Email Address in Comments

When you comment on someone’s blog, it clearly states that your email address will not be published but is required before you can post a comment.

Imagine my surprise when I went to edit a comment someone made on my blog and saw their email address. Yep. I scrolled through every comment on my blog and could see everyone’s email address.

Call me paranoid, but I think this is a problem. Particularly since it says on the comment form that your email address will not be published!

June 28, 2006 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 7 Comments 

Deal or No Deal ? (are we learning math?)

There’s a (relatively) new TV show on NBC called Deal or No Deal that the kids have been fascinated with since it started. Somehow I missed out on the action. I had no idea this show existed. Most likely I was on the computer reading homeschool blogs and message boards!

Anyway, one night last Fall, I found my husband and the kids on the floor in Simon’s room yelling and screaming and having fun. When I asked what they were doing, they said they were playing “Deal or No Deal.”

My husband had taken 12 pieces of paper and written a random number on each one up to 1000 (e.g., .01, .09, 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000). He taped the same numbers on the closet door so they could remove them as the numbers were revealed. They had basically invented their own version of the game to play at home. My husband acted as the “banker,” and would decide on an appropriate “deal” for them to choose based on the odds. It was awesome. The kids were so into it. Even the 4 year old (at the time) was into it. I was amazed at how well he understood what was a good pick and what was not.

What did they learn? Very basically, they were learning the concepts of greater than or less than. But above that, they were learning about decimals, percentages and odds. My husband was sure to explain a bit about the math concepts as they played the game, and sometimes asked Simon (ds 9) to help him decide what would be a good “deal” to offer. They were so into this new homemade game, that they later printed out numbers on the computer using Word and created a chart for the wall and envelopes to act as the “cases” for the numbers. I think I have the best husband in the world. :)

June 25, 2006 | Filed Under Learning | 3 Comments 

My Kids Drive Me Nuts!

I’m new at blogging, and I have a lot on my mind. I’ll probably repeat a lot of issues that have been covered on homeschool blogs! They’ll have my spin on them though, and of course that will make them infinitely more interesting! emoticon

I’ve been pretty quiet about my homeschooling decision. When I was first planning on doing it four years ago, I announced it to anyone and everyone and received a lot of negative feedback. I ended up getting cold feet and enrolling my oldest in the public school for first grade (just two weeks before school started). He’s entering fourth grade now, and his little brother is entering second grade (went to public school for K and 1). The youngest will start kindergarten next fall. In a future blog, I’ll post about school and why we are taking them out.

I have told only a few people my plans. I let it slip with my neighbor by accident a month or so ago. As I expected, based on the last time I mentioned homeschooling to her, she rolled her eyes and said I was crazy and that she could never do it. What she meant was, “I can’t stand to be around my kids.” Well honestly, neither can I an awful lot of the time!

That’s where my rose-colored glasses come in handy. When Alvin (ds 7) gets into his whiney mode (which is pretty much 98% of every day), my blood boils. I start to have those “I can’t stand him” moments and think I made a mistake deciding to homeschool. I start thinking I should just send him away to school all day so I won’t have to deal with him.

Then reality hits me. Will sending him away make it better? Not a chance. Sure it will separate me from him for the majority of his waking hours, but will anything change? Will our relationship improve? I actually believe that the way to improve our relationship is to be together MORE, not less. My rose-colored glasses show me a lovely picture of a happy family at home. He can stop worrying about fitting in and getting that obviously much-needed attention he so desperately seeks. It may take a little time, but I think the whining will subside.

The same holds true for the fighting that occurs between them. When they bicker and fight, I get those “Arrrrgh get them out of here!” feelings again. They drive me nuts! But then I just toss on my rose-colored glasses and we become the happy homeschooling family. No, I don’t actually think that they will stop fighting and whining. But I do believe that separating them will just further alienate them from each other. Homeschooling will give us an opportunity to work and grow together as a team. We will have time to develop and share our interests. Perhaps we will even have some common interests that we can share.

Rose Colored Glasses

June 22, 2006 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues, Parenting | 5 Comments 

What Does Testing Measure?

Since I have not 100% made the decision to homeschool (gasp!), I will likely post a lot of the thoughts and feelings that I have been having over making the decision. At this point, I’m about 85% ready to take the plunge. There is this 15% of me that is scared to death. Sometimes I write just to try to convince myself that I can do it.

This is something I wrote on 8/14/01 (my notebook journal, before I knew about blogging):

Children, even adults, learn to pass tests. Have you ever been in a classroom where you haven’t heard the phrase, “Will this be on the test?” I was very adept at culling out the important factoids from the rest of the material and learning/memorizing the least amount necessary to get an A or B. Everything absorbed quickly left my brain, leaving minimal understanding of the larger picture of the topic.

Standardized tests, any test for that matter, measure nothing but test taking skills!

June 21, 2006 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues | 2 Comments 

Last Day of Public School

Last day. Silly 2 1/2 hour long day. Some school administrator got to check of the box next to 180 days of school.

Yesterday was the awards ceremony. My son got an award for “oral communication skills.” Funny, because he’s dyslexic and dysgraphic, so I guess they were trying to find something to praise him for.

I watched 650 kids’ faces as about 50 of them received various awards, most of them the same kids over and over. The other 600 got nothing. Afterwards I said to my son, “Congratulations on your award.” He said, “I only got one, and they didn’t even give me anything.” I said, “Well, I’m sure your teacher will give you your certificate back in the classroom.”

I left the ceremony feeling confident in my decision to bring him home. Alfie Kohn was right.

More later. Just had to start somewhere!

June 20, 2006 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues | 7 Comments