Old Time Summer

Tag: Education

  • August 2012 Educational Preview

    A new “school year” is beginning. We have a new family computer to use for education. It’s a nice HP TouchSmart AIO Core i5 23″ beauty, though it doesn’t have any of the features I wanted to add on, in store we had no options, only this one. HDMI input, Bluetooth, Blu-ray … none of them exist on this model. It wasn’t super important, but I did want at least a Blu-ray player. Really want a Blu-ray burner and have thought for awhile that maybe I should just get a stand-alone version, so … the other thing is a Bluetooth module … I can get a dongle, but that’s not as nice as built-in on an AIO.

    My laptop doesn’t have Bluetooth nor Blu-ray. I hated that back when I got it. Guess what I feel now? I really hate that I STILL don’t have those features on a machine. I have a dongle on my laptop for bluetooth. It doesn’t work right unless I put it on the e-Sata port. It’s a special combo port, anyhow, it provides better power, and it’s the only port on my laptop that will run it correctly, troublesome, since my keyboard and mouse use it and I have an external sata device …

    So I have a job I need to finish and that is archiving all my photos and making something out of all my video footage. I need Blu-ray disc burning for that. I refuse to use DVD’s nowadays, so I do nothing at all. I have a lot of video that I need to process and this new computer can handle it better. Which means I need to put my Sony video programs on here (the machine I’m typing on is the HP AIO.)

    As for the educational things: I have LEGO We Do software which will work with this desktop, finally a desktop! Our other things never worked with it, only my laptop. I am actually missing one of the discs, I hope I can figure out which one and find it. I have Artes Latinae installed. I’m having them ‘start over’ again, for the 2nd or 3rd time. It’s been that long since I bought it and we’ve had so many computer issues … augh! Hopefully that ends here.

    I need to get them all started on more stuff, so the main topic is how to REALLY use a computer, use programs, and create things. Also they need to learn to use their cameras better, and how to really make the photos nicer, delete when necessary, organize like crazy.

    They will have a better time on this computer writing blog posts and other documents. We have OFfice 2010 Home and Student. I’ll upgrade this computer to Win 8 and have plans to upgrade to the new Office programs.

    Years ago I had Office 95 (actually still have it, just isn’t installed). I loved it, I loved Access. I really wish they had that in H & S … but they don’t. It’s just not possible for us to buy 2 or 3 licenses for Office Pro, but I wish I could. In the old days it was easier to deal with these things, You could put it on a laptop and a desktop both. No real life restrictions. So we have H & S since it’s affordable for family use, even though it’s a lesser product, but not so bad.

    I need to get more things going than ever, and it’s hard with limited funds. I’m hoping I can get some packages of somethings for my oldest two to rip through soon … it’s a high possibility. So we need to get on point and finish the Math-U-See levels they are on and go through more than one more before the end of the year.

    Well, that’s just starting peek into what we are planning and getting done, or need to.

  • The reasons for this blog

    I have been blogging since 2002, but have had a website since 1995. Our first child was born in 1996 and recently turned 13 years of age. We have three more children, ranging from 10 years down to nearly 2 years of age.

    We homeschool in a casual sort of way, and the idea of an old-fashioned summer, the way the summer memories of old feel in our minds is the idea of education I have for my children. I want them to remember their young years from that romantic position. That is, the idea of a Monet painting, a blue sky, seaside classic sort of feeling.

    Learning is to be loved, cherished. Many things are learned in very early childhood, and they are very important. The first thing to be learned once ready to learn more officially though is “how to read”. This can be accomplished through many ways, but the first thing that must be learned is “what is the child’s learning style” and then the right method can be chosen to aide them in reading.

    Some children learn to read easily and others take more time. My first two children learned easily, nearly as easily as it seems to me that I learned all those years ago. It just happened over time, with reading at ages 6 & 7 occuring, but really reading for themselves, longer and longer books, happening once they turned 8 years old. Voracious reading set in at that point.

    My third child is now 8 and isn’t yet reading. Nothing can induce him to actually read, though he’s wildly intelligent and clever, smart and active. He’s coming along slowly with reading, sometimes seeming to get more, it’s 3 steps forward, 8 steps back. He’s fine on learning and understanding and so much, just doesn’t really want to read, isn’t ready for it for some reason yet. I’m not concerned for it’s not totally unusual for a boy to not read until around 10 years of age. I’m starting to do more with vertical phonics with him, and just need to make a date for daily short lessons (Penny Primer/TATRAS) instead of the less often lessons that we never get ahead in.

    My youngest is too young to read, but he’s ramping up in knowledge daily. He’ll turn 2 near the end of June. It’s my plan now with my experience with 2 easy reading learners and 1 hard case that I need to get this last one into the Penny Primer in a few years and keep at it right from the start (though I truly must stress I am not worried about my hard case boy, I know he’ll read when he’s ready, I just have to have him into the groove more to get online with it as SOON as he’s ready, and will do that from the very start with my youngest.)

    My idea of education is semi-Charlotte Mason, though I don’t have the dedication to such rituals and she espoused. I try and try and it’s just more than I’m want to push myself into. I have such a Romantic notion of what education is, something beautiful, full of knowledge and a love of learning everything, nothing in that old rote prussian school model way.

    I’ve had an education blog before, but I lost the host I had it on and didn’t put it back up when I got a new host. It wasn’t much in the first place, it’s more for my own motivation truly, but I want it for a record of what we do well, and it seems like it’s something that will be great, so this is to that end.

    I’ll write about things in our home school here, link to products and sites in posts and on the sidebar and pages. My children will have blogs as well as their own subdomains for web development. I’ll be putting together a front page with sections of fresh info pulled from subdomains later.