Well, we are about to start another school year this week. Of course, Hope is on her own journey of raising money for Operation Underground Railroad through Terry's running of the Twin Cities Marathon. It is such a good cause. Children are being stolen from their families and exploited in our own home state......even right under our noses in our own home towns.
Well - after that heavy subject...... we need to lighten it up. Sam is so non-excited about school starting. He has three online college classes and two co-op classes this fall. Should be challenging, yet do-able. I think he will do really well after he gets done moping around.
Rosie - Well, she thinks that school starts whenever she says it does... :-) However, the last couple weeks she has left a trail of various books of all levels, lengths, and sizes all over the house. It is a little messy for sure, but it warms a home school mother's heart to see it. Maybe next week we will work on the cleaning up lesson.
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
A Year Later
So - It appears as if I have not blogged for about a year, almost to the day. So much has happened. Hope completed the AMTC program and performed at the SHINE conference in Orlando this past January. What an amazing experience! She is still in pursuit of acting, modeling, and singing opportunities. An agency in Minneapolis is representing her. (Her profile is here: Hope's page ) She was in two plays by CB Productions, which was by far her most favorite thing ever! (CB Productions) What a great group of kids and such a talented and dedicated director, Carla Barwineck. Hope also graduated high school. The transcript is all filled in, signed, and sealed. We did it. We home schooled her from Kindergarten age through high school and we all survived. Now what?
The original plan was to finish a second year of generals, having completed one year during high school as a PSEO student at University of Northwestern, St. Paul. She was planning on doing this at Dakota County Technical College and was even going to play softball for them. Then a wrench was thrown into the whole thing a little less than a month ago when we learned about Praxis. It is a highly selective training and apprenticeship program in marketing and sales. Hope has been so excited about it and grew more and more sure that she didn't belong in a college classroom. Imagine her disappointment when she heard back today that she was not accepted. Big bummer. However, after thinking it through and looking over the recommended information from Praxis, she has toughened her resolve to start pursuing a self-directed education in her areas of interest and to start building her own business. The world will think this is crazy, but she is dropping her classes at DCTC which she was supposed to start next week and she is excited to start creating a path of her own. She can reapply to Praxis in three months. Somehow, I think she will either find it unnecessary or they will accept her in a heartbeat. You go, girl! We are so proud of you!
So, I wrote the draft above before the emotional roller coaster had slowed down a little. From disbelief to sadness to anger to despondent to searching to the first draft of the plan....to the second....to the third, it has been a beautiful process to watch her turn to us and trusted friends in honest and open emotion... then turn to prayer in the prayer closet.....then turn to us again... then to resolve and optimism and excitement and, of course, hope. How appropriate.
The roller coaster ride is not over by any means. I don't think she wants to go through life riding the antique cars that break down, can't pass, and have to stay on the tracks at a slow speed. I hope she stays on the roller coaster. And I see now, as I look back to beginning with the end in mind, that it really is about who we become, not if we know how to properly diagram a sentence or find an integral.
Above all, the development of her as a person has been the biggest goal. We have our many years of involvement in personal development and out of the box entrepreneurial possibility thinking to thank for so much of who she is. Life has an amazing community of people and leaders that we have almost come to take for granted, but seeing the results in our older children has re-ignited the amazement and appreciation for its impact.
What were the goals when we started?
1) Learn to love to learn.
Check
2) Be a person of character.
Check
3). Work hard, never give up.
Check
4) Know Christ.
Check
We are so excited to see how she impacts the world around her for the better! The salt and the light.
The original plan was to finish a second year of generals, having completed one year during high school as a PSEO student at University of Northwestern, St. Paul. She was planning on doing this at Dakota County Technical College and was even going to play softball for them. Then a wrench was thrown into the whole thing a little less than a month ago when we learned about Praxis. It is a highly selective training and apprenticeship program in marketing and sales. Hope has been so excited about it and grew more and more sure that she didn't belong in a college classroom. Imagine her disappointment when she heard back today that she was not accepted. Big bummer. However, after thinking it through and looking over the recommended information from Praxis, she has toughened her resolve to start pursuing a self-directed education in her areas of interest and to start building her own business. The world will think this is crazy, but she is dropping her classes at DCTC which she was supposed to start next week and she is excited to start creating a path of her own. She can reapply to Praxis in three months. Somehow, I think she will either find it unnecessary or they will accept her in a heartbeat. You go, girl! We are so proud of you!
So, I wrote the draft above before the emotional roller coaster had slowed down a little. From disbelief to sadness to anger to despondent to searching to the first draft of the plan....to the second....to the third, it has been a beautiful process to watch her turn to us and trusted friends in honest and open emotion... then turn to prayer in the prayer closet.....then turn to us again... then to resolve and optimism and excitement and, of course, hope. How appropriate.
The roller coaster ride is not over by any means. I don't think she wants to go through life riding the antique cars that break down, can't pass, and have to stay on the tracks at a slow speed. I hope she stays on the roller coaster. And I see now, as I look back to beginning with the end in mind, that it really is about who we become, not if we know how to properly diagram a sentence or find an integral.
