As I've mentioned before, we follow a classical education model. In this model, education is divided into 3 stages: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. As children become capable of deeper, higher-level thinking, they move from learning facts, to analyzing information, and then to expressing themselves.
We have been in Grammar stage until this year. My goal has been to introduce Lily and Noah to as many different topics as I could. We've stressed memorization of poems, math facts, science vocabulary, and grammar. I've exposed them to age appropriate works of great literature, like Odysseus, Beowulf, and Shakespeare. As I've mentioned before, I've tried to give them a broad base of knowledge and lots of "hooks" for information that we will encounter again or in more depth in the future.
I have taken most of the responsibility for choosing curriculum that I think is rigorous and works well for us, for choosing subjects that we will learn, and for setting the timing. This hasn't always been successful and has been a learning experience for us both, especially in the beginning. During our first year of homeschooling, for example, I selected that I thought would be an excellent choice for grammar. When I would get that book off the shelf, my school-loving girl Lily cried. Every. single. day. She couldn't put in to words what was wrong with the book or why she didn't like it, but she hated it. I put it in my discard pile and looked around for a new book that I thought would work. Fortunately, I tried another program and it was much more successful. It worked so well for us that we remained with that series until the end of last year.
The second stage is the Logic stage. This is the stage where children are capable of abstract thought and can begin to analyze arguments and this is where Lily starts school this year. Because she's transitioning to a place where she's expected to be more responsible for her learning, I decided this would be a good time to start giving her more responsibility how she learns it as well.
I started by writing out all of my plans for what I thought we should cover this year. I had ideas for materials already, but I was curious what Lily thought of them so I packed up all of my plans, ideas, and materials and invited Lily to come with me for a "planning session." We left her younger siblings at home and went to Starbucks. I treated her to a hot chocolate and I laid out every single plan I had. I let her look through everything and I asked for her input.
To begin with she just stared at me. Then she started to open up. She told me that she liked X about her grammar program, but didn't like Y. As we talked more, I had to "put my money where my mouth was." She decided she wanted to switch grammar programs. I could have insisted that we stayed with what I had planned to use; instead, together we brainstormed, read descriptions, and chose the program that we're now using. Other things, like math, she wanted to leave just as they were.
After all was said and done, Lily and I had very similar ideas about what she should learn this year. She was surprisingly harder on herself than I would have been and I spent part of the time gently pulling her back from her expectations for herself. She commented to me, "If I'm going to be a logic stage student now, I should expect to do more work!" She asked to add in a computer programming class and to try another Minecraft Homeschooling class.
As we left Starbucks, she told me that she never thought that she would get to pick what she learns. She asked me if we were going to do this every year now. (We are.)
29 August 2014
28 August 2014
But what about SOCIALIZATION?!
One of the first questions I'm always asked about homeschooling is about socialization.
What people seem to forget is that it was practically yesterday in this nation's history that we switched from homeschooling to public schooling. Prior to 1642, there were no regulations about what children should learn, how they should learn, or when they should be done with their education. The 1642 law simply asserted that parents teach their children to read the Bible and to understand the tenets of their faith. By 1647, the Massachusetts Bay Colony required towns with a population of more than 50 people to hire teachers to instruct students in reading and writing. Towns with populations over 100 people were also instructed to teach grammar. This law marked a huge shift in education in our country: it gave the assertion that the government had the right to decide what constituted a minimum of an education and to require the building of schools and hiring of teachers.
Historian Lawrence Cremin says
It wasn't until 1918 that compulsory education came to every state in the U.S., which means that this idea of needing public schools is less than 100 years old. In her book The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling, Rachel Gathercole explains that grouping kids by age in one place to learn was done by necessity and convenience so that "material could be taught in a standardized rather than an individualized manner." Now we've suddenly come to hold schools as the gold standard and develop the idea that school is so synonymous with childhood that any derivation is detrimental and lacking - even if they don't matter for socialization. All in less than 100 years.
So why doesn't school matter for socialization?
