Eastern Equine Encephalitis Warning From Alachua County Health Department

If you have children or animals, and live in the Alachua County Florida area, then you need to be more on alert of mosquitos than normal. The Health Dept has issued a warning for Eastern Equine Encephalitis which is carried by mosquitos. The video below is a good overview with good tips. The woman said usually only horses get infected but a chicken, horse and four humans have already died from the illness in Alachua County. Horses can be vaccinated and is highly recommended. Symptoms are fever, fatigue, dizziness, weakness, confusion, and headache. Similar to flu like symptoms, you would notice if your child was bitten by a mosquito might be harder in dogs. To prevent mosquitos dump standing water, don't go outside for long periods at dawn or dusk, and use mosquito repellent with DEET. Some small children DEET is not safe to use so always ask your pediatrician to be safe. I don't particularly like the bug repellents so we avoid the times of the day when the mosquitos are most active. Be informed and stay safe. To read the full story on the warning and other info you can go to The Gainesville Sun. If you have questions you can always call your local health department.

Wanted Guest Blogger For Education Topic

At the beginning of this year, I made some goals for this blog. I have met most of them, but forgot all about wanting to have guest bloggers. It is already July, and I have not had one yet. So now, I am looking for one. I am not fussy, but it should be an educational topic It can be an educational topic, supplies, issue, or other area. You do not have to be a homeschooler to qualify. I would like it to be at least 200 words, and knowledgeable. If anyone is interested I am offering 1 yr of free advertising on each of my three blogs, either text, banner, or widget. If you are interested you can comment to this post, or email me at darien04@gmail.com

Pool Safety Keep Your Kids, and Grandkids Safe

As some of my followers know, we have a pool, and two children. Every year, we go over pool safety, and incorporate it into school. These safety tips can be used at a public pool, or even at the springs. The most important point they make, is that you must always watch your children. A child can drown in just minutes, if you look away to talk to someone, or answer the phone, etc. One thing I did not see them say, that we stress very much is rough play. We all know playing rough, and raising cane in the water is great fun. However, it must be kept to a limit especially when there is many people in the pool. Plus jumping off of sides, or ladders in shallow water, another tip I did not hear. Head injuries can be very damaging, and it does not take much of an impact to cause severe disabilities, or death. We test our children every year, sometimes more than once, to be sure they are aware of the rules, and safety issues. My son writes a report, and Caitlin has to answer some questions. Be safe this summer, and enjoy your pool.

To Standardize Test Or Not? Contest Updates

First I want to update on the two contests running on this blog right now. March 13th, is my 1 yr anniversary for this blog. Anyone who signs up to follow this blog, will be entered into a contest to win 1000 Entrecard credits. The second contest is for the Sylvan 4th grade workbooks. I have three contestants so far, all from Twitter. You have until March 30th to enter, please see the top of this blog, for contest details.

Now to the topic of Standardized testing. Here in Florida they take the FCAT. It is this week, and like other third graders, the public school, offered for my son to take it. I contemplated it, as you can use it for your yearly evaluation, and save 65 dollars, but then chose not to. Why, because I do not think at this age standardized tests are accurate. Test tasting is hard enough, and a test that could effect whether or not you can go on to fourth grade, I just do not agree with. Now I must say for the 5th grade FCAT I will probably have him take. As he gets older Standardized tests can be very useful, especially if you feel your child will be college material. I am fairly certain my son will go to college, so he will eventually have to be skilled at Standardized tests. If your child is not college material, or learning disabled, then Standardized testing, probably is not appropriate nor even useful. The sad part, and one of the problems I have with these tests, is that they use them to decide which schools get better funding. They should be used as a learning tool, to see how a student is progressing, not a funding option. I really do dislike that. So what do you think about this subject? I would love to hear from other people who homeschool, as well as public schooled parents.

With all that said, we do, starting tomorrow have testing, made from material we have covered. They are timed, and specific. I use them for grading purposes, as well to see how much information has been retained. It is a tool I like to use, for both strengths, and weaknesses.

Do Your Kids Ask For Nontraditional Pets?

