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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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