Homegrown Minds

Civics

2012-02-09T22:56:00.003-05:00

As homeschoolers in PA, we are required to teach specific subjects every year. The list includes English, arithmetic, science, geography, history of United States and Pennsylvania, civics, safety education, health, physical education, music and art. Some of these subjects are covered daily in our classroom. English, math, science and history are consistently covered throughout the school year. Physical education, art, music and geography make an appearance about once per week, sometimes more often. I am covering the remaining subjects; health, safety education and civics, in smaller units. Health and civics each get five weeks of study, safety education was a three day fire safety day-camp in late summer, plus a few activities the rest of the year.

Last year I struggled to put together an organized study of civics for the boys. I had it on our calendar as a once a week item, but always seemed to push it aside to finish other things. So this year I decided I had to get serious and PLAN something in order to really pull it off. I decided we would spend three days a week for five weeks on topics related to citizenship and government. Here is what I ended up throwing together.

~Week One
Discuss what rules and laws are and how they affect both our nation and all organizations
Activity: imagine you are the leader of a country and must write up your own laws, create
five laws for your citizens.
How can people change laws if they are unfair? Read about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the
civil rights movement. Discuss non-violent protests and how they can change laws.
History of the Star Spangled Banner. Read The Star Spangled Banner in Translation

~Week Two
Read about the establishment of the US government and the Constitution. Watch BrainPOP
videos on the branches of government and Bill of Rights. Do activity sheets for each.
Begin reading The Voice of the People
Review vocabulary related to these subjects; amendment, allegiance, independence.

~Week Three
Activity sheets (from old Calvert material) on citizenship, leadership and authority.
JT only, choose one leader we read about and write a paragraph about him or her.
Read fact book on presidents.

~Week Four
Discuss civic duties.
Make a list of the ways we can help our community.
Discuss American symbols; flag, bald eagle, seal, etc.
Discuss American foods and their true origins.

~Week Five
Learn about national landmarks.
Choose one landmark to research further.
Review the roles of each branch of government.
Use online activities such as iCivics and quizzes on Sheppard Software websites.
Watch School House Rock videos related to government.

It has been a fun unit for us. Fifteen days isn't really enough time to cover the full scope of civics, but knowing that we will touch on a little every year, I assume we will eventually have a good grasp on the subject. This morning a member of the Gifted Homeschoolers' Forum posted this video her daughter had made about the Constitution for a class on government.

When the boys were watching it, JT said, "I like how she used the harmonies. Maybe she did that to show how the Constitution helps us live in harmony with one another."

I thought that was a nice final note for our study on citizenship.

For the Love of Reading

2012-02-02T19:39:00.006-05:00

Reading has always been one of my favorite pastimes. When I was a kid, I rarely went anywhere without a book. As a teen, I'd spend hour after hour in my room reading. My daughter, now in her 20s, followed closely in my footsteps. She was reading a healthy dose of sci-fi and fantasy novels while riding the bus to school. When JT came along, he was an early reader with a voracious appetite for more books than I could supply.

Then came EM. We read to all of our children, pretty much from birth...one of my favorite pictures is my husband with a newborn EM on his lap reading Dr. Seuss's ABC book. But when the time came for reading on his own, EM was reluctant. In past posts I have discussed both his auditory processing problem and his intermittent exotropia and how those two issues may have contributed to his avoidance of reading. While he has made progress in the years since both diagnoses, he has never preferred reading over any other activity.

Then a couple months ago, we chose Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as our new bedtime read aloud book. My husband reads a chapter from a book to both boys during their snack time. He read aloud to our daughter until she was into her teens and will continue the tradition as long as the boys continue to listen. When we finished the first book in the series, EM decided he would try to read the next book on his own. He picked up a copy of The Chamber of Secrets at the library and finished it in less than 10 days!

Earlier this week, he was working on the grammar assignment pictured above. When he came to the question "Which book do you plan to read next?" he had an answer. I don't think EM had ever PLANNED what book he would like to read next before he discovered Harry Potter. Now, only two days after our trip to the library, EM is nearly 100 pages into The Prisoner of Azkaban. I don't know if this reading splurge will last beyond the final Harry Potter book, but for now I'm encouraged by the excitement EM is showing. When he finished reading The Chamber of Secrets on Monday night, he said to me, "What perfect timing. Tomorrow is library day so I can get a copy of the next book right away!"

And that was music to my ears.

Too Much of a Good Thing

2012-01-26T23:07:00.008-05:00

Our family spends a lot of time together... a LOT of time. We school at home, we do many outside activities as a family, and my husband works from home. Most of the time we enjoy our group hermitage. But then there are some days...
Remember that old Bill Cosby routine Brain Damage? There's one part of that routine that really resonates with me lately.
Will you stop touching me?!

I spend a great deal of time breaking up disagreements between the boys. These usually involve someone infringing on someone else's personal space. Many times EM will work on JT's nerves with some minor irritating behavior until JT has had enough and reacts in a physical way. I come on the scene and EM is in trouble for invading the personal space and JT is in trouble for not walking away from the situation or calling a parent to deal with it. Both of these issues have been discussed more times than I can count. Is there hope that eventually it will be planted firmly in their minds so that it brings about the proper reaction? One can only hope.

Now I know that all parents with more than one child at home deal with these kinds of issues on a daily basis. Kids will always have their squabbles. But I can also understand why so many parents rejoice when summer vacation is ending. The daily dose of sibling conflict is reduced. Less time together equals less time to fight. We on the other hand, have no reprieve.

Some times are better than others. When the weather is nice, they play outside with each other fairly well. We have an acre of land for them to spread out from one another. When there is snow on the ground, they play nicely together while sledding. They can even play for hours inside with LEGOs or other creative toys most days. But when the weather is nasty, day after day, or we have few plans that allow us to leave the house on separate errands...the tension begins to build and the conflict ensues.

This problem is not only an issue the boys must face. I also get easily irritated when I've been shut up with my crew for too long. For me, it usually comes out as a heightened annoyance with noises and personal space invasion. Little things, like JT's incessant need to drum on any available surface or EM's inability to sit still start to feel like direct attacks on me. Then my fuse is shorter and my reactions are less than cheerful.

Luckily, I am beginning to recognize the signs of an impending explosion. Now I need to start working proactively to prevent them. I am going to put a new policy in place. When any of us are starting to feel the pressure building, we will take a time out and go to our separate corners to do what we love. For me, it will probably be reading or playing either my violin or piano, JT will probably chose reading and EM will likely choose to play in his room.

Getting along harmoniously in such close quarters takes some work. Don't get me wrong, our happy times far outweigh the bad. I want our home-bound lifestyle to be one of peace, not strife. With a little effort, I think it can continue to be a haven for all of us.

Studying American History

2012-01-19T23:47:00.006-05:00

I must admit, as a student I did not have a very high opinion of history. The first real memory I have involving studying history in school is of the most dismally boring American History class I had to take in 9th grade. The room always seemed too warm, perfect for napping, and the teacher had a monotone voice. I don't think I learned anything in that class.

So far, we have had great success in our study of ancient history. Using The Story of the World series with supplements like the Horrible Histories books, the boys have been able to stay interested because we are reading about history through stories, not boring lists of facts. I wanted to find something just as easy to use and interesting to read as those books, but focusing on American history. That search hasn't turned up the perfect fit yet, but we did find a good starting point.

All Through the Ages, History through Literature Guide by Christine Miller is a good resource that is helping in our search. This book is really just a list of books about history. It is split into time periods such as Exploration, New World Colonization and Colonial Wars. Each time period is then split into sections that can include; overview of the era, specific events, biography, historical fiction, literature and culture. Each of these are broken down into four different grade levels, as well.

Last year, we barely touched on American history, but what we did cover revolved around the pre-colonial Americas. We looked at the native tribes that were here long before the first Europeans arrived. This year, we started up with a bit more on what life was like for those native peoples. We then covered early exploration by Europeans and the Vikings. We looked at the first settlements and how the colonies gradually grew. One excellent book we read on the French and Indian wars was Struggle for a Continent by Betsy Maestro. I remembered very little about this time in history from my school days, so I enjoyed this book.

Today we started looking at the issues that led up to the Revolutionary War by reading the first two chapters in the book, A Young Patriot by Jim Murphy. This story is told through the eyes of a young man born in 1760 who ends up enlisting to fight against the British. It is well written and full of art from the time period. Once again today, I learned that the boys often know more than I do about a particular subject. One of the illustrations in the book was a picture of an engraving of the Boston Massacre done by Paul Revere. I said, "I never knew Paul Revere was an artist!" JT said, "Oh yes...he worked for a newspaper and was a silver engraver."

At this point, our plan involves spending as much time as it takes to make a leisurely walk down America's history. My preliminary outline goes as far as the time period immediately before the Civil War begins. We will cover topics like the early establishment of our government, early presidents and their work, California colonization, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, the Homestead Act, exploration of the southwest, the War of 1812, the Indian Removal Act, the Industrial Revolution, the growth of slavery, beginning of the anti-slavery movement, Women's Rights, the Mexican War, mining, Westward Expansion, and the Gold Rush. That brings us to the 1850s. I have a list of resources for each item included in my time line. Based on our love for taking our time and delving a bit deeper as we go, I'm guessing we might make it through this list by the time the boys are ready to go to college! Seriously though, I would really like to make it to the end of the list by the end of our school year. I want to start out next year with a couple months dedicated to the Civil War.

No matter how long it takes us to get through, I know we will enjoy it far more than if we just looked at dates and facts. Christine Miller puts it best in the introduction to All Through the Ages,

"It is very rare to find the reality of history in a history textbook. They are much too limited to even begin to contain its grand scope. History should be about the stories of the day: the people and their lives, the immediacy of their times."

Our goal will be to experience those times through the stories we read.

Changing Gears

2012-01-13T00:14:00.009-05:00

We are back to schooling after a nearly three week break. I think we all really needed that time off. I felt a level of energy this week that I haven't felt in a long time. Over the weekend, I spent a large amount of time prepping both my next science unit and our civics unit for this year. I also spent a good deal of time updating our American history studies to include a much better plan of action.

Before I really dive into what is coming, I want to spend just a little time sharing some of the highlights of our Marine Science unit that wrapped up right before the holiday break. We dedicated six weeks to this study. Our texts included Marine Science 2, published by Dandy Lion, Di scover Nature at the Seashore by Elizabeth P. Lawlor, and Ocean published by the American Museum of Natural History. Different topics of study included life in the kelp forests, anatomy and shape of fish, tide pools and their ecosystems, marine mammals and their habitats, ocean invertebrates, marine plants, and my favorite...sand!

I know the study of sand probably borders more on the geology side of science, but after seeing Dr. Gary Greenberg's work with sand, I can't get enough! We brought a sample home from Ocean City and I made a request to family and friends that if they get anywhere near a body of water, they must bring me a sample of sand to examine.

Here's a picture of a portion of our collection so far.

We also had a few ocean related field trips. Our annual visit to a performance of the Harrisburg Symphony turned out to be a perfect fit for our science units. One of the pieces was an excerpt from Claude Debussy's, La Mer. We took a family vacation to Ocean City, NJ in mid-November and also visited the Adventure Aquarium.

Each of the boys made a poster showing the life found in a kelp forest.

We enjoyed this unit because it allowed us to go places we hadn't before. The boys had not seen the ocean so our trip was a first for them. They learned a great deal about how diverse life can be, from the cold, dark depths of the oceans to the warm, tropical reefs. They learned about animals that can thrive in the freezing Antarctic waters and on the scalding hot ocean vents. For Christmas, JT received a copy of the series, The Blue Planet. As we watch it together we are able to reinforce much of what we learned in our marine science unit and will continue to add to our new knowledge.

And now for the new plans! After spending countless hours poring over specs on various microscopes, I finally made my purchase. I settled for the Omano OM118-M4. It arrived this week and I am in love! I might let the boys use it... if they can get me away from it. I also ordered a microtome to allow us to make many of our own slides. I could have made a homemade one using an old thread spool, but I couldn't resist the fancy version.

Our official name for our new science unit is cellular structure and microscope use. My plan covers the next eight weeks of schooling. I'm really looking forward to this unit. It's going to have a HUGE amount of hands-on work. The boys will get a chance to really learn how to put a good scientific journal together. We will also make many of our own slides and explore the world of the tiny. We have already started looking at cell structures this week. BrainPOP has been an excellent source for this plan. We will also use quite a few books for this study. A few of my favorites are in the picture on the right.

Next week I'll give some details on both our civics and American history plans. I know I have been posting nearly exclusively about science this year and would like to broaden my subject matter a bit as I continue. While reading, writing and mathematics are very important skills that everyone needs to learn, science can give us so much opportunity to be set on fire for learning. I know the desire to go a little deeper comes most often with my boys when we are exploring the world around us. That excitement can turn the need to write a paper or read a long passage from a scientific journal from tedium to adventure. So bring on the science and all the rest can fall into place.

What's the Difference?

2012-01-05T21:35:00.005-05:00

This week we did not 'have school'. In Pennsylvania, we must log 180 days of schooling per year as homeschoolers. The designation for a year runs from July 1st to June 30th. For the 2010-2011 school year, we started counting days in late August and ended our year on May 24th. This year because we weren't making last minute decision on our schooling plans, we started counting one day a week in July and began full weeks around mid-August. Last week I sat down to do the math and found that even if we had no school days this week and took a week off in April for spring break, we could complete our 180 days on May 11th. So I declared our vacation extended!

Now the funny thing about all of this, is that this week didn't feel a whole lot different than any of our 'school' weeks. (The picture above shows the books that are currently next to JT's bed. He NEVER reads just one at a time. I'd say he was doing a bit of learning without any schooling this week.) So for this non-schooling week, the boys spent time reading, watching their new documentaries including The Blue Planet, building with LEGOs, playing outside, playing board games, looking at our latest sand from friends in faraway places, taking old clocks apart to see how they work, playing drums, playing piano and collecting samples of foods with mold for our next science unit. That list includes quite a few things that would be included in our regular school weeks. The only real difference is that I didn't mark an X for those days in the boxes on our tally sheet where we record our schooling.

I really started thinking about how seamless my life is becoming. My husband works from home. He has a job where he's in an on-call kind of situation pretty much 24 hours a day. Some days he's not very busy during 'typical' work hours. If it's nine o'clock at night and he's on his computer checking on a server, is he 'working' or not? If the boys are watching a documentary and taking notes (this has actually happened spontaneously with no encouragement from me!) and it's a day we aren't counting, are they 'schooling' or not? If my husband sits down and explains how the clock the boys have taken apart works, is he teaching them or not? If we play basketball are we having gym class or not? Is time spent thinking about work when we aren't on the clock work?

Why do we feel such a need to compartmentalize everything we do? I am not an unschooler by a long shot. I plan far too much of the boys' schedule to qualify. I want to be sure certain concepts are covered and I do feel the need for some structure in our days. But some days I really wonder how much further we will drift toward the unschooling style of learning.

At a New Year's Eve party we attended, I was part of a conversation with a few moms who were bemoaning the fact that school was starting again in two days. The moms were worried that their kids wouldn't be able to get up since they had been sleeping late every day for vacation. I just smiled a bit and one of the moms said, "Oh, I guess you never really have to worry about that! What time does your school day start?"

I answered that we typically start the structured part of our day after lunch and that morning is a time for free learning. The mom continued by saying that I would need to eventually teach my boys how to get up in the morning so they would be able to go to college and get a real job. I pointed out that there are many jobs in the world that don't require people to work the typical 9-5 work day. I reminded her that my husband works from home, I work in the home and even when I worked outside of the home, I had held several second shift jobs. She contended that those are the exceptions to the norm. But I don't necessarily think that is true. Look at how technology is moving us towards being able to do so many things remotely. Look at the concern over pollution and how that could be lessened with fewer commuters on the road. Look at how more and more colleges are offering classes online. I really believe that what we think of as 'the way things are' will be a thing of the past by the time our children are grown. AND even if it isn't, just because we spend years getting up and going to school doesn't mean we have mastered the art of getting to work on time. Learning to get somewhere when we need to is a skill that can be developed at any time of the day. My boys manage to get to basketball practice when they need to be there. They make it to scouts and art classes and other activities on time.

Maybe what we really mean when we talk about learning to get up and be at work on time is more about learning to accept the routine of monotony that can come with employment. I hope that by showing my boys how much more they can get out of life, they won't be willing to settle for a job that doesn't excite and inspire them. After all, if you really love what you do, are you working or not?

A career that brings you joy might even make it worth getting up early in the morning...

...but I'm not really sure about that.

Geek Presents

2011-12-29T19:23:00.008-05:00

"So your kids are so smart...what do you buy them for Christmas?"

?

When people ask me questions like that I really wonder what they think we do with our kids. No, we do not sit at home and teach them neurosurgery...at least, not yet.

My answer was, "The same stuff other kids want...toys."

I guess in all honesty, some of the things our boys received this year weren't exactly what everyone else would be getting. They did get the usual stuff like LEGOS, NERF guns, and spy gear night vision goggles. But one of the biggest hits of the day happened to be the documentary movies.

JT received a new book of piano music. His playing has surged lately. Remember when we dropped the piano lessons? I wasn't so sure that experiment was going to work the way I hoped. Out of nowhere, about four months ago, he started working to figure out a song he wanted to play. Before I knew it, he was playing a couple times a day...on his own! Recently, he started trying to play a few of George Winston's pieces from the album December. I found this sheet music and knew he would love it. He generally plays by ear, but sometimes he has me play parts of a song for him so he can watch and copy. He never really reads the music. So maybe the book is more for me than him?

We also bought a few science related presents. We already own one pocket microscope, but I decided to get each of the boys their own. I'm tired of sharing! We are about to launch into our next science unit which will cover microscope studies and cellular structure. So these new tools will be needed.

We also threw in a few pet tornadoes to add to the fun. You may have noticed the increased volume of photos in this post. That is due to the fact that I received a new camera! I have to spend some time really getting to know all of its awesome features, but hope to start incorporating more visuals to my blog with its help.

Finally, I spent the last two weeks doing a little cat-sitting for a neighbor. I was told by the pet owner that I should spend the pay buying 'a little something for myself'. The little something is probably going to come from this page of microscopes. I'm leaning towards a stereo model, due to my own poor vision, but think the monocular may be better for upgrading to add a camera option in the future. Anyone who wants to weigh in with advice, feel free. I would LOVE to be able to get images from the microscope to my computer. Plus, I'd like to get as high of a magnification as I can. AND I'd like to stay under $300. That's why it's taken me so long to pick the right one.

Overall, Christmas was a big success. We plan to extend our vacation to the 9th of January. Until then I will be working to plan the science unit, get our health unit ironed out and come up with some organization of my civics material. We are looking forward to a fantastic New Year and wish the same for all of you!

Benefits of Public School

2011-12-15T15:50:00.007-05:00

My husband and I were having a discussion about ways to help our boys understand certain math concepts this week. Every time I find what I consider to be an especially ingenious way to present something new, I realize if I were teaching classrooms full of students, I could take this knowledge and re-use it, honing it to perfection. As it is, I only get to teach the same grade level twice to one student at a time. This realization lead to the idea to write a post about the benefits of public schooling as a contrast to my post on homeschooling benefits.

Experienced teachers

I often feel like I am re-inventing the wheel when teaching my boys. If they were in a typical public school environment, they would have the benefit of teachers with years of practice presenting the same material. Teachers who have gone through training on how to deal with a kid who may seem like a math whiz until they run into multiple step word problems that make them declare, "I hate math!" Most times I can find ways to get around these hurdles by an internet search or a question posted to one of the homeschooling forums I follow. I also have a few friends who have very creative ideas on how to deal with learning hang-ups that I can call for help. At some point, I assume we will reach an obstacle that will require professional help. I know I can find a tutor or other mentor when that time comes, but because we are homeschooling, it will likely not be free.

Art Classes

We currently have both of the boys enrolled in art classes at our local Y.M.C.A Arts Center. Prior to signing up for these classes, I always felt that our art lessons were lacking. While we have spent a large amount of time studying art history and styles we didn't always try a variety of projects ourselves. Some of that may have been lack of supplies, but more often it was lack of motivation on my part. It's one thing to introduce a whole classroom of students to some new messy medium; it's another thing to drag it out in your own house for two young, less than tidy boys. Once again, we have found a good fix through the art classes, but there is the associated cost.

Science Labs

We are still a couple years away from a full-fledged chemistry class, but when it comes, I'm not sure exactly how I plan to handle the need for lab equipment. It would be so much easier to have access to a fully stocked chemistry lab! It would also be nice to have a variety of lab partners available for my boys. Recently we were at a local university for a Saturday Science program. While we were there, I spoke with two different professors about the possibility of enrolling the boys in a basic chemistry class when they were high school age. They weren't sure about the university's policy, so I will be looking into that as a possible option. If needed, I will buy what we need and maybe try to assemble a small group of local homeschooling families to hold a class together. I've also been hunting for the perfect microscope for our upcoming science unit on cellular structure and microscope studies. Wouldn't it be nice to have free access to a quality microscope like this one?

Free Extra-Curricular Activities

In Pennsylvania, schools are required to allow homeschoolers to participate in extra-curricular activities offered within their school district. However, we have had little luck getting involved in anything through our local schools. One problem is that the definition of extra-curricular really means only things held outside of school hours. Because of that, we were told that JT can't participate in the elementary level band due to the fact that instrument practice happens during band class within school hours. Some districts make allowances for homeschool participation. So far, ours does not. I'm not sure if we will be able to do anything at the high school level either. JT would like to play basketball with the school when he is too old for Upward basketball, but I'm not sure that will work out.

Free Text Books and Supplies

Most homeschoolers will tell you that there is really no need to buy expensive curriculum in order to teach your children. While that is true to a point, I find that there are some items that are almost necessary to buy. We were fortunate in that we spent two years with a cyber school that provided all of the materials we needed AND allowed us to keep everything. I have been able to re-use quite a bit of those things. We also spend a great deal of time at library sales, garage sales and other places where we can pick up low-cost items. Even if you only use free resources online, you might need to use ink and paper to print out worksheets. I know that some public schools ask the parents to provide supplies for the students, but for the most part, the text books and workbooks are free.

Child Care

Perhaps the one thing I miss most about the days when I had children in the public school system is free time. Don't get me wrong, I do love having my boys with me every day. They are also both fairly adept at entertaining themselves so that I can have time to myself to get things done around the house. However, just this week when I had to schedule an appointment that both I and my husband have to go to, not having the kids in school means I have to find a sitter. Very few people who sing the praises of public school will mention this most obvious benefit to parents. If the boys were in school, I would have the time to keep my house as clean as it was many years ago. I'd have time to take classes like I've wanted to for years. I'd have time to throw a day away reading a good book on the couch with no need to stop until that school bus rolled down the road at 4:25pm.

My list for the benefits of public schooling is about half as long as my benefits of homeschooling list. When I compare the two, I still feel that homeschooling wins hands-down for our family. Maybe I would have more money to spend on something other than science materials, maybe I would have more free time to spend on myself, but ultimately I think my life has been made far richer because of this adventure we have undertaken. Hopefully, when my boys are out and on their own, they will agree that we made the right decision too.

