Robyn Dolan's Blog, page 5

California Schools May Re-open in July?

California schools may re-open in July? I cannot even fathom how we are going to keep our children safe from this virus when our classrooms were already overcrowded before. And getting kids to wear facemasks and possibly gloves for 8 plus hours a day? What are you thinking, Newsom? 

Our educational system already needs an overhaul.

Distance learning does not and should not work like classroom learning. I think remote education could work so much better than institutional scholarship, but it needs time to evolve. Time for trial and error. Time to change up the curriculum to be more relevant to our children’s current and future needs. This could certainly make strides over the coming months. With shorter hours, remote learning could continue throughout the summer. Because where are we gonna go, anyway?

I am a homeschooler.

I do not have the answers for the school system. But I do know that individualized learning and personal attention will be key for education overall going forward. 

I am completely in favor of more students schooling online. Many “homeschoolers” already use online charter schools or online public school. It is just part of school choice. Consequently, this could further reduce the pressure on sticks and bricks classroom teachers.

Redirect some of those state and federal funds to hire more teachers and reduce class sizes.

Reduce online classroom time to assignments and explanations. Then increase time for online teachers to work with one student or one small group at a time. Reduce overhead and crowding at sticks and bricks schools.

Furthermore, whatever we do, let’s look to those who have gone before – Singapore, China, even Germany – lifting restrictions on social distancing and experiencing a second wave of death and devastation. Dead kids don’t grow up to be taxpayers. As a result, there is no sense in “reopening the economy” just to have to shut it down again in a month or two. Let’s get a vaccine going. Let’s get fast, accurate testing going. Let’s get a system of personal protective practices going. Then evaluate and think about how to reopen schools and the economy.

California schools may re-open. Please, let’s not. Not yet.

#stayathome #inthistogether

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Holiday Ball Gown from a Plain Brown Dress

Sometimes book research is fun.

For The Not Jane Austen Dance Society, I get to dance, make and wear historical clothing, like a holiday ball gown, and attend balls.

How did I transform my plain Jane Regency day dress into a Holiday Ball Gown?

Over the holidays, I went to 2 different balls – the St. Nicolas Holiday Ball, in December, and the Jane Austen Evening, in January. In my first patron-exclusive video, I will be showing patrons how I embellished my dress for the St. Nicolas Holiday Ball.

Hop on over to my Patreon page and sign up for as little as $1 a month, to check out what it’s like behind-the-scenes of writing a book, and other exclusive patron-only content. 

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Plan Your School Day

School at home doesn’t have to be complicated!

Here’s how to plan your school day to cut the stress, quiet the noise, and get that schoolwork done! Even if you are working at home.

Other videos in this series:

How to Jump Start Your Homeschool https://robyndolanauthor.com/2020/04/02/how-to-jump-start-your-homeschool/

Homeschooling is Dangerous! https://robyndolanauthor.com/2020/03/20/homeschooling-is-dangerous/

Join me on Patreon. https://patreon.com/robyndolanauthor

The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling retailers: https://books2read.com/workandhomeschool

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How to Jump Start your Homeschool

Enjoy this video about how to jump start your homeschool from my YouTube channel. I hope you are staying home and staying well. If you prefer to just read the transcript, I am including it below.

(beginning transcript)

Whether you’re just looking to homeschool through the end of the year or looking into it as a more sustainable lifestyle here is how to get started quick.

Hi I’m Robyn Dolan, author of “The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling.”

Available in eBook and paperback on Amazon or at your favorite retailer. Go to books2read.com/workandhomeschool to get your copy today.

So, jumpstart your home school!

If you haven’t already, go ahead and take your spring break. Just take a few days or a couple of weeks to relax. Enjoy being home. Do some fun stuff before you jump into the frenzy of if you’re working from home or starting to homeschool. Lay around in your jammies, watch movies, play games. Complain about how slow the internet is because everybody’s home and you’re all on the same bandwidth. In the whole neighborhood. Let life unfold and discover your #stayathome routine. Then, when you’re ready go ahead and pick a couple hours daily for official homeschooling. And what I mean by official is if your school district has requirements or stuff that they sent you sent home with you or whatever, that they want done and turned in, use that time for that. Get that out of the way and then the real learning can begin.

Now we move on.

There are three basics to learning:



reading writing arithmetic

Yep, still applicable after all these years.

