Youtube channels Biology

I like to use the expertise of youtube for my kids when I can.

Most days we use Crash Course for something.

For science I try to keep everyone in the same field, though I do have slightly different goals for the younger ones than the older.

This year Science is Biology, for Punk the main focus is in basic concepts of microscopic organisms, and lots of general info about all kinds of plants and animals.  For the older kids I am hoping for a much more in depth look at cells, animal classification, genetics and plants.

Right now we are going through the Crash Course Biology.  I find it decent, though sped up, which makes sense being a 'crash' course and all.  So we also use Amoeba Sisters, which is a much calmer, slower plan for basically the same information.  I haven't found an amazing biology book, so we have a couple, and Princess is using the Life of Fred Pre Algebra plus Biology.  Which actually does cover the same types of things as both youtube courses.

The videos are short so I don't feel like I am overdoing it, and at three a week each we will still finish.

I also sometimes use youtube to find what we were supposed to be looking at under a microscope - because we really still have no microscope skills!

Apparently August of 2011 I played the Ikea game myself

I found the post below in drafts on here, I enjoyed remembering both my childhood fun, and the relaxed time spent under a sleeping Punk.

When I was a kid we used to play a game with the Ikea catalog.  My brother and I would design a room for the lowest price, to fit inside a certain budget, or a dream room.

Yesterday while wandering around Ikea (looking for free AC)  I alternated between fantasizing a dream house, and reminding my kids not to jump on the furniture.

Sadly with 5 of them it is rather hard to design the perfect place.  Thankfully there is the internet to help me out.

Though there are better ways to waste my time, I can't think of one more fun right this second.  With a snoozing baby on me, and a laptop handy.

Entertaining Toddlers while dealing with academics

While this year things are easier than in the past, the twins still require a lot of attention while I am helping kids with readings and math and whatnot.

I have a box by the desk with various toys in it, and I attempt to pull them out one at a time to hopefully distract the twins.  Most of the time they are not troublesome, just loud, messy and taking attention.

So far we have:

• Glass beads to count, sort, make patterns of and enjoy the sound in a tin can.
• Molecule set, while they have no interest in learning names of atoms, or how they fit together to make any particular molecule, it ends up being a nice building toy, or sorting toy.
• Magnets and various metal
• a set of Beat Bugs matching cards (maybe some matching as E calls it)
• Playdough (a LOT of playdough!)
• book of coins and lots of coins

I also have for them special markers, crayons, notebooks and paper.

Sometimes I do a simple craft, like cutting, or filling rice socks.

Most days though they disappear on us and later we find their room in chaos, or worse some other room!  Having twins is both easier in some ways and way harder in others, they entertain each other, and get into everything!

Huh, this still exists also boo boo twins

I am always amazed reading old babble of mine (sometimes at the cuteness of kids, sometimes at the lousy grammar, sometimes and the idiotic stuff I thought I would like to see years later).  This used to be a fun place to put various thoughts, and then I got distracted and forgot about it.  Spammers did me a favor, they posted their usual click bait and Blogger sent me an email to let me know.  So here I am wondering if I should waste my time or not - since I don't journal, I don't save any work it might be worth it to look back in the future - if I can find it!

Today the twins both decided to fall off the couch, first one - partly due to his brother having a pillow fight.  Then the other just because he wanted to lean back and well there was nothing behind him.  Super E was crying when his twin hit the floor because 'now he has a booboo toooooo'  On the other hand M was pretty sure it wasn't his fault that his twin fell and he didn't want to stop throwing pillows.  Different kids for sure!

The Lesson has been taught

I put a lot of effort into teaching the kids behavior (and academics).  But sometimes I have to admit they don't seem to be learning anything.  I keep reminding my kids:

"The lesson has been taught, if you choose not to learn anything from it, there is nothing I can do about it"

We spend a lot of time working on behavior, character, honesty and personal responsibility.

Most days I feel nothing is getting through.  The kids will sulk after creating a problem and complain "it's all his fault".  Instead of learning what they themselves did wrong they just focus in on how so and so ruined everything.  Which is exactly the wrong way to look at things.

But then there are some days that you feel something must be happening right.

