Lisa's Logbook - June 24

The Avengers!

Challenges: 
1 - Getting back into the routine of fitness while trying to balance recovery from these injuries
2 - Finishing all co-op stuff by Saturday (so Dar and I can take off the month of July)

Shakespeare's Coriolanus
- very intense!

3 - Keeping the kids busy.

Successes:
1 - Bob fixed the AC in his car (Now I wonder if mine will be fixable??)
2 - David replaced the thermal paste on my computer processor and I think it fixed the overheating problem I was having. 
3 - Worked 4.75 extra hours this week 

Projects: Getting books ready for a book sale in July

From the Library: a whole stack of Harry Potter books....
Theater: The Avengers for the 3rd time :-) (took Emily and Suzy)

Have been wrapping
my foot with thi

DVD: Coriolanus (a lesser-known Shakespeare play starring Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler), Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone, and John Carter


Cool Product: self-adhesive elastic sports bandage
What's New: A laptop "cooler" stand - angled with 3 fans. Works well to keep my laptop temperature down and I like the slight angle.



Serendipity: A whole day at home alone.... So peaceful!
Obsession: The Avengers... :-) :-)

Laptop stand with fans

Oops: The cable bill was put somewhere that WASN'T the bill basket, so it's overdue....

Fun Times: Went out for dinner with Bob to celebrate our anniversary - he had swordfish with scallops, mussels, and shrimp and I had filet mignon and sweet potato fries; Also got to spend two nights watching movies with friends - so fun!
Anticipating: Beach Day this week and Cousin Camp over the weekend. 
Writing Progress: None again

Gonna buy the DVD

Robotics & Part-time Enrollment

My oldest son, a junior this year, participated in FIRST Robotics through a local high school. He loved it! At the end of the year, the mentor approached me and said he would need to enroll part-time  in order to continue to participate since the school requires students to take 3 classes to participate in a school club.

Yikes.

She didn't realize this at the beginning of the year when she recruited homeschoolers to join the club. When she did find out, she went to bat for the two homeschoolers on the team to allow them to continue. Thus, I didn't know about any of it until the year ended.

I am not particularly opposed to enrolling him part time, especially when she mentioned engineering courses that I definitely can't offer at home AND that those classes could earn college credit at a great STEM (Sci/Tech/Eng/Math) university. However, I will have no way of knowing which classes he can take until August or whether or not there will be room in these classes.

One consideration is that he needs to remain 51% homeschooled in order to participate on his homeschool varsity soccer team. I also don't really feel the need for him to take 3 classes when I already have his school schedule nearly set for his senior year.

He can't take calculus through the school unless he takes FOUR "core classes" since math is considered a core subject. At least that's the way I understand the plan.

AUGH!

I'm trying to find a way to request an exception to the 3 class rule so that he can continue to play for his fall soccer team and still participate in robotics.

Another consideration is that the engineering classes that would best fit him require prerequisites which he, of course, has not taken.  So, I'm also trying to find out if being a senior and having the experience of the robotics club might change which classes he were eligible to take.

A friend of mine that works with the virtual program is helping me think through some additional options. One is the homeschool partnership program; he could take 3 classes there on either Mondays or Thursdays.

UPDATE:
I asked the superintendent for an exception for David and I was denied. However, he did give me a couple positive ideas. One is that students at that high school take 7 classes, so 3 classes is less than half-time. So, that's good. Another is that they are potentially adding a Robotics Engineering class (pending budget approval) that would require students to participate in the FIRST Robotics program, thus circumventing the other requirement to be half-time enrolled. A possible problem is that space in the class is first offered to full time students, of course.

A friend's son participates on a Robotics team that is affiliated with a local high school (farther away; perhaps 45 minutes!) that DOESN'T require homeschoolers to enroll. So, maybe that's an option. I do plan to ask the local school if they would consider exempting the FIRST program from the requirement, instead of just exempting David. But I don't have a lot of hope for that query.

Lisa's Logbook June 17

Rollicking Readers June 2012

Got away from doing the logbook for a while, but now that I've seen others doing it on their blogs, I wanna do it again! LOL

Challenges:
1 - My shoulder injury (though it finally seems to be improving)
2 - my left foot injury (still seems the same, but I am changing to a more aggressive home treatment)
3 - no A/C in the vehicles.....

