Wow, it's been two months since I've posted any pictures. I still haven't found a routine for getting pictures off the camera and onto the blog. Someday.
In other news, I got some cute pictures of the girls today. I told the girls we were going someplace fun today and gave them the following hints.
- It has air conditioning.
- I'm not completely sure it's open.
- It is fun for kids.
- It is in a location you've been before, but the location was named something else.
- Its a place you been before, but it was in a different location.
Sparkle and Glitter were guessing like crazy until we finally pulled up at the children's museum. It was our first visit since it re-opened.
I have no idea when I'll finally upload the pictures.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
VBS
Sparkle had a good time at vacation bible school this past week. Glitter wanted to go, but I read the flyer wrong and thought she was too young. Then when we were dropping Sparkle off, Glitter saw other kids her age attending. Glitter was really disappointed. I told her she could go next year.
Sorry, no pictures.
Sorry, no pictures.
Friday, July 16, 2010
early academic skills to ward off incessant questions
I think that I taught Sparkle a few academic topics earlier than the normal scope and sequence: reading, telling time, and money. I find that having Sparkle understand these three topics has been very useful in getting her to not bug me.
Reading. Reading has been a useful skill for Sparkle ever since she started. When I'm busy she can entertain herself and her sister by reading. When she wants to know something, she can read the label instead of asking me.
Telling time. Once Sparkle got the basics of telling time, I heard the everlasting question "When?" far less often. I still have to answer the question the first time, but then she can look at the clock the next time the question comes up.
Money. Sparkle still is a bit unclear on the concept of money, but she knows enough to limit pestering me to buy stuff.
Reading. Reading has been a useful skill for Sparkle ever since she started. When I'm busy she can entertain herself and her sister by reading. When she wants to know something, she can read the label instead of asking me.
Telling time. Once Sparkle got the basics of telling time, I heard the everlasting question "When?" far less often. I still have to answer the question the first time, but then she can look at the clock the next time the question comes up.
Money. Sparkle still is a bit unclear on the concept of money, but she knows enough to limit pestering me to buy stuff.
Predictable Irrationality
A friend recommended the book "Predictable Irrationality" by Dan Ariely. I checked it out of the library and found it a fun read. It reminded me of the books by Malcolm Gladwell, which I also enjoyed.
Unfortunately, I find myself disagreeing with Dan Ariely in several instances. For example, when he writes about saving money, he views money in simple terms of addition and subtraction. He says that a savings of $7 is the same whether it is off of $14 or $700, and that a rational choice would be to take the same amount of effort to save that $7 regardless of the base price of the item. However, I don't see it in that same linear fashion. In one case, saving $7 is half of the base price. In the other case, that $7 is one hundredth of base price. I think that it is reasonable, in general, to put more effort into a 50% savings versus a 1% savings.
Another instance where I disagree is when he writes about the power of "FREE!" He says that people choose free things out of proportion to the actual discount in price. He cites an experiment comparing chocolate samples priced at $0.30 and $0.01, and those same samples priced a penny less. He states that since the difference in price remained the same, people were irrational when they overwhelmingly favored the free choice. However, again, I see things differently. The issue isn't the relative difference in price; the difference is the value/money of the individual choices. As long as you have to pay something for each sample, the choices are consistant. However, as soon as you drop the price to free, the value/money ratio becomes an issue of dividing by zero, and thus is undefined.
Yet another instance is when he writes about the satisfaction that people have when ordering beer in a social settings. He writes that people are less satisfied with their beer choices when their order is influenced by social pressures. Thus, he states that people should ignore social pressures when choosing from the menu at restaurants. However, he bases this conclusion solely on how much people liked the beer; not how people felt about the entire experience. By allowing their choices to be influenced by others' choices, people have chosen to trade some enjoyment of the beer with enjoyment of being unique (or other hard-to-quantify quality).
If you have waded through this tangled mess of thoughts, I hope that you have learned by now that this blog is a place for me to dump my thoughts as-is without having to pretty them up for general consumption.
Unfortunately, I find myself disagreeing with Dan Ariely in several instances. For example, when he writes about saving money, he views money in simple terms of addition and subtraction. He says that a savings of $7 is the same whether it is off of $14 or $700, and that a rational choice would be to take the same amount of effort to save that $7 regardless of the base price of the item. However, I don't see it in that same linear fashion. In one case, saving $7 is half of the base price. In the other case, that $7 is one hundredth of base price. I think that it is reasonable, in general, to put more effort into a 50% savings versus a 1% savings.
