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Saturday, August 8, 2020
Keeping up with the Changes.
In the Fall of 2007 my wife started taking our 3 children to a home school cooperative (co-op). It was a traditional co-op, where each family taught some classes and volunteered in others. The first semester it turned out amazing for the kids. Charlie, who just graduated from high school, still has his notebook from a very cool International Space Station class he took that year. It was amazing for the kids, but very difficult for my wife. Each parent got at least one class period off to fellowship with the other parents. Alas, Lucy was about 1 at the time and as you know when you take a 1-year-old anywhere you never get time off. Amy wisely decided on taking a semester off and going back when Lucy was a little older.
Amy planned to return in the Fall of 2008. However, Amy and I did the Old Switcheroo in the fall of 2008. (She went back to working full time, and I became Home School Dad and took over the teaching at home.) In the Spring semester of 2009, I brought the kids back to co-op and did the teaching, assisting, and running after Lucy. Soon The co-op became amazing for everyone in our family.
For several years this is how it remained. Then as our circumstances changed, we would quit the co-op and later, come back to it only to leave again and come back again. Finally, (or we thought it was finally) in 2015, we stopped homeschooling altogether. I quit co-op for "the final" time and we moved on with our life. Our home school adventure had many twists and turns in the road and yet looking back we could see God leading us through each and every one.
This contiued when all 3 children were in public sct hool at the same time for the first time in their lives. Charlie excelled in his last year of middle school and his first year of high school. Emma had major adjustments and changes to navigate, going from a 3 person school with a 40 person co-op once a week to a school of 3,000 students and being diagnosed with High Functioning Autism(HFA). (Her diagnosis was partially due to one of the many extra curricular events we went to because of our co-op. One of the former students in our co-op who has HFA was featured in a documentary that premiered at the Imago Film Festival. The documentary opened our eyes to the possibility that Emma might be on the spectrum, which helped hasten her diagnosis.) Because of her many home school credits from her first two years of high school she was able to finish her high school experience a semester early by taking an on-line poetry class at home. The wonder that is Lucy, continued to shine in her last 2 years of eleementary school. She won speech contests that highlightred her flair for the dramatic, won awards for her artistic achievement, and was honored with the highest award in her 5th grade commencement. As the 2017 school year ended, more changes were in store for the Roller clan as each of our 3 students again changed schools, as we after 16 years in Carpentesville changed suburbs.
Emma was off to the local jr. college. Charlie started his sophomore year at a new high school and Lucy started being home schooled again. We had always wanted to home school each of our children through at least middle school. We did that with Emma and even got an extra two high school years with her at home. Charlie was in 8th grad when we stopped home schooling him. We were delighted when we had the opportunity to bring Lucy back home for her 3 middle school years. Of course this meant going back to our old homeschool co-op and saying we needed to return if only for us to learn the actual meaning of the word final.
Our on-again off again relationship with our co-op taught us many things more than one post will allow, but here are a couple. My years at the co-op prepared me for my now on-again off again job (Thanks Covid) as a substitute teacher. At the co-op, Lucy was still a force to be reckoned with; No longer the one man wrecking ball of her toddlerdom, she continued to blossom as an amazing orator, comedian, actress, and especially a gracious loving daughter, student and friend.
Earlier this Lucy was accepted into a special theater arts academy part of the public high school Charlie just graduated from. She was so looking forward to finishing her home school and co-op experience and then leaving home and going to school every day in the Fall. Then Covid came on the scene. The co-ops did not end the way we expected and now we found out that her high school will not start as we expected. She will start high school as her brother and sister finished it, virtually.
Educating our children has not always gone the way we have planned it. However, we have seen God orchestrate all the steps and use them in mighty ways. As with everyone else on the planet, Covid 19 life has been very challenging for our family but we are still confident that God will continue directing our paths. In a way much more than the band at the fish in the sea dance at the end of Back to the Future could , God is more than able to keep up with the changes.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Bunny Girl Graduates from 8th Grade
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
New Year at CWF
Here is an idea that you can use in your classrooms tomorrow. Ask your children to take turns naming states as you write them down. The first 25 are pretty easy but the next 25 may be difficult especially if you make sure there are no maps out.
I am also assisting in a pre-school class about animals and a high school class about storytelling in film.
Spider Droid is taking a street drumming class he is very excited about. I am more excited about the Desserts, desserts, desserts class he is taking since he will be bringing those treats home along with the recipes. That means more eating and less banging.