Above all, the development of her as a person has been the biggest goal. We have our many years of involvement in personal development and out of the box entrepreneurial possibility thinking to thank for so much of who she is. Life has an amazing community of people and leaders that we have almost come to take for granted, but seeing the results in our older children has re-ignited the amazement and appreciation for its impact.
What were the goals when we started?
1) Learn to love to learn.
Check
2) Be a person of character.
Check
3). Work hard, never give up.
Check
4) Know Christ.
Check
We are so excited to see how she impacts the world around her for the better! The salt and the light.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Passion to Learn
SO, my 17-year old first child has pointed out to me several times that I have not blogged here in quite a while. I guess I felt like I had made note of everything I wanted to regarding this topic - up until this point. I just read a book by Connor Boyadck entitled Passion-Driven Education. The author proposes some powerful thoughts. The part I identified with the most was the story of Eric Goldson, an 18 year old high school valedictorian who dared to speak her mind while addressing her graduating class. She basically stated that she had learned how to play the system...how to take tests and be obedient and answer how she was supposed to....without really learning anything significant and definitely without loving any of the subjects to a point where she would love to pursue them in depth.
That is me. I did the same thing. I even went on to do it in college. Any desire to explore topics just for the love of learning was completely forsaken and sacrificed on the altar of the almighty grade.
My biggest goal in homeschooling my children has been to raise kids who love to learn and want to keep learning after they get the all-important high school transcript filled in nice and neatly. So far, it seems like the oldest has retained the desire to read for pleasure and to pursue talents and skills outside of the transcript requirements. (Another nice thing - we can make her interests into elective classes and count that time as a class...... very backwards from taking a class to get the credit.) Now that she is looking at her future beyond high school, it was very refreshing to read Connor's book to help drown out the noise of the world and what it says she should do. (I also highly recommend Pails by Chris Brady. Visit this site to find and order the CD or the book: www.lifeleadership.com/leavenodoubt )
So - Those are my thoughts for the day. More to come, I'm sure, as we navigate uncharted waters with the senior as she moves onward and upward .... and the sophomore, as he follows his passion of playing baseball.
One more thought before I sign off..... I love that the freedom home schooling allows gives the kids time to do the important things, as well as explore their interests. They make time to spend with family and to volunteer as well. When I was a teenager I think I put the grade ahead of everything and neglected a lot of the most important things in life.
Have a wonderful 2016-2017 school year!
That is me. I did the same thing. I even went on to do it in college. Any desire to explore topics just for the love of learning was completely forsaken and sacrificed on the altar of the almighty grade.
My biggest goal in homeschooling my children has been to raise kids who love to learn and want to keep learning after they get the all-important high school transcript filled in nice and neatly. So far, it seems like the oldest has retained the desire to read for pleasure and to pursue talents and skills outside of the transcript requirements. (Another nice thing - we can make her interests into elective classes and count that time as a class...... very backwards from taking a class to get the credit.) Now that she is looking at her future beyond high school, it was very refreshing to read Connor's book to help drown out the noise of the world and what it says she should do. (I also highly recommend Pails by Chris Brady. Visit this site to find and order the CD or the book: www.lifeleadership.com/leavenodoubt )
So - Those are my thoughts for the day. More to come, I'm sure, as we navigate uncharted waters with the senior as she moves onward and upward .... and the sophomore, as he follows his passion of playing baseball.
One more thought before I sign off..... I love that the freedom home schooling allows gives the kids time to do the important things, as well as explore their interests. They make time to spend with family and to volunteer as well. When I was a teenager I think I put the grade ahead of everything and neglected a lot of the most important things in life.
Have a wonderful 2016-2017 school year!
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Standardized Testing
For this subject, I am deferring to Oliver DeMille. He does such a good job explaining it with this article: click here.
Sam just received his scores back from the Explore test a couple of weeks ago. I noticed he did awesome in Math and....wait for it..... Reading Comprehension. Wow. The Math score was totally expected, but the Reading Comprehension score blew me away because the English score was really low compared to the other scores. We have been working on grammar and stuff, but I really do ascribe to the theory that a student who does a lot of reading (of good quality literature) will learn how things should be written... how they should sound...how ideas are transferred. The most interesting thing was that in the sections he scored lowest in, the ones that were wrong were all at the end of the section. I sat down with him and we went through these questions to have a "learning moment". It turns out that he knew most of those answers. He just didn't have time during the test, so he guessed.
I try not to place a lot of importance on these tests because, as Oliver describes in the above article, I want them to know how to think and love learning more than I want them to be able to answer multiple choice questions. When has a person's boss ever asked them to answer multiple choice questions as a regular duty? When has a business owner every excelled because they could answer multiple choice questions? What really happens? We get paid to think. And - those who out-pace others in the hunger to learn can usually think better.
Sam just received his scores back from the Explore test a couple of weeks ago. I noticed he did awesome in Math and....wait for it..... Reading Comprehension. Wow. The Math score was totally expected, but the Reading Comprehension score blew me away because the English score was really low compared to the other scores. We have been working on grammar and stuff, but I really do ascribe to the theory that a student who does a lot of reading (of good quality literature) will learn how things should be written... how they should sound...how ideas are transferred. The most interesting thing was that in the sections he scored lowest in, the ones that were wrong were all at the end of the section. I sat down with him and we went through these questions to have a "learning moment". It turns out that he knew most of those answers. He just didn't have time during the test, so he guessed.