Reading

When your child can read they can learn anything they choose.

Writing

When your child can when your children can write they can process what they’ve learned and communicate clearly. Proper spelling, grammar, and structure contribute to clear communication.

Arithmetic

When your child can do the four functions of arithmetic:

addition subtraction multiplication division

they can keep track of their finances, build a house, cook, estimate medicine dosages, estimate the cost of travel and owning a vehicle, estimate their monthly budget, and estimate needed income for their desired lifestyle.

They can also advance in scientific pursuits and help discover a cure for the big “C”; insert desired disease here.

These three basics will give your children the skills they need to succeed in life. No matter what age or grade your child is in, this is where you start. Evaluate what level your child is at in each of these areas and then it’s time to look for materials.

While we are staying at home, the internet can be very helpful in providing resources for education. In my last video, I posted some free resources to help with various subjects in all grade levels. In this video, I’m going to cover resources to help with the big 3:

reading writing arithmetic

both online and off. For those of you who know families who do not have internet access, maybe you can pass on some of the information on offline resources. If they need help with ideas. I know that a lot of internet providers are temporarily offering free service to families with children who are out of school and need to make it through the next few weeks. I know in Southern California in my area, Spectrum is offering two free months right now, to children who are homebound who need school and that should take you nearly to the end of the school year.

Resources for reading

Books! Lots of households today are nearly devoid of books and I get so excited when I walk into a house or see a picture of somebody’s house where they have bookcases full of books because I’m a book geek. I may not read every book but I love having all the books. I don’t know what it is but I guess it’s my – never mind. I’m not going to go there. Okay, but if you have them, read them.

The dictionary, thesaurus, the Encyclopedia, you can read those and all manner of books. Well, maybe there’s some exceptions that you wouldn’t want your children to read but um, all manner of books can be used for education.

Libraries may be closed but stores like Walmart and Target that are open for groceries also carry a lot of books and school supplies and of course there’s Amazon and other online retailers. Hamilton Books, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Use your Kindle. I mean, I’m counting my Kindle here and I love it for books.

Also, online, a site and an app that you can get on your device is overdrive.com. It may be dot org but overdrive offers library ebooks and audiobooks for free and all you need is your library card. So hopefully, if you have a library card, you may be able to get your library card online through your local library. I don’t know but through Overdrive, you can check out books just like a physical library but they’ll be ebooks or audiobooks.

A good book can supply your children with nearly every subject they need to cover. Reading, writing, penmanship, grammar, science, history, sometimes even math. Read along with them and you can pull these subjects out of the book and use them in their respective lessons.

Younger children can copy passages for copy work practice, with their handwriting practice, with keyboarding. Older children can write essays on topics from the book. If there’s a history aspect to it, you can delve deeper into that part of history. If there’s a science aspect to it, you can delve deeper into that part of science.

For an example I’ll use Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books which deal with a lot of stuff from Greek history: the Greek gods, Greek culture, and you can also go into Aristotle for science, Pythagoras for math, Hippocrates for medicine and so that’s the sort of thing you can do with just a novel or what we call living books that are based on reality or have some aspect of reality that you can dive deeper into.

Writing resources

Paper and pencil, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, whatever works for you. As I said earlier, copy work is great for practice with writing and you can do that either with manual writing or with keyboarding.

Essays

Have children start keeping a daily journal as soon as they can write. It could be anything from a sentence for a young child, to a page for an older child and it doesn’t matter what they write in their journal.

Another thing you can do is essays. You can give them a topic or let them make up their own topic. Younger children can write 20 words or 50 words. Older children, high schoolers can write 500 words. You read them over, pick out some areas where they need improvement and explain it to them but let them do the corrections so they learn what they need to do. How to make it right. And after that, if they still don’t get it completely right, you don’t have to but you can, but you don’t have to just sit there and hash it out because tomorrow you’re gonna write another essay – they’re gonna write another essay and you’re gonna teach some more. So it’s an ongoing thing. It’s not perfect it right this second.

