Pluto No Longer a Planet!
Wow! Everything I'd been taught about the solar system is wrong! Everything I taught my kids about the solar system is wrong!
abc13.com: News from KTRK, around the world Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.
Here's my favorite quote:
"It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called 'planet' under which the dwarf planets exist," she [Conference Leader Jocelyn Bell Burnell] said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella.
Look closely: That's Ms. Burnell holding Pluto
Or this one from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Pluto was shafted by the world's astronomers today...
OK - so there are various mnemonic devices to remember the name of the planets. My favorite, that Ms. Vezain taught me in the fourth grade in Princeton, Illinois, was "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles". Now, it doesn't make sense to end it with "Nine" (unless you're a whacked-out Star Trek fan), so I decided to change it to "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Newts".
Well, anyway - throw out your astronomy textbooks. Or don't. My wife is wagering that they'll add it back in 20 years...
In Full Swing
Well, I'd wanted to wait until the end of August, but for some reason found myself today doing six hours of lessons. Though it didn't quite go as nicely as I'd liked (the power went out while we were researching New Mexico on the internet and the cable didn't come back until much later!), it was still a nice day.
We are writing a lot. I mean, a
lot! We'd like to start my oldest on cursive before long. We write definitions from the dictionary, we write about various bible stories. This week, we're writing about the states that border Texas. Not detailed stuff, but basics - state bird, state frijole, etc.
The little one, still working on ABC books.
I read her three of these twice a day every day for a week, and she's starting to get it. She can recognize the letter "C" without really thinking about it.
Triumphs: Oldest is writing neater. Still working on sentence structure, but she's writing neater. She's also improved a great deal on her math over two weeks ago.
Youngest is starting to recognize letters when she sees them.
Pitfalls: Still no adult contact during the week...
September Looms on the Horizon
Texas schools start this week. So we started a few weeks ago. Actually, we never really quit for the summer - just did 'light lessons'. I didn't want to lose any of the momentum we'd built up during the spring. But we did start ramping up on lessons for the month of August. We're up to four hours of lessons a day - from 8:00 to noon. By Labor Day, we should be up to six hours. We're having a problem keeping our focus after lunch...
Our cirriculum is gonna change. We need something that will keep her attention. Though she's seven, she's working at a third-grade level. Might've been fourth-grade if Daddy hadn't fallen so far behind the curve. She gets bored with the standard lessons so easily. I mean, it took her less than five minutes to work through her Language Arts stuff on prefixes and suffixes.
Writing is our biggest hurdle right now. The 'Big Chief' type of lined tablet really didn't work - she writes smaller than the lines. So, we got a regular lined spiral notebook. She's writing better with it. We have two writing assignments every day. One is to write the bible story in her words - not the NIV's. The other is to copy a definition directly out of the dictionary.
Math is another hurdle. She can add and subtract really well, but she hasn't memorized her tables. I've been wanting to stop and work on the tables, but I lose her. So, we're gonna do five-minute drills every day. Flash cards or on paper - we're gonna do it. And, we'll continue on in the math book. It's coming up to multiplication soon. Our math book is "Math 3 for Christian Schools" from Bob Jones University Press.
We've got an awesome American History book that she loves to read. But it has word puzzles with every assignment (crossword, word-find, etc.) and she hates those. I guess I need to find another way to ask the questions. The title of the book is "The Complete Book of American Facts & Games" by American Education Publishing. We picked it up at Sam's for $5.70.
I don't think the science class is going to happen. As much as I wanted to do it, I'm not prepared for it. I'll wait a year. My kids are going to continue to learn about science. For neat science stuff, there's lots of stuff on the web - we like NASA and various university websites. USGS (US Geologic Survey) has a
really cool kid's section, as well!
OK - as we progress, triumphs and obstacles will be posted. I want feedback. Cheer with me as we attain goals! Help us overcome these obstacles!
Adios,
Clay
