Homeschool's blog

We got our results! I've got to say, that seemed really fast! We sent the test back to the U of M on a Monday and the results were in our mailbox in just over a week on Thursday. Being one who likes charts, graphs, percents and numbers, I enjoyed looking them over. Nothing surprised me. I was sitting across from him while he took the test watching how he answered :) (Which was very nice because I could see EXACTLY which concepts he struggled with.) I wasn't sure if it was worthwhile doing this particular test while we were doing it because it took four entire mornings, but in hindsight, I think it's the one we'll stick with. The results are well laid out and easy to talk about with William. And we'll be able to compare his progress from one year to the next in the various subject areas. For example, we have quantitative evidence that math facts are his weakness (he is average *gasp*), so we can put more emphasis on practicing them, getting faster and more confident. Then we can test again next year to see if his percentile score improves. I also really like that he gets practice with the fill-in-the-bubble type of test which he will need to do eventually for more important reasons. All in all, it was a good experience!

The electronics kit we ordered has arrived! William is having a lot of fun exploring electricity with Squishy Circuits and the activities created by the University of St. Thomas. Caution: The buzzer is loud on the video. So loud, in fact, that Eliana's ears no longer work :)

It's been a while since I updated about our homeschooling adventures. William has mentioned a few things he's been excited about in his blog. Here are a few highlights from our last couple months of schooling:

Community activities:
*I have been teaching a show and tell/group games class for 6-9 year-olds at our co-op this semester.
*We started another, much smaller co-op twice a month that does Spanish, PE, music, art and show and tell.
*We went bowling with the area homeschoolers.
*We have gone to two plays: Winnie the Pooh and a puppet theater version of Peter Rabbit.
*The Annual Maple Syrup Festival at St. John's Arboretum was a fun and educational trip despite the slow sap flow due to warm temperatures.
*William has been doing swimming lessons through community education. We are thinking he'll pass level one this time!
*He will also start another youth enrichment league Lego group in a few weeks.

Metro activities:
*MN Historical Society in St. Paul - We got a family membership through Groupon. It was a great deal. We were surprised by how much there was for the kids to do at the museum. We learned a lot, had a great time, and with our membership we will get free admission to 26 historical sites around the state! Fun for this summer!
*Works Museum - What a great place for science exploration. Between our GPS and traffic difficulties, we ended up having only an hour to spend here. We will definitely have to go back. William made it through about half of the museum and could've spent hours just playing and exploring with ramps, pulleys, light, lasers, opitical illusions, and countless other exhibits not to mention the hands-on experiments that we could've done upstairs.

Online activities:
*Clever Dragons is a fun website for boys to do learning activities, watch funny videos, and interact socially in a moderated environment.
*Codecademy is an online tool that teaches you to program. It taught William some valuable concepts, but quickly became too difficult.
*Scratch is an exciting program developed by the smart people at MIT. It teaches computer programming in an exciting way. It uses sounds and animation to get kids interacting and creating. William has been really motivated and has created many mini games, learning a lot about computer programming in the meantime.
*KAHN academy has been on our radar since the fall, but we only just recently delved into it and discovered the power of it. It is a math program that takes students through exercises, tracks their progress, and offers helpful teaching videos to help them when they get stuck. The videos branch out into many other topics as well.

Home activities:
*William continues to love practicing piano. He let me know the other day that he prefers playing piano over video games!
*The rainbow sticky notes have continued to be an important part of our daily routine.When I realized they weren't going to last much longer, I was pretty disappointed. Then, about a week before they ran out, I found one lonely, identically colored, crayon-shaped tablet of sticky notes in the dollar spot. Divine intervention!
*My ECFE classes are wrapping up for the year. I'm looking forward to being on hand more often to help William with learning new skills.
*We will be doing Iowa Basics testing in a few weeks. I am excited to be doing a test that most schools use. If and when we decide to go back to traditional schooling, we will have his test scores to show his progress.

It doesn't feel like we're doing all that much on a daily basis because, when William stays focused and gets his stuff done, he really has a lot of free time. That's been wonderful! He has time to play Legos, read for fun, play outside in this crazy, warm spring weather, and use his imagination. His sister really enjoys spending time with him, too. We're loving homeschooling!

