Quitting Thinkwell Math, I Think

Thinkwell is no longer working out for us. We keep finding that things are tested which were never taught. This same complaint has been discussed a few times on the homeschool high school chat lists, so it is not just our family who is complaining. I do not like the mix of computer based work that is self-grading then more work on worksheets that I have to print off, organize, and then grade myself. We found that when doing only the online lessons, that not enough was learned to be able to pass the chapter tests.

I think we will have to go back to me teaching the math directly using some curriculum that I have not yet selected. I hated what I saw of Video Text but might have to try it. I dread Saxon but it may work. I don't know what to do. I have to figure it out this summer.

While I'm on the topic I will share that Thinkwell Pre-Algebra for grade 7 son is not working out either. He is getting lost with Thinkwell. I cannot jump in the middle to give assistance when I did not teach the content myself when the material has not been looked at in twenty years. That son is also not following the lessons correctly. I hate that Thinkwell lets you go to the next chapter before taking the chapter test. (At least Teaching Textbooks prohibits that.)

For older son he may do math at the community college, that's one option, depending on how his standardized testing for the entrance requirements pans out.

For younger son, I don't know what to do, maybe Saxon Algebra, or a quick go-through of "Key to Algebra" before starting Saxon.

Declaring Grade 7 Done

The increased number of appointments for learning disability stuff for my older son in the last month has taken my time and attention away from my younger son.

Younger son is doing radical unschooling with the exception of math right now.

I am declaring that he is finished for the year except for math, which will continue all summer. In the very busy time with the former not-a-co-op in the fall semester doing 40+ hours of direct schooling plus 8 hours in class he had no time for math.

On the purely interest-led learning end of things he has spent some of his saved money on a professional microphone and mic stand in order to enhance the quality of his recordings to be used to make videos that he posts on YouTube. He really enjoys this. While I think it is weird or silly, I am not going to rain on his parade and am letting him do what he wants with it.

Next week he turns 13. There are slacker signs, or maybe it is just burnout, I don't know. He's getting a bit fresh. He has been growing and he needs more sleep lately. Funny how you notice the developmental signs more easily with the second child. You know what to look for.

Thoughts on Elementary Kids Cheating in School

Article Link: How Could a Sweet Third-Grader Just Cheat on That Exam?

Published in: The Wall Street Journal

On: 5/16/13

In my opinion: our society is asking kids to perform actions that their brains are developmentally not ready to handle. Elementary grade kids cannot comprehend the ethical issues let alone the philosophy of testing and its supposed importance to American society.

Why can't our schools focus on content and flood these young minds with information? Young kids need to experience life, so putting them in a closed classroom for the majority of their waking hours is already a bad idea. Kids need to be out in the world and exploring and interacting with real people in the real world, not just kids their same exact age with whom government workers classified them into groups based on random criteria.

Elementary grade kids need to learn some skills but some of the skills taught are pushed down from upper grades and too much time is spent trying to force kids who are too young to tackle those skills easily to master them. This winds up being a combination of pushing kids who are not ready and boring kids who are fast learners and think it was a cinch to learn.

There are so many developmental changes happening in the elementary grade years, kids are all over the place developmentally. It is very hard to get an entire classroom of kids all on the same page at the same exact moment in time. I don't know how teachers are supposed to do it.

Starting in third grade schools focus on testing as the goal when the real goal is learning.

The only way to avoid all this nonsense about too much testing and grades as the focus (not real learning) and cheating is to opt out of the system by homeschooling. Since the majority of American parents have no desire to go down that road, I will save my breath and move on with my day. Rant over. I'm stepping off the soapbox.

My kids have never cheated on a test, ever, and they are soon to be 16 and 13. My kid's lives have focused on learning and doing and experiencing and thinking.

"First- and second-graders are often taught to work together and share ideas in small classroom groups. When told they must start working independently, "it's naturally confusing to a 7-year-old," Dr. Anderman says."

"By third grade, "the high pressure starts" as more students begin taking state standardized tests, says Mark Terry, president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Most schools also begin giving grades, and children may cheat to keep up or to please parents or teachers. Children with poor study skills or learning disabilities are especially vulnerable; poor impulse control is linked with a higher readiness to cheat, says 2010 study of 189 children in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology."

Yes, young children are people pleasers. Most want to please their parents. Some who like school will want to please teachers.

The article outlines the problem and tells parents how to teach kids about the unethical nature of cheating.

"It worked better, she said, to tell her kids, "Cheating flies in the face of the values of our family and the rules of the school." She told them they'd be letting her down if they cheated, and she wouldn't defend them. "Not only will they be in trouble at school—they will be in hell at home."

Prepping for Used Curriculum Sale

I am co-chair for a used curriculum sale. Truth be told there is little work to be done. We are using a space that someone else has handled renting as a homeschool info night is happening under the same roof.

