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Wednesday, August 12, 2015

I'm not gloating over back to school this year

Tomorrow marks the first day of school in my home town. Some other schools in the area have been in session a week already. It's hard to believe the summer is over for so many kids. 

Back to school can be a very happy time for homeschoolers. Although we have to deal with some of our favorite attractions, like amusement parks and swimming pools, closing much earlier in the summer than we wish, we do get to enjoy weeks of pleasant weather at the parks, beaches, zoos and museums with practically no crowds after the other families in our towns plunge back into the school year grind.

I'll admit, I have been guilty of gloating a bit over back to school in the past, posting pictures of my kids in the pool having fun in response to the many first day of school pics dotting my Facebook wall and cheerfully announcing how much fun we'd be having at a Not-Back-to-School bash with our homeschooling friends.



But this year, I don't feel like gloating, for several reasons. I wanted to share them with you, and encourage you to join me in praying for the kids who are returning to public school, that they will be safe, that they will be able to learn, and that their spirits will not be broken. And pray for their parents, that if they desire an alternative to their local school, for whatever reason, they will be able to find it. With that said, here are the reasons I am not gloating over back to school this year.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

An open letter to neighbors of homeschoolers in the wake of tragedy

This summer, in a quiet neighborhood populated mainly by older residents, the unthinkable happened. Two teenage brothers, Robert and Michael Bever, allegedly murdered their parents and three siblings, ages 12, 7 and 5, and critically injured their 13-year-old sister fleeing the family home. The police found the youngest member of the family, a two-year-old girl, unharmed.

This happened in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa less than an hour from my home town. News of the tragedy jarred the community, the state, and thanks to extensive media coverage, the world. But one of the groups of people who were most shaken - excluding the family and friends of the victims, of course - were homeschoolers. 

What did homeschooling have to do with it?


The fact that the Bever family homeschooled their kids was featured prominently in every report, some including quotes from neighbors who blamed homeschooling for isolating the kids. Comments from every corner of the internet vilified the parents and cast suspicions about abuse and neglect, largely because they chose to homeschool their children.

But no one can know for sure why the Bevers' oldest sons committed this heinous crime. Millions of students in America are currently homeschooling without incident. It's not right to blame homeschooling for an isolated crime among millions of successful students, any more than it would be right to blame public schooling every time a public schooled teen commits a violent act.

What really shook me up the most, though, was the thought that my own neighbors might not answer any differently than the folks in the Broken Arrow neighborhood if, God forbid, anything awful ever happened in our home. So I wanted to address some of their potential concerns, and those of other neighbors of homeschooling families, right now.

Just because you don't see us, doesn't mean we're not out


A while back, my elderly next door neighbor caught my dad and asked if we had moved, "Because I never see them." Part of me wanted to laugh, but I was also upset because the kids spent time outdoors almost every day, and that conversation seemed accusatory and threatening to me.


I wanted to tell her that most of the time when the kids go out in the yard during the summer, they usually stick to the back yard, not the front, and often wait until the evening when it is cooler and they don't have to put on sunscreen. During the day, when the neighbors occasionally come outside, we are usually inside where it is cool or out at the pool with friends or splashing in the creek at Grandma and Grandpa's. 

Our schedule doesn't match public school


When my neighbors happen to notice my kids out playing in our yard during the day, they probably think we should be doing school. But if we're spending a weekday afternoon at play, it's because we take advantage of pretty days when it is not too hot or too cold, to just enjoy the weather. 

And that's okay, because we homeschool year round, on our own schedule, and we complete more than the 180 days required of public school kids. Sometimes we're doing school on Saturday, or in the evening, or even on the 4th of July. Maintaining our own schedule is totally legal and very common among homeschoolers.

My kids have lots of friends


My neighbors probably haven't seen other kids hanging around our house, so they might naturally think my kids don't have any friends. But the real reason they seldom see other kids hanging around is because we have so many friends it's much easier to meet at the park, or at the library, or to rent a space big enough to hold us all. 

More than 90 people showed up at our last Halloween party, and our normal park day averages more than 20 kids. I wonder if the neighbors would really want all our friends parked up and down the street every week, because that's how often we meet on average.

