New Free Tool

I found a great little tool yesterday - and the best part is - it is free!

Anki is a flash-card program that you can use directly on your compute, from the web, and many mobile devices.  I came upon it while I was considering what to use for doing some basic spelling with Delta that he could do on his own - but it has so much more potential than that!

I have found it fairly simple to use so far, although I do recommend watching the videos to find out how to best setup your cards.  With a little customization, you can do even some pretty complicated things like "3 or 4 sided cards"  (for instance, one "side" has you saying a word (by recording you saying it), another "side" has the word typed out (the answer for spelling) - but you could also set it up so that it shows the word, and you try to remember the definition!

There are premade cards for various subjects that you can download to use - but really I think at this point that making your own can be a lot more productive.

But I haven't mentioned the best part yet....  it is designed to show you the cards at a frequency to help you best remember it based on how hard or easy you find that particular card.  I'm not claiming to totally understand the method used (I haven't seen the formula or anything like that...) - But when you look at the answer of the card, you indicate whether you got it wrong, got it right but it was hard, right and it was easy, or right and it was very easy.   When it will show you that card again will depend on things like how hard you found it, and how you have done on that card previously.


So - here is what I'm doing with it so far.... (keeping in mind I found it yesterday)

Math - I have entered in the addition math facts.  Yes, RightStart doesn't use flashcards... but I figure a few minutes a day won't hurt, and could help.  I tagged each fact with the strategy(ies) being used - so I can in theory have it select cards based on a strategy I want them to practice.  I will add other facts later.

Spelling - I have entered in a few spelling words to give this a try.  For these cards, I am requiring an answer to be typed in

Scripture Memory - I have entered our Scripture Cards into this, so that we are less likely to forget a scripture.  One thing I noticed right off, is I don't have the scriptures and their references matched up in my head - so I have added a "hint" button to the references... when I click on the hint, I get a topic or a couple of words to get me started.   I have these cards testing both ways - give me the reference and I try to say the scripture - or give me the scripture and I try to give the reference.   I may end up adding in some intermediate cards with these - ones that show most of the scripture, but with some words missing, etc...

Violin - I'm not sure if this is going to work the way I want, and I had to do some tweaking... but I've entered in the names of the violin songs we practice.  The card will come up, and the child plays the song - then evaluates how they did to give the answer a rating....  it should help us practice songs that aren't known as well more often than the ones they have been playing for years....   But I had to do some adjusting... I am hoping I have it so that the songs will be played at least once every 3 weeks no matter how mastered they are listed as...   I'll need to monitor that... if it is set so the card/song isn't due to come up for too long a time - I'll reset that card to be a new card...

Plans....

This program was originally made to help people learn languages (specifically Japanese) - so I plan to put our foreign language vocabulary and eventually phrases in.  With ASL, I'd want to find either Videos or very good pictures of the words.

Other Memory - Scouting promises/laws/mottos,  poems, other "facts" that come up...  Maybe even setup a fun one with clips of music and they have to say the group/performer or the title....  (their dad would get a kick out of that...)

One minor thing - it seems to be designed for one user... but you can have various "decks" of cards, and can import and export... so you may want to name the decks things like Delta Spelling and Echo Spelling.  You just need to make sure you keep them all with all the cards...   (for one user, you can sync cards and progress using the internet to multiple computers and devices...)

The kids can't wait to try it out tomorrow!

Oh, and in case you think I forgot... you get the program here!

The glasses are here

Golf's First Day with glasses

After 2 weeks, and the lenses being rejected twice by the optician, Golf now has her glasses.  We got a very toddler/baby friendly type called MiraFlex.  The frames are made from a flexible plastic, and are only one piece with no hinges... so they shouldn't break.  They have a little headband to help keep them on, and nothing that should hurt her.  I've been told that she can even nap in them.

So far she has taken to them quite well.  We got them early this afternoon and she wore them without complaint for quite a few hours.  It was quite interesting when we first put them on her, then showed her a mirror - as she was quite fascinated with her face.  I hadn't realized until we ordered her glasses how far-sighted she is.  Her prescription is around a  +8.  This means that most of the things she has been looking at up to now, especially close things, have been a big blurry mess to her.  (Oh, this is also why the lenses are so finickity to get right - as they had to be made out of light-weight lenses, but it is quite a strong prescription.)

She hasn't been wearing them well this evening - but I imagine her nose and ears are tired - plus it must be hard on the eyes/mind with the big change.  There is only a short time to bedtime - and so we will start fresh in the morning.  I hope she mostly wears them well, as she can be quite stubborn if she wants - and it will be a lot harder keeping them on than it was a few years ago with my 3 year old...    I've been told that usually with that strong of a prescription, the child quickly wants to wear them so they can see, and that "compliance" in wearing them usually isn't a problem.

On another note, thought I'd add a picture of the kids doing work the other day.  Golf wanted to join in.  Foxtrot was off colouring somewhere (probably on the walls, sigh)....

Cute Song

Found this little song,  sung to the tune of "On the first day of Christmas".  I don't know who created it...


On the first day of Home School my neighbor said to me, "Can you home school legally?"

On the second day of Home School my neighbor said to me, "Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?"

On the third day of Home school my neighbor said to me, "Do you give them tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?"

ON the fourth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "What about P.E.?, Do you give them tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?"

On the fifth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, " YOU ARE SO STRANGE!!!!, What about P.E.?, Do you give them tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?

On the sixth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "How long will you home school?, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!!!!, What about P.E.?, Do you give them tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?

On the seventh day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Look at what they're missing!, How long will you home school?, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!!!!, What about P.E.?, Do you give them tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?"

On the eighth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Why do you do this?, Look at what they're missing!, How long will you home school?, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!!!!, What about P.E.?, Do you give them tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?"

On the ninth day of home school my neighbor said to me, " They'll miss the prom!, Why do you do this?, Look at what they're missing!, How long will you home school?, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!!!!, What about P.E.?, Do you give them tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?"

On the tenth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "What about graduation?, They'll miss the prom!, Why do you do this?, Look at what they're missing!, How long will you home school?, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!!!!, What about P.E.?, Do you give them tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?"

On the eleventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "I could never do that!, What about graduation?, They'll miss the prom!, Why do you do this?, Look at what they're missing!, How long will you home school?, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!!!!, What about P.E.?, Do you give them tests?, Are they
socialized?, Can you home school legally?"

On the twelfth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Can they go to college?, I could never do that!, What about graduation?, They'll miss the prom!, Why do you do this?, Look at what they're missing!, How long will you home school?, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!!!!, What about P.E.?, Do you give them
tests?, Are they socialized?, Can you home school legally?"


On the thirteenth day of homeschool, I thoughtfully replied, "They can go to college, yes, you can do this, they will have graduation, we don't like the prom, we do it because we love them, they are missing nothing, we'll home school forever, WE ARE NOT STRANGE !!!!, we give them P.E., and we give them
tests, they ARE socialized, and we home school LEGALLY!"

ON the fourteenth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "How can I get started?, Why didn't you tell me?, Where do I buy curriculum?, When is the next conference?, WILL PEOPLE THINK WE'RE STRANGE?, I think we can do this, if you will help us., Can we join P.E.? and we'll home school legally!!"

Baby Glasses

Notice her Left Eye...

I figured it was going to happen....  Golf needs glasses.  This is not unusual in our family.  We have 6 people living in the house... now with Golf having a prescription, 5 of us will wear glasses.  (And most of the adult-kids wear glasses too.)  Foxtrot, at age 3, will be the only one without glasses... at least there has been no indication of a need for them with her.  When she is a bit older, I'll have her pediatrician do a screening test, as she obviously wouldn't be screened at "school"...

This is the youngest child I will have had in glasses, and I'm nervous.  We will be looking to order her glasses tomorrow... we can't use our usual place to buy glasses because they don't carry them that small. Golf is only 20 months.   I remember Delta getting glasses at 3, and it wasn't fun at all trying to keep them on him.  It did work out of course, but it wasn't fun.  Echo was almost 6 when she got them (although she saw the ophthalmologist since age 3 or 4) and it was much easier... the only problem with her is that she doesn't need to wear them all the time (close work, reading, etc) - and it is easy to forget to bring them.

So - how did I know?  Well..... her left eye turns in.  A lot.  This happened occasionally with Delta and Echo - but much rarer, and not as noticeably.  They also seemed to grow out of it while we were on the waiting list for the pediatric ophthalmologist.  I saw it happening much more with Golf though, and probably should have acted quicker.  Not that I left it a long time or anything, but you just kind of want to hope that you are imagining it.  I eventually booked an appointment to get the referral... in December.

So, Delta and Echo had their annual/semi-annual appointment for their eyes - and I knew the referral had been made - so while there I asked when they are booking for the new referrals. (Normally you have to wait for them to call... and that can be a while.) - They were booking for...... December 2012.  Yes - she would have been waiting a year.    I explained to the Assistant that I was concerned about her vision (ok, who isn't that has been referred there...) - and she asked if I'd like to be put on the "Cancellation waiting list".  I said "yes please" - and then she said... "wait..... bring her in [6 days later] at [this time]."  So at least I took almost 10 months off our wait.

So here is what happens, for those that wonder what an eye exam for a young toddler is like:

After he asked what brought us in (I brought a picture of Golf that showed the problem even clearer than the one above...), he had me sit in the examination chair with Golf on my lap. He then had a  quick look at her eyes while he asked about other family member that had similar problems. [hm, just me, Delta, Echo.....]  He then sent us into the room for eye drops (I knew it was coming)

The eye drop room.  My kids hate that room.  The child lies down on a little exam type table, and the assistant puts in a couple of drops in both eyes that must really sting - then puts in a couple of drops that helps it feel better.  The drops over the next 30 minutes make the eyes dialate so they are open very wide.  The child will be a bit sensitive to light for quite a while afterwards.

After the 30 minute wait, we go back into the exam room and I sit in the chair with Golf on my lap again.  The doctor had a little device he could hold and it would spin and make noise - he used that when he wanted her to look at him.  When he wanted her to look straight ahead instead, the screen (which with the other kids would either show a clip of a TV show, the Letters to read, or Pictures to read (for non-readers)) would show little clips of barking toy dogs, quacking toy ducks, and similar things that would interest a young toddler or baby.

So, using the devices mentioned above, he could get her to look where he wanted while he used a light to look at the inside of her eyes through various combinations of lenses.  I imagine that he needs to get the light focused properly at the back of her eyes - but that is my assumption.  He mostly held the lenses, but did at one point put a special set of glasses on her that he can put various lenses into.  He did comment that she is quite farsighted (as he kept changing the lens...)  I am curious to see how thick her glasses might be.

So - that has been our little journey on this!  I'll be sure to post pictures once we get the glasses.  I suspect it will take a week or two...

And otherwise in our life...  Mike was off of work for a month - so we went into a "relaxed" homeschool mode.  And now I've been sick the last 2 weeks... so we have been in "spring break" mode.  Unfortunately that tends to mean more TV and computer (although I try to make sure there is some educational items in there) - but I'm hoping to be better by Monday and get back into a more normal schedule.  Delta has been VERY busy during this time working on Cub badges though, so that is good.  He now has 11 badges, and 1 star.  He has finished 1 more badge, 2 more stars, and 1 award - but they haven't had time to test him to award them yet.  That should happen next week.

And one funny story....  Delta and Echo made bird feeders the other week.  We filled them up with birdseed and put them outside on the trees.  Ok - only as high as I could place them, and just hung on branch stubs - so about head-high.  The next morning the kids announced that the bird feeders were totally empty - and off the trees.  Upon investigation, we saw LOTS of deer tracks and some deer scat.  We thought they had made bird feeders, but apparently they made DEER FEEDERS!

We haven't re-filled them.  Deer are very common on our street and have often been in our yard.... but I don't think we want them encouraged to come here for food, as we have a (very small) garden in our flower beds - and our next-door neighbour usually has quite the garden and already has fun keeping the deer out.

SmartMusic

Right around Christmas time, with violin practices having become fairly "Rocky" with some of my budding violinists, we took the plunge, and ordered a subscription to SmartMusic.  I am happy with the product, although I feel that it could do so much more for the student, and was lacking features I would have expected.

SmartMusic is computer software that listens to a person practice an instrument (or singing), evaluate how the student did, let them setup practice loops, slow down music, and in general, helps them practice better.  There is also an edition for teachers, which has many features, such as allowing them to setup assignments for students, keep grades, ask for an amount of time of practice over a period of time, and many other things.

First thing I found out (shortly before we bought the subscription), is that although the Suzuki repoitoire is available, the "assessment" feature is not available for it by requires of Suzuki.  This was disappointing, as that was a feature I was hoping for (to make it a bit like "violin hero"...)  I did decide that it was probably still worthwhile.

My first disappointment after getting the program/subscription, was when I discovered that the program won't keep track of practice time for a student (even though it obviously can somewhere in the program to report it back to teachers.)  This feature isn't available for the individual student.

Next, although the program allows several students to use the same program by creating different logins - this feature is useless (unless used with an instructor) if the students are using the same instrument and music. The program records all the practices, and you can elect to keep any song - and keep multiple takes.  However, it doesn't keep the different students seperate.  So as Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, and I (and eventually Golf) do the Suzuki violin songs - it will mix up the takes of each student.  So much for listening to an earlier "take" to see improvement.   The login process also required an email address and password (for use with a school or instructors), so it wasn't friendly for younger children.  It would have been nicer in a home environment for them to just click on a picture of themselves.  However, as there is no advantage to logging in as seperate students, we don't.

The program allows you to setup "playlists" that are handy for setting up practices - however, it only remembers the song, not all the settings. It would be nice if it would remember the speed the student is playing the song at, and the "loop" they are to practice.  It would also be nice if you could say how many times to play a practice loop. There are scale exercises available, but they all default to "C", and then you select the key.  So I can't just setup a scale exercise (with assessment) with different scales on different days - the kids would have to remember which scale, and set it up.

