Once in a Blue Moon - A Homeschool Conversation

A typical homeschool conversation:

As we opened Christmas cards, the kids asked who one of the senders was. I explained that it was a parent of a old Girl Scout whom I hadn’t seen in many moons.

“Many moons. Why do people say that?” DS asked.

“It just means I haven’t seen her in a while,” I responded thinking that would suffice.

“Wouldn’t many moons just mean a couple of days?” He continued.

“No, they mean full moons, so they mean months.” Of course, then I had to add, “except for those blue moons.”

“Blue Moons. What is a blue moon?”

“The second blue moon in a month.”

DD piped in, “How often does that happen?”

“Daddy?” I had used up my knowledge of the moon cycles. He plugged “Blue Moon” into his laptop and came up with www.obliquity.com/astro/bluemoon.html“The average interval between Full Moons is about 29.5 days, whilst the length of an average month is roughly 30.5 days. This makes it very unlikely that any given month will contain two Full Moons, though it does sometimes happen.
On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.” He read from the website.

Then we digressed into when the next blue moon was, why they are called blue, and other great astrological facts.

Then dear son brought us back down to his crazy thoughts, “Well, when will four blue moons happen in the same month?”

I thought for sure he had missed the whole concept of what we were just saying. I started waxing on about 29.5 days in a cycle, you would need more than 30 days in a month . . .DD added that we’d need more than one moon and have to be like on Jupiter. But no DS, explained God could cause a miracle and align the moon cycles to his desire. Ok, who can argue with that? I just rolled my eyes. . . “I guess you’re right!”

Now for those states that require reporting - where do you put such conversations? Should homeschoolers try to write all of their digressions down? This was not on our science plan for the day, but certainly is a valid lesson.

Artistic Undertakings #2 & #3

Ok, we / I am continuing to try to draw and redraw the same object. Here are two more gourd picture (no comments needed for my absence spelling - thus, the reason I declined an invitation to participate in the local spelling bee).






DD is working on the artistic challenge we posted on acupofteawithmomandme.blogspot.com .

DS seems to have discovered the idea of embossing. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with. He started with simple pencil over a Boy Scout Merit Badge and then something made him get the tinfoil out.

I'm always interested to see how a little inspiration can lead in so many different directions. This is also why it is so important not to be running everywhere. For some of these things, you need time for ideas to perculate. You need quantity in order to glean out any quality.

A Great Day in the Life of a Homeschooler

Today DS said the words that every homeschooling mom hopes to hear, “I love homeschooling”. Today was a great homeschooling day with DS. He did his work and then we made dinner together and a batch of zucchini bread. I figure that I will count the time as Home Economics. We found a delicious recipe on Allrecipes.com . It took a very long time to cook, but was very yummy. DS also decorated some scripture signs for me for a program this weekend and practiced a recitation on the history of the Pledge of Allegiance for his volunteer service as a Den Chief (Did you know that the original pledge was not specifically for the United States and did not contain the words “under God”? “Under God” was actually added by President Eisenhower and objected to by the daughter of the author, Francis Bellamy.) Also, after trying to do his geography work. I have realized that there are times that a 43% is still an excellent score. I have been working with the Sheppard Software site to familiarize DS with the countries of the world. He has already satisfied the US states and capitals and so we’ve moved on to Africa. He is working on Level 4, which has him click on the correct country on a bare outline map of Africa. Now I realize that 43% doesn’t sound that good (he actually got a 63% today so we are improving), but you have to click inside boarders of the countries that you cannot see. I might add that some of those African countries are very, very small. So when I watched him today, I realized that DS may be getting marked as wrong, but most of his clicks were within millimeters of the correct location. I had to take my hats off to him. Africa is tough.

Even DD survived her self-test in Math with limited tears and frankly, she did very well. She just needs to relax and think in small steps. On the positive side, she is becoming much more systematic in her math work. I can ask her to read her second or fourth line and she can find it and read what she has. If there is an error, she can even back up through her work to double check her work. This alone has been quite a triumph and will help her tremendously as she continues in her work.

So all and all, today was a great homeschool day.

