Jason Francis: In Memoriam

Yesterday the Taylor University Communication Arts newsletter landed in my mailbox. I'd been looking forward to and dreading it, knowing that it would contain a special remembrance of my friend, Jason Francis. It's good to remember, but also hard knowing that he's gone from this life and I won't get to see him again until I reach heaven.
It gave me great joy to see that the picture the department chose to include from Jason's performance of Macbeth was one that also included me.  I only spent 2 minutes on stage during that play, where Jason played Macbeth and was on stage for most of the play; it lifted my heart that they chose that picture.
The print is small, and might be a little difficult to read (and probably slow to load), but this tribute is well-worth reading.  Check out our Macbeth picture in the lower right-hand corner.

A Speech Every American High School Principal Should Give

The entire article is at Townhall.

I came across this article a couple days ago and it blew me away.  Here are a couple excerpts:

First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships.
The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity -- your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans.

The author, Dennis Prager, cuts to the heart of the matter on several issues, but essentially shows that by caring more about our individual causes and "identity" we are stripping away the fabric of what it means to be an American.

Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.

It's hard to pick the "good" quotes, because honestly, the entire article is fantastic.  It makes you wonder, though, how many American High School Principals could actually give this speech and retain their jobs.

Summer Travel, sort of

In 15 years of marriage, we've house-hunted three separate times.  Our last house-hunting expedition took place without the help of a realtor, because I discovered something about myself after the first two rounds: I have a hard time giving criticism.
My children will tell you different, and probably my husband as well.  The funny thing is, when it comes down to a house, the realtor WANTS to know your criticisms about the house, so they can do a better job in finding what you want.  I'm just very bad at doing that.  I feel like I'm going to hurt the realtor's feelings, or worse, get talked out of feeling that way.
All that to explain why I've been hesitating on this review, even though the material has been in my hands for a month and was put into use only a couple days after I downloaded it.  I realize that the point of reviewing curriculum is to help others avoid the material that may not be the best for them, to help the publishers address flaws, and to help steer users toward the best materials for their homeschool.  Even so, I found it extraordinarily difficult to write down my thoughts and experiences without reverting to my old house-hunting faithful, "It's okay."  I've had to push myself out of that "appeasement" comfort zone and into doing the work I've agreed to do in honestly reviewing the material I am sent.  So here goes...

The Material: The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner June 2010 Module: Travel the World  This was provided to me at no charge through the TOS Homeschool Crew program, in exchange for this review.
Travel the World is an e-book that retails for $7.95 at The Old Schoolhouse's website store  It is part of a larger series contained in the Schoolhouse Planners. 


At first glance, Travel the World confused me.  The front page clearly said "Schoolhouse Planner" but the rest of the e-book was just a geography lesson(s) and activities.  I jumped back to TOS website to track down the full planner, and found through the sample downloads that the full planners include homeschool forms, calendars, recipes, articles, lists, resources, links, activity ideas and more.  But the module I was sent was clearly just the geography lesson.  That was my first criticism: the TITLE of the material did not match the SUBSTANCE.  After looking through the website, I did find this:

What is a module?

A module is an add-on for The Schoolhouse Planner, the amazing planner brought to you by The Old Schoolhouse®. This module includes a study guide, activity pages, quizzes, coloring pages, copywork, lapbooking, and more!

You do not have to have The Schoolhouse Planner to use the modules. Each module is designed to be its own stand-alone unit study. You can choose to purchase the modules by themselves or bundle them with The Schoolhouse Planner.

That didn't help me a whole lot - I was still confused as to why the MODULE said PLANNER and why these things were related, but not together...  It just did not (does not) make sense to me.  But I can be dense sometimes, so I told myself to get past that, though, and jumped into the geography lesson with all four of my children.  For my younger children (ages almost-5 and almost-7; we've got 3 birthdays right around the corner), the material presented was brand new to them.  For my older kids (ages almost-11 and 13), the material was mostly review.  