Socialization at school isn't always the best sort of socialization; students in a classroom are surrounded by other peers who are also novices learning social cues just like they are. Thomas Smedley, in his master's thesis "The Socialization of Homeschool Children," described two sorts of socialization that occur. He found that children in classrooms participate in horizontal socialization - socializing only with groups of individuals who are similar to themselves in age and often by socioeconomic status since children who live in the same areas generally attend the same schools. Spending 6-8 hours a day with children who are the same age and who share a similar background does not give wide opportunity for children to be socialized and lead to pressures to conform to their peer group.
In addition, children in public schools spend large amounts of time in groups supervised by few adults. One teacher might have 35 students. I did when I taught! Three or four adults might be charged with supervising an entire cafeteria room of children during lunch. This allows negative socialization to happen as much as positive - peer pressure happens, cliques form, and fights (both physical and emotional) happen. As a teacher, I've witnessed students made fun of because they were wearing the wrong brand of clothes. I've seen 7th graders crowd around a peer who was pregnant and talk about how lucky she was to be having a baby. I've walked into an empty bathroom to see an 8th grader making out with a 6th grader. I've overheard boys making bets on who would be the first to kiss a girl or cop a feel. And I've seen a child beaten and bloodied while waiting for school to start because he didn't want to join a gang.
In contrast to these issues with horizontal socialization, Smedley found that children who are homeschooled have more opportunity for vertical socialization - socializing with groups of individuals who are older than they are. They are no longer learning social cues from other novices, but have the chance to learn social cues from a variety of ages and expertise.
Also, kids who homeschool are only "separate" during school hours. Outside of school hours, they have the same opportunities for extra-curricular activities and interactions that their public schooled friends have, like Scouts, swim team, or dance lessons. It quickly becomes obvious how silly the idea is that homeschoolers don't have the chance for to interact with their peers.
One of the benefits to homeschooling, for us, is that we're able to finish our work 3-4 hours a day. That leaves us an extra 2-3 hours a day for socialization before most kids are even out of school! Last year we participated in a multi-age coop. We joined in park groups, soccer groups, and field trip groups for homeschoolers. In none of those groups were my kids segregated into peer groups; however, in each of those groups over the last year I saw my children help others and I saw my children be helped by others. We played and worked along side children from many different parts of town and from many different backgrounds. It's amazing how many issues with groups of children naturally become an non-issue when parents are there to oversee the behavior of their children (and intervene when necessary). We also delivered Meals on Wheels which helped them develop relationships with a number of house-bound elderly members of our community.
Because of the explosion of homeschoolers in the last few years, it is very easy to connect with other children who have similar interests. There are so many homeschool offerings where we live that I could book our entire schedule so that we never had a moment of free time to actually do the school that we are supposed to be home for. Just a few of the homeschool group activities that are available in my area: a weekly game club, Minecraft group, dance/martial arts/gymnastics classes, ASL/French/Spanish lessons, tennis/soccer groups, science club, LEGO classes, art/drama classes, and chess club.
Students who are homeschooled also don't miss out on "teenage rites of passage" either. This one may have been true decades ago, but it's certainly not true for today's homeschoolers! Homeschoolers have the choice of going to prom. Walking across a stage for graduation. They can even attend community college (at least in Texas) and take dual-credit classes just like a public school student.
Longitudinal studies show that homeschoolers are doing just fine when it comes to socialization. They are more than twice as likely to be involved in civic affairs and exercise their right to vote. They are more likely to volunteer and participate in community service activities as well. And study after study has shown that they are more likely to graduate from college and just as likely to attend graduate school so homeschooling was not detrimental to their educational goals either.
I have absolutely nothing wrong with parents who choose to send their children to public/private/charter school. The only point I hope to make is that homeschoolers as a whole are not sheltered and secluded kids to feel sorry for. They do not have long-term issues fitting in with society and they have just as much of a chance to be happy, successful, well-adjusted adults as their friends who attend public, private, or charter schools.
Sure, you might run into an oddball homeschooler here or there, but let me let you in on a secret: I run into plenty of oddball public schoolers too. That's the beauty of individuality and what keeps life interesting.
