Mikro at 19

This is the Song that Never Ends: Homeschooling Year Round

Sometimes I feel really jealous of the people who are blogging about their first day of homeschooling for the new academic year. We don't have a first day, or a last for the preceding year. We just keep going. There's no break, and little in the way of brand new books, since we have been at it all along, and are usually already in the middle of things by the time the August/September postings about the new school year start. We are oddities even among homeschoolers, it seems.

Technically, here in NY, the 2015-16 school year ended on June 30, and the new one started on July 1st. We've been quietly clicking along the whole while.

Seventh grade, so far, has been pretty productive. There is a lot going on here.

History/Social Studies: We are covering the Renaissance through the Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions, and we will go further if we finish early. (We will also do other eras and topics as Mikro prepares to participate again in the History Bee, and we will cover topics in U.S. History and Government as well.) Current events, especially politics, has become a passion. (I think I owe that to his friend Koby, a self-proclaimed "political junkie.") He watches election coverage daily, and we are always talking about news stories. Mikro has already read a bunch of nonfiction books on the Renaissance and some key figures from the period, as well as fiction set during that time. He's also going to be taking a high school level class in Geography with his favorite professor, and American Musicals Project classes on the American Revolution and World War II at the New York Historical Society.We are continuing our Great Courses history binge, trying to finish up Foundations of Western Civilization, and Great Minds of the Medieval World. I am learning about people that my Ivy League education never touched upon. I love the fact that homeschooling isn't just for the kid. I learn something new all the time!

Science this year is a combination of invertebrate biology, botany, astronomy and an introduction to chemistry (non-organic to start with). We are using high school and college texts, regents books, more popular mainstream science books, together with the Great Courses and Discovery Streaming Education. We are also covering the history of science from about 1100 to 1700. Mikro has read biographies of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and Newton over the summer. He also enjoyed our trip to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago back in June, and is happy to be able to say that he has now seen the ISS from NYC, Westchester County and Chicago. We are hoping to take a trip sometime this school year to a place where he will be able to see the Milky Way. There's far too much light pollution in our neck of the woods...

Math: We are still struggling with memorization of math facts. He understands the concepts flawlessly, but he is slow computationally because he is using his own algorithms to calculate multiplication facts that he doesn't have perfect recall of yet... He likes complex math, and hates arithmetic. He wants to dive into algebra, and we have put our toes in the water, but I really need to get him faster on his facts since this is a mandatory testing year for us, and he is really anxious in time pressure situations. We are working through the Life of Fred series, and I hope to be in the Algebra book by the second half of the year...

ELA: I have him doing worksheets for grammar. His spelling is as good as mine. He reads at a college level. His writing is amazing, but only if I act as scribe. If he has to type or hand write, he balks after a paragraph or so. I would love for him to be ready to type his own Nanowrimo effort this year...

My left handed dysgraphic teen has got to work on his penmanship and keyboarding. I watched him struggle on the standardized test he took in June-- not with knowledge or understanding-- but with being able to write math equations down fast enough. So this is the year of No Fun Mom demanding worksheets, something I have never done before. He has a 3 inch thick "7th Grade Super Yearbook" that has worksheets for math, ELA, social studies and science, and I am making him do it, not for the underlying subject areas so much as for the handwriting practice. He has worked too hard to be tripped up by something as mundane as the mechanics of getting things from brain to paper, and I am going to push him on it, even though it violates my preferences, and his, because college is looming ever closer, and I am NOT repeating the experience as his scribe. No way, no how. So I feel the clock ticking on this, and it's time for us both to get serious about it.

Study skills: a big focus this year. I need him taking good notes, writing outlines, and getting a better handle on managing his time. I am not a substitute for a planner and a watch. We are going to use the Everyday Guide to Study Skills, and some workbooks. And I am constantly supplementing with tales of my own bad decisions and how they haunted me in my college days. Being a gifted kid who never learned to study before walking into an Ivy League school and getting a rude awakening in the utility of those skills is not something I want him to follow in my footsteps on. Not that I'm sure he's Ivy bound. He wants a career in evolutionary biology and/or paleontology, so he will be applying to the places with the strongest departments in those areas, whether state or private. Either way, he will not go unprepared. Not on my watch!

