Growing into it...

From Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009):

Flint's mom to Flint after one of his experiments don't work out the way he wanted them to: "The world needs your originality. You're just going to have to grow into it."

I initially wrote this one out to remind DS some day but now, I increasingly suspect *I* need to hear it again and again too.

Fragrance in detergents

This is an inquiry based bunny trail. DS asked "How is fragrance added to detergents?"
These are some of the links we looked at for answers.
How to add fragrance to your soap
Essential Oils (Wikipedia)

Newbery Award 2010

Sigh, further reminder of how behind we are in our reading.

We'll have to check these out pronto!

Boy Band Meets Science

One of those videos...you know, when your kid watches it throughout with a huge grin on his face! My thanks to Karen O for mentioning it on the Living Science Yahoo Group.

About the Sydney University Science Revue.
About CSIRO.

Greek Myths on the Web

Kiddo's mythology course is unveiling a number of awesome websites that address Greek myths. A huge thanks to the course creator, JS, for her very dedicated research and excellent course design! I wanted to bookmark a few sites just in case DS wants to use them again in the future.

The National Mythology Exam prep course is offered at JS' OnlineG3.

Some of the amazing sites we've used so far in the course as well as through googling:

Odyssey Online Greece - be sure to mouse over some of the graphics of Greek statues...they make some cool moves! Also check out the Ancient Greece Meets Hogwarts link. There's also an Odyssey Online Ancient Americas sister site and other ancient world sites but none as cool as the one on Greece in my humble opinion.

The Theoi Project - this site seems to be updated regularly so keep checking back...there's info on dragons, giants etc too.

MythWeb - I like the illustrated version of Hercules' Labors here.

Rick Riordan's (author of Percy Jackson series) Explore Greek Mythology page. Contains more links, including links to games.

Ancient Greece for Kids - lots of cool info and clip arts.

More Greek Myth info in these previous posts:
Greek Mythology Booklist
National Mythology Exam Prep Course

Napkin Venn Conversations

Meet math napkin-style!
The kiddo asked an innocent enough question..."that man who sold us pizza today is friendly and good to make friends with right?"

But it somehow led to an entire exposition on different states of friendliness and unfriendliness and someone being a potential friend or potential danger:
1. Top left of image: either friendly or good to make friends with but not both
2. Bottom left: both friendly and good to make friends with (overlap area)
3. Top right: good to make friends with and either friendly or unfriendly or neutral
4. Bottom right: friendly and either good to make friends with or not good to make friends with or neutral.
Something so simple can be a complete revelation for me when presented visually like this. Do you feel this way too sometimes?
Sigh...I must say I certainly like being homeschooled!

OneNote Experiment Part II

The final verdict:

I would say that I've definitely experienced more pros using my MS One Note-based schedule or e-workbox system than cons. Our days are smoother, I'm better able to juggle the sudden curveballs life throws at us and have on the whole a much better idea of what we've accomplished for the week.

Important bonus: kiddo finds it easy to use. And he gets a lot of free time in the afternoons to tinker and think.

At the same time I must emphasize that I have no dreamy ideas about the system staying as it is. As I type this I'm already wondering how it will evolve once we finish kiddo's mythology course and again, once we get back from Malaysia in April. I'm going to be tweaking and changing it as we need to. It's still dependent on me to make it work after all. Me. Capital M. The forever schedule tweaker-changer.

But I still like it. I have a feeling it has a lot to do with the system being on the computer (and hence we save on paper...woohoo!) and being pleasing enough on my eyes.

National Mythology Exam

This semester we decided to do something a little different and enrol in an 8-week mythology course that prepares students for the National Mythology Exam (NME). The NME is open to any student from grades 3 to 9.

We are doing the course just for fun and not so much for the NME. But if DS wishes to, we may try the exam out for size. The course and exam use the D'Aulaire Greek and Norse Myth books as core texts. The course has been very engaging so far for DS because it feeds his appetite for myths, helps him use a web conferencing platform independently (something I've not been good at encouraging) and also throws in lots of cool supplementary games, activities and projects like creating these trading cards:

If you'd like more info about the National Mythology Exam, see the Excellence Through Classics website. You can create trading cards like these and other nifty stuff through Big Huge Labs.

OneNote Experiment Part I

The week is over and the verdict is in: it was a 50% success rate (yes perceptive reader, I'm trying to think of it as a cup half full!).

First, I realize it's not a good idea to expect any system to work the week after a delightful 2-week holiday LOL, more so when we've been unschooling so much for the past 2-3 months. Second, I fell (again) into the trap of trying to do too much and actually ended up leaving out the one thing we've always had the most success with...reading aloud for literature. Third, I spent too much time tweaking here and there throughout the week for me to even remember what my initial plan looked like! Fourth, I had to decide mid-week to mix up our Math activities with some Singapore Math for extra thinking and problem-solving challenge and that knocked some other stuff askew. Fifth, I tell myself this each time but still forget...I must not try to fix what's not broken.

