The life and times of a homeschool mom and dad and their four kids. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:30:00 -0600 Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:30:00 -0600 I moved my blog to www.independenceacademy.blogspot.com because I find it easier to use, so that's where I can be found. Does anyone know if it's possible to move posts from here to a new location?  I hate to lose my old posts. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/615636/ Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:30:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/615636/ We are using My Father's World Adventures for a US history overview and have found it to be very Charlotte Mason influenced and think that all of their recommendations (Serl's Primary Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Structure),have been right on.  I have gone back and forth about unschooling for a long time.  I won't go into all the gory details here right now, but a love of learning has always been my number one goal for the kids, and I deeply believe that kids already come with a natural curiosity and desire to learn.  There are reasons we need, and thrive, on more structure though, and I feel like what we're doing this year has been a beautiful balance so far.  We love the short, gentle lessons of a CM inspired curriculum and we still have plenty of time for playing and pursuing our interests.  I am not one who feels I have to commit myself to one curriculum and there are some reasons I don't believe we'll use MFW long-term, but for this year we're just going to enjoy where we're at now.  Here is the annual "first day of school" pic: (Max demonstrating his fourishness). Making notebook covers: Max's spelling "test"   What's funny is that all of my kids think spelling on the white board is just the most fun ever, so they all had to take a turn.  He spelled all those words without help, as long as I enunciated each letter sound as I said it. Trying to sail Christopher Columbus' ships:   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/555824/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 23:46:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/555824/ So this was us today...   Lots of crabiness and grumping about these constant My Father's World Adventures notebooking pages we're doing, eyes glazing over while I read one of the spines which even I thought was a yawn and quickly figured out not to read all 5 pages that were scheduled, but to skim ahead and summarize.    A little while later, I decided enough was enough and got out some picture books and a chapter book I knew they would like.  Complete silence, happy kids gathered around me on the playroom loveseat.    Obviously I'll have to start doing some tweaking.     I'm glad I've tried several different approaches with them, because it's helping me figure out what works best for us.  I've gotta say, I find the notebooking and other projects very time consuming and am dissapointed in the low amount of reading aloud we're doing.  But we're only on week 2 and it will take awhile to find our rhythm and tailor it a bit. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/554657/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/554657/ I've been busy getting ready to start our new school year.  We school year round since it's so hot where we live and a lot of outdoor time isn't possible.  We take a little break but prefer to save most of our time for early spring when it's beautiful outside, and for a long Christmas break.  Of course, learning happens all the time anyway.   We don't need a curriculum to learn but we all seem to thrive on having some structure.   During our current break, Luke has been busy pursuing all kinds of interests.  He really enjoys memorizing and is on a kick about the presidents, this started with a poster in our playroom and a book we got at a Scholastic Warehouse Sale:   He has been memorizing the order of the presidents, their nicknames, and how they died.  That's what he wants to know, as well as if they were a good president, which isn't the simplest question to answer. This new interest of his coincides nicely with the fact they we're doing a US history overview that includes studies of presidents as they come up in the time period, and a states study.  He loves geography also, so I think we'll have fun with this.  There are lots of hands-on activities and projects, including cooking.  Him and Maddie are going to love it.    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/550465/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:47:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/550465/ "Mom,  can God see through the walls?" Me thinking:  What a deep thinker of a 4 year old I have! Followed by "Mom, how do you spell cookie?" And then:  "I know how to spell poop, p-o-o-p." http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/545048/ Mon, 9 Jun 2008 11:23:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/545048/ This article by the Bluedorns is worth a read, it's too long to c&p here, so I'll post a link for anyone interested: http://www.triviumpursuit.com/articles/research_on_teaching_math.php The Bluedorns advaocate classical education, but not until age ten.  They believe that the focus should be lifeskills and character training for young children and that most kids aren't ready for formal schoolwork before age ten, especially boys.  