Geography Resource Update

We've recently found WorldAtlas.com, and have been using it with our geography studies. There are tons of maps ranging from simple line maps to landform maps, and for most of them, the amount of data shown on the map is adjustable. There's even a tab for a printable quiz for each one. The site is, of course, free. We've been using this site for reference and the Sheppard Software site for practicing capitals and countries.

For more map resources, check out the suggestions from the July 2008 post.

Howdy!

This site has gone static for awhile. Having plenty to do and being fairly settled into schoolwork, I simply am not trolling for sites with my usual ferocity. No neat stuff, no new post. I don't pretend to be that talented a writer. If I find something else new and wonderful, or have an update on previously discussed stuff, I'll put it in. Until then, please enjoy the links and dailies hanging around on this page (we're using some of them every day!)

Bonjour, ça va?

Everyone who has asked me about foreign languages knows that I am a huge Rosetta Stone fan. This year however, when I wanted to have some dedicated geography time, the easiest way to make room for it in the schedule was to temporarily drop our formal Spanish studies. Some friends of ours recently went to France though, and the kids' interest was piqued, so I decided to throw in a little daily French lesson. I did take French for four years, no sense putting that to waste. I just didn't know the best way to organize what I introduced. I found this lovely list at about.com (a favorite portal): Learn French - Self-Study Checklist. There are no buzzers or bells, but it definitely gets the job done as far as organizing information and giving complete explanations. Hope this helps you. Bonne chance!

Trying something different for dinner?

Did you ever make a dish that you hoped would get "Ooh"s and "Ahh"s, but instead got "Ew"s and "Argh"s? I've gotten pretty bored with the steamed veggie routine. I thought, "Broccoli and cheese rice sounds great, sounds different." It actually turned out quite well. The oldest was brave enough to taste it. When the squirt next to him asked how it was, he replied,"Surprisingly, quite good." He polished off his share, but he was the only kid who dared.

Thank you for that bit of affirmation, son.

Needless to say, I won't be posting the recipe.

What are YOU doing?

Merry Christmas! I've been sucked into Facebook by several friends at once, and what always pops up is that silly old question..."What are you doing right now?" Here's my story.

Over here we've been enjoying Christmas vacation. I've abandoned all school related internet surfing for the occasion, and quite frankly, that's why my little blog has been so neglected. Instead, we've enjoyed a ridiculously fun and unexpected snowfall (BTW we live in LOUISIANA), sung and played a lot of Christmas carols on the piano (free sheet music), actually sent out the Christmas cards this year (most of them), and mainly done as little as possible on our break. Say that lovely word again, "BREAK." Yes, I love that word.

I haven't even been baking since I finished my cookie and brownie obligations for the Christmas party earlier this month, although I was intrigued by an author I heard in an interview on NPR's All Things Considered (yes, I listen to NPR all the time-it's my grown up radio indulgence). She's a chemist, and her book not only tells you how to solve common baking problems, but (wonder of wonders!) also why they happen, and why the fix works. It's like science and home ec all in one. You can get her recipe for chocolate crinkle cookies here. I actually have had a renewed interest in baking since I heard it. BTW I might like to have this book for Christmas.

That's what's going on over here. So, what are YOU doing? I hope you're having a lovely Christmas season as well. Happy Baking, and God bless you.

And the results are:

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that the latest TIMSS scores were due out on December 8. Well, that day has come and gone, and you can hear a summary of the U.S. result at NPR's All Thing's Considered. We've shown slight improvement in math, it's true. If you take a look at the summary reports, though, you'll see that we're still positively average; and that's not average based on the most powerful countries. That's average based on all kinds of big and little countries.

From 2007 TIMSS
Table 1. Average mathematics scores of fourth- and eighth-grade students, by country: 2007
Table 3. Average science scores of fourth- and eighth-grade students, by country: 2007

Perhaps more significantly, some countries, like New Zealand and Australia, whose results were lower than the US in this measure, surpassed the US appreciably in the last PISA (a standardized test encompassing more countries) test. That would seem to mean that those countries are stronger in some areas (content gets divided up as a measure of fact knowledge, "explaining phenomena", or using scientific knowledge), and weaker in others, while the US is . . . average.

People homeschool for lots of different reasons, but I'm willing to make a bet that most of them aren't doing it with the idea of "average" as the outcome. I also know lots of moms and dads feel a little intimidated by science or math, but few of them would argue their importance. Next time you sit down to evaluate your science and math curricula, take some extra time to make sure that they measure up to something better than AVERAGE.

Do you want to see what's on these tests? Check out this page at Ediformatics to take a sample version.

Online Timeline

I was poking through my Favorites links (unfortunately, it's very big), when I came across this gem: Hyper History Online. I spent way too much playing with this one. It's an online timeline, but it's very well organized, and has breakdowns by region and topic, and it's loaded with hyperlinks. There's even an accompanying "Book Text" if you want a little more info (I have not, however, read this part for content so look that over before you set the kiddoes free on it). This would make a great visual reference for any history studies. You can also buy a hard copy of the timeline there, but all of that lovely history interaction is free. That's a nice word to hear this time of year, isn't it?