Have you ever felt really convicted that you're doing the right thing? It's a great feeling! This week we have had some conversations with professionals about William and it has been a really important affirmation to us that we are on the right track with homeschooling. We always knew he was a unique kid and felt he would be a good candidate for homeschool. First grade was a real turning point. Preschool and kindergarten are taught much more in the way that he learns best, so I'm glad he got that school experience. And first grade was a good experience in a different way. He knows what school is like and we know that it wasn't a fit for him. At home he is able to delve into his interests and increase his skills at his own pace. He can focus much better because we can control the environment. He has more time to build friendships that are meaningful based on shared interests.

This was a week of particular distractibility, maybe because it was so chilly and we had some cabin fever. Wednesday I came home from teaching my morning class and, instead of accomplishing the work I'd assigned him, he had spent his time reading a science book to find an experiment he wanted to do. The book was set aside and he was able to complete the experiment on Friday, when his work was finished. He made a working stethoscope. I guess I can't complain too much about the things that distract him.

Instead of the stethoscope experiment, on Thursday Eliana taught us how to do an experiment she learned at daycare. We put a water-filled balloon (with a little air, too) outside in the sub-zero temperatures and made a beautiful ice candle holder. It was a lovely addition to our dinner table that night and another fun experiment watching it melt.

Also on Thursday, we picked up and went to the trampoline park on a whim. I love that we can do what is needed to combat the winter blues and not be stuck "indoors" on cold days. Let me tell you, it felt wonderful to jump! I highly recommend it.

What really feels good is knowing we can settle in for the long haul with this homeschooling thing. We've been steadily finding our way and I'm now convinced we'll be at it for another couple years at least. I am already looking forward to having more one-on-one time with William when Eliana is off at preschool four days a week next year. Remind me to carve out plenty of one-on-one time with her, too. On the other hand, I'm sure she will remind me in her own way :)

Here is Saturday morning hanging out in our pjs at home:

We had an opportunity to practice respectfully addressing your parents when Eliana asked Sara if she could paint. We have now escalated from "I like it when you call me Mom. It's a special name only you and your brother can call me," to "Sara can't give you permission to paint, but Mom can." She has been very persistent in this stage which isn't really surprising for my strong willed girl.

While Eliana was painting, William was creating a math game. My challenge: Which is greater 1/2 or 3/4? I got the answer correct!

Now William is painting a cover for a book he wants to write entitled "Aron's Colorful Pterodactyl."

Some days I wonder why I ever bother planning lessons.

I'm discovering another homeschool benefit that would have come in especially handy in the past few years with William. Having an August birthday, school registration season has always been a difficult time of year for us to decide what to do with him. Now we are going through it all again with Eliana. Last year at this time we registered her for preschool. We later decided to wait another year. Now it's registration time again. I need to decide where to send her and which class to register for and then hope I am happy with my choice 9 months later! It sure is easier to default to homeschooling. But she will be registered for preschool. I firmly believe in giving my kids a few years of school to see if it's a good fit for them. As the saying goes, all I really need to know I learned in kindergarten. I'm thankful for William's school experiences. He just told me today about the time in first grade when he tried to sharpen his eraser. He can really appreciate what school has to offer versus homeschooling and so can I.

We've been into art projects lately. You saw the sea life stencils. Then I found some fun turkey art on a homeschool blog (http://minnesotahomeschoolersalliance.wordpress.com/) that we tried out with reasonable success.

Samples and Eliana's projects

William's turkeys

Either my kids aren't quite ready for scratch art or they needed a little more help with technique. They tended to rub the scratched off bits of oil pastel back into their picture while scratching. Teaching them to remove the scratched off bits would have turned out a better finished product, I think. Plus it would have made much less of a mess! But they loved the oil pastels and did some of their best coloring, so that may contribute to my disappointment with the scratching. It's always hard to color over a beautiful picture with black. [Edited to add: After looking at the demo piece again, we should have outlined the picture with Sharpie first. I think coloring the background would've helped, too. Noted for next time.]

The turkey drawing project, on the other hand, was a huge success! I decided I need to do more drawing projects. The step-by-step process turned out the best drawing I have ever seen from my 3-year-old and the 7-year-old was happy with his results as well. The 3-year-old could hardly mess up the watercoloring. I did the sharpie over the top with her input on colors. The 7-year-old completed the entire project on his own and the results were awesome!

My personal project for the week was sorting through our extensive picture book library. I amassed quite a book collection during my years of teaching and the kids have continued to add to it. I hadn't done a complete overhaul of the kids' bookshelves in several years. I realized this when I could not find a Thanksgiving book to save my life. Now the books are in their age-appropriate rooms and I have a better idea of where to start when looking for books on specific themes or by certain authors. Don't ask "how" I sorted them, like my husband did. Just know that I did. Because realistically, the kids' bookshelves are never going to get put back exactly the way they found them. And that is just fine for my abstract-randomness.

