Summer Kickoff!

Everyone likes to end their school year with a bang.  We are no different.   To wrap up our year of studying flying creatures a group of us went to the Wildlife Park in Gray Maine to hear a class on the life of the loon.  Other than the weird intro in which the speaker made some outrageous assumption about loons at the beginning of time (do people learn anything in college these days???), the class was good.  Mostly for its opportunity to review material that the boys had already covered, but also for a chance to ask questions.  Like why she didn't bother to tell us that baby loons were precocial, and why the loon didn't evolve to allow itself to walk on land.  

Seriously though,  the class was mediocre, but overall a good review.  The rest of the day was spent exploring the park, eating lunch, visiting with friends, and watching a baby moose.  That combination is a win win every time!

Unschooling

Does it not sound phenomenal?  This idea that a person can take everything they dislike about a classroom and throw it to the wind, and yet their child will still learn.  That with absolutely no direction a naturally curious child will want to learn their multiplication tables, reading, and grammar all on their own accord.  That is exactly what unschooling seems to do.  On the surface anyway.

In fact, there seems to be various methods of homeschooling inside the bubble of unschooling.  For one, delayed schooling is very parent directed and is simply the idea that most children would do better if they skipped kindergarten all together, waited a year or two, and went straight into formal education.  Delayed schooling found its base in a study that showed that children who waited a year to start in public school actually performed better overall than the children who started "on time".  Interesting.

Unschooling makes a large leap, however, when one goes from delayed schooling to undirected unschooling.  Undirected unschooling is about informal as education gets.  Imagine taking your child outside to play and letting him do whatever he wants.  Every. Single. Day.  He will learn.  I will guarantee it.  According to this method a child directs his own education.  So when  your daughter walks into the kitchen and asks you to teach her to read you praise God and get right to it!  If that day never comes?  I have no idea.  I don't know anyone who attests to the success of true undirected unschooling.

Because of the sheer nature of unschooling you may not find many books on the topic.  Although I question whether searching for structural norms is permissible in a method that scorns structure.  If you do desire more information on this topic, however, John Holt is considered the expert and has written some books that are guaranteed to be interesting reading. "How Children Learn" by John Holt seems to be an excellent book to check out for educating young children.  It should be noted that he seems to push the idea of unschooling for mostly young students and not necessarily for high schoolers.  Something that may go back to the idea of delayed schooling as mentioned above.

If you have any information, questions, or opinions on unschooling please feel free to leave a comment.

Next Up:  Montessori

Methods & Models

Homeschooling began years ago by parents pulling their children from the public and private school.  They took them home and then what happened?  Curriculum wasn't readily available, marketed, or even created for a parent attempting to teach their child at home.  Did this stop them? No, most of these parents were so fed up with the school system that they took the opposite approach and went right to "unschooling".  Now,  I don't know any adults who were "unschooled" so I cannot attest to the fact that it was successful or not.  I can tell you, however,  that research shows that the greater involvement a parent has in the general education of their child the better off the child is.  So regardless of  whether you were in private, public, or this unschooled method; if your parents put a significant amount of time and effort into your education then you are probably doing fairly well.  Educationally anyway.

Since the, shall we say,  inception of homeschooling dozens of methods for educating your children have flooded the market and the educational arena.  As I desire to help more and more homeschoolers get started, continue and succeed on this great path of education.  I think that exploring some of the most popular methods together may prove to be fun, educational, and beneficial for us all.

I am going to focus on studying one specific method of educating our children each time I post in this series.  I will then share what I have learned, giving resources, and additional reading materials for you if you desire to learn more.

I have been around a homeschooling community in one form or another for more than 20 years and know a lot, but I don't claim to know everything about every method.  I will research all that I can about these, and if I make a mistake I rely on you to correct me.  Also,  I am sure that in my writing (which we all know isn't the best, I am a math teacher),  you will be able to spot which methods I am most knowledgeable about.  Please be forewarned that I do not endorse any method over the other.  As stated above, your children's success is entirely in your hands and is not dependent on methods.

Methods that I will attempt to cover:
Unschooling, Montessori, Classical Education, Charlotte Mason, and Waldorf.

If you want me to look at a specific method please let me know. Otherwise, keep posted and check for our first week of exploring with educational methods.

New England Dilemmas

Patterns, habits, consistencies in human nature, whatever you would like to call them, everyone has a character that is developed partly by there surroundings.  For example,  those of us raised in Maine don't flinch at a little snow driving.  It is normal, and as such, does not create a sense of fear in us.  Our character is built to be strong and resolute, at least when it comes to weather.  Although we do like to complain about the sudden changes, we also delight in bragging about our driving ability in large snow drifts. Pride.  Another one of those New Englander traits.  My Pastor calls it "Yankee Pride"; clearly he doesn't understand the New England disgust with the term "Yankee".  Yankees are from New York and New Jersey, NOT New England.  WE are the foundation of the Nation. The revolution started here, and with that deep history begins our deep failure.  