Travel the World presents the basics of geography (what is geography? globes and maps, oceans and continents) over the course of eight pages.  There is a plethora of links, including several very fun games that help kids locate the parts of the world correctly.  Okay, let's face it: the games also helped mom located parts of the world correctly.  However, with the links, came the frustration I faced when reviewing Expedition: Australia - EVERY time I clicked a link, a warning popped up "The document is trying to connect to {url}  If you trust the site, choose Allow.  If you do not trust the site, choose Block."  And while I could remember my action for that particular site, there was no shortcut to allow all the links in the PDF to just open automatically.  Criticism Two! and given that it wasn't limited to only this PDF, I truly hope that it won't continue in the rest of the e-books I'll have to review throughout the year.  An extra click every now and then is fine; an extra click 50+ times in one document is overwhelming and frustrating!
The material itself is very sparse, just the bare-bones basics of geography.  It's a good beginning or overview for children not familiar with the subject.  It's a good review for those who already have some geography knowledge.  The links provide further study on numerous topics.


Following the source material is 28 pages of work-sheets, crosswords and word-finds, lap-booking materials,  coloring pages and handwriting exercises.  Again, very basic, but good reinforcement of what the child has just learned.  The lap-booking materials provided are just a start of what could be lap-booked with this study.  We chose to skip the lap-booking exercise this time around; I barely got my feet wet when we did the lap-booking activities in Expedition: Australia and I didn't feel confident enough to come up with my own activities for this one.


I'm not sure how to do this gently, so I'll cut straight to the point.  I wasn't impressed with the geography study.  The material was sparse, and seemed to manage to be both too juvenile for my big kids, and too mature for my little ones.  Even the high school expansion supplement at the end, which included a harder word search and a couple of recipes, did not seem to be any more in-depth than the main lessons.  Many of the challenges suggested in the high school expansion were more writing-intensive than geography-intensive.  I realize that many subjects have a writing component to them, but even my 13-year-old correctly identified the assignments as "geography-themed English."  Criticism three: light on actual geography.


Final criticism: the language in the lesson itself jumped back and forth between sounding like a read-out-loud lesson and a do-it-yourself lesson.  For instance, this excerpt from the section on globes:

"Do you have a globe at home? If so, have it with you as we discuss what

we see on a globe. If you don’t have one with you, use this picture on the right."

This part to me sounds like something the child would best understand if he read it to himself.

Okay, what is the first thing you notice about a globe? You’re right—it’s round.

Whereas this part seems much more like something that should be read out loud - essentially a script for the teacher.  On the same token, if the child is reading along, they have no incentive to guess the answers because many times the question is asked and answered in the following sentence.

To sum this up, the module is good for a light summer course on geography.  The links are very helpful and many of them have been added to our computers for daily geography practice.  For what it's worth, after looking through the sample pages provided for the 2010 Schoolhouse Planner, I am impressed with the full planner and feel that it is probably worth the investment, especially if it has more lessons like these to use as a jumping-off point for further study. Overall, though, I feel that I could have invested the same amount of time and effort in Google and come up with a more in-depth study with the same amount of handy links for future reference.
You can find more reviews of this product on the Homeschool Crew Blog

Ride Along with Mitch

Ride Along with Mitch

For the majority of my time lived in Indiana, Mitch Daniels has been governor. I've been continually impressed by the way this man has handled the authority he's been granted by Hoosiers, and this article does an incredible job of summing up the man and his work. It's long, but SO worth the time to read. Despite his family's wishes to the contrary, I find myself hoping that he will make a bid for the 2012 Presidential race. He is very much what this nation needs; read the article and discover why!

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

Today's Speed Bump comic strip:

I don't want this to be me, but there are days when it hits pretty close to home.  It makes me wonder, if I asked my kids what they thought was most important to me, what would they say about me?  Frankly, given the fact that I actually just "shoo'd" my youngest away so I could concentrate on writing this, I'm pretty sure I know what they'd say.  I'm just not brave enough to pull out a camera and record their answers.

