Archive for July, 2006
July 31, 2006 at 3:16 pm · Filed under home education
When I was researching Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself I discovered lots of information that was new to me and I did my best to incorporate all of the pertinent and interesting facts into the book. Imagine my surprise when flipping through an old issue of Smithsonian (February 2004), I spotted an article titled, “Maine’s Lost Colony”. I’d never heard of it!
It turns out, in 1607 – the same year that Jamestown was founded – a settlement called Popham was established where the Kennebec River enters the Atlantic Ocean in what is now Maine. By December of that year, food was scarce and half the colonists returned to England. The remaining colonists erected several buildings but ultimately sailed home the following autumn. There were 100 men and boys that worked to create this settlement, and yet few people know of this.
When an archaeologist found an old map and did a test excavation in 1994, he and his team found a posthole that they believed was evidence of the Popham colony. He and his crew now spend time every year working on excavating the site. You can read the entire article on the Smithsonian site, here.
Very interesting stuff!
July 30, 2006 at 5:13 pm · Filed under My Musings, home education
In just two weeks I’ll be heading to California for a visit and to present a couple of team building workshops at the Homeschool Association of California’s excellent Home = Education Conference. I’m trying to gather all of my supplies so that I can relax a bit about having it all under control. I’ve got the oddest assortment of stuff in my conference suitcase:
I’ll be presenting one workshop on Saturday and another on Sunday, which means that I’ll be in Sacramento for the entire weekend and will be able to take advantage of some of the great speakers that will be there. I’m particularly excited about Alfie Kohn and Wes Beach.
Of course, this also means that I’ll spend the entire weekend by myself, as my husband will be on dad duty with the boys and will be busy visiting with my parents, where they plan to crush homemade apple cider. Without me. I grew up crushing apple cider on my parents’ apple farm, so I am sorry that I’ll miss this. I won’t get to see the boys reaction to their first taste of fresh squeezed Gravenstein apple cider. Hopefully they’ll save some for me!
July 30, 2006 at 8:25 am · Filed under island life, home education
An anoll having lunch. The hole behind its eye is its ear.
July 28, 2006 at 7:28 am · Filed under publishing, book reviews
With nice words on the back!
Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself is an abundant and valuable resource for engaging students in understanding early American life.
~ Jack Larkin Chief Historian and Museum Scholar, Old Sturbridge Village
This delightful book is a wonderful and new way for children to become intrigued with colonial American history. This book should be a hit with families, teachers, and history museums!
~ Paula Locklair, Old Salem Museums and Gardens
July 27, 2006 at 5:24 pm · Filed under home education
Both of my kids will be officially middle school aged this year. E starts sixth grade, while B enters eighth. Of course, those numbers don’t mean much to us as homeschoolers, but we do keep loose track, since on occasion someone will ask what grade they are in (we usually have to think hard to remember!).
With these older grades comes a certain amount of concern. Are they learning what they need? Are we covering the things we must? Will they eventually be able to get into college? We have for the most part been very unschoolish over the course of the past nine years, but as the kids age, I vacillate between letting them follow their interests and feeling like I must make sure that all of the bases are covered. This is by far the thing that I find hardest about homeschooling – striking that balance between how they best learn and giving them what they need for future education endeavors, whatever they may be.
Couple my constant waffling with B expressing an interest in more structure, and I’ve hit a little bit of homeschooling trauma. How do I get more organized? How do I offer structure, but still give the boys the freedom they need to explore? So, today we sat down and discussed a plan, and it seems like we’ve landed on something that will work for everyone.
Each week, they will get a folder of things that need to be accomplished. Not very unschoolish sounding, but remember, this is something they asked for so I feel like being structured is what they need right now, and recognizing their needs is an important part of unschooling. So, it really is unschooling. Follow me?
They will have the week to complete their usual math assignments, choose two science projects from their hands-on science books, write a book report about any one book they’ve read that week, and either write a letter to someone or a blog post. These are all things that can be accomplished without much help from me, so they are pretty much in charge of getting these things done.
