Month: February 2009

The days leading up to the big test were manic days for the whole family.  We all worked hard to get ready, the kids took the test, and now we are back to what passes for normal in our household.  I worked out the homeschool schedules for the next couple of weeks on Sunday evening, but I have never included our read aloud books in those schedules.  We are on the verge of finishing our Intelligent Design book, and I am in a little bit of a dilemma about what to read next.  The choice is between radio theory and broadcast techniques.  I would really like to do both, because in some senses these subjects go together.  We could turn it into kind of a unit studies kind of thing.

Writing about this has given me a little bit of a plan to run by the kids.  Christian and I are well into building the radio.  All we need is some epoxy wire to finish winding the transformers (we did it wrong the first time and wrecked the wire, so we have to start over), then we can finish putting the thing together in just a few more days.  Kelly did not work on this because she has too many projects already and was less interested.  Nevertheless, the information in the radio theory book would be beneficial to both of them.  At the same time, it is a lot more fun to actually broadcast stuff and not just study the technicalities of broadcasting electronics.  So, here is what I am going to propose.

Now that the ACT is over, we have a little more time on our hands.  We might use that time to read through The Electronics of Radio together just one day per week.  We will all work on tuning, adjusting, and testing the radio we built (and about which the book is written) one other day of the week in place of reading aloud.  Then, we could start reading through Sound and Look Professional on TV and the Internet the other two days per week that are available for reading.  When we get far enough into the that material, we could go to one day per week of reading aloud about broadcast subjects and spend one day actually preparing and performing a broadcast.

I will talk to the kids to see what they think.  If they like it, that is what we will try for awhile to see if we can make it work.  They might have some thoughts on ways to improve this plan.

Note to Christian:  There is still time for this.

We got up at an insanely early hour on Saturday, got our stuff together, ate a banana and some Cheerios and headed out the door to the testing center.  I had a good time. I wasn’t too nervous when I got there and my pencils were sharp, so there wasn’t really anything to worry about.  They put me in a classroom with 15 older kids.  The girl on my left was perfect. She looked super prepared, like she did history and science homework for fun.  And she actually dressed nicely for the exam. If you’ll look at the picture below (on Dad’s post) you’ll see that I went for the ‘casual-casual’ look… black pants, t-shirt and running shoes. 😉

Anyway, I did better than I thought I would. Or at least that’s how it feels right now. We’ll see how I actually did when the scores come in in a few weeks.  The English exam was the easiest of all, then reading comprehension, then science, then math. Science was OK. It was basically analyzing graphs, but it helped to know the subjects that the graphs were dealing with. Fortunately I had studied most of the material that was on the science test before, but a couple of them really stumped me and I had to guess.  Math was nightmare-ish. It was simple at first. Then it got harder and harder. Soon I was dealing with things that I had only studied briefly or that I hadn’t studied at all! I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to ace it next year though. By that time I’ll have all the math that I need for the test. 

The essay was amazing.  The topic was perfect! I mean, what can be easier for a fourteen year old girl to write about than ‘nice clothing’ and ‘dressing to impress’?  I honestly think that it was my best ACT essay ever. I don’t think my outfit helped my brainstorming much, but my mind was in the right place. 🙂

Troy and I sat in the Wake County Regional Library at Cameron Village and studied on Saturday while Lorena and Youngin went shopping in Cameron Village.  The kids were over at St. Augustine College to take their ACT.  I do not know how much studying Troy got accomplished, I was pretty manic almost all day and had lots of interesting things to say (at least they were interesting to me, I am not sure about Troy).  It was a beautiful sunny day.  The kids enjoyed the test.  Lorena and I enjoyed hanging out with Troy and Youngin.  We ate some GREAT food at a noodle place in Cameron Village after the test.  I was a little bit saddened because I know we will probably not be going to the Holly Springs library too much any more.  You can drink coffee in the stacks at the Cameron Village library, they have a McDonalds (for breakfast) right around the corner, Lorena can go shopping while Kelly, Christian, and I read books, it is on the way to Costco.  How much better does it get than that?  Still, I LOVED the Holly Springs Library.  We will have to go back there sometime soon for nostalgia’s sake.

St. Augustine College has a neat campus which seems to be right in the center of Raleigh.  While I was waiting for the kids to complete their tests, I noticed that they had won a ton of Division II NCAA National Track and Field Championships.  I think it would be kind of fun to go to a track meet there.  It will not be the Olympic Trials or even a UCLA-Oregon dual meet at Hayward Field, but I bet it would be pretty fun.  I am not sure how well the kids did on the test, but they seemed to think they did OK.  They felt like the math part was the hardest, the science next, and then the English and reading comprehension.  Kelly felt pretty good about the essay portion of her test, too.  We will have to wait and see how it comes out.