(To read more about the history of compulsory education in America, check out this article. To read a longitudinal study of homeschooled adults, check out this article.)
What people seem to forget is that it was practically yesterday in this nation's history that we switched from homeschooling to public schooling. Prior to 1642, there were no regulations about what children should learn, how they should learn, or when they should be done with their education. The 1642 law simply asserted that parents teach their children to read the Bible and to understand the tenets of their faith. By 1647, the Massachusetts Bay Colony required towns with a population of more than 50 people to hire teachers to instruct students in reading and writing. Towns with populations over 100 people were also instructed to teach grammar. This law marked a huge shift in education in our country: it gave the assertion that the government had the right to decide what constituted a minimum of an education and to require the building of schools and hiring of teachers.
Historian Lawrence Cremin says
What sources indicate is that schooling went not anywhere and everywhere, not only in schoolrooms, but in kitchens, manses, churches, meeting housese, sheds erected in fields, and shops erected in towns; that pupils were taught by parents, tutors, clergymen, lay readers, preceptors, physicians, lawyers, artisans, and shopkeepers; and that most teaching proceeded on an individual basis.
It wasn't until 1918 that compulsory education came to every state in the U.S., which means that this idea of needing public schools is less than 100 years old. In her book The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling, Rachel Gathercole explains that grouping kids by age in one place to learn was done by necessity and convenience so that "material could be taught in a standardized rather than an individualized manner." Now we've suddenly come to hold schools as the gold standard and develop the idea that school is so synonymous with childhood that any derivation is detrimental and lacking - even if they don't matter for socialization. All in less than 100 years.
So why doesn't school matter for socialization?
Socialization at school isn't always the best sort of socialization; students in a classroom are surrounded by other peers who are also novices learning social cues just like they are. Thomas Smedley, in his master's thesis "The Socialization of Homeschool Children," described two sorts of socialization that occur. He found that children in classrooms participate in horizontal socialization - socializing only with groups of individuals who are similar to themselves in age and often by socioeconomic status since children who live in the same areas generally attend the same schools. Spending 6-8 hours a day with children who are the same age and who share a similar background does not give wide opportunity for children to be socialized and lead to pressures to conform to their peer group.
In addition, children in public schools spend large amounts of time in groups supervised by few adults. One teacher might have 35 students. I did when I taught! Three or four adults might be charged with supervising an entire cafeteria room of children during lunch. This allows negative socialization to happen as much as positive - peer pressure happens, cliques form, and fights (both physical and emotional) happen. As a teacher, I've witnessed students made fun of because they were wearing the wrong brand of clothes. I've seen 7th graders crowd around a peer who was pregnant and talk about how lucky she was to be having a baby. I've walked into an empty bathroom to see an 8th grader making out with a 6th grader. I've overheard boys making bets on who would be the first to kiss a girl or cop a feel. And I've seen a child beaten and bloodied while waiting for school to start because he didn't want to join a gang.
In contrast to these issues with horizontal socialization, Smedley found that children who are homeschooled have more opportunity for vertical socialization - socializing with groups of individuals who are older than they are. They are no longer learning social cues from other novices, but have the chance to learn social cues from a variety of ages and expertise.
Also, kids who homeschool are only "separate" during school hours. Outside of school hours, they have the same opportunities for extra-curricular activities and interactions that their public schooled friends have, like Scouts, swim team, or dance lessons. It quickly becomes obvious how silly the idea is that homeschoolers don't have the chance for to interact with their peers.
One of the benefits to homeschooling, for us, is that we're able to finish our work 3-4 hours a day. That leaves us an extra 2-3 hours a day for socialization before most kids are even out of school! Last year we participated in a multi-age coop. We joined in park groups, soccer groups, and field trip groups for homeschoolers. In none of those groups were my kids segregated into peer groups; however, in each of those groups over the last year I saw my children help others and I saw my children be helped by others. We played and worked along side children from many different parts of town and from many different backgrounds. It's amazing how many issues with groups of children naturally become an non-issue when parents are there to oversee the behavior of their children (and intervene when necessary). We also delivered Meals on Wheels which helped them develop relationships with a number of house-bound elderly members of our community.