Lastly, we’ll begin looking at American history. Ancient history has intrigued them forever, but they are just starting to realize that there is some pretty interesting stuff in our own country’s history. I told them I’d like them to start by reading Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607 by Elisa Carbone. Then we’ll roll into colonial America, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
Hopefully, this plan will last for more than a few weeks!
July 26, 2006 at 8:13 pm · Filed under Links
Homeschool Planner and Organizer – many to choose from
“Buy New”: The Internet, Used Books, and the end of the World as We Know It How purchasing used books affects the publishing industry
Jason 1 Oceanic Adventure – a free downloadable board game
July 26, 2006 at 5:35 pm · Filed under home education
I just posted a summertime pool challenge at my other blog. If you’ve got good swimmers and access to a pool, you might like to take a look.
July 25, 2006 at 9:25 pm · Filed under publishing, home education, book reviews
Goodbye, long boring lessons about World War II! I just got a copy of Great World War II Projects You Can Build Yourself in the mail from the author (disclosure: it’s from the publisher that I write for, Nomad Press). I LOVE the cover - but, dangit, can’t figure out how to upload it to this post from Amazon.
As a middle schooler, I was fascinated with WWII, so naturally I was interested to read what this book has to offer. In just the first chapter, I learned some things that I missed during my public school education! It was a good refresher for me, but I kept thinking how much my boys would appreciate this book. Instead, my husband came home and started reading it! He promised not to do any of the projects, but while he was reading he kept “tsk, tsking”, so it must have made an impression on him.
The book is filled with valuable information about America’s participation in World War II, presented in a format that is easy to understand. Better yet, kids delve into projects that bring the era to life as they create secret codes for passing messages, airplane models, ration cakes and learn how to prepare a care package for a soldier fighting our current war.
This book tells many of the interesting stories of the war - the Navajo code talkers, the African Americans known as the Tuskegee airmen and women at home and in the danger zone. My kids will get much use from these pages (once their dad is done with it)!
July 25, 2006 at 7:20 am · Filed under My Musings, home education
Can you believe it? Monopoly games will never be the same again. Hasbro is replacing all of that fun money with a VISA debit card. Was it too hard for kids to add up those brightly colored bills? Too difficult to make change? Now all kids have to do is zip a debit card through a scanner and payment is handled. What’s next? Computerized dice for Yahtzee?
Blog Nod: COD
July 24, 2006 at 10:56 am · Filed under book reviews
When I went to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference earlier this year, one of the speakers – an editor from a publishing house – raved about a book called I Capture the Castle. I’d never heard of it, but I was determined to understand why this particular editor loved this book so much. I finally requested it from the library and just finished it over the weekend.
It was a bit slow to start, but ultimately, I ended up really enjoying it. It was written in 1948 and set in 1930’s England. Told from the perspective of a teenaged girl, the author (Dodie Smith, who also wrote 101 Dalmatians) does a fabulous job of portraying the uncertainties and feelings that plague young girls.
Through the book we get a peek into Cassandra Mortmain’s life in a ramshackle castle that is falling down around her family. Her father is an eccentric and famous author struggling with writer’s block and unable to provide for the family. Living without electricity and slowly selling off all of their valuable possessions to survive, the family is very poor, often hungry and yet still maintains (mostly) a sense of humor. When two wealthy Americans arrive while Cassandra is bathing in the kitchen, things liven up.
It’s a very light romance, so there’s a little bit about pining for boys, but it’s also about family and the oddities that we cope with as part of a family, odd or not, rich or poor. It’s about choosing to care, and living life to its fullest. I would think that this would be an excellent book for teenage girls or even as a read aloud for younger girls. There is some reference to “making love”, which in this case is simply kissing. I’ll recommend it to my boys, but I think it might be too slow for them. We’ll see.
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