Two months in

Two months in to a year of homeschooling. I am enjoying it. I really am. I love being with my children. It's fun to prepare to teach and to see them figuring out great stuff. I like being able to be on our own schedule and give them a chance to learn what they are curious about.

And it's hard in its own ways, too. My 5-going-to-be-6 year old kindergartner has decided he doesn't want to do work that isn't "Fun." I've never been a 5 year old boy so I'm not sure what is fun to him. I'm certainly trying to tap into that; hopefully he'll be patient as I learn. On the other hand, life isn't just "fun." There's a lot to learn and do that is not necessarily in the "fun" column. But how much non-fun should a 5 year old be expected to take on?

I am continually figuring out how to balance school work with the rest of life. Maybe I'm assigning us too much school work? The kindergarten curriculums I've purchased seem to have a lot less to do than we have. But, then again, he's academically more than half way through a regular Kg program. He'd be bored if I did school that way.

Then again, education is more than school work. It is going to the library today and getting told by a little girl that he couldn't color at their table because it was only for girls. His response: "That's not a very nice thing to say." No blow ups or meanness - just stating fact - and reflecting back the unkindness of another. Education is reading the Berenstain Bears' "The Messy Room" and deciding we are going to reorganize and clean their bedroom and play room. Education is explaining the digestive system to a lady at Subway, much to her amazement. (Perhaps too much, actually; he explained everything including pooping.)

Our focus books have been interesting, mostly. Some more interesting than I expected. "A Pair of Red Clogs" is one I was pleasantly surprised by. In addition, we had a friend from church who had lived in Japan for ten years come and tell us about living there and about the people. "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" was fun. "Who Owns the Sun?" would be better for an older child, I think. We actually enjoyed "The Drinking Gourd" (which was an axillary book for WOTS) more. It's hard to explain the US's history of slavery to a five year old. Then again, we talked about how God has created each of us unique and precious.

But this coming weekend we are going to my parents - originally scheduled to see my dad during harvest, but he is about done with harvest for this year. However, this week we've been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Farmer Boy" - a chapter book with few pictures - and they seem to really like it. They love learning about farming, how plants grow, food chains, etc., so, so far, this week seems to be a good one for them. Of course, they are VERY excited to see "Grandma and Grandpa Farm."

Perhaps I should be more choosy with what books we do - look for books that seem to be more attractive for boys or something. Then again, we might miss some great ones if I do that. Hmmm....flexibility is wonderful unless you are just flopping around in the wind.

Struggles: keeping the other three occupied when I'm doing Kg with the eldest. A couple of days I have another adult (husband, friend) in house to occupy them. But, thank goodness for nap time for the little ones; this is when we do most of our official school. I can read books while the little ones are up, but learning to read or doing math or handwriting with manipulatives is next to impossible. Plus, it's nice just to have that one-on-one time.

But, then again, there will always be four; this year is partly about figuring out how to do school with multi-ages. One day when the older two can both read, perhaps it will be easier to give them an assignment and then do something with the little ones. Or perhaps not. I hear stories of large families (6-10 kids) where the mom has homeschooled all of them and I am amazed - and wonder how in the world they made it work. Then again, if they can do 10 I should be able to educate 4, right?

I think our math, reading, science, geography, social studies, art, etc. "academics" are going pretty well. After all, except for really learning to read and enjoying it, what should a kindergartner truly be expected to know? But if education is discipleship, I'm not sure how this one is going. There are some good things - we're reading and acting out bible stories, he's memorizing bible verses. But I'm not always able to be the face of Jesus to them and I don't like that. God, may your grace cover my imperfections - my sin - and may they see your Light and Life instead of me.

A few weeks in

I had thought I'd write each week, but that hasn't happened. But that's ok.

We're now starting week 4. Week 1: Ping, Week 2: Lentil, Week 3: Madeline, Week 4: A Pair of Red Clogs. We do a variety of reading or activities each week related to the book we're working on. For instance, geography/culture: Where are China (Ping), Ohio (Lentil), Paris, France (Madeline), and Japan (PORC)? What do children in those places look like? Eat? How do they go to school? What language do they speak? We started putting cut out copies of the books' covers on a world map so we could see all the places we'd looked at. I don't know that children this young will retain where China is or where Japan is, but as we come back to it in future years they will have this foundation stone in place.

We've also found some fun stuff to do - checking out buoyancy in the bathtub was definitely a high point that first week. The boys were very impressed with the Eiffel Tower, well, actually it's cool-looking elevators, in the video last week. I'm hoping this week to get a friend who was stationed in Japan to come and talk with them about his experiences. It's fun.

