Category Archives: Homeschooling

Homeschooling, Sarah

The Perseverance of Sarah

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One of the virtues I admire most in my youngest daughter is perseverance. Determined, resolute, indefatigable — these are not the characteristics you might expect in a 9-year-old; yet Sarah seems to be well on her way in gaining these qualities.

Sarah and her friends

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. — 2 Peter 1:5-7

In February, Kathy and I were a little discouraged with our abilities as Math teachers, and we adopted IXL as a supplementary math resource. I wrote about our adoption of IXL in IXL Blues toward the end of February. As of that writing, I was hopeful but was half-bracing myself for IXL to fizzle out. To help keep incentives high, I promised $100 to each of the children if they would finish a year’s worth of IXL ($200 if they applied it toward a Christian camp or conference).

The payoff

It has really paid off. All four of the kids using IXL saw significant improvement in their annual test math scores, and Sarah (awesome math girl that she is) managed to finish an entire grade level in just over four months.

“Sure,” you might sneer, “an entire grade level — those online courses are notoriously easy.”

Not so. The grade level that Sarah just completed featured 215 distinct math skills, each with a full complement of problems. Sarah completed 8,282 problems in just under 97 hours, all done in addition to her normal work load as a student.

$100 richer

I am so very proud of Sarah, and I hope that her example is an encouragement to David, Daniel and Rachel, who are not far behind. As much as they may grumble about IXL, I am firmly convinced that the math disciplines they acquire will result in substantially higher confidence and scores on the PSAT and SAT.

Tim

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Events, Homeschooling, Joshua

Our First Homeschool Graduate

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Several weeks ago we celebrated the culmination of our efforts in homeschooling one of our children — his graduation ceremony. After twelve long years of careful instruction and effort, Joshua stood on the dais and received his diploma as a homeschool graduate.

Proud Parents of the Graduate

Joshua is a fine young man, thoroughly ready to take the next step in his education, godly and thoroughly equipped for every good work. I’d like to take the credit, but it is mostly Kathy who has made him the man that he is. She has crafted his learning plan throughout the years and has guided his mind in loving knowledge and preferring godly instruction. Truly a graduation ceremony is as much about the teachers as the students; as Joshua’s primary instructors, we are very proud of what he has become, and excited about what God will do in him, in the future.

This year's crop of H.O.P.E. graduates sit, listening to the Commencement Speaker.

The graduation ceremony was early this year, due to availability issues with the church where our Homeschool Co-operative meets. Seven other graduates shared the stage, with Ken Sartain presiding and Washington State Representative Jim McCune as Commencement Speaker. McCune, an unprepossessing, soft-spoken and casually-dressed man in his early sixties, gave the most powerful Commencement speech I have ever heard — strongly advocating homeschooling and charging the graduates to be spiritual leaders in their generation.

Stuart, Tim and Joshua have been friends since sixth grade.

Our family has attended H.O.P.E. Co-op for the last seven years, gathering each Friday with like-minded homeschool families, to pool teaching talent and to build friendships with other students. Joshua was blessed to find clever and quirky friends at H.O.P.E. — friendships which persisted throughout his high school years.

Joshua's Grandparents were able sneak away from their responsibilities as hosts at the Refuge, to attend the ceremony.

Obviously we were not the only ones to invest in Joshua and to disciple him. Many others deserve to be recognized, including:

  • Bill and Cindy Moore, grandparents
  • Jim and Robbie Edgren, grandparents
  • Jody Weed, Wilderness Northwest Camp
  • Kevin Klas, youth leader
  • Carl DeyArmin, youth leader
  • Jamie Davis, discipler
  • Jesse Roberge, boss
  • Dee Duke and Bill Jack, inspirational instructors
  • Many other small group and youth group leaders, over the years

Joshua with his beloved Mamie.

We wish that Kathy’s Dad could have been there to see Joshua’s graduation. With his deep love of learning and ability to celebrate joyfully, I can just imagine him avidly browsing the student displays or button-holing the Commencement Speaker for a quick chat. He is greatly missed by us all. We were thrilled to have Cindy with us to mark this momentous occasion.

It was inspiring to view so many of Joshua's accomplishments and honors, all in one place.

Kathy and the kids put together the ‘Student Display’, highlighting many of Joshua’s achievements as a student. It was a lot of fun to remember the stories that went along with many of these keepsakes, and to reflect on the rich tapestry of God’s work in his life. Indeed, God has been very good to Joshua, gifting him with a great number of opportunities and experiences far beyond those of most high school students.

A few weeks before Joshua’s graduation, I was asked to write a statement ‘from the parents of the graduate’ to be included in the program. As I thought about how to express our heart, one of my favorite verses from Proverbs came to my mind:

“Joshua, what a privilege it has been to watch you grow in grace as a mighty, young man of God. Laughing with you through the years, we have deeply enjoyed the adventure of teaching you and sharing our love for Jesus with you. Your godly character and deep convictions are a shining example and encouragement to those who know you. Your bold leadership, tempered with kindness toward your younger siblings, has profoundly impacted our family. Truly, you exemplify Proverbs 23:24: “The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.” We love you and rejoice in you, beloved son.

Tim

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Homeschooling, Kathy

Yearbook Thank You’s

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Our homeschool co-op is drawing to a close – the final Friday school day falls in the last week of April and graduation will be in the beginning of May. We have been very blessed to be a part of H.O.P.E. co-op. The children have taken an incredibly varied and interesting collection of classes over the years, and I’ve taught a fun assortment of classes. We have all made dear friends and been stretched in different ways.

