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One of the benefits of homeschooling is that when Mom is vacuuming the floors, you can go outside to do your math work. Today happened to be an absolutely perfect day outside, sunny and 65 degrees.

Oh, and by the way, he only missed one question out of thirty. I could tell he was totally focused out there. You gotta love that!

This is an awesome freebie that I had to pass on to my homeschool friends.

History Channel is offering free DVDs to to every school in the United States, including homeschoolers. “America The Story of US” brings history to life. All you have to do is fill out a simple online form. Requests must be made prior to July 1, 2010.

Talk about rabbit-holing! Cade came out of his shower gently balancing a cockroach on one of my emery boards. Thank goodness for this mother’s sanity that the creature had already died. But that did not stop Cade from wanting to ‘investigate why he had died’. I told him that since we don’t have any pesticides down, he probably died from old age. I was hoping that would appease him, but it didn’t.

So we got out the stereoscope to look a bit closer.

Is it ok for me to admit that I wasn’t sure if it was a cockroach or a beetle? Because I just wasn’t sure. I don’t usually look too closely as I scream and run across the room.

This is the way the roach was found, belly up. After determining that it did indeed have six legs, we decided that it was, in fact, an insect. Yuck! We looked at his legs and his face and antennae.

This was the topside of him; very clearly showing that I need to clean out my tub a bit better. He had lots of fuzz and dead skin cells stuck to his body. And yes, I broke off a tiny portion of one of his legs. But that just shows how very dead he was; already dried out and crispy.

Cade declared this to be the bug’s ‘armor’, always referencing back to something war-like or historical. Since there are no apparent wings, we determined this to be a female oriental cockroach.

This was her face, eyes and antennae. We were fascinated by the segmentation and minuscule hairs of the antennae. We discovered that the cockroach has 2000 lenses in it’s eyes, which is why it is a nocturnal creature. It also shows how it can see me and quickly run for cover when I try to stomp on it. Don’t tell Cade that I do that.

After a thorough inspection we came to the computer to identify and learn about our bug.

Here are some things that we learned:

~A cockroach’s favorite food is glue, like you’d find on postage stamps, envelopes or book bindings.

~A cockroach can hold it’s breath for up to 40 minutes.

~Some female cockroaches mate once and are pregnant for the rest of their lives

~Cockroaches rest for approximately 75% of each day.

~Young cockroaches only need a crack about 0.5mm wide to crawl into your house. Adult males can squeeze into a space of 1.6mm.

~A cockroach can live for up to a month, without its head.

~Male cockroaches transfer sperm to females in a special gift package called a spermatophore. Some males cover the package in a protein-rich wrapping that the female can eat to obtain nutrients to raise her young.

~Cockroaches can run up to 3km/hr (0.8 m/s). That is the equivalent of 50 body lengths per second. If compared to a human, that is like a human running at 205 mph.

~The American Cockroach is thought to have originated in North Africa The most likely scenario is that it reached the Americas during the early slave trade.

~The Madagascar Hissing Cockroach is a large, wingless cockroach from Madagascar. Males ram into each other with their horns and/or they push each other with their abdomens. Larger males usually win.
The winners of these encounters usually hiss more than the losers. The hisses of males also contain information about the size of the male hissing and may be used to assess the opponent’s size.

~Crushed cockroaches can be applied to a stinging wound to help relieve the pain.

Hmmm….. a useful reason for cockroaches! Good to know!

Yesterday I had the most amazing experience. For the first time since I began homeschooling, I went to The Virginia Homeschoolers conference. I don’t know why I’ve never been before, but my experience was exceptional.

I came away from the conference with a conviction that what I’m doing is right, inspiration for the future of our homeschool and comfort from being with people who all want the same thing.

