Philadelphia Trip, Day 1

It's been about a month since my last post and we've been busy!

A couple of weeks ago, Casia and I spent two days in Philadelphia visiting historic and cultural attractions. We had our first 'girls' road trip and stayed with my cousin, Emily, who lives outside the city.

As preparation for the trip, I had Casia research historic sites she wanted to view and I also gave her some maps and internet access and had her plan the route. She did an excellent job with both aspects and I got to pat myself on the back for turning a tedious task on my part into an important life-skills lesson for Casia.

Since we had recently finished our history unit on the American Revolution, Philadelphia was the perfect locale. We started off in Independence Center, where we got our tickets to the must-see attractions and then wandered over to take a quick look at the Liberty Bell. 

Casia taking pictures of the Liberty Bell

Me and Casia in front of the Liberty Bell

Casia and Emily in front of Independence Hall.
We ended up back here later for our tour.

Casia making friends.

Casia really wanted to visit the Graff House, the location where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. I learned only after our return home that the original building, built in 1775, had been torn down but a replica was built two hundred years later on the same spot. From the outside, it looked like a centuries-old residence; inside, it looked as though it were designed by someone under the influence of a mind altering drug. Aside from the two upstairs rooms, that you could view through plexiglass, designed to look as Thomas Jefferson's rooms might have looked during his stay two hundred years earlier, the rest of the was house a tragic disappointment. It had a room with giant multi-colored blocks, some covered in mirrors, a stairwell that looked like it belonged in a parking garage, a small auditorium and a very modern, curvy display room. There was cement were there should have been antique character and it was a travesty that the preservation of such a historical location was done so poorly. Fortunately, this was the only disappointment of the trip.

A recreation of the room where Thomas Jefferson 

wrote the Declaration of Independence.

A very unusual room with big blocks and lots of mirrors.

Casia had also discovered that Philly has a Polish-American museum, and even though it wasn't relevant to the history course, we decided that we would make a little time in our schedule for it. Since Emily is on the Polish side of my family, she was as excited about it as we were. It was a cute little place that sold some Polish souvenirs and had displays recounting the lives of famous Poles throughout history, aspects of Polish history to make one proud and little-know facts to fascinate. Before leaving, Casia got a pin with both the American and Polish flags on it.

Afterward, we had a great lunch at a little restaurant that served panini. Casia had her first panini and now she's hooked!

Casia and Emily in front of the Polish American museum.

The best part of the trip came when we took the tours of the Bishop White and Todd houses. It was a very small tour group, just one extra person along with us. We had a great guide who not only really knew his stuff, his enthusiasm was contagious. When it had started, the first question Casia asked our guide was whether or not we would get to see upstairs. She was so excited when he answered in the affirmative and then she explained that in Colonial Willimsburg, so many of the buidlings didn't allow the tours to view the upstairs. 

We enjoyed the tour through the Todd house and learned that Mrs. Todd, after becoming a widow, caught the eye James Madison. They married and she eventually became the famous First Lady, Dolly Madison. The house had a lot of the charm and character you would expect in a 300 year-old house. But it paled in comparison to the next house on the tour, the Bishop White House.

Garden behind the Todd House

Casia in front of the Todd House

Kitchen in the Todd House

Bedroom int he Todd House

Kitchen in the Todd House

In the Bishop White House, not only did we tour the first and second floors, but we got to go up to the third floor, where the children would have slept. Because of the small group size, and I believe because of Casia's enthusiasm, the guide decided to also include the attic in the tour. It isn't normally shown to the public and it's not furnished, but it has an amazing view of the city from up there. It was huge, with high ceilings even on the 4^th floor. And he showed us the stairs to yet another attic. They were too treacherous, however, for us to venture up, so Casia had to content herself with just peeking up there.

As we decended the stairs, the guide announced that we still had a little more time, would we be as interested in seeing the basement as we were the attic? Would we ever! So down to the basement we went. There we saw a second kitchen, though much smaller, a wine cellar of ginormous proportions and the trap door to yet another basement. It was also unnavigable, but we got to peer down the hole to where they used to keep the ice for the old-time ice box.

