VA Homeschooling

Materials

Washable fabric paint ($6 per color for Createx Acrylics, misterart.com)
Disposable plastic plates
Daisy mums
Hemp table runner ($45, vivaterra.com)

Directions

1. Pour about 1/3 cup of paint onto a plastic plate.

2. Dip flower facedown in paint, making sure the petals and the center get evenly, but not heavily, coated.

3. Firmly press the flower facedown on the runner to make a print, and re-dip in the paint as needed. Make as few or as many prints as you like along the length of the runner. (Test first on newspaper if you like.)

4. Let dry completely, for about an hour, then put the runner in a hot dryer for 10 minutes to set the colors. After dinner, wash and dry as usual.

A new study offers one of the most detailed explorations of playing games while learning math. It concludes that exposing youngsters from low-income backgrounds to a simple board game that involves counting produced large and lasting gains in their understanding of numbers.

The researchers, Robert S. Siegler and Geetha B. Ramani, designed an activity resembling Chutes and Ladders, in which they had 124 pupils count and move pieces along numbered squares. The preschoolers tested were from families that participated in the federal Head Start program.

Students played that board game four times, for 15 to 20 minutes per sitting, over a two-week period. At the end of the study, their knowledge of math in four areas of number sense had increased greatly.

Those results, and related research, offer an unconventional strategy for developing crucial math skills among young, disadvantaged students, including minority children, whose math traditionally lags behind that of their better-off and white peers.

Many children from poor families have limited exposure to board games and simple math-related activities at home. Spending even a small amount of time on fun, basic board games could spark an early interest in math and produce an academic payoff later.

“Young people learn a great deal about the world through play, and games are one source of play,” said Siegler, a professor of cognitive psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. And when it comes to learning math, he added, “the games that build understanding of numerical magnitudes are crucial.”

As the long race for the presidency enters its last two months, John McCain is offering positions on educational accountability and school choice that most of his fellow Republicans are likely to support. But those ideas don’t address the sharp divisions within the party over the No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of President Bush’s agenda for K-12 education.

“Education is the civil rights issue of this century,” the Arizona senator said in his Sept. 4 speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination. “Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school? We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.”

Sen. McCain’s statement on education drew some of the loudest cheers from the delegates in the convention hall. But his remarks didn’t answer questions about how he would craft policies to achieve those goals or alter the NCLB law and other existing federal laws.

Sen. McCain, who hasn’t been active on education issues during almost 26 years in Congress, voted for the NCLB legislation when it passed Congress with hefty bipartisan majorities in 2001.

The Harvest Moon is the first full moon after the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (the date in autumn when the day and night are equal length). This event usually occurs in September or October. The very next full moon, approximately 29 days later, is called the Hunters’ Moon. These two full moon events were given special names because of the moon’s brightness, which is due to the angle at which it is seen. The full moon is very beautiful and mysterious, and is often shown in Halloween pictures with wolves (or werewolves!) howling beneath it.

Materials

• Window markers
• Blunt-tip scissors
• Construction Paper
• Spray bottle filled with water (optional)
• Clear adhesive tape
• Facial tissues
• Window

Directions

1. To decorate the inside of a window with your very own Harvest or Hunters’ Moon, draw a large round moon with a white washable window marker. Make the moon large. The moon seems to be larger in the fall because of the angle of refraction of light near the horizon.

2. Surround your moon with the darker colors of your Washable Windows Markers, such as smoky slate and vivid blue. Before the markers dry, blend the dark colors with your fingertips or with a tissue or paper towel slightly dampened with marker color. If the colors dry before you are finished, mist them slightly with a spray bottle. Apply just a tiny bit of moisture or the colors will run, which can be another interesting effect.

3. When you are finished blending your sky colors, use a clean tissue to rub away some areas completely, to give the effect of clouds crossing the sky. Add some white washable window marker to the clouds, and blend it well for contrast.

4. If the full moon you are drawing is taking place at sunset, add warm colors, such as radiant rose, sunny yellow, and opaque orange, to the lower part of your sky.

5. With scissors, cut out spooky bat or wolf silhouettes from construction paper. Tape them to the inside of your window to complete the scene.

The campaigns of Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama engaged in a sharp and testy exchange on education last month, making the topic the center of debate for the first time since the long race for the presidency began.