Because of the explosion of homeschoolers in the last few years, it is very easy to connect with other children who have similar interests. There are so many homeschool offerings where we live that I could book our entire schedule so that we never had a moment of free time to actually do the school that we are supposed to be home for. Just a few of the homeschool group activities that are available in my area: a weekly game club, Minecraft group, dance/martial arts/gymnastics classes, ASL/French/Spanish lessons, tennis/soccer groups, science club, LEGO classes, art/drama classes, and chess club.
Students who are homeschooled also don't miss out on "teenage rites of passage" either. This one may have been true decades ago, but it's certainly not true for today's homeschoolers! Homeschoolers have the choice of going to prom. Walking across a stage for graduation. They can even attend community college (at least in Texas) and take dual-credit classes just like a public school student.
Longitudinal studies show that homeschoolers are doing just fine when it comes to socialization. They are more than twice as likely to be involved in civic affairs and exercise their right to vote. They are more likely to volunteer and participate in community service activities as well. And study after study has shown that they are more likely to graduate from college and just as likely to attend graduate school so homeschooling was not detrimental to their educational goals either.
I have absolutely nothing wrong with parents who choose to send their children to public/private/charter school. The only point I hope to make is that homeschoolers as a whole are not sheltered and secluded kids to feel sorry for. They do not have long-term issues fitting in with society and they have just as much of a chance to be happy, successful, well-adjusted adults as their friends who attend public, private, or charter schools.
Sure, you might run into an oddball homeschooler here or there, but let me let you in on a secret: I run into plenty of oddball public schoolers too. That's the beauty of individuality and what keeps life interesting.
(To read more about the history of compulsory education in America, check out this article. To read a longitudinal study of homeschooled adults, check out this article.)
18 August 2014
How's your memory (work)?
One of the tenets of classical education is memory work: memorization and recitation. In the grammar stage (up to 5th grade), you are encouraged to explore, discover, and memorize. Those who support classical education will tell you that the child doesn't even need to fully understand what they are memorizing; that comes later on as children mature and become analytical. They claim the more facts and poems that you can expose a child to and have them memorize, the more mental pegs form in a child's brain to "hang" information on when they hear it again later.
It sounded like achallenging lofty goal, especially when I thought back to my days of memorization and recitation in school. When I thought of doing memory work with Lily, the phrase "drill and kill" kept popping up in my head. I remembered days of stomping to linking verbs, chanting preposition lists, reciting multiplication facts, and repeating definitions over and over again. Honestly, it sounded awful. And boring. As a new homeschooler, I half-heartedly jumped in and decided I was willing to give memory work a try, but I was also just as willing to throw it out the window the minute I felt it no longer worked for us. To tell the truth, there was a part of me that was hoping it wouldn't work so I could confidently throw it out and tell myself that I knew better.
What a difference perspective and attitude make. I came into this from an adult's perspective. Memory work was nothing more than a chore to be completed...an assignment to be finished quickly so that we could move on to something more fun. As it turned out, Lily had never read the memo that memory work was drudgery and something to dread. She loved memorizing things. And she was good at it. She devoured every poem and list that I could find and eagerly asked for more. She randomly rattled off her new knowledge to anyone who would listen, each time as obviously proud of herself for remembering it as the time before. Her confidence grew as she committed longer and longer passages to memory. Lily viewed it with the same enthusiasm, excitement, and eagerness as she did everything else.
We've continued with memory work, although some years have been better than others. Last year was one of those years I wish we'd done better. I thought I found the perfect program that would give us weekly memory work for history, science, Latin, geography, math, and English. It was perfect for us in the beginning. Both Lily and Noah quickly learned the definition of a preposition and could list off every preposition (among other things). I'd often hear them racing one another to see who could say them faster. A few months later, we encountered prepositions in grammar. They already had those mental pegs from their memory work so it was a piece of cake for them.
As the year progressed, winter came and we got sick.While we were sick, memory work was the last thing on my list. Then the February blues hit. I tried to go back and pick it up as spring came, but now I felt pressure to try to catch up to where we should have been. The kids were discouraged. I was discouraged. Our attitude and perspective had changed...and it was set aside to collect dust.