Gimme Gimme

2011-12-08T19:49:00.005-05:00

This time of the year can bring out both the best and the worst in people. Teaching children the joy of giving can be a wonderful lesson during the holiday season. But, too often Christmas turns into a chance for the 'gimmies' to take over.

I had already been thinking about this topic when I read an excellent post about Stuff on Defying Gravity. My family can tell you that I am the kind of person that doesn't get carried away purchasing material goods, books being the one exception. My one weakness aside, I can usually resist the desire to have the latest gadget, clothing or thing for my house. I'm fairly content when it comes to my stuff. My boys seem to operate along the same lines. Is this an inherited trait? Learned from observation? Or is it the lack of exposure to the usual gimme triggers?

Because we do not have cable, satellite or even the most basic of television reception, my boys have had very little experience with commercialism. The only times they witness television advertising is when we watch television while visiting the homes of relatives. We also spend very little time at the malls. In fact, online purchases made up the majority of my Christmas shopping this year. JT and EM like to check out the toy aisles when we are in Target, just like any other kids, but once they leave the store and those things are out of sight, they really are out of mind for the boys. Plus, without that daily interaction with large groups of kids their own ages, they don't have the kind of comparisons to make about what they have and don't have. I keep our Christmas budget small and they never seem to notice that we aren't spending the kind of money that other families we know are spending on gifts. It appears I have found yet another benefit of homeschooling!

This week I will be taking each of the boys out to do their shopping for our family. They honestly seem to get more happiness out of the giving at Christmas than they do over the getting. I hope as the years pass they continue to appreciate the simple joy found in sharing what we have with others.

Tools of Power

2011-12-02T00:41:00.005-05:00

I have a love-hate relationship with the book, Home Learning Year by Year, by Rebecca Rupp. When I start to worry that my boys might be 'behind' in a subject compared to 'normal' kids, I pull the book out to see where we stand. Most of the time we ace this little test. But sometimes I find that we're not measuring up in one place or another. I have never been one to worry too much about where we are in comparison to others. I want the boys to follow their own learning path with only a few defined expectations at certain points along the way. However, once in awhile I find a goal in this book that makes me say, "Wow! Why haven't I taught that to the boys yet?" I found one this week.

I was casually flipping through chapter four where the grade two requirements are listed. I figured EM should have most of these mastered since we consider him to be a third grader. We chose that designation mostly for the testing requirement that Pennsylvania homeschoolers must meet.

Under the Language Arts heading in the book I found this one:

Obtain specific information from print materials. Second graders should be able to use structural features of the text-table of contents, chapter heading, index-to locate specific factual information.

I remembered how both JT and EM were having trouble finding certain snakes in a book they were using recently. When I suggested they "look it up in the back of the book" I was met by blank stares. At the time, I just filed it away as something to work on in the future. But now this book was telling me that even a second grader should know how to use the index, etc. Time to get serious!

Both boys are fairly capable of using a dictionary to find a word. And I don't mean online...I mean a REAL dictionary. They are also familiar with the thesaurus. So, I pulled out a wide variety of reference books from our shelves; atlases, dictionary, travel guide, encyclopedia, Bible commentary, concordance, a textbook and a non-fiction book with a glossary AND an index. We sat down together surrounded by a wealth of information. I explained how the table of contents works in most books. We looked at the way the encyclopedias had an entire book JUST for the index. We saw how the concordance was split into sections with both the Hebrew and the Greek words. I showed the boys the difference between a glossary and an index. Then I asked each of them to find something for me using these tools. When we were finished with our lesson, it was hard to drag them away from the awesome maps in the atlas. In fact, it was hard for ME to put them away. After all, who can resist a good map?

Of course, you may be thinking, "These kids are growing up with the entire World Wide Web at their fingertips. Why not just teach them to use Google?" Call me old-fashioned, but I think it's important to know how to use all available resources when we are searching for an answer. And you never know...some stormy night, when the power goes out, and their smart phone is missing, they might really need to know the capital of Guam...and then where will they be?

Silliness aside, as homeschoolers we often talk about how we want our children to 'learn how to learn'. Knowing how to use these tools of power is the first step on that journey.

Top Ten Benefits of Homeschooling

2011-11-24T23:15:00.005-05:00

In a blog post three weeks ago, I mentioned that flexibility is on my Top Ten Benefits of Homeschooling list. I decided that Thanksgiving is the perfect time to list the reasons I am thankful for our homeschooling lifestyle.

No early morning bus stops! This is of course the most important reason of all. :-)

As I have already said, schedule flexibility is on my list. More specifically, that we can move our school days and content around when we have a crisis or just need a day off for mental health.

Plenty of time for the boys to be outside. One of the things that makes me sad for kids in traditional classrooms is the lack of time they get to be outdoors.

Time for play. All children learn through unstructured play. When you have 8 hours or more away from home everyday, it makes it hard to find time for enough play.

No need to worry about bullying. I know that there is always the chance that the boys may encounter a bully at one of their many away from home activities. However, most times these events are likely to have an adult there who can stop things before they escalate.

Vacationing during the off season. This is one of my favorites. I detest crowded museums, parks and beaches. Being able to travel while the majority of families can not, allows us to avoid the crowds and learn at the same time.

Family time. I love that we are all at home together most days. Recently an acquaintance expressed surprise at how much time our entire family spends together. I don't often think about how unusual that is for most families. I am thankful that we have that benefit AND that we are all happy about it!

The ability to find the best fit for curriculum, or even the lack thereof, for each subject for each of the boys. We have found that no one math curriculum works for both, so we use two. We also know that while JT can learn anything by reading about it, EM needs more of a hands-on approach for most subjects. Even though more and more schools seem to be attempting to teach to different learning styles, they can't cater individually to each student in every subject.

Freedom to work at a pace that suits our own personal rhythms. I know at some point in their lives our boys will probably need to work on someone else's time schedule. Right now we can enjoy that flexibility. If we are having fun finishing an art project, we don't need to put it aside to get to math. Math can always wait until we are ready.

Finally, I love that we get to learn together. We are exploring our world and loving every minute of it. I am usually just as excited about the new things we discover as the boys are...in fact, sometimes more. (Just ask any one who has visited our house recently and been forced to look at my sand samples with the microscope.)

So that's my list. Some days it is hard work to guide these boys. Some days it feels like I'm cheating the system by having so much fun with them. All I know is that they are happy, they are learning and I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of their journey.

Ocean View

2011-11-17T16:45:00.006-05:00

We had a short educational journey over the weekend. In celebration of our second science unit this year, marine biology, we decided a trip to the shore was in order. Our boys had never seen the ocean (I know, I'm a horrible mom!) and JT has been asking for years to visit an aquarium.

I was not sure what to expect from Ocean City, NJ in mid-November. I knew we certainly wouldn't be doing any swimming, but I thought it would be warm enough for playing on the beach and possibly even walking along the edge of the water. The weather prediction called for 60 degrees and sunny. It turns out, 60 degrees and sunny with a substantial breeze, is a bit on the chilly side. We managed to spend an hour or so on the beach, but in heavy coats and hoods. The boys had a good time anyway. We came home with a collection of shells, seaweed and a possible shark tooth.

After two days at the shore, we moved inland to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ. We really enjoyed this hands-on aquarium. The boys were able to touch sharks, stingrays, starfish, sea cucumbers and anemones. How awesome is that?! They had a diverse collection of animals. We were disappointed to find that all of their shows were in the mornings and we didn't arrive until after lunch. If we plan another trip in the future, we will be sure to go in the morning hours.

Back at home on Tuesday, we made a microscope slide of the seaweed from the shore and another from some mint from our garden. We compared the structure of terrestrial plants to marine plant life. We also looked at our sand samples we brought home with my hand-held Carson microscope. This awesome tool may be one of my favorites for our classroom. If you have never looked at sand up close...you are really missing something amazing. The book, A Grain of Sand by Dr. Gary Greenberg, is currently somewhere in the postal system on its way to my home.

Our marine science unit will probably be the shortest of our four science units this year, but I think it might end up being my favorite!

Chess

2011-11-10T20:43:00.004-05:00

A couple years ago, I was looking into opportunities for our boys to improve their chess skills by taking classes or joining a club. After a bit of searching, I found there wasn't much available in our immediate area. Having no desire to make a two hour round-trip for them to play chess, I took matters into my own hands and attempted to organize our own little chess club.

My personal knowledge of chess is rather limited. I know how each piece can move, how to set up the board and I even know that the proper name for the 'horse-thingy' is actually the knight. Oh! I also know that Bobby Fischer was an incredible chess player because I saw the movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer. Needless to say, I was not equipped to teach a group of children how to be experts at chess.

Using my feminine charms, I was able to convince my husband that he would make a great chess instructor. I asked a few friends if their children would like to play and our chess nights were born! We usually average around 6 kids, but if everyone showed up at once, we would have 14. The kids range from age 12 down to our youngest player, age 4. My husband begins each session with instruction. He often links the laptop to the television and uses the website chessKIDSAcademy to explain new concepts to the group. Once instruction has ended, he pairs the kids up and they play a few games. He usually tries to have them apply whatever new tactics they have learned in that lesson.

Dealing with a group of kids involved in many activities creates scheduling challenges. After a few months of spotty attendance and shuffling dates, we were ready to go last week. Friday morning, my husband announced that something had come up for work and he would be tied up on the computer at the exact time the kids would be arriving. I knew that I was not capable of pulling off the instruction. I also did NOT want to be the one to have to cancel again. My husband came up with his own alternative. JT could be the teacher.

I must say, I viewed this plan with much trepidation. Could a ten year old really pull this off? I sent out a few emails asking the moms to plan to be more hands-on than usual. (Most of the time, the moms, including me, hide out upstairs and chat while my husband and any other dads are sent to the battle front.) Everyone was very positive about the last minute change. JT spent some time working out a plan with my husband. He would review some of the previous tactics and have a question and answer session for the instruction portion of the evening. He wrote out a sheet with notes to follow and seemed at ease with his leadership role.

The night went well. JT led the group in the review. He asked questions and encouraged those who answered. When games were played, he went to the different tables to help the younger kids. After the first round of games had been played, he had a chance to play a couple games himself. All in all, he did a fantastic job.

JT is a natural when it comes to teaching. He has such excitement about sharing knowledge; it's hard not to be interested when he speaks. I think with a few more years of maturity, he will be able to lead groups like this with little problem. For now, I know that I have a teacher-in-reserve, if the need arises again.

Schooling Amid Crisis

2011-11-03T23:56:00.003-04:00

Flexibility has always been in my 'Top Ten Benefits of Homeschooling' list. This week it became abundantly clear why that is.

Friday my father was taken to the emergency room with what turned out to be multiple strokes. I spent most of the next week going to the hospital, updating family and friends via phone and Facebook and trying to keep things relatively normal at home. The freak October snowstorm that brought us nine inches of wet, heavy snow did little to make that an easy task.

On Saturday, while I was trapped at home watching the snow come down, I put together a plan for the next week. I knew I would probably need to be leaving the boys at home from time to time with my husband as an indirect supervisor of their work. They are old enough to be able to do a great deal of their work on their own, as long as an adult is in the house. My husband's working from home allows him to physically be in the house, but not necessarily able to fully supervise everything they are doing. With that in mind, I tried to work out a plan that was mostly independent work this week.

One of the educational tools I have come to rely on in times like these is our home and public library documentary supply. This week we borrowed the first DVD of the History Channel's 2005 series, The Presidents. We counted that time towards our American history studies. This week was also the kick-off for our marine biology unit in science. I pulled our Planet Earth DVDs from the shelf and the boys watched the portion called Shallow Seas. The backbone of our unit is based on the book Marine Science, Book 2, put out by Dandy Lion Publications. It focuses on the kelp forest ecosystem which is nicely covered in that Planet Earth DVD. We will also watch another episode of The States series for geography tomorrow.

In a good week, when life cooperates, we rarely use the television as instructor. But having this back-up material ready to go made a bad week much more manageable. I know I could have just scrapped the whole week of schooling and had the time I needed to take care of family matters. However, I think keeping the boys busy gave me one less thing to add to my worries.

For now, my dad is stable and in an excellent rehabilitation facility. Knowing I have flexibility to make our schedule work when I need to help, makes dealing with the future much less daunting.

Nature Education

2011-10-27T21:19:00.006-04:00

One of our local state parks offers homeschool days from time to time. Today we had an opportunity to participate in a program called Arachnid. Not my first choice of topics, but perfect for my boys.

RB Winter State Park has a nature center to die for! The place is packed with books, puzzles, nature related toys, animal exhibits and a wealth of educational opportunities. They even have a nice propane fireplace with rocking chairs beside a giant picture window overlooking their collection of bird feeders. On top of all of that, the park naturalist is an enthusiastic teacher.

The day started with some instruction about various
arachnids found in our area. We discussed the taxonomy, life cycles and anatomy of many different critters. Then we all went outside to find some live specimens to observe. Each child was given a bug magnifier and sent into the woods. After everyone had found something, we stood in a circle and passed our boxes around to get a close look at a variety of small animals.

Later the kids split into groups of two and worked to come up with a presentation about an arachnid. Each pair made a poster and shared what they had learned with the whole group.

Today was the perfect wrap-up for our two month entomology unit. Starting next week, we move on to marine biology. I hope all of our science units turn out as well as this one has. Here's a brief breakdown of what we covered in this unit.

JT read through The Practical Entomologist
EM and JT used the DK Eyewitness Insect Workbook for daily activities.

We covered classification of living things, food webs, habitat, life cycles, anatomy, contributions insects make to our world, harmful insects, ecology, and careers in entomology. We watched videos and read MANY books. We also learned how to collect and display our own specimens. We went to a marsh, the woods, an insect fair and arachnid day for field trips. We also successfully raised three species of caterpillar and one species of moth from larva to adult. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to top this unit!

One thing you should notice here is that I keep saying we learned, we did this, we did that. I did not know everything I wanted the boys to learn before we started this unit. I was not an expert on the subject. One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is that I get to learn nearly as much new stuff as the boys. I have to get outside of my comfort zone. Today at the arachnid program, this acrophobic woman held a magnifying collection box with icky eight-legged creatures inside. It was a learning experience.

I wonder what I'll be learning next.

Critter Zoo

2011-10-20T23:10:00.008-04:00

Rogue learning got in the way of my scheduled plans for this week. We woke Tuesday morning to a glorious fall day. I threw the boys outside to enjoy the weather while it lasted. Rain was predicted for most of the day Wednesday and some of Thursday, but Tuesday was perfect. The forecast was a bit a bummer considering the fact that a homeschool day at Hershey Gardens was scheduled for Wednesday after being re-scheduled due to rain about FOUR times. They finally gave up and permanently canceled it.

Close to the time I wanted the boys to come in for our work in the classroom, I realized they were in the midst of a massive project. They were creating various habitats for animals they had found in the yard and making their own critter zoo. The exhibits included pill bugs, millipedes, woolly bear caterpillars, ladybugs and a red-backed salamander. They had set each up with exactly what they needed, even coming inside for their various handbooks to research what each animal needed for food.

salamander habitat

I realized there was no need to drag them in the house to sit and 'have school' when they were learning with wild abandon on their own. And then they made a fantastic discovery! EM found a northern ring neck snake under a paving stone. It was only about 6 inches long, probably born this spring. We managed to get it into a jar. The picture here is not very good. I just couldn't get a clear shot because he was hiding.

camera shy snake

After doing a little research to identify our snake, we found that he might make a good pet for our classroom. That meant a trip to the pet store for supplies. Tonight we moved Grima (named for a Tolkien character in The Two Towers) into his/her new home.

classroom terrarium

Our classroom is starting to be a bit cluttered. Between the terrarium for Grima and the critter cage for Zim, the hissing cockroach, it's starting to look like a menagerie!

When we were checking out at the pet store, the boys were telling the clerk all about our pets. He said, "You are lucky to have such a tolerant mom!" I had never really thought about it, but I guess not all moms are happy to have the kinds of pets we do. I'm happy to continue sharing in their wonder of the world, just as long as they never ask for a spider...

Geography

2011-10-13T22:13:00.005-04:00

For the last two years, our study of Geography has consisted of little more than workbook activities. This year, I decided to make the study of our place in the world a little more project based.

The idea came when I received a packet in the mail from Highlights Magazine about their Top Secret Adventures program. After looking at what was offered, I decided I could pull off something similar with my own materials. The sample packet came with a few of their guide books for various countries, stickers and one 'passport'. I had each of the boys make their own passports instead of using the one included. Each month, they choose a country they plan to 'visit'. In the beginning, I am having them choose from the countries represented by the books we received from Highlights, but later we will move on to others and find appropriate resources elsewhere. During the month that follows, they are to research their country by reading the book and finding other information on the internet. At the end of the month they must show what they have found by making a poster or writing a composition. For September, JT chose Japan and EM chose Greece. They spent three weeks doing their research. During the final week of the month, they each put together a poster for their country. Then they presented what they had learned to our family. When they were finished, we put the corresponding sticker into the passport to record their visit.

JT's Japan poster

EM's Greece poster

For our domestic Geography studies, we are using a great set of DVDs I picked up off the History Channel website. The States is an entertaining and informative series. Each episode thoroughly covers five states. I come away with a great deal of new knowledge every episode. Watching this series may be the next best thing to actually visiting each of our states. We are trying to cover one episode per week.

The final portion of our Geography study this year is map work. EM is using Maps, Globes and Graphs Level C put out by Harcourt. JT is using Maps, Charts, Graphs Level F by Modern Curriculum Press. Both books teach map skills and themes of Geography. I only pull the workbooks out about two times a month. I don't want to turn the excitement of discovering new places in our world into tedium with seat work. They are already capable of finding both states and countries on our map of the United States in the classroom and the world map in our library. They probably know the location of more countries than I do, just from playing games like Risk and Axis and Allies with my husband! I hope someday we will be able to explore our world in much more of a hands-on way through travel as a family. For now, we will read our books and watch our movies...visiting with our imaginations.

Potpourri of News

2011-10-06T21:36:00.005-04:00

I have a couple of things on my mind this week that I want to share. None of them fit under one specific train of thought, so it will be a potpourri of news.

For some time I had been thinking about signing the boys up for some sort of art classes. We are fortunate in that there is a YMCA arts center not far from home. Every time I would look at their offered classes, the schedule never seemed to fit ours. Then I had an idea. Why not call and see if they could offer a class during the day for homeschoolers? It turns out the director of the center thought that was an excellent idea! I posted a message in our local homeschoolers online forum to gauge interest. Quite a few moms wanted more details. Two months later, our first class began on Tuesday morning with seven children ages 9-12 signed up! The instructor worked out a schedule where two age groups, 9-12 and 5-8, will alternate months for four classes each session. If interest remains high, she will continue throughout the school year. JT started drawing at a very young age, but in recent years had not shown as much interest. When he came out of the class, he was very excited about the things he had learned. He had also drawn a very good still life. EM will be taking his first class in November. One of the important benefits I see in this plan is that both boys will have opportunity to spend some time with children their age, in an instructional setting. So go ahead and ask me if my homeschoolers get enough socialization now!

On Monday, EM went to his monthly eye therapy appointment. Diagnosed with intermittent exotropia about two years ago, he has been doing computerized eye therapy at home three days a week, in addition to an hour of in-office therapy once a month. This week the therapist announced that because EM's therapy is going so well, he will be seeing the eye doctor at our next appointment and more than likely be weaned from the therapy. All of this in spite of the fact that the first doctor he saw told me that EM MUST have surgery and that therapy could NEVER fix his problem. And that, right there, is why I NEVER trust the experts!

The best thing about the excellent progress EM is making with his eyes is that he finally wants to read more. I always suspected that his vision problems, sometimes resulting in double vision, kept him from wanting to read. I knew it also might just be that he didn't enjoy reading. Not everyone is a bibliophile like me. But I wanted to be sure I removed all possible barriers for him. Last week he suddenly announced that he was going to begin reading The Fellowship of the Ring. He is making good progress...about two and a half chapters. Not bad for someone a week shy of their eighth birthday!

Another area where I have struggled to interest EM has been creative writing. My two older children seemed to be born to create elaborate stories at the drop of a hat. EM is very factual. Once again, I know not everyone is born to be a writer. I just wanted to give him opportunity to try it. Last week I came up with an idea. I was searching for something to use for writing instruction for EM. I found an old workbook I had picked up at a library book sale, Poetry Parade by Pamela Amick Klawitter. Published in 1987, this 48 page book is broken into four sections, Poems that Follow a Pattern, Poems that Rhyme, Miscellaneous Poems and Poetry Projects. At first I worried that poetry might be a bad idea considering EM's dislike of creative writing. But I thought I'd give it a go.

The first page, the Five W's Poem, showed an example of a poem that had a structure like this:
line 1 - WHO or what is the poem about?
line 2 - WHAT is he, she, or it doing?
line 3 - WHEN does this action take place?
line 4 - WHERE does it take place?
line 5 - WHY does it take place?

The book also suggested that you find a picture to use as inspiration.

I pulled several old magazines off the shelf and had EM find a picture he liked. It was a little rough at first; he wanted to use the same words over and over again. I pulled out a thesaurus and showed him how to use it. That really helped. He struggles with the concept of a synonym at times...seeing so many examples made it clearer for him. His final poem, about a pair of fighting dinosaurs, came out like this:

Pachycephalesaurids
bash heads
in ancient times
near a furious volcano
to win the victory.

I finally realized why this new method worked. Writing is hard for EM because he is such a structured person. He needs to know exactly how something needs to be done. He needs rules. The formulas involved in writing these kinds of poems make sense to him! When I assigned another poetry writing page for him about acrostic poems, he was ready. He asked me, "Where is that book that gives you all the words that mean the same thing?" I found the thesaurus and handed it over.

Suddenly writing isn't something with vague expectations that he can't understand. I am always happy when we have these kinds of ah-ha! moments in our little classroom. I'm guessing that writing will never be something EM loves to do; math is definitely his first love. But for now, he will have an opportunity to express himself using methods within his comfort zone. For that, I am thankful.

Learning on Location

2011-09-29T21:07:00.006-04:00

For the three years we have been homeschooling both boys, we have had a tradition of taking a family vacation in early Autumn. We spent this week visiting south central Pennsylvania. As we did in years past, we stayed in a modern cabin at one of PA's state parks. This year we chose Gifford Pinchot State Park. This park had a lot of potential for fun. Unfortunately the record rainfall we have had in PA in the last month coupled with rain three out of the four days we visited, made the trails a bit messy. We made one attempt at hiking and decided we'd best spend our time somewhere a bit drier.

We had already planned to make a one day trip to Gettysburg National Military Park. With the mud situation being what it was, we made it the focus of the entire vacation. Tuesday we made our way to the new visitor's center. I had not been to Gettysburg since the early 1980s. I had no idea they had built a new facility. It was pouring when we first arrived, so we decided to check out the museum. Our family of four paid $34 for admission to the museum, 20 minute film, "A New Birth of Freedom" and Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama.