“As for [education] being a centerpiece, I don’t think that’s going to happen with just two months to go” before the election, said Paul Manna, an assistant professor of government at the College of William and Mary, who studies politics related to education. “It’s hard to see how it’s going to gain traction.”

In what the Obama campaign called “a major policy speech” on Sept. 9 in Riverside, Ohio, Sen. Obama essentially summarized the proposals from his Democratic primary campaign, but added a notable new plank: He would double federal aid for charter schools, to $400 million a year.

“I will lead a new era of accountability in education,” Sen. Obama said in the speech. “But I don’t just want to hold our teachers accountable. I want you to hold our government accountable. I want you to hold me accountable.”

“McCain sounds pretty good on education, but when you scratch even a little bit beneath the surface, there’s no there, there,” said Mr. Gordon, who has provided advice to Sen. Obama’s campaign.

An adviser to Sen. McCain took issue with that appraisal, saying that the Arizona Republican’s school choice proposals are a serious attempt change the existing education bureaucracy and would result in better schools.

“Senator McCain … is interested in empowering families and speaking directly to the educational needs of Americans, as opposed to the system,” said Eugene W. Hickok, a former deputy secretary of education under President Bush who is advising the McCain campaign. “Whereas Obama, beyond his mantra of more money, more money, is really just supporting these traditional approaches to the system.”

On September 14, the 2008 Homeschool Expo took off with hundreds of visitors who homeschool their children or are interested in homeschooling their children. As a mother who plans to homeschool her children, this was an exciting event to see what the local Richmond area offers to its homeschooling community.

The expo included four discussions on different aspects of homeschooling, hands-on demonstrations of local classes, and exhibitor’s tables for the many local vendors. Though I have been part of homeschooling Yahoo Groups, it was nice to see how many people really do homeschool.

The two discussions I sat in, Homeschool Gelp Desk and Finding and Refining Your Homeschooling Style, offered a lot of encouragement to parents. They reinforced the concept that there is no one way to homeschool, but homeschooling is meant to be adaptive so that it works for your family. This was encouraging to hear so that I can keep reminding myself that I am probably not screwing up my kids’ entire lives.

A reporter also attended the expo and wrote about it from the perspective of a parent who has no plans to homeschool his child. He has some interesting comments, adding a perspective that many non-homeschooling families probably have.

As president, Sen. McCain will champion assessments and accountability, and he will be able to persuade the more conservative wing of his party, which disparages the No Child Left Behind Act as an unprecedented overreach of federal authority, to support those policies.

When asked how Sen. McCain’s education policy would differ from President Bush’s, Lisa Graham Keegan, McCain’s top education adviser, said that, “We’ve learned a lot from No Child Left Behind” and that McCain would seek more immediate help for students in failing schools.

Phil Handy, who served as chairman of the Florida state board of education under Gov. Jeb Bush and is another top education adviser to the McCain campaign, and Keegan saidthat McCain sees the role between the federal government and the states as a partnership.

Keegan said that’s a contrast from his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who has a more top-down approach, in her view. “He has not taken a reform position at all,” she said. “He’s proposing a myriad of small [federal] programs.”

Handy mentionedthat McCain has signed onto the Education Equality Project’s statement, which seeks to advance the idea that schools are primarily responsible for student achievement and promotes greater accountability for teachers and public school choice. Obama has not signed that statement, a move McCain attributed to union opposition in a speech last month.

Banned Books Week, September 27-October 3, is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The challenges have occurred in every state and in hundreds of communities.

People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups–or positive portrayals of homosexuals. Their targets range from books that explore the latest problems to classic and beloved works of American literature.

From Wise Bread by Linsey Knerl

In a recent cost-study I completed, I found that it is possible for American families to spend between $300 and $4325 per year to homeschool a single child. While this is as varied a figure as the child it represents, there are some very simple, smart ways to keep your costs on the low side. Here are my top picks for keeping curriculum expenses low and how each has worked for our family.

Ebay

I’ll be the first to admit that my top pick for cheap textbooks and student materials is going to fall behind other resources. Their now strictly-enforced rule preventing the buying and selling of teacher’s editions (even those clearly labeled as home educator editions) has left many loyal Ebayers in the lurch. While still a great resource for buying student copies and readers at pennies on the dollar, I predict it going the way of the dinosaur for most parents.

