10 things you should probably know about each of the Ottos

I had on my "to-do" list today, "HS blog: 10 things about me," a reference to the last installment in the iHomeschoolNetwork's 10 * in * 10 series. (We're also linking up today with Top Ten Tuesday.)

Well, when Sarah saw it, she said, "Wait, is that 10 things about you, or about me?" I said, "Well, maybe both of us?" Her idea was that we have her Daddy participate too, so here are 10 things about each of the three of us, or 30 things altogether. (Look at me with that real-world math.)

10 things about me, Joan Otto

1. I turn 30 in a few months, and I've never had a "real" birthday party in my life.
For real. My birthday is very close to Thanksgiving, so as a kid, most of my friends were out of town visiting family, and as I got older, my friends are usually juggling their own multi-family holiday celebrations. I'm more excited about 30 than any previous birthday - I actually WANT to turn another year older. I feel like 30 is an accomplishment; that maybe everyone will say, "Oh, she's 30 now, she's someone."

2. I like so many different kinds of music, it's unreal.
I'm unapologetically Christian and also unapologetically into a lot of hard rock. I also mix in some country, some pop, some rap, some hymns, some classical, some jazz, some electronica... and I love all of it. Music makes me happy - and being involved in the music program at my high school definitely helped keep me from dropping out.

3. I can't sing or run, but I desperately wish I could do both.
My singing voice is at best passable - and only if I've got someone good to follow. I'm not even good at karaoke. But I love music so much that it kills me not to be able to sing it too. (My husband has an AMAZING singing voice, but is kind enough to say he likes my singing, which I love him for.) My "running" is nonexistent too, for the same reason I struggle to sing. I've had years and years of sinus, allergy and asthma problems that leave me struggling to breathe way too often, and which affect my ability to accurately hear my own voice and pitch. Sometimes I think heaven is best summed up by Isaiah 40:31 - "Those who hope in the Lord... will run and not grow weary."

4. I have already written my black-belt speech in my head.
I have about another year or so before I test for my black belt in tae kwon do - the hobby/pastime/obsession I have given almost all my free time to over the past few years. Each black belt is asked to give a speech about their journey, and I've been crafting the gist of mine for some time, after having heard some of my friends'. Lately, as I've gotten closer, it's gotten almost "finished," and I cannot wait to give it.

5. I love public speaking and almost never specifically plan what I'm going to say beforehand.
I was the salutatorian of my high school class, and I was incredibly annoyed that I had to turn in a copy of my speech. I could have outlined it, but they wanted it almost word for word. That's why the black-belt speech thing is so funny; anyone who knows me knows I do not write out "speeches" and, in fact, am much more comfortable speaking when I don't have remarks prepared. I've spoken to crowds of more than 1,000 people on several occasions and everyone says, "Wow, how did you prepare that so well?" and I never tell them that I don't. Now you know my secret. :)

6. One of the things that makes me cry tears of joy is being part of a new idea.
I cried watching Moneyball. Moneyball!  (And reading the book version of it.) Seeing someone think differently is awe-inspiring to me. I just get overwhelmed at the idea of big, sweeping new ways of looking at something and am so impressed by them.

7. My dreams are not "big dreams."
I used to have big goals. I wanted to be an oncologist, a cryptanalyst, lots of "fancy" things. I wanted to live in a big city and go out with important people. I used to want to invent something or discover something or prove something that changed the world. I wanted to run my own company and do Big Things. My dreams now are so simple. I want to do "small things" and do them well. I want to write things that make people smile or try something new or realize they're not alone. I want to capture the stories and memories of life in my town. I want to have an organized house and a welcoming living room and a dinner table that always has room for one more. I want to be remembered for having a contagious smile. A very good friend once told me that while it's important to be a candle, it's also important to be a mirror that reflects the light, and I like to think I make a good mirror.

8. I like to play Facebook games - a lot.
That's my mindless fun. I don't usually play a lot of different games at once. I'll play one until I get "behind" on it, then usually drop it and start at the beginning of another. The current ones are Hidden Chronicles and Bubble Safari; before that it was Ravenskye City and Slingo, and before that it was Farmville, Mafia Wars and Ravenwood Fair. I quit when it's more work than fun, but I've almost always got at least one I'm "into."

9. I was adopted at birth.
I almost forget to tell people this sometimes, but it usually pops into mind when someone tells me how much I look like my mom or one of my sisters. It's almost a non-event in my world; my "family" is my adopted family, but I would never think to call them that. (I did, once, in elementary school, tell a teacher that my mom found me in a trash can; not sure why!)

10. I can't draw, but I love making collages.
My collage art is probably one of the most personal things I've done; only a handful of people had seen any of it before I got brave and shared some highlights on Facebook earlier this month. I have dreams of making and selling them someday at the local farmers' market.

This is my self-portrait. "Brainy, blond and ready to rumble," it's called.

10 things about Sarah Otto, my favorite girl

1. I am a member of the National Geographic Society. 
I even have a card that proves it. I really, really like National Geographic. They are the best. When you go onto their website, you always see something new, and they always keep you up to date on things that they find out, like about the water on Mars, new animals in the world, our big cats who are endangered, stuff like that.

2. I love animals.
Animals mean so much to me. That's why I want to be able to become a pet groomer and have a zoo, and especially have a special part if I get a zoo that has our big cats who need help and a money donation jar that people can put money in to help our wild cats to keep them protected.

3. I love to write songs.
Writing songs is fun. It's another hobby that's fun because it doesn't have to be anything in particular. It can be whatever I want it to be.

4. I love making new friends.
Making new friends is fun because then you get to know somebody that you don't know, and they get to know you. It's a great way to get a conversation going. There's all kinds of things you can talk about, things that you have in common, sports that you like, if there's anybody in the Olympics that you in particular were looking to watch.

5. I really like Twitter.
It's a great place to follow zoos and Storage Wars and American Pickers and other stuff I like.

6. I like playing my Ninendogs and Cats game on my 3DS.
The game reminds me so much of my dog and cats at home. Plus I just like video games.

7. I like music.
Music is fun to listen to, especially on a rainy day, because it helps you forget about if something went bad or something. I have an iPod shuffle that has a lot of songs that I like and that me and my mom like together. I am really excited to be able to go to 2 concerts in September, for Celtic Thunder and David Byrne.

8. I like writing stories.
I like writing whatever comes to my mind. I especially like funny stories. Long stories are good because they give more detail in chapters or in some cases, with pictures. I think I'd like to write a book but I can't decide what about.

9. I am in 4-H.
4-H is very fun. I like it because I made a lot of new friends. We go on a lot of hikes, we make soap and butterfly hatcheries and bird baths and stepping stones, and learn about wildlife.

10. I love to draw designs that turn into something.
I made a lightning dragon by myself during my last school year. These are 2 of the drawings I made around maybe two years ago.

 At the top of this one is a scar fire-breathing dragon, because right on his wing is a scar. At the right, the little guy is another different version of one in the picture below but smaller. The bottom right is a mountain spike fox, the one saying "I like you" is a phoenix fox, and the one at the bottom left is another version of it. And off to the left is basically a three-winged fox.

In this second picture, the one at the top left is a dragon bat. The little dark one you can kind of see at the top is a no-rain fox. The one at the top right is my favorite. He is called Lightning Run, because when he runs, he's as quick as lightning. The bottom right one is a pteragon, which is pterodactyl and a dragon mixed. And the little guy at the bottom left is a dragon-spike fox, the taller ones are his wings and then he has two smaller spikes.

