High school calls all 2,550 students to detention

Just another reason I'm glad I home school...

PALM BAY — An accidental push of a button Friday had students at Palm Bay High questioning what they'd done wrong and parents plotting punishments.
Parents of all 2,550 students in the school received an automated call Friday reminding them that their student had to report for Saturday morning detention. Problem was, the message only should have gone to 16 homes.
"One of my friends texted me to ask if I had Saturday detention," said Robert Lenoci, 15, of Valkaria. The sophomore is going to the state science fair finals and hasn't been in trouble before.
"I looked and I had a message from mom. She was asking, 'What did you do?' It was pretty bad," he said.
Robert's mother calmed down after talking with other parents and learning something was amiss.
Amy Stewart said after the call that she confronted her son, Jimmy, and he pleaded innocent.
"He said he didn't do anything, but I took him Saturday morning anyway," she said. About 40 students showed up.
That's when Stewart and dozens of other parents learned of the glitch.
"I had yelled at him. I felt so bad, I took him out for breakfast," Stewart said.
Steve Muzzy, assistant superintendent for information technology, said the parent notification system purchased about six years ago from Synrevoice Technology of Canada averages 20,000 calls a week.
He said half are for student absences and the rest for things such as overdue library materials, school calendar events or for emergency communications.
"Very, very rarely do we run across any problems. This was an unfortunate human mistake," he said. School officials said an employee apparently selected the wrong field, sending the message to all students.
Principal John Thomas said by the time the error was discovered, it was 9:30 p.m. and too late to call everyone. But he did send an apology via the system during the weekend.
The 7 to 9 a.m. detention on Saturdays has been in place for some time, for such infractions as repeatedly being late for class. But the automated system has been used for notification for only about two months.
Stewart just wants to make sure there is no suspension on her son's school record.
"I would hope there wouldn't be," she said.

What about Socialization?!

Adapted from an article by Robin Sampson

If only homeschoolers had a nickel for every time they heard the question, "... but what about socialization?" That infamous socialization question, for any seasoned homeschooler, is quite a humorous one! Although non-homeschoolers worry that homeschooling may turn children into social misfits, we know that the opposite is true and that POSITIVE socialization is one of the best reasons to home school your children.

Most home school families I know are very active with other families. There are weekly field trips with support groups, twice-a-week church functions, scouts, choir, weekly skating parties, etc, etc.

But don’t take my word for it. Let us look at the home school statistics.

Studies Prove Homeschoolers Do Better Socially
Information gathered by the National Home Education Research Institute prove home school students have significantly higher self concepts than those in public schools.

Dr. Johnson (1991) concluded that home educators carefully address the socialization needs of their children in every area studied (i.e., personal identity, personal destiny, values and moral development, autonomy, relationships, sexuality, and social skills).
Studying actual observed behavior, Dr. Shyers (1992) found the home educated had significantly lower problem behavior scores than do their conventional school age mates. And the home educated have positive self-concepts.
Dr. Taylor (1986) found that the home educated have significantly higher self concepts than those in public schools.
The home schooled are well adjusted socially and emotionally like their private school comparison group. The home educated, however, are less peer dependent than the private school students (Delahooke, 1986).
Dr. Montgomery (1989) found that home schooled students are just as involved in out-of-school and extracurricular activities that predict leadership in adulthood as are those in the comparison private school (that was comprised of students more involved than those in public schools).
Home educated children are more mature and better socialized than are those sent to school, according to Thomas Smedley’s personal interaction and communications approach to understanding socialization.
Dr. Gary Knowles, of the University of Michigan, explored adults who were home educated. None were unemployed and none were on welfare, 94% said home education prepared them to be independent persons, 79% said it helped them interact with individuals from different levels of society, and they strongly supported the home education method.

What Does God’s Word Say About
Socialization?
The concept of separation from evil is fundamental to God’s relationship with His people. According to the Bible, separation has more than one dimension:
· Separating yourself morally and spiritually from sin and everything that is contrary to Jesus Christ and his word. (Ephesians 5:11)
· Drawing near to God in a close intimate fellowship through dedication, worship and service. (Psalm 4:3)
· Retaining a position in the world where we can serve as salt and light to unbelievers. (Matthew 5:13-16)

We are called to live lives of separation, protecting our children from the teachings and pitfalls of the world. And yet, we are called to train our children to love and reach out to the lost world around them. This requires a careful balance of preparing their hearts in the safety of their home, but also of providing them opportunities to interact with people from all walks of life. Because of the more frequent interaction they have with adults, homeschooled children are being socialized in the most relevant ways.

Cuisenaire Math Rods

For every letter we study, we do a page with math rods. The kids are asked to “Build the P with rods of all different colors.” and then “Which colors did you use?” or “Build the P with only one color” and so on. They then color the P where the rods are placed and cover each color with the single-unit white rods. In this way, they find the numeric value of each different color. This gives them practice with whole number addition and multiplication concepts. They are also learning that more than one number sentence for the same sum can be generated.

