Today was the homeschool testing day. I don't think the kids find it to be a lot of fun, but I know I look forward to visiting with the other homeschool moms while  the kids are in there slaving away with their number 2 pencils.

It used to be that I would see lots of familiar faces each year, but this year most of the faces were new to me. So many of the homeschool moms I used to look forward to seeing now have kids graduated and they are at the end of their homeschooling years. I guess they stopped having little ones while we kept adding to the family. LOL. I miss them. But, it was fun meeting new homeschoolers. I got the word out among the group about next year's free online classes and hope a few will follow up with a visit to the online classroom and enrollment next fall. Our local homeschool group, of which I have been woefully remiss in being involved in lately, will have a Park Day on Friday. I plan to go since this is our week of spring break in the online classroom.

This morning's weigh-in marked the passage from the official overweight category to now being in a normal weight range for my height. Horray!

In total, I have lost about 35 pounds since January 10th. I am not finished yet of course. I will be continuing to diet down to the 'ideal' weight that I am supposed to be according to the 'experts', 143 pounds. From here on though, I will be taking photos at 5 pound increments and keeping a log of what my current health is as I travel down to that target. Somehow, I just don't trust the experts to know my body as well as I will, so I will decide my own ideal and by experiencing how I feel at the different weights When I find the one that I feel best at and don't have to be totally neurotic to be capable of staying at, then that will be my set-point that I will aim to maintain long-term.

Well, I am now at a bit over 5 weeks on the diet. I have been keeping a handmade chart that shows metabolism (top), weight (middle), actual calories, and calories minus cardio (bottom). I have two goals. One is to reach 160 which is wabout where I anticipate that I will feel the healthiest. If all goes according to plan, I should be there about the middle of July. My ideal weight is a secondary goal. It is supposed to be 143 pounds. However, I have seen way to many people look and feel terrible at the supposed ideal weight, so I will be experimentally losing weight form 160 to 140 and stop where it seems my health and appearance are at best.

You can click the chart I made of progress so far to see it full size:

I really expected with charting the data that I would clearly see some logic to trends, but alas a diet is not so predictable as you might think when you first get started. There were days when I didn't eat much and actually gained and days where I topped out to my caloire budget and actually lost weight. LOL. Even exercise was not very predictive. I went for round two with this flu and quit exercising for six days and lost at the fastest rate yet. sigh. Of course that was with fever and zero appetite plus my sluggish plumbing finally got in gear after nearly a whole month off. Yes, I went almost a whole month without normal activity down there. I lost 4 pounds in three days when it decided to get back to work.

Some of the things that I have learned from this diet it how many nutrients I have really been bad at getting. With the DietPower software I not only can track calories and weight but I can also track all the nutrients. My original menu option had me way low on fiber (hence the plumbing issue), potassium, folate, vitamin E, and iron. With learning this, I have sought out additions to make to my food menu that will give these a boost. Fiber One cereal is the highest fiber source I could find. One serving is 51% of the daily requirements!  Potasium is a bit harder. Supplements give you only 99mg by law which means if you don't eat potassium rich foods in great abundance, you have to take many pills to boost it. You need 4770 mg each day and except for seaweed one of the best sources is spinach. However, even a whole 1/2 cup of boiled spinach gives you only 419 mg. Raw spinach is 158mg for 1/2 cup. The folate and vitamin E are easy to supplement if needed. It has been an interesting thing to diet. It has led to a new awareness of nutrition that goes beyond just me because it impacts how I prepare food for the whole family.

Exercise is a new addition to my routine. I am soooooo computer-oriented that I end up sitting at the desk much of the day creating slides for the online classes, teaching online, creating digital artwork, and surfing. Obviously most of my kids are getting bigger to allow the luxury of that time. LOL. But, it takes its toll in that I don't get enough exercise. For the past four weeks I have taken up jogging. The weather outside is too cold for outdoor jogging so I have been jogging in place. Typically I aim for 40 minutes a day. Originally I jogged in ten minute stretches because that was about all I could do. Now I am doing two 20 minute sets per day. In the last week or two though my ankles have begun to give me trouble. They ache and get very stiff when I hold still for even a short time. That and the fact that John wants to begin exercising has led us to decide on getting an eliptical. John could never jog since his neck gets messed up at the slightest jar. The low impact design of the eliptical seems to be just the ticket. We ordered this one http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8145314. It should be here by the weekend. My ankles are excited. LOL

Yes, I am one of those New Year Resoluters who set their minds to dieting and really sticking to it this year. Never mind that I hadn't started it by the 10th of January when all of a sudden I was hit with the flu. I had a high fever for about a week and pretty much only drank sodas to keep hydrated. The last thing I wanted was food. I was spared any nausea as this flu was the type that hits the lungs not the stomach, but I guess my body was more interested in using energy to run fever than to digest food.

After the seven days I was delighted to find that I lost 5 pounds. Well, that is good encouragement to go ahead and begin that diet. That next week I was giddy with delight as I lost another four pounds. This is week three and all the giddy has gotten up and gone. I have stalled out this week. I have only lost one pound despite begining my jogging routine this week. I began by just jogging abou 10 to 20 minutes in two sessions last Thursday and now I am up to 5 ten minute sessions a day. I haven't eaten any more calories than I was last week. It is a bit discouraging, but I am thinking that I am putting on some muscle mass at least in my calf muscles that may be why the scale isn't dropping. Plus I am coming up to the monthly time and know that I begin to gain a bit of bloat weight about now. So that is moderating the discouragement with some hope that in a week or two more I will see it begin to drop again.

I am trying out a neat weight loss software called DietPower. This is the fourth day of the trial with fifteen total days to examine it. I really like it so far. You drag and drop the food and exercise involved in your day and it computes your nutrition, calories, exercise caloric use, and each day charts your progres and adjusts the number of calories you need that day based on your goal and what your computed metabolism is. Pretty neat! One thing that helps me is it has a water minder. I am really bad not to get enough to drink. This tracks the water in my food and beverages and keeps me updated on how much more I might need. It even adjusts my needs based on if I exercise and at what temeperature I exercise at.

