We spent last week visiting my parents in Ohio. The kids got to stay an extra week at the grandparents without their nagging parents, so they won't be back until Monday. Everyone had a great time at Cedar Point for two days, seeing the new Harry Potter movie, and just enjoying time with Grandma and Grandpa. Hopefully, I won't have to do too much deprogramming when they get back.
I've been spending the week doing all those things that pile up in the house and preparing for our August unit on Japan. I've ordered real abacuses (I hope that's the plural) that we're going to learn how to use as part of math. We're also going to study samurai, ninjas, and of course history, language and geography of Japan. I still have a lot of reading and prep work to do, but I'll be ready before August rolls around. I haven't quite decided what their final project will be, but it might include another newscast and a viewing over a traditional Japanese meal with some of the family.
This summer has brought lots of travel for everyone and I've been able to see some of Tom's family that we rarely get to visit with. It has been so wonderful to see the interest that everyone has in what we're doing with the kids. I spent a while last Saturday chatting with Tom's cousin Kristen about homeschooling. It's funny how just having these discussions with people reinforce our decision to home school. When you're in the middle of all the work, it's easy to forget why you chose to be there in the first place. Talking about it with other people is a wonderful reminder, and really seems to re-energize me to continue. Despite the struggles, we really are doing the best thing for their education.
Lots of people have started to volunteer to teach something to the kids. I'm going to have to get together some kind of schedule and make sure this gets done. I think it's a great idea that they're exposed to different teachers. Everyone does things differently, and they need to know how to adapt. My mom is going to teach a course on American Government. Their grandpa Jim wants to teach some geography. Tom will be teaching a course in basic programming and logic skills the week of Thanksgiving. I know I'll certainly enjoy sharing some of the teaching burden! So if you're interested in teaching a class, let me know and we'll work something out.
Lastly, Happy Birthday to our Zoë!!! She's 8 years old today.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
More coasters!
The kids had so much fun doing roller coaster math that I had to come up with more problems for today. I think I'm enjoying it as much as they are. They have a chart with each roller coaster's stats. Part of the lesson was learning how to locate the information they needed. Here was today's lesson: (the numbers for trusses and support beams are made up, but everything else is real)
1. Trusses are used to support roller coaster tracks. If a truss is placed every 10 feet, how many trusses were used to build the Ninja?
2. Each truss has 50 support beams that are used to build the truss. How many support beams were used to build the Ninja?
3. How many more support beams does Evil Knievel have compared to the Ninja?
4. Each car of the Magnum holds 6 people. If there are 6 cars in a train, how many people can ride per train?
5. The Magnum is about 2 minutes long. If there are 3 trains running at once, how many people can ride the Magnum in an hour?
6. Cedar Point is open from 10am to 11pm on Saturdays. How many people could ride the Magnum each Saturday if every train was filled to capacity?
7. Each train on The Corkscrew has six 4 passenger cars. The ride is 2 minutes long and runs 3 trains at a time. How many people can ride the Corkscrew in an hour?
8. Mom and Dad get in the line to ride Top Thrill Dragster. The sign says it is a 90 minute wait from the point they get in line. If it takes 2 minutes and 30 seconds to ride the Millennium and 18 minutes to get back on the ride, how many times could Aiden and Grandpa ride the Millennium before Mom and Dad get on Top Thrill Dragster?
9. Zoë and Grandma don’t want to ride either of those roller coasters. Instead they decide to drive the bumper cars. If the bumper cars run for 2 minutes and have a 5 minute wait, how many times could they drive a bumper car while waiting for the others?
I was afraid that these might be too difficult for them, but they did a great job! My favorite part was Zoë made up her own problem for #7. She was reading the problem out loud and added "the ride is not working today, so how many people rode it". We took a snack break at that point, and got a good laugh out of it.
Also, Aiden met his goal of typing 20 words per minute today, so we all met our family goals and earned Guitar Hero World Tour. We spent some time this afternoon rocking out together. Now we need to find some new long term goals and something else to work toward.
1. Trusses are used to support roller coaster tracks. If a truss is placed every 10 feet, how many trusses were used to build the Ninja?
2. Each truss has 50 support beams that are used to build the truss. How many support beams were used to build the Ninja?
3. How many more support beams does Evil Knievel have compared to the Ninja?
4. Each car of the Magnum holds 6 people. If there are 6 cars in a train, how many people can ride per train?
5. The Magnum is about 2 minutes long. If there are 3 trains running at once, how many people can ride the Magnum in an hour?
6. Cedar Point is open from 10am to 11pm on Saturdays. How many people could ride the Magnum each Saturday if every train was filled to capacity?
