4 posts tagged “homeschool”

I take the younger two kids to pre-school  library storytime on Mondays, and this last time they had a really neat project that can be done by the younger crowd.  You need:   a sugar cookie on a stick (stick not necessary, but it is cute),  a tablespoon of white frosting, a yellow or orange M&M and a large standard size marshmallow  --  and a pair of scissors.  Spread cookie with frosting, put M&M at center and then using scissors, cut the marshmallow into 5 "circles"  --  Of course, being a squishy object the circles will come out more like ovals, which is all the better.  Then place the 5 ovals evenly around the M&M on the cookie, and you'll have a lovely daisy.  They really do turn out cute. 

Oh, and in Reader's Digest this month I came across a website called StickK.com which is a free service that helps you keep your resolutions by offering to force you to put up a stake which will be donated to charity, or an anti-charity  (you choose a cause you personally hate) if you don't keep your goal.  I went ahead and signed up to try to lose a pound a week and wagered some money on it  -- not a lot, but enough to keep me mindful of what I put in my mouth.   If it works for the whole time I will be very pleased and will get my money back. 

I heard back about the library job;  mostly more details of the position and the compensation; and I talked to the principal and found that it *is* a requirement for staff to send their children to the school.  The salary is about half of what I could make as a Librarian I substitute in the public library and the hours are 9-5, so I'd never see my kids except for the commute and an hour or so before bed and if you take the job compensation before taxes and subtract the tuition for three kids minus the small tuition break for staff, I'd about break even.  If you include the taxes, tithe, gas for commute, wardrobe, extra money for dining out because I'd be too tired to cook meals, it would be a loss of several thousand dollars;  plus, I'd hardly ever see my children, they'd not see each other much and they would never be home during daylight hours for most of the year. If it were a 9-3 job, paying a bit more, I'd be tempted, but really it wouldn't be a good fit for the moment.  

The things that intrigue me about a "real" school are the extra stuff:  speech meets, plays, book clubs, etc.  Otherwise I'm quite happy homeschooling and with three children there is plenty of social interplay and we can even play a good round of three or four square, too. 

For the last several years I have been using a cool "free" program to do our federal taxes called taxact  --   fortunately we've lived in states that didn't require state income taxes to be filed, so the free federal forms worked out nicely and I tended to download it in January and had filed by February and got a refund in March.  With our move and rental of our old house and owning two houses the paperwork was a little more complicated this year so just completed everything now.  Hopefully I have postage and can mail it out today.  In Austin the local IRS office was local  --  here the mailing address is out of state. 

Homeschool this week is studying the 1500's and Reformation and Tulip Mania  --   a pretty interesting economic bubble situation where people were paying the equivalent of $40,000 for one tulip bulb, and two weeks later it was only worth $1.  I also watched the Disney film "So Dear to My Heart" with the kids this week.  It was even a bit historically relevant  --   had an animated Christopher Columbus, which we studied 3 weeks ago, and a Robert the Bruce, which we studied 6 weeks ago.  And an animated lamb, which was cute.   I'd never seen a picture of Burl Ives before.  I pictured him older.

In other news there is a very vague possibility that there might be a job opening in September that might work out for me.  Uncommital enough?   I had lunch with a friend that moved from Austin up here and works at a private school.  She introduced me around and I  met the principal and took a tour with the children, and I was introduced as the "librarian" from her old school and there was much interest on the part of the principal and asked me about my degree.  There is going to be an opening for a librarian at that school.  And if I wanted to send the kids there, it would be a 30% discount.  However, I relly don't think I want to send them there. For one thing, the math program is the same, but instead of working one year ahead, they are on grade level, so it would be a repeat for the two older kids.  The kids don't study ancient history at all, just social studies.  Possibly I could send the older two to Benjamin's school. 

In any case, while I could post a strong case of being experienced, my last paid employment wast 9 years ago and I don't have a teacher's certificate and I have no idea of the salary or the job requirements  -- and getting a teaching certificate in Washington State looks like a major pain.  If working full time barely covers private school tuition I'm really not sure it would be worth it, as I know they'll learn more homeschooling, and I'd definitely see them more if they aren't in school for 6 hours every day.

