Minutes of the 9 December 2004 meeting
Minutes of the 9 November 2004 meeting
Minutes of the 14 October 2004 meeting
Minutes of the 21 September 2004 meeting
Minutes of the 9 December 2004 meeting
We had a good meeting. There were a couple of new faces, probably the result of the suggestion that we should each invite several families to the next meeting. I'm glad that there were some new people there, since that brought the total up to seven families.
News Items
There was no new information about the Department of Education's proposed new regulations. When I know something, I'll send it to the email list. The letter to Rep. Weyhrauch that I talked about last time has been written, and sent. We got eleven good stories from homeschoolers around the state to illustrate it. Now we see how serious he is about helping us out. By the way, if you would like to send him (or any other state legislators) an email, you'll find their contact information here: Find out who represents you in the state legislature.
Barbara Stangl visited our meeting. She isn't homeschooling anymore (I gathered that her kids grew up?), but she is a certified special ed teacher, and does tutoring and consulting. She wanted to let us know that she works with homeschoolers, and can either tutor, or help you find methods which work with your kids. Her special interests are in remedial reading and middle school math. Her number is in the phone book.
I have printed out a few business cards for the JHEA. They have our web URL, email address, and an invitation to join us. I asked everyone to take a few and keep them handy, for in case you meet someone who should know about us. I'll bring some more to the next meeting.
Logo Contest
I'm making up a tri-fold brochure for JHEA. It'll be something that we can put on our website, for people to download and for us to put on store bulletin boards. There is even a small chance that the library will let us put some on their counters. A brochure needs a logo, so we need to have a logo contest! Go to the Logo Contest page for details.
(Repeat from last month) Jim Weiss (the wonderful story teller) will be putting on a seminar in sometime in February. This is very early notice, but it's worth going to; you won't want to miss it.
(Repeat from last month) There was a suggestion that each of us should try to contact three homeschooling families (who aren't currently involved with JHEA) in the week before the next meeting, and tell them about it and encourage them to come. This sounds like an excellent idea. I'd like to add that we should also invite people who aren't homeschooling, but could be.
Writing Programs
Our topic for this month was writing programs.
The first one we heard about was Writer's Express, and Writer's Inc, from Write Source. We learned that it's a good program, but it's too much! The Writer's Express book is good and useful, the Skills book has lots of good worksheets. The other materials ( a teacher's guide, and so on) seem to add only complexity. Writer's Express is aimed at younger kids, while the Writers Inc book (recommended by Sonlight) seems to be aimed at high school-aged kids. The program got good reviews from the two families using it. They agreed that you should get those two books (Writer's Express|Writers Inc, and the Skills book), but skip the rest of the materials.
The Sonlight writing program got some brief mention. One parent (speaking of the third grade program) said that there was too much writing! Sonlight recommends the Writers Inc book as guidance for the younger grades, but that book is aimed at older kids, so the parent will probably need to interpret. The Sonlight program's writing demands might be too much for some third graders, particularly boys. Another parent is using the Sonlight program for kindergarten and first grade, and seemed satisfied.
A program called Daily Grams was mentioned. It has a brief sheet (?) of material for each day, with exercises. The student can do the work in about 15 to 20 minutes a day. The program runs up through 7th grade, and can be found in the Rainbow Catalog.
One family is using Reasoning and Writing, with SRA. It covers all grades. It takes an incremental approach: there is a lot of repetition, with new ideas slipped in occasionally. That seems to foil the kid's opposition. As an example, the third grade program steps the kids through the process of writing a proper paragraph.
Some miscellanious suggestions
- Grammer songs, to help the kids learn the rules. These are part of a series of songs on biology, grammer, and everything under the sun. Kids can listen to them in the car, but still need some guidance on applying them, of course.
- One family has a jar of ``writing prompts'', written on slips of paper. The kids pull out a prompt, then spend a few minutes writing a paragraph or story about that topic.
- One family has their sixth grader write up his science project each year. Everyone agreed that having the kids use their writing for things they care about helps.
