Battle of Brains Finalists Announced

Out of 500 entries, 20 finalists were announced this morning. We did not make it. This has been a huge project! I can't even guess how many hours were spent researching, planning, and preparing the report and video for our entry. Elliot learned a ton...I learned a ton! Sad that we didn't make it to finals, relieved that it's all over, and so grateful that Burns and McDonnell gave us this opportunity!

Miep Gies

Person of the week, 11/07/11:
Miep Gies was one of the people who helped hide Anne Frank, her family, and friends from the Nazi's during World War II.


Thanks to Miep, we have Anne Frank's diary because she's the one that found it and gave it to her father, Otto Frank, who then published it.

Comic Books

The boys of the PSB were lucky enough to have Mr. Regie come and talk shop. He used to be a color artist for Marvel and other cool things. He told the boys some of how the process works and gave them some tips on their own comics. It was awesome!

Non Negotiables

1. Help the boys to love learning!
2. Allow boys to drive and thrive at an individual pace
3. Time for the Essentials – Classics, Faith, Field trips, Person of the Week, Extra Contests, Toddler attention, classes and Co-ops. And a little down time for Mom.

So are these non-negotiables a reality? Some days are better than others. I just heard that the Public Schools recently finished 1st quarter. Wow! We have been doing this for a whole quarter. It flew by, and I have changed my mind about our schedules and procedures time and again. But we keep getting closer to where we want to be. At the end of the day, it hurts to imagine things any other way. So let the piles of laundry keep growing! We'll get to it when we can.

Pixel Planet!

Wow, Battle of the Brains has been a HUGE project, but the PSB has delivered. Check out the video and cross your fingers. If you want to know what the Battle of the Brains is, go here: battleofthebrainskc.com

Fred Rogers

Person of the week, 10/10/11:
Fred Rogers was born in 1928 just outside of Pittsburgh. He created Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which lasted from 1968-2001!

He was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That is the highest honor given in the United States to someone who is not in the armed forces. He was also inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, while one of his sweaters was inducted into the Smithsonian.


You can still see clips and complete episodes of his show at pbskids.org

K-12: Part 2

I have been through total immersion, K-12 style. Apparently, we enrolled in their program just in time for the government auditing (which determines the funding), so we were required to jump right in before our materials even arrived. It has been an incredible 2 weeks since we started K-12. Here are some highlights.

Curriculum
Love it. Cant really believe it! It is a mix of workbooks and online lessons, intermingled with classic books and hands on manipulatives. I am in awe of these supplies, and I cant believe we get to keep it all!

The Teachers
So impressive! The boys got to do some online conference time with their teachers today, and we all loved it. They provide some great interactive tools. The teachers have been extremely helpful and supportive, and they respond right away whenever I have contacted them. Couldn’t ask for more here.

Structure
I'm drowning right now. Seriously drowning. I'm anxious, overwhelmed, and overworked. I know I need to give it time to get acclimated, but I just need to be honest about how this has gone thus far. It’s a lot of parent involvement, which I LOVE but also don’t know how to manage. I have been getting up at 6 am, prepping their schooling for a full hour, then spending the entire day working with the boys. By dinner time, dishes and laundry have hardly even been thought of.
               
This pace can not continue. It’s not even an option. So we are problem solving, working hard, and praying a lot to know how to manage this. I feel very good about the k-12 program, but it’s requiring us all to be a lot more intense in our time management than we were before. There is definitely not time for big long family bike rides on a beautiful morning anymore. But is it worth it? The learning is so rich and impressive, but if it brings on stress in us all, then the love of learning will die right on out.

Schedule
Tagging onto the above paragraph, one of the problems we have is that we are involved in several things each week that don’t allow us to sit and do schoolwork every day. Thursdays are completely taken up for us by a fantastic co-op that we are in. Every other Friday (at least) is field trip day. Plus, Elliot has a writing class that we have committed to, and that class requires homework as well. So we find ourselves right now, once again, with two many commitments. I planned all these things before I ever considered K-12, and now the question is if we can manage it all. Or is K-12 mutually exclusive with the schedule we have already put in place?

We Have A Butterfly!

He did it! Good job Squiggles. We saw it every step of the way.

Without Limits: Nick Vujicic

Person of the week, 9/19/11:
Born in 1982 in Brisbane, Australia, without any medical explanation or warning, Nicholas Vujicic came into the world with neither arms nor legs.

He constantly questioned why he was different than all the other kids surrounding him; why he was the one born without arms and legs. He wondered what the purpose behind his life was, or if he even had a purpose.

