Field Trip!

There are many positive reasons to homeschool and definitely one of them for me is taking field trips. This past week we went to the annual auto show at the Qwest Center in Omaha. The very nice gentleman at the ticket booth didn't charge me for my sweet smiling six year old so I just had to pay admission for Luke and I. Being sixteen Luke enjoyed the day more than Laramie and I but we all had a great time. We sat in incredibly small vehicles and Hummers. Ooohed and ahhhhed over the Mercedes and BMWs. It wasn't just a good time, we learned about sticker prices and options and the difference between economy and luxury cars. We enjoyed speaking to the representatives of the Smart Car and hybrid cars. The current economy has greatly affected the automotive industry and many of the representatives held different opinions as to where it was headed. Only one dealer questioned why mine were the only children there that day. When I explained to him that we homeschool and this was a field trip he asked if he could show me a minivan. I guess many people have that stereotype of homeschoolers as the uber-evangelicals with a passel of conservatively dressed kids.

So we learned about more than cars that day, we learned how funny and inaccurate stereotypes can be.

How High is High School?

http://www.ketv.com/news/18526297/detail.html

The above link is an article from the Omaha news website about a 16 year old girl in Iowa who brought prescription drugs (Xanax) to school that belonged to her mother and gave them to three other students. The girl also took them and for whatever motivation was behind it she took between four and eight pills which was enough to send her to the hospital. I didn't know that Xanax could be crushed and snorted like cocaine. It can also be disolved in water and injected like heroin. The news article doesn't give that info or just how the girl and the three other students took the pills. It is also easy to overdose on Xanax with symptoms of that being:

confusion
coma
impaired coordination
sleepiness
slowed reaction time
dizziness
slow heart beat
difficulty breathing
difficulty walking and talking
an appearance of being drunk
unconsciousness

Scary stuff. Medications that might be in the parents or Grandparents medicine cabinets could be trickling into the schools without anyone catching on like they did in this instance. The girl had 50-100 Xanax pills with her. She could have given them to far more student with far worse consequences. Thank God that didn't happen. As it stands the girl could face charges of some sort for the choices she made. Could? Perhaps that is the problem. Unless there is swift and measurable consequences the message it sends to that girl, the other students who were not afraid to accept the pills and anyone else considering taking drugs to school is that they might just get away with it. Surely that is not an effective deterrent! Not to worry though, the sheriff's office is getting right on the issue. They said in a statement that they plan to IN A FEW MONTHS assign a deputy to the Drug Awareness Resistance Education Program. Lets see, it is near the end of January so in three months it will be the end of April so for the last month of school there will be a deputy assigned to the DARE program. Hmmmm. Doesn't sound like protecting our kids is a high (pardon the pun) priority. Lack of action and consequences make me think that the DARE program really stands for Drugs Are Really Easy to get program.

Do Poker Chips Have a Place In Homeschooling?

I am not teaching my kids Texas Hold 'Em. I don't even know how to play that or any poker game for that matter. I have found though that the cheap , plastic , colored poker chips can be a great resource in my overflowing bookcase of nifty homeschool stuff.

Math: these chips are great for addition and subtraction. Using two different colors can help the child see what they need to do. Two blue chips plus three red chips is much easier than using 5 of the same objects such as mini marshmallows, baby carrots etc. (Yes, I use food too for math).

Probability: with poker chips and a brown lunch sack you can help your child understand the concept of probability. If there are 4 chips in the bag and 3 of them are red then there is a 75% chance you will pull out a red one.

Fun: with a sheet of paper draw out the tic-tac-toe (or use straws or uncooked spaghetti noodles) Pick your color of chip and play. Games are great fun, a good bonding time but can also teach your child strategy, sportsmanship and patience.

Air-ish hockey: tape a paper bag to each end of a kitchen or coffee table, don't block each other's shots but see who gets the most out of ten chips in the bag opposite of them with just flicking the chip with their finger.

Teaching your kids can be fun and cheap if you use your brain and things you find around the house.

Andrew Wyeth July 12, 1917 - January 16, 2009

How sad that Andrew Wyeth passed away today. Famous American realist painter, his works even hang in New York City's Museum of Modern Art.

In our homeschooling my children and I are studying artists and plan to go to the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha for a field trip in a few weeks. How fortunate that they house one of his works. We will have to make a special point to view the painting of Wyeths that is on display there. Half Bushel was painted in 1959.

A fact that many people do not know is that Wyeth was homeschooled and viewed it as a ''great opportunity''. What a terrific view of homeschooling and a valuable lesson for our homeschooled kids. You can be anything you want to be even if you are not on the treadmill of the public education system.

You Gotta Love the Lunch Box

For many of us just the sight of a lunch box brings back reels of memory tape of our elementary school days. I remember every fall getting a new metal lunch box with a coordinating thermos inside. I loved my Dukes of Hazard lunch box. It was so cool. My mom put milk in the thermos, peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a banana or cookie for dessert. Often she would write Love, Mom or a smiley face on the napkin. Ah, good times. As a homeschool mom I don't send my six year old daughter off to school everyday with her lunch in tow but old habits die hard and I still buy her a new lunch box every fall. The thermos comes separately now and there is more variety to choose from Various styles and colors. Soft sided, plastic, old school tin . The thrill is still there. Sometimes she packs a lunch in her horsey lunch box to go to her Grandma's or puts toys in it if we are going on a road trip. She loves her lunch boxes. Guess she gets that from me.

The Write Stuff

I am anxiously awaiting my latest find in online shopping. I recently ordered Spencerian Penmanship. With my two children being ten years apart and homeschooling them both it is a juggling act except for one crucial area. Handwriting. Laramie is six and is progressing relatively well but Luke continues to struggle as he always has. Since being diagnosed with dyslexia (along with dysgraphia and dyscalculia) when he was Laramie's age every year that he was in public school we had allowances in his IEP (Individual Education Plan) to make things easier. It really didn't get easier for him and now that he is in his second year of homeschooling I think it is time to address the handwriting. How much can it improve if any? I know he is self conscious about it as he asked me for help. Good for him for doing so! Many of the programs, books etc that I perused were too childish and certainly not anything a 16 year old would want to spend time on. Then I landed on the Spencerian Penmanship set. It has the look of an antique book from the 1800's. Probably because that is exactly what it is. I hope it helps. My kid has had a tough road with all things academic. I am looking forward to seeing how he fares with this. I will have to post before and after writing samples if it works!