I read this little article, in my Family Circle magazine. Some of it I was already aware of, but some was new information as well. For instance I knew turtles, lizards, snakes, and other reptiles could carry the Salmonella virus, and that children under 3 or 4 should not handle them. However I did not know that turtles, chicks, and mice can carry Herpes as well. Herpes is usually considered a sexually transmitted disease, so this was startling to me. The basis of the story is that if you are considering a cute chick for Easter, you might want to talk to your Pediatrician to be sure it is safe, for the age of your child. While we do have lizards that share our yard with us, my children have never handled them. My son has considered asking for a turtle, but this is not a common topic. Good handwashing would be of the utmost importance.

I was given an award, which I will post about on a day when I have no lesson plans to post.

Lesson Plans for 1/20/09:

Reading: Chapter 6 Dolphins at Daybreak
Language Arts: Parts of speech, punctuation
Math: Multiplication, division, greater than, less than
Writing: If you could zap yourself into a TV show, what would it be, and why
Science: Animals-vertebrates, animal watch
Spelling: Lesson 16- write each spelling word 2 times each
Vocabulary: Lesson 16: Look up the definition for each vocabulary word
PE: 30 minutes
Spanish: Food and utensils 3

Hunger for American Children Rose 50% In 2007

Did you see what I wrote? 50% in 2007, not 2008. I can't even imagine what it will be this year, with the economy in a crisis, people losing their jobs, this is just not right. Our tax payers go to bailout some bigwig slob, making millions in bonuses, taking luxury vacations, and worrying about whether he will get his Christmas bonus or not, and 50% of American children went hungry last year. We give to our local food pantry every year. This year we are beefing it up. We will be giving to the local food pantry, the Sheriff Dept, and local churches that need it. I will also be asking my children to go through their toys, and clothes to see if we have excellent condition to donate. For the past two years I was unable to give to Toys for Tots, something I always did in previous years. We just financially could not do it, but this year we will whether we can afford it or not. My children have so much to be thankful for, as well as my husband and I. We need to help our fellow Americans who are not as fortunate, and maybe think they dont have anything to be thankful for. Please help your neighbors, friends, and family this Holiday season. So many will be going without.

Lesson Plans for 11/19/08:

Reading: Read Chapter 10 of Pirates Past Noon
Writing: Write what you are thankful for
Social Studies: Government and citizenship, Iowa
Spelling: Lesson 10- write each spelling word and circle the consonants
Vocabulary: Lesson 10- Think of an Antonym for each vocabulary word
Language Arts: Phonics review, action verbs
Math: Multiplication, addition, subtraction, ordinal numbers
Spanish: Food and utensils
If time permits, watch 60 min video on Mars

Unschooling Is It Creating Uneducated Children

I saw a report, on the evening news, about Unschooling. Unschooling, is a form of Homeschooling, where basically the child picks the Curriculum based on their current interests. Of course both sides had an opinion, both for and against Unschooling. The major concer being, that Unschooling is actually teaching uneducated children, but people who use Unschooling say their children are independant, free thinkers.

I do not actually know anyone who Unschools their children, so I am kind of curious. One of the issues I had with public school, was that almost everything was traditional learning, and elective clases such as Art, was never really Art class, Music class consisted of just listening to music, and not much more. I was really disappointed with both of these things. I do follow a traditional form of learning, in my home. We do make our own Curriculum, but I used a basic quide, to what each child should learn in that grade. I also do arts and crafts, and a music class. Now I am not a music teacher, so I purchased an I can play piano, and software, that teaches them to play piano. Unschooling is interesting, in that the child decides what they want to learn. So say for examply the child has an interest in Drums, their whole day is spent learning to play the drums, or at least that is my understanding of how it works. So I have just a couple of thoughts. How does the child learn Grammar, History, Math or other basic learning skills. I really dont know many children that would say boy I really want to learn about nouns and verbs today. Or oh boy, I really want to learn how to multiply today. While I can see how Unschooling would be wonderful, for creative and critical learning, I dont quite understand how the children learn basic educational skills, that they may need later in life. Or am I misunderstanding, and the basics are taught, but somehow creatively mixed in with the main interest at hand. For example I could see, how spelling could be taught by spelling words that have to do with music, and drum playing. Reading, by reading books, on playing the drums, or music related. Math by creating clever math sheets that use the main interest as the topic. Writing, and Grammar, by writing stories related to music and drum playing, and using correct Grammar to do it. So I could definately see how they could comingle together. Do you Unschool, do you know anyone who does, how does it work? I look forward to hearing, from some of you who do Unschool.