One bit of bad luck we had was that the museum bookstore was closed for inventory our first day there! That fact alone sealed the need to return for a second day.

There are several ways to tour the battlefield at Gettysburg. You can take a bus tour, horseback tour, self-guided auto tour with or without an audio guide, hire a professional tour guide to ride in your own car...you can even take a tour on a Segway! We decided to purchase The Gettysburg Story Battlefield Audio Tour three CD set. The complete tour is estimated to take about three hours. The set came with a book outlining the entire tour. This was the perfect choice for our family. We were able to take our time on the tour. We ended up breaking it up into two days. This particular auto tour is performed by actor Stephen Lang who played "Stonewall" Jackson in Gods and Generals and George Pickett in Gettysburg. Starting from the visitor's center, you follow red signs labeled 'auto tour' around the battlefield. You listen as you drive. At each stop, the recording covers another part of the story. For most stops, we would get out and look at the memorials and talk about what we were seeing. That first day, we only made it to stop five before the sun started to set.

On our way back to Gettysburg Wednesday we ran into major rain storms. Fortunately, by the time we reached the park, it had stopped. The night before I had done a little research about other things we could do and found out about the ranger guided programs that are offered daily. A program covering the third day of the battle was being held at 3:30pm. We made our visit to the bookstore and then met up with the group on Cemetery Ridge. The ranger took us on a short walk to the center of the ridge and explained what Pickett's Charge would have been like for the soldiers. She spoke for an hour. I was pleased and surprised that my boys were able to stay attentive the entire time. They were the only children in the group and I was worried they might be distracting for the other guests.

When the talk ended, we continued on the auto tour until nearly dusk. We did not make it to the end of the tour, completing only twelve stops out of sixteen. The great thing about the audio guide was that we were able to finish listening to the final disc while driving home. We couldn't get out and visit at each stop, but by that point we knew enough about the battlefield to be able to appreciate it anyway. Now that we have had a taste of Gettysburg, we look forward to going back again and again to explore this memorial park.

I did not take anything with us directly related to our normal homeschooling activities. There was no need. Our days were packed with learning experiences. No classroom could have provided the learning that we were immersed in while visiting Gettysburg. We purchased each of the boys a set of Civil War army figures in the museum bookstore. When we got home today, they set them up and re-enacted several of the battles we had learned about on our trip. Tomorrow I plan to have EM write a journal entry about our trip. I am also going to ask JT to write a composition titled, "What if?" in which he will be required to chose one pivotal point in the three days of battle at Gettysburg and speculate on what might have happened if events had gone differently. Other than that, I have no long term plans to incorporate our trip into our schooling. But I am sure it will be incorporated into our lives without any plan on my part.

Evening at Devil's Den

Three Ways I Gave in This Week

2011-09-22T23:03:00.005-04:00

This is Zim. He is our new pet.

I have always known we would eventually end up with more animals gracing our home with their presence. Madagascar hissing cockroaches never made that list. Then we went to The Great Insect Fair in State College on Saturday and came home with this low maintenance bug. In case you are wondering, his name comes from the main character from Invader Zim, a quirky and short-lived Nickelodeon cartoon series. Zim doesn't need much to survive. A closed container with places for hiding and wood chips on the bottom, a damp sponge or paper towel for water and pretty much any vegetable to eat. He only needs his home cleaned out about once a month and can live for up to five years in captivity. Perfect! Plus, we can gross out quite a few of our friends.

The first way I found myself giving in this week was the acquisition of Zim. Normally, I would have responded with a firm 'NO', or even 'Forget it!', or maybe even, 'Have you lost your mind?!' I am definitely learning to go with the flow a little more these days.

The next test of my flexibility came because, on a whim I decided to buy a tent.

My husband and I used to go tent camping about once a year, before we had the boys. We had little cash, so vacation usually involved state parks and our tent. As we got older, tent camping lost all of its charm for us. Now we prefer 'camping' in modern cabins with beds, electricity, coffee makers...

When I saw a great clearance sale on the Sears website, I bought a tent. A big tent. It's almost as big as our living room. I also bought a queen-sized air mattress. When I told the boys I bought the tent, they were very excited and wanted to know if we could sleep out in our backyard. So, Tuesday evening we set the tent up and prepared for the great camp out. The boys actually did a little better than I thought they would. After some complaint, JT seemed to be good in his sleeping bag. Because our yard is one big hill, it was hard to find a completely level place to set up the jumbo tent, so EM kept rolling down the hill and into our air mattress. We finally moved him into bed with us. A little bit of sleep happened at some point in the night. I can't say that it was the most enjoyable evening I have ever spent, but I survived it. The boys were able to do something they had never done before and we are now ready to consider camping in the tent at some point next year.

There was one other way I ended up giving in to something this past week. When I was planning for this school year, I was very excited about the K12 Literary Analysis course I picked up for JT. It seemed so perfect, so challenging. When we really started to spend time working with the material, I realized it might be a little too challenging in some ways. The reading level seemed perfect, JT enjoyed and understood all of the selections. Even though the essay questions based on the readings were a little tedious for him to write, we worked through that by turning them into discussion starters instead. The vocabulary unit using Vocabulary from Classical Roots, level C was right on target for his needs. But it quickly became clear that the composition and grammar portions of the course were just too much. I hated to give up on this material. I could tell that eventually it would all be perfect for him, just not yet.

So I had a talk with him on Monday and we made a new plan. He will continue to use the vocabulary book as his spelling curriculum. This has actually worked out even better than using our old favorites, the English from the Roots Up flashcards. In the past, we didn't get into defining and using our spelling words as much as we are with this book. JT used uxorious and odious correctly in conversation this week thanks to this new material. We are dropping all other portions of the literary analysis material and saving them for the future. For reading, JT will be working his way through a few standard 6th grade novels. He will also use the reading text book provided by loan from our public school district. For the grammar portion he will be using a Calvert grammar workbook left over from our days with PA Cyber. I'm still up in the air on what I want to do for composition. I'm afraid that I will not push hard enough if I have nothing set in stone for that instruction. For now, he's working through a Critical Thinking workbook that requires quite a few essay style answers to questions. I might pull some of the old writing prompts from my file or I might just pick a topic and have him write one composition a month.

For now, I'm happy that JT helped me to decide which direction we should go. We didn't consider it a failure that we had to drop the K12 material for now. We just accepted it as something that wasn't working. I like the fact that we can be flexible like that. I'm never satisfied with just pushing my way ahead in an obviously incompatible situation anymore. There are far too many choices out there to allow ourselves to be resigned to a tedious fate.

The flexibility shall continue. Let the giving in begin!

Measuring the Learning

2011-09-15T20:43:00.002-04:00

Call me strange, but I've always enjoyed taking tests. I loved them in elementary school. The teacher passed out those little slips of paper we used for spelling tests and we would number them 1-20, happily anticipating that first word. I loved the quiet classroom, pencils scratching as the minutes ticked by. Later in high school, I even enjoyed the essay questions in classes like British Lit and World History. And don't get me started on the joy of filling in the little bubbles on the SATs.

I really should go back to school soon.

You may be wondering what all of that blabbering about tests has to do with the picture in this post. Don't worry...I'll tell you all about it.

On Monday we took a field trip. It was a surprise birthday field trip for my husband. Being a guitarist, he has wanted to visit the Martin Guitar factory and museum for many years. When I was trying to think of something special for him this year, I remembered that and decided to combine birthday and school time all in one big, fun day.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Nazareth, PA make sure you go see their number one attraction. When I saw that they offered a factory tour, I was expecting something similar to Hershey's Chocolate Factory Tour or the Crayola Factory Tour where you don't really go in the factory itself, but instead learn how the factory works in an amusement ride or performance setting. This tour was the real deal! We were taken on the actual floor of the factory. We spoke with the workers while they were doing their jobs. We could see each step of the process up close and personal. Our tour guide was full of great information and he obviously enjoys his job. After the tour, we visited the on-site museum. It is a good sized museum; just about the right size for two active boys with sporadic attention. My husband also spent some time in their 'pickin' parlor' playing some of the top of the line Martin guitars. Did I mention that there is no charge for any of this?

Right before we headed into the factory, the guide told the boys since they were homeschoolers, there would be a quiz at the end of the tour. We all had a laugh and went on our way. Later I thought about it again and started looking at how we measure learning as homeschoolers.

When I first began homeschooling, we used a cyber charter school. Because of that, my boys had to do monthly tests and mail them in to the school for grading. Over the last year or so that I've homeschooled without the charter, I have found myself moving away from most testing. We continue to do a weekly spelling test out of tradition. Neither of the boys has ever complained about those tests, so they will probably remain in our routine. I don't think I could say that they retained more knowledge in the years that they were regularly being tested on the things they were learning. In fact, I honestly believe they may have retained less. In order to prepare for a test for every subject, every month, they usually had quite a bit to cover and review. We never stopped to dive deeper into a subject because we just didn't have the time. That depth driven by interest is what makes you remember something.

I could make the boys write reports about what they saw at the guitar museum. I could make them draw a picture of the factory floor and recite the steps in the creation of a guitar. Would that mean they had learned more than if I just sit and talk about the wonderful time we had together on Daddy's field trip? I'm guessing not. I'm guessing that starting a habit like that would just make them dread future field trips. Kind of like the way knowing you have to write a book report makes you dread reading a book. I want the boys to learn just for the joy of learning. I know they will need to take tests to get in to college and tests when they are there. As they move closer to high school age, I will be sure that they can answer those essay questions and fill in the bubbles. But for now, I'm just going to focus on exploring our world and learning as we go.

Inconveniences, Sickness, Natural Disasters

2011-09-08T21:03:00.004-04:00

My week has been far from the norm...to put it lightly.

We were supposed to be going on a field trip for to Hershey Gardens and Zoo on Wednesday. I had checked the weather last week and everything looked fine. I checked again on Saturday and all of a sudden rain was predicted...for DAYS. Field trip delayed, then canceled. Tropical Storm Lee decided to come visit central Pennsylvania. He has not been a good guest. All of the cities and towns in our area that border the Susquehanna River are experiencing major flooding. We are fortunate to live on VERY high ground with no direct flooding here. However, we are cut off from most of civilization for now.

Not only are we physically unable to get to town, but yesterday our internet access went kaput. As hermits, staying home through the mess would have been just fine with all of us. But without our high-speed access to the virtual world, we felt out of touch with what has been happening in our community. Our ISP provided temporary dial-up connection to all their WI-FI customers. Nice of them...but let me just say, you can NEVER go back once you have been living with high-speed. No flood videos for us this week. Also, no pictures or links for this blog post.

On top of all of this, I woke up this morning to discover I had been infected with some sort of nasty stomach bug. I spent most of the day in bed while my wonderful, temporarily unable-to-work-due-to-lack-of-internet husband, not only took care of my sickly self, but also took care of schoolwork with the boys.

And now, I'm heading back to bed. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as our community recovers from this mess.

**Hooray! Five minutes after I posted this we had a call letting us know our high-speed internet was back!

Mom Loses It

2011-09-01T20:37:00.005-04:00

It all started Sunday night.

I was doing my predictable last minute planning for the week to come. It was late. I was tired. As I worked subject by subject, child by child to make my plan, I turned to my husband and said, "These lists are getting long. Maybe I'm trying to do too much this week."

Man, was I right about that!

Monday was a typical day. Even though we hadn't finished our list completely by 4pm, I wanted to get to the library, so we saved the history reading for bedtime. The boys did their Story of the World map work while having a bedtime snack. All was well.

Tuesday was the beginning of a downward trend. We started on time, but no one seemed ready to work...including me. My parents were coming for supper so I was trying to straighten up while bouncing in to check on progress now and then. JT was having difficulty with a few components of the K12 Literary Analysis course. I didn't feel like I had the time to sit and explain it thoroughly for him. Maybe he should just read the directions again? EM was playing with random toys he always hides in his desk. He didn't seem to want to get serious about any of his work. No one seemed able to stay on task. I was repeating instructions over and over because no one was listening. I was getting aching shoulders (always a sign of stress in me) and that was making everything more annoying.

Late that afternoon, the yelling started. And pretty much continued the rest of this week.

On Wednesday morning, I made the decision that we needed a day out. I had the boys finish a few things from their lists, a little math, a little reading, a bit of science, and then we took off for a day at a local amusement park. We discovered that going to the amusement park when most kids are in school is definitely a benefit of homeschooling. No lines...no crowds. The trip to the park gave us a chance to unwind, but the lists were still at home...waiting.

After another dismal day Thursday, I took a good look at what was really happening here. I think I just get over-excited at the start of the school year. There are so many new things to do; I just can't stop adding more to the list. My biggest problem this year is the K12 material I am using for JT's literature studies. It's fantastic material. I love every part of it. I just need to break it down into smaller chunks to keep it from taking over our days. Remembering that our homeschooling lifestyle is supposed to be about the journey and not the destination would also be a good idea.

So, I'm going to take a deep breath...and reduce the lists for next week. Our days do not have to look like a typical school classroom, running from one subject to the next, no time to stop and explore the small details that make our lives so rich. We want time to stop and smell the roses.

On our way to the park, I asked the boys how they would respond if someone asked them why they weren't in school. After some discussion, we decided the best response would be, "The world is my classroom."

Now I just need to make sure I stay true to that statement.

And They're Off!

2011-08-25T16:45:00.005-04:00

Year number four in our journey has begun. We started the week off with a field trip to Millbrook Marsh Nature Ce nter in State College. Considering my plan to make this our most unstructured year yet, an afternoon of casual traipsing in nature seemed like a perfect beginning.

JT has enthusiastically jumped into his new English program. I picked up copies of K12's Level 8 Literary Analysis and Composition Teacher Guide and Student Pages at a library book sale this summer. At first, I didn't think I could use them for much more than an outline for a reading course. I quickly realized I would only need to purchase copies of the reader, English skills book and the vocabulary book the course uses and I could do everything except the online portion of the course. I picked up two of the books, second hand, for pennies. The vocabulary book used in the course is the Level C Vocabulary from Classical Roots, which I already own! This course is a perfect fit for JT. There is a great deal of depth in the lessons. The reading assignments are right on target for his level of comprehension. The composition portion of the work will be challenging. Even though he has resisted composition assignments in the past, he says he is excited by the way it is presented in this method.

EM will be spending more time this year developing his writing style. When it comes to writing, he only believes in giving the vital information. He is a math-man all the way. Today we had a good discussion about expression in writing. Together we wrote up several possible topic sentences for a paragraph he was composing. I tried to show him how changing the order of the words, adding more detail and imagery would make someone want to read the rest of the paragraph. I don't know if writing in this way will ever come naturally for him, but he will at least understand why he should try.

Both of the boys are really enjoying our new way of studying science. We currently have two Monarchs in their chrysalides and one white-lined sphin x moth pupa in our classroom. Both of the links for those insects come from the website Bug Life Cycles. This site is an excellent resource for our entomology study. The vivid photographs have helped us identify more than one of our specimens. I am getting a lot out of this study...maybe more than the boys. It has been a great refresher for my rusty taxonomy skills.

The highlight of the week came early. While we were walking around the marsh, EM came up to me and said, "Mom, I'm so happy you brought us here today. I love school!"

Fire Safety

2011-08-18T15:30:00.004-04:00

"safety education, including regular and continuous instruction in the dangers and prevention of fires"
~24 P.S. § 13-1327.1 Home education program

In PA, homeschoolers are required to teach fire safety every year. My favorite reference site for homeschooling in Pennsylvania, AskPauline.com, has a great page that gives many creative ideas for teaching fire safety. We had an opportunity this week to move beyond the worksheets and participate in Fire Safety Day Camp. For two hours a day, three days this week, they are learning all about emergency services.

The first day of camp a local police chief talked with them about crime prevention. He showed the students how handcuffs and leg irons are used to keep criminals from harming others. The kids really enjoyed learning about how a taser works. Next they learned about the jobs of EMTs and ambulance drivers. They were able to tour two different types of ambulances. The grand finale of the day came when the local hospital helicopter landed on the field and the kids were able to get inside and talk with the pilot.

Day two involved discussion of fire prevention and fire safety. They learned how to escape a burning building and how to make a 911 call. The volunteer fire fighters put on their equipment and showed how each part of the uniform helped to keep them safe. Then the instructors demonstrated rope rescue. The kids split into teams and had a hand in pulling a 'victim' to safety.

Tomorrow they are going to use fire extinguishers, man the hoses on the fire trucks and end the week with a giant water battle. (I'm guessing the fire hose will play a part in this.)

Overall, it has been an excellent NO COST program for my children.

When we originally signed up, I was told that parents were free to stay or leave their children. The camp was split into two time frames for two different age groups. My boys both fell into the morning group, ages 7-10. I decided I would stay because I thought it would be interesting and I also didn't really know anyone involved with this program.

On the first morning, I found another homeschooling mom to chat with during the program. She said to me, "I can't believe how many parents just left their kids here." I hadn't really thought about it too much, but when she mentioned it, I realized how most parents are used to leaving their kids with strangers on a daily basis. I know that school teachers aren't really 'strangers' because they are employed by the school and have been thoroughly investigated to a point that we need not worry about our children's safety. However, it is a practice that may not be second nature to those of us in the homeschooling world. When given the option, I often stay to see what is going on with the boys. Not necessarily because I think that I can't leave them, but more out of curiosity. I want to know what they are learning so we can talk about it later. Some might think that is being over-protective or smothering. At this point, my boys don't seem to mind my almost ever-present self. So as long as they let me...I'll be there learning with them.

Odds and Ends

2011-08-11T23:07:00.004-04:00

Even though our insect collecting supplies are in transit (last time I checked, they were in Bismark, ND) my boys have decided to dive headfirst into the entomology study. JT brought me a handful of molted cicada skins he found under our apple tree. Later, when I said, "Get those dead things out of my house!" He quite correctly answered, "Mom, they aren't dead. They were never alive."

That's what you get for teaching your kids.

I finally received a letter from our home school district declaring my homeschool portfolios for last year acceptable. I was fairly certain we had done everything required, but I still felt like I was holding my breath until I got the news.

Our last week of summer vacation is going to be a full one. We will be going to VBS at our church from Sunday through Wednesday, so our evenings will be busy. Wednesday through Friday the boys will be taking part in a Fire Safety Day Camp in the mornings sponsored by a local fire company. It sounds like a good program, but whenever I have to sign a waiver warning me of potential injury or death for my children, I get a bit worried. We'll see how that turns out!

Sometime during all of that craziness, I will need to finalize lesson plans for the first week or two. Because I am going for a less structured method this year, I'm wondering exactly how much planning I will be doing on a weekly basis. I guess I'll have some tweaking to do as I try different methods.

After much avoidance, I did iron out my plan for music instruction earlier this week. That was one subject I had been avoiding like the plague. Although we listen to music most days, have instruments all over the house and attend a number of musical performances most years, I just dread trying to teach music to the boys. I found a slightly dated book called Music Skills for Classroom Teachers published in 1979 at a library book sale. We will cover just five chapters from this book and supplement with a study of several famous composers. Also, because I'm a glutton for punishment, we will be buying recorders that they will be learning to play.

Tonight a cool breeze is blowing in my classroom window. The summer has slipped away and before I know it the snow will be swirling against those windows. Even so, I no longer feel the same anxiety I used to when fall would sneak up on us. There used to be such a rush to get everything ready for school: shopping trips, back to school night, the need to get the kids to bed earlier so the race to the bus wouldn't be so traumatic. They are all behind us. Our life has such a steady rhythm now. I can't imagine every going back.

Science Planning

2011-08-04T20:52:00.003-04:00

My planning for this coming school year is nearly complete. The subject that I both enjoy and dread when it comes to planning is definitely science. Don't get me wrong...I love science. It has always been my favorite subject. At one point in my life I was registered as a biology major, but life doesn't always follow the path you expect and that's another story. The biggest challenge here is narrowing down what we are going to study for the year. There are just too many choices!

At the beginning of last year, I had set a goal to spend more time focusing on specific topics of interest in science and less time jumping around from topic to topic the way most elementary science text books tend to do. I also tried to incorporate as much hands-on learning and experimentation as possible. As the year went on, I started to worry that the boys wouldn't be on target for what they should know in science if I didn't use a grade appropriate text book as a guide. So I pulled one for each boy from my supply and started the tedious process of reading from a text book.

This year, there will be little need for text books in science! My overall plan currently looks something like this:

I will have a grade appropriate text book on hand for each of the boys. I will give them free rein with those books. They can read them, page through them, or completely ignore them.

We chose four major topics we want to cover for the year. Entomology, marine biology, cells and their structures (definitely spending considerable time on microscope use) and finally, geology with a dose of paleontology. As you can see, this year leans heavily on the biology side of the science spectrum.

At this point, I am working hard to outline what I really want to cover in our first unit. JT has been after me for 4 years to have an 'entomology course'. He will finally get his wish. I am using the book The Practical Entomologist as the backbone of our study. We certainly have a large selection of reading material covering the insect world. I hope to tie our study of word roots with the scientific names of the insects. I am shopping on the Home Science Tools website for all of the fun accessories we may need to create a spectacular collection of insect specimens. Also, we will be going to The Great Insect Fair held in State College on the Penn State University campus. We have wanted to attend the last two years, but our schedule prevented it. They also sponsor a Build-A-Bug contest that both boys are planning to enter. When I look at everything we could possibly do with this unit, 45 days (1/4 of the required 180 school days in PA), will never be enough!

One last thing I am planning for our science studies this year, involves nature journaling. I am buying a copy of The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie for each of the boys AND one for myself. This book comes highly recommended and when I looked through it, I could certainly see why. After two introductory chapters titled, "How to Be a Naturalist" and "Learning the Sky" Leslie launches into Part Three, "Exploring Nature: A Month-by-Month Guide". The book is designed so that you can record your observations directly on the pages. Readers are encouraged to add drawings and photos to the journal. Each section covers a different month and discusses different plants and animals that you might encounter at that time of the year. It also has a place to record temperature, weather and astronomical data. I plan to hold these books in reserve until December. We will begin our data gathering at the start of the calendar year. I'm hoping that will encourage us to get outside when we might prefer to stay indoors and hibernate.

The more time I spend planning this year, the more excited I am about our prospects. My expectations are not always accurate. But I know that's part of the learning process...and I'll accept whatever comes my way.

The Best Week of the Year

2011-07-28T20:00:00.007-04:00

My children look forward to Kids' College week almost as much as Christmas week. Kids' College is a local enrichment program offered for one week in the summer to students from second through fifth grade. This year, as always, the program was fantastic. This was EM's first year as a student. I wasn't sure if he would enjoy it as much as JT does. When I asked what he thought after the first day he told me it was 'alright'. By the second day, he was hooked.

The schedule included three classes in the mornings: Wiggles, Squiggles, Fun and Giggles; Medieval Magic and Foreign Forensics: CSI East Asia. Each day was jam-packed with exciting hands-on activities. EM, who is not the biggest fan of drawing, even enjoyed the creative drawing activities in the Wiggles, Squiggles, Fun and Giggles class. JT had an especially good time trying new foods in the CSI East Asia class.