Bishop White House

Casia at the front door of the Bishop White House

Foyer and Hallway of the Bishop White House

Parlor

Staircase

Casia in the Bishop White House Kitchen

Indoor Privy
(Casia wasn't very excited  about posing for this picture)

Emily in the Library
(She was checking out the book selection) 

When Bishop White died, his loving family had a portrait painted of his library as he had left
 it and since the house and  his belongings remained in the family for so many generations,
they were able to recreate his study with historical accuracy. 

Casia in a third story bedroom.
Even on the third floor the ceilings were at least 9 feet high.

Bedroom on Third Floor

Casia looking out a fourth floor window.

Casia picked this one as her bedroom.

One of Bishop White's grandchildren carved their initials and
the date into the fourth floor window frame.
It reads "W. W. Bronson 1834".

Stairs leading up to the 5th floor attic.

Emily and Casia taking pictures of the wine cellar.

Casia in the basement.

Door to the second basement. Here they would keep the ice to store food.

Basement kitchen.
Fire extinguisher not authentic. ;)

Casia with the awesome tour guide.

Another highlight of the trip was a tour of Independence Hall. It was thrilling to be in the same room where our nation was created. At the desks they had quills and inks, pipes, books and even a cane similar to what the Founding Fathers might have used. We got to see Washington's chair with the carved rising sun.

Clock Tower of Independence Hall

Emily and Casia by Independence Hall

Emily and Casia

Before the tour of Independence Hall, we started in this room with a
painting depicting the historical signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Court House in Independence Hall.

Independence Hall

Quills on a table in Independence Hall

Me and Casia in Independence Hall

Beautiful Staircase in Independence Hall

Casia in front of the statue of George Washington

Casia found Elfreth's Alley on a map and so we ended our visit of the city with a trip down the alley. It was tucked away and could easily have been missed if we hadn't been searching for it. It looked just like a little side street of very old homes on a cobble stone street. But when we got to the end it kept going and as we followed it around we ended up in a quaint, hidden garden. It was lovely.

Sign signaling to us that we had reached Elfreth's Alley

Casia in Elfreth's Alley

Elfreth's Alley

Casia and Emily in a little garden spot at the end of Elfreth's Alley

Emily tapping on the wall (as in Diagon Alley)

Casia knocking at the door of Betsy Ross's House.
It was too late to catch a tour,
so she settled for a posed picture outside.

Casia and I had a wonderful trip- thanks, Emily! After hitting all the great historical sites, we decided to order some Thai take-out and rent the movie National Treasure. While watching the movie, whenever we would see one of the locations we had been to that day, we'd shout out, "Hey, we were there!"

Incentives

This post was supposed to follow closely on the heels of my last post Grades but life got in the way. We suffered a loss in our family, followed by some unexpected travel. When we returned, half the household got sick and so we've spent the last week and a half catching up.

In the meantime, we ended one grading period and began the fourth quarter of the school year. To simplify my job, I keep Casia's school year more or less on the public school calendar because I already have Garrett in the system. Casia's year starts with Garrett's and she gets off days that he gets off. When his grading period ends, he is issued a report card. It's at this time that I take a look at what Casia's been doing the last 10 weeks or so and evaluate whether I think she's making good progress and what still needs to be accomplished. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I haven't been placing a lot of emphasis on grades, and I haven't been formally tracking and recording them. She hasn't been getting a report card.... until now. 

