Sitting Still Training Redux

My kids are now ages 18, 16, 13, and 11. During our last few weeks of lessons, we became  rather retrospective, at least my oldest son and I were. He graduated two weeks ago, so he is now done homeschooling!

Pause with me while I catch my breath. (I know some of you can't imagine being done with homeschooling. But it seems like it went by so fast!)

Anyway, my younger two were having a hard time sitting still. These two always have a hard time sitting still. They never really have liked sitting and listening, especially my 13yo son.

My older two blame this on the lack of Sitting Still Training for the younger two. We focused on this quite thoroughly about seven years ago (when my oldest was the age of my youngest). This made me think that perhaps we should work on it again.

What is "Sitting Still Training?" you may wonder. Well, just what it sounds like. They practice sitting still.

For some ideas and thoughts on how it works out, check out my blog post from 2006 (linked above). We will be working on it just the same during the summer. And maybe by fall, my two younger kids will be proficient sitters!

Attending the Con

Have you ever been to a homeschool convention? Since this is a homeschool blog, chances are good that you have! I've been to quite a few.

Well, this past weekend, our family visited our first Comic Con - Motor City Comic Con near Detroit. "Con" stands for 'convention' and this event is a comic book/pop culture mecca. Attending a comic book convention has been David's dream for a while and he asked if we could go together as a family. So, we made it his "senior trip".

Imagine a huge vendor hall (a la the homeschool convention) filled with booths selling comic books (instead of workbooks), action figures (instead of manipulatives), art prints (instead of maps), and t-shirts (instead of.... oh wait....). Instead of the homeschool "celebrities" like Steve Demme, Andrew Pudewa, and Susan Wise Bauer, you can meet actors and comic book artists.

Unlike the homeschool convention, many attendees choose to dress up as a favorite character. My son worked for months on a suit of Halo 4 armor (Master Chief) and my daughter dressed up as Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter). The rest of us just wore our geeky tee-shirts. (Mine were Iron Man, Loki, and Firefly.) We saw all kinds of cool costumes - Doctor Who, Darth Vader, Transformers, Star Trek, Batnan, Ghostbusters, Chewbacca, Black Widow, Jack Sparrow, Thor, Loki, and Iron Man. We asked quite a few of them for pictures. (Click the link for an album of the best photos.) David met several other Halo warriors like himself, but I liked David's costume the most.

Speaking of the Master Chief costume, this was a huge hit at the con. We had barely walked in the door when people started requesting photos. "Master Chief! Master Chief!" was a common refrain. Once someone stopped him for photos, then others would continue to ask and sometimes we'd be stopped for as long as 10-15 minutes in one spot waiting until everyone got their photos. He was especially sweet with the kids, encouraging any who were shy or scared, high-fiving the excited ones and posing for as many pictures as they wanted. Everyone was very polite and deferential when asking for pictures.

My favorite moment watching David pose happened when we were near one of the vendors who was selling Halo 4 toys. A blond boy of about six was looking at the action figures with his dad. Dad looked up and saw David dressed as Master Chief and nudged his son. The boy looked over and when he saw Master Chief standing there, his eyes grew round with excitement and his mouth dropped open. David beckoned him over and they took a picture together.

 Most of the costumes were in good taste, but there were a few rather risque outfits, including a very large bearded man dressed as a sexy Alice in Wonderland. As long as we are discussing the inappropriate, I will take a moment to mention that there were several booths featuring former nude models. The banners at their booths had suggestive sexy photos, though there was no nudity. Elsewhere in the convention, many artists featured art either sexy or violent or both, but convention organizers consider this a family convention and require all exhibitors and attendees to keep things at a PG-13 level.