When we are done using curriculum I put it in a box to be resold. So I had that waiting.

In past decluttering sessions since moving into this house nine months ago I have found other things to let go of and dumped them into a box also.

The other day I went through the homeschool bookshelves and found a bit more to resell. Those contain current books and books I feel we will use in the next two years, so there was not a lot there to get rid of.

I have been pricing the stuff which is a pain in the butt. I have to check prices online since a lot of it is unpriced. I then have to imagine what someone would be willing to pay for it.

I have spent about ten hours in prep and I am sick of it. I feel like I am wasting my time.

Last year I hauled 20 boxes to this sale and only took in $120.

This year as with last I will not have my kids with me to help me haul the stuff. I broke a sweat in the humidity and that was even with volunteer Boy Scouts there helping me move some of the boxes.

To help with setup tonight I am trying to box items by topic, i.e. history, language arts.

Any "regular" books left over from this endeavor I am donating to the library tomorrow morning. I want this stuff out of here.

There have been 15 boxes lining the upstairs hall, these books, and I am sick of looking at them.

Period.

Wisenheimer Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: Wisenheimer: A Childhood Subject to Debate

Author: Mark Oppenheimer

My Star Rating: 3 stars = It’s Okay

My Summary Statement:  I Enjoyed This Memoir About a Gifted Child Who Finds His Niche

 

 

I enjoy reading memoir. As a mother of gifted children I was curious to read a memoir about a precocious child who didn’t have a healthy outlet until he started debate club in seventh grade. As a Connecticut native (near New Haven) I was interested also in the part of his story which takes place in that state.

 

I delayed reading the book as it didn’t immediately grab me but once I finally picked it up to read it, I got into it, and I was hooked. I enjoyed the beginning and middle of the book the most, as is when Oppenheimer reflects most.

 

 In his early childhood he did not have a great outlet for his high verbal ability and misused his gift to hurt others, the worst being that a false allegation was made. I cringed at what he did, but he was an immature kid without an understanding of the harm he caused (until the police got involved). I therefore was happy to see that being able to begin debate with older kids starting in grade seven helped him find direction and to have a healthy outlet for his gift.

 

The middle section of the book, about his life and debate in grades 7-12, was detailed about his experiences in the debate team. Honestly I was doubtful of some of this content as there were whole speeches recounted and he never said he had a photographic memory. If he had copies of the speeches or video footage I wish he would have mentioned that because I started to wonder if this could really be accurate. Who remembers someone else’s speech word for word? Was it creative license with memoir writing? We readers don’t know.

 

The book wraps up with his college experience at Yale. In this section he gets back to being reflective and the college debate team years were not a blow by blow recount. I liked that he shifted to a more typical memoir where the author looks back and shares wisdom rather than just recounting facts.

 

I hated the "joke" on page 181, for the record. I don't mind the sexual references here and there but that was much too detailed, and low-brow, to boot. I wish it was edited out, because it was gross and demeaning to women.

 

Oppenheimer is an academic but his writing style in this memoir is colloquial and it is a very easy read.

 

I enjoyed the book despite my not being involved or interested in debate in my family’s life.

 

I would have rated this 3.5 stars if it was possible; I’ll rate it 3 stars = It’s Okay.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Amazon.com's Vine program for the purpose of reviewing it on Amazon.com. I was not under obligation to blog it or to review it favorably. I was not paid to review it.

Tactics to Get to the Front of Disney Lines Revealed

Article link: Rich Manhattan Moms Hire Handicapped Tour Guides to Bypass Lines

Published in: The New York Post

On: 5/14/13




Letter I sent to New York Post journalist Teri Palmeiri today:

Who is worse than the rich hiring disabled tour guides?

It is the middle class parents who claim fake ADHD or SID or Autism (or exaggerate symptoms) by getting a doctor note so their family gets the handicap pass to get to the front of the lines.

(You can get the pass for young children with noise sensitivities and other vague complaints that can be easily faked. Not everyone claims fraud but some do.)

Are you burying that tidbit or did your research not dig it up yet?

It has been common knowledge on playgrounds for ten years.

Disney is hog tied by long lines that are not all handicap accessible so they put them to the front with wheelchair safe access. Thank the ADA and the federal government for that.

Now that you pointed this out maybe Disney will spend the money to make all the lines accessible and make the disabled wait 2+ hours like the rest of us. And then they will be livid.

Anyhow now most other parks have a special pass that you pay almost $100 a day and go to the front. Even lower middle class people choose to spend their money like that.

And Disney has had a service for families, a backstage tour that includes a Disney guide that takes them to the front of every line. I think that is $1500. Two families I know paid for that. So would you rather make that money Disney or the handicapped tour guide?

Once at Disney our family won a "dream pass" that let us go to the front. It was fantastic, I have to admit.

