Smrt Lernins

Captain Science (or, as he’s known there, call sign Sniper) just got home from his first day of STARBASE at the nearby Air Reserve base. He had a fantastic time! He’s on Team Foxtrot with Maverick, Mallet, Darknight, and one other kid whose call sign he couldn’t remember. He knew one of the other boys there (not on his team) from Math Olympiad, so he had the comfort zone of a familiar face without it being a completely familiar experience. So nice for him to have a whole day out of the house with other children with similar interests! This is the kind of peer environment I can get behind!

After letting the kids spend an hour or so getting acquainted, the STARBASE staff really put them through their paces. They worked on the metric system and exponents through practical application in weight/liquid measurement. They measured various “space” fluids, weighed unknown metals to find ideal materials for building planes, and designed Army rovers in CAD.

Honestly, it was a bit of a relief for me to have the house to just myself and the smalls for a day (9am-2pm). Usually, Captain Science is the center of my school day, but today I was able to really focus on Tank and Babypie. Tank did several mazes and we did a fun activity using this illustration of facial expressions. We talked about what the person might be feeling to cause him to make each face. For the middle face in the next-to-last row, Tank said he thought the person was feeling thinking. I agreed, and told him that the word he might be looking for is “thoughtful.”

Babypie and I read books. Well, we read the same book four times. After we were finished reading, Tank, Babypie, and I all played with Tank’s “Dinosaur, Dragon, and Bug World” toys for a long time, then we went to pick up Captain Science and get his positive report.

I’m looking forward to the next four Mondays, for all our sakes!

Officer Daddyman’s sensei, whom I affectionately refer to as Ninja Houseguest, is in town from Japan and staying with us for the next week. While he’s here, he’ll be teaching classes around the Atlanta area and somewhere in Alabama, and then teaching a two-day seminar over the weekend.

This is going to be an interesting week for us, schedule wise. We have an additional adult’s schedule to accommodate, plus Daddyman’s schedule will be different, due to traveling around with Ninja Houseguest. Can the McLernins adequately integrate Ninja Schooling into our already busy schedule?

Hopefully, today won’t be the standard. We accomplished exactly science and Essay Town before zipping off to the airport where, in a nearly-British comedy of errors, I circled and circled, he walked in and out of the building, Daddyman called the airport and paged, and we finally ended up meeting inside an hour later with me in tears and him in mild frustration. I was not up for any more school by the time we made it back home at 3:30.

Tomorrow, Ninja Houseguest is being taken to a dojo south of the city by another ninja, so we’ll be able to go most about our normal schedule, up until Tank and Babypie’s 1:30 doctor appointment, where Babypie gets a checkup and we try to ascertain the roots of Tank’s speech difficulties. Hopefully, we’ll be able to squeeze as much work as possible into the morning hours.

Wednesday, I’ve decided the best course of action is to dump everything in favor of a field trip. Fernbank is currently holding an exhibition on water, which also happens to be the subject Captain Science has been studying in his PLATO Science units over the last few weeks. We’ll go down town for a few hours, enjoy Fernbank, maybe even eat a free hot dog, if they’re still doing the “Free Hotdog Wednesday” promotion.

Thursday, Ninja Houseguest and Officer Daddyman will drive out to Alabama in the afternoon, so we’ll have the pleasant distraction of bother of their presences during our school day. I’ll have to bring the kids to Math Olympiad myself or see if I can rope Patchfire’s husband into doing it. Maybe we’ll skip it, depending on how frazzled my nerves are by that point, though Captain Science really does enjoy it and it’s a good social outlet. I’m hoping we can have another meetup w/ the Mitnens, but I guess we’ll just have to see how that goes. *fingers crossed*

Friday, Daddyman has made it his goal to find “something interesting to do” in the area. Ninja Houseguest hasn’t ever had much opportunity to do touristy stuff when he’s here, so Daddyman wants to take him some place fun and interesting. Hopefully, it’ll be something we can tag along with in the name of another field trip! Any suggestions? We have to be back by the late afternoon for a friend’s son’s birthday party.

