It's like Tuesdays with Morrie without all the wisdom
Posts tagged homeschooling
Maya Has Fun
17May 28, 2009
by Abby
in I homeschool
This picture is a pretty good indicator of how Maya is all the time. Her mouth never closes and she’s always moving or posing. If she were my firstborn, I would have ruined that by now. She’s one of those self-motivated learners that I used to dream about before I had actual kids and only ever had dream kids. If Maya were my firstborn I would have taken her conventional, easily measurable learning style and I would have made it my thing and she would probably be having migraines at the sight of pencils by now. It happens. But it’s easy to just let the third child be. The first child (or set of children, as the case may be) does all the hard work, teaching us what’s really important and how everything all comes out in the wash. Nice of them. Maya can thank Lena and Liberty. They really had to work hard to show me everything will always be ok.
Lena and Liberty are unconventional learners and I used to panic about silly things at least quarterly until about 2 years ago. When it’s not easy for me (and The Entire World) to point to progress and measure “success” with grades and honor rolls, it’s hard to relax. At first. We have all of this hope (and fear) and all of this expectation (and fear). Academics can be measured, so it’s easy to feel like they’re the most important thing. But by the time the 3rd kid is here, we understand that these things all come out in the wash for the unschooly as well as for the schooly. It’s the kid’s life that’s the important thing. And we understand that she doesn’t need us to drive her and guide her as if her future depends on it because her future doesn’t actually depend on it. She has her own drive and we’re just there to supply the stuff for her that goes along with her particular brand of drive. Her future really only depends on knowing who she is and what she wants and knowing how to get it. Really. Besides, even the super-smartest child eventually turns into an average kid when all the other kids’ learning starts coming out in the wash so what’s the point of getting their identity all wrapped up in being the smartest when most everybody catches up eventually? Then they have to be all anorexic or drunk or something in order to stand out and that’s no fun for anybody. Nobody wants a drunk 7 year old on their hands. Then you’re in a pickle. Especially if the 7 year old was an early reader or math genius, then they really know about proof and alcohol content and stuff. Then where does all that learning get them? In the gutter! And then on a reality show with Dr. Drew or something. So sad.
Homeschooling Gives Me Blogger’s Block
13February 13, 2009
by Abby
in I homeschool
I don’t want to blog about homeschooling, but that’s what I’ve been thinking about lately so I guess I have to puke it out so I can write about other things.
We went to Kalahari Waterpark and Resort for a few days with our friends and a bunch of other alternative educators for the Unschoolers Winter Waterpark Gathering. I like to go to those convention-type things and have veteran unschoolers pump me full of comforting sunshine right in the middle of winter. It might be my favorite thing. I’m not technically an unschooler because unschoolers are all about teaching everything through life and experience and connections and, well, I use a math curriculum in a box. I avoid math at all costs in my daily life, so it would be hard to teach just by living. A radical unschooler would say, “Well, that just goes to show that you can get by just fine without it.” To which I would reply, “But I don’t want to be the one who has to add up everybody’s points every time we play Uno.” To which the radical unschooler would say, “then play Uno more often so they can get the hang of it.” To which I would reply, “Uno makes me want to stab somebody. And so does this conversation.” The end.
So I use the curriculum (complete with script!) to teach the maths. So, while I’m not technically an unschooler, I’m generally more comfortable around unschoolers than school-at-homers. You will never catch me at a homeschooling conference for people who log school hours and have subject checklists and who are otherwise homeschooling for excellence. I just really do believe that a kid can learn 4 years worth of high school math, english, or anything in 6 weeks or less. I just don’t want to count the Uno points, so…math curriculum. Otherwise easy-breezy, so…unschoolers conference.
The conference was fun and I loved going to the Rethinking Education type chats while the kids were off playing in the waterpark or taking part in a DS tournament or watching a bunch of other unschoolers play Rock Band or getting a Leaf Village henna tattoo:
But I think what I loved most (besides partying in our room with Lynne and Kristen and their families) was not being the brand-new mom in the room with the “But what if they never learn anything?” question. I used to be that mom at least quarterly, if not more often, but now I have friends with bigger unschooled kids and I see how it turns out alright. And I have kids who are almost 10 and I can see it turning out alright. I can’t tell you how often their experience with certain things that might not be “educational” in other people’s eyes (*cough* graphic novels) has turned out to be the spark that lit the fire of (traditional) education under them in ways that a chapter from a textbook never could. I think interest and freedom in education are two of the most powerful tools we have.
We all have things from school that have stayed with us or left us right after the test. Me? Everything left after the test. Unless it was grammar, which was already part of my soul for the 17 years before I had my first real grammar class. See how my interest helped me? See? I hated being forced to read certain books and then write a paper about them. I just think that’s mean and not at all helpful. And! And I never spent more than one night writing one of those papers. (I just made a long and boring list of things I hated about school, but I deleted it and I’m just going to say, all of those things I hated? They left me stained with contempt and uninterested in the subject for life.)