Successes:
1 - keeping my calorie count low
2 - handed off the registrar duties a couple weeks ago to my replacement!
3 - Worked 3.5 extra hours this week - first time in months I've managed extra hours!

Projects: NOT A SINGLE PROJECT! It's an odd feeling. But David is into a cool project, and I hope to be able to post pictures soon.

The Huntsman and who?

From the Library: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (yep finally!) & a couple cookbooks from a Canadian food show hostess - Sandi Richard
On My Kindle:  Crazy Love by Francis Chan; also bought Lord of the Rings - all 3 volumes for $9.99.
Theater: Snow White and the Huntsman is my most recent movie in the theater; could be just The Huntsman for all I cared about Snow White

Rollicked: the new Great Expectations movie

Recipes: Made oatmeal fruit bars that were a dud. I think most of the pan got tossed in the trash!
What's New: a part to fix the dryer; we've been hanging out our laundry for weeks!

Serendipity: Ran into an acquaintance who told me she loved my haircut. That's always nice, right? But that day I had washed my hair and combed it and that's all! LOL

One of my all-time favorite shows!

Disappointment: I wish I were able to run and work out, but between my shoulder and my foot, it's better that I rest.
Obsession: Homefront (the 1991-93 tv show) - a very grainy version is on youtube. It's never been released on DVD (or even VHS); LOVE LOVE LOVE this show, even after 20 years. LOVE IT!

24 years and still together!

Fun Times: Had a lovely time at the beach with our homeschool group this week. And book club was wonderful as usual!
Anticipating: our 24th wedding anniversary this week, also we will be visiting a small Renaissance Festival next weekend
Writing Progress: none at all, even though I did sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo

Midwest Homeschool Convention - Design Your Own Literature Program

OK, I officially am a fan of Adam Andrews & The Center for Literary Education, since this seminar entitled Design Your Own Lit Program is the third of his that I attended during the Cincinnati convention.

Do you have a book list? Or do you wish you had a book list? Not only "a" book list but perhaps you long for THE PERFECT BOOK LIST? If so, then this seminar is for you. Not because Adams possesses or shares this elusive list, but because you'll learn how to create your own list!

Here's the description:
Designing Your Own Lit Program – a Scope and Sequence Workshop
Many parents are dissatisfied with the books assigned in box curriculum sets – and yet, they feel inadequate to strike out on their own and create effective reading programs for their children. Adam puts these fears to rest with an inspiring lesson in scope and sequence development. Presenting a step-by-step procedure that is accessible to even the busiest teachers, Adam makes a powerful case that it’s not how many books you do, it’s how well you do them! Come listen and be set free from the “tyranny of the booklist.”

Andrews began by pointing out that we as homeschool parents (or even as school teachers) usually do not get to "the end" of the book list. This is ok because education isn't the completion of a book list. He then went on to burst our bubbles by telling us that he wasn't going to give out the secret book list.

He told a story about contacting a former professor of his and asking for some recommendations for his child's reading list. The professor listed the Bible, then after some thought added St. Augustine's Confessions, Milton's Paradise Lost, and then Mitchell's The Gift of Fire. Then he stopped. Andrews asked him if he needed more time, but the prof said, "No, that's all." Andrews was shocked.
(And there's more to this story, but I didn't write it down. lol)

Education is a state of the heart, the mind, the soul. Be free from the tyranny of the book list.

What is a scope and sequence? It's how broad of a treatment of the subject at hand and what order to do it.

What should teaching be? It should be DISCUSSING IDEAS. The core education is an oral discussion. (At this point in my notes, I underlined that sentence three times, starred it, and wrote "This changes everything!")

How to Design Your own Lit Program
1 - Which books shall we discuss?
A - children's stories written by great authors (regardless of the age of students)
B - Classics (books read and loved for a long time, those that have stood the test of time)
C - Books YOU choose

2 - How many books shall we discuss?
A - The Great Conundrum is that you can't discuss it if you haven't read it.
B - The Great Solution
C - The Secret Equation (The # of books you can realistically read = the # of books you should discuss)
D - Give the child LOTS of reading even if you can't discuss them all.

