Month: April 2004 Page 1 of 2

This weekend was a great weekend for new ideas. Lorena, Kelly, Christian, and I needed to go to pick up a metal cutting bandsaw to take up to my father in the Portland area this weekend, so we decided to do a little homeschool shopping and go the Washington Square mall while we were there.

Planning: When we homeschooled Kelly during her first grade year, we bought a lot of stuff at a place in Beaverton called Christian Supply. We went there first on Saturday, but were a little bit surprised that they had a much narrower selection of homeschool supplies than we expected. I think part of my disappointment was based on the fact that I have read a lot more about homeschooling now and know about the vast breadth of materials available to us via the internet.

Next we went to the mall. After eating our regular teriyaki chicken, Lorena and Kelly went clothes shopping while Christian and I sat in the Borders bookstore and read. Christian always reads the Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes books. I was looking for books on Python so I could read up on how to do my homeschool robotics project. The only thing I could find was a book on Python and HTML, so I started browsing the business books section.

Every now and then, when driving around on the weekend, I have tuned into a radio talkshow called The Dave Ramsey Show about personal finances. He has what I believe are great ideas on financial repsonsibility. I decided to take a look at his book The Total Money Makeover. It is pretty heavy on anecdotes and pretty light on actual methods, but the book’s ideas work for me. I read much of the book in the hour that I was sitting in the bookstore and was very inspired by the time everyone was ready to go.

On the trip home to Albany, Lorena and I talked about some of the ideas in the book. I think the idea of teaching those kinds of concepts about money to children as part of a homeschool program is a great idea. Kelly, Christian, and I have been talking about money, business, and financial planning for quite a while now. They really are intrigued with the idea of doing some investing.

The Moore Foundation has, as one of the core elements of their famous Moore Formula, the running of a “home industry” that fits right in with all of this, too. I will start thinking and planning a curriculum for the kids based on the responsible management of money and the responsible management of a business. My thinking is that I can use the GnuCash software program coupled with the ideas from Dave Ramsey and the Moore Foundation to come up with a great money curriculum for our homeschoolers.

An old friend from my days working at Intelledex is willing to collaborate with me on writing a book on Beginning Robotic Programming with Projects. It is time to start putting down some goals and scope for the project. This is my first pass. Nina is a published author (a book and a good number of magazine articles). She is a technical writer at ATS where I am currently employed and a wonderful friend.

Automation Controller: The automation controller project really needs to be broken up into three main sub-projects and a plethora of sub-sub-projects. I am just going to try to describe what I believe to be the sub-projects today. This can certainly change, but it is good to have it written down so we can have something from which to work. The three main sub-projects as I see them now are 1) A book describing how to buy, assemble, and program all the readily available elements of a robotic automation system, 2) a hardware kit containing all of the items used in the book, and 3) a home learning curriculum for homeschool students with timelines, additional explanatory materials, visual aids, knowledge worksheets, exams, and other appropriate materials.

The purpose of the book is to describe how to program a number of standard automation devices that can be controlled throught he serial port of a computer. It should be noted that robotic guidance and other machine vision tasks would be a great topic for volume two of this series. The following devices have been identified as being important to this project:

Stepper motors

Digital inputs

Digital outputs

Analog inputs

Analog outputs

After all the basics are covered, the accumulation of these devices into working subsystems is covered in the following way:

Conveyor controller

Temperature controller

Robotic aquarium w/fish feeder

Linear axis control

An XY table

Adding a z-axis

Supporting text file motion programs

A CNC dremel tool router

Robotic gripper

Robot arm

Supporting text file robot programs

Automatic hot chocolate maker/pourer

Building computer controlled automation systems is a lot of fun. There are a lot of new and inexpensive devices coming onto the market all the time. Many of those devices can be connected to a computer via an RS-232, a USB, or a firewire port. These are my thoughts on building some learning tools and accompanying documentation to teach homeschool kids and others about how to design and build a computer controlled automation system based on those kinds of devices.

