Unschooling

I never push writing.  I worry about it a lot — too much, I’m sure, but I never push.  It’s scary for me, but I really want them to want to write.

Last night, Simon (age 11) came to me and said, “Mom, maybe as one of my learning things, I could write stories.”

I said, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!  Yes! Yes! Yes! Please write stories!”  “Gee honey, that’s a great idea.”

He went up to his room and wrote two full pages of an adventure of some sort of fight the hero is having with a huge monster.  He is soooooo excited.  He wants to become a famous author now.

Be still my heart!

November 16, 2008 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues, Learning | 12 Comments 

Little House Series

Who knew that boys would love the Little House on the Prairie series!?

We have listened to numerous recorded books this summer, among them “Matilda”, “The Witches”, and “Story of the World vol. 1″.   Most recently, I got “Little House on the Prairie” and then “Farmer Boy.”

We started out of order.  We should have had “Little House in the Big Woods” first.  However, the kids didn’t mind a bit and even today when the first set was available, they chose not to listen to it.  The next in the series, “On the Banks of Plum Creek” wasn’t available.  I chose “The Cricket in Times Square” instead.  Theodore was bummed.  He said he liked listening to the Little House series because he liked the narrator (Cherry Jones).  Later today, I did find the next book at a different library, but it is on cassette tape.  Better that than nothing!  They are really enjoying these books.  Not only are they listening intently (and telling each other to shut up when the recording is on in the car (be still my proud heart!)), they are telling Ward Cleaver about them when we aren’t evening listening to them.

Really, these books are an amazing look at 1800’s life.  The kids have observed that the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, talks a lot about food.  Ward Cleaver and I told them that is because in those times, the preparation of food was a huge part of daily life.  They didn’t have prepared foods and microwave ovens!  I love to imagine what they are thinking about as they listen to these stories.

So if you have boys, don’t steer clear of these books just because you remember the Little House on the Praire TV show!  They really are gender neutral.  I’m so excited that we are learning American history without knowing it.  :-)

September 18, 2008 | Filed Under Learning | 7 Comments 

Chef in Training

He loves to bake.  Usually, I do most of it and he helps.  This time, I let Simon do the whole thing by himself.  He made sugar cookies.  I watched (and took pictures).  We were so busy eating them afterwards, I forgot to take a picture of the result.  They were rolled in colorful sugar sprinkles.

Baking 1a

Baking 2a

Baking 3

Baking 4

P.S.  I got that shirt at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago and I’m still not exactly sure what it means, but it seemed appropriate (”School - the reason I don’t get up every morning”).

September 6, 2008 | Filed Under Learning | 5 Comments 

First Day of Not School

I’m an unschooler at heart. I WANT to believe in unschooling. I’ve seen it work in people I know and love dearly. I have seen it in process with friends’ kids. I read about it and believe in it. But I cannot seem to shake the fear that it won’t work for MY kids.

But apparently I don’t actually believe in it! You should have seen me last night. I wish I had had my camera out. I was meandering back and forth from the bookshelves to the floor hauling books from the shelves and piling them in stacks around me — math, vocabulary, science, reading, literature, writing, and everything else. As I sat in the middle of my stacks, I couldn’t believe all the stuff I had purchased with high hopes of using it and them loving it. As I went through this process, they fairly well ignored me and watched TV while my husband built a new computer for me from scratch (nice guy!).

I started getting frustrated and expressing it. I stated that I couldn’t believe that we hadn’t “done anything” since November 2007 (I date the pages as they complete them). Then I went on my math tirade (more of a verbal diarrhea then a tirade actually) about how you have to do math every day or you forget it, like a foreign language. Yada. Yada. Yada.

Mind you, this was about 10:00 p.m. I hauled out an Usborn Book of Knowledge and handed it to dumped it on Simon saying, “Here. Find something interesting to read.” I did the same to Alvin with a Kingfisher book of Science. I continued on with my quest to organize and decide on this year’s plan.

Before I knew it, Simon had found something in his book about sonic booms with an actual photo and couldn’t wait to show it to me. Alvin was up in the kitchen doing experiments with sound (he had put saran wrap over cup, salt on the wrap, and was banging a drum next to it to watch the sound vibrations make the salt jump). He ran to his dad saying, “Did you know that sound travels 100 times faster through wood than through air?!” They had taken those books and reveled in the new knowledge. I was so happy!

And tonight, probably out of guilt, Simon completed Lesson 1 in Wordly Wise 3000 book C. It is a 2nd grade book. He is now in 6th grade. He said he wanted a harder book. I said, “Try this one first. I’d hate for you to try a harder book and get discouraged.” He promptly completed Lesson 1 with no errors. None. I showed him how to use the pronunciation guide and how the accent symbol works. He read through the word list and finished all 4 exercises. It was definitely too easy for him. He was right.

