Beast Academy: Math Curriculum Review

The last couple of days Tristan and I have been testing out  Beast Academy math.  Novelty is key in keeping him interested in a daily math routine and I switch around every now and again.  Beast Academy is a new offering for elementary students by the folks that make the Art of Problem Solving math curriculum.  It is a mentally challenging curriculum which prepares kids to participate in math competitions like the Math Olympiad and Math Counts.  I would love Tristan to do the Art of Problem Solving later on and I think this will prepare him.

He has been doing Teaching Textbooks 6 (Grade 6 equivalent).  It is fine. Predictable.  While he does many arithmetic problems, there is a lot of repetition and revision and not necessarily a lot of thinking going on.  It doesn't teach him to be observant and find "out of the box" ways of solving problems.

I love the novel approach of Beast Academy.  It's interesting and written in story form.  I think my son  will remember  the stories.  He likes all the many interesting characters in the graphic novel styled textbook. The pages are bright and appealing.

There are game pages with fun puzzles to do on paper and recognizable game pieces that capture the child's attention.  Did you know a Blokus piece with 3 squares is called a trionomino? Interesting fact for a 9 year old!

We started at Grade 3 level…Grade 4 is not out yet.  I am glad we did.  Only the first two books are available right now but more are promised soon. He has learnt the concepts in the book before. So intellectually it is not a stretch.  The exercises in the workbook  stretch him as they force him to demonstrate his mastery in a fun game-like way. For example, he had to get through mazes only making acute angles with his pencil.  

Today after doing a bunch of problems in the workbook, he asked me to print out special triangular graph paper and make him more problems.  

I think it will take 3-4 weeks to finish a book.  There are 4 books for Grade 3.

I will still supplement this curriculum with Montessori materials and lessons and use my 3D manipulatives to play games reinforcing what we are doing.

I would recommend trying this curriculum if you have a clever child who likes novelty, graphic novels, game playing and puzzles.  I would watch closely to make sure the child has the concept down before attempting the problems.  This could be independent work depending on the child but I feel I need to supervise to make sure the questions are completely understood. Expect your child to have to think all the time! but don't worry because the material is so visually appealing and the characters so outrageous,  it holds a child's attention. Even mine.

Lucky Tails - Rescue Outing

Today we went to the Bridgeport Animal Shelter.  My daughter has worked very hard over the last few months to get her animal rescue, Lucky Tails started and today we went out in search of her first rescue.  She called Bridgeport Animal Control.  They were extremely friendly on the phone.  Come and take as many dogs as you want.  There were some cute dogs on their website.  We decided to go and have a look.  I am now an official "shelter" Mum.

Apparently they have updated the facility.  Scary to think what the old one must have looked like.  It is a series of buildings where they process the dogs, mainly Pitbull purebred and mixes that they find on the streets of Bridgeport.  Some dogs are surrendered by their owners.  Others were strays.  Still others looked like they might have once been fighting dogs. They are in enclosures next to each other.  They can't see each other and the majority of the dogs bark loudly when anyone enters.  They all want to go for a walk and are begging for attention, barking or whining.  A few sit and look at you longingly.  There are some that break your heart and others that make you want to run for the hills.  The smell is also overwhelming.  It is not an easy place to visit.

My love of dogs is quite new.  Tuggles, our gorgeous rescue Claire found last November won me over.   It takes a lot for me to immerse myself into dog rescue when it is not my thing but this is my daughter's passion and I will support it.  It's a good thing but not my thing.  It is a new thing for Claire to do also and a big and complex challenge.  She has trolled rescue websites for many years and visited a few shelters here and there but now she is serious and has work to do.

She is looking for very adoptable dogs.  Pitbull dogs, by reputation are not highly adoptable.   It was difficult to objectively look at the dogs and not want to rescue them.  She made a plan.  She wanted to pick a handful of the dogs that most closely fit her guidelines, take them on a walk and do a preliminary behavior assessment on them.

