Resource Sharing

A homeschool friend posted this list of resources for doing bibliographies.  I thought that it would be a good idea to share it.

Below are some excellent links on how to cite one's work properly, in
research. Might be helpful for high schoolers. This Easybib site, an
amazing tool. Wow, a different tune from days gone by. Check out the
easybib.com.

http://www.easybib.com/

The OWL, Purdue.
http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=0&oq=the+owl%2c+perdue&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBS_enCA323CA324&q=the+owl+purdue

http://www.virtualsalt.com/mla.htm

At a conference about homeschooling last Saturday one of the speakers told us that her daugther's only complaint when she got to university was that she didn't know how to propperly site her resources.  The bibliography is a good place to start from.

Ontario High School Credits

I have recently learned about these 2 ways to earn high school credits on-line.  The great part is that they are free!  I have sent a few emails to find out more.

http://www.openschoolontario.ca/

http://www.virtuallearning.ca/

Please let me know if you have heard of them or used them before.

Moving Forward

I finally have glasses and can see close up again.  I discovered all these little numbers on the dash of the car when I drove home.  It was so helpful to be able to read them clearly. 

I had great intentions to buckle down and get caught up on lesson planning but was foiled by work and amazing weather.  If it had not been Thanksgiving I never would have had the oven going heating up the whole house all day yesterday!  Prior to that I was focused on taming my gardens to prepare for winter.  Ten more full yard waste bags and two full composters attest to the amount of gardening I accomplished.  I also cleaned up our front porch set it up as a bird feeding area complete with a birdbath that will be heated in the winter.  Our cat is loving it! 

The boys decided that we should invite our neighbours to join us since it wasn't possible to get together with any of our family.  Andrew made pie.  We feasted royally and enjoyed more tonight for dinner.

I am digging in now to deal with our studies.  The boys have finished a quick nutrition and meal planning unit.  We have seen Twelfth Night at Stratford and reviews have been written.  It is great to see how their writing has matured in the last couple of years.  English literatre is first with a look at short stories.  We have not done much with short stories so I felt that it would be good for the boys to do this together.  The first stort will be The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The boys will stop just before the climax and write their own ending.  It will be interesting to see who comes closest to what was written.

In our faith studies we will be using a book called A World of Faith by Carolyn Pogue.  We will begin by looking at nature religions of the past and comtemporary nature worship.  One of the things I loved about this book was that it began with nature religions and moved on to explore aboriginal spirituality before looking at the more frequently studied beliefs.  I must admit that I was surprised to see so many relevant books available to add to our studies at the public library.  I am looking forward to learning along with the boys.

I'll admit that I feel a bit daunted by economics but we will plunge forward this week looking at the recomended articles before we delve into Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury.  I am very thankful that we have the guide book to go with it.

We will also be wrapping up our civics studies by preparing to write the Canadian Citizenship test in an on-line competition.

I will post more as I get it ready to go.

Finding Community

Last night I met with a small group of women who were either already homeschooling high school or contemplating it.  For the first time in a long time I felt the blessing of support that I haven't had in a long time.  I have been home schooling for many years now but in the last few years I felt very isolated.  As the boys grew older I found that there were fewer families home schooling.  Covering core subjects demands more of our time.  Learning styles and academic goals seem to further separate us.

I never really felt that I fit in with the first homeschool group I joined.  Despite claims that all styles of homeschoolers were welcome I never felt that our academic approach was encouraged.  Politics came into play and pushed many people away.  A smaller network of friends kept together but now it seems that we are drifting further apart. The physical limitations and allergies my sons struggle with seem to make group activities more difficult.

I finally feel like I have found a homeschooling community that will be steadfast with us as we continue our journey.  I am so grateful for the support I have found.

The coles notes version of early schooling years.

Before I had kids of my own I had never heard of homeschooling.  In fact when I was expecting our oldest a friend who was also expecting was waxing poetic about homeschooling their child.  I thought no way!  She must be crazy kids need to go to school! 

Well times changed quickly once andrew hit the school system for kindergarten.  He already had a diagnosis of HEDS which caused many challenges that were poorly understood by his teacher.  Part way through the year he was diagnosed with a latex allergy.  He was on home instruction for the last half of the year.  Since the home instruction teacher only came an hour or two a week I began supplementing what she did. 

Just after Andrew should have started grade one we moved and the school he should have gone to wasn't accessible.  The home instruction teacher seemed to change weekly or cancelled at the last minute so his education fell mainly to me.  He did eventually go to school for part of grade one but the challenges and difficulties were unending. 

Josh started could hardly wait to go to school.  He was already reading at 4 (we had no JK in our board at the time).  Trying to support both boys at school often required as many as 6-10 trips a day to the school for dislocations and medical issues that were not handled well by the school board.  On more than one occaission my sons nearly died at school.  No parent should ever have to go through that.

Chronic strep kept Andrew out of school more than he was in in grade 2.  I did my best to try and keep up his school work.  During that time his favourite authors we Tolkien and Shakespeare.  He saw his first production on stage and his love of theatre was sealed.

Grade one was a very difficult year for Josh.  His teacher really didn't know how to cope with him.  He possessed very little tact or tollerance for her.  Getting him to go to school became a battle.  He was beginning to hate learning so we made the decision to pull him out for the rest of the year.  He was much happier and learning plenty.  His brother stayed in school.

The following year both boys started back at school.  Andrew injured his back at school and was unable to sit only a few weeks into the year.  His grade 4 class had 34 kids and could not accommodate his needs so he was back home again with a revolving door of home instruction teacher.  Sometimes he went weeks without instruction so again the bulk of his schooling fell on us.

Josh also struggled that year.  There were many incidents of bullying related to his disability and his allergies.  the teacher tried to keep him challenged but often seemed to be loosing the battle because there were so many needs in the classroom. 

The icing on the cake was a letter that came home from school telling us that since the school could not afford outdoor equipment the students should bring in basketballs, tennis balls and soft rubber balls all of which could kill my children.  The letter was signed by the same principal who sign both life threatening allergy plans!  There were messages on our answering machine warning me about this before I got home from school with Josh from other concerned parents.  The school staff actually seemed surprised when I informed them that the boys would no longer be attending school as we would be tking responsibility for their education.

This was the beginning of our home school adventure together.

Homeschooling high school

As our homeschool journey continues friends keep sharing amazing resources to help along the way.  This blog post was shared with me last week and I confess that I didn't have time to read it then but tonight as I looked it over I knew that it should be shared as a resource for anyone currently homeschooling high school or contemplating it.

http://pollycastor.com/Polly_Castor/Pollys_Blog/Entries/2010/10/19_Homeschool_High_School_Meeting_Here.html

There are so many links shared that I will be spending a lot of time exploring many of the ones that are new to me. 

If you take a look at any of the links I would be very interested to hear your thoughts.