Do you want to know what happens with Pride?  We find ourselves alone.  All.  The.  Time.  We cannot ask for help, we cannot confide in others our sense of loss, and we certainly cannot admit that we are below par.  A great many factors have contributed to this slippery slope.  One being that we do have something to be proud of.  Another being that as the number of children in a family decreases the ratio of firstborn children to non-firstborn children rises.  Is this such a big deal?  It is when you are contemplating pride.  First borns are perfectionists and take great pride in our work.  Believe me,  I have 3 functional firstborns in my house;  we are a force to be reckoned with.  Regardless of how many factors we see are adding to the thick pride over the East of the United States;  things are changing.

More and more churches, towns, and businesses are reaching out trying to develop a sense of community.  Interesting enough this "community" requires from us New Englanders everything that we were taught to never do.  It requires us to open up to others, lean on others, and seek help outside of ourselves.

A dozen years ago,  I was a math tutor.  I tutored high school and college students from the public, private and home school sectors of education.  In my past experience the average homeschooler couldn't afford to pay a tutor what the public school was paying.  The average homeschooler, both when I was young and when I was tutoring,  was a large one income family.  This was a family that sacrificed a second income to keep their children at home.  This was a family that had more than the average number of children, but some of the best behaved, polite and respectful children you would ever hope to meet.  As a result,  I often bartered or received half of my normal pay from a homeschool family.  I didn't mind though,  because I knew that someday that would be me.  I would be the mother of many children struggling to figure out how to pay taxes and pay for tutors, piano lessons, sports, and any co-ops that we joined.  It adds up.

As I started homeschooling my own children I noticed a lack of leadership among homeschooling mothers.  Where were these veterans who broke the mold so many years ago?  What we didn't realize is that a large part of homeschooling is keeping your children home, and therefore,  these experienced moms were home with their children.  A large complaint I have heard is that us New Englanders may now start to want community, but we aren't willing to commit to it.  If it becomes hard to make our Thursday morning science group, then we don't go.  If we are tired from a late night with the baby, then we drop the day's co-op.  I struggle with this.  I find a great amount of benefit in local science groups, co-ops and the like, but I don't want them controlling my schedule or my school.

Recently, however, as in the past year,  there are a number of co-ops that are succeeding.  A lot of homeschoolers are meeting once a week, every week,  to help each other train their children.  Not only are we finally starting to understand this sense of community, but we are committing to it.  Some of these groups are even charging a fee.  Which I find especially interesting. As a result,  I started to take a mental poll of how this could be.  Well, What did I find out?  The new homeschooler on the block isn't a family of 10 with one small income, one minibus, an overtired mom, and a desire to be home.  No,  it is a family of 4 or 5, with a one large income earner, 2 vehicles, a large home, and a desire to be in charge of giving their children multiple experiences in their education.  Do I think this is good?  Yes, and no.  But that is beside the point.  What is great is to see that homeschooling is growing.  What is also great is to see the obvious attention to the importance of education for our children.

So the next time you are out and about on a school day with your kiddos, and you see another homeschooler.  Be thankful,  think, ask, and learn from their approach.  But be forewarned,  more and more of the new homeschoolers are not Christians; so please don't assume that they are.  Instead build a friendship on your mutual desire to educate your children and teach them about Jesus.

Winter Physical Education

As a homeschooler you know that the world becomes your gym.  Since most of us don't have millions of dollars to spend on our own personal indoor courts we utilize our yards for volleyball, baseball, and soccer; our driveways for running, basketball, and bowling; and in the winter we use our hills for skiing.  This is Eli's third year downhill skiing, but his first where he was able to go both up the lift and down the mountain all by himself.  He has also been cross country skiing through our woods pretty much everyday.  I am so thankful that we live in a state where Winter brings some exciting activities to our physical education activities. 

Here is our chair lift interview for this Winter:

And here is his maiden voyage as an independent skiing machine.

I, for one, cannot claim to teach skiing, but if you want to come skiing with us sometime just give us a call.  We are planning on hitting the slopes at least one more time before the 2013 Winter physical education program ends.