The next meeting's topic
The January meeting will be in the usual place (Mendenhall Valley Library), at the usual time (7:00 p.m.), on Tuesday, the 11th of January, 2005.
The topic we settled on for next meeting was science curricula. So, bring along anything of interest. Let us know what's worked for you, and what was a really bad idea.
Minutes of the 9 November 2004 meeting
We had a good meeting. There were no new faces, unfortunately, so we didn't need to introduce ourselves, and didn't bother to pass around a signup sheet. About 10 families showed up. Everyone was eager to talk about math curricula, so we jumped right into that.
News Items
We only heard one new news item this month: the Department of Education is again proposing new regulations. That's covered below, under new regulations. Since this topic is so sparse, I've carried over from last month a pair of items which are still timely.
(Repeat from last month) Jim Weiss (the wonderful story teller) will be putting on a seminar in sometime in February. This is very early notice, but it's worth going to; you won't want to miss it.
(Repeat from last month) There was a suggestion that each of us should try to contact five homeschooling families (who aren't currently involved with JHEA) in the week before the next meeting, and tell them about it and encourage them to come. This sounds like an excellent idea. I'd like to add that we should also invite people who aren't homeschooling, but could be.
Math Programs
One family told us about using Math-U-See. This program uses manipulatives, such as stacking blocks which represent numbers. The blocks are color-coded, to make it easy to find blocks which represent 1's, 2's, et cetera. There was more said about it, but I'm afraid my notes aren't complete enough to let me say any more than: ``It was a favorable report. ''Another family mentioned The Quarter Mile math practice program, a computer game which provides math practice for girls and boys. Versions are available for levels k-9, and the program adjusts its level of dificulty to the child's ability. Like several other math games, this one uses races, in which you go faster by solving problems. The special feature of this particular program is that it features races between horses, or between cars. Girls will love one, and boys the other. You can pick the kind and color of horse or car, and each player can give their steed/chariot a name. If you haven't yet found a math practice game that your kids enjoy, this sounds like a good candidate for the whole family.
Several families are using Right Start Mathematics. This program emphasises manipulatives, and particularly a very clever abacus. Everyone who has used it is enthusiastic about it.
The program short-circuits a common problem which young children have with counting: the teens. 1, 2, 3 ... is easy, and 21, 22, 23 ... is easy, but eleven, twelve, thirteen, ... breaks the pattern, and it's not easy at all for the little kids. Chinese says ``one ten one'', ``one ten two'', ``one ten three'', ... following the same pattern in counting as the other decades. The Right Start program does something similar in English.
This program, and the Math-U-See program, both encourage the kids to do ``mental math'', rather than counting on their fingers.
The Right Start program is available for older kids, too, though I don't remember if we learned how far it goes.
Several of us use the Singapore math program. It is a workbook-based program with plenty of drill, and it introduces the four basic operations quite early. One of its strong points is that it provides plenty of word problems to help develop understanding. It introduces concepts once, and you learn them once, then you use them ever after. This is in contrast (I'm told) to the Saxon program, which repeatedly reintroduces concepts, in a fashion which I've heard called ``spiral learning''.
The common thread to our discussion seemed to be that younger children need to have hands-on, concrete things to manipulate, in order to understand math. They can be introduced to symbols early, but they aren't able to think abstractly, and aren't going to be able to understand manipulating symbols, until long after they can master concrete logic and ideas. That's probably why so many said such good things about Math-U-See and Right Start, which provide that for the younger kids.
The Calvert program's math got a very bad review. It was described as the worst of the public schools, brought into your home (my paraphrase, not a quote). It teaches counting on fingers.
Abeka's math program got a good review, though I can't remember any significant details about it from my notes.
I also heard several parents say that their children (boys only, I think) could do math easily as long as they didn't have to write it down. I've seen some of that in my boy, too.
Unfortunately, no one brought any information on algebra, geometry or calculus programs: it was all aimed at the younger kids.