3 - How Shall We Discuss the Books?
A - The Socratic list of discussion questions is available (see below)
B - reading aloud is a plus
C - Group discussion is a fabulous tool

Reading Roadmaps includes "step-by-step instructions for conducting an oral discussion using the Teaching the Classics model, with special attention to each grade level from K-12" applied to more than 200 classic titles.
Teaching the Classics: Basic Seminar "contains everything a teacher needs to conduct powerful literary discussions, including our exclusive Socratic List, a set of 178 graded discussion questions applicable to any book on your reading list."

Typing out my notes makes me want to listen again to this seminar. I was so motivated by it that my notes are not very complete.You can purchase a CD or MP3 download here.

Midwest Homeschool Convention - When Math Doesn't Come Easily

From a seminar on struggling readers, I headed to my second seminar on Friday - Kathy Kuhl's When Math Doesn't Come Easily. Kathy Kuhl is an author, experienced homeschooler, and a homeschool consultant. She was also a junior high math teacher and computer programmer. Her website is Learn Differently. Because Kathy also had a child who struggled with math for years, I knew I'd be able to relate to her information. Since I have one child that definitely struggles with math, I hoped to find some practical strategies as well as some encouragement at this seminar.

When Math Doesn't Come Easily
How do you teach math effectively to a child with learning challenges? How do you bear tackling math facts again? How do you move beyond the times tables when your child has not mastered them? What are your options for high school math? Veteran homeschooler and math teacher Kathy Kuhl discusses working with children with difficulties in math, and shares strategies you can incorporate into any math curriculum

The handout from the seminar can be found on Kathy's website HERE.  You can also email her for a .pdf of her slide presentation. kathy@learndifferently.com.

You need to understand what can cause math problems. Then you can help your child.

Areas to Help:
Attitude, Approach, Aids, and Accommodations.

Sometimes inadequate instruction is the problem; sometimes it's an emotional block (pseudo-dyscalculia).
Dyscalculia (dis-cal-cue-lee-ah) is a word that means problems with math. (Like dyslexia for reading...)
Free download - What is Dyscalculia by Adler

Learning disabilities have several areas that can be affected.
Input - neurological processing
Integration - putting the pieces together
Memory - working memory (short-term)
Output - being able to answer

Other learning disabilities can afffect math performance.
Learning math facts is primarily an auditory skill.
The right parietal lobe of the brain keeps the "math sense".

Symptoms of dyscalculia in a school-age child: reversals, problems with greater than/less than, number sense not developing.

Time for some Solutions!
ATTITUDE
-work on YOURS first
-praise and encourage the child
-For the child to learn patience, we have to demonstrate patience.
-Perseverance has value.
-Ease anxiety with math games and patterns (check out the Fibonacci sequence, the golden rectangle and golden spiral, 24 hours of peace and quiet e-book, Escher.)

APPROACH
-Apply a multi-sensory modal approach like this:
MAKE IT (concrete)
DRAW IT (representational)
WRITE IT (abstract)
don't skip a step - all are important, even if your child balks.
-hands-on materials
teach the MEANING of division with a muffin pan
pattern blocks can illustrate fractions
learn how to use array multiplication (I can't find an easy website that explains this, but I'll keep looking.)
-MSL Multi-sensory Structured Language approach
-Use hand motions when appropriate (she demonstrated for long division and multiplication)
-Coding (use colors to indicate patterns, such as always writing certain numbers with certain colors)
-parentheses - squaring a binomial - say, "The role of 'a' is being played by ...." etc. Use parentheses to hold the value of the variable. (This made sense when I wrote it down! LOL)
-Limited working memory can limit you, so write out ALL steps.
-go from what's known to what's unknown. Use really large numbers with same skill. If child can do 10+10, then try 10,000,000 + 10,000,000. They'll feel really skilled!
-Explain the big picture.
-manage the workload (don't need to do every problem)
-repeat a grade level or concept with another curriculum to reinforce
-call it an "assessment" not a test

14 ways to learn the dreaded math facts:
1- choose your best time of day
2- Limit to 5-10 minutes once or twice a day. DO NOT TIME THEM.
3 - Mad Minute drill book (but not timed!)
4 - Calculadder (but not timed!)
5 - Triangular flashcards
6 - Hundred chart with 2 ten-sided (or six-sided) dice to practice operations
7 - Learning Wrap-ups
8 - Learning Palette
9 - Practice on trampoline or jumprope, add with each bounce
10 - Drill games online
11 - Use stories like Dianne Craft's or citycreek.com
12 - skip counting on audio recordings
13 - learn the 9's facts with finger clues
14 - Koosh ball, toss back and forth, once for problem, second time for answer.

