Education Freebies!

A couple great free resources were posted on one my local homeschool groups today, so great I had to share them! While I can't vouch for what will be received because I just signed up today, the potential for what will arrive is terrific!

First is from the Nutrients for Life Foundation http://nutrientsforlife.org/ . You can order the FULL CURRICULUM, in all or any of 3 levels: elementary, middle school, high school. You can order a hard copy and/or a flash drive loaded with the curricula. Below is from the "What Your Students Will Learn":  

• How many elements are essential to both plants and humans?
• Why is it important to improve the health of our soil?
• How much of the world’s land is available for food production?
• What can farmers do to preserve our environment’s forests and other fragile resources?

There are posters (including a poster of the periodic table of elements), postcards, workbooks (again, for all grade levels), recipe cards, bookmarks and lots more. You can order as many as 75 of some items! All items are available for download AND hard copy orders, and all are free. This is fantastic for all types of schools, co-ops, and homeschoolers. 

UPDATE August 15, 2013--We got our box and it was even more than I imagined! As far as I know they are still accepting requests. So, GO! Nutrients for Life Website

Next is from NASA. Do I need to say anything? I hear free things from NASA and start drooling at the mouth and just about jumping out of my chair in excitement. Today's offer is three FREE DVDs, available for instant viewing or hard copy mailing:

• 3D Sun 

• Journey to the Stars 

• Cosmic Collisions 

When you go to the website NASA Educator's DVD Collection you can select "view online",  or order hard copies of the DVDs.

**********I just found out that the DVD's are no longer available, along with many other resources formally available, however you can still watch online.

Lego Competition Champion!

Youngest entered a local Lego competition (not an official Lego event). I was nervous for the "typical" mother hen reasons--I wanted him to win and not be disappointed! Those reasons I can deal with easier; it was the autism side of things that was truly worrisome: Z considers himself to be a creative builder, he loves the Lego company, he asked people to come vote--so in his mind, he should win. He told anyone and everyone he spoke to about the contest and asked them to please come vote for him. He could understand when I would explain to him he might not win but I'm not sure he could completely grasp it, which actually made things even more stressful. I reminded him over and over that just entering the contest took bravery and made him a winner, and since this was his first competition, and he was competing in the 6th-12th grade level (being a 6th grader) it would be a learning experience for the next time. The other issue causing me concern was whether he would be able to leave his Legos somewhere! He has left minifigures or vehicles or even one little Lego piece in places and would stress and worry until they were safely back in his hands. 

As the day approached his anxiety levels increased. He was so excited that the day to drop off his entry (a built, then re-built, then re-built, then re-built again, then again re-built firehouse) had finally arrived! Excitement+autism=TOO MANY EMOTIONS! He was as nervous waiting for the drop-off time to arrive as a dad in an old time movie waiting to hear news of the baby arrival, so much so that we got there 30 minutes early! Thankfully the facilitator of the contest warmly invited him to leave his creation. The look on his face as we started to drive away was heartbreaking; I asked him what was wrong and he told me it felt very weird leaving his Legos. I'm thrilled he was able to express his emotions to me but my heart lurched at what I feared was just the beginning of emotion overload...

The next 48 hours were rough; Z was edgy, emotional, and even somewhat aggressive. He had meltdowns at not just one store (which is so unusual for him) but two different stores! As I've written before, Z's meltdowns don't look like a meltdown to most people, I'm sure; however these were both meltdowns with one even including raised voice, slamming a freezer door, and attempting to stomp away from me. The humor in those moments is that when he does get angry and walks away, especially when a parking lot or street is involved, he only goes a certain distance and then--again especially with streets/parking lots--waits to grab my elbow. More on that in another post!

The day arrived and he was dressed spiffy and ready to go...only one problem, it was only 7am and we weren't arriving until 1pm! In spite of the clock definitely moving backwards at times, we finally headed out.

Very nervous young man on the ride to the competition

We arrived to find people already there voting for "Crowd Favorite". Z was at least able to relax a little because the formal judging had already been done earlier in the day. Some friends and family were there to support him--and vote for him, of course! ;) 

It was fun to see so many great creations, and it was very cool to see how much admiration was expressed over his firehouse! The rules for this competition were: no sets, no modular pieces, and the creation had to fit within a 12"x12" area and be no taller than 24". To quote Z, "It took a lot of 

hard work to think outside the box while inside the box!"

Finally, it was time for the awards to be announced. I prayed for him to just at least get a participation certificate! He takes certificates seriously, so when they said everyone would get a participation certificate I felt like I could breathe at least a little. As they began the announcements, the kids were asked to sit on the floor. 

