Tomorrow is National Elephant Day!

The Phoenix Zoo is planning a whole party for their three elephants in honor of National Elephant Day!  The first guests to the Elephant Exhibit will get to help hide the elephants food around their compound and the barn door will be open much of the day for everyone to see how the elephants are taken care of.

But of course this is for Indu, Reba and Sheena so they will have live music performed for them and snacks of fresh carrots (Who could want anything more!).   Later in the afternoon the ladies will get to open some special piñatas.  Sounds like a lot of fun. [Though I have to admit that I still miss Ruby - the Painting Elephant   ]

• Phoenix Zoo on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/PhoenixZoo
• Phoenix Zoo on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/phoenixzoo

Carnival of Homeschooling

The  Carnival of Homeschooling has been posted at HomeGrownMommy.com.  As usual there are lots of great postings – and I went off on a Charlotte Mason trail during my lunch break! (Bad Mommy! )  Found some really cool blogs I hadn’t seen before and some great information on notebooking and narration which I’ll post about later.

Anyway one of the posts that really spoke to me was: When Homeschooling Is Hard by Debbie at The Architect and the Artist.  Sure, it can be difficult to homeschool sometimes, but it is less difficult than the alternative, at least in my case.

Lynn’s entry Using Notebooks and Interactive Notebooks in Our Studies from Eclectic Education is what started me off on my Charlotte Mason trip.  A lot of great information and links to be found on that blog! Wonderful!

Some great ideas for using graphical organizers as well as links to online resources is posted on Jimmie’s Collage on A Homeschooler’s Guide to Graphic Organizers.

Too many Great Ideas… and a bit late in posting! Sorry…

Arizona SAT Scores Decline… again

Arizona’s SAT Scores Declined again in 2009.  Sure, they’re trying to say it isn’t so bad – Arizona is still above the national average… a more diverse group than ever took the test this year, etc.  Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Education, Tom Horne had this take on the scores:

“We’re not where we want to be at the end, but we’re doing better than the country as a whole,” he said.

Sugar coat it if you want – the fact still remains that only 26% of the students were deemed ready for college level material.  Of course all, or nearly all, of these students passed the AIMS test with flying colors I’m sure.  For those of you not from Arizona, the AIMS test is the “high stakes” test that all high school students must pass before they can graduate.  Surprisingly only a handful of kids don’t pass, and yes, I do mean a handful.  Sure, they can’t add, subtract, write coherent sentence in anything but “text-speak,” or name the capital of England… but they passed their AIMS test.

Love This Post: Bending the Twigs

One of my favorite blogs: Bending the Twigs had a wonderful posting on the 26th: My Take: Home-school Parents Deserve Freedom from Unwarranted Government Intrusion.  I couldn’t agree more.  Crimson Wife (Who posts and comments regularly around the blogosphere) made a wonderful analogy comparing how the public would react if un-wed mothers were suddenly scrutinized and  “visited” by public officials as some are calling for with homeschool parents.

If women insist on raising children outside of wedlock, they should be proud to show everyone how good a job they are doing, right? If they can’t, or won’t, perhaps their children really need to be rescued, and the mom sent to jail for neglect and/or abuse- shouldn’t they?

Do you think any respectable newspaper would publish an op-ed piece calling for the implementation of the above policy?

For more of her wonderful Blog see: Bending the Twigs.

End of “Reading Rainbow”

LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow

Seems kind of fitting that the last episode of Star Trek – The Next Generation was titled “All Good Things.”  The PBS show “Reading Rainbow” hosted by LeVar Burton (who starred as Geordi LaForge on TNG) ended today after 26 years of being on the air.  As NPR notes in a wonderful article: ‘Reading Rainbow’ Reachie Its Final Chapter – That makes it the 3rd longest running PBS show.  However, it was behind the times…. It seems we no longer want to teach kids the love reading.  No.  We want to teach the mechanics of reading… on TV.  Excuse me if I don’t quite get this.

We live in an era when we no longer want to encourage kids to pick up a book and read?  Kids read little enough as it is, usually only what they are assigned at school.  Why is that?  Usually because their reading skills are lacking.  They don’t have the background knowledge necessary to understand many of books of any depth, so they read fluff, if anything at all.  I worked in my daughters school library for awhile.  I saw first-hand how poorly many students read (5th and 6th graders reading 3rd grade material for credit!).  I saw how many of the students whined and complained about having to read anything at all and then the so-called book reports that ended up being craft-projects.  There may have been 20,000 books in the school library, but the students swore there was nothing to read!

So yes, we need to encourage a love of reading in our kids, just as we need to teach them the basics of reading.  We also need to teach real content in our school curriculum.  All of these things are important and work together.  A child will never love reading unless they can “decode” the words, nor will they love reading unless they can understand the content of the story enough to enjoy it – and hopefully learn something new while they read.  That is the joy of reading.

21st Century Skills?