As for math, we have done a great job with Living Math. Ward Cleaver is FANTASTIC at involving them in real world math problems based on our daily lives. He tries to make it fun for them in a way I cannot do with my left brained, sequential belief in math textbooks.

Writing is a completely different issue. I really think we fail in that category. But again, I need to find a way to make it meaningful for them. Tonight I think we came close with Simon. We explained to him the reason why we changed pediatricians when he was younger. Nobody could read this doctor’s handwriting, not even the doctor himself. That may have never been a problem for some patients, but since Simon had some health issues, we depended on accurate records of his doctor visits. Suddenly, I think he understood that written communication is only meaningful if others can read and understand it. It was like a lightbulb went off for him. Maybe tomorrow it will be gone, but I really hope that we sparked enough understanding in him (at age 11) that he may just believe that writing is important.

So I haven’t solved my unschooling problem. I still want to unschool, yet I feel compelled to force math and writing on them. I have heard numerous stories about how math and writing suddenly click for kids as teens, but I’m so scared to wait that long. Does anyone have advice?

September 3, 2008 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues, Learning | 25 Comments 

ADHD Serves a Purpose

Since I am apparently incapable of writing anything of my own (sorry, I’m a very busy mom these days), take a minute to pop over to Stephanie’s blog Throwing Marshmallows for a great post about Michael Phelps, ADHD, and spelling.

August 16, 2008 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues, Learning | 1 Comment 

Amen!

Lest you think I’m going to burst into prayer at any moment…

Amen to the sentiments of this article Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills

Apparently, limiting imaginative play for children may cause deficits in executive function, which is a part of the brain responsible for many things, including a person’s ability to exert self-control. Children today focus on toys and electronics for play rather than imaginative and interactive play. In an effort to keep children safe from harm, we have created activities to keep them busy — classes, camps, sports. These regimented activities limit the children’s decision-making opportunities. And to top it off, the emphasis on test scores and academic achievement have led us to approve of schooling over play. It is in the best interests of the children afterall, right?

The article concludes with the following statement in which the author quotes psychological researcher Dorothy Singer:

‘Because of the testing, and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic fundamentals. Play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time,” Singer says. “I have so many articles that have documented the shortening of free play for children, where the teachers in these schools are using the time for cognitive skills.’

It seems that in the rush to give children every advantage — to protect them, to stimulate them, to enrich them — our culture has unwittingly compromised one of the activities that helped children most. All that wasted time was not such a waste after all.

Amen!

Reading this article, I was reminded of a situation that happened a few months ago. We attended “Colonial Days” at Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, with a homeschool group. There was a wonderful hay maze there. After running through the maze a little bit, the kids decided it would be more fun to run on the maze, and so they did. We moms stood by watching and occasionally snapping some pictures. There was a little stairstep section at the edge that was apparently there to allow easier access to the top of the piles, and there were no signs indicating that being on the hay was not allowed.

Quickly, the school children who were on field trips joined in. We got a kick out of the looks we got from the teachers and chaperones as they yelled at their students to get off the hay bales and go through the maze the way you are supposed to do it.

Free Play

Did you ever hear the song “Flowers are Red” by Harry Chapin? Seems the person who loaded the actual video of Harry Chapin singing this song has now made it unavailable for embedding, but here is a link to it in YouTube:

Flowers are Red

Here is a link to the lyrics.

February 27, 2008 | Filed Under Rants, Moods and Attitude, Homeschool Issues, Learning | 15 Comments 

Making up for lost wine…

OK. OK. So the saying is a little different than that. However, I’ve been away at a family camp (homeschool) since Sunday and it was alcohol free. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, but in this case, well, I could have used a drink!

The camp was GREAT! The kids had a blast. The coordinator of the camp must pretty much give up her entire life for several weeks prior to and during this event. It was the most amazing example of a cooperative effort that I have ever seen. Kudos to Dee Dee!!

The thing I am NOT used to is being around about 60+ children at the same time for 4 full days. Yikes. I thought my three boys were a handful! Apparently I haven’t been around much.

We escaped with one bee sting, one humiliating “pantsing” episode, and one band-aid. The last item being a true miracle given the slope of the paths and the speed of the scooters! I’m sure that given a few weeks, I will be remembering this camp as the best thing we ever did. But at this moment, I’m still recovering — thanks to my Argentinian malbec.

In this photo, we are making sushi (that’s me with the sunglasses on my head, because you never know when the sun might get too bright indoors). The boy to my right in orange is Alvin (8), and to my left in light blue is Theodore(6), and across from me in orange is Simon (10):

Sushi

I’ll bet that just looks like so much fun! It was. We went through about 100 sheets of nori, which means a shit-load of sushi for dinner. It was a most amazing sight. There were two tables full of ingredients (tuna, salmon, imitation crab, cucumber, avacado, carrots, sauteed sweet potatoes, grilled red peppers, creamed cheese, spring onions, etc.). The more amazing thing was that it was delicious. Thanks to Lyla and Lisa for coming up with such a neat activity!

