keeping up with the bob joneses January 18, 2008

Many homeschoolers, often newbies but sadly often not, panic if their child is not exactly on the school’s schedule, is “behind.” Let’s leave the question of just what “behind” really means for another day and assume for the sake of argument that every child really does need exactly 12 years of schooling before starting college or adult life, and address the question on the face of it.

What if your child really is behind? What if you have a 2nd grade child who is exactly one year behind, but doing okay, or one year behind, but really struggling? Again assuming, for the sake of argument, that every child really needs exactly 12 years of schooling, if you teach your 2nd grader at a 1st grade level, or even [pause here for your horrified gasp] give her a year off and then start teaching your 3rd grader at a 1st grade level, well …

… SO WHAT?

Yes, really. So what? If every child needs exactly 12 years of schooling, then all that means is, your child will graduate at age 19 instead of 18. Or maybe 20 instead of 18. What is so awful about that? My goodness, just think of all the kids in college who take far longer than four years to complete their degrees, finishing college at 26, 28, or later. Does that hurt them? (Let’s not even begin to talk about others, like the VP, who finished their doctoral degrees well into their 40s, with four children in tow!)

Well then why would it hurt your child to start college a year or two later? She’ll still be finishing college when about half of the rest of them on the “6 year degree plan” are finishing. So what would it hurt? Especially if, by relaxing a bit, you can help your child to be not only knowledgable in “book learning” but in life learning, if she can learn that she is important first as a person and not as a grade in someone’s gradebook.

If your child is struggling with some elementary school concept, try relaxing. Try remembering that you are teaching a child, not a curriculum. Try remembering that raising her to be a caring, compassionate individual who has a strong sense of her own self-worth is more important than the number of answers she got right on a quiz. Try remembering that teaching her that you care about her more than her grades will give her the best start in life, and is the best way to motivate her to get good grades. Try remembering that, even if her “exactly 12 years of schooling” starts a year late, or even two years late, all that means is, you get the blessing of another year of her company before she starts her adult life.

It is not worth destroying her vision of herself as a strong and capable person who enjoys learning, just to keep up with the Bob Joneses.

And later, we’ll talk about those “exactly 12 years of schooling,” okay?

listening to language January 18, 2008

Did you know you can google “Italian radio” or “French radio” and find a lot of FREE internet radio stations in those languages? COOL! I got curious and started looking for a language to stump it. Found Italian, French, Swedish, Irish, Swiss, Hungarian, and MAORI. I stopped trying after Maori.

Ai-yi-yi January 18, 2008

The 10yo Tank and the 6yo Pistol are playing some kind of superhero game with stuffed animals. Tank is getting agitated: “You can’t be invincible, that’s not fair!” Pistol is getting a little weepy, insisting that he wants to be invincible, that it is not unfair! As I am starting to intervene, it occurs to me that Pistol has no idea what “invincible” means.

So I turn to Tank: “Does he mean invincible or invisible?”

Tank: “He means invincible and it’s not fair, then we can’t even play a game!”

Mom to Pistol: “Tell me what invincible means.”

Pistol: “Well, they can’t see him, and …”

Mom gives A Look to Tank.

Tank, looking slightly abashed: “Well, he needs to fix his grammar!”

Mom, abandoning the field, doesn’t even try to fix Tank’s “grammar.”

Pecans = Math January 14, 2008

About seven years ago … 

“Look, Mom, I broke my pecan in half.”

“Mmm-hmmm. Does it taste better that way?”

“Now I broke both halves in half. Now I eat them!”

“Wow! Do you know that when you break a half in half, it’s called a fourth?”

“A fourth?”

“Yeah, look. I’ll break this pecan in half, and then both halves in half. How many pieces do I have?”

“One, two, three, four.”

“Right, four. So each piece is one-fourth. Get it?”

Without responding, she eats the pecan. Okay, maybe it’s a little over her head; she only just turned five. We eat a few more pecans, then …

“Look, mom! This pecan is in thirds!”

Sure enough, there in her hand is one pecan in three pieces.

So does my daughter, at five years and three months of age, understand fractions? No. But is she gaining a good basic understanding of real world math? Yes.

Will she remember this tomorrow? Unlikely. But has she gained a concrete experience of fractions that she can build on when fractions show up again in her young life? Absolutely.

Did I set out to teach her fractions? No. Did I use a concrete opportunity to help her put a name to something she is beginning to understand intuitively? Yes.

