During the past week, he has spontaneously started a research project of his own devising (studying detailed biographies of each of the US presidents, in order), creating his own Math worksheets, teaching his younger siblings how to play chess, teaching his younger sister basic robotics (yes, really!), and undertaking a knitting project, which in 3-1/2 days is already just about halfway done!

This is just in one week, mind you, and is in addition to my standing daily reading assignment of three chapters (of any book).

This bodes well for the school year, I hope! We have an ambitious schedule this year as my oldest enters sixth, my daughter enters 3rd and my youngest, 1st:

Monday: Swimming (we find out for certain on Saturday); and possibly Spanish (contingent upon swimming time)

Tuesday: Lego robotics (for my oldest); dance (all three)

Wednesday: Homeschool Choir; swimming (possibly–we find out Saturday for sure)

Friday: Lego robotics (oldest)

Let’s see what this year holds!

Their auditions went well, as the pictures may illustrate. Both kids received compliments from their instructor.

Today, the kids are working on their multi-lingual song. So far the song has Cameroon, French, German & Japanese. Another song is in Gaelic.

The kids still read books on their own, and went to their Spanish classes, as well as music class. Today is our knitting group for Teens & Tweens held at a local yarn shop.

We go back to “normal” (whatever that is!) next week…

Unschooling, the end of the homeschooling continuum that I lean closest to, should more rightly be termed “life-based learning” or “practical homeschooling”. Learning does not merely occur between the hours of 9am and 3pm. Life-based learning is where activities one engages in as part of daily living provide experiential opportunities for children to learn.

For example, when my oldest was learning to read, we would go to the market with a list. He would draw pictures of what we needed, and I would write the words. He would take the list, and find the things we needed based on the pictures he drew, and learned to associate that object with the letters I used to spell the word.

I labeled bins in my children’s rooms with words and pictures to promote independence. The bins for toys, and bins for types of clothing were labeled so that my children could choose, and put away with minimal assistance from me, all the while learning to associate the picture with the word listed on the bin, a pre-reading skill.

Sounds like a lotta learnin’ goin’ on!

Much of what I learned in school, I don’t ever use anymore. Much of what I learned in school I don’t even remember anymore.

My oldest learned about counting money by going to the store with coins. He learned 10% long before his public school counterparts (he was maybe, six??), because we rounded up the sales tax to an easier increment to calculate. Thus, when he expressed interest in purchasing something with his allowance, he had to compute the cost of the item + 10% for tax to see if he had enough money. This is real-world math, that he will use time and time again throughout his life.

My youngest is learning to read by looking at the signs he sees out of our car window as we travel daily to our various activities. He sees words and pictures, and can fill in the words he may not know based on the picture. He is learning to spell in this way, too.

My children have days where they want to build with Legos from sun-up to sun-down. They build elaborate structures that incorporate engineering (sound, weight-bearing structures), math (base 10 and manipulatives (how many white squares equal a red one?)), and reading, if they are following set instructions (which they do as often as not). I can’t say this isn’t learning, and I can’t say they don’t learn as much from this free-form activity as they do with more “structured” activities we engage in (and there are some!). They have more interest in it, and a stake in making it happen, thus, get more from it.

I am not anti-learning, but I do question if a “traditional” school setting is the only “legitimate” way in which “true” learning occurs. I am not anti-unschooling, but I dislike the term because it leaves the impression that “those zany homeschoolers let their kids run around all day without teaching them a thing” when nothing could be further from the truth. Our family is a practical, life-based learning homeschooling family….and loving it!

© 2009, Marie Stroughter; All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without written permission.

Additionally, I had the kids go to four different websites today & create a cost analysis for start-up, as well as weekly maintenance.

The kicker was today’s return visit to the pet store. The kids observed a corn snake devour a live pinkie mouse (squeaks and all). I thought if they observed this aspect of the life cycle and were okay with it, it would bode well for them. I feared that just researching it and knowing the “facts” were one thing, but if we got the snake and they cried or felt sorry for “the cute little mouse” they would decide it wasn’t the pet for them….and guess who would inherit the snake?

Surprisingly, they were very accepting of this reality of life. They watched the whole thing in rapt fascination, and still want one. They held and played with one of the corns. He had such a great personality, and they really loved him. He liked them, too.

The kids were invited to come as often as they want to gather more information and experience (it’s a very homeschool-friendly shop…we’ve gone independently and with homeschool field trip groups).

I’ve spared you (okay, *me* the chicken mama who didn’t look!), the graphic photos

So, yesterday, when we visited the pet store & the kids begged me for a snake, you will note my reply in the title of this post.

To his credit, he did not say no, nor did he say yes, he said, not now. And, it’s true. The kids don’t help with our cat’s upkeep, beyond feeding her on occasion.

