More Planning For a New Semester

Today the kids met with the kids' supervising teacher for the first time.  It was only the third time I'd met with her ever, and the first time since our meeting last May to sign up and plan the ILP's.  In going over the kids' ILP's the other day, I had many questions about materials, items covered, etc.  It was a very productive meeting and reassured me that I wasn't completely on my own with all this. 

Throughout the fall my emails were not answered for days and the whole homeschooling system seemed sluggish.  Connections enrollment was up like 26%, and the student load that each supervising teacher with Connections had was increased as well, overloading the 3 supervising teachers to an crazy level, particularly since there were so many new families in the system, a time-intensive process.  I'd become very frustrated since my initial impression last spring was of very quick turn-around on my questions and responsiveness. 

Responsiveness and openness was the atmosphere of today's meeting.  I went into it with uncertainity about what we should do and how we should do it, and came out of it with renewed energy, ideas, books and resources.  I don't know if I would have taken the homeschooling plunge if I didn't have this structure and guidance.  I would have had to be much more enterprising, searching for my own answers on the web and experiencing much more trial and error.  Have an "expert" teacher--someone who works with a variety of students daily, and who has also been in the classroom--is a valuable resource.  It is their job to help, and their goal is ultimately the same as a classroom teacher's:  high scores on standards-based tests.  However, as with any classroom teacher, they have their own personal goals and passions which is why they are in this job in the first place.

We will finish up today before a 2 week break, but I will look forward to the spring semester more having had a good, focused session.  And the kids, always focused, have a better idea of the direction as well since they've been part of the process this time.

Planning for Next Semester

Yesterday I sat down with each of the kids and walked through their ILP's line by line, figuring out what we need to study for the coming semester.  Their Individual Learning Plan (ILP) was put together jointly last spring by myself and the kids' supervising teacher with Connections, Patricia Kane.  We considered their passions, interests, learning styles and grade level as well as state standards and my desires as we decided what subjects to have the kids work on. 

I had to quiz the kids a little bit to see if they had learned certain items on their ILP's.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they are right on track for being halfway through the semester.  Aurora has nearly completed her entire Course 1 McDougal Littell math book, and when checking the ILP the items that she didn't know were the ones contained in the final chapters of that book.  The Jamestown series for reading and some writing dovetails very nicely with the basics skill development in reading:  analyze literary devices, differentiate between fact and opinion, understand concept of theme, accurately restates and summarizes text, etc.

Part of the challenge of teaching is trying to break things up so that it doesn't become monotonous and boring, trying to keep it challenging enough without being overwhelming, and teaching things that are not as intrinsically interesting and satisfying.  Each person has things that they love, but if it is presented in a certain way the joy goes right out the door.  Denver can spend hours working with his simple machines lego kit, building and refining designs but has resisted any related bookwork.  Does that mean learning isn't happening?  Not at all; learning can happen in the absence of books, but we've become conditioned to think that if students are not using textbooks they are not learning.  How many workplaces have textbooks to teach?  Most jobs offer on-the-job training and observation followed by practice.  While that can be a difficult ideal for teaching basic facts, it has some merit.

The bottom line is that in planning next semester I felt my way through it, sensing the kids' motivation levels and interests.  Tomorrow we will meet with the kids' supervising teacher to refine and ask questions.  And then for break time!

Collaborative Efforts

In planning the next semester, I offhandedly mentioned to Denver that maybe Clayton, a next door neighbor boy the same age as Denver who is also homeschooled, might like to do the simple machines and chemistry activities with him.  Denver's face lit up with such excitement at the thought of doing activities with a friend that I felt a twinge of regret that I haven't organized such activities for him before now.

For those who think the life of homeschoolers is a quiet, sedate pace, think again.  Constant enrichment activities and field trips are blended into the day along with the normal daily activities of exercise, eating, chores and more.  I have found it amazingly difficult to connect with other homeschooling mom's and their kids for activities.  We all seem to have some level of desire to connect, but our days have a structure to them just like any classroom, and to a degree we are loathe to break the routine too much.

