Though the private Christian school that B16 and BC18 attended has been out for two weeks, B12, Chicklet8 and I have been pushing hard to complete their end-of-year projects and assignments for the virtual schools they attended this year...and we are DONE!
Ahhhh, it feels so good.
Overall, I really liked the virtual charter school option that we have here in Wisconsin. It's been great for B12, especially, to report to someone else besides Mom and receive "for real" grades. With Mom, it's an A every time because she works with you until you understand the concept (not a bad thing, but the burden is on Mom). With a teacher, if you miss a lot of problems, you get a bad grade or even fail...then it's up to you to get the help you need, or fall further behind--a needed "reality motivator" for B12. He did a great job of tackling the assignments on his own and completing his work with hardly any help--I was so proud of him! He often needed help with time management, since his deadlines were rarely hard and fast, but it was a great opportunity for him to begin to develop those skills that many of us adults struggle with. (Like what happens when you procrastinate, and how it's better to tackle the unknown assignment early in the week.)
For Chicklet8, I appreciated the accountability more for myself than for her. I just don't enjoy teaching these early skills, like math facts and handwriting and sounding out words. When I feel stretched thin by time pressures, as I have these last couple years, it's just so hard for me to find the patience for these kinds of lessons! So it was good for us both to be pushed along by the school's assignments, and she ended up learning so much this year. I was very pleased.
For inquiring minds, B12 was enrolled in iQ Academy, through the Waukesha public school district, and I really recommend this program. In addition to interactive material to absorb, he had a wide variety of assignments that require higher-level thinking than just memorizing for the test, and his teachers were accessible and accommodating. Chicklet was using the Little Lincoln Interactive curriculum through Wisconsin Virtual Learning, a charter school of the Northern Ozaukee School District. (I think Little Lincoln is available to anyone, though--maybe not for free, as it was to us.) Every day there were online lessons in entertaining video form from Mrs. Walden, the writing teacher, Mr. Reed Moore, the reading teacher, Ms. Triggle, the math teacher, and Chicklet's favorite, Dr. Algae, the science teacher. There were also optional games online, at the end of each five-minute video lesson, and workbook pages, as well as art and science activities. You didn't have to turn in everything, just certain assignments, so often we didn't complete every single activity, but I thought that overall, it was a fantastic program.
B6 was my one purely homeschooled student, in kindergarten, and he was done about 3 months ago, I hate to say. We're still doing a lesson here and a lesson there in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but that's been about it for formal education lately. Lots of unschooling going on for him, though, as he spent hours drawing, then began writing strings of letters and numbers, and eventually began phonetically spelling out words and teaching himself simple math facts. Not every day, mind you, but I was thrilled to see him being his own teacher!
As I've been thinking and praying about next year, I feel great peace about the decision at which we've arrived. We are going to put B6 and Chicklet8 in public school for a year or so--we'll see how it goes. I'm calling it a sabbatical, after 14 straight years of homeschooling! Chicklet went there for half a year last year, you may recall, and we both really liked it. It was just a long day for a sweet little girl who missed her family, and I didn't make her go back after Christmas break. But she's so excited about going back as a third grader, and B6 will hopefully get the same Christian teacher that Chicklet had for first grade. He's ready for more structure and mental challenge, and I think he'll get it better there than from me. As I said, I just don't enjoy these early lessons, creating motivational challenges for me.
I also long to give Chicklet the lessons she is begging for--cooking, sewing, and art. I hope if someone else is in charge of the essentials, I'll have more energy for the extras! But I am realistic. They will be gone from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with an earlier bedtime than we are used to, plus they will have homework and piano practice, and AWANA and theater will start back up again...and I'm afraid I won't get much time in the evenings with my little ones, unless I am creative and intentional, which is something I can't wait to think more about. I just know that the rest of my family needs me too, Mom has been stretched too thin these last couple years, and the younger ones' education is something I can delegate next year, at least. This plan just feels right, and I feel peace from the Lord about it.
Only B12 will be at home, and he'll do iQ Academy again, since he's able to work so independently and it was such a good experience. We don't feel that the public middle school would be a good option for him, and the Christian school is a big expense. So it'll be just him and me next year, unless B16 decides to do iQ Academy instead of the Christian high school--unlikely, but a possibility he's praying about. It would give him more time to focus on guitar, voice, song-writing, and brushing off his piano knowledge--all things he's really desiring to do--but he wouldn't be able to play sports or see his friends as often, so it's his call. He's got the summer to decide.
Blondechick will be at Trinity International University, we are nearly certain. Still financial details to work out, and in two weeks she has an audition to see if they will give her a music scholarship for voice. We've been told that there is still money there, if they need her in one of their vocal groups, and she doesn't have to major in music, so she might as well see what happens, eh?
B20, Lord willing, will be working. The job search has been progressing at a snail's pace so far. Prayers appreciated!
For now, it's just great to have the school year behind us and the summer looming. Ahhhhhh..... Bring it on!
Showing posts with label unschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unschooling. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Natural Learning: This Year
In yesterday's post on natural learning, I mentioned that we lost steam in some areas this year and picked up in others. So what have we been doing this year?
Consistently, we have been reading aloud in the mornings, as I described in this post: the Bible story book and a chapter book every day, and most days I also read poetry or the Shakespeare stories. Occasionally we'll add in a picture book, or a few pages a day from Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonym Riddles. Bantam10 has consistently practiced piano right after breakfast each school day, as well.
(The preschooler and kindergartener color and listen in on our read-aloud time, or not; I read aloud to them separately too. I wrote about their activities here.)
For math, last fall we focused on flashcards and math facts, and then both boys started in a Saxon math book. B13 is doing Saxon 87 (for 8th graders or advanced 7th graders) and planning to finish it sometime next year, as an 8th grader. B10, a fourth grader, is in Saxon 54. They both do a lesson a day, skipping the easy problems that they know how to do and checking their own answers. They like being responsible for gauging what they most need to work on, and I only help them when they ask.
They read for an hour every day. This year, to build their enjoyment in reading, I have let them choose the book, as long as it is a chapter book (vs. picture books or comic books). So they both read Harry Potter books and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Once he finished those, B13 was open to suggestions; he read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Dahl), Hatchet (Paulsen) and Loser (Spinelli). Right now he's reading The Cross and the Switchblade and is really enjoying it!
Last fall we were busy with enrichment classes (described here; they learned so many cool things!). When they ended, we picked a couple of other subjects to add. Both boys began doing one page a day in their Easy Grammar workbooks, and B13 agreed to try a 10-volume American history series, Joy Hakim's A History of US. Now he looks forward to reading two chapters daily and sometimes interrupts his reading to say, "Hey, Mom, did you know this?" (In fact, one reason he didn't want to do the virtual school next year was because he wants to continue with the Hakim texts!)
Most recently, we've added some map skills and geography to our morning reading time. I have flashcards, that I picked up at a used curriculum sale, that have outlines of each continent and all the major countries, within their continental settings. They're really great and the boys have learned them quickly--except they're old enough to include a flashcard of the U.S.S.R. (which the Bantams think is cool because, hey, that's a Beatles song!). We started learning some of the capital cities of various countries too, after B10 wouldn't stop guessing "Paris!" for any country he didn't know.
