Rebeccawow's Xanga

Alternative Methods and Homeschooling

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:30:36 GMT

While we are here discussing the pros and cons of homeschooling there is an ongoing and revolutionary discussion taking place within a section of the homeschooling population. It involves how children learn and what methods are effective in transmitting knowledge.

Many parents who opted out of institutionalized learning decided to not utilize any of the methods used in public schools. Instead of setting up a mini classroom in the home some families took to worldschooling, unschooling, natural, autonomous, child-directed, interest driven, unstructured, informal, life learning... They decided to live a more natural non-traditional approach and to create an educationally rich environment instead of a school in the home.

A few of the heroes in the alternative homeschooling community started out as TEACHERS who tried to change the public schools. They found that the schools would not change.

Bureaucrats speak of raising standards and punishing teachers because even after increasing the amount of water poured onto the saturated sponge the sponge refuses to absorb. I doubt lengthening the school day will change the storage capacity of the human brain, Mr. President.

Instead of constantly trying to fill and measure the child some homeschooling families are changing the way they interact with children - questioning roles - teacher-mom, facilitator-of-learning, fellow learner, to mom. Some are even allowing children to be in charge of their own learning.

Anyway, I just had to share a tiny glimpse into a small part of the discussion among some homeschoolers. I love the discussion of alternative methods because it speaks to that optimistic "future teacher" who never became employed and disillusioned.

This video was circulating in the international alternative home education scene. It might strike some as radical but after living and learning with my own for 17 years it's "well that's just common sense!" It's from Education Otherwise:

Just a glimpse into what is going on out there in the alternative world of education. I know it's not a thorough account but at least I was able to get some rants squeezed in. That's always free therapy for me. =D

World History vs Acorn 101

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:43:46 GMT

I have confessed to you that we are very relaxed in my home. Some people might even say that we are lazy. Well, my daughter must have agreed with "some people" because the other day she told me that she wanted to do real school with real text books and real tests. I told her that if that's what she wanted to do then we needed to do that.

Where else can a student become so academically bored that they become motivated to create their own schedule; their own course of study? I think it's important for a child to come to the conclusion that their education is their responsibility and it's important for that child to become self motivated and an autonomous learner...

Side note: Apparently, in the homeschool or unschool community, it is common for many students to take control and direct their learning at about the age of 11-13. This is the age when my first born also sat me down and told me how he wanted his school to look. Actually, he wanted it to look just like Crain Middle School, so I enrolled him. =D

My daughter and I sat down and talked about what subjects she wanted to learn. She said she wanted to learn the same subjects she would have to learn if she attended a public school: reading, writing, math, history, and science. When she decided on which subjects she wanted to include in her course of study we looked through our collection of various learning materials and programs so that she could choose the ones which would suit her. I have some courses on DVD, some courses and texts on computer, and even a few text books in MP3 format. Pick your poison!

After we decided on materials or approaches to each subject she created a weekly schedule. It reminded me of a college schedule and it was built around her already existing extra curricular activities. You know, "Thursdays are tennis and volleyball practice so I only want to read and write in my journal that day." She only wanted to do World History twice a week and Physical Science once a week.

Well today's schedule called for reading, writing, and World History. But, we weren't alone. Last night after her out-of-town volleyball game two of her teammates spent the night. I had told their mom that they could join us for school in the morning. We could all learn some world history together! I imagined each girl with iPod Touch in hand researching various historical figures, civilizations, regions... a little cooperative learning group in my living room. We had three times the research power in my house today!

However, we woke up to the most beautiful weather and that pushed school to the back burner. I feel bad that I didn't force World History but there was so much going on in our backyard! First off, it was cool and windy, eventually a cat caught a hummingbird and ate it in front of us, and the neighbor's tree was filling up the backyard with acorns.

I gave the children a bucket and begged them to collect them so we had a bucket full of acorns.

We were all lounging around on patio furniture or porch swings with our ipods when I asked the girls if they knew whether or not acorns were edible. I tweeted the question and then googled it. You know how you lose track of time when playing on the internet? By the time I found my answer the girls were inside.

The girls had done their own research and were in the process of tasting fried acorn that they had already boiled, peeled, and fried!