We discussed what would make a good family dog.  She decided she would look for the calmest dogs that didn't bark and jump all over her, ones that would sit when asked to.  We would give preference to female and spayed dogs so they would get along with our Tuggles.

As we visited with the dogs, it became quickly apparent that there were very few that met that description.  We picked three to take on a walk.  Two were Pitbull mixes.  The first one, a cute male was very calm in his enclosure but when on the leash, he pulled so hard and seemed oblivious to us.   I am sure he had really missed being outdoors but he was such a strong dog and I didn't get a good feeling about him.  The second one, a female was Claire's favorite.  She was very cute  and would roll over showing her tummy when you walked up to her.  We got the leash on her and didn't even make it to the door before deciding she wasn't the one.  She was out of control, jumping all over Claire and knocking her glasses off.  We then took a Shepherd mix out and she was a lovely color and disposition until she saw another dog and became very aggressive and difficult to control.  It was tough.

We then went into a calmer area with dogs with special needs.  Claire found this poor dog (Pitbull mix again) that was emaciated with only three legs.  It had been surrendered by its owner.  She had to take it out.  It was missing a front leg yet still managed to get around pretty well.  It was very funny, playful and had a contagious smile.  The dog was in heaven outside in the sunshine and we played with it on the grass for a while.  Claire fell in love with this dog.   Despite all that this dog had been through, its big heart was shining through and it was very well behaved, responsive and kind.  Claire felt this dog would definitely be overlooked because of its disability and that it embodied the reasons she wanted to start Lucky Tails in the first place.


We went out to lunch following the visit and talked everything through.  A special needs dog will not be very adoptable and on top of that she is a Pitbull mix, which sadly are often viewed through the prism of the fighting dog stereotype.  This one will need to be spayed and will probably have some issues with her front leg that she depends on so heavily.  On the other hand, my girl does not shy away from a challenge and this dog's heart won us over.  We decided to keep the dog on hold until tomorrow so we can sleep on it.

A party for Tristan

We thought it was about time Tristan had a big party.  We didn't have a party on his birthday as Claire was away and he wanted her to be there.  He decided he would like an inflatable slide and a dunk station!  It was so much fun!  We hardly saw the children as they were all too busy, mainly on the giant slide and then we saw them again when the cake came out!

We had a surprise for him too!  His dance teacher and her breakdancing crew came and gave a short breakdancing demonstration.  He was thrilled that they came and that he got a chance to show off his dance moves!

A camping we will go...

A few months back a bunch of us decided to go camping.  I have never taken my family camping although I camped many times as a kid.  Other families that came had some experience and another family had never been camping ever!

We wanted a gentle camping experience with clean bathrooms, a family oriented atmosphere and not too far away from home. We chose to go to Hammonassett Beach State Park in Connecticut.  It has a large, well organized camp site only an hour away, perfect for bike riding and surrounded by decent restaurants, grocery stores and Starbucks...need I say more.

We all thought this would be a great summer activity for our children. Three days of play time and the freedom to ride their bikes and scooters, play board games and do what kids do with minimal parent interference.  We wanted them to feel free.

Claire at Explo

Explo Vet: Claire from Connecticut

For as long as she can remember, Claire has wanted to become a veterinarian. From her first day on campus, she's been super excited to experience every aspect of the Vet program. Her favorite day so far? Getting to visit the Animal Rescue League in Boston — especially since she just filed the paperwork to start her own dog rescue organization at home.

How did you find out about Explo?
I think my mom got the name of it from a friend, and she thought I should check it out and I did. And I thought it was cool!

I gather that you wanted to be a vet for a while. How did you get interested in it?
I've always been interested in animals, dogs especially. And ever since I was little, I wanted to be a vet, and I wanted to work in medicine. I want to specialize in dogs, especially since I run a dog rescue…

Do you really?
Yeah. I just started it a couple of months ago, and I hope to have possibly a clinic one day with a special segment off of it to house some rescue dogs that are up for adoption.

