Life on the Road

Even if you’re not a regular reader, this week is a great time to check out the Carnival of Homeschooling.  They’re celebrating their Second Anniversary today, and there are a lot of great posts.

We’ll be hosting the carnival here in a couple of weeks, so get your homeschool-related posts ready!

I recently read two great books about kids and money:

“Financial Peace: Revisisted” isn’t primarily about kids, but he has the sound and simple basic principles, and there is a chapter specifically about teaching kids.  (He has actually put out a “Financial Peace Junior” that is entirely devoted to the topic, which I may have to check out…)

“Debt Proof Your Kids” is, yes, all about kids.

I found it interesting how much of what they had to say was fundamentally the same … yet almost equally intriguing were the differences.

Everyone agrees that we must teach our children to be able to see through the glamorous promises of credit card companies seeking to snare unwary college students (and even high schoolers!) with their too-good-to-be-true offers - because, of course, they are!

Both books advocated giving your kids increasing control over finances in their life…  Beyond just getting an allowance for spending money, letting them learn to budget for some of the necessities you’d spend money for anyway teaches them the important lessons while they’re still over the safety net.

One of the chief areas of debate, it seems, and certainly an area of frustration in our implementation, is how to handle chores in relation to allowance - and specifically defecits in the child’s performance thereof.

Dave Ramsey concludes that while children are a part of the family and need to contribute in certain things, they need to learn the way things work in the grown-up world:  You work, you get paid.  If you don’t do the work, you don’t get paid.

Mary Hunt tackles the issue a little differently.  If you get a speeding ticket, she explains, the judge doesn’t call your boss and have the fine deducted from your paycheck.  There is a consequence, and it is even financial — but you now have the additional responsibility of taking care of it yourself (i.e. paying the ticket), or facing the (increasingly ugly) consequences.  She issued her children “citations” for chores not done, and they had to pay them by a stated deadline out of the money they had already received (or would receive in the meantime).

I thought we could walk a sort of middle road with this, which has not been a notable success.

I love Mary’s idea of a monthly salary for the kids, as this is a considerably bigger budgeting challenge.  But as we are just getting started, we opted to go with weekly for the time being.

We decided to designate half of the budgeted amount as a salary paid each week regardless of anything else, and half paid on successful completion of certain weekly chores.  This was a bomb, and Nick seemed content to deal with having less money as opposed to putting out the effort to actually get his chores done.  NOT what I had in mind.

Now we’re going to try Mary Hunt’s way…  Chores are expected to be done, and there will be stiff “fines” associated with the “citations” for any failures.  And I do mean hefty.  After actually emaling Mary about it, we set the fines at $2 to $5 per chore - enough that he could easily owe me back his whole week’s allowance in a single day if he really put his mind to it.

The theory, naturally, is that it doesn’t take long at that rate for him to figure out that he’s better off doing his chores.

What do you think?  Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know how it works…

Are you an artistic type?

The Carnival of homeschooling is a really neat carnival that I frequently participate in … and will, in fact, be hosting here at the end of January!

They are holding a contest for a logo design for the Carnival, and submissions are now open!

Check out all the details over at the hosts’ blog, Why Homeschool.  Then get busy!! 

I just wanted to brag on Nick a little…  Okay, a lot.

Earlier this month he took the SAT, which is a silly thing for an 8th Grader to do, right?  But it’s a “talent search” measure for him, to get into the summer camp for highly gifted middle- and high-school kids that he wants to go to.  (VAMPY)

They have criteria set pretty high, considering… you have to have 500 or better on the Critical Reading section to qualify for certain classes, and 500 or better on the Math section for others.  The Programming class is extra tough, requiring BOTH Math and Critical Reading to be above 520.

Nick figured he’d do well on the language sections, but figured the math would be really bad… he’s just not yet HAD a lot of favorite SAT passtimes, like polynomials…

Well, the results are in, and he’s amply qualified for ANY classes he wants!

WOOHOO!!

He scored in the 91st percetile on the Critical Reading section.  And yes, that percentage compares him to the entire SAT-taking population … largely graduating High School seniors…  Wow!

So, Nick WILL be at camp this summer… 

Have I mentioned that Nick is First Chair Clarinet in the local Middle School Symphonic Band, and also Second chair Tenor Saxophone in the Jazz Band (he’s been playing sax for all of 3 months now)?  I’m pretty proud of him…  

The bands held their first concert of the year on Thursday evening, and it was quite a show.

Yeah, that would be my kid on the far left - the one relaxed and smiling before they play, and even pulling the band director aside for some witty comment (click the photo for a larger version where you can see!):

Yes, his clarinet is red.  Someday soon he’ll be ready to graduate to a professional instrument, but he sure does have fun with this one!

And a touch of comedy relief when they played “Surfin’ USA”:

And later in the evening, he takes up the sax with the Jazz Band (and the lighting was much better on this sideof the stage!):

He’s applying to a Performing Arts Magnet High School for the Fall, so it’s onward and upward!

Here’s another goody that I can across in my recent web surfing: K-12 Free Homeschool.

They offer

The same core curriculum courses that are offered elsewhere at $250 - $500 per school year are tuition-free. Optional electives are offered at 25%-50% of standard tuition.  Here’s how it can be tuition-free … They call it a “community-sponsored online home school academy.”  Essentially, it is paid for by corporate and non-profit sponsors as well as donations by parents who use the services - a concept the creators say has never been tried before.

Like any good online program, this is very flexible, and can be adapted for home school students with a variety of learning styles. You can mix and match grade levels, adjust your schedule to fit your life, allow your student to work ahead or take extra time to focus on specific subject matter, etc.