Well, I had read that acorns contain tannins which can be toxic so I had the girls bring me leaves from the oaks around the house. We used "Trees of Victoria" to identify the specific oaks so that I could get more information on the acorns we had just tasted. They tasted like nutty squash... and were not bitter at all.

Did you know that acorns were a staple to some native Americans? They would place the acorns in a basket in a river to cleanse them of the toxins. How did they know to do this without google? They were truly educated!

It just blows me away how every time we set out to learn about one thing we jump track and end up learning about something else. When we do that we are doing the opposite of school. We are learning from what life throws at us, in this case, acorns.

The beauty of learning in freedom - not having any time restrictions on when we "school" - is that it's not too late to watch our history DVD and maybe read some of "Pride and Prejudice" before bed. I'm pretty sure my daughter's schedule will be honored by midnight. ;)

Never mind, I know it will, because three girls just walked in and said, "Let's do school!"

Guess we are doing night school.

Dragons and Rockets and Pi, Oh My!

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:50:49 GMT

I attended a Homeschool 101 meeting for new homeschoolers and I was blown away by some of the observations and examples of "interest driven learning" and "child directed" learning and how allowing a child to follow his passions and interests unfolds as the child matures and grows. As the child gets older he may go from asking hundreds of questions about a wide range of subjects to honing in and becoming an expert in one.

The typical scope and sequence designed for the classroom can work against that natural learning and curiosity for the child learning in freedom - the home. It seems mind boggling that strictly adhering to a program designed to teach children "everything they need to know when they need to know it" could actually slow some children down. A few of us have observed this.

I heard a few examples but I have an example of how my children's curiosities take us away from our school books or my lesson plans:

The other day I decided to read "Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi" to my children for math. Looking through the book I realized that there were a few words I needed to familiarize myself with: circle, radius, diameter, and circumference...

I wrote these words on one of our dry erase boards and let the children witness as I review-taught. That's mom purposefully thinking out loud as she familiarizes herself with something she should know by now. Believe it or not my children have learned much from my bad memory.

For radius I told the children to think of sun rays. I drew a sun and several "rays" which "emanated from one point." I drew these rays about the same length which eventually suggested the shape of a bigger circle. (This was to set up my explanation of circumference.) As I drew these many "rays" I said, "rays" and "radius" out loud.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the book: Just mentioning the word "sun" set my seven year old off into a question tangent. He wanted to know "how come our sun is a small star but it's so bright?"

I explained that our sun is very close to us compared to the other stars and that is why it appears bigger and brighter... I didn't finish my explanation because that triggered another question, "How far away is the sun from earth?"

My hubby and I couldn't remember so I said, "I don't know the exact distance but if you headed towards the sun in a rocket it might take several months to get there." I added, "If you headed for the nearest galaxy at light speed you wouldn't get there in your life time..." Which brought up more questions... "How fast is light speed?" which triggered more questions...and more...

We ended up in a family discussion of what all it would take to get a human to the nearest galaxy - alive.

It is common for one topic to trigger curiosity about other topics. This is part of the reason many homeschoolers see adhering to a typical scope and sequence as limiting their child's learning.

Even my own plans to read a book and to talk to my children about "radius" had us orbiting subjects like "the solar system" and "light speed."

I think these questions that take us away from the lesson plan can be more important than the lesson. When a child asks questions it shows that child is thinking. Thinking should be the goal of learning and not just finishing a workbook. The questions can then be the curriculum.

Trying to review these words so that I could read a book I planned to read sparked so many questions that we almost didn't make it to the book. It got to the point where I told the kids, "Go get your notebooks because I want to read this story to you TODAY but keep asking questions and I'll write them down..."

The story is about a little boy who has to solve a riddle to save his father's life. The riddle is the definition of Pi and the little boy has to find that number. You get to be there for his "ah hah" moment and you are there as he tests his theory on an onion, a pie, a wagon wheel...

After we read the book we did our own hands-on discovery of Pi. We collected several round objects from the kitchen and cut strips of paper the exact length of the diameters. Then we could see how for each object (circle) three of the diameter sized strips fit around the circumferences "with some left over."