Puppy is taking a class called Heroes and Heroines. Bunny Girl is an assistant in that class. Today they studied Marie Curie.
Bunny Girl is taking a mural painting class. This ambitious class will create a travelling mural as well as a mural to be made in the church that we use for our co-op.
I will be blogging more about these and other classes as the co-op continues through the end of April.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Happy Zoo Year
3. I am also planning on getting back to some sort of blogging schedule. I am used to going week at a time without an entry so it will take me some time to get back into practice.
This entry does get me one step closer. I hope to write a quick homeschooling piece in the next day or two. I hope you all have a happy and joyous new year.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Home School Fragments (and a Puppyism)
SB 136 footnote.
Last year a state senator from Illinois made a name for himself in the homeschooling community by proposing that all home schools and private schools would need to be registered on the state level. The proposed bill showed no understanding of Illinois state law. One reason for this is that Home schools in Illinois are considered private schools. That means that the wording of the bill was redundant because merely requesting that all private schools register would require home educators to do the same. Alas private schools were never really the target of the bill and the wording was quickly changed to refer only to home schools.
The senator Ed Maloney introduced the bill and there was an instant reaction of the negative kind. Home Educators after flooding their representatives with phone calls, stopped what they were doing and headed to Springfield in the thousands to discuss the bill. Ed Maloney was never able to give sufficient proof that homeschoolers were "falling under the cracks" and the bill was tabled without ever being voted on.
I wrote several pieces on the matter here and have become very interested in the career of senator Maloney. He has decided not to seek reelection. I did some research and found that one of the candidates running to replace him states that she is a strong supporter of homeschooling at her campaign website. Thanks again Mr. Maloney for bringing the people of your district a potential advocate to the institution you sought to alter.
Speaking of Frivolous Laws
One of the main reasons I opposed SB 136 besides the total lack of need to "fix" something not broken was the additional cost to taxpayers in doing so. This is one of the reasons why I am opposed to SB 3259 which is a bill being considered to raise the compulsory school age in Illinois from 17 to 18. The law is sponsored by Kimberly Lightford and co-sponsored by 6 other senators from her party. Lightford like Maloney and 4 of the 6 co-sponsors received significant campaign funding from teachers unions. I mention this because teachers and their unions are the direct beneficiaries of this law as more teachers will need to be hired if the age is increased.
I am opposed to the bill for 5 reasons.
1. The proposed law will not be able to do what it says it will as there is no proven correlation between dropout rates and compulsory age.
2. It should be the job of parents and not the government to decide when their children should end their schooling.
3. By my reading it seemss the law would require home educators of 18 year olds to register with the state; and I think we all know how I feel about that.
4. While the law would benefit teacher and unions and not neccesarily the students it purport to help (see objection 1) it would increase the tax burden of parent affected by the law.
5. It is a law that was conceived by lawmakers who didn't even consult with school superintendents to see if a law was needed. There was also similar lack of reasoning for Sb136. It has been told that Senator Maloney conceived SB136 after learning of a homeschooling relative while at a Holiday party. Our tax dollars are certainly at work.
Mount Rushmore
I am teaching 2 classes about the Mount Rushmore Presidents at our home school co-op. If you wanted to teach about one object in American History that encompasses more time than Mount Rushmore you might be hard pressed to do so.
The history of Mount Rushmore and the presidents thereof, goes back to the colonial period prior to the French American war and goes though to Depression Era works projects. This has been a very enjoyable process for me and hopefully my students as well.
Non Home School Related Puppyism
Puppy sometimes pretends she's a wolf named Wolfina. Just like when she used to play with pretend puppies on the bed she now brings pretend wolves everywhere she goes.
On Wednesday we were visiting my Dad who is recovering nicely from a very successful prostate cancer surgery. On the way home Puppy was sitting in the back seat and we had this conversation:
Puppy/Wolfina: Dad I left one of my wolves at Grandpa's house.
Me: One of your Pretend wolves.
P/W: That's okay we don't have to get it. He likes it there.
The funniest thing about the exchange was the was that Puppy said her last line as if I had fully intended to turn around and get the missing wolf. When actually at about the same time she asked we had just passed a gas station selling it's wares at $4.52.9 a gallon. (I had only paid $4.39.9, so that's a relief.
Well that's that for Fragments for this week and probably for a while. I am participating in Blogging A to Z starting Sunday and if I think of a fragment idea, I will probably figure out what letter it starts with and share it on it's given day.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Spring Break So Far
We are not going away anywhere this week. Here is what we have been doing.