By the age of 19, Nick started to fulfill his dream of being able to encourage other people and bring them the gospel of Jesus through motivational speaking and sharing his testimony about how God changed his life and gave him a future and a hope. “I found the purpose of my existence, and also the purpose of my circumstance. There’s a purpose for why you’re in the fire.” Nick wholeheartedly believes that there is a purpose in each of the struggles we each encounter in our lives, and that our attitude towards those struggles, along with our faith and trust in the Lord can be the keys to overcoming the challenges we face.

(Taken from www.lifewithoutlimbs.org)

Jerry Siegel and Joseph Shuster

Person(s) of the week, 9/12/11:
These guys created Superman, and American icon, in 1932. The rights were sold to Detective Comics (DC) in 1938, which is the same year Superman first appeared in a comic book, Action Comics #1.

They became friends when they were 16. Some people think that their status as the children of Jewish immigrants helped influence the creation of a character who came from a different place and had a desire to fit in to the American culture.

K-12: Examining the Option

When I first heard of K-12 I had no interest whatsoever. Then, a good and much admired friend talked to me about some experience she's had with K-12, and she raved over how it impressed her. She got my attention. My associate and I started looking into it, and after a few days of research and phone calls, we figured it might be worth a try.

Here is our list of pros and cons.

K-12 PROS

Money – Homeschooling can be expensive, and K-12 is FREE! They are going to send us a computer to borrow since I don’t want my laptop tied up all day. They are going to ship us 4 giant boxes of books, music, supplies and workbooks FOR FREE. If we don’t like K-12, they will send us return labels and we can return it all back to them FOR FREE.

*So far we have spent a bit less than $150 per child, which is what we would have paid to put the kids in Public school. But there is so much more I wish I could buy, and Im nervous to spend too much money in the trial error or choosing a curriculum.

Curriculum – This is only hearsay, because I do not have the curriculum in my hands yet. It is shipped and will be delivered here in a few days. But I have it on good authority that the curriculum is top of the line, advanced, and very interesting for the kids.  All of the subjects are covered, including electives like German and other foreign languages.

Pace – Supposedly, K-12 allows kids to work at their own pace. If they are advanced, then they move on. If they need more help, then they get personal attention and instruction so they can master their subject and move forward.  We can schedule our own days off, and choose what days we want to do which subjects. (Of course if you take a lot of days off, then you wont finish by the end of the normal school year. Whatever work you don’t get done keeps getting pushed to the next day, and you must finish it all eventually.) I have always wanted my kid to do year-round school, and that’s the approach we plan to take with this.

Staff – I have been impressed  (almost scared impressed, by the responsive, proactive and helpful staff. There is always someone available for tech support, and until 8 pm each day there are liaisons to answer questions and problem solve with you. It kind of freaks me out, because it seems very “sales-ish,” but they have practiced what they preach so far, so this is a thumbs up for now.

Structure – Lesson plans are prepared for you. Assignments and tests are prepared for you. Assessment testing is arranged for you. As a mom/teacher this is has potential to be a huge weight off my shoulders. I have been nervous about detaching from the public schools. Im scared of my kids falling behind because of something I neglect to teach or focus on.

Nothing to Lose – Ultimately this is why we are trying the program. It is free, and if we don’t like it, we put it behind us and go our own way. It is an option that is growing in popularity, making a lot of families very happy, so it seems worth the try. I have been told many people use it as a stepping stone when they first start to homeschool. It will lay a lot of groundwork out, which we may or may not like, and perhaps even if we don’t stay with it we will find some valuable things to take with us when we go another direction.

K- 12 CONS

Curriculum – I didn’t pick it, and I don’t know if Im going to like it. Supposedly it’s “top rated,” but I have yet to find out what that means. Who rated it? Is it dry and boring and confining? Will it kill the love of learning factor?

Will we lose out on doing our fun family science experiments, person of the week, and Story of the World? (The greatest History program!!!) Will we run out of time to read classic novels together? Im very concerned about this. With the boys doing completely different sets of work now, we will lose a lot of our togetherness time.

Structure – Yes, this can be a pro. Also definitely a con if it turns out to be too much book work/busy work. Being accountable to another teacher is in many ways what we were trying to get away from in public school. However, we do have the flexibility to do work in whatever order we want, and we can go at our own pace, whether that be ahead of or behind what is pre-arranged for us. It remains to be seen how confining this structure is going to be for us.

My Time Commitment – It scares me to think of waking up in the morning and checking the lesson plans for the day, never knowing what lays ahead of me. With two boys responsible for their own curriculum, and a toddler, how can I manage it all? How can I teach what I did not prepare? Im very worried about this, and I just don’t know how it will work out.

