We are looking for families or individual homeschoolers who would like to take part in a small interview about homeschooling.
As you might know, homeschooling is still criminalized in Germany. We are therefore trying to promote homeschooling on various websites and networks so that more and more people get to know about the school alternative Homeschooling and ultimately there will be more and more families seeking to homeschool and to support homeschoolers.
For this reason I have started a series on my webblog: Freie Bildung
I would love to regularly post interviews of different homeschoolers who are following different homeschooling methods.
Please contact me here or via email/message if you would like to participate.
I am looking forward to receiving LOADS of replies!!! ;-)
Today I found a new toy in one of the shops where I frequently browse for possible things for me and the kids. It is called 'Kapla' and it's just a box of same size wooden pieces that you can use to build countless constructions, towers and whatever else your imagination comes up with.
My children snatched the box straight away and started to try out those bricks.
And this is what they did:
Isn't it great? I didn't have to give them instructions or help them, they just did it. Jona built a tower and Ayla built a tree. They really enjoyed experimenting and concentrating on the work.
I had to wait until it was my turn. *lol*
I built Jona a trainstation and also a house with a real roof, that Ayla used as a stable for some toy-animals.
What a wonderful, exceptional toy - but yet sooo simple!
Kleines Up-date bezüglich unseres Lernens:
- Ayla übt sich im Lesen; Kurze Wörter kann sie schon recht gut alleine entziffern.
- Schreiben klappt auch schon ganz gut: allerdings bisher nur Großbuchstaben.
- Beim Rechnen ist Plus und Minus angesagt.
- Ayla arbeitet gern im Heft von Rolf Robischon 'Ich kann schreiben und lesen'.
- Biologie: Wir gehen viel in die Natur, beobachten wie sich Pflanzen verändern; Was wächst gerade? Welche Tiere können wir beobachten?
Wir haben Blätter bestimmt und auf vorgedruckte Bögen geklebt.
Was passiert mit einem Blatt im Laufe des Jahres? Warum wirft der Baum seine Blätter ab?
- Ayla hat eine kleine Rolle in der Theatergruppe.
- einmal die Woche geht Ayla zum Voltigieren; Sie freut sich schon auf das 'Weihnachtsreiten'. :-)
Geschichte: Wir lesen Bücher um den Zweiten Weltkrieg herum. Jetzt gerade 'Puckis erstes Schuljahr' und 'Opa erzählt Geschichten von früher'.
- Musik: Wir haben gerade Martinslieder geübt. Jetzt werden wir wohl Adventslieder vorbereiten. (Ist ja bald soweit :-)
- Englisch vernachlässigen wir gerade etwas. Aber ich möchte wieder mehr Englisch sprechen und Vokabeln üben.
Tja, und alles andere passiert im Alltag. Vorhin haben wir Brot gebacken. Ayla hat aus dem Teig ein Schiff geformt, und der Holzlöffel war das Ruder.
Jonathan interessiert sich nach wie vor für seine Eisenbahn. Aber er scheint auch Musik sehr zu mögen.
Er lernt gern neue Lieder. Und neuerdings probiert er auf meinen Instrumenten herum: Gitarre, Akkordeon, Geige. Ich wünschte, ich hätte ein Klavier, dann könnten die Kinder schon richtige Melodien üben. Auf den anderen Instrumenten ist das ja doch noch etwas schwieriger.
Ich überlege, ob ich Ayla und vielleicht auch Jona beim Instrumentenkarussell anmelde.
Etwas, was ich allen Deutschen lesern empfehlen möchte:
Gerade entdeckt - das Heft ' Ich kann schreiben und lesen' von Rolf Robischon (AOL Verlag).
Ich habe es bei Amazon gefunden, und dachte mir, dass wir das mal ausprobieren.
Ayla ist sehr begeistert. Sie packte es selber aus, rief 'Ah, das ist für mich!' und war schon verschwunden. Sie schrieb den ganzen Tag ( mit Pausen ;-) darin und las das Geschriebene, und ist jetzt auf Seite 21, wo sie ein bisschen mehr überlegen muss. -->Am Anfang gibt es zu jedem Wort ein passendes Bild und ein Leerfeld zum reinschreiben.
Nach einiger Zeit werden die Seiten auch mal mit Bildern und Leerfeldern ohne Wort bestückt. Jetzt gerade hat ein bestimmtes Wortfeld ein einzigartiges Leerfeld (z.B: mit Einkerbung, oder Wellenrand) was sich ohne Wort wiederholt (Zusammenhang herstellen).
Sehr spannend.
Später im Heft kommen auch kleine Buchstaben dazu, und ganz zum Schluss einfache Sätze.
Ist sehr schön gemacht und gefällt mir besser, als die herkömmlichen Mal-/Schreibübungshefte aus dem Handel.
