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Time to Focus: Week 2 through 4, Grade School Writing

A Handcrafted Education: It’s Innovative, It's Eclectic, It's Academic, It's Homeschooling The next three weeks Sean worked on narrowing the focus of his writing. I like to call writing with a narrow focus “tight writing”. This skill is particularly important in non-fiction writing. Writing that is too loose plagues even experienced adult writers ;-) Sometimes when I am having trouble with a chapter I have to vomit everything I know about the topic onto the page. It is as if I cannot focus down without getting it all out. Even when it is clear and cohesive though, it doesn’t make …

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Moray and Maras, Cusco, Peru, Day 5 of Our Trip

One of the recommendations for people who are hiking into Machu Picchu is that they acclimate in Cusco for 2 to 3 days first. All of the preparation just to walk 37 miles over several days might seem overkill. It isn’t. Those of us that fared best out of the group we hiked with were the ones who wore the most comfortable hiking boots, trained with an intense hiking regimen before going, and were the most comfortable hiking at altitude. We had yet to meet our group. Some of the people from the group finished the trek, and others didn’t. …

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Cusco, Peru, Day 4 of our trip to Machu Picchu

Cusco, Peru, Day 4 of our trip to Machu Picchu When my husband Jim told me he had booked a trip for us where we would hike into Machu Picchu over several days, I was not pleased. In fact, I was irritated about it. It is embarrassing to admit now, but I had no desire to go on vacation and hike and stay in remote lodges along the way. He was surprised. He had booked the trip as a surprise for me and thought I was going to be delighted when I found out. It turns out he was right. …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, Month 7

Some months a handcrafted education looks like a carefully detailed pattern has been followed as if I bought something from Butterwick, cut it out carefully, pinned everything meticulously, and sewed all the pieces exactly to Butterwick’s specifications. Other times a handcrafted education looks like a crazy quilt. It has a little of this and a little of that. It looks like I ran out of the fabric that I was planning on using and began to wildly improvise. This month looked and felt like a crazy quilt. It was productive, satisfying, and dizzying. We crammed in everything that we could, …

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Physics for Middle School and High School

For the past few months, I have been receiving emails asking for my help figuring out science for next year. The emails are from parents who are hoping RSO Astronomy and Earth Science 2 will be out for the start of the 2015/2016 school year. It won’t. I even get emails from people hoping RSO Chemistry 2 will be out. I only have 1 chapter of that book written, so it definitely will not be out next year. I will start writing it in time for Sean to use it for chemistry during the next school year, but that course …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, Month 6

Oh my goodness! What a busy month February was for both Sean and me. There were times this month when I felt like I barely had time to breathe. I actually realized TWICE! that I had showered and forgotten to shave. I remember being super busy close to the end with biology too. There is a point when writing a book where I can see the finish line, and I am ready to be there, so I work as hard as I can even at night. I did not finish it this month, in case you are wondering. (The book has yet …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, Month 5

If you have read my previous handcrafting high school posts, it might sound to you like I have it all together. I admit I am proud of how we’re doing. But I have been working hard for nine years to figure it out. And any time a homeschooling parent says to you, as I did last month, that they started out using the classical method and it didn’t work for their child, there is a lot of pain and some tears associated with that statement. We have hiccups and issues even now. Sean just turned 15, and I deal with …

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Secular Academics for Homeschoolers Webinar

Secular Academics for Homeschoolers Webinar I was so busy moderating the session Secular Academics, I did not really listen to it until just now. What a great talk! What an amazing group of homeschooling parents! WOW! You can click on this link All About Secular Curricula to listen to this as a podcast. I will apologize ahead of time for the audio on my end. It could be better; I am sorry. Everyone else sounded great though! We have it in both the auditory version and the written version, because we are homeschoolers, so you know we are all about making sure …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, The First Four Months: Language Arts

Language Arts: How We Came to Be Homeschoolers My son Sean was an early reader; I was an early reader; my father was an early reader; my paternal grandfather was an early reader. We all started reading at about the same age, between three and four years old. I’ve been told by someone who seemed to know what they were talking about that early reading, just like early walking and early talking, is a trait that runs in families. In addition to coming from a long line of early readers, I love to read. When people remember me as a …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, The First Four Months: Science