They began with preschool and worked their way up, first through "Most Creative". I gasped when his name appeared on the screen for his age group! It happened again for "Best Architecture"...

 and the BIGGY "First Place"!

Getting his prizes and ribbon

Absolutely unimaginable ending. NOT that I don't think he's great at designing and building Lego creations--I just wasn't sure how anyone else would "see" his work. To say we were all incredibly happy is the understatement of the millennium. Legos are so much more to him than toys or building blocks; Legos are part of who this child is and who he will become. For Z, this was just further confirmation that his plan to work for The Lego Group will be reality. For me? It was an overwhelming journey of emotions leaving me drained but full of gratitude. 

 

Math and Tears Happy Ending!

For today, anyway! That dear daughter who was so frustrated and so self-convinced she couldn't do this and continued to put off taking the lesson and unit tests until I again put my foot down today--that daughter got a 90 on the lesson test and, after reluctantly taking the unit test today, got a 95 on the unit test! Onward and forward! 

Now for one more gush on Math-U-See. I can't say enough about this math program! I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful ways Mr. Demme designed this program to complete full circles. (for any fellow math geeks reading, pun unintended). Concepts are taught as just part of the process long before they will be introduced as full subjects. One of my girls had been in public high school and had not been doing well at all with geometry, when we went back to homeschooling. She complained through MUS Geometry because he wasn't teaching it "like they did at school!" (music to my ears since she was barely making C's and D's) Steve Demme's geometry teaches students the process behind the theorems and then the theorem names. I insisted she stay with it and, as she hit about halfway through the book where the names of the theorems came in, SHE GOT IT! She was able to then know the theorems because she already had the processes and concepts of theorems down.

While learning long division with remainders, students are taught to express the answer as whatever the remainder is, over the divisor. In other words, it is written as a fraction before Math-U-See students are officially introduced to fractions. Fractions came along for one daughter and she had completed a long division problem on a systemic review page. I got to have one of my favorite moments (seeing the "I GET IT"'s happen!) as she looked at the remainder she had written and saw it not just as a fraction but saw it also in the big picture; meaning, she fully grasped that the remainder is a part of the whole. Is my daughter smart? Well yes. Am I a FABULOUS teacher? Duh, of course! ;) However I owe the math moments like these to Steve Demme. So many people avoid Math-U-See because they believe it doesn't keep kids parallel (yes yes, another unintentional geometric pun) with same age peers in public schools. I have personally seen that as the Math-U-See kids progress into higher maths with this program, not only do they "catch up" they fly ahead! Why? Because they understand not just how they solved the problems, but WHY. 

In case you thought I'd forgotten, I didn't--curious about Math-U-See? Go to www.mathusee.com and check it out for yourself.

More Math Tears and Tales

"You are allowed to not understand, but NOT allowed to not learn."

Summer has arrived in our house; my college courses finished a month ago, public school and even many homeschoolers are wrapping up their school years. These things are always harbingers of the start of more formal schooling in our household. Naturally the joy levels in the house are through the roof as Mom puts her foot down and holds it down. I make sure to place it in semi-permanent cement, tough enough to hold it there but leaving just enough flexibility to wiggle out as needed.

Math has been the biggest obstacle recently: M had been creatively avoiding doing math for the past week. She had been zooming along previously; and with her requests to shower, go to the library, walk the dog, and even take her little brother to the playground, I unwittingly fell right into her avoidance tactics.

Until today. (duh duh duh duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh—ya know, that dramatic music as the plot thickens…)

I asked her if she had taken the Lesson test yet; she replied with "yes! At least, I think I did. Wait, did I?" I asked her if she needed me to check her lesson work. She replied "I think I checked it already. Wait, I think I did."

"Hmmmmmm," thought I.

I asked M exactly where she was in her book and received equally vague answers. It was time for me to look things over. The work wasn't horrible but it was clear something wasn't clicking. This was a lesson that Mr. Demme ( Math-U-See )gives several options for solving the problems, which further increases my love of this math curriculum because the main focus—the ONLY focus—is complete understanding and mastery of each topic. I could see that even on several problems M answered correctly she took a long route that had far too many bends and curves and even got her lost a few times. The concept of "how" was missing.