Es gibt übrigens auch noch ein Rechenheft von dieser Sorte 'Ich kann rechnen' und ein REchtschreibungsheft 'Ich schreibe richtig'.
These days she really discovered drawing. We have stacks of pictures lying around. :-) She often draws different faces showing moods (crying, smiling, shouting, anger), or horses (lying down, running, eating, with a rider on top, with a foal in the belly). Often she also draws bits of nature - like a tree with a squirrel, dandelion and other flowers, a bird and a butterfly flying past and sun shining or big rainclouds.
She puts great detail into her drawings, which amazes me at times. She rarely colors in what she drew, but sometimes she writes a word or two on the top of the page, or she uses diffrently colored pens for drawing. Often there are whole stories invented around the drawing, or - she draws pictures that accompany a story she has already made up,
e.g. first picture shows a horse with a foal in the belly. She adds some red for blood - the foal is going to be born. The next picture shows the vet with his case, maybe his car with which he arrives.
On the next picture the foal is there, already standing up, surrounded by straw in the stable.
On the last picture there are some children who have open mouths in amazement and are happy about the newborn foal.
Apart from drawing she copies words here and there and also enjoys simple tracing-pages. First she traces the words and then she tries to read them.
She practices reading with flash-cards. Simple words she can already figure out by herself, such as 'Eis, Auto, Sonne, Mond, Maus' etc. She is not at her natural reading-age, yet, I believe, as she is still having a struggle at times to put the letters together.
Nevermind. She likes practicing and it is not important to hasten it.
On the other hand she loves maths! Numbers, working out problems, adding and substracting, simple times. She practices those things daily with joy. Either in writing oder in her head (whilst we are in the car, train or on a walk). It seems to be more easy for her to work with numbers than with letters.
Her English is unfortunately not progressing. Her dad was here recently and she enjoyed then to listen to and speak English and I was surprised that she managed quite well.
But she can't be bothered to do that with me, as I am German. Her Dad doesn't understand much German, and therefore she had the motivation to make herself understood in his language. :-)
Music is pursued in learning/singing autumn-songs and making noise with purcussion-instruments and the harmonica. Also Ayla/the kids really like listening to classical music. Ayla likes inventing stories that are accompanied by the music. Different music suits different scenes.
I am currently thinking about buying an accordeon and organizing proper tuition. Accordeon is a really nice instrument and relatively easy to learn (like piano). A small accordeon can also be transported anywhere (unlike a piano) and is great for playing music together (me guitar or violin, her accordeon, e.g.)
P.E.: Ayla has picked up horse-riding again. She only had one lesson so far, but she was enjoying it a lot, and was much more confident on horse-back than last year. I enroled her properly this time, so that there is more reason to go regularly and be disciplined about it. ;-)
In addition, Ayla has also started to take part in an acting group. She loves going there. The other kids are her age and older and seem to be very nice. The teacher is a sweet lady that used to be acting professionally. The group is also cost-free, but we have to help making the costumes when it comes to acting on stage. So far the kids are practicing pantomimes.
Literature: We are currently reading the first book of the 'Pucki' - Series. It is quite a sweet book and Ayla is surprised at how strict children used to be raised in the past (just after the war, I think) and that it was normal if they got spanked as punishment in those days.
Also, everything was much safer, as there were less cars, and Ayla envies the girl for being able to ride on a carriage to town.
We noticed that children in those days were much more 'innocent' than today (e.g. she didn't know where babies came from). We are nearly finished now and I am thinking of moving to the second book afterwards (Pucki enters school), which might be interesting as well.
In addition to that I read bible-stories to the children. Ayla loves those stories very much, and we also try to interpret them after reading and try to find a meaning in it that can be applied to everyday life.
Things of interst:
- Horses
- Dogs
- trains (Jona)
- Dinosaurs
- Playmobil
- audio-plays
- nature-walks/discovering autumn
- wild animals (deer, squirrels,...)
- watching Snoopy, Thomas Tank Engine, ...
- colouring, cutting, pasting
- bike-riding
- cooking
It is my task as a mother to preserve in my children that ongoing curiosity, that enthusiastic urge to discover the world, that love to learn and that desire and confidence to do it by themselves.
Regardless of school or not we should support our children in loving this incredible world and life at all times!
Now and again I have to remind myself again of all the wonderful reasons for home-educating my children. Why do I not want to send them off to school? Why don't I want to intrust them into the care of teachers (professionals and experts)? Why don't I want them to learn to sit still all morning? And why do I want to deprive them from the experience of being stuck in a group of 20 -30 pupils for hours every day?
Well, often enough poeple seem to think I am one of those Over-Mums who are afraid of letting go of their little ones. They warn me that it isn't healthy to shelter kids from the REAL world and from trouble and age-mates.
