It's Saturday morning and my kids are begging me for something.
No, it's not another hour of cartoons (we get like one channel on the TV, barely).
It's not to go out to IHOP for a family breakfast (even thought that sounds great).
It's not even for jobs that they can get paid to do though I know that will be coming later in the day. (I'll soon be posting about why I think its important to pay kids for jobs that aren't routine chores.
They are begging me to read to them about James K. Polk, our nations 11th president.
You see this year, being an election year, my wife and I decided that we should try to teach our kids (6 and 10) about the former presidents of the United States. We originally intended just to use these flascards (which are great by the way) - but soon decided that we needed a bit more information or they would just run together (like they do for me).
A while back at Performance Education (that's one of the places I work), we decided to develop a new series of books for helping make historical figures more memorable by talking about their childhood and other things that influenced the decisions they later made. Our first stab at this was - U.S. Presidents, From Washington to Lincoln. Even though the material was developed for 6-12th grade classrooms, I decided to give it a shot with my two, a Kindergartner and 5th grader.
Needless to say, they love the stories and they open up great opportunities to discuss the history of our great nation, both the good and the bad. An added bonus, not that its a goal of ours, but they have both decided they want to memorize all the presidents, in order. It's amazing how history can become fun when it is relevant.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Homeschooling . . . A Year and a Half Later
Not that I ever had an audience . . . but sorry for the delay.
Man that first year and a half was tough - but I do feel I'm starting to get the hang of things. For those of you who missed all the formal introductions, the timeline below is all you really need to know.,
August 2007: Blogging about homeschooling begins.
September 2007: My rookie homeschooling season begins.
September 2007: My blogging about homeschooling ends.
December 2008: A new attempt at blogging about homeschooling.
Wish me luck.
Man that first year and a half was tough - but I do feel I'm starting to get the hang of things. For those of you who missed all the formal introductions, the timeline below is all you really need to know.,
August 2007: Blogging about homeschooling begins.
September 2007: My rookie homeschooling season begins.
September 2007: My blogging about homeschooling ends.
December 2008: A new attempt at blogging about homeschooling.
Wish me luck.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Testing this Capability
This is pretty wild - the fact that I can send an email and have it post directly to my blog.
George Shirey
Education Graphic Solutions, Inc.
800-429-6992
gshirey@educationgraphics.com
Friday, August 17, 2007
Read pp. 128-154, answer the questions on page 155
Do you remember the old homework assignments? You know where you had to read pages xyz to zyx then answer some question on page zyx+1?
How boring was that? What was learned - a narrative by a writer who is paid to be plain. No wonder we hated assignments and loathed history class.
I wish when I was a child that I had been encouraged by teachers (my parents did) to read the classics. After all, they were classics because they were written by brilliant writers who knew how to captivate an audience. But they also told a story. They often told the story of a time and a place - and while they may have been fictional, many if not most, still contained enough truth about the times to be real.
Take for example . . . well I really don't have a lot of examples to draw upon, I was too busy answering questions on p. 155.
Anyway, I'm looking for some good books to start having my daughter read for homeschooling. Our history standards for fourth grade is Virginia studies. My daughter reads at about a 6th grade level. Suggestions? (If you're not a blogger member, shoot me an email - I'll post replies).
Thanks.
How boring was that? What was learned - a narrative by a writer who is paid to be plain. No wonder we hated assignments and loathed history class.
I wish when I was a child that I had been encouraged by teachers (my parents did) to read the classics. After all, they were classics because they were written by brilliant writers who knew how to captivate an audience. But they also told a story. They often told the story of a time and a place - and while they may have been fictional, many if not most, still contained enough truth about the times to be real.
Take for example . . . well I really don't have a lot of examples to draw upon, I was too busy answering questions on p. 155.
Anyway, I'm looking for some good books to start having my daughter read for homeschooling. Our history standards for fourth grade is Virginia studies. My daughter reads at about a 6th grade level. Suggestions? (If you're not a blogger member, shoot me an email - I'll post replies).
Thanks.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Being SMART With Goals
Ok - so I'm using this as more of a place to remember this for myself, but I think it should help in my planning and goal setting for us this year:
Goals should be SMART:
Specific
Motivating
Acheivable (75% or greater chance.)