10 things about Chris Otto, Dad and Husband Extraordinaire

1. I was born on a Marine base.
Camp Pendleton in Southern California, to be specific. (A pauper to a pawn, on Christmas Day... that's not true.) But I have no memory of the place I was born, because we moved away when I was just a baby.

2. I have been a platelet donor since 1997.
I started donating platelets when I lived in Spartanburg, S.C., and continued when I moved back to York, PA, where I'm up to 17 gallons donated to the local blood bank. Before that, I had been a longtime blood donor, but I switched to platelets because it seemed like a different good way to help people.

3. I have a vestigial tail. (That's not true.)
But I like saying things that are kind of off the wall. I have a hard time being serious.

4. I was originally planning to major in computer science at Penn State.
Then I realized that might actually be a lucrative career path, so I decided to take up journalism instead.

5. I was one of three co-founders of the Steve Jeltz fan club in the late 1980s.
The Phillies were really bad then, and we needed something about the team to amuse ourselves with, so Jeltz (the shortshop) was it. It was a real club.

6. I like all kinds of books.
I enjoy my work as a part-time bookseller and I especially enjoy getting books into the hands of people who would enjoy them regardless of whether I make any income from it.

7. My favorite director is Paul Thomas Anderson.
I'm looking forward to his new film in September, called "The Master." Right now, Tom Cruise is quietly judging me.

8. I like zombies, but importantly, I liked zombie books and movies long before they were hip, ubiquitous and trendy.
I know everything there is to know about "The Gonk." In fact, it's my ringtone.

9. I currently have 5 cats with a combined total of 19 legs.
We're looking forward to getting more.

10. I know the last digit of pi.
But I'm not telling.

Note from Joan: When Chris finished, he goes, "Well, they're unique, huh?" Uh, yeah. Sorry for that. But I purposely didn't try to lead him OR Sarah in any direction, and this is what you get.

Our scrapbook: Visiting the National Museum of the American Indian

Our very first stop during our vacation to Washington, D.C., last week was the National Museum of the American Indian, one of the Smithsonian museums, sadly a bit lesser-known than some.

It is an amazing museum! Of course, we're big into American Indians right now (we're just finishing the fourth book of the Indian in the Cupboard series by Lynn Reid Banks, titled "The Mystery of the Cupboard," and getting ready to start the fifth, "The Key to the Indian") - so this museum was a must-see!

We've got a ton of photos from our trip, and visited so many places, so what I'm hoping to do over the next couple of weeks is share just the highlights of what we learned and what topics we hope to explore further as a family.

 As we've been reading about various Native Americans, Sarah has been fascinated with chiefs and, in particular, their regalia. She loved seeing this ceremonial headdress.

This might have been one of the things that most made me think from the museum. We've been talking, as we've started a biography of Sitting Bull, a Sioux chief, about how horses were not "native" to the Native Americans, but rather came to the Americas by way of the Spanish settlers. When I'd thought of that, though, I'd have thought the Indians would most liken them to deer or maybe moose - something I'd consider "horse-like."

Interestingly, the words various tribes created for horse were not based on how the animal looked, but instead, what function it performed. As a fairly domesticated animal good for hauling items... that meant, to them, the horse was most like the dog, which they'd previously used to haul travois. (PS - in the photo above, I was just glad to be able to SHOW Sarah a travois, because I'd done a pretty terrible job explaining what one was!)

As someone who's fascinated by language, this dog/horse thing really resonated with me, and I'm personally interested in reading more about some Native American etymology now!

This was a real tepee from the 1800s - with real paintings on it of horses and the like. Sarah has already decorated a model tepee of her own and has been studying native symbology, but I bet we'll see even more of an interest in it!

Animal furs have become a real passion of Sarah's - which is weird, because she's a total animal-lover, and she HATES to think of any animal dying... but in her case, I think she figures, OK, but if it's dead already, why not respect its fur? (I don't know exactly!) She loved feeling this real buffalo hide while standing with Chris inside a not-so-real tepee (a replica, part of the museum's interactive exhibit for kids.)

That exhibit, by the way, is awesome. The little purple "passport" book Chris is holding up is free and holds stamps from throughout the exhibit of different tribes' official seals, which you get when you've read about them or participated in an activity about them. We all really loved it!

This was one of Sarah's favorite parts of both that hands-on exhibit and the museum as a whole - a set of skateboard decks built to memorialize key parts of Native American culture, including, in the center, Sitting Bull, who we're currently reading a biography about.

One part of the museum in which I didn't take pictures was an exhibit on Native Americans in the Olympics - and that's where Sarah learned about Jim Thorpe!

Her souvenir from this museum, in fact, was Jim's biography - and she's already started reading it, and says she wants to visit the town of Jim Thorpe, here in Pennsylvania, which renamed itself in his honor after his death!

10 things I'm thinking about right now

This week, the iHomeschoolNetwork's 10 * in * 10 series asked our group of homeschool bloggers to post about "10 totally random things on my mind."

You've been warned - I'm REALLY random tonight, so maybe you should be scared!

Later, I'll tell you all about our photos from our Washington, D.C. vacation. Here's one gratuitous one - three Ottos in a tepee.

1. I hope my cough goes away soon!

I have bronchitis - yes, in July, how dumb is that - and the coughing is keeping Chris and me both up at night. I did get an antibiotic today, and since I try to almost never take antibiotics, I'm hoping it will knock it out pretty effectively.

2. Our party today was fun - but tiring.

Sarah wanted to have a "big summer party," and since many of her friends' parents are also OUR friends, we decided to just have a "big family summer party" and invite friends of all ages, from my mom's down to Sarah's (and younger).

I think everyone had a pretty good time, even people who didn't previously know each other, despite my waning voice and inability to be as good of a host as I'd have liked!

3. I have to remember to go to the library tomorrow.

Chris requested a book through interlibrary loan, and if we don't pick it up, it gets sent back to its home library.

4. My shirt collar is making my throat uncomfortable.

Really, at this exact second, that's what I'm thinking.

5. I'm hungry. What can I eat that won't hurt my throat or upset my stomach?

If you can answer this question for me, I will love you forevers.

6. I really should order those Life of Fred books soon.

But oh, the cost. Anyone want to sponsor the real-world math learnings of the Otto family? :)

7. I need to get our 4-H paperwork done.

This entails nailing Sarah down (uh, not literally) on what projects she wants to officially enter in this year's 4-H fair, and I have to get that figured out and submit the basic paperwork this week.

8. Blogger now has a permalink and customizable link feature?! THAT'S HOT!

I interrupted what my husband was doing to show him this just now. Blogger friends, did you guys see this? (I use the "new Blogger/Blogger in Draft" interface.) We can do custom URLs now!

9. I love my cats.

They're weird, but man, they're awesome.

10. What am I going to do with 1,035 pictures from Washington, D.C.?

Yep, 1,035.

I could scrapbook - and write homeschooling blog posts - for an entire year off of that three-day trip.

Heaven help me.

So, OK, that's 10 random things. Now, off to find something to eat...?

Real-world math resources you'll love

I've got a bachelor's degree in advanced math, and a 12-year-old daughter who hates anything to do with the subject.