State of the Mikro Address:

Wow, he's changing. He's a teenager, and his body and his personality are in flux. The occasionally deep voice emanating from his lanky, skinny body still surprises me. He's all legs and elbows. He reminds me of a great blue heron. Gangly, but fast. The eyerolls and attitude have also been installed in Mikro 1.13. It seems like a bigger adjustment for me than for him sometimes. Who is this tall, sometimes stinky, sometimes surly, young man that has replaced my sweet, cute, little boy? Time will tell. He's growing up, and I am confronting the idea that, before I know it, he will be out on his own. That fact is guiding our homeschooling, as well as life in general. I can't wait to see who he becomes. He's a great kid. I think he'll be a really good man.

Inside the Collections: Paleontology and the Big Bone Room

Mikro, Kev and I have been in the Big Bone Room shown in the video above! We took a Behind the Scenes in Paleontology tour at AMNH when Mikro was about 4 years old. We were lucky to get in back then, because there is a minimum age (10) requirement that we didn't know about. Kev had to agree to carry Mikro (until he pointed out photos of Roy Chapman Andrews and started identifying fossils, at which point they let him down and answered a slew of questions!)

This year's tour was completely different, and involved the preparator's lab (which was also on the first tour, but had different fossils), and invertebrate paleontology and microfossils. (The first tour we saw vertebrates (mammals and fish) as well as the Big Bone Room.

I highly recommend this event for anyone with a paleontology obsessed kid like Mikro!

A Musical Tribute: What Did You Learn in Homeschool Today?

I wrote a piece on Pete Seeger, the Hudson and how they tie into our homeschooling journey, which is going to be in the NYCHEA newsletter's next edition. Space considerations meant that the full version of my adaptation of Pete Seeger's "What Did You Learn in School Today?" needed to be trimmed... but our wonderful editor asked me to post the full version here, so she can link to it.

Here it is:


What Did You Learn in (Home)school Today

An updated version of Pete Seeger's song, by Chele Coyne of Homeschooling on Hudson.



What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned to fill in bubbles on a test

And that askin’ questions makes me a pest

I learned that funding is the key

To why they keep on assessing me

That’s what I learned in school today

That’s what I learned in school



What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned my teacher wants me to obey

And won’t make time for me to have any say

I learned that learning is irrelevant

Memorizing answers lets ’ em pay the rent

That’s what I learned in school today

That’s what I learned in school



What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned that girls are preferred to boys

Cause they sit quiet they’re the teacher’s joys

I learned that bein’ lively is ADHD

I need to be drugged for them to cope with me

That’s what I learned in school today

That’s what I learned in school



What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned that bullies are a fact of life

And I musta done somethin’ to cause this strife

I learned to go along to get along

And quietly endure when someone does me wrong

That’s what I learned in school today

That’s what I learned in school



What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned to question authority

And not to let anybody think for me

I learned to stand up for what is right

They won’t take away my freedom without a fight

That’s what I learned in homeschool today

That’s what I learned in homeschool



What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned to value diversity

There isn’t one right answer or way to be

I learned to be friends with folks of all ages

And not just the ones at identical stages

That’s what I learned in homeschool today

That’s what I learned in homeschool



What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned there’s no honor in bein’ passive

In the face of problems that can seem massive

I learned that when I see something wrong

I can help make a change if I write a song

That’s what I learned in homeschool today

That’s what I learned in homeschool



What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned that I can help stop pollution

Lotsa little changes add to a big solution

I learned to think of my grandsons and daughters

And keep the planet clean, protect our air and waters

That’s what I learned in homeschool today

That’s what I learned in homeschool



What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned that corporations aren’t my friend

Their bottom line’s all they care ‘bout in the end

I learned that government ain’t my friend

In the name of reelection our rights they’ll rend

That’s what I learned in homeschool today

That’s what I learned in homeschool



What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned that money poisons politics

By, of, and for the people means it needs to be fixed

I learned that war means we all lose

And to hope in the future it’s peace we’ll choose

That’s what I learned in homeschool today

That’s what I learned in homeschool



What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

What did you learn in homeschool today, dear little boy of mine?

I learned from Pete, Gandhi and Dr. King

That if people stand together we can change anything

I learned that music is a powerful thing

They can’t stop the people when the people sing

That’s what I learned in homeschool today

That’s what I learned in homeschool!



