Test Taking Tips

Posted on April 10, 2011 by heidi

From our DCHSA newsletter:

7 Test-Taking Skills to Teach Your Child
There are specific skills and strategies involved in taking tests that can help your child do his best.

1. Directions

• Always listen to and read the directions carefully; don’t assume that you already know them. Sometimes they change only slightly, but significantly, from one section to the next.

• Ask the instructor to explain any directions that you do not understand.

• Be sure you know how and where to mark the answers, especially if they are on a separate sheet. Keep checking to make sure you are marking the numbered answer space that matches the numbered question and for the correct test section (e.g., spelling, math computations).

• Mark answers carefully and neatly, filling in the blanks completely so that it will be graded correctly.

• Erase a wrong answer thoroughly when changing your answer.
2. Wording

• Watch out for wording such as “Which of the following is not true?” or for answers that sound or look similar.

• On a true or false question, watch for the words “never,” “always,” “only,” and “best.”

3. Morale

• Relax by taking several slow, deep breaths and changing your position from time to time.

• Remember that you know a lot of information and that you are doing your best to show what you know.

• Ask the Lord to help you remember what you learned and do your best.

4. Pacing

• Since most tests are timed, don’t get bogged down on a question that you can’t answer or are unsure about.

• Answer the items you are sure of first. This builds confidence, and you won’t miss points on easy questions by running out of time.

• Skip difficult questions and place an “x” by the number of the question in the margin on the answer sheet.

• If you are not sure of a question, answer the best you can and mark them with a “?” in the margin.

• When you have answered all the other questions, answer the questions with an “x” in the margin and recheck questions you marked with a “?”.

5. Choosing Answers

• If you need to, look back at the reading selection to check facts and ideas.

• Try each answer in the blank to help you decide which one sounds right.

• Sometimes on questions where you are to find mistakes, none are to be found.

• On some questions, two answers can be correct and you must choose the answer that includes them both.

• When you are not sure, eliminate answers you know are incorrect and take your best guess among the rest. Some of your guesses will be right.

6. Math

• On arithmetic test items, do a quick estimate with rounded-off numbers. This will help you avoid “silly” mistakes and may even help you locate the only possible answer.

• When you copy a math problem onto scratch paper, line up the numbers carefully and double check your copying.

• Always check subtraction problems by reversing operations.

• If you have time, check equations by substituting your solution for the unknown and check other math problems by reversing operations.

7. Timing

• Use all the time allotted for the test; review your test if you finish early.

• Recheck the directions, questions, and your answers.

• Do not change answers unless they are obviously wrong.

• Don’t panic when students start handing in their papers. There’s no reward for being the first.

Additional Online Resource

See many more test taking tips at testtakingtips.com

Too tired to link:

http://www.testtakingtips.com/parents/index.htm
http://www.testtakingtips.com/anxiety/index.htm
http://www.testtakingtips.com/test/index.htm

“Schedule”

Posted on April 4, 2011 by heidi

And this is a schedule in the loosest sense of the word.

Monday – math, phonogram review, language lesson, art
Tuesday – math, new spelling words, writing lesson, PE class (speech B)
Wednesday – math, language lesson, music & piano lesson, soccer
Thursday – spelling enrichment, literature/writing lesson, PE class, co-op (speech B)
Friday – spelling test, math make up, swimming, soccer, history
Saturday – science

We try to do our math and language/writing/spelling lessons before lunch then the “extra” after lunch (art, music, history, science.) We have so many interruptions these days with nursing and a toddler that lessons can drag out for awhile but in theory we can finish lessons with the oldest three for math & language within 2 hours. We try to not do more than 15 minutes of sit down time before we do something physical (run in yard, play a game) though C can sit and finish his math within 30 minutes. But he’s 9, versus the 6 and 7 year olds. 🙂

And we try to start our day with circle time to get all of the kids involved. We only do a handful of those activities on any given day, depending on attention span.

Juggling Students

Posted on February 13, 2011 by heidi

I can’t decide if it’s lazy or efficient that when I’m talking with friends re: homeschooling issues I just blog about it so I can refer to it later. 🙂 (This one is prompted by Becky’s question and my realization that I’m in theory schooling three kids and should be adding a fourth to the equation this fall. HA! I need to ponder on this topic myself…)

Whenever possible we combine kids: art, music, literature, history, science. I try to have scratch paper or relevant coloring sheets for the little ones to draw on while I do the reading or I’ll ask everyone, “Draw me a picture of what you’re hearing as we read.” (Their Tempest pictures were great, I’m kinda scared to ask them to illustrate Macbeth!) I don’t care what the kids are doing while I read so long as they are relatively quiet so the older ones can focus, but I am surprised at how much the middle kids pick up when I think they aren’t listening.