FujiFilm Finepix HS50 EXR Camera Product Review

Product: Fujifilm HS50 EXR Camera, Fixed Lens with Video Recording, 26-1000 mm lens

My Star Rating: 3 stars = It's Okay

My Summary Statement: Best for Outdoor Use - Excellent Image Stabilization - Does Not Need a Tripod or Monopod



 

Before writing this review I took over 900 photos in Auto or EXR mode over more than two weeks’ time. I photographed people inside and outside, pets, gardens, macros of plants and flowers, perched birds and flying birds, landscapes in overcast and sun, and used the zoom lens for two days at a sport event. I used it side by side with my Canon DSLR for a comparison.

My main camera has been the Canon xSi DSLR but I wanted a macro lens that went closer than 28mm, and I have a problem at the same events needing the 70-300mm zoom but finding 70mm was too close for candids of people so had to switch back to the 28-50mm lens. I also use the iPhone a lot for casual photos. I have not been using manual mode with my Canon or with the FujiFilm Finepix HS50 EXR. I had hoped this new Fuji would be a great solution to using just one lens for convenience while at sport events when I needed a long zoom then the next minute needed to take photos of people in close range. Secondarily, I was curious to see if the image stabilization could truly be used for long zoom without a tripod or monopod.

 

Pros:

One fixed lens, long zoom lens (although its use is flawed with autofocus – see below)

Great image stabilization (better than my Canon xSi), I was able to shoot using 1000mm zoom at boat races without a monopod or tripod! (So long as the autofocus focused on the right spot).

Works best in daylight or bright light outdoors

Phone customer service is helpful. (I made 3 calls and was asked to do an email follow-up.)

Easy to start shooting intuitively or with the simple paper owner’s manual. (Use PDF longer manual on the disc for the rest, including some basic operations.)

Cons:

Auto focus is not as well rounded or easy as you assume. I had trouble shooting close (non-moving things: plants, a still lizard, a sleeping cat, a building’s wall).  Even shooting from 10 feet with zoom the camera would not focus during half-way press or for the photo taking, but on photo 2 or 3 it suddenly would focus.

Shooting rowing scull races from about 50 yards was difficult also; it focused on the background river wall or trees not the boat despite the boat being in the focus range box.

I don’t like the viewfinder view being highly pixelated; it is so bad that you can’t see if a person’s eyes are open, for example.

When the viewfinder shows the object blurred and smear-y when I move or when the lens moves or the subject moves. This causes delay in the ability to align the subject and shoot the photo. This is a problem not just for sport races and moving objects but for candids of people in close range. The blurred or smeared object was so bad that I missed boats crossing a finish line, and could not tell if the boat in the viewfinder was our team or another. I missed many good shots.

I was unable to take photos of flying birds, the camera focused on the sky and the blurry, smear-y image meant I could not even see the bird in the viewfinder before it moved again and I lost the shot. I had problems getting multiple perched birds to come into focus to get good photos, even one that I was shooting from behind glass when it was six feet away.

Customer service said when I see the flower symbol in the viewfinder I have to press the macro (flower) button on the back. This includes when the object is 10 feet or 20 feet away but when using the zoom. The fact that the zoom is available was making me not get up and move closer (especially since something like a wild bird or a pet may leave or change position if you get closer.) This is clumsy but I guess I could learn to click that button with my thumb without moving my eye away from the viewfinder. I see that often but had not realized that as I’d not read the entire user manual cover to cover at that point in time.

The viewfinder and screen on the back of the camera has garish-unrealistic colors. The actual photos have the proper color.

The viewfinder is dark, when shooting a face that was five feet away I could not tell if the person’s eyes were open or if their mouth was open or closed. I just shot a lot and hoped some came out, and often, some did.  It was like shooting blind. However my naked eye right there could see the face clearly. (I do not understand the reasons behind this but there must be a technological explanation.)

Although I used the camera on the basic settings customer service said the cause of some of the autofocus problems could be that my camera needed a reset. I don’t get this, but if your camera is acting funky, try resetting it. It did seem to help me.

I like my photos date stamped but upon download the 3 dates in the properties change to the download date & download time. This is different than my Canon DSLR so after troubleshooting with the user manual failed and with the Fuji software’s help function, I phoned Fuji and was told that is the way Fuji cameras work.  What I had to do to preserve the original date/time stamp was plug the camera into my PC then view the memory card for the date. I file in folders by dates. I had to manually create each folder and then look for the dates, highlight and copy them to that folder. Then I could delete the photos from the memory card. This is time intensive and this operation is something that my Camera software does automatically for me (including folder creation).

I was unable to download the user manual the normal way and had to phone customer service to have them show me the back door way.

When I downloaded the Fuji software it hogged up my computer then I lost connection to the internet and had to do a restart of my computer to get everything working again. Odd and annoying.

