Ed chat: The Real Reason the Front Row Kids are Better Students

Since I was in high school, I've heard that if you want to get the best grades, you should sit in the front row. In a search, I saw allusions to "a study" but could not find such a study.  A real study, of course, would include some kind of control group, such as a trial with various students taking turns in the front row, keeping all other variables constant. If this has been done, I cannot find evidence of it. I would find it interesting, however- so please let me know if you have a link!

In my spare time I do wordsmithing and copyediting for my husband the engineer: white papers, client proposals, even his bio required when he goes to teach at a conference.  He sends me a file with all his knowledge, usually around 1500 words.  I send him back his finished paper, usually around 600 words and more easily  understood by any layman. Last week I found a white paper particularly compelling--  and it answered for me the age-old urban legend of "students in the front row are better students."

I learned that a dB meter only measures ONE frequency at the spot you are standing with the meter. The dB(A) measurement is a set of readings from all over the room and at every frequency range (or at least, a dozen or so), and then averaged. Did you know that most classrooms are SO noisy with background noise that they are starting at 35-45dB(A)?  The rooms with fans running may be 50dB(A).  The tile floors with the chairs scraping; kids tapping; the hum of the HVAC....  all of this background noise is lowering the INTELLIGIBILITY of the teacher's voice!

The colorful chart at left represents a "typical" classroom. The darkest spot in the middle of the red is the Teacher who is speaking.

Most people with no reported hearing loss can follow along well with about 70% intelligibility, as their brains can fill in the gaps.

The red-orange-yellow colors represent 90%-80%-70% intelligibility.

So you see in this "typical" classroom, only about 1/16 of the classroom has adequate intelligbility.  Most of the kids can only hear about half of what is being said.  The kids in the back only hear a few words.

It happens in other places, too.  I'm struggling at our church gatherings to hear. I can hear the pastor just fine, because he wears a headset mic, until the A/C kicks on.  Then I can't hear unless I'm sitting up in that orange zone (which I never do, because I can't sit still enough to sit in the middle where I'd distract everyone by my moving around).  Even sitting up in the green zones above, I can almost never understand more than a word here and there of the other men who use handheld mics, because they don't hold them right.

 Were you a "front-seat" scholar?  And if your kids go to a brick-and-mortar school, do they sit in the front?

Pantry cooking: Cheesy Enchilada Bake

One of the hallmarks of frugal and thoughtful living is to utilize one's pantry- rather than running out to purchase a missing ingredient.

Tonight I had on hand:
1/2 bag of starting-to-stale corn tortilla chips
16 oz crumbled feta cheese
eggs
4 dried chili pods
butter, flour, and of course rice.

The first thing I did this afternoon was to place the 4 dried chili pods into a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup, cover with 2 cups warm water, then place the 2-cup measuring cup on top to keep them submerged.  Then I measured out the rice and got it going. (Do you have a rice steamer? I don't. I still do it on the stovetop, old fashioned like.)

After the chili pods were soft, I pull off the tops, rip them open, and rinse off the seeds. Then I rip them into 1" pieces and place in the blender with the juice made from soaking.  Process on high for about 10 pulses, or 20 seconds, whatever- leave no large pieces in there.  Place a mesh over the measuring cup, and pour the processed liquid through the  mesh, using a spoon to force it all through the mesh. Discard the stuff you caught.  Now, place a saucepan on a medium flame and melt 1 Tbsp butter. Add 1 Tbsp flour and stir, then slowly add the chili liquid while stirring constantly to prevent lumps.  I added a clove of garlic as well. Cook and stir for 2-5 minutes to let the sauce thicken a little.

Now make a cheese goop:  break 4 eggs into a bowl and stir. Add 8-12 oz feta cheese, and if you have it some monterrey jack or co-jack, but only 1/2 cup-ish.  I had a jalepeno so I chopped it and added it too.  You could add sour cream- I considered it (but saved it for a garnish).  You want it wet enough to spread, or sort of like the cheese goop for lasagne.

To make my enchilada bake, I drizzled some chili sauce in the bottom of my cassarole dish, then put down a layer of my nearly-stale and somewhat crushed up tortilla chips.  I then dropped the cheese goop by spoonfuls, covering the layer of chips.  Over all of this I drizzled the rest of the chili sauce.  I crunched the rest of the chips smaller and then layered them all over the top of my mess... then I sprinkled on some more co-jack for good measure. They'll eat anything with visible cheese.

So we're fixing to sit down to eat this. I heated up the last 12 chicken nuggets to toss to the wolves and watch them fight over them to supplement the offerings in case the littles didn't like it.  And we have the rice I mentioned before. I also found guacamole in the freezer!