Two things come to mind as I file away this year's experience. First of all, I really appreciate the way the instructors treat the students with respect. I understand that in a regular classroom, order must be maintained or mayhem would quickly result. However, too often I have seen adults 'in charge' take this to mean that the children are lesser human beings and that their individual needs come after the need for conformity. But one example from Kids' College shows that the adults here are ready to listen to the opinion of the students.

The program is held on the campus of a local university. The building that is used for Kids' College is also being used by university staff. The children need to be respectful of the employees while traveling through the building from one room to another. One way the instructors remind them to behave is by placing sets of Styrofoam eyeballs in strategic places throughout the building. This helps the kids remember that there are eyes on them at all times. One set of eyeballs ended up in the boys' bathroom. A few of the boys decided that this was not exactly 'appropriate' to have the eyes 'watching' them while they were in there. When they brought their concerns to the instructors, it was discussed and determined that it would be best to remove the eyes from the bathroom. This may seem like a minor issue, but it really shows the attitude of the teachers. The students' opinions were given value. They were treated as thinking beings that could provide input to the community.

Secondly, during the week the boys were at camp, I read a wonderful blog post at Scientific American titled, The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience. The author explores the question of whether our traditional methods of instruction, including memorization of facts and imitation of instructors, help or hinder a child's ability to learn. It was a fascinating article. The studies that are referenced throughout the post hammer home the idea that allowing a child to figure out for themselves the best way to do something helps them to get the most value out of their education. When I look at the experience Kids' College provides to the students, I see how well they are applying the principles these researchers are touting. The following excerpt from the post by Andrea Kuszewski explains how learning really happens:

You need to make mistakes in order to learn. If you never know why an answer is wrong, you will never be able to come across a novel situation and make a good decision about how to act. Making errors and struggling through problems is what increases cognitive ability . Spending time pondering a question, weighing choices, thinking about whether or not an answer fits, and why—this is what drives positive change. That’s what learning is. That’s what our education system should be focusing on. (source)

Kudos to the creators of Kids' College for allowing that sort of learning to happen. It may be messy, it may be a great deal of work...but the kids are gaining more than can be measured.

When I asked EM and JT if there was anything they would like to say about Kids' College, JT said, "It was awesome!" EM said, "I wish it could go on forever...until I grow up."

Suffering From Lack of Motivation

2011-07-21T23:08:00.007-04:00

My long-awaited planning week has finally arrived. The boys are both attending Kids' College for five days. Theoretically that should mean I have a large pocket of free time each day. When I wrote that on the calendar several months ago, I assumed I would use this week to get the classroom, and myself, ready for our next school year.

So far this week I:

Looked over math books on Monday.
Did a huge pile of laundry.
Ordered books from three separate websites, despite my previous promise to do no such thing. (In my defense, I did order Singapore Math and Key Curriculum materials from one site.)
Went to see the Harry Potter movie with my mom and daughter.
Had lunch after the Harry Potter movie and went to another book store to buy more books. (Buy 4, get 1 free! You would have done it too!)
Briefly stepped into the classroom to consider whether I should be doing more planning.
Went to a HUGE library book sale and came home with a large bag of books for only $20.
Went swimming because it was still 96º at 6pm!
Figured I'll do a little planning tomorrow since it will be the last day the boys are out of the house.

This is a picture of just one table at the book sale I went to today. The near bursting bag on top of the books is my daughter's bag. She really knows how to pack them in. Even after her handles broke, she kept re-organizing to stuff it completely.

My bag looks like this. Not quite as impressive, but I'm happy with what I found. Among the haul I have a handful of science books, three books I hope to use for music instruction and a cool book called Fantasy Cartooning, that I really think the boys will like for art.

Next week I plan to blog about the boys' week at Kids' College. I will also explain why after reading an interesting study about learning, I decided planning wasn't as essential as I originally thought. It was very convenient that I read this during the week I should have been planning. It certainly cut down on the guilt I probably should feel right now. Tomorrow we are expecting temps near 100º so I might just end up in the pool again. Or not. I don't want to make too many plans...

Summer Activities

2011-07-14T23:03:00.004-04:00

You might say that we like games in our house.

This picture is a portion of the 'game closet' in my husband's office. He also keeps his own personal stash in our bedroom closet that includes such marathon games as Twilight Imperium. If you think Risk takes a long time to play, you have never experienced Twilight Imperium. This summer the boys discovered a few old favorites of ours...Super Mastermind, Mancala and Memory. All of these are excellent thinking games. EM blows us away when we play Memory. He has always been good at finding things we misplace around the house. Now he has another way to put that talent to use.

It has been a struggle to keep myself from allowing the boys too much screen time this summer. I'll let them get on the computer and suddenly I realize a couple hours have flown by. Then I need to shove them out into the sunshine for a bit. Board games have made a great filler for when it's too hot to be outside.

One computer related activity that I have been allowing this summer is Gamestar Mechanic. This is an excellent teaching tool if your child is interested in game design. You can read the teacher's FAQ here. There are two different options for accounts, free and premium. The premium is about $50 a year. So far, both boys are only using the free membership. However, I think JT will soon be moving to premium. I made a deal with him. If he will enter the local newspaper's history essay contest, I will buy him the premium account. He needs to write an essay about what social issues could cause a civil war in the United States today and what the outcome might be. He has a good idea with solid arguments, so I think it will turn out to be an interesting essay. So far his motivation is good. The deadline for submission is August 19th, so he has plenty of time to finish it.

Back to Gamestar.... I like this site for a few reasons, but my favorite is the level of monitoring going on there. Because it is designed to be used in educational settings, they really keep a good eye on the online community. The users design games which are then played and reviewed by other users. The reviews are watched for any unsportsmanlike comments. JT actually received a warning once for a fairly mild negativity he made on one game. We used that as an opportunity to discuss online etiquette and how important it can be. He has really taken off with the game design and is always coming up with new ideas for his next project. EM also opened an account and has made a few games. We think he might be ready to try out Scratch when we get back to our regular school schedule.

Speaking of our regular school schedule... I have deemed August 22nd as our first 'official' school day. We will actually log about two weeks of time before the start date with outside learning opportunities, but our in home work won't start until the 22nd. Our first day will be a rough one! We will be taking a field trip. EM has an eye appointment that day and there just happens to be a geology museum near his doctor's office. Both boys whined a bit when I told them our start day, but when they found out a field trip was involved, they were appeased.

As usual, I can't believe how fast summer has been flying by. I'm hoping next week will provide an opportunity for me to really sit down and make some definite plans for the upcoming school year. Both boys will be attending Kids' College at our local university. This will be EM's first year there. I will have FIVE mornings of freedom! I wonder if I will actually be motivated enough to get to work...or if I'll just pour another cup of coffee and unwind.

Only time will tell.

Making a Difference

2011-07-07T19:46:00.005-04:00

In early April, I took the boys to a homeschooling program about fish at a local state park. It was a great day. The boys spent the day learning about the anatomy of fish, habitats, etc. In the afternoon, they were each assigned a 'mystery fish' . Given a picture of a fish with no identification, they had to use the resources in the nature center to find out which fish they had. JT had the johnny darter, EM had the American eel. After finding their fish, they needed to put together a poster to present to the group.

A couple days later, as a follow-up activity, I had the boys watch BrainPOP's video about fish. Half way through the movie, JT yelled, "That's not right!" When I investigated the problem, I found out that the movie stated "All fish have swim bladders." JT knew that this was not correct because HIS fish from the homeschooling day did NOT have a swim bladder. I told him that he would have to write a letter to the producers of BrainPOP if he wanted to let them know their error.

When he started writing, I explained that he couldn't just tell them they had their facts wrong. He would need to prove it. He would need a reference to cite. He found the pamphlet that he brought home from the state park and found an online version. He wrote a very concise, professional letter. He was also sure to let them know how much he loves their movies. I was one proud momma!

Several months went by. I started to assume that BrainPOP doesn't do a whole lot to communicate with their fans. Then one day in June, the Federal Express truck rolled into our driveway.

BrainPOP not only replied to JT's letter, they also sent him a package full of BrainPOP swag! But more importantly, they changed the movie based on JT's information.

I see two important things that can be learned from this letter writing adventure. First of all, if you know someone is incorrect, and teaching others something that is incorrect, it is important to let them know about it in a professional manner. When you do that, intelligent people will look at your arguments and make a change to what they are presenting to others. The second is that those in teaching positions, whether it be 'real' teachers, parents or even cartoon robots, need to be willing to listen to the opinions of others. I try never to assume I KNOW the right answer. There's always a chance that I may be proven wrong. If the evidence is there, I need to remember that I am not the expert. And even if I was an expert on something, experts make mistakes too. I am on the same learning journey as my children and therefore should always be ready to learn something new.

Evaluation and Portfolios

2011-06-16T20:55:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I delivered the boys' portfolios to our school district office. It was a little like the first time I dropped one of my babies off with a sitter...separation anxiety was setting in. I watched as the secretary walked back the hallway to deliver my creations to the superintendent's office. During the day, I would occasionally think about them and wonder if they would be returned to me intact. It's going to be a L-O-N-G month or two until they are returned.

Let me tell you a little about our portfolios. I spent far more time worrying about what to put in these portfolios than I spent actually putting them together. There were many reasons I worried, but the number one reason was because of a warning I received from nearly every veteran homeschooling mom:

Don't put TOO much in there.

This was most often followed by the advice to include only three samples per required subject, one from the beginning, one from the middle and one from the end of the year. I was warned that if I included too much, I would set a dangerous precedent.

My problem was that I couldn't decide which three samples would be the best possible demonstration of what we did for each subject. I finally ended up with three samples in everything except writing, history and science. In those, I had a little bit more. My completed portfolio looked like this:

I had a cover page, which I found on AskPauline. The next page was the evaluator's report, followed by our calendar showing that we schooled for 180 days. The next pages consisted of our book log. This particular part of the portfolio had me a bit worried. I read many different interpretations of exactly what the book log should be. My log ended up being a list split up by subject of all the books the boys read this year. I did not date the entries. Next year, I think I will. I'm not 100% sure I need to, but I would feel better if I did. The next part of the portfolio was the actual samples of work. I made up pages with the names of each subject to use as dividers. Then I included work for each subject. All samples included a name and date. For some of the trickier subjects, art, music and PE, I wrote up a short summary explaining how we handled our learning and then included pictures. For art, I laid out the boys' art work three different times this year and took a picture. I included each of those photos. For PE I included a picture of their Upward basketball team. Finally, I included a section I called supplemental. I listed all of our field trips this year. I also included a copy of their Mavis Beacon reports and their participation awards for the LEGO building contest. In JT's, I needed to include his standardized test results, as required for fifth grade. All together, JT's consisted of 93 pages and EM's had 77. I felt like that might be too much, but I was happy with what I had, so I decided to go with it.

Last Friday, we met with our evaluator to go over the portfolios and discuss our year. It was a positive experience for all of us. She told me I didn't have the dreaded too much in my portfolio, so I was happy. She looked through each binder and asked each boy to tell her something they really wanted her to see in there. Then she asked questions about their favorite books and subjects. She asked me where I saw the most growth in each boy this year. That wasn't a question I had expected, so I really had to think for a few minutes. I finally decided that JT had grown in two ways. First of all, his knowledge of Greek and Latin roots has really grown this year. I regularly see him applying his knowledge to discover the meaning of an unknown word. He has also started spending more time looking for ways to learn new things on his own. The answer for EM was easier. He has greatly improved his reading ability this year. For years I worried about him because he never seemed to love reading the way my other two children had. I was concerned that his vision problems and his auditory processing disorder were hampering a potential joy. But now I see him reading chapter books with great intensity. He also has taken off in his math skills this year. I'm hoping that continues through the rest of his school years.

Now that the stressful part of the school year has ended, I'm ready for my vacation. I am very nearly finished with my grand cleaning project. At this point, I only have one large bin full of math papers to sort through. I also have two piles of things to sell online and one stack of books I must return to the school district. Then I will close up my classroom for at least a month and focus on the rest of my house. It needs attention! I will probably take a week or two off from blogging, but after that, plan to keep a fairly regular schedule throughout the summer beginning with July. I will be working out some ideas for the fall and hope to get all of your input.

Finally, I want to thank you for following our journey here. When I first started my blog, I did it as a way to record for myself what we were doing. Every now and then, when we are having an especially bad day, I can come here and read about some of the successes I have forgotten. So in that way alone, writing has been a success for me. But it's also been a joy to meet so many other moms who are on the same journey, struggling with the same kinds of doubts and insecurities, and rejoicing in the same victories. Thank you for all of the encouragement you regularly offer to me.

Advice I Ignored

2011-06-09T14:53:00.005-04:00

When I first started considering this homeschooling idea, I did a great deal of research. I spent time reading books, following bloggers and talking with experienced homeschooling moms. Much of the advice revolved around the idea of taking it slow. Don't over plan. Don't get stressed out. It will all fall into place as you go. And don't buy too much stuff.

As you can see from this picture, I didn't really listen. I just couldn't see the harm in buying more than I would need. I had plenty of space to store the materials, after all, we built an addition on the house for the sole purpose of homeschooling. (Well, I also wanted a dining room, but the homeschooling need allowed for both.) I figured if I couldn't use the stuff right away, I would eventually be able to use it all. Plus, most of it was picked up at used book sales and through homeschooler resell lists, so the cost was not always a big deal. The problem here is not that I have too much stuff or that it cost me too much. The problem is that I can't plan efficiently when there are too many choices.

I have been cleaning out my classroom now that our official schooling days have ended. I have a fairly organized room; there are bins that I use to separate material by subject. Part of my clean-up has involved going bin by bin, subject by subject and writing up a brief summary for each boy so I'll know what we covered and where I want to start in the fall. As I went through each bin, I would find materials that we either didn't use or barely used. This brought on enormous waves of guilt, both for the wasted purchases and for the opportunities I felt we had missed. At first I tried to figure out whether I could use some of it next year. I found a Phonics workbook I had barely used with EM. It's labeled as a second grade book, so quite a bit of it is material he already knows. I moved it back and forth from the 'to use' pile to the 'pass on' pile several times. As I kept digging, I found that I had not only that unused Phonics book but FIVE of them that would have been appropriate to use this past year. As I flipped through each one, I found many perfectly wonderful pages I should have used. But I didn't. And now I have made the decision that I won't. Because no one can use all of the excellent material that is out there. No matter how many days and how many children you teach, there is too much available.

I have almost finished the classroom part of my cleaning. I'm rearranging a few things and cleaning as I go. The office is another story. It has been slowly filling with things I have picked up at sales this year. When I begin that project, I will not keep more than one version of any subject material. I will not be buying much for next year. There are about five things I know I need to fill in a few gaps in our math and writing plan. Singapore math workbooks, Key Curriculum Press workbooks and possibly Handwriting Without Tears. (I'm still on the fence on that one.) I will not buy things just because I might need them. I know that with internet access available, a fantastic local public library and loads of our own books, there isn't much out there we could need.

So this is my public commitment to cutting back from now on...

...unless I find a really GREAT bargain. :-D

Summing Up

2011-06-02T23:34:00.006-04:00

The joys of summer are upon us - reading on the deck, campfires at night, chasing fireflies, swimming...planning another homeschooling year. That last one might not exactly fit in with a joy of summer, but someone has to do it. For now, I'll just chat a bit about what we have accomplished.

This has been, by far, my favorite year homeschooling. When we first made the decision to leave the safety of PA Cyber I was a bit nervous about how things would go. Now I couldn't be happier with the results. I admit, there have been times when I wondered if the boys were learning as much as they would or could have with a 'real' school. But when I sit down and really look at where we have been, I am sure they have made great progress.

JT spent a great deal of time reading. When I printed out his book list for his portfolio, it was four full pages! The best thing is that more than half of those books are non-fiction. EM made drastic improvement in his reading as well. His list wasn't as copious, but he is choosing to read longer books now than he was at the beginning of the year. He also had a sizable number of non-fiction selections.

In spelling, we continue to see improvement. JT continues to be a natural at spelling. Because of that, I am constantly working to challenge his skills. EM made good progress too. He completed the entire second grade spelling book from Calvert and moved into lists taken from another more challenging workbook.

I loosened the chains a bit this year on the volume of writing for JT and you can certainly feel the relief in our classroom. I did give him one lengthy assignment in the last month of our schooling. JT read Watership Down in May. When he finished, I asked him to think about how rabbits were portrayed in a fictional way and then put together a report on their real life tendencies. It took him a bit of work to find resources. He really wanted to just throw it together based on what he knew already. However, in the end, he did a good job. I would have liked to see more details...but we can work on that later. EM wrote a few longer paragraphs, but mostly worked on journal entries. As he is only seven, I haven't pushed too hard on that front. I believe we will move onto multi-paragraph writing next year. Here is a poem he put together as one of his final writing projects.

Pudding

Pudding is yummy
Splat down your tummy
It is very goopy
Feeling very soupy
Pudding smells good
Just like it should

Our plan for math had a few changes throughout this year. I think we finally found our groove at the end, so we'll stick with it for now. EM worked through some of the Calvert 3rd grade math text and then finished out the year with Singapore Math. He seems to love that style of learning. I will start him in 3A for the fall. JT did a bit of this and that to start the year, mostly Calvert 5th grade. He wrapped up using Key Curriculum Press Geometry 1 and 2. I plan to use KCP Fractions and Decimals to start him out for 6th grade. He also does well on the Khan Academy site, so we will be using that too.

We completed Story of the World, Ancient Times in April and will move on to Volume 2 in the fall. We started American history about half-way through the school year. We covered pre-Columbus history of the Americas, early settlements, Native American history, colonial times and just started to touch on the French and Indian War. We will begin were we left off with the Revolutionary War. Mostly, we cover our American history through reading, documentaries and some online learning. Next year, we will do a full year of PA history, one day per week.

Science was much more hands-on. This has been a goal of mine since we brought the boys home. Even though it meant I needed to plan ahead quite a bit; I'd like to take it even further in the future. I want to move away from text books for science as much as possible in the elementary years. I'm going to compile a list of science topics I want to cover and start digging through my collection of books to get us started. I would really like to have the boys chose more topics that they are interested in studying on their own. Maybe even having them 'teach' each other about what they have learned.

I will now be teaching some of the 'minor' subjects in small units, instead of trying to spread them out over the year. Health, music, civics and possibly geography will all be handled that way. I feel like we get so much more out of a subject when we can really focus on it for a set amount of time. This year they did not get the time and energy they deserve. Art makes a least a weekly appearance out of habit, but I'd like to do more planning, instead of just picking a project every week as the day approaches. I may even look into outside art classes for the boys. We have a local YMCA art center that has a number of classes available.

I have spent the last week working to get the portfolios in order. I think I finally have the finished product ready to go. Every now and then, I'll think of something else to tweak. Our meeting with the evaluator is on the 10th, so I'll soon have to stop messing with them. I waver between thinking the binders are too big and thinking they are too small. I want to put everything in there to show how incredible this year has been! I also want to keep it simple, so I don't set the bar too high for the following years.

But now I have another project to start...my office. This picture gives you a little taste of what a HUGE mess it is. There is a large box of things I need to pass on to others. There are heaps of things that need to be filed or thrown. There are piles of books and materials to be organized for next year. There are art supplies that need put into the cupboard that can't be opened because there are other piles in front of it.

Homeschooling has changed my life in so many ways. The one change I never could have predicted was that I would become such a pack rat! People who have known me for years would have a hard time believing a room of my house could look like this. But it's true; the proof is right there in that picture. But you know what? I think I like the new me. I needed to be a little less structured. Maybe homeschooling will end up doing more for me than it will even do for my children. We talk a lot about the sacrifices and the commitment of the parents and we talk about the good things for the kids. No one ever talks about the enormous benefits parents can get from taking on this task. But I think I'm winning in this situation as well...and I love it!

Where Has the Time Gone?

2011-05-26T23:53:00.005-04:00

We have reached our finish line for this school year. For some reason, I don't feel the usual relief. This is the first year schooling the boys at home that I didn't constantly count the days to the end. I think that has a lot to say about our attitude now that we are homeschooling vs. cyberschooling. I'll have more to say about that in next week's post. I plan to do my typical yearly summary then. For now, I want to share a few things about our trip this week and some of our plans for summer.

On Monday, we made our long awaited trip to The Frost Entomological Museum. At the last minute, my husband was able to take some time off and come with us. That made it especially nice for me. Both boys enjoyed the visit, but JT was definitely in his element. He asked our graduate student tour guide about the kinds of things he should study in order to prepare for a degree in entomology. He found out that Ian received his Bachelor's degree in Biology, then continued his studies, specializing in entomology. JT did mention that he has been studying Latin roots in order to be ready for all those scientific names. First we spent some time in the actual museum looking at the displays of insects from around the world. Then, as a special treat, we were taken to another building to see live specimens. EM got to hold a millipede, JT held both a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach and an Australian Walking Stick. All in all, the trip was a great wrap up for our year.

As far as summer plans go, the boys and I had a talk on Tuesday about the things we would like to do. I had them help me make a list of day trips we could make. We also decided that we would spend morning hours outside as often as possible. After lunch, we will be sure to get in some reading time and only then move on to using computers or watching movies. JT has been looking through a new cookbook, planning to try some new recipes this summer. EM wants to keep working on a kit we bought to build an electric motor boat. JT will be continuing his computer programming projects and EM will be doing his eye therapy three times a week on the computer, as well as using his Earobics program weekly.

I think summer looks like it might have just as much learning going on as our school year. It seems like the longer we homeschool, the less we differentiate between 'school' and 'non-school' time. Learning is able to take place whenever we let it.

Buggy Art

2011-05-19T23:36:00.006-04:00

To prepare ourselves for our BIG field trip to The Frost Entomological Museum on Monday, we decided to do some insect art today. My husband and I were able to get away last weekend for our anniversary. No anniversary trip is complete without a trip to a book store! Y ou Can Draw Insects, by Damien Toll, was a superb find.

I told each of the boys that they had to chose a bug to draw. I wanted them to draw the same picture four times, but color each one differently. JT wanted to use the book and draw a blowfly. EM wanted to be more independent and create his own bug.

We cut small squares of white paper out for each drawing. When the pictures were drawn and colored, we chose different colors of card stock background for each one. These were also cut into slightly larger squares. Finally, we glued each picture onto a colored piece of paper and then glued all four onto a large square of paper.

EM's butterflies.

JT's blowflies.

I think they have a nice Andy Warhol look. Don't you?

We also spent more time this week on writing projects. One area I tend to avoid is writing instruction. At their ages, I don't necessarily feel that it is essential for the boys to be writing huge essays all the time. However, I do try to have a more substantial writing assignment now and again. JT has been working for two weeks putting together a report on rabbits. After reading Watership Down recently, I asked him to do research about 'real' rabbits. He is so good at digesting information by the boat load, but getting him to put it down on paper is another thing entirely. I constantly find myself asking him to, "Please add more details!"

I also gave EM two writing assignments this week. Usually his writing instruction consists of workbooks on grammar and phonics and keeping an illustrated journal. I try to keep his writing a little more casual than JT's. I did ask EM to write a poem and also a short paragraph on the topic "What I Like About School". After initial resistance, he did a wonderful job with both of his assignments. Writing is not his favorite subject, but when he does write something, he loves to share it with everyone. If you come to our house, be prepared to hear a recitation.