Our tickets were for all three days, and we did attend all three, though only for a few hours each day. Friday was comparatively empty and we walked the entire vendor hall in under an hour, just seeing what there was to see. I wished later that I had taken THAT opportunity to meet more people - actors, cosplayers (those dressed in costume), and artists - because Saturday and Sunday were MUCH MUCH busier. David didn't wear his costume on Friday; he used that opportunity to look around. He did dress up on both Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday, in particular, was so busy that traffic was backed up for miles and the line to get in was a couple hours long. Thankfully a friend texted me and warned me about this situation just as we were about to leave. So we chilled out at the hotel for a couple more hours and waited until it calmed down a bit. Once we got there, we were blessed to find a parking spot that was close (someone was leaving as we were coming in) and were able to use our advance tickets to walk right in. Earlier in the day, advance ticket-holders waited in line. It's unclear whether they were told to do so or whether they just didn't know they could go right in. The volunteer workers must have had their signals crossed about that because I have heard that some didn't give the correct information.

30,000+ people visited the con over the 3 days; 18,000 of those attended on Saturday (which is evidently as many as attend the ENTIRE event in a normal year. So, even when we got there, it was VERY crowded. David was in costume and attracted attention right away as I described above. We followed him around and snapped a lot of photos.

Some other highlights:
I met Alex Winter and shook his hand. He starred along with Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and he has a documentary coming out about Napster. No pic of him because all the celebrities charge for autographs and photos. The only other actor I really wanted to meet was Cary Elwes, but I didn't have the opportunity. (Norman Reedus was there, but I wasn't interested in meeting him. Stan Lee was also there, but I knew that was impossible.)

Met Captain Jonny Sparrow, quite a good Jack Sparrow impersonator.

The boys did shop for comic books and got some great deals they were pleased with. I bought Suzy some My Little Pony earrings for her birthday. I saw TONS of things I would have loved to buy for myself, but that will have to wait for another year. David bought an Iron Man print that he is thrilled with and he plans to have it framed.

Suzy's birthday fell during the convention, which she was less than thrilled about. However, I think she had fun - the hotel stay, the pool, eating out, dressing up, etc...

Someone asked for David's email address and is interested in having him create a commission for him. We are also now exploring the possibility of Master Chief doing birthday parties. I had NO idea how many little kids would know the character. Actually, people of all races, genders, and ages were interested in high-fiving Master Chief and having their photo taken with him. Rather amazing actually.

EDITED TO ADD another pic of Suzy as Hermione. One day she wore her Gryffindor sweater (pic above in this post) and the next day she wore the cloak (this pic). She didn't want to wear them together - too hot, she said. Her brothers helped her make the wand. I crimped her hair. I was really pleased with her costume overall (although someone did call her Ginny Weasley, I think because she has a red streak in her hair).

WE DID IT! GRADUATION!

My oldest child graduated from our home school today! David has always been educated at home. He has worked hard through the years, especially on his math and writing.

David was awarded an academic scholarship to attend college where he plans to study Mechanical Engineering. He would like to work in the robotics field. David also will continue studying Tang Soo Do karate and plans to earn his black belt in in 2015.

David wrote this to be read aloud at the commencement ceremony. (They required it to be written in the 3rd person.)

David thanks his father and mother for devoting their time and energy to teaching him and for standing beside him and guiding him even when it was difficult. David thanks his Karate instructors for working with him and building his confidence, patience, and strength, both mental and physical. David also thanks his family and friends for supporting him throughout his life and and giving him their most valuable resource of all; their time.

My Teenage Son Likes Opera

Last fall, I received an email about some dress rehearsal performances coming up at the Detroit Opera House. We were offered the opportunity to get tickets for these performances for $10 each. I asked my kids about them and my then-17-year-old son said he was interested in attending some of the operas.

"Really?" I questioned. "You want to go to the opera?"

He reiterated his interest and so I ordered tickets for just him and me to the first opera, which happened to be The Barber of Seville (Rossini). (You're probably imagining THIS scene from Bugs Bunny now, aren't you?)



We LOVED The Barber of Seville. Since it is a comic opera, we found much humor and laughed a great deal. The music was wonderful and we were much impressed by the sets. If you are wondering about our comprehension, yes, the music is sung in Italian, but there are English subtitles above the stage so we could understand the storyline. We had great seats on the main floor that I later realized would cost over $100 each in a regular performance.

I asked David if he wanted me to order tickets for any of the remaining shows, which had to be ordered in the fall for the rest of the year. We chose Fidelio (Beethoven) and Aida (Verdi) and then settled into the rest of his senior year.

