Natural Knowledge- Staghorn Sumac

Staghorn Sumac

This is usually in a bunch.. it's brush sized. It usually grows where the ground has been disturbed.

Beware of the ones with white-yellow-greenish berries... they are poisonous and the leaves are too. The leaves turn bright red in Autumn,

See instructions on link for edibles part.

Natural Knowledge- Kudzu

Kudzu

This is an invasive that is over taking the Appalachian Forests... It's also a wild edible and cows can use it to graze.

I'm a bit confused why people are upset about it. Blessing in disguise? HARVEST it.... then it won't be invading the forest quite so much.

Natural Knowledge- Yucca

I saw a post on Facebook today that made me angry and sad for lots of children on this planet.

It basically stated that a very low percentage of children knew more than a handful of their local wild plants and animals. Wow...... That's really sad and could be dangerous.

I did a quick Internet search for local plant and animal identifications and didn't find a good source yet.

I decided to start a small teaching thread for this knowledge. Of course, I am located in the Central part of the USA, so this wont work for everyone. Do your own research and locate your local plants and animals.... I hope you know most of them,but in case you don't - learn them.

YUCCA Link to the plant.... wild edible plant usually seen as a decorative plant.

Start noticing them as you take your ordinary road trips. then start pointing them out to the kids. Say something like "Did you know that those are called yucca... and that parts of them can be eaten in an emergency situation."

Also tell them that wild plants should never be eaten without the guidance of an adult and only in an emergency because some parts of plants can make you sick and also can make you sick if eaten in the wrong time of year.

Anyway, I am not responsible for anything- just trying to get people to learn more about their local plants and animals.

County Fair Time!

If you live in the States, your local county should have a fair very soon.

Call your local county extension office or the courthouse and ask for a county fair paper.

My student has been working on items for the fair for school this week. Lots of different items from animal care to baking. It's good for them to enter and have a bit of competition.

It's really good when they get a ribbon and fantastic, to them, when they win money.

You should enter too! Everyone used to enter their local county fair, but people have been so busy with "time saving" technology that the entries have become low. Time to bring back a good thing~

More Colorful Words...German-English-Dutch

Again, find similarities or memory triggers. I don't recommend teaching children how to read and write in a foreign language until they have several years practicing speaking it. Think about how we learn our Mother Tongue. We listen, then speak and finally read and write. Grammar follows.. for the rest of our lives~ LOL.

My youngest child is a 4th grader this year. I am only now showing him cognates, just for the sake of increasing his vocabulary. He is not writing or reading any other languages other than English at this time. I do, however, think that teachers should be learning all aspects of the language they are teaching. You will be teaching a higher level learner soon~ If your child is already in High School, then you will learn these together. Don't forget to check out Duolingo for FREE foreign language learning. My username is ElainaMc1 .

I make myself have lessons while I am waiting on my child to complete their lessons. I write days of the week, months, etc... I also try to do a lesson each day on the above mentioned website.

When my child reaches 7th grade, he will decide which language to pick for his 2 year credit course per our state law requirement. For now, we are only tasting foreign languages. He has already decided to not study French or Italian on a higher level, but we are still reviewing weekly what he already knows. "Use it, or lose it."

"The COLORS are Coming~ The COLORS are Coming~ " Italian-Spanish=French

Not quite the same as the "The Red Coats Are Coming--" but RED is a color.... I have added three languages to my kiddie white board today~

BTW, I rescued this off the side of the road one day. It was ruined with permanent marker scribbles on both sides- whiteboard and chalk. I used elbow grease, wipes and magic eraser to clean it- wallah!- I did buy several Step2 products over the years, so I thought this was worth restoring... and I was correct! For more saving and re/up-cycling ideas. See my other BLOG A Penny Saved Me... Thanks! On Facebook too with mostly different content.

As you can see, I used colored markers to represent the color in question. This did limit me, however I now have an excuse to buy more colors!

Please remember that though these may be cognates in WRITING, they may NOT SOUND the same. Happy coloring~

FIXED Cognates- French to Italian Days of the Week with PHOTO

Sorry guys, had a middle-aged moment. My eyes didn't catch the mistake but my brain kept bugging me about it. Checked and sure enough I was wrong and made a fix. I drank a full package of vitamin milk this morning. If you see a mistake- call me out on it. Thanks~

More Days of the Week cognates.... You can see that nearly every day is a close to true cognate on this list.

Saturday and Sunday are slightly different , but I have underlined some similarities. I hope this helps you . And I hope this helps you consider learning more than one foreign language.

More often than not, I believe most of us were forced to learn a foreign language because we only had one or maybe two options to pick from in public school. We really didn't get to pick WHICH language we wanted to learn. That hinders learning imho. Homeschool kids have more options. Period.

