Have been off being, instead of here writing, but just came across a great little video that helps explain the Higgs theory pretty well, as well as what the heck all these little particles are, what the LHC is, etc.
Go check it out! http://vimeo.com/41038445
… have been our usual Spring Rush. Here are some highlights:
We’ve celebrated five birthdays, including my mom’s 75th, and my 40th. The girls are now six, which completely blows my mind. (Turning 40 was cake compared to dealing with the idea that my girls are SIX. Where does the time go??) We all had wonderful times with family and friends, and our presents and celebrations were thoughtful and lovely. I’m especially pleased that the girls love our having made them official Daisy Girl Scouts for their birthday; we’re going to do it as a family, perhaps with some other homeschooled girls, and see how it goes. :)
I got sick four times, and at least one child joined me in welcoming each new virus. My computer also BSOD’d twice, which fouled me up almost as badly, as you can well imagine.
All three kids had dental checkups. The girls were still cavity free, but Buddy has EIGHT cavities, and we start in on fillings next week. He nurses, they didn’t (bottles of breastmilk until 22 months), and different genetics. Still, OUCH. (Wish us all luck!)
Beara in her favourite outfit, running around the playground walls in the sunshine, enjoying her birthday. 
All three kids tried Reading Eggs for their free 35 day trial via the homeschool coop. We enjoyed it (Big D did 12 lessons one day), but the price tag (since it is per child, not per family) is just too much for us to justify. Nice to get a better handle on their actual reading levels though; the computer interface made them willing to really push themselves in a way that allowed me to see exactly where they were struggling.
We’ve taken advantage of Daddyman’s flexible work schedule, our new-to-us road worthy minivan, and the hospitality of friends and family to go on four trips to Massachusetts for birthdays, beach combing, SCA events, and the Cambridge Science Festival, which included National Astronomy Day at the Clay Center Observatory (so much fun that it will get it’s own post).
Big D checks out Venus at the Clay Center Observatory (Brookline, MA) during National Astronomy Day.
The girls had their WJIII testing, did great (at or above age level in all areas except writing, which we’re working on), and I put together our paperwork for the Vermont Home Study office. They are now officially registered homeschoolers! (I’ll post more about their testing, and our experience with the Home Study office, including the minimum course of study I put together for them, soon.)
We wrapped up our spring classes and year long programs; dance class, book club, and the creative problem solving group I ran at our local library. I’m planning to run two days of playground physics sometime later this spring, when the temps decide to stay above freezing for a week or more. Only speech therapy continues until the end of the public school year, and Big D continues to have fun making great strides, so we’re glad!
A robin’s nest in my mom’s rhododendron. Bon chance, little birds! April 30, 2012.
Also? Spring is coming, after a long winter-that-wasn’t. Nothing much flowering here in Vermont yet that hasn’t been destroyed by our much needed but ruinous rain, so here’s a parting shot of robin eggs in my mother’s garden in Boston. Pardon the lack of focus, but I wasn’t sure there was anything IN the nest until I took this picture, holding the camera up over my head. Enjoy!
A recent Washington Post article talks about Maryland’s newly adopted guidelines for identifying gifted and talented students as early as age three. Critics of the guidelines point out that such early identification processes are likely to overlook children of color, those from low SES backgrounds, and non-English speakers, as well as those who are twice-exceptional. Proponents of the bill point out that GT children who are not having their needs met at an early age are more likely to become withdrawn or disruptive, both in the classroom and at home. The new guidelines also require school districts to report on their GT populations and programming to the MD Board of Education.
