Homeschooler Savvy

Watching the Olympics in a foreign country - Go Australia!

Ok, so I was trying to be unbiased in the earlier post, however, I can't keep up the facade... go Australia!  The Olympics has brought about a truce in our house.  If there is an Aussie and an American competiting in the same event, my husband and children cheer for the US team and I cheer for the Aussies.  However, when you watch the Olympics in a different coutry from the country you are cheering for it was incredibly difficult to get information on how your home team.  Until the internet that was, now I get daily posts on the status of the Australian team.  And here is an example of the information I get in my inbox at about 9am in the morning....

Stephanie Rice won her second gold and broke her second world record of the Games this time in the 200m individual medley, while the men's 4x200m freestyle relay team took the bronze and Eamon Sullivan reclaimed the 100m freestyle world record in his semi final.

The men's hockey team shattered South Africa 10-0 as the softballers went down to the USA 3-0. The women's artistic gymnastics team made Australian history, finishing sixth in the all around team final - Australia's best result in the discipline.

Four rowing crews qualified for the A finals while in slalom canoe/kayaking, Jacqui Lawrence and pair Mark Bellofiore and Lachlan Milne progressed through to the semis.

In Hong Kong the equestrian eventing team won silver while in Qingdao the sailors are firmly placed for medals tomorrow.

Aussie Aussie Aussie ! Aussie Kim...

Hey ! The 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist in Women's Fencing was homeschooled!

Rebecca Ward is the homeschooled Olympic fencer (who just won the silver in Beijing).  She is also a National Merit Scholar, and beginning a full four-year athletic scholarship to Duke University.

Mary Nix’s HEM Guide to Homeschooling Resources features links to news stories, a video and photo gallery of Rebecca (Becca), and an online viewing opportunity.

One of the challenges of homeschooling is getting your child into traditional school sports.  Here's a wonderful plan B - choose an olympic sport, never know they might end up going to the Olympics, or getting a full scholarship to a great university! Check this post by Ann Zeiz at A to Z Home's Cool.

En guard!

 

Educational Anarchist

I believe in Anarchy - Educational Anarchy that is!  Go checkout the chat on all this at life on the planet; principled discover and CoD

Mississippi Delta Agricultural Snapshot (Kim Cam)

Everyone wants their kids to be more aware of the world around them (right?). 

Well here are some questions you can ask, regardless of where they live.  These questions are particularly good when you sit down to a meal.  Remember: if you eat, thank a farmer!  If you wear cotton underpants: thank a cotton farmer! 

Toast: When do farmers plant wheat? (Winter or early spring); When do they harvest?  (Summer)

Vegetable oil: What plants does this oil come from? (Soybeans is a common one) )When do farmers plant soybeans?  (Spring)

Popcorn: When do farmers plant corn? (Spring).  Is popcorn a different sort of corn from corn on the cob? (Yes).  How big does corn get?  (7-8 feet)

Cotton clothing: When do farmers plant cotton? (Spring)

When is rice planted? (Spring)

These dates are generalizations on the planting windows (best times to plant) for crops.  Normal crop planting dates depend on the temperatures and rainfall for each region. 

What follows here is what's happening down on the farm in the Mississippi Delta right now.  This year is very different from normal as we are surrounded by corn, soybeans, corn, more corn and the occasional rice and cotton crop and more corn.  Normally, here in the Mississippi Delta it is wall to wall cotton.  The price for corn and soybeans are at record highs, the price for cotton is quite ordinary.  Consequently, Spring in the Delta is looking a bit different this year.  For the first time I have ever seen it, we are surrounded by corn rather than cotton.

This is going to be similar to living in a one story neighborhood and then suddenly getting high rise around you. 

If you drive through the country on a regular basis, make it a habit to ask your kids what the crops are on the sides of the roads, you'd be amazed at how quickly they pick this up!   Of course, you can do the same if you live in the city - ask they similar questions about the action going on outside the car as you drive along.

Whats the action this week?  Well, if you haven't planted your corn yet it's just about too late - corn ranges from 1-4 feet. This is going to make a dramatic difference to the view around here!!! 

Most of the soybeans are planted and up already.

Cotton planting is underway and there is even baby cotton up in some places.

Rice planting is underway (note the different planter boxes behind the tractors - these indicate the two crops).

"What about the winter crops?" I hear you ask.... Yes, yes, it is coming close to that time of year!  The wheat harvest.  The wheat is starting to turn color.  Seems like it was only a couple of weeks ago it was looking lush and green.  Hopefully this should help those countries having food riots at the moment !!!!