The Romance of School to Homeschoolers

Interestingly, when we pulled the kid’s from school 5 years ago, I found that my DD started to romanticize school. It is kind of like when you talk about an old boyfriend. When you tell someone about him years later, instead of talking about all the horrible things that caused you to break up with him, you espouse wonderful dates, his handsome stature, and other romantic details. This is what DD did with school. I was convinced about this when she told me that she even missed lunch. She used to hate lunch. She never had time to eat. The cafeteria would echo horribly and she would complain about headaches almost daily. This romanticism continues to today. She would now be in 8th grade and is blissfully thinking of hanging with her friends and leisurely going from class to class. She thinks of middle school like she experienced 1st & 2nd grade. She has never tried to get to a class in a three minute break. She has never been forced to sit in a class with a horrible teacher. She has never been lost or confused on a subject and begged for help, trying to learn a subject before a test that accounted for 50% of her grade. Sometimes I wish I could put her in school for two weeks so that she could see what the requirements really are, see how teacher’s deal with late assignments, and see how much of her day would be eaten up in meaningless requirements. I think part of this romanticism comes from peer pressure and part from the media. School is seen as the hub of all social activity; sometimes overtly like in Saved by the Bell or the Secret Life of the American Teenager, and sometimes covertly like in Teen Vogue pictures with lockers in the background.

I have heard from some people that have never put their children in school that their children often romanticize the school bus. The kids have never been on the bus so they don’t understand the long rides, the lack of a/c, or the bullying, but instead they see the pretty yellow bus taking kids to an exciting new adventure. The yellow bus is embedded in all of their children’s shows as this wonderful doorway to excitement, knowledge, and a rite of passage. Think of the Magic School Bus.

It is certainly easy to understand why they think so fondly of an ingrained institution: They hear about the great things, but have never experienced the bad. It is a little harder to figure out how to clear their rose colored glasses without getting them caught up in the system, which is not all that they believe it to be. Of course on the other hand, I have DS who would be ok if he never walks into a school again. Even in his short time in school, Kindergarten and 1st grade, he experienced the "bad" of school and he never wants to experience it again.

What Does A Homeschooler Look Like

Can you believe after 5 years people are still surprised to find out that we homeschool? It is particularly funny to see their reaction because I can almost hear the other side of what they allow themselves to say out loud. “But your kids seem so normal.” I always wish that I could ask them to draw a picture of a homeschooler. We used to do this with young Girl Scouts when before our first campout. We would have them draw a picture of a latrine. Since other than camping the work “latrine” is almost never used, the pictures that the kids came up with were priceless. They were then shocked to find out what it really meant. I figure the representation of “homeschooler” would be very similar. From my experience, we would either be drawn as ultra-conservative, rigid, and reserved

or as clog wearing, granola eating, creative hippies .

They would be very shocked if I showed them my average joe family or very outgoing Jehovah’s witness friends (who broke some of my own stereotypes) or my artist friend whose husband is a Ferrier or the Doctor and his housewife and their two boys.

What do you think people “see” when they hear the word “homeschooler”?

Homeschool with an accent on Home not School - Child directed learning

When we choose to homeschool, sometimes the accent gets stuck on the wrong syllable. We put more emphasis on the school rather than on the home. All activities begin to be an opportunity to teach and learn. The problem is that sometimes this emphasis begins to negatively affect naturally occurring learning; taking educational activities that the kids consider fun and turning them into boring, mandatory lessons.
For example, your daughter loves the new blog you have together. She loves to write posts, but to fulfill her writing for the day; you begin to make them mandatory. Perhaps your son, enjoys learning different phrases in foreign languages to impress his friends, but instead of accepting that this is interesting an most certainly educational in its own right, you require him to write down the phrases and make flash cards to make sure that his pronunciation and spelling are correct.
Who can really blame a parent from pushing and wanting their child do better, especially a parent that is also responsible for the education of their children to the extent that a homeschool parent is? But of all the people to get caught up in the “schooling” ideal and the do better, brighter, more concept, it is the very people who understand that all learning goes beyond school. The very people that understand that learning can be found anywhere, that every interest can be nurtured into a skill, and that our individual desires to learn more is stronger than any exterior force.
So as you plan out you homeschool year, ignore your impulse to organize everything. Make sure your kids have interests of their own that they can develop without your input or oversight. Encourage them to explore and try new things. Try, despite your inclination, to let them develop these interests on their own without your oversight. Only comment to encourage or to help as requested. Let them put the accent back on the Home and away from the school.

Website Wednesday - Homeschool resources

My favorite Christmas gift magazine came in the mail today. It is packed with terrific ideas for “educational” toys. I have ordered from Museum Tour several times and have always been satisfied with their service and the products that I received. They also have some neat educational activities on their site like: detarnishing old pennies, making your own ice cream, and creating balloon cars.

