Little Blue School

Aeneid Class: Week 5: Furor and Pietas

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:37:00 +0000

Project:

We made mosaics using sticky cardstock and tiny tiles. I forgot my camera, but here are pictures of the materials and where to get them.

We also used some other stuff as mosaic tiles... sparkly jewels, sequins, and other things. These no-glue collage boards are awesome. You peel them like a sticker and the sticky surface is very sticky. Some kids did geometric designs, some did pictures, some just enjoyed the materials in random and pleasing ways.

Assignment: For next week please read the chapter "Funeral Games." We're coming up to our gladiator games event, so we'll be planning that in class next week. The children will get to choose roles -- lions, gladiators, emperor, spectators, guards, etc. If you own the movie "Gladiator" and you've watched it enough to be able to choose scenes strategically so the kids won't see anything awful (and there are plenty of awful things in the movie) it would be great if they could see at least some of the coliseum scene, to get an idea of the scope of it. I don't recommend it for the younger kids, of course, but some of the older ones will benefit from certain scenes. We will be mixing gladiator fun with versions of the funeral games that the Trojans engaged in to honor Anchises, so look forward to that too! Volunteers are welcome, and let's hope for a sunny day so we can go outside.

Aeneid Class: Week 4: How to Throw a Roman Dinner Party

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:38:00 +0000

This post relates to my literature class for children at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op in Norfolk, VA. This semester we are reading The Aeneid, using Penelope Lively's book In Search of a Homeland, and other supplemental materials. For other lessons, please click the Aeneid tag at the bottom of this post.

Overview: The lesson to be learned from this event involves the concept of civilization and what it means to be civilized. The Romans valued their civility highly, and dinner parties were an opportunity to express these qualities in public. They practiced rituals, demonstrated courtesy and respect, and strictly adhered to traditions and conventions. It was very important for the Romans to define themselves as civilized and therefore superior to the barbarian cultures around them. As we discussed in The Jungle Book, a colonizing nation must see the colonized people as "other" and also as inferior, so that the invasion can be seen as helping the dominated peoples, and the conquerors can be seen as saviors.

The interesting thing about the Roman dinner party is that compared to a dinner party today, it's not very civilized at all! As I asked the kids... if someone came to your house for dinner and they sat on the floor, ate with their hands from the serving dishes, and maybe excused themselves to vomit in between courses, would that be civilized? What if they weren't wearing any pants? Today's standards of "civilized behavior" are different from the Romans' standards -- but who's to say that in another 2000 years people will find it low and vile to eat with forks and put napkins in our laps? So, during the party, you want to underscore the importane of the Roman rituals and behaviors, and pretend to be very proud of your intensely refined and civilized behavior.

Preparations:

Step one: Prepare the food and drink. We used olives, boiled eggs, raw cabbage, chicken, pepperoni, grapes, apples, pears, figs, and dates.

We decanted white grape juice into empty bottles that we had labelled appropriately.

Step two: Set the mood with some music. If you have any musicians skilled in playing the lyre, call on them now. We downloaded a Synaulia album and played that on a CD player.

Step two: Set the table. Remember that Romans ate close to the floor. You can simulate this by using a regular folding table without folding out the legs. Drape some fabric over the whole table, including some on the floor where the guests will recline. You'll need a centerpiece that can later be offered as a sacrifice. We used a cabbage.

Step three: Invite in your guests! Encourage everyone to dress up.

The Dinner:

Toast: Give everyone a cup with some ice in it. Explain about how the Romans didn't have refrigerators or freezers, but they did acquire ice from the mountains and keep it cold in deep pits. Boast that the fact that you have ice at your dinner party reflects your intense civilization and impressive wealth. A common table wine was called Mulsum, which was water, wine, and honey. Ask your students why the Romans might have watered down their wine, especially considering that dinner parties sometimes went on for hours. Have the slaves pour out the "wine" and then toast Rome!

Appetizers: You can give each guest a napkin with which to eat, but remind them that in Roman times they would have had their own napkin which they would bring from home to any dinner party they attended, kind of like a personal hankerchief. Pass around the eggs and olives. Talk about how a really great appetizer in Roman times would have been a stuffed dormouse.

Main course: Explain that Romans didn't eat a lot of beef, because they used their cows for work. After a few years of work, a cow would be so tough and chewy that you'd have to cook it for a week before it was edible. Why go through all that drama when you could cook up a pig right away. Pigs didn't have to work, and pork was the Romans' favorite meat.

Sacrifice: Between the main course and the dessert, the Romans paused to sacrifice to their household gods. Here is our altar:

Have one guest bring the sacrificial cabbage, and another light the candles. Then observe a moment of silence during which you respect your Roman values, and the ideas that are important to your family.

Dessert: Pass around the fruit, including the dates and figs, which some of your guests might find unfamiliar.

Entertainment:

After dinner, invite your guests to entertain the group with poetry recitation, song, and dance. Celia M. and Sarah R, from our academic track class, were able to recite the soliloquy from Julius Caesar, and Martina E. set a new record for memorizing the Virgil, at 6 lines in Latin. In the enrichment track class, one of our slaves brought Max N.'s little brother Seth, who recited eight lines of Shakespeare to my amazement! He was immediately granted citizenship in the class. The enrichment track class also engaged in some dancing after dinner:

Guests can also entertain themselves by playing Knucklebones or Latrunculi.

I sent all my friends out to carouse through Rome after my party was over. I hope they all had a wonderful time! Didn't see a picture of your child? or just want to see more pictures of our awesome class? Click here for more Aeneid Class pictures.

Assignment for next week: Make sure you have read through chapter 3 in the book. By now everyone should have a copy! :) Next week we will be making mosaics. Please let your children have a look at some mosaic tile work online. Here's another page with mosaics, and another page.

How to Get Your Child to Practice the Violin Without Sugar

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:43:00 +0000

A reader of this blog asked me if I had any more good practicing tips, having found my doll concert post helpful in getting her five-year-old to practice. So here is another idea which can be adapted in many situations to make practicing more fun. And here's another picture of my baby playing the violin:

The general principle here is to make the practice a physical journey that the child can visualize and experience kinesthetically. Here are several ways to do that:

1. Create practice cards with location on them. Place them around the house (or outside!) with each card giving the next location. So hand the child a card that says "Bathroom, standing on the toilet." They go to the bathroom, climb on the toilet, and play their first song. There they find a card that says "In the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room." They go there, play their next song, and there they find a card that says "Hall closet." Or whatever. If Mom is traipsing along behind to help with position and pitch, you can't go wrong. After a few times of playing this, let the child be in charge of placing the cards before practice begins. You could even let the child make the cards, place the cards, and *you* be the one who has to find the next card and listen to a piece at each location.

2. If you have, like we have, a bunch of little toy houses and buildings, set up a little journey for a favorite toy or doll. The castle, the pirate ship, the beauty salon, Barbie's house, the treehouse... whatever you have for little destinations. Say, "Now, this Polly Pocket has to go to all of these places today and at each place she's going to hear a different piece of music. When she gets back to the beginning, practice is over." At each destination, the child plays another piece of her practice, and along the way, Polly Pocket can run into all kinds of problems: becoming extremely hungry, getting tired and wanting to give up, being chased by bears, being hounded by Paparazzi, etc. When Polly Pocket gets home, the practice is over: no exceptions! Polly is exhausted. If you need a more tangible variation, have Polly Pocket deliver marbles at each location, or pick up marbles from each destination.

3. A simple, portable version of this involves a little toy frog or bee and a piece of paper, and some tiny stickers. Draw ten (or however many) lily pads (or flowers), with the names of the songs on them... you can have multiple "Minuet 1" lily pads if that one needs to be repeated. When the frog has visited a lily pad, the child can put a sticker on it or color part of it in. There should be seven stickers on each lily pad (or seven petals of the flower colored in) at the end of the week, then the child can turn in the whole thing for a reward. Moving the frog around the paper lets them keep track of their progress and gives them a sense of what's coming up.