Stay tuned for the next Kim Cam snapshots of the Mississippi Delta....

Cultural Education - AUSTRALIA DAY

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page let every stage
Advance Australia fair,
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.

This photo is courtesy Flicker gadgetgirl - Australia Day 2005, Sydney Harbour.

What's going on here? I burst into song, the Australian National Anthem that is.  OK, the truth, I know the first verse and the first two lines of the second verse and the last two lines.  But I can sure hum the inbetween bits well...Haven't heard it before? Here are some fellows who CAN sing it right..

Saturday (January 26th) was Australia Day, the day we Australians' celebrate the claiming of Australia for Great Britian back in 1788 by Captain James Cook.  Two days later the French sailed into Botany Bay, who knows, but for a couple of storms at sea we could be speaking French!  The Aboriginies were convieniently overlooked when the claim on the land was made, their reference to Australia Day as Invasion Day has meant that the celebrations are now more focused on celebrating Australia as we are now, rather than what happened on this date 220 years ago).

In Australia, this day is a public holiday, except if it falls on a weekend, then we make it a long weekend.  What is the choice activity for Australia Day?  Well, the Prime Minister (equivalent to President) gives a short address and announces the Australian of the Year etc.  Remember we are talking Southern Hemisphere, so for the vast majority of the population think sunshine. That is: beach, pool, barbie (BBQ), and in the Australian tradition, one or many beers.  I was on the banks of Sydney Harbor with a bunch of friends the whole day for the bicentennial celebration - it was an amazing sight I will never forget. There was a fleet of tall ships, some of which had sailed all the way from England.  Anyone who had a boat was on the harbor.  The fireworks seemed to go on forever that evening. That was, OH MY GOSH....20 years ago in 1988.  OK, moving right along, the unofficial Australian Anthem: Waltzing Matilda....with explanations of Australian terms and sung by Rolf Harris (famous Aussie singer/songwriter)....

Here is another of the unofficial anthems of Australia, from a car ad from the 70's.

Football, meatpies, kangaroos and holden cars..............

Happy Australia Day.

Eloquence on Nature

For those of you with older children, and those of you without, I recommend you go to the National Geographic website and read the cover story about Permafrost called Cold Scapes.  If that doesn't make you go outside and kiss the earth I don't know what will.

I think it is wonderfully written and very thought provoking prose.  Why not ask your older kids if they think it is interesting writing, and if so, how did the author make it interesting?  In my opinion, it makes for fascinating reading because the author is obviously writing about something he loves. 

For those of you with younger children, pick out a few key paragraphs to read to them. Be sure to dwell longer on the pictures.  (Sometimes it's a good idea to read the essay first - it makes it easier to answer the questions younger kids always ask). 

"The world is beautiful, in many unfathomable ways. In our hurrying, though, we frequently miss what is beautiful around us, in the same way that we forget from time to time what we want our lives to mean. Just to stay afloat in the modern world, many of us reluctantly choose detachment from the constant stimulus. We even turn away from beauty, as if it were another thing we had had too much of.

Gazing at these images, I think of our habits of detachment. More than any other region of the planet, the Arctic has responded in starkly visible ways to global climate change. It is here, if you will, that a canary is singing faintly in a mine shaft. To make pictures of these places—this is my presumption—I imagine the photographer had to have been thinking about us in some way, about how we are going to fare. The images are not merely beautiful, an exoticness to admire, but an invitation to reattach ourselves to the Earth, specifically to a place that has now grown oddly poignant."

Essay by Barry Lopez	Photographs by Bernhard Edmaier
Once you have read the article, go check out the photographs here. Of course, please try to avoid looking at the IRONICALLY placed advertisements for vehicles, yes I know they are hybrids, but why not advertise a push bike instead? Aussie Kim (LA Sue will now translate for the non-Australians - she means bicycle - I had to ask)

US ranks #29 in the World for Educational Standards

Yet another reason to homeschool.

According to an OECD report on their 3 yearly testing of the math and science skills of 15 year olds around the world, students in the U.S. made it to number 29.  The U.S. just beat the Slovak Republic, but were behind Western Europe, Latvia, Slovenia, Korea, Croatia, Estonia, Lichtenstein, Japan, New Zealand, etc etc etc.... etc .....The U.S. were STATISTICALLY significantly BELOW the OECD average. 

Finland came first.  However, I imagine there's not much else to do in winter over there.

Here are some sample questions.  Here is the report from OECD, and here are the results.

I'm not bragging (well, OK I am bragging) did you notice Australia came 8th!  On-ya mate!

Here are the results.

Aussie Kim