After talking with Lily, we are ready to dive back in to memory work this year with the excitement and enthusiasm that we lost. I've revamped our memory work so that it fits us and I'm using it as a starting point. Week numbers are marked out; who cares if it takes us more (or less!) time than the book thinks it should. Memory work does not have a finish line. It is not a means to an end. It's a process and just one more tool in our toolbox.
Earlier this summer, I read an article about the importance of memory work. The author pointed out that our children are memorizing things every moment of every day. Silly jokes they hear from their friends. Commercial jingles on the television. The newest Lady Gaga song from the radio. Pop culture, mass media, and their peers will fill a child's mind if given the chance. There certainly is a spot for those so a child grows to understand their own culture, but we are doing them a disservice if we don't give them a chance to fill their mind with more than that. We can make the choice to fill their minds with names and places and facts, which creates mental pegs upon which new information can later be added. And we can fill their minds with poetry, which increases vocabulary, helps teach complex language patterns, fills the mind with beautiful language.
Given those options, the choice seems simple.
It sounded like a
What a difference perspective and attitude make. I came into this from an adult's perspective. Memory work was nothing more than a chore to be completed...an assignment to be finished quickly so that we could move on to something more fun. As it turned out, Lily had never read the memo that memory work was drudgery and something to dread. She loved memorizing things. And she was good at it. She devoured every poem and list that I could find and eagerly asked for more. She randomly rattled off her new knowledge to anyone who would listen, each time as obviously proud of herself for remembering it as the time before. Her confidence grew as she committed longer and longer passages to memory. Lily viewed it with the same enthusiasm, excitement, and eagerness as she did everything else.
We've continued with memory work, although some years have been better than others. Last year was one of those years I wish we'd done better. I thought I found the perfect program that would give us weekly memory work for history, science, Latin, geography, math, and English. It was perfect for us in the beginning. Both Lily and Noah quickly learned the definition of a preposition and could list off every preposition (among other things). I'd often hear them racing one another to see who could say them faster. A few months later, we encountered prepositions in grammar. They already had those mental pegs from their memory work so it was a piece of cake for them.
As the year progressed, winter came and we got sick.While we were sick, memory work was the last thing on my list. Then the February blues hit. I tried to go back and pick it up as spring came, but now I felt pressure to try to catch up to where we should have been. The kids were discouraged. I was discouraged. Our attitude and perspective had changed...and it was set aside to collect dust.
After talking with Lily, we are ready to dive back in to memory work this year with the excitement and enthusiasm that we lost. I've revamped our memory work so that it fits us and I'm using it as a starting point. Week numbers are marked out; who cares if it takes us more (or less!) time than the book thinks it should. Memory work does not have a finish line. It is not a means to an end. It's a process and just one more tool in our toolbox.
Earlier this summer, I read an article about the importance of memory work. The author pointed out that our children are memorizing things every moment of every day. Silly jokes they hear from their friends. Commercial jingles on the television. The newest Lady Gaga song from the radio. Pop culture, mass media, and their peers will fill a child's mind if given the chance. There certainly is a spot for those so a child grows to understand their own culture, but we are doing them a disservice if we don't give them a chance to fill their mind with more than that. We can make the choice to fill their minds with names and places and facts, which creates mental pegs upon which new information can later be added. And we can fill their minds with poetry, which increases vocabulary, helps teach complex language patterns, fills the mind with beautiful language.
Given those options, the choice seems simple.
11 August 2014
Sharpened pencils
For me, August is a lot like those last few days of December before we jump into a new year. It's full of anticipation and excitement, as well as reflection over the last year. Resolutions are made for things that I'd like to improve or change. And there's a bit of sadness and regret that another year has left us (I mean, wow - it seems just yesterday we were starting Kindergarten with Lily!).
Back to school begins practically as soon as the last year ends with scouring Sunday ads for school supplies. I love looking at sales and adding boxes of crayons, bottles of glue, and packs of brightly colored pens to my shopping cart. My goal with school shopping is to stockpile supplies while they are on sale so that when we need items later in the year I can just grab them out of the closet and so that I don't spend $1.25 on something I could have spent 25 cents on.
