Last night we bought Addy her very first workbook. I’m not sure what her proclivity toward the academics is at this point. She doesn’t exactly seem gifted in the same way that she is developmentally advanced. She learns some things easily but it seems to be on her own terms. I don’t believe in shoving academics down a child’s throat. I am an unschooler at heart so I believe childhood should be a time to play and explore and discover and that there is so much learning that goes on through these actions that little supplementation is often needed. I do some more standard “teaching” – mostly reading fundamentals and math.  I start ever fall much more structured and planned than we end each spring.  Even knowing this, I still do it every fall.

So I’ve been planning our Fall 2008 for awhile now and this time Addy-Mai is included as well! We’ll see how her new Kumon workbook goes but if she loves it, we’ll work through the other two this summer and this fall we’ll chose from one of these three options:

Mother Goose Time: I got this for a short time with Noah but he wasn’t interested in doing any of it, really. I think it is a much better fit for Addison. Basically it is “preschool in a box” and it is SUPER organized but still flexible. You get all the materials and supplies, the lesson plans, the shopping lists, etc and then you have a full preschool program for your child. Each month you get a new box, each box has a new theme. I’m not sure how educational it is – probably more education for some children than others. But it is a fun diversion and I have a feeling Addy will want some “school” while her brothers are doing their school next fall. It costs a little under $500 for 12 months which is a lot cheaper than actual preschool but at the same time, it isn’t exactly free. If I get it, I want to really USE it. So I’m still debating this one.

Before Five In A Row: We have the Five in a Row curriculum for Noah and have enjoyed what we have done in it. I really like the basis of it, it jives with my own unschooly educational philosophy. The curriculum gives you a book to read for the entire week. You read that book every day for the week and each day the curriculum gives you supplementary learning ideas like recipes, field trips, crafts, art appreciation, math skills, etc to include to expand on the book. The literature is all really great. They also have a Before Five In A Row curriculum for younger kids. I really REALLY love this learning model and it is extremely inexpensive ($25) if you use the library for the literature. But right now Addison has NO interest in being read to. She loves books – she likes to look at the pictures, ask bout words, play “where’s the ____” on the page, open the flaps, turn the pages, talk about what she sees. But she is not even remotely interested or willing to hear the actual text on the pages. So unless something changes (and Addison will be 2.5 this fall so it very well might), I can’t see this as being a good viable option for her this fall.

Do-It-Yourself Theme Weeks: I have a plethora of preschool teaching books, activity books, craft books, learning resources etc. But really all you need is the Internet. This is the essentially free option. I did this for awhile for Noah and the planning was easy but the implementation took more effort than I had to give at the time. I hope that is different this fall. Basically what I did was to chose a theme for each week: fire stations, apples, pumpkins, clowns – whatever. Then I picked out books from the library, a DVD or too, recipes, a craft, coloring pages, a field trip when possible so there was something fun to do every day that revolved around that theme. It is the least “academic” of the three options but that isn’t always a bad thing. If Addy shows an interest in more academic pursuits, there is always the option to make it more academic (focusing on a letter of the week, a color of the week, a number of the week, etc). If I were to start something more formal right now I think this is probably what I’d choose. It requires more upfront planning and organizing but it doesnt take too long and it is easy if you do a whole month or two of weekly plans at a time.

So I guess we’ll see what Addy’s learning style is, come fall.

Noah will be in first grade this fall and he will be a lot more baffling for me to figure out than Addy. He is a true unschooler – he sometimes needs a tiny bit of instruction to get the hang of something he isn’t familiar with but most of the time he takes what knowledge he possesses and applies it to the world around him in order to expand. He didn’t know any of his letter sounds or names this fall and now he’s reading and writing and spelling probably at a mid-first grade level. He couldn’t count past 10 this past fall but now he can count to any number, forward and backward, has figured out all sorts of skip counting (start with 11′s – haha) and can add and subtract in his head, has figured out multiplication and division, has learned to tell a bit of time, has learned about money and place value, etc. We did start with a math program (Math U See) but when Noah’s learning was growing faster than the lessons were going, we scrapped it. Otherwise, he spends his days reading, writing, coloring, drawing and exploring. I am not sure exactly where the learning “gaps” would be, for him. He knows all about government and is interested in hearing stories about history and he just really loves to learn. I think Noah has brought me back to my unschooling roots and as long as he seems to thrive that way, I’ll embrace it.

