Pay for Play

As SagePixie commented on one of my posts, kids can "learn a lot through TV and video games." I realize this when my son's reading abilities continue to grow if the only things he reads for 3 days are the names of the power ups earned while playing LEGO Star Wars. Hand/Eye coordination is developed. Memory is tested. Cooperative play skills are built as he usually plays these games with his little brother.

I know that there is a large variance in the way that people homeschool their children. Even in the unschool community, people's philosophies vary greatly. Some welcome different technologies into their "school day," while others shun video game systems and television that is not PBS. In our house, we tend to straddle the middle line. I did turn off the cable, but I bought the Penguins of Madagascar Christmas DVD. My Netflix queue has both Birds, Birds, Birds! and Santa Buddies. Watching the movie Up began a new obsession for my 7 year old that includes searching for blimp videos on You Tube, and looking in Venezuela for Paradise Falls. (It isn't real, but check out some of the landscape that inspired the movie The Real World Behind Up's Paradise Falls)

I also know that in January, I am going to have to sit down and talk to a nice lady at the board of education and show her what I've done to teach my boys. Lists of activities are all well and good, but she is going to want some "proof." And this makes me nervous. So a month or so ago, I instated a "pay for play" rule. If you want to play video game, you have to perform an activity on the cork board in the living room. There are math sheets with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. There are lists to record books read and Weekly Readers (subscribed to before unschooling).

Surprisingly, this idea has gone over quite well. I don't have to remind the boys to do their math or reading before playing games. Some days, they choose not to do any, and instead choose to draw, play with LEGO or work on the laptop. There are never complaints when it comes to doing the activities. My 5 year old searches out the division problems because he likes to manipulate the counting bears that way. New books are being read, and critical thinking activities are being performed. They like the Weekly Readers.

We don't stop this rule because it is the weekend or a holiday. They read on Thanksgiving so that they could play Wii. However, if on Christmas they get a new game, they won't have to do an activity to dive into it.

So now my boys are doing activites that would have began crying battles of will before taking on a less traditional approach to schooling. The kids are happy and I'm less nervous. And we'll see how the BOE likes it in the new year.

Unschooling: A working dad's perspective

With traditional school and homeschooling I missed out my children's education.  When I got done working and made it home, with a traditional 8am-3pm school day, I missed it all.  The math.  The reading.  The geography.  The philosophy.  The science.  The robotics.  The computer programming.  The carpentry.  The human performance studies.  Oh they don't do all that stuff in public school do they?  Anyway, I missed out on the "golden opportunity" to participate in my kids education.

That's when you school children -- when parents are at work; right?  If the kids have been completing worksheets all day, being handed work to do and told what is of interest, they will be more than ready to stop listening to me, and anything I tried to teach, by the time I get home from work.  Last year, when we were more traditional homeschoolers, the kids were not as eager to listen to one of my heartfelt explanations of nuclear fission.

Stop the press!  With unschooling kids aren't overloaded all day.  They are trusted with being inquisitive humans who will stop at nothing to understand the world in which they live.  With that schooling pattern our kids seem to stay open to learning and asking questions all day.  They don't say "No.  I really don't want you to explain that now."  Instead they approach me with questions like "How do you spell screech owl?" or "How can Betelgeuse be as large as our entire solar system!?"

What's most important?

• The kids are happier (fewer arguments with parents over what to focus on)
• We're happier (fewer arguments with kids over what to focus on)
• They're interested and engaged in what they're learning (their interests, us showing our excitement in helping them when they can use it)

Am I sold on unschooling?  Not completely.  We both have our eyes on wether our kids will be able to happen upon an interest in all the things they need to know to succeed in the 21st century.  So far I'm optimistic.  I'm happy with the changes we've experienced so far.

5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Started Homeschooling

Recent events have inspired me to blog more. Blogging about my October experiment was an excellent way to reflect on how I really felt about unschooling. Now, with a good friend starting to homeschool, I have been thinking about my own beginnings with HS, and what I wish someone had told me as I was starting out.

1) You don't need to school 7 hours a day just because that is how long they would be in public school. Seven hours of one on one (or two on one, or even three on one) time is a lot. If you have a really large family, perhaps as a teacher you would be spending 7 hours homeschooling, but not each child. My kids were young, but I found that most days I was finished with our school day by lunch time. After lunch we might do a project or experiment, but some days I let them watch SpongeBob. So much time in school is spent waiting: for other kids to finish; for the teacher to answer your question; in line for lunch. With homeschool, we cut the wait, and get down to the "nitty-gritty."