We have only THREE official schooling days left before our summer break. Tomorrow is the last spelling test of the year. Both boys will finish their math books by Tuesday. JT will be reciting The Gettysburg Address and EM will be doing The Preamble to the Constitution for our family next week. The field trip to State College is Monday. Tuesday we will be cleaning out desks and having our annual discussion about what worked and what didn't, what we learned and where we are heading in the future. I know this year has been the best so far for me. I'm fairly certain the boys feel the same way. The adventure just keeps getting better and better as we go.

History

2011-05-11T22:48:00.000-04:00

The days of school are flying by! And speaking of time...we have spent a large part of our week focused on times past.

One of the projects I wanted to use to wrap up our study of history this year was the creation of an illustrated time line. This year we had two separate focuses, ancient history and early American history. For ancient history, we primarily used Susan Wise Bauer's book, The Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times. This book takes you from early nomadic cultures up until the time of the end of the Roman Empire. That is a LOT of material to cover in one year. In the back of the book there is a time line of all the major events covered. We chose 20 from the list and put together our time line. This was a great review for our year in history. It was also a good art activity!

I really like the drawing of the runner going from Marathon to Athens. Look at the little puff of air coming out of his mouth. According to the legend, after running the 26 miles with news of the victory, Pheidippides collapsed and died. I certainly would!

We also spent some time this week studying local history. Our area was home to a British fort, built in the 1700s. It played a role during both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. There is a small museum run by a local historical society that I had never visited, in spite of the fact that I have lived in this area my whole life. This week, I took the boys on a field trip to see it. The Hunter House Museum is a small but incredibly interesting place to visit. We were the only visitors that day. In fact, the librarian in the historical society's library, had to come turn on the lights for us. However, we soon had a personalized tour given by the director of the museum.

She shared many interesting stories and facts about the site. The only remaining portions of the original fort are the well and the powder magazine. One thing I learned was that after the fort had been dismantled, the land was given to the commander. For a short time, the powder magazine served as a local prison. Would you want to have to go down into that dark hole?

Later that evening, I had a conversation with a friend of mine who teaches history at the local middle school. I asked her if local history is ever taught in the schools. She told me that it is never covered. She also told me that they are working to remove ALL history from the elementary levels. We talked about how we live in such a history rich region and how much these kids are missing when they never learn about it. Our local leaders worry about kids growing up and leaving the area for better jobs. Maybe the kids see our region as nothing special. Maybe some knowledge of the wonderful depth of what we have here would increase the pride in our community. Maybe a little more time spent learning out in the real world, instead of behind a desk every day, could help bring history to life.

Boys' Pursuits

2011-05-05T22:56:00.003-04:00

Now that the year is wrapping up, we are spending far more time outside and on the road. On Monday, we went on a hike with the local homeschoolers' group. At this point, we are still only fringe members. They have an online Meetup group that I participate in, but we haven't been especially active in the real-life events. The group planned this hike in the woods near the town where my mom grew up, so I decided it would be a great trip for us.

We met at the home of one of the parents. She lives near the trails, so she knew the area well. On the trail we came across several large puddles that were FULL of frog eggs. In the picture, you can see the frogspawn that the kids all got to hold. About this time, I was wishing I had thought to bring along something to clean off my kids' cruddy hands. Being boys, they didn't seem to think it all that important that they stay clean...so I tried to put my neat freak self aside for the rest of the hike.

After about 30 minutes on the trail, we came to an open area with a marshy pond. All of the kids were thrilled! They immediately began throwing the largest rocks they could find into the water. While all of this was going on, JT and EM were both having a great time getting to know the other kids in the group. I was also having a good time chatting with the other moms.

Then the boy in JT really starting coming out...he managed to crawl out to the end of a tree that had fallen from the middle of the pond...and got stuck there. After quite a bit of coaxing, a mix-up with an ant nest on the tree, and many complaints, he managed to make it back to shore. By the time we returned to civilization, both boys were filthy, happy and exhausted. They had bags full of rocks and moss they had found on the way and had a few new friends. We plan to get together with the group again in two weeks for a picnic at a playground.

The boys have been working on some independent projects this week. JT is working on his engineering activity badge for Cub Scouts. He's been busy researching bridges and drawing up a floor plan of our house. EM has renewed his interest in his retro Radio Shack Electronics kit. I picked it up for him on Ebay a couple years back. I knew someday he would love it...and I think we have come to that day. When he was still a toddler, he would take things apart and try to 'fix' them. Earlier this week, we brought the kit out and my husband helped EM with one of the projects. On Tuesday, I was helping JT put together a demonstration of how a circuit works for Cub Scouts. After watching what we were doing, EM disappeared for a bit. He came to find me and wanted to show me what he had been working on. Completely on his own, without using the manual, he had learned how to wire the set to light the lamp. He even included a switch on the circuit. He was very proud of what he had accomplished. I'm going to try to make sure sets like this one are out where he can easily explore them on his own from now on.

I think our last 13 days are going to be packed full of fun. We have plans to attend the homeschoolers' picnic, take a day trip to a local state park, travel to The Frost Entomological Museum and possibly take a trip to Clyde Peeling's ReptileLand. Between the field trips we will be working on projects, planting the vegetable garden and doing a little extra art. If school is this much fun, maybe we should keep going all summer!

Project Based Learning

2011-04-28T20:37:00.002-04:00

In last week's post, I mentioned that I wanted to say a little more about the keynote speaker at the PAGE conference. Kevin Honeycutt is a wonderfully creative educator. He certainly inspired me to take a closer look at how I am connecting my kids to the future through their education today.

His website is absolutely loaded with links and ideas, mostly free to download. I could spend hours checking it all out. One thing that really caught my eye is Google SketchUp. If you aren't familiar with it, Google SketchUp is a free tool for building 3D models on your computer. Tutorial videos are available here. I can see definite possibilities for fun projects with this tool.

Another plan I have in the works is to use Lulu.com to help JT publish some of his writing projects. In his presentation, Kevin pointed out that when a student is given a writing assignment, they are working for an audience of one...not really all that inspiring. He then shared a story about a troubled student he was trying to reach. He knew that she wrote poetry, so he asked if she would be interested in 'becoming an author'. He helped her publish her poetry (using a pseudonym) that very afternoon. When the book arrived, she was thrilled, but she also noticed all of her spelling errors. Up to that point, she had no reason at all to CARE if she was misspelling words in her writing assignments. Now it mattered to her and education could happen.

I plan to spend time this summer looking into many of the other links on Kevin's site. In the process, I think I will be seeing a shift in my education style. I have been wanting to work towards a more project based approach. I feel like his site is the link I have needed to pull it all together.

Along those same lines, this week has been a bit less structured. Ever since the beginning of this year, we had been talking about doing some birdwatching. This week we borrowed the National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: Pennsylvania, from the library. We made some treats for the birds in our yard using pine cones, peanut butter and sunflower seeds. Today we recorded several different species in our journal, including a Brown Thrasher and two Eastern Bluebirds. It was a great opportunity to learn more about these birds AND be outside in beautiful weather.

JT told me today that he absolutely MUST build a model of a suspension bridge. He had a pretty good plan in mind for how to pull it off. He thought he should use Popsicle sticks and cardboard. We spent a little time researching online. I posted a request for recommendations for good sites and material on the Gifted Homeschooler's Forum and received some really great ideas. Our favorite is a bridge made with the supplies he had in mind, found at the site Model Bridge Design. I want to encourage both of the boys to work on this an independently as possible. I know I tend to jump in too quickly. Since I know little about bridge design, they will need to lead the way.

EM has been wanting to do more work with the LEGO Mindstorm. I also plan to pull out some of our electronics kits to let him explore on his own. He really enjoys finding out how things work. I want to continue to encourage his curiosity. He has also been working his way through some of the Jedi Apprentice books. Certainly not high quality literature...but I'm thrilled that he is spending larger amounts of time reading. On a related note, he finally started his vision therapy for his Strabismus. He needs to use a computer home therapy program 3 days a week for 20 minutes at a time. He will also have monthly therapy appointments at the eye center. His doctor told us that she saw some improvement since his last appointment, even without the therapy. The program will help prepare his eyes for the smaller print and longer reading times needed as he moves along in his education.

Laid back schooling has provided us with many opportunities to leave our usual routine this week. With so much freedom in our schedule, I think we will have an exciting end of the school year.

Spring Break Isn't for Planning

2011-04-21T22:48:00.004-04:00

Tonight I threw away the "List of Things to Work on Over Spring Break".

Not a thing had been checked off that list. Knowing how many activities we have planned with family and friends for the weekend, I figured it was a lost cause anyway. You know what? I don't really feel bothered by this. Usually I'm all about the list...looks like I'm learning something myself on this homeschooling adventure.

I had hoped to plan most of the rest of our school year out this week. We have 22 days of school remaining to meet our minimum 180 days. It seemed feasible that I could plan lessons for that in a week's time. But other things got in the way. JT had his yearly physical on Monday. Fortunately our primary care provider is fairly supportive of homeschooling. She always asks the probing questions revolving around socialization but seems happy with our answers. Tuesday evening we had a wonderful opportunity to hear Brian Greene speak at a local university. It was exciting to be in a room full of people who would choose to go listen to a theoretical physicist talk about string theory. I was also happy to see that my 10 yr old wasn't the only child in the audience. Wednesday the weather was gorgeous, so we spent the day outside.

By late last night, I actually made my way back into the classroom. I did throw together a short list on the white board. Here's what I have so far:

Story of the World review...giant timeline for the wall
more art
website learning; Khan Academy, NOVA videos, icivics, brainpop, happy scientist
math, EM finish Singapore 2B, JT work on Challenge Math and KCP Geometry
memorization, poem for EM, historical speech of choice, JT
music unit
JT, review of Latin and Greek roots
EM, review of spelling words, possible spelling bee format
Geography games
more computer programming, typing practice, Mindstorm
LOTS of reading
LOTS of outdoor activities...nature journals, bird watching
field trips, Hershey Gardens, hike with local homeschool group, day at the state park, museum
Get the fun box out!!!

I think that looks like a great outline to end the year. I don't want to get into too many new things this late in the game. There are far too many opportunities outside of the classroom when the weather is cooperating.

The PAGE conference went fairly well. We had a small group of parents attend the panel discussion on homeschooling/cyberschooling. It seemed that most of the attendees were leaning towards the cyber option. I certainly can't blame them. I went that way as well. There were three other moms on the panel, two homeschoolers, one cyber. I was able to take a coffee break with a homeschooling mom after our session. She's been homeschooling her children most of their educational careers and is about to graduate a son. It was a great opportunity to pick the brain of someone who has been there, done that. She really made me feel more confident about my options. She also shared the transcript she has put together for her son. Once again, a wonderful thing to boost that confidence!

Our second day of the conference, we had a parent networking session. All of the attendees were parents of current cyberschool students, except one. He was the assistant CEO of that particular cyberschool. We had two parents on the panel for the session and we were both homeschoolers. There was some tension in the session over issues the cyberschool parents had encountered in trying to join their local homeschooling support groups. But what it really turned into was an opportunity for the parents to try to work out difficulties specific to the school with their CEO. I felt a bit more like an observer. It was funny because as I listened to their concerns and frustrations, I could hear how I sounded last year. I so wanted to tell them, "It doesn't have to be that way!" But I knew they had to find their own paths for what would work best for their families. So I just sat there and smiled, knowing that stress was gone from my life. I can sit back and enjoy the ride.

I will have more to say about the conference next week. The keynote speaker, Kevin Honeycutt, may have been the most inspirational speaker on education I have ever heard. I am bursting with new ideas I picked up listening to him. This summer I will be working some of them into our plans for next year. Spend some time on his website, if you can. I guarantee, you won't be disappointed!

Opportunity Knocks

2011-04-15T00:21:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow I will be participating as one of four members in a panel discussion entitled, "Home Schooling and Cyber Schooling: Exploring Alternatives to Traditional Schooling" at the annual PAGE conference. This is my first opportunity to get out there and proclaim the joys of the homeschooling lifestyle from the rooftops.

I really haven't been sure what to expect from this whole experience. I know the audience will be a mix of teachers and parents. I also know that many parents only attend the Saturday sessions, so it could be mostly teachers. What will teachers want to know about home schooling gifted kids? Because I wasn't sure, I started asking around...

I posted a message to the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum asking what they would want to know if they were new to homeschooling. I had many responses that helped me know what direction to start looking in preparation. I realized that when I began homeschooling, I really only answered my immediate questions, What things do I need to do to get started? What subjects must I teach? What medical forms need to be filled out? How do I find an evaluator? I didn't even spend much time looking at the regulations for things like extra-curricular activities, diploma options, college admission of homeschoolers... I realized many people would want to know these things. So, I set about finding answers.

I spent considerable time reading over the mass of material on the Ask Pauline website. I researched the diploma options in PA, and found out there are many ways to go about accomplishing the task. I looked at three local universities to find out their policies on admitting homeschoolers. The private schools were willing to forgo the need for an official transcript. The state run school insisted that a transcript would be absolutely necessary and told me how to go about getting one. I think I may know what direction we will be leaning when it comes to the college years. I also took a deep breath and called the principal of our local elementary school to discuss the regulations and how they interpreted the extra-curricular and curricular options for homeschoolers.

The bottom line of all of this research is that even if no one were to show up for the discussion, I have benefited immensely from the preparation. I just hope it shows tomorrow.

Losing Steam

2011-04-07T22:50:00.003-04:00

Before I get into the meat of tonight's post, I want to share the story behind this picture. For the last three years, I have been building spelling lists for JT from the English from the Roots Up flashcards. I like the way the cards work, several words all made up from the same Latin or Greek root. But sometimes, I wonder how often he will need to know how to spell some of these uncommon words, such as phillumenist. Today, I found out. The drawing he made on the white board incorporated one of this week's spelling words, thermoplastic. Not a word I've ever used...it refers to something that can be molded or formed when heated. The picture is a man, tied to a spit, being cooked by cannibals. Turns out the man is thermoplastic, so their plans have been foiled. Now THAT'S a good use of education!

According to the calendar we are rapidly approaching the end of our school year. For me it feels like time has suddenly started to drag its feet. I have a hard time getting excited about planning right now. I know it's because the end is in sight. I realized today that the best way to cope with this lack of motivation is to lighten up a bit. My plan for this week came together late in the game. I left the schedule a bit more sparse than usual. So far, that has been working in my favor allowing the days to be less tedious. We had more time to spend on projects. We spent a little more time outdoors. We stayed at the library longer than we sometimes do. We put a New England seaport diorama together today that normally I would have skipped out of shortness of time. All of these things have turned resistant kids into happy kids. By this time of the year, I feel like we have already met so many of our goals that we deserve a little down time. Learning is still happening, maybe even more than usual.

I had already planned to spend the last month of our school year summing up in many of our subjects. I thought a review format for spelling would be better than picking up any new words at this point. More games and projects are also on the agenda. The boys both made nature journals at the library homeschool day last week. Our weather has been too rainy to really put them to good use yet, but we plan to work those into our daily activities soon.

I know these last few weeks will be full of interesting days, but I also know summer will soon be here. I will be able to recharge my batteries, coming at the next year full of energy and new plans. For now, I'm just going along for the ride...learning as we go.

Outsourcing Learning

2011-03-31T22:42:00.005-04:00

In a recent post, I wrote about providing the boys with foreign language instruction. This week we went for our sample TPRS Spanish class. I think we have found the perfect match for our learning needs.

TPRS, Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling, is not the method for you IF you want to learn a language in the typical classroom setting. We will not be conjugating verbs or filling in worksheets. The class began with our teacher showing us a list of words and phrases she would be using in the lesson. After telling us the meanings and pronunciations of the words, she moved on to the gestures that would go with each word. Some of these were common ASL signs. Some were gestures and some were even sounds. For example, lobo (wolf) was a howl.

Now that we were armed with our gestures, she began the story. As she told the story, any time we heard a word on the list, we were to do the appropriate gesture. This quickly became a lot of fun. The boys especially liked it when they had opportunity to act out ¡Comé mucho! (eats a lot). When the story had ended, our teacher starting asking questions...in Spanish. The boys were easily able to answer using the gestures and sometimes speaking the correct words.

There was just enough silliness involved to make every word memorable. The pictures in this post come from the poster sized sheet of paper she sent home with us. Even though we were given no formal assignments, JT has been using his new vocabulary and working to construct his own sentences from what he already knows.

I'm still on the fence as to whether both boys will take the class. EM is not as interested and did cause some distraction during the lesson. We are waiting for a week or two to see if we can drum up a few more students for the class. And if you are worried about the absence of formal language instruction, remember that when you learned your primary language, you probably didn't start conjugating verbs until you were well into your elementary years. We can get to those parts of the language later.

I found something else this week that really has me excited. The Khan Academy. I think this teaching website is incredible. After watching the creator, Salman Khan, giving a TED Talk about how he got started, I couldn't wait to try it out. Originally it began as math videos Sal had made and posted on YouTube to help tutor his cousins from a distance. As more people stumbled upon these instructional movies and made positive comments, he realized he had an opportunity to help many who were struggling with math.

I had been looking into the possibility of signing JT up to use either ALEKS math or IXL next year. I started to feel that he might benefit from a more self-directed math study. In the middle of my indecision over which was the better choice, I read a message through the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum about Khan Academy. Not only does it seem more in line with what I'm looking for...it's also FREE! The tracking tools for teachers are phenomenal. The students can earn points and 'badges' as they move through the different lessons. This particular feature really appeals to my little gamers. The only drawback I can see is that if you want to track your progress, you must log in with either a Google ID or a Facebook account. I reluctantly set my kids up with Google accounts so they can make use of this wonderful site.

I love having access to such excellent learning tools. There are just so many rich opportunities out there...I'm starting to wonder if twelve years with these boys will even be enough to scratch the surface of what we can do together.

What We Aren't Doing This Week

2011-03-25T00:01:00.003-04:00

This is the time of year when public school students in Pennsylvania sit quietly with their No. 2 pencils and show what they have learned. At least, that's the idea behind the PSSAs. I personally think these tests are a waste of time for students and teachers. The schools must spend countless hours preparing for these multiple choice tests...reviewing memorized facts that show little of what a child has really learned during their school year. It all comes down to a couple days of testing that might give us some idea of what they really know.

As homeschoolers in PA, we are not taking standardized tests this week, because we are not required to do so.

But don't think that means we do not on occasion assess our progress. In fact, I may assess our progress a little more fanatically than is really necessary. As a homeschooling mom, you operate under the fear that you might just be missing something essential that your children need to be learning. Strangers in the grocery store may quiz your children on the gross domestic product of Botswana at any given time! We must be ready to defend our claims that our children will not grow up to be deadbeats!

When I start worrying about those kinds of things, I try to sit back and look at the big picture. Are each of my children making progress in their learning? Are there any subjects where they really seem to struggle? Is it my methods that are causing this struggle or are they maybe just not developmentally ready for a certain concept?

Focusing on the larger issues can really help me decide if our schooling is working. When I find a problem area, I look for ways to fix it. It doesn't mean we are 'failing', it just means we are ALL learning through this process. Most often the problems come when I start worrying about the way others will perceive my progress.

This week, I contacted our home school evaluator to let her know our projected last day of school so we could schedule our year end evaluation. Per PA regulations, we must log 180 days of schooling. When those days have been completed, we will meet with our evaluator to show her our portfolios for the year and discuss what we have done in those 180 days. Deciding what to put in the portfolio is difficult for me. Do I want to include only their absolute best work in the record? Do I want to throw in a few, not so perfect pages to show that I haven't chosen ONLY the best work? As recommended by most sources, I am planning to pull out a sample for each required subject from the beginning, middle and end of the school year.

I know I am probably over thinking this whole thing. Our evaluator is very laid back. I don't think she will be too concerned about the papers I have thrown into that binder. What she will really pay attention to will be what the boys say about their school year. What was the favorite book they read this year? What kinds of experiments did they do for science? What subject was the most exciting for them?

These are the kinds of questions you just can't answer by filling in a bubble on a test sheet...and I think they are the only ones really worth answering.

Friendship

2011-03-17T20:45:00.003-04:00

The ugly specter of socialization reared its head this week.

JT walked into the kitchen at bedtime and said, "You know, the problem with homeschooling is that the kids don't get much of a chance to socialize with other kids."

!!!!

I want it to be known, that both of the boys are active in Cub Scouts, Upward Basketball, the youth group at our church, chess club...being in the vicinity of other kids is not the issue. The issue is finding someone who is a member of your tribe.

I recently became enamoured with the blog, Un-Schooled. The post, Being friends with older people, really hit home with me. As a homeschooling mom, I wonder how our boys will develop close friendships when they might not have the same volume of exposure to kids of their own age. But then I find blogs written by people like Kate and I am reassured that they won't end up as reclusive old men. However, his comment in the kitchen made me think he may need a little help in forming a connection with someone.

In a moment of synchronicity, my friend Annie from Learn at Every Turn, sent me an email this week asking if my son JT and her son Landry could start an email correspondence. My husband and I had just decided that week to allow JT to have an email account. Up until now, we hadn't wanted to deal with the potential problems it could bring about. So, JT began his first official internet friendship. He is loving every minute of it! The boys are sending programming code back and forth to modify a simple number guessing game. They are sharing links and pictures of their pets.

At first, I spent a lot of time wishing JT could find a close friend who is also close geographically. But you know what? My closest friends are spread out across the country. I have very few close friends who live near enough to visit physically. Sure, I have plenty of acquaintances from the area...but other than my husband, none of them are a perfect fit for me. With the world getting smaller and smaller thanks to the internet and easy travel, I believe it might become old-fashioned to even have friends in close proximity. In the same way that the neighborhoods of the days when mom was home all day and dad went off to the office have become extinct...our idea of friendships may change. Maybe homeschoolers will be the ones most ready to adapt.

...Still I Love Technology *

2011-03-10T21:46:00.007-05:00

Tonight we have a guest blogger here at Homegrown Minds. Because I am NOT a computer expert, I have out-sourced the programming instruction to someone much better qualified. Please welcome our principal and technology guru... Daddy!

Some of my best memories from childhood involve computers. That probably sounds pitiful to anyone who is even a mere decade younger than me, because computers had already become common in school, the workplace and the home by the 1990's. To today's twenty-somethings, hearing that my best memories involved computers probably sounds as exciting as saying my best memories involved watching television, but exciting is exactly what it was.

During the late 1970's/early 80's, a computer in the house was probably less common than even say, a ham radio. My parents were a generation older than the parents of virtually all of my friends, so it was very unlikely that we would have ever had a computer in the house at all if it hadn't been for dumb chance. The simple chance of living next to a computer science professor, and being friends with his son, afforded me an opportunity I otherwise never would have had. By playing with my friend at his house, where the latest computers were being tinkered with, I witnessed first-hand the infancy and evolution of the home computer. Better still, I got to tinker with them myself. The fascination and passion have lasted my whole life. Like any parent, I want to pass on those things for which I have a passion. The older daughter, of whom I am proud, is still a PC gamer, so I can't drop the ball with JT and EM. It's so much easier to learn about computers as a child today, so how could I not give them the same opportunity?

