Stand Back, I'm going to try Science!

This is from the xkcd store. And I covet the t-shirt with this. Just putting that out there. Also, do check out the actual xkcd comic site - which is brilliant, even if sometimes (often) I don't understand it.

This is the time of year when my doorstep is littered with delivery boxes and the package delivery folks & I strike up conversations since we see each other almost daily. Yes, it's curriculum shopping time!

Hugo especially is always extremely curious about what's inside the boxes and volunteers to open them for me. I wish I could say that there are loud ooooh's and aaaaaah's when the grammar and Latin books arrive. Because you know how homeschooled kids are supposed to embody the spirit of endless curiousity and enthusiasm about learning (my kids didn't read that memo). Mostly there's a 'Hm. I hope this is better than what we suffered through last year' kind of feeling.

But this one book fired Hugo right up.



I have some videos already of the project he's done from this book, and we've only had it for a week or so.

I'm still trying to figure out what we'll be doing for science this year. Because we're a pretty science oriented household anyway, I've been happy to mostly wing it up till now. But suddenly I really wanted a coherent planned curriculum, esp something for Chem, as it's right up Hugo's alley. Unfortunately, almost all the science curricula out there designed for homeschoolers are written by folks who are creationists (who come in two main flavours: young & old earth) or intelligent design proponents. In case you're wondering, the public school curricula, esp for chemistry, are heavily geared to use in a school with full lab and are apparently difficult to adapt to use at home; nevertheless I'm still considering ordering a set of Singapore Science because they're inexpensive and maybe I could figure out a way to make the labs work....

So I've spent the summer trying to find a packaged curriculum I could use & I have got nowhere, mostly because I refuse to support authors who are ID or creationist. Actually, old earth creationists I could live with. (well, not actually live with..... but I think I could use their books). Just when I thought I'd found something, I'd dig around, ask around on the boards & find out the author's leanings were not something I could support. So here I am in mid-August, and still no coherent curriculum.

In July, when I realized things were not going to go smoothly with this, I decided I'd better stock up on some basic books and if worst came to worst, I'd have to make up my own curriculum (in my vast spare time!)

So I ordered the book above, along with






All this, put together with my university Chem textbook and the biggest Thames & Kosmos kit I can get in Canada (which I think is the C1000; the others apparently contain 'dangerous chemicals' which won't be allowed over the border) should somehow gel together into an interesting year of study.

Let's be logical

AND philosophical.

I've added to our curriculum.

One night a week, I'm reading a chapter out loud from one of the following books and then we discuss, en famille.

The Philosophy Files


and

Crimes Against Logic


I'm alternating the books and at the rate of one a week, altogether this should take 20 weeks (since I very logically added up all the chapters. Cunning, that.)

The Philosophy Files book is organized in 'files' or topics for discussion. It's illustrated with humorous black line cartoons and it's quite funny, but the actual content is serious. The author often presents the arguments as, well, arguments, by quoting from supposed conversations between friends debating the issues, and interjects his own information throughout by pointing out some fallacies in certain arguments, or simply expanding on an idea. The topics up for debate range from Should I eat meat? to Does God exist? as well as tackling virtual reality in How do I know the world isn't virtual?

Crimes Against Logic is a more challenging book but so very worth it. The first chapter at least should be mandatory reading for anyone who participates in online forums. It's called The Right to Your Opinion and will finally clear up for everyone why it's so unsatisfying when debaters retreat behind the "I'm entitled to my opinion" bulwark. The Guardian described this book thus: "Ruthlessly exposes logical flaws....angry and witty" and that's pretty much the sum. It's subtitled "Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and Other Serial Offenders" so it takes a broad sweep at most of the claims made in the public sphere of our lives.

I'm still waiting for the new edition of Weston's A Rulebook for Arguments (publication date is Jan 31, 2009)



to arrive and then I'll try to figure out how to fold it in.

Some days it just all comes together

I'm going to record a great homeschooling day so that during the rest of the year, when it's all crap, I can look back and say to myself "that's OK. There was that one day, one magical day, when we had flow*!"

And it was all due to the internet. I, like so many people, have this love/hate thing for the web. On one hand, as a homeschooling parent it has enriched our lives, helping us learn about various options and opportunities, and made researching things so incredibly fast. On the other hand, it can be a horrible time suck and it can also lead to feelings of inadequacy as you read all about these homeschooling families who are playing Bach concertos in the morning, doing differential calculus in the afternoon, and working on world peace in the evening - with six year old twins.

But last Thursday, something grand landed in my inbox - a link to some of UC Berkeley's lectures on YouTube. I checked it out quickly and saw Physics for Future Presidents - all the physics concepts, none of the math. I gather this is a first year course for arts majors (because scientists can't become presidents? And because presidents can't do math?**). I like physics and actually took some REAL physics - the kind for scientists! - at university and I thought this might be fun for the kids.