This weekend, it’ll be just me and the kids the whole time, so I think we’ll rattle around like marbles in a can for a while and maybe bug Nana a bit.

*phew* Ninja schooling sounds exhausting!

It’s National Coming Out Day! Today is the start of a new opportunity to help our LGBTQ family and friends feel supported and encouraged. Today, we can each make a commitment to create a safe space for our children to be who they are, not who we, someone else, or the world tells them they should be. We can make a promise to our children that it gets better and mean it. We can work to make those changes that will provide our children with equal rights, equal protection, and equal opportunity under the law, no matter who they love.

This weekend, I took my kids to the 40th Atlanta Pride Festival and Parade. I’d really wanted to get the kids down there last year, but Patchfire and crew bailed on me, and I wasn’t ready to brave the crowds with Babypie being so young. This year, however, we set off on our own on a grand educational field trip to the Pride celebrations.

Since I can’t let anything be just about fun (ask Captain Science; he’ll be happy to tell you that) and because I wasn’t precisely sure what to expect at the festivities, I got some conversations going before leaving and on the trip down to the parade. Captain Science and I talked about what he might see at the parade, about why Pride was celebrated, about what certain words means and what certain causes were about (like repealing DADT). We talked about how some words were originally derogatory (like “dyke” and “queer”), but have been reclaimed by the people who were once called those words — I related it to how people used “geek” or “nerd” as an insult for smart people, but now more smart people are saying, “You know what? I am a geek and proud of it!” We talked a lot about love and how it’s never a bad thing; if it’s a bad thing, then it isn’t love.

On the drive down, we talked about power and enfranchisement/disenfranchisement over U.S. history — that right now, straight people have all the rights and gay people only have some of them; if you go back 50 years, white people have all the rights and black people only had some of them; if you go back 100 years, men had all the rights and women only had some of them. We took it further back and talked about political/social power all the way back to the feudal system–when one person (the king) had all the power and nobody else had any unless the king said so–and how change in how many people have power is happening faster. We talked about ways in which more people having a part of the power is good and ways it might be bad. Tank shouted out that it could be bad because they might not do what you want them to do. Smart boy! We talked about what you do when people you share power with don’t agree with you. Captain Science was so engaged in the conversation.

At the parade, we stood next to a young man and woman who took Babypie’s picture (she was in the back carrier, wearing rainbow Babylegs and waving a Pride flag) and to an older man wearing a neck brace, who overheard me saying “at least it isn’t a coconut” when someone from a float threw bags of potato chips at us and asked if I was from New Orleans. It turned out that he’d moved from New Orleans 25 years ago to be with the man who is still his partner. Both couples helped the kids catch beads and candy and colorful bracelets. We got t-shirts and a neat rainbow bandanna that I wore for the rest of the day. Captain Science’s favorite float was one with the Peanuts characters dancing on it. Tank liked the marching band best. I loved the PFLAG groups, the men dressed as colorful fairies with giant Carnival-style wings, and especially the band of angels, who stood briefly and symbolically in front of the small group of loud homophobic “Christian” protesters with their hate-filled signs (a group that necessitated another conversation with Captain Science). The barrier they created between the hate of the protesters and the love of the parade attendees was more than merely physical.