I'm sure you can think of lots of other variations on this theme, using the idea that a violin practice can be mobile, visible, tangible, and progress can be marked in space. Be as goofy as possible, and don't worry about "Well, this is working now, but what about next week?" Next week, if you need to, you'll think of something else. Maybe that thing will involve sugar. But most likely, once your child gets accustomed to practicing "with joy" because you're turning yourself inside out to make it fun, you won't need all the bells and whistles to get a good practice. Everything goes in cycles, I have found. If you get yourself through a rough patch by pulling out all the stops with fun games and adventures, you'll find yourself on the other side with a happier child and a new attitude.

Aeneid Class: Week 3: Roman Parlor Games

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:41:00 +0000

The little one in the picture above is actually made from bronze, to minic the shape of the real bone. Here is a picture of a set of knucklebones that I made:

You can make knucklebones by making a little rectangular box out of Sculpey, then scratching a number into each side. The small ends should be a little rounded to ensure the die doesn't end with a small end up. The numbers on the dice are 6, 4, 3, and 1 with opposite sides adding up to 7. I made enough sets that each pair of kids could have a set to play with. One package of Sculpey makes two sets.

Scoring Tali is complicated, and there are lots of different ways to do it. We learned a method of scoring that requires the kids to add up the values of the dice in their heads, which I think is good practice, and also involves some of the "special" rolls, like the Venus (6, 4, 3, 1) the Vulture (all dice the same) and the Dogs (all dice 1).

(6,4,3,1) :Venus -- all four tali with different sides.
(6,x,x,x) : Senio -- a single six and anything
(6,6,6,6) : Vultures -- all four tali the same
(4,4,4,4) : Vultures -- all four tali the same
(3,3,3,3) : Vultures -- all four tali the same
(6,6,6,4) : Total = 22
(6,6,6,3) : Total = 21
(6,6,4,4) : Total = 20
(6,6,6,1) : Total = 19 (high)
(6,6,4,3) : Total = 19
(6,6,3,3) : Total = 18
(6,6,4,1) : Total = 17
(6,6,3,1) : Total = 16
(4,4,4,3) : Total = 15
(6,6,1,1) : Total = 14 (high)
(4,4,3,3) : Total = 14
(4,4,4,1) : Total = 13
(4,4,3,1) : Total = 12
(4,3,3,1) : Total = 11
(4,4,1,1) : Total = 10 (high)
(3,3,3,1) : Total = 10
(4,3,1,1) : Total = 9
(3,3,1,1) : Total = 8
(4,1,1,1) : Total = 7
(3,1,1,1) : Total = 6
(1,1,1,1) : Dogs -- lowest of the Vultures

Here are some pictures of the kids playing Tali:

Odds and Evens: This is a very simple game that relies more on instinct than skill. To play, you need several small objects: buttons, coins, stones, etc. They should be small enough that the players can hide them in their hands. We used little buttons. The game is played between two people, a holder and a guesser. The holder puts a number of the objects in his hand and holds it out. The guesser tries to guess whether the number of objects is odd or even. If the guesser is right, he gets a point. If the guesser is wrong, the holder gets a point. Very easy, and yet when you start playing it, very complicated psychologically! But this one was really fun -- we had some kids that were really great at intuiting what their opponent would do with those buttons!

The educational value of Odds and Evens was mostly for the enrichment class -- learning which numbers were odd and which were even. The older kids could pretty much do that already. All the kids learned to make a score-keeping chart and keep tick marks to tally a score. It is also very important to practice your "I AM INSCRUTABLE" face and also your "I AM READING YOUR MIND" face while playing Odds and Evens.

For more pictures, see our Flickr set.

Latrunculi: I gave the children an optional project to earn an additional citizenship coin. They can make a Latrunculi board and demonstrate that they know how to play. This is not an assignment! Moms, do not slay yourself over this one. If the kid is on fire to research it and make it, great. If not, no harm. Here is a link to get you started on the wonders of Latrunculi.

Next week is our Roman dinner party. Here is a little info about that:

CLOTHING:Please dress up in whatever way you like! Want to be a gladiator? An emperor? Afine lady? A humble slave? A senator? Do it. Gender roles to not have to limit you. Historical accuracy is not necessary but it would be great if the kids knew about their outfits to explain them to the class. Remember that among the ladies, elaborate up-do hairstyles and flamboyant jewelry items were popular!

MUSIC:We are going to be listening to the music of Synaulia, an Italian ensemble that replicates the music of Ancient Rome with authentic instrumentation. Here is a little sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0IpxYUi2Dk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnDjFXRZLVo

FOOD:Our meal will be eaten as we recline around low tables. We will be using our fingers to eat from communal plates. There will be three courses: an appetizer course of eggs and radishes, a main course of meat, olives, and cabbage, and a dessert course of fruit and honey.We will be drinking "wine." The Romans watered down their wine and added honey. Rich Romans who could afford the luxury kept ice in deep pits. We will be drinking white grape juice over crushed ice.

ENTERTAINMENT:Romans entertained at dinner parties by reciting poetry, singing, and dancing.Fortunately we can do all these for ourselves! If your child is ready to recite any part of (or all of) any of the poems or songs, they will get a chance toperform at the dinner party, as we all digest.We will also be playing Evens and Odds, Knucklebones (Tali), and Latrunculi.

RITUAL: As host of the party, I will start off the meal with a toast. We will also pause between "prima mensa" and "secunda mensa" (dinner and dessert) to observe amoment of silence and make an offering to our household gods.

VOLUNTEERS: How can you help?

Prepare food: If you can help with any of the above items (like bringing a dozen peeled boiled eggs, or a dish of olives, or a plate of chopped cabbage orgrapes), please email me and let me know what you'd like to bring.

Come be a slave: We will need a couple of slaves during each class, to serve thefood, crush the ice, fix loose togas, press play and pause on our musicians, help with Knucklebones, and obey our every whim. Slaves do not need to wear costumes, but they can! Slaves can also bring their cameras.

Lend something: If you have an earthenware or pottery dish that looks oldy-timey-ancienty-romany, I would love to borrow it for serving. If you have a statuette of some kind that looks oldy-timey-ancienty-romany, I would love to borrow it to join our collection of household gods to receive our sacrifice.

If you are interested in participating in one of these three ways, please email me and let me know specifically what you would like to do. This is going to be awesome!

NOTE: Students must possess a citizenship coin to participate in the Roman dinner party! No invitees unless they are the children of slaves who are slaving away at the party.

Assignments: Carry on with the book. Carry on with the memory work. Consider making a Latrunculi board. And get your costume on for next week's party!

Aeneid Class: Week 2: Bulla Bulla

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:06:00 +0000

The Ever Breath by Julianna Baggott

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:32:00 +0000

This post is a book review. Really. But it will take me a minute to get there.

I have two children, four years apart. My son, 10, likes books about science. He likes to pour over them, again and again, memorizing the delicious facts and savoring the tasty trivia. The only fictional stories he's been interested in at all involve butts, roughly drawn comics, underpants, middle school hardships, warrior cats, and fake superheroes. I don't think I need to mention titles -- you know which ones I mean. Still, any book with pictures of the moon's surface will handily defeat any book that has characters and a beginning, middle and end. He's just not that into fiction.

My daughter, 6, has a categorical aversion to chapter books. Not only does she not want to admit she can read, she also does not want to be treated like a person who can read. In her mind, as she has explained it to me, reading will lead to college, and she doesn't want to go there. While I completely blame myself and all of my "Oh, sweetie! Don't ever change! Be my baby forever!" nonsense, I still feel like we should be able to move past the picture book stage before she hits puberty. Jan Brett, I super-love you, but I am done reading Fritz and the Beautiful Horses to my six year old, while she firmly asserts she cannot handle any more challenging fare. Then there's the fact that Sadie likes science books too. Books about polar bears. Books about caves. Books about what your heart does -- not figuratively, or as a literary theme, but as an actual biological fact.