We watched two lectures the first day***. The professor has all sorts of gear to show various physical properties and while sometimes he's a bit too scattered and too inclined to run off on tangents, he's a fairly engaging prof. And I swear that lecture hall looked exactly like all my first year science halls.....

After the two episodes (the first episode has a distinct dissynchronization between audio and video which is quite amusing as he talks about the difference between speed of light and speed of sound) we took a break for lunch and hit our 'regular' schoolbooks. The conversation about what we had seen continued and Hugo mentioned something about the elements (also covered in those lectures).

I looked in our science folder and lo and behold, just where it's supposed to be, there was a periodic table - the kind you keep in your binder. This, in my home, is absolutely staggering. We generally can't even find pencils and erasers and our entire school day is punctuated by searches for something. Then when we find it, the other parts of the thing we need are missing. To look in the science box (hell, to find the science box) and actually find the periodic table when we want it, was a small miracle.

We went over some of the elements, talked about atomic weight, discussed why earth has no naturally occurring unbound hydrogen and then we all took a break and I went to quickly check my mail while having my tea.

And there, in my inbox again, a link to this great periodic table which gives pictures of the common uses for the elements. I quickly printed out two copies for the kids, and we spent ages going over the table again.

Then Roo came home from work and Hugo spent the entire evening telling him about all the interesting things in the lectures and showing him the periodic table.

Hugo finally went to bed but not without pleading (unsuccessfully) to watch 'some more physics lectures, please?!!!"

This is the kind of thing you can't really predict. Sometimes you gather materials - at an appropriate level and carefully selected to appeal to your child's learning style - and they bomb. No spark, no enthusiasm, no nothing. If you're lucky you escape with general boredom and avoid the moaning and sniping which goes along the lines of this is boring/why do I have to do this/you're doing this because I said so/it is NOT boring/now just do it/you'd be done by now if you weren't so busy whining about it, and so on, until you escape to the bathroom and wash your face while wondering why it was you thought homeschooling was going to be such a great experience.

And other times, you sneak time on the computer when you're supposed to be folding laundry and scrubbing the toilets, and some gems land in your inbox which turn out to be just the things to make your day sparkle.

*Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

**Can't resist this old a propos joke:

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

***lecture 3 is missing. I've already written them about it and they're looking into it. We skipped ahead to lecture 4 the next day and while there are things which are a bit unclear because of the missing lecture 3 info, it was OK to just jump ahead.

Galore Park and homeschooling

I think it was Becky who turned me on to Galore Park books and boy, am I grateful, because I really like these books. Galore Park publishes books which are widely used by British prep schools (which, I have to admit, gives my snobby heart a little thrill) and are geared for their 11+ and 13+ exams.

We started off with Our Island Story, in hardcover and abridged audiobook. I also have the French ***(text, CD & answer book), English and Maths (text & answer book. I didn't get the pupil book or teacher's resources & it just means that once in a while I need to either photocopy & white-out an assignment from the answer book or reproduce it myself. Most of the lessons are the type the pupil has to write out themselves.)

The Science just arrived yesterday. I purchased the textbook and a Teacher's Resources CD-ROM. The CD-ROM has:
- a worksheet for each section - either a list of true/false questions or a crossword puzzle;
-an 'investigation' for each section - this is not a hands on experiment but rather an analysis of someone else's hands on work. For example it will describe someone's observations about a particular phenomenon - rate of growth of tadpoles for instance - and the students are asked to graph the data presented, comment on the validity of the experiment and what conclusions can be drawn from it
-answers to the worksheets

I think it will suit our needs. This is a very science- rich (but scattered!) home and what I wanted was a concise syllabus of science at this stage - just to make sure we're not missing something and as a review. I think it will do excellently for that. It does not appear to have much messy hands on stuff (which is what Hugo wants) but we have other resources for that.

The Galore Park books we're using are all from the Level 1 set which is intended as prep for the 11+ exams, though the maths book says "The book is suitable for 11+ preparation and would also be suitable as a Year 7 course for those taking Common Entrance Papers 1 and 3 at 13+. " which makes me glad I'm not living in the UK because I can't figure out what the heck they're saying. Up to this point I haven't been too concerned about grades and levels so I'm a bit wonky on what it is that kids are 'supposed' to know - but this math book covers a lot and for a change, Amelia doesn't hate it (unlike Saxon and Singapore which she dislikes with a passion. The kind of passion that makes marks in walls when books fly) and so it's a winner with me.

I plan on using the Science book with both kids. Amelia's Maths will, I think, take us straight through June. She almost finished the English during the summer. I think we'll just review a bit and see if she wants to do a few more of the exercises which she skipped. For the French, Amelia will do the whole program but Hugo will just listen in on the audio. He struggles enough with writing in English that I'm not about to add French to his plate now.