Automation Controller: After purchasing a 3-axis stepper motor controller and accompanying stepper motors yesterday, I got to thinking how I might effectively teach Christian how to design them into a computer controlled automation system. Generally, stepper motors are insufficient by themselves for making something useful or even interesting. In thinking about the other things we might need to do something very interesting, it dawned on me that with just six different types of serial port controlled devices, I could build a plethora of systems capable of performing a very wide range of tasks. The following is a table of the devices and a brief list of the kinds of things they might be used to control:

Serial Device	Things they can control
Motor Controllers	XY Tables, robot arms, telescope positioners
Digital Inputs	Through beams, contact switches, proximity switches
Digital Outputs	Solenoids, lights, fountain pumps
Analog to Digital Convertor	Temperature sensors, velocity sensors, light sensors
Digital to Analog Convertor	Speed controller, temperature controller, light controller
Cameras	Robot guidance, motion detection, measurement

If I want to be able to teach students how to program these devices easily, I need a programming environment that allows the student to engage directly with the equipment via typed commands. In looking around, I found an interpreted cross platform programming language called Python that might be just perfect for what I want to accomplish.

As you have seen from above, I have started a new category called Automation Controller. I will write my continuing thoughts on this project under that category. This is a big project, so I am not expecting to finish it quickly. If I have the time and it is successful, it might even deserve a webpage of its own.

Christian is always wanting to do a project of some sort. I need to find some things we can do together both this summer and then when homeschool starts in the fall. I do not have any idea what they should be, but will take a stab at it here.

Planning: It would really be a shame not to take advantage of Christian’s love for building stuff at this stage in his life. He is just crazy about doing projects that involve building things with his hands. I have been trying to give some thought to some projects he might enjoy, but I do not think I have a great list. I will put what I have here as potential projects for the summer and try to come back to it now and again if we do not get things going for him.

1.	Wood box planters for the yard
3.	Knitting a sweater
4.	Putting in a raised bed garden
5.	Building a minibike
6.	Building a birdhouse
7.	Painting his room
8.	Taking a pottery class

StepperControl.com has a stepper motor controller on their website that controls three stepper motors and costs only $100. I bought that along with three 45 oz-in. stepper motors that were also available on the website for $30 each. They should be great for some kind of a project I can do with Christian.

Planning: I have been wanting to take on a Linux programming project of some kind so that I can learn a little more about their development environment. These little items might allow me to kill two birds with one stone. There are a plethora of cool things that can be done with a stepper motor controller system. I can now add to the list of projects I put together earlier today, but first I need to decide what kind of base system I want to start with.

My initial thoughts are that we can make a little SCARA robot and from that, we can do a lot of things. We need an arm that really does something, so I am thinking of maybe doing a chess playing robot or something like that. I could add machine vision to all of this, too. This is something we could document really well while we are doing it, make the software available to whoever wants to use it, and then maybe other people can do the same sort of thing or add to what we already have in place as an open source homeschool learning project.

Costs

Description	Purchase Location	Cost
3 Axis stepper motor controller	StepperControl.com	$100.00
3 stepper motors	StepperControl.com	$90.00
Cable	StepperControl.com	$5.00
Shipping and handling	StepperControl.com	UPS ground rate + $1.00 – $9.00 discount

Lorena and I drop the kids off for piano lessons every Monday at 5:30 in the afternoon. That gives us about an hour and fifteen minutes to have dinner or just go for a drive in the country. We are planning to continue doing that next year as part of our homeschool.

Planning: Kelly and Christian both enjoy playing the piano very much. Lorena and I really do not have ANY training in music; something that makes both of us a little sad. In talking to people who do have some training, we have been led to believe that a good base in piano is a super way to get started in music either as a way to lead into another instrument or as an end unto itself. We have decided we are going to keep both the kids in piano lessons for at least seven or eight years each.

This summer, Jill Hickenlooper has said she would be happy to give the kids some singing lessons. We want them to be able to sing the different parts for our hymns and to have a change over the summer with something they enjoy. Jill said that if they wanted to go any further than that, it might be a good idea to get them lessons with a voice teacher. Our plan is to keep them in piano lessons during the school year and then give them something fun and different over the summer. We will just have to see how it develops.