Our co-op met on Monday, so Amy went in to work. Only a handful of people were there, but it is one less day that she has to work once school is out of session. We had a major tire blowout as we were travelling from co-op to dental appointments. Not 5 minutes after we pulled over on the side of the road, a man who works at the same tire company we bought our last tires pulled up behind us and assisted me in putting on the spare. A family from our co-op noticed us on the side of the road, dropped most of their kids at home came back and drove Amy and the kids to their dental appointments while I got the tire changed.
We have been watching movies this week as part of our break. We watched Hugo and it is certainly worth all the hype. I found it very enjoyable. (Not everyone in the family enjoyed it.)
My father had a surgery to remove his prostate last Tuesday, as it was cancerous. He is now cancer free and after being releases from the hospital last Friday on his birthday he is getting back to normal life. Today we visited him and my Mom and he had fixed an old computer and gave it to Spider Droid.
Tomorrow my brother is coming over and he, SD and myself are going to do a little work in the bathroom. We have been without a bathroom sink for almost a week now. I bought one at Menard's yesterday and we are going to put new floor tiles in while we were at it. The girls will have an action packed day at Lincoln Park Zoo and Navy Pier while us men beat the bathroom into submission.
We have other day trips planned on Thursday and Friday. I am also trying to write a few blog posts for next month's blogging A to Z which starts this Sunday. We are relaxing and enjoying. This accounts for no posts since Saturday.
Hope you all are having a great week.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
My Name's Bob. I'm a Tomato, and I'm here to help.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
7 reasons why I'd like to win a ticket to the Titus 2:1 Conference
Kris, of Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, is one of the speakers at the event. She has been given 1 ticket to the event (a $199.00 value) to give away on her blog. This post is my entry to said give-a-way. My goal, to explain why I'd like to win a ticket to the conference.
Here is a list of my reasons. Some are serious, some are silly and some are just plain HSD.
1. I like to go places where it's not certain that I'm welcome.
The Titus 2:1 Webpage page says:
The 2:1 Conference is a faith based conference for homeschooling parents that blog (not just about homeschooling), or are otherwise interested in social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.
Well that's me, a homeschooling parent who blogs. So I'm invited right? Not so fast. The Conference Home Page, the one you read before you can even get to the About page, says this in the first paragraph:
2:1 is the premier conference for bloggers like you - mothers, in the trenches of homeschooling, with hearts for God.
Well, I am in the trenches of homeschooling, but am not a mother. It seems like it might be kind of awkward for me to go to a place where I'll stand out like a sore thumb. This brings me to reason 2.
2. I don't mind standing out like a sore thumb.
A seminary professor of mine described me to a mutual friend years later, by saying that I marched to a different drum. I am told that he meant it as a compliment, and I certainly took it as one. As a Homeschool Dad who is actually the stay at home teacher rather than the go to work provider, I am used to sore thumb status. I finally got our co-op to stop calling the break room the Mom's room and refer to it as the parents room instead.
Seriously, I think I can learn a lot by being with so many bloggers in one place, that my sore thumbs won't mind so much.
Or I could, as Steven Keaton explained to his wife Elise in Family Ties what he would do at an all female architects convention, arm wrestle for money.
3. I'd like to learn some technical aspects of blogging especially advertising.
I would love to do more advertising on this blog and would like to talk with other bloggers how they do that.
4. Because winning a ticket is much better than losing a ticket.
Seriously, you are on you way out the door to go see a show. Then you realize you don't have the tickets. Where are they? Now we are going to be late. Puppy did you make that mess?!?
5. I love D.C. and have relatives in the area I could stay with.
6. To find out how to increase my readership.
I think being a teaching blogging Dad in a Mom's world hinders the type of audience I can attract. However, maybe this conference can help me get the word out on HSD as well as give me new strategies for increasing my readership.
7. I could certainly use the spiritual refreshment.
I like that this conference is faith based. Teaching my kids at home is the toughest job I ever have had. It depletes my energy and my spirituality. A conference like this will be a great blessing.
So those are 7 reasons why I'd like to win a ticket to the conference. I'll be back later today with some Friday Fragments.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Calculating Milestones in Days.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. Let's say someone is celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary today. That means they were married December 18th, 1986. Perhaps they want to post about it. They might take out a calculator and multiply 365 by 25 and get a product of 9125 days. They might say we've been married 9125 days today.
That is not correct.
There are 2 mistakes that are being made. 1 is obvious and 1 not so obvious. Actually, both are obvious to me. Let's see if either one is obvious to you.