True fact that is lodged in my bitter, resentful throat: Both of my kids prefer nonfiction to fiction. They will sit and listen to books about geography, or history, or science. They will not sit and listen to storybooks. They will not get interested in dragons. They do not yearn to discover more about elves or wizarding schools or hard times on the cold prairie. They just want to know more about why fish are cold, or where Indonesia is.

I'm a book person, and more specifically a fiction person. I have fantasized, since I knew I was going to have kids, about reading to them from the favorite books of my childhood. I looked forward to sharing Narnia with them, Middle Earth, the Moomins, etc. it's hard for me to realize that I can't keep up with Benny's interest in astronomy and the lymphatic system, and if I have to read "McElligott's Pool" one more time I will put a fishhook in my eye and gouge out my frontal lobe. I mean seriously, learning to swallow the fact that my kids just aren't that into novels has been almost as bad as finding out makeup is made out of bacon fat, or whatever.

Pretty difficult. It hasn't been great. But. There have been moments.

I bought Julianna Baggott's newest book, The Ever Breath, because hope springs eternal in this human breast, and because I like her, and I thought, hey, we'll give it a shot. What could it hurt? We've stalled on so many read-aloud attempts, and retreated to the safety of Childcraft for Benny and Let's Read and Find Out for Sadie. Why not try one more?

People, this is the book review part of the blog post. And I really feel like this is all I need to say, to sell you on this book. It was like magic. After the first chapter, I had one child tucked up on each side of me, and the other child tucked up on the other side. When I tried to quit reading for the night, I heard the words that had never been said by my children before: "Just one more chapter!" I felt like I was dreaming. I'm not kidding -- it was weird! I don't even know why this happened -- I'm not sure what captivated them in The Ever Breath where other books have so utterly failed. Why is it so accessible to these kids of such disparate ages. Why was Sadie saying, "This is my favorite book!" and why was Benny saying, "This book is better than Harry Potter!" I don't know.

I can tell you it's inventive. It's exciting. It's something you haven't seen before. And I can tell you that the children in my house careened through it at breakneck speed, anxious to get more, find out more, read more. That means a lot to me -- maybe this won't be the only book we'll read cover to cover, all curled up together. But it was the first!

Aeneid Class: Week 1: Amo Te

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

This post relates to my literature class for children at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op in Norfolk, VA. This semester we are reading The Aeneid, using Penelope Lively's book In Search of a Homeland, and other supplemental materials. For other lessons, please click the Aeneid tag at the bottom of this post.

Important dates:

March 2: Roman dinner party. We will wear tunics (girls) and togas (boys) and sample Roman food, listen to Roman music, play knucklebones, and vomit into buckets behind the pillows we’re lounging on.
March 23: Gladiator Games. We will have wild animals, condemned criminals, gladiators, guards, wealthy sponsors, and spectators at this exciting spectacle.
April 20: Chariot races. With wagons, helmets, and ropes, good cheer, and hope for sun, we are going to turn Grace Street into the Circus Maximus. Rain date: April 27.
May 11: Roman forum. In our classroom, we will recreate several elements of the Roman forum, including the Rostra, where volunteer orators will show off the stuff they’ve memorized during the semester, applauded by all.
May 18: Final day performance.

Welcome! I'm so happy to welcome you to this semester's adventure in ancient Rome. The Aeneid is the foundation myth for the Roman empire, and there is much to learn not only about the story of the poem itself, but also about Rome in the time of Virgil, when the Republic had come to an end and the Empire was just beginning to come into power. Rather than try and learn all about the Romans, we're going to focus our study on just this moment in time, when Augustus Caesar was in charge, and Virgil wrote the story of Aeneas to prove that Rome was founded on a Trojan ancestry, with a fine old tradition of warrior heroes and a proud heritage of strength and valor.

Reading: Each week you'll be reading one chapter in the Penelope Lively version of the story at home, until the book runs out. Then we'll be looking at some other material, including other translations and some art and modern interpretations. It is not necessary to bring the book to class each week, and we will not be reading it in class.

Scrapbooks: Your child received a spiral bound scrapbook in class. He/she will be filling it up with songs, projects, and eventually photos from the class. Academic track kids will be taking quizzes on the backs of the pages on which we glue the Fast Facts each week. They will also be creating a chart on the page that includes the Aeneid in Latin so that we can give them stamps as they memorize each line. Apart from those pages, any page in the book is okay for them to draw in, personalize, glue photos or pictures into, or whatever they'd like. These books should come to class with the kids every week.

Songs: This week we learned two songs, "I Sing of Arms and the Man" and "Let's Get the Heck Out of Troy." The first is an aid for us as we memorize the invocation to the muse (the first 12 lines) from the Aeneid in Latin. We only did the first half of it -- we will move on to the second half once we get a handle on those first few lines of the poem. The second song summarizes the action from the first chapter of the book, when Aeneas is leaving Troy with Anchises and Iulius, after those lousy Greeks burned the city.

Story: The academic track children mostly already knew the story of the Trojan war and the Trojan horse! That was awesome. We were able to have a great discussion comparing Virgil's version to Homer's version, and how the heroes from the two sides of the war would have been characterized in each one. Briefly stated, when we read the Odyssey the Greeks were the good guys, but now that we're reading the Aeneid, it's the Trojans that we're rooting for. In the enrichment track class, we talked about the Trojan horse, and the line in the song that says "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." We talked about how that means that if someone's been beating you up and then suddenly they turn around and give you a present, you should be very very suspicious of that present.

Project: We made Latin valentines, using the Latin endearment sheet in their scrapbooks. We learned a bit about pronunciation of the different sounds (hard c, v sounds like w, etc.) as we pronounced the different phrases. Here they are:

Mea tu Belliata: My beauty

Amata mea: My beloved girl

Deliciae Meae: My sweetheart

Ego Amo Te: I love you.

Amor vincit omnia: Love conquers all.

Amantes sunt amentes: Lovers are lunatics

aut viam inveniam aut faciam: I’ll either find a way or make one.

Per aspera ad astra!: Through difficulties to the stars!

Nulli secundus / Nulli secunda: Second to none (male/female)

I was anticipating that they would make valentines for their mothers, but a lot of the made the for each other, so I'm sorry you didn't get to see those! I'm also sorry I put heart confetti into the envelopes, since a lot of it ended up in the hallway upstairs instead of in *your* hallway where it was intended to land! Heh. Here are a few pictures:

Fast Facts: Today's Fast Facts are about Roman symbols. The children were challenged to find some of these symbols in their everyday life. It's my hope that as we go through the semester they'll find more examples of how references to Rome pop up our lives, not just visually but in literature, language, and culture. For those of you who are wondering what a fasces is, here is a picture of a couple of guys carrying facses at a parade. Remember: "I can beat you with this stick, and I can chop your head off with this axe, so you better behave, because I'm the government!" Think we don't threaten our citizens with such hostile symbols? There are two in the House of Representatives and one in the Oval Office. Hmm. Interesting. Click for a bigger image.

Norfolk Invitational Championship: Norfolk Karate Academy's Tang Soo Do Tournament 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:21:00 +0000

On November 14, 2009, in the beautiful new gymnasium at St. Patrick's in Norfolk, the Norfolk Karate Academy held its first annual tournament. I was proud to assist in the organizing of this awesome event. The kids had a great time. The smiles of the winners, the cheers of the audience, and the majestic regularity of the schedule justified all of the bustle, the hustle, the scribbled lists and the head-scratching moments when we all tried to think of exactly what was needed to pull it off. We did good! And I got an official NKA polo shirt to wear! It was fabulous!