Wow! Tell me more!
Right now, I've established it as a 501(c)3 organization — I'm still in the process of filing — but right now we're looking for foster families for our dogs. We have two foster families ready to go right now, and I'm hopefully going to get in my first dog or two when I get back home from Explo. Our city animal shelter agreed to work with me to foster their dogs, because their dogs only have 10 days before they're euthanized at their shelter. So when we find adoptable dogs that we think we can place easily, we take them out at the last minute, place them with the foster families, and try to find them a forever home. And once we do find the forever home, the dog will go from the foster family to the forever home.

What made you decide to go into rescue work?
My mom started a project called the Huckleberry Hill Project, which is basically a cooperative where we get kids from around the area and all our friends together to choose a big idea to reach out and help the community. Mine was starting a dog rescue. The project hasn't even started yet, but the coop helped my project get the jump start it needed.

That's really cool. So do you have any pets at home?
I have one dog. His name is Tuggles, a border collie-dalmatian-kemmer feist mix that we rescued from an organization called Shelly's Angels Saving Strays. They rescues dogs from Tennessee and brings them up here to get adopted, because there's such a high percentage of strays and kill shelters in Tennessee. I found him on a website, and contacted them, and they said that he had recently been hit by a car, and broke his back… it was his back left tibia. So to fix it, they implanted a plate in it, put screws in the plate and wrapped it with wire to keep it in place, and they said it had healed nicely. So we adopted him about 9 months ago, and he was the sweetest little boy! But after a while, he started favoring his left leg, and he was really limping. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, so we took him to a specialty vet emergency hospital. They took an X-Ray of his leg, and they could see that some of the screws were way too big and were poking out, so he had big lumps in his leg that were really hurting him. He had to have another surgery to take it all out, and now he has nothing in his leg — I have the plate at home. And he's a completely different dog — he's so much more energetic and happy now.

That's awesome! Is he your first pet?
I used to have a dog named Cookie, that I got when I was four. When I was little, I didn't know about puppy mills, and my parents bought her from a pet store. She had a lot of medical problems, and I was really too young to take care of her by myself, so we gave her to my aunt. So now my auntie spoils her, and she's really happy!

What excites you the most about the rescue work you'll be doing?
I want to help as many dogs as I can — any animals, but really dogs. And I want to study veterinary medicine, and set up a dog rescue clinic where I can care for their injuries and diseases and try to save their lives. Those are the two things I really want to do. And when I get older, I want to have a farm, and I want to set up both the rescue clinic and the pet sanctuary on the farm.

I can picture it! So you're in the second week of the Vet program. What do you think so far?
I think it's fun! It's a really fun program, all the kids are really nice, and I really love all the trips we get to go on. Like last week, we went to the Animal Rescue League of Boston, where I got to ask a ton of questions about how to set up a rescue organization, how to get foster families, and how to advertise. They gave me a lot of awesome answers — they have 190 foster families, and I'm really jealous! But I loved touring their shelter. And then we went to NEADS, where they train assistant dogs for military veterans, and that was really interesting. We learned about the prison program, where they take the dogs to prisons and have the inmates with with them there. It's a really amazing program, because it gives the inmates tons of responsibility. And then yesterday, we went to the zoo. It was good. We got a backstage tour of the zoo hospital, which was all heavy metal and bars and gates everywhere, and it was really heavy duty and hard core. When I become a vet, I definitely want to be able to get close to the animals without having to anesthetize them, so I don't know if working with exotic animals is for me.