Driving the kids to their piano lesson has been a really great deal for Lorena and I. Every week we have some time set aside to talk and spend some time alone together. Last night, we were not too hungry so we drove to Scio to see a piece of property our friend Warren Bone is thinking of buying. It was a great drive through some beautiful country. As we drove, we thought it might be kind of neat to live in such a beautiful setting, but we came back to our senses in a couple of minutes. It is WAY to far from a decent restaurant out there!

It is time to start checking into the Home School Legal Defense Association. They are an organization that provides legal representation to Home Schooling families around the country.

Planning:
I view the $100 per year subscription fee to HSLDA both as a way to help push pro-homeschool legislation and insurance against government intrusion. HSLDA is a great organization that has information on their website for what is required to comply with homeschooling laws in every state in the union. We only have to do a couple of things here in Oregon. First, we need to inform the Educational Services District (ESD) in our area that we are homeschooling within ten days after we start. Then, both Kelly and Christian will need to take a proctored standardized tests next year from a testing service as the third and fifth grades are state specified testing years. We do not even have to turn in the tests. We just have to have the results available in case the ESD asks for them. Testing is required after the third, fifth, eighth, and tenth years of homeschool. We might even do it more often if we feel it is useful.

Other:
I have a couple of second cousins nearby who are living in assisted living arrangements and who are monitered through the local mental health systems. Tim lives in an apartment by himself in our town while Dave lives in an apartment in a town about fifteen minutes away with his wife, Valerie, who is also in the mental health system. Tim goes to gospel meeting with us Sunday evenings and it has been great to get a chance to know both he and his brother a little better. Tim turned forty-five yesterday, so we had all three over along with a few other friends from church yesterday to inaugurate our new stainless steel barbeque.

Tim blowing out the candles

Dave and Val at Tim’s party

The couple who brought Dave and Val over are from our church. Kurt is from California and Rene is from Cottage Grove, the town where I was born. We actually had some of the same grade school teachers at Harrison Elementary School. Kurt saw that we are working on our patio at our house and wanted to know if he could come over and watch while we finished it up when we pour some exposed aggregate. What a great guy! I will put some pictures of the project up here when I get them in the next two or three weeks.

Kurt and Rene at Tim’s party

Jim and Joanne are the elders of our church.

Mabel is Joanne’s mother.

Planning: I thought I was going to be going through the Sonlight catalog last night, but it was the RealScience-4-Kids curriculum that arrived from Access Research Network, not the catalog. It is great! We ordered the first of a six part series.

Access Research Network has programs for teaching science at two levels. The first level is for second through fifth graders and covers one subject per year (although you can go faster if you like). The subjects covered are Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. The second level is for sixth through ninth graders and covers the exact same materials in more depth. We got the first level Chemistry program for both Kelly and Christian. We will probably try to go through both Chemistry and Biology next year.

The thing that is really great about the program is that real science terminology is used in a very interesting way and they do real science experiments (not demonstrations). The kids write down the hypothesis, set up the experiment, record data, interpret the data, and then write up their conclusions. It looks just great! We are planning to do the one half hour reading/discussion assignments on Tuesdays and then the one hour experiments that deal with the material from the previous reading on Thursdays.

When the kids looked at the program, they wanted to start doing it immediately. I might weaken and start before the end of the summer, but right now I think that is something I do not want to do. It will help a lot to have them be very excited about getting into their studies in the fall with this material on the shelf where they have to just look longingly and not touch until our official start date.

Last night I mowed the lawn. There is a ton of stuff we have to do on the lawn including doing some rasied beds for Lorena and the kids before Memorial Day weekend so we can get a garden planted. I think that would probably be a better summer project than doing science experiments indoors. We can take pictures of the construction of the beds, the preparation of the garden, progress of the plants, and the harvest here. I am going to do some additional digging in the yard both to get some exercise and to reduce the amount of grass that I have to mow. I will get the kids to help Lorena and I move the barkdust and to do some weeding, too.

Progress: We worked on Christian’s MathIt last night. He was pretty hungry and tired when we were trying to do it, so we didn’t do as well as previously. I think we need to keep going on it for a couple more weeks so he has it very solidly before we go on. I think my goal will be to get him into the multiplication tables and flash cards by the time he is out of government school this year at the end of May.