The subjects I need to give individualized attention are language & mathematics. For now with spelling I have both older kids get their notebooks to right down the new words and I flip back and forth in the Spell to Write & Read guide giving them their spelling lists. Mo I try to write out the words for so sometimes C gets a couple words at once and he can usually remember them that way so I can focus more on Mo’s spelling.

Grammar I’ll sometimes do them together if it’s a review of parts of speech or a dictation or narration exercise. C will listen in on Mo’s since hers are a review for him but C’s are much, much more involved and require my attention (diagramming prepositional phrases for objects??) There are some days I cannot do it with him and we wait until Kit gets home, which none of us likes. We only do two grammar lessons a week per kid so sometimes I have to keep the kids on standby and when the little ones are distracted I say, “QUICK, grab your language book!”

Ditto for mathematics. If I can focus on the kids it takes maybe 30 minutes to complete (lesson & their written work) but that means a full hour I need little ones to be occupied. When I’m working with one or the other of the big kids I will ask the other child to distract the little ones. We strive for 3 math lessons a week.

We have a busy box with activities to keep little ones occupied. I’ll pull out a toy bin (train tracks, Little People, board game) and we rotate through those so there’s some novelty when they get them. I’ll start little ones on an art project so I can do a lesson, in good weather I’ll throw them in the yard.

And somedays it’s all about PBSKids.org or PoissonRouge.com or Sesame Street clips on Hulu! We try to check out educational DVDs from the library and I’ll save those to let the little ones watch while I work with the big ones. Sometimes I let them watch anything they can manage to stick into the DVD player without my help because I’m focused on a lesson. 🙂 I decided I’m okay with that, too, because when the lesson is done the movie goes off and I can engage all of them.

I’m thinking that I may try something new and alternate days, too. I’ll focus on the older kids on Monday & Wednesday for grammar & mathematics and I’ll do Tuesday & Thursday with the middle two (pre-K and K right now) while the older ones have some free reading time or educational games on the computer. I’m still trying to figure that out…

In some ways having the kids be independent readers does make it easier but the lessons they need my help on (math & grammar) are ones they cannot just read aloud, I have to instruct them so it does demand individual attention. We try to do lessons in the morning but sometimes with all the distractions it can take us 3+ hours to get through two grammar & two math lessons. As the little ones get older I hope they will better be able to stay occupied (in a non-destructive fashion!) and we can be more efficient about getting work done. But right now I am also trying to do lessons while nursing and getting a baby to nap so there is a constant (good!) reason for interruptions.

And schooling year round does mean we have some leeway so if we don’t get enough lessons done in one week I try to not stress it too much. I plan a schedule and create lists only because it gives me some sense of structure – in reality we are very, very flexible in how we implement things and that’s part of the joy of homeschooling.

More ideas here.

Daily Schedule

Posted on January 23, 2011 by heidi

Working on new schedule for this year, I’m planning for lessons 9am to noon (with 10am stop for snacks, after which little ones will play and big ones keep working.) Then after lunch will be reading/quiet (nap) time and we’ll start our special lessons (art, music, history, co-op, etc) from 2 to 3pm, then our snack & they’re free to play until dinner & chore time.

I want to get better about having a specific activity to keep the little ones engaged during morning lessons. Afternoon involves all the kids (to varying degrees) but morning is when we do language and math and the big ones need my attention. The oldest four all do lessons to some degree, since Ben & Emy have been asking to do work while the older two have lessons. Mr. Two-Years-Old is the trickiest one to keep occupied… pondering him.

And during our reading time I’ll do a storybook with all of the kids right after lunch while nursing then put the baby down to sleep and I’ll read with the little ones more while the big ones read, though on Thursdays I’ll be reading from our literature list and on Fridays I’ll be reading our history.

That probably made no sense to anyone but me. 🙂

Clarifying Part One, Leadership Education

Posted on January 2, 2011 by heidi

So after reading this section and going back through to write my notes I realize it felt very disjointed and scattered because it was. This section didn’t seem to have any sort of clear plan but here’s what my summary is after reading the book.

CALENDAR & ROUTINE:
– Look at your year and decide your academic calendar. We do school year round, spring & summer are busy with outside activities so we do more book work in winter & summer. Schedule twice a year planning meetings to review goals with your spouse and then with your kids. Plan vacation times for kids to explore and dictate their own schedules for the day. Put it all on the schedule!