Will I run out and find some fraction worksheets to help her build on her knowledge? Not on your life. Will I keep an eye out for more concrete, real-world experiences that I can use to help her expand her own world? You bet.

Not bad for a Christmas Eve morning, sitting in your mom’s lap eating pecans, and wearing your dad’s sweatpants as a shawl.

11yo homeschooler taken at gunpoint January 12, 2008

An 11yo bumped his head (Jan 2008, read full story). A dad, trained in combat paramedics, determined his son did not need to go to ER. A neighbor decided otherwise, and called paramedics, who showed up and were miffed when dad wouldn’t let them take the boy (who had no broken bones, no dilated eyes, no confusion) to the hospital. The paramedics then called the police and the the sheriff’s office, and when neither responded, social services, who showed up unannounced and then got a judge to order a dozen SWAT team members to ramrod the boy’s front door open, point a gun in his 20yo sister’s face, throw his parents and other siblings to the ground and handcuff them, before escorting the uninjured boy to the hospital 24 hours after his fall.

Is it any wonder that we need a revolution?

funniest ad January 12, 2008

The award for Funniest Ad I’ve Seen in a While goes to the Dutch company HEMA. They have a product page where you can actually click and purchase, but this one is just an ad. Go to the page and then … just wait.  

of prepositions and the small words January 11, 2008

I’d just like to point out that I do, in fact, know when to capitalize words in a title. Little words such as “and,” “but,” and “or,” are not capitalized. Unfortunately, no one taught that grammatical rule to my blog theme, which capitalizes ALL initial letters in my title words, whether I capitalize them or not. Really.

that time of the quadrennium January 11, 2008

It’s that time of the quadrennium when politics can’t be avoided, try as we may. If your kids are curious you might like to check out the online Time for Kids, a junior version of Time Magazine. There’s no chat feature or any sort of message board, so they can surf safely. National and international news, as well as entertainment news, is reported on a tweenage-ish level. Some topics may be disturbing for younger kids, as they do discuss what is happening in the news though graphic details are left out, so be warned.

More free civics lessons are available at the New York Times, as well as American history, current events, economics, geography, math, science and other topics from the Times. These are actual lesson plans, using the NY Times to explore the topics.

a minor victory January 11, 2008

Getting the 12yo to wash her newly greasy hair is always a bit of a challenge, so I usually save it for when we’re about to see someone who will care (like grandma) or it gets so bad it smells. Today I asked her to shampoo and “the usual” kicked into gear. She went and thoroughly brushed it (a minor victory in itself!) and then came back to ask, “Does it look okay now?”

Sadly, it did not, whereupon the next level started: “But it doesn’t look greasy to ME! Why do you say it looks greasy?” 

“Well, because I am a mean, evil mom who delights in your distress and whose primary goal is to make your life hell on earth, dearest.”

Properly abashed, she yet pressed on: “But why can’t I see it? Why do you say it looks greasy and it doesn’t look greasy to ME?”

“Well, sweetie, you are twelve years old. Do you notice when your shirts are dirty?” Her eyes went a little wide and she shook her head. “And do you notice when your braces need cleaning?” Now her head drooped as she shook her head again. I didn’t even have to say anything else, as she headed for the shower.

Homeschool the Revolution January 11, 2008

How did this blog get started? Well, many many moons ago, when I was an elementary education major, I decided that I would homeschool my children (more on the timing of that decision in a later post). Then, merely many moons ago, I started having kids. Stopped at four, didn’t want to be greedy, but the prior decision still seemed good. So here I am at home, loving life with four lively blessings. As with any other job, some days you love it, some days you don’t want to get out of bed, as my good friend Jeanne says. But the good days outnumber the bad, all in all.

After 12 years of homeschooling, you get a few ideas you want to share with the world. One of those ideas came to fruition for me when I discovered CafePress, where you can create a personal shop, upload your original images and designs, and have them manufactured with print-on-demand technology for sale on CafePress products. Well, I was off and running when I found that! I already had so many cool ideas for homeschool t-shirts and designs for people who love books or who have a slightly twisted sense of humor that I couldn’t tell you how many I’ve forgotten over the years. I saw my homeschool designs especially taking a definite direction that demanded its own theme, and voilá! Homeschool the Revolution was born!

As for blogging, I’ve dabbled a bit before, but never with such a cool name. Vive la revolución!