TJED Teens Club

In an effort to build the TJED (Thomas Jefferson Education) community and provide activities with peers for my kids, I started a major effort to organize what is already in our area and create new opportunities. One of the questions I am constantly asked is, "Why are you doing this?" People either think I'm a control freak who wants to take over everything or they are waiting for the other shoe to drop and for me to start asking for money. Neither one of these is the case, I want my children to have the kinds of activities that I know will build statesmanship. That is it!

Yesterday we had our first TJED Teens Club meeting. It is basically a class, but set up to be more self-teaching and peer-teaching based. It is a club that I have developed myself after considering many options, curriculum, and other avenues like LEMI projects and commonwealth schools. This area is not ready for something that requires a high level of commitment, but they are ready to participate in simulations and discussions. I can do that!

For our first meeting I expected about 10 people....we ended up with 32. Great turn out! It went well, even though I goofed up a couple of things and forgot to let people break in between hours. Oops!

On the way home from our club meeting Nayna and Chris were so excited and happy. I realized that they needed this club more than I thought. Chris even told me that I "wasn't as bad as he thought I was going to be." I'll take that as a compliment from a 13 year old boy. LOL! They also said that I didn't even embarrass them. Well....that's good!

If you want to check out our club details you can see it at Springfield TJED.

New "School" Year (I hate that word)

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Every year previous to this year, I was searching for...something...that would work better than the last year. I've come to the start of the 2010-2011 "school" year and realized I am finally comfortable in our educational plan (or un-plan in some cases). I no longer feel the desire to plan out every little detail or even a "Course of Study" like I used to. I've come upon something better...the individual Compass, the Binder (similar to the TJED Planner) and our family goals.

The Compass
I wrote about this in the past and we are now doing our 3rd Compass (we rewrite our Compass every 6 months). Chris is only on his 2nd Compass. I was trying to do our Compass writing together until Chris pointed out that I am expecting the same things out of him as I am of Marly. I took his advice and we now sit down, mentor and student, one-on-one, to write our Compass. Marly did most of hers before our meeting and she just filled me in on what she wrote (anybody thinking "Self-Directed Scholar" here?).

I was happy to see more depth and thought is being put into the Compass each time we rewrite them. I encouraged them to keep their older ones, making sure the new one is on top. I want them to see their own progression and enjoy the new things that they have learned and to not forget where they have been.

The Binder (Planner)
Oh yes, we still have our binders, but they are taking on a new shape as well. Each student is now customizing their own binder. We added a couple of new things this year and re-organized for finding things better. I'm going to create separate posts on each student's binder that will post in the next few days. I'm trying to document the different things I see as each student progresses through the different levels of Scholar Phase.

Family Goals

I've been adding more books to my "to-read" list. Some I have found only needed a skimming for specific information. One of those books was "A Charlotte Mason Home Companion". I do think some of Charlotte Mason's philosophies fit with Leadership Education. One such philosophy is living an "educational life". I do believe that the TJED version is "life-long learning" and being "self-educating". I believe living an educational life is in direct correlation to our religion. Christ wanted us to learn and grow in the gospel and in our earthly life.

Southwest TJEd Forum 2010 - Part 3

Breakout Sessions

The conference had two break-out sessions in the afternoon so that attendees could choose which classes to attend. There were a lot of great classes and it was hard to choose. But, alas, I did manage to choose. :-)

Dan Ralphs - "Three Types of Students"

Many of you are probably familiar with the Three Types of Education, those of us who have read the books about Leadership Education have heard about them many times. Dan Ralphs expanded the chart that I have below to add what type of student is created in each type of learning. I truly enjoyed expanding my understanding of these concepts. I know that I had heard this before in a talk by Oliver DeMille at the first Southwest TJEd Forum two years ago, but I NEEDED to hear this again, and specifically, at this time.