This part of their article that I have highlighted struck a cord with me: What we suggest is: Formal textbook or workbook instruction in arithmetic may begin at age ten. It is about age ten that the developmental light bulb goes on, and the child becomes capable of a great deal more mental and physical skill. (Of course that’s not an absolute rule. With a few children, it is as early as eight. We call them "bright" children because the developmental light bulb goes on early.) Waiting until the child is developmentally prepared to handle the concepts makes instruction in arithmetic very easy, because the child learns very quickly. There is no necessity for formal teaching in arithmetic before age ten. Once all of the developmental parts are there, most children can learn – in a few weeks – everything which they might have spent six years learning (kindergarten through fifth grade), that is, if they haven’t already learned it through questions and experiences and working things out on their own — which is generally the case. Depending upon the child, upon the method, and upon the subject matter covered, there exists the potential for developmental harm from the formal teaching of arithmetic before age ten. Small children cannot understand many arithmetic concepts at an early age. We can teach them to perform the process, but we cannot make them understand the concepts. The child "learns" to hate "learning." The child’s understanding develops along the wrong lines. He may actually develop mental "blocks" to arithmetic – actual physiological blocks in the brain. (This may give new meaning for the term "blockhead.") Not formally teaching arithmetic before age ten frees up a lot of time for other activities which will build the vocabulary of the child. Vocabulary is the number one index of intelligence. Developing vocabulary was one of the deliberate foci of ancient education. We waste valuable time for developing vocabulary and verbal language skills if we instead spend those hours teaching a five year old to count by fives. (He’ll know it intuitively by age ten anyway, without ever being taught.) Instead, we ought to spend those hours reading to him. We only have so much time in the day. Do we want to spend it trying to force math skills into a child who developmentally is not optimally prepared, or spend it doing what is developmentally natural to a young child – learning new words and associating them with new ideas and experiences. Stretch the child’s vocabulary during the formative years, and when he’s developmentally ready to do some deeper thinking, he’ll have a mind prepared to take on the task, and he’ll take off like a rocket. Please note: We are not saying that no child should ever utter the name of a number before age ten. Not at all. About age four, most children discover money, and there is no hiding numbers from them after that. They encounter numbers all of the time. If we encourage learning, then they’ll be asking lots of questions, and we’ll be full of opportunities to teach numbers and measurement. But we would not encourage using a formal workbook before age ten, unless the child has a genuine desire to do so, he shows that he is competent to handle the work, and it does not take away time from other valuable activities. We are not going to ruin the child if we wait until age ten before beginning formal teaching of arithmetic.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/529963/ Fri, 9 May 2008 21:15:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/529963/     The little kids and I just finished Pippi Longstocking.  They enjoyed Pippi's antics and even I had to laugh out loud a few times.  Here is my favorite part:   Everyone in town has found out that Pippi is living alone in Villa Villekula, so two poilcemen are sent to fetch Pippi and take her to a childrens home.  This conversation follows: "Don't you realize that you have to go to school?"  said the policeman. "Why do I have to go to school?" "To learn things, of course." "What sort of things?" asked Pippi. "All sort of useful things," said the officer.  "Lots  of useful things, like multiplication tables, for instance." "I've been fine for nine years without any plutification tables," said Pippi.  "And I'm sure I can manage in the future, too." "Yes, but think how sad it will be for you to be so ignorant.  What about when you grow up and someone happens to ask you what the capital of Portugal is and you can't answer?" "Of course I can answer," said Pippi.  "I'll just answer like this:  If you're so desperately anxious to know what the capital of Portugal is, then by all means write a letter to Portugal and ask them!"   These are the kids current favorites:   Zach is enjoying I, Juan de Pareja, about a slave who studies under a great artist in 1600s Spain.  It's based on true people.     Luke rereads this one over and over and we have all learned a lot about flies, fleas, wasps, and other insects that Luke tells us about.   Today, I was folding laundry in my bedroom and had the windows open, (it's a beautiful 87 degrees today), and overheard this conversation between Luke and Max who were in the backyard, companiably swinging side by side:   Luke:  "Fleas suck blood,  they like cat fur the best because they're the fluffiest.  But they like dogs too, sometimes even people.  Even lions and tigers can have fleas.  Fleas can jump 200."   [I think he was reading that they jump 200 times their body length.] Max:  "WOW!  Can they jump to the moon?" Luke: "No, they can't jump  to the moon." Max: "Oh."   Maddie's favorites stories lately are fairytales.   We have several different collections and her favorite is one called The Worlds Greatest Fairytales.  I can't find a picture of it anywhere because it's old, from the 60s, and is one of the many books the kids inherited from their Dad's picture books from when he was a little boy.  We like this version of Rapunzel, the pictures are beautiful.     Max's current kick is reading Harold and the Purple Crayon and George Shrinks over and over from the Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics.       http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/498531/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:42:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/498531/ This was in the appendix of Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax.     