldn't it happen to her?

But way to harsh my mellow! 😛

(Seriously, it's good to be reminded that's a possibility)

[The Part Of Homeschooling I Didn't Hear About]

1 minute ago, Bagels McGruffikin said:

The click is excellent, as is watching the process of them genuinely enjoy learning something and taking off with it. I love those moments, and remind myself of them often when I want to flush the kids and lock myself in a closet with headphones and chocolate 😒

Oh I can imagine!

I wasn't too far from that at one point last week, but not quite. I suspect those days are coming, though. I mean, a whole week of homeschooling isn't nearly enough time to run the gamut of emotions involved.

But this one...this is one that's really hard to ignore. 🙂

[The Part Of Homeschooling I Didn't Hear About]

Just now, prairiewindmomma said:

That feeling is pretty amazing!

It really, really is.

Just now, Jean in Newcastle said:

Yes, those lightbulb moments are wonderful.  And shhhh!  It's a secret!  😉 

I KNEW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😄

[The Part Of Homeschooling I Didn't Hear About]

I've following homeschooling off and on for ages, though not seriously until the last little while. In that time, I've heard plenty of arguments in favor of homeschooling.

I've seen people talk about how their kids began outperforming their peers. I've seen talk of how they can complete their educations early and start college sooner. I've heard some talk about eliminating what they perceive as biases in education. All sorts of reasons.

Yet today, I experience a reason that makes all of those pale in comparison.

On Wednesday and Thursday last week, my daughter was struggling with something in math. Since I don't move on until she really understands something, we held there. Friday was a local homeschool group's meeting and I wanted to check it out, so we didn't really cover much of anything that day.

Fast forward to today. We pick up where we left off. This very same concept that was kind of kicking her butt last week suddenly clicked for her and she got it. She blew through the math problems--what I thought was a fairly basic concept that she swears she didn't learn last year, which may be true due to COVID--and aced it. That moment when everything clicked for her was kind of magical, at least for me. My heart swelled with pride and I could even feel tears welling up a bit.

It wasn't that she got the concept, but to see her break through something that had been a struggle was just something I wouldn't have gotten to see if she went to public school this year. It was incredible and I'm glad I didn't get to miss it after all.

This is the part of homeschooling I didn't hear people talk about, that magical moment when you child grasps a concept because of your teaching, one that they were having trouble with. It's hard not to feel amazing, not just for yourself but for them, watching them push through something that was challenging them until they grasp the subject so well they can ace a worksheet like it was on the easiest subject in the world.

Seriously, have you all been hording these good feelings or something all this time??? 😉

[S/O of minimalist thread - Maximalism homeschooling]

Oh, this sounds fun.

First, I'd have laboratories for all the sciences with all the relevant bells and whistles. Electron microscopes to actually look at atoms, for example.

We'd have as complete a library as humanly possible, our own personal Library of Alexandria. It would contain both fiction and non-fiction on pretty much every subject imaginable, including some archiac (like alchemy, for example, to show how that relates to things like modern chemistry). 

I'd also have music teachers for any instrument my daughter had an interest in. We'd also have personal trainers come in to help keep everyone in tip-top shape. I'd supplement the Historical European Martial Arts teaching I currently do with someone who is more competent at it.

We'd also bring in tutors for anything my daughter had an interest in learning. While I don't buy fully into some of the the ideas I've hear of called "child-directed" learning--if it were up to my daughter, she'd spend her learning time just learning what various TV characters were up to--I do like the idea of her having some agency in her education. Particularly as it relates to non-core subjects. That would include art, auto-mechanics, zoology, fashion design, anything at all, really.

I'm sure I'll have more in mind later.

[my reading education inadequacies]

Something worth keeping in mind is that for many of us, the push for kids to read so-called "good books" actually inhibits a love of reading. Kids don't learn to love reading because they're forced to read books that some adult thinks are good for them. They love reading because it can take them on adventures to places they've never been and to do things they've never done. Yet, if they're not free to read what some might consider crap, they're not likely to take up reading elsewhere.

Like some said earlier, many of these "classics" weren't classics at the time.

A favorite example of mine is Shakespeare. He's considered high-brow these days. Every educated person simply has to be familiar with his works. Several of them, in fact. We read one of his plays every year in high school, if memory serves. Macbeth, Julius Ceasar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, all were essential parts of our supposedly well-rounded education.

The thing is, Shakespeare wrote for the masses, not the nobility or the well-educated. His works are littered with low-brow humor that flies over the head of many today.

So yeah, I'm partial to reading for the sake of reading. Then again, I work as a writer and I'm a novelist on the side. I'm biased a bit on the topic since I don't write anything that will be considered a classic in a generation or two. I write science fiction and fantasy and I like that. I'd rather have my kids love reading so that when they have to read something they don't like, it's not likely to prevent that love from forming because it's already there. 

I'm pretty down on public schools, but one of the better moves they made between when I was in school and when my son went through was the Accelerated Reader program. It didn't try to foist particular books off on kids to read, it just wanted kids to read. Books were rated based on length, complexity, etc, so they were encouraged to reader tougher books, but they weren't forced to read anything in particular.

It helped my oldest develop a love for books that he still holds onto as a sophmore in college. It's why he sought out Frankenstein as a freshman in high school. It's why he's read Edgar Allen Poe as well. He loves to read and is always looking for good books.

Which is a long-winded way for me to say that it's not always a great thing to push particular books on children who don't already love reading in and of itself.

That's just my take. 