After the parade, we got swept up in the moving crowd and walked down to the festival. So many people, happy and dressed in rainbows! Couples and families and big groups of friends, every age, every race, all of them beautiful. Tank was complimented on his shirt (which said “Hellooo Gorgeous!”) and Babypie received all manner of comments on her cuteness and fierceness (she was faux-slapping at people in the line for the ATM, which amused the guys next to us to no end). One young man praised Captain Science for carrying the big bag full of our stuff. Another stopped us, smiled, and said, “It starts here with tolerance, young ones.” We were given stickers and candy, Tank’s fondness for trifolding brochures was indulged at multiple booths, I bought a “Repeal Don’t Ask Tell” shirt and renewed my Human Rights Campaign sponsorship, we donated a dollar here and there to a few groups, and we split a delicious rainbow-frosted cupcakes. Tank was surprised when he saw a woman whose upper body was painted in a rainbow (in lieu of an actual fabric top) and said, “Mama! She’s nekkid!” though he did agree with me that they were just ninnies (the word we use with the babies for breasts) and not really that big a deal. We came home tired and with bags full of Pride swag.

I do think that young man is correct: it does start right there with tolerance. My kids are growing up knowing that whether they are gay or straight or anything else, there’s a place in our family and a place in this world for them. They won’t have to be remembered on some future October 20th, because they are loved and they know their family won’t allow anyone to bully them for their sexual orientation or any other reason. More importantly, they aren’t being raised to view being gay (or bisexual or transgendered) as wrong or weird; it’s just another way to be. They can’t conceive of a reason why gay people should have fewer rights than straight people. I hope that by the time my kids are grown that the world will reflect that same set of beliefs.

We went to our first official homeschool event today, the fall homeschool days at the Biltmore in my beloved city of Asheville. It wasn’t nearly as crowded and I feared andthe demographics weren’t as heavy on the, ehem, modest crowd as I had feared. Not that there’s anything wrong with modesty, mind you, but I didn’t want to be the odd (wo)man out at yet another event. Truth be told, in my long flowy hippie skirt, I probably looked more “modest” than most of the moms there.

Like I always say: there’s a fine line between fundie and crunchy. That’s why I don’t wear headscarves. Trufax.

The Tank may have found a new career after watched the master blacksmith make a leaf keychain out of steel. He asked a lot of questions about how hot the fire got, how old the blacksmith was when he started learning, what color the steel turned, why the blacksmith added water, how “a little boy who didn’t know how to do it could learn how to do that,” and a few more. Captain Science had some good questions, too, about the types of metal the blacksmith used. Tank thought he might like to learn to hammer on metal. He was also impressed by the glassblower and said he’d like to do that, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up in a trade that also had a strong artistic element. Metalwork, woodwork, and glassblowing could all be up his alley.

Captain Science’s favorite part was the live animals on the farm. He especially loved the chicks and thinks that having our own chickens might be a point in favor of moving to Asheville in the next two years or so (our current plan, Officer Daddyman’s work allowing). He also seemed to greatly enjoy touring the Biltmore, and actually put in some effort in reading through the homeschool packet, which discussed design elements, ahead of time. The boys liked the indoor pool best. I liked the library and the picture of the Cecil children (1599!) best. I don’t know what Nana liked best — probably NOT having to carry 24 lb. Babypie on her back the whole time, like I did.

We were at Biltmore from 8:30am until around 4pm and saw a good bit of it. The boys made candles, paper quilts, symmetry drawings, and popcorn. Nana and I bought some of the leaf-shaped keychains the master blacksmith made, because they were so beautiful. We ate at the Stable Cafe, had some ice cream, and strolled around the gardens. We had a few friendly exchanges with other homeschooling families. All in all, I call this trip a success!

It’s not Wordless Wednesday, but I wanted to share two photographs my friend Trin took at her son Mat’s 2nd birthday party.

This shot of Captain Science is just beautiful. He looks all posed and pensive. Really, he was covering water jets with his hands.

I also love the ridiculousness that is Babypie’s bikini with matching hat. Please do your best to ignore me squinting in the background.

She didn’t get any pics of Tank, because he moves TOO FAST. Here’s one of the few I snagged:

Captain Science is motoring through some stuff!

This week, he completed the second unit of his PLATO Earth Science, watching the main video, doing the application activity, finishing the 7-page packet, taking the practice tests (and getting 100% on them), and then passing the unit test w/ a 90% (27 out of 30 correct). He started the third unit today and completed the video and the application activity.

