Our Oak Meadow Week 24 - A Divergence

With a nod to Oak Meadow, our week 24 took a bit of an unschooled turn this week.  Oh, we finished (!) the word family book, and talked about and drew Clara Barton and Hopi Indians (not together) to stay mostly on track.  But we had homeschool group this week, and a trip to Pittsburgh, and my husband who has been diligently working at growing his consulting business decided that he wanted to take some time off this week.  So I embraced our unschool roots, and had a week with less structure that included LOTS of learning.

• FINISHED word family book (YAY!!)
• Syllables- consonant-le words
• A little math review
• Economics
• Clara Barton
• Hopi Indians
• Lots of Independent Reading
• Scratch
• LEGO Pharaoh's Quest
• Homeschool Group
• Art with Thumbprint drawings
• Music with Pecos Bill "reader's theater"
• Gym with a beanbag bowling/dodge ball game that my 8 yo LOVED
• Dad got to come along :)
• Playdate 
• Outside
• Sidewalk Chalk
• River Monsters
• Trip to Pittsburgh
• Grandparents
• Apple Store
• Books
• Duncan Donuts - yummmmmm
• Cold frame building
• Garden planning
• Fishing

Next Week:

• Reading
• Biomes
• Temperature
• Terrariums

Spin the Wheel: Unschool to a BOUGHT CURRICULUM?!?!?!?!?

OK. So when I returned to blogging, and realized that last year's blog was about my journey from a traditional homeschool regimen to happily unschooling, I felt a little sheepish returning to the blog this year and having to admit that I bought a curriculum.

Let me begin by saying that I completely believe in unschooling. My boys learned so much last year that I would not have thought to teach them in a more conventional setting. And they didn't just learn the fluffy stuff. They know all about dinosaurs- continents, time periods, species, what is and was is not a true dinosaur. They have computer and library research skills that some college kids would be envious of. My (at the time) 5 year old son was very motivated to learn to read (yes, unschooled kids will still want to learn reading, writing, and 'rithmatic). And both boys were more complete people knowing that their daily schedule was going to be determined by them.

But last summer when it was time to start planning for the school year, we were facing a different situation. Our house was on the market, and my husband was looking for a new career path. We weren't sure what the next year was going to bring, but we did know that it was going to be different. We were considering moving to a different state with much more strict homeschool laws, and I was searching for a solution that would make it easier to homeschool in the new state, and yet stick to our more relaxed homeschool philosophy.

So in my research I came across Oak Meadow. It is Waldorf based, and wants to teach the whole child. There is a rhythm to the day, and they have their curriculum, but stresses that you should follow your child's lead on things like reading and math levels. Or maybe that is what I got out of their philosophy......

Anyway, we didn't change states (partially because I felt that the homeschool laws were too unbearable), but I decided to go ahead with using the Oak Meadow curriculum. We were still moving, and had an unpredictable year ahead. I was fitting in a bit of free lance graphic design stuff into my life as a homeschooling mom, and thought that having a curriculum to guide me through the homeschool year would take some of the stress off me. So I bought the 1st and 3rd grade curriculum books. Used. Thank goodness for Amazon and eBay.

So we have modified Oak Meadow for our uses. We don't follow their rhythms exactly. For example, though they recommend doing math 3 or so days a week, we usually do it everyday because the timing of the math lessons makes the learning time needed different for each boy. For example, this week my 3rd grader is starting multiplication with carrying, and my 1st grader is doing odd and even numbers. My older son needs all 5 school days to practice and learn this task, while my 1st grader had odds and even mastered before we were to work on it this week. So I printed out a few odd and even "mazes" and he is happy. I enjoy the Oak Meadow Social Studies and Science. And the Language Arts is the perfect fit for my family.

So far I am very happy with the Oak Meadow curriculum. I plan on buying it again next year. But you know, I still have 6 months to figure it out.

January Homeschool Review (or how I kinda, sorta fell off the Unschool wagon)

In the midst of all the goings on with my husband's job, I got the letter from the Board of Education telling me when my first semester homeschool review would be. I pinned it to the cork board beside my desk and put it out of my mind while we were figuring out our lives and getting through the Christmas festivities. I picked up the letter on December 26, and saw the date of our meeting. January 6. 11 days. Isn't that earlier than last year? I realized then that I didn't have very many "tactile" things to show the nice lady at the BOE and prove what my boys had learned. And I panicked.

