Introducing the World - Homeschool Blogger

A few things

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 23:38:00 -0600

Well, the posts have been infrequent and the learning unconventional, but we have certainly been busy.

We've driven across the country, learned the basics of reading maps, seen mountains and rivers and prairies.

We've met new people and slept in new places. Hiked through the woods, scaled cliffs, thrown rocks, watched seagulls and bison and geysers.

We've eaten home-grown food and picked our own berries. D3 is pretty convinced the world is a smorgasbord just waiting for her.

We've been reading *Little House on the Prairie* through all of this and felt much in common with the Ingalls' journey.

This week things are starting to settle down a bit. We got our library card today. D1 wanted to check out some books she could read, and we were excited to see this library has a full collection of Bob Books. I found several of the next level up, and was pleased to discover when we got home that she can now read books made up primarily of three-letter words with ease and only a little help on sight words and very similar words. (When we left Ohio, these were still quite a challenge.) D2 wanted to try, too, of course, but mostly was content just to repeat the sentence after hearing it. He can sound out a few short words, though.

Last week my dad picked up a baby-weighing scale at the thrift store. He had no plans for it, just couldn't resist the bargain. The kids had fun weighing themselves (it goes up just high enough to register D1.) Today D1 and D2 started weighing stacks of books, adding more and more books and watching the weight go higher and higher.

Rebel Without a Cause

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:21:00 -0500

A co-worker of mine used to theorize that homeschoolers were intrinsically rebellious, what with their rejection of the mainstream and outside authority. (I don't think he meant this as a bad thing.) Well, it does describe me pretty well, but it always seems to me that homeschoolers are still just as herd-minded as anyone else. The new product comes out that is the One Great Thing that is going to be perfect for everyone and I know because I tried it! And it's been so wonderful! For the past week!

Right.

The current buzzy product happens to be workboxes, which I am sure are a great idea that will prove helpful for many people.

But they're not all that. They are not the solution for everyone, regardless of age, temperament, and homeschooling style.

I'm not even remotely interested, for lots of reasons. I don't want to mess with keeping up multiple boxes organized and out of reach of the toddlers; I have enough trouble with the dish cupboards. I enjoy winging it more than following plans--even if I made those plans myself. I don't want to miss out on the chance to build a math activity on something that happened to come up at breakfast just because something else happened to be in the box.

Most significantly, I don't want to diminish their natural zest for learning by dictating a lot of what they do during the day. A limited amount of that when they are older, perhaps, for those dull but necessary tasks like handwriting. Oh, I know workboxes are so fun and everybody's kids just whiz through them and they finally get to do all those activities they've never gotten around to. It's just like play!

That's the worst part, in my book. I don't want my kids having fun learning because I have it all prepackaged out in the right-sized doses for them. I want them to learn because they know how to exercise their natural curiosity in healthy ways. I want them to do activities because they choose them, because it really is enough of a challenge and relevant enough to keep them interested, not because it's better than a worksheet.

Modern parents--even conservative homeschooling ones--exercise a lot less overt authority over their children than those of a century or so ago. There's a lot less "must" and a lot fewer trips to the woodshed. But at least those stern Victorians let the kids go off and occupy themselves for hours at a time. School was painful but at least a relatively small part of life.

Whereas modern parents cajole and entice and make learning fun, but they seem to leave the children very little time to be, to work out things for themselves, to learn from real successes and failures in barns and empty lots.

So that's why I'm skeptical about the claim that workboxes increase self-direction. Following someone else's sequence of tasks is not self-direction. It's a valuable skill, but still less valuable than being able to set goals, plan, and execute for yourself.

What We Did, August and September 2009

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:37:00 -0500

Despite my best efforts to dodge doing school, the ducklings have insisted upon it most days they are here. (They are still spending Tuesdays at Grandma's until we depart.)

We've done some pages of words with a common sound or rhyming words, making a list, then a silly sentence and an illustration. D1 wanted to do ones with "th" one day, so that led us into digraphs. She is comfortable reading all the first set of Bob books (which is good, because they had to go back to the library) and made some of her own books copying words and illustrations from a board book. D2 can write his own name now and has tried sounding out short words.

In math, we talked about "5" families one day and found all the ways to combine and make five. We've played math games--"Go Fish" with numbers adding to five and then "War" with just adding whatever cards turned up.

