Archive for November, 2007
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
I thought we would have a homeschooling break while we were on vacation this past week, but there were so many topics to discuss, the drought that Summerton, South Carolina is facing that homeschooling naturally was part of our vacation experience.
The bald eagle we saw while looking out of our condo, the sea shells we picked up on the beach. There didn’t use to be a beach but the drought has now supplied Lake Marion with a nice size beach. It was interesting to see the little worlds that the waters of Lake Marion had hidden.
I’ll be posting pictures we’ve captured and the homeschooling lessons that my daughter and I learned while vacationing to South Carolina. It was a wonderful experience, and I enjoyed my vacation but it surely feels good to be back home. We arrived home this past Sunday.
Technorati Tags: homeschooling
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Monday, November 19th, 2007
My daughter and I will be heading to Summerton, South Carolina tomorrow. We’ll be returning to Maryland this coming Sunday. We both are excited about the upcoming trip. I won’t be working as hard as I normally do with work. It’s going to be a great time to bond with relatives. There will be plenty of Aiyana’s Aunts and Uncles in attendance (I have sixteen total.) She’ll also have plenty of cousins to play with.
It will be interesting to see the reactions about homeschooling. The majority of them do know that Aiyana is homeschooled. I’m sure a few of them will be “testing” her to see what she knows. Three of my aunts are schoolteachers, and one of the schoolteachers actually teaches her two children at home.
We will be staying in a condo that overlooks Lake Marion. It’s truly beautiful. Sumter, South Carolina is not too far away and I’m planning on taking Aiyana there for a brief history lesson. I love history. Civil War broke out between the North and South on April 12, 1861. Fort Sumter, surrendered 34 hours later. It’s truly fascinating teaching my daughter. She has an insatiable thirst for knowledge. I try to present our lessons in an exciting way. She enjoys hands on learning.
Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving, homeschooling
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Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
Aiyana told me that a few moments ago. Since I’m as stubborn as she is I didn’t listen to her cries. I know when she is tired. I can sense it in the way she acts, talks, moves. Guess who fell asleep as soon as they were put in bed? Yep, that would be Ms. I’m not sleepy!!!
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Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
I wasn’t eating worms this morning but I did awaken early. This morning I awoke at 1:30. I’m usually awake by 3:30 or 4:30. Since I had a lot of extra time on my hands I wisely took advantage of the situation and knocked out most of my work. We will be on holiday next week so I’m trying to get a lot of work completed this week. I don’t want to be working while I’m away and I’m seriously thinking about taking a break from the internet while I’m on vacation.
The great news is my work is completed and now I can hang out with my daughter for the majority of the day but first she will be hanging with her grandparents while I go to the gym. I should have been there already but work comes first. Why do I have a crazy amount of energy? I’m on a juice cleanse this week. I already have a lot of energy but I’ve found that my juice cleanses send me over the top.
Homeschooling is continual Aiyana is always being taught something. We don’t have a set time to start out lessons although we usually start in the morning and then pick up in the afternoon and end shortly before she goes to bed. She now can read short stories to mommy at night. Of course it takes her a while to read but she’s proud that she’s able to do it. I didn’t push her to read it’s something she has wanted to do.
What’s on our lesson today? We are learning about Malaysia. One of my blogging pals lives in Malaysia and she sent her postcards from her county. Aiyana loved them. They had turtles on the postcards. A few days ago Aiyana learned about whales.
Coloring is part of our daily routine. She loves to draw and color pictures. If we are discussing an animal. I usually label the different parts of the body and she has fun playing, “Where’s my body part?” That usually involves me talking like the animal (in a very silly voice) saying give me my body part PLEASE! It has the desired effect and she collapses in a fit of giggles as she tries to put the body part in the correct place.
Technorati Tags: homeschooling, fun learning
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Friday, November 9th, 2007
A fun homeschooling project is on our plate. Alright so Aiyana thinks all of our projects are “fun” however this one is more “crafty fun”. What is on the menu? One of Aiyana’s dolls, “Jenny” is in dire need of a makeover. Her hair has started to matt (because my daughterrarely plays with her) and she really good use a rerooting.
I told my daughter that we could give Ms. Jenny a makeover. She’s excited. It’s going to take a lot longer than a day to root Ms. Jenny. She has a big head after all. We’ll be going to the craft store and picking up the needles that are needed for this makeover and poor Ms. Jenny will be beheaded for a few days. I’m hoping to give Ms. Jenny a full head of human hair. I’ll be purchasing a book about dollmaking. I’m still searching to before I decide up a book that we will use but Aiyana is really excited about this project.
I thought this would be a fun way to learn about doll making with Aiyana. I made a doll when I was around fifteen. It’s funny because didn’t play with dolls too much when I was young.
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Thursday, November 8th, 2007
Aiyana tells me every day that she wants to be a homeschooled kid forever. Initially I wasn’t thinking about doing it “forever”. Aiyana has been “home schooled” since birth and I think that many parents do teach their children at home. Of course I had to go and make it “official” by actually turning out home into a fun learning environment.
Aiyana is fairly tall for her age so when we go out during school time at times people will ask her if she likes school of course they are thinking of the traditional school. Aiyana now proudly tells them she is a home schooled kid. At times it’s interesting to see the reactions on peoples faces.
Initially wasn’t planning on doing it for the long haul however being around other homeschooled parents and seeing the numerous ways that you can educate your children, especially as they become older, it does not seem as overwhelming.
My immediate family is extremely supportive. Initially they had their reservations not because they did not have faith in homeschooling. They know it can be extremely effective they were just wondering if I as a single homeschooling parent would be able to handle it.