In prep for our last supply shopping spree, my wonderful husband tackled our supply closet on Saturday and neatly organized everything so that I could make my final supply list and fill in any holes that were left. Meanwhile, I took every book and binder and organizer off of our bookcases where I keep our school materials. I dusted, sorted, and purged.
Then I called the kids over and we let them look through their new books, which have been arriving over the last few months. The next few minutes were filled with exclamations of "Oh, wow," "Cool," and "I'm going to learn how to do that this year?" Then we filled their shelves with their new school supplies and binders and textbooks.
I'm still working on lesson plans, but I can feel things winding down as we come close to our starting date. A new school year is about to begin and I'm not sure who is more excited - the kids or me.
Back to school begins practically as soon as the last year ends with scouring Sunday ads for school supplies. I love looking at sales and adding boxes of crayons, bottles of glue, and packs of brightly colored pens to my shopping cart. My goal with school shopping is to stockpile supplies while they are on sale so that when we need items later in the year I can just grab them out of the closet and so that I don't spend $1.25 on something I could have spent 25 cents on.
In prep for our last supply shopping spree, my wonderful husband tackled our supply closet on Saturday and neatly organized everything so that I could make my final supply list and fill in any holes that were left. Meanwhile, I took every book and binder and organizer off of our bookcases where I keep our school materials. I dusted, sorted, and purged.
Then I called the kids over and we let them look through their new books, which have been arriving over the last few months. The next few minutes were filled with exclamations of "Oh, wow," "Cool," and "I'm going to learn how to do that this year?" Then we filled their shelves with their new school supplies and binders and textbooks.
I'm still working on lesson plans, but I can feel things winding down as we come close to our starting date. A new school year is about to begin and I'm not sure who is more excited - the kids or me.
10 August 2014
"That kind" of homeschoolers
I was having dinner with friends a couple of days ago...some new, some old. The women in the group ranged from their 20's to 50's. In our group is a grandmother and a mother of a tiny babe. As conversations continued and deepened and some of us got to know others better, discussions of children and school came up. When it was mentioned that I homeschool, one of the other women made the comment, "Well, I'm an atheist, but I'm the sort that Christians like." I laughed; I knew the conclusion that she had come to. It goes something like this:
All X are Y.
Z is X.
Therefore Z is Y.
All homeschoolers are religious.
Lesley is a homeschooler.
Therefore, Lesley is religious.
It's a reasonable assumption and certainly one that many people make; however, "religious homeschooler" is no longer the majority of the homeschooling community as it was 5, 10, or 15 years ago. Homeschooling for religious instruction is currently just over a third of the homeschooling community. The other 64% are motivated by reasons that have nothing to do with religion.
(For more homeschool infographic goodness, click here.)
Outside of school, faith and religion are a part of our life. When it comes time for school though, our Bibles are tucked away safely on the bookcase and you're not going to find us discussing Creationism or looking God's Word in our readings.
As for my friend? I laughed and told her, "Oh. We're not religious [homeschoolers]. We're not 'that kind' of homeschoolers."
All X are Y.
Z is X.
Therefore Z is Y.
All homeschoolers are religious.
Lesley is a homeschooler.
Therefore, Lesley is religious.
It's a reasonable assumption and certainly one that many people make; however, "religious homeschooler" is no longer the majority of the homeschooling community as it was 5, 10, or 15 years ago. Homeschooling for religious instruction is currently just over a third of the homeschooling community. The other 64% are motivated by reasons that have nothing to do with religion.
(For more homeschool infographic goodness, click here.)
Outside of school, faith and religion are a part of our life. When it comes time for school though, our Bibles are tucked away safely on the bookcase and you're not going to find us discussing Creationism or looking God's Word in our readings.
As for my friend? I laughed and told her, "Oh. We're not religious [homeschoolers]. We're not 'that kind' of homeschoolers."