I'm an unschooling mama who loves to do math puzzles and logic problems for fun.

I'm not sure if that combination makes me an expert or just crazy, but because of it, I agreed to take part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." series this week with a look at 5 days of real-world math.

Disclosure: While a couple of affiliate links are included in today's post, as with the rest of this series, everything on this list is here because we highly recommend it!

Today, we'll finish up the series with a look at real-world math resources you'll love.

This is simply a list of the things we've personally enjoyed or found valuable.

Everything on this list is here because we highly recommend it!

The wonderful world of math on YouTube

Parabolas in Super Mario Brothers - how much cooler can you get? Things like this abound on YouTube, so I have to suggest, as my top "real-world" math resource, simply searching for videos of things like "cooking math experiments" or "fractal snowflakes" and just seeing what you come up with. I guarantee you and your kids alike can get lost in this stuff for hours.

Books and movies I think you'll like

Of all things, Sarah loved a little learn-to-read book called The Dragon's Scales when she was younger. It's all about a dragon who besieges a town until they can figure out how to correctly answer some questions about weight. It's pretty funny!

A new thing we're adding to our book collection this year, after hearing rave reviews from a lot of people I trust, is the Life of Fred book series.

This set of about two dozen books covers everything from basic addition to college calculus in a fun story format.

Yes, you can use these like "textbooks." But forget that - they're fun to read aloud and talk about.

The absolute best part, in my opinion, is that no matter how old you or your children are, it's not demeaning in any way to start at the very first book, "Life of Fred: Apples," and go over some of the basics in disguise as you get the background for the story.

We've ordered the beginning set of 10 books and hope to read through them all this year, before moving on to the four-book "middle grade" series.

Moneyball is a book - and, sadly more famously, a movie - that's, on the surface, about statistics, but it's really about thinking a new thought and the excitement of figuring something amazing out.

I highly recommend both reading it and watching it. Anyone about 10 or older could probably follow the plot of the movie, though I think there's some pretty serious profanity, but I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone under about 14, just because of how deep it goes into the mathematics. (It's interesting, though - honest!)

Websites that feature math in action (or disguise, if you prefer!)

The U.S. Mint offers a neat site for kids that talks about coins and how they're made. Check it out here.

RealWorldMath.org is great - it uses Google Earth to showcase math lessons, and best part, it's free! You've got to see it.

Exploratorium's The Accidental Scientist is where I found this great kitchen-measurement equivalency chart I'd mentioned in Tuesday's post.

In fact, ALL of Exploratorium is great. Explore some of their resources here, and especially don't miss this breakdown about sports science that I mentioned in Thursday's post!

MathMovesU is a wonderful game site created by engineering contractor Raytheon (the company that happens to employ my awesome older brother, so I'm a bit biased). Designed to help middle-schoolers see real-world applications, it deals with everything from sports statistics to amusement-part rides in a fun, completely non-threatening way. You can play here; it's free, but you do need to register.

Games that make you think mathy thoughts

Smath is the most obviously "mathy" game I've ever played. It works like Scrabble, but you lay equations in grids instead of words. The good thing is that it works with players of many "math skill" levels - something simple can intersect with something quite complex. (Dork alert: This was one of my favorite childhood games.)

Math Dice and Dicecapades are two games, one math-focused and one not, that show you how much fun you can have with numbers on a rollable cube.

I can't forget Monopoly - the classic kind where you don't have an electronic banker. That's great for teaching bargaining, banking, making change and more! (Also, sadly, bankruptcy, if you're as bad at it as I am.) The Game of Life falls into the same category.

Sarah is very good at logic games, and two she loves in particular are Rummikub and Rush Hour. At first, these might not seem as "math-based," but one thing my experience in higher mathematics taught me was the value of logic and what I call organizational thinking, and these games are great for those!

Many thanks to Our School at Home reader Vanessa Pruitt, who suggested Hi Ho Cherry-O as a great game for younger children! Would you believe I had never played that one - but I have heard it is great and am very pleased to add it to our list!

My daughter happens to love video games, especially those where you take care of virtual pets and earn money that you then use to buy more virtual pets. Some of her favorites are the Nintendogs series, the Pet Vet series and the Horsez (or Catz or Dogz) series. I am actually amazed sometimes how much she has learned about money management and even basic addition and subtraction through these games, as well as some basic and sometimes more advanced animal science!

If you've got a Wii, you wouldn't believe what you can learn about physics and angles by playing Wii Sports. Our whole family has a good time, gets a little bit of exercise and, yes, has actually learned something from it.

Meanwhile, fellow blogger Aadel of These Temporary Tents adds Roblox and Minyanland as websites her kids love. I am definitely going to share those with Sarah and see if they spark her interest as well! (And Aadel has an amazing post about math strategy over math "facts" that I consider a must-read.)

One last addition, which we purchased just recently and which has turned into almost a "game" for Sarah, is the TI-34 Multiview Calculator.

The cool thing with this is that it displays fractions that look like fractions - one number atop the other - and does all the "scientific" stuff you will likely ever need.

Sarah likes it because she can write more than one line of "calculator text" - you know, 07734 upside-down spells hello, and all that? I like it because it's a calculator and I'm the girl who had named her graphing calculator in high school. To each her own.

Jamie over at The Unlikely Homeschool has a great post as part of the "5 days of" series this week on real-world math as well... check it out here for more fun resources, especially games, that will get you and your kids thinking!

And, last but certainly not least, my sisters on Christian Unschooling recently shared this post on "math think," which I believe sums up all the wonder that is math in real life!

The rest of the series

Sunday: When numbers matter: A look at math in the real world (introduction)
Monday: The math you need at the grocery store
Tuesday: The math you need in your kitchen
Wednesday: The math you need to manage your money
Thursday: The math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff (yes, really!)
Today: Real-world math resources you'll love
You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network's summer "Five Days Of..." series. Click the collage below to see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their "five days," and to learn more about our series sponsor, the BEECH Retreat bloggers' conference!

The math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff (yes, really!)

I've got a bachelor's degree in advanced math, and a 12-year-old daughter who hates anything to do with the subject.

I'm an unschooling mama who loves to do math puzzles and logic problems for fun.

I'm not sure if that combination makes me an expert or just crazy, but because of it, I agreed to take part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." series this week with a look at 5 days of real-world math.

Today, we'll look at three types of math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff.

Work your angles: Geometry in bowling, billiards, building and more

Almost any sport with a ball works based on angles.

In baseball, it's easier to hit a home run to either right or left field than it is to the center, because, with the shape of the field, the distance you need to hit the ball is shorter. In bowling, if you tip a pin more than 13 degrees to either side, it will fall; that's called the "topple angle." In billiards, of course the entire game is dependent on the angle at which you hit the cue, and the angle at which the ball you're aiming for hits the edges of the table.

Meanwhile, almost anything fun to build requires solid shapes and angles.

Whether you're working with Legos, blocks, K'nex, stacking cups, houses of cards or whatever, you'll soon realize what foundations make for strong structures and which end up falling over.

You will probably never in your real life get out a protractor and measure angles. However, if you're conscious of it, you'll be able to spot a lot of math, especially geometry, in your favorite sports, and you can pretty intuitively develop the knowledge that right angles are sturdy, that hitting EXACTLY on the head pin in bowling is actually worse than hitting it just slightly to one side, that you can change the angle at which the baseball flies by hitting it with the early or late part of your swing.