That's what I have been so pleasantly surprised about: this is fun! I love putting together the things we are studying. I thought I would have to use a prepackaged curriculum to get things accomplished - and I do for math, handwriting and learning to read, but I love using unit studies to explore lots of different things with the boys. I'm glad I'm integrating ideas from both Five in a Row and My Father's World. The MFW Kindergarten curriculum was too elementary for where my oldest was this year, but he wasn't reading well enough to put him in the first grade. I think I'll use the MFW-Kg as intended for the middle child next year (when he's 5). We'll see.

Next week we're taking a different week. The plan is to do lots of drawing, go to an art museum and (maybe) another museum, and to have an "easy" school week. This is also my catch up week - catch up on housework and next month's planning. But that's good. I've heard several moms say they had a 3 weeks on, 1 week off approach to homeschooling and it worked really well for their family. I guess we'll see how it works for ours.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to this week. It's fun to see them learn and grow. And I'm learning a lot, too.

Our first week

Last week we "officially" began to educate our children at home. Truthfully, we started teaching them about God's love, caring for other people, using "nice words," letters, numbers, and a whole host of other things long before last week. But, as the public and private students prepared to return to school this coming week, we began our journey with homeschooling.

Our eldest will be 6 around Thanksgiving and this year of his education we are calling kindergarten. His next brother - who will be 4 in about a month - is doing much of the same material, especially the science, social studies, literature, and Bible. Our "babies" - twins who will be two just before the middle son turns 4 - get to listen in and I do separate things with them for letters, numbers, colors, etc. We have separate curriculums for math, handwriting, and learning to read. But our biggest part of our schooling is "unit studies." Each week we start with a good book and build Bible teachings, memory verses, art, "arts & crafts," geography, science, human relationships, language arts, and some math and/or cooking out of it. I throw in a little Spanish when I can. It sounds like a lot, but it's been a lot of fun. Our boys love to be read to, so it's easy to start with a book and branch out in lots of directions.

Last week we started with the book "The Story of Ping" and talked about China, children in China, what objects float or sink in the bathtub, how many relatives Ping lived with, etc. Ping was a duck, so we drew ducks. This week we start "Lentil" and talk about gifts and our senses.

Tonight I read three post from friends on Facebook who were bemoaning their sons' first days of kindergarten tomorrow - watching them get on the bus - feeling sorry they are going. My mother's heart knows that we have made the right decision - I'd go so far to say we've answered God's call - to teach our children at home. The reasons are many, the road will not be easy, but we trust God for wisdom, strength, and provision.

My (personal) biggest challenge is not to stay organized or keep four small and busy boys occupied. My biggest challenge is to live out I Cor. 11:1 - "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." (NIV)

That second part is hard for me - "as I follow Christ." I have good intentions - very good ones - but completely living them out is harder than my goals, plans, and wishes. And I take comfort that, ultimately, these children are God's children and my husband and I are just to steward them. If we do our best, if we are faithful stewards, He will cover the rest with His grace.

Updating

I have good intentions to get this blog into some sort of order, especially since I found out today someone actually read it!

It started as a "rage against the machine" sort of thing and then started into "off the top of my head homeschooling comments" and will end up as....??? What? I don't know yet.

But, maybe I'd better take it off my email signature line for now!

Stay tuned, ladies & gentlemen, we'll get back to it....eventually!

I wish I had written this

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/02/04/janine-turner-parents-children-revolution-arms/


In 1775 Israel Putnam was farming in Brooklyn, Connecticut when he heard the British had fired on the American Militia in Lexington, Massachusetts. He immediately dropped his plow and rode 100 miles in 18 hours to Cambridge, Massachusetts to join the colonial soldiers.

On the way he spread the call for "every man who is fit and willing" to come to his countrymen’s aid.

Israel was resolute when revolution beckoned. He was fit and willing. Are we? Are our children? Or is it time for a 2010 resolution for a revolution?

Revolution conjures thoughts of guns and soldiers, passions and pageants. The revolution that currently beckons is an awakening – not an awakening of political parties or partisan politics but of our youth’s minds.

America’s future lies with them.

What is happening to Americas promise? Their intellectual stimulation is benumbed with mindless text messaging, Xbox and reality television. There is an extraordinary, seemingly boundless amount of information available at their fingertips but the question begs: will it be used benignly or brilliantly? Will our children become hypnotized or revitalized? Unfortunately, I see signs of complacency. Recently, I stumbled upon the following words:

The average age of the world’s greatest civilization has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness;
From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependency;
From dependency back to bondage.

Where are our children on this scale? Complacency? Apathy? Are they walking the plank of dependency, over an ocean of bondage? Awakening our children’s sense of faith, courage, tenacity, selflessness, and lessening the belt on prejudice, is paramount for our country’s survival.

We need to unite -- unite in our efforts to rekindle America’s flame.