As I backed her up to go back to go over a couple of the problems, her frustration flared almost immediately. She was instantly angry and insisting that she do it only the way Mr. Demme showed on the video. We've been doing MUS long enough that I knew if the teacher's manual answers were showing alternative routes to the answer, then there were alternative routes presented along the way. I wanted her to do one of the pages that included a "Quick Review" and she was furious and just wanted to move forward. Voices rose, tempers flared, and I knew it was time to defuse when I heard the dreaded "I CAN'T DO THIS, I JUST CAN'T DO THIS!" (and some typical teen "whatever" and eye rolls and, well, I’m sure you get the picture) I gave M the job of clearing the dining room table, while I defused by hitting Facebook and played Bejeweled Blitz. ;)

Tears and further statements to how she could not do this ensued, including "did you ever think that maybe this is just something I CAN NOT DO?" She did not want to look at what she was seeing as a new or different approach to tackling the problem. I kept telling her of course she could do it, and of course she'll move forward, and of course she was smart enough. This brought more tears; calmer tears, but still there. Her last outburst about math was that she just wasn't smart enough.

My response was, "You are allowed to not understand, but NOT allowed to not learn." Where those words came from is anyone's guess, though I'm certain they were heaven sent J

I had M leave the math for a bit and move on to science. She quietly and quickly got that accomplished and then moved back to math, but there was still some reluctance. I reminded her that this was not a test and not an exam—she could have me right with her to work it through, so that's what we did. About halfway through the 2^nd problem the tone in her voice picked up, and by the 3^rd problem there was even a hint of optimism. I got out some of the Math-U-See manipulatives to show here even more alternatives and, although she almost shut down, she stayed open and not only saw it but grasped it! I reminded M that people that are willing to learn are the smartest of all, and that she is one of those people.

I am forever grateful for days like today. I'll take all the frustrations to witness these moments of learning and understanding; there's plenty of hair dye in the world to color the grey hairs the sprout! 

Seeing Math!

When the topic of kids having issues with word problems came up on a homeschool yahoo group I'm on, my reply was definitely draw, draw, draw! ;) [This is most likely the reason I have always loved Math-U-See

My kids would get so annoyed/frustrated, with my reply of "Draw it!", when they would be stuck on a word problem. I would tell them,  "Just draw it, if you see it, you can solve it!" 

**insert teen eyeroll**

Their reply was always,  "MOOOOOM! I don't learn the same as you!" and I would say, "Just draw it, if you see it, you can solve it!"

**insert teen eyeroll**

Next would come, "It's NOT going to work/help!" and I would say, yep you guessed it, "Just draw it, if you see it, you can solve it!" 

**insert MAJOR teen eyeroll so enormous I'm surprised the eyes came back down**

Eventually, either he/she would draw it or I would draw it. Suddenly the solution would become clear as a picture (haha, see what I did there??), and the problem would be solved. I would give my usual, "I told you so," and hear "I totally solved it my own way." Yes, yes you did darling.

**insert chocolate cake into mother's mouth**

We love Homeschooling!

Ah, the blissful sounds of children doing their schoolwork as mother prepares lunch. Youngest child espousing and demonstrating his newest international knowledge.

Yea, whatever. M wants to know what's the big deal if she only missed by "a hundred cents." D decides to make that second sandwich, after the first one made up of a pound of fabulously processed deli turkey didn't fill him up, rather than finish his math work. Z tells me all about the newest techniques he learned from Lego "Ninjago" tv episodes, then goes out to the living room (where studious D and M are sprawled out on furniture pretending to concentrate on math) to demonstrate. I look up in time to see what resembles the Tazmanian Devil tornado with Zachary sound effects spinning around the living room-then CRASH, THUNK, THUD, OUCH, BAM, CRASH, OUCH! Really, I did try not to laugh as I asked him if he was okay, I tried very very very hard. It is D and M's fault, they were laughing first, rotten kids. I got out to truly make sure that Z was alright, especially after noticing just how many things fell off the entertainment center--he replied "NO!" I asked him what hurts, he gave back a sarcastic "my BODY". Seriously Zach, you should've just added in the "DUH." So there I was, desparately trying to comfort the child but my body convulsions from laughing so hard just about knocked him back down. Dylan's description to Zach of what happened sent me over the edge into tear producing hysterics--especially because it was so accurate: "it all started with Zach going 'wooooooooo, NINJAGO, aaaaahhhhh'....he started spinning out of control, not watching where he was going, stepped on his lethal Ninjago Legos, fell over into the entertainment center, knocked over the sewing kit, fell onto the floor, there was a silent 3 seconds before he rolled over groaning, knocked into the entertainment center causing an avalanche of (you guessed it...) his stuff on the entertainment center that shouldn't be there like HIS Lego pen, HIS Lego army dude, and last but not least the candleholders...."