Those have been our "bare bones" requirements for the year, but learning opportunities continue:
Bantam13's robotics class from the fall ended up extending through the whole school year, as building the 'bot has turned out to be quite a complicated undertaking! He hasn't minded, though; it has provided a lot of bonding time with the other homeschooled boys in the class. The competition, in which their 'bot has to navigate an obstacle course, pick up a ping-pong ball and a styrofoam cup, and "sumo wrestle" another 'bot out of the ring, is in two weeks!
They've taken theater classes as well, for the fall, winter and spring sessions. B10, who likes to move, chose a dance class every time, and this session he insisted that he have his own tap shoes, not borrowed ones--so we are signing up for tap lessons this summer! B13 took Magic, Advanced Drama (the class that performed Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker), and this session he's taking Film-Making, which has exposed him to some documentary and film excerpts that have really made him think and ask me questions in the car on the way home. The film his group is making is pretty lame, he says--but we'll see.
B10, meanwhile, had many rehearsals this spring in his role as the Mayor of Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz! (In fact, dress rehearsals have been every night this week, with Opening Night on Friday!)
The only thing that I've been disappointed with this year has been our writing project. Both boys have blogs (links in my sidebar), and my intention was that they write, re-write or polish and post something daily, but it has turned out to be more of an occasional thing. B10 enjoys it, if I get him started, but for B13, I may need to teach a writing class for his age group next year, to provide more accountability.
Into the Woulda Been Nice category fall handwriting and keyboarding, which we just haven't got to formally this year, although both Bantams get by passably well. B13 needs to put guitar back on his daily list, too.
All stuff to think about for next year!
Consistently, we have been reading aloud in the mornings, as I described in this post: the Bible story book and a chapter book every day, and most days I also read poetry or the Shakespeare stories. Occasionally we'll add in a picture book, or a few pages a day from Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonym Riddles. Bantam10 has consistently practiced piano right after breakfast each school day, as well.
(The preschooler and kindergartener color and listen in on our read-aloud time, or not; I read aloud to them separately too. I wrote about their activities here.)
For math, last fall we focused on flashcards and math facts, and then both boys started in a Saxon math book. B13 is doing Saxon 87 (for 8th graders or advanced 7th graders) and planning to finish it sometime next year, as an 8th grader. B10, a fourth grader, is in Saxon 54. They both do a lesson a day, skipping the easy problems that they know how to do and checking their own answers. They like being responsible for gauging what they most need to work on, and I only help them when they ask.
They read for an hour every day. This year, to build their enjoyment in reading, I have let them choose the book, as long as it is a chapter book (vs. picture books or comic books). So they both read Harry Potter books and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Once he finished those, B13 was open to suggestions; he read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Dahl), Hatchet (Paulsen) and Loser (Spinelli). Right now he's reading The Cross and the Switchblade and is really enjoying it!
Last fall we were busy with enrichment classes (described here; they learned so many cool things!). When they ended, we picked a couple of other subjects to add. Both boys began doing one page a day in their Easy Grammar workbooks, and B13 agreed to try a 10-volume American history series, Joy Hakim's A History of US. Now he looks forward to reading two chapters daily and sometimes interrupts his reading to say, "Hey, Mom, did you know this?" (In fact, one reason he didn't want to do the virtual school next year was because he wants to continue with the Hakim texts!)
Most recently, we've added some map skills and geography to our morning reading time. I have flashcards, that I picked up at a used curriculum sale, that have outlines of each continent and all the major countries, within their continental settings. They're really great and the boys have learned them quickly--except they're old enough to include a flashcard of the U.S.S.R. (which the Bantams think is cool because, hey, that's a Beatles song!). We started learning some of the capital cities of various countries too, after B10 wouldn't stop guessing "Paris!" for any country he didn't know.
Those have been our "bare bones" requirements for the year, but learning opportunities continue:
Bantam13's robotics class from the fall ended up extending through the whole school year, as building the 'bot has turned out to be quite a complicated undertaking! He hasn't minded, though; it has provided a lot of bonding time with the other homeschooled boys in the class. The competition, in which their 'bot has to navigate an obstacle course, pick up a ping-pong ball and a styrofoam cup, and "sumo wrestle" another 'bot out of the ring, is in two weeks!
They've taken theater classes as well, for the fall, winter and spring sessions. B10, who likes to move, chose a dance class every time, and this session he insisted that he have his own tap shoes, not borrowed ones--so we are signing up for tap lessons this summer! B13 took Magic, Advanced Drama (the class that performed Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker), and this session he's taking Film-Making, which has exposed him to some documentary and film excerpts that have really made him think and ask me questions in the car on the way home. The film his group is making is pretty lame, he says--but we'll see.
B10, meanwhile, had many rehearsals this spring in his role as the Mayor of Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz! (In fact, dress rehearsals have been every night this week, with Opening Night on Friday!)
The only thing that I've been disappointed with this year has been our writing project. Both boys have blogs (links in my sidebar), and my intention was that they write, re-write or polish and post something daily, but it has turned out to be more of an occasional thing. B10 enjoys it, if I get him started, but for B13, I may need to teach a writing class for his age group next year, to provide more accountability.
Into the Woulda Been Nice category fall handwriting and keyboarding, which we just haven't got to formally this year, although both Bantams get by passably well. B13 needs to put guitar back on his daily list, too.
All stuff to think about for next year!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Natural Learning
I mentioned natural learning, interest-led learning and unschooling in a previous post. As you may recall, this year we have been experimenting with a slower pace of homeschooling.
A New Approach
Unschooling Update
Oh Yeah...Homeschooling...
If you read these posts, you may wonder how our year is ending up? Well, we have lost steam in some areas and picked up in others. But overall, our new "less is more" approach has been working really well. In fact, I think we have decided against the virtual school options I was considering for next year for B13. Little things keep reinforcing to me the beauties of natural learning--and what we'd lose if we returned to a highly structured model.
Natural learning assumes that learning is happening all the time, that informal learning is just as important as formal academics. When we are driving to a piano lesson and we talk about life, attitudes, their discoveries and questions, that is learning--perhaps the most important kind. It can't always be planned, and it is driven by the learner's own questions and motivations rather than by a curriculum. And that's why it sticks!
As a teacher, I am amazed at how much I "teach" that my kids quickly forget. I am shocked at how little my older kids remember from their early years of homeschooling! They are most likely to remember experiences we had and people we met, including memorable characters from books. And skills, of course, like handwriting or piano chords. But facts? No.
Of course I believe it's all in there somewhere. But the point is that I'm worrying less with my younger children about "getting it all in" or "covering all the bases" with curriculum. If they read a lot and are read aloud to--good books--they are exposed to history, science, grammar, vocabulary and good writing models, without a lot of extra worksheets, textbooks and projects that take time away from reading! If there is one thing I could go back and do differently with my older kids, especially Blondechick and B13, it would be giving them more time for reading.
My children are reinforcing this notion, too. The other night at dinner, B13 complained about the time he had to spend every morning listening to our read-aloud. (He was in full teenage-boy, Mr. Negativity mode.) Blondechick16 (who entered public high school this year) cut him off. "Listen, bro, that is the best thing about homeschooling! I can't believe how bad the other kids in my class are at reading aloud. Their reading is so choppy, they can't pronounce words, they don't know how to pause at the right places--and I just naturally know all that because I've been read to so much. You don't know how much you're learning, but you really are!"
Thank you, Blondechick!
Then the other day, Bantam10 laid down his book with a contented sigh. "Mom, it feels so good to finish a book. I love that feeling. I love reading. It's my favorite subject in school."