Wagglepop

A whooey what? This up-and-coming auction site has been making a modest comeback for some time. With only a handful of sellers offering homeschool curriculum, it isn’t for everyone. There are some fantastic deals to be had, however, and I personally purchased over a dozen books from one seller with superb results. Given some more time, this could be the solution to Ebay’s teacher edition conundrum.

Amazon

Taking over as my personal #1 resource for buying student and teacher materials, copies of textbooks range anywhere from a penny to very close to retail value. Older editions of textbooks can be identical to newer ones in content, so do your research to find out if buying that newest release for 50% more will only net you a shinier cover. (How much has Algebra changed in the last 10 years, anyway?) The only drawback to using the Amazon seller’s marketplace for finding
textbooks is that you purchase sight unseen. Book descriptions are vague, and shipping is not usually able to be combined. I have had great experience, nonetheless.

Homeschool Forums

With many parents fed up with auction sites, they have turned to each other for their cheap materials. The best sites
for forum-based curriculum listings include HomeSchool World and Homeschool.com. You may also be able to search around some Yahoo forums to get a more local set of listings. I have been successful finding curriculum for my children at reasonable value, and the materials have been in great condition. Most parents on these forums aren’t resellers looking to profit, they just want to get enough money from last year’s curriculum to buy next year’s.

Your Local Library

It doesn’t get any cheaper than this. While not usually offering textbooks, your library will have some excellent resources for the homeschooling family. This is especially useful for those families following a Charlotte Mason model or who just want to interject some classical reading into their educational diet. By buddying up to your librarian, you may find them consulting you on what types of books they should order, and this could be a huge opportunity for you and other homeschool families.

Internet Resources

If you are a worksheet kind of instructor, you’ll be pleased to find many printables online for all grade levels. Some
websites may charge an annual fee in exchange for high-quality worksheets and lesson plans. Others can give you the same kind of access for free, if you’re willing to put up with a few ads and limited ownership rights.

Scholastic Book Clubs

I will always remember getting the book order forms at school, looking them over with big plans for acquiring paperbacks, and then having my parents tell me no. Homeschool parents can sign up for the same ordering info from Scholastic’s
website and get order forms for as many grade levels as you teach. They have some great deals throughout the year, and there is no minimum ordering levels. If you do purchase above $20, however, you get free shipping and some fine promotional perks. With each dollar spent, you will accumulate points that can be redeemed for future purchases. In addition to getting some nice classic paperbacks at school pricing, we have been able to get a few Nintendo DS games for
my daughter well below retail. The Scholastic Teacher’s site also has a good selection of seasonal printables, including answer keys.

Craigslist

No resource list would be complete without my current shopping addiction. Granted, you will need to weed through listings
for mint condition Playboys and tattered boxed lots of V.C. Andrews, but you if check early and often, there are deals to be had.

Garage Sales

Those parents especially dependent on concrete plans and tight deadlines might not appreciate the beauty of a surprise
curriculum find at a garage sale. There are no guarantees that homeschool curriculum will even be mentioned in the sale ad. You just go, dig through books, and see what you find. I have gotten boxes and boxes of books for quarters, just by asking. If the family seems to be the type that might homeschool, ask! (Usually the lab equipment, early childhood education software, and huge blackboards will give them away!)

Homeschool Support Group

If you are homeschooling and haven’t joined a local support group, you are missing out! In addition to access to cheap and fun activities, discounts, conferences, and educational programs, there is often a forum or email list for trading and selling
used curriculum. The best deals come from those you know!

One of the biggest expenses you will bear as a home-educating parent is the curriculum. Get out there and get informed about what you will need and what it will cost so that you are prepared to barter your way to a cheaper school year. If you make a mistake, just resell it. It’s all about learning, anyway.

Today is the fifth annual National Punctuation Day! Created by newspaperman Jeff Rubin, National Punctuation Day is meant to remind people of the importance of proper punctuation for communicating clearly at school or work.

In his words, “Punctuation has been devalued by a generation of computer wizards who ask, ‘What’s the point? Nobody writes in complete sentences anymore.’ But the rules of proper punctuation haven’t changed just because of computers… Careless punctuation mistakes cost time, money, and productivity.”