Last night Dude gave away two of his ATCs that he traded for in Cub scouts, because the girls didn't get to make or trade any.  He actually hunted them down to ask "Did you guys get any?  If not I'll give you some"  Then later he was fetching snack and said 'I'll give you one first' (instead of taking the first one for himeself).  And earlier he had offered to carry something for one of his sisters.  It really was an amazing evening of helpfulness.

Kids learn the oddest things at the oddest times.  That is why we really need to be good examples all the time, you never know when they are watching!

Princess is in a hurry with math

For some reason the past few days Princess has been barreling ahead with her math, doing two or even three lessons in a day.

She said she wants to finish the book early so she can do something different, which is rather cute.

I am thinking instead of getting her another book, letting her play with Khan academy.  I tried it for Little Man and it was a bit difficult, though the work starts with basic adding, it really doesn't have that much to do for his grade (1st or 2nd)  I am hoping it will be interesting for Princess (3rd grade)

I really want to let Dude go to town (algebra), but he wants to finish his Saxon book first.

Mission: "Entertain the baby during the 'Witching hour'"

I tried the 'edible finger paint' for my Punk (1 year old) from this site here.

I was not impressed.

Though I did decide that dinner time was a great time to amuse her in her highchair.

If she can play I can cook, the older kids can clean.

So one day we tried oatmeal, I thought it might be like a sandbox, only edible (sorta).  In truth it kept her the most occupied of just about any toy in ages!  But someone had to sweep all the oatmeal up, almost none of it remained on the tray.

Another day I tried some milk and some food coloring.  I wondered if she could splash a bit and maybe my Baby Girl (3 year old) could try some soap to see it swirl.  Instead it went straight to splashing and all over (though really the mess blended right in with her dinner a few minutes later)

A random assortment of plastic cups bowls or spoons doesn't seem to entertain her long.  Crayons work a bit, but she tends to 'scrape' them with her nails.  Tape doesn't hold her interest for long (though she loves it) as soon as it is stuck to itself she throws it away.

So far the best way to keep her happy (aside from her being on my hip) seems to be assigning Princess (7 year old) the job of entertainment.  Which would be great except Baby Girl (3 year old) wants in, and Princess isn't so good at keeping them from fighting, and there are plenty of chores she aught to be doing.

So I am still on the lookout for a better way to keep her entertained while I cook.

We tried the cookie dough balls

Cookie dough bites

I made them in many different ways, I even bought Almond butter, which is pretty good but REALLY expensive.  Wonder how much it costs to make from almonds?

One thing I did was use less sugar.  I generally find if you are going to put chocolate in it, folk don't mind a slightly less sweet base.

Anyway, do try these, I still have to try with peanut butter, but every incarnation has been well worth eating.  Though slightly gooey, store them in the freezer.

Plus we bought some ground flax seed.  I have been adding it to my breakfast smoothies for a bit of extra fiber and all that.  I haven't decided if I want to research how good it is or when it is almost all gone.  After all it prolly isn't bad for me, but for the price it had better be really good for me to buy it again.

Not my fault you picked that long for school!

I do a lot of work with various groups, some are homeschooler only, some half and half, and for others we are the only home schooled family participating. For events that are half and half I constantly see the PS parents complaining that 'It's not fair, Homeschoolers have more time to go places and work on badges." I don't quite get how a parent who has chosen a schooling option that requires 8 hours minimum away from home gets to complain about those of us choosing a full education that fits into 3 or 4 hours. We made a choice, and because of that choice, some things are easier, others harder. But I don't go blaming PS families for their..... Well I don't know what they get out of doing it their way. But they must like it.

So stuck on a question they wont listen to anything

My son came to me asking 'which one do I multiply by the reciprocal?' today.

I really had no idea what he meant so I asked him to bring me the math book.

And he threw a tantrum because "There is no need for the book, just answer my question"

"I can't, I don't understand it."

"Well the book wont help."

Really?  So then don't bring me the book, and I still wont answer the question.

Good grief, why do some kids get so obsessed with one little thing they can't possibly stop and consider anything else?

He finally brought me the book, but continued to stone wall about anything regarding the actual math problem.