I happened to run into a mom at the library who was checking out all the Egypt books they had, and we emailed back and forth to figure out a time and day to meet and plan some collaborative ancient civilizations activities for our daughters who are the same age.  Finally it got pushed back to January:  after the holidays.

Another family was recommended to my son for collaborative activities, and coincidentally we met them in kayaking class a few weeks back.  Apparently they have been travelling all fall and are finally home.  We'll be swapping emails this week at the last kayaking class and then the dance to coordiate schedules will begin.

Ultimately, I hope to more along these lines, but it is a delicate balance of finding other kids whose personalities, learning styles and interests match.  With homeschooling this process can take time, but I suspect that once we find those other families it will be a little bit easier.  We begin to meet people when we're out and about and find out which ones are homeschooled and would be interested in daytime activities.  Proximity makes a difference of course, not that "the other side of Homer" is all that far away (15-20 min.).  Meanwhile, we will continue to get out there and seek out other kids who would enjoy group activities.

Not Too Adept at the Monkey Bars Response

I have wondered about the effectiveness of education as I've seen my kids become bored and apathetic in school in subjects that they are very good at. It concerns me greatly, and I wonder how many "smart" kids out there have given up on the game of school because it is just too easy. I came across an article entitled "Not Too Adept at the Monkey Bars" (Bernard Fryshman) in Education Week this morning and it really spoke to why I think more and more people are homeschooling their kids.

Not Too Adept at the Monkey Bars

Like this article says, "We cannot, of course, create a different schooling pattern for each child."  Exactly.  Homeschooling does provide this option.  Of course, it is a time-intensive option that is only available for those parents willing to take the risk and who have some level of teaching competence.  It ends up taking the resource demands off the system and puts it in the hands of individual families.

Part of what I like about homeschooling is its naturalness.  It is comfortable and not an artificial construct that puts students in a pressure cooker of social expectations and competition.  It has the flexibility to change methods and tactics NOW, in an instant.  If something isn't working, we adjust it so it does.

This article doesn't give solutions.  Large numbers of teachers and administrators agree that something needs to change in education, but there is no agreement of what that change should look like and how to get from here to there.  There are no easy answers, but it was nice to have my thoughts articulated succinctly in this article.

Ten Weeks of Tutoring...

In my Introduction to College Writing class that I teach for Kachemak Bay Campus I require my students to tutor writing for the semester. As chance would have it, three of my students wanted to tutor through Connections, and since the academic adviser there was having a hard time finding people who wanted/needed tutoring for their kids, she asked if my kids would like to be tutored. My daughter was flatly not interested, which was about what I expected. When my son found out he would be tutored by a college student (!!) he was intrigued and willing to give it a shot.

After finding a suitable match, Robert (my college student) and Denver began 10 weeks of tutoring. Denver is a forth grader using a middle school reading book. The content is challenging, and though Denver understands the words, the concepts can be more difficult to pull out. Tutoring allowed him to discuss the ideas and concepts and gave him intensive time with a non-authority figure (read: not a parent or teacher!) to explore the ideas presented.

In order to have enough material to go over each week Denver had to spend at least an hour or more reading and writing each day. He didn't appreciate the pressure, and he also found it tedious working from the same reading book every day. We broke things up by saying he would do 3 days of reading and writing in Jamestown (Best Short Stories), 1 day of his vocabulary book which included 2-4 paragraph writing assignments, and 1 day of fun writing that he could write whatever he wanted, which in his case is short stories. This was much more palatable to him and he would look forward to his "fun writing" days.

Through the course of the semester his reading comprehension seemed to improve, as he got fewer questions about the reading wrong. The bottom line, though, was that he really enjoyed the interaction with someone who he could have a conversation with and discuss ideas. He complained that at school he would beg his classmates to give him feedback about his writing, but they never came up with much. This has ended up as a very good experience for Denver and I'm glad that it worked out as well as it did.

You Don't See Anyone Anymore!