2) Workbooks are only so good. When I started homeschooling, I bought LOTS of workbooks that were going to help me teach my son everything first graders need to know. Now the problem was, I was homeschooling my son because he was an outside the box thinker would would not be a good fit for public school. Why in the world did I think he would want to do worksheets? Work sheets are helpful in that they give you "proof" when you meet with the board of education, if like me, you are in an area that makes you check in. But if your son doesn't want to do them, they're not going to help.

3) Just because you are a teacher, doesn't mean your child will listen to you. These people you are homeschooling are still your children. You will still have good days and bad days. Some days they will just want to ignore you. You will have clashes of will. And sometimes no matter how hard you've planned for a topic or a day, they will not listen. Which leads to......

4) Things will go wrong. The lesson won't always go like you planned. You thought they would really enjoy a certain story, then take an hour to think and draw a picture to go with the story, and that you would share and talk about the drawings and ceremoniously hang them on the refrigerator..... But instead, the kids got bored halfway through and now while you are trying to read they are chasing the cat around the room with light sabers. There will be days like this. If you are lucky, only one or two. But I can assure you that it will happen. And when it does......

5) It's OK to take a "personal business day." If you or the kids are burnt out, take a day (or two) off. Find someway to change the sceanery. Take the kids to the zoo, a movie, a Burger King with an indoor playground. Stay home and read while the kids play LEGO Star Wars all day. It's OK. "Real" teachers get PBDs, why not you? If you are lucky enough to have a supportive significant other, go to the zoo, movies, or bookstore (Borders is my equivalent of a BK with indoor playground) by yourself. Just because you signed on to be a parent and to homeschool doesn't mean you have to be there every moment of every day.

Of course, with unschooling, some of these things are less likely to go wrong. Your children still might not listen to everything you want them to, but you'll be "teaching" them a lot less, so they most likely will listen to a larger percentage. And even for unschoolers it's OK to take a personal business day, but you won't need so many, because you will be giving your kids, and yourself more freedom everyday.

The End of Unschool October

The trees on our mountain have passed their peak, and dried brown oak leaves fill our yard. My mom's birthday has been celebrated. Halloween has come and gone. My little owl and the "cuter bird" went trick or treating and acquired their fill of candy. All of these events herald the end of October, and for me, the end of our trial unschool period. I have to say, that life is better with unschooling. No more crying because we have to do things. No more whining, no more frustration.

I went into the month with the vague notion that unschooling would work for my family. My boys are "do-ers." They want to experience life, not just have it taught to them. October was filled with Scratch programming, trips to aviaries, reading books, and conversations about everything. As I said before, this is what our life is like on the weekends, during breaks, in the summer. It was a change in my perception that led me to understand that my boys are always learning, and now they are enjoying life-- even during school times.

Unschooling seems to be a benefit for the entire family. I am no longer as stressed and grumpy. Instead of planning for the formal schooling and teaching while trying to get some time in for me and work around the house completed, I work the kids into the things I need to do. They help make lunch and have taken on the tasks such as feeding and watering the cats. While they are schooling themselves, I can read or work on a sewing project. I'm less stressed about their schooling, so my husband has a bit less stress as well.

That isn't to say that our first month of unschooling went perfectly. I was happy that I followed through with my plan to cancel the cable (thank goodness Project Runway is on the 'net). I also took away the Wii and Playstation. The change is not necessarily permanent, but the games are away while the boys break their addiction cycle and remember how to play with other things. I am happy to add that when they discovered that the game systems were gone, they merely started playing LEGO and reading a book. No one complained.

I still worry about how I'm going to prove to the BOE that I am teaching them. My portfolio last year was large and filled with "things." This year I think it will have more pictures-- more of a scrapbook feel-- along with samples of work they have wanted to pursue on their own.

Now I plan to unschool for the entire school year, and then reevaluate it. I know that for now it is the plan for us, and I beleive that we will remain unschoolers until the boys go off on their own.

Hmmmm...... I think this could lead them to their Mamma's alma mater. COA, here they come.

New Recruit

I spent the first day of November with a good friend who has decided to homeschool her older son. Her family had considered homeschooling starting with first grade, but her son wanted to remain with his friends, so they decided that the best thing would be to follow his lead. He is now leading them to homeschool, and we spent some time at the not-so-local Barnes and Noble while she picked out books to help her on their journey.