21st Century Skills

Why doesn’t it surprise me that P21 (Partnership for 21st Century Skills) is headquartered in Arizona?  I suppose it shouldn’t. (Maybe it’s the heat? … )  Daniel Willingham posted an excellent entry on the Britannica Blog: “Flawed Assumptions Undergird the Program at the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills.“  He, along with E.D. Hirsch (of Core Knowledge), Diane Ravitch (the writer) and Ken Kay (of P21) recently sat on a forum at Common Core to discuss P21 and its ongoing efforts.

His first assertation is that P21 separates skills from knowledge, believing skills more important.  He quoted from page 6 of their Intellectual and Policy Foundations document (PDF Download):

“With instant access to facts, for instance, schools are able to reconceive the role of memorization, and focus more on higher order skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.”

He summarized it succinctly:

In other words, students can always Google the facts, so teachers can focus on skills.

I don’t how often I have heard statements like that.  “Why do they need to memorize such-n-such?  They can always look it up on the internet?” Or if in regards to math:  “Why does she need to memorize her times tables?  She can always use a calculator?” Please excuse me while I roll my eyes.   First, what if (heaven forbid) little Jimmy/Jane should be without access to the internet or a calculator?  Then what?  Hmmm… occaisionally the internet connection does crash (at least in my area) and perhaps sometime in the future there could be larger outages caused by other problems such as natural disasters?   (Oh what would would little Kendra do if she can’t update her MySpace page then?  Oh my…)

My main concern with this, has more to do with what these kids are looking up.  Wikipedia is a great start for research – but it is hardly the end-all of resources.  It is not fact checked and never will be.  That is not research (and if I were a teacher, I wouldn’t even accept it is a source.)   Sure you can “Google” up facts – but without the background information, you won’t know if what you are reading is true or not.  Without bothering to look things up in “real” books and encyclopedias, kids aren’t really researching; they are copying and pasting.  Hardly a skill, 21st-century or otherwise.

Arizona Does It Again!

The Accountability Illusion

Arizona certainly has a knack for coming in last place (or nearly so!).  The Core Knowledge Blog recently posted “Location, Location, Location” about the Fordham Foundation’s report – ” The Accountability Illusion.”

That’s the upshot of a terrific new report … which looked at 36 actual schools (18 elementary, 18 middle schools) and determined whether each one would make AYP under the accountability rules of 28 different states.  No, they would not.

As they noted… “A bad school in Massachusetts is a good school in Arizona.” Now why doesn’t that surprise me?  We were already 48th (Edit: 49th: 03-04-09) in per-student spending before the current financial crisis hit and our state government decided to slash the state budget, hitting education especially hard (Special Education being unfairly targeted).  I would hazard to guess we are now 49th or 50th…  We were 47th in teacher salary levels.  I would guess we will be lower come next school year, when contracts are up for renewal.

What does all this mean?  It means the children of Arizona, attending public schools do not receive as good an education as those attending public schools in say Massachusetts or Washington state (especially those needing Special Education for some reason or another) – No matter what the State Department of Education says!  It means the teachers in Arizona are not paid fairly for their work and won’t be for the foreseeable future.  It means the education crises in Arizona will continue until these fundamental issues are resolved.

It means I will continue to homeschool my daughter because I don’t see how she can receive the education she deserves with the resources the school is given.  Yes, I pay my taxes that support public schools, and I have no problem paying those taxes in principle.  I would just like to see something for that money.

Freebies – What could be Better?

Happy Scribe: Irish Proverbs

We all love freebies - Especially if it is something really cool … erm… education wise that is.  Westvon Publisher is a small publishing house that creates a number of products for homeschoolers.  (I think anyone with school-age kids could use most of these products though, not just homeschoolers).  I love their Reading Logs (to keep track of what my daughter has read) and I use their History Scribe books as supplements to our history and language arts program.   I think they could be worked into just about any part of the curriculum actually.  I also use their Master Planner tools.

Oh… the freebies, you’re asking.  Well, every month Westvon Publisher’s has a free download available at their website so you can try out their products.  This month they have a sample of their Happy Scribe program: Irish Proverbs in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. ( And they have 17% off all their products as well! ).   The Happy Scribe books are e-books which you download and print out as needed, and their are so many of them! There is a book for any interest.  They are also cheaper if you buy them in groups.

Handwriting is not taught in schools like it once was.  I’m not even sure public schools around me teach it any longer.  My daughter’s private school did until 4th grade, so I was lucky in that respect.  When she went to the Charter School, she told me no one wrote in cursive, everyone printed.  Once we started homeschooling I didn’t have her practice handwriting, I thought hers was good enough.  But it began to deteriorate over time, I could barely read it.  She began printing more and more.  Enough of that, I thought!  I could have her practice her handwriting from passages we read, and I have done that.  But frankly, this is easier for me.