Another neat site for weight loss and improving the choices of foods you make each day is http://www.nutritiondata.com/. You can register free and it sets you up with a pantry page. On this page you can add foods to your favorite list that you tend to eat. You update the amounts you eat and it tracks your nutrition and calories. It has other tools to help you calculate your ideal weight based on your height and age. It also has tons of neat diagrams and charts that let you discover foods nutriyional quatient and fullnes factor (how long you will feel full). I am visual and this site makes that side of me very happy.

Well, tomorrow will be day 21 on the diet (if you count the flu in there too). My ideal weight is still 55 ponds away; though my personal goal is more like 38 pounds away. I was at my ideal weight in my twenties and I really don't think I was very healthy at that weight. Of course the fact that I was trying to survive on barely more than minimum wage and could barely afford food may have had something to do with that. LOL. I felt the best when I was about 20 pounds more than that when the kids were little. I will wait until I get to my own goal weight and then experiment from there to find the place where I feel the fittest.

We are usually very cautious about cold and flu exposuure during the season. But this year, we were not successful at ducking it. I have found a few tips that may be of use to other families that might like to have a flu preparedness kit on hand just in case they don't succeed in ducking it eiither:

To fight deyhdration and cool a fever a bit - Pinapple Smoothy: This icy, fruity, smooth textured beverage gives the best "Ahhh!" that I have found here with the flu. You will need to have pineapple (canned would make it easy to store and easy on a potentially feverish mom). A package of Dream Whip (powdered, in the pudding section at the store), and ice. Just put it all in the blender for about 10 seconds.

Have Vick's Vapor, menthol, or euclptus on hand. I have found that It can get difficult to breathe when you have this flu. Something that can open things up a bit can mean the difference between feeling like you are struggling and feeling comfortable.

Of course, illness is a great time to have a few new family friendly videos to watch so everyone gets caught up in the story and forgets about feeling bad. We did a Pay Per View Ratatouli yesterday and it really was a great mood lifter. Nothing better than good laughs when you are sick.

If you are a family with a communal tothpaste, think about switching to everyone having their own tube. Little ones in particular are prone to contaminating the neck area of the tube. Don't forget to get new toothebrushes after recovery.

According to CDC, the flu virus is killed by anticeptics and it is an aeresol-based virus. When someone coughs the droplets are a prime vector to contaminate new family members. Try a disenfecting air spray of some type to reduce the quantity of live viruses in the air. Do remember that it can be difficult to breathe if you have the flu, so try to spray more throuroughly when the sick ones are out of the room and then more lightly when they are in.

Well, I am getting a tad tired and don't want to tire too much. I hope the suggestions are a help to others.

I remember how before Gregory started going to college I fretted about how we could possibly pay for it. I was hearing from other homeschool parents further down the road with the college phase saying that the average cost of a private college ran about $18,000 per year before scholarships or grant mony was figured in. A Pell would, at most, only cover less than $5,000 per year if a family qualified for the maximum amount. Every passing month as the college search loomed nearer, I was more and more nervous.

I am happy to say that Gregory is now a sophomore in college and all the worry was for naught. He got two schoalrships and a Pell which in combination not only covered his full tuition and books but also gives him stippend money to cover other school related costs such as gas, computer-related expenses (software for his computer applications classes, a MacBook so he could learn the Mac's operating system), graphing calculator, etc.

This is all on my mind because yesterday he got his updated awards letter for this upcoming sememster. Because of his continuing high GPA (all As and only one B so far), he has been bumped up on his Honors Scholarship by 59%. That means his stippend money will increase. In essence, he is getting paid to go to college.

Melody enters college next year. She is still deciding what she wants to do and therefore where she will need to be going. Two in college, that used to be a very scary thought. Now, I don't worry so much anymore.

What is on my Christmas list?

Something I deperately needed to keep up with all that I have going on ... an electronic stick-it note to-do-list system that runs right on my desktop. I am on my computer all day for one thing or another. I had been sticking paper Post-It notes all around my screen. It looked messy and I would lose the notes or forget something that needed to have finished by a particular time. Notezilla replaced all that and has been terrific to help me keep up with everything. I love it!

Here is a screenshot of my desktop:

You can see a full-sized view at http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2264/2125863280_e889f5687c_o.jpg

The corkboard and the pinned headers are my own creation which I made and set as the desktop image.

The blue and orange rectangles are the Notezilla electronic stick-it notes. You can make them any color you want to. In this picture, I have most of them in the rolled-up position except for the one on the lower left. That one is open so you can see the detail-view of the note. Notice that I have that one set up as a checklist. Notezilla lets me toggle those boxes as checked or unchecked. That particular one is my daily housework checklist. I just check it as I do them during the day. Then, I uncheck them before shutting down my computer to have them ready for the next day.

Other uses I have for the checklist freature is keeping a running grocery list throughout the week. I keep the products I buy every week on there all the time. The things I need to add to it for that week are easy to add to it when I realize I need something. On grocery day, I just click the option to print the note. It prints my list complete with the checkboxes.

Another neat feature is that you can set an alarm for each stick-it note. It opens an alert window and has a cute cuckoo sound when the alarm sounds. You can also set a custom wav audio file if you want to. You get this alarm no matter what program you are running, so you do not have to worry about missing the alarm. You can tell it to remind you anything from when it is due to two weeks early. It has a snooze feature too, so if you cannot attend to the task immediately it will re-cuckoo in whatever time increment you tell it to. It also has a repeating alarm feature that lets you set it to go off on any particular weekday you pick at that time. Set it once and forget it.

Oh yeah, you can also attach files to the note. I have used this for grading the kids' papers. The kids in my online classes send their homework and tests to be by e-mail. Once I save them to a folder on my hard drive, I can attach a clickable link to the note to the folder that they are in. When I am ready, I can just click access the papers from the desktop note. I can attach files too. Times I have used that is when I am working on a Paintshop Pro project. I can attach the file of the project to the note. Then when I am ready to work on the project I just click the papaerclip icon on my Notezilla stick -it note for that project and the file opens up in Paintshop Pro automatically.

