Category: Subjects

Homeschooling articles by Key Learning Areas

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How to Read Science Journalism

I have decided to write a piece on how to read articles on science. Because, quite frankly, most (but not all) science journalism sucks. The more mainstream the website / newspaper / TV the news appears in, the more the contents are awful and removed from reality.

It doesn’t matter what the topic – climate change, GM foods, vaccines, or ‘gee whizz we’re going to the stars!’, journalists by and large are science and maths illiterate, and will usually get it wrong. Even the good ones are prone to exaggeration and hyperbole.

The thing is, it’s really, really easy to make sure you’re getting the truth. And this is how to do it:
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Sneaking in an English Lesson

Hi everyone, today I wanted to talk about how I get C to do English lessons – by stealth! My wonderful son has until very recently (the last month!) refused to read fiction books bigger than picture books. He is still an avid reader, but has up until recently preferred reading non-fiction. And writing …well that’s a challenge that we and the OT are meeting one day at a time.

As I have previously talked about, book reviews are a no-no. They managed to completely turn him off small chapter books for months, even ones on Marvel Superheros, a firm favourite topic.

So how do I encourage my reluctant reviewer, writer/ fiction book reader? Well I have a few strategies that have slowly started to make a difference.
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I don’t want to teach my kids maths, I want my kids to LIVE Maths

Fractal Frost pattern, Wikimedia Commons

This is a post in response to Penelope Trunk’s post on not teaching Maths, as well as the many, many comments on the blog. It made me sad. It made me think. And it reinforced for me the idea that the maths taught in school is – the wrong maths.

It’s a discussion that you will hear whenever you get a group of mathematicians together. The things that inspire, that make you go ‘wow!’ are the things you never see in school.

Imagine for a moment that learning english was taught only through reading ‘Terms and Conditions on Contracts‘. Worthy and useful, perhaps. But you never saw poetry. There was no mention of Shakespere, and the idea of a story or novel was incomprehensible to your teachers. Who would ‘love’ english after 13 years of that? Why would you want to know how to read?
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The Hell of “Socialization”

The Hell of "Socialization" yellowreadis.com Image: textured wood

I have been delaying doing a post on “socialization”. I have been at a loss on how to approach talking about it, really. So I thought I’d just tell it how it is.

You see, C has LD‘s that severely affect how he is able to handle social situations. C is an affectionate, loving, quiet and intelligent kid. But get him in a noisy crowd, and suddenly he goofs off, gets very loud or runs away, or spends all his time looking at the ceiling, listening to fans or noisy air conditioners.

We went to the OT yesterday for C’s regular appointment. And they’re quite wonderful. They were able to diagnose C and help with very practical suggestions for helping him cope. They also gave us names for the many behaviours we have observed.
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