I think that one lesson we can learn from all this is that there isn't one best way to teach math, and you have to find what program and what style works for your kids.
State School Board is Proposing New Regulations
This time around, the regulations seem to be aimed at the programs, rather than at the families. The purpose of the new regulations seems to be to make them live in fear of the Commissioner of Education, and discourage them from letting you use your allotment to meet your children's needs in ways that the public schools couldn't.
There is one section which would require that the statewide programs hire teachers who are ``highly qualified'', in the No Child Left Behind sense. Since the programs have no classroom teachers, this is obvious nonsense, but apparently nothing is too stupid for the state school board.
You can find links to the proposed new regulations, their text and my comments on them, on my page of commentary on the proposed regulations.
We are trying to work with our legislators, particularly Bruce Weyhrauch, to get last summer's regulations reversed and to prevent these new regulations from being adopted. List members have already seen my call for emails describing how last summer's regulations have harmed your family. I have a few good letters, and could use more, to pass along to Rep. Weyhrauch.
You all can help by contacting your legislators and letting them know that this is an issue, and by going to the State School Board meeting (attend at the Legislative Information Office) on the 6th of December, to testify against the proposed new regulations.
The next meeting's topic
We didn't remember to set a topic for the next meeting! So, let's talk it out on the mailing list. I'll suggest that we talk about another aspect of curriculum next time, since the math night went well, with lots of good discussion. Maybe writing? Send me an email with a suggestion.
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Minutes of the 14 October 2004 meeting
Eleven families showed up, including a couple of new-comers. We began, as usual, by introducing ourselves, and telling everyone a bit about who we are and what we're doing. We had a wonderful discussion, and I think that we were all encouraged to hear that we're all having the same problems: I'm not the only one with too much to do and too little time. It's easy to feel inadequate when we see how well others appear to be doing, so it's important to share our difficulties (and any solutions, of course).
News Items
The Juneau Symphony Orchestra will be putting on a concert the 23rd and 24th of this month. The next concert will be near the end of January.
The Glacier Visitor's Center has begun their Fall children's program. It's at 11:00 every Saturday, indoors at the Glacier Visitor's Center. You will find details here. Scroll down to the kids programs heading. They will have an evening program for Halloween.
Jim Weiss (the wonderful story teller) will be putting on a seminar in sometime in February. This is very early notice, but it's worth going to; you won't want to miss it.
Mona Bibb is going to try to set up two field trips a month for the rest of the fall, opportunities permitting. We'll be forwarding information to the list as soon as it becomes available, of course.
There was a suggestion that each of us should try to contact five homeschooling families (who aren't currently involved with JHEA) in the week before the next meeting, and tell them about it and encourage them to come. This sounds like an excellent idea. I'd like to add that we should also invite people who aren't homeschooling, but could be.
Scheduling, time management and grading.
The topic we had settled on for this month's meeting was scheduling, and most folks came prepared! Some of the methods we heard about were:
- The Sonlight program provides a schedule which gives a detailed list of things to cover each day of the week, right down to page numbers in books. This has the advantage that you don't have to spend time scheduling, and the kids will probably like being able to check things off.
- Some mothers are taking a similar approach, but making the schedule themselves, either each week, or each night. Making your own schedule gives you flexibility, but it takes a bit of time.
- Making a schedule each week seems to be less time-consuming than doing it every night, but less flexible, while
- making a schedule every night means you can adjust it to the progress you've actually made.
One thing that we all agreed on is that you can teach the kids, or you can do the housework, but you can't do both 100%. There were several suggestions for dealing with the housework problem.
The mothers with older kids were quite enthusiastic about having their kids help with the housework. Several families give the children a list of tasks, and perhaps rotate the responsibilities monthly. The younger families didn't seem to get so much help there. One suggestion, which seemed to be widely approved, was to have the children clean up the house before each meal, rather than letting the mess and clutter build up all day.