Days later we are still using the questions and looking up and talking about exact distance from the earth to sun, astronomical units, and today (now a few days ago) I said something crazy like, "I guess the closest we can get to time travel is looking up at the stars at night." Which was a remnant of our discussion of "light years" and galaxies being so far away it would take several generations to get there...

So we have already "put down the school books" to go off down a "bunny path" as one veteran mom put it...

This is an example of what I mean when I talk about focusing on the learning and avoiding the schooly things. I will abandon our "school" for "learning." The questions are the superior curriculum and I will "let the questions be the curriculum."

Redneck Faux Pas

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:01:54 GMT

I have a friend who recently prepared Manwich for her family. This friend doesn’t follow directions very well so when she realized that the meat to sauce ratio didn’t look right she improvised by adding some Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce to obtain the perfect Manwich viscosity.

Her husband, being the connoisseur of redneck cuisine, by contract, was less than pleased when he tasted the altered meal. The redneck ambrosia had been tampered with! He commented that something wasn’t right and pushed his plate away. Of course upon hearing their dad’s complaining the children's taste buds followed suit and became equally disgusted with dinner.

It’s funny how we expect our children to eat everything we serve them without complaint but as soon as dad doesn’t like something mutiny is permitted at the dinner table.

My question is, “How do you ruin Manwich?” You make it more Manwichy?

She will have to make another batch. Making Manwich is hard work, especially if you forget to thaw the ground beef...

If you don’t like Manwich and you feel compelled to comment on how my friend should prepare something more appetizing I have it on good authority that my friend would tell you that you aren’t the one who has to eat it. She would even add an emoticon to express her feelings. It would look like: =P

Anyway, I just had to post and share my friend’s frustrations.

=P

Independence Day Celebration

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:06:27 GMT

For the last 17 or so years or longer my mom's side of the family has gathered at grandpa's beach house in Port O'Connor, Texas, to watch the annual Independence Day firework display. Hundreds of families flood to this tiny coastal town and park along the grassy shore and play in the sand and shallow water awaiting the show. Grandpa's beach house is only one street off of the water so we can sit on his second story porch in porch swings and watch the fireworks while eating hot dogs.

I was thinking that if America was a church then we like sheep all partake in communion each July 4rth as we break open the hot dog bun...

Here are a few pictures from two years ago at Grandpa's beach house:

Houses (D-mom)

Sat, 30 May 2009 03:34:35 GMT

Speaking of houses.

My grandmother fell in love with a townhouse over on Buena Vista. She bought it and lived in it for awhile and then sold it and moved to a newly built house over in Colony Creek. My son loved staying with his great-grandmother over at the CC house because he had friends in that neighborhood. He stayed over there often. (He's now 17 he was 4-? then.)

At some point my D-mom moved back to that townhouse on Buena Vista. She lost the ability to climb the stairs so she had a lift installed. My children thought she installed that chairlift just for them. It was like Fiesta Texas at D-mom's.

My oldest was still staying the night at his "D-mom's" and her health got to the point where she would tell him, "If I die in the night, don't call 911, just call your mom to come and get you." I told her that when she said things like that I got really scared and sad. She said, "Don't worry about me. I know where I am going."

She got to where she couldn't use the lift so she moved out of the townhouse on Buena Vista and into a one story house on Vine Street. It was close to the park and the graveyards with some family plots. I thought that was morbid and she thought I was silly.

My children and I got certified in CPR which seemed to insult my D-mom. She warned us to NEVER resuscitate her - OR ELSE. One time I was scared she was dying so I snuck into a dark room and called my aunt, one of her daughters, and whisper-screamed, "What do I do? She would kill me if I used CPR on her!"

My grandmother survived, probably because she assumed I was hiding and calling 911, like she told me to NEVER do.

Eventually she moved back to that townhouse on Beuna Vista, had an elevator installed, and lived there until she passed. I knew, when she bought it that last time, that it was where she would breathe her last breath. She loved that townhouse.

We stayed many week-ends there - the children and I. We all watched many movies on the Turner Classic Movies channel. We helped take care of her those last three or so years. I kinda fell off the face of the planet during that time. I don't think I've gotten back up.