For the Love, Art, and Magic of Poetry

Are you teaching your children about the art of poetry?  I love reading simple fun poems, and wanted to give my boys a little taste of the world of poetry this year.  Last Summer I picked up the book "A Child's Introduction to Poetry".  This book has been an incredible way for me to teach the boys about the different forms of poetry as well as share some classic poems with them.  This is not an exhaustive study on poetry, but for a great overall view from nursery rhymes to the ever-loving sonnet it does a good job.  

The second part of the book also delights us with short biographies and examples of some of the greatest poets.  It starts, appropriately enough, with Homer and goes right through Maya Angelou.  

For any of your aspiring poets I cannot recommend this book enough.  It even comes with a CD for all of you who cannot seem to master the art of reading poetry aloud.  

Get this book, learn some poetry, write some poetry and simply enjoy the art of teaching your children to love the magic of poems.

The Gardens

A lot is happening here this fall.  Despite the rain we have still managed to get a few things done to prepare for Winter.  The biggest thing is that we have a wonderful skidder making trails in our woods as he collects hemlock, pine, and poplar for pulp.  A wonderful side effect to this is that we are also getting some very large hemlock pieces to mill next year into lumber to build a barn ( sugarhouse, garage...).  We have also managed to complete our hoop house over the broccoli plants.  I am hoping that this will protect my little darlings through the first few frosts enough so that they actually produce before snowfall.  We shall see if this little experiment works!

Eli and Siah watching the stone cutters at the fair.  They don't look happy do they?  The atmosphere there wasn't very friendly.

What is happening in school right now?  Well, last week we spent a day at the Commonground Country Fair, and tomorrow, we are off to the Botanical Gardens of Maine!  Time to get those field trips in before the snow keeps up housebound!  

Project Days: A New Approach

During the school prep workshop in August all of us dedicated moms found that we had identical requests from our boys:  Make school fun.  So,  the question that seemed to dominate all of our brainstorming was:  How DO we make school fun? 

I shared that one freeing and enjoyable part of our schooling week is project days.  In our house every Friday holds 2 things (that always bring a smile to my face):  1. Room cleaning day and 2.  Project day.    Friday is when every cool project that we have always wanted to work on becomes reality.  I have found that that bookshelf idea I had on Monday was less of a distraction because I knew that I could set the idea aside and focus on it on Friday.  My boys, also, find freedom in our project days as their schoolwork consists of math, reading and a spelling test.  After those three simple tasks (and a clean room), they are free to work on any project that has been pre-approved by Tyler or myself.  I have found that we all look forward to these days and the added benefits to the morale, and creativity in my house is an incredible bonus.  

With this idea as our base my comrades and I decided to make project days a group event.  Ideas abounded as to what ventures we should offer our little men.  Finally, we decided to embark on an 8 week project that marries both hands on art and science.  What is it you may ask?  Why it is 8 project days in a row in which the participants build, study, film, edit, produce and enjoy robots.  Mind you,  beginner robots, as our boys are between the ages of 6 and 9, but robots nonetheless.  Using this idea as a start opens up our chances to include more complex systems as our boys grow.  

This is not the only ingenious idea to come from our brainstorming session this year.  If you want to know more please feel free to ask, and if you don't ask I am sure we will share them when we implement them.  For updates on how the boys are doing with their robots stay tuned!  We will keep you posted on all of the great fun happening in our school this year!

P.S.  Feel like you missed something amazing?  You did.  Our workshop in August was a benefit to all who attended.  Join us next time (January 2013) to contribute, learn, and be inspired for your own school!   

The above picture is one of Eli's most recent projects:  A mold to make an iron axe.  

What are you Learning?

This past week at DozenAcre we hosted a back to school workshop.  For two days our doors were open to homeschooling moms to come in and discuss what they are doing in their schools, what they want to be doing, and how they are going to accomplish their goals.  While here they have access to the internet, a copier, and other office supplies that they can use to gather their materials together with.  Our discussion veered toward art this year, but all of the main participants came hoping to get excited for the new year and also to gain some insight on how to make their schooling more fun.  My hope is that they left feeling as though they accompished their goals here.  We discussed many ways to make your school fun, and even incorporated a lot of art into that, and we all left excited to try out what we had learned.

This is the second year for such a workshop.  It has been small, but very beneficial.  We hope to be able to offer two such open door workshops a year.  One in August before the start of school, and one in January to help bring everyone out of Christmas vacation.  If you are interested in learning more feel free to leave a comment or  just check back to see the details on our Winter workshop.  If you are interested in joining in the fun and seeing some of the things that we learned you can check out the discussion board to ask your own questions or see what others are learning.

Homeschool workshops are based on this question:  What are you learning in your school this year? Want to know what we are learning?  I just might share a little of our brainstorming genius this fall so stay tuned!