HANDOUT on her website explains these ideas better

ACCOMMODATIONS
-Let child use a times table; an ELL shape (like a carpenter's square) will help them find the answer
-Calculators (details on website to help with long division)
-Have child make a math manual; when they understand the concept, they can write it out. When they've later forgotten, they can look it up in their own writing.
-Watch for reversals and train them to watch for them too
-GRAPH PAPER
-Consumers math (boy scout merit badge book is great)
-Mnemonics (quadratic formula to tune of Pop goes the weasel)
-Do fun things with math

She mentioned that Brock and Fernette Eide's book is coming in paperback in June. I'm not sure, however, which Eide book she meant. Here are two of their titles: The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain and The Mislabeled Child: How Understanding Your Child's Unique Learning Style Can Open the Door to Success.

GREAT Seminar chock-ful of wonderful ideas, solid information, and useful tips!

Midwest Homeschool Convention - The Struggling Reader

I have a struggling reader. That's been difficult for me to admit since I love reading and it's easy for me. Of course, since I am a certified teacher with graduate work in Reading and Language Arts, I ought to know exactly how to help her, right? I thought so. But she's almost ten and still struggling. So I went to this workshop to see if there were any keys I've been missing to assist her in her path to fluency.

The Struggling Reader! Am I Emphasizing the Right Things?
Does your son or daughter seem to be faltering in their efforts to learn to read? Is it the curriculum? Is it you? Based on current research, Dr. Eckenwiler and his wife have designed this workshop to help parents better understand the most essential elements of the reading process, along with those critical ingredients that must be emphasized to produce a successful, capable reader.

Kristin Eckenwiler, of thestrugglingreader.net, led this 8:30 AM workshop on Friday morning. The room was hard to find and overly warm. She promised each parent that they could learn to be a "mini reading specialist". She reassured parents that their homeschooled children were in the best place - home.

The Eckenwiler's system is a multi-sensory approach and she spent a few moments describing what that means. I didn't take notes on that and apparently her explanation didn't stick with me. She did recommend Visual Vocabulary's materials as a multi-sensory approach to teaching vocabulary.

A phoeneme is the smallest unit of sound in our language. Phonemic awareness (the awareness of phoenemes) is NOT the same as phonics, as it does not include letter recognition. It is just sounds. Many say that phonemic awareness is the #1 predictor of reading success. Their phonemic awareness test evaluates 21 discrete skills without worksheets, using a multi-sensory approach.

Dyslexia is a neurological processing challenge. It happens IN the brain.

Their phonics assessment takes 25-30 minutes.

Important:
decoding skills = phonics
Vocabulary
Sight Words
Ability to self-monitor (was I paying attention?)
Practice

SIGHT WORDS
Sight words are often misunderstood. Most common/frequent word is "the". Can't sound it out.

The 10 most common words constitute 24% of printed material.
The 25 most common words constitute 1/3 of printed material.
The 100 most common words constitute 50% of printed material.
300 sight words should be known COLD - memorized by sight, like the snap of a finger, that fast.

FLUENCY (sight words are included here)
1 - Reading speed
Third graders read 100 words per minute. Adults read 250-300 words per minute.
However, reading too fast = mistakes.
2 - Accuracy
3 - Prosody (rhythm)

Fluency affects comprehension.

COMPREHENSION
Comprehension is very complex and includes everything from simple recall to inference.
What can affect comprehension? Physical and emotional state, decoding skills, background knowledge

Reading levels
Independent - fun to read on their own
Instructional - THIS LEVEL IS WHERE YOU SHOULD BE TEACHING
Frustration - too challenging, avoid

DRTA - Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
comprehension is NOT "read the story and answer the questions".
Try a pre-reading activity to increase comprehension.

(Sorry, these notes were not as good as some of my others.)