Now, B10 was the one that used to groan every day, at the beginning of the year, about my new requirement of reading for an hour a day. I didn't even require one whole hour straight! But now, he reads solidly for a whole hour with great enjoyment.
He has always been a bathroom reader, but I discounted his interest in The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield until recently. Now, I am beginning to realize that even comic books can be educational! Often, B10 will ask me about the humor or the science in a Far Side situation or about a vocabulary word he encountered there--when he's nowhere near these books. So I know they've made him think!
More tomorrow...about what we've actually been doing this year!
A New Approach
Unschooling Update
Oh Yeah...Homeschooling...
If you read these posts, you may wonder how our year is ending up? Well, we have lost steam in some areas and picked up in others. But overall, our new "less is more" approach has been working really well. In fact, I think we have decided against the virtual school options I was considering for next year for B13. Little things keep reinforcing to me the beauties of natural learning--and what we'd lose if we returned to a highly structured model.
Natural learning assumes that learning is happening all the time, that informal learning is just as important as formal academics. When we are driving to a piano lesson and we talk about life, attitudes, their discoveries and questions, that is learning--perhaps the most important kind. It can't always be planned, and it is driven by the learner's own questions and motivations rather than by a curriculum. And that's why it sticks!
As a teacher, I am amazed at how much I "teach" that my kids quickly forget. I am shocked at how little my older kids remember from their early years of homeschooling! They are most likely to remember experiences we had and people we met, including memorable characters from books. And skills, of course, like handwriting or piano chords. But facts? No.
Of course I believe it's all in there somewhere. But the point is that I'm worrying less with my younger children about "getting it all in" or "covering all the bases" with curriculum. If they read a lot and are read aloud to--good books--they are exposed to history, science, grammar, vocabulary and good writing models, without a lot of extra worksheets, textbooks and projects that take time away from reading! If there is one thing I could go back and do differently with my older kids, especially Blondechick and B13, it would be giving them more time for reading.
My children are reinforcing this notion, too. The other night at dinner, B13 complained about the time he had to spend every morning listening to our read-aloud. (He was in full teenage-boy, Mr. Negativity mode.) Blondechick16 (who entered public high school this year) cut him off. "Listen, bro, that is the best thing about homeschooling! I can't believe how bad the other kids in my class are at reading aloud. Their reading is so choppy, they can't pronounce words, they don't know how to pause at the right places--and I just naturally know all that because I've been read to so much. You don't know how much you're learning, but you really are!"
Thank you, Blondechick!
Then the other day, Bantam10 laid down his book with a contented sigh. "Mom, it feels so good to finish a book. I love that feeling. I love reading. It's my favorite subject in school."
Now, B10 was the one that used to groan every day, at the beginning of the year, about my new requirement of reading for an hour a day. I didn't even require one whole hour straight! But now, he reads solidly for a whole hour with great enjoyment.
He has always been a bathroom reader, but I discounted his interest in The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield until recently. Now, I am beginning to realize that even comic books can be educational! Often, B10 will ask me about the humor or the science in a Far Side situation or about a vocabulary word he encountered there--when he's nowhere near these books. So I know they've made him think!
More tomorrow...about what we've actually been doing this year!
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Oh Yeah...Homeschooling...
This has been the most laid-back homeschooling year we have ever had. But it had to be! After last year of homeschooling four, including two high schoolers (for the first time), plus two preschoolers, AND keeping a house on the market for nearly a year, then packing, moving and unpacking--I was too exhausted to plan much for last fall. But as it turns out, I think we are having an awesome year!
We haven't drilled as hard as usual on the academics, but we've done lots of educational things, like enrichment classes in caricature drawing, critical thinking, foam sword-making and battling, and robotics. We've had gym classes, theater classes, piano and guitar lessons. We've been on field trips. We've made new friends, and picked up some new interests, like skateboarding, bike tricks, magic tricks and swing dancing.
The boys worked up singing, dancing and acting auditions, and Bantam13 memorized a monologue to audition for another class. Both boys got into the show and memorized lyrics and dances for seven scenes each. B13 got into the play and has memorized all the lines and blocking for a relatively big part.
We've read aloud and to ourselves almost daily, and we've kept up with where we need to be in math. We spent a lot of time last fall just drilling on math facts, which no one has regretted, and we did a good bit of writing early on. Chicklet is learning to read, among other skills, and has spent countless hours teaching Bantam3 everything she knows, about everything.
Most of this (especially the non-theater-related bits) has been happening more and more erratically, though, since about Thanksgiving...and you know it's time for a little more structure when your seventh grade son is agreeing with you that a schedule could be a good thing, and perhaps a return to the grammar workbooks, and a regular dose of American history.
And what a great thing when he helps plan the schedule! I have tried to get input from my kids before, without any enthusiasm ever arising, but perhaps because I had given in to his request, last fall, that we be schedule-less, he was now more able to see the need. And to actually refer to it! (Although I think that perhaps the key to that action has been my new oversized white board that we printed the schedule on, much larger and more readable than previous computer-printed schedules which I had posted on the refrigerator.)
At any rate, we created a schedule that has worked beautifully for two days now! I am so pleased, I shall share it with you all.
B13:
Mom read aloud: Bible (Catherine Vos' Children's Story Bible) and chapter book (The Silver Chair)
Breakfast (help Chicklet6)
Unload dishwasher
Vacuum tile floors
Read 2 chapters of history (Hakim's The Story of US, Vol. 1)
Read Bible/devotional (J.C. Ryle's Thoughts for Young Men) and chapter book (My Side of the Mountain)
Math (Saxon 87)
Lunch
Clean up kitchen, take out trash
"Other school" (currently has been Easy Grammar and continuing to work on his lines for The Matchmaker)
Guitar
B9 (10 next week!):
Mom read aloud: Bible (Catherine Vos' Children's Story Bible) and chapter book (The Silver Chair)
Breakfast (serve Bantam3)
Clean up kitchen
Empty recycling
Practice piano
Read The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes to C6 and B3, then chapter book (Harry Potter, Bk 5)
Easy Grammar workbook page
Math lesson (Saxon 54)
Lunch
Vacuum wood floors
"Other school" (currently is writing a blog post about being in Schoolhouse Rock)
We kind of stumbled into the reading before breakfast time slot, but it has worked so well! Both boys are slow to wake up, so they stumble downstairs and lie down on the couch and I read to them while they wake up, and then we pray together, out loud, before breakfast. Usually the little kids are up before the Bantams, but they will play for a long time before they complain of being hungry!
They don't have a separate schedule, but during the Bantams' reading hour, after B9 reads them a few Bible stories, then I read picture books to them and we do Chicklet's reading lesson in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We may do more, but this will be the minimum.
I just realized that another key, perhaps, is the way I wrote the schedule so that each boy's chores are listed there too, instead of just "Chores." Even though they KNOW their chores--it seems to help. Also, I sketched in times next to each thing, so they can see that they can actually be done before 3:00 if they don't dawdle.
It's been a great year--but it feels good to be getting back into a routine!
We haven't drilled as hard as usual on the academics, but we've done lots of educational things, like enrichment classes in caricature drawing, critical thinking, foam sword-making and battling, and robotics. We've had gym classes, theater classes, piano and guitar lessons. We've been on field trips. We've made new friends, and picked up some new interests, like skateboarding, bike tricks, magic tricks and swing dancing.