7. Each train on The Corkscrew has six 4 passenger cars. The ride is 2 minutes long and runs 3 trains at a time. How many people can ride the Corkscrew in an hour?
8. Mom and Dad get in the line to ride Top Thrill Dragster. The sign says it is a 90 minute wait from the point they get in line. If it takes 2 minutes and 30 seconds to ride the Millennium and 18 minutes to get back on the ride, how many times could Aiden and Grandpa ride the Millennium before Mom and Dad get on Top Thrill Dragster?
9. Zoë and Grandma don’t want to ride either of those roller coasters. Instead they decide to drive the bumper cars. If the bumper cars run for 2 minutes and have a 5 minute wait, how many times could they drive a bumper car while waiting for the others?
I was afraid that these might be too difficult for them, but they did a great job! My favorite part was Zoë made up her own problem for #7. She was reading the problem out loud and added "the ride is not working today, so how many people rode it". We took a snack break at that point, and got a good laugh out of it.
Also, Aiden met his goal of typing 20 words per minute today, so we all met our family goals and earned Guitar Hero World Tour. We spent some time this afternoon rocking out together. Now we need to find some new long term goals and something else to work toward.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Roller coasters on the brain
Last week we took the kids to Six Flags. They had earned their tickets through the read to succeed program at school, and the school was nice enough to save their tickets even though they're no longer enrolled. We had a great time. Both Aiden and Zoë are over 48" tall now, so they were able to ride a lot of the rides. Although Zoë was apprehensive about riding the Ninja, she got on it anyway and had so much fun that we rode it twice. She seems to have a healthy amount of fear.
Aiden is a different story. Frankly, he scares Tom and I to death. He showed absolutely no fear whatsoever. He rode everything he was tall enough for, and was slightly disgruntled that he couldn't ride The Batman. At one point Tom took the kids down the speed slides in the water park while I watched and waited. Zoë chose to ride one of the curvy slides, but Aiden insisted upon waiting for the tallest, straightest slide. I watched all the people coming down the slides and Aiden was by far the youngest and shortest to come down during those 20 minutes. Tom told me later that everyone in line was shocked he wanted to go down and couldn't believe he was only 6.
I think some amount of fear is a good thing. It can stop you from doing stupid things that we shouldn't even be contemplating. It can help us find limits to our abilities. At the same time fear can be limiting. If we're too afraid to try something, we may never know what we're capable of doing. As with most things, problems arise at either extreme. My concern is that so far Aiden seems to be an extreme. I'll be much happier if next week he decides that the Millennium Force (a 310 feet tall, 93 mph, 82 degree drop roller coaster at Cedar Point) is too much for him. Otherwise his lack of fear might be too much for me!
Since all everyone can think about is our upcoming vacation and the trip to Cedar Point, I made up our own story problems for math today using facts about different coasters. The kids had a great time comparing all the different roller coasters and answering the story problems. When we finished class for the day, they headed up to the artroom to draw designs of their own coasters. Zoë said she was designing one that would be three times taller than the Millennium, but she wasn't going to ride it. She would have a team of testers ride it and tell her how it was. I'm hoping Aiden won't be on that team!
Aiden is a different story. Frankly, he scares Tom and I to death. He showed absolutely no fear whatsoever. He rode everything he was tall enough for, and was slightly disgruntled that he couldn't ride The Batman. At one point Tom took the kids down the speed slides in the water park while I watched and waited. Zoë chose to ride one of the curvy slides, but Aiden insisted upon waiting for the tallest, straightest slide. I watched all the people coming down the slides and Aiden was by far the youngest and shortest to come down during those 20 minutes. Tom told me later that everyone in line was shocked he wanted to go down and couldn't believe he was only 6.
I think some amount of fear is a good thing. It can stop you from doing stupid things that we shouldn't even be contemplating. It can help us find limits to our abilities. At the same time fear can be limiting. If we're too afraid to try something, we may never know what we're capable of doing. As with most things, problems arise at either extreme. My concern is that so far Aiden seems to be an extreme. I'll be much happier if next week he decides that the Millennium Force (a 310 feet tall, 93 mph, 82 degree drop roller coaster at Cedar Point) is too much for him. Otherwise his lack of fear might be too much for me!
Since all everyone can think about is our upcoming vacation and the trip to Cedar Point, I made up our own story problems for math today using facts about different coasters. The kids had a great time comparing all the different roller coasters and answering the story problems. When we finished class for the day, they headed up to the artroom to draw designs of their own coasters. Zoë said she was designing one that would be three times taller than the Millennium, but she wasn't going to ride it. She would have a team of testers ride it and tell her how it was. I'm hoping Aiden won't be on that team!
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