08 August 2014
How we landed here
I'm the last person you'd expect to homeschool. I am a "success story" of public education. I graduated from a public high school in the top 2% of my class. After graduating from college, I became a 3rd generation public school teacher. I was a firm believer in public education and public schools; however, I found myself questioning the system once I found myself in the classroom.
Why were students only exposed to abridged and often simplified versions of books that fit neatly into a textbook, rather than the original version? Why did we spend so much time "teaching to the test," only to see standardized test scores continue to plateau (or even plummet)? How did I end up with so many students who were unable to write a cohesive thesis statement, who lacked basic math skills, and who were woefully behind in reading comprehension and synthesizing information they'd read?
I was teaching in 2004, which was the year before NCLB went into effect. My district that year decided, like many others, to pretend NCLB had already happened and hold their students to the expectations they would have when NCLB was in effect. At the end of the year, some coworkers and I sat down and counted the instructional days that we lost to "teaching the test" - that is, giving practice TAKS tests and benchmarks to measure learning front he last time we gave practice tests and benchmarks. We counted 76 days lost to such testing. My school's report card came back - we did not pass the benchmarks set by NCLB by one minority student in one grade in one subject. The school principal vowed that we would learn from our "mistakes" and that he would push his students and teachers even harder the next year so they would be ready for the task ahead.
I didn't stay around to see his plans, but decided to stay home with my daughter instead. As my daughter grew into a toddler and then preschooler, a few things became glaringly obvious to my husband and myself. She was bright. By the time she was 3, she was reading. And writing. On her own. As she neared the summer before Kindergarten when most children are learning their alphabet and simple sight words, she was devouring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She was equally talented in math. I knew what her future would be in a public school: extra worksheets as a way of "serving" her if she qualified for a gifted program, being used (or abused) as a "teacher's helper" to help students who needed extra attention, and sitting there in classes simply waiting for her peers to catch up. This was not the education I wanted for her.
I started thinking of her in the places and situations I witnessed in the schools where I taught and I talked to teacher friends who were still in the classroom. They told me stories of children studying chemistry without touching chemicals, biology without dissections, and learning about the Alamo without being able to touch it because the money wasn't there for field trips. I heard of art and music classes that were required to spend the first 15 minutes (of a 45 minute class) reviewing grammar and math. And I heard of elective classes that were on the chopping block due to budget cuts.
I started thinking there had to be a different path, a different way of doing things, and a different way of thinking. I stumbled across The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer while in Half-Price Books with a visiting friend. As I waited for her to finish, I perused the book and felt a light bulb turn on.
I immediately bought the book and excitedly told my husband my idea that night. He wasn't immediately sold. In fact, his first reaction was a refusal. He didn't want his children to be outcasts. Socially behind. Weird. That was ok. Neither did I. I began researching homeschooling. Co-ops. Clubs. Classes. And the nitty-gritty how to not screw up your child by keeping them at home. I shared what I learned with him and he slowly came around.
By crunch time, my husband was supportive. We decided to keep Lily home from school for Kindergarten. I figured we couldn't mess up Kindergarten that terribly and we could always put her in school for first grade. That year was a turning point for us. We found our groove. She loved it, my husband became my strongest homeschooling supporter, and we were inspired to continue.
Our family grew and as our son neared his first year of school, there was no doubt in my mind that we would homeschool him too. Noah was smart, like his sister, but he was not interested in sitting still and opening up a book. He'd much rather take apart the TV remote and try to see how it worked or study bugs that he found in our backyard. I envisioned him labeled early on as a troublemaker and a poor student because he was more interested in playing than learning. I saw him losing a love of reading as he was told that the books he was interested in weren't worthwhile. I imagined recommendations of ADHD meds if he squirmed "too much" in class. I imagined him falling through the cracks if he needed Special Education services, lost in a system that has too few resources for too many kids.
We are now entering our 6th year of homeschooling. Lily begins 5th grade this fall and Noah begins 2nd grade. And we've been blessed with another daughter, Mia, who won't begin school for a couple more years, but who loves to tagalong and try to keep up with her siblings.