Crucial to me:  Their courses reflect Biblical truth because they have been written by curriculum developers from a Biblical world-view.

They’ve also got some great extra features (free) like an online grade book, transcripts, and parent/teacher Message Boards (get suggestions and support from other home school parents as well as their academic advisors).

Enrollments are limited right now because it is still in beta-testing.  Applicants may be placed on a “Waiting List,” but they say they will usually only have to wait 2-5 days for a space to open. (Open spaces are dependent on donations and sponsorships received.)

Here’s where to find the K-12FreeHomeschool.org Course Catalog.

This is the third in a series of “Photo Project” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).  All of them are based on projects from the Kodak Ideas Gallery.

I know as mom I quickly got overwhelmed with the “art” and “projects” Nick created - in and out of school.  You hate to lose the precious memory, but you just CANNOT keep everything!  As it happens, I stumbled upon the same idea that is being suggested today: 

Photograph them! 

Then you can keep a couple of selective things (hopefully flat ones! LOL), and the rest can live on digitally.

For instance, here is Nick’s Gingerbread House Masterpiece from a couple of years ago, when our local Safeway held a workshop:

And here is a beans-on-a-map chart of volcanic activity on the world.  How would you save it even if you wanted to?!

These two are some of our earliest and favorites.  Unfortunately the colors don’t seem to be cooperating for screen viewing, as they were actually integrated into a complete project and formatted for that.

This is a model of a sample ocean floor, with all the major features sculpted in a special clay Nick made, then filled with colored water.

And this last one is a sculpture replica of an Anasazi Cliff Dwelling.  This was really fun, and Wolf actually made one, too. 

 Okay, I confess, I still have these last models stored.  As great an idea as this photo project album is, some things are worth keeping in 3-D. 

I was interested to find an article about the importance of handwriting in Newsweek recently (read it here).

What an interesting question!

Is it true (as one comment on the article suggested), that this “finding” is simply the result of teachers’ inability to separate the two skills - and that they feel the composition is better just because it is more appealing to read?  Or is there really something to this?

I know that, in our house - and homeschool, handwriting is a huge impediment to writing.

My 13 year-old son is a font of creative composition - out of his mouth.  He will tell me all (and I do mean all!) about the story or book he is “going to write”, or the new idea he has for a computer game, and on and on. 

But to write it down?  TORTURE! 

“How much do I have to write?”  “Is this enough for today?”  “Can I use Word?”

And, it’s true, his penmanship is atrocious.  You would never guess from looking at the way he writes that he is an extremely bright 8th grader (well, maybe you would, dear reader, but I digress…).

His letters are crudely formed, the size of his text varies markedly within short periods, he switches back and forth between printing and cursive in short-answer type activities if he’s not paying attention, and I still get questions like “What does a capital Q look like in cursive?”

Then what about doctors’ notoriously messy handwriting?  It doesn’t seem to be holding them back from achievement, as a group.  Hmmm… but not necessarily achievement in literary pursuits, eh?

And what about my own situation?  As is fairly common among lefties, my penmanship has never been accused of being lovely, flowing, or … whatever.  It’s tidy, and readable, but not elegant.  In fact, I typically print when writing longhand, unless I feel required to do otherwise for some reason.  And off and on for years I have supported myself as a writer.  Sometimes with pen and paper, sometimes on the computer, but always writing … ugly cursive notwithstanding.

So at the end of the day, I’m still not clear on what to do. 

We have done cursive instruction, and I require a certain volume of work to be done by hand each week.  It does not seem to help his penmanship, and only makes the other aspects of schooling that require writing more of a challenge. 

So do I actually need to do even more, until it does improve?

Or would I, in fact, be better off allowing handwriting to be relegated to thank you notes, and allowing his creativity to be unleashed in front of the word processor?

This is the first in a series of “Photo Challenge” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).

Today’s theme is:

Photos That Inspire

This picture is really inspirational to me for a lot of reasons - some “public,” some personal:

• The light shining down from above - God?
• The glow through the flag (nice camera work, Wolf!) - very patriotic!
• The general idea of conquering the mountain
• This is Nick, 12 at the time.  The last time he’d faced a climbing wall he slunk away in defeat.  This time he was determined - and he did it!
• Bonus: Nick’s t-shirt is from the Audio Adrenaline concert he went to, with the lyrics, “I get down… HE lifts me up!”

What inspires you?

I saw a lot of reps for Discovery Toys on my online networking groups, but I never really gave it much thought. 

Then one Family Game Night I noticed that the garage-sale gem “Bazaar” that we all love is actually a Discovery Toys product from ages past!  Well in that case, I figured I should check out what they have going on now…

For Jewel we got the Roll & Play Activity Game (ages 18 mos. and up). 

Okay, I confess, Jan picked it out, and I thought it looked… well, not like a lot of fun.

But Jewel loves it! 

You roll the color cube (about 6″ square, soft stuffed), then pick a card of that color.  On the back is a simple “activity”:

• Find your shoes
• Spin in a circle
• Hop like a bunny
• Brush your teeth
• Etc.

Sometimes we do them full-tilt.  Other times, when we’re in a more snuggly relaxed mood, we just play at brushing our teeth with a finger… 

Sometimes Jewel will just sit and sort through the cards.  I sure wish I knew what was going on inside her head!

Our next new family game is going to be UnJumble (ages 8+).

We love Scrabble, Boggle, and several number-oriented games that are totally “in our head,” so this seems like a great tool. 

First of all, what a great idea to have the dice set in those cute plastic cases where they can easily be “rolled”, but never lost!

I’ll keep you posted…