Author Unknown I'm not very good in school. This is my second year in the seventh grade, and I'm bigger than most of the other kids. The kids like me all right, even though I don't say much in class, and that sort of makes up for what goes on in school. I don't know why the teachers don't like me. They never have. It seems like they don't think you know anything unless you can name the book it comes out of. I read a lot at home -- things like Popular Mechanics and Sports Illustrated and the Sears catalog -- but I don't just sit down and read them through like they make us do in school. I use them when I want to find something out, like a batting average or when Mom buys something secondhand and wants to know if she's getting a good price. In school, though, we've got to learn whatever is in the book and I just can't memorize the stuff. Last year I stayed after school every night for two weeks trying to learn the names of the presidents. Some of them were easy, like Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln, but there must have been 30 altogether and I never did get them straight. I'm not too sorry, though, because the kids who learned the presidents had to turn right around and learn all the vice presidents. I am taking the seventh grade over, but our teacher this year isn't interested in the names of the presidents. She has us trying to learn the names of all the great American inventors. I guess I just can't remember names in the history. Anyway, I've been trying to learn about trucks because my uncle owns three and he says I can drive one when I'm 16. I know the horsepower and gear ratios of 26 American trucks and want to operate a diesel. Those diesels are really something. I started to tell my teacher about them in science class last week when the pump we were using to make a vacuum in a bell jar got hot, but she said she didn't see what a diesel engine has to do with our experiment on air pressure, so I just shut up. The kids seemed interested though; I took four of them around to my uncle's garage after school and we watched his mechanic tear down a big diesel engine. He really knew his stuff. I'm not very good in geography, either. They call it economic geography this year. We've been studying the imports and exports of Turkey all week, but I couldn't tell you what they are. Maybe the reason is that I missed school for a couple of days when my uncle took me downstate to pick up some livestock. He told me where we were headed and I had to figure out the best way to get there and back. He just drove and turned where I told him. It was over 500 miles roundtrip and I'm figuring now what his oil cost and the wear and tear on the truck -- he calls it depreciation -- so we'll know how much we made. When we got back I wrote up all the bills and sent letters to the farmers about what their pigs and cattle brought at the stockyard. My aunt said I only made 3 mistakes in 17 letters, all commas. I wish I could write school themes that way. The last one I had to write was on "What a daffodil thinks of Spring," and I just couldn't get going. I don't do very well in arithmetic, either. Seems I just can't keep my mind on the problems. We had one the other day like this: If a 57 foot telephone pole falls across a highway so that 17 and 3/4 feet extend from one side and 14 and 5/16 feet extend from the other, how wide is the highway? That seemed to me like an awfully silly way to get the size of a highway. I didn't even try to answer it because it didn't say whether the pole had fallen straight across or not. Even in shop class I don't get very good grades. All of us kids made a broom holder and a bookend this semester and mine were sloppy. I just couldn't get interested. Mom doesn't use a broom anymore with her new vacuum cleaner, and all of our books are in a bookcase with glass doors in the family room. Anyway, I wanted to make a tailgate for my uncle's trailer, but the shop teacher said that meant using metal and wood both, and I'd have to learn how to work with wood first. I didn't see why, but I kept quiet and made a tie tack even though my dad doesn't wear ties. I made the tailgate after school in my uncle's garage, and he said I saved him $20. Government class is hard for me, too. I've been staying after school trying to learn the Articles of Confederation for almost a week, because the teacher said we couldn't be a good citizen unless we did. I really tried because I want to be a good citizen. I did hate to stay after school though, because a bunch of us guys from South end have been cleaning up the old lot across from Taylor's Machine Shop to make a playground out of it for the little kids from the Methodist home. I made the jungle gym out of the old pipe, and the guys put me in charge of things. We raised enough money collecting scrap this month to build a wire fence clear around the lot.   Dad says I can quit school when I'm 16. I'm sort of anxious to because there are a lot of things I want to learn.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/476582/ Thu, 7 Feb 2008 16:05:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/476582/ John Holt says that  "Children are by nature and from birth very curious about the world around them, and very energetic, resourceful, and competent in exploring it, finding out about it, and mastering it.  In short, much more eager to learn, and much better at learning than most of us adults." *   I am continually amazed by how much my children learn on their own, without any adult interference.  (The fact that I am amazed would point to the truth that we adults are programmed not to trust our kids and their natural instinct to learn.)   Here are some fun examples of what they have been up to this week; they needed no encouragement or direction from me:   Maddie(5) and Max(3) found some addition and subtraction flashcards lying around and Maddie asked Max to quiz her.  I came upon them with Maddie sitting on a kitchen chair, Max standing on another one asking her:  "What's fouw plus thwee?" , she would give the answer and he would say "cowect."   