Thank you, Pete and Toshi Seeger. You proved that a song and a dream can change the world, and I intend to go on singing.

First Scantron

Mikro took his first ever Scantron test, but it wasn't reading and math, which he is required to take next year. For practice, and to give my nervous of time constraints kiddo a good experience before it counts for the state, he took a test on something he loves: The National Mythology Exam. He did the Greek/Roman, Transformations theme, Norse and Native American tests. Unfortunately, we won't get results till May... It's hard to wait and wonder. He thinks he did very well.

First Quarter: Classes, Projects, Field Trips and Library Days

Arts & Crafts projects at our local library, Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall, science classes at SMLI, comparative religions class (no pics), awesome percussion program at our local library presented by Simon Boyar, library days galore locally and in NYC, and Sketch Tuesday submissions (Mikro's and mine)...

Escher Inspired Tessellations

Mikro's subject for the History Fair, in case anyone has not guessed, was Maurits Cornelius Escher. Our entire household loves his artwork, and Mikro has been glancing through Escher books with us for ages. In all that time, it never occurred to me that, rather than just appreciate Escher's ingenious patterns, it might be possible to learn to make some of our own. And I'm an artist! (But I generally don't think of myself as someone who is incredibly technical or precise, or overly mathematical, even though homeschooling my son has done more to repair my relationship with math than all the formal schooling I ever had, including an A in college calculus. Trying to teach it has required me to really understand it, on a level not before required for passing math tests. And that has been tremendously empowering for me, and really good for my kid, who loves math, but hates "boring arithmetic"... But I digress...) But the history fair and Mikro's burgeoning interest in patterns and tessellations caused me to surf around to see what was out there in the way of how to's.

Here are some how to tessellate resources to check out:







And here is a documentary about Escher's life and art:



And now here is my attempt at a photo tutorial (Please forgive the awful font.):









Now comes the really fun part. Stare at that shape you created and figure out what it reminds you of... Mikro saw cardinals. Then add detail to your individual tiles and color in as you like....



Mikro was very proud of his piece, and I just love how those cute little birds turned out!



You know I had to try one! My shape reminded me of sting rays.



I like Mikro's better!

A Sign of the Times-- Math Illiteracy as Advertisement

My son finds it hilarious that Speck ads cause me to rant about math illiteracy. These ads drive me nuts. They utterly misuse Venn diagrams. For example, consider the following:



The set of New Yorkers who own cars does *not* intersect with the set of New Yorkers who do not own cars. The two circles should not be overlapping in the graphic.

While the set of New Yorkers who had a car until the value of their parking tickets exceeded the value of the car *does* intersect with the set of New Yorkers who do not own a car, it does *not* intersect with the set of New Yorkers who currently own a car.

This is hardly rocket science. It is elementary school math. What does this say about the state of our educational system, and what effect does such an ignorant and ill-considered misuse of mathematical principles being put on public display have upon our current crop of students, who must look at these things and feel hopelessly confused?

Reason number 8,749 to homeschool...

Random September

What we've been up to lately:

• Playing with educational apps on the android phones.
  
  
• Reading lots of library books about insects and arachnids
  
• Reading lots of library books about the Middle East
  
• Doing some math. Need to do more.
  
• Watching library videos about famous composers
  
• Playing with the neighborhood cat. (Mikro)
  
  
• Learning to ring up sales on the cash register at our favorite pizzeria. (Mikro)
  
  
  
• Watching sunsets.
  
  
• Buying Halloween costume makings at Goodwill. (Chele)
  
• Lots of drawing, including submitting to the Sketch Tuesday challenge at Harmony Art Mom. (Mikro)
  
  (Mikro's entry for "Crunchy" was a mantis eating a grasshopper...)
  
  
• Collecting and studying insects and arachnids.
  
  
  
• Art journaling (Chele)
  
  
• Sky watching.
  
  
• Harvesting weird veggies.
  
  
• Field trips.
  
• Fall classes have started up again. Mikro is doing Science at the Science Museum of Long Island, and a Crafts class locally. I am trying not to add anything else. I'd rather leave time open for academics and spontaneous field trips..
  
• Going down to the river.
  
  
  
• Getting older. (Especially Chele, who had her 47th Bday...)