Homeschooling

Roadschooling: Should we bring all the books?

March 23, 2011

What should I do about Scout’s books? I just found out that shipping them to Amsterdam will cost much more than I was expecting. MUCH more. $150 more. That’s more than I was expecting. I had been planning on mailing an extra box of them, craftily saving on airline baggage fees, but after getting off [...]

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Child labour? Heck yes!

January 14, 2011

Recently I’ve learned some interesting factoids about diseases of the respiratory system. Take this little gem, for example. Clubbing is an enlargement of the tips of the fingers or toes causing a change in the angle where the nails emerge. It can be a symptom of some lung disorders including lung cancer, lung abscess, and [...]

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2010 Homeschool Year in Review

January 3, 2011

It’s New Year’s Day, and I’m mulling over our second full year of homeschooling. Was it successful? Overall, yes, I think it went pretty well, though many of our days weren’t as productive as I would have liked. We got off track more days than I care to admit, and certain useful activities seem to [...]

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We Heart ALEKS: Math Curriculum Review

December 16, 2010

For some reason, finding a good math program is tricky. We’ve tried several on our journey, and I am pleased to say, we’ve finally found success by combing two programs: ALEKS and Life of Fred. Along the way we tried Singapore Math, Stanford EPGY and ThinkWell with mixed results. Today I’m going to talk about [...]

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Tectonic Tour: Mount St. Helens

November 22, 2010

Scout (above, in front of Mount St. Helens) is an earth-sciences junkie who enjoys reading about volcanoes and earthquakes. She loves to share facts about pyroclastic flows. She’s thrilled to live on the “Ring of Fire.” She gets a kick out of scrutinizing plate-tectonics maps of the world and pointing out that Vancouver is, in [...]

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NaNoWriMo: Day Who Cares

November 22, 2010

Uncle! In case you haven’t guessed, I am done like dinner. The first week of NaNoWriMo was terrific, but the notorious second week lived up to its name and pretty much did me in. I started trying to Do A Good Job, which involved Nurturing my story, Caring how it turned out and Comparing myself [...]

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“Joy of Learning is Overrated,” Says Cheapskate, Hypocritical Mom

November 16, 2010

Well, maybe I didn’t quite say that, but right now it feels like I did. You know, my goals for Scout in her homeschool journey are simple. On any given day she should feel proud of some accomplishment (large or small) and have learned something interesting. I want her to develop interests, learn to plug [...]

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NaNoWriMo Weekend 1: Is This Thing Over Yet?

November 7, 2010

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh…hello. I’m so totally sick of this whole thing. Not sick enough to quit, mind you; just enough to gripe and whine. Scout and I have both been writing on and off over the weekend. My novel is like the early days of the Gulf oil spill; it’s spreading all over the place and [...]

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NaNoWriMo: Day 5

November 5, 2010

THE STARTING LINE Renee: 5,398 Scout: 2,562 Scout’s word of the day for my novel: BUNK BED My word of the day for her novel: CELADON 10:22 am Wrimos need to average 1,667 words per day in order to hit the 50,000-word goal by midnight on Nov 30. According to that schedule, I am lagging [...]

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NaNoWriMo: Day 4

November 4, 2010

8:52 am Renee: 3,501/50,000 (Scout gave me the word: STEAK SAUCE) Scout: 2,251/10,000 (I gave Scout the word: TERMAGANT) A funny thing happened yesterday morning. I woke up just as the radio was broadcasting a gushing NPR interview about T.H. White, author of The Sword in the Stone. The guy being interviewed, a book reviewer [...]

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