When Maddie was stumped by one of the flashcards she didn't ask me for help; she told Max to hang on while she went and got the cuisenaire rods, and then she figured it out herself.    We love the storytelling CDs by Jim Weiss.  Who knew that these would encourage narration skills?  Luke narrated The Bremen Town musicians to me in his excitement to tell me about this funny story the morning after he had listened to it at bedtime.  The kids are even learning new vocabulary from listening to these.    Last night, after we'd tucked in the kids and were sitting in the living room, Max came in and asked dh and I what a word meant.  We couldn't quite make out what word he was saying so I went with him to his room where he had paused the CD and he played it over for me.  The word was "shelter".  Delphinium  the donkey had said he was looking for food and shelter, and Max wanted to know what shelter was.  So we talked about how shelter is a house to us, but to someone else it might be a hut made out of banana leaves or for an animal it might be a space underground or in a tree.   Delphinium just wanted to find a place to stay warm and dry.  Max was satisfied and went back to bed and finished listening to his stories, but I thought it was great that a 3 year old seeks out information all on his own because he's naturally curious!    Unschoolers often say that when a person is interested and self motivated, they learn a lot faster; as opposed to learning on someone else's timetable about something they're not interested in at the time.  I have observed this with our kids.  We have several Mother Goose books and have used a curriculum in the past that encouraged reading these nursery rhymes periodically for years, I'm assuming in the hopes of the child memorizing them for cultural literacy.   On a trip to  half -price books Maddie picked out a Mother Goose book and cd and I remember thinking "Another Mother Goose book?  We already have those and read those at home."  But it was her pick, so I didn't say that aloud and we bought it.  Her and her brothers loved this CD and would turn it on in her room while they played for days after she got it.   Before I knew it, they had memorized most of the rhymes and poems on it and could recite them.  So much for needing to repeat something for years: when they were interested they learned it quickly with no help needed.   Maddie also enjoyed listening to it and reading along in the book, and I think it helped her with reading proficiency.   Yesterday Max wanted to know how paper was made.  I don't know what made him think of this but he asked so dh remembered that we had a How It's Made episode that Papa had burned on dvd for us (our kids really like this show), on how they make toilet paper, so we put it in and  Max sat with rapt attention.  When it was over a commerical came on and Max said "We don't  need your junk!"  which made us laugh- do you think he has heard some rants about commercialism?   Having an older sibling really impacts the younger kids.  They think anything Zach(13) does is cool, so his interests often become their interests.  Luke (7) was playing with the Playmobil Roman colliseum we have the other day, telling me a bit about Ancient Roman history that his brother had told him while they were playing with it previously.   Luke is on a kick about the solar system and has all the planets and their order memorized.  I am embarrassed to say that I was never that interested in this, (at least in the way I was taught it in school), and had forgotten the order.  Luke has been helping me remember though.  :D   He is also interested in cooking and got the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook for Christmas so him and I went to the grocery store and got the ingredients and made something he had picked out.  He made it mostly himself and figured out how to triple the recipe with a little help.  (I told him to multiply by three, he figured out the answers himself).   There is a school where a group of kids learned 6 years of math in 20 contact hours.  Here is the article: http://www.mountainlaurelsudbury.org/Rithmetic.asp   Here is a fun website with ideas for games and picture books for math: www.livingmath.net   In my experience, the biggest thing you can do for your children is to read aloud to them and provide a literature rich environment.  Read something aloud everyday, let them see you reading frequently, take them to the library and bookstores frequently, get them fun magazine subscriptions, and buy audio books or get them from the library.  A lot of things will take off from there.  Strew fun and enriching things around: maps, books, music, board games, manipulatives, art supplies, scissors and paper, open-ended toys for imaginative play, computer games, things to smell, touch, and taste, art prints, and anything else that seems fun.  We have a big plastic box full of rice and beans that the kids play with with sieves and containers and spoons, little chalkboards and chalk, dry erase boards, playstands, blocks, legos, a sandbox, and so on, and have found them all to be valuable for playing and learning.  A cardboard box to pretend in or cotton balls to make a collage with can be exciting too.   All things can be educational, and there is value to be found in all things that kids find joy in.      *From Teach Your Own by John Holt       http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/472565/ Fri, 1 Feb 2008 12:26:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/472565/ The other day Maddie came up to me when I was a little distracted and said: "Mama, I just love to eat flamingoes, they're so juicy and sweet."   Me:"Eat what?!"   Maddie: "You know, flamingoes.  That fruit that is so yummy."   Me: "Oh, mangoes!"   Maddie (with an exasperated look because in her mind that's what she'd been saying all along): "Yes, mangoes!" http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/468272/ Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:43:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/independence/468272/