Wednesdays

Wednesdays are now officially our Preschool and early elementary days.  If you have students who fall into this category see below for a description of the activities for our youngest members.

Marine Biology at Kelly’s Wednesday mornings from 9:00-10:00

This is an elementary school science class exploring the oceans and it’s creatures.  We will be working from the Apologia book Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day.    (There is an accompanying notebook put out by the publisher.  We will not be using the notebook in class, but if you wish to add it to your at home studies that is totally up to you.)  In our time together we will be using the book as a jumping off place to do more explorations on the sea.  There will be storybooks, experiments, art projects and field trips to ‘flesh out’ the lessons.  This book is written for an older elementary school reading level, however it can be used by students from 4 on up if their parents are willing to read the book to them.   With this in mind, younger students are welcome in the class, but parents will probably want to stay to help them with some of the work.  Also, children will get a lot out of the class, even if they do not have the book…this may be an option for some parents with younger children who just want the additional activity/exposure.  (The book is worth the investment though.)

Group Time at Kelly’s Wednesdays 10:00-11:30.

This time will focus on group interactions,  story time, finger plays, singing, art experience, science exploration, and mastering basics preschool/kindergarten skills. Parents are encouraged to stay and participate. The last 15-20 minutes of our time we will have a snack and some free play for the kids, while the Mom’s focus on the skills (homework if you will) to work on for the coming week.

Park Days – Wednesdays from Noon to 1:30ish.

It’s the park, ending times will be dictated by the kids moods more than likely. Picnic lunches are encouraged. This is an unstructured play time at the park, allowing the kids more time to interact and for the Mom’s to talk. Parents of elementary (or older) kids from Grace are also encouraged to come to Park Days. Some of our Park Days will have a theme…a water day, chalk day, jump rope etc. Note: In the event of rain, Park Day is canceled. If the weather is unusually cold (or worse, very windy) we will also cancel. I send texts, emails, and will post on Facebook a final decision.

Field Trips

There will be at least one monthly field trip, frequently more. In order to simplify scheduling, if the field trips are specifically for our youngest students I will try to schedule them on Wednesdays. For regular school field trips, we try to stick to Tuesdays. Obviously, some venues only have certain days available so we must work within those guidelines.

Some of the trips we are planning for this year include: SeaWorld, the Post Office, the Fire Station, Tide Pools, the Pumpkin Patch, Petco, Snow Day, LaHabra Children’s Museum, and Whale Watching. There will be many others, but that gives you an idea.

Parent Training

We have a mandatory monthly parent meeting. The first half of the meeting deals with details like signing up for field trips, scheduling school photos etc.

The second half of the meeting is dedicated to training about a specific area of homeschooling to assist parents in staying on track and implementing new ideas.

School Photos

These are generally taken the beginning of October. Students and parents are issued student body cards. The cards for students are free, parents are $2. The parents card qualifies them for Teacher Discounts at some stores…such as Joanne’s.

Yearbook

Each year Grace puts together a yearbook and our preschoolers will have a section featuring them.

Fairs

During the course of the year we will have a World’s Fair where students make posters about a country of their choice, then we all get together and listen to them share. We are more than happy to have our youngest students participate, it’s great for them to get up front and speak, even if it is only a sentence or two about what they have learned.

Students are also encouraged to participate in Science Fair (and yes, homeschool students can move on with their public school counterparts to compete at the County and State levels.) While the preschoolers are too young to officially enter, I’d encourage parents to do a scaled back, fun version to get their kids thinking about finding out about the world in a new way. More on this later.

Music Appreciation: Study Guide Baroque and Classical Periods

This is intended to be a study guide for those taking Music Appreciation this year.  You will find the musical periods along with the composers we have studied, a few facts to jog your memories, and one piece that you should be able to recognize.  Your handouts from class have detailed biographies that you can review.

Baroque composers (1600-1750)

Antonio Vivaldi

From Italy

The ‘Red Priest’

Taught at a school for girls in Venice

Known for his Concertos…which established the three part pattern of fast, slow, fast

Piece to know… Spring, part of the Four Seasons.

Homeschooling Jr. High

Vintage Levi (11, or 12 here) Playing Bass for Tried and True

When Steve and I were first married he was working as a youth pastor in Santa Barbara. At that time we came to the conclusion that working with Jr. High kids is a controlled riot. I love this age, the energy, the silliness, and the endless questioning. It’s a transitional period of life, that gap between childhood and teen. Some children breeze through adolescence, and for others it’s a difficult period of self doubt. Academically Jr. High presents a unique opportunity for you and your student.