Sunday between the morning meeting and the gospel meeting in the afternoon, we all sat down, turned on some classical music, and did some portrait drawing.  We were a little rusty, but it was a LOT of fun.  We have decided we are going to try to do that as often as we can now on Sunday afternoons.  We did a little bit of reading, too.  While we did that, Christian knit a couple of additional rows on his Ubuntu Scarf.  It is coming out awesome.  You can see the logo now.  We can hardly wait until he finishes.  He is thinking of doing a Linux Mint scarf next.  They have a logo that would look greate on a scarf, but it might not be that easy to do.  Maybe he will be ready to try to do it on a sweater or something by the time he gets started.

Note:  I heard on the radio that we will be able to listen to Dave Ramsey on WPTF from 9-12 on weekday mornings.  I hope I will still be able to hear him on afternoons on the way home from work, too!

North Carolina law requires all homeschool students to take a nationally normed standardized test every year.  We would do that whether or not it were required.  It is just nice to get some confirmation that there is educational progress.  We actual enjoy these tests.  We have to do a few things to prepare for the test.  Each of the kids needs a couple of #2 pencils (we discussed that earlier, here), an approved calculator, some paperwork, and an eraser.  We plan for a good night sleep and a banana (for maximum synapse firing) along with breakfast.  After that, we will drive to St. Augustine College where we will check the kids in, then go find a place where Lorena can shop and I can sit and program.  The test times are 45 minutes for English, 60 minutes for math, 35 minutes for reading, 35 minutes for science, and 30 minutes to write an essay (Kelly, only).

Even though we enjoy these tests, it will be a relief to have them behind us because it will allow us to concentrate more on our day to day work.  This is generally, the most productive time of the year for us.  We will start to consider annual research report topics so we are ready to start research in March.  We are just about finished reading Understanding Intelligent Design, so we need to pick our next book.  I thought we would do something on electronics, but I am having second thoughts on that now.  Part of it has to do with reading A Mother’s Journal and feeling nostalgic about all our art (examples here, here, here, and, of course, here).  I think we will go on to books to prepare us for video blogging, but I have not made up my mind quite yet.

Christian

• Math:  Christian is poised to move on from Algebra II to Geometry in February.  He has been doing particularly good work of late, showing all his work and writing very neatly.  That is very important at this level of math.
• History and Literature:  The Sonlight curriculum works very well for us.  Christian continues on schedule in these two area.
• Science:  Apologia Physical Science is awesome, we are on course.
• English:  We are doing several things to prepare Christian for the CLEP Freshman English Composition test.  He will take that next month, after which he will start doing a lot more writing.  He will start his annual research report at that time.
• Spanish:  Second year Rosetta Stone – good progress.
• Music:  Guitar lessons continue.
• PE:  Four days per week of fitness at the YMCA.  He is also in the very beginning of a strength program and making good progress.
• Arts and Crafts:  Christian is knitting on a special scarf (we will have pictures soon) and working on his Betty Blonde graphical novel.
• Electronics:  We continue to work on our our ham radio.

Kelly

• Math:  Kelly is poised to move on from Geometry
  to Precalculus in February.  She is continuing on schedule.
• History:  Kelly is in preparation to take the U.S. History II CLEP test.
• Science:  Apologia Biology is awesome, we are on course.
• English:  Kelly, as always, writes A LOT.  She writes in this blog, her own private, girls blog (a bunch of girls, including one older “girl” who has lots of skills, training and experience in this area, write short stories and poetry, then judge each other — it really is an excellent tool), her diary, etc., etc.  She will
  start her annual research report in March.
• Spanish:  Second year Rosetta Stone – pretty good progress.
• Music:  Piano lessons continue.
• PE:  Four days per week of fitness at the YMCA.  Kelly has been studying health and nutrition and is doing a great job of assuring she gets the right kind of nutrition in the right quantities–not too much, not too little.  She has also been experimenting a lot with new recipes.
• Arts and Crafts:  Betty Blonde, knitting.

Beside all this, we have additional projects planned, not the least of which is the video blogging project that will probably not start now until this summer.  We continue to read aloud together every evening with a bowl of popcorn.

My ACT essay is on Saturday and I’m afraid I am feeling quite unprepared.  Today I spent a good chunk of the afternoon reading and re-reading the big fat ACT prep book and taking a couple of the sample tests. Right after this post I’m going to write down another practice essay.  I have also been reviewing the relevant chapters in all four books on studying and test taking that Dad got. All of the books are different, but they do agree on one thing.