Three Types of Education

Education	Goal	Methodology	Curriculum
Conveyor Belt	1 - Job Training 2 - What to Think	Soviet Conveyor Belt Same Education at the same age Educate the poor	75% Social 25% Textbooks Comfortable for factory jobs
Professional	1 - Train Experts 2 - When to Think	Elite Conveyor Belt	Case Studies Ethics Solve Problems
Leadership Education	1 - Train Entrepenuers 2 - How to Think	Mentoring	Define Problems Classics

Three Types of Students

Education	Study Habits	Learning	Teacher/Student	Motivation
Conveyor-Belt	Entitlement Min/Max	Teacherbased	Fear/Obey	Fear based
Pressional	Memorizers/Test Based	Expert Centered	Competitive	Utility
Leadership Education	Purposeful Depth	Wisdom Centered	Submissive	Love

Epiphanies during this speech:

• Christian is still somewhat of a conveyor-belt student. He spent the first 3 1/2 years following the conveyor-belt at public school and I have worked very hard to help him get off. I can see now that he has one foot on and one foot off. As hard as this is for me to admit, it is IMPORTANT that as his mentor I stop ignoring this fact and focus on how to help him instead. My pride was getting in the way (not wanting to admit that he is still a conveyor-belt student at times). But, how many of us adults are still conveyor-belt students? How hard is it for US to get off? Why should I be afraid of admitting this and doing what needs to be done to help him?
• Leadership happens when the student chooses a mentor. I think applies to what I wrote above. In my personal realm of application, I can see that I need to inspire Christian to choose me as his "mentor" and stop looking at me as his "teacher".

Dr. Andrew Groft's Closing Remarks

Education is...

• expanding definitions.
• making connections.
• considering applications.

People without good family are searching for the government to make them happy.

The way that you see the government is the way that you see education.

I learned a great deal more, but it is so hard to put it all into words. He discussed Plato's "Republic" and Montesquieu's views on government. I really need to read these works before I will understand it all, or be able to explain it.

And finally...he left us with this quote.

The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. - Abraham Lincoln

Part 1 - Carol Shippy and Dr. Andrew Groft
Part 2 - Julie Early

Church Callings

Today, Chris was set apart as the new Deacon's Quorum President. Last week, Marly was set apart as the new Mia Maid's First Counselor. Sam has been the First Counselor in her Laurel Class for several months. I am very aware that Heavenly Father has prepared them for these new leadership opportunities. I have seen great improvements in my children in their abilities, their maturity, and their desire to serve. Some I believe is because of educating my children using the Thomas Jefferson Education method, but I know all can be attributed to Heavenly Father and His knowledge of their missions in this life.

The ward we live in has a very large youth, 40 young women and 20 young men. When our youth went to the Snowflake Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead the Temple workers thought it was a youth stake activity, not just one ward. I am very thankful for the service provided to my children by their leaders and for our Bishop.

Even if we move this year, I feel confident that what my children learn during this season of service to their individual classes will prepare them for their future. I know my various callings have taught me so much. I'm excited to see what this new adventure brings.

My Baby Turns 13!

I'm sure Chris will not like being referred to as "my baby", but he is my youngest and is now a teen! All my kids are teens, and Sam is now officially an adult. For his birthday, he begged for an Airsoft Sniper Rifle...

Well, he got one!

While Chris was out trying out his new sniper rifle, our neighbor came out and stood staring at him for some time. I'm sure she was trying to figure out if the gun was real or not. It does look real...except that little orange plastic piece at the end. I wondered if the Sheriff would be coming by and talking to us. It is all legal, even if he had a real rifle we would still be legal since we live in the County.

For each person's birthday we have a tradition of allowing that person to choose their favorite meal for dinner. Chris told me early that week that he wanted Spaghetti and Meatballs. However, Mike brought home a ton of Schwan's food a couple days before and Chris changed to a smörgåsbord of Schwan's foods for dinner. So we had Chicken Nuggets, Pot Stickers, Sausage, Eggs (of course since we have dozens!), Rocky Road Ice Cream, and Lemon Cake.

Lumberjacks

With my recent accident in log splitting, I was very skeptical about Christian chopping wood. He convinced me that he had sufficient knowledge of safety precautions and that he would be careful. He also pointed out that Almonso in "Farmer Boy" was allowed to do a lot of things that are considered dangerous as part of his regular chores. (So much for using classic books as examples...he had me there!)


Of course, I was being careful too when I fell onto the log splitter and injured my hand! But, a mother has to put some trust in her children and allow them to learn and grow at some point. He is a careful boy and so I felt the need to cut him some slack and not smother him in his desire to WORK for the family.

He did a great job getting the wood started on Friday! Over the weekend Mike and Christian chopped a lot of wood. Our garage is extended by 6 feet and has an area for storing wood. They filled that area and we still have more to split. Too bad the rest of us are too sick to help right now. We could at least stack for them. Maybe next weekend.