Math is coming along nicely. Captain Science completed lessons 4-7 of Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra/Fred’s Home Companion, including the first set of cities (which this book has instead of the bridges in the previous books). He got all the problems in Adin and Elberfield correct! He’s also enjoying the Math Olympiad meetings, though he hasn’t completed the homework for next week’s meeting yet.

This week in history, he read about the first emperor of ancient China and about civil service careers in ancient China. He wrote his first history summary of the year, choosing to write about the civil service exams, their importance, and the risks of cheating. A valuable lesson, if there there was one. He wrote a first draft and a final draft.

In computer programming, he started his first actual piece of programming, a very simple application that pops up the text “hello, world!” He also reviewed the previous chapter and did a short test on those chapters.

I think he has finally finished The Secret Garden. He’s dragging it out, possibly because I also gave him It’s Perfectly Normal his week, a book on human development/puberty/sex ed. He’s alternating between the two and, as long as I don’t bring up puberty, seems perfectly comfortable learning about it. If I so much as say “hair under your arms,” he gets mad at me and says, “Can we change the subject?”

Tank also had a good week. He’s working on tracing, which is as much an exercise for his patience as for his hand. He worked on tracing shapes, identifying and writing the numbers 1-5, tracing big A and little a, and identifying words that start w/ an “a” sound. He finished a few pages in his workbooks on matching and comparing, as well. We’re hoping his friend Dimhibbins* will be joining us soon, perhaps as early as next week, for some additional pre-K fun!

Babypie’s big thing this week has been working out a nice balance of smacking and biting with Badge the beagle. She slaps him, he gently bites her, I intervene and fuss at both of them, they both look chastened, and as soon as I walk away, she’s smacking him and he’s nipping her. Honestly, since neither one is crying about it, I suspect this might be how they play. Puppy pals, maybe?

Today, we wrapped up our day with a “surprise” field trip to Fernbank to meet up with some friends and go back through the gecko and Sensing Nature exhibits more carefully, now that most of the public schools are back in session. Much less crowded! We blew some great bubbles, played with the sound exhibit (where I was faux-chided by my friend’s husband for saying “the magic of science,” because he says that’s the very thing I rant about on my blog), and looked at a backlit gecko’s internal organs through its translucent belly. All three of my kid came home with small plastic geckos (which only cost $.93 a piece before my 10% membership discount).

Anyway, that’s our week in review. Our Michael Clay Thompson stuff came today, so we can jump right back into that come Monday!

Now for something completely different, we took a “field trip” for Secular Thursday, as my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, niece (5.5), and nephew (almost 2) are in town. We went to the Georgia Aquarium, with its largest salt water tanks and whale sharks and whatnot.

It sucked.

That place is the most poorly designed animal displaying facility I have ever visited. Yes, it’s huge. Yes, it’s flashy. Yes, it’s gorgeous. The flow and function, however, leave worlds to be desired. The various galleries are off a central lobby, so everyone mills about in the middle, taking pictures and staring and pointing. They park their giant strollers everywhere (this is why I babywear) and you can’t get by. They have absolutely no concern for other visitors. I’m pretty sure they’re all Yankee transplants or tourists, because surely no Southerner’s mama raised him to behave like this in public.

In the time it took for us to drive downtown, park the car, and finally get into the first area of the aquarium (which was just the play ground and “pet a shrimp*” section), we could have driven to Chattanooga and been halfway down the fresh water aquarium building. It has unidirectional flow, the Tennessee Aquarium. It may not be as big as the one in Atlanta, but even on the crowded day, you get in quickly and the traffic moves.

We only looked at half the exhibits and we drove home in the driving rain. I’m counting this as a full school day, because, frankly, the experience was so harrowing that I’m sure Captain Science must have learned something very important. I learned that I’d rather go to the TN Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta, and even the damn Gulfarium than spend one single cotton picking minute in the gorram GA Aquarium.