The final Decision – We are going to try K-12. I say this with great reluctance and also a lot of excitement.  I’d say we will give it a minimum of two months so we can really get into a new pattern and  give it a fair shake. Tomorrow, my associate and I are going on a date to eat Mongolian beef and fried rice. There we will also discuss our vision of homeschooling. This decision about K-12 is HUGE! Im truly torn about it right now. In order to make the best decision about proceeding with it or not, we are going to need to identify the foundational reasons why we pulled our kids from Public school, and if K-12 squelches those reasons, then it will have to go – no matter how many things are good about it.

I asked as many questions as I could, and now all that’s left is to give it a try! I will be back to report soon!

Cedar Cove Feline Sanctuary

How did 5 tigers, two lions, and an African Leopard find themselves in the Kansas Prairieland? We found out today. We got to see these cats up close along with several other exotic species of felines and a few gorgeous wolves. The workers at the sanctuary were all volunteers, and they provided a fascinating – intimate experience for our group of homeschooling families. What a great day!

http://www.saveoursiberians.org/

Soda Science

Before Our Eyes

The boys found some monarch caterpillars in the yard the other day and claimed them for pets. Today they saw one molt, creating a chrysalis around itself, right before their eyes. We knew once it started hanging upside down, like a "J" (it's called pupation), that we were in for a treat. We just didn't think it would put on a such a show for us. It will just hang out there for the next couple of weeks until it's change into a monarch butterfly, or metamorphosis, is complete and it's ready to fly.

Fine Art

Mr. M did this yesterday. It's quite a nice likeness of the piggies.

Piggies in an Igloo

Dress Code

For those that don't think we take our education seriously at the Percival School for Boys, our dress code is proof.

Pulleys and Balloon Rockets

Pulleys

Balloon Rockets

Where does success come from?

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, is about understanding the origin of success. To site one example, why is Bill Gates Bill Gates, and could anyone be Bill Gates? "Could I," one might ask? According to Gladwell, Bill Gates was a hard worker and uniquely brilliant, but he was also uniquely lucky.

Sometimes understanding patterns behind a concept can help you better design outcomes. This is particularly interesting with reference to the education of our children. In fact, many of the case studies researched here have strong educational associations.

At the very least, this book helps us see that we are truly a product of not only our genes, but also our circumstances and our opportunities. It is incumbent upon us to be ready for whatever opportunities may come our way.

Turmoil

Word of the Week, 8/29/11:
Turmoil is something you feel or experience when you're upset or confused.

Yes You Can: Team Hoyt

Person(s) of the week, 8/29/11:
Team Hoyt consists of Rick and his father Dick. Rick was born in 1962 and suffered from a lack of oxygen, which led his doctors to say that we never recover or live a normal life.

Since then Rick and his Dad have completed over 1,000 races, including marathons, duathlons, and triathlons. They even ran all the way across the United States, which is 3,735 miles!

Learn more about them and their amazing story at their website: www.teamhoyt.com.

Week One

First Day of School

The first week can only be described as a success by the administration, but what to the padawans have to say?

"It's awesome. I loved the floating man science project." –E.

"Twelve chicken nuggets. That's four for each of us." –M.

We made lots of cool stuff this week, including our own crystals, which the boys are obsessed with.

Homemade Geode

Battle of the Brains

The PSB is officially participating in this exciting competition. Who knows, maybe you'll see us as Science City some day!

What is the Battle of the Brains you ask? Check out their site. It's pretty cool stuff: battleofthebrainskc.com

A Learning Revolution

This video of Sir Ken Robinson from the Ted Conference is fantastic. Here are some of our favorite quotes:

"Creativity is as important now in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status."

"If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original."

"You cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do is, like a farmer, create the conditions under which it will begin to flourish."

"It isn’t about using a cloning a system...it’s about customizing to your circumstances your own program and personalizing education for the people you are actually teaching. And doing that I think is the answer to the future."

"Every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams under our feet. And we should tread softly."

Luscious

Word of the Week, 8/22/11:
Luscious is an adjective that means something has a yummy taste.

Crash and Rebuild: The Wright Brothers

Person of the Week, 8/22/11:
Orville and Wilbur are credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane. They had the first controlled, powered and sustained flight, which is different than being shot out of a canon for example. This historic flight happened on December 17, 1903.

Each day, the brothers would bring extra materials as they experimented with flight. They knew things would go wrong, and they were undaunted. They just tried again and again until it worked!

"We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate what ever aroused curiosity."
–Orville

"If birds can glide for long periods of time, then… why can’t I ?”
–Orville

School is in Session

It all starts today, and everyone is excited. We are not taking the easy approach, but we are trying something we feel and expect to be a worthwhile approach for all involved.