Lorena told me a catalog had arrived while I was on my recent trip to South Carolina. I assumed wrongly it was the catalog from Sonlight. It was the science curriculum from Access Research Network called RealScience-4-Kids and it looks GREAT!

The trip home from South Carolina was really very uneventful. I went out to dinner with the sales team, we got the technical and sales information we need to move forward on the project, and the customer promised us a signed purchase order by Friday of this week. I was operating on very little sleep on the way home, so all I really got accomplished on the way home was reading a good novel; something I have not been able to do for what seems like a year.

Planning

At lunch time at work today, I did some reading at the Sonlight website. They articulated some of my concerns about the “classical education” approach advocated by the people who wrote the Well Trained Mind book. I have been really worried about “starting from the beginning” and going through four levels of history three times each over a period of twelve years. That sounds like, and probably is, a really great idea. The job of actually doing it with children starting homeschooling in the fourth and sixth grades at the same time seems quite daunting.

The thing I like about Sonlight’s approach is that they appear to be very realistic about providing a level of balance between the homeschooling environment in our society and the needs of our particular children. From everything I have read and heard so far, Sonlight appears to take care of a lot of the busy work of homeschooling and emphasizes parent participation in the discussion of academic subjects. That fits us to a “T”. From our experience with Kelly using the Beautiful Feet we know that a literature based history and geography curriculum is well suited for Kelly and Christian; both of whom love to read.

The Sonlight catalog came in yesterday, so I should be able to spend some time going through the materials tonight. If the materials are everything they are represented to be by the website and word-of-mouth, I might be able to start finalizing some more of the curriculum decisions in the next few days.

Quality Corners stuff

Dad is down in Phoenix right now talking to two of our biggest customers and a number of other smaller customers. We are getting more and more business every day and we are increasing our capacity and efficiency every day, too. If things keep going as they are, my chance of taking a full time position with Quality Corners improves!||I did not get anything new done on homeschool planning on my way home from South Carolina, but I did do some reading and made some headway on deciding about our general direction for History, Geography, Language, and Literature. In addition, the Sonlight catalog arrived at home and Quality Corners is making great progress in both sales and capacity.

Trip report – April 20, 2004

Today I am travelling to Florence, South Carolina for work. On the flight between Portland and Denver, I sat with a family from Scapoose that is homeschooling their four boys between the ages of about twelve and about eighteen. They were on their way down to Orlando to visit Disney World. I am not crazy about Disney World, but they were a very nice family. They are using Abeka curricula almost exclusively. In addition, the boys play sports in the local government school sports programs as is legal under Oregon State law.

I am getting so that I like to travel less and less if I am not with Lorena, Kelly, and Christian. I guess it is good in that it makes me realize a little more how important they are to me. Even more than that, it makes me think of how little time I have left with the kids and how important it is to “raise them up in the way they should go in the fear and admonition of the Lord.”

Last night we heard that Lorena’s cousin Martha is going to marry a guy we introduced to her from our church. He does not go to the same Sunday morning meeting as us, but he goes to one in the town next door so we see him at Gospel Meetings once or twice a week. They have known each other for about four months and are planning to get married on July 17th, so things seem to be moving right along with them. For the first time, we will be living close to someone from Lorena’s family. Maybe more people from down in Monterrey will come up and visit us now that there are more of us to see up here. Here is a picture of Tony and Martha from when Martha came here to visit for the first time in March.

Tony and Martha

Planning

We still have not received the Sonlight catalog so I am not sure what I am going to do about language, grammar, and history yet. I might take a look at the Abeka program along with the others. There is not much I can do while I am here on the airplane other than read the Well Trained Mind book. Maybe I will have some insights on what we might do on the homebound leg if I do some reading now.||I had to go to South Carolina for a couple of days for my work. I have a few thoughts on my trip and a few thoughts about homeschool. I met a very nice homeschooling family on my way there.

