So, what are we doing?

Shannon's last homeschool unit was on "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was fun, she liked it more than the last time we attempted to read that book a year or so ago. The corresponding science unit was fun as well, if poorly timed. We studied dirt, plants, trees, photosynthesis, pollination, and all kinds of other planty stuff we could stuff into three weeks. fThe biggest drawback to that unit was half of the experiments involve "Plant this in a cup and watch it for the next 3 weeks. Have the student write in their journal what happens." Um, the first problem with that is that.... have you ever tried to buy a small packet of grass seed or veggie seeds in September? Nearly can't be done (conveniently) ... I'm willing to go to about 2-3 places to try but after that, the experiment is abandoned. The second problem is that by the time anything interesting actually happens, we've moved on. Slow experiments do not catch a 3rd grader's attention. Ah well.

This week we're starting "The Sign of the Beaver" by Elizabeth George Speare, with a corresponding unit of social studies on Native Americans. I'm really looking forward to this unit, as it gives us an excuse to go to Tillicum Village next weekend. :) We have a basic overview of 3 or 4 basic cultures of Native American life in different parts of the continent. Sadly, the prepackaged curriculum does not spend a closeup on Pacific Northwest cultures, though the book we're starting with does. This is the joy of homeschooling, I get to do my own research and see what supplemental materials I can find for local flair. Yesterday's introduction to the topic she was most fascinated by Southwest tribes... the clay houses of the Hopi with ladders and no doors particularly fired Shannon's imagination.

So far, I'm still loving this literature-based curriculum. As much as I'm normally in the "you can't tell me what to do!" structure camp, I really need daily lesson plans spelled out for me. I find it's all too easy to slack off when we don't have a specific list of things we want to do. We're writing (well, I say "we" loosely) a lot more than last year, she has a book journal where she answers questions independently. Each unit I add just a little more structure to how she performs a task, so I haven't gone straight from no writing to formal book reports.

We had a bit of a breakdown on spelling a couple of weeks ago. I've been using the AVKO Sequential Spelling units where, instead of providing the student with a list of words to study for a week, you actually "test" them every single day on a group of related words. The next day you begin to add suffixes to the words. So you might start Monday with steam, gleam; Tuesday is steams, gleams; Wednesday is steamed, gleamed; and Thursday is steaming, gleaming. You give the word, they write the word, they spell it orally for you, you make corrections if necessary right away. Then move on to the next word. 20 words per day with variations. I love it because it teaches patterns instinctively instead of teaching "rules," you make corrections along the way, it appeals to "Audio, visual, kinesthetic, and oral" styles of learning. Unfortunately, what works for the teacher does not always work for the student. Shannon cannot STAND to get things wrong, ever. Whenever she made a mistake, she would get very angry, no matter how many times I explained that this wasn't a "test" and she was getting it wrong.... this was a necessary part of learning, it's better to try and fail than to never make the attempt. But, after a few weeks this year (plus much of last year) ending in tears, I decided that a more traditional "study these 15 words for a week" approach would have to be tried. We'll see how this goes.

Back in the saddle!

So hi there again!!! Curious if I have any subscribed readers at all... though it really doesn't matter.

Second post this year I see. Ah, well. I'm going to try to write more, such as while Shannon's doing her reading and writing. It's a good habit for me to get into, plus Shannon and I have a deal that I won't play computer games (Bejeweled, Pogo, things like that) while she is in "school" because it's not fair. I agreed readily, but if I do housework while she's trying to have quiet time reading or writing in her journal, I've noticed it's very distracting to her... so I need a project that keeps me in my seat as well. Then I remembered the blog!!