There are a few features I have not tried yet. One is that you can send notes to other computers to add to their Notezilla. A multi-computer family might find that useful to keep everyone's to-do lists synchronized. The other feature is that you can set up the notes to open when you open specific programs. You click 'stick note to window' while the program you want to have it open with is open. Then every time you open that program, the Notezilla note will open. This would be a good way to remind someone to do certain chores before they access the internet for free time. LOL. That note would open with their to-do list when they launch their browser.

I guess you can tell that I love my early Christmas present. LOL

I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching online these last few months, but it will be nice to enjoy the slow down tomorrow and next week. The VHSG Chemistry class will be out for one week so the kids can participate in local National Chemistry Week activities and the Literary Analysis class will be focusing on reading Dicken's Christmas Carol for the next and final analysis of the first semester. Actually, the original schedule was to have the final novel in mid-November, when the holiday season was ready to gear up, but due to other activities in the class we decided it was best to move that one up. With these two classes not meeting, that leaves only the two 1st grader classes, algebra I, and composition. I am looking forward to the interview with comic strip artist Stephen McCranie next week. We are doing a  survey of narrative genres in composition class and next week will be comic books and comic strips.

I don't want to waste that week of lighter schedule, so I have my to-do list:

GOAL 1: Catch up on grading.  I have some compositions to catch up on grading from Comp and LIterary Analysis. I definitely see that having four different ways that the kids can turn in assignments and not having them name files to a set pattern has been a mistake. I have been nibbling at the task of getting them all gathered and organized. I am putting together notes on what to change for the next semester and that is definitely on the list. The kids will spend the last two weeks of the course refining their narratives and I want to have them all set and easy to find and update.

GOAL 2: First Grader Classes - Make new slides for Phonics and Math. I have used the Saxon Phonics Lesson sequence and pace and found that the kids are a tad breathless. I am going to spend a little time with them on consolidating all that they have learned so far. We have done the entire 1st semester since we started over the summer. I feel like they will benefit from time to work on speed instead of adding new phonograms and sight words. In Math 1 I am having the opposite problem. The kids have burned through every topic in first grade math except for math fact recall. They have mastered several sets, but with math facts being all that is left to go, classes would definitely swing to the repetitive side. So I am trying to decide if I will just go a head and take them into the second grade curriculum. It too will work on the math fact recall, but they will be able to get into the new material for that grade level as well. I love making the onlline classroom slides and games.

GOAL 3: Chemistry - Work on Module 5 slides. I had started setting them up last weekend, but I need to finish them.

GOAL 4: Get caught up on VoiceThreads. I VoiceThread the class lecture material for the kids (and parents) so if the kids end up missing a lesson or two they can link to the VoiceThead and catch up. THe site has been in Beta until last weekend. They are now moving to it being a pay service. There is a classroom option that I am trying to find out if we qualify for. If so, I will be able to continue making VoiceThreads for free. If not, it will cost me about $12 a year. That isn't more than I am willing to spend, but I sure hope we can  get it for free still. With the site change and their new interface being buggy at first, I didn't get to VoiceThread the lessons for this week's materials. A mom dropped in to the online classroom today asking why she couldn't see the past ones so I guess until I pay or get approved even my old ones are locked. I hope they respond quickly to my query about our official status.

GOAL 5: Sleep in if I can or at least get to bed early a few nights next week. I have been in the online classroom by 6:30am every day now for many months. There is lots to do and I am full of energy in the mornings. I definitely don't need coffee. I have natural morning adrenaline. However, I do feel like I have been falling behind on rest. I definitely want to catch up a bit while the schedule is lighter.

That is enough to keep me happily busy while still allowing a break.

The 1st graders had a blast after math class yesterday. They hung around the online classroom drawing and chattering with each other. The last little one logged out about 10 minutes before the online algebra class would be arriving in. I had big plans of stuffing my face with a big bowl of chili since I had just realized how hungry I was. I was about to stand up and head off to the kitchen when a guest arrived in the room. I immediately sat down and typed out a welcome to the online classroom. It was a new homeschooler curious about our free online homeschool classes. She was looking in to online classes for her daughter and came across our website. Now you must realize that with our co-op being online we have students from all over the country. There are a few from Canada, a gal from Hawaii, several from California, and a good spattering of students from New Hamshire to Oregon and everywhere in between. She was looking for a full online program. Since we are small and just starting out with our online homeschool course co-op, I was about to suggest a charter as a means to have a free high school currculum that was already fully in place. I asked her what state she lived in so I could tell her if her state had a charter program in place. She said it was Arkansas. Well, In excitement I asked her what city she was in. It turns out she lives right down the highway about 13 miles. LOL.

She and her daughter dropped by this morning so I could get an Apologia Chemistry text to her for participating in our online chemistry class. We had a great visit and Brooke will be joining in on all the high school level courses that we offer. It is indeed a small world after all.

Whew! It has been a busy summer and here we are heading into a busy fall semester. But We are all feeling really good and up to the task, so that is a blessing. It is that time of year when homeschool households around the world turn their attention to what courses will be pursued in the coming school year. we are no exception.

Gregory, our 19 year old son, has settled well into his job at the college. He is working in their computer and security departments. He ends up doing everything from setting up equipment for presentations by the professors to building and installing new computers and networks. This was his last week to do 40hrs. Next week he drops down to 25 hour work weeks to accomodate classes. He will be carrying a 13 credit hour course load this next semester with Psychology, Computer Maintenance II, Networking, and Word Processing.

Melody took the Compass exam and qualified for dual enrollment. She is allowed to take college composition while still in high school pre-diploma. She will get 3 credit hours. In addition to the college composition, she will have Algebra II, Trigonometry, Spanish II, Journalism, and Art II.

I have been teaching classes in the online classroom in which Timothy and Zachary have been students as well as children of other homeschoolers. Next week will be week 7 for Phonics and Math 1 for Zach. The Chem Prep class finished last week and Timothy has been enjoying the week off with designing 3-D computer models. Next week will be Orientation Week with VHSG online classes for the fall semester. This fall will be very busy! Tim or Zach will be in the following classes next semester that I am teaching in the online classroom:

8:30am  Literary Analysis (high school)

9:30am Phonics (1st grade)

10:30am Math 1 (1st Grade)

11:30am Composition (high School)

12:30pm Saxon Algebra I

1:30pm Chemistry

Tim will be doing a few classes independently such as continuing his studies on computer modelling and working on the second course in history (1600 to modern times).