Family Project - Tire Swings!

This week we decided on a couple of family projects. We wanted more things to do in the back yard and we have an enormous Chinese Elm tree that we thought might make a great place to hang a couple of swings. We decided tire swings might be the most economical that would also hold the weight of my growing teens and any other children that grace our home.

We took a trip to Discount Tire and asked for some free tires, which they were very happy to give to us. Next, we found some websites that gave instruction about building two types of swings. We made a list of the hardware we need and took off to Home Depot one day after school hours were over. We couldn't manage all the hardware needed to make the horizontal tire swing, but we did get the vertical tire swing up.

Way to go Engineer Knot Maker Chris! He tied all the knots. All Marly and I did was help lift and hold the tire.

Christian's Merit Badges

Switching troops during the life of a scout can be a tricky thing! I do not have the cards for all the merit badges that Christian completed from our old troop. He finished First Aide, Emergency Preparedness and Citizenship in the Community before we moved, three of the "required for Eagle" merit badges.

At scout camp in our new ward, Christian completed: Pioneering, Personal Management, Photography, Bird Studies, Mammal Studies, and Fish and Wildlife Management. With all these, he should have finished his Star. But, we cannot get all the information together to prove it. Kind of a bummer since now he will have to wait until the next Court of Honor (if I can get all the info together or he will need to do them again).

Christian had a great time at camp and came back with a ton of stories. Our new troop has many good qualities. The Court of Honor was out in the woods in a beautiful spot at Shultz Pass. I guess living in the woods brings it close enough to have events like this frequently...and only 15 minutes from home!

The only drawback is some of the discrimination going on (not just in scouts, but in Flagstaff in general). We have been termed "Phoenicians" because we moved up here from the Valley. That term brings with it many derogatory comments about how silly or weird "Phoenicians" are...and since we are considered in that category...well, let's just say there have been some hurt feelings. I fully admit to being shocked by many things in our new environment and making comments about them has brought some of this on us (my mistake). The leaders wonder why my son does not care about scouts anymore and the entire ward is now making comments about how Christian never smiles...well, he used to smile all the time! Maybe they need to look in the mirror to find the source of his unhappiness.

Slime Monsters!

My post today on "In the TJED Trenches":

I forgot I was supposed to post today...hee hee!

One of our favorite science experiments turned into a slime contest to see who could formulate the best slime.

The contest was for each child to research different recipes they could find for polymer solutions to make Gak, Slime, Flubber, or Silly Putty. They could then experiment with the different recipes in order to determine which recipe was the best. I encouraged them to come up with variations of their own based upon the recipes they tried. Chris really got into the slime making, as you can see here, and decided that combining Silly Putty and Slime recipes turned out the best. I was going to post the recipe and then realized it might be better to let you find out through your own slime contest....learning through experimentation really does work!

P.S. As I'm typing this my daughter, Marly, walked up to read what I was typing and said, "That was really good slime, too."

Chris Freaks Out

We have motion detector lights on the back of the house that constantly go off. It really does not even light up much of the yard, especially when your back yard is over an acre. It only lights up about 20 feet. It was making me pretty freaked out having those lights flick on and off while I'm trying to sleep, so I decided to turn them off. I figured, "Stupid feral cats keep making that thing go off." Well, tonight as Chris was getting ready for bed he heard something outside his window. All I hear is, "Holly Crap!" and my son comes running out of his room yelling for us to come look. He saw two deer eating the grass right outside his window, one he said had huge antlers. Of course, by the time we come to look, the deer are long gone. I guess it is not just "stupid cats" setting off the motion lights.

Here is what that part of the backyard looks like in the daytime, after we removed all the brush anyway. Picture deer eating that patchy grass...I hope my garden survives the deer, rabbits, gophers, prairie dogs....

April Showers? or Just Windy?

April Showers Anyone?

Where are the April Showers? We have either had snow or blasting wind that closes highways and rattles windows at night. I do not remember so much wind the last time we lived here. I know the weather patterns seem to have changed a little bit in the last few years...but this is ridiculous! I hope we get a few showers in to help keep the forest green over the summer. We saw a lot of smoke yesterday due to a forest fire.

Finding Joy!