We come from a lineage of a great, stoic, hard working, positive, philanthropic people who believed in Divine Providence; a Divine Providence that was both the anchor and the launching pad from which dreams were made. America was a land of hope. We cannot become a land of dopes.

We must tell our kids to go outside and look at the stars, sit under a tree, read a book. We must encourage them to seek, understand and value our rich heritage and to do that -- they must study, they must read. We must teach them. We need to turn off the television and read a book of history at the dinner table; be the example. We need to revolutionize our thinking, our moral foundation and our academia.

To quote from one of my favorite forefathers, John Adams:

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

We have come full circle. We have studied painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain for too long. We, both as citizens and as parents, need to study with our children -- history, politics, war, mathematics, natural history and engineering. We, and they, need to be fortified with wisdom, inspiration, Yankee Spirit and American can do attitudes. We need to be both prudent and provocative.

We need a resolution for revolution.

We must no longer rest on our laurels as the aristocracy of Europe did in the 18th century.

Ignorance is the surest way to bring on the demise of our great land. Our children may end up in our enemy’s hands. America will be taken with a subtlety and a craftiness that will feed upon our children’s complacency. The rug will be pulled from under them before they even know there is an enemy in the room. It is not just the terrorists or reckless spending that threatens our country. It is our children’s lack of education and intellectual fortitude. It is apathy. Woe to us, and shudder to think what lies before us, if we do not recognize that knowledge is power.

Our children’s fates and their futures are being carved by our culture -- cultivated and manipulated by a senseless, meandering, electronic society. We must be the hand on the brush that paints our children’s fate.

In our house, one of the ways to paint is with text messaging, Facebook, and Twitter, stimulating thought provoking conversation and patriotism with Latin quotes and American history.

My daughter’s most recent text: “damnant quodnon intelligent.” --They condemn what they do not understand.




Actress and author Janine Turner is founder and chairman of the Constituting Culture Foundation, which deals with issues regarding faith, freedom, fidelity and family. For more information on Ms. Turner and her projects, please see her Web site, www.JanineTurner.com.

A year at a time

Most of the home schooling families I've talked with say that they take it a year at a time. That's what we are planning to do, too.

One mom said they started their kids in the local Christian school but were disappointed in the quality of education there. So, they pulled their kids out (the oldest was 2nd grade at the time) and have home schooled since then. She said she never expected to be homeschooling through high school but they are and it's been great for their family.

Another family home schooled the older two boys through 8th grade and then put them in public high school because they wanted to play sports. The boys did well in the new setting. The three younger girls - now in jr. high and high school - are completely home schooled and doing very well.

Another family home schooled their children until they began to sense God calling them to go to public school. This year all their children - age 7-14 - have gone from home education to the public schools and are doing well. The whole family - children and parents - believe God wants them to build relationships with the people in their neighborhood and to share the Light of Christ that way and, so, participating in public schools was a part of that process.

One mom began to home school when they lived in an area with a wretched public school system and they couldn't afford the private school. Since then her three older girls have graduated home school and gone on to college with honors. Their youngest son missed the community of school with his sisters and so (now that they've moved into a better school system) he started public school and mom began to work toward her college degree!

We are not making any plans past the next school year but we are moving into a highly-rated local public school system. We will continue to pray and think and review how home schooling is going for our family.

By the grace of God we will take it one year at a time.

Telling people

Last Christmas I screwed up my courage and told first my dad and then my mom that we are planning to home school by next fall. My gathering of courage was because both my parents were/are teachers at heart - my mom and her mom were/are public school teachers who have had great impact on their children and students. I was relieved and impressed with my parents' responses to our carefully-researched and prayed-over decision.

I have told a handful of other people since then, with mixed results. One retired school teacher friend of mine took time to ask me why and allowed me to explain our reasons. When I finished she was very positive about it and I asked her to be a teacher-mentor to me. But just today I told one of my sisters and her response was as I expect others to be - challenging our reasons and decision.

We did not make this decision quickly or off-the-cuff. My husband and I do not approach major decisions without a great deal of prayer, research, and discussion. And we do not make major decisions quickly. Home educating our children was not even on my radar a year ago, so this has been a long discernment process for me and a total paradigm shift. But we are responsible for raising up our children in the ways they should go and we believe that this is the right choice for our family at this time.

There are people I've been cautious about mentioning this discernment process to because I was (am) afraid of what the decision may do to our relationships. I have dearly loved friends that may stridently disagree with the decision. I love these friends and I do not want to jeopardize our friendships. I hope that if they will consider our reasoning they will (at least) "agree to disagree" or even support us in whatever way they can.