We're not crazy, but we are weird


Yes, we are Christian and we are homeschoolers, but we're not crazy fanatics hiding in a bunker downstairs waiting for the end of the world. We chose to homeschool, like many families regardless of faith, because we feel that it is the best educational option for our children.

Our kids, like most homeschoolers according to recent standardized test data, are working at or above grade level. They're learning all the same subjects that kids in public school study, although with lots more hands on learning opportunities and field trips.

We are different, though, and some may even say weird. We're okay with that. My kids are a little old-fashioned in their values, a little out of touch with the hottest fashion trends, a little uncomfortable with typical junior high social behaviors like bullying, and a little behind the times in their musical preferences. But they're masters of kindness and the ability to get along with people of all ages.

Don't judge homeschooling by its worst examples


Please don't look at a tragedy like the one that happened in Broken Arrow and judge all homeschoolers just because that family happened to be homeschooling. No one knows that homeschooling had anything at all to do with the motives of those young men, and even if it did, that doesn't mean that all homeschooling is bad.

If you have homeschooling neighbors, and you are really concerned about how often you see the kids playing outdoors, why not take the step to introduce yourself and get to know the family. Chances are, the mom or dad who stays home with the kids would welcome a friendly chat, especially if you come bearing a plate of brownies, and you might discover that the family is a lot more socially active than they first appear.

Please remember the millions of homeschoolers, like my family, who are happily educating their kids the best way they know how, and who are perfectly content with their friends and activities, even if you don't notice them hanging out in their front yards and playing with the neighbors.      

Friday, July 24, 2015

Improving memory work with music: A review of Cross Seven Classical Education

One of the most common questions homeschoolers ask is how to teach math facts to their kids in ways that will actually stick. It's so frustrating to go over and over the material, only to discover that your children have not retained much, if any of it. Unfortunately, this is often the case when it comes to basic math facts, like sums and multiples, and it's enough to make many new homeschoolers want to throw in the towel.

Sometimes it's just a matter of finding the right way to present the material, though, that makes the difference and finally allows the information to register in your child's long term memory. Worksheets and computer games may not be doing the trick, for instance, because your child may be an auditory learner.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/34547181@N00/6023268510


Auditory learners, and almost all students, really, can benefit from having material presented in ways that stimulate more of their brain. Combining music, rhythm, and visual cues can give your child's brain more ways to process and store the information, and to remember it later.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Summer nights and cicadas

I love the sound of cicadas in the trees in the summertime. That cacophony of cicadas, tree frogs, crickets and rustling leaves in a soft summer breeze may be just racket to many, but it's a sweet music to my ears.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/ptrktn/4974195006

Sometimes the rhythmic buzz of the cicadas rises to such a crescendo that I can hear them through closed windows and over the sound of the television. They call to me, beckoning me to come sit outside and listen to their hypnotic song.

Summer nights and cicadas go together in my mind. What sounds mean summertime to you?



Thursday, July 2, 2015

What inspires your kids?

As homeschoolers, we have a unique opportunity not given to other educators. We get to spend time with our students, around the clock and for years on end, getting to know them as no one else can.

We're not like ordinary classroom teachers. We don't have a new class full of students every year, all coming from widely varied backgrounds, about whose home lives we can only guess. Our time with them is not limited to a scant nine months, a veritable blink of an eye in which to make an impression.

We're not like ordinary parents, either. We generally don't have to rely on a muttered, "Fine," or "I don't know," to glean a bit of information about our children's day in the few hours between the time they get home from school and bedtime. Our days are largely spent with our kids, learning together and socializing with families we are able to get to know one on one.

So, as homeschoolers, we might expect to have a better insight into our own kids than most, if only because of the gift of time we're able to spend with them, both on a daily basis and over the years of their childhood. But still, many of us wrestle with the question of how to effectively inspire our children to learn.

The magical key to learning


Wouldn't it be nice if we could find the magical key to learning and just unlock every bit of potential in our kids? If only we could hone in on that one amazing thing that inspires them like no other.