They will not be unschooling, as every family is different, and the style does not feel right for them. I look forward to meeting with them for crafts, science experiments, and other fun things. Good Luck!


(I do feel a bit like I recruited them. Where's my toaster oven?)

Scratch

My boys favorite activity is programming in Scratch. It is a programing environment that is made of "puzzle pieces" that are easily put together to make the icons on the screen move or whatever else you might want them to do. My 7 year old started programming in Scratch almost two years ago. He started with simple movements-- the Scratch cat just moving back and forth across the screen. He added different elements and started drawing his own sprites to animate. He can also download pictures that he finds on the internet and add them to the scenes he creates. My 5 year old is quickly becoming as proficient as his big brother. Together they make scenes and games. It is great fun, and they will spend the entire day working on a project.

Some of my family's projects:
http://scratch.mit.edu/users/raeleo

A Link to get scratch for yourself:
scratch.mit.edu

Favorite time of day

I never thought I would say this, but because of unschooling, mornings are now my favorite part of the day.

I am usually the first one out of bed (on weekdays my husband is technically the first one up, but he gets up at 6, and leaves around 7, and the boys and I are not early risers). I get up and get a glass of diet pepsi ( I am not a coffee drinker but an influx of caffeine is good) and sit on the living room couch and open up the laptop. This is the time of day that I have to read emails, check on facebook and twitter and just enjoy my own thoughts for the day.

Slowly, the rest of the family starts to stir. And they join me on the couch.

First they just snuggle in. They hide behind the throw or the couch pillows so that they can stay warm and in that wondrous sleep state just a bit longer. Then as they really awaken, we begin to talk to one another. Sometimes it is about things as banal as the placement of my sheep in farmtown. Other times we discuss the least ferocious of the wild cats, or where a certain bird might live. Since I have my laptop, information is at my fingertips and we can use the internet to answer questions. Sometimes the kids will get their laptops and program in Scratch or draw. Always we will figure out what animal we are that day.

All too soon the boys start to get hungry and it is time to get breakfast. Then we all go about our own tasks, coming together during other times of the day, and perhaps we will all sit on the couch again. But it is never as peaceful as it was first thing in the morning.

Before unschooling, we had too many "things to do" to take the time to enjoy each others' company in the morning. I am thankful that I took the time for my Unschool October experiment.

Never too Old to be Unschooled, Or My Iowan Adventure

My good friend Jen's parents are moving to Maryland from Iowa. Jen was going to aid the move by flying to Iowa, then driving one of their cars back home. Her parents did not want her driving the 900 or so miles by herself, so I was invited to come along. After a bit of deliberation, and figuring out who would watch the kids the two weekdays I would be gone, I decided to accept her invitation.

I was excited by the invitation until a day or two before I was to leave. I think that because I am an at-home mom who homeschools, I have a bit of an attachment issue with the boys. My sons and I are usually together. They LOVE their dad and crazy things he does, but I feel guilty when I leave for more than the evening. To make me feel better, my husband pointed out that the trip was an adventure, and that I needed to remember to look at it as such. I realized that this was an oportunity to go somewhere new and experience new people and places by doing.

Hey, this was like I was unschooling ME!

So I headed out and flew from Baltimore to Atlanta, then onto Moline, Illinois. We went to her parents house, then Jen gave me a tour of Davenport. We then went to her brother's farm and enjoyed a lovely evening with her family. The next day we traveled through Illinois, Indiana, and part of Ohio. We stayed the night there and traveled the rest of the way through Ohio and into West Virgina, Pennsylvania, and then back into West Virgina before we returned to Maryland.

And I learned some interesting things this trip.

*I still set off metal detectors in airports.
*The Atlanta airport is huge, but the people who work there are quite friendly.
*Davenport, Iowa is part of The Quad City Area that spans both sides of the Mississippi River.
*Iowa (Illinois, Indiana, and much of Ohio) is very flat, as least compared to my home in Western Maryland.
*The first chiropractic adjustment took place in Davenport. Daniel Palmer was the person who performed the first adjustment, and he started the Palmer College of Chiropractic, which is also in Davenport.
*There are hundreds of miles of corn and soy bean fields across the Midwest. For miles and miles, corn is all that can be seen.
*I have mixed feelings about Cabelas stores. There are too many dead things, but goodness, it is interesting.