Oh, I took the Compass test when Melody took hers instead of just waiting around doing nothing for two hours. I scored a 99 out of 100 in both reading and in writing. In Math, I scored into Trigonometry as a placement score. That was fun! I think I easily know more now than I did fresh out of high school. There is nothing like homeschooling for making you a life-long learner.

I have been having fun with a new discovery on the net - VoiceThread. I have made image-based walk-throughs on how parents and homeschool tutors can use my wbd slides in their own vRooms to teach kids. Now I can do the exlaining with VoiceThread and have a way for them to easily comment and ask questions.

Here, let's give it a try. Push the play button. My comments and the comments of others are linked to the avatars and to the bar than progresses as the slides lay on the bottom. Watch this multislide presentation and then give a try at commenting using the record or type button. You will need to register, but it is free and painless. I have lots of ideas of how this can be used. It is fun! I have already made several VoiceThreads for my Chemistry class. This is the small version, but you can embed larger players as well. By the way, if you want to use my slideset in your own, free online classroom, go HERE to learn how.

Kto3rd Math Meeting - 1st Grade

What Will Be Done During Week 05

Math Meeting:

• SKIP COUNTING: Counts by 1o's (forward to 100, then backward)

• CALENDAR: Identifies months of the year, Identifies days of the week, Spells the current month name, Knows how to write the date, Knows the difference between date and day, Identifies yesterday, today, and tomorrow

• PLACE VALUE: Expanded and standard form; place value

• COINT COUNT - Pennies and Dimes

Lessons:

• Monday: L21 - Counting by 10's; Dimes

• Tuesday: L22 - Dimes and Pennies - Place Value

• Wednesday: L23 - Addition: Counting On +1

• Thursday: L24 - Addition Facts: Counting On +2

• Friday: L25 - Addition Facts: Counting On +3

SLIDES

You can download week 05 slides HERE. These are wbd files are are run with any of the the Elluminate online whiteboards. You can get your own free three-seater version, vRoom, to run the slides HERE.

  SKIP COUNTING X10 Slide

The kids find skip counting by ten to be fun and easy. On this slide you can have two students work at the same time, one on the top set and one on the bottom set. If you have more than one student, copy/paste extra copies and add the student's names for each assigned set before class begins. During class time, set the online classroom to roam and tell the students to go to the slide where they see their name. This is a self checking activity. They are to say the answer before moving the dime, check to see if they are right, remove the dime if they are and replace it and try again if they are wrong. Remind them that when they move their dimes that they need to 'throw them off the slide' or move them to the middle section so that the discards will not get in their way or the way of the other student sharing that page. If a few students master this skill before others, challenge them to try counting by tens backwards instead of forwards.

 Addition Facts: Counting On Instruction Slide

The counting on technique has a very definite pre-requisite skill - students must be able to easily know what number comes next from any given number. Once they can do that, use this slide to teach them that this technique works when they are adding 1, 2, or 3 to a number (I have even used it for 4 myself, LOL). The student will say the larger number then count on from there. They learn to use parts of the number as a cue to how many to count on. The one 'bumps' in the middle. The two 'bumps' at the bottom and the top. The three 'bumps' at the bottom, middle, and the top. I point this out by pointing to the white dots on the image of the 1, 2, and 3. We go over this instruction page over the course of several sessions and then it is reinforced with the pennymath slide for Counting On.

 Penny Math: Addition - Counting On Technique

Instruction on this technique was given last week. The students are now practicing the skill. The counting on technique takes time for young students to master. It is imperative that they have mastered counting on from any number that you give them. if a student is weak in this skill, play a game with the students where you call out a number and they race to type into the chat box what number comes next. Encourage parents too to play this game with their children at home (oral, not typed). If you have more than one student, copy/paste extra copies and add the student's names for each assigned set before class begins. During class time, set the online classroom to roam and tell the students to go to the slide where they see their name. This is a self checking activity. They are to say the answer before moving the pennies, check to see if they are right, remove the penny if they are and replace it and try again if they are wrong. Remind them to place their discard pennies in places that will not later get in their way. After the students gat pretty good, begin using the timer to help them gain speed with the technique. Do not do this prematurely though or students will become stressed. If a student complains that they cannot see the whole page without scrolling, help them to reset their whiteboard to 'Scale to Window' (default).

 Calendar Skills

Our current month is August because we began the class right after the 4th of July holiday week. You can easily change the highlighted month and the calendar numbers to your current month by unlocking/ungrouping them and them relocking/regrouping them when you are done. In class, you will have the students practice months of the year and how to spell the current month, days of the week, date and day, 'days ago and days after', and talk about the season, holiday, and birthdays of that month.

 Place Value, Expanded Form, and Standard Form

The kids love playing this one. Sometimes I will give them the standard form and they have to give me the other two forms of a number. At other times I begin with one of the other forms first. Unit blocks and ten sticks are stored at the top of the screen. The students bring them down to the work area as needed to represent a number.

 Direction Word Simon Says

This is a great way to drill the kids on multiple direction words at the same time. Initially, I leave the clues area uncovered, but as they progress, I begin to cover that area up with a black square. This game drills: north, south, east, and west; left and right; first, middle, and last; first, second, and third. The way it is played is the kids need to select their pointer tool and pick a shape that matches one of the home base images. If the students keep picking the same images, you may have to assign them so everyone has a different one. Then, just as in the real Simon Says game, you call out things for them to do such as, "Simon Says move to the north side of the first square." If you do not say Simon Says first they are not supposed to move. The kids love it when they get to be the caller. One thing that I don't do that the regular game does is make the student leave the game if they lose a round. They need the position word practice, so they stay in the game.

 Addition: SSM Story Pattern

Though this is not an official topic this week, I review the concept of addition with the kids to be sure they realize the connection between SSM patterns, addition, and the Counting On Technique.