Where to start: If you have a Wii video-game system, play Wii Sports. A lot. I'm not kidding; this is the way we've worked on angles in everything from golf to bowling to baseball.

You will be amazed at what you - and your children of all ages - will pick up from that.

Barring the Wii, watch sports. Watch them in person, watch them on TV, watch them online. If you can, PLAY sports. You don't need to play them in an organized fashion for this. Go to a tennis court and hit the balls around, and talk about what you notice about the angle at which the ball flies depending on the angle of your racket.

Play an "angle bounce" game. Have one person stand against the garage door or another large wall, and have someone else stand several feet away; mark that person's starting spot with an X, and from there, have that person throw a ball at the door. (NOT into the person standing there, though!)

The person standing near the door should try to put their hand near where they saw the ball hit the door, and the person who threw the ball should go try to put their foot where the ball bounces back. It's a goofy game - you'll both be running around like crazy - but if your thrower starts at the X each time, you'll get a feel for all the different ways things bounce and angles and all.

For kids who actually play sports like baseball or soccer, videotape their practices and see if you can point out any "angles" they can work to change their game. Watch videos of professionals, too, and notice their angles!

Finally, build stuff. Build with blocks or Legos or plastic cups or playing cards, and experiment to see if you can find shapes that allow you to build taller or stronger.

There's no right or wrong answer here, but for any age, this is a fun way to see geometry in action.

Go, speed racer: Physics in your favorite sports

Right up there with geometry in terms of "stuff you really use" is physics. Stuff moves. It moves the way it does for a reason. That's physics at its simplest.

Much like with angles, most sports played with a ball incorporate a heavy dose of physics. Why is it harder to sink a close shot in basketball than a medium-distance one? When is the pitch FASTEST in baseball - when it leaves the pitcher's hand, or when it connects with the bat? (That's a trick question - it's actually technically a complete stop, zero on the acceleration scale, for the split second when it hits the bat, before it starts moving in the other direction.)

Where to start: You can certainly get a great dose of physics by watching NASCAR - or any other kind of race. Watch the runners - or any other athletes - in the summer Olympics. Talk about what they're doing, and guess why (then do some research to check your guesses.)

If you're interested in baseball, one of my favorite sites, Exploratorium (remember them from the recipe conversions?) offers a great "science of baseball" page here. They've also got a great collection of "sports science" resources overall here.

Real-world physics is perhaps the easiest type of math to experiment with. Drop stuff. Race Matchbox cars. Race marbles down ramps of different sizes. You can make some incredibly complex experiments with multiple variables for older kids, or you can do real neat "drop different-sized balls and see which one hits first" experiments with younger kids.

Mostly, keep an eye on all the movement around you. This becomes important later in life when you drive a car. I truly believe that kids who have an awareness of motion and how it does - and doesn't - work are intuitively better drivers than those who are less motion-aware.

Smarter than the "average" bear: Statistics are fun (honest)

What, statistics? That's, like, numbers for really boring people, right?

You wound me. I really like statistics - but I also know how easily they're manipulated.

Our whole family loves following the stats for our favorite team, the Phillies. (Less so this year than in previous ones, but I digress.) Talk about a wealth of math that you don't even realize - win/loss ratios, earned-run averages, batting averages; you name it, baseball can calculate it. 

But, while sports are cool, the most important reason to understand statistics as an adult is to be sure you're not being lied to. Check out any presidential campaign - or any "research study" put out by a company with an interest in your purchases.

Every day, you read "numbers" in life that are designed to motivate you to act - either to encourage you TO do something, or to encourage you NOT to. If you're not good with numbers, that's fine. Realize, though, that if you can gain an awareness to "think twice" about any statistics you see, you'll be better off than most people around the world!

Where to start: Even young children can keep track of wins and losses for a favorite team. If you don't have rabid fandom in your house, pick the most local team you can - because, as a bonus, you can watch some of their games in person. Check your local newspaper to see what information they publish after each of that team's games. Follow along; compare your team to other teams in the same league.

Not into sports? Look for the "stats" in your favorite hobby! One of Sarah's favorite hobbies is birdwatching. She loves to keep track of which food attracts which birds, and how many of each type of bird she sees in a particular season.

We don't do that officially, but you could easily write it down and draw some statistical conclusions.

Finally, check the news - and more importantly, check commercials - for "statistics" stories. See if you and your kids can brainstorm some tough questions about the research.

And check your packaging - we're often told that something is "25% better" or "40% bigger" or "80% healthier," but in comparison with what? 40% bigger than the smaller size of the same brand? Uh, OK, sure. That's a statistic that's designed to encourage you to purchase the larger size, right? Don't fall for it - go back to your "grocery math" and check unit price!

The rest of the series

Sunday: When numbers matter: A look at math in the real world (introduction)
Monday: The math you need at the grocery store
Tuesday: The math you need in your kitchen
Wednesday: The math you need to manage your money
Today: The math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff (yes, really!)
Friday: Real-world math resources you'll love
You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network's summer "Five Days Of..." series. Click the collage below to see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their "five days," and to learn more about our series sponsor, the BEECH Retreat bloggers' conference!

The math you need to manage your money

I've got a bachelor's degree in advanced math, and a 12-year-old daughter who hates anything to do with the subject.

I'm an unschooling mama who loves to do math puzzles and logic problems for fun.

I'm not sure if that combination makes me an expert or just crazy, but because of it, I agreed to take part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." series this week with a look at 5 days of real-world math.

Today, we'll look at three types of math you need to manage your money.

Inverse operations: That's how you balance the checkbook

What, you don't balance your checkbook? OK, first you have to go read about why I do in this post. Then come back here.

OK, you're back? Here's the thing. ASSUMING you keep track of your expenditures, it only takes basic addition and subtraction to see how much money you actually have. But to find out if you have missed transactions, you have to balance what you show against what the bank shows.

The REALLY simple version of this involves inverse operations. First, you'll need to go through your bank statement or online record and make a note of which transactions you and the bank BOTH show. If they've got something you don't (and it's a valid charge), note that in your record. Then, you're just left with the balance you have, the balance the bank has, plus a list of transactions that you show that haven't cleared the bank yet.

To find out if you and the bank "match up," you need to practice inverse operations. That just means you change the symbol. So if you show a balance of $500, but you have a check for $100 (a "negative") that the bank doesn't show yet, you need to ADD $100 to your balance, giving you $600 in "bank terms." If that's what they show - that's perfect, because it means when your check clears the bank, you'll have exactly the same amount.

Similarly, if you show a deposit that the bank hasn't registered yet (a "positive"), you'll need to SUBTRACT that amount to see if you balance.

It's funny, but this is really hard for a lot of people to get - and, I think, a big reason why people don't balance their checkbook as adults.

Where to start: First of all, I highly recommend having your children manage their own savings accounts, no matter their age. For the most part, this is simply a good place to put some birthday money, allowance (if you use it), loose change, etc., and have it start to earn interest, which your kids can track via statement.

As they get a bit older, withdrawing money for major purchases is a great lesson. My daughter has made two "major purchases" since opening her account four years ago - a bike and helmet, and a Nintendo 3DS video-game system.

She's learned how to deduct her spending, and how to weigh the decision of how much to spend. Those are good starting points. As she gets older, we will help her manage her first checking account when she gets her first job. Some people fear this idea; I would rather her start this process WITH our guidance than without it when she's 18!