In elementary school we are giving our children the basic building blocks of education; reading, writing, and arithmetic. We also expose them to basic science concepts and vocabulary, and begin to build an understanding of the flow of history. If we make this framework strong and solid our children have a good base upon which to build advanced knowledge and wisdom.

In high school our children’s studies become more focused and intense. If they have that solid foundation they will be able to move, rather painlessly, into these more focused studies. Students at this age are expected to be able to work independently through material, to read, absorb, and analyze new information. By high school we should be past the ‘hand-feeding’ stage where a teacher is needed at every step. New concepts may well need explanations, but students have come to ‘own’ their education.

So, what about Jr. High? Jr. High is a great opportunity to evaluate our child’s progress up to this point and to take 7th and 8th grade to fill in any gaps and to drill those skills that are going to be necessary in High School. Probably most of you know your child’s weak areas, but here are some thoughts on where you child should be.

Trudenwilk, the early years.

1. Reading. By Jr. High your child should be reading fluently and comprehending most of what they read. In elementary school it’s important to give your child adequate practice at ‘easy’ reading so that they develop fluency, but in Jr. High it’s time to challenge them. Think of the reading they will be doing in high school…Shakespeare, Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald…you don’t want them to have to jump from easy reading straight into these authors. In Jr. High they should be easing their way into the classics, reading challenging works that cause them to think critically and learn new vocabulary. I don’t mean you should overwhelm them, but a little struggle now will pay off later. If your child is still having trouble with the basics of reading, it’s time to have them assessed and maybe do an intensive phonics review.

2. Spelling. By Jr. High your child should be spelling most words correctly, if they are not it is time for some review. Many times I find that students this age, who are consistently making spelling errors, are just being lazy. You will have to determine if this is the case with your child. If they are just being lazy you need to crack down. My suggestion would be if a paper or paragraph they have written for you has multiple spelling errors (and you know

We should be less concerned with the answers they know, and more concerned about the questions they ask.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Phillipians 4:8

My greatest fear when we began this homeschooling journey was not that the boys wouldn’t get into college, or even that I would miss some crucial bit of information, (that was inevitable); it was that when they finished high school, they would breathe a sigh of relief and say, “I’m done.”

Over the years I’d met many frustrated and discontented 20 somethings who felt that completing high school meant they knew all they needed to know. Post high school, many of these kids never read another book, and what passed as intellectual stimulation came in the form of reality TV and video games. In talking with these young adults, it became evident that their world was very small and self centered. Frequently they were struggling with issues of identity and worth, but didn’t know why.  The lessons they had internalized were that school is a waste, reading is a chore,  teachers are uncaring, and history is irrelevant…the school system had failed them and it was not just their education that suffered.

When our minds and spirits are starved of good healthy ‘food’ we don’t function as we were meant to, our growth is stunted and every area of our life suffers. This is not what any of us want, we want our children to live the full life that God created them for. We want them to enjoy life, to excel in what they do, to find satisfaction in relationships, and to contribute to their communities. When we make homeschooling and parenting decisions we need to keep these goals in mind. Proficiency at math and reading are a start, but we also want children who are prepared to take on all the challenges of the next stage of life.

What do you want for your children? How can you help them get there? Philippians 4:8 gives us a beginning point. This verse points out that whatever is true, right, beautiful is about God, and it would benefit us to dwell on these things. As I consider this verse I am struck by how inclusive it is…all that is beautiful is worth studying, not just that which makes a profit. All that is just, true and right should be our focus…not only that which is expedient or has an immediate application.  By providing a ‘diet’ for their minds and spirits of the beautiful, the just, the excellent, we give our children a strong foundation, a good beginning…and instill the desire to continue learning and experiencing all that God has for them.

Caleb during his semester abroad studying literature in the UK

For me, I wanted my children to love art, and to play music. I wanted them to be in awe of the beauty in nature. I wanted them to be curious about past civilizations and engaged with current events. I wanted them to experience other cultures and to appreciate that diversity. I wanted them to have an education that was rich and full, an education that encouraged curiosity and critical thinking. I was less concerned about the answers they knew and more concerned about the questions they asked.

Approaching education this way is both exciting and uncomfortable. It’s exciting because it’s alive; changing us and challenging us. It’s uncomfortable because very little of it is going to come through on some standardized test. It’s hard to measure the ‘educational’ benefits of art, or where enjoyment of a nature walk fits into a science scope and sequence. How does reading a great work of fiction that brings us to both tears and laughter, translate into a grade?

