Good summary of the purpose of education

“Yes, man is made for work, but he’s also made for so much more… Education should be about the highest things. We should study these things of the stars, plant cells, Mozart’s Requiem… not simply because they’ll get us into the right college or into the right line of work. Rather, we should study these noble things because they can tell us who we are, why we’re here… If education has become –as Common Core openly declares– preparation for work in a global economy, then this situation is far worse than Common Core critics ever anticipated. And the concerns about cost, and quality, and yes, even the constitutionality of Common Core, pale in comparison to the concerns for the hearts, minds, and souls of American children.”   -- Dr. Daniel Coupland

In support of postponing the start of school (age)

Article about England, Europe, New Zealand...

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/school-starting-age-the-evidence

Sites for finding books that go with history time periods

History is one of our most central subjects here, so I love finding literature assignments and family read-aloud books that are about the eras being studied.  Here are a couple of wonderful sites to help with that!

http://www.readingyourwaythroughhistory.com/
http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/history.htm

Article on public school education

My friend Marc emailed this article about school this morning.  Very interesting -- though not completely surprising.  :)

If you've never microwaved soap before...

Awhile back I saw a fun science experiment with Ivory soap.  So this afternoon, we decided to play around and see what we could do.

First we tested a couple bars of soap to see which one would float:  Ivory did, the other did not!

 Looks like they're really getting scientific in the picture below!

Then, we put the bar of Ivory soap on a plate and I told them we were going to put it in the microwave.  I asked each of them to guess what they thought would happen.
Strider said he thought it would melt.
Colsen said he thought it would dissolve.
Rayna said she thought it would turn brown.
Miles was still grumpy from waking up from his nap, so had no guess.

Experiment begun!

It started to grow and grow and grow...

... and this was the result!

 No one's hypothesis was correct, but they thought it was really cool anyway.  Their conclusion was that it came out "marshmallow-y."

Then, of course, they wanted to try nuking another bar. (Things are starting to degenerate obviously -- why is there a child sitting on the counter??) So we put it on a plate...

... and back to the microwave we went with great anticipation.

This one turned out quite differently!  "Omelet-y" they said.

(Somebody please tell the child to get off the counter!)

 They all had fun playing with the results.

And, Miles, as usual, thought he needed to get into the action more.  (Who wants to bet there will soon be 2 children on the counter?)

Fun afternoon with soap!

School prep

I think my favorite part about teaching is the planning.  I love to get ready, to figure out how all the pieces should fit, to make schedules and charts, get organized.  This year, since we'll only be here for the first semester, my planning was more complicated and confusing -- and pretty overwhelming.  I'm so thankful to live in an area where there are so many different classes and electives and clubs and activities offered.... but my decision-making-impairedness is very challenged by it all!  Slowly, I've made some progress, though, and was happy to at least finally get a few charts and new systems put in place!

Here are the things I'm most pleased with:

 This is my chart mapping out every half-hour of each day, and what each member of the family should be doing during that time.  I know that we are likely to actually do these things only about 10% of the time, but at least it's something to shoot for!

 The kids' bulletin board has their schedules and their chart identifying their responsibilites for each day.

 I don't have a label-maker, but I pretend like I do!  (I just cut these out of a full-sheet label paper).  Now, theoretically, the books should be put back in the same place every day, reducing the amount of time spent answering the "Where is my math book?" daily question.  I know this will only work for the first few weeks -- or until the labels are peeled off, whichever comes first.

 And speaking of label-peeling...  I was so proud of myself to dig out this hand-me-down shelf unit and label all the slots to cut down on the paper confusion around here.

 But -- and this is not an exaggeration -- within mere MINUTES of me setting it up, someone had already come by and done this!  What is with my kids and their need to constantly peel things off of other things??

Anyway, I'm still excited about the promise of this new school year.  And I'm mostly excited about the fact that we have an in-home, electric pencil sharpener, which is now going on 15 hours of working life -- I'm pretty sure that's a record for us.  What a luxury to have all kinds of sharpened pencils at the ready!

No pressure to start school early

This recently published academic paper is reassuring!  Starting the kids later in an academic setting (and letting them PLAY and be kids while they are young) is not detrimental to their later schooling.... In fact, starting too early can actually have the opposite of the intended effect!

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w17085#fromrss