We did a couple of days studying road signs, drawing different signs and learning what words were on them. We talked a bit about the color code.

They wanted stories from far away one day, so I told them about William Tell and the Little Dutch Boy; I wish I could have remembered more. The next day I told them how the secret of silk was smuggled out of China.

One sunny morning we marked our shadows at different times and watched how they changed through the morning, predicting how they would progress through the afternoon. We've done a lot of chalk drawing in general, too. They love drawing houses with stairs and chimneys and furniture.

We've read about Lewis and Clark again, and some chapters in Winnie the Pooh, and some Beatrix Potter and *The Sleeping Beauty* and a treasury of all McCloskey's picture books.

Next we're getting some books on China from the library, although it doesn't seem quite the thing when we're about to cross the west, but they wanted "far away."

The little ones are both walking very well now and starting to put two words together. Both of their first sentences were quite characteristic. D3: "More bite!" D4: "Out door!" Their eagerness for the out-of-doors drags us outside for a good part of their waking hours, plus the need to be out of the house for showings. We've been visiting our favorite parks one last time.

What We Did: July 2009

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:17:00 -0500

Well, with typical abruptness, immediately after I wrote last month's summary of our first week of school, DOB and I decided to sell everything, quit his job, and move out west. (Well, just about.)

So that sort of put formal school on hold for a bit. Instead, we're doing a massive family project on moving, the frontier, and anything else that fits in. Plus they're continuing their own independent investigations. D2 has started copying and writing letters. I haven't seen him write his own name yet, but he wrote his cousin's name (well, all the straight letters) from dictation.

D1 counted up to 199 for DOB, and then DOB showed her about place value and numbers up to 1000. She copied out all the months of the year one afternoon. She still will "read" books some, mostly reciting but occasionally really reading words. Sometimes she asks to read to me.

They both have done quite a bit of coloring, drawing, painting, and stamping.

We've been reading books about the pioneers. Two favorites are Apples to Oregon, a tall tale about the Oregon trail, and How We Crossed the West: The Adventures of Lewis and Clark, with beautiful illustrations and excerpts from actual journals. I'm working up things to take on the journey, like bingo cards and coloring pages for each state.

What we Did: June 2009

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:26:00 -0500

Our start to official "school" didn't go off too well, with tears about five minutes into the first day. But it went better than the first day of potty training, at least.

The tears were not really about school, they were about restricted use of the erasable markers. It was ok for her to use them for writing words; it was ok for her to use them for practicing her handwriting strokes. But when those activities were done they were to be put away, not to be used for coloring all day. Life is tough that way.

At the same time, they didn't want school to end when I was ready for it to be done. But they didn't really want to do it on my terms, either. What plans I had went out the window pretty quickly. I don't know how much of this is a maturity issue, how much is a character issue, and how much is just a personality issue. I still can't imagine following an actual curriculum.

Here is what we settled on instead: For fifteen minutes (I set a timer for this part) we do *something* related to reading and writing. We choose the activity ahead of time so we don't waste time deciding during our fifteen minutes. Among the possible activities:

Alphabet book pages for D2
Making words with alphabet magnets. (This is a lot slower than I would like it to be, especially since D1 *always* wants to start by spelling her name, after which there's not much time for anything else. D2 does this the most.)
Learning words to/ practicing reading a poem. (This is from what I actually prepared to do, but we are not really doing it the way I planned. She has no interest in the word cards, which I thought would be fun.)
Reading a book together. (We got the first set of Bob Books from the library--unfortunately that's all they have--also stacked up all our Beginner Books.)
Writing labels and sticking them on appropriate things around the house.
Practicing writing with dry-erase markers on a worksheet inside a page protector.
Making a book with words she can read.

I'd like to also try writing short commands (Sit in a box. Get on the bed. Set a car in a box. etc.) for her to read and act out. I'm still looking around for ideas for this stage. She can sound out a short word pretty easily if she actually looks at it, but she has that beginning reader trick of staring at the ceiling and spouting a random word at times. D2 is still just playing with the letters, but he seems pretty comfortable with most of them.

Anyway, after our fifteen minutes of reading and writing are done, we have another fifteen minutes for another activity of their choosing. This usually winds up being a game (involving math, no doubt--there are few that don't) or using the messier art supplies. I am hoping at least once a week to take art supplies outside and add to a nature notebook. I don't set the timer here and we usually keep going until I am tired and want to take some time by myself before the babies wake up from their morning nap.