My husband and I were enjoying dinner at Land's End's local's night last night when an acquaintance I hadn't seen since June walked by and stopped to chat. Her daughter had moved on to the middle school and she exclaimed, "How are you doing? We're not up at McNeil so we don't see anyone anymore!" When I commented that I homeschool now then she said, "Oh, then you don't see anyone anymore either!" I thought that was an interesting comment. Since homeschooling the kids it's true, I don't see as many faces, walking by and saying hello or nodding my head. However, I feel like we see plenty of the people we want to see, so it doesn't feel like deprivation in any sense. This person seemed genuinely excited to see us, but once I mentioned that we were homeschooling I was startled at how quickly she got up and left. It seemed like it was a "bad" thing. Amazingly, we have not gotten a lot of negative reactions from people about our homeschooling. There is curiosity, there is reservation, there is complete lack of knowledge, but rarely are people outright against it. For those who know anything about homeschooling, they realize that every situation is different, and it can be an awesome thing, or it can be the worst thing to happen to a child. It depends, in large measure, on the parent and how valued the teaching/learning is.

The only other negative incident we had with anyone was when I took the kids to church one morning and a lady said, "I'm the school police! Why aren't you in school?" She was kind of joking, but it made the kids very self-conscious. I thought she knew we were homeschooling, but when I spoke to her a few days later I discovered she didn't know, so she was more serious than I'd realized.

Mostly, though, these things roll right off. I can see the benefits of homeschooling with my kids, and few others take the time to really learn about what homeschooling is like for us. I do want to protect my kids from negative comments, though, because I can see their self-consciousness about not being "in school".

And More Grading!

Mostly the kids correct their own work and just ask me questions, but a few of their books do not have answer keys, so I am their answer key! I just started daily grammar exercises, and while it doesn't take more than a few minutes to correct them, I have to keep on top of them every day. Their vocabulary books don't have answer keys either, but luckily they use the same book so once one person does the assignment I can grade off of theirs. Both the kids use Jamestown as their reading books, and in order to grade those I have to read what they read to see if the multiple choice questions are right, and then read their writing assignments. Both the kids have difficult-to-read handwriting, so I am pushing typing to make grading easier on me! Planning history lessons is the funnest subject, and grading tends to be easier since things are project based. Science is more challenging. Pulling together all the materials for labs, making sure they understand the directions, and then following up afterwards and making sure they reflect on their learning ends up being the most challenging subject to facilitate.

Bottom line is that it is amazing how quickly the grading piles up, and when I am already spending hours a week grading for my college classes, it becomes something of a chore. It needs to be done though, so it is something I push through and do, squeezing it into the cracks of my day.

And Next Year's Plan for Homeschooling???

For some reason I often wonder if I will homeschool the kids next year. Personally I am ambivalent about it. I could, but I don't have to. Ultimately I want what is best for the kids, but that is not always clear-cut ahead of time.

When I asked Denver a month or so ago to rate how much he liked homeschooling on a scale of 1-10 (10 being "heaven" is how I phrased it), he promptly replied, "8!" I also asked him a week ago, "If you had to choose right now between Bill (the teacher he would have at McNeil next year) or homeschooling, which would you choose?" He pondered that one awhile and finally responded, "Well, I don't have to decide now so I won't!" It did spur a lively discussion of the merits of Bill versus homeschooling. He'd been greatly anticipating having Bill as a teacher and that was one of his big disappointments of switching to homeschooling. His sister thoroughly enjoyed being in Bill's classroom for 2 years, and yet as we discussed it, it came out that the biggest issue with being in the classroom is that they have to go at a slow pace--the pace of the majority. Both my kids were bored in school, which disturbed me greatly since they both are highly intelligent and curious kids. Boredom in school can lead to all sorts of problems, and the focus gets shifted from education to social, behavioral or other issues.

This came out all too clearly when I asked Aurora how she liked homeschooling. She said she liked it 60% of the time, and 40% of the time not. Upon further discussion, it came out that the only thing she does not like about homeschooling is not being with her friends. So friends had already supplanted education in fifth grade as the reason for being there. Hm. It's not that she doesn't spend time with her friends now; nearly every weekend is a whirlwind of sleepovers and playdates with friends from school, and weekdays are filled with social activities too. Yet there is an allure to sitting in school all day, throwing looks at your best friend, giggling, playing on the playground and more.