We were able to go on a tour of the Sea Life aquarium at the Mall of America with a local homeschool group. The discount rate was really nice and going along with friends was lovely, too! It also allowed us to get a behind the scenes look at the tanks, the lab, and the kitchen where the food is prepared for the animals. What fun!

The souvenir I purchased from the gift shop was a Melissa and Doug stencil set. William wasn't excited about it at the time with all the other "cool" stuff to look at. But sure enough, today he spent a good hour making all the different critters and they turned out awesome!

We also discussed the W questions (who, what, when, where, why, and how) and he answered them about the tour in his journal for a writing activity.

I think we need to go on more trips! It really inspires learning. Today it's the local radio station with another homeschool tour. William also has a Lego class this afternoon through community ed. What a busy day!

After my last entry, I feel the need to clarify my feelings about curriculum. I'm very thankful that there is a lot of good curriculum out there. It is great for classroom teachers, especially when they are new to their grade level. There are always way more good ideas than anyone could ever use. It is great that a teacher, unexperienced in education, can pick up a curriculum and teach the necessary concepts. The dangers with curriculum are many. They can easily turn the learning process into a dry, rote method of completing work. I have also seen them do the same for the teaching process. They often have great enrichment ideas that are never even explored by teachers who get into the rut of daily lesson plans. Teachers who are in a rut are not inspiring to learners. In the education world, teachers are too highly trained to depend so much on curriculum. I believe it does a disservice to our children, our teachers, and our education systems when we adhere too strictly to them. In homeschool, we have the luxury of being able to go at our own pace, do what we are interested in, and spend large amounts of time on a project that we can delve into deeply. I know what my child needs to know, in large part because of my education background. Also because I know my child. A lot of homeschooling parents haven't been trained in how to build a foundation of understanding in each subject area. And for that, I'm thankful for curriculum.

In our case, my son just completed the Peabody Assessment which was administered by a woman locally in her home while I observed. It took a little over an hour. It took a little longer than average for us because William likes to take his time. And also because he is well above grade level in all subjects and in this test they need to get a certain number of questions wrong before each section of the test will stop. After a while, I was rooting for him to get questions wrong so he could be done - especially in the reading comprehension section. I'm assuming if we do this test again next year it will take less time since she knows where he was at this year. But my point is that the last thing my son needs is a second grade curriculum or even a third grade curriculum, thank you very much :)

My son needs real life experiences. He needs to take his hard earned money and go to Target. He needs to play the piano. He needs to run outside and ride his bike. He needs to play with his friends. He needs to train his new puppy. He needs to learn to behave appropriately in a variety of situations. He needs to learn to greet people. He needs to learn to take turns when talking. He needs to eat well. And sleep well. He needs to be loved and cherished. He needs to realize his talents. And accept his faults. He needs to learn to persevere through frustration. And know when and how to ask for help. These types of goals are ones that we believe we can work on best at home and it's going great!

Yes, I already have a homeschooling pet peeve. I guess there are some in every crowd, but I thought that maybe the homeschooling crowd would be less-so because there are as many types of, and reasons for, homeschooling as there are homeschoolers. And I would think I would be surrounded by other people who were all about paving their own way and bucking the system. But homeschool parents who, maybe because I'm new to homeschooling, are quick to let me know what I'm "going to want to do" or "should do" or generally offer unsolicited advice, really irk me. Possibly this offends me because I have more experience educating than most of the parents I've met, and more higher education than most, and more education in the field of education than most. But most likely it bothers me just because it assumes a lot and sounds arrogant. When someone finds out that I like the unschooling approach, they need not offer opinions against unschooling or direct me to a curriculum I would want to use. Did they not just listen? I hope I don't degrade their curriculum choices, even though listening to people talk about canned curriculum is like listening to nails on a chalkboard for me. Maybe it's because I've had a lot of training and practice working with adults and discussing the most personal of topics, parenting, with groups. I have no doubt that I have said things in a way that offends people. Maybe other people get irritated when people say what works for them. Personally, I'd be much happier if people, if they don't like the unschooling approach or love their curriculum, just said that! It irks me when other parents, because they've schooled their X number of children at home for Y number of years, proclaim to know how _I_ am going to want to teach _my_ child, who is undoubtedly unique from every one of their X number of children just as I am not the same parent they are. And that is my soapbox. I'll step off now.