Eventually I sent him away to go do whatever he wanted since he obviously wasn't listening, nor caring.  The good news is as a homeschooler we can do that, I don't have to worry that math class will end and I have to get the point across 'right now'.

The bad news is he didn't think anything else was worth doing for the day either.

If I didn't have to live in the house with the kids, I wouldn't mind so much when they don't do anything but make messes.

An hour isn't enough

Today I tried piling all the electives into an hour. I suppose we did get a lot done, Composer, Timeline, Art, Nature. But still not all the work. I think we might need to do more than an hour, or we could do two days of it. I also can't decide if I want to continue with drawing, or switch to painting for October.

Schedule needs adjusting

We have been muddling along getting most things taken care of with few tweaks here and there. About half the time the kids get the basics done before lunch time, some days without me having to pester them. The trouble lies in the electives. I wanted to spend a few minutes each day on art, or nature or whatever. Sadly by the time 11rolls around I have a fussy baby, antsy toddler and bouncy 5year old. Plus two older children who are either frantically trying to finish, or hoping no one notices they haven't done a thing. (No there doesn't seem to be an in between!) So I have been debating on making Monday 'elective day'. I could spend an hour doing everything and get it done. Then Tuesday when I would rather focus on getting ready for scouts, we wouldn't feel the pressure. Also side note, tablets format oddly on blogger, that is kind of annoying.

The ultimate sacrifice...

Today my three older kids have headed out to various activities. Piano lessons, We do robots, FLL, and hopefully a few errands and dinner in there somewhere. And the biggest trouble, they took the laptop! I am typing this on our new toy (not yet sold, but soon). So here I sit typing with a touch pad that is way to small for traditional typing, fingers all placed properly. In stead I am using some hybrid of that and the two finger hunt and peck that I have had to pick up while learning to use my phone. The oddest thought I am having, will the kids need to learn to use a keyboard properly? Never mind the old cursive vs printing debate, will they even need proper typing or will touch screens take over. How about proper drawing, already learning to use the 'scratch pad' on Khan Academy means using a mouse instead of a pencil. And how soon will textbook makers start releasing math or spelling on tablet aps? Wouldn't it be awesome to hand a kid a simple tablet with their math, Daily Grams, and more all in one place. You a could even set up a checklist suns lock program, must complete all assignments to open fun aps. I for one would love a fully electronic program. Not that I can afford it, but imagine only packing a tablet for each kid, instead of 10 different books! Though never forget Mom needs her own!

Is it just me or is the try me file always full?

I keep finding new fancy exciting things to try online, and yet...why is there never time to do any of them!

I though we homeschooled to get more time, instead I seem pushed and pulled in every direction desperately trying to find the time to take a shower, much less check out a cool craft.

How do all those cool moms who bake cookies every day, make a neato craft and still have clean fed kids on time for every event do it?

I officially declare Wednesday as "try me day!"  I shall do one thing each Wednesday in the 'try me' folder with the kids OR ELSE!

Today it is "No mess finger paint" -because that is what Little Man picked.

Tablet toy

My husband won an ipad the other day.  It was one of those pure luck, boy I would kill to be him type days.  he got paid to be fed breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus he wins an ipad.

Our first plan was to sell it, and actually our new plan.  But in between we decided to check it out and see if it is a fun toy.

It is!  I love being able to download a free ap and let Baby Girl play games for a few minutes while we need to sit quiet.  It works on wifi, which we have at home, at church (which is where scouts, FLL, 4H and just about every thing else we do is) and lots of other places, like the library.

I downloaded a free ap for simple writing practice, puzzles, a 'fake phone' pretty nifty it lets the kids push the phone buttons and more looking like a phone, but no worry about calls being charged.  (they can't it's a tablet!)  I do think the new fun free aps will run their course before to long, but for now I have been saving it for special occasions and there are still more aps to explore.

The kids have used it to watch a youtube video, I have used it to have a youtube playlist go in the background helping Little One to sleep while I work on the laptop.  No more slowing my internet down.  Plus it stays cool which means it can be in the kids lap, or on the bed without getting uncomfortable.

I can also use it to check email and FB or even post here, but it isn't as good as a real laptop.  The browser locks up more often and the interface is occasionally annoying.

