Race to college

I recently found a blog about acceleration with a goal towards early college. As someone who has already been down that path personally, I found it interesting. I currently have an informal plan of acceleration, with the goal of having Cowgirl do FAU High, and be able to complete a few years of college work during high school. So it was interesting to me to see other people's approaches. Well, after reading it, I had some concerns. Their approach is to school year round, and do lessons 5 days instead of 4 days. That seems fine, we also are pretty much doing the same. But, after reviewing her curriculum choices, I had to wonder how well it would really work. It's mainly in her math program choice, which is widely known to be about a year or two behind other math programs. The advantage of this math program is that it is computerized, and student activities are managed by the program. She has about 6 kids, so I can see the convenience of it, but if you use it at the grade levels, you are behind other programs by 1-2 levels. It doesn't seem very accelerated when you start 1-2 years behind. And then there's the aptitude, not every child will be able to work at that level, especially in college. I was fine being 14 in college, but I'm pretty sure that out of 6 kids, some will not be fine. Or they'll end up getting some fluff degree. (ok, so I found out that she's planning for them to get Bachelor of Humanities from Thomas Edison College.)

I don't think accelerating using weak programs and loopholes will really prepare a child well. The kinds of jobs a person with a Bachelor of Humanities from a unknown college is pretty low paying. Aside from the fact that they are still young and don't have a clue to what they want to do with their lives.


But this also brings to mind the weakness in the American educational system. I look at the Core math standard and compare them to other countries and find us behind. Then if you compare your math program to the Core standard and it's behind, then you're basically twice as behind. Now you want to accelerate from that hole you're in. And the end goal is to do a test based college "degree." It seems to be about doing the minimum to get that piece of paper. I can only think that a minimum effort to get a minimum degree can only yield a minimum job. And when lots of people are only doing the minimum jobs, it's hard to be an high achieving country.

Digital Homeschooling

We have several digital tools for our homeschool. I've gone to a web based tracking system. I have a Nook simple touch and a Cruz ereader. I prefer the Nook for plain books, it's lighter and the battery lasts forever. I've started using the Cruz for pdfs, it renders them better plus it's got a color screen but it only lasts about 4 hours. So I have downloaded a ton of books for the Nook, and also some from the library, and Cowgirl loves using it. A lot of the vintage stories we read are freely available, like Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, and the stories from the Grimm Brothers. Reading the originals are pretty challenging, the vocabulary is advanced and the themes are more adult. And I love the idea of having a lot of books available anytime, anywhere I want to read.

The Cruz is more of the teachers device, I've started downloading pdfs of various curricula to it for my use, instead of printing. So far I have the MEP math answer pages, the BFSU 2,3 texts, the electronics lab manual, some chemistry curricula I'm reviewing and whatever else I find. There are some educational apps I've downloaded too, such as Chinese and math practice apps. The Cruz also has a full browser, so I can access the tracker system and update it remotely. Usually I take both devices with me.

Mating season

Apparently it's mating season around here. We observed for the time it took for me to get a decent picture, and then she wanted to touch them. They didn't take to that idea very well and separated and ran their separate ways.

Summer school

School's out here in Florida, but we're still working on our home school. We're going year round, taking time off when we feel like it. Our daily schedule has changed though, we're doing the pool in the morning when it's somewhat cool and staying inside during the mid-day, then going outside again in the afternoon and evening. There's a lot of water time over the summer. We're doing some electronics for fun, maybe play around with a lego robotics set I have. And see if our chickens end up having baby quail.

Finished with 1st grade Vietnamese!

We finally finished the 1st grade Vietnamese curriculum. Between starting it late, and not doing much school while my mom was sick, it's been slow going. I also slowed it down because it seemed like dd was not really retaining it so much. I changed the pace from one lesson a day to one lesson taking about 3 days. The first day we would read the passage. The second and third days we would reread the passage and do the workbook. There was usually enough in the workbook to split up. She was able to read much more fluently after multiple exposures to the same passage. She is still very sloppy about looking at the diacritics, and I constantly have to remind her which one it is. I was thinking of starting the 2nd grade right away, but since we didn't do the read aloud book yet, I think we're going to work through that over the summer and start 2nd grade Vietnamese in the fall after a short break.