We went down to Costco as soon as it opened on Saturday morning because we wanted to buy a filing cabinet and a barbeque. We got both and a round table that we think will be a great platform for the kids to do homework. The barbeque looks like it is going to work great. It looks good and works well right now. I hope it lasts. It is an off brand that does not have the fit and finish of even our little Weber gas barbeque. I think I will pay the extra $50 and get a name brand next time. Here are some pictures of Christian and I trying it out:

Ken and Christian trying out the new barbeque

Planning

When we looked at the shelving we wanted at Home Depot and calculated up the cost, it was evident that we could get something a lot nicer for around the same price by just buying some standalone shelves. It is amazing how much that stuff costs. Lorena might even try to find something at a garage sale. We calculated that it would cost us about $120 to put up about twenty feet of the nice wire shelves we wanted. For under $200 we could buy a very nice bookshelf and some nice plastic bins to go with them. We are going to rethink the shelves a little and try again later.

We have already started refering to the downstairs closet as the “Homeschool Closet”. We really haven’t been making great use of it. As you can see from the picture below, it is just a place to accumulate “stuff”. That stuff is really starting to build up and we have been in the house only about eight months.

Closet Before Picture

We paid $129.99 for our new filing cabinet. We were thinking of getting two narrower cabinets, but when we saw this one we thought it was big enough so we just bought one. Lorena will use the top drawer for our bills and other papers. We will give the second drawer to Kelly and the third drawer to Christian for storing their homeschool work. We can hold the bottom drawer in reserve. We think we can get the thing into the Homeschool Closet with enough room for some decent bookshelves and bins, but it might be a little bit of a trick.

The New Filing Cabinet

We also found a round table to do homeschool work that we plan to store in the closet or out in the garage when it is not in use. We paid $32.99 for the table. The kids are not tall enough yet to sit in regular chairs and work comfortably at a regular size table. I will have to find or make some chairs that will allow them to sit with their feet flat on a stool so they can work comfortably. I think that is a very important consideration.

I have decided to add a new “Costs” section to record our homeschool expenses as the come in. I will add the books we already bought a few days back to today’s list so we will be caught up.

Costs

Description	Purchase Location	Cost
Filing Cabinet	CostCo	$129.99
Round Table	CostCo	32.99
RealScience-4-Kids Chemistry Level I Curriculum	Access Research Network	70.00

When we got to Home Depot this weekend, we had second thoughts about putting up wire shelves in the closet. Therefore, we did not get the closet finished as we had initially planned. We did, however, buy a brand new stainless steel barbeque, a study table, and a filing cabinet from Costco.

Planning

The first time we did homeschool when Kelly was in the first grade, I read a book by Raymond Moore about the subject. He highly recommended that a small business be a part of the homeschool experience. The point of the business is to teach the children how to work and to run a business. He believed that anything would do; paper routes, a delivery service, anything. I really like that idea.

My dad owned and ran a doll house factory for many years. The doll houses were very fun products. My thinking is that it would be great to make something that is really fun. That is easier said than done. In as much as I am a robotics engineer by trade, I am thinking of something in that arena. At the same time, I do not want the product to be a robot just for the sake of being a robot; I want the product to do something.

In thinking on the robot idea, I thought it might be fun to build a robot controller along with a series of projects that apply the robot controller. I thought maybe we could sell robotic project kits complete with materials and instructions on how to build and use the kits. Then, I thought that there are probably a lot of homeschool parents who have the same problem I am having and cannot think of something to do as a business as part of their homeschool. All that lead to an idea that I really do not have perfectly clear in my head yet, but I will try to take a stab at explaining it.

The first thing required is a robotic controller with a real time operating system that can control a good number of stepper motors, digital and analog inputs and outputs, and possibly a camera or two. In addition, it would be great if the device were accessible via ethernet to the internet. That computer would have to have a data driven application already running on it (probably developed by me) that would allow for its use as a controller by someone who has minimal computer literacy and even less robotics literacy.

Next, three to five good projects would need to be developed with the controller. The projects need to both do something interesting and be useful in teaching both robotics and one or more secondary subjects to a homeschool student. A couple of projects that might qualify include:

An orchid growing environment that controls the light, temperature and humidity in an environment, measures nutrients in water and soil, and possibly keeps the windows to view the orchid clean from condensation so the orchids can be appreciated. The homeschool student could learn about robotic control, mechanical assembly, and horticulture. The chamber could also be useful for growing salsa materials (onions, cilantro, tomatoes, and chiles), other flowers, etc.