Later, I'll post pictures of my new office. The office in this house has been used as a storage room for the past... well, 5 years, really. It was an office, too, but I had a path to a desk and the rest was unusable. So, this August and September I emptied the room thoroughly, sold off the desks and bookcases, and spent a ton of money at IKEA getting new desks, wall cabinets, and a bookshelf. I still have a little more junk to get rid of (about 4 more boxes to go through one item at a time), but I think the final product is going to be SO worth every penny, an office and functional school room. Shannon picked out her own desk instead of having a fully matching desk to my own. I think it looks great, and she definitely has "pride of ownership" over her half of the room.

Diving in

I'm really enjoying Moving Beyond the Page so far. The one thing I'd change is to recommend NOT going with the /online version. Why? Well, the biggest thing is that I'm a browser. I like skimming ahead to see what we'll be doing the next few days/weeks/months. I like flipping pages. Going with the /online program you can activate as many units as you like, but you only have access to them for 90 days after activation. Browsing ahead isn't easy, it's navigating a single web page per day, and getting from one unit to another is not easy, you have to "start over" drilling down.

But that aside, the lessons are well thought out, and certainly go into a lot of depth. The program emphasizes writing, which, as we haven't done a lot of before this year, we're getting into slowly. The joys of homeschooling allow us to modify things as we go depending on interest and ability!

Today we're starting a unit based on 50 American Heroes Every Kid Should Meet. What a fun book, I can't wait to see what the next two weeks have in store for us.

What are we doing?

So late last spring, early summer, I realized that while my "ideal" method of homeschooling is still very eclectic, and that I hope to be able to organize myself into coming up with unique unit studies that will amaze and interest my daughter... well, I'm not that organized yet. And even if I were, is it really worth it to go to all that work when there are dozens of companies that have already done the footwork? While I'd love to homeschool on the cheap, sometimes it just makes sense to write that check and buy a curriculum.

What I chose for this school year is Moving Beyond the Page It's a literature-based unit study program, where you read various selected Newberry or Caldecott award winning children's books, and base your social studies, language arts, and even science lessons on what you read about in the books. Math at Shannon's level is not covered in this program, so we are continuing with Right Start Mathematics the recommended program, which we already used, nicely enough. The next few days, I'll cover what we've done and how we like it so far.

Tonight, being my first night back posting in months... that's a good enough start for me.

Methods under construction

How do I homeschool, now that I'm doing it formally?

My plan, the past two years, has been to pattern our school year a little differently, based on our family needs and inspired by ideas in several homeschooling books I'd read. Most school curricula seem to be based on a 36-week school year, easily broken down into either 12-week trimesters or 9-week quarters. It was easy for me to decide to take a 'normal' year and break it up, and adopt essentially a "two months on, one month off" format... with our off months being the ones divisible by three. This worked well on paper for us: Shannon's dance studio has their big show every June, complete with a LOT of extra rehearsals; September brings our annual trip to the midwest to race in the Solo National championships PLUS Shannon's birthday month; December brings Christmas break; and March... well, March didn't have anything special other than a pretty traditional Spring Break month. We also operate on a four-day "sit down" week, with an attempt at a related field trip on Fridays, or other goodies that sneak in learning without feeling like school, trips to the Science Center feel like fun rather than tedium.

I like that schedule. It fits me.

I've come to one conclusion about it lately, however. It does not fit Shannon. Having only my own kid to judge by, I have NO idea how any teacher gets anything done in September or January after a break. She adapts to a month off all too quickly, and I spend the first two weeks "back" fighting with my child about settling down. It's a whole lot of no fun for either of us, and the more no fun it is, the more no fun the next day is. But, finally, the active fighting ends, and I can live with mild whining. We usually start having a few "good" days more and more often by the end of our quarter, and I think we've finally "gotten it." But then the Christmas craziness starts.... or the September silly season... or what-have-you. So I'm less able to build on a good thing while it's going.

Now I know I'm going to have to change, and make sure we're doing what's best for HER, not what's best for ME. It's time to adapt to what's less convenient for me so that I can build while enthusiasm is high.