I thought I'd share with you: I googled and found something similar: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/goat-cheese-enchiladas-recipe/index.html

What kind of experiments have you done in the kitchen when you can't (or choose not to) run out and pick up a missing ingredient?

Homeschool chat: unschooling means choosing to learn

(edited slightly; originally posted 3/11)

Homeschool mom's job: line them up for success, aim as well as you can,  then take what you get- knowing that ultimately they choose whether to smile...

I have heard comments, "I can see letting teens plan their own education to some extent, but I don't see how it works for young children."  At my house, the early years, or preschool, is through age 8 or so. The children spend their early years learning to fill their own time. The traditional setting dictates to a child how to spend nearly every moment of his day- wake up early enough to get ready, put on a uniform, get to school on time, sit at a desk at this moment, walk to another class at that time, eat now or never, do some more work now, read this at this time, go home when it's over, do homework, play if there is time, eat, do chores, go to bed. My belief is that it is important to learn to fill your own time- not to depend entirely on an outwardly imposed schedule- for moral, intellectual and social development. Becoming a truly responsible person requires the opportunity to risk irresponsibility: freedom of choice, freedom of action, and freedom to experience failure (or "consequences") results in a responsible person. Children who are unschooled have the freedom to choose and act and experience failures that lead to nurturing a true responsibility that comes from a core character quality rather than simply acting to gather rewards or avoid punishments.

The child who does not know how to occupy his own time can become morally stunted: she whines that she is bored, they destroy things out of boredom, and he makes trouble to create his own excitement, interest or attention. This child is overly concerned with self: how good am I, what makes me come out on top?  The intellectually stunted child presses you to tell her the answers to all her questions, he gives up easily, and they make trouble for others demanding to be provided with information and interesting activities. This child is overly concerned with frivolity and things: what amuses me, what is pretty, what excites my senses? This child can become dull to stimulus and crave more and more, addicted to anything that might stimulate the mind passively. Becoming a truly inquisitive person requires opportunities to experience a vacuum: no set curriculum, no set schedule, no set evaluation methods. The void of a set curriculum gives children freedom to learn so much more! The void of a schedule means every moment is a learning moment.  The void of evaluation means the child becomes aware and adept at self-determination.

Children who cannot occupy their own time become socially stunted.  This child can only operate in a competitive peer-influenced and adult-managed environment, is easily depressed or influenced, and makes trouble for others in an attempt to self-determination against the norms. This child is overly concerned with measuring herself against peers, media, fashions and whims. This child becomes a bore and a bully. Becoming a socially forward person requires mixing continually with diverse ages, characters, and experiences and learning to put oneself in such stimulating environments. The traditional classroom, scope and sequence, and age segregation simply herds children through processes that allow a stamp of approval that the child went through the process; there is never any real measurement of the personhood and no real concept of the place in the culture for such a product.

With the pressure to improve schools, increase learning, and submit to standardized tests, when is the child supposed to learn to occupy himself?

The early years should be spent in complete freedom- transitioning from babyhood into young adulthood is the time to learn to self-regulate. To go to bed, to wake up on one's own, to feed oneself with health-promoting foods, to care about the world and others around them and to seek to understand it through exploring, experimentation and evaluation as well as reading others' explorations. Without outside pressure, children will choose to become experts on dinosaurs, robots, wars and weapons, period costumes, historical figures, inventions and inventors, and any other number of things. They will learn to read if read to, spoken to, and given plenty of rich materials and free time away from too many peers. They will learn arithmetic in the same environment, particularly when allowed to cook, travel near home, earn money and spend it. They will learn to occupy their time and in so doing begin to seem like true pre-adults with their big eyes, deep discoveries and logical remarks. Then, they can enter a season of honing and becoming corporate (large body) leaders.

Five things that parents of school children can do to add a bit of unschooling to their curricula

How much carefree time daily are you giving your kids? How do you plan to incorporate a little unschooling into your chid's day?

Homeschool Chat: What is you favorite part about teaching your kids at home?

One favorite part of teaching my kids at home? Just one? Let's assume you aren't talking about the lazy reasons- don't have to buy school uniforms, play beat the clock every weekday morning, drive my kids to school on cold or wet days, or deal with classroom posturing and politics.

By far my favorite part of teaching my kids at home- that I really miss when one goes to brick school- is seeing my kids' delight in figuring things out for themselves.

See, I gave up "doing school at home" years ago in favor of a more organic approach to education. The part of home schooling that will be hard pressed to have a replica in a brick and mortar place is the complete freedom for a child to discover things for himself.