Maybe not! Tell me about meeting the veterinarians here on campus.
They were awesome. We got to meet with Dr. Dani Cimino twice, and it was so cool. The first time last week, she talked about X-rays and brought dogs in so we could do diagnostic assessments on them. It was awesome! And today, we got to learn how to suture and look at slides that she got from one of her patients. There was this one cat that they spayed and neutered. When they do any kind of surgery, to make sure the animals are breathing correctly, they stick a big pipe down their neck to make sure that oxygen's always getting to their lungs, and they clip their tongue up like that. After the surgery was done, they pulled out the pipe, and there was a lot of phlegm on the end of the pipe. So they took the phlegm and put it on a slide, and they saw lots of lung worms. They had to treat the cat for lung worm, and Dr. Cimino said the cat is fine now. But it was really cool to see the worms under a microscope. She had some pretty amazing slides.

Cool! Who else did you get to meet?
We got to meet Rob Nager, who came to teach us about pet CPR, which was really awesome. We got to learn how to do mouth-to-mouth on a dog, and it was really, really cool.

Now imagine for a minute that your friends are thinking of coming to Explo next year. What would you tell them?
I would tell them to definitely come. You get to see and experience so much amazing stuff and meet so many different people. The Vet program is incredible!

This article was published on the Vet Explo Website: http://explo.org/live/conversations/explo_vet_claire_connecticut

You can find out more about Explo programs there!

Medieval Camp

This week Tristan was invited to do a boys only Medieval camp at his friend's house.   His friend's mother spent hours designing a fantastic week of history activities designed with boys in mind.  Tristan loved it. He came home filled with stories about his choreographed sword fighting, jousting competitions, games, shield making, Charlemagne, the Crusades, A Knight's Tale, swimming, and of course gory details about the black plague. He truly enjoyed hanging around 7 other boys who love history too.  It was a nice way to reconnect with friends in the middle of summer.

It was a great experience for him.  I asked him how it was and he said "It was really amazing.  But you know that tomorrow will be 10,000 times more amazing.   Because Claire is coming home."

I guess we ALL miss her.

Dish soap

My husband said the magic words today.

"We've run out of dishwashing soap."

I have been so busy that I had forgotten that I wanted to make dishwashing soap.  Over the past couple of weeks I have ordered ingredients from Amazon and they had all arrived and been put away.  But with no demand for dishwashing soap I had completely forgotten about the project.

Until today. I went into action.

I went directly to one of my favorite web sites for this kind of thing and searched for dishwashing soap recipes.

I made a container for the soap out of a ball canning jar and a spout.  I used a large drill bit and hammered a hole in the top and inserted my spout.

It is extremely easy to make.  This is what I did.


In a bowl I put in about 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar, 2 tablespoons of washing soda and 2 tablespoons of grated Pure-Castile soap (It looks and grates just like cheese).  I added a cup of liquid Pure-Castile soap and then added 3 cups of hot water and whisked it.  I let it cool for a while and whisked it again.

That's it.

You can add essential oils, however my liquid Pure-Castile soap is already flavored (peppermint) so I decided to stay with that.

Once it cooled I used it on a load of dishes and it worked beautifully...except afterwards, my hands felt  *astringenty*.  Afterwards I needed to dip my hands into my jar of coconut oil that is in the kitchen for these kinds of emergencies! I do have dry skin.

The dishwashing liquid does smell very nice I must say.  I think I would use non scented liquid Pure- Castile soap and add my own flavors going forward.  I would like to use lavender essential oil.

Oh...and I found out how to make Washing Soda from Baking Soda.  You just heat it at 400 degrees F for around 30 minutes (for 6 tablespoons).  Washing soda is almost the same as baking soda... just with an extra sodium atom.  This is all pretty fascinating to me and took me on a wild google ride! Anyway I am back now!

I am wondering how long this dishwashing liquid will last.  It is water based.  I am hoping it will last a month without deterioration.

(By the way I have been using my homemade granite cleaner for two weeks now and I love it.  I took a car load of household chemicals to the toxic waste disposal in Stamford last week.  It feels so good ridding the house of chemicals.  And so empowering to make them myself.)

