My homeschooling style

A great woman who runs the local homeschooling group asked if I'd be a contact person for new homeschoolers.  I agreed to do it because I'm enthusiastic about homeschooling and also looking to make more connections both for my sake and for my childrens' sake.  Anyway, she asked me to write a blurb about my homeschooling style and this is what I wrote:

I have two energetic boys:  age 4 and age 2, and the fact that they are boys really informs and influences my attitude about and style of homeschooling.  I read a book called Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv and another called the Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hall Iggulden and what I took away was that for boys especially, it’s so important to have them out in nature, exploring the world around them.  As such, it’s my goal to give them a learning environment that allows them to be out a lot using their natural, bountiful energy and curiosity to drive their learning.  

Technically, I am only teaching my four year old but my 2 year old loves to tag along. I would say that I take a laid-back approach to homeschooling.  I do not use a set curriculum but I do use the New York State standards and the Typical Course of Study as a guide.  In homeschooling, I’ve learned that I really needed to learn my child first and so I’ve really gotten familiar with his style of learning and the times throughout the day when he is most willing to learn.  He enjoys working in workbooks and so I’ve invested in a few good ones.  One book that has given me some guidance in the technical aspects of homeschooling is The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise and while I find it a bit rigid, it has helped in some important ways. At my son's age, I’m more focused now on him getting concepts as opposed to things that require fine motor skills such as writing.  Initially, writing was very frustrating to my son but I was pushing it.  Now, I am focusing on other things and he has naturally taken to writing and is improving every day.  So I’m learning to trust myself and trust him, knowing that in the right time and space sequence, we will get everything accomplished.  Right now, I’m working with him on addition and subtraction.  We also work on patterns and sequences, telling time and we are slowly getting into money.  I have no set time frame for when all this will be mastered but my goal is to keep him one grade level ahead.  For reading, we are using the Hooked on Phonics program but also taking a very laid back approach to it.  For science, I basically depend on him to dictate what we will be studying.  Last month he showed an interest in the sun and so we did a study of the sun and the solar system.  The study was supported with books, the internet, DVDs, etc.  This month, he was interested in electricity and so we are discovering that.  Social studies right now is rather organic and we learn that as we are out and about in the world.  Aside from all that, I take him to our local library for arts and crafts and I have him enrolled in a Kindermusik class.  I’m really focused on keeping the learning fun and engaging and never forcing him to do something before he’s ready. 

My ultimate goal is to help them become analytical and critical thinkers and to help them enjoy learning.  I want them to be willing, enthusiastic, lifelong learners.   

Form is so important.

I started working at a learning center on Saturdays. I'm so happy for the job although I'm my usual cautious, skeptical self.  I don't want to get too excited but this is a great way to keep myself in the education sector.  To keep my feet wet, so to speak.

Last Saturday, I had a rather unpleasant interaction with a student, one of the very few students of color at the center.  He was rude and sarcastic and I had to ask him why he was being that way.  The boy is in fifth grade and his parents have him there to work on his handwriting and his reading. The boy seems very bright--I don't actually think he needs any extra help with the reading. His handwriting is legible but not neat. You could chalk it up to him being a boy (boys seem to be less precise with their handwriting though not always). But what I see (and I'm not sure why the teachers haven't noticed) is that the boy holds his pencil incorrectly.

There might not be one wholly correct way to hold a pencil. There may be some slight differences here and there but generally, the pencil should point towards you as you're writing. This student I'm talking about holds his pencil pointing away from him and looks like he is wrestling to write. There are pages and pages of manuscript handwriting worksheets that he has been doing and the writing stays the same. I'm positive that a change in his pencil posture would improve things.

I am now insisting that Z1 improve his pencil posture. I hadn't been emphasizing it before mainly because I didn't realize how important it was. It's annoying to him but I know that it will vastly improve his penmanship. Form is so important. As a crocheter/knitter, holding your implements correctly is the difference between neat work with even stitches and sloppy, uneven work. The same applies to handwriting.

So I pulled out the D'Nealian Handwriting workbook and two or three times a week, we sit down with it and practice. I'm not so interested in anything other than he knows how to hold the pencil and how to manipulate the pencil holding it correctly. I know that as he gets older, his fine motor skills will continue to improve and he will be able to control the pencil.

I haven't given up on sharpening his fine motor skills. Just today, Z1 requested that we make snowflakes. It didn't occur to me until I actually looked up snowflake templates that this is a great way for him to practice using a pair of scissors. As with a pencil, the way you hold it makes all the difference in the results you get. For Z1, cutting out the snowflakes was an excellent way to teach this lesson. When he was holding the scissor the wrong way, he couldn't get any kind of real cutting done. Holding them correctly, he was able to cut out with much more ease. I love a hands-on lesson. I know what he learned will carry over to the handwriting too.

He Counted to 100!

We were sitting at the table having our dinner this evening and Z1 decided to count to 100. He asked me to help him when he got stuck. I was expecting that when he got to 40, he'd start to falter but no, he just kept right on to 50 then 60 then 70 then 80 then 90 then 100!!!! I was so excited and proud and so was he. What a pleasant surprise! His push to count to 100 was totally self-motivated. I pushed him to get to 30 but he basically did the rest. I have a 100s chart that I placed on his wall underneath his calendar and he regularly sits there and counts. His abacus that I got for his birthday that he had religiously neglected? All of a sudden, he's counting to 100 with it. I'm really thrilled and working on figuring out the next step.

