Home Schooling

Kim du Toit has the best sum up (especially since it's what I did this year) of how to home school a kid under 10. One caveat: with a special needs child, I found it necessary to have a math curriculum because he needed the structure and would be too distracted in real world instruction. However, the curriculum I used emphasized real world application so that's how we got from there to here.

California Requires Certified Home School Teachers But Private School Teachers Can Be Anyone

Betsy has more on this infringement on rights.

What's Really Wrong With Public School Education?

A dear reader asked:

Could you explain to me how the schools are not educating our children. My husband and I keep talking about this because we keep hearing it. I am very concerned about this issue and we both seem to be in the dark over this huge concern. Perhaps the problem is that I have nothing to compare with. Would you be so kind to explain a bit further about how the kids are not receiving enough education. Thank you! :-)

I think it's a great question. I'm not a home school zealot by any means. I did not, for example, pull my kids out of public school because it was a moral cesspool, because it wasn't. I didn't pull my kids out of public school because the curriculum wasn't challenging, because for the most part, it was challenging. I didn't pull my kids out of public school because the teachers were apathetic or uninterested, because most of the teachers were very good and did care. I didn't pull my kids out of public school because I wanted a Christian curriculum. Actually, the curricula I use at home is classical first.

Many of the typical reasons people pull their kids out of public schools were not the reasons I pulled my kids out of school. Mind you, as the kids get older, some of them might contribute to my decision. So, why did I pull my kids out of public school?

I pulled my kids out of the public school so they could learn every subject in a logical, make-sense sort of way. I want them to learn easily, quickly, efficiently, and I want them to enjoy doing it.

So many parts of the public school actually work against learning--there's the wasted time doing time-wasting activities. But more than this, there is no system for education. One would think, since schools are really modeled after industrial-age factories, that they would have a logical, systematic progression in their curriculum, but they don't.

This sounds vague. Let me explain what I'm doing and how it's different. The curricula I'm using --the math, the history, the geography, the hand writing, the reading, the grammar, the spelling--all of them, start at the beginning. So, this year, we are doing a survey of world history. Don't you always like it when you hear the story from the beginning? I know I do. Because of this, the kids know where Iraq is. They know the Tigris and Euphrates. They know the history of Islam. They know the Crusades. And, now, they understand better the situation in the Middle East and that it's a continuation of centuries of conflict. The world today makes sense. (Well, as much as it can, anyway.)

Likewise, their math curriculum builds in a logical sequence. Now, I have an autistic son. So rote memorization is easy for him. Comprehension in all aspects--from reading comprehension to getting the gist of a math word problem to understanding the concept of passing time--challenges him. The only way to overcome this, is to press on. But he cannot continue to the next phase of learning, if he doesn't understand where he's at. A logical progression helps him.

The public schools might cover some of the same territory. In fact, they do. In an example I've brought up before, slavery will be covered both by the public schools and by me at home. What is the difference? The difference is history, perspective, and context. By the time American history rolls around, the kids will know that the concept of equal rights is a very new and thoroughly modern concept. Slavery, in history, has been the way of the world and in some places, still is. This won't minimize the horror in American history. In fact, it will reinforce that the world has been an unfair place for a long time. Hopefully, they will be inspired to appreciate the freedoms they enjoy, and hopefully, they'll work toward treating all people without prejudice themselves. In contrast, in the school's curriculum, slavery will be the sole domain of Martin Luther King and a treatise on how America sucks. And this perspective will be given in first, before any context.

The public schools, at least here, are not dens of under-achievement. They are simply places of misplaced priorities. Eventually, the skewed perspective and confusion cause gaps and unevenness. Not to mention the emphasis on homework and busy-projects can cause frustration especially for special needs boys. And then there is the shortened school day and time for extracurricular activities and play time. And these are just some of the reasons why I'm home schooling--even though the past couple of weeks I have wanted to send the kids to boarding school, forget public school.

Homeschooling In San Francisco: Not Pro-Choice

You know, I don't get it. San Francisco is a town where every sort of right is championed--every sort of right. And today, an appellate court brought forth this ruling:

California parents without teaching credentials can no longer home school their children, according to a recent state appellate court ruling.

"Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote in a Feb. 28 opinion for the 2nd District Court of Appeals.

Noncompliance could lead to criminal complaints against the parents, Croskey said.

This, to me, is simply caving to Teacher's Unions intent on ensuring a monopoly. At the foundation, though, it's just a way for the state to control another aspect of the lives of it's citizens.

Choice. I'm pro-school-choice.

H/T Reader Glynn Washington

School Stress Evaporates At Home

The stress in our family has lessened so significantly since starting to home school. My kids already had severe test anxiety at the ripe old ages of 7 and 9. That's a problem. The result of their anxiety was a defeatest attitude: if they couldn't be guaranteed super-success, they didn't want to try. I don't think yoga at school would have helped much. It might have helped a little. Maybe getting rid of homework would have helped the generalized anxiety. In fact, I'm quite sure it would have helped.

Two and a half months into home schooling and the results are promising. More relaxed family (including me--an unintended benefit) and more relaxed kids. Shhhh, don't tell them, but the tests I write for them are harder. I'm pushing them to comprehend. They are being forced to remember not just what, but why. And still, they are more relaxed. They have also received their first "bad" grades and survived. They are learning to go back again and study and get it and then try again.

With home school, there is no homework. Well, not like is generally understood. They are reading and reading the "required" texts but they don't realize what they're doing. When we talk through and do assignments off of books they enjoy reading, they're doing work, they just don't really notice.

I wasn't sure at the beginning, the curriculum scared me because of its simplicity, but I simply must sing the praises of Math-U-See. It is amazing. The comprehension of math concepts is so complete and simple. The kids are motoring through it.

Another curriculum, this one for handwriting called Handwriting Without Tears, is nearly miraculous. My son, who has problems with deciding where to put the pencil and has fine more strength problems viewed learning cursive with apprehension. He literally looked suspiciously at the text book. Not now. Loves it. My husband said, "He wrote that?!" It's been pretty amazing.

We are also using Sonlight for Reading, Vocabulary, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar, History, Geography, and Bible. It is a literature-based curriculum and it's fantastic. The text books are original works. The kids are reading a couple Robert Lewis Stevenson poems a week. They are learning a couple Aesop's fables a week. They are reading out loud. They are explaining the moral of the story. They are creatively writing. Each week, we are going through a couple pieces of children's literature.

For people like me who find the notion of putting it all together daunting, the Sonlight system is flexible yet structured. The only work I add for myself, is more testing. At least every other week, I put together a comprehensive test for the kids to make sure they are retaining what they learn. This week, they have learned the basics about the Phoenicians, Spartans, Athenians, the architecture of columns, the story of Romulus and Remus, Rome, the Olympiad, Homer's Odyssey (which they are dying to read), Eastern Europe, Romania, Italy, what was significant about Mecca and the rise and fall of King Saul, the rise of David and the friendship between David and Jonathon. That's a lot. And that's all on the test. Plus dates for the Peloponnesian War and the original and reinstated Olympics. It's definitely a survey of History and Bible this year. It will be the foundation for the next four years when we go back and look, in depth, at those times.

And they aren't stressed. Can you imagine? They love it. We haven't had an art project or science project in a while. We have made cave man pictures and created hieroglyphics. When we get to Pompeii, we'll explode a volcano. They have more time for the arts--music and drama are during school hours. Dance is after school twice a week.

All in all, I don't think the stress in school comes from the volume of material or even the focus on testing. The running from one activity to another, the inability to slow things down to have a question answered, the frustration of having play-time or recess taken away to finish up work, the inability to get a drink when thirsty or run to the bathroom without missing something, the boredom when a topic is already known, the pressure to perform during timed tests (in second grade) and on and on. The schools must meet the needs of many kids so some of the flexibility needed to reduce stress just can't happen. I'm amazed at the stellar job the teachers do. It is certainly not easy.

So, it's admirable that the High School principal wants to put in a program to reduce stress for kids. That's an excellent goal. I'm just not sure it's possible.