Because if I have too many more solid weeks of fighting with her, the urge to give up and enroll in public school may get too high. I'm not against public schooling in principle, but that would be doing it for the wrong reasons.

Reasons I'm homeschooling

(Also republishing this post)

Through our journey, I NEVER want to get preachy when talking about homeschooling. I NEVER want to state or imply that it's the right answer for everyone. I know that's not the case. I do, however, also feel that for me and my daughter, this is a no-brainer decision. Unlike a lot of people, I don't have "a" reason to homeschool Shannon. I have probably a dozen reasons, each of which are strong, but probably not enough by themselves. Together, however, they make an overwhelming case in my book.

I can list these reasons, in no particular order, each is probably post-worthy broken down. Consider this a "Cliff's Notes" version and preview of posts to come. In no particular order:

1. "Teacher" was always one of my top 3 choices of career growing up
2. I want to nurture in Shannon the "mind hunger" I remember from being little
3. Washington State and this area in particular have a strong homeschooling community
4. I believe school doesn't only happen within 4 walls between 9AM and 3PM
5. I want to KNOW, not just trust, that Shannon's getting encouragement where she excels and help when she needs
6. I've seen both the good and bad of public school teachers, and don't want to trust a lottery to find out which will mold my child
7. I'm inspired by a pair of fabulous teenagers I know who are homeschooled by their dedicated dad
8. Moms & daughters should be close
9. One of my core beliefs has always been that educating the future is society's most important task, failing to follow through myself would make me hypocritical
10. It just "feels right"
11. We're financially able to do it
12. My daughter will be able to follow through on any activity she wants and it can be worked into the day however we want
13. I flatter myself enough to think I'll be good at it
14. My friends flatter me enough to say I'd be good at it
15. "The system" works best for the average student. I don't want Shannon to be average.
16. I want flexibility to pursue subjects as the ideas flow, not merely studying "X" because it's time to study "X"
17. We travel a lot for our hobbies, which would lead to quite a few days missed in a traditional setting

That's enough for an off-the-cuff list.

Most important subject?

(The following post is being republished from almost 2 years ago. Sure, it's not the best prose, but it still holds true for me.)

When you mention you plan on homeschooling, the most common reaction is for people to express their concern that your child will not have any social outlet or friends. Why is that the very first reaction? What I'm hearing is NOT "she needs math skills" or "she'll lack in history" but is the most important subject in school recess? Bah! Others have said it better than I probably can, but I'll put my own spin on the socialization issue here.

Growing up, especially at Shannon's age, my closest friends came not from school, but from my neighborhood. My best friend across the street, and a girl further down the street both started attending private school in second grade. Sure, I got along with people in my class, invited plenty of them to my birthday parties and whatnot, but the day-to-day friendship came from the girl who did not go to school with me. By 4th grade, I had a "school best friend" and a "real best friend." My friend Audrey and I would spend more of class time giggling and passing notes, occasionally getting into trouble over it, and spending recesses inside instead of outside. Not that she was a bad influence, not that I was, but putting the two of us together encouraged the naughty in us. ;) At that time, my friend across the street was still the larger influence in my life.

It wasn't until 7th grade and I was bussed to and from school that my school friendships really began to have a larger influence on my life than my neighbor. By that point, I'd been in various drama groups (none school related), the occasional soccer team, tennis, and girl scouts. I'd spent many afternoons and evenings hanging around my stepdad's softball team, or with his teammates' children. And even then, I had more overall fun with ANY group that had kids both older and younger than I was. Sure, you gravitate to kids your own age, but to me, one of the biggest drawbacks of school is the lack of any interaction with kids outside the September to September age range that you fall into.

Being able to interact with kids your own age is limiting. Sure, you need the "pecking order" skill that seems to be the goal of throwing a bunch of kids into any social situation, but what I want to teach is how to interact with kids with DIFFERENT skills and maturity levels, not just the same. In life, that's the more useful skill, don't you think?