The main event sponsor was of course Norfolk Karate Academy, but we were generously supported by Turtle Press Books, your online niche bookstore for all things martial arts. We also received prize donations from Fellini's Gourmet Pizza Cafe, and our volunteers ate muffins and drank coffee courtesy of Borjo's Coffeehouse, our neighbors on 45th street.

Here are some pictures of the event:

The winning line-up in the teen advanced sparring. A memorable battle!

Little kid sparring champs. No less fierce, but a little more willing to smile for a picture.

Karate moms at NKA are awesome!

Max takes on Master Odom during the grappling part of the event.

Tiny friends Sadie and Miranda came in first and second in their beginner form competition.

We love our new students at NKA! Yellow belts rocking the forms.

Benny had a day of ups and downs. There was one time when his emotions got the best of him and he kind of freaked out on another kid. Then there were times when he was delightful and patient, thrifty, clean and brave. The road to black belt continues, bumps and all.

Thank you to Fellini's Gourmet Pizza Cafe, Borjo Coffeehouse, and Turtle Press, and a big thank-you to everyone at NKA who helped before, during, and after the event. My children had a fantastic time at this NKA event, as usual. That is really all I care about, but that is everything!

For many more pictures, visit this Flickr set. If you'd like to download or print any pictures of your child, please feel free to do so!

How to Integrate Martial Arts and Homeschooling

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:15:00 +0000

One of the glorious benefits of homeschooling is being able to focus a curriculum around your child's passions. Instead of waiting around for a topic to randomly pop up that interests him, out of a collection of topics that may appear in a traditional curriculum, the homeschooled child can fully immerse in that favorite pastime or area of study, until the lines between play and work are magically blurred. This is the moment when learning is fun: the holy grail of homeschooling.

I know many of us have gone out of our way to make curriculum work for a horse-obsessed child or a Civil-War-obsessed child, etc. You make writing assignment, study vocabulary and spelling generated around the topic, create word problems with relevant elements. However, it's even better when you can find a book or curriculum that will do it for you, and I have! My karate-obsessed child is now a brown belt. How I wish I had this book when he was just starting out in karate. It's a wonderful workbook full of puzzles, writing prompts, short essays, and more. I know that my daughter Sadie, a white belt, will get a lot out of it, and I look forward to seeing how she develops in karate as she fills in the pages of the book.

Published by Turtle Press and written by Art Brisacher, the Martial Arts Training Diary for Kids is a diary, a game, a keepsake, and a homeschool helper!

Here's an excerpt:

"Welcome to one of the best adventures you will ever have in your entire life! It is an exciting journey--it's your martial arts journey. Your friend and your companion on this journey will be a different and a very special martial arts book. This book is better than a book about famous movie stars or television actors. This book is even better than a book about your favorite sports hero. This book is like no other book you have ever seen or read. This book is about YOU and it will be written by YOU and lots of people will want to read it. The best part will come one day in the future when your son or daughter will want to read the book that you wrote when you were just a kid! When your child wants to hear about your true martial arts's adventure, you will be able to share it with them."

If your child is just starting out in karate and is over the moon about the idea, this is more than a writing assignment; it's a way to link learning to what your child loves.

Jungle Book: Presentations

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:05:00 +0000

At the beginning of the semester, I challenged my academic track Jungle Book class to each present five minutes on any animal that they found interesting, as long as it appeared in the Jungle Book.

I thought I would share some pictures that came out of their very creative presentations:

With the children completely undirected and able to do whatever they wanted, we had all kinds of five-minute lessons! We had crossword puzzles, games of charades, we had comics, we had a demonstration on how to care for a horse, we had lovely pictures, we had a simulated visit from an actual working elephant mahout, we had an astonishingly huge full size king cobra created from fabric, we had earnest, interested, engaged children sharing ideas and facts with each other -- it was awesome to watch. Thanks for all your participation!

Jungle Book Week 12: Gond Tribal Paintings

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:20:00 +0000

Namaste.

Quiz:

The quiz this week is about the Gond tribe, the tribe in central India of which Mowgli would have been a part. Which of these statements are true?

1. The Jungle Book is set in an area of Central India called Madya Pradesh.
2. Kipling wrote about this area while he was camping on the banks of the Wainganga itself.
3. The Wainganga River is a real river, but the area around it is not a rainforest.
4. Today in the Seoni District, there is a tiger preserve, where 50 tigers and 30 leopards can be hunted from hired jeeps or airplanes.
5. The villagers that Mowgli encountered would have been members of the Gond tribes.
6. The Gond people practice Hinduism and also animism, which means they worship animals and ancestral spirits.
7. Gond tribes survived by trading their art with neighboring cultures.
8. Gond tribal art usually portrays technological wonders like steamboats and front loaders.
9. A ghotul is a tribal dormitory where young girls and boys go to live apart from their families.
10 Gond people believe that freedom and happiness are more to be treasured than any material gain, that friendliness and sympathy, hospitality and unity are of the first importance.

Project: I'm going to condense two weeks together here, to show you how to get this project done.

Step 1:

Materials:
White piece of paper
Pencil
A sense of what the Gond tribal paintings look like, and what kinds of elements they would include.

The Gond tribes painted things they would see in their everyday environment. Ask the children what kind of elements and motifs they would expect to see in a Gond tribal painting, and then ask them to create a sketch of the painting they would like to do. Here are two examples of the drawings the kids came up with:

Step 2:

Materials:
White poster board
Pencil
Black Sharpie

This is where you, the teacher, at home, transfer the sketches the children have done onto posterboard, and add the design elements common to the Gond style. This is hard. Don't expect to get it perfect or symmetrical -- freewheeling a little bit is fine. Here are some examples of my attempts to translate the children's art into a workable poster:

Step 3:

Materials:
Poster paints
Lots of Q-tips
Paper towel
Outline drawings for each child

Make an example to show them how the paintings may end up looking. Here's my example:

Set each child up with paper towel, some poster paints, and a pile of Q-tips. Demonstrate the way you fill in the outline with "dot dot dot" action. Some of the older children may want to branch out into doing small lines to fill in the areas, or other fancy stuff. The little ones should stick to dot-dot-dot to make their paintings colorful. Emphasize that the colors do not have to be realistic. Emphasize that it does not have to be perfect -- folk art is neither exact or mathematical. Let them know that if one of their Q-tips gets squishy or frayed or otherwise irritating, they should ditch it and use a new one. Expect each kid to go through about 20.

Here are some pictures from our painting day:

For more pictures, check out our Jungle Book Flickr set. :)

Story: In the last few weeks of class, we discussed Mowgli's place in the world. Does he belong in the village or in the jungle? I left this as an open-ended question, and obviously there is no right answer. It was interesting to hear the children discussing it. I asked them where they felt they belonged -- more comfortable in the country or in the city? This led us to more interesting questinos: Is man an animal? Can people ever be truly civilized? What is perfect "city" behavior? What is perfect "jungle" behavior? Are there people you know that remind you of different animals? What animal would you be if you could? Would you be happy living the life of a wolf/snake/crocodile?

To me, these questions are more significant for young readers than the issues of race, colonialism, and caste that inevitably come up surrounding this text. They are some of the fundamental questions of humanity, and yet very accessible, in the context of Mowgli and his story, to even the youngest ones. We did talk about race and the empire, and we didn't shy away from some of the more troubling aspects of the stories. However, what I hope the children come away with is a little more awareness of the complexity of point-of-view. I hope they remember reading about seals from the point of view of scared seals and the hungry hunter, reading about the lawful jungle and the unlawful village, about the Gond tribe and the wolf pack. Maybe when they return to these themes and ideas later, they will be able to accomplish a deeper understanding of the tough issues too.