[Just venting--Secular Thought Police]

10 hours ago, Mrs. Tharp said:

 My point is, though, that in this group, people are fleeing one kind of restrictive mindset  and embracing another that is equally restrictive. 

That just seems to be human nature, though.

There does seem to be a tendency for people leaving (fleeing?) one type of restriction to find reasons to create those same kinds of restrictions at the opposite end of the spectrum. There may or may not be a perceived need for it, but it happens all too often. For some, it's a case of "turnabout is fair play." For others, they can rationalize it until they're blue in the face. It doesn't matter, it just is.

I can't speak on this particular group because I don't know it--I'm actually in zero Facebook homeschooling groups, at the moment--but like someone else said above, it does seem telling that everyone knew which group this was just from the description.

[Wallpaper removal. Ack!!!]

The last time I had to deal with wallpaper, we gave up after about four hours of labor with almost nothing to show for it despite scoring the paper and using a chemical remover.

We ended up mixing sand with paint and putting that up over it. It helped hide the scoring on the wallpaper and gave it an interesting texture instead.

Yes, I cheated, but it was either that or just burn the place to the ground at that point.

[Your Most Hated Book from School]

I guess the way to settle which is harder is to find someone who can do both and ask them, I suppose. 🤣

Either way, it's still pretty cool.

[Your Most Hated Book from School]

10 hours ago, square_25 said:

Uhm, I bought a copy of a translated Russian book that I had loved in Russian for my then-boyfriend, tried reading it, was disgusted, and had the hubris to think I could do better. 

It got published after many, many revisions more than 5 years later. (I could not, in fact, do better at first, and I was no longer with the same boyfriend!) I'm technically an "acclaimed translator," according to some book blurbs 😉 . 

I've written a few novels, but translating novels is an artform unto itself, so my hat's off to you. That's pretty impressive.

After all, to do it right, it takes more than just switching out words. You have to make those words flow in a pleasing way, which is basically like rewriting the novel in some ways.

10 hours ago, square_25 said:

Literary translation is definitely not work that pays well, by the way, lol! 

That's kind of a shame, since I've always viewed it as being arguably more difficult than writing a novel outright.

Then again, I don't actually speak any other languages, so trying to translate just isn't a possibility, so that might color my perceptions a bit.

[Your Most Hated Book from School]

36 minutes ago, annegables said:

Some of my school book hate comes from the inane projects that we had to do in conjunction with them. We read Island of the Blue Dolphins in 6th grade and spent untold amounts of time making dioramas. A few years ago, my kids and I listened to the audio version and we all loved it! It is a really interesting book that was ruined with asinine craft projects. 

 

That'll do it. I mean, I loved Island of the Blue Dolphins, but all I had to do was read the book at my own pace, which I did.

I think I had to do a book report on it, but once I actually read it, that was easy.

21 minutes ago, annegables said:

I wonder if we/schools do this because there is a feeling of, "if kids dont read this now, they will never read it", which is probably true for many people, but I dont know if it is doing anyone any favors. Especially when there has been precious little lead-up to prepare students for reading these books. And then what many students encounter in class are random quizzes about stupid details to ensure the kid real the book and not the Cliff Notes. I am so thankful that I can just have lit conversations with my kids and not have to quiz them on what time was on the clock on Miss Haversham's wall (yes, I still remember this question from Great Expectations). 

That's probably part of it. That and the idea that kids Have To Read This (TM) that many English teachers seem to have. They're convinced that they have to make people read "good" literature and they don't really know how to teach people to enjoy that literature.

That's especially bad when you've got a dyslexic/ADHD kid that can read just fine, but hates it because of the effort it takes. At that point, it would be better to teach him/her to just love reading and move on from there. Unfortunately, there's a certain snobbishness I've seen among some English teachers where they think certain books aren't worthy, so they push the ones who they deem worthy instead...and in the process, destroy the possibility that those students might someday read them.

I mean, sure, there are books that are probably worth reading in school. But maybe temper them by including them in books the student might actually like?

[Street harassment wwyd]

How routine are her walks? In other words, is she out and about at the same time?

If so, they know when to look for her. This increases the chance of them being there to offer their harassment. If she's not willing to vary her walking area may want to vary her time. At least then, they won't know when to look for her.

Even though this bunch may not have crossed the line legally, what they're displaying is predatory behavior. Not having a set routine will help throw things off since they won't know when she'll be walking by.

That said, I'd strongly recommend also finding another path to walk, even just to alternate to from time to time. No, she shouldn't have to, but we don't necessarily live in a just world. It's important to understand that one has to be proactive about their safety, even though no one should have to do such a thing.

[Free periodic table coloring book]

Heh. My daughter wanted to do chemistry this year, so this is kind of perfect. 

Thanks!

[Your Most Hated Book from School]

23 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

NOOOOO!!!!! 😱 😂  Such a fantastic epic! Many of my high school students LOVED Beowulf when we did it as part of a year-long Lord of the Rings study!

I do think Beowulf, along with other older works that are in translation, can be very tough to connect with, and if you can do them a knowledgeable guide or mentor who can help you see and appreciate what's in the work and understand the context that it is coming out of, can really help reduce the "hate" (lol) for a book...
 

A lot of those types of things probably depend on who translated it.

Translation isn't just about taking the words and finding the right words in modern English. It's a kind of art all on its own, so if you don't find the right translation, you end up with a sub-par product.

It's why I'm glad someone suggested Gawain and the Green Knight translated by J.R.R. Tolkien. My inner geek smiled at that one. 😄