 Coin ID and Value

All the kids in my class this year already know their coins from last year's class, but I do include this slide just in case it might need to be refered to. Pennies have been introduced up to this point in the 1st grade curriculum, but dimes are new. If you have students that have not yet mastered dimes, take some time on this slide to go over identification and value.

 Counting Pennies and Dimes; Purchases

The kids have been working on place value, counting by tens, and the counting on technique in addition. Counting pennies and dimes uses all those skills in combination. It takes a bit for them to learn to work it all together, but once they catch on that the number in the tens place tells them how many dimes they need and the number in the ones place tells them how many pennies, they begin to use that shortcut and pick up speed.

Kto3rd Math Meeting - 1st Grade

What Will Be Done During Week 04

Math Meeting (every day at the begining of lesson time):

• Counts by 1's (forward to 100, them backward)

• Identifies months of the year

• Identifies days of the week

• Spells the current month name

• Knows how to write the date

• Knows the difference between date and day

• Identifies yesterday, today, and tomorrow

• Expanded and standard form; place value

• Direction words (N, S, E, W, left, right, first, middle, last)

Lessons:

• Monday: L16 - Identifies and Counts Pennies

• Tuesday: L17 - Compares Whole Numbers to 99

• Wednesday: L18 - IDs Rational Numbers

• Thursday: L19 - Understanding Addition

• Friday: L20 - Orders Numbers to 99

SLIDES

You can download week 04 slides HERE. These are wbd files are are run with any of the the Elluminate online whiteboards. You can get your own free three-seater version, vRoom, to run the slides HERE.

 Skip Counting: Count by Ones

You will need to copy/paste a screen for each of your students. Name each slide and set the classroom to raom during the activity so each student can go to their own slide. This slide is designed to help the student count to 100. Once they master counting up, challenge them with counting backward first from ten then from 100. You can also set the timer to encourage speed; just do not do this too soon in their skill development so they are not discouraged and stressed. The student uses their selector tool to grab and move the pennies asfter they think they know what number comes next. It is self-checking. If the number they expected is under the penny they move on. If they were wrong they are to cover it back up and try again. Students should thonk about where they move their discard pennies to so that they will not later find them in the way. There is enough room to the right side for discards.

 What Number Comes Next

Introduction of the Counting On technique is in the next week or two. The ability to count on from any number is crucial to success with that set of addition facts. This reveal activity is designed to work on that skill. THe students move one colored number tile at a time to see what question is under it. The questions on this slide are in the form of "31, 32, 33, ___". They then move the tile to the answer block. Grading the student's work is quick because the colors form a pattern. This basic activity design is used periodically and the pattern changes so the students can not just memorize the color sequence.

 Calendar Skills

This was introduced in July because we began the class right after the 4th of July holiday week; though, I am borrowing the slide from August in the image aboove. You can easily change the highlighted month and the calendar numbers to your current month by unlocking/ungrouping them and them relocking/regrouping them when you are done. In class, you will have the students practice months of the year and how to spell the current month, days of the week, date and day, 'days ago and days after', and talk about the season, holiday, and birthdays of that month.

 Place Value, Expanded Form, and Standard Form

The kids love playing this one. Sometimes I will give them the standard form and they have to give me the other two forms of a number. At other times I begin with one of the other forms first. Unit blocks and ten sticks are stored at the top of the screen. The students bring them down to the work area as needed to represent a number.

 Direction Word Simon Says

This is a great way to drill the kids on multiple direction words at the same time. Initially, I leave the clues area uncovered, but as they progress, I begin to cover that area up with a black square. This game drills: north, south, east, and west; left and right; first, middle, and last; first, second, and third. The way it is played is the kids need to select their pointer tool and pick a shape that matches one of the home base images. If the students keep picking the same images, you may have to assign them so everyone has a different one. Then, just as in the real Simon Says game, you call out things for them to do such as, "Simon Says move to the north side of the first square." If you do not say Simon Says first they are not supposed to move. The kids love it when they get to be the caller. One thing that I don't do that the regular game does is make the student leave the game if they lose a round. They need the position word practice, so they stay in the game.

 Cardinal Directions: Treasure Hunt

In this game the kids play as a team by using their pointers to show what block I need to move the little yellow treasure hunter to. I have a prize hidden in one of the blocks (it is under a creen-locked white square to keep it hidden) and I call out the moves one step at a time. In initial games I keep the compass rosey there to help them learn what direction is north, south, east, and west. After they get pretty good at it, I delete that object and they have to go from memory.

  Alligator Munch

This game works on comparing numbers and the greater than, equal to, and less than symbols. The first screen is used to give students a fun way to remember what direction the symbols go. We use the idea of a greedy alligator. His mouth will only open to the bigger number. I also help them to notice that they can use the big and little side of the symbol to help to know whether they say greater than or less than. On the next slide they play a game in which the two stack of cards are worked through. Each side is a stack of number vards. The kids use their pointer tools to show me which symbol we need between the two numbers in each stack, the <, >, or =. The kids really like this game and it has even been requested during free time sfter class.

 Guess My Number

OK, not a very flashy looking slide, but the open space allows me to vary the way this game is played from time to tme. I pick a number and the kids team up to figure out what it is. I will give auditory cues such as, "That number is too big," and I will give visual cues in various forms. One way is to draw a square on the screen to represent my number. If the guess is too small I put the guess to the left side of the box. If too big then I put the number to the right. Sometimes I draw a number line and mark their wrong guesses with a red X.

 Another Guess My Number Game

Originally, I had made this slide to go into the 1st Grade freetime game slides, but then I discovered that the difficulty level jumped up way beyond their skill set by the second round. :0( So I made a few modifications and turned it into a class session slide that they could play. I may add the slide in to the freetime set when they get a bit older so they can link to the website and play the web version.

 WAR!

This is another popular game with the kids. I randomly distribute three cards to each of the students. They have to arrange their cards to be the biggest or sometimes the smallest possible number. This helps them to work on skills of comparing and ordering as well as place value logic.