The boys worked up singing, dancing and acting auditions, and Bantam13 memorized a monologue to audition for another class. Both boys got into the show and memorized lyrics and dances for seven scenes each. B13 got into the play and has memorized all the lines and blocking for a relatively big part.
We've read aloud and to ourselves almost daily, and we've kept up with where we need to be in math. We spent a lot of time last fall just drilling on math facts, which no one has regretted, and we did a good bit of writing early on. Chicklet is learning to read, among other skills, and has spent countless hours teaching Bantam3 everything she knows, about everything.
Most of this (especially the non-theater-related bits) has been happening more and more erratically, though, since about Thanksgiving...and you know it's time for a little more structure when your seventh grade son is agreeing with you that a schedule could be a good thing, and perhaps a return to the grammar workbooks, and a regular dose of American history.
And what a great thing when he helps plan the schedule! I have tried to get input from my kids before, without any enthusiasm ever arising, but perhaps because I had given in to his request, last fall, that we be schedule-less, he was now more able to see the need. And to actually refer to it! (Although I think that perhaps the key to that action has been my new oversized white board that we printed the schedule on, much larger and more readable than previous computer-printed schedules which I had posted on the refrigerator.)
At any rate, we created a schedule that has worked beautifully for two days now! I am so pleased, I shall share it with you all.
B13:
Mom read aloud: Bible (Catherine Vos' Children's Story Bible) and chapter book (The Silver Chair)
Breakfast (help Chicklet6)
Unload dishwasher
Vacuum tile floors
Read 2 chapters of history (Hakim's The Story of US, Vol. 1)
Read Bible/devotional (J.C. Ryle's Thoughts for Young Men) and chapter book (My Side of the Mountain)
Math (Saxon 87)
Lunch
Clean up kitchen, take out trash
"Other school" (currently has been Easy Grammar and continuing to work on his lines for The Matchmaker)
Guitar
B9 (10 next week!):
Mom read aloud: Bible (Catherine Vos' Children's Story Bible) and chapter book (The Silver Chair)
Breakfast (serve Bantam3)
Clean up kitchen
Empty recycling
Practice piano
Read The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes to C6 and B3, then chapter book (Harry Potter, Bk 5)
Easy Grammar workbook page
Math lesson (Saxon 54)
Lunch
Vacuum wood floors
"Other school" (currently is writing a blog post about being in Schoolhouse Rock)
We kind of stumbled into the reading before breakfast time slot, but it has worked so well! Both boys are slow to wake up, so they stumble downstairs and lie down on the couch and I read to them while they wake up, and then we pray together, out loud, before breakfast. Usually the little kids are up before the Bantams, but they will play for a long time before they complain of being hungry!
They don't have a separate schedule, but during the Bantams' reading hour, after B9 reads them a few Bible stories, then I read picture books to them and we do Chicklet's reading lesson in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We may do more, but this will be the minimum.
I just realized that another key, perhaps, is the way I wrote the schedule so that each boy's chores are listed there too, instead of just "Chores." Even though they KNOW their chores--it seems to help. Also, I sketched in times next to each thing, so they can see that they can actually be done before 3:00 if they don't dawdle.
It's been a great year--but it feels good to be getting back into a routine!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Bantam13 Learns a Dance
Blogging about one's teenagers can be a little tricky. When I met up with Megan and Summer recently, I confided about difficulties we've had with one of our teenagers, and Megan said, "Oh, from your blog, you'd never guess!" For the record and in the interests of FULL disclosure, let me state that no member of our family is as one-sidedly positive as they may appear in this blog. (Including me!)
Often I wish I could post about the latest challenge we're having with one of our kids, but my policy is to focus on the positive and not say anything about a family member that they wouldn't approve. So--many of those posts go completely unwritten. Some things I hope to share eventually, after we're through this phase or that, and time has lent objectivity.
But I have permission to tell this recent one. It has a happy and victorious resolution, and is a big praise to God as well as Bantam13!
You may remember that he landed a speaking part in his Advanced Drama class's upcoming production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker. Then he also got a featured part as a swing dancer in the Schoolhouse Rock musical, besides all the large group numbers he's in.
Well, you'd think he'd be eager to learn his parts and do well. But B13 has been in an ambivalent phase about theater, and when it comes right down to it, he'd rather practice guitar or skateboarding tricks than memorize lines or practice dance moves, especially when he has a LOT of lines and the dance is HARD--for him, anyway. His first reaction is to give up: It's too hard. He can't do it. He doesn't want to do it. They should get somebody else. He wants to quit.
Why did we make him do theater anyway? he complains. We did make him audition for this show; his siblings were doing it, so...in for a penny, in for a pound, as far as our time and money go. And his reasons for not auditioning were all so bad. His voice had changed, and he swore he couldn't sing any more. He was sure he wouldn't make any friends in the new chapter of our theater group. He didn't think it was cool to do theater. ("Are you kidding?" another mom commented on that, "The theater guys are the smartest boys in town. What other activity has so many girls to every guy?") He didn't think he had time, with homeschooling. (Hah.)
Bottom line is, he had only fear-based objections. I told him that as far as homeschooling was concerned, doing a show was signing him up for speech, music, and PE, besides acting and dancing. Oh yeah, and learning all the Schoolhouse Rock lyrics? Totally educational--duh! Plus he says he wants to be in a band someday and maybe sing as well as play guitar? So let's start figuring out how that man-voice works!
Still, he complained every day about practicing for the audition. Then it began to sink in that he could either practice and do a decent job, or not practice and really embarrass himself. His attitude changed overnight, when he decided to just buckle down and do it. And the results of his efforts were apparent even to himself. His audition was great!
So then he got these parts...and after his initial pleasure, he started complaining about the work required for them, especially over the holidays, when he wanted to be totally on vacation. So we fussed about that for a good bit of the break, until he finally started working on his lines for Act One and discovered that actually, he memorizes pretty easily. Soon he had them all nearly down, including his three-page soliloquy in Act Three, and he was feeling a little better.
But that dance. That swing dance. The one he just can't remember. Can't learn. Can't practice without his partner. Why did they ever think he could do it? They should get someone else. There's just no way he can learn it.
Finally, I had started composing an email to his swing dance partner's mother to see if his partner could get together with him outside of rehearsal, when he appeared at my elbow. "All right, Mom, I know what I need to do now. I need to get together with [another boy in the same number] after class tomorrow and take the lyrics with me, double-spaced, so that there's room for me to write my own notes to remember the steps, so I can practice on my own."
I was thrilled! His idea was even better than my plan. He went home with the other boy and took notes on the steps; he came home and really practiced, and at the next rehearsal, he knew the dance. Both his partner and the director were totally delighted.
He is so pleased, himself. "It's really fun, once you know it," he told me. "And now that I know those steps, I can always do them at other places, like weddings." He also said, "I prayed every time the music started, and I really felt God helping me." And more than once: "Now I'm so glad I got that part!"
We are so proud of him! He has faced his fears, and three times, he has overcome his desire to give up when things are hard: practicing for the audition, memorizing all those lines, and learning this dance. The performances should be a piece of cake. For him, the huge character challenge was to make himself do the preliminary hard work.
And that, my friends, is probably the most important thing he's learned all year.
Often I wish I could post about the latest challenge we're having with one of our kids, but my policy is to focus on the positive and not say anything about a family member that they wouldn't approve. So--many of those posts go completely unwritten. Some things I hope to share eventually, after we're through this phase or that, and time has lent objectivity.
