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So we packed up the car and headed to Philadelphia for a fabulous field trip. Joseph has been interested in ancient Egypt lately. He's seen some History Chanel programs, and read several fiction and non-fiction books on the topic. So, when we heard there was a homeschoolers workshop at the Franklin Institute to explore the King Tut exhibit, and the science of the ancient Egyptians, I knew this was something right up his ally. It was actually a great trip for him. Joseph talked about it for days afterward, which is fairly unusual for this one-word-answer kid. He learned about different theories of how the pyramids were built, and can tell you 3 different theories about the planes (ramps) used to lift the stones. He also did an experiment involving salt as a dehydrating agent to begin the process of mumifcation. He came home with an interesting packet of information and games! We spent the night, and went back to the museum the next day to see the rest of the exhibits. All in all, it was an interesting, fun experience!
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Perhaps the most exciting thing about homeschooling for me is the opportunity for personal growth and the new insights that it affords. Last week, we took a trip to the American Museum of Natural History. Joseph wanted to see to the new exhibit on Human Evolution, which happens to have been recently redone and is very moving. We were just looking at two sets of ancient footprints which had been preserved from millions of years ago. Was it a man and a woman? A mother and child? I turned around, there were the bones of Lucy - one of the very earliest bi-peds who walked the earth over 3 millions years before us. I've heard of Lucy several times throughout my life . . . most recently when reading Birthing From Within when I was pregnant with Ellie. To see the bones of Lucy, this most ancient of mothers, stirred me deep within my own very DNA. After all, I am her descendant. We all are. I can't help but wonder what mothering must have been like for Lucy. What primal urges she followed, not only in birthing her babies, but raising them. Certainly, it was a hard life, and the focus was surely on survival, rather than nitpicking the finer points of a child's education. She wasn't thinking to the future or the past. She was experiential and in the moment . . . the place where we are most connecting to God and our own inner knowing. And perhaps, that is the place we most need to be connected in our own selves, as we strive to be whole, and raise our children wholly. I wonder about our cultural role models we have as mothers. We don't have a Lucy. We have a pervasive Victorian idealism that is near impossible to meet, but certainly guilt-inducing when we don't. But where are our stories of the powerful ancient mothers? The stories that teach us about the sheer spiritual journey that is motherhood . . . stories that acknowledge our power, heal our wounds, and show us how best to acknowledge the divinity in ourselves and in our own children? How I would love to find these stories. |
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Ellie has recently welcomed the morning sweetly singing, "Sun . . . it's your birthday!" A refrain that evolved into an imaginary birthday party, cake, music, and all. So, yesterday we decided to have a real blow-out for the sunshine! Ellie dressed up in her fairy skirt and crown, and became "Fairy of the Roses". Joseph wore his cape, sword and shield, and became "Sir Joseph Dragonheart." And I, of course, was "Queen Mother of the Enchanted Ones." We stood near the window in the sunshine and looked into the crystal blue sky on this blistery cold February day. We drummed, rattled, and sang sunshine songs. Then we served apple dumplings that we made in the morning, and had a tea party with all the proper trimmings. We invited faeries, sprites, fire-breathing dragons, ladybugs, and of course, rays of sunshine! Joseph regaled us with tales of his brave quests. We had a wonderful time!!!
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What would happen if small children didn't have access to alphabet board books and flashcards? I perceieve that there is something that has been forgotten about childhood. We know that there are windows to learning. We know there's a time when it's optimal to learn music, or foreign language. I believe there's a time to learn about something less tangible . . . and it's in childhood. And that by filling their heads with academic knowing, pulling them out of the mysteries of childhood too soon, we're not giving something to our kids . . . we're taking something fundamental away from them. What is this something? I'm not entirely sure. I think it has to do with spiritual fluency . . . creative impulse . . . direct communication pathways to the muses . . . the joyful sense of wonder that lights inner fires of There is a definite argument for academics. I'm just not convinced that it needs to begin as early as we think it does.
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Just wanted to share the fun story Joseph wrote this morning. We've been working on word families, and he decided to write and illustrate a story based on some of the words we worked on this week. This wasn't part of the lesson plan, but I'm so glad I followed his lead. Once upon a time, there lived a mom. She loved to eat jam from a jar every hour. One day, she ran out of jam. "Oh! We ran out of jam! We need to get more from the store." So, she took the car far. Her car got stuck in the roadwork. So she sat until a fat cat pulled her out of the tar and cement. She was so thankful, she gave the cat her cap. The cat hugged her and joined her for the rest of the way. The cat found a treasure map. It said to take a right turn and then a left and then go straight ten steps and look for a tree. Then they thought they were near the treasure but they weren't, so they followed the map for five more turns. Then they saw an "X" that marked the spot by the Oak Tree Museum. They dug and found a big, giant treasure chest. It was filled with gold, chocolate, and lots of jam! The cat and the mom were so happy they hugged each other hard! The end.