 Addition: SSM Story Pattern

This game has lots of parts to get to move around. The kids like those types of games. One part is the name that goes into the SSM story problem. I have a stack with each of their names in it. Then the kids decide how many smileys go in the 'some' bar. THen they decide how many goes in the 'some more' bar. Then they tell me the math sentence and solve it. Sometimes I vary it up and give them the math sentence first and they have to work together to show it with the smileys. I also will swap out the smileys for other images.

 Coin ID and Value

All the kids in my class this year already know their coins from last year's class, but I do include this slide just in case it might need to be refered to. The penny is the focus this week.

 Coin Count

The kids will use pennies to make purchases this week. I vary the price on the tag or have them change it if I ask them to count the money first. I make one slide per student with their names on it so each of them have their own slide to work on. Set the classroom to roam so the students can get to their slide. Just don't forget to set it bacj to 'follow teacher' when they are done. This week I have all the coins set out for them to chose from but tell them I want only pennies. This helps them to practice ID'ing just the pennies in a group of coins.

This is the live, onlilne class that I teach at VHSg. VHSG is a co-op where homeschoolers can come together and offer each other free online classes. You can access this course at http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/course/view.php?id=21

Kto3rd Math Meeting - 1st Grade

What Will Be Done During Week 03

Math Meeting (every day at the begining of lesson time):

• Counts by 1's (forward to 100, them backward)

• Identifies months of the year

• Identifies days of the week

• Spells the current month name

• Knows how to write the date

• Knows the difference between date and day

• Identifies yesterday, today, and tomorrow

• Expanded and standard form

• Direction words (N, S, E, W, left, right, first, middle, last)

Lessons:

• Monday: L11 - Ordinal Position; Place Value; Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night

• Tuesday: L12 - Meaning of Addition

• Wednesday: L13 - Geometric Shapes

• Thursday: L14 - Tangrams and Geoboards

• Friday: L15 - Meaning of Addition

Slides

You can download this slide set HERE. These are wbd files are are run with any of the the Elluminate online whiteboards. You can get your own free three-seater version, vRoom, to run the slides HERE.

 Skip Counting: Count by Ones

You will need to copy/paste a screen for each of your students. Name each slide and set the classroom to raom during the activity so each student can go to their own slide. This slide is designed to help the student count to 100. Once they master counting up, challenge them with counting backward first from ten then from 100. You can also set the timer to encourage speed; just do not do this too soon in their skill development so they are not discouraged and stressed. The student uses their selector tool to grab and move the pennies asfter they think they know what number comes next. It is self-checking. If the number they expected is under the penny they move on. If they were wrong they are to cover it back up and try again. Students should thonk about where they move their discard pennies to so that they will not later find them in the way. There is enough room to the right side for discards.

 Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night

I have been teaching the 2007/8 year 1st grade online math class for 5 weeks. I have decided to post copies of the presenter's wiki here both as a backup for the original file and as a way to let more homeschoolers know how to use these in their own homeschool. I will create a category listing for these in my side bar so it will be easier for you to isolate jus these specific files out of the general blog entries if you need to.

Here are the first two week's worth of presenter's tips. You can actually download the slidesets yourself and load them up in your own free 3-seater vRoom from Elluminate. Using these slides is a fun way to cover 1st grade math skills. You can use them as a supplement to your own program, use them as a 1st grade curriculum, or even use them to teach online to other homeschooler's students in a co-op. We can always use more volunteer teachers at VHSG, so if you like to co-op teach, let me know and we can set you up to use your own vRoom if you only want a few students or give you a slot in our main online classroom if you need more seats (I recommend a class sizes of 4 to 6).

OK, well here goes:

Kto3rd Math Meeting - 1st Grade

What Will Be Done During Week 01

Math Meeting (every day at the begining of lesson time):

• Identifies months of the year

• Identifies days of the week

• Spells July

• Knows how to write the date

• Knows the difference between date and day

• Identifies yesterday, today, and tomorrow

• Expanded and standard form

Lessons

• Monday: L01 - Using classroom tools

• Tuesday: L02 - Introducing the Math Meeting

• Wednesday: L03 - Expanded Form

• Thursday: L04 - Orders numbers to 99

• Friday: L05 - Graphs data using a pictograph

SLIDES

You can download Week 01 slides HERE. These are wbd files are are run with any of the the Elluminate online whiteboards. You can get your own free three-seater version, vRoom, to run the slides HERE.

This slide set actually has a video that I made to show how to present it. These are located at the course Ning website. You will be prompted to register, but if you are presenting these slides, it is a good idea to join here anyway as it was created specifically for course creators and teachers to communicate with each other. It is free by the way.

See the video for Lessons 1 and 2 HERE.

See the video for Lesson 3 HERE.

See the video for Lesson 4 HERE.

I opted to go with slide images after this week here in the Math 1 Presenter's Wiki. Having the slide version means I, or others using the slides, can update tips and make additions and changes along the way. That is the whole idea of making this a wiki after all. Also, it was too hard trying to keep the presentations under the 5-minute mark; all the video hosting sites have a 100mb limit on the file size. It was taking 40 minutes to upload the files too. It just din't seem worth it. So, from here on out, we will do slides.

After the big upgrade a time or two back, I had heard that restrictions on Java had to be put in place to secure the server and sites from malicious code. If I understood it correctly, if you modified your template any java goodies you already had in place would be stripped off when you hit save. I have seen lots of my friends making major changes on their blogs, so maybe it is safe again.

The server where I have my free online classes moved a few months ago and I really need to update the links to it in my sidebar, but I have been afraid to open my template. I might not even have any Java to risk losing on my template, but I have to admit to being skittish to update. I would hate to lose the photoalbum badge especially. Anyone know what the current status is on this?

So far so good on the set up of the free chemistry class I want to teach this year. I will test run it and help some students prepare for the math of chemistry in a 5 week summer class that runs July 9th to August 10th.  Then the full 2007/8 school year course rolls out right after it begining late August.

The online, live classroom side of it will be extremely fun to do. I have been busy making the interactive slides for some of the early modules. You can make some neat hands-on activities with the whiteboard. Last night I made a graduated cylinder that the kids can actually change the scale on, liquid/meniscus levels, and practice reading giving the correct number of significant figures. That is so much more fun that a static picture of a graduated cylinder with liquid in it. I am busy making tons of chemistry games that we can use while learning a new concept and then practice in the game time after class when the kids can socialize and play agaianst each other. It is going to be so much fun!