Song and Dance: We had several children who memorized all of "If" and all of "Mandalay." What an amazing accomplishment! For our final show, we had the enrichment class doing the first two verses and the academic class doing all of the poems -- it was a great performance! We also did a Bhangra dance using all 20 of the moves we worked on.

Here are a few videos for you:

Academic track kids doing "Mandalay":

Enrichment track kids doing "If":

SKS Science: Science Supplies for Homeschoolers

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:05:00 +0000

Many of us shudder at the prospect of teaching laboratory sciences to our kids. I know I am guilty of this. In my mind, I remember the chemistry lab at my high school. Rows and rows of cabinets full of glassware and plastic bottles, Bunsen burners, sinks, and a back room full of bottles of powders and liquids. Thinking of trying to reproduce that at home is frankly overwhelming, and I think it is for a lot of homeschoolers. But here are a couple of things to remember:

1. The stuff that requires beakers and flame, gloves and goggles, and dangerous chemicals? That is the COOLEST stuff. That is the stuff that makes balancing equations bearable! Kids all love to measure and pour, combine, make things fizz and pop. This is why chemistry sets have been a toy drooled after by generations of children. So saying "I can't manage it" means that you're foregoing a major part of what makes science awesome for kids.

2. You don't have to stock your lab all at once. Think of your kitchen. When did you acquire your pots and pans? You probably accummulated things over a long time, as you needed it. A set here, a piece there, a collection over here, until you filled your cabinets. Now you have everything you need, but you didn't have to go to the "buy a whole kitchen" store and in one step anticipate every single thing you'd need for a lifetime of cooking. Supplying your home science lab can be the same slow process.

SKS Science is a supply company that sells home science supplies to homeschoolers, teachers, schools, labs, and whoever needs a quick beaker or a sudden petri dish. Their prices are very reasonable, their site is logically organized by brand, by type of science, by product. They have everying you need and even stuff you didn't need. But the best part of their site, in my opinion, is the section of the site where they suggest science experiments and list exactly what you need to do each one. There's a pH indicator experiment (with photos, video instruction). There's an experiment to test the porosity of membranes. Along with each experiment you get a supply list, so you will accumulate your equipment bit by bit.

Yes, you can muck along through homeschool science using mixing bowls and coffee mugs. You can measure stuff in your plastic measuring cups and stir with a salad fork. But if you're serious about science (and you better be), with a small investment in proper tools you can inspire your kids! Can you make a shelf in your cabinet for some graduated cylinders and transfer pipettes? If you grow your collection little by little, I think you'll find your home science lab will be far less painful to construct than you (or I) originally thought.

Ten Things I Have Learned Climbing Stairs

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Having just finished my first stair climbing workout, where I marched up and down my own stairs in my own house for 30 minutes, I have these things to say:

1. My dog is so dumb, he followed me up and down the stairs for 20 of the 30 minutes. Seriously.
2. It is very boring to climb up and down stairs for 30 minutes. Very boring. Way more boring than a stair stepper. Way more boring than I imagine it would be to climb up a super tall staircase for 30 minutes.
3. I do need to wear shoes.
4. Dire Straits is not good music to help you climb stairs.
5. It is really hard! I was sweating and panting and everything.
6. That thing up in Benny's room that's smelling strange? and we can't figure out what it is? It has GOT to go. I could have climbed all the way to the third floor if not for whatever that awful thing is. Smells like a rotten warthog made of urine. WHAT is it?
7. Wearing just whatever I am wearing on the day of the workout is not a good idea. Needed workout clothes on.
8. There is a railing on the bottom part of the stairs but not the top part.
9. I tend to start out stairs on my right foot. How about you?
10. The fact that I am already dreading my next stair climbing practice bodes ill for my future as a stair climber. It was REALLY boring. So boring.

Green Olive Tree: Reliable Web Hosting

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:31:00 +0000

In most homeschooling families I know (including mine) the dad works and the mom schools. In fact, I know a lot of moms very well but would probably pass their husbands on the street without recognizing them because I hardly see them. Not that there is anything wrong with this -- I and my other mom comrades are very glad we're able to homeschool because our husbands work. However, I always find it very cool when I see a dad that's involved with his kids' activities and present for the school aspects of his kids' lives. One way that homeschool families sometimes work this out is by engaging in entrepreneurial ventures like owning their own business.

Green Olive Tree is an internet company owned and operated by a homeschool family here in Portsmouth, VA. I know both the mom and the dad in this family/company equally well! Running their business takes a lot of their time, but when they come to the park, or to co-op, or to another event, they are often together, or they're taking turns doing the leg work. Dad is there with the kids -- yes, often on his laptop or phone, but still there -- and that's very cool. This is a family who has found a way to prioritize their children *and* run a very successful business -- an amazing balancing act. So I was happy when Green Olive Tree sponsored the science fair, so that we could spend some time promoting the company.

This web hosting company also provides all kinds of server management, virtual server solutions, and dedicated servers. If you need complicated internet stuff, they are your answer. Don't go with a big company that treats you like a number -- Green Olive Tree's customer service is unparalleled and their record is spotless. Even if you're just looking for reliable web hosting, and you don't want to pay a lot of money, how about this: $25 a year for web hosting for a personal site. That's wicked cheap. Find out more about their web hosting plans and prices here.

If you're reading this and you appreciate their support of our science fair, their support of their kids, and their involvement in the community, please follow their Twitter feed and fan them on Facebook. These are good people, doing a great job raising their children (yes, their daughter Sarah is in my co-op classes and I adore her!) and making an exceptional business out of hard work and excellent service.

What I Talked About in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Here's my Tweet Cloud for 2009. It's a graphic generated from my most-repeated words in my Twitter feed. I kind of love this. I can see all the elements of my life here. You can get your own Tweet Cloud here. You can follow me on Twitter here.

Happy Homeschool Science: One Photo at a Time

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:57:00 +0000

Have you met The Happy Scientist? Robert Krampf is a former museum geologist and instructor turned science showman. His special million-volt tesla coil is the star of his traveling show, and he has taken his show all over the country, including the Discovery Channel and David Letterman. You don't have to travel to see Krampf light up the stage, however. His site, The Happy Scientist, delivers online science lessons right to your computer. Divided by subject matter and also organized by state science standards, the videos and experiments on this site are kid-friendly and homeschooler-approved. Let your science-happy homeschooler off the leash in this site and be prepared to lose them for hours. Here are some links to just a few of his free videos. Members have access to all the content on the site, including many special members-only areas and features, and membership is only $20/year.

Free experiments:

What I like best about the site, though, is the Science Photo of the Day. This is not just a "Look at this interesting bug" or "Here's a neat nebula." Krampf engages his young readers daily with a question to think about, a problem to research, a mystery to dive into with every post. Everything from "Have you ever eaten one of these?" to "What strange thing happens when you put a sponge in a blender?" When I first came upon this site, I must admit I got very engrossed in clicking around for the the daily answers.

Checking the science photo of the day every day is a great way to integrate science into your homeschool schedule in a fun way that will expose your child to a ton of different topics and ideas without overwhelming them in reading. It's always something to think about, but sometimes will spark a train of thought or inquiry that will take your child deeper into a specific topic. Who knows where it might lead?

Jungle Book Week 11

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Namaste.

Quiz:

The quiz this week is about henna, the ancient art of dying your skin with smushed up plant juice. Please tell me which of these statements are true?