JT began a few months ago by using Alice. He picked it up very quickly, and that same afternoon had created an animated story that he played over and over for us and anyone that came within ten feet. Then he would add more to the program, rinse, and repeat. We could see right away that Alice was a good start, but knew that its overly juvenile atmosphere was going to wear thin soon. We looked at Scratch, but it was similar to Alice and seemed to be targeted towards an even younger audience... which is fine. We'll most likely be using it to introduce concepts to EM. Then my wife found a book called Hello World!, by Warren Sande and his son Carter. What is not to like about a computer book by a father and son team?

Hello World! uses a scripting language called Python to teach programming because, A) it's fairly easy, B) it runs on most common platforms, and C) it costs nothing to download and use. I like the style of the book. Those "Idiot's guide to ABC" and "XYZ for Dummies" titles are not exactly a boost to your confidence. This book is a well done beginner's guide, without being insulting. A nifty touch was that the author had his son, a child, as proof reader. If something didn't make sense to Carter, then he put in extra notes and tips to explain it better. The writing gets the point across, but still manages to be lighthearted and entertaining, with comical illustrations any 5th grader (or their father) would enjoy. The feel of the book brings back the same feeling I got as a kid going through the Introduction to the Apple //e program, which was the first time I saw that computer programmers can express their sense of humor through their programs.

When I was a software developer, I was always learning something new because the field changes constantly. Sometimes this meant buying a book and teaching myself. Sometimes I didn't even have a book, I was just hacking away and figuring it out. In my opinion, this is the best way to learn something. For this reason, my approach with JT is to let him approach it himself, with his book, pretty much on his own. He can move forward at his own pace, trying out the instructions and exercises in the book as he goes. At the end of each chapter, I quiz him to make sure he's getting it. As he moves through each chapter I answer any questions that come up, and if he gets stuck, I'll help him debug his programs. If I find the bug, he has to do ten push-ups, so I always ask him if he's sure he has checked his code thoroughly. All that physical exercise will help to balance the mental exercise and make a sleek geek who can impress with his brain and his brawn.

I can't help but think, that here we have another example of the homeschooling advantage. If the boys were not learning at home, how much time would they spend waiting for buses, riding buses and learning to pass standardized tests? How much time will they now get to pursue independent study of their passions and interests? In so doing, they are learning how to learn - a skill so often neglected, and so rarely found.

*...always and forever...

Foreign Language

2011-03-03T22:10:00.003-05:00

When I first started homeschooling I had many grand plans for the diversity of topics we would cover. Three years in, I know that I will probably NEVER make it through the stack of 'cool' things I have picked up in such a short time.

One of the things I had really hoped to offer the boys, was a chance to learn a foreign language from a young age. I took Spanish from 6th-12th grade and consider myself a novice, at best. I can understand a few phrases when eavesdropping at the grocery store. I can count and list colors and ask where to find a bathroom. I really wouldn't say I am qualified to teach these kids much in this department. My husband is a bit better off than me in his knowledge of German. So, I have quickly realized, if I want them to learn a language, I will need to outsource.

I considered buying Rosetta Stone. I like the concept behind it. I think the idea of learning in a more casual way really makes sense. But I do NOT like the price.

Enter plan B.

I was reading the notice board at our public library and spotted a flyer for Spanish classes taught by my own retired middle school Spanish teacher! The bad news, was that the classes were for adults only. I decided to contact her and see if she did any classes for kids. I sent a message out to the local homeschoolers group to see if there would be interest if I managed to get her to put a class together. There was a decent response from families with children ranging from ages 5-12. When I called Senora T., she was thrilled with the idea. Then she told me about her teaching method...and I was thrilled!

She uses a method known as TPRS, Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. I really like the concepts behind this method. Please remember that I have only read a little bit at this point, so I am by no means, an expert. Think about how your children learned their primary language...did you hand them a text book? Nope. You talked to them...saying things like, "You are such a cutie! Mommy is going to change your diaper and get you ready for bed. And then you will sleep for 9 hours and make her VERY happy!" (IN MY DREAMS!)

This method uses oral storytelling and gestures to introduce a new language. The students interact with the storyteller using key phrases they have been taught in the lesson. From what I can gather, after you have spent some time hearing the language, you start working towards reading the language. This makes perfect sense to me. When I learned English, I learned by hearing, then speaking, then reading and then later still, writing. I know this method will not teach my children to conjugate any verbs. But there will be time for that stuff later. Right now, I want them to have the exposure to something new.

We have not established dates yet, but I am hoping to organize a 'sample' class if possible in April. Maybe these classes will give me a chance to brush up on my rather sparse knowledge.

¡Adios!

Updates

2011-02-24T22:03:00.003-05:00

This week I want to give a few updates on things I mentioned in previous posts. Sometimes I lay out the plans and share them, but forget to let everyone know how it all worked out.

In last week's post, Misconceptions, I shared my feelings about a local radio program on the topic of homeschooling. That night I sent an email to the host expressing my concerns. The next morning, I had a reply asking me to please call the show and share what I had said in the email. I had about 15 minutes of air time to proclaim the joys of homeschooling. I hope that the things I had to say made some people realize that homeschooling, while challenging, is not an impossible or arduous task...most days. ;-)

Two weeks ago, in my post titled Changes to the Plan, I was playing with changing the way we handled coverage of the required subjects. I have implemented two changes since then. First of all, I put together a unit study for health. We will be covering health every day for two weeks straight. Previously, we had health scheduled as a once a week class, but it often got left behind in both planning and implementation. So far the boys seem to be enjoying the change. We are using a lot of websites, including games and activities. Yesterday we took our health unit to the grocery store. I printed out copies of the Food Pyramid at the Kidshealth site. (They also have a fun interactive game with printable results.) I gave each boy a clipboard and a pencil. They had to correctly categorize the foods we were buying. They both did an excellent job AND it kept them out of trouble in the store. Once we finish our health unit, I plan to do the same with music and civics.

The other change I have made is that I am allowing larger pockets of time for some of the favorite subjects. I have reduced grammar and writing to no more than two days a week. I'm also trying to be sure to allow more time for art projects. Free reading time and documentaries are also being used more often.

In a post titled Passion, I said that I was hoping to help the boys be more internally motivated by their own desires, instead of being externally driven by me. This week there have been three places where the boys are driving the day. The picture above shows one of those, JT's obsession with his rock collection. He has been working on the geology activity badge in Cub Scouts. This made him take a closer look at his own rock collection. He decided he needed to identify and label all of his rocks. Although I did my fair share of rock collecting as a child, even writing my first ever research project in fourth grade on rocks and minerals, I am no expert at identification. He's on his own there!

He's also discovered that he LOVES working with animation. My husband is working to help him further his skills. JT has written up a plan for a video game he wants to develop. We ordered this book, Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners today to help him learn more of the basics.

We've also started our cooking instruction that I discussed in Teaching Responsibility. I pulled my Taste of Home cookbook off the shelf and used it as a text book. We went through the beginning sections where vocabulary, common tools in the kitchen, and food safety are covered. Starting with the first tab, appetizers and beverages, we are reading the introduction and then choosing two recipes from each category. So far we made Spiced Pecans and the Old-Fashioned Strawberry Soda. JT pointed out that when we finish going through the book, his final project should be to create an entire meal on his own. I think that is an excellent idea!

Now one thing I am looking at changing before the end of the year. For history we have been working our way through the first book in the Story of the World series. However, in PA elementary students are required to cover American History and Pennsylvania History, but not ancient history. Up until now, I just threw something from our civics unit into the portfolio binder for those requirements. Now I think I'm going to take our two days a week devoted to history and continue with Story of the World for one day and add American History for the other. I'm still not sure if I'm going to look into curricula for that, or just use books from the library in more of a free reading style of learning.

Finally, I just discovered a new blog this week. (Like I need one more RSS feed to distract me from what I'm supposed to be doing!) I read this guest post by Un-schooled blogger, Kate Fridkis, at the OMSH blog. It is an excellent post on homeschool's effect on a child's self image. It couldn't have been at a more perfect time for me. Even though I love what I do with these boys, there are many days I think it would be SO much easier to send them to school. Kate's words (as a formerly homeschooled adult) made me more sure than ever that what I do here will make all the difference for my boys. Keeping my mind on that goal will make it easy to do.

Misconceptions

2011-02-17T23:00:00.004-05:00

Most mornings, I listen to a local radio talk show. Today I was especially excited because their guest was a homeschool evaluator. The guest was introduced. She has a master's degree in education and did not homeschool her own children. Most advice that I have heard regarding evaluators encourages choosing either someone who has homeschooled their own children, or is obviously very homeschool friendly. So my guard was up from the get-go.

One of the first questions from the host concerned misconceptions about homeschoolers. The evaluator's answer included the statement, "Some people think all homeschoolers sit around in their pajamas until 10am. That is not the case." Hmmm...I looked at my children. It was 9:30am, and sure enough, they were still wearing their pajamas! In fact, so was I! This really started me thinking. What if we do wear our pajamas until 10am? What if we choose to wear them until 4pm? How exactly does that affect my child's ability to learn? Now I do have the boys get dressed before we start the 'structured' part of our school day. But even if I didn't, I'm pretty sure they'd still be capable of learning.

Of course they covered the typical, "Homeschoolers don't get enough socialization". The guest went on to explain how most homeschoolers are involved in a local homeschooling group. Well guess what? We're not. I have looked into the local group, follow their events, but have never really become an active participant. Are my children suffering? Both of the boys are active in scouts, Upward basketball and church activities. No more than a typical public school child. Do they need something to make up for the 8 hours a day they are missing being exposed to group of children all their own age? They seem to be fully capable of responding appropriately in public situations, both with their peer group AND people of all ages. What they are missing is the possibility of bullying from their peers. Honestly, JT is a bit quirky and more than likely would become the object of persecution in a public school setting. We love his quirkiness. We are all a bit quirky in this family. We talk about how we are a bit odd sometimes. In a regular school setting, he would suffer and I am VERY glad he doesn't have to experience that.

I couldn't resist the opportunity to call in to the show. After a brief introduction of myself, the host asked me if I was "formerly trained in education." I answered that I only have a high school diploma, but think of myself as a lifelong learner. I told him that from the time our children were very small, we have always encouraged them to find out the answers to their questions. We pursue answers with a vengeance around here. Of course, what he was really asking is, am I qualified to teach these kids? The answer is, I don't have all the answers to all of their questions, but I do know where to point them for answers most of the time. I know that when we reach more advanced subjects, I am going to need to rely on outside helps more often than I do right now. But you know what? Even though teachers have been trained to teach, they don't have all the answers. And that's okay too.

Finally, they asked the guest about reasons for homeschooling. She told them that almost all of the families she evaluates chose to homeschool for religious reasons. When I called, I was sure to point out that there are plenty of families out there that homeschool for a wide variety of reasons, including myself. We are a family of Christians, but we did not choose to homeschool for that reason. Yes, it makes it nice that we can teach the Bible as part of our curriculum, but it doesn't mean we are hiding our children from the world so that they never hear other points of view.

I felt that the program really showed a very narrow view of the homeschooling community. It was a bit disheartening to see an opportunity to really proclaim the diversity and flexibility of homeschooling thrown away. I hope to be able to continue the conversation with the host. I have sent an email explaining where I felt they fell short. Maybe I'll get my own chance to share our story.

Changes to the Plan

2011-02-10T19:52:00.003-05:00

When we started out this school year, I developed a weekly schedule for covering all the state required subjects. Monday through Friday we cover the 'core' subjects on a daily basis. These include reading, spelling, math, writing and grammar. Monday and Friday we have history. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are science days. Health, civics, art, geography and music each get one day per week. I'm starting to consider revising my original plan for a few reasons.

First of all, now that we primarily do our 'formal' schooling in the afternoons, sometimes time flies by too quickly for the number of subjects I would like to cover. If we get hung up on a particular concept in math, we might run out of time for health that day. Then things get pushed to the next day. Before I know it, Friday is packed full of all those things we just couldn't squeeze in the rest of the week!

Another problem I'm discovering is that our one day a week subjects just don't get the coverage they should. The continuity is just not there when we only touch on it once in every seven days. These particular subjects tend to be the ones I have the most trouble planning, as well. I'm not sure if it's because I have fewer traditional teaching materials for these subjects, or if I am just not as comfortable with them at times.

Finally, I'm finding that the need to hurry along causes the boys to need to switch gears far too often in one day. Like many students, they need time to transition from one thing to the next. With some days having as many as seven different subjects to cover, it's just too much to take.

My proposed changes look like this. Some subjects will still be covered daily. Math, reading and spelling will all continue with their usual schedules. I think I am going to schedule history, science, grammar and writing twice a week, in larger portions on the days they are being covered. Right now, grammar sometimes has a tiny pocket of time, often only a worksheet or text book activity. I would like to really develop that time into something more substantial, perhaps with more in depth writing assignments. Art will continue to be a once a week endeavor, but now with more time allotted.

Finally the biggest change I want to make revolves around those remaining subjects: health, civics, geography and music. I think I am going to put together something more like a unit study for each of these subjects. The boys would get a more thorough exposure to each topic. I also think I'll be more likely to invest the time necessary if we are going to be working daily on a particular subject.

As we are about 2/3 of the way through our required 180 school days as of this week, I'm not sure how this will all play out for the rest of the year. I will probably change a bit and tweak our schedule as we go. I am definitely planning to work with more of a block scheduling system for next year. Overall, I have been happy with what we have covered so far this year. I just think we can do it with less stress if we change some of the mechanics.

One final note, Annie from Learn at Every Turn, recently posted a link to a website called iCivics. I can't get over how much I love this site! It has been a perfect learning tool for JT. Today he played the game called, "Do you have the right?". Here's a synopsis of the game from the site.

In Do I Have A Right?, you’ll run your own firm of lawyers who specialize in constitutional law. You’ll need to decide whether potential clients “have a right,” and if so, match them with the right lawyer. The more clients you serve and the more cases you win, the faster your law firm will grow! Can you think on your feet? You're going to have to!

I highly recommend checking it out.

The Olden Days

2011-02-03T23:56:00.005-05:00

We have a pretty standard routine around here for bedtime. After showering and getting dressed for bed, the boys come to the kitchen to pick a snack. While they are eating their snacks, Daddy reads to them. We try to pick books that are going to be enjoyable for both of the boys (and us!). My husband is an expert at reading aloud. He always does the voices perfectly. I enjoy story time just as much as the boys do. I'm usually cleaning up the kitchen and listening in the background. This tradition began YEARS ago when my daughter (now grown and married) was still at home. It will continue as long as they want to take part. You're never too old to listen to someone read a book to you.

We are currently making our way through the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. These books are wonderful for many reasons. One of my favorite things about this series is learning how they made do without technology. Our material blessings become so much more amazing when they are compared with what the Ingalls family had. As usual, any deep thinking leads me to...thinking how it fits in to homeschooling!

When I think about what life must have been like for homeschoolers of the past...I am blown away by how easy it is for me! I'm not talking about ancient history either. I'm talking about parents who homeschooled their children a mere 20 years ago. What would I do without instant answers via Google? Where would I find, compare and purchase curricula? Where would I find a video on how to make a wet mount slide for the microscope at 1am so I can be ready to teach my children how to do it the next morning? Most importantly...where would I be able to network with friends around the country and globe who are also teaching their children at home?

I am so thankful that technology is available to allow me to teach my children with ease. But, you know what? Even if it wasn't...they'd still be able to learn! Even if we lived in a time before the library was just a 15 minute car ride away. Even if we lived in the middle of Kansas with neighbors miles away. Teaching happens when questions are asked and answers are found. Sometimes we have to work together to find an answer. Sometimes we even have to admit we don't have all the answers. And sometimes, a little wondering is good too.

Teaching Responsibility

2011-01-27T22:51:00.006-05:00

Lately I have been thinking about the need to teach my boys some basic life skills. Things that aren't necessarily taught in a 'school' environment, but are concepts they need to succeed in adulthood. This was first brought to light a month or so ago when I placed a pile of laundry on JT's bed and asked him to put it away.
"That's why I'm really looking forward to getting married some day. I'll have a wife who can do that stuff for me." ?!

My husband is not extremely domestic, but he certainly doesn't treat me like his servant...so I'm not sure where this idea came from...but it must be fixed!

We have given the boys a weekly allowance for a couple years now. This is a cash allowance. We do not expect the boys to work to earn it. We do not take it away as a punishment. This is simply cash they are given to spend as they will. We encouraged them to devise a budget for their money when we first instituted the process. They both set some aside for savings, some for church giving and the rest is their spending money. They have both set goals for things they would like to buy (almost always Lego sets!) and met those goals with diligence. I have felt that this plan has allowed them to learn how to handle cash. It has also shown them the value of saving for something you really want to have.

Each of our boys has responsibilities to carry out on a daily basis. They both must make their beds, take care of getting dirty clothes in the laundry, clean off their place mats after each meal and pick up toys. Beyond this, we really don't have a set list of jobs for them. That is about to change...

My husband and I are putting together a list of chores that we feel they are ready to tackle. This has brought about some feelings of resistance on my part. I am a bit of a clean freak. Since we started homeschooling, I have eased up a bit in my cleaning fanaticism . (I no longer have a schedule for my house cleaning, including when to clean out cupboards and closets.) Allowing the boys to clean the house will mean it might not always meet my standards. It is going to take work on my part to teach them how to do it right. In the beginning it will add more work to my days. But I know it's the right thing to do. I want their future wives to be happy women!

Once we decided we'd like to put a chore list together for them, we knew we'd need a way to track the jobs. I didn't want a list or chart...they need to be updated when they are completed. I wanted something re-usable. I don't like the white board idea...too easy to smudge. Then I thought of a plan. We are going to put each chore on a 3x5 card and place it in the 'to-do' basket. When the job has been completed, they can move it to the 'finished' basket. Simple, yet perfect for our purposes.

Another plan in the works is a bit of cooking instruction. JT requested a 'cooking class' this week. Both of the boys help me in the kitchen from time to time, but I've never made it into anything organized. I am going to put an outline of basic cooking skills together, including menu planning and shopping for meals. I have a few kid's cook books lying around the house that have easy recipes and definitions of cooking terms in them. Seems like a good place to start.

Overall, I think homeschooling is really the best place to accomplish the teaching of life skills. Schools don't seem to have the time anymore for such supposedly non-essential classes. Testing has pushed this kind of learning to the sidelines. My own experience in school was enriched by my home economics classes. I took every cooking class our high school offered. Even in middle school, I loved the class that was called, "Creative Living". We learned to sew and cook...boys and girls together. I don't think I remember much from middle school classes except: how to make french toast and how to make a pillow with a ruffled edge. I believe those are the skills that will make our lives richer and more satisfying in the long run.

Benefits

2011-01-20T22:54:00.007-05:00

The weather in our neck of the woods has been a bit frosty this week. Local schools had no classes Tuesday, delays on Wednesday and what will potentially turn into some sort of change of schedule tomorrow as well. Add in the day off on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and it was a less than productive week for most students.

We followed our normal school schedule for the week. Weather plays very little role in our homeschooling days. In fact, we didn't even bother to clear our iced-over driveway until 2 days after the wintry mix had fallen. We had nowhere to go! I can't say how many times I find myself thinking how thankful I am that we school at home and my husband works from home. It just makes life so much less hectic. No need to get up super early on a day with miserable weather to try and clear the driveway just in case the school day is not canceled. No need to stand at a freezing cold bus stop and face the elements. It just feels like the perfect life to me. AND we can do things like this....

A couple weeks ago I was pouring a bit of apple juice for myself. I saw a strange blob-like thing slide into my glass. " How gross!" I thought. Then I ran to get the camera. After taking my 'before' picture, I pulled out a petri dish. (EVERYONE keeps a petri dish lying around for just such a situation, right?) We gave the blob a little more of the no longer appetizing apple juice and put it aside to see what we could grow.

We ended up with a lovely, fuzzy friend. On Tuesday, the boys and I took samples off the original yellowish substance and also some of the fuzzy part. We made microscope slides with our samples and compared the two. Then the boys each wrote out descriptions of the original appearance versus the current appearance. They made drawings of what they saw through the microscope. JT wrote a summary explaining why he thought the two substances were the same and what he thought about their structure. It was a wonderful learning experience. A lovely, unplanned experience that had nothing to do with our current science curriculum. In fact, I'm finding myself straying from our 'plan' more often these days. When learning opportunities arrive, we take them. Some days I worry that this unstructured lifestyle will backfire. That the boys will get to college and have no clue how to study, how to take notes, how to survive. Then I see something like this...

EM received Volume 1 of Cats 101 DVD for Christmas. He has expressed a desire to be a veterinarian when he grows up, so this show is right up his alley. Each episode covers several breeds of cat. After a bit of video on a specific breed, they summarize some of their traits, good and bad. Bullet points are given. I heard the boys watching the show and EM would shout, "JT, get ready...here they come!" I was curious, so I went to see what was up. JT with pencil ready was waiting for those bullet points. When they would come on the TV screen, EM would pause the show so JT could copy them down. They were making a chart to compare the breeds to decide which would make the best pets.

I guess I have no reason to worry about their future study skills.

Recharging my Batteries

2011-01-13T22:46:00.005-05:00

This week I attended the annual Pennsylvania Department of Education Special Education conference. It is a wonderful opportunity for me to recharge, network and learn new things.

Today I went to two sessions. The first was titled, Teaching Word Recognition: Kindergarten through Grade 4, presented by Rollanda E. O'Connor, Ph.D. (All of the power point slides from these presentations are available for download here.) I attended this session in particular to get some ideas for helping EM with some of the reading difficulties he has been encountering. Due to his Auditory Processing Disorder, EM has difficulty with phonics, which leads to difficulty in his reading. Lately, I've been noticing that he seems to take some pretty wild guesses as to what an unfamiliar word might be in his reading. Because he is also gifted, he has done a good job up until now with his guessing technique. When you are reading Kindergarten or 1st grade material you have a pretty good chance at guessing a word if you know the context (usually thanks to pictures) and you know at least one phenome in the word. It was an excellent presentation and I came away with a few new strategies to implement. The one thing I did realize...I haven't been spending enough time allowing him to read aloud to me lately. Once he seemed to be reading successfully, I would often give him a reading assignment and when he had finished, I would ask a few comprehension questions or have a discussion about the passage. Since I discovered the guessing has been allowing him to just 'get by', I will start reading with him on a daily basis. I will also be spending more time reinforcing phonics.

The second session I attended was titled, Motivation and Underachievement, presented by James T. Webb, Ph.D. I came away from this session with two lessons learned. First, I was encouraged to learn that my recent adoption of a more compromising attitude with JT is definitely a step in the right direction. Allowing him to have a say in his education, so that it has more meaning to him, will help reduce the chance that he will lose motivation. Secondly, I discovered that I really need to find a way to orchestrate challenges in the boys education that will allow them to feel success after hard work. Too often they breeze through things or make elaborate plans for some new project that loses steam when they run up against an unexpected barrier. I hope to incorporate more of that kind of learning into our days.