Play not practice

Tristan is learning to play the piano.  He doesn't like to practice.  He doesn't like to practice his breakdancing moves either, in fact I can't think of anything he likes to practice. The more I try to convince him of the benefits of practicing something the quicker he shuts down.  Then memories start wafting into my head how I hated practicing the clarinet when I was growing up.

I remember my Dad getting me sheet music so I could practice other things besides scales but blowing into a black shiny tube with shiny keys just didn't do it for me.  I liked the idea of playing well but just not the journey to that end. Yet I am glad I learned to play music and had the opportunity to be in a band.  Maybe he needs to play with people too.

I am sold on the great effects playing music has on the brain.  I think especially for those challenged in coordinating both hemispheres, there is no greater thing than playing the piano.  You are using so many parts of the brain at once.  I see it as a kind of therapy and my primary goal is for him to play for joy, not to get into Julliard.  So it was with great pleasure that I got to eavesdrop on his piano teacher the other day.

She is all about Tristan's connection to the music.  She gently praises and challenges him, explaining her love and connection to music and helping him discover his.  She somehow gets him to feel the music and tells him stories.  He eats it up and tries his hardest.  He concentrates and applies himself.  The time flies by and he wishes he had longer.  He has a connection with her.  With her he feels successful as he boldly plays Alouette, and reminds her that he can sing it in French as well!

It's cute. And I am happy that he has these wonderful adults in his life.

But he still doesn't practice.

Cousins

When Tristan's cousin arrives I cease to exist.  I swear it feels like Tristan is at camp.  No hugs and kisses in the morning.  No "Mum, could you make me French toast for breakfast?"  I know where he is though.  Sitting right next to his cousin.  Laptops open.  I hear the familiar Minecraft noises wafting into the kitchen.  I am smiling.  (Not because I love it when he is on the computer) I am smiling because he just loves his cousin so much and he is so happy.  I love that he is learning new things and his cousin is teaching him.  He can now set up his own server, whatever that means.  He has changed his "skin".  He can't get enough.

Soon enough my sister in law and I feel guilty about the screen time and we force them out of the house.  We take them to the local swimming hole.  They swim, explore the river and do the things kids like to do.  It's such a pleasure seeing him with boys as most of the kids we've found homeschooling in our area are girls.  Don't get me wrong, he *loves* girls (but that is another post!), but he also loves his boy time, playing war, Minecraft and doing science experiments.  His relationship with his cousin is such an important one.

They force us to go to supermarket for science experiment ingredients.  Diet coke, Mentos. The baking soda and vinegar ran out! They wanted to make grenades!

They have also been playing Pathfinder.  It is like Dungeons and Dragons with dice and a scenario. It is so much more fun to play with the cousin!  Pathfinder only happens when Uncle Ricardo is around as unfortunately this mother doesn't have enough patience for it and his father is clueless about it.   I would kill them off too quickly!

At night they have been enjoying backyard fireworks.  After years of seeing these at the supermarket and never buying them, I decided to give it a go this year.  I just bought a small packet. But they are really fun so the next day I went out and came back with a huge box!  They were very enjoyable.  Just like mini fireworks.  It is so fun to light the fuses and run behind the bushes.



 It is sad that our cousin had to got back to California.  We are going to miss them.

Homeschooling

My Dad sent me a homeschooling article he found in the Quadrant magazine in Australia.  It is an excellent article by Suzanne Rowntree (who has a neat blog), explaining why people homeschool.  Australia only has a few registered homeschoolers (10,000), but these homeschoolers are excelling academically and otherwise.  She explains that the biggest surprise is why more parents are not choosing to do it.

She explains that Australia was one of the first countries that jumped onto the Prussian model of education in order to educate the "convict children".  The idea was to keep the children away from their delinquent parents as much as possible and to produce cooperative citizens that support the authority of the government.  Academic excellence was not the goal.  She states that political loyalty and social conformity were the new curriculum and offers this telling remark from Henry Parkes, who is considered Australia's parent of public education, that "it is much cheaper to provide schools than to build jails."