Now, lest you imagine David as a musician or a classical music snob, I do need to tell you that he loves many kinds of music. (Just about everything except country or hipster music, he will tell you.) He likes my 80's rock, his dad's hard rock, dub-step (which I cannot define, so please google), and so many other kinds of music (even some that I don't really approve of). So, opera is just one more genre he appreciates, but not the ONLY thing he likes.

In April, the tickets arrived for Fidelio and we once again headed to Detroit. (I even let him drive!) The music of Fidelio is amazing; we both enjoy Beethoven. Since these are dress rehearsal performances, the audience is warned that the performance may stop if necessary. During the Fidelio performance, the conductor did stop the orchestra in several places to rehearse. The plotline was not as interesting to me; I found it rather predictable, but we enjoyed the staging of the play as well as the amazing performances.

So, when our tickets arrived for Aida, we were excited. Even though this performance is just days before David's graduation and we have MUCH to accomplish, we took the time to drive once more to Detroit and spend the day enjoying opera. SO glad we did. What a wonderful time we spent together. The sets were just  WONDERFUL. David, as a potential mechanical engineer, can appreciate the set design more than many observers. Since the opera is set in Ancient Egypt, one of my favorite eras, I enjoyed that very much. The portions of the show with all the cast onstage were spectacular and breathtaking.

I look forward to discovering more great operas next year and I will likely drag my other three children along. Hopefully, David will be able to continue to enjoy opera as he moves into his adult life.

Homeschool Connections Seminars on Writing

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking to a couple groups of people about writing. I love speaking to groups (which amazes me since I hated it in school).

The first group of about ten homeschooling moms showed up for my morning talk on Evaluating Your Child's Writing. Most of the moms had elementary and junior high students. We settled in for a cozy chat on how to instruct their children in writing and assess the progress.

Later I spoke to a larger group of about 25-30 people, including some dads and teens, about writing a high scoring ACT essay. This information was distilled from my six-hour essay writing workshop, so I talked fast in order to include everything I wanted to say. I finished with one minute for questions. :-)

I felt really encouraged after speaking to these eager and diligent homeschool parents. I am confident that they left with more tools in their writing toolbox.

If you came here looking for the handouts to these seminars, here's a dropbox link.

"Buy me a map!"

We've been studying U.S. and World Geography all year using Mapping the World by Heart. This curriculum has some drawbacks and is not exactly what I thought it would be. HOWEVER, we have stuck to our study and are nearly done studying the geography of the world.

One benefit of doing this intensive study is that we've learned that James, age 13, loves maps! When I went to the homeschool convention a couple weeks ago, he had a request. "Bring me back a blank map!" He wanted a large map he could label.

So, I found a lovely large two-sided laminated map for him - world on one side, US on the other. Armed with a colorful set of permanent markers and a fine-tipped black Sharpie, he has (completely on his own) worked on labeling and coloring these maps. FOR FUN!

Went to Seminar - Wow!

I want to blog about convention, because it was WONDERFUL. But life has just become soooo busy that it will probably have to wait until after Memorial Day. Soccer and Graduation have taken over my life.

Here are the seminars I went to. If any of them pique your interest, I will start with those.

A Crash Course from Creation to Christ - Linda Lacour Hobar (Mystery of History author)
Increasing Your Child's Nonfiction Reading Level - Joanne Kaminski
Start Doing College Level Research Now - Regan Barr (Lukeion Project)

Throwing Light on the Dark Side: Good vs. Evil in Contemporary Youth Literature - Jim Weiss (Greathall Productions)
How in the World do I Grade Written Compositions? - Matthew Stephens (Essentials in Writing)
When Fractions, Algebra or Division Don’t Come Easily - Kathy Kuhl
Reality Homeschooling for this Generation - Amanda Bennett
A Saint, A Criminal and A Country Priest (G.K. Chesterton) - Jim Weiss (Greathall Productions)
Being a Disciple and Training Disciples in the Home - Steve Demme (Math-U-See)

Nine seminars =  tons of motivation and new techniques to try!