If you personally don't balance your checkbook, give it a shot - and let your kids see you doing so.

I'm a big fan of being open about money and how to manage it with children. How else are they going to learn? (Plus, you'll be surprised at how much differently they act toward things when they see that your wallet is not an eternal fount of money!)

Dealing with credit and interest

This is another area in which your openness with your kids will be rewarded. No matter how you feel personally about credit cards - if you're 100% OK with them or 100% against them - make sure your children know how interest and loaned money work.

I will never forget my nephew buying something pricey during college, then telling his parents, "Oh, I didn't have to pay for that, I used a credit card."

If you borrow money, it must be repaid eventually, and generally with interest. The longer you take to repay what you owe, usually the more interest you will pay on top of the original amount.

Do your children understand how the "business" of money works - and how they can either gain or lose money as part of it? Have you talked with them about what a bank does with your money - and how you can sometimes earn money by "loaning" yours to the bank temporarily?

Where to start: Again, be open. If you have an interest-bearing account of any kind, sit down with your kids and show them how you earned 10 cents or $1.18 or $450 this month simply by allowing that particular bank to use the money.

Interest isn't too complicated when it's earned simply, but the issue of credit is probably the most complicated part of this series, and the only part that I find hard to explain to really young children. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try!

One great thing to try with kids of any age is playing verbal "what if" games. "What if someone offered to give you $1,000 now, that you could pay back by giving them $10 a month for 100 months? Would you take it?"

Then add factors in. "What if you had to pay them for an extra year after that 100 months?" "What if you had to pay them for an extra year, but they gave you a really cool T-shirt?" "What if you had to pay them back $100 a month instead?"

For older kids, mix up what the money's for. "What if you wanted the money for a car? What if you couldn't get a job without the car?" If they don't want the loan, have them brainstorm alternatives.

You don't need to get into the "math" behind those decisions, but you need to start the thought process. There isn't even a "right" or "wrong" answer in those scenarios, but you can add in ones that you think would sway your child one way or the other to see how he or she will respond!

Cost per use: When the thing that's cheapest isn't cheapest

I own a $300 purse, and it was one of the most economical purchases I've ever made.

No, I'm not a total spendthrift. I understand cost per use.

I use this purse every day. If I can use it for one year, my cost is less than $1 per day - about 82 cents. If I can use it for two years, that goes down to 41 cents per use. I fully expect it to go at least three years, which puts me about 20 cents per use, and beyond that I get down to about 10 cents!

I used to buy $30 to $50 purses, which would usually last me about three to four months before they'd get holes, or broken straps, or big stains. (I'm hard on purses.) Even at BEST, with four months of daily use, my cost per use on those is no lower than 25 cents, and usually closer to 42 cents. Then add in my time shopping for a new one, and suddenly I'm worse off than if I had gotten something "nice" in the first place.

Does it sound silly to break a purchase down like this? Probably. But it's a great thought process, and one you can adapt to almost any purchase your family makes.

There are times when getting the least costly item AT THE TIME makes sense. When I need shower-curtain rings, I just want the set that's going to cost me $1.50, not the $10 ones. No matter which set I get, I'll use it for about the same length of time, so why not save some cash?

But there are other times when spending more is a savings in the long run. Another good example of this is in shoes. I can wear a $75 pair of shoes with great support for three months, and only visit my chiropractor once, for a $25 copay, a total cost of $100.

Or, I can have achy feet in a $25 pair of shoes and visit the chiropractor three times. Same total cost of $100, but a much more miserable Joan.

Where to start: Figure out the cost per use of something "expensive" in your house - maybe a video-game system or your computer. Have fun with it - let your kids estimate how many days a week it's used, and how long you've had it, and how long you think you will continue to use it.

Then, figure out the same info for "cheap" stuff, like their sneakers. You may find that a laptop is "cheaper" than those Nikes!

Obviously, that's comparing apples to oranges, but it's a very real way to bring home what is actually a fairly difficult concept involving investment over time, depreciation and quality, and its uses are incredibly far-reaching. We make these considerations about almost every product we bring into our home. That's math worth knowing.

The rest of the series

Sunday: When numbers matter: A look at math in the real world (introduction)
Monday: The math you need at the grocery store
Tuesday: The math you need in your kitchen
Today: The math you need to manage your money
Thursday: The math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff (yes, really!)
Friday: Real-world math resources you'll love
You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network's summer "Five Days Of..." series. Click the collage below to see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their "five days," and to learn more about our series sponsor, the BEECH Retreat bloggers' conference!

The math you need in your kitchen

I've got a bachelor's degree in advanced math, and a 12-year-old daughter who hates anything to do with the subject.

I'm an unschooling mama who loves to do math puzzles and logic problems for fun.

I'm not sure if that combination makes me an expert or just crazy, but because of it, I agreed to take part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." series this week with a look at 5 days of real-world math.

Today, we'll look at three types of math you need in your kitchen.

Fractions galore: Measuring cups, recipe adaptations and serving sizes

In some ways, this is the most straightforward "kitchen math" most people do - multiplying and dividing and dealing with fractions.

Take measuring cups. If you've just dirtied the half-cup measure with oil and you need another half-cup of flour, you can fill your quarter-cup measure twice. Most of us do this without even thinking, but it's an important skill to talk about with your family.

My daughter is an incredible example of this. She had no idea as of six month ago that two fourths were the same as one half. Or, if she did in theory, she had no idea that it worked when cooking!

The same is true for adapting recipes by halving or doubling. If a recipe calls for four eggs to make 10 of something, and you only want to make 5, most of us know that we use half the quantity of each ingredient to make half as much. But again, for some people, the idea that halving each part makes half of the whole is fine in concept but not in practice - or vice versa; we can do it, but we don't understand how it works!

Serving sizes are another case of "kitchen multiplication." If my can of tuna says it has 2.5 servings in it, and each serving has 90 calories, but I eat the whole can (because, uh, doesn't everyone?), I need to know that I'm having two 90-calorie servings and one half-of-90-calorie, or 45-calorie, serving, making 225 calories.

Where to start: I highly encourage the use of measuring cups as toys. Please don't make your children sit down and pour things to make a cup or a half-cup or a third-cup or whatever. Give them a big box of rice and a bunch of measuring cups, and they'll figure it out for themselves. Honest. Trust your kids.

Halving and doubling recipes is another great "lesson" in real-world math. But before you can do that, your children have to understand how to read a recipe, including how to tell how much of the food you'll have as the finished product.

Once you've covered those basics, pick something they REALLY like - like cookies - and work with them to make twice as many as a treat. You'll have more-than-willing math helpers then!

Time and temperature: Manning (or womanning?) the oven

I watched an episode of Phineas and Ferb last week in which, while the main female character was cooking in a hurry, she realized she didn't have three hours to cook something at 450 degrees. So, her friend figured, they could just cook it for 5 minutes at 16,200 degrees - she called it "simple math!"

Even my math-loathing daughter was able to see that for the fallacy it was!

Cooking is a great chance to make sure you really understand time and temperature. 

First of all, if you put your favorite frozen meal in the microwave for the 5 minutes and 30 seconds it says on the package and it's a melted, dry heap, you have to know to cook it less the next time. But if you go too far and cook it for 3 minutes and 30 seconds and the middle is cold, then you know you have to go back the other direction!