I met some great people, visited a family owned farm, chased barn cats, and pet a wonderful horse. With my trusty iPhone, I was able to research anything that caught my eye during the trip. I could take things in and process them for myself instead of always looking at them from a child's perspective. I had a great time, and was full of stories to tell my family when I got home.

I highly recommend that all homeschool "teachers" take the time for a family free adventure if they can. It was great fun, and really helped me put the unschooling idea into perspective. Thanks to Jen and her family for inviting me. And thanks to Leo for making it possible for me to go.

Unschool or Living Life?

So here we are, continuing unschool October. And here I am, still missing the "H" key on my keyboard, but unwilling to give up my pink Dell laptop. I tend to buy lots of pink things because I am the only girl in the house surrounded by 4 boys. Pink says that things are mine. And I love my pink laptop. I can type an H, but it is easy to miss the hole where the key should be. So, please bear with me if I don't pick up on a spelling error caused by my missing "H."

Anyway..... Unschool October is going well. There isn't any daily crying. Kids are reading on their own. Math sneaks into our daily lives. Interesting scientific conversations are held around the dinner table.

Life is good. The kids are happy. I'm happy. So why can't I get over the fact that I feel like a slacker?

Last year, our homeschool life was filled with worksheets, and book lists, and a HUGE portfolio. I was able to track Andy's progress by the amount of "stuff" I had to prove we did work. Unschooling feels like we are just living life. We talk about science at dinner, program in scratch, and spontaneously read books all the time. Weekends. Christmas break. Even in the summer.

Why do I fall back on making our homeschool life so much like traditional school without the PTA meetings? We decided to school Andy at home because we knew that he wouldn't thrive in that environment. Why am I trying to emulate it, and feeling bad because I'm not?

I think mostly I have to get over myself and go with what is working for our family. Live our lives to the fullest. Explore our world-- be it a trip to the aviary or through cyberspace.

Day of Unschooling

One Unschooled Day

*Wake up at 8:30

*Get kids to make own breakfast (cereal)

*Convince them to comeback and clean up breakfast mess

*Kids use Scratch to construct computer games, read bird books.
I start sewing bag for mother in law's birthday present.

*Leave for lunch. Kids choose to eat at Subway. Andy gets more diverse vegetables on his sub than I do. Jules just gets shredded cheese.

*Andy asks about the effects of catnip on cats. Asks if we can experiment on our own cats.

*Drive to local state park to visit the aviary. Park away from the aviary so that the kids (and mom) can get some exercise.

*Kids enjoy walk to birds: throw rocks in lake, identify leaves, marvel over the changing colors.

*Make it to the aviary, renew our acquaintances with the birds there. My boys LOVE owls. At the aviary there are 3 screech owls, 2 barn owls, 2 barred owls, and a great horned owl. There are also 2 red tailed hawks and a black vulture with only one wing. We get to see the vulture eat (not everyone would consider this a treat). I quiz my boys on owl and raptor facts, but they have committed owl books to memory and know more than I do.

*At a picnic table near the aviary, the boys draw owl pictures, making a find the mouse game (sometimes the tail is sticking out of the owl's mouth; sometimes it is in the owl pellet lying on the ground; sometimes, just to trick you, it is in the belly of the owl).
While they are drawing, I ask questions to help devise a scientific method-based experiment to test the effects of catnip on cats.

*Collect stuff and walk back to car, stop on the way home to buy sizable bag of catnip

*Go home and have dinner with dad and older brother. Kids play and talk to dad while I read and make bag to contain catnip for the next day's catnip experiment.

My boys engaged in reading, math, science, phys ed, home-ec and art activities. And no one cried. At least not because of school.

Unschool October

Ok, so it has been a month since my last blog post. I had such high hopes. You can tell that I was the little girl who HAD to have the new diary with the lock and the picture of the kitty on it, and then after less than a week never wrote in it again. But I am going to try to blog more often. Not that I have any followers. So it really doesn't matter, but I will feel better about myself.

Anyway... Our school year started just fine. Both boys worked on work assigned to him-- the traditional math worksheets, reading books I picked, and writing/spelling practice. But it quickly returned to last year's dynamic: Andy crying in frustration over everything that I assigned him. He was especially frustrated when asked to read. His frustration was perhaps made worse by the fact that his little brother was quickly catching on to reading, and it has always been a struggle for Andy.

So there we were, Andy frustrated, Jules frustrated, me frustrated.... I decided to take the week off, and regroup. During his time, I was looking for ideas from homeschool books, and noticing that while we were having a week off, the boys were filling their time by doing just what they wanted to do. Sure, they played wii and watched some dvds, but they also read about owls, illustrated stories that had written, and designed computer programs.

