Curriculum for 2014-2015

This week has just plowed me down and under!  It's been good stuff, but it's still ... a lot.

So I wanted to take part in the 6th Annual "Not" Back-To-School Blog Hop, with the theme this week of "Curriculum Week".  I even found the time to drag all the books out and take a picture of them.  I even started this post a couple times, but then would be interrupted by a call from my Mom, or by an animal emergency on my homestead.

But now I have a bit of time, so better late then never.

For the 3rd Grader:

For Language Arts we will continue with Explode the Code and Language Lessons for Little Ones, as well as just reading lots of books from the library.

For Math she is doing both Dreambox Math and Math U See (Beta level).

For Science we are doing REAL Science Odyssey: Chemistry

For the 6th Grader:

In Language Arts he is doing Language Lessons for the Very Young, Word Roots, Easy Grammar Plus, and The Reader's Odyssey is the method we are using to go through recommended reading lists for literature.

For Math he is using Math U See (Delta Level) 

For Science he is also doing Chemistry, but for him it's Real Science 4 Kids

For the Combined 3rd and 6th Grades:

They are both using Story of the World for World History (although they are off from each other by about 25 chapters).

For other History we are also all reading aloud The History of US and The Story of Science.  

For foreign language we are finishing up Puertas Abiertas and then we will have to find another program since this one still hasn't come out with a Level 2.

We are drawing using Mark Kistler's Imagination Station.   

And for writing we are using Don't Forget to Write as well as just writing lots of essays, reports, lab reports, and book summaries, etc.

Add in music lessons, family PE class, field trips, and horse riding lessons and we are pretty much good to go!

Things I've Found Interesting This Week

A few links to some stuff I've enjoyed this week:

Birds of North America done in Legos are very fun.

In the realm of educational interventions that seem totally unnecessary, Texas passed a bill to fight the War on Christmas.

A new study says that teens are tired of Facebook, which has lots of folks in youth ministry talking about how to reach them.  I don't think it will do any good to chase teens from one social media platform to the next, but the article is interesting anyway.

And in the wake of another tragedy, this post at For the Someday Book on Help That's Helpful: Do's and Don'ts After Disaster is a good reminder for us all.

Project-Based Homeschooling had a great post about The Sliver: How To Stop Fighting About Screentime

And Doug Muder wrote on UU World about "My Bloody Closet", a very thoughtful and thought-provoking essay about how to respond to the tragedy of the Bangladeshi factory collapse.

Weekly Round-Up

I find so many interesting articles and ideas when I'm reading online, and I enjoy other weekly link lists a great deal, so I want to try it on my own blog, and put a list of links up once a week.  A curated list of what I've found of interest this week:

• Slate had the Case Against Grades this week.  They lower self-esteem, discourage creativity, and reinforce class-divides.  In a somewhat related post, they also reported on new studies that show that "Tiger Moms" don't result in superior achievement for their kids.
• Think Progress and other outlets discussed Elizabeth Smart's comments about abstinence-only sex education and how it contributes to silence among victims of sexual abuse.  This is another reason we need programs like OWL, which I discussed on my other blog recently.  
• Teaching Tolerance had a very moving essay about Supporting Different Beliefs and a college-professor's moment of self-awareness about needing to respect a student's right to pray for them.
• The Mom Pledge called on us all to stop the "Dear Mom/Dad" memes or rants on social media in which we go off on some random parent for their failures and instead realize no parent is perfect and try to support each other.
• Another good one from Teaching Tolerance: the Neuroscience of Call and Response
• I found myself in sympathy with Why I Made My Teen Go To Church
• And I was interested to see Psychology Today talk about A Nation of Wimps  while the UK's Guardian posted about Why Parents Should Leave Their Kids Alone

What have you found thought-provoking this week?

How to organize it all

In case you haven't heard, Google Reader is going to shut down this summer.  At first I was really upset - Google Reader has been a vital tool for me to stay on top of my online subscriptions and all the blogs I want to read.  If Google Reader goes away, do I have to go back to having all of these blog posts arrive in my (already too full) email inbox?