But I have permission to tell this recent one. It has a happy and victorious resolution, and is a big praise to God as well as Bantam13!
You may remember that he landed a speaking part in his Advanced Drama class's upcoming production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker. Then he also got a featured part as a swing dancer in the Schoolhouse Rock musical, besides all the large group numbers he's in.
Well, you'd think he'd be eager to learn his parts and do well. But B13 has been in an ambivalent phase about theater, and when it comes right down to it, he'd rather practice guitar or skateboarding tricks than memorize lines or practice dance moves, especially when he has a LOT of lines and the dance is HARD--for him, anyway. His first reaction is to give up: It's too hard. He can't do it. He doesn't want to do it. They should get somebody else. He wants to quit.
Why did we make him do theater anyway? he complains. We did make him audition for this show; his siblings were doing it, so...in for a penny, in for a pound, as far as our time and money go. And his reasons for not auditioning were all so bad. His voice had changed, and he swore he couldn't sing any more. He was sure he wouldn't make any friends in the new chapter of our theater group. He didn't think it was cool to do theater. ("Are you kidding?" another mom commented on that, "The theater guys are the smartest boys in town. What other activity has so many girls to every guy?") He didn't think he had time, with homeschooling. (Hah.)
Bottom line is, he had only fear-based objections. I told him that as far as homeschooling was concerned, doing a show was signing him up for speech, music, and PE, besides acting and dancing. Oh yeah, and learning all the Schoolhouse Rock lyrics? Totally educational--duh! Plus he says he wants to be in a band someday and maybe sing as well as play guitar? So let's start figuring out how that man-voice works!
Still, he complained every day about practicing for the audition. Then it began to sink in that he could either practice and do a decent job, or not practice and really embarrass himself. His attitude changed overnight, when he decided to just buckle down and do it. And the results of his efforts were apparent even to himself. His audition was great!
So then he got these parts...and after his initial pleasure, he started complaining about the work required for them, especially over the holidays, when he wanted to be totally on vacation. So we fussed about that for a good bit of the break, until he finally started working on his lines for Act One and discovered that actually, he memorizes pretty easily. Soon he had them all nearly down, including his three-page soliloquy in Act Three, and he was feeling a little better.
But that dance. That swing dance. The one he just can't remember. Can't learn. Can't practice without his partner. Why did they ever think he could do it? They should get someone else. There's just no way he can learn it.
Finally, I had started composing an email to his swing dance partner's mother to see if his partner could get together with him outside of rehearsal, when he appeared at my elbow. "All right, Mom, I know what I need to do now. I need to get together with [another boy in the same number] after class tomorrow and take the lyrics with me, double-spaced, so that there's room for me to write my own notes to remember the steps, so I can practice on my own."
I was thrilled! His idea was even better than my plan. He went home with the other boy and took notes on the steps; he came home and really practiced, and at the next rehearsal, he knew the dance. Both his partner and the director were totally delighted.
He is so pleased, himself. "It's really fun, once you know it," he told me. "And now that I know those steps, I can always do them at other places, like weddings." He also said, "I prayed every time the music started, and I really felt God helping me." And more than once: "Now I'm so glad I got that part!"
We are so proud of him! He has faced his fears, and three times, he has overcome his desire to give up when things are hard: practicing for the audition, memorizing all those lines, and learning this dance. The performances should be a piece of cake. For him, the huge character challenge was to make himself do the preliminary hard work.
And that, my friends, is probably the most important thing he's learned all year.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Unschooling Update
I feel like I am still trying on that label, like a new coat I've brought home from the store--but haven't removed the tags from yet. I keep trying it on and deciding, again, whether it fits, whether I like it enough to keep it. The conservative part of me wants something a little less bold, like "eclectic" or "relaxed." Is it really accurate to call what we're doing "unschooling"?
Because I'm not letting them play all day. We have certain subjects that we do every day, whether they want to or not. I'm not radical enough, yet, to "trust that a child will seek out and learn what he needs to know, when he needs to know it, without coercion, without school or school type methods....." There's just too much of the teacher in me to eschew "school type methods," and too much experience with my kids needingcoercion guidance, frequently, to use their time wisely.
But we are not using a curriculum. Despite my intentions to do so--compulsively, I'd really like to finish up at least our spelling and grammar workbooks from last year--we haven't cracked a workbook or a textbook, not even a math book, yet. I haven't drawn up a schedule, or a checklist; we're not getting to every subject area every day. Yet Bantam13 said to me yesterday, "I'm learning more this year than I ever have before."
So what have we been doing? On a daily basis, we're focusing on reading, writing and 'rithmetic. We're working in other subjects almost daily too, but they don't even seem like school to the kids--like music (piano and guitar practice), PE (running with Dad, dance class), Bible (reading aloud), reading comprehension and speech (learning/presenting new magic tricks). We have enrichment classes starting up soon, and their theater classes have already started. We've touched on history and science when these subjects have arisen, and we've pulled out a couple of activity kits we could never get to before, to study meteorology and crystal formation--but we're keeping our main focus on the basics.
Writing, for example, has always been our bugaboo--I love for my kids to write, but it's time consuming. Rewriting and polishing is so frustrating to a kid who's got a whole checklist of other subjects he needs to get to. But if I say, "Would you rather go back to a grammar workbook? A spelling workbook? Remember that's what we're covering when we edit your writing"--then they're considerably more cooperative about spending that time correcting errors and rewriting. And they're rewarded--and get keyboarding practice, too--by publishing the results, along with pictures, in their own blogs! (see sidebar)
For reading, for the first time in years (since we've done Sonlight for the past two years), I am not assigning them their reading books. So they don't have a "school" book and a "pleasure" book going--they're focusing on one that they've picked. Bantam13 has been reading the fifth Harry Potter book and is enjoying it so much that he keeps choosing to go read--even over going out with the neighborhood kids, one time. I don't recognize this boy! He always complained about the Sonlight readers--too hard and/or boring, he usually said, and he wasn't a fast enough reader to have much time left over for his own selections. But he is amazing himself with his ability to concentrate, stay awake and lose himself in the story--something it seems he's never been able to do before, even with Harry Potter, because he keeps remarking on it. That's worth gold to me!
We're also reading aloud from a book that I picked just for them--a favorite of mine when I was their age, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. We are reviewing vocabulary as we come across words which I feel need explaining; I am also pointing out writing style items of note, such as how she builds suspense and intrigue. The book has raised questions of science as well. They are loving it.
Math was the scariest subject to teach without a curriculum, since I'm not really a math person. But in my "back to basics" approach, I knew we had to start with the simple facts that my oldest son had never really mastered. With Saxon Math last year, I'd observed repeatedly how long it took him to do problems, and I'd prescribed daily time with the Flashmaster. But his is not an independent learning style, despite my urgings to develop one--which did not coincide well with him frequently finding himself third in line for my teacherly attention, last year especially.
So it's been addition and subtraction flashcards, for him and his 4th grade brother, for the last month. Part of me wants to freak out because, how will we ever get him through that Saxon 76 book this year? The other part of me is watching him grow by leaps and bounds, in confidence and in his ability to do mental math, as he notices patterns and develops strategies, especially for numbers in the teens and above (our flashcards go up to + 12, and begin with 24-). The practice is exactly what his brother needs as well. I've looked at MathUSee's Intermediate book to remind me what else we could be reviewing, and we've also worked on place value and reading and writing numbers up to one billion and down to thousandths. My plan is to keep following our noses through the math world--after multiplication and division come fractions, decimals, percents, basic geometry and algebra, right?--and eventually look at the Saxon book and see what we left out. Or maybe we'll switch to MathUSee--we'll see.