As homeschoolers we have been freed. We are not enslaved to the almighty ‘standardized test’ we do not have to view education in a dry, compartmentalized way. We can focus on the whole child: mind, body, and spirit…and feed them all. What a wonderful opportunity, be sure you don’t waste it.

Life is Hard and then….

“Life is hard, and then you die.”

Many of you will recognize the above quote as one I use frequently.  It’s really not that I’m a pessimist, it’s more that I’ve come to the conclusion that the sooner you embrace that thought, really take it to heart, the easier life is.  Life is hard…( wonderful, exciting, challenging)…but hard.  If you live for any length of time… people you know will die, jobs will be lost, illnesses will occur, hearts will be broken and dreams damaged. People are messy (both emotionally and in the kitchen).

Denying this reality, to ourselves or to our children, doesn’t create happiness and contentment.  In fact, it frequently creates the opposite.  When we teach our children to expect life to be easy they can feel extremely disappointed and put upon when it is not.  If we lead them to expect that they should always be entertained, happy, and healthy we are setting them up to become demanding little monsters (lovable monsters but…) I certainly don’t mean to imply that we should teach our children negativity, but that we should teach them that life is full of hard parts…and while we can’t control that, we can control our attitudes.

It would benefit each of us to remember that life is not meant to be a smooth road.  It is the detours and bumps that stretch and grow us up.  It is the persevering and doing what is difficult, day in and day out, that builds character.  It is modeling all of this with a cheerful heart that gives our children an example to follow.

We have all seen our children struggle with a subject and start down their own self-defeating path.  “It’s too hard.”  “Other kids don’t struggle with this.”  “I’ll do it tomorrow.”  “I’ll never understand it.”   They can get themselves so worked up that they waste an hour doing nothing but feeling sorry for themselves. In that time they could have finished the assignment four times over.  The fact that the lesson was hard, made them feel they should be allowed to just give up.  It’s at these times I would look over at  my sons and say.”Life is hard, then you die.”  They would laugh, they knew I didn’t mean all of life is hard, but that hard is part of life, and the more challenges we take on, the more we accomplish, the more we are going to bump up against hard parts.

Journalism 2

For my Journalism class we are going over some of the governing principles of journalism.  If you missed the first principle you can read it here. Students are to read the following and answer the questions that follow to be sure that they understand the principle.

Its first loyalty is to citizens

While news organizations answer to many constituencies, including advertisers and shareholders, the journalists in those organizations must maintain allegiance to citizens and the larger public interest above any other if they are to provide the news without fear or favor. This commitment to citizens first is the basis of a news organization’s credibility, the implied covenant that tells the audience the coverage is not slanted for friends or advertisers. Commitment to citizens also means journalism should present a representative picture of all constituent groups in society. Ignoring certain citizens has the effect of disenfranchising them. The theory underlying the modern news industry has been the belief that credibility builds a broad and loyal audience, and that economic success follows in turn. In that regard, the business people in a news organization also must nurture–not exploit–their allegiance to the audience ahead of other considerations.

To Kill a Mockingbird

This post is for one of my literature classes.  We are reading To Kill a Mockingbird.

To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 and was an immediate success, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1961.  Since it’s publication it has never been out of print and has consistently been named one of the best books ever written. In fact, British Librarians listed it as the book every person should read before they die…  leaving the Bible to come in at second place.  Two years after the book was published it was made into a motion picture with Gregory Peck in the starring role.  The movie won three Academy Awards.

Oddly, this is the only book Harper Lee ever published.  After it’s success she retreated from the public eye and is rarely seen or heard from.  There are only a handful of interviews that have been given by the elusive author.  She had expected that the book would not be popular, and her publicist had told her they didn’t expect the book would ever sell more than a few thousand copies due to it’s subject matter.  Instead, the book has become a staple on high school and college reading lists, and Atticus Finch has become a modern day role model and hero to many.

The novel is set in a small, tired, Southern town, very like the one that Harper Lee grew up in.  Although she has admitted to pulling from some of her childhood experiences, Lee has tried to downplay the connections saying the people and the town she described could have been anywhere…that people are people everywhere and that each town probably had similar characters.