I try not to place a lot of importance on these tests because, as Oliver describes in the above article, I want them to know how to think and love learning more than I want them to be able to answer multiple choice questions. When has a person's boss ever asked them to answer multiple choice questions as a regular duty? When has a business owner every excelled because they could answer multiple choice questions? What really happens? We get paid to think. And - those who out-pace others in the hunger to learn can usually think better.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
On a Scale of 1 to 10
It is not unusual to have Rosie come into our bedroom anywhere between 4 am and 6 am to snuggle in until wake up time, which varies, of course. So when I woke up this morning about 6 am to see Rosie standing there, I thought nothing of it.
"You need to come see something in my room," she whispered.
"Just get in bed, honey," I sleepily replied.
In the dark, I did not notice her frustration. Over to Papa's side she went.
"There is an emergency in my room," she implored him.
OK. If she had used the word "emergency" with me, I would have reacted differently, right? I would like to think so. Papa followed her into her room, like a wonderful parent, and found that she had indeed thrown up on the floor. I am such a dork. Why didn't she tell me it was an emergency? This afternoon, she said it was because she didn't want to tell me why. Am I that scary?
Today at the store, I heard (the whole store heard) a lady deriding her poor little girl. She couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 years old and she just kept singing and talking to her mommy. I have no idea who they are and what they are dealing with, but doesn't she know that most people keep that kind of thing behind closed doors? But no - Here she was for the whole world to see and hear what most of us are guilty of to some degree at some point.
This post really has nothing to do with home schooling. It is more to say I am thankful for a faith-filled home where the Holy Spirit is invited in daily to work on all of our hearts. He helps me to treasure the people in my life, especially my family.
Rosie is feeling much better tonight. The day was pretty uneventful. She said that on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 1 being normal and a 10 indicating a need to puke, she was only at a 3.5 when I put her to bed. On a scale of 1 to 10, Mama is thinking this little girl is a 10. :-)
Friday, January 2, 2015
Pace
Today we received news that Sam achieved the National Honor Roll for the AMC 8 (American Mathematics Competitions) ! He took the test, along with the rest of his math team, several weeks ago.
A couple of things this brings to mind are :
His older sister spent a lot of time helping him prepare for the test. She is part of the High School Math Team and she tried to figure out what was holding Sam back from doing his best on these tests. He typically does really well at home on practice tests, but didn't do as well at the actual test. Hope decided to make the practice test look like the exact same format. It must have helped! I ask myself how many sophomore high school girls would spend so much effort to help their younger brother in such a way. Maybe there are more than I think, but I am totally convinced that being home schooled together has fostered that relationship.
The other thing is that the kids can proceed in any subject as fast or as slow as they are able. (Of course, Sam would like to proceed very slowly in writing and grammar, but there are limits mom puts on going too slow. :-)) Math, however, has been something Sam and Hope have enjoyed and they have gone at a pace that is different than they would have in a school outside of the home. In fact, when Hope started learning math many years ago, Sam just joined us and I just let him observe and do what he could. He kept up with Hope for several years and then slowed down a couple years ago because he needed to in order to comprehend it. I love having this flexibility without having to deal with it at parent-teacher conferences after it may be too late! Well - I have conferences, I guess, but they are in my own head. :-)
So - I hope this didn't come across as a brag-fest. I believe there are many kids who could adjust their pace in any subject and, with the help of a mentor/teacher/tutor, they can speed up or slow down whenever needed in order to get the most out of their education. It is just easier when there are no formal classes.
A couple of things this brings to mind are :
His older sister spent a lot of time helping him prepare for the test. She is part of the High School Math Team and she tried to figure out what was holding Sam back from doing his best on these tests. He typically does really well at home on practice tests, but didn't do as well at the actual test. Hope decided to make the practice test look like the exact same format. It must have helped! I ask myself how many sophomore high school girls would spend so much effort to help their younger brother in such a way. Maybe there are more than I think, but I am totally convinced that being home schooled together has fostered that relationship.
The other thing is that the kids can proceed in any subject as fast or as slow as they are able. (Of course, Sam would like to proceed very slowly in writing and grammar, but there are limits mom puts on going too slow. :-)) Math, however, has been something Sam and Hope have enjoyed and they have gone at a pace that is different than they would have in a school outside of the home. In fact, when Hope started learning math many years ago, Sam just joined us and I just let him observe and do what he could. He kept up with Hope for several years and then slowed down a couple years ago because he needed to in order to comprehend it. I love having this flexibility without having to deal with it at parent-teacher conferences after it may be too late! Well - I have conferences, I guess, but they are in my own head. :-)
So - I hope this didn't come across as a brag-fest. I believe there are many kids who could adjust their pace in any subject and, with the help of a mentor/teacher/tutor, they can speed up or slow down whenever needed in order to get the most out of their education. It is just easier when there are no formal classes.
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