It was one of my goals this year to focus on happiness and joy in life. I can say that I am happy, even through the trials and tribulations. I have learned, thanks to previous trials and tribulations, to be patient and realize that things could be a lot worse. Really, things are very good! After watching April General Conference, I felt that despite our economic hardships, everything else is really, REALLY GOOD!

We are very busy in our new home with getting the land "fire safe". The previous occupants let the back 3/4 acre become very overgrown. We have worked on the weeds, but the wind keeps blowing our neatly piled weeds around. We have tried to burn the weeds but cannot because of high winds, I had to get a burn permit and I call every day to see if we can burn. So, we stopped working on that for now and pray that the winds will cease long enough for us to get the weeds gone!

The flower bed is planted with seeds and Marly diligently waters it every day. Our eight chicks have more than doubled in size and are now living in their remodeled coop. We do not let them outside much yet because we are afraid they will blow away! They are not big enough to handle the wind yet.

We found a local homeschool group...there are five other homeschool families in our ward alone. We have been excited to have so many "close by"...meaning within 20 minutes drive. LOL! There are TONS of teens here. There are 40 young women and about 15 young men in our ward. They have all welcomed Marly and Chris with open arms and invited them to lots of things already. The boys are particularly happy to have another boy so they are not so outnumbered.

I hope to get some more pics up soon. I have just been so busy...

2009 - Week 5 - This Week in Homeschooling

In addition to Marly and Chris's babysitting job, Chris has been sick with a sinus infection this week. The level of his education was greatly effected this week and we hope he will get better soon!

Kid's School:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lesson 12 - We spent the entire week on the Atonement.
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
• Read Aloud Book - Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (and my kids THINK they have chores)
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last week's words - New Words - winsome, meager, haughty, foster
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - The Winston Grammar Program: Basic Level - Word Roots Level A A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Respiratory System - Usborne Science Encyclopedia pg. 358-359, How the Body Works pg. 69-77, Human Anatomy Coloring Book p. 218-23 (College level book - we do not memorize the terminology, but the detailed diagrams are really good).
  
• P.E. - Daily dog walks. Chris was too sick to do much else.
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 9-11
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Unit 2 Test, online math drills
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: The Story of the World: Vol.2 2-18, Molly Moon Stops the World, Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure, The Hounds of the Baskerville's (1st half)
  
• Chris: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Vol. 1, 1-38 thru 1-39 (1st half)
  

Mom's School:

• Reading list - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (still working on this one), The Love Dare (a 40 day challenge so I'll be reading this one every day for awhile - see this movie "Fireproof"), Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning (studying up on the levels of Scholar Phase to present to the family next week)
  
• Projects - cleaning and perfecting my bread making skills. See my favorite recipe at The Solar Cook.
  

2009 - Week 4 - This Week in Homeschooling

This week my children began a babysitting job for a sister in our ward who had a very preemie baby (1 lb. 10ozs.) I am happy for the experience my children are receiving, but greatly saddened by the situation of this dear friend and her family.

Kid's School:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 10-11 (spent 3 days on lesson 11)
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last week's words - New Words - dilate, doleful, conciliatory, insolvent, fawn
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - The Winston Grammar Program: Basic Level - Word Roots Level A A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Nervous System - Useborne Science Encyclopedia pg. 364-367, How the Body Works pg. 115-121, Human Anatomy Coloring Book p. 24 (College level book - we do not memorize the terminology, but the detailed pictures are really good).
  
• P.E. - Daily dog walks. We were supposed to attend a hike at the Arboretum, but we had car trouble. :-(
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 5-8
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Chapter 14, Review for Unit 2 Test, online math drills (see below)
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: The Story of the World: Vol.2 2-17, Princess Academy, The Seventh Tower, Book of a Thousand Days, Johnathan Livingston Seagull
  
• Chris: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Vol. 1, 1-35 thru 1-37, finished Dragon Rider, started The Silver Chair.
  

Mom's School:

• Reading list - How to Be Totally Miserable: A Self-Hinder Book by John Bytheway, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (quite an eyeopener - I recommend this book as a MUST READ!)
• Projects - (1)Drupal theming - see batchelorfamily.org where I converted the theme from this blog to my Drupal website. I know I'm the only excited about it, but that's OK. :-) (2) Prepared our taxes!
  