One of the other benefits of these conferences is that I get the chance to reconnect with friends who live across the state. Sometimes it's easy to feel alone when you are the 'different' one. Today I felt like I was with the other 'Martians' for just a little while. I always come home recharged and ready to put into practice the new ideas I have acquired. I can't wait to get started!

Compromise

2011-01-06T23:51:00.004-05:00

Two quick items before I get into the topic for this post. In our last two days of schooling before our Christmas break, we were able to use the flexibility of our schedule to our full advantage. Very early on Tuesday, December 21st, we pulled the boys out of bed at about 1:30am to watch the only total lunar eclipse this far north on the sky’s dome until December 21, 2485. It was spectacular! If they were enrolled in public school, I wouldn't have dared to get them up in the middle of the night. They both thanked me many times for letting them see something so out of the ordinary.

A couple of days before returning to our full time school schedule, I was desperately trying to get some work done around the house. The boys were doing everything they could to prevent that. So I did what any normal mom does...I threw them out into the bitter cold. They protested and said, "What are we supposed to do out here, anyway?!"
I suggested that they...(the first thing that pops into my mind)..."Look for a bird's nest or something!"

About ten minutes later, EM came running into the house. "Mom, we found one!"

Thinking fast, I asked if he'd like to borrow my camera to take a picture. Then HE came up with the idea to find the book he has that shows pictures of different birds' nests so he could try to identify what kind of bird built it. Isn't accidental learning the best?

Today I learned how important it is to never think I am the expert. JT had been given an assignment for grammar. He has a text book called Building English Skills, published in 1984 by McDougal, Littell & Company. I really like this slightly outdated text. It doesn't mess around with a lot of fluff. It presents grammar in a straight-forward kind of way, with simple exercises for reinforcement. Today JT was examining sentences to see if they were run-ons or correct. He had to number his paper from 1 to 20, writing 'correct', if the sentence was not a run-on. If it was a run-on, he was to rewrite the sentence as two or more sentences. This was a no-brainer kind of assignment. Maybe that was the problem. JT doesn't want work for the sake of work. He did the first 10 sentences and then started to whine.
"I don't want to do these."
"It's too much writing."
"These are B-O-R-I-N-G!"
I told him how important it is to learn to edit in writing. Recognizing mistakes in others' work can help us recognize our own. Blah, blah, blah.

Then he offered a compromise. What if I let him edit a chapter from the book he's been writing instead? I was resistant at first. As MOM, I often feel the need to 'stand my ground' once I have made a rule. But the more I thought about his suggestion, the more I realized how much sense it made. Why not allow him to put into action the very skills I was trying to teach him in a life applicable way? He could care less about those run-on sentences in the old text book. Isn't one of my complaints about the state of our current educational system that kids never get practical life lessons?

So, we put the text book aside and he pulled the first chapter of his book from the folder where he keeps it. He worked through the chapter and found several capitalization and punctuation errors on his own. Then I helped him work on the quotation problems he was dealing with in his dialogue. I reminded him of lessons we had already covered on split quotations and he was mostly able to fix the remaining problems on his own.

As a parent, I need to teach myself that the urge to always be the expert will not allow my child to become an independent learner. Most of the problems we have dealt with in the public education system have come from closed minded 'experts' who only wanted to do things the way they have always been done. Why should I walk that same path? If I can allow compromise and creativity to pave the way, education will take on a whole new meaning for my children.

Progress

2010-12-16T18:15:00.005-05:00

I thought I should probably take a look at where we are as this calendar year comes to a close. Here's a little look at what we have been doing this school year and where we plan to go after our holiday break.

After starting the year with Singapore math for both boys, we decided Calvert math was actually the best fit for both of them right now. JT is skimming his way through the 5th grade text, only working on concepts he hasn't already learned and things he needs to review. EM has been working in the 3rd grade text in the same way. JT will probably cover 3 more chapters in the Calvert book. When he has completed those, I plan to move him to Key Curriculum Press's Geometry series. We may alternate between those and Life of Fred Decimals and Percents. EM will probably also work on the first book in the Geometry series and then move back to the Singapore 3B book.

When we started this school year, I borrowed text books from our local school district. In PA, school districts are encouraged to allow homeschooing parents to borrow the books for their child's grade level. I had the boys each use the school's reading text book. JT has already completed the entire year's reading from the book, EM is close behind. I also supplement with novels, books related to other subjects we are covering and poetry reading about once a week. EM has a workbook that ties in to the reading text, so he does some of that work. They are both also doing worksheets related to library use, alphabetizing etc. In the new year, JT will work his way through an older 6th grade text book I picked up at a library sale. EM will move on to reading more chapter books and short story collections.

I am using the Grammar Island book for EM and Grammar Voyage for JT. Both are part of the Michael Clay Thompson language arts curriculum. JT also uses a textbook from the 80's entitled, English Skills. I try to give each boy at least one writing assignment per week. JT does a great deal of creative writing on his own. I generally allow him to follow his own path for writing. EM needs a little more structure, as he doesn't naturally enjoy the process. However, he does a good job when he has a little help. Teaching him to outline and other pre-writing skills has brought about a great deal of growth in his writing style. I will continue to encourage him in that way. By the end of this school year, I would like to see him put together a short biographical report. JT will also be doing a research project in the spring on a science topic of his choice.

We have weekly spelling lists. There is always a pre-test on Monday, sentences or definitions later in the week, review game on Thursday and final test on Friday. JT uses the English from the Roots Up Cards for his spelling lists. EM is using the 2nd grade Calvert spelling lists and worksheets.

For History, we are working our way through The Story of the World, Volume 1, Ancient Times. The boys both find the stories engaging. We often do the map work in the activity book from the series. We do not always take the time for all the crafts and other work. Recently we discovered some really fun videos on Youtube for our history instruction. The creators have put history to pop music. My favorite is the Canterbury Tales to California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas. Good stuff...and it's educational!

We decided to cover three major units in science this year. We started out with weather and water. I found a Christian based science series that we have enjoyed. God's Design for Heaven and Earth, Our Weather and Water, fit well into our plan for this unit. We also regularly use experiments from the Janice VanCleave books. After our vacation, we plan to begin a unit on geology. The boys are looking forward to breaking out the volcano building model kit and the rock tumbler. When that unit is finished, we hope to have time for an astronomy unit before summer.

Our remaining subjects are on our schedule once a week. Health, civics, art, geography and music are mostly taught in a hands on sort of way. For example, this week for health we watched a video on fats that we found on Brainpop (still my favorite online educational tool!) then we did an experiment we found on the Happy Scientist website. We took our chips, pretzel and tortilla chips from the cupboard. We placed a few of each onto a paper towel, drew a circle around each group, labeled the circle with the name of the snack and allowed them to sit for a bit. We then checked which had the most fat based on the greasy stains left behind.

Art is sometimes a tie in to our history lesson, sometimes it's a craft project, sometimes I just pull a step by step drawing book out and set them loose. We have a well-stocked art supply cabinet that is always available for their use. We also read a bit about art history and they spend time looking at examples online.

Physical education is part of our schedule, but it has no set time or place. Right now, the boys are starting their basketball season with the Upward program through a local church. When they aren't playing basketball, they ride bike, swim in the summer, run up and down our hill in the backyard and are generally active enough that I don't worry too much about 'teaching' gym. That may have to change as they get older.

Overall, I feel like we are accomplishing more this year than we have in any other year since we brought the boys home. We are keeping to our afternoon school schedule, usually wrapping up for the day a little after 4pm. I have found that if I don't jump right into schooling immediately after lunch, they resist starting at all. So I have to be diligent with the schedule. Our household has really relaxed into a good rhythm this year. We may be more laid back than some families as far as routine, but I feel what we have here fits us well. We are happy, healthy and learning as we go.

A note about my posting schedule. I will not be posting the next two weeks while we are on our holiday break. I will return January 6th of the new year.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

2010-12-09T23:37:00.003-05:00

About two years ago, I started recognizing patterns in some of my youngest son's 'quirks'. He had always hated places with loud noises. Going to a movie theater or fireworks display had been a problem...until I discovered earmuffs made it bearable for him. It soon became clear that he didn't even like 'busy' places. If we went to a place like the mall or a museum, he became distracted and irritated. Sometime around the age of three, we had him evaluated by a speech therapist. She worked with him for a brief time on a few minor problems he had. Background noises were a problem for him. If he was reading and JT made even the slightest noise, he would be annoyed and claim he needed to start the reading assignment from the beginning because he couldn't remember what he had read. Then when I started giving him spelling lists last year, I noticed that he seemed to have much more difficulty with simple words than I had expected him to have. His reading levels were above grade...why was spelling such a problem for him?

A friend suggested that he might be dealing with Auditory Processing Disorder. After reading the symptoms, I wasn't 100% sure that he was, but figured it might be a good idea to have him evaluated.

The evaluation was done at a local university through their speech and hearing clinic. I felt like I might be wasting their time, but just couldn't shake the feeling that something 'just wasn't right'. It turned out I wasn't imagining things. He has a problem with his auditory processing. The official diagnosis in the summary reads like this,

"Overall test results indicate an auditory processing disorder associated with decoding type deficits as well as maturational issues. Specific deficits noted include poor phonemic awareness, synthesis, and sound blending abilities. In addition, ----'s test results indicated abnormally large right ear advantage scores."

We were given several recommendations. We were told to begin using a home computer program called Earobics. We were given classroom suggestions; preferential seating (keeping him close to the teacher or white board), seating away from visual and auditory distractions, extra time to complete assignments when large amounts of reading are required. We should change multi-step directions to simple statements, one direction at a time. More use of visual aids. Keeping instruction time short. Students with impaired auditory function become tired more quickly, so they need regular breaks in the school day.

I have done all of these things since day one of our school year. But there was one more recommendation...

"A speech and language evaluation to determine current receptive and expressive language skills is warranted."

Next week, at his yearly physical appointment, I will be looking into having this evaluation done. I was hoping that just doing the home use of Earobics and being careful to instruct him in a way that suites his needs would be enough. But I'm seeing him struggle where he shouldn't need to be struggling. He is interpreting things we are saying in unusual ways. And now it's starting to frustrate him. During his testing, the audiologist gave me an example of where he had a problem. They read the word 'boat' to him. He was to tell them what he heard. He heard, "big toe". Some days I wonder exactly what he hears when I talk to him. When I told the audiologist that I had 'felt' something was wrong, but could never really be sure she said, "The gifted ones are tough. They do a good job making do with what they can do. They hide it well."

I am so thankful that EM does not need to be in a normal classroom environment. It would make his problem so much more of a problem. I am working to educate myself more thoroughly on exactly what is going on for him. I just bought a new book, When the Brain Can't Hear: Unraveling the Mystery of Auditory Processing Disorder by Dr. Teri James Bellis. I'm hoping this book will help me to help my son.

I know many people think if your child is gifted, you have nothing to worry about. If they can get good grades, why push them any harder? Why worry about challenge? If I had been happy with good grades, I would never have known something else was going on here. Maybe we can make things easier for him in the future.

Paperwork Paranoia

2010-12-02T22:49:00.004-05:00

The day before Thanksgiving, two mysterious envelopes arrived in the mail. They each contained a document from our public school titled, "Pennsylvania Mandated Health Requirements for 2010-2011 Term for ALL STUDENTS."

I instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

Why does any paperwork I receive from our school district bring about this reaction? This being our first year homeschooling without the charter to deal with the paperwork, I am fearful of any new development in this department. Also, previous experiences would certainly have something to do with it. Back in the day, when JT was in the public school system and when we were attempting to get EM into the public school early for Kindergarten, most correspondence from the school was either bad news or...bad news. Typically an envelope from the school district would cause me to get angry before I'd even open it. This time they tricked me by using a plain envelope with no return address.

I started looking over what they had sent to me. EM's paperwork had him labeled as a first grader. This is understandable as he never attended their school AND he started Kindergarten at 4. Because they had him incorrectly labeled, they were asking for extra screenings. They also had some questions about his immunization history. JT's was even more irritating. He did skip 1st grade, so I would understand if they thought my 9 almost 10 yr old should be in 4th grade...but NO...they had him marked as a 3rd grader?! He even attended school there for the years when he skipped the grade.

Completely irritated and ready for action, I realized the school offices would be closed until the following Wednesday for the Thanksgiving holiday and the beginning of deer season. (It's a Pennsylvania thing.) Grrr! I spent a few moments off and on over the holiday planning my rebuttals. I wrote down all the proof of where they should be placed. I checked state regulations on medical requirements for homeschoolers. I was READY.

Wednesday morning I called the school and asked to speak to the nurse. She was extremely pleasant. After finding the boys' paperwork and making the grade corrections without question, she told me I wouldn't need those extra screenings after all. Since JT would be starting 6th grade next year and the state requires a physical for that grade, she suggested that I could, according to the regulations, get that physical for him anytime from the beginning of this school year. Overall, she was pleasant and helpful.

How silly I felt....and relieved.

So often as homeschoolers, we put ourselves in defensive mode as soon as anyone questions what we are doing. When you are being different, it's easy to feel oppressed. This experience taught me that it isn't always the case.

I'll still be ready for next time..."Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T23:00:00.003-05:00

I am thankful I live in a country where homeschooling is legal.
I am thankful I live in a state where the paperwork side of homeschooling is minimal.
I am thankful I live in a house with a husband who fully supports me in homeschooling our boys.
I am thankful my boys understand that homeschooling is something to be thankful for.

I never knew I would grow up to be a homeschooling mom. I had big plans for myself. I was going to go to school, get a degree in biology, and change the world. Funny how things change....

If you are a parent considering homeschooling your children and never dreamed you would be even thinking about something as crazy as this... you are not alone. Many of the homeschooling parents I come across out here in the virtual world fell into this lifestyle. They had big plans. They were DOING things. But suddenly, someone needed them more.

That's why I love what I do. I may not have gone to college and gotten that degree. But I AM changing the world.

I am changing the world for my two boys...and I am thankful for that.

Evaluator

2010-11-18T23:06:00.004-05:00

According to PA homeschooling regulations, all home schooled children must put together a portfolio and be evaluated for "progress in the overall program" every year. In order to be evaluated, you need an evaluator. We found our evaluator through a friend of a friend. I had a quick phone conversation with our evaluator when we first decided to break from the cyber school. Since then, I sent her a question or two via email. She seemed to share my attitude towards education, so I felt very comfortable with her from the start.

Because JT is considered a 5th grader this year, part of the homeschooling regulations require that he undergo standardized testing. In Pennsylvania, 3rd, 5th and 8th graders must do this when homeschooling. Parents can choose from a list of tests. They can be administered by just about anyone, except the child's own parents. It's even okay for siblings to do the job! Our evaluator offers testing services for a very reasonable fee, so we chose that route. Monday was JT's testing day.

When we first arrived at her home, EM was carrying a Far Side book under his arm. She immediately noticed it and said, "Wonderful choice of reading material!" That was when we knew she was perfect for us!

I had received a letter from our school district about a month ago, laying out my responsibilities in the homeschooling process. Since I was already familiar with homeschooling regs, I felt that some of their statements weren't quite on the money. I showed the letter to the evaluator. She asked if she could write on the letter. After I gave her permission, she proceeded to cross off their incorrect statements and add references to the homeschooling regulations in the margins. She even corrected the grammar in the letter. My kind of woman!

Testing was a smooth process. JT did a wonderful job. Our evaluator uses the Woodcock Johnson Achievement test. I prefer the out of level testing to the typical PSSAs given in our state. When you have a child that consistently works above grade level...on level tests tell you nothing about their progress. With this test, I was able to see where his strengths and relative weaknesses lie.

I am looking forward to working with our evaluator in the future. When the end of the year comes, the boys will each have an interview time with her. She told me that she likes the portfolio review to be a time where she can ask the mom about the child's progress and allow the child to hear praise for themselves from their parent. She's not worried about the minute details of our day to day lives. She wants to know what they love about learning, what they found most exciting about their year and what a great student they have been. No need for letter grades here...just praise and encouragement for our learning adventure.

Dissection

2010-11-11T21:35:00.004-05:00

If you are squeamish about certain parts of biology instruction, no need to fear! This post is about the dissection of an ancient calculating beast, not a once living animal. An old Packard Bell computer met its demise in our library this week.

My husband is a computer geek. Because of this, people regularly ask him if he wants their old computers. Sometimes he can use the parts and sometimes they end up in the recycle pile in my storage room. This particular specimen was heading straight to the pile when he had the terrific idea to let the boys take it apart all by themselves. In the past, he has shown them the insides of computers, but never allowed them to get their hands in the 'guts'. Once he came up with the plan, he told them they would be doing a dissection this week, but he couldn't tell them what they would be dissecting. JT guessed the obvious...frogs, bugs, cats....CATS?! He was actually a bit disappointed that it wasn't something more gory. When we are ready to take that step, I plan to reference this excellent dissection post by Lisa over at The Jo y of Learning. For now, we'll stick with the metal and plastic versions.

Dad placed the subject on the library table and handed the 'scalpel' a.k.a screwdriver, to JT. As they removed parts, my husband identified each component and explained its purpose. He also told them how many of these parts would not be found in a current computer. This gave them opportunity to see how quickly PC technology is advancing. As the parts came out, the boys made labels and attached them. The process only took them about an hour from start to finish. But EM, my hands on learner, was loving every minute!

When the boys went to bed, we removed the sticky labels and lined them all up. The next day each of the boys had to re-label all of the parts. They were both 100% successful.

Applicable, technical learning is so rarely taught before the option might be presented at the high school level. I believe so many hands on learners are sitting in school never knowing they would like learning if only they were given a chance to learn in their own language. I'm striving to offer a multi-lingual environment here in our home.

Answer Keys

2010-11-04T20:44:00.005-04:00

When I first started homeschooling JT, I could check his work without the use of answer keys. I very rarely needed to even use a calculator for the math he was doing. As the boys have moved further along in their studies I started needing occasional help from the answer keys. Most of the time, it was only a matter of convenience. I just didn't feel like doing the math for 30 long division problems.

But now we have a dilemma. Occasionally we are working on something where I don't know the answer AND I don't have an answer key! JT is using an older English textbook for grammar this year. It was published in 1984. I picked it up in the free pile at our public library. Yesterday I asked him to work on an exercise to place quotation marks in sentences correctly. When he was finished, I realized I wasn't 100% sure about the answer for one of the sentences. This was quickly remedied when I read the instruction section of that lesson. However, it opened my eyes to a larger problem. Will I need to buy materials that come with answer keys from now on?

I have enjoyed the freedom of picking up books from various sources; discard piles at the library, yard sales, used book stores. Up until now, I hadn't thought about what would happen when we ran into material that wasn't second nature for me. I always assumed my husband could conquer any math problems we ran into. (He WAS a math major in college for a bit, after all.) But what about the other subjects? Should I have to learn everything my children are learning and master it well enough to be able to find their mistakes?

This brought on a whole new line of thought for me...If I, as an adult, haven't needed to know the things I am expecting them to learn...do they really need these skills? Should I instead be focusing more on things they are passionate about? Obviously, I want them to develop their communication skills. A quick refresher course on grammar rules I haven't thought about in 25 years should be sufficient for those matters. But what about the names of the presidents or the capitals of the states or names of the Canadian provinces? Most of this information can be found quickly on the internet. Is there REALLY a need to memorize such easily accessible facts in our modern world? You could argue that the act of memorization, no matter the content being memorized, is a good exercise in and of itself. But what if I can tie that skill into something they love and might really need someday?

I am reading a book right now called The Element by Ken Robinson, Ph.D. Here is an excerpt from a review, quoted on Amazon, by Publishers Weekly:

Robinson (Out of Our Minds), renowned in the areas of creativity development, innovation and human resources, tackles the challenge of determining and pursuing work that is aligned with individual talents and passions to achieve well-being and success. The element is what he identifies as the point where the activities individuals enjoy and are naturally good at come together.

I am looking at how this challenge applies in homeschooling my boys. I want to find their passion and help them develop it in a way that they will succeed in whatever they are best suited to do. Unless their goal in life is to someday make it big on Jeopardy! I think they can live without knowing loads of trivial facts.

My new question will be have to be, where do the long accepted standards of education fit into the goal of finding The Element for each of my children?

Loosening the Chains

2010-10-28T23:04:00.005-04:00

We have one full week of afternoon schooling under our belts and it continues to be a successful transition. With the new schedule, I'm finding that the boys are working on their own passions in their free time. JT started writing a story on Sunday afternoon about slugs and bugs. It has many epic battle scenes. His favorite books include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series and The Redwall series. All of those are full of battles and desperate times. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that his writing is following the same path. Monday and Tuesday he SET HIS ALARM clock so he could wake up early and write. Did you hear what I said? He WANTED to write!

In case you have forgotten...this child dreads the physical act of writing. He is full of excellent ideas, but when it comes time to put them to paper...forget it. I have spent hours in vain trying to bribe, threaten and plead with him to write a simple composition. So far, his story is 17 pages long. Handwritten. This is nothing short of a miracle. Remember what I said about finding your passion? I made a deal with him that if he continues to write the story, I will count it as his writing 'class'. I will type up the rough draft just as he writes it, but he will have to do all of the proofreading and correction on the computer himself. He loves to use dialogue in his stories, so I reminded him he will need to brush up on use of quotations in order to do his corrections. Sneaky mom. :-)

EM has started spending much more of his free time reading. After he resigned to the fact that the mornings were not to be spent on computer games and non-educational movies, he realized reading wasn't as bad as he thought. He checked a huge volume of Curious George stories out of the library and read it in 2 days. This is also unprecedented. Typically he spends much more time looking at pictures in books than reading the stories. He usually wakes up an hour or two before the rest of the family. Most mornings, I find him sitting on his bed reading Calvin and Hobbes or some other favorite from his book shelf when I get up. What a joy this has been for me.

We are still having fairly structured classroom time in the afternoons. Everyday we have reading, spelling, grammar/writing, and math. Two days a week we cover history. Three days for science. Health, civics, art, geography and music each have one day. Right now we are covering these subjects in approximately 3 1/2 hours a day. But based on how the boys are using their free time I believe those hours may turn out to be more educational than any of the structured learning I will provide.

Schedule Flexibility

2010-10-21T14:22:00.006-04:00

What time of day does schooling need to take place? Is there a best time of day? I think that answer is different for every family...maybe every individual child.

Last year I was playing with the idea of teaching EM in the mornings and JT in the afternoons. EM is definitely more of a morning person and I thought he might do his best work then. Unfortunately, it never seemed to come to fruition. I just couldn't work out a schedule that allowed me to teach at two different times every day.

A couple nights ago, I was telling a friend that I do my best planning late in the evening, usually between 8pm and midnight. The problem with this is that the next morning I never feel like teaching. I'm too tired. My friend said, "Why don't you just do school in the afternoon?"

Duh!