So what do you think? Are we unschooling?
We're not following the school's scope and sequence for 7th grade, but my 7th grader says he's learning more than he's ever learned in a school year, so far. He's loving reading, writing daily without complaint, and gaining so much confidence in math. (His comment was: "It was always too hard and I hated it, so I didn't really learn it.") We're focusing on what they want to learn and what I think they need to learn. And it's surprising how many extras we're fitting in around those "big rocks."
Because I'm not letting them play all day. We have certain subjects that we do every day, whether they want to or not. I'm not radical enough, yet, to "trust that a child will seek out and learn what he needs to know, when he needs to know it, without coercion, without school or school type methods....." There's just too much of the teacher in me to eschew "school type methods," and too much experience with my kids needing
But we are not using a curriculum. Despite my intentions to do so--compulsively, I'd really like to finish up at least our spelling and grammar workbooks from last year--we haven't cracked a workbook or a textbook, not even a math book, yet. I haven't drawn up a schedule, or a checklist; we're not getting to every subject area every day. Yet Bantam13 said to me yesterday, "I'm learning more this year than I ever have before."
So what have we been doing? On a daily basis, we're focusing on reading, writing and 'rithmetic. We're working in other subjects almost daily too, but they don't even seem like school to the kids--like music (piano and guitar practice), PE (running with Dad, dance class), Bible (reading aloud), reading comprehension and speech (learning/presenting new magic tricks). We have enrichment classes starting up soon, and their theater classes have already started. We've touched on history and science when these subjects have arisen, and we've pulled out a couple of activity kits we could never get to before, to study meteorology and crystal formation--but we're keeping our main focus on the basics.
Writing, for example, has always been our bugaboo--I love for my kids to write, but it's time consuming. Rewriting and polishing is so frustrating to a kid who's got a whole checklist of other subjects he needs to get to. But if I say, "Would you rather go back to a grammar workbook? A spelling workbook? Remember that's what we're covering when we edit your writing"--then they're considerably more cooperative about spending that time correcting errors and rewriting. And they're rewarded--and get keyboarding practice, too--by publishing the results, along with pictures, in their own blogs! (see sidebar)
For reading, for the first time in years (since we've done Sonlight for the past two years), I am not assigning them their reading books. So they don't have a "school" book and a "pleasure" book going--they're focusing on one that they've picked. Bantam13 has been reading the fifth Harry Potter book and is enjoying it so much that he keeps choosing to go read--even over going out with the neighborhood kids, one time. I don't recognize this boy! He always complained about the Sonlight readers--too hard and/or boring, he usually said, and he wasn't a fast enough reader to have much time left over for his own selections. But he is amazing himself with his ability to concentrate, stay awake and lose himself in the story--something it seems he's never been able to do before, even with Harry Potter, because he keeps remarking on it. That's worth gold to me!
We're also reading aloud from a book that I picked just for them--a favorite of mine when I was their age, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. We are reviewing vocabulary as we come across words which I feel need explaining; I am also pointing out writing style items of note, such as how she builds suspense and intrigue. The book has raised questions of science as well. They are loving it.
Math was the scariest subject to teach without a curriculum, since I'm not really a math person. But in my "back to basics" approach, I knew we had to start with the simple facts that my oldest son had never really mastered. With Saxon Math last year, I'd observed repeatedly how long it took him to do problems, and I'd prescribed daily time with the Flashmaster. But his is not an independent learning style, despite my urgings to develop one--which did not coincide well with him frequently finding himself third in line for my teacherly attention, last year especially.
So it's been addition and subtraction flashcards, for him and his 4th grade brother, for the last month. Part of me wants to freak out because, how will we ever get him through that Saxon 76 book this year? The other part of me is watching him grow by leaps and bounds, in confidence and in his ability to do mental math, as he notices patterns and develops strategies, especially for numbers in the teens and above (our flashcards go up to + 12, and begin with 24-). The practice is exactly what his brother needs as well. I've looked at MathUSee's Intermediate book to remind me what else we could be reviewing, and we've also worked on place value and reading and writing numbers up to one billion and down to thousandths. My plan is to keep following our noses through the math world--after multiplication and division come fractions, decimals, percents, basic geometry and algebra, right?--and eventually look at the Saxon book and see what we left out. Or maybe we'll switch to MathUSee--we'll see.
So what do you think? Are we unschooling?
We're not following the school's scope and sequence for 7th grade, but my 7th grader says he's learning more than he's ever learned in a school year, so far. He's loving reading, writing daily without complaint, and gaining so much confidence in math. (His comment was: "It was always too hard and I hated it, so I didn't really learn it.") We're focusing on what they want to learn and what I think they need to learn. And it's surprising how many extras we're fitting in around those "big rocks."
Thursday, September 04, 2008
A New Approach
I started feeling a need for change in our homeschool a couple of years ago. As I added students and grade levels, we had become more and more structured in our studies, in order to pack in everything: a page a day of this, 5 chapters a week in that, in order to work our way through the curriculum and books that I had selected. Once that information was covered, we could call it a year.
It was convenient and practical to do school that way, and certainly they did learn a lot. But what began to disturb me was that my students were always wanting just to "get through it." If I suggested an enrichment activity like pulling out a map to locate the setting of a book, they groaned and said I was wasting time. Some of them wouldn't come to me for help with a workbook page, because "it would take longer," but they'd take forever to get through their work because they kept stopping to do what they wanted. I was doing a lot more nagging and a lot less teaching than I enjoyed.
I wanted to do something different last year, but the timing wasn't good, with our house on the market and an imminent move. This year, however, seemed like the perfect time for a change, with my two oldest going off to public school. My two middle sons, now the oldest at home, were usually the ones more willing to go off on a tangent with me, and they also seemed to be benefiting least from the structured approach. I could almost see their interest dying, checkmark by checkmark.
But I had never met anyone who was currently unschooling. I knew of one woman whose kids are all grown who had never done a thing with them till late junior high; then she had them tutored for a year and sent to a private high school. All ten of them are amazing people, but I never knew her well enough to ask questions or seek inspiration.
Then a friend suggested that I check out the blog of a friend of hers: Jena at Yarns of the Heart. Jena was unschooling, quite successfully, as it turns out, with her oldest acing his college entrance exams and getting a full-ride scholarship into the college of his choice. And they do musical theater!
Reading some of her posts (like Interest-Led Learning) gave me the courage to seriously pray about making a big change this year. And oddly enough, investigating the educational philosophy of the charter school that Blondechick is now attending was also a significant step toward unschooling, or perhaps I should say, away from conventional approaches. Meeting a few of her teachers--who were clearly creative learning directors, adept at arousing interest and motivation--was inspiring to me personally, reminding me of my own first love of teaching, which is so much more than checking off assignment boxes and correcting papers.
So perhaps unschooling isn't the perfect word to describe our new approach, because I'm doing more teaching than I have in a long time! But it's all in a context as we explore together; I'm just explaining, as we follow our noses, and rabbit trails, and our hearts. (It was so much fun today, when they asked me to keep reading, to keep reading!--since there wasn't a long checklist of other things we HAD to get to.) I am eager to tailor our activities to their needs, as we did today in a basic math lesson that wouldn't have been in a 7th grade math book, but was exactly what B13 needed to review and build his confidence.