The Robinson Curriculum is a great resource for this type of teaching. They have a full curriculum for K through 12 and no, I’m not getting a kickback for this, it’s just we’ve used it, we like it, I recommend it. They’ve got hundreds of books of this type that you can use in this way that cover all these subjects. Including, they have their own grammar book. They have the dictionary, the encyclopedia, all on these 20 discs. And now you can access it online as well through their, well go to their website. It’s linked below and it tells you how to do it online if you don’t want to buy the CDs. You can print it out, you can do it online, keep it in folders on your computer, however you want to do it. It’s very flexible. It’s very economical. They even have the flashcard system for learning the four functions of arithmetic. So they’re great.

Resources for arithmetic

Don’t be intimidated by math, please! Okay, with math, basically the first thing you have to do is master the four operations:

addition subtraction multiplication division

Until your child masters that, there’s no point in going in any further. So master the four operations. You can do that with daily practice with flashcards at whatever age and grade level your child is at. And then once they, you know, just really click with the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, then you go forward from there.

Saxon math books are a good way to go. Your school district probably has suggestions. Good old-fashioned flashcards: you can get them at the dollar store, you can get them at Walmart, you can get them online, you can make your own, whatever works for you. You can pay for them, get them for free.

For older and more advanced students, once they’ve mastered the four operations and are ready to proceed, Khan Academy is a great resource. And there are a number of other online teaching and tutoring sites. For free, for donations, for subscriptions, whatever. Whichever site you like the best. There’s Time4learning, there’s all kinds of them. I like Khan Academy. We’ve used it and my son liked it so it’s a great resource for math lessons of all levels especially, especially algebra and on up to calculus. It’s also a great resource for science lessons. Physics, chemistry, from primary grades to high school and on up.

Do not underestimate the value of play in learning!

Legos, board games, card games, these all have mathematical, scientific, and fun value and you learn better when you are having fun and you enjoy what you’re learning.

Record keeping

Record keeping is an important part of homeschooling. For this series of videos, we’re just talking about the schools being closed and what you can do at home if you need to supplement what your school has sent you or if your school has sent you nothing. At this point, for that reason, I wouldn’t worry too much about the record-keeping, except that it would be a good idea to at least keep a running list of what you’re doing. Just because of the situation, so that if you need to produce a record of study, you can produce it. You can always, you know, make it more detailed if you need to do that.

Including videos and photos is a good idea. For now I would do just that. Get a notebook or staple some papers together and write down your school and write down your school activities. Make a note of what pictures and videos you took and where they are. What file on the computer they’re in or if you printed them out. Keep all the physical work, the writings, the reading, note the books that were read or used, movies watched, discussions taken part in, experiments. Keep all the physical stuff together and that’s it. If you decide to homeschool on on a longer term basis you can set up a better record-keeping system but for now you can just put all that stuff in a box. Put all this in a file on the computer and make sure you know where they are and you’ll have it if you need to pull it up and write up a report for a school official.

There are guidelines for record-keeping and resources for record-keeping tons of more resources for the big 3: reading, writing, and arithmetic, online and offline, in my book, “The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling.”

I hope you enjoyed this video. There is so much more to homeschooling but my intent here was just to give you a few ideas to get you through the next couple months while the schools are closed and we are all trying to stay home to flatten the curve. Take advantage of the links below for further resources. And please like, subscribe, and share this video with all your friends and family. Every little bit helps.

Become a patron on Patreon for as little as one dollar a month, for exclusive content and updates on my current works in progress. Click on the link below for my Patreon page.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

(end of transcript)

Links mentioned in this video:

Overdrive for library books – https://www.overdrive.com/

Hamilton books for discount books – https://www.hamiltonbook.com/

Khan academy – https://www.khanacademy.org/

Robinson curriculum – https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/

Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/robyndolanauthorhttps://www.patreon.com/robyndolanauthor

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Starter to Yum – English Muffins

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Homemade whole wheat Sourdough English Muffins

A post shared by Robyn Dolan (@robyndolan) on Apr 1, 2020 at 2:12pm PDT

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Homeschooling is Dangerous!

Students are home, schools are closed – possibly til the end of the school year. What are parents to do? Homeschooling is dangerous!