Dalton & Teegan are easy. They will be in 9th and 6th grades, respectively. We have a good system going and it is working so well. They have both done so so well this year, They have a good math program they are both really thriving on. Dalton will do Geometry and Algebra II next year and Teegan will do Fractions, Decimals and *maybe* PreAlgebra. They work at their own pace, though, so they can go as fast or as slow as they need. They have awesome science classes in the neighborhood and we’ll continue to do the occasional WebQuest and reading good literature. Hopefully our homeschool coop will revitalize this fall, too. Its a presidential election year which means we’ll focus almost exclusively on politics and government until 2009. In 2004 we went to rallies and talked a lot about the process but now that they are older, we will be delving much more deeply into the process. Because guess what? This is the very last presidential election we will have before Dalton is old enough to VOTE!!!!!!!! So this is it – my only chance to show him, in living color, what the election process entails. We’ll also continue learning about finances and money management – two very important topics for teens (this will have a post of its own in another few days). Their own interests and passions tend to take them to much higher level places than a curriculum could take them. They have been spending MAJOR time outside, exploring, chasing snakes and lizards, catching tadpoles and crayfish – the stuff childhood is made from. I plan to continue encouraging that as much as possible.  On an exciting note, Dalton can start phase one of driver’s training this fall when he turns 14.  I’m not sure if we will (because of some weird law that requires I hold a Texas license for 3 years prior to teaching him) but its exciting to have that option.

So that’s my spring cleaning in the homeschool department. We’ll wrap up the school year when Dalton is done with math. Teegan has already finished his two math books this year and is starting his third but will finish this fall unless he wants to finish over the summer. This summer I plan to have the boys keep reading good literature. Dalton & Teegan will be taking some higher level science classes locally this summer that we are all excited about. Teegan and Addison will both be in gymnastics all summer and Addison will take her first ballet class, too. And we plan to spend every other waking moment in the water either in our pool or in one of the community pools. Usually we continue homeschooling through the summer but the kids have all worked really hard and almost never complained this year and everyone has learned so much that we will take a much deserved break. I’m counting down the days!

{this photo has nothing at all to do with Dinosaurs but I am going to post one of each of my favorite blue bonnet pictures until they are gone, darnit}

One of the coolest advantages of homeschooling is that we get to steal away in the middle of the week to do things that the masses flood to over the weekend, usually for much cheaper.

Walking with Dinosaurs is touring here right now and we just had to go. My boys are all dinosaur fanatics. When Dalton was 5, he knew more dinosaurs than anyone I knew. When Teegan was 2 & 3, he could barely talk but he could name dinosaurs by looking at their skull bones alone. Eventually they fell out of interest but in the last year or so they’ve sort of jumped back into it all in some collegiate level that I can hardly follow most of the time. So it was fun for all of us to go check out the animatronic dinosaur show.

We scored some really good tickets – 3rd row – for the “student” rate of $18.50 a ticket instead of the outrageous $50+ ticket price. See what I mean? Homeschooling pays for itself, right?!

Let me just say that it did NOT start out well. I think every kid under six in the entire place was horrified. One mother in our row had to leave with her son immediately becuase he was inconsolably terrified. Several kids surrounding us, including Addison, kept their hands over their ears pretty much the entire show. But it opened with some adorable little eggs hatching tiny cute babies who were then RIPPED out and DANGLED into the mouth of a carnivorous predator before being swallowed alive.  Gosh – easing into that kind of drama might have been nice!