– Meet weekly with your spouse to review things (Sunday evenings for us); every other week meet with your spouse & kids (one at a time) for kids’ counsel and meet weekly as family (family home evening on Mondays.)

– Twice a year do a massive home purge/sorting of books, clothes, toys, etc and donate what you can. PUT THIS ON THE SCHEDULE. Also schedule twice a year sit down times to review academics and see what you can drop from the calender (first of August, mid-December for us before each semester.)

– Don’t over schedule the week, combine kids’ activities where possible and don’t let kids begin lessons outside the home (dance, music, etc) until they show they are committed and ready to follow through

– Plan a large annual family project (service activity, performance, trip, etc.)

– Have morning routine & learning time, family clean up, lunch, afternoon free to explore, transition to family chores & prep for evening meal, dinner together should be with meaningful discussion, clean up, evening should be spent as quality family/inspirational time. Make chores part of entire family’s routine and prepare children to take over stewardship of certain areas on their own by age 12.

ACADEMICS & SOCIALIZING:
– Compile family reading list and read together in evenings.

– Study the scriptures as a family daily.

– Organize your bookshelves well so they are accessible to kids.

– Have bins for materials, projects, toys but rotate for organization, easy clean up & to retain novelty.

– Schedule family library trips to browse, choose variety of books.

– Create portfolio/binder for children to keep their six week goals’ list and their best work.

– Have others (especially grandparents) mentor children in specific areas and teach them family skills.

– Plan meaningful field trips.

– Subscribe to worthwhile magazines (one or two, Friend & National Geographic Kids for us thanks to a gift subscription.)

– Limit recreational tv/computer/game time.

– Carefully choose meaningful, challenging, personalized assignments for your kids.

– Expose children to a variety of social situations: community, formal, service based, political, etc.

– Explore option of weekly co-ops, peer groups that are educational (not recreational) so co-op would meet that need, and weekly lesson for kids that are committed and ready. You want kids to have a chance to learn from other adults and alongside peers.

That made not make sense to anyone else but me but it helps me to clarify the goals after reading this section. 🙂

Leadership Education Notes Part One

Posted on January 2, 2011 by heidi

I read the book and I’m going back through to copy down my notes and thoughts.

Quotes I liked: “God does not want us to grow up to be just his servants, his gophers or errand boys. He wants us to be a different kind of creature altogether, one he can trust and give full stewardships and talents and then leave and come back to see that we have used, expanded, and made them flourish.” C. S. Lewis

“Keep yourself busy enough getting your own education that you can let the children enjoy their childhood and stay in love with learning as they grow.” (Referring to homeschool parents improving their own education before rushing little ones into academics.)

“Set rules and be firm in following them. Do not set too many, and be consistent. When a youth breaks a rule, tell her; ‘try that again.'”

“Whereas the conveyor belt motto seems to be ‘when the student is ready, the teacher is too busy maintaining the structure for all the students who aren’t ready,’ Leadership Education optimizes the teaching moment when the student is ready.”

“It is not enough to train up one’s own children. The true mother must also train and properly raise the whole community in which her children grow up, looking ahead three or four generations and acting accordingly. This is not a government village raising the child, but a mother raising her own children, her future sons- and daughters-in-law, communities of great and good leaders who will ensure the liberty of her grandchildren. Not, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ but, ‘It takes a mother to raise a village.'” Thoughts on that quote – first, it takes parents to raise a child and that’s not solely the domain of a mother. I did like the reminder that I cannot be worried about only raising my children, I need to reach out and help all of the parents around me and encourage their children. I see what a difference it’s made to my children to have this community loving and teaching and encouraging them through our co-op and church and PE groups, to have other adults helping and inspiring them, and I have learned to love these other children. We need to encourage and help the families around us because we all need each other to make things better and to create a world that our children will be happy to raise our grandchildren in…

“… they will be socialized, it will happen regardless, but what will they be socialized for?” Dr. Julie Earley

1. Couple Council on Sunday evenings to review calendars, lessons, goals, concerns with kids.

2. Kids’ Counsels, parents meet two on one with kids to review their lessons, goals, concerns, etc. At least once a month on Sundays, preferably every other week.

3. Family Home Evening, discuss family calendar before. Study the scriptures together, not just at FHE but especially focus this night on conveying to your children your spiritual beliefs and testimony.