*No, I didn’t pet a shrimp. I don’t want to pet a freaking shrimp. I want to eat a freaking shrimp.

Captain Science had a great week. Thank goodness, because I was fixin’ to put him out in the yard in a box labeled “free kittens (large).”

He finally, finally passed the Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents bridge to chapter 20 (we won’t even talk about how many tries that took) and then zoomed through chapters 20-24. Even though chapter 24’s work was as long as a bridge and over new concepts, he finished it quickly and completely correct!

Caesar’s English I is also going swimmingly. After finishing the second chapter last week, Captain Science reviewed the materials and then took the cumulative quiz over the materials . 100% — surprising, as he took it in a noisy coffee shop while I was attending a baby-wearing meeting. He’s such a little peach sometimes that it makes those bad weeks much more bearable.

He has also officially completed Grammar Town, though I have to say, bless his heart, we’re having to go back and do review over a few concepts. He missed 10 of the 25 questions of the post-test, due mainly to zooming through without paying attention. He can identify all the relevant parts of speech, phrases, etc. in a sentence, write an example sentence using the required sentences parts, but totally bombed the multiple choice?   Yeah, I’m going to call that an effort issue, not a retention issue. It was hard to keep him focused through his work on Practice Town today, as it has started snowing to beat the band, a rare treat in Georgia. We went through a little review of direct object vs. indirect object vs. subject complement, then he broke down a few example sentences for me (all correct), before I booted him out into the snow, where he is currently leaving giant footprints all over the formerly pristine snowy driveway.

Our mini-co-op is going swimmingly. We added new students to Daddyman’s game class this week and two of the new students (some of my favorites from my writing class last semester) stayed to do Patchfire’s class on the brain and my writing class. We now have an age spread from 9-12 (maybe almost 13?) and an additional girl, which is nice for balance. They came up with their board game ideas, looked at slides of the brain online, and worked on the main conflict from their stories. The dynamic is just perfect now, as the oldest student is genuinely admired and respected by the younger kids, which lets him act as a leader and keep them on track. Love these kids, seriously. Such a wonderful group, every single one of them, from our morning gamers to our afternoon writers.

Science in general is moving in a fun direction. Captain Science’s Thames and Kosmos Physics Workshop came, so he and EG spent Thursday building various machines to test force and weight. Patchfire et al. have prior commitments on Tues/Thurs of next week, so I’ll be managing the brain class and having Cpt. Science catch up on a couple of experiments from the phsyics kit next week — something to do with dropping potatoes and making a sail car? Or maybe sailing a potato car?

The Tank surprised me this week with his ability to write his name, which isn’t exactly short or easy (and we’ve had some arguments over the inclusion of the letter “v” on a few occasions). He wrote it on 10 valentines for his classmates and teachers, with no help and only one or two gentle reminders that his name doesn’t start with “O.” He missed class on Wednesday due to a mild fever the night before (24 hour fever policy? — homeschool doesn’t have that), and when I walked him in, all the little boys in his completely-male (by lack of girl enrollment, not by sex-segregating design) class were sitting at their desks with giant globs of pink play-dough (made by yours truly) and hollered, “You’re here!” His teacher also gave him a huge hug and said, “I’m so glad you made it today!” Queue moderate guilt over not re-enrolling.

Babypie’s newest skill this week is incessant chattering. She talks almost constantly in nonsensical syllables that perfectly mimic the tone and form of our speech.

I stayed busy with both a La Leche League meeting and a baby-wearing social, plus the co-op and science at Patchfire’s. I’ve been under the weather and am dragging, so I’m amazed our week has been this productive. I just want to drink coffee and snuggle under a blanket all day, but that’s not a good way to get homeschooling accomplished, sadly.

It’s currently snowing all fluffy and Yankee-like out there, so I’m going to take some pictures and document this magnificent snowfall. I’m sure I’ve forgotten stuff from the week, but such is the nature of things.