For more on homeschooling check out my book:

The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling 2nd Edition here:  https://books2read.com/workandhomeschool  

Helpful resources:  

Aquarium of the Pacific

http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/teachers/webcamkits?spMailingID=17111458&spUserID=NDcyMjY0MjAzNzUxS0&spJobID=1841238953&spReportId=MTg0MTIzODk1MwS2  

Facebook – just one of many groups https://www.facebook.com/groups/kidslearneverywhere/ 

At Home Learning from KCET  

https://www.kcet.org/at-home-learning?utm_source=2020-03-13&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=at-home-learning&utm_content=at-home-learning  

PBS  https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/ 

Getting Started, from the Homeschool Legal Defense Association

https://hslda.org/getting-started?utm_source=press%20release&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Outreach&utm_content=QuickStart   

Young eagles  https://www.eaa.org/eaa/youth/free-ye-flights  

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The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling, 2nd Edition

https://books2read.com/workandhomeschool

Woohoo! The launch of The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling, 2nd Edition is finally complete. Both ebook and paperback now available at your favorite retailer.

Yes you CAN homeschool your children while working! The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling, 2nd edition will inform and empower working parents with tools and resources to homeschool.

How can a parent who never even completed college homeschool a child who ends up getting her Master’s Degree?  Why would a single, working parent even consider taking on the extra load of educating their child? Why would two working parents, who could easily afford private schools for their children, decide instead to homeschool?

Homeschooling is the sustainable living of the educational system.  Its focus on small class size and the needs of the individual ensures that, truly, no child is left behind.

Explore time management, childcare arrangements while working, how to teach and more, with real-life working parents’ solutions to each of these issues. Written specifically for working parents, the author’s own experience peppers every chapter and she also draws upon several other families’ experiences to illustrate solutions to succeed when combining working and homeschooling.

No other book specifically addresses working parents who want to homeschool in such detail.

Scheduling Child Care Single Working Parents Working at Home Working and Schooling on the Road How to Afford Homeschooling Free resources Creating curriculum Styles of Homeschooling

Updated 2nd Edition includes new chapters on How to Begin, and High School to College, more links, and new resources. 

Here’s what people are saying:

This well written, clear, practical guide to homeschooling is also valuable for anyone who works at home or is raising children or grandchildren. It is full of practical advice in an easy to read format. – Maryruth M.

Editorial Reviews

Robyn Dolan’s neat, smart, direct book, The Working Parent’sGuide To Homeschooling, is precisely what it claims.  A fine resource for a family that suddenly finds itself homeschooling, for any one of a number of reasons (that she discusses in her book). 

Ms. Dolan has taken a two-pronged approach to helping the novice homeschooler get successfully started.

1– She has used her own experiences, as well as other homeschool families that she’s familiar with, to paint a compelling picture of the joys and the difficulties of homeschooling. This is a rather up-close, intimate look at the trials and mechanics of an activity that millions of families in the U.S.alone are moving rapidly toward, or already engaged in.  The up-close-and-personal touch makes the information more real, and more approachable than other such books have done.

2 – An information and resource approach. She provides a fair amount of listed resources for curriculum, homeschooling information (different from state to state), as well as ideas the newer homeschooling family can use to get going. 

The Working Parent’s Guide To Homeschooling provides enough ideas and information, and emotional support (don’t underestimate the need for a new homeschooling family taking a great, big gulp at the daunting task before them) to set a “newbie” family on the road to homeschool success.  It’s a valuable addition to the growing library of information and resources supporting a burgeoning homeschool movement.

Steven Horwich

Author, educator

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Join me on Patreon!

My Jane Austen ball gown

 I am excited to let you know that I just launched my Patreon page and I invite you to join me on Patreon.

If you are not familiar with Patreon,

it is a venue that allows you to support your favorite artists in the creation of their work. Most artists will give you special perks for different tiers of support. Check it out! You might find some of your favorite creators there and have an opportunity to be part of their work.

In addition to my non-fiction books, I am embarking on a new adventure in writing fiction with 

The Not Jane Austen Dance Society series.

These cozy mysteries center around Jane Austen, a 50ish-year-old woman who moves back in with her dad because he can no longer live by himself. (Not autobiographical at all!) She gets involved in historical dancing and from there gets caught up in solving mysterious events.

Join me on Patreon as we get to know Jane and her dad. Experience the joys and rewards of caretaking a parent with dementia, as well as the frustrations and griefs. Get a taste of historical dancing. And meet cousin Stanzi Austen, a detective with the South Pasadena Police department.

Come with me behind the scenes as I write. Some opportunities for patrons may include: 

Free books.Become an alpha or beta reader. Get out your red pen and help me proofread and edit. And get an advance copy of the book. Plus exclusive patreon content. Choose your level of involvement.