Cramming is a no-no.

So apparently I’m doomed.  Therefore I’m telling myself that I should just plunge into it Betty Blonde style with a smile on my face, a Black Warrior #2 pencil in my hand, and a song of hope in my heart. Easier said than done. In reality I feel like I’m wading barefoot into a dragon infested swamp with only a 10 year old calculator and a fading memory of pre-algebra and elementary grammar to help me pull through. Bleh.

In other, happier news, this one book that Dad bought, How to Become a Straight A Student (I forget, do you italicize, underline, or quote book titles?) by Cal Newport, is really interesting and fun to read.  Basically it’s about the title.  It tells you how to schedule your day, find good places to study, write a really good reasearch paper, and it gives you lots of tips on making good use of your worktime so you can have more time for fun activities.  It’s actually made me really excited about going to college!  That sort of balances out all my bad feelings about the ACT.

I gotta go finish up that essay… I’ll write more later this week.

Well, we are only days away from the ACT.  We are headed over to St. Augustine College in Raleigh on Saturday, armed with our Black Warrior #2 pencils (thanks for the great tip, Troy – I hope we can find some in time!) to do battle with the great Nationally Normed Standardized Test of all tests.  We got a bunch of “how to take a test” books in from Amazon yesterday.  Kelly is devouring them.  I will try to write about what I think about them after I look at them a little more.  They do not include Adler’s How to Read a Book, but we plan to get that one, too (thanks Ruthie).

I am going to have some short posts for a few days due to time constraints associated with work.

I was laying in bed at about 4:00 this morning and an idea came to me. It was an idea about how to solve a hard technical problem. I love that. It might be the best part about being an engineer. The idea, if implemented well, might solve the problem. It might not; the problem is hard. Still it will be very interesting, even fun to try it out. I was invigorated enough by the idea that I got out of bed and went in to work to try it out. It will take me several days to do it, but before now, I did not even have a plan. It was like I was an author with writer’s block. At any rate, now I have something to try and it makes me happy.

My CLEP psychology book is actually really interesting.  I wouldn’t want to be a psychologist, partly because psychology seems so cold and God-rejecting, and partly (well, mostly) because Dad won’t let me. 😉  But I have learned quite a bit these past two months. For example, my mother and my Mexican grandfather both have mild cases of OCD. I’m afraid that the older Mom gets, the worse her obsessive cleaning and scrubbing will get.  I’m also fairly sure that my dad has a psychological disorder too, but it’s yet to be discovered. It probably has something to do with having a bunch of energy at all hours of the day.  That’s just not natural in my opinion.  My little brother’s psychological disorder will most likely emerge when he is older. You see, he’s had quite the traumatic childhood. At the age of seven, he knew more about changing screensavers than anyone in the household. That’s not natural either. I am in the 12-18 year old stage. I’m supposed to have a crisis of Identity versus Role Confusion.  In other words, I’m a troubled teenager. I’m probably really messed up by now though. According to CLEP, the only way I can grow up to be a ‘good’ person is by being around others who are empathic, accepting, genuine, offer me ‘unconditional positive regard’ and don’t impose ‘conditions of worth’ on me. That way I can be self-actualized and feel great about who I am. Because after all, everyone knows it’s all about me.

Yeah. I’ve really been enjoying this. But it’s not all bad. I was reading the book the other day and it says that when we’re conforming to a norm (even one that is blatantly wrong) it’s because we don’t want to be rejected by the group that has set that norm. Obviously.  THEN I read my Bible and it said:

Romans 12:2: And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

So I thought, I shouldn’t be conforming to this world or the people in it, I should be transformed by God and then conform to God! It was cool to read because it sort of (not exactly, but still) went along with what I had been studying in my CLEP and it made me think.

All for now!

I was a little disconcerted by recent events at work (a big layoff) so we talked about it over the weekend and considered what to do.  The reality is that my job is not in jeopardy, nor will it change my day to day work.  I just will not be doing it with some of the people on whom I depended.  We decided that, while it is important to plan, it is also important to continue to live life.  We have some big and very cool stuff going on right now.  Kelly is in the middle of a great story with her Betty Blonde comic.  Christian and I continue to work on the ham radio, although we are kind of stuck until I get a specific kind of wire.  Lorena is getting all her ducks in a row to get back into school.  Kelly and Christian are scheduled to take the ACT college entrance exam on Saturday.  I program on my special projects almost daily.  Sometimes I forget life is good even when the immediate future is a little uncertain.