Homeschooling has given us a way that both my daughters and my son can flourish, independently and together, and where they can be challenged at their own levels and hopefully grow to have a love of learning. I invite you to come along on our journey.
Why were students only exposed to abridged and often simplified versions of books that fit neatly into a textbook, rather than the original version? Why did we spend so much time "teaching to the test," only to see standardized test scores continue to plateau (or even plummet)? How did I end up with so many students who were unable to write a cohesive thesis statement, who lacked basic math skills, and who were woefully behind in reading comprehension and synthesizing information they'd read?
I was teaching in 2004, which was the year before NCLB went into effect. My district that year decided, like many others, to pretend NCLB had already happened and hold their students to the expectations they would have when NCLB was in effect. At the end of the year, some coworkers and I sat down and counted the instructional days that we lost to "teaching the test" - that is, giving practice TAKS tests and benchmarks to measure learning front he last time we gave practice tests and benchmarks. We counted 76 days lost to such testing. My school's report card came back - we did not pass the benchmarks set by NCLB by one minority student in one grade in one subject. The school principal vowed that we would learn from our "mistakes" and that he would push his students and teachers even harder the next year so they would be ready for the task ahead.
I didn't stay around to see his plans, but decided to stay home with my daughter instead. As my daughter grew into a toddler and then preschooler, a few things became glaringly obvious to my husband and myself. She was bright. By the time she was 3, she was reading. And writing. On her own. As she neared the summer before Kindergarten when most children are learning their alphabet and simple sight words, she was devouring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She was equally talented in math. I knew what her future would be in a public school: extra worksheets as a way of "serving" her if she qualified for a gifted program, being used (or abused) as a "teacher's helper" to help students who needed extra attention, and sitting there in classes simply waiting for her peers to catch up. This was not the education I wanted for her.
I started thinking of her in the places and situations I witnessed in the schools where I taught and I talked to teacher friends who were still in the classroom. They told me stories of children studying chemistry without touching chemicals, biology without dissections, and learning about the Alamo without being able to touch it because the money wasn't there for field trips. I heard of art and music classes that were required to spend the first 15 minutes (of a 45 minute class) reviewing grammar and math. And I heard of elective classes that were on the chopping block due to budget cuts.
I started thinking there had to be a different path, a different way of doing things, and a different way of thinking. I stumbled across The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer while in Half-Price Books with a visiting friend. As I waited for her to finish, I perused the book and felt a light bulb turn on.
I immediately bought the book and excitedly told my husband my idea that night. He wasn't immediately sold. In fact, his first reaction was a refusal. He didn't want his children to be outcasts. Socially behind. Weird. That was ok. Neither did I. I began researching homeschooling. Co-ops. Clubs. Classes. And the nitty-gritty how to not screw up your child by keeping them at home. I shared what I learned with him and he slowly came around.
By crunch time, my husband was supportive. We decided to keep Lily home from school for Kindergarten. I figured we couldn't mess up Kindergarten that terribly and we could always put her in school for first grade. That year was a turning point for us. We found our groove. She loved it, my husband became my strongest homeschooling supporter, and we were inspired to continue.
Our family grew and as our son neared his first year of school, there was no doubt in my mind that we would homeschool him too. Noah was smart, like his sister, but he was not interested in sitting still and opening up a book. He'd much rather take apart the TV remote and try to see how it worked or study bugs that he found in our backyard. I envisioned him labeled early on as a troublemaker and a poor student because he was more interested in playing than learning. I saw him losing a love of reading as he was told that the books he was interested in weren't worthwhile. I imagined recommendations of ADHD meds if he squirmed "too much" in class. I imagined him falling through the cracks if he needed Special Education services, lost in a system that has too few resources for too many kids.
We are now entering our 6th year of homeschooling. Lily begins 5th grade this fall and Noah begins 2nd grade. And we've been blessed with another daughter, Mia, who won't begin school for a couple more years, but who loves to tagalong and try to keep up with her siblings.
Homeschooling has given us a way that both my daughters and my son can flourish, independently and together, and where they can be challenged at their own levels and hopefully grow to have a love of learning. I invite you to come along on our journey.
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