Another great website for easy, fun activities is activities is PBS’ Zoom. My friend, Jenn, and I actually used many of these activities to create a science co-op.

My favorite homeschooling magazine is Home Education magazine. Yes, I’m slightly biased since they have published my writing, but I have adored their magazine prior to ever writing for them. If you hurry you can take advantage of their current special $20.00 for 6 issues instead of the regular $32.

We use portions of the Alpha Omega curriculum. It has worked well as the core of our homeschool lessons. I don’t hesitate to add to the base Alpha Omega subjects and occasionally I may slightly alter something that they have included. Basically though, Alpha Omega forms the support post which all else is hung. Particularly, we use their Alpha Omega, from Christian Book Distributors, or from Amazon.

Library Lock-in

Ok, I’ll go from writing about too much to do to being excited about one of the activities. We received an invitation to a Lock-in at the local library. The homeschooling community is going to have a sleepover with literary scavenger hunts, a video game area, movies, authors’ reading their work. As Regenia said, “Don’t plan to get too much sleep.” I wasn’t too sure how the kids were going to react, but both said they were in so I have signed us up.

Of course since our group is well known for its cooperative management, I now have to think of some activity that might blend with what they have planned. I’ll have to really think on this one.

One of the great things is that it will cost me a whopping $15. $5 for each of us and that will cover the cost of pizza. I love when cheapness collides with fun and education.

I encourage you to find a homeschooling group if you haven’t already. If you have found one but did not mesh with it, I encourage you to look again. We are very lucky that we found a great group right from the beginning.

Homeschooling Schedule or Over-schedule

It is hard to imagine when you first choose to homeschool that you can become too busy. No one mentions this as a problem when you first consider homeschooling. Most people warn you of seclusion and isolating your children. Clearly the people that say this have never homeschooled. When we first started homeschooling five years ago, we fell into this trap. And since most homeschool classes / activities are not held in one place at one time, but instead are spread miles apart and are limited only to the spaces in your calendar, we were busier than we ever were in public school. After about 18 months, working slowly started to trim down our schedule. For the most part we ceased doing purely “homeschooling” activities, but instead remained very active in Scouts and church and continued to do interesting things as a family. When we would run into our old homeschooling friends, I would hear how much they all missed us. I missed them too, but I did not miss the craziness, that is part of what I was trying to get away from. When I left work in April, our family finally seemed to meet a reasonable homeschool regular schedule. I’m not implying that the last five years were not reasonable. We did make it through, but that was exactly it: Every day we made it through. Finally, after leaving work, life was calmer and we could better get through their studies and include some fun activities.

Anyway, last week we went to a Not Back to School Picnic with our regular group. It was so good to see everyone and get caught up . . . but, I could see it happening again. “Would you like to . . . ““We have . . . .” “We can make room for you . . .” Whoa, whoa, whoa, I wanted to scream. Let’s enjoy our time together. We’ll probably see each other more (at least until we move), but I like not having to do something every day. I like being able to go with my husband instead of being chained to my calendar (I have enough appointments that already do that).

So I warn you that are new to homeschooling: Beware of the minute / hour steeling activity overload. The activities can be very tempting, but you may soon find yourself spinning. For those of you that already homeschool, I empower you to say, “No thank you. We already have an appointment that day,” knowing that your appointment is with yourself and your kids.

Lessons During the Busy Times of Life

To those of you that are new to homeschooling, you may ask, “How do you homeschool on days when you are busy with other chores?” The answer is two fold. One, the reason we homeschool year round is to make up for days that we are unable to. Two, we look at the day using a broader interpretation of homeschooling to see what we learned.

When my children tell people that we homeschool year round, they often get looks of pity while I get glares. I usually quickly interject that I am no slave driver. By schooling a little everyday, we avoid having marathon sessions. Also, if something comes up and we miss our base lessons then I know that we can make it up on another day or relax and know that we do enough on the other days that I don’t have to worry.

Furthermore, as I believe that living is the best teacher, sometimes instead of planning lessons for the future, we look bak at what we did learn while living. With the vision of hindsight, you can often see that you learned far more than you could have with regular lessons. Accept the gift and record your achievement.

Any veteran homeschooler will tell you that home schooling is a misrepresentation of who most of us are doing. Schooling / learning happens everywhere and every day often without any planning or preparation.

Can you name the capitols of all the states? Can you name the states in order that your family drove through on their trip to Florida? Do you know the formula for calculating area of an irregular shape? Do you remember how you and your father figured out how much tile to buy for the bathroom floor?