4. Morning routine: every day (recognizing there will be exceptions) have the family gather for breakfast, chores, prayer, then Dad to work and start lessons. Whatever agenda works, stick to it for consistency for all and so day doesn’t start to slip away.

5. Try marble jar, put marble in when any of the kids does something noteworthy. Can be serious or whimsical, but all kids’ marbles go into same jar and entire group gets special treat when it’s filled. Can be for meeting goal, lesson done quickly, service to others, etc. (Not sure if we’ll do this? I’m hesitant, wondering if kids will think they should get a marble for everything?)

6. Six months to purge of toys, clothes (rotate for seasons), books – whatever is not needed donate! Collect all year in donation box and dispose of when it’s full but do BIG purge/donate every six months. Also purge the CALENDAR. What commitments take priority, what stuff can be dropped?

7. Six month inventory & planning. List each child and discuss these questions with your spouse then with the child:
– interests to focus on?
– fears or concerns?
– dreams?
– biggest needs for next six months?
– how can I help with above?

8. Annual project: plan something big for entire family to focus on, a performance or project, service, trip, etc.

9. Plan breaks, time for children to be free from lessons and have chance to plan their own day (or NOT plan their day.) 🙂 Two weeks end of December/early January; two weeks for vacation; one week in summer.

10. Afternoon without routine: plan for free time, more open schedule, chance for kids to explore own interests. Parent should pursue projects as well and model for their children & share what they are learning/doing. With little ones this often means focusing on them but can explain to big kids what they are doing, include them in activities, do fun family activities and invite older kids to join if they are interested, etc. Try to present opportunities to be outside whenever possible.

11. Afternoon to evening transition: prepare kids to transition to evening with clean up, chores/meal prep, wash up time for dinner. Make family dinners a priority and use the time for meaningful discussions – not necessarily deep & serious, but talk about your day, what’s happening in the world, topics of interest, what you learned that day, family trivia game, etc.

12. Evenings are for family time, bonding, inspiring. Read together, attend firesides or concerts & performances, family discussions, etc. Create a family reading list and read aloud the classics together. We do scripture reading in the evenings but may need to be part of morning routine down the line.

These are NOT the first 12 ingredients but are my goals based on reading the first 12 ingredients in their Core & Love of Learning Section. I like a lot of this book but I’m writing up my notes based on just on what I plan to implement as inspired by this book, you’ll have to read it to get their actual suggestions. 🙂

13. Seasons – arrange the schedule around the seasons/schedule. For us the spring and fall are busy with therapy & sports and the weather is beautiful so we want to be outside as much as possible. The summer and winter are lighter schedules for therapy and the weather is really hot/cold so we’re not outside playing as much and we focus on more book lessons then.

14. Other teachers – seek out chances for children to learn from other relatives/friends, is there a special skill a grandparent can teach your child? A lesson an older sibling can demonstrate for a younger sibling? One time or ongoing, a special summer focus project or weekly lessons. Write up a list of areas that a grandparent could mentor a child in and officially ask them to help with x, y, or z. What special family activity can be passed to the next generation?

15. Prepare your children to take over stewardship of household duties. Train them to be able to run their own home by teaching them how to run aspects of yours. Cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, budgeting, maintenance, etc. Young ones (8 and under) are being trained watching parents & helping with explanations on how to do things, 8 to 12 are doing with supervision/checks, 12 and up should be able to do chores on own and be responsible for certain areas completely. Make chores part of daily routine and make them a family affair, everyone get up after meal and help clean up; everyone transition from lessons to lunch prep, from afternoon free time to dinner prep, before bed clean up.

16. Weekly club – have children participate in a weekly peer group, scouts, co-op, etc. Does not need to be exact age group, but something with other children that is education focused (not just recreation.)

17. Portfolio/binder – include the six month list they wrote up from #7 that includes their goals, area of focus, books read, subjects studying, notes from Kid Counsels (#2.)

18. Plan field trips, smaller groups are often better, include down time to discuss and casually visit about experience. Don’t make it rush, rush, rush.

19. Library trip: go as family, take time to browse, encourage children to check out variety of books, let them see you pursuing your OWN educational goals. Talk to them about what you are curious about & studying. Every other week.

20. Book shelf: sort by levels. (The book goes into great detail about how they do it, I disagree.) We have a special books/gift books shelf with some novels, storybooks, any book we plan to keep forever; favorite storybooks/bedtime stories shelf; board books for toddlers in forward facing bin for easy exploration; easy readers in forward facing bin; stage 2 easy readers (Dr. Seuss, etc) on another shelf; kids’ novels; science & history/geography; art; school books (grammar, math, etc.) I think the point is to have the books organized in some fashion and easily accessible.