An automatic tortilla maker.

A tethered mini-blimp camera platform.

A dremel tool milling machine

All of these projects could be offered as kits with curricula for assembly, technical understanding of robotics and the task performed by the equipment, and even how the product could be used in a small family business. I will continue trying to develop this idea.||Raymond Moore, a homeschool research pioneer was very big on the idea of running a business as part of the homeschool experience. I really like that idea and have been beating my brain trying to come up with something.

Planning

We are still waiting for the Sonlight catalog to get here, so I have not started in yet on the Language (grammar, reading, and spelling), History, and Writing portions of our curriculum. I am really conflicted about whether to go with a very structured program or to get the books recommended by the Well Trained Mind and just do those items as they are laid out in the book. The up side to the former is that it is all set out for the teacher and there is less preparation. The up side to the latter is that it is possible to “start from the beginning” and keep Kelly and Christian in sync on ancient world history while providing for maximum flexibility. I am going to have to look at it pretty carefully. My leaning right now is to go with the Well Trained Mind approach if I can get the books and do not believe it will be too onerous an effort along with my work and Lorena’s school.

This weekend Lorena and I want to go down to Lowes to get some shelving to install in the oversized closet adjacent to the family room under the stairs so we will have a place to put all our homeschool stuff for ready access. We are also going to put a couple of four drawer file cabinets there; one for the kids and one for us. It might be good to find a sturdy fold-up table and chairs that are the right size for the kids in there, too. I do not know how hard it will be to find them, but I image they are around.

Progress

We went to Gospel Meeting last night, so we did not have a lot of time to do academic work. Kelly had a lot of mathematics on which she needed to catch up from her government school. Christian and I did his “MathIt” and he progressed nicely. We missed our verses last night. I need to make sure we do that nightly. I am really looking forward to seeing how they do with learning the new verses without me looking over their shoulder.

A little bit of progress and some infrastructure planning for the weekend.

This is just a first pass at a schedule based on my thinking based on estimates of how long each item should take from the Well Trained Mind.

Christian’s tentative schedule

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:00	Math	Math	Math	Math	Math	60 min.
9:00	Spelling	Spelling	Spelling	Spelling	Spelling	15 min.
9:15	Spanish	Spanish	Spanish	Spanish	Spanish	45 min.
10:00	Break	Break	Break	Break	Break	15 min.
10:15	Grammar	Grammar	Grammar	Grammar	Grammar	20 min.
10:35	Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing	25 min.
11:00	Reading	Reading	Reading	Reading	Reading	30 min.
11:30	Piano	Piano	Piano	Piano	Piano	30 min.
12:00	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	60 min.
Waiting for Dad
4:45	History	Science	History	Science	History	60 min.

Kelly’s tentative schedule

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:00	Math	Math	Math	Math	Math	60 min.
9:00	Spelling	Spelling	Spelling	Spelling	Spelling	15 min.
9:15	Spanish	Spanish	Spanish	Spanish	Spanish	45 min.
10:00	Break	Break	Break	Break	Break	15 min.
10:15	Grammar	Grammar	Grammar	Grammar	Grammar	45 min.
11:00	Reading	Reading	Reading	Reading	Reading	60 min.
12:00	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	60 min.
1:00	Logic	Writing	Logic	Writing	Logic	60 min.
2:00	Piano	Piano	Piano	Piano	Piano	30 min.
3:00	Writing	Waiting for Dad				60 min.
Waiting for Dad
4:45	History	Science	History	Science	History	60 min.

This is just a first pass at a schedule based on my thinking based on estimates of how long each item should take from the Well Trained Mind.

Planning

In the Well Trained Mind, the teaching of formal logic is highly recommended. The idea is expressed that the understanding of language is absolutely critical to the understanding of formal logic. The fifth grade is the year recommended to start laying the groundwork for formal logic by systematically doing logic puzzle solving. The recommended books are the Mind Benders series of books supplemented with the Red Herring series of books. These are not books in formal logic which does not start until the sixth grade, but they are fun way to introduce the topic. I have not yet ordered these books, but have them on my list.