This is my second year being the primary director/teacher/coordinator of the Yearbook class. It is a fun/challenging/exhausting/time-consuming responsibility.

Most Fridays you can find me sitting at one of the many laptops we use for Yearbook – editing, helping kids with their pages, or frantically trying to get as much done as I can before the co-op day ends. Either that or I’m moving through the halls – taking pictures myself or instructing the students to snap shots.

Meranda (our amazing photographer) shows me a few things in Lightroom.

This week, however, is CRUNCH TIME!! We don’t have co-op as it’s Good Friday and the yearbook final copy is due at the printers by Monday morning. Gulp. I’m praying we managed to get all the pictures and class info, because There’s. No. Time. Left…

Thankfully I have an amazing team of people working with me in Yearbook. Meranda took all our class photos this year. She’s a wonderful photographer and our yearbook will be excellent in part because of her. Our co-op president has been a huge support to our work. Melissa manages to somehow oversee the process yet still give us total freedom and creative license. She is also readily available for editing and design help.

Thank you, Meranda and Melissa!!

Krystal, however, has been my absolute lifesaver! I truly could not have done my job this year without her. She has been organized and creative when my mind was blank and my life crazy. She is faithful, steady and non-complaining. Every week she hauls an extra table to co-op so we have enough room for our laptops and folders. When I say, “Let’s meet this week and go through the picture files and folders.” She always responds with a willing, “Sure. When?” Last week we met at 7 am for an hour of editing BEFORE school. And then she came back (both times bringing her two children with her) later in the afternoon to do further work. She let’s me instruct and direct the project without any fussing or complaint. She encourages me and almost always ends our time with the question, “How can I help you, Kathy?” I couldn’t begin to pay her for all her time and help.

Thank you, Krystal, from the bottom of my heart!

This is pretty much where we'll be all week until the work is done!

We have done our best to be organized, efficient and creative in the Yearbook class this year. We made some changes and tried to add in some helpful structure. We are praying that the yearbook will turn out beautiful and be a sweet memory for the H.O.P.E. families for the 2011-2012 year.

Kathy

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David, Homeschooling, Sarah

Personalized Math Graphing Books

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We discovered a new aspect to our math studies this year (in addition to our math IXL drills) – graph paper.

Nothing like graph paper to keep those pesky numbers in line.

Daniel and Rachel were required to use specific graph paper notebooks for their online Algebra classes. Rachel never took a fancy to the graphing paper, instead preferring regular, lined paper and a 3-ring binder, but Daniel loved his and is already on a second notebook.

David discovered a small stack of graph paper and soon worked his way through it, enjoying the way it helped him keep track of the numbers.

David is ready to do some serious math now.

Sarah too began to ask for sheets of graph paper.

Okay, I may be a busy and distracted mama, but I know when to pay attention, and the request for school supplies filtered right to the top. A quick search on Amazon yielded some affordable graphing notebooks, and we were set.

As much as David and Sarah are sweet and companionable buddies and do a good portion of their homeschooling work together, they still desire autonomy and individuality. Hmmmm, what to do? The notebooks were exactly the same.

Sarah came to the rescue with a handy stack of letter stickers.

Math can be pretty and functional.

A coat of Mod Podge to keep the stickers in place, and we were in business.

Kathy

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Homeschooling, Rachel

Forgotten Math

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When our children were very young, Kathy and I decided to homeschool them. “It’ll be great,” Kathy enthused. “I’ll handle English and History, and you can teach Math and Science.”

Fast-forward twelve years, and I think I’ve taught a handful of science lessons and have engaged in only sporadic, drive-by math tutoring. As a homeschooling Dad, I’m a washout — Kathy has had to carry the full weight of pretty much all the schooling for all five kids. Even our recent discovery of IXL fails to redeem me.

Now that the kids are older, math tutoring is accompanied by a certain amount of terror: how can I tutor if I don’t remember how to solve the problems, myself? It has been more years than I would care to admit since I was in Algebra I or II, and I only learned it so well the first time. Contrary to what math teachers may say, a lot of mathematics learning is never used again in real life. It is often a ticket to other learning, and certainly some fields are more math-intensive than others, but I think I’ve avoided all but the simplest math ever since I was out of school, even though I’m a programmer by trade. That is, after all, what computers are for.

It has been a long time since I solved a quadratic equation.

The other day, Kathy asked me to help Rachel prepare for her upcoming Math test. Even with the answer key, nothing was making sense to her, so I reluctantly stepped in. Rachel is an excellent student: tenacious and stubborn and diligent. For some reason, she has very low confidence in Math, even though she consistently receives grades in the low 90′s. I am determined that she conquer this self-perception problem — I don’t insist that she enjoy math, but (for all the work she puts into it) I really want her to enjoy the rewards of proficiency.

[Parenthetically, the kids tend to avoid me as a math teacher. I usually have to re-discover whatever mathematic principle they are studying, and it takes quite a while -- they'd rather have a quick-fix (or better yet, just have me give them the answer).]

Rachel has recently entered the Federal Math-Witness Protection Program.

But Rachel is really taking her math seriously, these days — so she swallowed her reluctance and cheerfully bore my ponderous tutoring. At one point, we found ourselves united in our anger toward the suspension bridge word problems. “If that stupid cable company delivers one more cable to our bridge without labeling it, heads will roll,” we agreed.

Father-daughter bonding, or fodder for future therapy? Only time will tell.

Tim

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