Another instance where I disagree is when he writes about the power of "FREE!" He says that people choose free things out of proportion to the actual discount in price. He cites an experiment comparing chocolate samples priced at $0.30 and $0.01, and those same samples priced a penny less. He states that since the difference in price remained the same, people were irrational when they overwhelmingly favored the free choice. However, again, I see things differently. The issue isn't the relative difference in price; the difference is the value/money of the individual choices. As long as you have to pay something for each sample, the choices are consistant. However, as soon as you drop the price to free, the value/money ratio becomes an issue of dividing by zero, and thus is undefined.
Yet another instance is when he writes about the satisfaction that people have when ordering beer in a social settings. He writes that people are less satisfied with their beer choices when their order is influenced by social pressures. Thus, he states that people should ignore social pressures when choosing from the menu at restaurants. However, he bases this conclusion solely on how much people liked the beer; not how people felt about the entire experience. By allowing their choices to be influenced by others' choices, people have chosen to trade some enjoyment of the beer with enjoyment of being unique (or other hard-to-quantify quality).
If you have waded through this tangled mess of thoughts, I hope that you have learned by now that this blog is a place for me to dump my thoughts as-is without having to pretty them up for general consumption.
old fashioned me vs. wii
A friend of the family loaned us a wii and some games to go with it. We decided to try it out. After a bit of swearing, rearranging of wires, and pushing buttons on remote controls, Wander finally got the wii hooked up with both sound and video coming through. The girls were excited to try a game that feature princesses, but after puzzling our way through the game menus, we were unable to figure out how to work the game. Next we tried a cooking game. This game was better in that we were able to figure out how to get it to work.
The experience reminded me of Amy Dacyczyn's experience with microwave popcorn in The Tightwad Gazette. A high priced product that is a staple in other people's lives was a source of confusion and frustration for us.
As I watched the kids try to "cook" in the game, I was struck by the fact that the game has little resemblance to the corresponding real life activity. (My previous experience with other computer games has supported that idea.) I thought, wouldn't it be more enjoyable to really cook?
In a pause between the girls bickering for a turn, I asked them if they wanted to join me in mixing up some chocolate chip cookies instead of playing the game. I was pleased that both girls leaped at the opportunity, even though I made it clear that we would be only mixing the dough that evening and we wouldn't actually bake or eat the cookies that evening. They even took turns in dumping ingredients and Sparkle set up the step stool for Glitter so that they could both see.
I guess that I'm horribly old fashioned.
The experience reminded me of Amy Dacyczyn's experience with microwave popcorn in The Tightwad Gazette. A high priced product that is a staple in other people's lives was a source of confusion and frustration for us.
As I watched the kids try to "cook" in the game, I was struck by the fact that the game has little resemblance to the corresponding real life activity. (My previous experience with other computer games has supported that idea.) I thought, wouldn't it be more enjoyable to really cook?
In a pause between the girls bickering for a turn, I asked them if they wanted to join me in mixing up some chocolate chip cookies instead of playing the game. I was pleased that both girls leaped at the opportunity, even though I made it clear that we would be only mixing the dough that evening and we wouldn't actually bake or eat the cookies that evening. They even took turns in dumping ingredients and Sparkle set up the step stool for Glitter so that they could both see.
I guess that I'm horribly old fashioned.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
children's backs
It seems that I've been caught in a stream of Victorian children's literature featuring kids that hurt their backs.
"The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
Colin has a bad back.
"Jack and Jill" by Louisa May Alcott (1879)
Jill hurts her back in a sledding accident.
"What Katy Did" by Susan Coolidge (1872)
Katy hurts her back falling off a swing.
Fortunately all the children's backs get better.
"The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
Colin has a bad back.
"Jack and Jill" by Louisa May Alcott (1879)
Jill hurts her back in a sledding accident.
"What Katy Did" by Susan Coolidge (1872)
Katy hurts her back falling off a swing.