Obviously it is important to meet the needs of all learners, and to do so at the earliest possible time. In that light, I celebrate the new legislation, but I hope they are careful with the criteria they use for identification. In order to do the best for ALL students, such criteria must be based not solely (or even heavily) on ability, but on the thought processes of the children, on interests that might be highly divergent or non-traditional in nature, and on observation of all children to pick up on both the asynchronies and the overexcitabilities which so many GT folks have as part of their psychological make-up. Criteria need to be sensitive to the exposure (or lack thereof) that students have had to various ideas and opportunities, and need to be applied afresh each year, always drawing in children who have been overlooked, but NEVER pulling a child from programming once identified, since a) children don’t *stop* being gifted, and b) pulling them from such programming can be a crushing blow. [Ed note: I read a great article backing up that latter point the other week, but can't find it again now. If anyone has it, I'd LOVE to link to it. Thank you!]
What do you think?
My mother is British, and, like many Brits, drinks copious amounts of tea. When I was a child, growing up near Boston, I used a tea set that she’d had when she was a girl in England during WW2, that I simply adored. Heavy earthenware, demitasse cups and saucers, in all the creamy pastel colors that I pretty much have never liked anywhere else. My tea was mostly milk and sugar, but when I drank from those cups, pinky loose, not affected, I felt a connection to my British heritage, to my mother, and to an adult life that I was trying on in very small sweetly caffeinated doses.
Aren't these cute? They have the look of British girlhood to me.**
A couple of years ago, when my girls were getting to be about the age I was when I started having tea parties with that magical set, I went looking for it in my parents’ china closet, but no luck. I asked my mom where she had stored it, figuring that she had put it somewhere really safe, or specifically for me, like maybe in my bedroom closet or something. ”Oh, I got rid of it years ago,” she responded, as if she was stunned she had held onto it as long as she had. I was beyond mad; I felt betrayed. That was my childhood connection to her homeland, to my grandmother, to my visions of myself as an adult, and she didn’t even remember what she had done with it?!? Donated it? Given it away? Binned it outright? She didn’t understand my shocked fury *at all*. ”They didn’t even match!” she semi-shrieked, not seeing them through my five-year old eyes: to me they were colorful tiny cups of goodness, glossy like petit fours, all yummy and special and unique, making me hers and England’s. Continue reading
The modern English language allows parents to wax sentimental about their child’s first steps while in the same moment their pediatric orthopedist makes a diagnostic evaluation of little Johnny’s pigeon-toed gait. English has deep multicultural roots, and the victor has not always shaped the lexicon. Even into the 18th century (if not later) pretty much anyone who wanted to could make up a word, or a spelling of a known word, and dictionaries still add new words every year. These are powerful things, and have helped to share a language that is rich with imagery, vibrant with sound, and capable of myriad rhymes for pretty much any word other than ‘orange’. Continue reading
Sometime in the last six months I started referring to mathematical equations as ‘math sentences’, since they convey meaning just like English sentences. This convenient little explanation lead us down an interesting road this last week, as we compared the structure of sentences in both English and mathematics… Continue reading
Patchwork of Days, by Nancy Lande
The first book I read about homeschooling, about ten years ago, was Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days, by Nancy Lande, which tells the stories of a single day in the life of dozens of homeschooling families. It was THE book that made me think “this is what I want for my family.” It would be years before I even met my husband and *started* on that family, but I knew that I wanted our life to be flexible, adaptable to the day and the people in that day, and what they all wanted and needed out of it. I have been a lifelong learner, but this book made me into a self-proclaimed homeschooler.
I found it again recently when purging a bookcase that had been filled two deep, and thought it might be a good exercise to do myself: to document an ordinary day of our homeschooling lives, both for you, my readers, and for me, for posterity and reflection. I call it a snapshot in the title, but I go into at *least* 12 megapixels of detail here, so grab a cup of tea before you settle in. Here goes! Continue reading
I just read a great post about nine habits all kids should be learning, and it is a pretty nice summary of our priorities as both homeschoolers and parents, but few of these things are as simple as they sound, and they are far more inter-related that that checklist would indicate.
I haven’t documented where we are in our various subjects and activities for a while, so here goes – the early 2012 edition of Turkeydoodles Homeschool:
