Came up with a really fun idea Saturday afternoon. We decided that since the kids are on break for Thanksgiving, we’d do one science activity a day. I suspect that some of the idea came from reading this post at The Mother’s Handbook: To Science, or Not to Science, at least subconsciously.

My kids still love science, because we’ve always kept it fun. Sometimes they come up with their own experiments; other times my husband and I help them or we pull out one of several science activity books we have around the house.

Science geeks? Us? Could it be?

Pretty much runs in the family.

Our first experiment was to get a few types of dirt from the garden, then mix them up with some water in a jar and see how it settled out. I’ve been saving spaghetti sauce jars lately because they’re such a good size for random uses.

The kids were quite impressed first by how the layers settled out, and then by how long it takes for the really fine stuff to settle. They’re still checking it each morning.

Yesterday we went for the cornstarch and water experiment. There are plenty of great YouTube videos of this one, but my kids didn’t care because I didn’t pull up any videos until they were actually playing with the cornstarch and water suspension. About a cup of cornstarch to somewhere near a half cup of water, for those who are interested.

They had quite a bit of fun with it, and particularly enjoyed that when they spilled it was pretty easy to clean up. It becomes so firm when you do anything to it that it’s really not much of a problem.

They played with it for about a half hour. Would’ve been longer if I didn’t need them to get cleaned up for dinner.

I haven’t picked today’s project yet. My daughter has asked for something more challenging. Time to really dig into the books.

Some of the titles we use:
How to Make an Egg Swim, Grow Mold, Eat
730 Easy Science Experiments: With Everyday Materials

And if you really want to get into trouble, try SciPlus.com. They’re a science surplus store and I hardly trust myself to go there. Too dangerous to the budget. My husband only dares go there when he’s looking for fun Christmas gifts for the kids and I’m always talking him down on the list of things he wants to buy. Not easy, I want them too! And that’s not even an affiliate link. SciPlus is just that much fun.

I really love keeping science fun for my kids. Even if they don’t choose it as a career path I consider a good scientific education to be of tremendous value. Doing little projects at home and talking about some of the principles keeps them interested.

I came across NeoK12 due to a tweet from MamaByNature. My kids are already hooked – my 4 year old watched a video on subtraction on it and was quickly asking for help on using his fingers to do a little subtraction.

The site contains videos on all sorts of educational topics. Anything too advanced for the kids you can always watch together and discuss. There are plenty of science, math, English and social studies videos to choose from.

It’s not all serious either. My oldest loves the magic tricks section, where videos explain how the tricks are done. There are also time lapse videos, arts & crafts, music and sports videos.

A little off my usual path, but just outrageous. There’s a school in North Carolina that was briefly selling test points to students to raise money. They’re arguing that it wasn’t be enough to change overall grades, but I have to agree with officials who say it’s the wrong lesson.

I have to agree with that. Teaching students that they can buy their way to a better grade isn’t helping them. They certainly won’t be able to buy better grades later in life, or better job reviews or… you get the idea.

Such a relief that they’ve been ordered to cancel the fundraiser and return all earnings from it.

Schools need money. There’s no question of that, and many need fundraisers to enhance the opportunities they offer to students. But fundraisers need to be at least somewhat in line with the overall goal of educating students. Buying test points, even if they don’t significantly impact overall grades isn’t emphasizing the value of learning.

I’ve been watching people just about throwing fits about President Obama making a speech that schools could choose to show students. The controversy amazed me. I get that the original suggested discussion points for teachers weren’t exactly well done, being too focused on the President for many people’s comfort, but an awful lot of people seemed to be having fits over the fact that he was speaking to students at all.

Never mind that he’s not the first United States President to address a speech to students.

I’ve heard terms such as indoctrination, cult of personality and so forth thrown around about this speech. Never mind that it was just a speech about working hard in school and they fixed the suggested curriculum.

I truly loathe it when misinformation is deliberately handed out about these things. My inlaws were convinced that this was REQUIRED for all schools to show, which was never true. If you can’t complain about these things honestly, maybe the problem isn’t all that big!

I read the text of the speech. There really wasn’t anything political about it. Just a standard work hard in school sort of speech, the kind of thing that kids need to hear and probably tune out anyhow.

My daughter’s only in second grade, and I would love for her to be hearing that kind of thing from more than just Mommy and Daddy. She’s a good student but some lessons it doesn’t hurt to hear from multiple sources.

Frankly, a good, non-political, back to school speech from any President is something I would let my kids hear, even if I didn’t agree with that President’s politics. Some things aren’t about politics. And if something is said that I disagree with, that’s what talking to my kid is all about.

Do you love teaching? Do you have the qualifications to teach on a particular subject? Why not be a tutor?

Tutors work at many different education levels. It’s not all K-12; college students need tutors too.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Qualifications vary on the type of tutoring you want to do. Some may require that you be a credentialed teacher. Others may only want you to have a college degree.

You can work for a tutoring service or seek out your own students.

Job Duties

You may work regularly with particular students or be available at particular times for whichever students come looking for help.

The basic job, of course, is to help the students improve in whatever subject you are tutoring.

Your hours may be very flexible, but you have to be available at times that people are going to want a tutor.

Equipment Needed

If you’re an online tutor, you’ll need your computer and high speed internet access.

Where to Search for Jobs

Education job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Go Freelance
Telework Recruiting
Elance
Guru
College campus bulletin boards if you’re going to tutor local college students. Post your information.

Related Scams

Tutoring is of course subject to the usual “pay to show your interest scam,” but there’s another interesting possibility.

You answer an ad for a tutor, and are told that you will be paid by certified check. They want you to cash the check, take out your pay and send the balance on to someone else.

This is related to the mystery shopping scam or payment processing scam where they tell you to take your mystery shopping pay out of the check. It’s fraudulent, and you are suddenly responsible for the money. Worse, you can face criminal charges.

With school being almost out around here, I’m getting told by my kids’ teachers about the work they need to get done over the summer. It’s understandable… I mean, I know that kids forget a lot over summer vacation. But how much do I really want to push them?

I like thinking back to my own summer vacations as a kid, which were pretty leisurely. My school didn’t even give summer reading lists.

My daughter has about 3 pages of recommendations for what she should be doing over the summer to get ready for second grade. My son has a big packet from his speech therapist, which really isn’t quite the same in my view, as most of it is games to play to help him speak better, which is a real issue for him and something that needs to get better, ideally before he hits kindergarten.

And so I’m thinking on how much of this stuff I really feel like doing.

My own preference is to primarily make the tools available and encourage their use. I did tell my daughter that yes, she will be reading during the summer. She had been trying to say that she’d just do that every other summer. Kids!

I don’t really think she’ll try to not read all summer. She enjoys it too much.

Honestly, at this age I’d rather let them lead the way during the summer. We have plenty of workbooks and I’ll encourage their use, but that’s really all it takes most of the time around here.

So what’s your plan? Does your child’s school recommend or require summer homework?

Using StumbleUpon the other day, I came across an article on arguments against homework. The article’s a few years old, but schools still give so much homework I found it interesting.

In first grade, my daughter gets 4 nights of homework a week. She has a total of 3 pages of math plus 3 assignments to help her learn a spelling list of 9 words, plus 20 minutes of reading a night.

I have to admit, I like the 20 minutes of reading a night. So does she. We often go over on that one. She even reads on her own sometimes.

But I found it very interesting that there’s no evidence that homework in the early years has any benefit at all.

Just think about it. Kids spend about 7 hours at school, then have to do homework too. That’s a pretty tiring day for a kid. And very little time for play.

It’s not an easy thing for schools to admit that homework might not be worthwhile, especially when they’re under so much pressure to show great academic results. It’s a rather troubled system these days.

My own feelings on this topic are pretty mixed. There are some areas where my daughter definitely needs improvement, but the main one is penmanship. She’s a sloppy writer even for a first grader. Then again, I’m not that neat a writer either.

But I’m also starting to get this feeling that if I wanted to spend time helping my daughter learn, I may as well homeschool. It would take more of my day, but less of hers and let her be more of a kid. If that made for a better attitude toward learning, it would be worth it. Just now she feisty, to put it kindly, about a lot of topics, and work in class and at home can take her far longer than it should just because she’s bored.

The trouble comes from homework that is more or less busy work. In the lower grades it’s hard for teachers to assign anything else. It can be more effective, I gather, in high school.

At any rate, I’m thinking more teachers and school administrators need to read The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. So do parents. It’s worth questioning the worth of most homework assigned.

I’ve always had a lot of sympathy for moms who have to or prefer to work outside the home. It’s not an easy thing, even if it’s your preference. And in Florida they might just be making it worse.

They’re looking at the possibility of a 4 day school week to save money, making the days longer so the kids would be in school the same number of hours.

Can I just say how miserable that sounds all the way around?

Miserable for the kids, who need free time to play every day. Being stuck for extra time 4 days a week in a classroom doesn’t strike me as a good plan for most ages. I don’t see it as being good for the kids academically, emotionally, socially or any other way.

And of course it’s miserable for the parents with kids young enough to still need daycare. That’s more time they’d be paying for, or a rougher time working their work schedule around the kids’ school schedule.

Given the tight finances of many families, that’s a very real concern. Not all of us are fortunate enough to be able to work at home, have a flexible schedule or otherwise be able to cope with these changes, no matter how much we love our children.

One can argue that this is a point in favor of homeschooling, but that’s not a viable solution for all families. And I don’t believe in the bit about only having kids if you can raise them entirely yourself. There’s no need to judge other parents so harshly.

There have been other times I’ve really wondered how working moms do it. Not out of contempt, but admiration for their determination.

When my son had his craniosynostosis surgery, and then helmet therapy, for example. I know I had it far, far easier than parents who worked outside the home. I can’t imagine how one would keep up with the many appointments I had to deal with – sometimes three in one week, all different days.

That’s not to say I don’t admire my fellow at home moms. I do. We cope with tight budgets, lots of criticisms from people who think we’re wasting our talents, and the daily challenges kids love to present. I think I’m lucky to be in that crowd, but I won’t judge those who don’t choose it for one reason or another. We’re all just doing our best for the most part.

Happy New Year!

I’ve been thinking on things I can do to help my readers in this new year, and one thing that came to mind is skill building. So many families are dealing with money problems, or facing the possibility of money problems, that now is a great time to really focus on coping.

For some, it’s time to really get serious about a home business. For others, it might be more about building job skills.

For me, it’s researching some of the best and most affordable ways to build these skills, so I can share the solutions I find.

And so I am of course curious as to what skills you would like to build up this year. Just leave a comment below.

Going back to school can be stressful for kids. They’ve had all summer to have fun, but now they have to focus on learning. A little pick me up can do wonders for their attitude toward school.

1. Start with a good breakfast.

There’s a reason why “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” is such a cliche. It’s true. If your family consistently has trouble making time for breakfast in the morning, try getting up a bit earlier. It may be hard for both you and the kids to get used to, but it means you can get a decent breakfast into them. And maybe even feed yourself.

2. Pack a note to be read at school.

Another classic, but very worthwhile. My daughter’s first grade class actually has this somewhat formalized, with a “Write-to-Me Journal”. She writes to us each Friday, and we write back to her over the weekend, to be read at school. But of course notes at other times are also a good idea, such as the classic note in the lunch box.

3. Say “I love you” as they leave for school.

Younger kids love to hear this, of course. Older ones may play embarrassed or annoyed, but they need to hear it too. Say it, and don’t worry too much about their reaction.

4. Tell them you’re proud of them.

Another thing kids need to hear. I’ve read that it’s best to praise effort rather than to say things such as “You’re so smart.” You want to be sure that your praise is about something your child is doing well.

Also be sure to let them hear you praise them to others. It’s a little extra step that has a lot of meaning when done right. Once again, you don’t want to praise just anything, but when an action is worth mentioning to others, do so and sometimes let the kids overhear.

5. Take the time for family fun outside of school.

The school year is a busy time, but don’t let it get in the way of all the fun you can have as a family. Get out and enjoy yourselves. Play games. Relax.

6. Give the kids time to be kids.

There’s a lot of pressure to put children into a bunch of activities these days. While these can provide some benefits, too many simply lead to stressed out kids. Give them time to play on their own, no instructions from adults. Other than “No TV, no computer, no video games” perhaps. Get them outside.

Outdoor play has been shown to help with the symptoms of ADD, and the exercise is generally healthy anyhow. It doesn’t matter your age, you should all get outside to have fun daily anyhow. Playing outside helps kids to focus mentally.

7. Talk about what’s happening at school.

Go beyond “So how was your day?” and similar questions. Younger kids can be asked about what they enjoyed most about their day. Older kids may be more willing to talk about projects they’re working on. Figure out what topics will get your child talking to you about what’s happening in school. Keep this as a habit and be positive about things so they’re used to discussing things with you, even when there’s a problem.

8. Be supportive when they’re having problems at school.

Going to school has its hazards. Sometimes it will be problems with a classmate, other times it may be a topic that just isn’t sinking in very well. No matter what the problem is, be ready to help your child solve it.

Try not to solve too many problems for your kids, however. In many cases you’ll do better to discuss possible solutions your child can do on his or her own. On the other hand, some problems do require a parent’s touch, a meeting with the teacher or even the school principal. Be ready and willing to help.