The authors of the Well Trained Mind are big on teaching Latin. The reasons provided to teach Latin were not too convincing in that it appears that similar benefits would be derived from teaching Spanish. We are way more interested in having the kids obtain mastery of Spanish so they can more effectively communicate with our family in Mexico. Kelly and Christian’s new aunt, Minita, just graduated from La Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon (UANL) in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She got a double degree in Linguistics and Elementary Education. We are going to solicit her help in finding a way to test the kids to determine their level of understanding of Spanish and then find a curriculum and materials to do the Spanish teaching here at home in Oregon next fall.

There was a great blurb in the Well Trained Mind on how bad television is for a developing mind. As we do not have a television, we have already bought into that idea. I had not given much thought to the idea that the computer games available for kids have mostly the same drawbacks as television. The programs are mostly visual with little time provided for reflection or creative interpretation. With the exception of using our Mavis Beacon typing program for fifteen minutes per day in the summers, we are going to reduce computer time as much as is possible. The point that hit home the most was that every minute the kids are using the computer, they are not reading, creating art, practicing the piano. etc.

Progress

Christian and I worked on the MathIt again last night. He is doing really well. I think we should go a week or two more on the “DoubleIt” part of the program before we move on. In addition, both Kelly and Christian memorized a verse on their own quite well. I will give them another night with that one verse that they have already memorized and give them another verse to memorize for the rest of the week.||We want to make use of our Spanish speaking family to help us put together a great Spanish program for the kids. The Well Trained Mind discussed several topics with a little different take than mine and/or about which I either had not given much thought. Those topics include the teaching of Latin (I do not buy it), the disadvantages of television and computers, and the teaching of Logic as a subject.

This afternoon, I spoke with a friend at work named Joe Sullivan. He has thirteen children all of whom were or are being homeschooled. I told him that we were going to use the RealScience-4-Kids program we found at the Access Research Network website. He told me there is a group in Oregon called the Design Science Association that sponsers “design science” field trips around the state. In looking at the website, it looks like they even take some field trips out of the country.

Today, Kelly’s teacher told Lorena that she would not be allowed to go on the school sponsered field trip at her government school. Lorena let the teacher know that, based on our experience with the school, we did not feel comfortable letting Kelly go on the field trip if Lorena did not also attend. I mentioned this to Joe and he recommended the Design Science Association. It really looks like the homeschool field trips available to us will be much better than anything Kelly has available in her current schooling situation.

I was talking to a guy at work who has homeschooled and is homeschooling all of his 13 children.

Planning

This is just a stab at curriculum choices for the kids. This will take some refinement, but I believe it is a good first pass. The areas that I have not investigated thoroughly are History, Language (English), Writing, and Art. The former three because I am assuming I will get them from SonLight and the latter, because Lorena will be selecting, teaching, and participating in the vast majority of the art program (I am somewhat challenged in that area).

Times, locations, support materials, and other considerations will be addressed as we move forward and think of them. I will also make a good attempt to keep track of the costs of the programs. There are a couple items in the chart that I have not yet addressed in any post. I will discuss my thoughts on Spanish and the Logic program for Kelly in tomorrow morning’s post.

Kelly’s Curriculum

Subject	Program	Level
Math	Singapore Mathematics	Based on placement exam
Science	RealScience-4-Kids	Chemistry – Level 1
Spanish	Identify program with help from Minita	To be determined
Logic	Mind Benders, Red Herrings	Need to investigate
History	Sonlight	Grade 5
Language	Sonlight	Grade 5
Writing	Sonlight	Grade 5
Music	Mrs. Hickenlooper	Fifth year
Art	Lorena will decide	Whatever is appropriate
Physical Education	To be determined	To be determined

Christian’s Curriculum

Subject	Program	Level
Math	Singapore Mathematics	Based on placement exam
Science	RealScience-4-Kids	Chemistry – Level 1
Spanish	Identify program with help from Minita	To be determined
History	Sonlight	Grade 3
Language	Sonlight	Grade 3
Writing	Sonlight	Grade 3
Music	Mrs. Hickenlooper	Third year
Art	Lorena will decide	Whatever is appropriate
Physical Education	To be determined	To be determined

This is just a stab at curriculum choices for the kids. This will take some refinement, but I believe it is a good first pass. The areas that I have not investigated thoroughly are History, Language (English), Writing, and Art. The former three because I am assuming I will get them from SonLight and the latter, because Lorena will be selecting, teaching, and participating in the vast majority of the art program (I am somewhat challenged in that area).