Midwest Homeschool Convention - Teaching Classics from Seuss to Socrates

After enjoying the first seminar from Adam Andrews so much, I raved about it to my friends and one of them came along with me to hear a second seminar by him entitled Teaching Classics from Seuss to Socrates. Even though literature DOESN'T seem like a mystery to me, I was intrigued by the premise of using children's books to discuss literary themes, especially in five simple steps. (Apparently I am a sucker for any number of easy-to-follow steps.

Teaching the Classics from Seuss to Socrates – Literary Analysis for Everyone

Does the subject of literature seem like a mystery?  Are you a loss about how to understand it yourself, much less teach it to your kids?  This inspiring lecture demonstrates that everything you need to know about understanding and teaching literature is present in your second grader’s bedtime story.  Adam reads a classics children’s story out loud and then leads the audience into a discussion of eternal literary themes.  Along the way, he shows how you can do the same at home by following five simple steps.  Your literature curriculum – to say nothing of family story time – will come alive automatically.  You’ll never put the kids to bed the same way again!    

Adam Andrews began the session again with a cheerful energetic manner that makes him fun to hear. His opening point was that studying literature should be more than a vocabulary list, comprehension questions and an optional project at the end (like a diorama). He reiterated some of the points from the earlier seminar, such as 'all books share common elements: style, context, structure.' But no worries, this seminar has a common starting place, but goes a completely different direction.

The five aspects of literature he discussed using a chart easily found in his company's brochure (I didn't find it online) were:

1. Conflict
2. Plot
3. Setting 
4. Theme
5. Characters

 Conflict = Problem; all stories have (or should have) conflict because life does. Plus then it's interesting. lol

There are only five conflicts in all literature and one thing to do with students is to categorize the plot into one of these five.

• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Himself
• Man vs. God (or fate)
• Man vs. Society

Plot = what happens (list of events) Andrews explained the plot outline as follows:

1 - Exposition (beginning)

2 - Rising Action (conflict, the tension grows)

3 - Climax (resolution of the conflict)

4 - Denouement (falling action) pronounce it "day-new-mah"

5 - Conclusion (end); usually the author gives some sort of reason for writing

Then Andrews read us a children's book, one of my favorites actually - A Bargain for Frances by Russell Hoban. The pages were projected on two large screens and he read with emotion. After reading, he asked us some questions from his list of 173 Socratic questions (found in the book Reading Roadmaps (which my friend and I later purchased together).

Which conflict characterizes this story? (Man vs. Man - will Frances get the tea set from Thelma) Someone pointed out it could also be Man vs. Self - will Frances learn to stand up for herself? Someone else said, "Can Frances and Thelma learn to be friends?" We had a lively literary discussion on the motivations of these characters and the implications this story had on their lives.

If children can learn to discuss literary themes at a younger age, then literary analysis at the high school and college level will be easier. People who look deeply into literature will read more on their own as well. And it can be useful to read children's books with teens and teach them how. Which would be easier to analyze - A Bargain for Frances or Hamlet? But the steps are the same.

You can buy a lecture with a different name which appears to have the same content on Adam Andrew's website for $3. "Education, Freedom ... and Literary Analysis"

Midwest Homeschool Convention - Are You at Your Wit's End?

The second seminar I attended at the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati was given by Kirk Martin of Calm Christian Parenting. The title "Are You at Your Wit's End?" caught my eye since I feel like that a lot of the time. The description appealed to me - who wouldn't want less arguing and fewer power struggles?

Are You At Your Wit’s End? 10 Secrets to a Stress-Free Home
Do you need help calming your explosive household? Tired of yelling at, negotiating with and bribing your child? Do you want your child to take responsibility for his school work, chores and attitude? It’s time to stop the yelling, arguing and power struggles with toddlers and teens. Moms, it’s not your job to manage everyone’s emotions and make everyone happy! We’ll show you how to create stress-free mornings, school, dinner and bedtime. We promise you will laugh and leave with a dozen practical strategies that really work.

I took only a few notes in this seminar. It wasn't as organized as promised - no list of "10 Secrets" or "a dozen practical strategies", however, we all laughed and we said, "ouch" too. I'm just going to list out the notes I took and some of the things I remember along with those.

I attended this with a friend and we arrived long before the starting time. Kirk was already talking to the audience, getting their thoughts and ideas about what kinds of problems they are facing. I didn't, in fact, realize that the seminar hadn't yet started until I looked at the time.