First, a little thing I like to call Lauren's birthday. Lauren is a sweet girl in our co-op. She has had 2 birthdays, and will have her third next year. The thing is, Lauren's 11. That's right, her birthday is on Leap Day. The above calculation did not take into account the extra day every 4 years that leap year produces.
The next mistake is based on the method used for counting days. Let's say you were born at 11:00 p,m. today. At midnight, it is the next day, and although you have been alive for 1 hour, you have lived on 2 different days.
This is the mistake I see people make when they are counting days by year. They don't count the day of the event they are commemorating. For example, I was born on 9/23/64. On 9/23/65 I had lived in all or some of 366 days, not 365.
If you are not totally confused already, let me teach you a sure fire method of counting the exact number of days (including parts of the 1st and last day) that you are commemorating. If you are totally confused, go do a Charlie Brown: pound your head against a tree, and say I can't stand it. You could also, as Amy is apt to point out, do a Miss Piggy and say, "I don't understand any of this." I'll wait.
Welcome back those of you returning from the tree, or your Miss Piggy impersonation.
In order to calculate the exact amount of days you have been involved in something, you need to know 2 things:
1) The current day.
2) The date you are counting from.
3) How many days are in each month. (access to a calendar will suffice.)
Here's our test case:
Amy and I were married on Apri l 11th 1998.
I want to know how many days (full and partial) we have been married, here is what I do . . .
1) Starting with April 11th 1998 I count out 4 year periods as 1461 days (365 per year times 4 plus one leap day.
April 11th 1998 - April 10th 2002 1461
April 11th 2002 - April 10th 2006 1461
April 11th 2006 - April 10th 2010 1461
2) Since April 10th 2010 is less than 4 years before today, I count out years as 365 days, unless there was a leap day and then I count it as 366.
April 11th 1998 - April 10th 2002 1461
April 11th 2002 - April 10th 2006 1461
April 11th 2006 - April 10th 2010 1461
April 11th 2010- April 11th 2011 365
3) When I get to where there is less than a year left til the current date, I just count out the remaining days by months. This includes the rest of April 2011 and the days that have taken place so far this month..
There are 30 days in April and I have already accounted for the first 10 in 2011. This means there are 20 more to put in our rendering. Today is December 18th. So the amount of days Amy and I have been married can be tallied like this:
May 2011 31
June 2011 30
Ju;y 2011 31
Aigust 2011 31
September 2011 30
October 2011 31
November 2011 30
December 1st to Dec 18 2011 18
4) Add all the numbers together
1461
1461
1461
0365
0020
0031
0030
0031
0031
0030
0031
0030
0018
5000
That means that as of today Amy and I have been married 5000 days. Wow, imagine that! The day I picked to do a tutorial on calculating milestones, was actually a milestone itself. I think I'll take her out to celebrate. Actually, I have been using this calculation for years and chose today because it is our 5000th day of marriage. I am taking Amy on a secret surprise date to commemorate the occasion.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
War Horse: A review of a prescreening
I received an e-mail invitation from a group called Grace Hill Media to attend a free preview of a new movie called War Horse. I didn't have time to open the e-mail let alone respond to it. However, my wife got a similar invitation from our churche's home school support group. She went ahead and reserved two tickets for Spider Droid and me to attend.
The theatre where they were showing the movie is in one of my old stomping grounds. The theatre has particular meaning to me because it is where I took Bunny to see her first movie at the tender age of 3, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Now I have never been to a special screening of a movie before and did not know exactly what to expect. Amy had kind of got the impression it was a will call situation. The crazy girl got that impression when the person she contacted asked for the names of the people who would be attending. When we got there, 10 minutes before the movie started, they said the theatre was almost filled, and that if they did have seats available, SD and I would not be able to sit together.
SD was not thrilled by that, and wanted to turn around back then. I was able to coax him to at least go in the theatre and check out what was available. The closest seats were 5 or 6 rows between them, and we were right about to turn back when a very nice Mom offered to put her youngun on her lap for the movie so SD and I could sit close to each other. This was very kind of her, considering that this is a 160 minute movie.
It turns out that SD sat in a Captain's Chair type seat that was just in front of the first full row of seats and I sat diagonally behind him. We were able to switch popcorn and soda back and forth between us for the course of the picture.