And today at 5:15, when I returned home from a quick errrand, I was shocked to realize that both boys were still at it, composing essays (on subjects of high interest to them) and practicing their keyboarding skills while they did so (one on the desktop and one on the laptop).
A new approach, indeed!
It was convenient and practical to do school that way, and certainly they did learn a lot. But what began to disturb me was that my students were always wanting just to "get through it." If I suggested an enrichment activity like pulling out a map to locate the setting of a book, they groaned and said I was wasting time. Some of them wouldn't come to me for help with a workbook page, because "it would take longer," but they'd take forever to get through their work because they kept stopping to do what they wanted. I was doing a lot more nagging and a lot less teaching than I enjoyed.
I wanted to do something different last year, but the timing wasn't good, with our house on the market and an imminent move. This year, however, seemed like the perfect time for a change, with my two oldest going off to public school. My two middle sons, now the oldest at home, were usually the ones more willing to go off on a tangent with me, and they also seemed to be benefiting least from the structured approach. I could almost see their interest dying, checkmark by checkmark.
But I had never met anyone who was currently unschooling. I knew of one woman whose kids are all grown who had never done a thing with them till late junior high; then she had them tutored for a year and sent to a private high school. All ten of them are amazing people, but I never knew her well enough to ask questions or seek inspiration.
Then a friend suggested that I check out the blog of a friend of hers: Jena at Yarns of the Heart. Jena was unschooling, quite successfully, as it turns out, with her oldest acing his college entrance exams and getting a full-ride scholarship into the college of his choice. And they do musical theater!
Reading some of her posts (like Interest-Led Learning) gave me the courage to seriously pray about making a big change this year. And oddly enough, investigating the educational philosophy of the charter school that Blondechick is now attending was also a significant step toward unschooling, or perhaps I should say, away from conventional approaches. Meeting a few of her teachers--who were clearly creative learning directors, adept at arousing interest and motivation--was inspiring to me personally, reminding me of my own first love of teaching, which is so much more than checking off assignment boxes and correcting papers.
So perhaps unschooling isn't the perfect word to describe our new approach, because I'm doing more teaching than I have in a long time! But it's all in a context as we explore together; I'm just explaining, as we follow our noses, and rabbit trails, and our hearts. (It was so much fun today, when they asked me to keep reading, to keep reading!--since there wasn't a long checklist of other things we HAD to get to.) I am eager to tailor our activities to their needs, as we did today in a basic math lesson that wouldn't have been in a 7th grade math book, but was exactly what B13 needed to review and build his confidence.
And today at 5:15, when I returned home from a quick errrand, I was shocked to realize that both boys were still at it, composing essays (on subjects of high interest to them) and practicing their keyboarding skills while they did so (one on the desktop and one on the laptop).
A new approach, indeed!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
First Day of School
It was a big day for us all!
Bantam17 had only a partial day, in which they spent a short time in each class. He met all his teachers and said he was most excited about Art and World Literature. He thinks Art will be the hardest class he has this quarter, and I suspect he's right; there are a lot of out-of-class projects that will be coming due quite frequently. He really liked the World Lit teacher, who will take the class to Medieval Times (Dinner and Tournament) sometime this year.
He was concerned though, because all his paperwork listed him as in 10th grade, and he got a note from his case manager saying he would have to drop the World Literature class, as he didn't have enough English credits to take it. So I will have to call the school in the morning and make sure that gets straightened out; apparently his case manager, whom he hasn't met yet, didn't get the information about his homeschooled sophomore year. But his mood was good when he came home, I was pleased to see.
Blondechick was breathless when she returned home, rushing up the stairs to change for our first night of theater classes. "I can't believe I have to go and meet more new people tonight," she complained. "I think I've met all the new people I can handle for one day!" (Quite amusing, coming from our wildly extroverted child!)
"So can you believe there was drama on the first day?" she asked, once we were in the car.
"Knowing you, drama doesn't surprise me, but happening on the first day, it does," I replied, my heart sinking. Turns out there are two cliques wanting her to be in their group, each telling her bad things about the other. She feels torn; she likes both groups and doesn't know whether to believe any of their gossip. She wants to be friends with all of them, and I don't know any other advice to give her. These things have a way of taking care of themselves; we will just pray that the Holy Spirit will guide her and that she'll listen to Him!
Other than that, she didn't have much to tell; she spent the whole day with her "Crew," or homeroom class, which is where most of the character/leadership component is communicated. Today they got to know each other and the neighborhood, going for a walk to learn the landmarks and visiting a coffee shop just up the street.
At home, it was an unusual first day for us. I haven't had a chance to blog about my homeschool plans for this year, but I've decided to give "unschooling" a try for this fall, at least. Let me immediately assure one and all that I don't intend to let my kids play all day and call it school, but I do intend to let them choose, to a much greater degree, what they want to study and read.
So today I introduced that idea to them, and with it, some educational philosophy.
"Do you think you learn more if you hurry through lots of different subjects so you can check them off, or focus on one or two things that you really are interested in, spending extra time looking things up, experimenting and asking questions?"
"How about reading a book and learning magic tricks, like you did this summer--is that school?"
"We've done a lot of history for the past four years. What if we did a lot more science this year instead, like experiments and field trips? What if we did more art? What if you spent more time learning guitar and piano? Would that be school?"
"What if, instead of a spelling workbook, a grammar workbook and a handwriting workbook, we spent more time writing every day about your life, your pets, your friends, your thoughts?"
We had a great discussion. "This is really making me think," Bantam13 told me. "Let me get this straight. You mean no workbooks? Just learning whatever we want?"
"Well, there are a few things you will have to do every day. Math--although we're not necessarily going to do a chapter a day in your math book. Reading--chapter books, and I'll let you choose whatever you want from the history or science shelf and read as much or little as you like. Writing--I may give you writing assignments, but if not, I want you to write regularly in your blog, about whatever you want. We can hide all your previous posts and you can start fresh. Maybe we'll set up a separate school blog where you can post things I assign, and maybe we'll use it to keep track of what we do each day."
They liked the blogging idea. "We need to practice keyboarding, Mom," they reminded me--a subject we rarely get to. "Absolutely," I said, "that will be school." "And I'm teaching Chicklet to read, remember--every day," Bantam13 insisted. "Of course!" I affirmed. (He's an excellent teacher; he taught B9 to read.) "Hey, I want to help!" said B9. "You have to be really patient," B13 told him. "You can't be mean, or she won't learn anything."
We brainstormed a lot more about ways we could fill our days, and then pored over the homeschool co-op's enrichment class descriptions, which look fabulous. As we discussed some of the fees for various classes, I explained the concept of a budget, and shared with them my "magic number" that they can help me to stay under this month. "That sounds like a lot, but by the time we pay for food, gas, shampoo, an oil change, piano lessons and these fees, we might be having to clean out the freezer and the pantry shelves instead of going to the grocery at the end of the month!"
"Mom, I was just thinking that this is really interesting, but we should hurry up and get started on school," B13 said. "But then I thought, wait--this is school. I'm learning a lot."
I can't tell you how that delighted my educator's heart!
During our discussion, he asked another interesting question: "Will I learn less than I would if I were in school this year? Or more? Or the same?"