I went to four sessions and listened to the keynote speaker, Linda Dobson. I have a few of Ms. Dobson’s books in my home and have always found them to be very helpful. She’s always had very practical advice that I could actually use. Her speech was about really treasuring these ‘wonder years’ with our kids. At one point, when she was describing the reasons she began homeschooling, I actually teared up. She spoke of her oldest son, and how outgoing and life-loving he was. But after only a few short months of public school he would come home as weary as a man coming home from a job he’s hated for years. And that made her sad. So she started investigating homeschooling.

Her story reminded me of my own life-loving, outgoing little boy, Josh. He went through virtually the same scenario. I didn’t  know much about homeschooling then. In fact, it wasn’t until Josh was in the fourth grade that I heard about people in our district doing it. Josh wanted to be homeschooled. But I thought that was for radical people and that if we kept working with the school system his problems would all work out. Plus, I had just started my own business and thought that I could never manage a new business and homeschooling at the same time. So I dismissed the thought.

It wasn’t until high school that Josh came into some comfort in his school life. He found good friends and he found a passion. The school he attended just happened to be the County’s specialty center for computer technology. Josh enrolled in the program his sophomore year and excelled. It gave him confidence that he sorely needed. Your mother can tell you a million times how wonderful you are, but it takes outside sources to make you believe. He was very gifted with computers and earned a good reputation.

Fast forward to Cade, who is ten years younger than his big brother. His hearing problems kept him from communicating with his kindergarten teacher and the students in that class. After surgery and time to get used to hearing again, he came out of his shell. But bullies and poor social skills got the better of him in first grade. I couldn’t just sit and watch another child of mine suffer at the hands of a deficient system. So we started homeschooling.

All of that flashed through my mind as I listened to Ms. Dobson speak. I’ve heard many stories on why people choose homeschooling, but I felt as if she were speaking to me personally. And so the tears.

My first session was about keeping the attention of your students while you’re working with them. The things that I took away from this session that I think will be useful to Cade and I are that he should always have a water bottle. Hydration helps with attention. And so do crunchy foods. Apparently, that stimulates your brain. Some kids need music in the background so that they won’t be distracted by every other little thing in the room. And if possible, we should try to use mostly natural light rather than lamps and overhead lighting. The best tip that I got was towards the end of the session, she suggested that a gentle touch with a pause will refocus your child better than an admonishment.

My friend, Jeanne, was doing a class called ‘Homeschooling the Hard Stuff’. And if I could have spent the whole day listening to her, I would have been happy. She has already homeschooled and graduated two boys and has one more that is Cade’s age. So she comes to the conference with a lot of experience. Her best advice was that each parent must learn to become a facilitator rather than just a teacher. Figure out what your child loves and wants to learn and go find some way for them to learn it. If you don’t know physics or chemistry, go find someone who does. OR, you could use other channels, like community college courses. Some colleges even offer courses online that your child can take from home. She says that a lot of college professors volunteer in community programs that suit their interests and that if you search through these programs you can find excellent learning resources. Oftentimes these programs are underutilized during the daytime and they are thrilled to find a new market for their services. She suggested apprenticeships or work on the job training for kids. Also, look for very unique experiences that will really enrich your kids’ educational experience, such as foreign exchange students. Her son became fluent in Spanish and even spent a year in South America because of their time with an exchange student.

Jeanne also did a class on unschooling, which was my favorite of the day. She is a big advocate of figuring out what a child needs and loves and letting them lead the direction of their own education. She says parents should learn to say ‘yes’ more often and offer more, so that the child can make more choices. She also encouraged rabbit holing. This is something that happens to Cade and I all the time. He is in the middle of a lesson and it has sparked a weird question that I can’t answer. So we head to the internet to find the answer and end up spending 30-45 minutes chasing rabbit holes. But he never forgets stuff that he’s learned this way. It has context.

There were so many things that I took away from the conference that I just don’t have time to write down. But I’m excited to start school again on Monday. And I’m a lot more confident about what we’re doing. And I find that I really do love this life of homeschooling. I regret that I didn’t give it a try with Josh. But I’m taking it all in now.