But today finds them cleaning their rooms with a gusto heretofore unseen! And singing the, “We’re Getting a Snake” song….

He’s been named Justin, by the way, even though he is still a figment of their collective desires.

I think it’s interesting that we were chosen for the panel, considering I have never used the label “gifted” for any of my children. Not that I don’t think that they are, or have the potential to be, it’s just that it is a label I was stuck with, felt I had to live up to, and generally suffered miserably under, and, thus, not baggage I want to foist upon my kids.

That said, I feel my son is gifted in many ways. He’s been active in robotics since he was six years old. Building sound structures (sounds like engineering to me!), plotting angles for the robot(s) to traverse (geometry, anyone?)…all this is pretty heady stuff for a kid his age.

If I were another type of person, I might fall into the “So now I need to do more…push more!” mindset. You know it…you’ve seen it:

“How old was Katie when she first sat up? Carter was 5 months….is that bad?”

“Caleb can speak already? How old is he?”

“You got into Chi Chi Ginormously Expensive Preschool That Feeds into Ridiculously More Expensive Private School That Fees into Harvard & Stanford? We didn’t get on the waiting list as soon as the stick turned pink, so now I think we’ll end up at Mundane Generic Preschool that Feeds into “Regular” School, The One With No Bright Future, for our genius Sammy.”

Not pretty is it?

And, homeschoolers do it, too. We second guess ourselves and wonder if our children are performing at “grade level.” By whose standards? They very establishment we’ve eschewed to homeschool, hello! At Park Day we’ll huddle together in our portable lounge chairs under the trees as our children happily play elaborate and creative games, and ask each other for curriculum recommendations because we’re afraid Dani just doesn’t “get” Math. And, clearly, it must because we’re doing something “wrong.”

I don’t buy into the grade level thing. Yeah, my kids are in whatever “grade” corresponds to their traditionally schooled peers, but more because it would take me too long to explain to a non-homeschooling parent, otherwise! But, generally speaking, I do what I think works best for my kids. My daughter is an amazing reader, and probably reads at the same grade level as my oldest son and he is three years older. Yet, due to the aforementioned robotics aspect, he probably knows quite a bit about subjects that his traditionally schooled peers won’t get into for another few years (unless they are blessed enough to be in a school that offers such enrichment activities as robotics)!

From my background in Early Childhood Education, I knew that (generally speaking), boys develop manual dexterity a bit later than girls do. Thus, when a friend took me to a curriculum fair the spring before we began homeschooling, I avoided the “Teach Your Child Handwriting in Kindergarten” books (and trust me, there really are some books that preach that out there).

Rather, I taught my then five year old how to knit. It was fun, he’d seen me do it for as long as he could remember, and it built up his hand-eye coordination and his manual dexterity. The result? He has beautiful print. With this early homeschooling success story, you’d think I was chomping at the bit to teach him handwriting exactly when he reached 3rd grade, wouldn’t you? Nope. I wanted him to be well grounded and fluent with his manuscript skills before introducing another concept to master. Why did I have to teach cursive just then? Who would see it? I just followed my own gut and it’s worked out just fine. His handwriting is coming along beautifully as well!

I approach education from a far more developmental perspective, and don’t buy into the “Teach to the Test” mentality that traditionally schooled teachers are mandated to have. While the latter is tied to funding, my style is based on intimate knowledge of my own children, their learning styles, and personalities. I remember all too well, many a night of cramming in college, only to parrot the information on the test and do a huge brain dump right after….and do I remember any of what I studied?

I’d far rather my children be life-long learners with a passion for information than Jeopardy contestants (yeah, it worked for Mr. Jennings…but you get my drift)!  I remember enough bits & pieces to play Trivial Pursuit, however I was not allowed the pursuit of what I wanted to study and what I found interesting, and what, in my mind, would have made for a much higher retention rate.

So, with all that said, welcome to my first Theory Thursday….As Bette Davis said, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!”

© 2009, Marie Stroughter; All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without written permission.

Obviously, Tuesday was spent doing what pretty much everyone else in the world was doing: watching the inauguration of our 44th president. The kids thought the pomp was awesome. Loved seeing the remaining presidents (we’ve been studying them), but totally tuned out once the speeches started.

Wednesday was our first Homeschool Choir concert (the next & final one for this semester is Saturday). A few kinks to be worked out, but overall, everyone had a good time! Hubby accompanied the choir (guitar) on a couple of songs.

Today was Advanced Spanish for my oldest, after a morning of “workbooky” stuff (geography, logic, penmanship, language arts).

The Three are practicing for their Homeschool Choir concert that will take place in a couple of weeks. They went over staging, etc.

The theme for Spanish was Los Gatos (Cats).