1. Henna is a flowering plant .
2. Henna can be used on skin and leather, but must not be used on hair, or it will cause the hair to turn green and wrinkly.
3. The Pali District in Rajasthan has the most henna growers and sellers in India. There are over 100 henna processors in one city alone.
4. Henna has been used for thousands of years to decorate skin in intricate designs and motifs.
5. Henna dye is applied as a paste made from the leaves of the henna plant. There are two parts to this paste: 1. The crushed leaves ground into powder. 2. A slightly acidic liquid like lemon juice or tea.
6. Henna tattoos are applied by piercing the skin and placing the dye underneath the top layer of skin.
7. The longer you leave the henna paste on the skin, the more lawsone molecules will penetrate the skin and stain it.
8. The henna stain disappears as the skin cells die.
9. People apply henna decorations to cast spells on their enemies and bring rain to parades.
10. Henna artists use traditional motifs, flowers, lines and dots, spirals, and bands of color to create their designs. .

After the quiz got started immediately on our henna project. We wanted to give ourselves the maximum time possible to let the stuff dry, so Ms Ashleigh and Ms Deva came in to help us get the dye on as quickly as we could.

For more pictures, visit our Flickr set and scroll down to the bottom. We also had some fun with henna at the park a few weeks ago, test driving it on the moms. Ms Deva decorated Louis and Miranda for their Halloween appearance as an Indian prince and princess!

Story: In the enrichment class we talked about the story quite a bit, to make sure the kids are following the plot and ideas. For next week, I'd like them to read the poem at the end of "Tiger! Tiger!" Mowgli says these words as he stands on the council rock after bringing back the hide of Shere Khan, and I want to focus next week on the difference between the village and the jungle, the idea of fitting in, and with the older class some notions of Mowgli's character as an archetypal man, too beastly for the village, too civilized for the jungle. So we'll be focusing on that.

Song and Dance: Next week I told the enrichment class that I am bringing in my prize bag and everyone who can sing or say the first stanza of "If" from memory is going to get a prize. They will have another shot at it the week after, too. I'm going to extend the same offer to the older kids, but they have to say the whole thing! WHAT? THE WHOLE THING? Yes. The whole thing. If they know "Mandalay" too, they can have a prize for that as well, but I'd rather they focused on memorizing "If."

Assignment: The children should be reading the rest of the Mowgli stories to finish the book in the next few weeks. I would like them to be at least through with "Tiger! Tiger!" for sure on Tuesday. After that, the pace is up to you. The fast facts are about the Gond tribe. Next week we'll be doing part one of a project where we make Gond tribal paintings. I'd like them to look at some of these links and start thinking what they'd like their painting to look like. On Tuesday they'll make a sketch of their design which I will transfer as faithfully as possible into a dark outline on posterboard. The following week, they will do the painting part and fill in all the color.

Here is a video made in the Gond art style from a Gond creation myth story:

That's How I See Things is a book illustrated in the Gond style.

A gallery of Gond Tribal Paintings.

Here's just one example:

Latin Club Week 11

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:17:00 +0000

This is a class report for week 11 of my Latin class at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op. Our textbook is Latin for Children Level A from Classical Academic Press.

Meet and greet. There was no quiz! Chapter ten was review, so we had a review day today. I gave everyone a stamp who attempted the monstrous crossword, and they all shared war stories about how awfully difficult it had been.

Songs. We sang our usual songs. We were missing some people, but managed Dona Nobis Pacem as a round anyway. Since we missed a week due to the storm and I am recovering from losing my voice this week, I don't think we're going to be able to swing another song. But there's always next semester!

Translation: We worked on Adeste Fideles and tried translating from the Latin to our own English interpretation. It is hard! We learned that a literal translation is almost incomprehensible in English. What I want the kids to take away from this whole exercise is an understanding of how different Latin really is. When they are studying Spanish or French or German, more closely related to English, they can expect to translate each word and then read it off. However, in Latin it doesn't work that way. It's going to be a long time before we learn enough about word order and the various tenses and moods and whatnot that we're able to really confidently translate it. The best we could do at this point was to get an idea of what the verses meant, and you know what? That's pretty good! The high point of this part of the lesson was when the kids realized that videbemus is a future form of video. That was some smart thinking.

Stamp: Today's stamp was the "surprise" sum chant and everybody got it! Very well done.

Games: We played Hot Seat today since the children were so well prepared, and we had a new champion in the hot seat: Stephen got his first Hot Seat Sticker today and he was very proud! Well done! Must be the flame retardant underpants.

Virgil: This week we worked on lines 3 and 4 in the Aeneid. This is very very hard work, and not to be taken lightly. Here is a link to a page where the lines are read properly, and also a translation is read -- it happens to be Dryden's translation, which is one of the ones we'll be looking at in Aeneid class next semester. By listening to the recording, the kids will be able to see what I was trying to get across in class -- that the line breaks do not necessarily coincide with the pauses. It would be great if they could listen to this a few times, so they can hear the rhythm of the words, independently of how they're arranged on the page.

Homework: Chapter 11 is aboute adjective endings. The good news is that adjective endings are the same as noun endings, so this is kind of like another review chapter. The big new concept is matching the adjective to the noun in gender, number, and case. A noun only has one possible gender, but adjectives have three. This is going to take lots of practice, and I suggest asking them to pair one adjective with multiple nouns of your choice. The homework is chapter 11 in both primer and activity book, and the chant will be the adjective endings chant, which is basically all three of the noun endings chants in one.

GUESS Homeschool Science Fair: How Can You Help?

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:46:00 +0000

Thank you for participating in the science fair this year! It was a great day, and you and your children helped to make that happen!

It’s time to look ahead to next year, and part of that is thanking our sponsors so that they’re happy to help us out again in the future. There are several ways you can help us do this and also spread the word about our fair.

1. Do you have a blog? Go to this post: http://www.littleblueschool.com/2009/11/please-steal-this-post.html You’ll find instructions on how to copy and repost that information, spreading links to our sponsors’ web sites and improving their Google ranking.

2. Do you have Twitter? Here is a list of our sponsors that have Twitter accounts. Please follow them, retweet them when you can, promote their feeds:
http://www.twitter.com/RobertKrampf (The Happy Scientist)
http://www.twitter.com/esciencelabs (eScience Labs)
http://www.twitter.com/brookssystems (Brooks Systems)
http://www.twitter.com/greenolivetree (Green Olive Tree)
http://www.twitter.com/folkmanis (Folkmanis Puppets)

3. Do you use Facebook? Here is a list of our sponsors that have Facebook accounts. Please join their groups, become fans, link to their pages on your wall:
http://www.facebook.com/TheHappyScientist (The Happy Scientist)
http://www.facebook.com/eScienceLabs (eScience Labs)
http://www.facebook.com/vascnews (Virginia Air and Space Center)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131416466288 (Green Olive Tree)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1184826284 (Folkmanis Puppets)

4. Did you receive a prize specifically from one of these donors? It would be great if you wrote a thank-you note to the donor. It would be even better if you blogged about the donor. It would be even better if you blogged with pictures! For example, if you received a bookstore certificate from Book Exchange, can you take a picture of your child with the books they choose? If you received a puppet, can you snap a photo of your child with his/her puppet? Maybe you took a picture at the fair with the puppet – Folkmanis would love to see it.

5. Visit all the science fair sponsors here: http://www.guesshomeschoolsciencefair.com/sponsors.htm Click around on the links and investigate these homeschool-friendly businesses, and let them know that we are grateful for their support.

Thank you so much for helping us out as we wrap up the fair. We really appreciate YOUR support too!

Best,
Lydia and Shez

Steal This Post

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:22:00 +0000

The sponsors of our 2009 GUESS Homeschool Science Fair generously provided our young scientists with exciting prizes for the winners. Their donations also allowed us to underwrite the cost of all the kids' science fair day at the VASC, including an age-appropriate science class, an electricity demo, and an IMAX movie. Part of what we do to thank our sponsors is generating links for them on homeschool blogs and sites, pointing to their web presence from descriptive anchor text, to boost their Google ranking on those search terms. That's where this post comes in!