And I can’t wait for the next conference!

At our nature class this week, we learned about the many benefits we get from trees.

Trees and soil play very important ecological roles. When leaves and needles fall, they decay to become organic matter in the soil. Organic matter acts like a sponge, absorbing water and releasing it slowly, providing water for tree and plant growth and reducing flooding, erosion, and muddy streams. Organic matter also stores and releases nutrients that are then sucked up by plant and tree roots. These nutrients are essential in keeping forests healthy.

Trees also act as air filters. They take carbon dioxide from the air, sunlight, and water. They create their own food in a process called photosynthesis. From photosynthesis we get oxygen and water. In fact, one forested acre releases 2,140 pounds of oxygen for us to breathe and one large tree can release several hundred gallons of water through its leaves in a process known as evapotranspiration.

Trees also provide us with many recreational opportunities, like climbing, forts, camping in forests or just laying under a shady tree thinking about life.

Trees provide food, fuel and jobs for many people. We use trees to make many, many products for everyday use.

The kids in the class were asked to take ten minutes and look through the nature center and write down all the different uses of wood. Of course, paper and furniture was on the top of every kid’s list. Some of them noticed the floors, the mulch in the critter habitats, and toilet paper. One child even thought of rubber, from rubber trees, which led to a discussion on all the products that are made with rubber.

You can see many of the thousands of products that we make from trees at this site.

After the discussion, we came to Cade’s favorite part of the nature classes; the hike. We went out and found a tree stump which Christen used as an example to show the kids how you could read a tree’s history through it’s rings and scars.

She is so good at pulling discussion out of these kids, no matter how obscure a comment they make. For instance, Cade commented that some trees had bark that was like chain mail and others had bark that was like smooth metal, and it was all used for protection of the tree. And Christen just went right along with his analysis, even embellishing a bit herself. I love that about her. She is so wonderful with these curious kids.

Here, she is showing them how the rings have a light and a dark side to them, which shows the growing and dormant stages of a year in it’s life. She pointed out that you could tell if it was a year with plenty of rain or maybe one of drought by the width of the ring.

In this picture she is pointing out some scarring that the tree suffered, probably from a fire.

Christen also showed us this resource protection area that the park planted with over a hundred trees a few years ago. These trees will act as protection for the nearby lake and will filter pollutants that come from storm run-off. Run-off picks up and carries oil from the roads, soil from construction areas, fertilizers and pesticides from farms and yards and waste from animals and trash. The new trees will act as a buffer along the shore and hopefully, stop the shore from eroding.

You can see some of the erosion in this picture.

Whenever we go out on a hike, you never know what else you’ll find along the way. And someone pointed out this little empty cocoon attached to one of the trees. Look below her hand.

Isn’t it’s perfection amazing? I wish my camera could do it justice.

I haven’t heard any news yet, about the County’s proposal to end programs like this one. I still have my fingers crossed that they will realize their value and keep them going.

It’s been a long time since I learned a new skill. I haven’t taken any classes in a long time. And granted, this is a very informal setting, but it is a class. And I’ve been having a blast! One of the moms in our homeschooling group makes her own jewelry and sells it on the internet. So she kindly offered up her home, her supplies and her vast knowledge of jewelry making.

We began the class learning about the basic connection procedure.

Maggie had tons of beads for us to choose from and we were encouraged to let our imaginations run free. Music played, snacks were eaten and conversation flowed. I call it a class, but a couple of times this past week I’ve referred to it as a jewelry party, because that’s how it feels.

This is a pair of earrings that I made the first night.

The second week I made this necklace. I’ve also made five other pairs of earrings. Next week, I’d like to make a bracelet and I had another idea for a necklace.

It’s been really fun to get out one night a week and try something new. I’ve even had a few compliments on my earrings when I was out and about. It feels awesome!