That's intuitive for some people - but not everyone.

The same goes with temperature. If you put a pizza in your oven and the middle is still cold while the crust is burnt, you have to understand that your temperature is too high.

That's hard to "get" - part of it's cold; how can it be too hot, right?

You really have to understand how heat works - and that a lower temperature, consistently over time, can make something more "cooked" than a higher temperature inconsistently or for a short period!

Where to start: Get your kids used to using the stove or the microwave. Have them set timers - gosh, my daughter loves to set a timer - and see how long it takes water to boil in different-sized pans.

Have them experiment with making their favorite microwaved food using 30-second intervals around the suggested cooking time on the package (say, 4 minutes, 4 minutes 30 seconds and 5 minutes, or something like that) and see which way they like it best.

The more practical experience you have with cooking times and temperatures, the more you'll intuitively be able to adapt. Because I don't bake much, I still have to really think about how to make my cookies come out the way I want. But man, I can time my various pots on top of the stove to boil at the same time like nobody's business!

Unit conversions: Quarts, liters, gallons, cups, teaspoons and all that jazz

I don't know about you, but I do not have the faintest idea off the top of my head how many pints equal a gallon, or how many tablespoons make a cup, and whether that whole wet-or-dry-measure thing factors in and how.

That said, I know that I don't know - so I make sure that I'm reading recipes carefully and using measuring cups marked appropriately if at all possible. (I threw out the measuring cup that was only in metric some time ago!) And when I don't know, I look it up.

The hardest thing about recipe units is that it's SO easy to get confused, and especially with baking, a small difference can have a large effect on the final product!

Where to start: Hang on to this website of equivalents and measures from Exploratorium's The Accidental Scientist. Print it, laminate it, give a copy to your kids when they move out. That and a good 5-ingredient cookbook will take you far in the kitchen!

This is one of those things that, if you do it often enough, you'll probably start to remember. I did finally learn that three teaspoons is a tablespoon, for instance.

The best thing here is, if you have young children, or older children who are just beginning to cook, talk to them about the many different units of measure. I bet there's nothing you do day-to-day that involves more DIFFERENT measurements than cooking. And if you aren't expecting it, it can get confusing real quick!

Knowing the conversions isn't the biggest deal - you can look that up. But understanding in which cases you will need to look something up is what really matters.

The rest of the series

Sunday: When numbers matter: A look at math in the real world (introduction)
Monday: The math you need at the grocery store
Today: The math you need in your kitchen
Wednesday: The math you need to manage your money
Thursday: The math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff (yes, really!)
Friday: Real-world math resources you'll love
You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network's summer "Five Days Of..." series. Click the collage below to see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their "five days," and to learn more about our series sponsor, the BEECH Retreat bloggers' conference!

The math you need at the grocery store

I've got a bachelor's degree in advanced math, and a 12-year-old daughter who hates anything to do with the subject.

I'm an unschooling mama who loves to do math puzzles and logic problems for fun.

I'm not sure if that combination makes me an expert or just crazy, but because of it, I agreed to take part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." series this week with a look at 5 days of real-world math.

Today, we kick off the series by looking at three types of math you need at the grocery store. 

Unit price: A fancy way to say "Which one is the better buy?"

This is probably the most important real-world application of multiplication and division (and fractions) that I know. If you can get a 2-liter bottle of soda for $1.50 or a 1.5-liter bottle of soda for $1, which would you choose?

You need to know how much you're paying per liter, or per unit. The 2-liter bottle is costing you 75 cents per liter (in my head, I just half the price to know how much one of the two liters costs). The 1.5-liter bottle is costing you 66 cents (about) per liter, so it's the better buy. (In my head, I figure 1.5 liters is the same as three half-liters; divide the full price by 3 and you get 33 cents per half-liter, and two half-liters is a whole liter and that means two sets of 33 cents is 66 cents).

Consumers are famous for getting unit price "wrong." Our grocery store kindly includes it on its signs - BUT only on the full-price signs, not the ones where things are on sale, and when you have coupons, of course those aren't factored in either.

Many people tend to assume "bigger is better." I call it the Costco or Sam's Club factor - surely it's cheaper to buy 80 rolls of toilet paper than to buy 8 sets of 10 rolls, right? Sometimes, but not always.

This is an area in which mental math is really important. If you can walk through the process I followed above to calculate the per-liter price of soda, YOU ARE DOING WELL, MATH-WISE.

Where to start: Take this step by step. If you're just starting out, as a family, look to see if your store notes unit price at all and explain that it's a way to be able to compare the relative value of different sizes of an item!

Then, see if you can "work out" how it's arrived at for a particularly simple item. Find a bottle of 200 Advil and notice that the cost per unit is usually given in hundreds for those, if the store calculates it. (Why, I have no idea, but there you go.) You and your child should be able to see that the cost-per-unit (in this case, per hundred) is half the cost of the whole bottle.

From there, go on to actual real-world cases. If you want to drive me crazy for hours, set me to this in the toilet-paper or paper-towel aisle where you have to factor in regular rolls with mega rolls with jumbo rolls with Godzilla rolls or whatever they're calling them now. In anyone else's case, I'd suggest starting with something more reasonable, like figuring out whether the small, medium or large container of peanut butter in your favorite brand offers the best buy.

Dealing with those annoying "percent off" signs

Ah, percentages, the favorite thing of no one ever. Grocery stores (and other retail spots) often use percent-off signs to make things look like a better deal than they really are. That means it's especially important to understand how to figure them out.

Any time you're working with percentages, work from whatever 10 percent is. If I see a $45.00 item that's 30 percent off, I first go, "OK, 10 percent is just dropping a digit, so that's $4.50. 30 percent is three sets of 10 percent, so that's $4.50 times 3, or $13.50 off. That means I'll pay $31.50."

30 percent off can sound like a good deal - but it really depends on the original price of the item. On a $2 purchase, you'll save 60 cents, so if you have a choice between the 30-percent-off $2 item and another brand of the same thing with a $1 off coupon, TAKE THE DOLLAR!

Where to start: Skip all the garbage about ratios and proportions and percentages. That stuff is COMPLICATED. All you really need to know is that 10 percent of something is one-tenth of it, and, like I said, even that's more than you need to know if you can just accept the whole "drop the last digit" thing.

Start by figuring out what 10 percent of the price of anything you like is. From there, explore the idea that, just like 20 is 10+10, 20 percent of any number is the same thing as 10 percent of it, times 2. And then there's the idea that 5 percent is HALF of whatever 10 percent was!

Finally, put this into practice. The case I always work through is that our grocery store offers you the option of a free turkey (up to $20) or 5% off your next grocery order around Thanksgiving. Our average grocery order is $340 every two weeks, so 10 percent of that would be $34 and 5 percent would be half of that, or $17. If I can use the turkey, I "get more" that way. When they offer a 10% certificate, though, the situation changes, and suddenly I'm better with that than the turkey!

Volume: Or, how do you fit all that in the cart?

I am not kidding when I say volume is a major part of our grocery trip. You do not want to be that family with four people and two carts. We've been there and it stinks.

This is where volume, area and general geometry come into play. Square boxes take up less room stacked neatly (like building blocks) than thrown into the cart with a lot of odd-shaped air pockets between them.

Organizing the cart as we go keeps us from going home with smushed bananas, and it makes bagging easier for either the checkout bagger or my husband, who usually gets that job.

