Feb. 21, 2007 - Today's "school"
Today my middle boy (7) sat down and created his own imaginary alphabet. This was just something he did, but is so typical for him. He has a very creative, inquisitive mind and although it drives me crazy sometimes (it is a also very messy) - it is wonderful to see him do stuff like this. He also helped his little sister (5) make a violin and violin case. (He takes cello and at his last lesson his teacher let my daughter try out the violin a bit. She was shy, but delighted.)
My eldest (10) had another "episode" today. He gets totally overwhelmed by school and gets very emotional and "bent". He finally got himself together and got some school work done. I let the rest slide - I don't know why. He did work on his timeline - which we are doing in an old Book of Centuries we had. The problem is that the figures we are using are filling up pages too quickly and we don't have room for very many per page. I'm not sure what to do about that. This is when I usually give up and ditch some aspect of homeschool because my resources have thwarted me. We had a big banner of paper, but we are getting ready to see our house and are trying to take down some stuff - the timeline had to go. So, now we are using the BoC. I'll just stick with it for now, but maybe I'll have to rethink that.
We watched a biographical movie if Sir Isaac Newton (a children's version). My eldest was a bit disgusted and said it was "a waste of an hour". He already knew all that and they left out a lot of other details he said. He has been reading a good biography (which he tells me he doesn't like - but apparently he's learning anyway!!!)
I read a great article on the Carnival of Homeschooling for this week about getting back to basics ("Falling Like Rain") and it really has me thinking. I don't feel I'm burned out, but I do feel like maybe my eldest is a bit. On top of school, he is also in a play and preparing for his black belt test (extra classes and practicing). My middle one really seems to learn more from historic fiction or biographies. Maybe it is time to take her suggested approach of focusing on the basics and letting them select books for other interest areas. I'd want to give them some direction and guidance...just not sure how to go about giving them freedom within a framework. I guess what I need to do is determine what I want the framework to be. Hmmmm....
I hesitate because I don't want to let stuff slide! I'd love to hear from you if you use an approach where you allow your children to determine their studies within a framework (like modified unschooling, maybe?) Like the Newton bio - if he had his way he'd have quit reading it by now, but he'd have missed out on what he learned so far! How do you know when to push and require certain work and when do you let it go?
Love to hear how others handle this type of thing...
Comments
Feb. 21, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by eclecticeducation
Can you photocopy your timeline figures and reduce them down? Some companies will tell you to do that for the timeline books. Just a thought.
Feb. 22, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by MrsPivec
I am TOTALLY where you are right now with the whole idea of thinking of a "modified unschooling thing." I have a 10 year old too, but a girl. She's not resisting the things I give her, but I was beginning to find our learning a bit stilted and somewhat of a drudgery.
I had been following the Charlotte Mason meathod this year. I had looked at it for many years, but had not implemented it wholeheartedly. Well, I really wanted to for this year. I wanted to give at least half a year to trying the shorter subjects and really working on the narrating and reading "twaddle-free" literature. All great ideas, but they did not work that well for us.
I still use the narrating for our art studies, but we all disliked having to take the story we may have been enjoying and then having to stop and narrate it. I have my older narrate through writing, but she was not enjoying that either. So, we're still narrating some of history and science ("Tell me everything you know so far about Mars"), but for writing, I'm trying to give the older things that excite her: "Write an essay about why you want to be a singer."
The shorter subjects were too much switching around for us, so now we are back to longer, but fewer subjects each day. I am letting the girls pick the order in which they want to do their work and we're just trying to be more relaxed overall.
This slump hits me every year around this time and I usually have to do some schedule tweaking.
I also find that I am getting more and more relaxed with things in general. I was thinking about the Isaac Newton thing you mentioned. If your son reads other things already... then he can read and think and get the information that he needs from reading, right? So maybe he really didn't need to read this book about Newton; maybe the video would have been enough for him. Exactly how much does he really need to know about Newton anyway, that a video wouldn't give him? I bet he knows more about him than I do! These are the types of questions I find myself asking myself these days. If we are truely "doing education" differently, then why do we often find ourselves trying to immitate old models of learning? Why can't we allow ourselves and our children the freedom to learn in the way that they will really learn?
I don't have the answers to these questions of mine yet. I'm not ready to go full-on unschooling, because there ARE things I still want to direct. BUT I am also trying to listen to my children more - and that I mean, not that I haven't been listening, but I am just trying to pay closer attention to the things they love - the things they naturally gravitate to - and the ways in which they seem to excel in their learning. I still have a ways to go in this, but I'm trying to loosen the reigns a bit more and create the type of environment that I dreamed of when I initially dreamed of homeschooling.
Feb. 22, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by fallinglikerain
Thanks for stopping by my blog. There are no easy answers to the questions you are asking, but I may try to address them in a future post.
Sandy
Feb. 23, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by amalapert
Hi! I stumbled across your blog because Mrs. P stumbled across mine a few days ago. LOL I consider us Christian Unschoolers - which means we're not totally free range chickens here - there ARE rules and boundaries...but when it comes to pure learning, we don't have curricula. My oldest is 6.5.
I also have looked into CM methods. I like her ideas and love the idea of a nature journal but like anything else, I don't want to force it until it becomes something the kids dread. But we do accomplish the same goals, I believe. For example...Mrs. P said she would use "Tell me everything you know so far about Mars" or "Write an essay about why you want to be a singer." In our house, it would sound something more like me asking a specific question about Mars to open the subject up or mentioning that I read something new-to-me the other day about Mars and see if he's interested in continuing the conversation. Since he's a science lover, he's always in the mood to talk about planets. lol I guess, instead of an "assignment", it's a free-moving conversation. I get the same results, which is hearing his comprehension level of things we've discussed about a subject but it's not seen as "work". Does that make sense? And if he's not willing to talk about it today, I will look for a good entry point on another day to work it in.
It might be interesting to try that a couple times with your older kids who seem a bit stagnant about assignments. Just a suggestion. Good luck finding something that works better for your family! :)