Fortunately all the children's backs get better.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Sparkle Poem
Sparkle is still on a poetry kick. She's been reading a lot of Jack Prelutsky and some Shel Silverstein recently. Here's a poem that she came up with that I think is decent. Picture several young girls on the Fourth of July screaming and running around the backyard as their daddies shoot off fireworks.
Over the fence where the loquat's hang,
I suddenly heard a very loud BANG.
I looked up very surprised to see,
A very large rocket heading right for ME!
- Sparkle
P.S. This poem is a work of fiction. No rockets or other fireworks headed towards any children. Wander made sure that the kids stayed safe.
Over the fence where the loquat's hang,
I suddenly heard a very loud BANG.
I looked up very surprised to see,
A very large rocket heading right for ME!
- Sparkle
P.S. This poem is a work of fiction. No rockets or other fireworks headed towards any children. Wander made sure that the kids stayed safe.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
De-cluttering
For the longest time the kids room has been the only decent room in the house. Their room contains only their furniture (which actually matches!), a handful of stuffed animals and books (no toys!), and their current clothing. I make the girls make their beds every morning, and the room is the only place in the house that is clean and uncluttered.
The rest of the upstairs, including my bedroom and the hallway, is a total mess. Except for a few narrow paths connecting door-to-door, I haven't seen the floor in years. I am a pack-rat and hate to get rid of anything. Instead I just dump the latest thing on top of the ever growing pile of stuff. When I see junk lying around, I think of how much it costed and what it could potentially be used for and I don't want to get rid of it.
The downstairs isn't much better. The counters and tables are dumping grounds for everything -- paperwork of every sort, objects with broken or missing parts, kid's crafts, unwashed dishes, pencils missing their erasers, etc. The floor does get swept once in a while because I hate stepping on crunchy stuff when I'm barefoot. I make the kids clean up their toys twice a day and that helps with their clutter, but my clutter is what's taking over the house.
Nevertheless, I'm trying to get rid of some of the clutter in the house. My goal is to get rid of enough stuff so that I can actually make sense out of what is left.
The rest of the upstairs, including my bedroom and the hallway, is a total mess. Except for a few narrow paths connecting door-to-door, I haven't seen the floor in years. I am a pack-rat and hate to get rid of anything. Instead I just dump the latest thing on top of the ever growing pile of stuff. When I see junk lying around, I think of how much it costed and what it could potentially be used for and I don't want to get rid of it.
The downstairs isn't much better. The counters and tables are dumping grounds for everything -- paperwork of every sort, objects with broken or missing parts, kid's crafts, unwashed dishes, pencils missing their erasers, etc. The floor does get swept once in a while because I hate stepping on crunchy stuff when I'm barefoot. I make the kids clean up their toys twice a day and that helps with their clutter, but my clutter is what's taking over the house.
Nevertheless, I'm trying to get rid of some of the clutter in the house. My goal is to get rid of enough stuff so that I can actually make sense out of what is left.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Dolls
I should have taken a picture of the girls playing with the dolls. We now have four dolls: one for Gitter, one for Sparkle, and two for me. This morning the girls used an upside-down bucket and a round disc-thing as a table and spread out a tea party for the dolls. It was quite cute -- exactly the sort of thing I want the girls to do with the dolls. Sparkle got quite a kick out of the fact that two of the dolls are mommy's dolls, and thus her sisters.
weird kids
Somehow my kids have gotten it into their heads that scrubbing the toilet bowl is fun. They like swishing the brush in the colored water. This morning they actually got into a fight over who would get to scrub the toilet. I had already scrubbed the toilet in their bathroom, and were upset that I wouldn't let either of them scrub it again. (I figured that making scrubbing the toilet seem like forbidden fruit would make them more agreeable to do it.) Instead I offered to let them scrub the downstairs toilet. However, each girl wanted to do all the scrubbing herself, and so they got into a fight.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Rain
It's a pretty sad state of affairs when the kids lay on the couch staring at the tv even though it's turned to the weather forcast and the sound is muted.
Elementary English
********************
At our homeschool group's curriculum share I ended up describing how I taught Sparkle to read. That discussion prompted me to record here what I did with Sparkle for language arts so that I can repeat the process with Glitter. Glitter has her own way of thinking, but at least this plan will give me a starting point.
The focus of this phase is learning to read and handwriting.
