DVRs for Educators

I am a member of a number of local groups that discuss homeschooling. One of the members mentioned recording educational programming to a DVR for use later in the classroom and I thought I would pass the idea along here.

We have been recording shows to our DVR for quite sometime. The National Geographic Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, the History Channel, DIY, HGTV, and many others are all wonderful resources. In addition, we have purchased a number of series sets from the Discovery Store.

Cable in the Classroom offers a lot of help with scheduling and additional information that would be useful for educators.

Using a mix of different media with my children has been very beneficial. They need to hear information from a variety of sources and the visual images available through these films and programs are much more realistic than we could offer through textbooks.

What to write...

Once my daughter learned to read, I guess I thought that writing would come naturally. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. She has a strong imagination and does write well when she is willing to take her time and accept a little guidance. However, that is not very often.

I have struggled with ways to encourage her to write and have really worked to understand the reasons behind her frustrations. Maybe some of my observations will help you if you face similar issues.

First, she doesn't enjoy writing, because she is limited by the amount of words she can spell. I know that in the public school system here, they encourage children to just write the words as they sound if they don't know the proper spelling. However, I can't seem to bring myself to encourage my child to misspell words. I am always available to help and we have about ten dictionaries of varying depth at her disposal. I know it will just take time for her to learn more words. My conclusion is that we need to work on her spelling abilities.

Second, she lacks experience with grammar. We have covered all of the rules, but they are just words right now. I feel like I am in a crazy loop. She needs to know the rules for writing, but until she starts writing more, it is hard to understand their application.

Third, she needs to be able to express herself creatively and enjoy what she writes. Her latest project was creating a comic book with her and her sister as the main characters. We are also encouraging her to use email to communicate to friends, write letters, and make lists for us when we need to remember things. We scrapbook together and I encourage her documenting events as well. Our most success came when she wrote a book about her grandmother and herself (www.bebeandme.org). We are hoping to get to write a sequel soon.

I would like to find other options for her and am looking into enrolling her in an online program like time4writing. It is a significant commitment, but I think she could really benefit from a change of pace and an introduction to a new teacher on this subject. I love the interaction it promises and feel that she may be ready for a challenge like that later this school year.

I wish I had some definite answers, but thought I would simply share my ponderings on the subject. Obviously, I love to write and reading is a mini-obsession. I strongly desire for my children to find a passion for language like their parents have. I will let you know how things progress.

MathTriumph

I just have to share my child's excitement right now. She has struggled with carrying in addition problems all year and complicated subtraction problems have been quite a challenge for her as well. She has become so discouraged that the idea of working on math is a disappointment. Unfortunately, this is one subject that I cannot avoid and we have used a multitude of techniques to try to help her grasp these basic mathematical concepts.

Today, I walked into our homeschool room to shouts of delight from Sophie. She was working on her money unit in Time4Learning and finally got it! She went into great detail about the lesson and what was shown that made sense. We had used money to help her with math problems, and being such a little spendthrift, that was really making sense. However, the basic math applications were still causing her difficulty. The fact that a ten minute lesson helped her comprehend the process of carrying is amazing to me.

I have also been challenged to creatively come up with ways for her to drill simple math problems, such as basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Yesterday, I started printing off worksheets with five problems on each row. We timed her on how fast she could correctly complete each row and she had a blast. She was actually asking to do more and finished another 50 problems with Keith after he got home from work. This was much more successful than flashcards. Totally Tut Math Operations Game was another fun tool we used to help her memorize the basics.

I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. My child is happy and learning the basic skills she requires. It's a good day!

Spelling City and Hangman

One of my biggest challenges with Sophie has been in the subject of Spelling. She is so good at reading complex words, but the simplest words will stump her when it comes to spelling. After watching the National Spelling Bee, Sophie asked if we could work on this problem a little more.

We started with some basic quizzes which left her in tears because she was struggling to get the right answers. I quickly saw that this was a situation where I needed to move away from my traditional learning experiences and come up with another option for her.

After thinking about the situation a while, I decided that using a spelling list might be the best way to keep up with her overall progress. There is a great online game site that allows you to use your own lists in their word games. You can just go to their homepage, at SpellingCity.com, and enter the words you want to study. They offer a lot of options from traditional testing to 10 interactive games.