Today, we carved pumpkins which was a lot fun but I see that his fine motor skills are still developing. I hope to find ways to help him along so that way he can start to write to 100 too. Then, I will look into him taking classes to learn the soroban method of arithmetic (I found this company that offers to teach it and went in for a demonstration--I was very impressed).

Counting by 5's

I haven't posted in a while . . .

For the past few weeks, we've been working on addition. I've been trying to give Z1 a number of methods he can use to solve addition equations. Once we've mastered addition, we're going to move on to counting by 2's, 5's and 10's. I'm especially interested in the counting by 5's because once he can do that comfortably, we can move on in our learning about telling time on an analog clock. Right now, he can tell you the time on the hour.

Yesterday, we took a wonderful hiking trip with some of our closest homeschooling friends. The drive was about 45 minutes and while we were driving, School House Rock was playing. Our friends had bought the box set on Ebay. Talk about a blast from the past. Well, I heard this song:


It's the very same song which taught me to count by 5's. Luckily, Z1 loves it and so we'll be playing it a lot. He also likes Zero, My Hero. I can't believe how well done School House Rock is and I'm excited that someone has brought these wonderful learning songs back into my consciousness.

Getting Back to our Curriculum

I had stopped following the Brightly Beaming curriculum for a few weeks. I guess I got bored. But we're going to start again with Preparatory Lesson 17. The theme is Sheep. The shape of the week is a heart. The letter of the week is Qq. The number is 17. We will focus a lot on practicing writing hears, the letter Q and the number 17. I feel like now that he is further along in terms of knowing the shapes, letters, and numbers, we can do a lot more. In other words, I can use this curriculum to build.

Here's some Sheep resources:

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/economy/sheep.htm

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/Sheep/

We'll definitely be doing a sheep craft with cotton balls.

Z1 expressed an interest in lightning the other day. The thing he is still most interested in, though, are computer games.

Learning to Deal

So I'm learning to deal. I know that homeschooling is not an easy task. It's a lot of responsibility. Sometimes I end up putting a lot of pressure on myself and then on Z1. I think he ought to be able to do certain things so I push. I have to realize that maybe he's not ready just yet. And be okay with that.

Case in point? Handwriting. He does a good job of writing his own name in that it's recognizable. Recently, he started writing the "Z" like a "Z" instead of an "S". That's great!! However, writing numbers has proven to be a challenge for him. Last Saturday, we went to a program that teaches kids how to use the Soroban (Japanese abacus) and the requirements to begin the program was that the child be 5 years of age and know how to write his numbers up to 100. I kept thinking in my mind, "Fat chance . . . he won't even write the number 3." So the days following, I was all about writing numbers. He got frustrated. The tears started. So I closed the books. And I just had to re-evaluate the whole situation and my motivation. See, there's no rush to get him into the program at 5. He can start at 8 or 9. But me, being who I am, I felt like he should be ready to go by 5. Ready now. That's just not fair to Z1.

I'm at this point where I am easing up --just let him color and do other things to sharpen his fine motor skills like using the mouse and playing his beloved games because I see he's struggling with the handwriting and getting frustrated. I do not want him to be frustrated at all. I found this article and from it I can derive that he is doing okay because he is strong in some aspects like doing puzzles and he does hold the pencil correctly and maintain it.

So I'm really going to back off. If he picks up a handwriting book, that's cool. I'll work with him on it and really support him with it. If not, so be it.

I'm also going to get serious about doing science consistently with him. We read a book called Ducks Don't Get Wet and there was an experiment in there with feathers and oil to show exactly how ducks stay dry. We'll do that tomorrow hopefully. That's the last I think we'll do about birds. I actually learned a lot about birds myself. Like the largest bird in the world is an ostrich and the smallest is a hummingbird.

I asked what he wants to study next and he said airplanes. This Friday we're going to a library in a different town. We'll start our search for books and other supporting media then. I'd really like to take him to a local airplane hangar. I think that would be so cool.

More than anything, I am learning to just stop comparing Z1 to anyone else. He's got his own life situation (which involves having a toddler baby brother) and his own personality (including strengths and weaknesses). My goal is to completely appreciate who he is as a person and as a learner. So that this journey will be fun and fulfilling. A joy.

What Makes a Shadow?

Today Z1 was eager to show me his shadow in the foyer. He has expressed interest in shadows before. I went on the net to find some resources and found two things: the My Shadow website, which looks great and a the book What Makes a Shadow? which I put on hold at the library.

In trying to figure out Z1's other interests, I am having to accept that playing video games ranks high on the list of things he likes to do. Very high. So I'm going to relax a little bit on limiting video games and let him have at it. Right now, he loves his father's plug and play games. But I'm thinking of also getting him the Leapfrog handheld gaming system. Actually, I'm thinking of hitting up the grandparents for it . . . LoL. I can't forget to mention Funschool too. Z1 really likes that site.

Photo Credit: Free Daddy and His Little Shadow Girls at The Sakte Park by Pink Sherbet Photography