Of course there is also the snuggling on the couch with a good book.

So let's see the list, comrade home schoolers! What's YOUR favorite part?

Seven Kids: Keep the house visitor ready in 15 minutes a day!

I have seven kids, a college boarder, and my work-from-home husband in my 1893 Victorian.  I like for neighbors, friends and travelers to pop in- and don't like to worry about how much notice I was given. But like the rest of you, I don't have money for a maid or hours to spend in housework. Here is how I keep my house pretty much clean and usually ready for drop-ins,  using not much more than 15 minutes a day.

Homeschool Chat: What pitfalls should we avoid?

I think every homeschool parent has experienced a pitfall.   One of mine was believing there was a cause-effect value of homeschooling.

IF I kept my kids insulated from the world, safely home where they soaked up only our values, THEN they'd be congenial and mature (certainly not teens in the cultural sense of the word) and always submissive, sweet, and self-reliant.

*snicker*

Please watch out for the pothole sinkhole of that kind of thinking.

Any other moms willing to 'fess up to ending up in the snare of the tiger?

Seven Kids: StinkyFEET!!!!

I know it happens to you, too.  You're all in the car, or gathered in the living room for a movie, when suddenly....  ewwwwwww! Who took off their shoes???? 


Here are the things I've done to reduce foot/shoe odor at our house-  and it seems to have worked!

1. Put a handful of clay cat litter in a spare sock, perhaps with some essential oils if the litter's not scented, and stuff these in the shoes between wearings to absorb moisture and odor.
2.  Do not wear the same shoes two days in a row. Give them a breather! I've actually been told that the shoes wear longer if they have a chance to rest a day, as your weight continually compresses the soles. 
3. Rub a sprinkle of baking soda on the bottoms of the feet and between toes to act as a deoderant.
4. Wash the shoes in the washing machine and let them air dry if they are already way stinky, or use Febreze, or even an "oxy" type pet carpet cleaner.

Do you have any tips for stinky feet?

Tomato/Tomato, metaphor for gospel conversations with your kids

Drop the dramatic monologue to the preschooler.  The five minute dramatic retelling of Christ's shed blood for you is not "bringing them up in the nurture of the Lord." Pick up Shepherding a Child's Heart or Give Them Grace - they both have in common the long long paragraph examples of how to explain to your young child the importance of believing in his own regeneration soley through the substitutionary atonement. Ditch them.

It's like the man who had a garden full of tender tomato transplants.

Homeschool Chat: How do you keep from going crazy being cooped up in your house much of the day, especially in the winter?

Bundle up and head outdoors!

Tough question.  For the last 12 years this hasn't been a particular issue for me, as we lived south of I-20, where winter was short and sweet, alternating with quite warm days.  It was fairly easy to coop up one or two days a week. I mean, that's like a needed day of rest.

But last winter, we were really cooped in the house for the first time since we'd left Colorado. January was snowy. And don't try to tell me, "At least your 3 teen boys were at brick school" because they weren't-  they had 10 snow days from school.

So here's a few tips I can think of...

Teen Life: Praying for the future spouse

When I met my husbands parents for the very first time, my soon to be mother in law took my hands and looked me in the eye, and said, "I've been praying for you all his life." When our second child was born she gave us a cassette tape, I Love You, on which was a song that went:

Somewhere there's someone, waiting for you

And someday that someone will say, "I do."

And maybe that someone is with mommy too

and maybe that Mommy is praying for you.

This reminded me of my mother in law's words, and since then I've prayed over my kids for their future spouses-  not every night, mind you. I get distracted just like the rest of you, with everyday things.  But it does come to my mind, and I remember.  Particularly with my eldest dating now. (Smile.)

Homeschool Chat: What is one thing you wish you had known up front?

There are two things I wish I'd known up front:

1.  Do not get caught up in the cult-like aspects of The Homeschooling Movement. Dresses only, prairie muffins, quiver full, courtship only, dietary restrictions and other "crazy" things. Homeschoolers have already proven that they like to think outside the box, which leads them into many interesting rabbit trails. Be careful that you don't follow just to be part of the cool crowd- really think about what will work for your situation. And really, don't homeschool from a place of fear (like you are afraid the public schools are poisonous-- they aren't necessarily).

2.  Education choices are not made in Sharpie.  Pencil in your plans, because things change. Sometimes midyear.  Be willing to make small-and large- changes as needed.  It's even ok to ditch an expensive curriculum after a month or two, if it's not working for you.

What are things you wish YOU had known before you started homeschooling?

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