That was about as bad as it got but there was a lot of ominous LOUD music and ominous LOUD sound effects and ominous lighting. Addison actually didn’t mind the huge horrifying dinosaurs or their loud and vicious growls. She WAS very sensitive to the change in tone of voice of the storyteller, the change in music and lighting. She is probably not going to be a horror flick fan!

Noah spent a large chunk of the show, off and on, burying his face in our laps. He was not a fan of the fighting dinosaurs. No amount of telling himself that they were just robots seemed to help. He was just freaked.  But afterward he said he had a really good time. My bigger two boys had an awesome time, they totally loved every minute of it, even Teegan who had been completely adamantly opposed to going with us.  I’m so glad we went.

Addy, like I said, either covered her own ears are made US cover her ears for her while she sucked her thumb and peaked out at the show from under our arms! It really didn’t seem like she had much fun but she has talked about it all day. At dinner she spontaneously said “I had fun chocolate” which after some further back and forth that involved her wildly saying “Baby!” and “Growl” and various other words to describe the show, we deciphered to mean “I had fun dinosaurs”.  I asked her if that was what she meant and she said “Yeah! I had fun chocolate! It cool! Baby!”. She really REALLY liked the eggs (prior to the carnivorous homicide) and the baby dinos and the mama/baby love scenes

So it was totally worth the $18.50/ticket if it comes on tour near you. Probably not worth the $50/ticket unless your kid is REALLY into dinosaurs and over the age of 5!

  It’s Back-To-School time which, for homeschoolers, often means reevaluating curriculum, grade placement and organizing materials in a born-anew desire to be all on top of things. For me, it is often a time of reflection on the past year, as well.

Second only to vegetarianism, homeschooling is the thing my family does that gets the most negative attention. I suspect there are other aspects of my parenting that would be even more controversial but they don’t often come up in conversation and they aren’t transparent parts of our lives. What I’m saying is people don’t judge what they don’t know about you

So why do we homeschool?

When Dalton was just a toddler, full of love of learning, I spent my days doing nothing much else besides watching him explore the world and devour it. It filled me up, to discover the world through his eyes. I knew that I wanted that to last his entire childhood and at some point, homeschooling was the obvious choice. It would enable him to continue his love of learning and it would enable me to continue to be a part of it. School was, honestly, never part of the plan.

Then when he was 4, my boys’ father and I split up and I became Single Working Mom. Daycare and school became parts of our lives. I forgot about my homeschool plans and enrolled Dalton into first grade when he was 5. This, alone, turned out to be a big controversy. Because Dalton didn’t go to Kindergarten and because he was so young (born 30 days later, he would have been placed in Kindergarten instead of First grade), we were pressured to keep him back. However, socially, he was ready for first grade and I really did not want him held back. So I pushed for what would later become an on-going problematic situation. His age became the on-going excuse for every tiny issue that would come up: Dalton’s tired today? He probably still needs naps due to his age. Dalton’s having trouble spelling? It is his age. His writing isn’t on par? It’s his age. As his Mom, I knew this was totally off base. I got my first dose of the public school’s disinterest in trusting my own parental instincts and the need to advocate for my kid. And I resented the hell out of it.

Meanwhile Dalton was really enjoying school. He liked learning, he had tons of friends and loved recess most of all. Typical. What he didn’t love was standing in front of the class and being made to “perform”. It didn’t get easier. He became more and more anxious about it. He got more and more withdrawn and reserved.

And then the bullying started. It was never bad but bad enough to make my sensitive boy pretty upset on a few occasions.