I still haven't worked Spanish into this, but let's let this all work for awhile and maybe on the next rainy day I'll give it a try.

So here is what a day looks like:
7:00-8:00 Get everybody up and dressed.
8:00-9:30 Breakfast and outside play time; I do yard and garden work when no one needs rescued.
9:30-11:30 Singing time and babies' morning nap; school with big kids and then my rest time while big kids play.
11:30-1:30 Lunch and kids play all together while I try to catch up on dishes.
1:30-2:30 Get babies ready for nap; read stories to babies; put babies in play pen and read Bible story, sing, and read picture books of their choice; once or twice a week a chapter from a chapter book.
2:30-3:30 or 4 if I'm really lucky: everybody's nap time! Big kids often don't nap but are expected to play quietly alone and not ask for anything.
4-6:30 snack; more play time, outside if I'm caught up on housework and supper prep; pick up house (hopefully)
6:30-8:00 DOB gets home; supper; get everybody ready for and in bed.

A bit tedious and very exhausting, but it does work.

Organizing Thoughts

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 14:13:00 -0500

I love creating organizational plans. However, I have lived with myself long enough to know I am far better at creating the plans than at living with them. I also know that standard organizational methods often don't work well for me (I cannot follow a shopping list to save my life) and it usually takes a lot of tweaking to get things to work right. So I'm a bit apprehensive about having to actually organize and plan schooling rather than simply sticking to my strength of capitalizing on the children's questions and interests.

This is my practice year, though. D1 at five (in two weeks) now seems to be ready for a small (very small) amount of regular practice in reading and writing, but our state does not require formal lesson plans or reporting until six. So I can play with what works for just a few subjects and hopefully find the right mix.

One particular challenge is the interrelationship between keeping things on paper and keeping things on the computer and/or online, both for planning and for record keeping. There needs to not only be a specific place to put different things, but a particular reason for putting things where they are--and it has to be easy, because in the throes of a new idea I am far too likely to grab something and plunk it in the handiest place, quickly resulting in total chaos.

So here's my initial plan:
Planning
Computer: General links, organized by topic; Forms, customized; materials to print.
3-ring binder: Specific curriculum plans and lessons (by topic); calendar;
Files in portable basket: immediate month and next two (topical subdivisions) for hard copy materials for students (maps, magazine pictures, etc.)

Recording
Computer: Month by month general summary with pictures of highlights (on blog); end of year personal summary of best books, materials, etc., for use with future children and reporting purposes.
Composition notebook: Monthly book list; daily record of activities and observations.

For this year I plan to continue with the things we have been doing (more or less sporadically, as energy allows): daily read-aloud time (which has now expanded to chapter books as well as picture books and a Bible story), with singing and prayer; reciting a Bible passage at breakfast; playing math games or with math manipulatives as a free choice; observing nature while playing outside; telling stories of holidays; playing with art materials.

To this I would like to add a brief reading and handwriting lesson with D1 (we're going to try italic handwriting, although I'm having trouble finding free materials); playing "Visitors" and "Simon Says" in Spanish; and making a weekly journal page, perhaps collectively, that shows a seasonal nature observation. If D2 wants to participate in the reading lessons I have an alphabet book made for him using vehicles for each letter of the alphabet to get us started; we'll see what interests him from there.

It sounds like a lot all written out together like that (well, at least it sounds like a lot when you also factor in constant supervision of two very inquisitive toddlers all by one very sleep deprived mother), but we *have* been doing the things on the first list (some with the aid of hired help) and most of the things on the second list should only take a few extra minutes a day. It is definitely going to be less work than it would be to take her to kindergarten and bring her back every day, with four little ones, no car, and a district that doesn't have bus service!

Math Conversations

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:02:00 -0500

Sometime last year I picked up a 100-bead style abacus at a second-hand sale. It's wooden and sturdy--the tag says IKEA. Irresistible to touch. Fun to arrange into patterns.