Keeping Them Updated
That’s the main thing I’ve done to help put their mind at ease. Of course I don’t have to update them on how our homeschooling sessions are going but I do and they see how much my daughter is learning. She eagerly reads to them and tells them what she has learned. Thankfully my parents are wise enough not to buy the socialization myth that some try to lump on homeschoolers.
When she is a little older I told her she could create a website. She’s really excited about that. It will be a way for our family/friends that live far away to connect with her and see what is going on in her homeschooling world. Can you believe she is already interested in web design? Imagine that? Four years old and she’s wanting to learn about it, lol. There are weeks when she will do a lot of work on the laptop and there are some weeks, like this week and last week, where she does not do too much. I have another laptop a HPdv600t and that is where she does her computer work.
Initially I purchased that computer so I could complete work for clients that needed to be used on a Windows OS. However Aiyana has claimed that computer and renamed it “Zizzy”. The majority of my work is completed on my 17″ MacBook Pro.
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Thursday, November 8th, 2007
When I was over at DeMoments yesterday I found a fabulous category that is chock full of activities! The majority of the crafts are geared towards young children but even kids at heart, like myself will have a lot of fun. What I love about these crafts is that it gives our child a chance to be creative and hopefully it will keep them occupied for a little while. I enjoy craft times with Aiyana it’s a great way to bond with her and it also gives her the chance to learn simply by creating.
Aiyana is excited because today we will be making a How To Make A CD Clock we learned about it at De’Moments. Chin Nee has a lot of great ideas for crafts and I’ll definitely be popping by her place to see what new crafts they will be making.
As I mentioned before our educational approach is “child led“. Aiyana has been wanting to tell time for a while and she is actually fairly good at it. I think this project will give a creative spin on telling time. 
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Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Mike Goad has numerous websites and I truly enjoy my virtual visits to his websites for some reason it did not dawn on me that it would be a great homeschool resource. The first website I’ll mention is the CW-Chronicles It’s a Daily Chronicle of the American Civil War. I love history, especially war history. I’ve been enjoying reading the contents of the blog in my RSS reader. For the past few years I’ve been focusing on the roles that minorities have played within war.
Also if you or your child is interested in exploring the many beautiful places that are in the United States you might want to check out Haw Creek Outdoors the scenes from this website are truly breathtaking. You might think that the beautiful pictures is enough but that’s not all you will receive Mike frequently write sabot the history of the pace he and his wife have visited. What a great way to make a virtual visit of these fascinating places. When you visit don’t forget to check out Haw Creek Outdoor’s blog.
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Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
This websites name was changed yesterday from www.blackhomechoolingmom.com to www.ahomechoolresource.com if you have been accessing my website via the old url you till will be able to access it. I have used the 301 redirect so I’ll still receive all my old traffic. I checked my stats today and I seem to have caught everything. I don’t get caught up in labels however I know at times people will so in order to reach a broader audience I decided to make the change.
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Monday, November 5th, 2007
People
homeschool for a variety of reasons just remember not only is important to protect our children from those who can harm them in the real world we also need to keep them safe from the potential predators online. I’ve visited several homeschooling blogs since blogging. I’ve been blogging for almost three years.I started this website last week. I have visited numerous homeschooling websites in the past few days. Although I’ve heard a concern by many on keeping children safe from those they can encounter in the real world I haven’t heard too many mentioning the dangers our children can encounter online.My daughter Aiyana is four years old and although she does some play activities online I don’t have to worry about it as much. My daughter is reading but still needs assistance with big words so mommy is right beside her making sure her online experience is a pleasant one. As she becomes older, I won’t always be around when she is online. Keeping my daughter safe when I’m not always there will become a concern for me.I faced this issue with my mentees last year. Our weekly sessions were held in their school. After school they had about 40 minutes before our sessions started. I purposely arrived early so I could monitor what websites they visited. They all (six of them) raced for the computers located in the library and yes they would log onto the social networking websites. They listened to music, checked emails, looked at what was new in fashion, etc., I monitored the websites that they visited. Although I’m not their parents I wanted to ensure that their online experience was a pleasant one while they were under my care.
As a parent or person concerned with child safety we want to make sure their online experiences are pleasant, right? With forums, instant messaging, social networking websites like My Space, FaceBook, etc., the potential to be contacted by a potential predator is extremely high. There are potential predators lurking on the world wide web and they can prey on our children.
The internet is amazing you can meet so many different people online. Unfortunately the internet can also be a predators paradise. Webroot Software recently did a survey on internet safety guess what it revealed that parents don’t always know what their children are doing online (pdf file.) I would recommend you check out the report. The concerns for online safety is justified. The survey showed that nearly 40% of children from the age of 11 to 17 had received sexually explicit pop-up advertisements or email within the past year, 43% stated that a stranger had invited them to meet within the past year.
MySpace found 29,000 sex offenders on its site. That to me is an alarming number and it makes me wonder how many have not been convicted that lurk on My Space and other forums. I’ve read numerous articles over the past few years regarding keeping children safe online many children that don’t say anything to their parents keep it to themselves because they are afraid of what their parents will do. Keep that line of communication positive so your child does not fear coming to you if they run into a predator online.
Although my daughter is four years old, I repeatedly tell her that she can tell me anything, and I will listen to what she has to say without fearing mommy getting angry. She has already taken me up on that. My all time favorite website for Child Safety is Imaginif. The website is supportive they have a child safety blog, a Safety Talk Forum, and forums their mission, like mine is to keep our children safe. This website is run by a truly fabulous lady, Megan Bayliss, and the fabulous writers that post articles that are related to our children.
It’s something for all of us to think about. What are we doing to keep our children safe online?
Technorati Tags: child safety online, Megan Bayliss, ImaginIf
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