Oh, hi, I should say that this post is not to incite debate over school choices and whatnot because, really, I don’t care how anybody else’s kids are schooled because in the end, I think it all just turns out fine no matter what. You can send your kid to public school for 13 years and he’ll find an interest and turn it into a life or not, and I can homeschool like this and my kids will find an interest and turn it into a life or not. Either way, they grow up and make their way in the world and they gather the tools they need in order to make the way they want. I’m just saying the conference was fun, I see this life working for my kids, I’m glad I’m not worried about it anymore, and I’m glad I have friends who can support each other in this life, and Uno makes me stabby.
When the Day Homeschools Itself
9January 21, 2009
by Abby
in I homeschool
I’m kind of lazy, so I like it when the homeschooling comes easy.
Maya was still sick (as evidenced by the strategic toilet paper), so we missed watching the inauguration at Studio 35 with our entire neighborhood, but we managed to have fun anyway. Well, I did. The girls were kind of over it months ago when we dragged them to the Springsteen for Obama shindig. Nonetheless, Lena and Liberty did get a little thrill when CNN announced that Obama would be using the Lincoln Bible for his swearing-in ceremony. We’ve been reading Abraham Lincoln: 10 Days that Shook Your World so that was exciting for them. A little less exciting was the introduction of the Supreme Court because I guess when we read about the Dred Scott case (day 2 of Lincoln’s 10 days thingy) and I talked about the Supreme Court’s supremacy and lifetime appointments, they took that to mean that the Justices were all, um, immortal or something. Lena and Liberty were momentarily disturbed that these evil justices would be allowed at Barack Obama’s inauguration. I guess it’s understandable since all of the villains in their favorite stories are immortal. Orochimaru, I’m looking at you. Anyway, once I saw the look of horror on their faces, I cleared that up and they were good to go. Sometimes little tidbits of information that I think go without saying, actually need saying. It’s exhausting.
We watched, I cried repeatedly, they looked at me, I said, “Happy tears! Isn’t it amazing?” And they shrugged. They’re most likely racist.
Just this minute I told them I’m blogging about the fact they got a little thrill at the mention of the Lincoln Bible and Liberty said, “We weren’t thrilled!” and Lena said, “We just pretended!” Then I told them I’m writing about their thinking the Supreme Court was immortal and they both denied it, but when I said, “I saw the look of horror on your faces until I cleared it up!” They laughed and blushed. If I were a good mother, I would edit the post so as not to embarrass them, but I think it’s more embarrassing for me so I’m leaving it in.
We Do Stuff (A Homeschooling Post)
1October 13, 2008
by Abby
in I homeschool
I have a run-around Monday today, so I’m cross-posting a recent Kids Know Stuff post that Lena wrote. It’s not political!
I’ve been using Kids Know Stuff as a homeschool tool because, as a quasi unschooler, I have to pretend that every single thing we do has some sort of educational value. It might actually be true in this case, though.
Lena and Liberty write their own reviews and sometimes they write Maya’s reviews if they feel like it. Or sometimes they throw a hissy fit and wail about how it’s boooorrriinnnggg and then I have to write Maya’s reviews and then punish them later (i.e. “I wish you could have a friend over, but I’m just ever so tired from writing that review for Kids Know Stuff *sigh*”).
They run the spell check, then we go over the proofreading together and talk about why edits are made. Lena and Liberty can type well thanks to Dance Mat Typing, which they were addicted to last year, but if they’ve had a hard-working day, I’ll let them dictate to me. I type exactly what they say, even if it’s weird.
Sometimes I have to tell them what questions their review should answer, sometimes they’re overflowing with ideas and they need no prompts at all. Sometimes I ask Maya why she likes something and she replies with, “Tushie!” and we just try again later.
The kids choose the transitions between clips, the effects, the titles, the font, the colors, and the music. Lena and Liberty like the colors of the “Buy us stuff we like only!” title at the end of each video to tie in with the product in some way. For instance, brown-on-brown for the Indiana Jones review because, in their words, “Brown is an Indiana Jones color.” (Yes, they both said that at the same time. Sometimes they’re very twin-ish.) Maya usually chooses pink-on-pink. I hope it’s not because, in her world, pink is a tushie color.
It’s been a lot of fun and we hope the site continues to grow, but I have to be careful that I don’t burn them out, which means they won’t update every day. So, since Christmas is coming, you should totally subscribe to our feed so you don’t miss out on giveaways and gift ideas.
We can’t post every day anymore because we’re busy doing a lot of fun stuff during the week. We recorded some of the things we do, but we also do things like go apple picking, volunteer at political things, and go to free concerts. But we have lots more cool reviews coming soon and we’ll have more giveaways, too!
P.S. We forgot to record my gymnastics class, but that’s something else I do. And even though I’m not in the rollerskating part, I was there! I love rollerskating!
P.P.S. We have to do our homeschool work, too!
Lena
The song is Dare by Gorillaz.