Asking around about how to use it finally directed me to RightStart Math. A little perusing of their website and I figured out the secret was the way the beads are divided in fives. I taught the kids their rhyme about numbers from six to ten (six is five and one; seven is five and two, etc.). You can also demonstrate with fingers, which we did as well. With those visualizations in place, you can learn addition and subtraction by relating them to fives and tens--which unlocks all the addition facts. D1 caught on quickly: pondering how many children she would have if she had six girls and five boys, she realized it would be one more than ten ("five and five").

The abacus also allowed them to easily count and visualize numbers up to one hundred. They liked watching me count and demonstrating large numbers on it themselves. One of their favorite random things to do is to announce how old they are: "I'm 54!" "I'm 72!" Now they can illustrate these numbers on the abacus. I really like this even better than base10 style blocks--it's neater and helps more with visualizations.

I'm also impressed with the math games that RightStart uses for review. I don't think we need a curriculum yet, but when we do, RightStart is going to be at the top of my list. Right now playing "War" and "Go Fish" are pretty good math exercises. D1 will probably be ready to play two-card War soon, where you add the two cards together and the highest sum wins. D2 understands the larger number concept, but still has trouble with the losing concept. He announced his own rules to DOB: "Let's play it so that whatever card I play, it wins."

The other day we were riding in the car and D2 announced to DOB that we had seen one workerwoman and two worker men, which made three worker persons. This set us off adding other disparate groups: "Two boys and one girl is three kids." "Two apples and one orange is three fruits." "Two buckles and one car seat are three things around you in the car." We kept this up all the way to the chiropractor.

Teaching Reading

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:37:00 -0500

D1 is edging closer to really reading, and I've been re-examining how to teach (or just promote) reading yet again. She is memorizing whole books; she knows the most common sound of each letter (we used those first, before letter names) and she has heard me break words apart into sounds and put them back together many times, sometimes as a game, sometimes when writing words at her request. She will spell words with me just helping her break apart the sounds and explain any unusual constructions.

Now she is starting to be able to hear all the sounds in a short word herself, and even blend together sounds. She will "read" books and stop and correct herself at times when she sees that the words she is saying are not the ones she is seeing.

The more aggressive phonics advocates would probably say this is bad. She clearly knows many words by sight, and she might get in bad habits of guessing at words. However, this is exactly how I learned how to read and how DOB learned how to read, and we read and spell better than most. Since she understands the basic concept that letters represent sounds, she looks to understand how the sounds are represented in the words she knows. I think this will lead her to the same place as a more orderly phonics progression, and it's far more natural for her.

I do think it's about time we had some more formal lessons on reading, though, and I've promised her we will start on her fifth birthday. I'm dissatisfied with everything out there, though (of course!). The sight-word people are right that real reading involves *knowing* words, not sounding them out or guessing; the phonics people are right that memorizing every word in the English language is simply impossible; and the whole-language people are right that reading controlled-vocabulary or phonetically-correct text is unbearably painful. I'm impressed with the way Diane McGuinness organizes the sounds and spellings of the English language, but the curriculum based on it, while quicker and simpler than phonics, is just as tedious and twaddly while it's in process. Also it seems to be written for children who are struggling readers, which doesn't seem necessarily appropriate for a child who takes naturally to decoding.

The trouble with English is the irregularity is up front. If you simply start with the most common words, many of them use advanced spelling patterns (the) or practically unique spellings (once). On the other hand, if you start with the most common sounds that will be used in words of every length, you find it impossible to write an actual sentence, and even with a few concessions like "the" and "of" the books are full of sentences that sound like nothing else in the language. (Dad did nab a dab of jam. Right.)

Charlotte Mason advocated an approach using short poems and simple prose (but real ones, that you might actually want to read), working with the words until the poem can be read off perfectly and with expression at once, and then doing word-building exercises with the words thus learned. The lessons sound fun and engaging, but the actual understanding of the English code seemed haphazard. English may not be as regular as some languages, but there is some logic to it and trying to learn it without that logic makes it unnecessarily difficult.

Naturally not being satisfied with anything out there, I want to do my own. With careful selection, I can find real poems, Bible passages, folk tales, that predominantly use the spellings and structures studied thus far. A few words will need to be memorized at sight, but very few. A few other words, to be studied later, can simply be read by me. We can work with these words until they're known at sight--so that reading proceeds easily--and with care I can also make sure we spend the most time on the most common words, so that she will be able to easily read most of the words in real books. But because we start with a firm understanding of the basic code, she should still realize that individual letters represent individual sounds and she doesn't need to guess at whole words. (Even the most irregular words usually only have one or two sounds spelled irregularly.)