Free Online Math Drills!
I hate wasting paper on printing math drills. Math-U-See has free online math drills for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The website allows the student to drill on specific facts (multiply by 7's) or select a mixture of practice questions. I do not keep grades for drills, only for tests because we focus on mastery, so for me this works out perfectly. It has a timed factor that I love, it tells the student how fast they accomplished the drill, but it does not have a countdown visible to the student. I like this because some students have difficulty with "test anxiety".

Scouting Snow Trip

Mike and Chris went on a scouting snow trip this past weekend. It looks like they had a blast! Do you think Mike deserves a 10?

Chris said he didn't need his coat because he had thermal underwear on. I think he is crazy! Thermal underwear or not, I would have my coat on.

2009 - Week 2 - This Week in Homeschooling

This week we had a lot going on, but we still managed to do all this:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 5-6
• Classes/Clubs Attended: Principles of Leadership, Loom Knitting
  
• Literature Focus - Fantasy - Leven Thumps series
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - gregarious, incredulous, panorama
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries - Winston Grammar
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Skeleton
• P.E. - Rollerblading & scooter riding at park day, Wii Tennis and Bowling
  
• Math
• Marly: (We are waiting for the next workbook to arrive)
  
• Chris: Still working on learning area of different shapes - we may go back and review to help him in this area.
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra, Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader, Star Wars: Secrets of the Jedi, Pirate Curse: The Wave Walkers. (This child can READ! I wish I had time to read as many books as she does.)
  
• Chris: Story of the World, Vol. 1-32 "Ancient China" & 1-33 "Confucius", Dragon Rider
  
• Individual Studies
• Marly: Loom Knitting
  
• Chris: Linux, setting up wireless connections, installing windows web browser on a Nintendo DS, networks,
  
• Mom School: Reading list - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Teachings of the Prophets: Joseph Smith lessons 24 & 25
  

2009 Family Picture

I want to start a new tradition of taking a simple family picture in our home at the beginning of each year. A little bit of a late start, but I guess it is better late than never. Mike does not like having his picture taken, so we have not had many family pictures.

2008 in Review

I copied this from another friend. She always has great ideas on her blog.

The Year in Review Questionnaire:

A Great Adventure - This year I am the president of not one, but TWO homeschool groups. I'm not sure why I did that. It has been a lesson learned in leadership and taking on too many things. Not too long after I took on the 2nd group, I became Relief Society secretary and started a job. *sigh* So, check out my attempts at organizing the homeschooling community in Arizona and the Southeast Valley. Here is a picture of us at one of the fieldtrips I organized.

A Happy Event - Christian turned 12 and became a deacon this year. He passed the sacrament for the first time and spoke in church for the first time on the same day. He loves serving in the church by collecting Fast Offerings (while the other boys groan) and serving in his scout troop.

A Sad Event - The day Sam moved out "officially" to live with her dad the majority of the time. The house is a little less full and happy without her.


Looking Forward To - The end of court...I won't go into it here...but I can't wait for all this mess to be over.

Something for the Books - This year we somehow ended up in the local paper. I responded to a request for reasons why people homeschool and before I know it we are being featured in the article and a photographer is sent out to photograph us homeschooling. This was a little difficult because we are not very exciting when we homeschool. LOL! We mostly read and focus on individual needs and lessons. Here is the article we were in.


Don't Remind Me! - I'm so sick of people saying they like my current hair style. I really hate it! I cannot identify myself as a short-haired person. I look too much like a man. I need my long hair back!


New Interest or Hobby - (Foreign language alert!) This year I took some classes in CSS and learned PHP. I started some websites using Drupal. See azldshsa.org and thesolarcook.com.

Car Story - We survived teaching Sam how to drive! Both the van and truck are still in one piece. No damages have been reported. All pedestrians are still alive, although they may be running for their lives still. My hair is a little grayer and my nails are growing back, although the grip marks can still be seen in the seat I was sitting in. :-)

Kid Story - Chickens! We raised chickens this year and then the kids sold them for a profit. Our neighbors were not happy about the noise. Now the kids want to raise rabbits. We loved our chickens and will miss the eggs, but not the poop!


Miracle - It is a huge miracle that we still have a job! With all the layoffs in the construction market, Mike is currently still employed at TaylorMorrison Homes. We'll see if that lasts, but we are extremely grateful to our Father in Heaven for allowing Mike to still have a job.