We need your help to spread these links across the internet, to say thank you to these businesses for supporting our young homeschooled scientists. If you have a blog, or site, and you can help us, please steal this post! For maximum impact on search engines, it's very important that the links go along with the post, attached to the appropriate text, so if you need the plain HTML to put into your blog, click here for a .txt file.

So, how can you help the GUESS Homeschool Science Fair?

1. Copy this post, or the .txt file with the HTML.
2. Post it to your blog.
3. Let us know when you've done it so we can link back to your blog!

Here's the part of the post we want you to "steal":

Thank you to the following homeschool-friendly businesses for supporting the GUESS Homeschool Science Fair and the young scientists of Hampton Roads!

Green Olive Tree is an internet company based in Portsmouth, Virginia and owned and operated by a homeschooling family. They offer a broad range of internet services, from reliable web hosting to corporate infrastructure solutions and server administration.

SKS Science supplies homeschoolers and other educators with all the science supplies you need to turn your dining room table into a proper laboratory. Browse their site for test tubes, bottles, face masks and other lab supplies and books.

Book Exchange is the largest used bookstore in Eastern Virginia. Unlike most musty and confusing used stores, this one is clean, bright, inviting, and has a huge selection of used homeschool books. There's always an interesting curriculum find on these shelves!

Folkmanis Puppets makes the most delightful animal puppets available outside Santa's workshop. Meet their most unusual creations like llamas, Chinese dragons, ostriches, flying squirrels. Unusual materials create realistic textures, and they all move in very realistic ways. Irresistible.

The Happy Scientist, Robert Krampf, hosts an online wonderland for budding scientists. With online science lessons, experiments to try at home, a science photo of the day, and new content added all the time, you'll love setting your kids loose on this site.

Mad Science is Hampton Roads' premier provider of science enrichment classes for children. Summer classes include "Crazy Chemistry" and a space camp developed with NASA! New homeschool science classes are being offered in Norfolk and VA Beach, with more planned for fall.

Moore Expressions is a homeschool bookstore in Virginia Beach, VA. They sell used and new homeschooling curriculum, host a support group, and publish a newsletter called the Bayith Educator. They are the premier source for homeschooling books in the Hampton Roads area.

Norfolk Karate Academy offers classes in Tang Soo Do (Korean karate) and Gracie Jiu Jitsu (Brazilian grappling and self-defense). With classes for children, teens, and adults, it's a great way for anyone to get in shape and kick things in a socially acceptable way!

Brooks Systems offers standalone software and web applications that check legal compliance in all municipalities in all fifty states, and create truth-in-lending documents for residential lenders. Using Brooks for your automated mortgage compliance, you can be sure your loans are safe.

Virginia Air and Space Center was host to the homeschool science fair this year, and delivered awesome science classes for homeschoolers from their education department. The VASC is the educator resource center for the NASA Langley Research Center.

GUESS Homeschool Science Fair 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:44:00 +0000

When Shez and I first talked about organizing a science fair for homeschooled kids, we were actually sitting in a bowling alley. Our kids were in a homeschool league, which they loved, and we were suffering through waiting out the bowling, which we did not love. Being the supportive homeschooling moms that we are, we drove the kids to bowling on a weekly basis, and as we sat there, nodding and smiling and not really looking up when one of the kids would say "I got a spare!" we hatched this idea for the science fair.

On Monday, November 9th, my children, and Shez's children, and about sixty-five other children, were again engaged in something they really love. The cool thing is, it was something that I love too: thinking, questioning, reasoning, testing, finding out. In short, science! So instead of being the nice supportive mom and nodding mildly while the kid scores a point in sparring, or draws a comic, or climbs a pole, I can listen to my five-year-old talking about her control group, my nine-year-old defining his constants and variables, and let me tell you, *that* is something that gets me excited as a homeschooling mom!

Here's Sadie talking to the judges:

Here's Benny, very proud of his work:

A lot of people have thanked us for doing the work that went into turning out the science fair this year. It was a lot of work, but the excitement in our own kids' faces, and in all the other kids' faces, as they were rushing around from the classes to the judging to the movie, standing proudly beside their projects and explaining their work so articulately to the judges, chattering to each other about the details of their work... made it very worthwhile. Some people are inspired by athletes, artists, musicians. Of course, I'm inspired by those things too. However, I find myself getting really choked up, emotionally touched, at spelling bees, geography bees, and science fairs, than at anything else. The earnest, uncensored nerdiness; the fact that these kids are oblivious to the fact that their interest in science might be considered nerdy; the degree to which these really young children have immersed in their ideas... is very awesome to see!

That being true, I have to say, we absolutely loved every minute of the science fair! We were very lucky to have over a dozen excellent judges, both museum docents and community volunteers, the hospitality of Virginia Air and Space Center staff, who set up really engaging classes and a very cool movie, and generous sponsors who provided great rewards to the kids.

Here's a look at the third and fourth grade projects, as seen from above:

Here are some links where you can find out more:

Our updated web site, where you can find all the results, pictures, links, and info you can handle: GUESS Homeschool Science Fair.

Our Flickr photo pool, where you can see pictures from all angles, from five different moms. GUESS pictures on Flickr.

Our sponsors:

Green Olive Tree
Book Exchange Norfolk
Mad Science of Hampton Roads
eScience Labs
Norfolk Karate Academy
Moore Expressions
Folkmanis Puppets
Brooks Systems
The Happy Scientist
SKS Science
Mariner's Museum
Virginia Air and Space Center

There will be many ways that you can help us bring about GUESS 2010, so stay tuned on the web site and on our blogs for more information.

Folkmanis Puppets: The Best Educational Toys

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:16:00 +0000

We have always loved Folkmanis puppets. I'm convinced Folkmanis makes the best stage puppets, the best animal puppets, the best finger puppets, in the world. They use really interesting fabrics, very realistic designs, and somehow their puppets work as stuffed animals as well as puppets. All six of the puppets that live in our house are engaged regularly as denizens of the children's imaginary world. They are never relegated to puppet shows or ventriloquism.

You may remember that last year Folkmanis sent us a big box of puppets to give away at the G.U.E.S.S. Homeschool Science Fair. This year they did the same. My children gleefully watched while I unpacked the box, delighted over all the new puppets -- the woolly mammoth, the eagle, the iguana. There was even a nest of little birds you could animate with your hand. I felt very conflicted about letting my own children win these puppets, though! I knew that it wouldn't be fair for my own kids to win the most coveted prizes at the fair that I helped to organize. So, I told the children they could go to the Folkmanis web site and pick out whichever puppet they wanted for themselves, then at the fair the puppets in the box would go to other kids and they had to agree not to be sad. Sad? They were DELIGHTED. So, here are the puppets they "won":

Sadie chose the Chihuahua puppet.

Benny chose the dragon shoulder puppet. It has a stick that goes down behind your back through your shirt, so you can operate it surreptitiously with one hand while it appears to work on its own. VERY COOL! He had no problem figuring out how to work it immediately.

The GUESS Homeschool Science Fair is so grateful to Folkmanis for their continued support of our event. The youngest scientists were very very happy to take home fluffy friends. And parents everywhere are grateful to Folkmanis for making such delightful toys. The best educational toys are open-ended, lending themselves to many uses, letting the child's imagination take over. Among the best in this category, I'd count Legos, paper and pencil, and puppets. And when it comes to animal puppets, Folkmanis truly is in a category all by itself.

Norfolk Karate Academy: Perseverance on Both Sides of the Mat

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Benny got his brown belt on October 30. Can you believe it? It was a great day for Benny, an enormous day for me too. Benny has been doing karate since August of 2003. It has taken him at least a year to get through every belt, sometimes more than a year. For Benny, karate has been a terrific challenge. There were times when he spent whole class periods spinning and humming. Times when he was kicked out of class for being suddenly defiant over something incomprehensible. Times when we felt he would never be able to communicate with another child enough to be a good sparring partner, a good self-defense partner, even hold a punching bag for another student. He was distracted, disconnected, and disengaged, but he was always in love with karate, always wanted to go train. There were times when we wondered if it would ever "kick in" -- would he ever snap to it? Sync up? Get with the program?