What is still clear is that the One Note platform clearly works better for us than using a cart or files or folders or anything else. All assigned texts are stowed away in a single drawer and can be accessed easily at any time. And the screen offers the both of us a very clear view of what's next and gives DS more control over what he wants to do.

We had a much better Thursday and Friday. Monday was close to disastrous. Tuesday was here and there. So thinking back about what I might have done right for Thursday and Friday, here's the plan for next week:

Latest look (passwords blacked out)

1. No more individual pages for Monday, Tuesday, etc. Everything is on one page.


2. I've decided to put the time slots back in but with lots of wiggle room. For e.g. even if we do something for only 20 minutes, I've planned it as a 30-minute slot. It feels a lot more relaxed.


3. I've designed boxes of the same color for the resource that best fits a particular time slot. So for example, if I need to switch Singapore Math with another resource for the morning, it's an easy copy and paste and quick resize from Powerpoint.
   
   
4. I've not cut down on what's assigned but have inserted more choice. Kiddo, for e.g., may choose Latin over EPGY Math if that's what he feels like doing at the moment. But he is still visually made aware that EPGY Math is due that week.
   
   
5. We're done for the day by 1.30pm (in theory anyway) so that we have at least a half hour to get outdoors or do something active in the garage and then, he has the entire rest of the day free 3 days a week. And partially free on the one day that he has music and martial arts.
   
   
6. For days when things are particularly going badly, there's a menu of fun activities to choose from at the bottom of the schedule.

Here's hoping for a more positive Part II :)

Science of growth spurts

How children grow, a kidshealth article on growth spurts and puberty

On sudden growth spurts and growing pains

This interactive simulation from BBC School shows how much water, food, exercise and rest kids need

Growth hormone deficiency

OneNote Workbox Tweak

I blogged about trying out a virtual workbox homeschool organization system here. One day before implementation, my twitchy fingers needed to carry out a little interface redesign.


Here's what I've changed:


I dropped the time slot fields. Experience has shown that he is rarely able to begin a lesson at the assigned time. So instead of time slots I have a suggested starting time (9.30am every morning). We seem to have a good routine going for length of lessons anyway: automated 20-min online lesson sessions and 30-40-min read alouds or text-based lessons. Now, the screen looks a little more streamlined.

I designed 30-min and 60-min free time icons. This way, if he really needs a break to wiggle and squirm, he can drag and drop the icon to switch places with the curriculum box of his choice.



If he wants a 30-min break when it's time for Latin, for example, he drags the 30-min icon to where Latin is and then drags and drops Latin to the last line. to complete in the afternoon. Or if he likes, he can keep the total 2 hours of free time to be enjoyed all at once in the afternoon and that way, be done for the day by about 2pm. I'm hoping this will teach him the joys of delayed gratification. I've also added a Game Time icon to be used in a similar fashion.


The traffic light icon indicates that we'll have a snack and then head out for a walk or vice versa. I'm hoping this visual reminder will help us stop being such homebodies!

The tweak also clearly indicates what's assigned and what's child-led. The first row of online class items are all assigned. The second row of reading/ writing and project items are all stuff he's chosen to try this semester and stuff I won't mind leaving aside if he wants to do something else. Then we'll have one more short assigned math practice session after lunch.

Therefore, I'm targeting 1.5 hours of assigned work a day for 4 days a week. Everything else will be "kiddo-choice".

Explained the whole thing to the kiddo today and he seems to be taking it positively. Hopefully it'll go smoothly for Implementation Week (Jan 4 - 8)!

Virtual Workboxing?

Sue Patrick's Workbox System seems to be really picking up clout in the homeschool popularity circles these past many months. I googled "workbox homeschool" recently and was very inspired by all the cool bloggers out there who have adapted her system to suit their individual needs.

I've been sorely tempted to use it too, believe you me. She seems to have really thought it all out and has obviously put her system into good practice in her own home over a number of years. But somehow it doesn't feel like I will stick to something like this. For one, the kiddo is obviously loving the freedom I'm giving him these days over what materials to use and when. For another, although I do have a lot more floor space now than previously, I'm not sure I want to go through the hassle of buying metal drawer carts and 12 drawer organizers/ bins/ folders. Hmmm...but my itchy fingers have been itching for a little more organization around here.

One possible alternative I have in mind is Microsoft One Note 2007.