But, beyond all the disappointments, so far it has been worth it.  Delta is much happier practicing with it, with the playlists telling him what to practice.  I do have a piece of paper to tell him loop settings, approximate speeds, etc.  I'm not 100% sure why this makes him happier than when we did the same types of playlists on our mp3 software.... but it does.  I am still listening, commenting, helping with new pieces - but he is more independent.   The things that are more convenient are being able to change the speed (I had software that would let us do that with an MP3... but not nearly as easily or quickly), and setting up a practice loop.  Delta used to always want to try to play the whole song through (not efficient) - but now that we can set-up a loop to practice, he is doing that much more.

Echo doesn't seem fond of SmartMusic, but does use it.  Foxtrot (with me right with her) does enjoy it.

SmartMusic does let us import MP3's to play with, and will even slow it down... but it doesn't have as many features doing that.  So as Foxtrot is a pre-twinkler, I have imported our "Step-by-Step" accompaniement.  For things we practice that I have no music, I have imported blank MP3's, so that there is an item on the playlist for it, and it will still record a "take".   If you have Finale (the full version... way too expensive for us!) you can import your own music and have all the features, including assessment.

Oh, one other thing... you can (with one button) turn a practice "take" into an MP3.  We did that to send "grandma" a present of recordings of the kids practicing.

I'm not sure if we will continue the subscription next year.  As I said, I'm disappointed with many things I feel it should do.  However, the violin teacher has commented on them doing better this year... so it must be making a difference!

Housewife Poem

I have read this poem a few times in various places over the years - but thought I'd copy it here so that I would remember it.  

 Some houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there. 
Ours boast of it quite openly, the signs are everywhere. 
For smears are on the windows, little smudges on the door, 
I should apologize for toys strewn across the floor. 
But, I sat down with the children, we played and laughed and read, 
So, if the doorbell doesn't shine, their eyes will shine instead. 
For when at times, I'm forced to choose the one job or the other, 
I want to be a housewife, but first I'll be a mother.

Week in Review

Playing Musical cups

I have been so busy working on updating the Gospel Principles Study, I haven't done any other types of posts!

So here is what we were up to this last week - our first week of homeschool in 2012.

Devotion

We did the first week of the Gospel Principles Study, and it went quite well.  At the end of the week I had the children draw/narrate what they learned.  Even Foxtrot (who is only 3) did that - drawing a picture of Heavenly Father and Jesus, and giving the narration of "Heavenly Father made the Earth".  We intend to continue the Character/Good Habit Devotions from LearningHomeSchoolMentor.com one day a week. The devotion was shorter than the children are used to... but I think we will add in singing a primary song in German, and one in ASL.  We are also keeping up with all our memorized scriptures (and other things, like the scouting promises and laws) with our Memory Boxes.

Literature
We are continuing with "Just David".  As we were doing a "light" week, we didn't do any other literature, like Aesop's Fables.

History & Geography
We read one more chapter of "Children's Homer". This has been a challenging read for the kids, but they do seem to understand the main points of what is going on.  This is taking a LONG time though, and I'm worried we won't be done until the end of the year!  My kids can't wait to do more maps in geography - but it looks like it is a couple more weeks before another is planned.

Science
We started to read about Quantum Mechanics, and started an experiment to see that movement occurs even with things that look entirely still to the eye.  We also are enjoying the videos on the periodicvideo website.  Some are more entertaining than others.  Delta likes most of them... Echo doesn't like many.

Math
We have continued with RightStart.  Echo struggled a bit with the Time to the Minute (well 5 minutes) but seems to have it ok now.  She did the couple of money lessons in one day.  So both Delta and Echo are playing Corners.  Golf is still working at identifying the numbers 6-10.

Reading
Gold if on about lesson 30 in "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and is doing quite well.

Spelling
We have started spelling using "Alphaphonics".  I am hoping this will help improve reading abilities too, as Delta doesn't seem to use phonics in his reading.

Other Languages
German - The other day I heard Delta walking around singing "Grun, Grun, Grun" - so we must be having some effect.  We are trying out the "Learnables" to see if it helps us out at all.  This week we listened to most of the first lesson.
ASL - At this time we are just enjoying "Signing Time" videos.  I plan to add in singing Primary Songs in ASL.  I did some looking for some good Fairy Tale videos on ASL, but the few I've found listed are out of print.

Other
Our violin lessons started up this week as well.  Delta is doing well learning Musette, and Echo is working on Allegretto.  Foxtrot is playing "Taka Taka Stop Stop" on open strings, and we have done some work with fingers.  Swim Lessons also started up again this week.  Delta is in "Swimmer" level, and Echo is in "Seals".  Foxtrot is in "Little Dippers" and is doing well.

I think that is about it.  I might have forgotten something (we are doing so many things)...  but that would be the main of it.