We have fewer bags to carry into the house when everything is well-packed, and the pantry is easier to organize for the same reason.

You might laugh, but that's important math. In a very practical sense, it saves us time - and probably money.

Where to start: Before you worry about organizing your cart as you go, hit the pantry or a cupboard. See if you can more easily see what you have, and get it all to fit, when things are arranged and fitted together by shape and size.

If you really want to freak yourself and your kids out, have a challenge to see how LITTLE room on the shelf you can take up with the items that previously filled it.

Even if you end up rearranging it all later, it's a great example of volume in action! Then, next time you go to the store, see if you can get a bit more into the cart without losing the milk off the top in the last aisle!

The rest of the series

Sunday: When numbers matter: A look at math in the real world (introduction)
Today: The math you need at the grocery store
Tuesday: The math you need in your kitchen
Wednesday: The math you need to manage your money
Thursday: The math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff (yes, really!)
Friday: Real-world math resources you'll love
You can read all the posts here!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network's summer "Five Days Of..." series. Click the collage below to see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their "five days," and to learn more about our series sponsor, the BEECH Retreat bloggers' conference!

When numbers really matter: A look at math in the real world

I've got a bachelor's degree in advanced math, and a 12-year-old daughter who hates anything to do with the subject.

I'm an unschooling mama who loves to do math puzzles and logic problems for fun.

I'm not sure if that combination makes me an expert or just crazy, but because of it, I agreed to take part in the iHomeschool Network's "5 days of..." series this week with a look at 5 days of real-world math.

This series is for you if...

You're an unschooler who is afraid to "let go" of a math curriculum. We started out that way - all "interest-led" except for a requirement that Sarah do a page of a math workbook each day. Guess what? Having her HATED subject be her only required subject did not exactly help, but seeing what she's learned since we broke away from that has been amazing!

You're following a homeschool math curriculum with your child, but aren't super-confident about your own math abilities. It's hard to know if your kids are "getting it" if you're not sure that you are - and I've been there! If you have a checklist of practical skills to measure against, though, you can much more easily find out if your program is working.

You've got preschoolers and aren't sure how to "get started" with math. The great thing about these real-world concepts is they're tangible - and that makes them a solid starting point for early learners.

You've got high-schoolers who will soon be entering the adult world. Even if your 17-year-old can handle algebra or geometry, can he or she pay the bills and manage a trip to the grocery store?

What we'll talk about

Monday: The math you need at the grocery store
Tuesday: The math you need in your kitchen
Wednesday: The math you need to manage your money
Thursday: The math you need to play sports and do other fun stuff (yes, really!)
Friday: Real-world math resources you'll love
You can read all the posts here!

The prerequisites

No algebra required. Just please, don't tune out if you hate math!

I do ask that you kick off the week by reading this article from The Atlantic: "The 11 Ways That Consumers are Hopeless at Math."

Please realize that this piece is written about people from all SORTS of educational backgrounds. The fact is, many of us are college-educated and still "fall for" all sorts of mathematical fallacies every day!

I can't save the world from mathematical mischief or leap tall buildings in a single bound. (Which, of course, is totally a physics equation.)

What I can do is give you a list of what a well-rounded person should know about math to be able to function in the world!

More five-day fun

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network's summer "Five Days Of..." series. Click the collage below to see how some of my fellow bloggers are spending their "five days," and to learn more about our series sponsor, the BEECH Retreat bloggers' conference!

How I define unschooling and where I've found my tribe

The awesome ladies over at Christian Unschooling were kind enough to feature me today as part of their Unschooling Portraits series!

Check out my Q&A here, including my favorite definition of unschooling and some surprising things I hadn't thought Sarah would develop an interest in!

And, I just have to give a special shout-out; when I started homeschooling, I had no idea how I would ever "fit in." We're not like any other homeschoolers I know in person, and I guess I didn't know that what I wanted to do with Sarah was a real thing.

Not only is "Christian unschooling" a thing, it's a thing in which I've found a wonderful community of women who, while they don't always agree on things, are always respectful and kind to one another.

Then there's the iHomeschool Network, another amazing community of like-minded ladies who, despite our across-the-board ideas about curricula and learning, are 100% in agreement about supporting each other's blogs.

These two groups make up my "tribe" - the place I belong. I can't say enough how much I appreciate it, and how much I appreciate EVERYONE who reads and comments here. It really does take a village to raise a child, and I like my village a whole lot.

(And don't forget - check out my Unschooling Portrait here!)

Family reading roundup: Digital edition

One of the best parts about being a writer is that, to be a good one, you also get to be a reader. I've shared our Family Reading Roundups before, of the books we're working through, but today's reading roundup showcases some posts from elsewhere around the internet that have kept my interest!

• Amanda Pelser, writing for The Homeschool Classroom, summed up, uh, my whole life in Am I Doing Enough in My Homeschool?
• I guess I'm interesting... this week on Man Vs. Debt, I wrote about how we handle buying clothes for our family. (Actually, it is a pretty interesting system.) 
• Shawn, over at Awesomely Awake, shares 6 Ways to a Less Worried Child. This is GREAT advice for parents with kids of all ages.
• Teacher Tom's blog was recently recommended to me by a friend, and I'm enjoying it immensely. His post on Teaching Kids On "The Spectrum," of course, resonated.
• And my great virtual friend Aadel at These Temporary Tents shared Unschooling: Like Learning to Ride a Bike, and it sparked huge and interesting discussion on my Facebook page. I personally love this post and agree with Aadel's thoughts entirely!

What have you been reading lately, virtual or otherwise? Would love to hear what's making YOU think.

Communion on the moon and our study of astronomy

Today was, randomly, "astronomy day" at our house.

We'd watched a video in church Sunday, and Sarah asked to see it again today.



It actually brought tears to my eyes to see; little had I known, Buzz Aldrin took communion on the moon! (Chris apparently was aware of this already, but it was news to me and to Sarah in church on Sunday.)

Well, from there, Sarah ended up finding on Discovery News' Twitter feed that Pluto now is known to have five moons, and she read the whole article about it aloud to me.

We're also using the astronomy Calendar Connections set from 1+1+1=1 this month, where we read a fact a day about the topic, and we caught up on those after dinner.

These are the days that really make me think, "OK, we're doing it right." I didn't assign the topic - I just helped Sarah explore it, and she is now more of an expert than I am!

As an update: Later, we went on to study outer space, and especially our solar system and even more especially the moon landings, in such detail that I created a whole guide of our favorite space resources. Who knew one film clip could make such a difference!

10 things we're really excited about in our first full year of homeschooling

This week, the iHomeschoolNetwork's 10 * in * 10 series asked our group of homeschool bloggers to post about "10 reasons I am excited about this new school year."

Since our school year officially got started last week - at least in a record-keeping sense - I thought the timing was great! Here's our list.

1. It's our first full year of homeschooling.

Yes, the thing I'm most excited about in our first full year of homeschooling is that it's our first full year of homeschooling. That means that the entire year is ours and not under someone else's expectations.

2. Our "kick-off" trip to Washington, D.C.

We leave Monday for four days in Washington, D.C., where we'll be visiting some of the Smithsonian museums (including the National Museum of the American Indian), the National Geographic Museum and maybe the International Spy Museum.