There was an interesting entry on the Core Knowledge Blog not too long ago, “Handwriting Is Still Alive!” ( 29 Januray 2009 ) about a book being published by Kitty Burns Florey called “Script & Scribble.” She makes some interesting points in it:

But I think it’s too soon to declare legible penmanship a lost art. Maybe the problem lies in calling it an art rather than a simple necessity like knowing how to add and subtract. Hardly a day goes by when the average person doesn’t have to write something on paper.

She goes on to point out that yes, of course we need to know how to type … erm… keyboard (Sorry -I learned to type!), but we should also take the time to learn to write legibly, even it it isn’t using the old Palmer method.  I couldn’t agree more.  I don’t think that is too much to ask.  No, it doesn’t have to be calligraphy, but I’d like to be able to read it!  Just as I think the cashier should be able to make change without the register/computer telling him/her how much it should be.  *sighs*

It’s the Teacher – Not the School

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

It’s the Teacher – Not the School: This isn’t news for me, but the acknowledgment comes from an unlikely source – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  In their Annual 2009 Newsletter, they discuss the U.S. Education system and how they tried to improve it over the past several years through their program.  Despite all their money and effort thrown into the public schools all across the nation (with a few success stories), most of their efforts came up empty.  Their conclusion:

If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.

Gee… isn’t that what homeschooling is all about?

We went through a private school – and had several excellent teachers.  They made all the difference in the world for my daughter!  Then we had some not so good teachers.  They made an impact too.  One we are still dealing with.

HSLDA President J. Michael Smith wrote an excellent article in his Op-Ed Column for the Washington Times on 24 February 2009: Home-schooling: It’s the Teacher, not the school. Basically he states that great teaching has nothing to do with teacher certification.  It has everything to do with caring about who you are teaching (your children) and what you are teaching.

I’ll be the first to admit homeschooling isn’t easy… it’s hard!  There are days I’m ready to throw in the towel.  But, I also know that I’m still giving my daughter a better education than she would get in the public schools here where I live.  The private schools, we simply can no longer afford, and the ones we tried were iffy at best (again, it depended on the teacher!).  We also tried a charter school.  It has an excellent reputation, and deservedly so, but it wasn’t for every child, including mine.  And again, my experience was that some of the teachers were excellent, but some were … well…  not so good.

At least now I know my daughter’s teacher cares about her and will work with her on a lesson until she “gets it.”  She won’t give up on her, or leave her behind.  If we have to repeat something… we do.  If a certain curriculum isn’t working, we can change it.

Updating Our Curriculum

I swore I wasn’t going to do it.  I wasn’t going to use a reading curriculum.  I was going to just have my DD read novels and classical literature.  We were going to continue with spelling and grammar for our Language Arts program.

I changed my mind.  (I do that sometimes… rarely, but sometimes.)

I attended a homeschooling conference this summer even though at that time we were going to be sending DD to a charter school.  I knew in my heart of hearts that she would be homeschooled again.  So I went to the homeschool convention anyway.  And I listened and and I looked at the curriculum offerings.  And there was a lot – it was overwhelming.  One of the speakers I heard was Mary Schofield.  Her subject was teaching children in grades 4-8 and preparing them for high school.  She discussed various subjects of course, but one she focused on was the importance of reading skills.  She didn’t advocate any one program over another, as every child is different, but she did emphasis the importance of certain skills.

As I perused the various vendors in the curriculum fair I looked through the reading programs and materials.  One caught my eye as being something I could work with.  Abeka.  I am a Christian homeschooler, but I don’t use a set Christian Curriculum and I tend to use secular books.  I add religious studies separately.  We talk about God and religion throughout the day as issues or thoughts come up ( i.e. teachable moments ).  Though my grammar books are Christian (Rod & Staff: Building Christian English Series) that isn’t why I bought them – I bought them because they teach grammar so well.

I decided to go with a reading curriculum after watching my DD continuing to struggle with her reading comprehension.  She also has problems with vocabulary.  (I’m purchasing a separate vocabulary program to address this issue – though her reading and other studies will also work on it.)  Since she her spelling is already at the high school level, I decided to drop that totally.  We’ll work spelling in with her other subjects as we go along.

The Abeka Reading Program offers integrated vocabulary and reading comprehension.  It’s focus is on phonics based reading skills.  They also have speed reading quizes as well as comprehension tests throughout the course.  The program is also balanced between fiction reading – some of it taken from well known classic fiction – animal tales, biographical stories and poetry.  My DD took a peak at some of the books and she was excited about starting the program.  Cathy Duffy gives her review of the whole program on her website: Cathy Duffy Reviews.

So our revised curriculum for Language Arts is now:  Abeka Reading Program with free reading of novels and classical literature.  She will do summaries of free reading choices.  Vocabulary will be the WordlyWise 3000 program.  Grammar will continue with the Rod & Staff Series. For fun we will use MadLibs.  For writing we will use Susan Wise Bauer’s Writing with Ease program (Which I will write more on later).