Home Schooling: Week 3, Is the Honeymoon Over?

First of all is it Home Schooling or Homeschooling? I see it both ways and I don't know the proper usage and it bugs me.

Both kids were in a puddle of tears today. I'd say that's a resounding success. Why were they crying? I actually pushed them to comprehend what they were reading. They had to write a one paragraph summary of the story thus far. The faucets turned on when they had to re-write the sentences into something coherent. That's called editing. Not that I do it, but do as I say and all that. The paragraph summary will be happening every day from now on, they've been informed. They're not happy.

".....Elementary School was so much easier!" Wahhh!

Yes it was. Welcome to Dr. Melissa's den of home school horrors. You can enter any time you like, but you can never leave.

After reading through the curriculum, I realized that I hadn't been mindful of any goals for this education other than get through the pre-made syllabus every day. But after training my mind with the book The Well Trained Mind, I decided that I needed to be more focused.

My goal is simple: Comprehension. I want my children to actually understand what they're learning. Memorization is the foundation, of course, but if they don't "get it", especially the Autistic one, the kids might as well be a computer. So I renewed my math and writing teaching efforts. And the vocabulary test is long and challenging. And they hate it.

But then we jumped in the pool, while the other kids were still in school and all was right with the world.

When does the honeymoon end? Because this one hasn't lasted long at all.

Good-bye Summer

With home schooling, there's not so much an end as a renewal. More structure, less lazy. It was a good and busy summer. It will be a good and busy fall. I really want the leaves to change brilliantly this fall in Houston. Some years it happens. Maybe it will this time.

James Lileks has a wonderful post about summer.

Home School: First Day of School by A First Time Teacher--UPDATE

Like everyone else in Texas, school started today, except we didn't get up at 6:00 a.m. (7:30) and we didn't get on a big, hot, un-air-conditioned, yellow bus. We walked to the kitchen, had breakfast, cleaned up, and started with our studies.

I was nervous. There seemed to be so much material and I really wanted to finish in three hours as positive reinforcement for the kids. See? It won't be as long as school. You'll get to go swimming for gym time! The day did extend longer than I expected but they took an hour break in the morning to watch Sesame Street with little brother. That won't happen again. When they take a long break, the momentum is lost. Lesson learned.

The curriculum integrates language, phonics, Bible, history and geography. So today we covered, no joke, Genesis 1 and the creation week, the location of Mesopotamia and believed location of Eden, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and modern-day Iraq. We prayed for the Iraqis and for our Troops. We discussed the notion of pre-history and imagined the world without fire. We also reviewed the continents and oceans. (They knew both. Montessori has a good geography program.) Spelling, hand-writing, math and reading were straight-forward affairs. The math and Latin curriculum are in the mail. Today, we worked on multiplication memorization drills. The kids also learned the proper usage of a/an. And they finished their day by calling a couple grandmas to do an "interview" for a future essay.

Sounds like a ton of work and I guess it was a ton of work. We just didn't have the business of getting up from desks and sitting down, walking to a class, going to the bathroom, recess and whatnot. So while I fretted about the TV watching, they probably waste at least that much time in class in the morning.

We didn't do art, music, or science. They will have to practice piano. They will have dance and drama. In the spring semester, we may join a theater group. I didn't buy a science curriculum. Maybe I will. If things go as I think they might, we may have Friday's free to do extra art and science projects.

The negatives: Bickering. Fidgeting. Irritating extraneous outbursts. Little brother braying like a donkey being branded to get attention. Perhaps this last issue concerns me most. Little Toot is not easy to entertain at this age. If sister and brother are here he wants them to play. I think this is a stage we'll have to endure.

All in all, not too bad. Perhaps it's the first love effect. It very well could be. From what I hear, there are highs and lows and good and bad days, sometimes weeks. That's to be expected, I guess. We are all learning the drill.

UPDATE: I forgot their read a-loud and their chapter books. They have two stories going--one about capturing family memories (thus the grandma interviews), the other focuses on the Island of Capri and is pleasure reading. They do a lot of reading out loud. They also have a memory verse set to music.