I believe homeschooling fits my kids' educational needs better than a classroom right now, but I also recognize that pull to be "in school". I don't know when the moment will come that I will "know" that the kids should be homeschooled again next year, or let them go back to the brain-numbing hyper-socialness of school. There may not end up being a "moment." And from what I've read about other homeschooling families, this is typical. So I won't sweat it, but I am curious what we'll end up doing!

Sunshine and Play

One of the biggest concerns with homeschooling has been getting my kids outside to play. At school they had a 45 minute recess every day, and that was my daughter's "favorite" class. In fact, I could hardly ever get her to talk about what she was learning in school or her classes, but every day she would regale me with playground escapades with her friends. With only the two of them, going outside to play just isn't as fun, and I find myself having to make them. That is less of an issue for Denver, who doesn't have daily organized sports, but Aurora often has basketball practice followed by rock climbing followed by running around in the gym for an hour or two, so she doesn't need the exercise. Less light is definitely an issue, especially for my daughter. When the days start getting shorter and shorter I find her being sleepier and quieter and crabbier. This was true even when she was in school, so there is not a change there (if anything, she is less lethargic than when she was in school), but I still feel like the kids need to get OUTSIDE and play every day.

One decision we made in this regard was to not get a snowblower or plow. Shoveling snow seems like a good organized outdoor activity that can count as exercise, so now that we're getting more snow, I am hoping that will help with the outdoor part. And once my semester is over and I have fewer prescheduled commitments we'll be out hitting the ski trails often.

Reminding me of "The Invisible Man"....

My daughter has this interesting habit of running from the house to the cabin in her bare feet. When it was summery and warm I didn't mind and hardly noticed, but once we started getting snow, it was quite bizarre seeing bare feet footprints in the snow. Normally footprints (as in, shoe or boots!) are not something I pay much attention to, but bare feet marks in the snow send a shudder through me--partly because they're my daughter's and partly because I cringe to think of those being MY feet! Anyways, this is just one of the small entertainment features of homeschooling: seeing my daughter's footprints in the snow and thinking of The Invisible Man whose invisibility was finally given away by his footprints.

Ironically, for those of you who know what kind of weather we've been having lately, yesterday I noticed that Aurora's shoes were all in the house and it was raining and snowing all day and she'd been in the cabin for hours so I decided to carry her muck boots out to the cabin, thinking that maybe she didn't want to walk barefoot over the ICE to the house (yeah, that kind of weather!). She was heading to the house just as I headed out of the house with her boots and, amazingly, she actually went back to the cabin and put on the muck boots! Snow doesn't bother her, but slush and ice seem to be the limit!

Daily Paragraph Editing

I found a very cool book in an education store in Soldotna a few weeks ago: Daily Paragraph Editing. I got the grades 6+ one. Yesterday was the first day I had Aurora and Denver do it. I told them to just do one, but both of them did 2 days' entries since there are 2 to a page. Anyways, it helps me see what they need practice on grammar-wise and punctuation-wise. It was interesting because they don't have the comma placement down. That is one of the things I spend much time on in my college writing classes. In fact, as a kid, about the only thing I remember being told about commas was, "Put one where you would pause for breath." This can be a tough thing to teach, so I am hopeful this book will help open up teachable moments. It also gives the kids practice with proofreading, a valuable skill that many of my college students discover they are lacking in (who wants to go over what they wrote and pick it apart?).

Daily Schedule Quirks

A holiday weekend makes me think about and shake my head at our homeschooling schedule. When we started homeschooling back in August I told the kids they needed to be out in the cabin by 9 am. That was my way of imposing some sort of structure on their lives, and I thought they would need that to get them up and going some days. In over 3 months of homeschooling, Aurora has only been late twice (she slept in, and I didn't wake her up), and Denver hasn't been late once. Besides a rare comment about our "time" it is all intrinsic for the kids: they get themselves up, they get themselves breakfast and they head out to the cabin and start working, sometimes well before 9:00.