Meanwhile, all year, I had to force Dalton to wake up way earlier than he would have otherwise. I had to wake up toddler Teegan, dragged us all out of bed and down the street to school. Then every day, right in the middle of his nap, I had to wake up Teegan again to drag him all the way down to the school to pick up Dalton. Dalton came home and spent all his free playtime doing homework. Busywork. And we were expected to do these projects and activities on no notice with supplies we rarely had around the house. School was taking over our lives. My baby couldn’t sleep. We couldn’t just go to the park or play after school. We couldn’t go out of town. I felt trapped, I felt like *I* was in school. And really, Dalton wasn’t learning a whole lot and because of his age, he was also not being accelerated at the rate that he was capable. Nor was he getting any help for his spelling and writing challenges which, as it turned out, will be a life-long challenge for him.

By the next summer I was living with Tony and just a few weeks before the start of second grade, I lost my job. We took that as a sign, I decided to stay home and homeschool.

Dalton was actually really upset. He didn’t want to homeschool, he wanted his friends – bullying and all. But it was one of the few times in my kids’ lives that I’ve just put my foot down and forced a major life change that I knew they were not on board with. We agreed to try it for a year and reevaluate.

That first year was rough. Dalton continued to miss his friends, we didn’t really find our ebb and flow and ended up taking most of the year off to ‘deschool’. Some kids can deschool in just a few weeks, my boy needed a full year. By the time it he was ready to start third grade, he had no lasting desire to go to public school and his zest for homeschooling has only grown over the last 5 years. Now he can’t imagine ever choosing the confines of public school. He loves the freedom and endless possibility that homeschooling offers.

It made sense to me to continue homeschooling the rest of the kids although I still do take it on a year by year basis. If a child of mine ever requested to go to school, I would support that. There was a period of time just last month that Noah seriously considered enrolling in Kindergarten this year and we talked about it with him. When he realized he’d not just get to show off his radical “skipping” skills all day, he quickly lost interest. Instead he’s taking gymnastics.

I’m not completely opposed to public school but I think it is a failed system that needs revitalization, at very least. I think in some cases, school is not good for families. I think in many cases, school is not good for children. I think teachers are overworked and underpaid in most areas. I think group learning isn’t usually ideal and structured learning is not always conducive to a true love of learning, particularly when the child is not opting into the group or structured learning. I think teachers feel a great deal of unnatural pressure to teach to the test in most states and this naturally interferes with actual productive teaching.

I love that homeschooling gives my kids the freedom to do nothing but study rocks and minerals for 8 hours straight if they want, without having to stop and switch subjects. I love that we can get up and go tour the world if we are inclined. I love that my kids learning things because they learn them, not becuase they have to pass a test or get a good grade. I love that we can spend the afternoon in the swimming pool and not even touch books until 8pm if we want. I love that we can learn in 2 hours a day what the public schools are teaching in 8 hours. I love that each child’s learning style can be met and fulfilled individually so they can learn in the most logical, natural and efficient way possible. I love that we can learn in 2 days a week or 7 days a week. I love that we don’t have to take summers off and, if we want, we can take winters off instead.

As my kids get older, there are all sorts of other hidden benefits. I love that my 12 year old loves to hang out with his 9 year old brother and dotes on his sister without worrying about “looking cool” to his friends. In fact I love even more that he thinks kids who worry about “looking cool” or the uncoolest of all . I love that my kids see friendships as unconstrained by classroom, age or peer group limits. I love that the negative influences, while they still exist, aren’t what they are exposed to day in and day out. This makes them much less likely to cave to peer pressure. I love that my kids are all individuals who don’t seem to give much thought to “fitting in” and can put their energy into other things that are more useful to them.

And they love it just as much as I do!

We have a fun year planned. In our new neighborhood, there is an amazing homeschool co-op that I’m actively involved in and all three of my boys are enrolling to take classes of their choice. Plus there is soccer, gymnastics and Kindermusik. Plus playgroups, park days, homeschool field trips and more. And then we’ll throw in some trips here and there, because we are on this crazy Learning Through Living kick and try to fit in those 2 hours of traditional “learning” each day along the way. Sounds pretty fun to me!