Truman Capote

What we do know is that Scout’s life parallels Harper Lee’s in some fairly obvious ways.  Her father served in the State legislature and was an attorney.  In 1919, he defended two black men accused of murder. After they were convicted, hanged, and mutilated, he never tried another criminal case. Like Scout, Lee also had a brother four years older than herself, a black maid who cared for the family during the day, and she had gone to the town courthouse to watch her father argue cases. Harper Lee’s next door neighbor was the author Truman Capote (author of In Cold Blood, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and many other works) and he was the inspiration for the character of Dill.  Capote reported that he had also used Lee as the model for a character in one of his first books.  The two, Lee and Capote, would remain friends for the rest of their lives and she would help him with his research.  Down the street from Lee and Capote was an old boarded up house which served as the model for Boo Radley’s house.  In real life a family lived there and the son had some legal troubles.  Out of shame the boy’s father kept him shut away in the house for 24 years, until his death in 1952. Obviously, there are parallels to the Boo Radley character.

A COMMITMENT AS SCHOOL STARTS

Steve giving Joe a hug goodbye. So proud of him.

Originally, I published this article in 2008 when we were dropping Caleb off for his Freshman year at Westmont.  I’m republishing it today because we just attended Joseph’s Freshman orientation and Service of Commitment.  This tradition of making a formal commitment as the school year begins, brings into clearer focus what our purpose is.   As you and your children begin this school year, whether they are going to school or being homeschooled I hope reading the litanies at the end of this article brings you clarity and hope for the year.

Last week (Sept. 2008) we dropped two of our sons off at Westmont College to begin another year. It’s always an emotional time and Westmont seems determined to make it more so. One of the elements to Freshman orientation is the Service of Commitment. I thought part of it worth repeating here as we begin a new year. If you are unfamiliar with Westmont college it is a small, Christian, liberal arts college in Santa Barbara…Montecito actually. It is built on an old estate and everywhere on campus you are either going up or down the hill…very little is flat.

(quick note, the pics are not mine but Merrill Pirates, and came up when I googled Westmont images.)

When students graduate from Westmont they gather on Kerrwood lawn which is on the top end of campus and march together, for the last time, down the paths through campus to the baseball field which are set up for graduation. They are led by bagpipers, next comes all the faculty in their academic robes, and lastly, the the students. As you sit you can hear the faint sound of the bagpipes moving from the top of campus down until they emerge onto the ballfields. Once there, the faculty, instead of continuing to their seats lines the path the graduates take and cheers and applauds them as they pass by. It’s a great tradition and especially moving for parents who were at the service of commitment.

Time to Regroup

Like a lovely wedding homeschooling benefits from a good dose of planning (Especially true if you have several children.) and a good dose of flexibility.  Taking some time to plot your course will provide focus and avert many crisis as the year goes along.  Realizing just that come August and September we get busy…often planning an overly optimistic course of action.

Then…that’s it.  That is our planning.  The problem is, it’s not enough.  By midyear, we’ve lost our focus and may be beset by guilt about all we haven’t accomplished.  We have a vague sense of not being where we should be.

In a book I recently read, the author took 1/2 day per week to evaluate and plan her homeschooling schedule.  Now that is a bit much for me, but the basic idea is a good one.  When I had all the boys at home I would spend the time they were at their piano lessons to chart out the next week and make sure we are working toward our goals.  It gave me a chance to adjust our goals if they were overly or under ambitious.  That little investment of time payed big dividends in terms of my peace of mind and ended up saving me time during the week.

The point is not how much time you spend planning, or whether you plan weekly or monthly, but that you take some time out occasionally to regroup.  Sometimes we get so busy ‘doing’ that we feel that taking the time to refocus is wasting valuable time, especially when there is so much to get done.  The truth is, a little time off now and then you will save you time in the long run.

Our state (public) schools have regular ‘in service’ days where teachers come to school on days the students are not there in order to catch up, organize, and regroup.  It is a great idea for homeschool teachers as well.  Plan 5 or 6 ‘in-service’ days throughout your school year.  Perhaps you and another mom could trade children for a day so that you can really focus.  I’d suggest you get out of the house as well.  I found that when I was at home without the kids all of the little chores I hadn’t been able to get to kept calling my name.  Working at the library or a Starbucks made it easier to really concentrate. I could catch up on correcting all their school work, getting my calendar in order and evaluating how our curriculum choices were working out.

Other times, the most productive use of an ‘in-service’ day was to stay home and clean out the school cupboard, reorganize the bookshelves, and straighten up my desk.  My kids kept all of their school stuff in a ‘school box’ and just like any other area that gets regular use…it’s needs a de-cluttering on a regular basis.  On these days I’d inventory my stock of paper, markers, science and art supplies etc., so that I could purchase what we would be needing while I was out.