Planning

I check for new articles at the Access Research Network website a couple of times each week. They have articles and announcements about events and news that has to do with Intelligent Design. I have always thought that it would be great to teach the kids using a science program based around Intelligent Design. A couple of years ago, a chemistry curriculum for third to fifth graders called RealScience-4-Kids by Rebecca W. Keller appeared on the site. I read the sample chapters and all the blurbs on it at the time. It looked interesting, but not yet mature.

When Lorena and I decided to start homeschooling again, I thought of the RealScience-4-Kids program. When I went back and looked at that part of the Access Research Network website, there was additional information on the program and its author. Dr. Keller is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at University of New Mexico and a homeschooling mom. There is a revised addition coming out in May of this year, but I bought the old materials at a discount. I paid $70 for the book and teaching materials as well as two sets of the stuff that gets used up so that both Kelly and Christian can have their own.

I chose this program because I am very interested in Intelligent Design and because it should work just fine for both Kelly and Christian. In addition, Christian just loves science and he should get a real kick out of program as a whole. Access Research Network also has a Biology program for third to fifth graders that should still be ok for Kelly next year. The idea behind the programs is to “Take high school level science and repackage it in a way that is fun and interesting for elementary students.” The biology program is set up to follow the chemistry program so we will have a couple of years of great learning with the idea that if it works well for us, Access Research Network might have a follow-on program for more advanced study by the time we are finished with these.

Progress

Last night, Christian and I continued on the math program recommended by the Moores. I forgot the name of the program last time I wrote, but it is called Math-It. According to the literature, I should not have too much trouble getting Christian through his multiplication facts by the end of the school year.

Today is the first day the kids will be memorizing a verse on their own for recitation to me in the evening. I am hoping we can get through two verses per week from now until when they have finished memorizing their assigned chapters. Christian has memorized all of Psalm 8 and the first eight verses of Psalm 9. His goal for this year is all of Psalms 8 and 9. Kelly has memorized the first 28 verses of Matthew 5. Her goal for this year is to memorize all of Matthew 5.

I spoke with Jill Hickenlooper, the kids piano teacher last night before their lesson about them switching to take singing lessons this summer. I asked her if it were possible for her to teach them how to sing parts. She said that if I brought her our hymn book, she would take a look and she did not think it would be a problem. She thought she could get them started during the summer, but after that it would be better to find them a teacher that specializes in voice. She thought it was a fine idea to give them a break from piano during the summers to study singing for the next two or three years as it is something they would always enjoy.

Access Research Network has a chemistry science curriculum based on intelligent design for third through fifth graders. I bought it.

Progress

We went to Gospel Meeting last night, so we really did not have a lot of time to work on anything to do with homeschool. The one thing on which I did have a chance to work was working with Christian on his Math. Over the last two or three days, we have been doing a variety of math problems. He has his addition and subtraction down pretty good. It needs some drill, but all in all it is not a bad base from which to work. What he really needs most is to memorize multiplication and short division facts. The program we used with Kelly was absolutely excellent. I am going to start on that with him tonight. I think I will have him do addition and subtraction worksheets each morning and then I will teach him multiplication in the evening. Then toward the middle of the summer I will test him using the Singapore Math placement test. I really think he will fall into level 3A. I have looked at the program a little now and it looks great.

We have gone for several days now without working on our memorization. I am going to try to get the kids going again on that tomorrow as I will be driving up to Amity to pick up a machine Steve Davison built for us so we can take it to Newberg to be shipped to our factory in Caldwell tomorrow morning.

Both Kelly and Christian are playing in a piano performance festival in Salem today, so they will be out of school for half a day. I will try to post photos here of the performance here tomorrow if Lorena remembers to take the camera with her. Discussion of what to do about getting Christian up to speed with the idea of moving into third grade math next year