Buying tip: depending on currency exchange & shipping charges, it may be cheaper to buy the books through Amazon. Indeed, I have purchased all our Galore Park books through Amazon.ca though they're tricky to find as they are not clearly catalogued. What you need to do is get the ISBN's for the textbooks/answer books/teacher's books/CD-ROM's etc. from the Galore Park site, and then search the Amazon site using the number.

They are all concise - no fluff here and so may not seem like a lot of value if you're used to boxed curricula which come with tons of stuff. But they're clear, to the point, and attractive without being frou-frou. The publisher says: "The guiding principle of all of our books is that they can be used by a pupil working alone and are thus ideal for both classroom and revision use." To which I'd add, 'and great for homeschooling!'


(edited to add)
*** bringing up a question from the comments about the French program and what's on the CD:
The CD does not have the entire lesson on it but for each lesson, there's a dialogue and that is on the CD. If you go HERE you will see some sample pages from the textbook. In the margins there is a diagram of a CD and that indicates this passage is on the CD.
I'd suggest combining this program with something like the Berlitz Rush Hour French which we have listened to a fair bit (& yes, it is as corny as the reviewers say but we like it). The Berlitz is a purely oral program and gets the student used to hearing and saying common phrases. I wanted to add Galore Park for Amelia because I think she's ready for the slightly more formal intro to grammar and spelling.

~~

Last week's homeschooling went well. The week was sandwiched by pancake breakfasts on Monday & Friday, and in between I eased us into math, English, Arabic and Canadian history. Work got done every day, there was no whining or fussing, only a constant search for pencils and erasers - they apparently are still on holidays and hiding out in nooks and crannies. This week I'll be folding in French, maybe the science and cooking too.

~~

BONUS

Easy peasy strawberry syrup for eager students' pancakes

Place frozen strawberries into a 1 cup pyrex measure. You want about 1 C of strawberries and approx. a 2 cm of clear space to the top of the measure.

Add 2 heaping teaspoonfulls of sugar.

Microwave 1 minute. Watch it as it sometimes wants to bubble over in which case turn off the microwave, wait a bit for it to cool and resume.

Give the cup a little swirl and microwave another 30-60 seconds. You want to see pink bubbling froth swelling on the top.

Let it cool a bit & pour on top of pancakes, spooning the fruit out.

Perhaps you should sit down

Put that laptown on a safe perch. Move your beverage of choice to a location where you won't accidentally knock it all over your keyboard.

This is a homeschooling post.

Why yes, dear reader. Long, long ago, this started as a homeschooling blog. A whole bunch of you still come here from the well trained mind site only to learn about rescue dogs and cleaning carpets and floppy stomachs.

But today is different. Today I'll discuss our homeschooling plans for the year. Enjoy because who knows when I'll work my way back around to this topic again.

Both children are studying pretty much the same things, at different levels, and sometimes using different resources. Here's a quick snapshot of what we're up to. I'll just list the major resources we're using.

English LA:
-Explode the Code
-Phonics Pathways for phonics & spelling
-Key Words with Ladybird
-Write with the Best (Amelia)
-whacks of books from the library

Math:
-Singapore Math
-So You Really want to Learn Maths! from Galore Park

French:
-So You Really want to Learn French! from Galore Park

History:
We're taking a detour to Canadian history this fall. I'm hoping to finish by Christmas or end of Jan at the latest, and then we go back to the Ancients.
-Canada, A People's History plus whatever books from the library look interesting

Arabic: (YES, Arabic! Egyptian Arabic. Latin has been shoved aside in favour of Arabic.)
-Pimsleur & Rosetta Stone (free access from a local library!!!)
(& may I just say how bloody hard Arabic is? Lesson One of Pimsleur had me spitting on myself and I just couldn't get anything beyond 'ingleezie'. And I already knew that from Amelia Peabody.)

Science: (not arrived yet because I didn't order it until late)
-So You Really Want to Learn Science! (Yes! Galore Park again)

Art:
I think we'll pull out Artistic Pursuits again. We didn't finish the 2nd book the last time around.

Cooking:
-weekly cooking afternoon. Kids will pick a recipe, make sure supplies are available & prepare the recipe.

Extras:
-gymnastics for Hugo
-sewing for Amelia
-english riding for both - still to be arranged
-fostering animals & volunteering at the animal shelter
-attempt to resuscitate a girls craft club
-still pondering something else for Hugo, like a lego or robot club or something....
-garden
-winter bird count for Birds Canada

As always - weekly library visits, piles of books & audio books, Zip DVD membership

Schoolwork every morning M-F and no outside appointments or classes before 1 pm. Phone is not answered before 12:30 pm (no hardship as we actually never answer the phone)

I think that's it. Year 9, here we go.