And worst of all it doesn't have Flash!  I didn't realize how annoying that would be till I tried to let the kids use headventureland, khan academy, starfall.com, notdoppler.com and other online games.  None of them work!

I would say that given a choice between a netbook and a tablet, I would choose tablet, takes up less space, gets less hot, and for some reason a tiny touch screen keyboard is easier to use, you assume you can't use proper hand position so the smallness doesn't bother me.  Though I would never pay for an ipad without flash support!

We decided to sell it after all, though there is a really really good chance we will take the money for it turn around and buy both a laptop and a tablet!

Reading Eggs

I found this site with a free trial called ReadingEggs.com

Baby Girl was pretty enthralled with the cartoon characters right from the start.

There is a placement test, but after asking a few letters it immediately asks you to find the sentence "I am Sam" That is a pretty big jump from recognizing letter sounds.

The game is set up with a series of 12 'maps' that have a curvy road of 10 lessons on them.

Each lesson starts with very basic information showing a letter and telling you the sound then asking you to click on the sound.  (meaning letter but they say 'click the mmmmm')  Some of the lessons have sound blends, like 'am' or 'ee'.

From there you move on to other progressively harder games, such has finding hidden letters, finding words that start with the letter, or even choosing a picture to match a word you have to blend.

I could see why they asked her to read "I am Sam".  ' I' is the first sight word they teach, then 'am'... Several of the games involve make sentences from word lists.  It is very frustrating to try and make a sentence you only heard once (with siblings yakking in the same room) when your choices are all rhyming.  Did the computer want rat, cat, or bat?  There should be an option for 'repeat sentence'.

One 'game' involves clicking numbers in order like a dot to dot drawing to make the letter, each click is accompanied by a really loud annoying high pitched noise.  Fortunately you only have to make a letter twice to progress.

Several lessons seemed to 'get stuck' and wouldn't register that she had done all the steps.  I would reload and replay really quickly for her, but it did get a bit annoying.

About half the lessons require 'dragging' the answer.  A click and drag is very difficult for a kid to do, so I would frequently have to complete the lessons while baby Girl told me which word or letter to drag where.  Another required 'catching' fish and dragging them to a specific boat based on their word.  My hand got tired holding down the mouse button while she read the words.

There are also several reward type sections, like a house and shop, I am not sure how interesting these are, baby Girl hasn't earned much for them, and doesn't seem to care regardless.  I imagine they would be more entertaining to other kids, it looks like something Princess and Little man would enjoy.

The playroom is a section with the typical: kiddie stories, computer drawing and stamping, some alphabet books, music and a puzzle board.  There is also a nice group of simple games to help kids learn to use a mouse.  (like bounce a bear on a trampoline that moves with your mouse)

One major objection I have to the playroom is that the 'books' have no words and are all of the super short sound clip type, meaning only one verse, which is fine for "Itsy Bitsy spider", but for 5 little ducks they stopped after only 4 ducks came back, so where is that missing duck?   There were quite a few books that seemed to stop way to quickly.

Baby Girl still enjoyed playing around with the various games in the playroom each day.  And she looked forward to her time learning the 'lessons'.  So long as there were not too many activities in a row that required my help, she was happy to continue to learn.  And she has improved her speed of reading for the words covered.

Overall the games progress nicely, the emphasis on sight reading can be overlooked since there is a lot of phonetic back up given.  The mouse controls are often simple enough she can do it on her own, and there was enough variety to hold her interest at least for the two week trial.

I actually considered purchasing a subscription, until I saw the price.  $50  per kid for six months.  While that isn't totally unreasonable, the glitches in play and the fact that it is so focused on sight reading, and my constant need to help with mouse work, (oh and the fact that I am still broke)  made me say  no to the purchase.

4H plans

4h is wide open with lots of different activities.  Which is pretty nifty.

this fall the kids have started working on:
Robots
Nature
Sewing


I get to plan most of that for my kids.  I really aught to stop volunteering for things.  But the truth is, my kids will work harder if I focus on helping a group at a certain time, than if I just say 'oh doing such and such would be nice'.   My try me file is huge, when I schedule things for the different groups it actually starts to shrink.