********************
I started by teaching Sparkle the letter names and sounds. This task is straightforward memorization, which requires repetition. I used videos: Letter Factory by LeapFrog and PocketSnails Letter Adventure. I stuck in a video as I was making supper. The Letter Factory is good letter names and sounds. However, it uses all capital letters, so I supplement with Pocket Snails Letter Adventure, which uses lower case letters. I also use LeapFrog's Word Factory and Code Word Caper sparingly. Word Factory helps with blending but relies on word families. Code Word Caper teaches more phonic concepts (long vowels and digraphs) but also has misleading information about the "two vowels."
I taught Sparkle how to blend sounds to make words. Blending is an oral skill, so it can be done completely orally without any paper or writing. I use songs (usually in the car) to teach blending. I borrowed the "diddle-diddle" song from my mother-in-law and use it to teach blending an initial consonant. I use the Apples and Bananas song to work on blending the vowel sounds. I also use The Name Game for additional rhyming / blending practice. I just start singing these songs in the car to pass the time and let the girls choose the consonants (diddle-diddle) or rhyming words (Name Game).
After Sparkle mastered the letter sounds and blending, I started a formal learn-to-read program. I used The Reading Lesson. We did from 1/2 a page to 4 pages depending on how difficult the page was. After she read to me, I read a book of her own choosing to her.
I did a few activities to get in extra reading practice. I wrote a new word on the chalkboard at night for her to see first thing in the morning. I made a deck of phonetic cards and we played command card with them. I paid her to read level-appropriate books that I chose. I strewed a lot of high interest easy readers from the library.
Once Sparkle finished The Reading Lesson, we did both reading and writing.
To build reading fluency, Sparkle had daily reading practice from a variety of sources. I also started doing repeated reading, where she would read the same book/passage/story two days in a row to build fluency.
After Sparkle was reading fluently, I dropped formal reading instruction and moved on to comprehension. I started her on the McCall-Harby reading comprehension book. When she finished that book, she moved on to the McCall-Crabbs reading comprehension book. At this point, she is "reading to learn" versus "learning to read."
Meanwhile, I started handwriting. I taught lower case letters first, and not in alphabetical order. I started with forming letters in a salt tray. I introduced one letter at a time and reviewed all previous letters. I used flashcards to keep track of the letters learned and for finger tracing practice.
After Sparkle could form all the letters, I switched her to lined paper and started spelling with SRW. I used sentence dictation as spelling practice, being sure to use only words that had been previously taught. Eventually I discovered that Sparkle is a natural speller, and I switched to Spelling Plus Dictation because it moves at a faster pace.
********************
Here we leave the record of what I did for language arts for Sparkle and hope to repeat with Glitter.
Next, I imagine what I'll do for English in the future with Sparkle. It is heavily influenced by what I've seen of Sparkle's learning style and my teaching style.
The focus of this phase is "learning to write", with an end goal of being able to "write to learn".
********************
Start teaching the four sentence types and eight parts of speech with The Sentence Family.
After finishing The Sentence Family, move on MCT LA Island Level. Start with Grammar Island. Weave in Music of the Hemispheres at will. Start Practice Island daily after Grammar Island is done, or earlier if Grammar Island takes a long time. Complete Music of the Hemispheres. Finally, do Building Langauge and Sentence Island.
After finishing MCTLA Island Level, do The Paragraph Book series and Grammar Town. After Grammar Town, do Killgallon's Story Grammar. Finally, return to the rest of MCTLA Town Level. Once Sparkle can write decent sentences and paragraphs, she will, hopefully, be ready to start writing across the curriculum.
********************
This sequence should take a few years and, for me, planning further out would be pointless.
I used to subscribe to a Charlotte Mason method for language arts with copywork, dictation, and narration. After playing with the idea in my head for a while, but never actually getting it done, I decided that Charlotte Mason language arts won't work for me.
I also experimented with creating my own curriculum, but after seeing how much work it is to come up with my own thing and how many great resources are out there, I'd rather spend the money. Most of my chosen resources are non-consumable, so I might be able to resell them.
********************
At our homeschool group's curriculum share I ended up describing how I taught Sparkle to read. That discussion prompted me to record here what I did with Sparkle for language arts so that I can repeat the process with Glitter. Glitter has her own way of thinking, but at least this plan will give me a starting point.
The focus of this phase is learning to read and handwriting.