I like meeting with the students in a live online classroom. We all get to hear, interact, and learn together without a long drive to get to the teaching parent's house everyday. We can even show up in our PJs and slippers. Hehehehe.

We also have a website for the assynchronous parts of the class and to store all the great resources. Feel free to go see it at THIS LINK especially if your family will be doing chemistry this next year.  You can just use guest access if you want. Feel free to register if you wish too. It is all free.

I have designed it so that if other co-op teachers that are teaching chemistry this year wants to jump in can use the resources, website, or we can even the online classroom by sharing the load and teach a few weeks on and a few weeks off with each other taking turns. We just bring all the co-op kids into the online classroom together. The room I have for one year has unlimited seating, so it should work super.

If you are interested in learning how to join in on the class and/or the co-op, let me know by e-mail. My address is armoorefam@centurytel.net. My name is Tammy.

I just realized it was back in place as I was catching up on my RSS feed reading. It was posted at HSB Tech. Though the RSS feed reader did fill the gap, how I do love seeing all my friend's entries one after another all on the same page. I used to read my friend's page listing every morning and it really helped me to keep up with everyone. It will be interesting to watch over the next few weeks when I have both the friends and the RSS method at my disposal as to which one I use.

If you have never tried the HSB Friend's feature, all you have to do to give it a try is add

/friends

at the end of your HSB blog address. It will list all the newest postings one after another of HSB that you have added to your friend's list.

I never really paid attention to tags beofre. I don't have our family photos on our computer set up with tags. I have only tagged the images in our online album at Flickr because it comes up as a line to fill to move on to the next screen. But this week, I have really learned some lessons about tags.

First, an artist on Flikr totally freaked out that I didn't have the term 'digital' on one digital painting I had in my Flikr account. I had digital on the others. She went all over the Flikr net posting about how I was trying to decieve everyone about the medium it was painted in. I e-mailed her explaining it was a mistake in tagging and that I didn't realize the tags were so important, but to no avail. I finally just decided the whole thing was taken way out of proportion and pulled my paintings from Flickr. That is why you don't see them here any more. I am trying to get a better balance in what I do with my days  and painting, because I love it so much, was taking up way too much time that I really needed to spend on family things. So ,though painful, it has been a good thing in the end to get my priorities straight.

Next, the importance of tags has been made clear by the efforts that I have made to make my Mammaw and Pappaw's photo albums available to all family members. Mammaw died about 4 or 5 years ago and my aunt lamented that the albums would all be broken up and so many family pictures would be lost from family lines. I had the idea about scanning them all in and then making the digital file available for everyone so all will have a complete collection of family pictures. It took a while, but in 2003 all the albums were finished. None of them were in chronological order and the vast majority of them had no information at all about when, where, why, or even who. I so wanted to get more information for everyone. Now I can. I am uploading all the pictures to a Ning group. All the pictures have a section for comments. Each family memebr can join in and have their own blog and member page to let everyone know more about the current events in their families. And what else? Tags. Every photo has tags. Now I understand why they are so important. Each family emember is able to add details on the photos in the comment sections. As I am learning about the details of each photo, I work the details into the tags. The tags make the details searchable. If you want to find all the photos with a particular person in them, you use the tags. Cool! I get it now. It is a really useful search tool.

OK, lesson on tags well learned. Now I see their importance because not everyone has all the details and it is nice to find a particular set of pictures with a tag term. I am convinced enough to go through our home photos and add tags both on our own system and ckeck the ones I added so carelessly on Flikr. It will help those who are to come to know the whos, whens, and wheres.

Friends and Family of Mammaw and Pappaw are welcome. Come on by at this LINK.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get tired of driving. We live in a very rural area so to get anywhere we need to go it seems we have to drive 30 minutes one way. Worse case being an event where I don't stay and I drive home only to turn around an hour later to pick the kids up. Co-oping is so important for the kids so they get educational opportunities I cannot always provide (like foreign language. I am hopeless!), for them to have social outlets, and so I can work with other moms to make all our teaching load lighter by us each taking a topic to teach so we don't have to civer it all ourselves.

The internet to the rescue! Now we have tools to do co-ops online. The kids have live, online classrooms where they can meet together with a teaching homeshool mom (or dad) and other students. They can access collaborative class activities and student social tools all through the time outside of classtime too. The cost is free to very little because it is a co-op setting. Let the car sit idle. I like it!

Even if you live close enough to find driving to be no big deal, wouldn't it be great to meet together one day a week for labs or other hands-on activities, but have class meetings in a live, online classroom throughout the rest of the week. I remember when I taught the chemistry co-op. Our lab days were packed with tons of information and we met for a morning and afternoon session to get it all in. How much easier it would have been if I could have done the class lecture part online with the kids and then the lab day would have just been labs.

Here are some tools if you think an online co-op would be interesting:

Virtual Homeschool Group: You can set up a course site at VHSG free. Make your own from scratch, or jump in to one of the courses designed for multiple homerooms (your co-op would be one) and share the resources with other co-ops teaching the same subject.

Elluminate vRoom:  This is a fantastic, live online classroom. This is a 3-seater version, but you can get a 10-seat Lite-Office version for just $50/month. Not much when the cost is split among multiple families in a co-op.

We have been doing concept mapping as a note-taking tool for several years now. It was inevitable; the kids' have a tremendously visual homeschool mom.

Last year I found aout about a free software tool developed by a collaboration of universities. It is called Cmap and it is about as perfect a concept mapping solution as you can get. Not only is it easy to use, but is has loads of built in ways to share and collaborate the concept maps with others is you want to. You can see what we have done with it by linking in to our Cmap html versions at Tim's Portfolio Cmap or our Cmap Family Homepage

If anyone wants to come into my online classroom to get a free hour long class on how to use it like we have, let me know by e-mailing me of your interest at armoorefam@centurytel.net. We can set a time and I will send you a link to acces my live classroom on the net.

