Two Readers

I spent Wednesday morning perusing a recently-found and favorite blog: Wonderfarm. The author says, 

“If we want our kids to love reading and writing in the future, we have to help them love reading and writing today.”

http://patriciazaballos.com/2011/10/14/love-reading-today-love-writing-today/

Allies

I read several homeschooling blogs. The writers are my electronic friends (we have never met). Still--they are my mentors. They introduce me to things and give me the courage to try them. I put these friends in the right margin (there----->). Something about their approach or their resources suits me, and it is reassuring to not cut this that I don't have to break trail alone.

Another silent partner in homeschooling is interlibrary loan.

Creation Potpourri

She's looks like a Rastafarian, but really she's wearing her Scylla creation.

We read the Odyssey chapter about Scylla and Charybdis (a six-headed monster who eats men and a whirlpool monster who eats ships).

She tied her scarves together to make six necks/head. Then she wore it.

Tell me about...

I found a blog last week that upended my approach to teaching writing and grammar.

The creator had left a comment on another blog I read, so I clicked her name to see what else she had to say. I have woke up eager for "my" computer time every morning to continue reading:

"Wonderfarm" a.k.a. http://patriciazaballos.com/

If you go to her page, click "blog" at the top.

On the sidebar is The Dictation Project. To summarize, all kids are storytellers and writers, but the ability to go from speaking it to writing it is gradual. Also, some people's minds --not just kids' minds-- lock up at a blank page. They can think it; they can speak it, but writing it takes so much time and concentration that the stream of thought dwindles to a trickle. Then it stops.

If you want to experience what *that* feels like --being hamstrung by the page-- try her five minute experiment.

Evolution Demonstrated

Here is a clip about how evolution works. It's simple enough that any child with imagination and working eyesight can understand.

It works for us over-thinking adults, too:

http://www.wimp.com/demonstrateevolution/

Thum-thing different Thursday

Will this be on a test?

I don't test the kids. I might ask a question to see what they picked up after a reading or a video, but there's nothing graded beyond marking a math problem so we can go back and redo it.

Often, something we are studying is referenced--TV shows, articles, etcetera-- and I point it out. For instance, the publisher of the book cited below is "Perseus Publishing" and they know the story of Perseus. At least, they knew it a few weeks ago.

So in the realm of what educators consider testing, I don't test them. The only familial resistance to homeschooling has been the question: how do you know if they've learned anything if you don't test them?