That's my theory anyway. We'll see how it works.

Saint George and the Dragon

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:28:00 -0500

DOB has recently discovered the world of LEGO trading (and also come to admit that he still loves LEGO as much or more as he did twenty years ago) and acquired a huge castle set with a dragon and a knight on horseback. The older ducklings delighted to watch him assemble this castle. D2 dug out a plastic sword and shield I picked up off Halloween clearance two years ago and was ready to face the dragon.

Naturally this called for a book, and I already knew what one to get: Saint George and the Dragon, by Margaret Hodges. It's really meant for somewhat older children--Ambleside has it scheduled in Year One--but I knew it was the right call as soon as I brought it home. They had figured out the story by poring over the illustrations before I even began to read it to them. D2 of course was the knight, and D1 the lady. We had considerable discussion over who would be the horses, the dwarf, and the lamb. I volunteered for the dragon; I'm noted for my ability to die dramatically.

We still haven't finished it, as we have been reading only a couple of pages a day. But it's been great fun to read. I'm wondering if I should suggest the possibility of making a dragon mask or head to lend a more realistic touch.

What We Did, December, January, uh-oh

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 13:49:00 -0600

It's been a while since I did one of these. It's not for lack of activity, I just lose interest in record-keeping from time to time. Not that it matters now. But someday it will, as I realize watching my mother-in-law scramble to come up with adequate high school records for her youngest two. Must. Learn. To. Keep. Good. Records.

Bible: Continuing our Bible reading plan, we are now reading through the gospels, accompanied when appropriate by pictures from The Victor Journey Through the Bible by V. Gilbert Beers.

Memory: Currently we are reciting I Corinthians 13:4-7 at breakfast every morning. Then I will pick out a single phrase to emphasize each week, talking about the meaning of the words and perhaps telling a parable that illustrates it. They love that part.

Poetry: "The North Wind Doth Blow" seemed appropriate. I also read a few A. A. Milne poems the other day.

Song: I made a notebook with a few hymns for them to choose from and selected paintings from the Web Gallery of Art to go along with them. Current options are "Amazing Grace," "Holy, Holy, Holy," "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "Hallelujah, What a Savior," "Christ Arose," and "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." I also made a prayer notebook for missionaries with a page about each country and its needs.

I'm also trying to put on some fiddle music and dance every day we can't get out.

Projects: Although I felt like I was lost the whole time, I do think the project we did on African animals turned out well in the end. They learned something about the habits of the animals; interacted with the ideas in books, on the computer, in imaginative play, and in making a diorama with salt dough and paint. I was really pleased with the final project; I did suggest it but they did (voluntarily) nearly all the work themselves, from mixing the dough to painting. We took it slow and easy; it was probably over a week. I love my new paint supplies!

Here are some pictures:
Making the diorama

Lions eating animals at the waterhole!

Next we plan to work on birds. So far we are just reading books and watching birds out the window, but we are discussing ideas for something more.

Observations:
D1 and D2 have both advanced greatly in counting larger numbers; I admit this is due to a book I loathe, Curious George Counts to 100. D1 is figuring out how to read the higher numbers, too, while D2 usually counts correctly up to 30 and beyond. Playing hide-and-seek also reinforces this, except when D2 gets stuck in a loop by saying twenty-ten and going back round through the teens again!
After I put the coloring books away, D1 protested for awhile, but recently has been more eager to draw on her own, trying out the same theme several different ways (one day it was three robed figures of graduated sizes, alternately herself, me, and D3, or Jesus, Mary, and the Angel.) She's especially interested by patterns, tracing ones she sees in books, and I got her some books that I hope will encourage exploring that.
We tried to do observational drawing a couple of times, but I haven't really gotten them into it yet.
They've played grocery store for days on end, setting up, sorting, shopping, buying, and putting away the groceries.
D4 has learned to creep forwards and could sit himself up if he had the slightest desire to sit--which he doesn't. D3 is rolling both ways and starting to push herself up, too. She can babble several different sounds, including "Mama."

Activities:
Playing in the snow.
Playdough
Pattern blocks
Felt shapes
And generally, just the usual round of things. They are doing better at keeping things in various "stations" picked up, although things are starting to get out of hand again.