All about science

I am going to try this from a different direction.  I am going to create my own curriculum that is aligned with the recently created science standards.  26 states worked together to decide what science students need to know, and the what has now been published.  As soon as I get permission to use their name I will post it and a link for you.  The how of teaching these standards is left up to each state who then chooses to crate more rules or leave it up to the school district.  This trickles down until it is stopped, or gets to the classroom teacher.  Since I don't report to anyone, the buck stops,with me.  I am off to get permission to use the name of these newly created science standards for the next generation of user.

Money money money

Homeschooling seems that it will cost a fortune.   I am not even buying a curriculum (a la Abeka or others) but I still can't stop spending money.  I have chosen homeschooling because I want what is best for my daughters and that is translating into new books and possibly one each of everything from Carolina Supply.  We are going to do some plant studies and I am ver interested in the Wisconsin Fast Plants. However, unless we are going to do genetic crosses do we really need fast plants?  Is part of homeschooling the ability to do experiments over a longer time period?  Could we learn as much propagating something cheaper?  Where else should I cut costs?  I already plan on being a fixture at our local library and not buying books that I can check out.  We have a learning co-op in the area that we have signed up for.  Hopefully I can learn more during our summer activities together.  I hope the other parents can help me cut some costs. 

Myself First

I am back home from a weeks vacation and ready to knuckle down and get to work this summer in preparation of my first homeschool year this fall. I need to get myself onto a schedule now so that it is second nature come fall.  I need to plan a menu, make a grocery list, and plan my chore schedule.  Despite my husband saying that he understands that next year I will be working harder next year and he will help out more around the house, I just don't believe it will come to pass.  I am going to busy busy busy and I need to work smarter as well as harder, but how?

To start at the start

When we told my older daughter we would be homeschooling next year she said that since I was her teacher we wouldn't have to take the summer off I don't intend to do serious homeschool this summer.  However I am going to test the girls to know where we are starting from.  I ordered the CAT from Seaton.  www.seatontesting.com  Why the CAT?  Well, it is a nationally normed standardized test as required by my state.  It is inexpensive, easy to administer, and Seaton offers timely grading. I ordered the k for my daughter entering k and the 2nd and 3rd test for my daughter entering 3rd.  Our neighborhood school did not give any end of year testing and the report card was not very descriptive.  When we received the first marking period card we were told that the students would largely have marks of unsatisfactory.  They were not going to actually check the students and see if they could do the required items.  They were going to hand out unsatisfactory because the year had just started.  Then by the end of the year the students would be achieving at grade level and on the final report card the marks should be satisfactory.  WHAT!  That shows improvement when it is possible no actual improvement had been made.  What if the student could already accomplish the required items at grade level?  It was so frustrating.  Therefore I want to give her a second grade test to see how that really went and the third grade test so we know where to start. What tests do other families use?

Worst kept secret

My husband and I had decided not to tell the girls about our decision to homeschool them next year until this school year was over. While it is true that I am firing the school for doing a poor job, I see no upside to my 2nd grade daughter announcing that to her class. There was only a week left in the school year. I thought I could keep a secret for a week. This morning in the car Boo mentioned how excited she was to ride the bus next year. I could have lied by omission or outright lied to her but that is just not the example I want to set. Instead I asked her what she would think if she didn’t ride the bus next year and we did homeschool. She told me she wanted to go to school with Angel. I told her that Angel would be homeschooled too. Well, Little Boo was pretty excited about that. That afternoon we drove to the bus stop to pick up Angel. She no more than got in the car when Boo shouted out, “Guess what? Next year we are going to be homeschooled.” Angel didn’t believe her at first and asked me why some kids do homeschool and some kids go to school. I told her that the parents had thought about it and made the choice that was best for their family. She said, “and going to school is best for our family.” I answered, “It use to be. We are going to try homeschool and see if that is best for our family.” “Why?” “It will allow us to do more science and we can do math at your level and you won’t have to be bored as much.” “Yea! And since you are our teacher we could start now and we don’t even have to take the summer off.” Now I am more certain that we are heading in the right direction. She is excited about more science and extra math. We are not however, going to start right now. I have too much to get ready yet. She was comforted by the fact that we will be doing the library summer reading program and she can still do her math minutes from her work book. What a goof.

Made up our minds

I could see this day coming from a long way off. Hardly a week went by this last school year when I didn't think that our school was a terrible fit for my daughter. Then I was looking online for resources for gifted students and I heard about the book Genius Denied from http://www.geniusdenied.com/ and I couldn't send my daughter back to our neighborhood school next year.

I am going to spend this summer vacation getting ready for our first year of homeschooling. I could not be more excited.