Just this last week, I have had two adult friends start learning new foreign languages. Brava!

As we get older, we have more choices. The Internet helps us have more choices also. Lots of free ways to learn on the web. My local school district ONLY offers Spanish as a foreign language option.

The way things have been politically, regarding illegal aliens in the US, I'm thinking it's about time to offer more choices.

Yes, I believe Spanish is a good choice if that's the language you're most likely to use for your workplace. I chose it over French because I thought I'd never have an opportunity to use it. I should have looked forward and MADE an opportunity for French. Anyway, when I had a CHOICE, I picked the German language to learn. Don't get me wrong, I happened to love learning Spanish. I just wish more schools would give options to their future world travelers.

Cognates- German to Dutch Days of the Week with PHOTO

I am learning several languages at the same time. When I learn new vocabulary, I think about English cognates AND cognates to other languages I'm learning. I learn new languages much quicker this way. Look at the photo below. It is a comparison of German and Dutch days of the week.

As you can see, I've underlined some similarities. Often a Z will sound like an S. That's why I underlined them as similar letters.

Since Mittwoch isn't very similar to woensdag... think about this. Imagine you practice baseball on Wednesdays. Wenesday = Mittwoch = woesndag. If you forget your MITT, you may have a difficult time at baseball practice. MITT-W (Wednesday)-och (OuCH).

I hope this helps you!

Cognates- English to Dutch Days of the Week with PHOTO

This photo shows English days of the week compared to the Dutch ones. I've underlined some similarities. Use cognates to learn more vocabulary. If you can't connect the words through cognate similarities, then try to think of a memory or another idea to help you remember the pair.

Example- Friday.... vrijdag. These two aren't very similar words. Think about this... Friday is when most people get paid from their jobs. vrijday starts with VRIJ.... think "Very Rich Indeed, John"+ dag which IS a cognate to day.

I hope this helps you!

Cognates- English to German Days of the Week with PHOTO

People have been asking me how I can learn so many languages at the same time. Well, this is one thing that I do to learn new foreign words. Please notice that I have underlined some similarities in the word pairs. This should help with learning new vocabulary or help reinforce previously learned words. If there are not enough similarities, the new word must be memorized. I will be adding more of these charts soon! Hope these are helpful to you.

Summer Break ~

Summer Break... not what I remember from my public school days.

I recall 3 months break from the end of May until mid September.

I also recall nightmares about going back to school and not being able to remember my schedule, not being able to recall where my locker was or what the combination was, not being able to find my class though the room was in the correct place. Hallways changing and the school adding more rooms and being lost in familar territory.

None of those things ever happened. I think it was anxiety about being away for so long. Three months break for something that will be a daily activity is breaking a habit in my opinion.

Could you imagine learning a new skill then suddenly not doing anything for 3 months?

When you return you are expected to be able to recall those new skills. As kids, I think this is one of the worst types of situations. When puberty hits, even more difficult to retain information stored without daily usage.

I have a saying about foreign languages. "Use it, or lose it." So apply this to all sybjects. If you don't continue to practice, it will be lost. Not all of it will be lost, but it will be more difficult to recall and you will forget some of what you learned.

How long do public schools invest in re-teaching students every year with reviews?

Kids with not enough to do, and no money to back their boredom, makes for a very long summer break. Mind you, most families are divorced now (sad, but true) so 2 weeks with the other parent for summer visit helps. The non-custodial parent usually spoils the kids rotten so they get a nice trip or vacation activity.

They also come back as onery as ever.... No rules, no discipline, being spoiled.... "we're bored- we have nothing to do" and then the arguments break out. "He's looking in my room!" "She's in my stuff!"

When it gets too hot to send these special gifts outside, then what?

I found the answer- START SCHOOL.

And why not? The shorter the break in summer, the easier it will be to retain that new knowledge from last semester. It's very hot outside, so they're most likely stuck inside anyway. Turn the A/C on and away you go.

It also helps to tell them they get a 1 week vacation as soon as the weather cools. The public school kids will be in class while they are out enjoying nature. For some reason, they tend to like this idea. I would've too had I been homeschooled.

So- what do you do right now? Same thing I'm doing.....

Major cleaning of the house, de-cluttering. Spring clean since you were busy Spring teaching. Go through all the school books and retire the ones too young for the new grades, reorganize your resources. Move furniture to refresh the classroom. Last but not least, have the kids go through their supplies and let you know what they haven't "lost" and what you will need to re-buy. Every year I buy new pencils, crayons, colored pencils, erasers, sharpeners, etc.. and somehow they ALL get lost and are never found. Like socks in a dryer ~ poof ~ just gone-

Make this fun for everyone- Better than fights and I believe the first time I started school "early" it was b/c of all the petty arguments."Okay, time to start school!" - Wow, their faces.... Now it's a habit to start every first Monday in August. Try it- you may like it.