End-of-the-Year Co-op Program

At the end of our co-op year, our group hosts a much-anticipated program to show off what we have been learning all year. Many classes perform (drama, improv, sign language, etc.) and other classes create displays. Here is a sampling of what my kids were involved in this past year during co-op. Not all their classes are represented here.

• David, now age 18, took Build It Break It Shoot It (a "backyard ballistics" type class), Computer Careers, American Literature, and Improv Theatre. 
• Emily, now age 15, enrolled in digital photography, a relationship-building class, American Literature, and Cooking Techniques.
• James, now age 12, had the following classes: Backyard Ballistics, Hang Loose relationship building, Duct Tape, and Sports.
• Suzy, who is 10, signed up for PE - Gym class, digital photography, Upcycling, and It's Not Magic It's Science.

Emily with her digital photography display

James with his duct tape pizza project

Suzy with her digital photography display

Suzy with her Talking Pictures project

Suzy being "artistic"  LOL

Emily with her Talking Pictures project

James in front of the duct tape display table. His huge gun is behind him.

The Talking Pictures project asked students to interview someone older and photograph them, then display a written interview along with their photographs and old photographs of the subject.

Suzy with her Upcycling class performing music with found objects.

David's computer careers class created a video entitled "Peeling Out" as an end-of-the-year project. David was the cameraman and video editor. They filmed it in one day and then David needed a couple of days to edit the clips, add the title and credits and the music. Hopefully you can see the embedded video here in this post. Take a look; it's under 4 minutes long and I think you'll find it amusing.

Suzy's science class (It's Not Magic, It's Science) also created a video for the program in which pairs of students demonstrated magic tricks.

Looking forward to convention!

Last year, a couple friends and I went to the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention and loved it! We all decided then and there that we were going back in 2013. My tickets are purchased, the hotel room is reserved, and the dates in April are blocked off.

So, the other day, when an email came announcing the conference schedule, I was thrilled to download it and grab my yellow highlighter to mark the seminars that interest me. Wow, the list is lengthy! Here are a few that caught my eye.

• Dealing with Dyslexia and Other Reading Issues
• The Best Micro Business for a Teenager to Start This Week
• Exploding the Supermom Myth
• Teach, Reteach, and Review More Effectively Using All Eight.... (all eight WHAT?!?!?)
• Homeschooling a Child with Learning Challenges
• Exposing the Wizard of Oz: A Christian's Guide to Teaching History
• Your Child's Future: Being Real in Cyber World
• Increasing Your Child's Non-fiction Reading Level
• Free College at Your Fingertips
• Fairy Tales and the Moral Imagination
• The Logic of English: A New Way to See Words
• Teaching Foreign Language At Home.... It Is Important 
• Three "Missing Links" Your Child MUST Know
• How to Get Your Child to Write an Essay Without... (Without WHAT?)
• Multisensory Grammar
• Habit Revisited: The Importance of Habit Training in Your Child's Education

And those are just from the first day of the conference!! Two more learning-filled days follow that!

I am sure you can note my clear bias toward language arts and history from the ones that I marked. :-) Some of the speakers I am most excited about hearing are: Andrew Pudewa (again), Adam Andrews (again), Linda Lacour Hobar (author of Mystery of History), Steve Demme (Math-U-See), Diana Waring (whom I heard speak years ago), and more!

Planning a High School English Credit

What constitutes a high school credit and what can be used to meet credit requirements? Several conversations I've heard have led me to believe that many homeschooling moms are unaware of how to meet high school graduation requirements in general and for English classes in particular.  

Below is some information on how to decide what goes into a high school credit. But keep in mind that learning doesn't have to look a certain way to be education (or credits).

HSLDA offers this information about how much work should be included: 
"For courses that do not use a standard high school-level textbook (perhaps you are putting together your own unit study, or you are using an integrated curriculum), log the hours that your child spends completing the course work. One credit is approximately 120-180 hours of work. The upper end of this range (180 hours) is usually
appropriate for lab science courses, while 150 hours is the average for a year long academic course such as English or History. Don't become legalistic in keeping track of each minute, but generally, when evaluating credit for an academic course, a good rule of thumb is 50 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 36 weeks, for a one-credit course. Logging hours is a good method of determining credit for elective courses such as art, music, sewing, carpentry, web page design, etc. The lower end of the range (120 hours) is fine for elective courses. For a half-credit elective, log approximately 60 hours; for a quarter-credit elective, log approximately 30 hours."

