Tag Archives: education

I Love These Boxes My Daughter’s Homeschool Books Came In

My daughter’s school supplies from k12.com came today. It was a lot of fun checking out what we got from them. But one of the most interesting parts was looking at the insides of the top flaps.

That’s just one of the flaps. It’s a little hard to read, but all four flaps give ideas on how you can reuse the box around the house, as a toy and more. It’s really a great way for them to encourage the reuse of the box.

I have to say the supplies look really great too. It’s going to be a great school year.

THIS is Why I Want to Homeschool My Daughter

It’s the last day of school for my daughter today. Yesterday she brought home a stack of papers and her science workbook/text.

The book was scarcely touched. Apparently they only used it for their dinosaur assignment, not at all through the rest of the year. What good is it for the school to buy books they aren’t going to use?

I assume science is supposed to be in the curriculum. The school bought the books, after all, and it’s not like they have money to waste. California public schools are very poorly funded these days.

I haven’t seen whatever text they used for social studies this year. I gather that was barely used as well.

I know her school has low-ish test scores on state testing, and so they want to focus on improving their scores. I resent, however, that they do this by neglecting the overall education of their students.

I suppose the one positive is that now I don’t need to buy a science textbook to use while we try out homeschooling this summer. The one the school didn’t bother using will do quite nicely.

Trying to Figure Out the Green in My Daughter’s School Fundraiser

You know it’s really back to school when the kids start bringing home the fundraiser packets. Time to try to get relatives to buy overpriced stuff in the name of helping our schools.

This school is selling Sally Foster stuff. Wrapping paper, all the usual stuff. And cookie dough, which I will admit to a weakness for. The banner and book talk about offering green items, so I decided to take a look.

It’s hard to tell just exactly how green some offerings are. There’s gift wrap printed on recycled, recyclable and biodegradable paper. Not bad, but kind of meh.

The reusable shopping bags are much better. I can’t tell what they’re made of, but still it’s a good, green idea.

Of course, the prizes the kids get for selling are still pretty horrible, but it’s hard to keep them from getting excited about prizes.

The problem with school fundraisers isn’t just whether or not they offer recycled paper or anything environmentally friendly at all. The big problem is that we deal with them every year, sometimes more than once. That part’s a bit of a pain. It’s really hard to ignore the pressure to sell, as the kids are so excited about it all.

I don’t know that there are any easy green solutions for the problem either. There are affordable, environmentally friendly things you can buy, but soon enough you don’t need more of them, at least not unless they’re really practical things like cleansers.

I’m glad even so to see that even a semblance of environmental awareness is creeping into school fundraising. It’s not much, but it is something.

Sharing a Nest

My husband and daughter made a fun discovery on the walk to school last week – a huge crow’s nest that had blown down in the heavy winds the day before.

They took it to her class, to her classmates’ and teacher’s delight. It took my husband several minutes to get away. Something about bringing a nest that is about a foot and a half in diameter into a room full of first graders makes a man really popular. Maybe even more so than bringing a baby into the room.

That nest is still making the rounds at her school. We thought we’d be picking it up today, but it’s gone out to yet another teacher. We don’t mind, as all we want to do with it is drop it in the field to decompose as it would have if it hadn’t been discovered. It gets a bit smaller as it goes, just due to the wear and tear from being passed around. It’s been in at least 3 classrooms so far.

My daughter’s class had a lot of fun exploring the bits of eggshell that were still in the nest.

My one regret will be if we don’t get a picture of my daughter with the nest. That’s the one disadvantage to it being found on the way TO school. With a bit of luck we’ll see it again someday and it might still be in good enough condition to take a picture of my daughter holding it. She’s so proud of that find.