Resource and Resources

We’re trying something different. The district offered us resource services at a small, nearby PK-8 school. My son goes in three times a week for 80 minute classes designed to provide him with strategies for writing and math. The school is on a block schedule, which I firmly believe is much better for an ADD child than the usual schedule of every class every day. The fewer transitions during the day the better for him. Changing classes every 40 minutes is too much distraction, too much time wasted.

My son has FAE and I’ve heard kids like him described as “Ten second people in a one second world.” It’s very true. He is just as smart as any other kids but he needs a few more second to think before he answers a question. He needs to stop and thing carefully about a word problem before he does his calculations. He needs to check all his work thoroughly. A lot of times he simply needs to be given an chance.

I haven’t had much time to write lately but I’m still here and we’ve discovered some more great resources along the way. I purchased a copy of Joy Hakim’s book “A History of US, The New Nation 1789-1850.” I can see why it has won awards. It tells history as what it is, a story, instead of a bunch of facts. Some of the language is a bit difficult for my son but that’s ok, we read it togther. It’s interesting and helps the student understand the motivations of the historical figures, not just their accomplishments. It makes them real people.

I haven’t gotten a chance yet to really investigate this but it looks fantastic. It is a game designed to help kids in middle and high school understand the many facets of engineering. It is called Time Engineers. I learned about it from my husband’s subscription to Electronic Engineering Times. I’m going to take a closer look and report back.

Next time I’ll have some comments on kids and Facebook!

Make a great day!

American History Curriculum

I decided to teach The American Revolution this year. They’re studying in public and private schools here this year and I decided to keep pace.

I picked a resource from The History Channel called the American History Series Multimedia Classroom. We started with Volume 1 on the American Revolution. It is in the History Education section of the web site along with lots of other topics.

This volume includes short videos with live-action sequences on a series of topics, such as the Boston Massacre. After watching the video you can choose from vocabulary, discussion questions and activities and there is a transcript of the video. My son likes the videos of course.

My review is thus; this program is a jumping-off point for learning about The American Revolution. It helped me get started. It is not a complete curriculum.  I found the need to supplement the material, which was easy enough since there are many web sites on the subject.  Links to helpful web sites are provided but I found them to be weak resources and that surprised me.  Will I buy their next volume on the subject? Probably not. I think the volume is overpriced for what it offers. I do really like many of the programs The History Channel offers however and will most likely purchase things other than the multimedia classroom.

  Getting yourself organized and on a path through a subject is a huge part of homeschooling and something most of us need help with. Here is what did the trick for me. I printed out a timeline of the revolution  from ushistory.org  provided by the Independence Hall Association and then Googled the events. ushistory.org online textbook is my favorite resource.

There are tons of great resources out there on American history. One of my other favorites is How Stuff Works which has info on the defining moments of the revolution. Here is one on The Boston Massacre.   I used my timeline of the revolution and I seached the How Stuff Works site by events on that timeline.  I printed out the material and put it in a binder.

Another nice resource is American Presidents Life Portraits from C-SPAN. I was struck by a video on CNN where they asked people on the street to name the first 5 American presidents and none of them could. I don’t want my son to stumble on that question.

Also check out the Mount Vernon  and Monticello websites. Beautiful resources. We had the opportunity to visit Mount Vernona and the kids had a great time there.

That’s it for today folks!