Her ashes are there. I don't know if that would please her. At her memorial service which was held in the townhouse I imagined her looking down saying, "Sillies! Just sell the house and move on. I'm home NOW."

(one day I will edit that and repost it)

Small World Getting Smaller Thanks to TWITTER

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:52:35 GMT

Village Idiot was taken so I decided to apply for town gossip. However, these two jobs might be wearing me down.

Twitter has been referred to as “micro blogging” but what is Twitter to me? Besides a great way to stalk locals from the comfort of my computer chair, it’s a way to give this big wide world the feel of a tee-tiny small gossipy town. Twitter is turning the globe into a small medieval village.

I’ve been tweeting (venting) on Tuesdays about my trash not being picked up. This once-a-week trash service we have in this city is not working out. You miss one day and trash is backing up into the garage and puppies, kitties, and opossums are hanging out around your house.

The garbage truck drivers are so fickle. It's as if they look for any excuse not to pick up your trash. If a cat walks by your trash can as the garbage truck drives down your street the truck keeps on going, letting the trash build up yet another week. The cat is an "obstruction" you know. A mushroom was growing too close to the trashcan so the truck drove on past. My trash cans have been ignored for three weeks. I run out to beg the driver to, “Please take my trash!” but I have become this week’s "obstruction" and the truck keeps on going.

So, I tweet my violent fantasies about dumping three week old trash on someone each Tuesday. I warn all new “followers” that I vent about no-trash-pick-up and they might want to move on and follow someone else. I don’t know why someone in Minnesota (minnesotachris) would want to “follow me” and watch me tweet (gripe) about trash service down here at the bottom of the country.

It’s all going well. I’m anonymous because it’s the world wide web. Who is going to see my tweets?

Guess who saw my tweets? Let’s just say my trash may never get picked up NOW.

It’s a small world getting smaller thanks to Twitter.

(This was all a dramatization as the cat and mushroom obstructions were really cars parked in front of my trash cans. This week I’m going to watch my street and if anyone dares to park along my curb on Tuesdays I’m going to hot wire their car and drive it off into the ditch. I can’t have my trash cans ignored another week.)

The good thing is that you can take your trash to the airport on Wednesdays.... Darn Twitter!

Follow me!

Humans, robots, and promises

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:00:38 GMT

The other day (well really every day) my seven year old was jumping around and talking really fast. During this particular string of comments and questions I picked out, "Why are we all stuck to the ground?" He had been jumping around to break free, I guess.

I began to explain to him about gravity but my answer was boring and hinted on educational so he interrupted me and blurted out his conclusion that "we are all robots and there is a big magnet in the center of the earth pulling us to it." I thought that sounded pretty good so we left it at that. We are all robots.

The next day while walking around at JCPennys he asked if the magnet was in the hot lava.

Today is Sunday and while I was typing the above text my seven year old came up to me and asked if I could help him with his school work. I almost informed him that "today isn't a school day" but I stopped myself.

I don't know about you guys but my kids have a way of whining "YOU PROMISED" when there's something I said I MIGHT do and I don't feel like doing it. So I told my son, "Sure, I PROMISE to help you with your school work TODAY!"

Then I added, "Today isn't a school day but I PROMISED!"

Another "ding dong" mom moment:

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:05:50 GMT

I told you guys in a comment somewhere about how people always made blond jokes about me and I wasn’t even blond. I can remember telling one of my friends, “I’m a brunette!” after she apologized for making some blond jokes in front of me. I am going to share an example of how “ding dong” I can be in the hopes of making YOU feel SMART. Blonds everywhere can rejoice, because I’m a brunette.

Have you ever witnessed a student who could intuitively come up with the answers in math? Almost like they could look at a math problem and without calculation solve it instantly? This same type of student might become totally confused and baffled when taught the many steps to solve that same problem. I saw this the other day with my daughter.

My daughter was learning about multiplying and dividing decimals. Simple enough, right? For you, maybe. She had no problem dividing and multiplying by 10s, 100s, and 1000s, like the little explanation at the beginning of the lesson. That was pretty much just moving a decimal to the right or the left. Somewhere along the way she had to combine the decimal lesson with conversion. I don’t mean something simple that would have flowed with what she had just learned like converting meters to millimeters or centuries to years. It would be easy to just figure out which way to move the decimal. She had to convert pounds to tons, feet to yards, and hours to days.