The lack of built-in flash even with EXR mode (that sometimes chooses to take 3 photos in succession and puts them together into one image) is not that great. While I do have photos of existing light with shadow (that is impossible to do in auto mode on a DSLR or which would trigger built-in flash use with my Canon xSi),  it is not as important to me as taking accurate color photos and crisp photos. For example some of the existing light photos are yellowed in tone, which is ugly for people’s skin tone. Candid shots of people are difficult to get as if they move the slightest they blur out in both Auto and EXR.  This is a problem when shooting family photos indoors, blowing out the birthday candles, opening presents, etc.

The low battery light does not give enough notice. I thought the Canon was bad but this is worse. It will go on to indicate it is low then on the very next shot the battery is dead and it won’t take that shot. I advise that you buy at least two more batteries and keep them charged and handy so you can change it at a moment’s notice. When shooting using EXR mode with S for focus setting I went through batteries in just a few hours (in sunlight outdoors).

Despite the marketing saying this is a fast camera it is slower than my Canon xSi due to the autofocus delay. For example if I try to frame a shot, then focus and take it, don’t move the camera, it is out of focus again, and it has to refocus when I push the shutter half way down to take the next shot. (My Canon holds the focus in that spot so I can see clearly and decide when to shoot again and if a focus tweak is necessary it does it automatically.)

Other Notes:

Read your owner manual (on the disc) about the focus button located on the left side of the camera, the round dial with M, C, S. I had not realized this and it was left on the S mode when I think sometimes I should have been using the C setting even though they say it will consume a lot of battery.

Be sure to change the dial to the left of the viewfinder to make the image clear to your eye’s vision. That was not my focus issue but you should not miss that important step, especially if you are over 40 and your eyes have started changing!

I am not a video taker so did not test that aspect of the camera. I am glad it is there but haven’t used it yet.

In conclusion this is a camera with pros and cons and I find it risky to rely on. When I miss shots of my kid crossing the finish line in a race, that’s a problem. The convenience of image stabilization and a 1000m lens that also goes down to 26mm for closer shots is not a benefit if you miss the shots you want to get. I also need a camera that can take fast photos indoors with accurate lighting (not yellowed out or with weird skin tones) and that can take candids of people without them being all blurred from moving a tad. We can buy an external flash, I guess, but that is another expense to consider.

Each camera has its pros and cons and we each need to figure out which features we need then see if the camera can do what we want. I personally will use this for outdoor bright light situations and for sport events for other people, except when my son is racing, then the Canon xSi with monopod will come out.  For indoor shots needing flash I will use the Canon xSi since I already spent money on Fuji batteries and a camera case for it, and I am not looking to spend more money right now.

 

If you are looking to move up from a point and shoot and have not yet used a DSLR and need a lens that goes to 1000 mm you may be very happy with this camera. If you own a DSLR that you like and perhaps cost you more than this Fujifilm HS50 you may be disappointed when it cannot do what you are used to your other camera being able to do.

 

Disclosure: I received this camera from the Amazon.com Vine program for the purpose of reviewing it on Amazon.com. I was not under obligation to rate it favorably or to blog it. I was not paid to write this review.

 

 

Future Petroleum Engineer?

My older son has an increasing interest in petroleum engineering. He likes the idea of exploring for oil and dealing with ways to get it out of the ground. He likes the idea of travel and working in the field. Americans need oil and energy is 10% of our nation's GDP. Every American consumes energy, so it is necessary for everyone's life; the energy industry is not going away. There are jobs to be had in energy. My son wants to have a career where there are actual jobs to be had and where one can actually earn a living.

His former passion was aerospace. He loves the idea of working in aerospace but is confused by recent federal budget cuts under the Obama administration with NASA. The future of space exploration is a bit foggy right now. My son does not want to train for a job that is defunct. I wondered if the reduction in space work with the government would result in an increase in the private sector, but who knows.

To the end of learning more about petroleum engineering my son attended the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston last week, with my husband. My son had a student pass. My husband does not work in the energy sector, he is an investor working to invest money in energy stocks, with a focus on oil field services.

The parking lots at the Reliant Center were filled with oil rigs and drilling machinery. Indoors there were booths for salespeople to try to sell their creations to the oil exploration companies. My son found it exciting. He came home with advertising materials with photos of rigs and other machinery which thrilled him. (I am not this type so I don't get it but I enjoy seeing his glee.)

I wish my son could get a mentor in the field to learn what the job is really like to see if he truly is interested in it. I wish he could know more so it would motivate him to excel in his high school studies so he can gain admission to an engineering school, rather than being a sink or swim freshman who may or may not be a good fit for the major.

Blog for Homeschooling High School

A blog post of mine was reprinted on Let's  Homeschool High School.

Check out the blog if you are interested in homeschooling high school.