But in truth, most kids don't seem to work that way. They're remarkable individuals whose interests and fascinations change continually. It's okay if for a while they seem obsessed with one thing, be it dinosaurs or Barbie, Minecraft or bugs. And it's okay if suddenly, they're completely over that interest and on to something else.

Whatever excites your children's imagination, whatever gets them motivated to play, explore, practice and learn, those things are our keys to more inspirational learning experiences.

Building on inspiration


I've used lots of my kids' interests to enhance our homeschool experience. A few years ago, when my twins were raising a pair of fancy mice, Cocoa and Fluffy were frequent features in their art and writing samples. More recently, when I realized that they were filled with passion for Minecraft, we enrolled in a few sessions of Minecraft Homeschool to incorporate their love of the game into studies of creative writing and ancient history. And when my son discovered an enthusiasm for roller coasters, we used that to study physics and descriptive writing techniques.

My youngest is seven, and her greatest inspiration at the moment is our puppy, Loki. Loki makes her happy, and like many homeschoolers, she enjoys school more with her dog by her side.





He even inspires her school work. Take for instance the haiku she wrote last week.


LOKI

Loki is a dog
He won't give me his red ball
Because he loves it



As a homeschooler, you have the gift of time with your kids; time to see what truly inspires them and encourage them to follow those inspirations and learn more. Don't overdo it by painting their whole world the color of their current passion, but build on their inspirations, in simple ways, as if you were adding splashes of their favorite colors to a room. Look for ways to incorporate what they love into their learning experience, and you will make homeschooling that much more memorable and exciting for them. 

Monday, June 15, 2015

A review of 'Beware the Blackness! A Jellywonker Adventure'

When my friend, author Rebecca Black, asked me to review her latest book, I was thrilled. She sent me a free copy of the e-version of the book to share with my kids, and we sat down with it before bed one night to read the story.

"Beware the Blackness! A Jellywonker Adventure" is the second in the Jellywonker series created by Black. It follows the adventure of a little Jellywonker named Ted, who loves nothing more than cleaning the ocean and traveling around, learning about his big underwater world.


Ted the Jellywonker is joined on this adventure by his friend, Humphrey, a humpbacked whale, and Maud, a motherly pelican. What begins as an ordinary day turns into a long journey, north to Alaska, where Ted learns all about a major underwater mountain range, an unfamiliar habitat, and the effects oil spills can have on local wildlife.

Much like the combination of real photographs and whimsical illustrations, the book combines a fun and adventuresome story with real facts and lessons about ocean life and structures.

My homeschoolers like stories that give them enough information about the setting that they can go to a map and learn more. This book does just that. It also provides lots of opportunities for further research, on topics such as sea mounts and underwater volcanoes, aquatic birds, and how people can help address and prevent pollution from oil spills.

I liked that the book could be taken simply as a bedtime story for little ones, or read more in depth, as a learning prompt for older students. We look forward to reading more Jellywonker adventures in the future!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Pond biology: Who's afraid of a little muck?

Last week, my girls had quite an adventure with their best friend. We took a little drive out to the country to visit our friends on their farm. The girls played with the dogs and cats, followed the baby chickens around the yard and helped feed the goats. They even got to watch two young foals playing in the field.

Before we left, though, we got out our nets and buckets to get down to the business we'd come to the farm to do. We were there to learn about life in the pond.


Pond biology was always one of my favorite subjects to teach as a naturalist, mostly because kids were always astonished at just how much life lurked under the surface of a still pond.

In our short time collecting specimens, we found at least two different species of tadpoles, including the leopard frog below and a tree frog that lost its tail the day after we brought it home. We also found a leech, a salamander and several species of aquatic insects. Who knows how many microbial life forms we brought home in our buckets!



Ordinarily, we would catch and release wildlife after observing it for just a little while, because most wild things belong in nature, not in captivity. But I felt comfortable keeping the tadpoles and frogs for a while, because I have experience caring for those creatures, and it will be an incredible learning experience for the kids to see them complete their metamorphoses.


I love these photos of our brave girls, wading in the muck searching for wildlife. It was a hot and sticky afternoon, and they got tired, but they had so much fun looking for just one more good sized tadpole before calling it a day.