A wonderful suggestion was to keep Legos in a sheet. Whe the children play with the Legos, they can spread the sheet out, and see all their bricks, including the ones at the bottom of the bin that they've forgotten they have. When it's time to put away, they can just pick up the edges of the sheet and put the bundle into the Lego bin you're already using.
We talked a bit about grading. Some children want grades, and some parents want to grade their children's work. No one seems sure how to go about assigning them. One point that was made was that you need to think about what you're trying to accomplish by giving the grade. There is no large group of children to reward and punish by invideous comparison, just one child who needs to have a realistic idea of whether he could or should be doing something better.
The programs all ask for letter grades for the older children (4th grade and up?). It might make sense to tell the child the grade that gives him the incentive he needs, and to tell the program the grade which works there.
All agreed that there is no reason to give a child bad grades. If the child hasn't ``gotten it'' yet, you just keep working with him, trying different approaches and more of the same, until he does. You don't have to keep two dozen children on the same assembly-line schedule, and so you don't have to move on until your child is ready. Homeschooled children all get good grades, and it's not grade inflation.
The next meeting's topic
Last year, when we had a meeting topic on curricula and materials, we found that there was way too much to cover in two hours. So, rather than having a single meeting on curricula right before the curriculum fair, we decided that we would have a bit of discussion on a different subject each meeting, so we can take as much time as we want.
The topics for our next meeting will be:
- What works (and what doesn't work) in math, and
- what resources are available in Juneau?
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Minutes of the 21 September 2004 meeting
Ten families showed up, including a couple of new-comers. We began, as usual, by introducing ourselves, and telling everyone a bit about who we are and what we're doing. That led to a bit of discussion about handwriting programs and such. Sharon Hatch tells us that the local schools are using DeNealian, and if you plan to put your children back in the warehouse schools here, you should use that.
News Items
There is a program for middle-school-aged children, by Wells Fargo bank, called Hands-on Banking. There will be classes to teach basic money management skills to kids, in the Valley Public Libary at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday 25 September, and in the Downtown Library at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, 27 September.
Auk Bay Bible Church is beginning Moms in Touch prayer time. Moms in Touch is international organization of mothers praying for their children in public school, homeschool and college. The prayer time is one hour and Mom's could take turns watching the children while others pray. For more information about Mom's In Touch you can call Sue Badilla at 789-5751 or 321-0175.
There will be a local branch of Kids Voting here in Juneau. You can call Larri Spengler at 586-9768 for more information.
Lost Cat Diana Rossmiller's family cat has run away from his home on North Douglas. He may be there, or across the flats near Sunshine Point/Fred Meyers. He's grey and white, and may answer to ``Matt Robie Gobie''. Call 463-3761 or 789-3444.
Diana Rossmiller is still coordinating the Scholastic book orders. She needs you to get your orders to her by the 8th of October. You can drop them off at her house, or at the IDEA office, or meet her at pool during swimming lessons.
This year's cast of volunteers
| Co-Chairs | Nels Tomlinson and Sara Poor (Ellen Pavit was to also share the load, but she's not available this year). |
| Scholastic Books | Diana Rossmiller is distributing the Scholastic book catalogs, and consolidating the orders again this year. |
| Field Trip Coordinator | Mona Bibb will again do a wonderful job of lining up field trips for us. If you have any suggestions for exciting, educational field trips, please contact her! She's in the phone book. |
| Room Scheduler | Susie Burger will be taking care of reserving the meeting room for us each month. She'll be responsible for swooping in and snatching up the room for the night we need it, before any of the other groups in town can get that night sewed up. |
| Newspaper and Radio Contact | Karen Cashman volunteered to contact the newspapers and radio stations each month, to get our meetings listed in the upcoming events and public service announcements. |
| Treasurer | Sharon Hatch is the guardian of our tiny stash of money. She gave her treasurer's report: it's still safe. |
I believe that's everyone who took on a recurring job, but if I missed one, please let me know!
The next meeting's topic
The next meeting's topic will be how we manage our time. Bring in your schedules, your planners, or just bring your confusion, and we'll share information on what's working and what's not.
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