I went into the kitchen, after wiping away my tears, and finally started to stop laughing. Dylan asked me to make him a sandwich. I lamented that I don't understand why we can't be a "typical functioning homeschooling family." Dylan's reply was "Ms. Osmun--that's what I call the lunchlady--will you make me a sandwich?" Oh good LORD. No, I didn't make him one. Mallory kept shouting "BE QUIET I'M TRYING TO DO MY MATH!" (from the kid that wants the margin of error in math to be + or - 100....) Things settled down at that point-Dylan made his disgusting sandwich, Mallory stopped complaining, and Zachary was recouperating from the Lego induced injuries**(see Tim Hawkins link at bottom of this post!), so I sat at the computer to check my email. Well, you can not imagine the horror that came next: Z asked if he was good and ate all his lunch (a nutritionally microwaved piece of Ellio's pizza thankyouverymuch), could he do his math, too? I told him I thought that was very rude; unfortunately he took me seriously at first, nothing a smile and hug couldn't fix.

Our next lesson was about compassion and health. Dylan started talking about how sick he was, and vomit, and about how usually he's the last one sick and ends up having to take care of everyone else. Mallory complained about how lately she and Dylan are sick at the same time, and it's always a competition, and he always runs a bigger fever or throws up and it's not fair! Dylan kept talking about taking care of everyone, and talked about the time that Zach woke up in the middle of the night, and sat at the edge of the bathroom saying he was going to throw up. Dylan kept saying "come on Zach, come here Zach, come in the bathroom Zach, get to the toilet Zach...HURRY Zach..ZACH--ugh..." I don't think I should tell you what he got hit with from Zachary. Zach answered, "Dylan, I love you so much that when I start throwing up, I want you to be right there next to me."

Last statement to be quoted is Zach's absolutely perfect, sumsitallup words: "I love homeschooling at our house!"

**Tim Hawkins hilarious take on the dangers of Lego's

Arctic Lapbook!

We finished this lapbook in...well, several months ago but never got pix taken. This is another one of Zachary's:

Front cover

Inside front cover

Umiak vs Kayak (Zachary verbalized, I wrote lol)

Inside "Jacks notebook" (Magic Treehouse) and Venn diagram (Zachary came up with that one himself!)

Inuit family minibook, How to build an igloo, and a picture of Zach and the igloo they built out back

Some Inuit words for snow, with Z's favorite 3 written in



Dictated sentence generated then traced by Z, and National Geographic animal card.


Under the next flap (this got long, as our homemade lapbooks tend to do!lol)





Just two of the books we read.

Numbers are Backwards & the DANGERS of slip and slides

WOW. Mallory just presented me with an astounding lightbulb moment. Now it may not be a lightbulb moment to you, it may well seem like a fizzing out bulb or even a cracked bulb; well that makes sense cause we all know I'm a bit crazy. :-D

She came to me to tell me something and I was about to roll my eyes and say "Mallory stop getting distracted, Zachary and I need you to finish your lapbook NOW so I can build and erupt that volcano!!", but I waited. Okay I did roll my eyes but I listened luckily for me. Her announcement: "Mom, numbers are backwards!!"

Okay so yes, I did greet that statement with a kind of dumbfounded silence, with the thoughts "Oh LORD don't let her say that in front of other people especially if she just told them we homeschool," and then it hit me. She's right! Numbers generally are made and follow in the opposite direction of letters. NO WONDER SO MANY KIDS MAKE THEIR NUMBERS BACKWARDS!!! And for kids with any tendencies towards special needs it is even harder, because they need things to make sense or be logical, and it just doesn't make sense. This will help me with Zachary; I'm not completely sure how just yet but its another wall, that blocked my view from his world, crashing down.

***************

On a separate note, SLIP AND SLIDES=DANGER Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Hey guess what, I met the cute guy that played the cute uncle dude on "Lost in Space" in the Newark airport on my way to California in 1985, I have a picture somewhere, he was on General Hospital at the time....oy, as often is the case I digress--oh hell, that's not digressing that's taking a plane and leaving the country. Focus Linda, focus! Okay, right, slip and slides, injury--okay, back on track. So the kids played on the slip and slide yesterday. Last night after Zachary's shower I saw all the scrapes and said "No more slip and slide." Of course today, with Zachary begging and giving the eyes and Dylan giving me the oh mom its no big deal we can handle it look-from-a-teen, I caved. How'd it go? A few minutes ago Zachary went back into the living room, dragging his poor aching body, and mustered in a feeble, weak voice "I'm broken!" Soooo, anyone want a slip and slide????