This is the first quarter that I issued Casia an actual grade in each subject. And we have also instituted an incentive program. We have always taken our kids out to a restaurant of their choosing for good report cards, and Garrett has been given a separate reward program recently to help encourage positive behaviors for some socializing problems he's been having in school, namely talking too much during instruction time. So for Casia, we've given her a chance to earn an electronic book reader. She just has to get straight A's for the last two quarters of this school year. Casia really wants her own book reader and likes getting good grades anyway, so the extra effort to make sure they are all A's is well worth it for her. That being said, I'm a tough grader and so she is forced to study to get those A's. For me, it's a positive, because if she's getting A's, I know she's both working hard and mastering the material. For Jacob, he wants to get Casia her own book reader anyway, so she'll stop borrowing his all the time.  It's really a win-win-win. 

So far, it's working really well. Casia has stepped up her effort level on papers and tests and has pulled all A's this past quarter. Hopefully she'll keep up the great work, so the squabbling over whose turn it is to use the Nook ends. 

Grades

When I first pulled Casia out of public school and started homeschooling her, I didn't place a lot of emphasis on grades. She used an online program for math that only gives grades if I request them, which, until recently, I did not. I gave her tests in social studies and science just to help assess her knowledge and some papers were assigned in language arts to help teach writing strategies, but the grades were given as a way to show progress, not because I was writing out a report card at the end of the year. 

My preference would be to continue this practice through her whole entire homeschooling experience, but I'm trying to look realistically at this. She's in middle school now and taking high school level classes. If she wants to attend high school in a couple of years, they will likely want to see how well she mastered the material, not just what was covered. They might require them for placement purposes. Hopefully, someday she will want to apply to colleges.  There are colleges that require transcripts even from homeschoolers.

Another reason to give Casia grades on her work is because at some point, even if it's not until college, she will re-enter a learning environment that is structured on grades and I want her to be prepared for it. I don't want her to feel pressured to obtain perfect grades, so receiving her share of sub-perfect scores in several years of homeschooling will help alleviate those perfectionist tendencies. On the other hand, I don't want her to dismiss the weight others place on good grades either. I'd hate to see her enter her freshman year of college and and shrug off a bad grade without realizing that graduate schools and possible internships do evaluate based on them.

So now that she is in middle school, I've been handing out more grades and keeping better track of them. I figure it will take another year before I have a good system down, as I am continually tweaking it at this point. And although I do wish we could gauge her progress based on our conversations, her effort and my gut feeling about how well she is mastering topics, I hope this will better prepare her for whatever she chooses to do in the future.

Math-athon

I wrote last week about Casia nearing the end of her geometry course. She has been making fast progress, but was slowed down a little this week because she had an assessment from the online coursework which took most of Monday's math class and she has a weekly quiz on Tuesdays from me. 

Just now, I've been working on some planning and she has been instant messaging me through skype keeping me informed as to how many more topics she has to cover. She started at eleven when math began this morning and after she let me know there were only seven more to go, I told her to just let me know how many she has left at the end of math class. That's when she wrote me, "Zero is when I stop."

I laughed and told her she can't do math all day and I immediately heard protests; she questioning why, and Jacob, sitting next to me asking, "Isn't that a benefit of homeschooling?" I was quickly overruled, and so she continues. Today she is seeing the finish line and is determined not to stop until she gets there. I think she will finish before lunch. She is down to four as I finish typing this. 

Geometry

It's always a little embarrassing when my ten year-old has to tell me how to use the software program to which we subscribe. I use ALEKS for Casia's math and she recently showed me how, instead of making up my own test questions and typing them up, I can have ALEKS automatically generate a quiz based on recent topics covered. Wow, that's been a real time saver. I wonder if Casia ever wonders how I manage on my own. 

This morning, Casia announced to me that after the assessment she just finished, ALEKS shows she has completed 93% of the Geometry curriculum. She estimates that in two more weeks, she should be finished and ready to move on to something else. I think she's giving me a heads-up so I can figure out what she'll be doing next. 