21. Bins: toys, arts & crafts, etc. In an easily organized fashion, accessible but able to be rotate and put away so everything doesn’t get dumped at once. We have those blue & red IKEA bins and we put some down low on the shelves and others up high in the closets and we rotate in and out to keep the novelty and minimize the mess.

22. Weekly lesson: when child has shown strong interest (not just passing interest) & is willing to commit to practice then let them have lessons in one (two tops) areas (music, sports, martial arts, etc.) They must first demonstrate responsibility and follow through in other areas before time & money will be invested. (We are still doing piano lessons with kids that I’m teaching them so they get a basic knowledge of music and if they are interested we’ll pursue outside lessons or Kit will teach them guitar if they want. We did dance lessons with a friend teaching in our home, Kit’s coached their soccer team so they played free, so we’ll explore options like that but for serious lessons with teacher we pay they have to show the maturity to commit.)

23. Limit recreational computer/game/television time. Use these as tools for education but be careful that they can become wasted hours if not used wisely. We keep all computers in public areas, Kit installed filters, we don’t have any broadcast tv (can only watch DVDs/tapes) and we installed passwords on the laptops, iPad, iPhone, so the kids have to ask for screen time & we’re setting a screen time allowance for recreational stuff. Educational games I’m fine with if supervised and after book work is done but we’re trying to be more careful with this.

24. Exposure to a variety of social events: formals, service opportunities, community events, religious meetings, political, etc.

“Leaders must feel comfortable in different situations, with people from different cultural, national, and soci-economic backgrounds. A leader must be able to work with all different types of people, and in many diverse situations. We socialize a leader by taking them to a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen, to symphonies, to rest homes, to formal balls, to political receptions, areas of crisis where help is needed, etc, etc. They need to understand how to be, and how to act in different situations.” Dr. Julie Earley

25. Carefully chosen assignments that are meaningful and challenging and ideally only given when a student is struggling with being self guided. Make it hard so they experience the satisfaction of reaching a goal truly hard won.

Weekly Lay Out for 2011

Posted on December 16, 2010 by heidi

Monday –
art (study artist and/or do art project)
spelling cards (phonograms review)
math
grammar lesson & pick new memory work for week

Tuesday –
new spelling words (10/week)
math
memory work (from grammar lesson)
PE
(speech therapy B)

Wednesday –
music (composer or instruments or other activity)
piano lesson C
math
grammar
(scouts C)
(soccer in spring for C, M, B)

Thursday –
literature (read classic)
spelling enrichment (game or activity)
memory work
co-op
PE
(speech therapy B)

Friday –
history (read chapter & do activity, map work, etc)
spelling test
math games, make up lesson or once a month test
swimming
(soccer in spring for C, M, B)

Saturday –
science (read book, do activity)

Sunday –
journals
ThadenPierce plan goals
Kid Counsel

We try to get most of our work done Monday through Wednesday since Thursday is so busy and Friday is our make up day and test day (for spelling and math.) If we have appointments or playdates Mon-Wed then we move those lessons to Friday. During the quiet months when we don’t have therapy or it’s too hot/cold to play outside we may knock out more math and grammar lessons than usual or do 20 spelling words instead of 10. That makes me feel better about going lighter on lessons during the busy parts of the year.

If they finish their lessons AND spent at least half an hour outside I’ll let them have computer time on various educational games, most of those links are to the left under “Kid Favorites” but I need to update that as well. I try to limit them to 30 minutes of computer time but we’re not consistent about that. 🙂

New Checklist for Lesson Records

Posted on December 3, 2010 by heidi

I am always refining the best way to help Christopher take more responsibility for his lessons and for us to keep tabs on our progress. We did the calendar method but it had designated lessons for days of the week and life always throws things off so it wasn’t so easy to move things around as we adjusted. We’re trying this instead, a checklist by week. We figured out what he needed to get done and instead of putting it for certain days he simply checks it off as he tackles the work.

I still have designated days (M – art, T – new spelling words, W – music, Th – literature/co-op, F – history, S – science.) BUT if Christopher wants to do one of those things on another day he does and then I also cover them on our specific day. So he’s just getting enrichment work if he wants it another day, like yesterday he asked to do some history work but we’ll all read our chapter together today.