I have been uncomplainingly waiting for the friends feature to return, but it looks like it may not, so I pushed into the world of RSS to keep up with new posts by my homeschool mom friends. It does have a few advantages such as being able to now see new posts by homeschool moms who are on other blog sites.

For others like me, I thought I would give a quick tutorial.

1. How to I select a friends blog for a feed?  Most of the blogs have an RSS Feed link in the sidebar under the category of links. Just take the link and click "subscribe to feed'. Some other blogging sites will make the feed icon in the toolbar of your browser 'light up'. If it is 'lit', then you can just click it to get to the subscribe page.

2. How do I know when a friend has a new post and where do I go to find it?  In my IE browser, I have a tab under "My Favorites" (where you bookmark webapges) that is designated for feeds. I click the tab and all my bookmarked feeds are listed. If the titles are in bold letters then that site has had a new entry. I haven't yet tried a feed service or aggregator, but if I understand correctly they can chime you the second an update is posted or be set to e-mail you updated as you chose to schedule them. Personally, I kind of like the manual method so I don't get distracted until I know I have time to enjoy reading.

A few Homeschool Bloggers do not have Rss Feeds turned on. If you want to add them, just comment their blog and ask if they would be willing to turn it on. Nine times out of ten they didn't know about the feature or thought they had it on already. If you are not sure, just click the "My RSS Feed" link under your sidebar's "Links" category. If the page is blank, your feed is turned off. To turn it on, just go to your control panel and look for the feeds control.

When you have been at homeschooling for 14 years like I have you come to know the occassional stretches of burn out that comes along from time to time. They pass as opportunities for rest and recharge come to make short order of the malady.

However, I have been in a prolongued malaise of burnout lately lasting into months. I completely understand the reasons,so there is no mystery of why I find myself here.

Overdoing during last year and some disappointmets of some hopes took my 'burnout immune system' down a bit.

Then my then 16 year old decided she wanted to go to public school and really hit me pretty hard  in her attempts to persuade me. She tried to muster up every 'reason' she could think of. A few of them valid such as my complete disaster in trying to teach her Spanish. I am so visual and so absolutely not auditory that she flew right past me in learning the language. With the local community college not offering classes and her feeling uncomfortable with lessons from some Spanish language speakers at church, I ended up letting her learn it on her own using the curriculum and online practice with friends she knew that speak the language. Not a bad idea, but certainly one that can be twisted to serve the purpose of 'convincing' mom of the need to go to public school. Many of the reasons were very invalid and it made me feel like all the years of investment in homeschooling could result in a grown child full of resentment instead of thankfulness. I know she didn't mean to hurt me, she was trying to convince me that it was a good idea, but in trying to muster up good reasons I ended up feeling very discouraged. Thankfully, Gregory on the other hand was having great successes at college and full of praises and thanksgiving both private and public, so there was enough balance to keep me going . . . for a while.

Christmas came and with the break from homeschooling came my annual opportunity to paint. It is a gift I give myself every year. I used to be a professional illustrator and portrait artist and put it all on hold to homeschool the kids. Normally, at the end of Christmas break I pack up my art supplies lovingly and close the drawrer until the next December holidays. This year though, I found I didn't want to pack it all up. I started looking at my paintings and worndering just how much further advanced I would be had I not put it all aside. I know it is something that I will get back to when the kids are grown, but I would have to start all over again from scratch to build up the business. I absolutely found it impossible to put the supplie saway and found I wanted very much to paint not homeschool plan.

As if all that was not enough, I started babysitting in December with 3am to 5:30 pm hours leading to physical exhaustion. The little fellow is really very sweet but much more 'flitty' than my kids. If that is a word. LOL. He won't stay with one activity for more than 5 minutes before wanting to do something else. It makes for quite a lot of mess, noise, and continual interruptions. I never realized before just how focused and quiet my kids were. They will stay with an activity for hours at a time. In addition to this, lots of illnesses came in to the household. Many from the little boy I babysit because he was picking them up from public school.

I was a mess. Homeschool continued, of course, but not with the ususal ever-present enthusiasm that mom used to have. It is amazing how much 'love for a thing' such as homeschooling really fuels and powers you up. When it is not there, the work still gets done but it feels unsatifying and draining.

Yes, I will admit it. For about two weeks there I secretly was working how I could bow out of homeschooling and put the kids into public school next year - all three of them, not just the one that wanted to. I never thought I would ever feel like quiting homeschooling. It is not only a totally worthwhile vocation, it had come to be very much tied to who I am as a person. Stop homeschooling! This burnout was deeper than I had ever felt before.

After all that has been said, I am happy to say that I have bounced back. I cannot point to any event or reason; Well maybe the fact that for three weeks I have been able to sleep all the way through the night while the little boy's father I babysit was off work. I guess I was 'three weeks worth of exhausted' because all of a sudden, this week,  the bounce and energy is back. I am gung ho for homeschooling again. I can't wait to get up and at it every day. I feel like my old self physically and emotionally. I definitely am NOT putting the younger two into public school. I am going to graduate Melody from our homeschool this spring, she is now 17, and let her do a senior year at the public school or go ahead on to be a freshman at college. Academically, she should do well at either. Should she select public school, I think it will have some plusses - and the negatives will serve to cure her of the 'grass is greener' syndrome. I don't feel vulnerable anymore to the whims of praise or fear of regret in my children when they are grown. I know in my own heart  I have done right by them.

Gregory was hired by the college to work with their computers and security system. It will count toward his internship. The position will pay between $7 and $8. Pretty good for a first job.

I have been babysitting since December and I think I may finally be getting used to the schedule. He is dropped off at 3am, I get him to school at 7:45 am, and pick him up in the afternoon, then he gets picked up at about 5:30pm. I was getting pretty tired there for a while until my body got used to the sleep disruption. Now I feel like I am up to my normal energy level again. Zachary has enjoyed having his good friend here each day.

Tim has had a few bouts with virus so he is having to play catch up a bit at the moment. But, he is abouty there now.

Melody has continued to enjoy making photos and movies with her new camera. She put her movies in an online competition. She didn't win, but did surprisingly well considering how new she is to movie making.