Come along on this amazing adventure. Join me on Patreon!

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Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman

Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman is another brilliant episode in the Leaphorn and Chee series started by Tony Hillerman. Hillerman’s daughter picks up the Navajo Tribal Police saga and makes it her own. She brings Officer Bernadette Manuelito to the forefront of the crime-solving team.

Sergeant Jim Chee heads to Santa Fe for special training and a mystery concerning his sister-in-law. Bernie agrees to what should be a quick and easy talk to at-risk teens. When one of the group leaders goes missing, Officer Manuelito confronts a web of grave robbing, antiquities fraud, and murder.

Set in the captivating El Malpais area of New Mexico, Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman evokes fond memories. I have enjoyed many hours of hiking and camping in the badlands. Familiar trails and scenery bring the story to life and add excitement for me.

I like how Leaphorn continues to play a significant role. He got shot in the head in Spider Woman’s Daughter and is still recovering. Oops! Didn’t know that Joe Leaphorn nearly died in Officer Manuelito’s arms?

As if Bernadette doesn’t have enough going on taking care of her elderly mother and misbehaving sister. Then there’s that husband of hers: Jim Chee. That’s right, Jim didn’t marry Janet what’s-her-name after all. It’s time to catch up with these great characters. Follow them through new adventures as they continue to solve mysteries on the Navajo Reservation.

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The Art of Binge-watching and Education

I read an article a while back about binge-watching and googling for more info. And the holidays provided a tempting opportunity for me to do my own binge-watching. Subsequently, this led me to reflect on the art of binge-watching and education.

What is binge-watching?

Seriously? Okay, for the uninformed, binge-watching is that wonderful bad habit made possible by entire seasons of television series being available on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. One can watch one episode after another from the beginning (if available) up to and sometimes including the current season. It can also apply to movie series. Such as Star Wars, The Avengers (and related Marvel movies), The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, etc.

How is this an art?

Well, the art is to incorporate it into your educational plan. To practice the art of binge-watching and education, first, you need to determine the educational value of the series you intend to binge-watch. Secondly, is it age-appropriate for your students? What other resources do you have in addition to enhance the educational opportunity? Finally, where does it fit in your curriculum (what subjects can it satisfy)?

Examples:

The Crown – spans the years of Queen Elizabeth II of England, from her childhood through, eventually, the present. Many events and issues I was never aware of are featured in this Netflix original series. It has given me a whole new perspective and insight into who these royals are. Episodes of The Crown often cover numerous subjects. For instance: History – several wars, over 70 years of events. Likewise: Science – space program, mine collapses, sooty fog in London. Math – economics, budgeting (such as the episode about Prince Philip having to downsize).

Anne With an E – based on the book Anne of Green Gables. Set in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, Canada. Time period pre-war and WWII, approximately 1930s-40s. Literature. History – Issues with orphans and child protection, child labor. Geography. Science – farming, medicine.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – Literature. Creative Writing. Languages. World Building. Prejudice and discrimination.  Science – metalworking – how are swords and armor made? Botany – what wild plants in your area are safe to eat, useable for medicine?

Pirates of the Caribbean – Geography, Sailing, and History. What were pirates really like? Time period – 1600-1700s. East India Company – benefits, corruption, slavery. Capital punishment. Prisons.

Ken Burns Civil War – History, Geography, and Science – the evolution of firearms and explosives. Slavery. 

Of course, discussion is probably the best and most economical resource for using movies and tv shows for education. Discussion can easily digress into different paths than originally intended. This is okay, but I suggest coming up with a list of 3 or 4 primary topics for discussion, such as the ideas above, and try to cover those first before indulging in flights of fancy. Also, decide where each movie/episode/topic of discussion is going to fit within your curriculum (ideas above).

Other resources:




Wikipedia/encyclopedia
Newspaper – paper or online
Related books
Travel
Museums
Reenactments
Related science/math projects
Cooking – making foods from the movie/time period/country

The possibilities are endless to practice the art of binge-watching and education. Variations will depend on you and your students. You can spend lots of money but you can also pull it all together for free. However you decide to do it, the art of binge-watching and education can add fun and excitement to your school day. Give it a try and see what you think.

Meanwhile, for more homeschooling ideas check out my book The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling. Now in its Second Edition.

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