Electronics Learning Lab

So we're in the middle of moving things around and somehow this thing shows up. I had been thinking I wanted to do some electronics and was looking at the Snap electronics but this was here and free. Nothing else came with it, so after a little googling I find a manual and list of parts.  I went to Radioshack several times, priced out the parts and decided it was crazy expensive there to buy all the parts, and on top of that, they didn't have everything. My husband said his dad had a bunch of resistors and capacitors so I decide to wait  and go raid his dads stash. I figure he probably wouldn't have any transistors so I buy one from RS. Then soon after that a box of parts comes over from my moving neighbor. How awesome is that?! It even had the one thing I already bought from RS. Anyway, we were able to put together this flashing LED circuit.

Pointing to the LED

Finished Year 1 Writing with Ease

We started this year slowly, and really just did the bare minimum of Math and Vietnamese. She reads a lot on her own anyway, tons of books from the library. So I had this writing curriculum(Writing with Ease) that we didn't resume working on until Feb( we had started it last year). We did it double time and 5 days and have just now finished level 1. I expect that we'll continue on the double pace until we finish Level 3. It's not really so bad, I think it really is only about 15 minutes for both copywork and narration, not including the actual reading time. I'm using the instructor guide and not the workbooks. I like the flexibility of the instructor guide a lot. Plus it appeals to my frugal nature since 4 years worth of material are covered in the one book.

Homeschool class at Miami Seaquarium

We go to the Miami Seaquarium once a month for a homeschool class. It's basically  marine biology, each session is focused on a topic such as fish, reptiles, mammals, etc. This was the last one for this year, and it was on marine animal care careers. After a lecture, we went over and caught the Flipper show and then talked to the trainers.

yea, look at how well she sits in a class room setting!

Home school class photo with dolphin trainer

chatting about bird care

Homeschool Audiences

There are times when you have to have an audience. That is one disadvantage here, not a lot of kids willing to sit and watch your performance. So... you get your local soft friends to fill in.

Ren-fest 2012

We went again this year to the Renaissance Festival in Deerfield Beach. I got the scout program to add to the educational aspect, although this is our middle ages year also. This year she dressed up as a fairy.

Playing human chess

A Fairy and Mermaid

Tug of war

Lunch with the King

Sword in the Stone

It's a good thing this is our middle ages year. A large part of Disney World is about stories taken from those eras, so it was a fun addition to this year. We have the weekday pass, so there's less people around.

Flying trapeze

In a former life I learned to fly, but rigs go up and down around here. We went one day and the Cowgirl tried it. I was able to catch today, even if I hadn't been up in a few years.  She did really well, but seems to have acquired a fear she didn't have when she was younger. She also doesn't listen very well to other people.

Girl Scout Pirate Cruise

The Girl Scout troup goal was to go on a  Pirate cruise, which was handily achieved. It was a beautiful day, and the girls dressed up and got into the whole theme. We brought her teenage cousin along as a birthday present, although she didn't get as into the theme as the younger girls.

Miami Seaquarium Killer Whales

After our homeschool class at the seaquarium ,we go to see this show pretty often, their schedule doesn't change much. She had to bring the manatee and Shamu(even if Shamu is at a competitors place!). Actually, this is probably a record number of stuffies out of the house.

Cookie Sales, round 2

Here she is setting up her booth in front of our house. I let her handle the money, and watch over her from inside the house. She's in charge of this booth! We also have signed up for some booth time with the troup.

Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park: Our backyard National Park. We went camping in Long Pine Key camp area and  then hiked the Anhinga Trail. There are so many birds and alligators around now. The ones on the Anhinga trail don't seem to be too afraid of humans either.

Double Crested Cormorant

Turkey Vulture

Alligators

Female Anhinga

Caterpillar

We found this caterpillar, and have not been able to identify it. I suggested feeding it to the chickens, but Cowgirl objected, so we let it go.