Relevant
Time Bound (Month or Quarter, Not Year)
Am I doing that currently? No. I'll let you know when I've mastered it a few times.
Goals should be SMART:
Specific
Motivating
Acheivable (75% or greater chance.)
Relevant
Time Bound (Month or Quarter, Not Year)
Am I doing that currently? No. I'll let you know when I've mastered it a few times.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Back So Soon
I should explain a bit more about why I choose to blog. I want to blog to keep myself accountable! Accountable to the commitment I'm making to my children in homeschooling - I want to do this all the way, not just enough to get by. I also want to be accountable to my thoughts - I'm plagued by too many ideas. Ideas in and of themselves are great, if you can weed out the good from the bad and take the time to develop the good - which I have a real hard time at doing. So please if anyone besides my wife ever looks at this, ask me how it's going with my thoughts. How I'm doing with cultivating instead of just thinking.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Begin the Beginning
Always best to begin at the beginning!
Answer the questions - what, why, how, who, when.
We're going to homeschool our daughter. Why - because I'm an idealist who believes that I can have what I want - a family that works together on many fronts that isn't afraid to say we are sheltering our children from the society that has gone so far so fast. Yes, I went through public schools - got a good education that was bolstered by both my natural inquisitiveness and my desire to please others.
The problem for me lies here - twenty years ago I was exposed to way more than I'd like my kids exposed to and that was twenty years ago. Also - kids in my generation were still expected to show respect - kids now, not so - trust me I was a teacher, I know!
Can we do it? Yes - we live busy lives, but I've always thought if you really believe in something, you can make it happen. My wife and I are both trained and licensed teachers, but we certainly don't rest on our pedigree to think we can do it - we rest on the fact that we know Emma is counting on us.
Will it be hard - I imagine for us, it will be hard. It won't be hard to come up with great lessons and curricula (again we both taught and I own two educational companies), rather it will be hard to stay disciplined like I know we will need to.
I hope it will draw me to pray more than I do today. I hope that I will be challenged into thinking and doing in new ways - but most of all, I hope it will allow us to stay close as a family.
Our biggest fears - the socialization aspect of no school (then again, one thing we fear most about schools is the socialization factor).
Anyway, I probably didn't answer all I said I would, but I wanted to get this post down - the beginning is always the hardest.
Oh yea, since I'm not sure I'll have any readers on this blog, I plan to use it as a personal ideal and filing cabinet so for my sake:
Virginia Homeschoolers Org
How I do social studies for school teachers.
Creating a better learning environment through visual education.
Goodnight.
Answer the questions - what, why, how, who, when.
We're going to homeschool our daughter. Why - because I'm an idealist who believes that I can have what I want - a family that works together on many fronts that isn't afraid to say we are sheltering our children from the society that has gone so far so fast. Yes, I went through public schools - got a good education that was bolstered by both my natural inquisitiveness and my desire to please others.
The problem for me lies here - twenty years ago I was exposed to way more than I'd like my kids exposed to and that was twenty years ago. Also - kids in my generation were still expected to show respect - kids now, not so - trust me I was a teacher, I know!
Can we do it? Yes - we live busy lives, but I've always thought if you really believe in something, you can make it happen. My wife and I are both trained and licensed teachers, but we certainly don't rest on our pedigree to think we can do it - we rest on the fact that we know Emma is counting on us.
Will it be hard - I imagine for us, it will be hard. It won't be hard to come up with great lessons and curricula (again we both taught and I own two educational companies), rather it will be hard to stay disciplined like I know we will need to.
I hope it will draw me to pray more than I do today. I hope that I will be challenged into thinking and doing in new ways - but most of all, I hope it will allow us to stay close as a family.
Our biggest fears - the socialization aspect of no school (then again, one thing we fear most about schools is the socialization factor).
Anyway, I probably didn't answer all I said I would, but I wanted to get this post down - the beginning is always the hardest.
Oh yea, since I'm not sure I'll have any readers on this blog, I plan to use it as a personal ideal and filing cabinet so for my sake:
Virginia Homeschoolers Org
How I do social studies for school teachers.
Creating a better learning environment through visual education.
Goodnight.
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