When I was growing up in Australia I had no idea that there was any alternative to the public school in our suburb.  Every kid went.  End of story.  We are a society of individuals.  Everyone is doing their own thing.  It is hard to imagine women of my generation in Australia who would sacrifice their careers to homeschool, especially when decent (?) education is free.  Maybe....  if your child had a learning disability.  We don't have the historical role models and history of home education that we have in the U.S. There isn't the cohesiveness I have found in American families.   It is not surprising to me that parents haven't caught on yet in Australia.  It is so far off the radar.  It is still the best kept secret.

But not here in America. Homeschooling is hitting the mainstream.

Anyway, the reasons I homeschool are contained in this email we received today from my daughter who is at camp.

"I love you! I'm sorry, Papa that you were in the office at 9:28 PM! I'm trying to eat at least half my plate of veggies here (carrots, broccoli, cucumber, peas) so I don't feel like I'm eating a bunch of crappy food all the time :) I love you so much and when all the other girls are saying how annoying their parents are, I say very proudly that my mom and dad are the best and I love them with all my heart!!!!! They look at me like I'm crazy but I don't care.  Thank you for giving me this opportunity and I am having so much fun! Today was much better! The vet came in and I loved it! I took about 5 pages of notes!!! Tonight is the carnival and I am happy we are having that vs the Main Event (ie BORING)! I love you!"

So there you have it.  Close family ties.  Child can stand up for herself around peers.  Working hard in her area of passion.  Keeping herself in balance.  Grateful.

I am grateful to be able to homeschool.

And here is our new little cousin.  I am a proud cousin!  So cute! 12 day old!

Vet Explo

I dropped Claire off in camp today. 

Not surprisingly, she wanted to go to vet camp.  We were pointed in the direction of Explo.  Explo offers camps at colleges in our area that either have a professional focus or offer extraordinary experiences that children wouldn't usually be exposed to in everyday life.

This was the description of the camp.  We knew right away this was the one.

The Animal Whisperer

Come work with professional veterinarians, diagnose animal diseases, set broken limbs — and launch your career in animal health care. We know you love animals. This is your chance to discover how to care for them, understand them, and yes, even heal them.

Join us at the zoo, in the wild, at the clinic, and in the shelter. We'll show you up-close the life of a veterinarian — diagnose animal diseases, set broken limbs, perform life saving CPR... and prepare lunch for an orangutan.

Get Animals on the Mend

• Get certified in pet First Aid + CPR
• Interview veterinarians about their training, practice, and daily challenges
• Master the lasso and learn how to use a blow gun to anesthetize zoo animals for treatment
• Study the medical/dietary needs of pets at rescue shelters
• Practice treating and suturing a wound
• Take vital signs and perform snout-to-tail assessments on cats and dogs
• Participate in parasitology, radiology and hematology labs
• Work in vet teams to solve challenging medical cases
• Visit the American Rescue League and a working farm
• Dissect and examine the anatomy of a variety of species

  "Did you learn Latin at school, Mum?"  she asked.

  "I wonder what that means.  That is the first thing I am going to work out here!" she said.

This a very well organized camp.  There are only 18 children.  The counselors look very "Disney".  Well dressed and clean cut. Comforting.  The Dean of Explo was there. I was able to help her unpack.

  "Three hair brushes, Mum, really?????"  OK.  I wanted to make sure I didn't pack the "wrong" one.

  Soon everything was in order and she felt settled in.

  We said our last minute good-byes.  No tears.  This is an exciting opportunity.

   She was escorted to the quad to join the group.  I snuck around the corner and came back to take a quick picture. The counselors were nice about it.  I guess they are used to helicopter parents.

   The counselor assured me they would call in a day or two to let us know how things are going. I am sure she is going to have a great time.

I am already looking forward to picking her up.