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.

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 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.

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.

Keeping track of schoolwork

I found an online school tracker - http://www.homeschoolskedtrack.com It's been really helpful. I've entered the previous lessons and future lessons in some topics. Then each day I can see what we're supposed to do in the various subjects. If we don't get to a topic, it rolls over to the next day. And I can project into the future to see when we'll finish. So far it looks like the middle of July for most things.

Legoland

We went on a homeschool outing to Legoland. It opened earlier this year and the group rate was quite a deal. The gardens were beautiful, the lego sculptures are pretty cool and the waterskiing lego men are entertaining.

Practicing driving

Harassing the sleeping knight

Farmer Jay's Homeschool Class

There was a homeschool class on Organic Farming taught by Farmer Jay. It was a good discussion of plants.  We were trying out a homeschooling group, and while I like them, they are based out of Broward, and a lot of their activities are south of us and generally a bit far. There are a fair number of homeschool groups around here, but a fair percentage are Christian, which doesn't appeal to me.

Ladybug visiting the class!

Too many Roos and a little chick!

We have 4 roosters. That's 4 too many, since we do live in town. They are beautiful birds, but way too noisy.

Here's my little chick doing her vietnamese workbook. The bottom third is handwriting practice.

Home School Day

This a a typical day. The blue spiral is Righstart Math B workbook. She has her weaving project next to her, my camera case and a calendar are also on top. Other subjects are in the boxes underneath.

And here we're doing writing. This story was about Arachne from The McElderry Book of Greek Myths.
I bought a pack of paper that is half blank and half lined, so she can draw pictures and write about it. We also use it to make books, just fold the paper in half and staple. Sometimes we use a piece of construction paper for a cover. The paper is 9x12 and the construction paper is the same size.

Chickens in math class!

Way back before K, I found a sale on a math curriculum with froggy manipulatives. Every once in a while I'll take it out to add variety. The frogs have cute little logs that allow for grouping by tens. Then we had to weigh some of our new chicks. They look pretty silly at that in-between stage.

Checking out the new surroundings!

Weighing chickens using frogs...

We can't see in the back!

Take me to your leader!

History activity

Another picture of our school table. We're doing an activity from the Mosaic Curriculum,

from the Ancient Civilizations History Pockets on Mesopotamia. You can also see the Half Magic and Gilgamesh the King books.

T-Rexes and math parties

The first time we went to this science museum, they had a dinosaur exhibit with robotic dinosaurs. That night,  she was talking in her sleep and said "That's a T-Rex!" I never found out what her dream was about, but she now has a fondness for T-Rexes, probably from watching Dinosaur Train.

Our lesson today in RightStart math required a math party, with 10 friends. Since we normally don't have 10 kids floating around, we had 10 soft friends fill in. It seems not all are paying attention.

Science Volcanos

So here's the standard volcano model. It's kind of fun to see the reaction of the kid.