Homeschooling in Germany

As I finally headed to bed last night at 11:30, late because without my husband here there seems to be no reason to retire and two, I am fascinated by the Olympics, I flicked the tv on in my room so that I could maneuver around in the dark. What was on caught my eye – Homeschooling in Germany. The CBN News, of Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, was on. Now I don’t normally watch this show, but the subject peaked my interest because the topic was of persecution of homeschoolers. To confirm this story today, I googled “Homeschooling in Germany” and the HSLDA came up with a fact page about homeschooling in Germany and tags to several related articles. This site confirmed what I had heard. It is illegal to homeschool in Germany. “There are about 400 home school families. Almost all are operating underground or are in court.” (HSLDA). Children have been taken away from parents. Families have fled the country. Fines for homeschooling have crippled families financially. And this wasn’t even the troubling part. The story, which can be seen on the August 11th edition of CBN news and begins at the 17:45 mark of the broadcast, quotes the governments official response to their reason for opposing homeschooling as, “ The government has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion or are motivated by different world views and interested in integrating minorities into society as a whole.”

Even more interesting is that this “illegal” status does not just apply to Germans, but also to non-Germans who reside in the country. However, German diplomatic families that are abroad are encouraged to homeschool their children using a State sponsored curriculum. One of the interviewees in the piece stated that he thought that the Germans were not afraid of homeschooling itself but of the type of citizens that homeschooling produces. I take this to mean individuals who are free thinking, creative, and spiritual. The type of people that may have stood up and defied the Nazi’s so many years ago.

Interesting, Pat Robinson concluded after the story by reminding us of the origins of public education in Germany. He cited that public education was founded by Martin Luther as a way to teach people to read the Bible. Now that very same institution was trying to ban people that are trying to do just that.

Homeschooling - Reality TV Style

Homeschooling is not always goodness and light. I think so often we homeschoolers want to portray everything as good. We are afraid that by telling some of the frustrations we are admitting failure. I fervently disagree with this notion, because I know from firsthand experience in a classroom that frustrations exist on the teacher’s and student’s side. Usually this is displayed in a child a child shutting down and failing out or a child acting out and having behavioral issues. At home such confrontations are more personal, the kids aren’t coming home to complain about a teacher, they are butting heads with you.

Today, DD and I are butting heads big time. She has been putting off and putting off math. Today, I put an end to it. I had her get out her math book. The problem is that when you put some of the harder subjects off for a while, it is very hard to recall where you are. Plus, she plays a game of push /pull which I must admit aggravates the daylights out of me. She doesn’t want me to help with her math, she wants me to do her math. I tried to point out to her how silly her question would sound in an 8th grade classroom, “Does 16 go into 84? Does 16 go into 84? Does 16 go into 84?” This isn’t a question of the process that we are working on, but a simple mathematical calculation. Then she starts with the little pushes – not enough to be a hit, just little defiant pushes. You would expect this behavior from a 3 year old not a 13 year old. Her behavior ended her up in her room as I am not going to waste my time teaching someone that doesn’t want to at least meet me half way. She did come out with an apology and we finished her math. But her time out, gave me time to think.

This little outburst wasn’t her fault but mine. I have been too lenient. I have not kept to a good enough schedule. Too much time is being spent on the computer by her. This I will need to change. The last time I had this melt down, a chore chart was devised. I think now we need to get back to a better school schedule with earned time on the computer. The hard thing about the whole earned time on the computer is that so much of their work is done on the computer, so how do you best control the leisure time while insuring the work is done? I find that our time homeschooling is constantly being tweaked to adapt to the issues that arise. The difference between this and traditional school is that I have the control over the tweaking and I know about the issues before progress reports.

So, I hope the depressing story of my math work with DD today makes you all feel like your little skirmishes are within the acceptable norm of homeschooling. Knowing that we all go through this is an important part of interacting with the homeschool community. Tomorrow, we will be factoring higher degree polynomials. I hope that it will go better.

Thankful for Homeschooling Freedom

As today is our Sabbath, I am reminded to be thankful. It is easy to forget those that fought for our freedoms. No, I am not talking about George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and others (although they certainly deserve our respect). I am talking about the families that fought for their right to homeschool. I am talking about the families that used to have to draw their curtains and not go out during the day. Those that were brave enough to come forward and let others know that homeschooling could work for their family. To these people, I am grateful. For those of you that are still battling to keep this right available to us: both the families themselves and the attorneys that take their cases. To these people, I say thank you. These pioneers no matter what they year, blazed a trail for a better life for my family.