In the last year, Benny has improved in leaps and bounds. Part of it is the input of new instructors at Norfolk Karate Academy. Part is his own maturity, at last starting to bloom. He got his blue belt in February, and now he has his brown belt. His test was absolutely awesome! Everyone who knew him "back then" was blown away by it, including his father and me. We could not get over how much he has changed.

The biggest responsibility for Benny's improvement falls to Master Bill Odom, owner and founder of Norfolk Karate Academy. Master Odom never gave up on Benny, he never made me or Benny feel like he was a hopeless cause. Yet he also never promoted Benny just to make him feel better, or just because his peers were being promoted. Because of this ruthless fairness, this absolute willingness to take each individual child exactly where he or she is and work with them as individuals, Benny's brown belt means a lot. Norfolk Karate Academy is in my opinion the premier training facility for karate in Hampton Roads. We've seen it grow from the very beginning, and I know why it grows firsthand.

After the test was over, Master Odom turned Benny around to the class that was all lined up waiting to be dismissed. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, "This is what perseverance looks like. Benny took a year on every belt, but he never gave up, he never stopped trying. Someday he's going to be a black belt, because he persevered through all those years." And I thought, yes, this is what perseverance looks like: the kid and also the guy standing behind the kid, who also persevered where a lot of other teachers would have thrown in the towel. Thanks, Benny, for being so committed. Thanks, Mr. Odom, for being so patient.

Jungle Book Week 10

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Namaste.

Quiz:

The quiz this week required students to correctly identify ten map elements: The Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges River, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Pakistan, China, Nepal, and Bangladesh. They did pretty well! Good job studying that at home. :)

After the quiz, we talked about the names Mumbai/Bombay and Kolkata/Calcutta. India became independent from England in 1947, but kept the Anglicized versions of their city names until 1996, when they changed them to more authentic transliterations. We discussed how we used to be colonies of England too, and how many of our place names are based on places in England or English monarchs, etc. Particularly here in Norfolk/Suffolk/Portsmouth/Hampton/Etc this is pretty relevant. I resisted the urge to teach the children the song "Istanbul was Constantinople." However, if you wanted to listen to it at home, here's the link. Yeah, it's a video from MTV's 120 Minutes. Remember that show? :)

Story: For this week, we read the story "Kaa's Hunting." We had a great discussion about how Kipling describes an animal world ruled by strict laws and long-established customs, contrasted with the "banderlog" -- the monkey people who have no laws and live by chaos. Baloo and Bagheera have nothing but contempt for the monkeys, and most of this contempt is based on their unstructured culture. We talked about what this means in the context of the British occupation of India. Often an invading civilization sees themselves as having better laws, organization, government. The British saw Indian life as inferior and messy, so they were "helping" the Indian people by taking over their country and making them follow the British way of doing things. Of course you can read this in different ways, depending on where you draw the lines of the analogy. I didn't really take it farther than just pointing out this theme in the story, and discussing the fact that Kipling was showing a culture that seemed lawless and chaotic (the jungle) as in fact very organized and lawful.

The children were *really* excellent listeners today. We had a great discussion and they had lots of interesting ideas and a lot of patience for delving into these abstractions. Kudos to the kids -- if you have a boy in my academic class (like I do) you should give that boy a pat on the back, because the attention span and respectfulness was really great. Not that it's normally bad, but today it was really good.

Henna: Today we learned about the henna plant, how henna dye is made, and how artists decorate people's hands and feet with intricate designs and motifs. We took a look at some pattern and design books and then each designed our own henna tattoos by tracing our hands onto paper and then decorating them. I face-painted this "practice" henna tattoo with washable face paint. The one they get next week will not be as big or complicated as the one they got this week.

Song and Dance: We sang our usual songs and danced our usual dances. The enrichment class kids are really coming along on their memorization. The academic class kids should be working on all of "If" and "Mandalay" and the enrichment class kids should work on the first two stanzas of each. "The Beaches of Lukannon" does not need to be memorized. It's not a famous poem or anything, just fun to sing and it comes from the story "The White Seal."

Assignment: The fast facts are about henna. The story for next week is "Tiger! Tiger!" We are going to be doing real actual henna in class next week. Please let me know if it is okay to henna your child. We will be doing a small tattoo on the back of one hand. It is a semi-permanent tattoo -- it will flake off with the stained skin cells, so how long it lasts depends on how much and how vigorously you wash your hands. So, if you have an event coming up for which they need untattooed hands, you can tell us to put it somewhere less noticeable. The henna paste will dry on the skin, and needs to stay on for as long as possible. It will feel like a dry scab and the kids will just brush it off when they don't want to wait any more.

I need your permission to use henna stain on your child -- if I don't hear from you that it's okay, we will do them with face paint again. I have two special guests coming to help me henna: Sarah's big sister Ashleigh and Miranda's mom Ms Deva. Should be fun!

Note: The children and I were disappointed that the Bhangra dancers did not make it to class to do their demo. I had an email when I got home from the troup leader's girlfriend saying he had gotten in a car accident that morning on the way to class, and was in the hospital. Please keep them in your thoughts and I will keep you updated as to how he is doing!

Latin Club Week 10

noreply@blogger.com (Lostcheerio) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:53:00 +0000

This is a class report for week 10 of my Latin class at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op. Our textbook is Latin for Children Level A from Classical Academic Press.

Meet and greet. I collected homework and we took the quiz.

Songs. We sang our usual songs and all of Adeste Fideles. We are going to learn one more song, next week. We took a vote on whether we should learn another song in Latin like Dona Nobis Pacem or another song about Latin, like She Will Be Latin and Ballad of the Latin Verbs. Interestingly, all of the boys voted for learning another song about Latin and all of the verbs voted to learn another song in Latin. I found that fascinating! We may have to learn two new songs. :)

Translation: We have been working on translating Adeste Fideles, and while a few virtuous children had done the assignment, there were many who had not. We realized that every single person in the class had participated in the science fair the day before, so we forgave ourselves and took the same assignment for next week.

Here's the breakdown again:

Ben: En grege relicto, humiles ad cunas
Nicholas: Vocati pastores approperant:
Stephen: Et nos ovanti gradu festinemus.

Benny: Aeterni Parentis splendorem aeternum
Sarah: Velatum sub carne videbimus:
Shira: Deum infantem pannis involutum.

Stamp: Today's stamp was the second declension neuter noun endings, and in spite of the excitement over the science fair and everyone's heavy weekend of glue-sticking and graph-preparing, everybody got it perfectly again! These children are becoming excellent at performing under pressure!

Virgil: This week, those who could correctly perform the first two lines of the Aeneid with the proper posture and expression got their first memorization sticker. Surprise! It was everybody! We do not recite Virgil as if it is a grocery list or instructions on how to fold pants. We sit up straight, shoulders back, and define our right to rule the world. We were in Troy and we were AWESOME. Now we're in Lavinia and we're AWESOME. We're Romans and we have every right to be here, to rule you, and we take no crap. That's our posture and delivery on the Aeneid and I will accept nothing less than truly stentorian diction.

Homework: Chapter 10 is a review chapter so there will be no quiz. There *will* be a surprise chant. I told the children that I was determined to keep it an absolute surprise, but that it started with S and rhymed with "room." So, they came to their own conclusions and I'm sure I will shock the shoes off them next week with the "sum" chant. Be ready. The assignment I want to collect next week is the huge, enormous, monstrous, insane crossword in the activity book for chapter 10. If they can get on the outside of that, we will play Hot Seat all day long.