I didn't know how to answer. (There are so many angles!) "You may not learn the same things you'd learn if you were in school this year. But you might learn more--or less--or different things; it's really up to you. You know you need to spend time on math, mastering some of the concepts you've studied. What if you didn't learn lots of new things in math, but you really learned the old things this time? You need to be honest about what you need to learn, even if it's not your favorite subject. And I will make sure we cover our bases for the year."
So the experiment is off to a good start! In fact, the boys inaugurated the new school year with an experiment. After poring over the directions in a science activity book, they spent a long time supersaturating a sugar solution, and we inadvertantly learned why you want to replace those peeling non-stick pans; our sugar syrup is full of tiny suspended bits of Teflon which the sugar scoured off. We were still able to study crystals through a magnifying glass, but I don't think they'll be able to eat their rock candy!
Since they loved D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, the boys chose to begin D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants and B13, on his own initiative, quizzed B9 while they cleaned up lunch. Besides reading to the two youngest, I started Chicklet in a favorite workbook that all my K-1st graders have loved, and we did a page on shapes in B3's coloring book. He was pretty cooperative, but insisted on coloring the triangles orange, not blue as I directed. Oh well.
Then it was time to leave for theater class, and for the first time, I took four kids. Blondechick15 is taking a Christian hip-hop dance class, B13 has a magic class he's really excited about, B9 says he's fine as the only boy in a jazz class full of girls, and Chicklet5 is thrilled to be taking her first theater class and learning music from You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.
It was a good first day. Thank you, Lord!
Bantam17 had only a partial day, in which they spent a short time in each class. He met all his teachers and said he was most excited about Art and World Literature. He thinks Art will be the hardest class he has this quarter, and I suspect he's right; there are a lot of out-of-class projects that will be coming due quite frequently. He really liked the World Lit teacher, who will take the class to Medieval Times (Dinner and Tournament) sometime this year.
He was concerned though, because all his paperwork listed him as in 10th grade, and he got a note from his case manager saying he would have to drop the World Literature class, as he didn't have enough English credits to take it. So I will have to call the school in the morning and make sure that gets straightened out; apparently his case manager, whom he hasn't met yet, didn't get the information about his homeschooled sophomore year. But his mood was good when he came home, I was pleased to see.
Blondechick was breathless when she returned home, rushing up the stairs to change for our first night of theater classes. "I can't believe I have to go and meet more new people tonight," she complained. "I think I've met all the new people I can handle for one day!" (Quite amusing, coming from our wildly extroverted child!)
"So can you believe there was drama on the first day?" she asked, once we were in the car.
"Knowing you, drama doesn't surprise me, but happening on the first day, it does," I replied, my heart sinking. Turns out there are two cliques wanting her to be in their group, each telling her bad things about the other. She feels torn; she likes both groups and doesn't know whether to believe any of their gossip. She wants to be friends with all of them, and I don't know any other advice to give her. These things have a way of taking care of themselves; we will just pray that the Holy Spirit will guide her and that she'll listen to Him!
Other than that, she didn't have much to tell; she spent the whole day with her "Crew," or homeroom class, which is where most of the character/leadership component is communicated. Today they got to know each other and the neighborhood, going for a walk to learn the landmarks and visiting a coffee shop just up the street.
At home, it was an unusual first day for us. I haven't had a chance to blog about my homeschool plans for this year, but I've decided to give "unschooling" a try for this fall, at least. Let me immediately assure one and all that I don't intend to let my kids play all day and call it school, but I do intend to let them choose, to a much greater degree, what they want to study and read.
So today I introduced that idea to them, and with it, some educational philosophy.
"Do you think you learn more if you hurry through lots of different subjects so you can check them off, or focus on one or two things that you really are interested in, spending extra time looking things up, experimenting and asking questions?"
"How about reading a book and learning magic tricks, like you did this summer--is that school?"
"We've done a lot of history for the past four years. What if we did a lot more science this year instead, like experiments and field trips? What if we did more art? What if you spent more time learning guitar and piano? Would that be school?"
"What if, instead of a spelling workbook, a grammar workbook and a handwriting workbook, we spent more time writing every day about your life, your pets, your friends, your thoughts?"
We had a great discussion. "This is really making me think," Bantam13 told me. "Let me get this straight. You mean no workbooks? Just learning whatever we want?"
"Well, there are a few things you will have to do every day. Math--although we're not necessarily going to do a chapter a day in your math book. Reading--chapter books, and I'll let you choose whatever you want from the history or science shelf and read as much or little as you like. Writing--I may give you writing assignments, but if not, I want you to write regularly in your blog, about whatever you want. We can hide all your previous posts and you can start fresh. Maybe we'll set up a separate school blog where you can post things I assign, and maybe we'll use it to keep track of what we do each day."
They liked the blogging idea. "We need to practice keyboarding, Mom," they reminded me--a subject we rarely get to. "Absolutely," I said, "that will be school." "And I'm teaching Chicklet to read, remember--every day," Bantam13 insisted. "Of course!" I affirmed. (He's an excellent teacher; he taught B9 to read.) "Hey, I want to help!" said B9. "You have to be really patient," B13 told him. "You can't be mean, or she won't learn anything."
We brainstormed a lot more about ways we could fill our days, and then pored over the homeschool co-op's enrichment class descriptions, which look fabulous. As we discussed some of the fees for various classes, I explained the concept of a budget, and shared with them my "magic number" that they can help me to stay under this month. "That sounds like a lot, but by the time we pay for food, gas, shampoo, an oil change, piano lessons and these fees, we might be having to clean out the freezer and the pantry shelves instead of going to the grocery at the end of the month!"
"Mom, I was just thinking that this is really interesting, but we should hurry up and get started on school," B13 said. "But then I thought, wait--this is school. I'm learning a lot."
I can't tell you how that delighted my educator's heart!
During our discussion, he asked another interesting question: "Will I learn less than I would if I were in school this year? Or more? Or the same?"
I didn't know how to answer. (There are so many angles!) "You may not learn the same things you'd learn if you were in school this year. But you might learn more--or less--or different things; it's really up to you. You know you need to spend time on math, mastering some of the concepts you've studied. What if you didn't learn lots of new things in math, but you really learned the old things this time? You need to be honest about what you need to learn, even if it's not your favorite subject. And I will make sure we cover our bases for the year."
So the experiment is off to a good start! In fact, the boys inaugurated the new school year with an experiment. After poring over the directions in a science activity book, they spent a long time supersaturating a sugar solution, and we inadvertantly learned why you want to replace those peeling non-stick pans; our sugar syrup is full of tiny suspended bits of Teflon which the sugar scoured off. We were still able to study crystals through a magnifying glass, but I don't think they'll be able to eat their rock candy!
Since they loved D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, the boys chose to begin D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants and B13, on his own initiative, quizzed B9 while they cleaned up lunch. Besides reading to the two youngest, I started Chicklet in a favorite workbook that all my K-1st graders have loved, and we did a page on shapes in B3's coloring book. He was pretty cooperative, but insisted on coloring the triangles orange, not blue as I directed. Oh well.
Then it was time to leave for theater class, and for the first time, I took four kids. Blondechick15 is taking a Christian hip-hop dance class, B13 has a magic class he's really excited about, B9 says he's fine as the only boy in a jazz class full of girls, and Chicklet5 is thrilled to be taking her first theater class and learning music from You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.
It was a good first day. Thank you, Lord!
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