She had asked for help so Supermom had to fly in with the dry erase board and her magic colorful dry erase markers. I was finally needed! My daughter can usually do her homework independently and she rarely encounters a problem. All she has to do is look at the explanation at the beginning of the lesson, study the sample problems, and then complete a few on her own. I get really lonely and bored here as teacher-mom so when she needed my help I was THERE. Well, I’m not always THERE, sometimes I say, “If you are having trouble you might need to review your last few lessons.” If that doesn’t help then I might be THERE.

Anyway, I’m so rusty with math so when I got to the table where my daughter was and set up the dry erase board I had to review really fast to refresh myself with the concepts she was learning. I did this with my son when he needed help up until Algebra II so I was ready to color-code steps and use up the whole dry erase board. The only problem was that my daughter was actually having trouble with something very simple. I had prepared my mind for the many steps needed to solve her problems.

What was the problem?

2.7 feet is how many yards?

Simple enough right? My mom used to call me “master of the obvious” but somewhere along the years of nursing and birthing I lost my title. I became someone who instead had a talent for taking something simple and making it complicated.

Imagine me confused and ready for a long explanation gripping my small, so that I could fit in more calculations, dry erase marker in hand:

“Ok, 1,000 x 10 moves the decimal over to the right. 1,000 divided by 10 moves the decimal to the left. You understand that all of these whole numbers have an implied decimal? A 10 is really 10. or 10.00 and 100 is really 100.0 and 9 is 9.0?”

“Yes, mom, that’s the part I understand.”

“OK. We have 2.7 feet and we have to make it into yards. Two point seven is almost 3. So our answer is going to be almost one.” I’m honestly and truly so blown away by the decimal like Cyclopes staring at me from in between the 2 and the 7 that I totally forget that 27 is divisible by 3. I also forget why that would matter. I’m trying so hard to fit the simple concept of moving a decimal to the right or the left that I forget that inches and yards are two things I am usually very familiar with. I own a yard stick and a few rulers.

I am flipping through the math workbook at the past lessons trying to find the page where it taught about inches and yards. I find the page on linear measures. Metric Linear Measures are so cool! Here is what I need and what would totally fit in with the concept that my daughter is learning: the moving of the decimals to the right or the left depending on whether you are going from a larger unit or to a smaller unit. I want this concept to work with the yards and the inches.

If there is something that *I* can’t figure out I have to call my hubby over. So, I interrupt hubby’s cheesey Sci Fi movie and direct him to the dry erase board where I have scribbled notes and made up some sample problems. “We can’t move the decimal around.”

He says something like “Feet to yards, huh?” and then he says, “point nine.”

Then it all rushes back to me. Yes! Three feet make up one yard! I’m shocked at myself. My daughter still has the same look of horror on her face as when I started setting up my teacher props. She only wanted to make sure that she had set up the problem correctly and that the decimal was in the right place. Which it was.

My husband looked at all of my doodling on the dry erase board and said, “You are going to confuse her.” He looked at my daughter and said, “What’s the answer to the next problem? Just guess.”

The next problem was:

6,500 lbs is how many tons?

I started to complain that I never have to measure in tons and that I couldn’t remember how many pounds were in a ton when my daughter blurted out the answer. She gave it in fractional form but she knew it! My husband turned to me and said, “She thinks like me.”

So, I felt really stupid.

Anyway, maybe this little story will make you all feel better about yourselves. You blonds can rest assured that the stereo types do not apply because I am one “ding dong” brunette. My daughter is blond....

Were you one of the kids who could look at a math problem and see the answer like my hubby and my daughter or were you the type of kid who took comfort in the steps to work towards the solution? Or are you like me: take something simple and analyze it until it doesn’t make sense any more and eventually confuse yourself and everyone around you?

And just in case you wondered:

2,000lbs is ONE ton!

20 years is ONE score and a half of a score would be a decade so the four score and seven years ago speech was given 67 years after our “fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation.....”

ONCE Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:58:52 GMT

I watched "Once" last night and fell in love with a few of the songs. I wanted to share them.