Penguins and Icebergs

This is a video of the kids playing in the bathtub with our homemade "icebergs". We froze water in ziploc baggies in various shapes. Then we cut the ziplocs away and dropped the ice in cold water. We used water balloons as "penguins" and let them slip around on the ice and slide into the water! We also watched some slide shows on youtube about icebergs. I'll add one of them next so you can see some cool pictures of icebergs that we liked a lot. Click here to see the page where we learned all our iceberg info. We actually learned a lot about icebergs, more than I put in the Barometer because of space issues! The videos on the web page are cool, but there are sooo many youtube videos about icebergs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7vZAJ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ8NkN...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcQeZLsqCQo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%20iIT5MLt7JOU

E is for Elephant

Our week on elephants was a lot of fun. We started out by reading a book called “Elefriends” that told about the sad plight of these huge animals being poached for their tusks. We learned how very smart and sensitive elephants are. We also learned that elephants remember other elephants for many years even if they don’t see them for a long time. They communicate with low rumbles that carry over many miles when they are not together! Because of the adage that “an elephant never forgets”, our biblical parallel was to always remember what God has done for us. We did some exercises in counting our blessings and remembering the times when God has answered our prayers. We studied the anatomy of elephants and the areas—Africa and India—where elephants are found. We watched videos of elephants on Youtube.com where we learned about the rarely observed jungle elephants that are very different from elephants on the savanna—their tusks grow straight forward to help them not get caught in the dense trees! We also learned about elephants that eat rocks rich in salt. They have actually grazed the same rocky area for a hundred or more years and created a huge cavern system! We wanted to visit a zoo this week, but it didn’t end up being a good week for it. We aren’t TOO disappointed because we have ridden elephants two years in a row at the Rennaissance Festival. So, we are waiting for warmer weather for a zoo day!


We watched lots of youtube videos of circus elephants doing tricks and then the kids pretended to be circus elephants in their masks. Ardara made peanuts out of paper (a time consuming project) and we did a circus show for Daddy. Click here for a slide show.

P is for Penguin

The final week of January, we took a trip to Antarctica to study Penguins. Okay, we didn’t really go to Antarctica, but it did snow again in Prescott! We learned about five different species of penguins: Gentoo, Macaroni, Adelie, Emperor and Chinstrap Penguins. Much of our focus, though, was on the Emperor penguin and the love shown within their family unit. We watched the March of the Penguins. Then we discussed how God wants us to show love to everyone, especially our family. We also learned about icebergs. We made our own miniature icebergs and floated them in the bathtub. For a cute video of this, see the next post. We got sick toward the end of the week, so we used our extra week of January for more art appreciation and penguin activities, including painting penguins and flashcards of types and locations of the world’s penguins.

H is for Horse

We started off horse week by learning about different breeds and uses of horses through history. We discussed horse training and how a horse needs to be “broken” before they are used by farmers or racers, etc. Once a horse it broken, it is one of the most obedient of all domestic animals. Our words to remember were “I obey right away” according to verses like Col. 3:20 “Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” The next day, we made a comparison chart between horses and cars which showed what ways they are the same and what ways they are different. We figured out that the reason horses are being replaced by vehicles more and more is because vehicles can work hard without getting tired or hurt. If they do get hurt, it isn’t as sad, because they aren’t living creatures. We got to walk over to our neighbors’ pasture with some carrots and feed the horses through the fence. These horses really like us. We have fed them sugar cubes before, so they were willing to brave the mud to get close to us! We also made horse sculptures out of clay. We watched “My Friend Flicka” with Roddy McDowell . And we had a “treasure hunt” where the kids had to obey my instructions perfectly to find the prize. Then we discussed how we can miss out on wonderful surprises from God if we don’t listen to him and obey him.

C is for Cow

Continuing the study of domestic animals, we started the year off with cows. Most specifically, dairy cows. We read several books about dairy farms and how they operate. From milking machines to homogenization. On the second day, we put cream in a jar with a clothes pin and shook until it turned to butter. Daddy was especially impressed by this trick. I had told him about it, but evidently he was skeptical until he actually saw it with his own eyes! We gathered up props to help us remember the nursery rhyme “Hey, diddle diddle!” and each of us took a turn holding up the props and saying the rhyme. It was interesting to me that the kids would learn the story easily, but then try to tell it without considering the rhyming aspect of it. They would all finish up with something like “And the dish and the spoon ran away together.” But after several tries, they got it right. We created a list of foods made from milk, and then went shopping. On the last day, we had a dairy party. We had kefir to drink, we ate baby cheese with crackers, creamy Swiss with grapes, cottage cheese with cucumbers, and string cheese. Followed by ice cream bon bons for dessert! We read stories about how ice cream is made and how mozzarella is made. We discussed how milk helps us grow. In 1 Peter 2:2-3, God’s Word is compared to milk that helps us grow spiritually. So, our words to remember were “God’s Word helps me grow”.
One library book we found about cows was called “The Cow who Fell in the Canal” and it took place in Holland. We found Holland on the globe and went through the book pointing out things that were uniquely Dutch. Then we learned about Pieter Brueghel, a Dutch painter from the 16th century. Then, the kids each tried to duplicate one of his paintings from memory.