I also explained that if he wants my help with things (like math) then he’ll need to ask for help in the morning when I have lesson time. I pointed out some obvious things like he’ll need to ask me for his new spelling words BEFORE his spelling test and that if he saves all of his work for Friday it’s going to be a very long day.

So far this is working really, really well. He knocked out most of his lessons by Wednesday! (If that consistently happens we may need to see if we’re not giving him enough lessons. 🙂 ) And instead of just putting a check mark I left space for him to write in which lesson he did – Saxon 54 # 115, piano lesson on this page, SOTW chapter 4, etc. We keep this in the front of his binder and we’ll keep them as a very rough summary of what we’ve learned! (I’m working on a more lengthy explanation by month we can store for portfolios that covers titles read, subjects covered, etc.) And I laid it out so it’s six weeks per page, very compact. When we know we’ll be on breaks (like the holidays or vacation) then instead of listing the dates for one week I list them for two weeks and he can get the work done anytime in that larger window of time. Did that make sense? So the weeks of Christmas & New Years he’ll have two weeks to cover one week’s worth of lessons.

For Christopher this seems to be a good motivator and simple way to help him take more responsibility for when he does lessons, managing his time, etc.

Changes for 2011

Posted on December 1, 2010 by heidi

– Math: Christopher’s struggling with how many math problems each lesson has and we’re refining that. He’s in Saxon 54 and close to done (116 of 140 lessons.) I know he is grasping the concepts because we’re working through the lessons and practice problems together but in addition to that there’s another 30 problems per lesson. I decided once a week we’ll do about 10 of the problems together orally (though writing out work he needs to compute, of course) and the other two days he can do a few problems written out on his own and I let him pick how many. I know that sounds funny (what if he doesn’t want to do any?) but knowing Christopher’s personality I know he’ll do some. Usually he picks 5 to 10, sometimes he’ll do 15 if I’m there talking it through with him. Then once a month we’ll do a test and he’ll do the entire set of 30 problem written out without my help and probably timed. I’m confident that he understands the concepts so I’m not going to push him to do so much written work. He knows as he gets older that he will have to do more of this in writing so we can see how he’s working through them but he’s barely nine years old – we’ve got time.

– Language: We’re doing two grammar lessons a week with the older two kids and again, I’m not making them write out much if they can do it orally for me. I do have them write in cursive when we do our new spelling words or their dictation but the point of the grammar is to ensure they understand the concepts of the language and they can do that without a ton of handwriting. There are plenty of other ways in which they can practice their cursive with writing letters, making the menu, etc.

– History: Once a month we’ll be doing a designated library re-stocking trip during which I’ll get the history books we need for the next month and so they can explore that section and pick some out on their own. I did that already for December and left a few books strategically laying out and as I anticipated, the kids were looking through them on their own and asking questions and making lists of projects they want to do! Success. Kit’s also copying the reproducible pages in the activity guide so the big kids will do their map work and various projects and the little ones will do the coloring pages to keep them busy while I read the chapter aloud for the week.

– Science: We’ll start following the science layout I did and we’re helping C earn a lot of his science related scouting belt loops/pins. We’re also signing up for the science activities at the library and C’s going to visit the science buildings on one of the university campuses to talk with a scientist (a scout requirement.) We hope to attend the science museum at least once a month (ideally!) but it may be every other month. Mostly I’m hoping to get more outside time for the kids because I don’t think any formal science stuff right now is going to stick for the little ones and I want them to love science because it’s hands on interaction with the world, not because of something they read in a book. Oh, and when it’s too cold for outside exploration we do love the Bill Nye science DVDs and the Magic School Bus books & shows. 🙂

– Music: I’m holding off on piano lessons for the kids until they express interest and willingness to commit to practice. C says he does want to continue our once a week “lessons” and he seems to be enjoying it but I’m not going to push the formal lessons until they are a bit older (maybe 10 or so?) and are ready to do so on their own initiative. I want them to do lessons and I think most of them will want to do so and once they commit I will expect follow through and practice but I’m wondering if this is like potty training? I can push and push and make us all crazy but until they are ready and willing then it’s pointless. I don’t want to risk having them hate music/piano/lessons because they weren’t ready for it. We’ll see how this works out. I plan to teach them piano until they need a teacher that really can play (I have minimal piano skills) and they’ve also expressed an interest in getting some basic trumpet lessons from Kit and some guitar lessons. We may need to find a kid size guitar, I think some of them would love that.

More to come, cleaning up mess…

ThadenPierce School

Category Archives: Logistics