I have already shared with my children the importance of their right to educate their children in the way that they see fit. They thought it was a guaranteed Constitutional right but realized that it may be secured only as it relates to the first amendment, not as a specific right to homeschool. At first my daughter thought that she would lobby for a Constitutional amendment, but we then discussed the problems associated with defining homeschooling. In defining homeschooling, we may in fact define ourselves into rules and regulations that may not be in our best interest.

So thank you to all of you that have come in the past and all of you that will come in the future. My family is better because of your sacrifices.

Rebuilding Public Education

Today on Oprah, discussed the crisis in our educational system. She partnered with Time magazine to explore the drop out nation. She quoted a statistic that a student in the United States drops out every 9 seconds. Of course that was followed up by the fact that some schools can have up to a 75% drop out rate while others have a mere 1% rate. The difference was graphically depicted as two schools at opposite ends of the spectrum were toured. As a country, we should be appalled. Most of us would be enraged if these conditions existed in prisons, let alone schools. As a homeschool community, perhaps we should work with parents in these school districts to empower them. I’m sure not all would be interested, but I’m sure that some would.

One of the kids who had dropped out at 16 felt that school had not seemed relevant to him and did not realize how important the education was until after he had quit. The guests on the show seemed to imply that we should change the age at which students can quit.. They felt that certainly a 16 year old could not make decisions for themselves. More government oversight by an institution that already is causing these children to run away in droves Of course, as a homeschool parent I thought that perhaps if the education was presented in a more “real” life way that students would see the relevance. If they felt their knowledge had application, they would not be so board. While painting the walls and improving the gymnasium will improve the environment, I don’t think it will reduce the dropout rate with any significance.

It amazes me that the cost of education continues to rise and yet the overall quality reduces. Have we just created a behemoth, intent on growing itself? Perhaps as we think of a solution, we need to think radically different. As one of the growing and successful segments of education, perhaps some of the homeschooling ideas could assist in the newly devised system. Perhaps most importantly the role of the family as an integral part of plan.

September School Scramble

Another school year is soon upon us. Even though we obviously don’t go to school and have no obligation to follow the school calendar, there is that itch and I know that I am not the only one that feels it. Summer has led us to be lax and now we must tighten up the reigns. I start flipping through curriculum catalogs, crawling through homeschool webpages. I even consider buying that teacher’s planner. This year is going to be different, more organized. I write out plans through Christmas, order curriculum. Everything needs to be ready for September . . .
Wait – Stop! I think we did this last year and the year before. Oh my goodness. This is a sickness. If you look on the bookshelf, you may still see the books that seemed so promising last year. The first few pages filled in and dated chronologically, but then September faded to October and every day became once a week. By Thanksgiving, the books were pushed aside for more pressing issues. January and February brought a slight revival, but as the crocus burst forth the books closed again.

Maybe it is not the kids that need to be deschooled but me.

Have you felt the itch? What do you do to get ready for September schooling? Do you stay on track?

Homeschooling a Teen - Space Required

My daughter is part of a summer theater group and she is gone every weekday from 7-4. I think my teen is enjoying the break as much as I am. Her absence leaves me home with her younger brother, who is affectionately nicknamed “Buddha”. He is definitely calmer, quieter, and requires less of my intensity. As an added benefit, my daughter comes home full of information about her fun filled day. “We sang.” “We danced.” “Nate said. . .” “Did you know . . .?” I can’t stop the flow of information (nor would I want to).

Teenage homeschooling, especially homeschooling of a Type A personality, has certainly changed our routine. I am no longer enough. I have had to give her a little more freedom, more chances to interact with others, and more opportunities to explore her identity. Please note we are by no means reclusive homeschoolers. We are active in the society around us through church, Scouts, and volunteering. The difference is that now she doesn’t want my husband and I around (and I don’t mean, just across the room or come find me when you’re ready to go. I mean, completely and totally without parental oversight - - - I try not to take it personally). She wants to be in charge. She doesn’t want me to overshadow her. She doesn’t want me to correct or restrain her. She wants to be known for herself. Thus every morning, we are trekking to the commuter bus so that she can catch up with her theater buddies and ride to camp.

Please understand, I wouldn’t want it this way every day, for say 180 days; but for 4weeks, this has been a great break for both of us.