In my head I had lists of what we had talked about, where we had visited, things we had studied, read, and accomplished. But bringing in a photo album, and a list of books we had checked out of the library wasn't going to cut it. How was I going to convince the BOE that my boys were learning?

The first thing I did was write down the lists that were in my head. There. That looks like we've done something. Then I went to the container that has all of our projects stored in it. Ok, so it would be unwieldy to bring in the paper plate owls, but the owl acrostic poems and research drawings would be good. Darn it, I should have kept the placemat from the time we were learning about fractions and pie charts at a restaurant. That would prove some math..... I had the sheets with the "pay for play" problems (previous blog) on them. This was proof that they were doing "things," but it still didn't look like enough. So......

I broke out the worksheets. Yes, this woman who had embraced the concepts behind unschooling as being beneficial for her children and making her house a happier place, was photocopying worksheets on parts of speech and multiplication tables. And I made the boys complete several of these sheets everyday after breakfast and lunch. They didn't go over as badly as I thought, mostly because they hadn't really had to do any since September. But I made them do a lot of worksheets in language arts and math during those 11 days. I felt sheepish because I wasn't purely unschooling anymore, and because I felt as if I was trying to fool the BOE.

I went to the review, and I passed. I showed her the worksheets, and explained that we had a more child led curriculum especially in science and social studies. She said great, good job. We had a conversation about what she was looking for, and she briefly explained that to me. She also let it be known that the criteria get more strict as the children get older. I got the BOE list of curriculum guidelines that I can use as a checklist for the future.

Since this was review time, I went home and evaluated how I thought the first semester went. I was happy with our unschooled life and how people comment on how mellow and content my boys seem. I was glad that my kindergardener liked doing division problems, and made up his own sheets of problems if I didn't have any handy. My second grader's reading was greatly improving since he wasn't forced to read things that he wasn't interested in (the LEGO catalog was perfect for my reluctant reader). I even liked how easy it was to prove that my boys were learning with the worksheets that we did in the days after Christmas. I didn't like feeling rushed to prove that we were doing what we were supposed to do.

So now I am trying to balance the different approaches to homeschooling to make it work well for my family and the powers that be. Most mornings each son will do a worksheet or two, sometimes more, depending on their interest and patience that day. They have the rest of the day to unschool. They still have to do the pay for play sheets to play video games. I also bought a diary to write down everything that we do that shows they are learning. I write down what worksheets we do as well as when we play Cadoo or watch an episode of The Secret Life of Machines as a family.

So today we did two worksheets on Martin Luther King Jr. and read a book on Rosa Parks. I feel that these are important things to learn about, and I can mentally check some things off the "things they HAVE to learn" list (reading comprehension, check; social studies, check). They then played chess against each other (critical thinking, check), and designed a Scratch game (art, science, reading-- check, check, check). Tomorrow we'll do some math worksheets, or maybe we won't. Perhaps instead we'll play LIFE, and one of the boys can be the banker. Then, I can give a big check for math, too.

What a Crazy Month

I haven't blogged in a while, and I thought I'd write a post to explain.

The first week of December my husband found out that the company he had built and worked at for ten years would be sold in two weeks. Questions quickly flashed threw our heads: will he get a new job quickly? will we have to move? are we going to have to sell the house just to get by? am I going to have to get a job? will we have to stop homeschooling?

Through the 2 weeks, we thought through a lot of plans, and alternative plans, and alternatives to the alternative plans. My husband got a job with the company that bought his original company. This brought about a new set of plans, as we were sure we would have to move. I was thankful for the plethora of internet homeschool resources. I looked into the HS laws of the state where the new job's main offices are and found that the laws there are quite a bit more strict than my current state's laws. But I also found a great online group that is full of successful unschoolers in that state.

Add into all this, the usual stress of the holidays, and it made for a crazy, crazy December.

As it turns out, we don't have to move. The new company made an office for my husband at the local branch of the company (we weren't crazy to think we would have to move, NO ONE else at the office have the same type of job). And I remain subscribed to the unschool site (PA Unschoolers Yahoo! group, check it out, lots of great conversations on there). And I hope to slowly adjust to my husband's new schedule and get back to our normal school life.

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.

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.