I received the MS Office 2007 suite as part of my Christmas gift this year and was very intrigued by One Note. Last year, I had blogged about how I keep records of our lessons in order to prepare a monthly learning record for our charter school. This year, I have been relying on The Busy Body Book's cousin, The Busy Body Wall Calendar (the extra space feels good). It's a great planner. But spurred on by what I understand about the workbox system, I want something that will gradually replace verbally assigning him work to a visually appealing screen that will tell him everything he needs to know in one glance. With colorful Free Time icons strategically laid out as incentives (evil grin)!


This is what I've designed in One Note for now. There's a virtual notebook for our Year 2.5 with specific sections. Each section tab on the top has its own pages on the right. One section with DS's name (blacked out portion on upper left corner of screen) has four page tabs on the right for each of our four school days of the week (he has a coop on Wednesdays) plus an extra page for links to his favorite websites to play with during his free time if he so wishes.


All he has to do is click a page to see what's lined up for the day. Online class boxes for the day (e.g. EPGY which he usually completes independently) have their web URLs and his user ID and password (blacked out) included underneath.


For texts and workbooks, I will type in the assigned chapter or pages under the box and leave the relevant books or worksheets in a neat pile on our work table and we'll work on those together. I can use One Note's pen tool to circle or cross out the boxes we've completed. I can then type what we've completed into his learning record and also know what to reassign when I update the pages for the following week.

I hope to be implemeting this the coming week and hope to update on how successful this is :). Meanwhile, if you have One Note 2007 and would like to do something similar, or have suggestions for me, feel free to ask questions/ comment. I'll try my best to answer your queries.

Please note that I designed the rectangular boxes using MS Power Point 2007 and also copied and pasted clip arts from the same.

Happy 2010!

2000 - 2009: Moments To Remember

I was scrolling through this blog's archives to read the December posts for 2008 and found this paragraph:

"We're now half way through Year 1. It's been an immensely educational semester for the both of us. I can't wait to see what 2009 will bring. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a new home with tonnes of bookshelves and a lovely, cosy corner to do school in."
Isn't it absolutely mind-blowing how quickly a year goes by and you find that so much has happened in your life and just 365 days ago, you would have had no clue it was going to turn out this way?

Here's a recap of all the major moments in my life from 2000 to 2009.

2000 - 2001
It's odd that I can't remember much of the decade pre-kiddo except for all the times I rushed to get to work on time and rushed through ad campaigns. The decade began with us leaving the island of Penang in Malaysia where DH and I met and married and moving to Singapore (Feb 2000). DH and I led very workaholic lives. I wrote ads and helped manage accounts for several high-profile clients.

2002
I quit from my approx 15-hours-a-day ad agency career to have a delightful 41 weeks of pregnancy. It was definitely the singularly most wondrous time of my life. I devoured pregnancy books and parenting manuals. In October, DS was born. Soon discovered how off-the-mark pregnancy guides could be.

2003
Went back to working full-time but it was VERY difficult for me to be away from my baby. The bus that brought me home after work would leave me at least a quarter mile away from my doorstep. I would actually hail a cab so that I could be home sooner and hold him for 20 minutes longer.

2004
Juggling a full-time, demanding career and a growing freelance business while parenting DS and also trying to keep up with my perfectionistic housekeeping tendencies made this a very stressful year for me. I somehow survived on just about 4 hours of sleep a day.

2005
In June 2005 I stopped working full-time to focus completely on freelance writing and editing. I wanted to be at home for DS so that he wouldn't have to be so miserable at the daycare/ preschool he'd been attending for the past 1.5 years. In December, we left Singapore for a brand new life in California. I looked forward to this immensely because I knew it would give me even more quality time with my son.

2006
Our first year in the US of A. The hubby and I began driving for the very first time in our lives. For some reason, the both of us didn't get a chance to drive till we were in our 30s. Perhaps that's why we love driving so much and still have playful fights during shopping trips over who gets to drive. Also, we bought our first car this year. I call "him" Seabiscuit (sheepish grin...yes, I still name all my gadgets and toys!).

2007
The year we began homeschooling! I already blog about it so much I think I won't say anymore LOL.

2008
Believe it or not I think the single most life-changing event of 2008 was starting this blog and actually keeping up with it. Eversince 2003 or so, I have tried numerous times to begin and keep writing a blog and have each time struggled to post regularly, eventually deleting the accounts.

I guess it took something like homeschooling the kiddo for me to sustain interest in blogging.

2009

We had a lovely Christmas spent with close friends and filled with good food and lots of laughter. As I look back at this year I am reminded again about how fortunate I am. A loving family sprinkled all over the world. Truly good friends (a number of whom I don't actually meet in real life!). And I'm so thankful for our new home and the two awesome guys I share it with. The highlight of this year would definitely have to be moving here and settling in.

My wishes for the next decade: many more years of funschooling, blogging and being with my guys and keeping in close touch with friends and family. I hope I'm able to lead as wholesome and fruitful a life as I can.

Happy 2010 everyone!