Let's take English for example, since I teach writing classes and moms often ask me about how to earn an English credit. A high school English credit should include writing, reading, listening, and speaking. Stated another way, I would include composition, literature, vocabulary, and oral language skills. Some other skills to consider are: literary interpretation,  the vocabulary and analysis of poetry, cross-cultural literature, and the analysis of plays, just to mention a few.

A nice outline of 4 high school English classes can be found here (grades 9-10) and here (grades 11-12). For my Michigan readers, you can peruse the Michigan Curriculum Framework to see what the Department of Education has chosen as goals for students of various ages. Specific Course/Credit Requirements for Michigan high schools have also been put together for each high school grade. Other states have similar documents which you can find online. However, for the homeschool student, I would consider these as a framework. For the parent who doesn't know what to do, these course requirements can give you a clear idea of what is ideally taught in Michigan high school English classes. 

The key to remember is that YOU are the one who gets to decide what your student takes. You can choose what counts for the class. You give the grades, you write the transcript, etc... As I said before, learning does not have to look a certain way. Homeschooling gives us the freedom to decide what to teach. 

Now for some specifics... I will list some practical ways a British Literature class I co-taught at our local homeschool co-op could have been used to earn a high school English credit. You can use this same method to help you figure out credits for any high school class.

Remember that HSLDA recommends about 150 hours for an English class? Let's see if we can come close to 150 hours with our Brit Lit class.

We assigned five novels to be read outside of class time. Audiobooks of the novels total about 58 hours. (By the way, free classic audiobooks are available copyright-free at librivox.org, and I highly recommend audiobooks for those who prefer other activities to reading.) Some may read faster or slower, but the audiobook length gives me an appropriate number to decide how long a student might take to read the selection. 

Each student also completed a poetry mini-report which I estimated would take about 3 hours to prepare. Students gave their reports in front of the class (fulfilling the oral language portion of the English requirement). 

Our class met for 14 hours in class and  we also met for 15 or so hours to watch and discuss the film adaptations of the novels. That brings us to 90 hours already just with the class as planned, more than enough for a half-credit class. I would consider this the literature portion of the class, keeping in mind that a full English credit should also include composition, vocabulary study, and oral language skills. 

So, what else can students do for the remaining hours for a full credit? I would recommend a large quantity of writing, also known as composition. Writing, writing, and more writing! If a student wrote an assignment for each of the five novels and spent three hours working on each one, that's another 15 hours. I would consider it important to also assign at least one longer paper or project that should take much longer to complete, but 3 hours per paper is a probable estimate for an essay. 

The class traveled to experience a Shakespeare play performed at a university. We also put together an end-of-the-year presentation for our co-op program (another oral language component). This added at least 10 more hours to the total.

What else can be included? How about 6 hours working on vocabulary and 6 hours studying for tests? We offered one optional novel inc lass that could include another 11 hours of reading time. Since our co-op only meets September through early April, my own children will continue their lessons through late May, so I assign them one or two more books to be completed on their own. That brings us to 138 hours, leaving 12 hours for you to fill as you like. 

The remaining hours could be used for review, study, further reading or writing, or a research paper, depending on your desires. Keeping a reading journal is a good idea! Some other possibilities could include vocabulary quizzes, more writing topics, tests, viewing another performance, and any other appropriate activities, each to be evaluated by you. 

By the way, it is definitely acceptable to list your student's high school English classes simply as English 9, English 10, etc... on his transcript. Public high schools commonly list credits that way. You can also list the courses by content if you prefer, such as American Literature and Composition, World Literature and Composition, British Literature and Composition, Creative Writing, etc...


If this information has helped you, please leave a comment as to what specifically was helpful. If you have any questions, I would be glad to try to answer them as well.