Summer School...

So much for a long, lazy summer. :)

Not that I'm upset in the least, but I think its interesting that my stepson, Danny, arrived from Florida 3 weeks ago with a request for me to teach him Algebra II (okay, you can stop laughing now) and help him complete American History after failing it the first time... I'd like to think my homeschooling prowess has reached a wide audience, but I know in reality that it's simply because my practical stepson merely wants to get a headstart on next year (and avoid the American History teacher, whom he professes to dislike intensely) and he knows I'm homeschooling Kennedy -- thus, instant summer school options!

In typical teenage fashion, however, Daniel has been less than enthusiastic about opening his Algebra II book (which I so magnanimously drove to North Raleigh to buy for him after he indicated his interest in completing a whole course over the summer!). Neither is he very excited about reading, even though his book is ironically titled "My Brother Sam is Dead." :)

I spent all this week trying to figure out what I can do to inspire him to stick to his goal, and I realized today that I don't have to do anything! :) His task is simple: 1) complete the Algebra II textbook, and 2) read 6 novels that cover a specific period of American History and write a one-page report about what he learned -- all by August 15th. So far, after 3 weeks, he's read two chapters of his novel, and completed 3 out of 12 chapters of Algebra. So, in a renewed spirit of "it's not my problem," I reminded him this morning that he has 5 weeks left to finish both courses, and that I will remind him gently every day, but if he doesn't complete, he just has to take those courses at school in the Fall! The bottom line is he'll be stuck in school all day -- something he is trying to avoid.

Well, if he wants to avoid that enough, he'll get the job done... if not, he'll have wasted an opportunity, but all it cost me was $20 for the Algebra textbook (and a few moments of sorrow for all that wasted opportunity).

Did I tell you that my oldest daughter is entering a PhD program this Fall??! :)

Flat Travelers!

Well, even though we've been on summer break for a few weeks, we've discovered a new activity that runs the risk of being addicting if we're not careful! It's called "Flat Travelers," and it's based on the main character in the Flat Stanley books. In the books, Stanley is flattened by a bulletin board, and his parents send him in an envelope to California to spend time with friends.

The concept has been embraced by the educational community in a variety of ways. Many elementary classrooms use the concept to add a spark creativity to penpal activities. For homeschoolers, the idea is the same, but some of us have incorporated an exploration of geography and world culture into the exercise.

To begin with, you have to decide whether or not to make and send a flat traveler, or to host one. We decided to do both (although we waited for our first traveler to arrive here so we could see what we needed to create for our travelers).

The process is pretty simple. If you are sending one out, you have to make one first! You create a person or thing on paper -- you can use coloring book characters, or sketch your own. Our first traveler was a North Carolina Red Wolf, because it symbolizes our state and Kennedy's favorite college (Go Pack!). Then we glued it to posterboard, cut around it, and then laminated it. It was small enough to go in some old Christmas card envelopes we had left over, and we included a "passport" -- a folded sheet of paper that included something about our family, and space for our host family to write about what they do with our flat traveler once it arrives at their house. We put all that in the envelope and shipped it out to Houston, Texas! We also sent out a "Gregg" (from the Wimpy Kid books) flat traveler to Utah!

If you are hosting, you simply tell someone who has a traveler to send that you are willing to host, and then wait for your visitor to arrive! We are currently hosting "Flat Fairy" and "Skinny Sarah," both of whom were hand-drawn. They made us anxious to create a new one of our own, instead of printing pictures off the computer like we did the first time! :)

We have taken Flat Fairy and Skinny Sarah with us to a number of events. Flat Fairy went with us to Sam's graduation and hip-hop class, helped us with our yard sale, and went with Kennedy when she dog-sat for a week. Then Skinny Sarah arrived. Both Flat Fairy and Skinny Sarah have gone to the pool with us, attended two Fourth of July parties, and accompanied us to see "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." We've been snapping pics of them at each event that we'll share with their families when we get ready to ship them home.

I'm hoping we can take them both with us on a tour of Raleigh next week -- to the state house, state legislature building, and the Museum of Natural History at the very least, maybe even Blair House (governor's residence), the RBC Center and Carter-Finley Stadium, and the bell tower at NC State. Then we'll package them up, add their pictures, some North Carolina brochures, and some post cards, and send them back home.

All this is practice for our project that will start in August, where we'll be sending a flat traveler or two on a cross-country journey. We're hoping that over the course of this next academic year, we'll watch our travelers visit all 50 states. We'll post their progress on a blog of some kind -- either this one or one that Kennedy creates for that express purpose -- and gather the materials from each state that the host families send to us. It should be a GREAT activity with lots of learning potential -- and isn't that what homeschooling is all about?! :)