Expedition Australia: Take One

My first reaction after we finished the week of Expedition Australia was, "Now that that's over, I'd like to try it again."

I am fairly new to the world of unit studies, brand new to the world of e-books as homeschool curriculum, and not only new to, but completely intimidated by, the world of lapbooking.  Expedition Australia combined all three, and in my first attempt I stumbled and stuttered my way through.  When I was done, I took a look around, surveyed the results, and realized that it went better than I expected.  And now that I know what I'm doing a little, I'd like to give it another shot.  Who knows what we'd learn about Australia the 2nd time around?

Expedition Australia is the 2nd e-book unit study provided to me by The Old Schoolhouse (TOS) for the purpose of "auditioning" for the Homeschool Crew.  My job was to use the e-book with my children, evaluate the resource and write a review.  Expedition Australia retails at TOS for $7.95 and is part of TOS's new "Download 'N Go" series produced in conjunction with Amanda Bennett.

TOS also offers the option of purchasing sets of the "Download 'N Go" series at a lower price per item.  The series is geared toward kindergarten through 4th grade students, and is specifically written to incorporate lapbooking into the unit study experience.

EXPEDITION AUSTRALIA

The review: The summer after my freshman year of college, I worked for a temporary employment agency.  The first job they sent me on was in a medical office, doing "light filing."  My first day on the job, one of the women who'd worked there for several years showed me the ropes and explained what I would be doing.  She pulled out a medical file, into which had been crammed some 20 or so loose pages, and her hands and mouth flew while she told me how those pages were supposed to be arranged into the file.  She opened the brads, lifted a stack, over to the hole punch, "this goes here," pulled out a staple, "stick these behind this section," flattened the brads, flipped to the other side, open those brads, "take this off," back to the hole punch, another staple out, "these go in reverse chronological order," "this goes behind the green sheet," set the stack back on, close the brads.  Then she handed the finished file to me, pointed to a stack of identical files and said, "Any questions?"

I felt the same way then as I did when I first glanced through Expedition Australia.  Overwhelmed.  I've only done a few unit studies, and the ones I have done were very "read this, do that" straightforward.  Which is not to say that Expedition Australia is not straightforward, but rather that the layout was very different from anything I've ever used.  The first time I clicked a link, it fast-forwarded me some 80 pages in the e-book, and I backed slowly away from the computer, hoping to avoid "breaking" it further.  It took me a minute to figure out that the page I'd navigated to had a link back to the page I'd come from.  I honestly had to take a few running starts at this one before I got up the guts to go for it.  It was just a lot of "new" for this homeschooling mom.  Just like that medical file - once I realized that I could study the finished product to figure out how to get the works in progress to completion - I was able to tackle the newness of unit studies, internet-linked PDF files and lapbooking, all rolled into one.

A quick rundown of our first attempt at this:
Day One:  Okay, I am doing this.  No, not checking my e-mail or reading an extra chapter of Swiss Family Robinson to delay the inevitable.  I am plunging in feet-first.
Day Two:  Um, do I remember how to do this?  Wait, was I supposed to print those pages yesterday?  Yup,  I was.  Okay, now where was I?  Oooh - I love this poem [get completely distracted for 20 minutes memorizing poem with kids]  Okay, now really, where was I?
Day Three:  I've got this.  Quick read-through to figure out what we're learning.  Print the pages, do the activities.  (side conversation with self: You know what would be really cool? If my computer was linked to some type of projector, so the kids could see these videos on the "big screen."  I wonder if DH would hook up some sort of computer-TV link for me?)  Oh...I think I get it.  The pages are for a notebook, the activities are for a lapbook.  Right?
Day Four:  Yes, kids, I'd like to go to Australia too.  No, we cannot get a platypus for a pet.  Yes, we'll go to the library and get more books about Australia this afternoon.  (side conversation with self: No one ever told me that these unit studies could lead to so much enthusiasm about a subject.  And someone should probably be alerted that the 7th-grader is having as much fun as the 1st and 4th graders are.)
Day Five:  Is it over already?  OH WAIT!  That means I have to actually DO the lapbook part, doesn't it?  Did I mention I'm not the crafty type?