So for sewing we will be working through the first book in a year and a half.  By the end we should have made a stuffed animal, a pair of PJ pants, a quilt, and one other simple donation item (like pillowcase dress).  and hopefully all the girls will know all the parts of a machine and simple hand sewing options.

Nature this fall will focus on learning about leave no trace guidelines and tree identification.  Next year if there is enough interest I will split to half leave no trace and ID (more than just trees), and half hiking with the older kids.  Might see if I can plan a camping trip for the group in spring/summer.  Bet I could get the cubs to help me out with that one....

Robots will be two part.  First for Little Man there will be Wedo robots, that I don't have to do a thing for.  Love that plan.  And then there will be 'Junk Drawer' robots for Dude.  We will be working through the first book for the rest of 2011 and all of 2012.  Calling it 'robots' is a bit of a misnomer.  The next three months will be all about engineering and building a catapult and a trebuchet.  But regardless it will be fun, and informative.

Voice of Liquid Gold

Jim Weiss read the audio version for 'Story of the World' by Susan wise Bauer.  His voice has been called 'liquid gold'.  I don't know if it is quite that amazing, but I do enjoy his story telling.

After we finished that book I went to my library website and searched for other books he has read.  Turns out there is a whole collection of story CDs read by him, from Egypt, Arabia, Renaissance, and Tom Sawyer.  Each CD has about an hour of stories, weaving some history with lots of fun tales.

Our library doesn't have all the versions, but we are steadily working our way through all the ones they do have.  His voice is a perfect naptime accompaniment, soft and soothing enough to help the little ones sleep, entertaining enough to help the older ones enjoy while they clean and work.

How would a study of forced homeschooling go?

One thing missing from all the data of homeschooling, are apathetic parents.  I sometimes hear in political discussions how homeschooling is "all well and good for you people, but most parents would never teach their own".  And I have my suspicions, but I would love for a real large scale study with control and everything to look into it.

If we could take a group of parents who are currently in public school and divide them into three groups.

Group one, nothing interesting, have them carry on as usual in public school as a control group.  (though using the whole rest of the nation as a control group aught to work.)

Group two - insist they homeschool.  Not folk who want to homeschool already, but folk who signed a guarantee agreement to educate their kids the way the study says, and the study says they are in charge.  I don't think any particular brand of homeschooling matters, just that the parents are now in charge.  Of course provide links to local support -or at least a suggestion that they use the internet to find info. (it would be easier to get good results if the study were done in a city like Charlotte with lots of homeschool support, but for accurate results I think a random sampling of cities would be better)

Group three - Insist the parents volunteer at the school, be active in homework, and participate in the education of their children just as much as a homeschooler would have to (like good parents already do really).

Sadly the only way to compare the groups would be tests, though I think a psyche test in addition to academic tests would be a good idea.

In the end, I am sure group one would fare the worst, but of group two and three, those are the results I am curious about, is it really just as good for a parent to be active as it is to homeschool?  Of course I believe homeschooling is better (or at least easier on me), but I don't see hard scientific evidence to prove that.

Would it be better to take parents of newborns so that they know from day one how they are going to school?  Or maybe age 3 or 4.  Or maybe highschool......

Or maybe it would be better to do highschool only the KID has to take responsibility for their own education.  Which really by the teen years a kid aught to try and do.

Odyssey for the car

We are listening to the Odyssey, by Homer, in the car.  I have a bad habit of never remembering to put a story on from the computer, so when Dude asked again to listen to it, I headed to our wonderful library site and borrowed a copy.

I really enjoy the readers slight accent, and clear reading.  BUT every time we hear a name there is a qualifier!  'Clear Eyed Athena", Discerning Telemachus, or Aegis bearing Zeus' (I had to ask my husband what that ment).  Though it is preferable to trying to remember which person is the son of Menalaeus, or which is the 'noble goddess'.  And if it weren't for Percy Jackson books I would never know which is the 'grey eyed goddess'.

Maybe that is why I write so stilted, I wouldn't be able to keep track of a variety of descriptions!

I don't know if this really counts as reading, we are just listening, but we are also learning.