Hey, I thought, I am reading about this. They are UNSCHOOLING!

So after talking to my husband and reading more on the subject, we decided that unschooling might just be the answer for us. I have some conflicting thoughts on the subject (how do I know what they are learning? what will my public school teacher mother think?) so I have dubbed the month "Unschool October," and we will be trying unschooling for the month. Then I will reevaluate my thoughts on the subject. But one week into it and so far, so good.

First Day of School

This is the first day of our 2009-2010 school year. It could be said that one never stops homeschooling (including most families that send their kids "out" to school), so for me, today is the day that I start chronicling the things that we do to make the powers that be happy. I chose this day because their older brother started public school today. I think that if he had been at his mom's house this week, I would have waited until after labor day.

Today actually started last night when the kids would not go to sleep. I think they were a bit worked up over school starting. They are the best of friends and share a bedroom so it is always a bit of a task to get them to sleep, but last night seemed a little harder. I reminded them that they would be very grumpy when they had to get up at 7:30, and they were indeed.

We began the school day with a walk around the neighborhood. This is a new idea. I was not sure that they would take it well, but surprisingly they did. It was a beautiful morning with a touch of fall chill in the air. The boys spent the walk talking to me, and racing from sunny spot to sunny spot on the street. We talked to some neighbors, and it was a good time. They are excited to do it again, and I am, too. I think it is a great way to let them talk and get some of their ideas out before having to buckle down and work.

When we got back, I explained our new sticker reward system. In this system, the boys earn stickers which will accumulate and garner rewards at certain levels (20 stickers equals a Dairy Queen snack, 80 gets a trip to Chuck E Cheese). I debated a school=reward system before deciding that it was worth a try. Last year I had some difficulties getting my son to sit down and do things I needed him to do. He is still learning the basics, and there are things he needs to learn. With the sticker program they can earn a sticker for an overall good day, and for doing things especially well. Both boys are excited for this program, but my older son "gets it," and I am not sure that my younger one does entirely.

The public schools had a half day today, so I figured that we would have a light day as well. Their first task was to make a cover for their portfolio binders. Jules, my 5 year old, was finished quickly, while Andy (7) took over an hour --and several sheets of paper-- to tell the tale of a woman who had too many cats. And owls. With lots of owl pellets.

Jules read two early reader books, and got a sticker after a LOT of coaxing. This is his first year of formal homeschooling, and this summer he decided that it would be good to utilize his free will. I have a feeling things will be bumpy with Jules this fall.

Andy read a Magic School Bus phonics book and did a fantastic job. He doesn't like to read, because unlike everything else, reading doesn't come easy. He was taught phonics in kindergarten, and I think that he would have managed better with a whole word approach, as he still thinks he needs to sound EVERYTHING out. Including his name. And is it interesting, as he will sound out a word like climb, making the sound for every letter ( C-LIM-B), then know that it says climb. Last year we had a rough time, but I am happy to report that he read his book beautifully today. No complaints. I was very proud.

That was all for today. Andy got 2 stickers, Jules, 1. Tomorrow is a full day for public school and a longer day for us. Both boys are into owls this summer, so we are devoting the remainder of our abbreviated week to owls and birds. Books and crafts and bird watching. It should be fun.

I wish all of you a fantastic beginning to your school year.

New School Year

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new school year in the raeleo home. My (almost) 15 year old stepson will begin his sophomore year of high school, and my two younger sons and I will be starting our homeschool year.

My son Andy, 7, was homeschooled last year, for first grade. Before that he had attended a Montessori school, and was very successful there. He had a wonderful teacher who worked hard with my bright, outside the box thinker. My husband and I were worried when we were faced with the prospect of sending our son to public school. We did not want to stiffle his creativity, or make him miserable (the teachers would drive him crazy, he would drive them crazy...) in the school options in our area. So we decided that the best option for him (and us) was to homeschool.

Our first year went well, though there were a few bumps in the road that come with one person being mother and teacher. But I think in the end, we were all happy with our choice.

This year Julian, 5, will be beginning kindergarten, and homeschooled. I have some trepidation when I think of teaching two boys with different learning styles and in different grades. My plan is to teach each on their own level for math, reading, and language arts. We will combine social studies, science and art.

This blog will follow the ups and downs of our school year. Hopefully there will be a lot more ups.