Expedition Australia was a HUGE hit in our house.  The students in this particular homeschool are 4 (pre-k going on 2nd grade), 6 (1st grade), 10 (4th grade) and 13 (7th grade).  Even though the study is geared toward the K-4th grade crowd, everyone participated.  The study was like a little mini-safari each day; one that we all truly enjoyed.  The kids, ALL of them, have retained so much of what they learned.  Even now, several weeks after finishing, they're still talking about the things they learned.  Last night we were watching a nature show and all four immediately identified a koala, before the name was announced.  Not only that, but they went on to tell Dad where koalas live, what they eat, and how they raise their young.

The study did not stop when the last lapbook was complete.  For the past three weeks we've continued to explore on our own, using many of the books suggested in the study, as well as going back and reading more of the information provided through some of the links (and links of the links).  I contacted a friend of mine who lives in Australia, and she was kind enough to send the kids their very own Expedition Australia surprise: A genuine, aboriginal-hand-carved, hand-painted boomerang.  The kids have been researching how to best throw it, working on their form and a couple of them are actually able to throw it and get it to come close to returning.  This same friend is also fostering a baby kangaroo, so we're following her adventures with that as well.  (No kids, we won't be getting a kangaroo as a pet; that family is just taking care of that one until it's big enough to survive on its own.)

I was definitely a reluctant user of the Download 'N Go product, and I've been totally and completely won over by this product.  We will be using more of these unit studies.  I found the content to be very engaging and fun.  The activities were enjoyable for all of us.  Yes, even when I had to pull out craft supplies and help assemble lapbooks. {grin}  My 4th-grader was able to easily complete all the writing activities.  My 1st-grader needed some help, but there was not so much to do that it was overwhelming to her.  My pre-k daughter enjoyed learning right along with the others, and even though she's just starting to read, she's excited to have her own lapbook and shows it to anyone who will look.  While the difficulty level was far below what my 7th-grader would normally do, he too enjoyed doing the study with us.  With very little effort, I was able to extend this study to challenge him a little bit, assigning him some extra things to do that coincided with what we were all learning.

I had only two very minor issues with this study.  First, it would have been nice to have a little bit more guidance on how to use this.  Even a one-page introduction that explained the concept of the internet-linked PDFs and a little more explanation on what to print and how to use it would have gone a long way in alleviating my anxiety about using this for the first time.  Second, every single link in the entire e-book that connected to an internet site popped up a security warning on which I had to click "allow" to be able to access the website.  Once or twice wouldn't have bothered me, but with 20+ links per day, it got old REALLY fast.  This appears to be some type of security issue that may be fixable on the publisher end.

However, even with those two problems, I still have to give this curriculum a very hearty A+.  I don't come across a lot of curriculum that excites my children to the point of going out on their own to find out more, and this one did so, in spades.  Kudos to TOS and Amanda Bennett.  They've truly developed a winning curriculum.  We'll be using this one again, and downloading a few more to go with it.

Disclaimer: Expedition Australia was provided to me free of charge, courtesy of The Old Schoolhouse, for the purpose of this review.  I was not compensated in any other way for the review.

My very first curriculum review!

Who, me?  Opinionated?  Well, sure, when it's important, and I think this is most definitely important.  I'm "auditioning" for a chance to be a member of The Old Schoolhouse (TOS) Homeschool Crew - a group of homeschool families that get a chance to try out new curriculum and products and share our opinions with the rest of the world.  I'm excited about this chance, and a little nervous.  As a violinist, I've had plenty of auditions; as a writer, I've had plenty of chances to write; as a homeschooling mom for the past eight years, I've tried out a LOT of curriculum and a LOT of homeschool products.  But I've never had the chance to put all three things together, and I'm praying that this effort reflects the best of all those skills.