********************
I started by teaching Sparkle the letter names and sounds. This task is straightforward memorization, which requires repetition. I used videos: Letter Factory by LeapFrog and PocketSnails Letter Adventure. I stuck in a video as I was making supper. The Letter Factory is good letter names and sounds. However, it uses all capital letters, so I supplement with Pocket Snails Letter Adventure, which uses lower case letters. I also use LeapFrog's Word Factory and Code Word Caper sparingly. Word Factory helps with blending but relies on word families. Code Word Caper teaches more phonic concepts (long vowels and digraphs) but also has misleading information about the "two vowels."
I taught Sparkle how to blend sounds to make words. Blending is an oral skill, so it can be done completely orally without any paper or writing. I use songs (usually in the car) to teach blending. I borrowed the "diddle-diddle" song from my mother-in-law and use it to teach blending an initial consonant. I use the Apples and Bananas song to work on blending the vowel sounds. I also use The Name Game for additional rhyming / blending practice. I just start singing these songs in the car to pass the time and let the girls choose the consonants (diddle-diddle) or rhyming words (Name Game).
After Sparkle mastered the letter sounds and blending, I started a formal learn-to-read program. I used The Reading Lesson. We did from 1/2 a page to 4 pages depending on how difficult the page was. After she read to me, I read a book of her own choosing to her.
I did a few activities to get in extra reading practice. I wrote a new word on the chalkboard at night for her to see first thing in the morning. I made a deck of phonetic cards and we played command card with them. I paid her to read level-appropriate books that I chose. I strewed a lot of high interest easy readers from the library.
Once Sparkle finished The Reading Lesson, we did both reading and writing.
To build reading fluency, Sparkle had daily reading practice from a variety of sources. I also started doing repeated reading, where she would read the same book/passage/story two days in a row to build fluency.
After Sparkle was reading fluently, I dropped formal reading instruction and moved on to comprehension. I started her on the McCall-Harby reading comprehension book. When she finished that book, she moved on to the McCall-Crabbs reading comprehension book. At this point, she is "reading to learn" versus "learning to read."
Meanwhile, I started handwriting. I taught lower case letters first, and not in alphabetical order. I started with forming letters in a salt tray. I introduced one letter at a time and reviewed all previous letters. I used flashcards to keep track of the letters learned and for finger tracing practice.
After Sparkle could form all the letters, I switched her to lined paper and started spelling with SRW. I used sentence dictation as spelling practice, being sure to use only words that had been previously taught. Eventually I discovered that Sparkle is a natural speller, and I switched to Spelling Plus Dictation because it moves at a faster pace.
********************
Here we leave the record of what I did for language arts for Sparkle and hope to repeat with Glitter.
Next, I imagine what I'll do for English in the future with Sparkle. It is heavily influenced by what I've seen of Sparkle's learning style and my teaching style.
The focus of this phase is "learning to write", with an end goal of being able to "write to learn".
********************
Start teaching the four sentence types and eight parts of speech with The Sentence Family.
After finishing The Sentence Family, move on MCT LA Island Level. Start with Grammar Island. Weave in Music of the Hemispheres at will. Start Practice Island daily after Grammar Island is done, or earlier if Grammar Island takes a long time. Complete Music of the Hemispheres. Finally, do Building Langauge and Sentence Island.
After finishing MCTLA Island Level, do The Paragraph Book series and Grammar Town. After Grammar Town, do Killgallon's Story Grammar. Finally, return to the rest of MCTLA Town Level. Once Sparkle can write decent sentences and paragraphs, she will, hopefully, be ready to start writing across the curriculum.
********************
This sequence should take a few years and, for me, planning further out would be pointless.
I used to subscribe to a Charlotte Mason method for language arts with copywork, dictation, and narration. After playing with the idea in my head for a while, but never actually getting it done, I decided that Charlotte Mason language arts won't work for me.
I also experimented with creating my own curriculum, but after seeing how much work it is to come up with my own thing and how many great resources are out there, I'd rather spend the money. Most of my chosen resources are non-consumable, so I might be able to resell them.
********************
Thursday, July 1, 2010
short attention span
Sometimes I think that I change parenting strategies as often as I change homeschool curriculum. My current parenting focus is on getting the kids to pick up after themselves. I'm taking the summer break to work on this skill without the pressure to get school done.
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