But, to be honest, that is actually the last thing I am doing or even thinking of. I notice the other way around that my children learn more about society and the world by living in it. They are out there and in there, every day. They are not shut away in a building designed just for children, they are taking part in my everyday business in my everyday world - which is filled with real society life.
Here are some points to consider when it comes to home-educating:
- The children are naturally intergrated in life and society; they are not seperated out by 'shutting' them away in a seperate building called school; they have the chance to take part in real life as it is and learn in a totally natural environment.
- They are surrounded by all ages. I find that it is vital for a child to be surrounded not only by his/her peers, but by all ages. Society is not split into age-groups, and it is important to respect the elderly, learn from adults and know how to look after little ones. As well, by not being forced into peer-groups a child will naturally look for an adult role-model (or several adult role-models) to learn from. After all we want our children to turn into responsible, thoughtful adults and not feel lost and directionless.
- Learning at one's own pace. In school children can rarely follow there own pace and learning style, because they get stopped or dragged along by the group. This is frustrating for all the children who are not like the average learner. At home there is no time pressure - either way.
- Subjects can be pursued indepth. That was something I always missed in school. We would only stay on the surface of a subject, to then move on quickly to the next. There is never time to answer all the questions or study something indepth to become an 'expert'. I remember so many subject I would have liked to know more about. Some of them I tried to pursue after school, but then - we often had a load of homework to finish and I was tired so that studying even more would have turned me into a 'learnaholic'. It was just not possible!
- Children can learn outside of textbooks and worksheets. Now, this is one way of schooling that is really suiting my family: The school of life. :-) We all love learning by experiencing. This means going out into nature for biology, or visiting museums and ancient places for history, travelling for learning languages and cultures, visiting concerts for music, learning about physics and chemistry by experimenting, etc.
- Children don't stop to believe in their SELF (even more so when unschooling ;-). Children are allowed to follow their heart and soul. They learn things that interest them with their full heart and will be able to keep this ability. They have the confidence in their own learning ability. They don't rely on a teacher - they only need a supporter to answer their questions. Everything else is lying in their own hands.
- There are no unnecessary outside pressures to distract the child from enjoying studying. A home-educating child doens't feel threatened or distracted by peer-group pressures. It doesn't matter if he/she is or isn't interested in the 'right' pop groups or television idols, if he/she is wearing the right clothes, the right school bag, if he/she owns a digicam or mp3-player, or if he/she is hanging out with the right people.
- The family will be the center. This something I consider very important - especially in our modern times. As expectations are so high and the world gets more and more hectic and complicated the family should be a calm haven to be in or return to. Home-education brings all the family members closer together. Everyone will spend more time with or around each other. Mother and Father remain role-models and are learning supporters at the same time. Sisters and brothers can support each other and be real friends. When school sucks up most time of a day, usually family members don't have much desire to spend quality time with each other but are rather glad to be alone at least for a little while of the day.
These are just the main facts about home-education that let me believe that it is the best for us.
We went on a long walk today. The weather was (still is) wonderful - sunny and very warm, and I planned yesterday to go on a walk through the woods.
I packed a picknick and drinks and this morning we left for the old Monastry Marienrode, near Hildesheim. Wow, what a gorgeous landscape! We passed through the woods, apparently an old courier path, and then through the fields, slightly up-hill to the monastry.
We stopped by a lake where Sunday and Jona stayed to have a rest and watch the ducks, whilst Ayla and I (and Nellie) went to the monastry buildings and to the church.
The church is rather plain but bright. I liked the atmosphere of it and the decoration with sunflowers and candles.
All in all we took about 5 hours to walk there and back ( took a bus for half the journey back though), and I think Sunday was very tired. :-D (I'm quite used to walking these distances and it's something I LOVE doing!)
Ayla was reading short simple words this morning. I have prepared some flash-cards, and Ayla was first aknowledging every letter and then connected them, reading them as a whole word.
She did very well and she was so excited. After we did the flash-cards she played with the magnetic letters on the fridge. It was great to see her ordering them to say "Eis" or "Auto" or "Zoo" etc.
I am happy to see that children DO follow their own pace and DON'T have to be pushed. They learn easily when they are ready. :-)
Right now the kids are into constructing with PLAYMOBIL. They build the most interesting houses (usually horse farms :-) and play with it for long periods of time.
Ayla has just started going to a craft workshop. It takes place in a craft supply shop. The shop-owner offers different dates with little workshops and the kids make things like bookmarks, or painted boxes, cards, and so on. Ayla really enjoyed her first time.