Science: A Parent’s Passion         I LOVE science‼ My son likes science. This is the main area of handcrafting Sean’s education that has focused on the passions of someone in his family besides him. (My husband’s and my other passions are shared by Sean.) I am a scientist, and I know a lot of science. Even though he doesn’t have my strong passion for science, my son is good at science. He has had the benefit of a good science education. I am a passionate proponent of people learning how the natural and physical world works. I do not think …

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Handcrafting High School: Introduction

Handcrafting High School: Year 1, September, October, November, December          I am the homeschooling mom of a recently turned 15 year-old. I have been handcrafting his education for 9 years. The thing about handcrafting is that there are continuous tweaks to be made. Since I am in the thick of it, I am figuring it out as I go along. I am not sure what these posts will look like. Handcrafting high school will take a lot of planning, much of it to be done as we go along. This is the first of a series of posts …

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Learning Science

 Homeschooling and Science A Winning Combination Sean Lee learning about the science of aviation. I am reposting this article in response to an article in the New York Times. There is a link to that article at the bottom of this post.  The article validates what I am detailing below about how science is best learned! Learning science is something I have spent 24 years working at in one aspect or another. Today I want to talk about what I have learned over these years educating in various venues and to a broad range of age groups. This is the …

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Lunar Ramblings

Lunar Ramblings As I watched the lunar eclipse, I had what I call lunar ramblings are thinking about my homeschool journey with my son . Once again I woke my family up in the middle of the night. Sean does a better job of waking up than Jim, and the only dog that wakes up well is Sean’s pug Jezzie. The other two dogs would rather sleep even when I go outside. I have been waking the entire family up for almost two years now as I have been writing REAL Science Odyssey Astronomy 2. They have been waking up …

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Jodhpur, India

Today we got up and drove to Jodhpur. We are spending one night in Jodhpur, then flying to Delhi. A few kilometers outside of Jaisalmer we passed a long procession of people and animals. Jim thinks there were a couple of thousand people in it. First came the people with camels He is pushing a cart and pulling a camel That is pulling a wagon With people walking behind the loaded wagon At first the groups of people were small Interspersed with elephants, camels, goats, sheep, and cows I am embarrassed to say, this is the best photo we have …

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Daydreams and Fairytales in Jaisalmer, India

Here is a secret you don’t know about me. I am a daydreamer, an over the top, lose myself in my own head, fantastical daydreamer. It used to drive my mother wild. I was forever getting lost, because I would begin to daydream and just lose my way and everyone else too. I have many memories of being lost on streets and in department stores as a child. I would come out of my reverie in a panic, because I was lost and even felt a little lost as I went from the dream reality in my head to the …

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Jaipur day 2, Amber Palace post 1 of 2

Today was our day to hike. We didn’t know it when we woke up, but by the time the day was over we had hiked all over the place, and we had conquered some fears. We have been very sedentary for us. Here are the shop names I was telling you about yesterday. This is the old part of Jaipur. Another hazy day. This is the Amber Palace from across the lake. To the left of the Amber Palace is Jaigarh Fort. There is a wall you can walk on that connects the two. The distance is 1 1/2 kilometers. …

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Delhi, India, Day 11

We have settled into a routine with our placements. I can see how I could make a difference for some of these students. Two weeks just isn’t enough time. I am the main photographer for our group at our placement. I work with the older kids and have a little more time to myself because the students are expected to work independently when given a task. That is why there are so few photos of me at school. The students take these sentence pairs and make compound sentences with them. The only thing unusual about this problem set is that I …

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Manoran Singh, on Education, Social Differences, and Arranged Marriages

We have guest speakers most of this week. I will take notes and share what I learn about India with you. We are really loving our time in India. The people here are warm and welcoming. The food is fantastic. The culture is old, which satisfies the history buff in me. We are having a great time. Dr. Singh and Jim Dr. Manoran Jan Singh, Bella’s husband (the woman who runs Cross Cultural Solutions India), is a founding member of Cross Cultural Solutions India, and a psychologist with a focus in the field of emotional and behavior problems. At the time …

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Traveling and Homeschooling from India

We had a low key day on Sunday, so I wrote about traveling and homeschooling for the Sunday post. We did eat at a really nice restaurant, the Clay Oven in Green Park. If you visit Delhi, I recommend it. Traveling and Homeschooling Sean learns history at the Taj Mahal “Don’t you have school now in the US?” This or a variation of this is a question we have been getting often while traveling with a 14 year old in India. People have been very curious about what a school aged child is doing out of school. It is a …

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