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I love this blog entry by a long-time homeschooling mom: What Non-Homeschoolers May Not Know http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PreschoolersandPeace/257413/ As for us, Christmas came with a whirlwind of excitement, and I have to admit, it's been very difficult getting back on the wagon here. I'm having second thoughts about the curriculum we're using . . . the curriculum itself is gorgeous, holistic, and creative. My son is linear, logical, and already obviously mathmatical. While I adore the soulfulness of the Waldorf-based curriculum, I can't help but wonder if I'm trying to stick a square peg in a round hole. The blog I linked to above states that housekeeping and homeschooling are mutually exclusive. Ha! I love this . . . and it's part of my problem in getting back into the swing of things post-Christmas. Because I've been cleaning possibly too much, the last couple weeks have been an experiment in unschooling. And boy is that fun!!! So far we've covered solutions and crystals, money, fractions, latitude/longitude, geography, poetry, lots of reading and vocabulary, studying animals . . . I'm not sure I can even remember it all. But still must get back on the wagon and finish up this year's curriculum. Meanwhile, thinking about a change of course for next year . . . whether it be something more traditional and linear, unit studies, or a curriculum of our own creation . . . I'm not certain. And that's the journey of homeschooling for me right now . . . learning to be more comfortable with not knowing . . . learning to trust the process. Afterall, there's plenty of research to demonstrate that it works! It's just a matter of letting go and letting it happen!
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It has been many weeks since I've updated this blog . . . which should be a sign that things are both hectic and flowing beautifully.
It's really hard to know at what point you can say, "My child is a reader", but I think Joseph is really pretty close at this point. He can get through most of his readers. It is SO exciting to see his eyes light up when he reads a sign or a menu. And, what's more intriguing is how right John Holt is when he writes that children essentially teach themselves to read, as they teach themselves to walk and talk. I'm there to sit with him and read, or help him sound things out . . . but really, the tremendous body of effort that has gone into this learning project has been his own.
Joseph is also LOVING math, and at this point we've covered all four processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). This is his favorite subject, and he asks to do them first!
We've also been learning about compasses, wind (we made a weather vane!), maps, clouds, seeds, and animals.
Where I feel as though we need to improve is in DECREASING socialization . . . there's just so much going on every day, that I feel it pulling us away from establishing a soft, peaceful, rhythm. It's a real tug of war between establishing healthy family patterns, and being out in the world . . . it's hard to find the right balance there. But whoever started the rumor that homeschooled kids risk not being socialized really need to see what modern homeschooling is all about!!!
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So far, things have been going pretty well. Joseph seems to be enjoying the lessons, and our extra, focused time together. At the end of last week I asked him, "So, what do you think of home school?" He said, "It's just like from before when Ellie was born!"
We've been starting our days with walks outside -- either in the neighborhood, or in the woods for a nature walk.
Then, we light a candle for circle time - doing finger plays, poems, and songs.
After that, we do Language Arts. We've covered letters A-F so far. We read a fairy tale that relates to the letter, then Joseph draws or paints a picture to represent the letter. We read poems that reflect the letter sounds, and then he practices writing them in his main lesson book.
At this point, we may have a break, and come and go to the rest various activities through out the day, balancing them with play time, friends, errands, soccer, and whatever life throws at us for the day.
Social sciences has included the making of a calendar, and story telling.
For science, we've been observing the phases of the moon in the calendar, taking nature walks, sorting leaves, flower pressing and naming, and checking things out with our magnifying glass.
Joseph reads from his reader about 15 minutes daily.
We've done a lovely craft together this week: paper lanterns. This involved water coloring a large piece of paper. When it dried, we cut shapes out of it (like the sun, moon, and stars). We glued tissue paper to the back side of it, folded the paper like a cylander, folded the bottom edges underneath it, attatched a handle, and glued a tea light. The candle looks so pretty shining through the 'stained glass' tissue paper. Other crafts Joseph is working on are his knitting mushroom, his painting, and drawing.
While the school stuff itself is going fairly well, the challenge for me is finding some time to have a few minutes on my own, to complete a thought or clean the house. I'm looking into joining the gym (with babysitting!) with a group of friends, which should be nice. It's also been a challenge trying to keep the kids from killing each other during the day. So far, the fighting seems a little better, so maybe they just need some time to adjust to the newness of this routine.