I am still waiting for her to show interest in reading. Right now the kids are into a book series about different farms. And as I was reading tonight about the 'Wiggins' farm (I always have to insert OUR names! :-P ) she kept asking where certain words were so that she could have a look at how they are written. I think that might be a turning point. If she is getting interested in words now she might be on her way to reading. How exciting!! She knows her letters and she likes writing them, she has done that for quite a while now. It would be a good time now to start getting into reading. :-)
Jona is also learning a lot. He is learning to name the right colours and he can also count from 1-10. I was very surprised when he did it for the first time a few days ago. I had never actually practiced counting with him. Therefore I'm sure he picked it up from Ayla. How great it is to have older siblings!!
I was wondering how I could record our homeschooling activities properly - in case I have to show anything to officials or plainly for us for future reference. Somewhere on the net I read about a HomeMakingBinder and that gave me the idea of designing a HomeSchoolingBinder.
I have printed pages for the 'Homeschooling Journal' where I make daily notes of what we do, what the kids' interests are, what they learn, etc. In adition to that I have a folder devided into different categories, such as: basics, literature (with reading lists), nature studies, music and art and field trips. Those are the main sections so far, but I am sure we will add some more in the future.
I find it very useful to have such a folder with records, as we are unschooling and we don't follow a curriculum or set plan. We don't use work-books or school-books and sporadically do pre-designed work-sheets.
I have decided to use different media to record our homeschooling-journey from now on. Fotos, tickets, notes, drawings, scetches, maybe even recordings. There is a lot that we are doing and there are so many occasions and moments when the kids learn something new, all of it taking place in a non-schoollike environment and without the teacher instruction.
As we grow more and more into the homeschooling, making it part of our life from morning till evening, I will find it easier to organize everything and record it and have more ideas how to 'preserve' the results of my kids learning. :-)
I have been deserting this blog a little bit. But nothing major has happened recently.
This summer seems to be one of those where the weather is the same everyday. Grey clouds and rain. Makes us feel a bit housebound. And my garden is probably turning into a jungle or something else chaotic. ;-)
In terms of homeschooling Ayla seems to be on a halt. No urgent interests right now, no outragous ideas, no amazing developments. Nothing to report. She is not interested in learning, but maybe she learns 'underground'. She is playing A LOT. She plays roleplays with her toy-horses and Playmobil, she is constructing wonderful houses with DUPLO or she is playing little games on the internet. Something must be going on in her little head.
She said to me in bed earlier that she is trying to be a well-behaved child. "But it is such hard work. I just don't succeed!" Poor lovey.
She has learned riding her bike last month. I bought her a small second-hand one and she just rode off. She is really enjoying that newly-found freedom. Also, she loves climbing onto anything and everything and she is doing dangerous looking exercises on the playground.
We have solved the telly-problem. After all the fuzz I decided to put the telly out of focus and placed it now in the closet in our bedroom. There the kids can still watch videos if they like. :-)
It really works!! Because the TV is not visible it is out of their mind. They watched a couple of videos today - short ones as well, and that was it. Even in the evening - Ayla's prime telly-time - they don't ask about it. Hurray!!! This is just how I like it: I don't have to get upset about it anymore and the problem was solved without me putting more attention to it by making rules or forbidding them to watch. :-)
It is nice to watch now if there will be any changes...
Right, this is what I am working on at the moment:
- re-write my book about the 'WildGeese' that my kids destroyed by mistake
- writing a story about Barbara Ann Kelly
- wrting a kids book
- writing a book (or e-book) with prayers/positive thoughts for mothers :-) I am writing it in a way that non-believers can use it, too, as positive inspiration.
- knitting a cardigan for little Nellie
- sewing a skirt for little Nellie
- studying for my distance learning course
- choosing and learning new songs (yes, I finally got my guitar repaired!! Yippieeh!!)
- practising my violin playing
- putting a website together that will show me as a writer and artist and where I will sell (hopefully) sell what I have created (in the future ;-)
Phew, that's enough for now. Some people worry if it isn't boring as a stay-at-home mom *lol*. I even had to turn down a translation job today because I am too busy.
...but my daughter loves it almost more than anything else, these days.
I don't want to get worried. She does actually learn a lot by watching (we only have one channel where there are no commercials and the programmes are just for kids and most of the quite nice) but I feel that she is not DOING anything. She is passive and doesn't use her creativity. She doesn't play, doesn't use her hands, doesn't move her body.
I have never been a telly-person. I remember watching a bit as a kid. I had some favourite programmes but then... I could already read at Ayla's age and I loved books and I loved music and I was always a very creative person. Maybe that is the reason why I get worried when she watches 1, 2 or even 3 hours a day...I can't really relate to it and I don't know what she is getting from it and if she will be okay in her development...if she will maybe become lazy and passive...or if it is just a phase...
I hear from other parents that their kids have phases when they are watching telly all day and then they have periods of time where they don't watch at all.
I think deep down I want her to be creative and musical and artistical and imaginative because that is what I am like and what I love. I have to accept that she is a different person with different interests, talents and preferences.
With this in mind: I will pick up my violin now to practice. ;-D