So, without further ado...

The Product:

WannaBe Series: When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Firefighter E-book

Available from The Old Schoolhouse; $8.95

This is an E-book, which will be delivered straight to your computer, no shipping charge.

80 pages



We live 1.5 miles south of the fire station that serves our local suburban area.  Three or four times a week, we'll hear a siren screaming down the street and the kids will run to the windows to watch the truck sail past.  Then come the questions: "Where do you think they're going?" "What do you think happened?"  "Is there a fire?"
After spending a week using this unit study, the questions are the same, but they are now asked with the distinctive air of a child who knows what those firefighters on that truck do.

A quick caveat: To be honest, I'm not 100% comfortable with e-books.  I prefer the look and feel of paper, and have a hard time reading a "book" on a computer screen.  I have been known to print out 200+-page PDF files (four pages to one sheet, double-sided and in draft mode, lest you think me wasteful) to read through once, just to avoid having to read it on a computer screen.  I did print this one out, minus the first color-heavy page and the last two pages (TOS ads at the end of the file), using the fastest, most ink-saving mode on our printer.  This made it easier for me to work with, but wasn't exactly financially (or ecologically) responsible.

The review:  This is billed as a multi-age unit study.  In some ways, it worked for all four of my kids, ages 13, 10, 6 and 4. Many of the information sections were perfect for reading out loud, and the kids did seem to enjoy hearing the information.  The older three could answer my verbal questions about the information very well; the 4 year old remembered the bare-bones basics.  Overall, I agree that as a read-aloud, the majority of this study works very well for a large range of ages.

I found a couple of the sections of this study to be somewhat off-topic.  A short paragraph about how robotics are being developed to help detect and fight fires leads to the entire science section...on robotics.  That didn't make much sense to me, even though the activities in the science section are both interesting and fun.  However, I could think of several other "science" ideas and activities that would tie in much better with the theme of this e-book.  How about the way the gauges on the truck work?  How valves function in the firefighters' breathing equipment?  The mechanics of air and water pressure in the hoses?  The robotics section did not tie in very well.

Additionally, there was a page of American Sign Language finger spelling that spelled out several fire-related phrases.  I could find no explanation for this which led me to assume that it constituted the "foreign language" component of the unit study.  Wouldn't it make more sense to learn the word fire in several languages?

The activities in the book seem to be geared toward the mid- to late-elementary years.  Most of the written activities could be done orally, but only my older two could come up with the answers to all the questions.  The math was too easy for the 10 year old, but too hard for the 6 year old, so somewhere in between the two is where most of the math was geared.  The "fill in the story" activity we did together, and it worked really well.  My older two then suggested we go back through and figure out the part of speech that each "blank" was supposed to contain...and then turn it into a mad lib. {smirk}

Many of the games were a hit in our house, and the party ideas, which I'd carefully hidden under several other things on my desk, were discovered by my children and I was subject to a chorus of "please can we?"  I sense a fire-truck cake-making in the very near future.

Overall, I'd give this e-book a B-minus.  It provides some good, basic information about firefighting and life in the firehouse.  It provides a variety of activities for a range of ages, in creative writing, spelling, vocabulary, science, math, history, handwriting and ?foreign language?.  The e-book includes links to more information, and more than a page of suggested books for further study.

However, the information doesn't always flow smoothly.  Even my 13-year-old noted several times that it seemed to jump to the next topic before concluding the previous one.  Several of the sections seemed out of place.  While this is an interesting overview of the job of firefighting, it falls short of my expectations for an elementary-grade unit study.

Disclaimer: This unit study e-book was provided to me free of charge, courtesy of The Old Schoolhouse, for the purpose of this review.  I was not compensated in any other way for the review.