Kirk referenced a long term change as our goal and mentioned generational patterns as some of the reasons for kids' behavior.

"You can't make anyone else happy." You are only responsible for your own happiness.

"You are your brother's puppet if you let him control your behavior." Something to say to kids that are always being manipulated by a sibling. Kids don't want to be a puppet and need to know they are not at the mercy of the sibling. They can tell their sibling (in their head, if necessary), "You don't get that control over me."

He talked about honesty and humility. 90% of parenting issues stem from my OWN control issues. (or lack of control, as it were....)

Kirk advised us to start from a place of calm leadership. Sitting down is always better because it's calming. He suggested sitting on the floor for 3 minutes with kids and laying out the plan calmly, rather than ranting and raving. He illustrated the difference between standing and shaking your finger at a child or sitting with one leg crossed over the other talking to them. It's nearly impossible to be so angry when sitting in a relaxed position.

Too much lecturing kids is "provoking" them, which is something parents are advised against in the Bible.

He advised us to teach self-control (self-discipline) and to practice it ourselves. It's bad practice to tell your children to control themselves while we are screaming.

Provide opportunities for self-control and recognize it when you see it (comment on it positively). You want a child who can control his own behavior, because self-control lasts for a lifetime.

Don't be a Pharisee; live by grace.

Anxiety often manifests as defiance, especially among nervous children. Allow them to acclimate to a new environment. Talk to them about what's bothering them in a new situation. Ask other adults to give your child jobs to make them feel more comfortable in a situation.

Kirk Martin was amusing and serious at the same time. I really enjoyed his seminar; it was convicting and encouraging too. My friends bought materials from Calm Christian Parenting, so we will have a chance to peruse them at more length. You can view samples of Kirk's seminars HERE.

The main thing I came away with was SELF-CONTROL. Learn it and use it and teach it to kids.

Midwest Homeschool Convention - It's Onomatopeia, Mom!

The first seminar I attended was “It’s Onomatopoeia, Mom!” – Using Children’s Stories to Teach Literary Device. The speaker was Adam Andrews from The Center for Literary Education. You may be able to buy a CD of this talk here. (For those of you in SOF, we did buy a CD of this seminar.) What follows is a recap of the seminar taken from my notes. (which are not nearly as clear as they could be, so I apologize for any holes in the information!)

The seminar description in the conference booklet caught my eye:
Juxtaposition, metaphor, symbolism, irony, foreshadowing – HELP!  Parents often avoid the subject of literature because of the intimidating vocabulary of literary analysis.  The truth is, you don’t need a college degree in literature to understand this vocabulary; what you need is a well written children’s story.   Adam takes the audience on a guided tour of literary devices, making discerning literary analysts out of each and every audience member.  Doing the same with your own children couldn’t be easier, but beware: soon, they will be finding onomatopoeia everywhere they look.

Adam Andrews has an energetic cheerful style that immediately engages the audience. He and his wife have six children whom they homeschool while also running The Center for Literary Education. Andrews promised the audience a curriculum secret to connect your pile of books with your pile of kids and indicated that we could add depth, power, and profundity to homeschooling without also adding a lot of work. Since no one wants to throw out what we are doing and start over, he began to descibe a technique that can enliven all that we are already doing in literature.

Literary analysis is, says Andrews, simpler than college texts would have us believe. He boils it down to three components that all works of fiction share: Style, Context, and Structure. Since usually we try to learn literary analysis with long complicated novels, he urges us to try it with children's literature instead since it is short and clear, yet contains all the elements present in longer fiction works. And the time to start is NOW!

1 - Style (stylistic elements) = literary devices such as onomatopeia, symbolism, assonance, alliteration, juxtaposition
2 - Context - when & where it was written (not the setting)
3 - Structure

Andrews then read us the famous Longfellow poem, Paul Revere's Ride. After reading it once, we went back through it as a group and identified many different literary devices and how Longfellow used them to create an ominous mood of oppression in his poem and a call for Americans to "wake up!"