With all the roles we juggle as moms, we need the occasional catch-up day.  Even if it means the kids miss a few days of school, it will pay of in renewed energy and focus in the weeks that follow.  As a last point, realize that all the planning in the world can’t bring total order to your life.  There will always be unexpected emergencies or bad days.  Be flexible and adjust, confident that tomorrow or next week, you can get back on track.

Kids and Books

Books!  Our family can’t get enough of them.  We have bookcases in almost every room of our house.  Books are stacked on coffee tables, sitting in baskets waiting to go back to the library, they are under beds, piled on nightstands, and in some cases scattered on the floor.  We read them, write in them, argue over them, and love them.  I think it is safe to say the whole family are bookaholics.  Books are on every gift list the kids make up.  They are carried in the car for the random free moment, and they are left at various and sundry friends and relatives houses.  We have multiple copies of many of our favorites ranging from paperbacks to beautifully bound and matching editions…a few favorites have even been purchased in Latin.  Tim, who was an English major in college, has brought home new authors and titles to add to our list of must haves.  Joseph has decided to write his own book…Levi once informed us that he could live on an island and not be bored because there are a lot of good books out there he hasn’t gotten to yet.

Not everyone is going to have quite the love affair/obsession with books that we have, but getting your kids addicted to books sure makes education easier.  For Steve and I, a love of reading and education was a value we shared and care about deeply, so of course, we wished to pass that on to our boys.  We have gone out of our way to make reading enjoyable for them.  As babies and toddlers a regular part of their day was cuddled on our bed or a couch with a pile of picture books.  I had them in the car and the diaper bag.  Often we just looked and laughed at the pictures, and discussed the stories.  A two year old probably doesn’t care much about what the print says, but he does care about sitting cuddled with mom and having her undivided attention while they ‘discuss’ the pictures.  A four year old has long involved opinions and ideas to share and discussing a book provides them with a great outlet for their need for conversation.  Teenagers are coming to terms with who they are and what their values are and books provide another way to explore the world around them.

To get the most out of the time you spend reading with your child, to move your child toward a lifetime habit of learning you need to do more than read to them, you also need to listen.  Guard against letting this time become nothing more than a chore to be checked off of your list.

Instead when you sit down to read with your child plan on having a block of time and put everything else aside for that half hour.  Forget the dishes, the unmade beds and really be with your child.  Don’t hurry, you don’t have to finish that chapter tonight.  Take time to laugh, to share, to wonder about a character, to really listen.  Don’t hurry them, or cut them off, but listen.

In moments like these you can get glimpses inside of your child’s heart.  These times of conversation are not just precious to you, they mean a lot to your child.  In the hustle and bustle of life sometimes it is easy to see to our children’s physical needs, but we get moving so fast we stop seeing them as real people with a  real need to connect with us and have meaningful relationship.  We stop really listening.  Your child has an active mind that is working on figuring out how the world works, how relationships work, how to get their way and make people like them.  They are watching you and their friends and coming to conclusions about life.  Listening and finding ways of keeping those lines of communication open is key to helping your child grow up.

Stories are about other people so it is safe for your child to explore how the world and relationships work.  Books are an invitation to walk in another’s shoes for a bit and see life from a new perspective.  It is impossible to overstate what an advantage this can be to the parent who is paying attention.

Let’s take the example of a child who struggles with bullying.  Through the miracle of a well told story they can experience the emotions of the child being bullied and begin to see their own behavior from another perspective.  Depending on their age, they may gain insight into their own insecurities that lead to their behavior.  Due to the safe distance a story provides they can examine and talk about bullying behavior.  These open discussions can provide profound ‘ahah’ moments for children.

While books provide a safe distance to examine negative behaviors, stories also provide wonderful hero’s and role models. Lecturing on the importance of integrity, selflessness, and compassion may have it’s place, but being swept into a thrilling story is a far more powerful way to demonstrate to our children the need for these qualities.  Each of us naturally wants to identify with the ‘good guy’, to think we would have the strength of character to make the hard decisions and sacrifices that save the day…books are a powerful tool in the hand of the wise parent.

So, read, read, read.  Read books yourself, scatter them about your house, and read them with your children. Discuss your favorite moments, argue over characters motives, and learn from characters mistakes.  As you’ve probably surmised, I can’t say enough about books…so I will end with one of my favorite quotes.

“These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds, alive on the shelves.”  Gilbert Highet