Denver sets his alarm for 7 am on "school days." I've tried to convince him to get up later when he gets to bed late, but he has a very strong need to be "regular", so the alarm goes off every morning and he lays in bed and reads for an hour before he wanders downstairs and grabs some cereal, toast or oatmeal for breakfast. If I am already out in the cabin working he'll come out and join me; otherwise, he'll hang out in the house reading until 8:30 or 9:00 when he makes a mad dash to get to the computer before Aurora.

Aurora wakes up early too and often she'll get breakfast and eat in bed (aaaargh! I'm trying to break her of that habit!) while reading. Other times she's obviously wiped out and sleeps till almost 9:00, particularly when she had 3-4 hours of sports practices the evening before (basketball, climb, kayak, more basketball....). The darkness doesn't make it easy to get up in the morning either, since it is dark out till after 9:00, and before it's over it will be dark till 10 or later.

The kids choose which subjects they want to do in what order, and I only vaguely know what their preferences are since that's their business, and they get all their work done every day: math, reading, writing, Russian, typing and drawing are daily activities, with science and social studies assigned on a looser weekly schedule, again, at their option to get it done when they want. It only becomes a problem completing it if we have an unexpected day off, in which case they generally double up assignments the next day or get it done over the weekend.

Choosing to Learn About China

We are 3 weeks into our unit studying ancient China. When we started the lesson I did a K-W-L with the kids (what do you know, what do you want to know, then we're supposed to do what did we learn at the end). Between the two of them they couldn't come up with 5 things they knew about China--present or ancient. Thus I put together a series of daily activities about China, building their knowledge about the land, customs, dynasties, government, etc. We hit the halfway mark in the unit yesterday, so I wanted to change gears from mom-directed to them directed. I figured that now they knew enough to make some choices about what really interests them about China. I was curious to see what modality they would choose: PowerPoint? Craft? Project? Research Paper?

When I popped the question to Denver, his immediate and enthusiastic statement was, "I want to study Chinese inventions!" Yes, that sounds like Denver all right! He knows exactly what he likes and is interested in. We threw things back and forth and we decided he would research 2 inventions per day for the next 10 days of school and write up a paragraph on each one. When he is done he will have a list with descriptions of 20 inventions that the Chinese developed in ancient times. Very cool. I wouldn't have thought of that!

Aurora was a little more hesitant. I threw out some ideas because she didn't seem to be "biting." I suggested cooking Chinese foods (I don't like that food), then some other ideas. Nothing stuck. Finally she suggested studying Chinese plants. With a little more prodding the topic got morphed into a study of Chinese remedies. Once again, this wouldn't have occurred to me, though it sounds fascinating and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with.

Aurora never had any interest in "Social Studies" before we began homeschooling this fall. Our studies of ancient cultures has piqued her curiousity and she now puts it right up there with math as her favorite subject! It warms my heart to know that this homeschooling "project" has developed a previously untapped area of interest. That was one of my goals. Check!

Fresh Starts...and the Joys of Today

I've been blogging about life in Alaska for a couple of years and it never occurred to me to start another blog until a few weeks ago it crossed my mind to start blogging about our family's recent venture into homeschooling. I have plenty on my plate: why add more? Well, the thought has persisted and I haven't been able to shake it, so here I am. My thought is to drop in every day or so and just share how things are going on our homeschooling journey. It is mighty personal...don't know if you will find this interesting. If nothing else it will be a record for my kids (from mom's perspective!) of the homeschooling journey.

Today I was so excited to get an email from a mom I ran into at the Homer Library. I saw her checking out every single book they had on Egypt and had to crack a joke about us homeschooling families "cleaning out the library," since it was just over a month ago that I checked out every single Egypt book! Anyways, we got to talking and I guess her daughter, who is the same age as my daughter, is studying ancient civilizations this year, same as us. So we have decided we're going to get together and do some activities together! I'm excited! I've been wanting to collaborate but haven't found anyone else who is studying the same things as my kids (same level, same book, etc.).