One of the benefits of homeschooling Casia is the ability to tailor the curriculum to her needs. This is especially the case with math. Casia has always picked up math concepts quickly. She flew through elementary mathematics and started a middle school course when she was seven years-old. She finished up high school algebra in January and just two months ago began Geometry. I really thought she would be working through the coursework until June. But her love of geometry has helped her to move faster than anticipated. I love that my annual subscription allows me to move her to whichever course I think she's ready for and she can take it slowly or quickly, and there's no added charge or extra books to buy. I also appreciate that we don't have to keep to the traditional school schedule where I need to worry about stopping and starting points. We pretty much homeschool all year around. So I think I'l have her take the course Algebra II with Trig and we'll see how long that will last her. 

A Talk with Patrick Henry

A couple of weeks ago, Casia and I took another field trip to Colonial Willaimsburg. Each time we go we see new shows, tour different locations and visit sites we hadn't seen yet. This time we focused on places that were relevant to the Revolutionary War and the construction of our government.

Our first stop was the county Courthouse. Inside we got to see a recreation of how the courthouse was used just before the Revolutionary War in their show "Order in the Court". This was a local court that ruled over local issues like an unpaid tavern tabs. Members of the audience got to be petitioners, defendants and justices. 

Casia poses for a few photos while we wait to enter the court house.

Casia in front of the St. George Tucker House.

After the Courthouse show, Casia posed in the pillory.

Casia posed, ready to squish the Royal Palace. 

From the Courthouse we walked to the Kimball Theatre to listen to an actor, as Patrick Henry, discus the Revolutionary War, in "Meet a Founding Father". The last half of the lecture was Patrick Henry answering questions from the audience. Casia, never intimidated by the fact that she was the lone child in an audience full of adults, raised her hand and asked Patrick Henry the question, "What is your opinion of Governor Lord Dunmore and what do you think the Governor thinks of you?"

Casia and Patrick Henry had a short chat after the show.
He was very impressed with Casia's knowledge of the Revolutionary War. 

We had to rush from the Kimball Theatre to the DeWitt Wallace Museum because they were about to start a production called, "Martha's Descision, Oney's Choice." It was about the relationship between Martha Washington and her favorite slave, Oney and the struggles they go through after Oney runs away. The author answered questions at the end of the show and explained that she used letters written between Martha and George Washington on the subject as a starting point for the play. 

Casia and I had a very stimulating conversation afterwards as we discussed slavery, the founding of our nation and the dichotomy of some of our Founding Fathers who simultaneously fought Britain for their right to be free and yet continued to own slaves themselves. 

We stopped for a bite to eat in the bakery in the back of the Raleigh Tavern. I must have been really hungry, because I didn't even get a picture of Casia in front of one of her favorite colonial locations. As we ate our pastries, Casia reveled in the fact that we were eating on the same spot where Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette had eaten centuries before. She went on to tell me that it's where the House of Burgesses met illegally when the Governor dissolved it. She shared with me all the facts she knew about it as we enjoyed our hot chocolate and snacks.

It was a short walk from the Raleigh Tavern to the Capitol building at the end of Duke of Gloucester Street. Although we'd been in the Capitol before for a the show "Cry Witch" a few months back, we'd never been on a guided tour. We got to learn about the Virginia Declaration of Rights which is a document that was written prior to, and had a strong influence on, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution's Bill of Right.

Casia standing in front of the Capitol.

Casia was selected to read from the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Casia is barely visible as she stands in the Governor's chair.

Inside the Capital, in the courtroom, Casia learned that the Governor acted as head of the military forces in Virginia, head of the High Court in Virginia and he had the power to disband the Legislature as well. It was because of the Governor's omnipotence over all aspects of government that the Founding Fathers later separated the branches of government and created a system of checks and balances to prevent too much power in one person's hands.

Casia posed with her favorite tour guide outside the Capitol.

Casia standing at the East end of the Duke of Gloucester Street.
The Raleigh Tavern is a couple of building back  on the right.

We had another glorious day in Historical Williamsburg. Casia always enjoys herself there, which is evidence by the fact that when asked to write an essay about our field trip to Colonial Williamsburg, she entitled her paper:

                                            FUN

Colonial Williamsburg: A Historic Field Trip