How does one classify a literary device? 1 - Identify, 2 - Categorize, 3 - Distinguish

• Onomatopeia - a word that sounds like its definition
• Assonance - internal vowel sounds repeating from word to word
• Alliteration - words beginning with the same sound throughout a phrase
• Imagery - paints a picture in the reader's mind
• Personification - gives human characteristics to something non-human
• Simile - comparison using like or as
• Metaphor - comparison that doesn't use like or as
• Allusion - refers to something meaningful outside the bounds of the story (an "inside joke")
• Symbolism - thing that stands for an idea (advanced technique to identify)

He then went through the results of a 90 second Google search on Longfellow to help us understand the context. Longfellow lived from 1807 to 1882 in New England. He was an American poet that was "rock star" famous in his day. This poem was published in January 1861 in Atlantic Monthly at the height of the secession crisis before the Civil War. The poem is a propaganda piece for Union enlistment or possibly a call to unity for the nation NOT just a history of the Revolutionary War, as most of us have believed.

Adam Andrews made me realize how easy it can be to teach literary analysis, since he led us through a discussion of it in just under an hour and illustrated every concept with one short work of literature. I decided that I would go to another of his seminars the next day and I will write about that one soon and how easy I learned all of this can be!

Midwest Homeschool Convention - Introduction

This weekend I attended for the first time the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Part of the Great Homeschool Conventions family, this is the largest convention I've ever been to. I've attended our state homeschool convention (INCH) several times as well as some smaller regional conventions over the years.

I was unhappy with the direction the INCH convention seemed to be going - more and more conservative and less and less about actual educational issues each time that I went. I wanted to learn about how to be a better educator not about using raw honey or about how to have godly daughters. Not that those things are BAD or uninteresting to me; the reasons I attend a homeschool conference are different though. This conference is also longer than any I've ever attended - starting on Thursday afternoon and running through Saturday afternoon.

So, some friends and I decided to test out the waters at the Cincinnati convention which includes a larger range of subjects as well as some of the top names in home education circles. Exciting, right?

So, reservations were made and maps were routed and we were OFF! The drive was easy - straight down I-75 for about 5 hours or maybe 6.

The registration process was easy, since we had all pre-registered at the low price of $25. Alphabetized sign-in lines were short and we had our wristbands in just minutes. The vendor hall was not open yet, so we just hung out for a while getting our bearings.

The convention is in downtown Cincinnati at the Duke Energy Center, a three-story convention hall with lots of room for vendors and workshops. Escalators and elevators were available to get from level to level, as well as numerous entrances to the building from outside, including skywalks from nearby hotels and parking garages. Tables were set up in the large common areas for attendees to sit and rest or eat.  A coffee shop serving Starbucks coffee is just inside one of the entrances; we did not use it but there were always long lines. High-priced food was available inside the vendor hall as well - $8 smoothies, $6 burgers, $9 salads, the ubiquitous convention almonds, etc. I actually paid $3.75 for a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew when I needed some emergency caffeine. No rules were present about not bringing in outside food (as was the law at INCH), so people could either buy food there or bring in their own - a nice moneysaver. We mostly did that - stocked up with protein bars, nuts, cheese sticks, fruit and bottles of water.


We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which was just kitty corner from the convention center and connected by an UNCOVERED skywalk. (I know; what's the point, right?) Our 19th floor room was small but comfortable. We had free wi-fi for signing up for the Hyatt Gold Passport (free). We did not use the valet parking at $24 per night, but opted instead of a parking garage 2 or 3 blocks away with $5 conference rates per day. We did not get the car out after parking it but walked or used public transportation downtown. We did not have time to use the hotel's pool or fitness facilities since we headed out to 8:30 workshops both Friday and Saturday. Other hotels very close to the convention center would be the Millenium Hotel, the Netherland, and the Westin. We got a conference rate at the Regency and other hotels offer that as well.


Fountain Square is just a couple blocks' pleasant walk, a lovely little area filled with trees and tables and chairs and surrounded by restaurants like Potbelly, Chipotle, and Mynt. Oh yeah, and the namesake fountain. We ate three of our meals there. Thursday and Friday, the temps were in the upper 70's so eating outside was desirable. On Saturday, the weather was much colder, so we ate indoors. We caught the downtown trolley there and took it across the Ohio River into Newport, Kentucky to go to a movie theater there. (See, we aren't ALL about homeschooling!). The cost was $1 per person one way - affordable, we thought, since we would have had to pay $5 to take the car out of the parking garage.

Next, I'll begin giving my conference reports.