We live in an information age.  And most of the information has moved online.  Instead of getting magazines in the mail, and then having them pile up next to my sofa waiting to be read, I receive blog posts into my Google Reader, piling up (sometimes) waiting for me to have time to read them.

So I was upset when I saw that my trusty standby, Google Reader, would soon be no more.  I immediately went off to try and find a replacement - and there must have been many more people like me who were out checking the options, because all the recommended sites were knocked out by "heavy traffic" or "experiencing unusual slow-downs".  Frustrating!

But now I'm testing out Feedly.  The speed is still a problem, but their blog assures users they'll get that fixed soon.  Other than the speed, I'm happy so far.  The visual appeal of the site is much more than Google Reader, not that that ever really bothered me.  I was able to transfer my subscriptions from Reader, and then easily sort them into new categories.

The presentation is appealing, and there are apps for mobile phones that seem really easy to use as well.  So - at least after two days - I recommend Feedly for all the other Google Reader users, like me, who were taken aback by yesterday's announcement.  

Linky Love

If you are like me, you and your friends are always saying "I'm so busy" - do we need to be?  The Busy Trap

And then, if you do take the time to just hang out outside, will you see very many other kids?  Where have all the outdoor kids gone?

Wondering what to do with free time, kids, and the outdoors?  The bucket list for kids

Life is not a photo-op

Everything I'm about to say was already said, better, on this post at The Power of Moms.  Reading that got me to thinking about my own habits of looking at blogs and Pinterest, and comparing myself (negatively) to the images I see there.

I've been blogging for six years now, and bloggers who blog about their personal lives get into the habit of taking pictures "for the blog".

It's no secret that blogs with lovely pictures get better traffic.  And now there's Pinterest, to further feed our hunger for inspiring pictures.

But, I've never really become all that interested in photography as a hobby, and I'm also not too interested in taking the time to stage the background of my home to make a better picture.  After all - if we aren't careful we start to think we have to live in a magazine spread every day of our lives.

I'm trying to live an intentional and thoughtful life, not a "pretty" one.  But at the same time, I can find myself comparing my life to the pictures I see on other blogs and on Pinterest.  So I spent a few hours playing "circus tent" with my kids.  But wouldn't it have been more worth my time to make them a healthy snack that looked like a circus?

I cook my family dinner almost every night, but it's not photo-worthy.  I clean and do the laundry and run the household - and none of that is going to make a lovely photo either.

How about you?  Does searching for a lovely photo of your life ever detract from living your life?

Sharing the Love

Here is a tour of my favorite parts of the blogosphere, the posts and the people who have enriched my life recently.

Some posts have made my mouth water, and sent me into the kitchen to cook. Angry Chicken posted about a fruit dessert, while Salt and Chocolate contemplated healthier baking.

Not A Stepford Wife made me laugh when she posted about Buzzy Boys, and The Boys Almanac reminded me of the joy of camping with How to Camp Without a Tent.

There was a lot of inspiration to create, with The Crafty Crow showing Outdoor Playspaces, and a homemade Footie/Pitch Soccer Game, and Fingerpainted Silhouettes, while Angry Chicken made a Book About Colors.

I enjoyed a glimpse into a life different from mine, with Walk Slowly, Live Wildly showing off The Minnie Winne Renovations.

There was food for thought as a parent and a teacher: Camp Creek Blog asked about teaching grit, The Organic Sister writing about How To Shape a Child, and Laughing Stars musing about Motivation. And if I was doing a star unit with my kids, I would love the ideas The Crafty Crow showed in Starry, Starry Night.

Handmade Homeschool posted about her One Word, and inspired me (as usual) toward intentional living. Holistic Mama reminded me of simplicity with The Noise of Stuff and Emptiness.

This is why I love blogging, and reading blogs - all these wise and inspiring and thought-provoking people sharing such wonderful ideas.