It all sounds and looks so neato, until you think about sleeping on a cot in a room with 15 people. Since there were 8 dorms that could handle 15 people each, it was quite an amazing thing. Luckily, not all beds were filled. A rough estimate would be that there were 25 empty beds among the 8 dorms. Regardless, our particular dorm was damn-near full and it was not easy sleeping.

Dorm

Imagine a scooter rolling across a linoleum covered floor on a raised wooden platform floor at 5:45 a.m. Yes. That was a real situation here! It wasn’t until I acquired a can of WD-40, that I was able to say I would stay after the first night. The bathroom door (center door in the picture ((oh yes, I’m complaining, and there was actually a bathroom in the dorm)) was sooooooooooooo loud! I had to nip that in the bud or leave. It is that simple.

So we are home. Safe. Relatively unharmed.

We know a lot more cuss words now. And we can burp while we say things.

Thank god for homeschooling and socialization! :)

June 15, 2007 | Filed Under Trips and Travel, Learning, Parenting | 4 Comments 

The Birds and the Bees and the Okracoke Ferry

(Note: For some reason, I am unable to upload photos to my blog, so I had to load these pictures from a different site.  Hopefully it won’t take too long.)

We’ve been vacationing in the northern part of the Outer Banks for, well, forever it seems — at least 25 years. We’ve driven down to Hattaras several times, but we’ve never ridden the ferry to Okracoke Island before. This year, I was determined that we would do it. We rented a house for two weeks this year, so there was no reason not to spend one day making the trip south.

We waited about 30 minutes to drive onto the ferry. Here I am hanging out in the car:

Ferry Ride

We were all sitting in the car and I noticed that the sea gulls were sitting on the pilings by the car (see poles to right of car). They were kind of neat, so I popped out of my window and sat on the car door snapping pictures. I was particularly intrigued by the pole that had two gulls on it, because most of the poles only had one.

Birds1

I snapped several shots in a row, showing their different movements:

Birds2

Birds3

Birds4

They were so neat. I got tired of snapping pictures of them though and I hopped back into my seat. All the sudden, there was this shrieking and squawking and we all looked up and saw this:

Birds5

LOOK MOM!! They’re fighting!! I think that big one wants the little one to get off that pole!

June 5, 2007 | Filed Under Trips and Travel, Learning | 7 Comments 

My Little Entrepreneurs

The boys are in their rooms/stores. They have done this before, but I always find it funny. They set up little stores in their rooms and then sell their stuff to each other. Today, Theodore (ds 6) made a little sign for his door with a pocket at the bottom and asked me to write “Pay to keep me in business.” Then he said, “If you have room, also add ‘Dollars only.’” I added “please.”

Entrepreneur

I went upstairs to take a picture of this sign, and found Simon (ds 9) busking in the hallway (yep, it is 10:30 and we are still in our jammies, of course). Note the money jar.

Busking

May 16, 2007 | Filed Under Learning | 7 Comments 

Ugly Betty Isn’t Ugly

I had two conversations with Simon (ds almost 10) tonight that were really interesting to me. The first was the result of a worksheet we were doing on using quotation marks (gotta get ready to jump through the state’s testing hoop!). One of the sentences where he had to identify whether quotation marks were used correctly or incorrectly was, “‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ was a song originally sung by slaves.” That began two things: 1) me singing that song (yikes!) and 2) a discussion about slavery. We talked a bit about it and he said, “Well, that all happened before I was born. I’m glad people know better now.” Hooray! Then we talked some about how what is most important is what is inside people, not how they look. He didn’t say much about that, but he seemed to understand, so I didn’t push it. We finished up our work and he went upstairs to take a shower.

Later (around 10:00 p.m.), I was was watching the latest episode of “Ugly Betty” on my laptop (I love watching shows on my laptop!) and he came out on the screen porch to let me know he was finished with his shower. I told him I was watching “Ugly Betty” and it makes me laugh. He said he didn’t think that was a nice name for a show. I said I didn’t think so either. We talked about the show and why it is called “Ugly Betty.” This again led into the concept of “what is inside a person is what is most important” and this time he said, “But what does that mean?” Ah ha! He didn’t understand. I’m so glad he asked.

The opportunity arose to share with him some insight about people and beauty. We walked upstairs and I tucked him into bed as we talked. It was a wonderful conversation about what really matters in life. It was also an opportunity to share with him a quote that has been with me for years, but I have no idea where it originated –

 

“People will forget what you said.

People will forget what you did.

But people will NEVER forget

how you made them feel.”

He liked that, and I kissed him goodnight and he smiled. I hope he will remember that quote for the rest of his life.

May 1, 2007 | Filed Under Learning, Parenting | 6 Comments 

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