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‘There’s a land that I see Where the children are free And I say it ain’t far to this land From where we are’ I happened to be blessed to grow up as a child of the hippies-generation in the 1970’s. What an inspiring time to be a child – all that beautiful idealism, without being aware of the scary realities. My mother gave me a record called “Free to Be You and Me”, which I absolutely LOVED. I played it all the time, and learned all the words. The album has been reissued on CD, and it’s been moving to share it with my own kids.. The song ‘Free to Be You and Me’ is just as fun, catchy, and inspiring as it was when I was a child, and has become a theme song for our own homeschool. As we’ve been learning about what it means to homeschool, we discovered that there are countless philosophies and approaches. The variety is both exciting, and overwhelming! What we settled on is best described as Waldorf-light. Waldorf educational philosophy is very gentle & holistic, utilizing a hands, heart, and head approach, and appeals strongly to a child’s sense of creativity, daily and seasonal rhythm, and nurturing. However, we’re not purely Waldorf, as we’re entering into academics a year earlier than most Waldof purists would approve of.. We’re also moved by the concept of child-led learning – so that when a child becomes passionate about a topic, we explore that as thoroughly and as long as he wants. For this year, we’ve settled on the Oak Meadow curriculum, which satisfies the “Waldorf-light” style, and gives us great flexibility in doing our own thing as well. I have a strong feeling our approach will evolve as the years go on, but I hope to achieve a learning environment that is nurturing, exciting, safe, and flexible to the needs of my children. I hope to preserve my children’s natural-born sense of wonder and excitement in learning, which studies show that most traditionally schooled children seem to lose about the third grade. I am inspired by the many research studies that show how homeschooled children excel academically and socially (as a group, scoring two grade levels ahead of public schooled kids on standardized tests). And, certainly, it’s a bonus to raise my children in a truly diverse environment (not segregated by age, popularity, or skin colors), but to explore the community through day-today life in all it’s wonderful ages, colors, lifestyles, creeds, professions, bases of knowledge, and belief systems. As we engage on this journey, I think I’m finally catching a glimpse of that land where the children really are free . . . free to learn, to grow, to be themselves, to be children, to be part of the life of the community, or nestled in at home when they need to be. _________________________________________________________________ While it was close to 2 weeks ago when we officially became homeschoolers in the eyes of the public school system, today was our first day actually doing ‘school’. We started late after a wonderful family trip to Disney World – is there any better time to go than mid-September when most of the other kids are in school! There were hardly any lines! Our first day ran smoothly. We took a nice walk outside, came back in, lit a candle, sang songs, did finger plays, worked on the letter A, drew pictures. Later in the day we pressed flowers, and learned their names, and started our math component. And we still found time to attend the homeschool meet-up at a local library, and go to soccer practice!
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The excited sounds of children running and talking . . . parents greeting each other warmly after a long summer away . . . new clothes, new back packs, new pencils . . . the freshness of a brand new school year . . . all waiting for the school bus to arrive at the stop outside our front door. I knew to anticipate the school bus today, on the first day of public school. I expected I'd hear all the activity, and be filled with trepidation. After all, Joseph is 'supposed' to be on that bus today, whisked away from home off to kindergarten on the other side of town. And, as I watched the kids clamber into the bus, kiss their moms and dads goodbye, I cried. But these were not tears of trepidation. They were tears of relief. Suddenly, rather than feel terrified of making a difficult, non-conventional choice, I realized I made exactly the RIGHT choice, for Joseph, for me, for our family. I didn't have the slightest bit of feeling that he should be on that bus. I knew for sure, in that moment, that he was going to grow and thrive, that we will do a great job, and that the opportunities and benefits of home school are incomparable to anything else out there. So we decided to mark our first day with a field trip to A perfect day of kindergarten! We won't be starting our curriculum until after we return from Disney World, where we are going to celebrate my father's milestone birthday, and enjoy the lack of lines! We'll be using the Oak Meadow curriculum, which is loosely Waldorf-based, combined with a philosophy of child-led learning. Joseph is also signed up for the town soccer team and a Waldorf art class for home schoolers. We'll also be attending regular home schoolers meetings at a local library. He has many friends in the neighborhood, and close friends from his years at preschool with whom he still enjoys regular play dates. Social opportunities abound for home schoolers in this neck of the woods. We are encouraged by the myriads of studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of home school. Contrary to many widely held social myths, research demonstrates repeatedly that home schoolers excel in areas of social development, as well as academic success. We are excited as we embark on this new phase of our lives, and we are certain that as much as we'll be teaching our children, we'll be learning almost just as much ourselves. Thank you for sharing this journey with us.
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