Last year this idea probably would not have worked. We had piano and violin lessons in the afternoons. Now that we have eliminated some of our outside activities, we have a very open schedule in the afternoons. Most of our doctor appointments and library activities are in the mornings. All of a sudden, schooling later in the day makes perfect sense. I was worried that EM might not do as well as JT, but he seems to be adjusting well. Both of the boys enjoy starting the day out with free time. It was often a struggle to get going in the mornings if they had found something to do before schooling started. Now they have a few hours to play with Legos or go outside or work on drawing one of their endless battle games they invent. I did lay down the rule that there would be no computer games or movie watching during this free time. I want it to involve creative play.

I have found that I am much more enthusiastic about teaching in the afternoons. I have been able to get housework out of the way in the mornings this week. It is so much easier to conquer those kinds of tasks before schooling. By the end of the school day, I am worn out from being the cheerleader for my kids. All I want to do is relax...not fold laundry or clean the bathroom. I also feel like I'm accomplishing more every day, so that gives me more energy to spend on them. I no longer feel that they are 'wasting' my time when they aren't moving as quickly as I'd like.

So, why didn't it occur to me to move our school day to the afternoon? I believe it has to do with the assumption that I have to do what the schools are doing. Even after three years of non-conformity, I just can't stop comparing what we do with what THEY do. Am I afraid people who find out we let our kids sleep in until they are well rested will think we are somehow depriving them of needed skills? I know that no matter what we do, there will be critics out there who think we are ruining the lives of our children by our homeschooling choice. I didn't realize just how common that attitude was until I listened to a call in radio program called The Kojo Nnamdi Show episode entitled, "Homeschooling Goes Mainstream". I knew the naysayers were out there...I had just never really thought about the fact that people have a real disdain for what I do. Most of the callers seemed to think homeschoolers were all doing something harmful to their children.

Regardless of the disgust of the masses, I know what I am doing for my children is the right choice for them. They are happy. They are learning. They are developing into fine examples of people who can think for themselves. They aren't being told they are 'bad' because they can't sit still to listen to something they may or may not need to learn. They aren't being stuffed into a mold of what 'all 5th graders' should be. They are being allowed to grow and think and learn that even if every one else has done it this way for as long as anyone can remember...they can do it their own way and succeed.

Passion

2010-10-14T20:34:00.004-04:00

This week started out poorly. The boys were less than inspired to learn, which made me less than inspired to teach them. I know they are not always going to want to apply themselves...but this week...yikes!

By Wednesday things improved a bit. We made a barometer from Janice VanCleave's Weather book. JT was excited by his writing assignment. I asked him to compare and contrast two Pokemon. Sneaky, aren't I? Both of the boys are having more success with our current math plan. JT is back to Calvert(more on that shift later) and EM is being introduced to concepts of multiplication. The commutative, zero and identity properties are our friends!

After our rough start this week, I have been thinking a lot about focus. Then today I watched a video on YouTube about an 8 year old artist named Autumn de Forest. Her style of communicating reminded me of JT, except she had a control of herself that I rarely see in him. You could tell she was focused and intent on sharing her passion with others. The more I thought about her, I realized she had found her passion in her art and perhaps that is what took all of that talent and harnessed it into something productive. I see mostly counter-productivity in my home. I would love to find the passion my children have inside of them. Occasionally I will see a glimmer of the possibilities when one of the boys is working on something they love. The more I think about this, the more I believe the next logical step in our homeschooling journey will involve more project based learning and the exploration of their own personal interests.

The boys watched the video with me. When it was over, we worked with some new watercolor paints we had purchased last week. They were both more interested in the painting after seeing the amazing art Autumn could create. Maybe they just need to see more passion in others to push them to find their own inner drive. I plan to start exposing them to more success stories through reading and other media in the near future. Maybe if I can focus some of that energy, they can be motivated internally by their own desires, instead of being externally driven by me.

Smooth Sailing

2010-10-07T23:32:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago, we found two swallowtail caterpillars in our patch of dill. We put them in jars and fed them until they made their cocoons. We were sure, due to the lateness of the season, that they would over-winter in their cocoons. Yesterday we were surprised to see a butterfly in our jar! Apparently, it had other plans. We quickly moved the stick with the butterfly to our flower bed to allow it to prepare for its first flight. Later in the day, he (we are fairly certain this one was a male, based on coloration of wings) was gone.

In other news...we made a discovery. Not all experiment books are created equally. We have been working our way through a unit on weather and atmosphere. We generally plan to 'do' science three days a week. I also try to include at least one demonstration or experiment every week. Last week we were discussing cloud formation. I found a demonstration in one of our science books for a 'cloud in a jar' and thought, "Perfect!". Well...it was anything but perfect. This particular book recommended putting an inch of water in a jar, putting a lid on, placing it in a saucepan of water on the stove. When the water in the pot starts boiling, place a plastic bag of ice cubes on the lid of the jar and wait for a cloud to form. NO cloud. Sad kids. Grumpy mom.

So, over the weekend I searched for a better version of this demo. I knew I had one somewhere...in some book...(not that I have a lot of books lying around here...perish the thought!) Then I found it, Janice VanCleave's Spectacular Science Projects: Weather. Have I ever told you about my love for Janice VanCleave? My husband laughs at me when I start talking about her books because I get so caught up in my joy over the elegance of her experiments and her ability to teach science, that I literally tear up. Some women cry for sappy commercials...I cry for good science.

When I read her version of this demonstration I knew right away it would work. Put a small amount of water in a glass jar, swish it around a bit, dump most of the water out. Have an adult (important!) light a match, blow it out and hold it inside the jar for a few seconds. Immediately have a helper stretch a square piece of latex, cut from a rubber glove, over the top of the jar and seal it with a rubber band. Push down in the center of the latex. Then pull the center of the latex back up. The change in pressure, plus the presence of the smoke in the air, allows the water to condense and form a cloud in a jar! Happy kids. Happy mom. Concept grasped. Education acquired.

Polar Opposites

2010-09-30T23:04:00.005-04:00

Today it was made very clear to me that I will need to customize our school days to fit the learning needs of each of my boys.

JT and EM were each given work to do in various subjects. JT blew through his reading assignment about the life of Shakespeare. EM had a fit when I asked him to read a short selection from a reading text about park rangers. JT learns well when reading and thoroughly enjoys it. EM's favorite form of literature is LEGO catalogs.

Later, we worked on science together. We have been studying earth's atmosphere and weather in this unit. Today we were discussing precipitation. As I was reading aloud, EM was distracted by every little thing. I told him he would have to pay attention because there would be questions on what I read to him. He said, "Mom...I don't remember the things you read. I don't store them in my brain." Maybe mom should stop reading aloud to the hands-on learner, eh?

Due to EM's difficulties with background noise, I have been keeping the boys in separate rooms when they are doing independent work. I only bring them together for art, science and history. Since I've been focusing on keeping things quieter lately, it slipped my mind that JT seems to work best with some background music. This was today's downfall. JT was out in the library STARING into space for a good hour. He was supposed to be working on a set of only five questions based on the reading he had done. Why should this take over an hour? Because mom forgot that the secret ingredient to get him motivated is to turn on the stereo. As soon as the music started, he plowed through those questions and moved on to math.

So many days I feel like my teaching and therefore their learning is such a hit or miss process. My husband says I'll get better the longer I do it. I just need someone here to smack me over the head with something every time I forget that one of the main reasons we homeschool is so I can teach to their specific learning styles and needs. I imagine traditional classroom teachers deal with the frustration of lost days. I know not every day can be the day my child's eyes light up with joy when he finally grasps a concept he's been struggling with...but wouldn't it be nice if it could?

Structure

2010-09-24T10:11:00.004-04:00

We have just returned from a week long trip to northern PA and NY. It was a beautiful and exhausting vacation...and I learned something. Structure in vacation is almost as detrimental to the goal as structure is to education.

When planning our little voyage, I tried not to schedule too many specific events. I knew that over planning with our sensitivity rich crowd usually results in disaster. I decided just planning based on where to go versus what we'd be doing would work best. Our first day we arrived at the PA Grand Canyon. The picture is looking west from the Leonard Harrison State Park observation deck. Beautiful! We hiked the shorter trails and discovered just how out of shape we are! Then we traveled to the Hills Creek State Park, where we stayed in a modern cabin. This was far from a true camping trip. We had heat, bathroom and full kitchen with a microwave. The only problem we had was that there was some mold growing in the bedroom where the boys were supposed to sleep. We solved this by moving their mattresses to the living room floor. Not perfect, but workable.

We spent the next day hiking more trails and just enjoying the park. Since it was past the swimming season, the beach was completely empty on the lake. The boys had the biggest sandbox they've ever used all to themselves!

The next day was when planning started to get in the way of fun. We had decided to go to the Corning Glass Museum in NY. Previous trips to museums didn't always go well. I assumed these previous failures resulted because we went to crowded, noisy places. I knew this time it wouldn't be busy. It turns out our kids just don't really want to go to museums. They did their best to make us know this by the end of the day. They enjoyed the hands on part. They were each able to make something in the glass studio. JT made a set of wind chimes and EM made a small plate. After that...forget it.

Our final day we checked out of our cabin and traveled 2 more hours north to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. I thought, "What isn't to love?!" We'll hike a bit, see some interesting animals. It's not that structured...they'll learn things and love it. Nope. They were tired of seeing nature. I wanted to stay long enough to look for some of the bald eagles that live in the refuge. They just wanted to get in the car and get home. We followed the highway along Lake Seneca, traveling through NY wine country. We stopped to walk out a pier onto the lake. My husband and I are thinking we will have to take a separate trip to see what we couldn't see with the boys.

So...what did I learn from our adventure? My children learn best when I don't direct or plan what they will learn. They learn as life is happening. Their favorite part of the trip was the hour they spent on the beach. We hadn't planned that. They created a cool irrigation channel and flooded it to their heart's content. I thought the trip would be educational. The most educational moments happened by accident. The cabin had a handout about bears. JT read it and learned how to react if he came upon a bear while we were hiking. He learned about their hibernation, their diets, their habits. Bears were not in the 'plan' for the vacation. They just came along on their own. When am I going to realize that the more I try to direct what they do, the less they seem to get out of it?

Hopefully this trip will remind me that our classroom needs to be a place where learning comes naturally...as life happens.

What is Working

2010-09-16T23:10:00.005-04:00

We now have nearly a month of homeschooling under our belts. Things are starting to find a rhythm. I am starting to learn to go with the flow. If someone asks a question that has nothing to do with what we are studying, I sometimes even jump the tracks and follow that tangent! (most of the time it's me asking those questions)

Here is this week's example of changing things on the fly. On Wednesday we were working on art. Our current plan is that I read a bit from "A Child's History of Art, Painting", we discuss what we read and then we work on something related. This book is a favorite of ours. The authors, V.M. Hillyer and E. G. Huey, have a good sense of humor and place art in its historic framework to really bring it to life. This week I didn't really read ahead to see where the book was heading, so I just planned on allowing the boys some time to draw whatever they'd like after the reading. As we were reading the chapter on Mesopotamia, JT remembered that he had a book from the library about Mesopotamia in his bedroom. He brought it down and we looked at the section on arts and crafts. Then we continued reading and found that mosaic art was prevalent at that time in history. I realized we could make mosaics. Easy, fun and related to the reading! Several times this month things have just come together in such a way that I couldn't have planned them better had I spent my weekend thinking it through.

Now for the pictures. We have a new routine this year. Every morning we check the Dictionary.com Word of the Day. Then we write it on a card and hang it on the 'Word Wall'. (This name irks JT because it's actually a closet door and he insists it should be the 'Word Closet'.) Misnomers aside, we also copy the word on another card with the definition on the back. At the end of the week we have a little game to see who remembers the most words. I would say I probably know 50 - 60 percent of them when we first pull them up, so even I am expanding my vocabulary. Here's a sentence from the collection...

The lupine repo-man will schlep down the road to distrain the car of his neighbor.

Aren't you feeling smarter already?

Groove is in the Heart

2010-09-09T22:40:00.004-04:00

Our family has a bit of a musical inclination. My husband plays several instruments quite well. I have played piano from the time I was about 5 years old and recently took up violin. It seemed to be pre-determined that our children would be musical.

JT started showing signs that he was interested in playing piano at a young age. We signed him up for lessons. In the beginning he played regularly, with no reminders from us. He often wrote his own compositions. He didn't always enjoy the assignments his piano teacher gave him, but that seemed normal to me...I never liked much about my lessons either! He told us he'd like to try other instruments. Over time he learned some guitar, violin and drums. I insisted he continue with piano. He had such a talent, I couldn't stand seeing him give it up.

I started to realize he wasn't sitting down to play on his own anymore. In the past, even when he resisted playing the assignments, he would still sit and play his own compositions. I felt that he was losing his love for music. Was it my fault for insisting he continue with the lessons? His teacher had a different philosophy about music than we did. That didn't surprise us, we don't find common ground in matters of education with most instructors. But at his last lesson, she insisted that "real musicians" play from the music (meaning printed material). JT prefers playing by ear and is quite good at it. This comment rubbed me the wrong way for many reasons. My husband rarely plays from music. I would argue that few jazz musicians play from music. Improvisation would be unknown if all 'real' musicians played that way.

While all of this was weighing on my mind, I began reading a wonderful book. "Learning at Home: A Mother's Guide to Homeschooling" by Marty Layne. This is an excellent book for any homeschooling family. In Chapter 6, The Arts, Ms. Layne says, "If your child no longer wants to play an instrument, then accept your child's decision and move on to another activity. This may be difficult to do because many of us have been taught that a child can't really make a decision about whether or not he likes an instrument until he's played it a while." continuing later in the paragraph..."Music comes from the heart. If a child's heart is not in it, if the heart does not sing, then the music can't come through."

With the strict structure of the lessons and practice schedule, JT's heart could not sing. We offered him a deal. If he would sit down and play for fun, whatever songs he chooses, thirty minutes a day, three days a week, we would let him quit taking lessons. He agreed happily.

Some may think he's lazy or lacks the discipline and we should force him through this dry spell. I don't think that's the case. Why should he do something just because every one else thinks he should? Isn't that part of the joy of homeschooling? Not having to do what others think we should do?

One last quote...from the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus",
"Playing music is supposed to be fun. It's about heart, it's about feelings, moving people, and something beautiful, and it's not about notes on a page. I can teach you notes on a page. I can't teach you that other stuff."

Let's apply that to education and learning...It's not about words on a page. It's about exploring and absorbing and applying. It's about excitement over the connections we can recognize in what we are reading. It's about those 'ah-ha!' moments. It's supposed to be FUN. It comes from the heart.

Hands On

2010-09-03T00:01:00.006-04:00

These books are the backbone of my homeschooling life. For our first science unit this year, we are studying atmosphere and meteorology. Janice Van Cleave's Weather book is an excellent resource. I have used her books in the past from time to time, but never to the extent I plan to use them this year. Today we began to explore convection currents. There is a very easy to reproduce demonstration in the book that perfectly showed the movement of air. We made a 'wind detector' by cutting a small strip of tissue paper, punching a hole in one end, then tying it to a pencil. The boys went to the door and held the detector next to it while I opened it. Since the outside air was MUCH warmer than inside, the paper was sucked out the door. We tried the same thing with the refrigerator door...it was blown out of the refrigerator. Then they tried holding it as high as they could while opening the door again...the opposite effect! This simple experiment led to a very long, in depth discussion on the ways air moves through the atmosphere and how that affects both weather and climate.

Simple hands-on experiments seem to lead to the best retention of information for my kids. And for me, for that matter! I could have handed them each a book about wind, asked them a couple questions and then given them a worksheet to quiz their memorization of the facts. But I'm guessing that a week later, they would remember very little of what we had learned.

This has been another good week for us. I am learning to go with the flow a bit more with each passing day. I'm making a conscious effort to answer their questions...even if they lead us on a tangent that will last the rest of the day. I'm working to do as little seat work as necessary to give them the tools they need to succeed. Some days I worry that they will grow up and not be able
to ___________ (fill in your own perceived necessity for successful education).

But just today, JT showed me how left to his own devices, he will learn what needs to be learned. EM and JT were outside playing. EM found a 'cool' spider. JT asked for a jar (empty jars are one of the absolute necessities of homeschool life) and prepared it for his new 'pet'. After making sure it had all the comforts an arachnid requires, he disappeared into the classroom. Five minutes later he returned with a notebook page with his first entry in his observation chart. He noted that the spider, "responds to touch with a fierce jump toward it. Is it attacking the object that touched it?" He told me, "I figured I'd better start learning how to do this if I'm going to be an entomologist or arachnologist when I grow up."

So much for worrying that he won't be able to cope with life because I rarely make him write compositions.

First Week

2010-08-26T19:17:00.004-04:00

I started this week with a great deal of uncertainty. Would I be able to turn my new plans into reality? I think it may be working!

I discovered a few things in our first week of the new experiment.

Planning is important. Monday morning I felt ready, but I really could have used a bit more preparation. Monday night I ended up spending a couple more hours re-planning my week. Now that we have one week under our belts, I think I'll have a better grasp on what is required in the future.
Plans aren't everything. This morning, we were going to make a 'quick' birthday card for my mother. JT remembered a craft he had once made for me. We did some internet searching and found what he was looking for. Handprint paper flowers. (see the picture for our completed crafts) While doing this craft met our goal of an art project for the week, it was not the project I had in mind, and it wasn't at the time I had in mind. But...everyone had fun AND seemed more interested in learning the rest of the day.
Differentiation. I NEED to start planning more visual and kinesthetic learning activities for EM. A couple weeks ago, I took him for an evaluation with an audiologist. The results of the testing show that he is not processing information correctly with his left ear. His hearing is fine, but his processing is not. I had a brief discussion with the audiologist that day, but will receive a full report, including recommendations in the near future. For now, we are waiting for our copy of Earobics to arrive AND I am working to focus on visual learning. I am an auditory learner and feel most comfortable in that medium, so it is tricky for me to translate into visual. One thing that worked well for us this week; EM needed some review on place value in math. I would give him 8-10 dice, he would roll one and tell me the first place value, "ones" and what he had rolled. I would write the digit he rolled on the board. We would continue up to billions this way. When we had all the digits in place, he had to read the completed number to me. We would then write it out on the board in word form, expanded form and discuss values of the various digits. This process worked MUCH better than a worksheet.
I'm having fun. Out of the three years we have done this, I have never had so much fun right from the first day back to schooling. I don't know if it's the lack of that feeling of oppressive oversight, the new looser schedule or just an increase in my confidence. I just know that this week has been the best week of homeschooling I've ever had.

I have a few small things that are still stressing me a bit. I can't seem to find an easy way to keep all of their completed papers organized neatly. I will need examples of each subject, for each child from the beginning, middle and end of the year. I am already wondering which papers to keep and which can be discarded. For now, I'm putting everything in a folder for each. I think I will move them to a binder and perhaps pull a sheet for each subject every week and then whittle it down half way through the year. I am also having a hard time with the book log required for the portfolio. I started a spreadsheet for each boy where I have entered the books we have used so far. For some reason, I worry I will leave something vital out of the list. I'm guessing that no one REALLY cares what is on the list, as long as I have it. But part of me still worries.

Overall the new format is a success. I feel like I am more at ease. The boys seem to be having a good time AND learning new things. Of course, there is still the expected whining...JT never really wants to do math problems or write compositions and EM never really wants to write sentences or sit still for very long.

I guess I can't expect miracles...yet.

Ready...Set...Learn!

2010-08-19T23:19:00.006-04:00

Summer just flew by me this year. I absolutely can NOT believe we are starting our regular schedule on Monday. The books are almost all here...a printer is ordered and on its way...the lesson plans are...

...not ready.

Hey, who needs lesson plans anyway?

I do know what books I'm using. This little impromptu bookcase (obviously we don't have enough bookcases in our house at this time) came about thanks to a sale at Walmart. I'm not a huge fan of this particular shade of green, but it feels peppy so I guess it will work.

I split the crates up by subject: upper left is writing/grammar/spelling, the middle row- left to right, is reading, math and fun math games. The bottom row is science/health, geography/history/civics and a bin of fun. I have a magazine basket with our art and music books. I also have a couple Spanish workbooks and other odds and ends on another bookcase. Each crate has EM's books to the left and JT's books to the right. I wonder how long all of this organization will last? It is helping me to have them laid out like this as I plan.

JT requested a more scheduled approach to our school days. He wanted certain subjects assigned to certain days. I'm willing to give it a try but know it could change quickly. I would really like to try to make it work. One of our biggest problems last year was the way we would waste time throughout the days. Sometimes my fault, sometimes their fault. JT would delay work as long as he could. This year I am starting out with a new rule. Each assignment will have a designated amount of time to complete. If he goofs off and doesn't finish something in that time, it will become...homework! This is a radical idea in our house. One of the joys of leaving public school has been the lack of school work in our evenings. But I am tired of begging and pleading with children to finish their work. I am tired of not getting to the 'fun' stuff because of it. So, I'm cracking the whip! All unfinished assignments will be completed on their own time.

Today something came in the mail that really excited me. A magazine called, "The Idea Book for Educators". It is put out by A&E, Lifetime, History and Bio. I think I must have signed up for it at some point and forgot. It is full of cool ideas and lesson plans related to programs put out by the sponsoring channels. I am not sure if we will be able to watch all of the programs as we do not have television access. However, I'm hoping we can catch some of them online.

I am feeling very optimistic about my plans for this year. JT has also told me he is excited about this new venture. He really likes the idea of less structured learning and more hands on. I have promised him things like that in the past, but it always turned back into the race to complete the Calvert material. I keep wanting to write out a detailed lesson plan, but I think that is exactly what I shouldn't do.

Maybe this time procrastination will result in success.

New Beginnings

2010-08-12T19:12:00.000-04:00

Here we are again...

Our adventure has led us further from the beaten path. For those of you who have been following our journey, thanks for tagging along. For those of you who are new to our story, you could best describe our learning mindset with this quote, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

You can catch up by starting here: Adventures in Cyberschooling.

I have been reading a few books this week about homeschooling. "The Lifetime Learning Companion", by Jean and Donn Reed is my current favorite. There is a story in this book that is helping me format my plan for this new endeavor. The Reed's son becomes intensely interested in sharks. He reads every book they own on the subject and asks for more. They point out that when he first showed this interest they might have decided to direct his study so it would include things like history, sociology, geography, etc. They could assign readings and test for comprehension and retention. But the thought never occurred to them. They allowed him to plumb the depths of this topic on his own. Because of that, he kept this interest for two years and learned many things about sharks, including all those topics they could have tried to tie in if they had been directing his learning. He more than likely would have lost interest when asked to confine that exploration to someone else's plan of study. They would have put out the fire!

I want to be VERY careful to avoid that pitfall as we move into a format where I have more control over curriculum. I do not want to kill the boys' desire to learn by over-directing their exploration of the world. There are certain things I know they must learn to give them a good foundation. However, does every child in 5th grade have to know the exact same facts about the United States government? Does every 2nd grader need to be capable of writing in cursive? In short, do we want cookie cutter children growing up to populate the world?

Leaving the comfort of detailed planning is going to be a tough one for me. But I think it will be worth it for my boys down the road. Anyway...what's life without a little uncertainty?