Very well,   with a little nudging, here I go for my second post.  This morning I was given a lesson in giving spelling tests.  My son's school uses Spell to Read Write and Think, which is a neat system.  My daughter uses Spell to Read and Write.  They sound similar, don't they -- well they are.  My son's came first and then a student of it, namely Wanda Sanseri took that method and improved upon it.  So I've been learning the second system for the last three years and like it better -- it seems like a step backward to be using the older one.  However you can't really tell a kindergarterner that his kindergarten teacher is wrong, and in all, they are both teaching the same thing.  I just can't wait to get him full time and "fix" it so we'll both be on the same system.  Both systems rely heavily on phonograms (which are mostly all the same) and markings -- which are vaguely similar.  The one that immediately comes to mind is how they mark silent "e"s --  the first and the second both double underline the "e" -- all well and good.  The first proceeds to mark your common or garden variety "e"  -- i.e. changing can to cane with a single underline under the "a", an underline under the "n", because it is in the middle of a silent letter and the vowel it changes, and then, finally a "1" next to the e's underlines.  The poor word now looks like it is the most complicated thing to spell on earth -- and if the child forget's even one of these markings the word is marked 50% off on a spelling test.  Sanseri's method goes from the double underlined "e" and then has the child draw a "rainbow"  over the word between the vowel and the silent e -- and then, since it is the most common reason, causing a vowel to change its sound,  the child is done.  Which one would you prefer??

Oh, since I haven't managed to mention it earlier I am a "librarian"  --  I haven't worked professionally in a library since my first year out of library school, 10 years ago, but I'm keeping my hand in.  I spent the last year and a half as the librarian of my daughter's school.  It was a brand new school and she was part of the first kindergarten class, so I got to do it all --  help with aquisitions, manage the formation of "wishlists" for various grade levels, cover books, research library software, catalog, print out spine labels,  check out books to students,  do library tours, etc.  It was a wonderful collection of books for being  only 1 1/2 old -- and I spent much too much time on it, for no pay.  Since we've moved I had to turn over my "baby" to a team of ladies.  It's still going, though I think the cataloging is going to suffer a little.

I made the decision not to get quite so  utterly involved here.  Their school is more than ten years old and the "library" is not really there.  They bought some software several years back and one of the teachers got it loaded, but I don't expect it to be a working library for years yet.  I am enjoying being a library consumer, though.  We joined the local one and I have been checking out books right and left  -- mostly not for me, and the kids and I tend to do a lot of audiobooks, so we can listen together while driving to and from school and activities.  We're listening to "Escape" by Sid Fleischman -- a biography of  Harry Houdini.  Some of our favorites have been "Larklight" --by Philip Reeve because it is an English book I think the audiobook  is a must --  I would read it, and did read the sequel, but the audiobook is superior as my brain can't provide the correct accent.

Personally, I finally checked out and read the final Harry Potter book --  and I was quite pleased to find it was an extremely satisfying read. Yes, very late, I know,  I haven't had access to a library since last May, and wasn't ready to purchase.  While reading, I  did find, however, that my recollection of the details in the half-blood prince were hazy at best, as I only read it once several years back. I almost thought I'd missed one along the way.  I'm currently reading "Inkspell," which is taking much more thoughtfulness of a reader to finish.  It is rather like going from chocolate chip cookies to celery with peanut butter, both of which I love, but one of which takes more effort.

Off to do the drive-to-pick-up-my-child-at-one-of-her-activities thing.  More later!

I've been told in the past that I should blog but for some reason, mostly lack of time, I have not done it.  I certainly enjoy other people's blogs though.  It always seems like a nice newsy letter just for you, even though it could and might be read by millions of people depending on the content, and a stand in for a diary. I have valiantly begun diaries over the years and really enjoy reading historical entries but I tend to run out of steam after a few months.

Anyway, I made a resolution this year that I'd begin to blog and was just reminded by an e-mail updating someone else's blog that I have been a bit of a slow starter, so since I have a few minutes

Right now I live in Washington State in a suburb of Seattle with my three kids, 7, 5, and 4 whom I homeschool. My son goes to a private Christian kindergarten three days a week, and he started class yesterday.  However we all just got back from a lovely 3 week vacation to visit my parents in VA so I am really taking some time to ramp up.  We did math this morning and then had a snack and I really haven't corralled them back to work on spelling or history.  Then they have dentist appointments in the afternoon -- and it is raining.   I did sign up for the rain part when we decided to move to Washington, and I do enjoy being inside and not having to go out.  Rain is the perfect reading weather -- curled up in a nice armchair by a fire.  Our house has one of those gas fireplaces where all you do is push a button.  So easy!

Well, having fulfilled my new Year's resolution to begin a blog, I will do my best to keep it. 

For dinner tonight I am making chicken curry  --  with apples and raisins and sprinkled with coconut -  yum!