I also found a great little book called Scratch and Solve Hangman, by Mike Ward. It is great for word recognition and construction. She loves it and has been playing it a lot over the last few days. It is also something that she can play on her own and she has NO idea that it is teaching her anything!

We are giving Sophie words to spell at random when we stop at a red light or are in line at the store. She seems to really enjoy it and one of my main goals with homeschooling is to keep education a fun experience that the girls will always appreciate and crave. So far so good!

Keeping in Touch

We just said farewell to the Meyer family as they moved a few states away. This left my girls missing three of their best friends terribly. The current plan is to use Skype, Gmail chat, email, and postal mail to keep the girls in touch. All of these are free except the USPS and, even though the price of stamps keeps rising, it is still amazing that you can get a letter across the country for less than the cost of a soft drink.

Of course, as with everything in our lives, this will become another educational experience. As I thought about our options for contact with our friends, I realized that the use of these tools could expand to open a line of communication with many others. My first thought was connecting with other homeschoolers. Then I remembered pen pals from my youth and thought that there might be a way to contact students in other countries. This would enhance our cultural studies significantly.

Here are a few benefits I see...

#1 Skype: It teaches verbal communication skills and saves us money on long distance charges. Using it with a webcam allows more direct contact and interaction between users.

#2 Gmail chat: The first thing I thought of was an increase in typing skills because of the speed of communication. Chatting is something that requires you to think very fast, form a coherent thought and relay it clearly in text. Having immediate feedback is helpful as well.

#3 Email: This is a wonderful way to increase writing skills. You can give the child an event to describe or treat it like a journal of sorts. We have a draft process with Sophie. She writes an email and then we check it before she sends it to make sure it is written well. You could take it a step further and print the draft for revisions. There is also the added element of responsibly checking emails and replying in a timely manner, something we are working on now.

#4 Postal mail: Who doesn't love to get mail? Teaching letter formatting and adding artwork to the letter are two ways to incorporate this into your daily schedule. The Flat Stanley project also comes to mind.

Blogs are another way to update a number of friends at once. The comment section can be a great option for sharing thoughts and the blog can be protected where only authorized viewers can access the content. Sophie is going to have to improve her writing skills before I am ready to unleash her with a blog. However, I am sure it will happen soon.

Homeschooling forums are a great source for finding other children to interact with yours through these methods. You might consider printing cards with your child's contact information on it, so they can easily exchange their email address or skype information with a friend. It might be best if you keep the cards and monitor who receives them.

I strongly advocate monitoring your child's online presence. I have access to every stroke Sophie makes on her computer and, since aquiring our netbook, I often sit with her as she works. With a few precautions, you can protect your children from accessing information and making contacts that are not appropriate. It will be well worth your time.

Pinhole Camera

What a great way to spice up a traditional art/science lesson! The pattern for this creative pinhole camera is available for download in pdf form from Corbis Readymech Cameras. Have fun!

Preparations for Memorial Day

It is always a challenge to decide the best way to teach your children about the difficult topics in history. We all want to protect them, to some degree, from experiencing the pain of knowing the atrocities that their fellow humans have inflicted upon each other. However, to stay ignorant is certainly not the answer either.

I feel a great sense of responsibility in safely educating my children. I consider it an honor, as a parent and educator, to teach the girls the importance of not forgetting our past. I want them to be grateful for the sacrifices of those who have brought us our freedoms and of those who continue to protect us from harm and safeguard our liberties.

Memorial day brings with it a wonderful opportunity to do this. By focusing on our Nation's war heroes, we can make the experience of War very personal. We celebrate the lives of the men and women who have sacrificed to provide us with the quality of life we enjoy.

The Library of Congress has a wonderful page devoted to the stories of veterans through videos, audio files, and other documents. You can find the link here.

Education-World provides a nice pdf file with a mini-book and windsock pattern here. They also have a really nice article entitled, "Put the 'Memory' Back in Memorial Day."

The History Channel provides a wealth of information here. The US Memorial Day and Information Website also has a lot of nice references and materials to access for creating lesson plans on the topic.

I am excited about taking time with our family to really appreciate what we have and specifically be grateful to the men and women who have sacrificed so much for us all.