Talk about a "school trip" - and it's all stuff that Sarah WANTS to do, and things she'll really get absorbed in. She's not the stereotypical field-tripper who rushes through the museum to get to the gift shop, though she does enjoy a good gift shop!

3. A chance to prove that Sarah's success is a long-term thing.

The end of sixth grade went quite well, all things considered. At our appointment with Sarah's counselor earlier this week, he even commented to her how much happier and more enthusiastic she seems since we began homeschooling. We got her portfolio back from the school district, and the counselor was also very complimentary of her great work!

The thing is, I feel like some people might be attributing Sarah's success to the novelty of the situation. I don't believe that for a minute - I believe Sarah is a success, no matter what - but making this coming year a success will help us demonstrate that even more.

4. Chances for my husband to make history exciting for Sarah.

Chris is much more of a history buff than I am - and his collection of older used books and ephemera and, honestly, his general knowledge is always a huge resource.

This was Chris's first choice for something to add to today's list, and I wholeheartedly agree. If Sarah gets interested in something, whether that's Indians or the Titanic or Antarctica or the moon landing, Chris knows everything from what movies are a great look at the subject to what books would be awesome to read to places we can go on trips to learn more - and he always has some neat book or paper that ties in, too!

That's interest-led learning at its best!

5. Field trips!

This was another Chris suggestion, and I second it with much enthusiasm. Of course, just about every day is a "field trip" for us somewhere, but in addition to all our regular haunts, like local antique stores and used book stores, we love taking daylong drives to new and different places too - and now we can take Sarah!

6. Reading aloud.

We've read aloud to Sarah off and on for her whole life - but in the past three or four months, it's become something that happens pretty much every night.

As a student, I hated reading aloud, and I hated being read to, except by my mom. I'm a fast reader, and it just felt so... slow. Now, I appreciate exactly that. I like taking the time to do the voices, to let the words sink in, not just for Sarah but for me as well.

And I especially love that I can introduce my favorite childhood books to Sarah that way - and spark her interest in titles she probably wouldn't choose on her own. (And she's done the same in reverse, too!)

7. Digging out some fresh "school supplies."

We don't "do school" at all. None of us write papers or take quizzes or keep journals (unless this blog counts). But Sarah likes a nice, new notebook and set of pens as much as the next gal, and her office-supply-junkie mother is GLAD to oblige. I have to stay out of Staples and Office Max, though, because I have - and I'm not kidding you - more than 25 unused spiral notebooks, 10 binders, 30+ folders and enough No. 2 pencils for an entire middle school in my storage cabinet.

Maybe if I can get Sarah to use 'em up, we can hit the Christmas sales...?

8. A clean slate for scrapbooking and keeping up with our photos.

I love to scrapbook, and Sarah enjoys it too. But we are almost always "behind," just because of the sheer volume of our pictures. As of this exact moment, I have every digital photo off the camera and into my Memory Manager program (where I store them), which is great. They're not scrapbooked, but our portfolio covers many of the highlights, so the official family 2012 scrapbook should be somewhat less overwhelming.

My plan for the rest of this calendar year is to work hard at keeping the photos edited down and digitally filed as we go, and to try to use some of our "art" time for Sarah and I to actually work on our albums!

9. An extra "half-student."

In the category of "things that just seem to happen, and I just trust it'll all work out," one of Sarah's good friends in our neighborhood, Kayla, is now registered to do cyberschool in the fall. Kayla is a grade ahead of Sarah, more or less, and had some problems of her own at the school Sarah formerly attended, so when she found out Sarah was being homeschooled, she thought I could just homeschool her too. PA law doesn't exactly allow that, so I mentioned cyberschool as a possible alternative.

Well, Kayla's mom works during the day most days, and they don't have home internet, so I adopted the philosophy my mom always had when I was a kid: "The more, the merrier." It looks like Kayla will be coming to our place to do her cyberschool lessons probably about three days a week.

While I'm nervous about having two kids doing two DRASTICALLY different things - Kayla's work so formal, and Sarah's so unstructured - I have hope that this will be good for both of them!

10. Really engaging with my daughter every day.

This has to be the very best thing about homeschooling so far - I'm having more and more times where I feel like Sarah and I are really connecting, person to person. I can't wait for that to happen even more this year, as she continues to mature and I continue to find my groove with working at home!

We're also linking up today to Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings. Whether you're sharing your Top 10 questions people ask you, or a Top Ten list on any other topic, I'd love for you to link up and to check out the other blogs that have, too!  And don't forget to check out my previous posts in this series if you missed them, on our 10 unschooling and homeschooling must-haves, 10 of Sarah's "likes" about homeschooling, 10 reasons we chose our unschooling style, 10 questions people ask about our family and 10 pieces of advice that helped us start homeschooling.

{guest post} Homeschooling a child with special needs

Note from Joan: Today, I'm featuring a guest post from Susan Mathis. Susan, who blogs at thecouponcupboard.com, is the homeschooling mom of three and wife of one.  She lives with her family in the suburbs of Washington D.C.

As I've been walking in the homeschooling world, one of the hardest things for me to address is what's "different" in our family. I tried to describe the process of Sarah being diagnosed with Asperger's, sensory processing disorder and more in this, the final part of a 3-post series on our educational journey, but it's so hard.

I was thrilled that Susan put it into words so well and wanted to share her thoughts with you today.

Nothing captures my feelings about this issue more than the following:

Welcome to Holland

(copyright 1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley, all rights reserved)

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of  going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills... and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things... about Holland.

For those of us who homeschool, the issues are even closer to home because we are so invested in our child’s education. Here are a few things I’ve learned through the years.

Let go of your former expectations.

One of the biggest moments of healing came for me when I realized that our family was never going to be on the cover of Homeschooling Today magazine. I had to come to terms with the fact that my son was not going to be able to meet the expectations I had created before his diagnosis.

Embrace new ones.

The next important hurdle is to set new expectations and goals. It can be so easy to fall into the trap of, "Oh my poor child. Well, he just can’t do anything, so I’d better do it for him."

The bottom line is that, while no child can do everything, most can do something.

If he’ll never be an opera singer he can still bless people by singing "This Little Light of Mine" in church or at a nursing home. He may never write the great American novel, but he can help an elderly neighbor clean her yard. And really, if you’re that elderly neighbor, what would you rather have him do?

Find the right support group.

Stay away from places and people that make you or your child feel bad. We actually left one church that we loved when it became obvious that our son was being shuttled off to a corner away from the more gifted kids; that's when we knew that God had a better place for us.

Be honest.

The hardest words I’ve ever spoken were about my son, and his various conditions.

The good news is that, without exception (except for the church we left) people have responded the same way: "Oh, I’m so sorry. You know my {fill in name of random friend of relative} has the same problem."

Reach out.

Share what you’ve learned with others. So much of what we’re dealing with is not dealt with by the general population, so it is important that we help each other. We need to marshal all our resources together to help our children be all that they can be.

Another note from Joan: I think this last point is what really inspired me to feature Susan's guest post today. I'm at the stage in my journey where community has become incredibly important to me. Community with fellow parents, with fellow Asperger's or SPD families, with fellow homeschooling families, with fellow work-at-home moms, with fellow bloggers, with my in-person friends and family members... that's what keeps me going as we've made some huge changes in our family's life in the past year! Thanks to all of you who have been there to support us - and to support Susan and her family, and all the families out there like ours. You ARE appreciated.