Lisa M. asks, “How much ‘outside’ schooling do you do? I mean classes or subjects that you do not teach yourself and either have someone else teach or pay for at a local facility.

Have I mentioned my undying love for Patchfire? Apart from having a wo-mance with her (which is like a bromance, only for women), I also share a little mini co-op with this delightfully intelligent woman of many talents. Twice a week, we get together so that she can teach science to our oldest children. On Tuesdays, Patchfire and her brood come over here for Captain Science and Eclectic Girl to delve into a wonderful course in the human brain, taught by Patchfire (about an hour of work). After that, I spend the next hour working with them on creative writing, while Patchfire entertains the smaller kids. Our current topic is writing short stories, which both kids seem to be taking to quite well.

On Thursdays, we zip over to her house after dropping off the Tank. There, the kids work on physics units, covering a wide array of topics, such as sound, color and light, water and heat, electricity, magnetism, etc. We’re usually there from around 9:30 to 12, plenty of time to finish all the experiments and even have a little play time.

Captain Science is also receiving piano lessons twice weekly from my great-aunt. It’s a nice break to the monotony of Mondays and Wednesdays, which are our biggest academic work days.

Later in the spring, I’d like to start both boys in some art classes. Art isn’t my strongest area, and I think they’d both benefit from some additional instruction. We’ll also have a little more money freed come summer time, once the Tank is no longer in preschool. I’m already looking at the possibly camps and programs they could enjoy this summer!

As a follow-up, Lisa would also like to know, “How far away would you travel for a class that fit your schedule that you could not teach?”.

Could not? There is very little I could not teach. I can’t imagine willingly traveling more than 20 minutes each way with any regularity. We have enough resources within a short drive that I wouldn’t be willing to drive to downtown Atlanta, up to Gwinnett, or any place like that just for a class. A one-time thing? Sure. A one-week camp, once a year? Maybe. A regular class? I’d just have to look for a closer alternative.

That’s how a [Smrt] Homeschooler handles outside schooling!

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com

I was pleased to see this great article in Access Atlanta about the growing number of local homeschoolers and the various programs springing up to accommodate us. These programs are “part of a trend of home schoolers becoming involved in activities that would have once seemed the antithesis of learning in a private, family-based environment. What began with home educated students making their presence felt in scholastic sports leagues and youth orchestras has spread to cultural institutions.”

Along with listing information on various programs available to homeschoolers, the article also gives information on homeschooling numbers both nationally and state-wide:

In part, this development can be attributed to critical mass: In its most recent study in 2007, the U.S. Department of Education estimated some 1.5 million students nationwide were home schoolers, up from 850,000 in 1998; the private National Home Education Research Institute says the number may be as high as 2.5 million now. An earlier analysis conducted by the U.S. Department of Education in 2003 found that 40.6 percent of all home schooled students lived in the South, nearly twice as many as in any other region of the country.

Officially, Georgia now boasts almost 40,000 homeschooled students! I have some questions about the bolded portion of the following paragraph, however:

In Georgia, 39,207 students were home schooled in 2009, according to numbers compiled by the state Department of Education. The highest concentration was in metro Atlanta, including 3,276 in Gwinnett and 2,942 in Cobb. Fulton’s total was listed as zero, suggesting the overall figure statewide is probably higher.

How is it that Fulton county lists no homeschoolers at all? Every county in Georgia should have the same reporting requirements. What is going on at the Fulton county superintendent’s officer that no homeschoolers are being reported? If any of my readers living and schooling in Fulton, I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences about this.

It feels nice to be a part of something. Two years ago, this article would have meant nothing to me. A year ago, it might have piqued my curiosity, as we were just starting to explore alternatives to public school. Now, however, I’m part of a group that is “making [our] presence felt.” I love my new community of families and I’m so glad we have all these wonderful local resources available to us.