Seems like public school is starting earlier now too- Did we let out on a secret? If only they would learn more from our world- about as probable as finding those lost socks and school supplies---

IF you pray- keep praying for a non-invasive voucher system. What we could do with funding for even one child! Look what we're doing without it!!

Wow- Good job everyone! Patting you on the back- Get excited about a new term and so will those wonderful kiddos of yours~

Interesting Findings

http://www.topmastersineducation.com/homeschooled/

Teaching Languages to Children?

Okay, well I went to a large city in my state to visit a store well known to have home school products. I was beyond shocked to find out that they only carry Spanish and Latin language resources. They had a few other languages on the SALE rack. What??? I even asked the woman over the department " Why do you only carry these two main language resources?" BTW , I was searching for German resources for children.

She informed me that they used to keep more available but that most home school families in the region are teaching LATIN. ?????????????????????? L A T I N ?????????????????????????????????????????????? in OKLAHOMA????????????

Yes, Latin - Well, I admit I own some LATIN resources. I (capital), I use them. I don't use them for my children YET. None of my older children have wanted to get that deep into language that they wanted to know it's base. The 3 eldest have Dyslexia -

So I find myself curious..... What languages are home schoolers teaching ?

When I was first introduced to (forced to learn) a foreign language, it was in public HIGH school. Yep, I'm a PS kid. Good thing I liked to learn is all I have to say----

This state requires two years instruction in a foreign language or computer. I had been so frightened by "teachers" to not touch a computer that I might "damage it costing thousands of dollars" that I dare not take that class. So Spanish or French it was. I now look back and am proud that I had enough brain power in my teens to make, what I thought, was a rational decision. I didn't figure that I would ever travel to France or Canada (I was poor in money) and knew not one person who spoke French, so Spanish was IT. I loved it, it came easy for me. I was in "Spanish National Honor Society" - somehow wasn't invited to yearbook photo for it or "Who's Who Among American High School Students" either... hmmm?

ANYway, I was good at learning Spanish. I had enough forethought to go to my local community college and test out of the first year coursework in Spanish. WHY I didn't test in math at the time, I don't know. It was my best subject and I had passed Trig and Pre-Cal... I can't even remember those now.

TEST while the iron is HOT. MAKE YOUR KIDS DO THAT before they turn 18...!!!!!! They may change their minds one day and go to college even if some say they will never go now.

So, that's why I picked my first foreign language.

My eldest child had a major speech/language delay. Her therapist suggested teaching her signs. I had a friend whose eldest child was deaf, so I thought it would be a good thing to do. I refused to teach BABY SIGNS as some were not real signs. Why waste time on made up signs? So when the home school decision was made, those are the two foreign languages that I taught. Only Spanish was accepted by local high schools if they ever entered. (They did. Eldest returned to Home School and sign language, two younger have taken/ are taking Spanish though one wanted German - it wasn't offered.)

Youngest child still at home. No known learning disabilities. I added German (local woman and some cousins speak) . Did SO well that I added Italian the next year. Local family from Italy--- (I always wanted to learn this language b/c I thought it would have a lot of Spanish cognates- it does). Next, French. The one I hate, though I took years of Ballet. The youngest REQUESTED to learn it. I started learning it over the summer break, because it was a language the youngest WANTED to learn. WOW. I'll deal with French.

So, Spanish, ASL and Signed English mix,German ,Italian, French. M,T,W,TH,F

I LOVE learning and learning foreign languages is more exciting these days b/c I've spent nearly 18 years teaching regular general education subjects. I am newly learning Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and some Portuguese.

As you may recall, on Fridays we have "Free Pick". My child picks what activity to do whether audio book or worksheet etc.. to do on each subject INCLUDING foreign language. Guess what happened a few weeks ago???? A language was picked straying from the M-Th norms. "What are the new languages you are learning, Mom? I want to learn one of those today."

SMILE. It's all worth it - teaching one to love to LEARN. Isn't that one of our base goals? Not JUST teaching what's required.... When my children/ students get to High School grade level, I allow them to pick which language they want to spend their two full years learning for graduation requirements. I HOPE they continue to learn and use foreign languages throughout their lives.

My story is over now.......... Back to the original thought... WHAT languages are your students learning? Spanish b/c that's the "norm" or Latin b/c that's what's "hot"? Are you inspired by a family heritage? Does your child want to be in law or medicine? Plesae share with us so we can know all the flavors of home education. I don't think it's so vanilla after all....