The movie, which opens on December 25th, was incredible. Steven Spielberg directed this film and it is well worthy of the buzz that is associated with a Spielberg film. The movie is not wholly unlike Spielberg's WWII movie, Saving Private Ryan. It is just mostly unlike it. SPR was very deserving of its R rating and I am not sure that War Horse was as deserving of its PG-13 branding. After seeing Saving Private Ryan, Amy said it was like being in war. After seeing War Horse, you get an inkling of what WWI was like, but you don't feel like you participated in it. This is due in part to the cinematography which brings a regal and haunting beauty to almost every scene of The War Horse. The film is actually much more like A Little Princess or Heidi in that you see the main character, which is definitely the horse, interact with a variety of people and bring out the best in almost everyone it encounters.
Heidi similarities not withstanding, this film is not for everyone. My son and I often discuss whether his sisters will like a film we have seen together. War Horse pretty much has 2 acts: pre WWI and WWI. We are agreed that Bunny would like Act I but not Act II. While there were children Puppy's age (6) or younger, I don't think she would have enjoyed it. This is a war movie and there is plenty of violence to go around. Yet much of it is done off screen. This does not take the power away from it. In one scene ,a significant character dies in a battle and the viewer figures it out without even seeing a single blow.
The acting is first rate. It is great to go to a movie and recognize an actor or actress who plays one of your favorite characters in another movie. If there are any fans of Miss Potter, you should like the casting of the main human character's mother.
One aspect of the movie that I discussed with Spider Droid on the way home was how the movie handles the topic of war. It neither glorifies it or demonizes it. It also doesn't result in stereotypical portrayals of the "enemies." The filmmakers show goodness on both sides of the trenches.
War Horse is a great film that I look forward to seeing it again. I also hope to attend more prescreenings of movies in the future. Next time, I'll just arrive a tad earlier. ******************************************************************************************************************************* My current HSBA feature blog is Frontier Dreams which won for Best Crafts, Plans & Projects. It is a gorgeous blog with precious pictures of darling children. Click here for a sample post.
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Next Time: Obligatory Christmas Tree Post
Monday, December 5, 2011
What happens at an FLL scrimmage?
Team spirit is a big part of FLL it is not uncommon for the team to dress alike. Many teams have custom t-shirts made.
Some can only afford milk jugs |
I talked to two members of last years state champion I-Lego Team.
Here is a clip from one of I-lego's runs. I added the music with the help of youtube. It does have a food related theme.
Watching A Practice Run |
The Fanatix discuss their technical judging component. |
Plus the Kitchen Sink |
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
100 Books
Reading opens many doors. |
I can't believe I read the whole thing. |
My son is not only an action hero, but he is also a super genius. Granted a super genius who doesn't yet read at grade level. He has the mind of an inventor and a magnificent memory. Yet he is having difficulty inputting knowledge in his mind through reading. This has been a concern of ours as parents for a number of years. We had tried many things tutoring, summer school, Lamaze (which did not help with his reading but you should see the kid breathe!); we tried it all.
When Amy and I attended the local home school convention this past June I went to a seminar about helping your under performing readers. It was really encouraging and had many good take-a-ways. One thing I decided to try was a 100 book chart. You have the child read 100 picture books and write them on a chart in their room. When the chart is full you give a GREAT reward.
From June to October 31st we only put 23 books on the chart. Spider Droid probably read more than that but I didn't always get to writing them down. In short my inconsistency didn't help him take ownership of the project.
In the meantime Spider Droid was taking vision therapy that was beginning to show some signs of progress with his reading ability. On November 1st, his birthday. I took him to the chart and added something to the top. It showed how many books were left and how many days were left in the year. He had 77 books remaining and 61 days before the end of the year. We set two goals: 1) To get to a point where there were more days reaming in the years than books remaining to be read. 2) to finish the chart before the end of 2011.
He read 3 books that day and 17 by the 7th. 23 from June to October and 17 in a week! He reached his first goal on 11/16. 40 books remained with 45 days left to read them in. That's when SD upped his game and decided he wanted to finish the 100 by the end of November. At about that time life began to get very busy with our home school co-op, robotics, Thanksgiving and the like. Yet he was driven and diligent. We went to the local library on Saturday and he checked out as many books as he had left to read. Tuesday morning he had 10 left. This morning he had 5 left. In between lessons he finished the last 5 before lunch time.
Here are 2 pictures worth 100 books.
My Son the Reader |
Our Story So Far |
Not only has SD's reading quantity increased, the quality piece has improved substantially. In a few months time he has gone up one full grade in his reading level.
We still have a way to go but we are very pleased with his progress. Too bad he isn't a little more excited about his achievement, as the picture below attests.
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