Public school teachers

Before I go into any more system-bashing, I must say that I am not against most teachers. In my experience most (not all) teachers want to see their students learn, grow, and succeed. Many teachers go way beyond the minimum to help students. Many teachers have classrooms so full of a variety of children they have to do their best to teach to the "middle" and provide other opportunities for the "gifted" and the "challenged." To the extent any one person can do that while juggling so much besides teaching - administration demands, teaching in preparation for standardized testing, individualized education plans, unhelpful parents, children whose home lives are sociology case studies - I have great respect for these teachers that are genuinely trying to do their best to educate students. Their job is not easy and the "system" makes it harder.

What if you are teaching high schoolers whose biology dictates that they don't really wake up and function until after 9 a.m.? Then why are we starting school at 7:35 a.m.? To get out of school in time to make sports practice and games?

If children lose so much over a summer that classes spend 1-2 months in the fall reviewing from last year, why are we not looking at year-around educational options?

If teachers claim (rightly so) that the strongest influence on a child is his/her home life, then are schools working with parents to help improve the home life? Are parents offered parenting classes? Financial management classes? Discipline classes? -- all these NOT the court mandated-type, I might add.

Mostly, though, I feel sorry for teachers who are also followers of Jesus Christ. To be muzzled in your own classroom and to not be able to share your faith with students would be horrible. It would be like limping around on one foot because you have to keep the other in a splint. We are to be salt and light in a dark world and it seems like the current public education system is not conducive to much light-sharing.

Personal whys continued

In the winter of 2009 I began to read a lot about the state of our nation's economy and politics with an eye to understanding this place we stand in history. I learned a lot, better defined my personal beliefs in these areas, and started to see our nation through a new lens. No longer do I believe that the US is a country that can always "land on its feet" when tested; instead I question whether we as a nation will be able to survive the next ten years.

I do not trust the political systems in place or the ways in which they are tampering with our lives. In addition, the political class's insistence to take away our freedoms little by little makes me want to run...or fight. However, I believe we as a nation are already like the frog in the pot of warm water; it's only a matter of time before we're boiling and it's too late.

I spent the last year at times alarmed and at times encouraged by the "average citizen" (including me) seeming to wake up, at least somewhat, to what the political class is inflicting upon us. Maybe, just maybe, we can put out the fires under the pot.

In the course of this year of exploration of our point in history I began to read more about the public education system in the US, mostly about how it is designed in such a way to assembly line progress, to standardize education, and has largely failed in the last 20-30 years to make the improvements the political class has hailed. In addition, I have heard 2nd hand - not just in media outlets - about freshman reading at a 4th grade level, students over-medicated for ADHD, teachers having to balance needs of 28 students in a classroom, including several "special needs." A high school teacher having to teach reading skills?? How is one teacher supposed to do all that? Why would they want to? There have to be better ways of helping our children have a basic foundational knowledge of life and going beyond basic life skills to higher order thinking and creative problem solving.

The Whys

NEGATIVE REASONS TO HOME SCHOOL
- the US public education system is spending huge amounts of money for a mediocre product (ie, test scores are falling in comparison to other industrialized nations), is putting out students that have poor reading, thinking, and life-skills, and is over burdened by educational bureaucracy, teachers' unions, and others that do not want to have any change to the status quo
- private education is expensive. If our state had a voucher system where our public school tax dollars could go to a private school we would be more likely to participate.
- the public school system is and is becoming increasingly oppositional to the Christian faith, and cannot legally do anything to encourage a student's faith
- we do not want our children socialized in the way that schools (generally) turn out children - rude, disrespectful, peer-driven, etc.

POSITIVE REASONS TO HOME SCHOOL
- God calls parents to be the primary educators of their children in matters of faith
- home education helps build strong families
- great way for siblings to learn together
- before classroom schools this was the way education was done
- one-to-one attention from teacher to pupil ("tutoring") is strongest way of educating
- our children need to be able to think creatively, biblically, and with an understanding of our world today
- flexibility for family
- lots of resources for home schooling families
- it sounds like FUN!!

CAUTIONS WE TAKE IN HOME SCHOOLING
- making sure our children have "socialization" opportunities with other adults, children, and same-age peers through church, community groups, 4-H, home school co-op or other activities
- asking others for resources, guidance, and advice as needed
- regularly participating in standardized testing to make sure our children are achieving their goals
- participating in home school co-op so our children can participate in group learning and arts classes like band, chorus, drama, etc.

A change in the blog

This week I decided to change this blog's focus. I was asked why I didn't just start a new one, but I don't really want to manage too many blogs. Here's what my former idea/focus was:

a place for conversations about our current political/economic climate within the context of a Christian theological framework

While I would still like to have those conversations, I believe I need to use the blog to explore and explain our/my reasons for deciding to home educate our children.

So, new entries will be explained under this idea:

Over the past year plus I have done a lot of reading in politics, economics and education with the intent to understand our place at this point in history. I believe that understanding our past will help us make wise choices in our future. What came out of that desire and that study was an exploration of home schooling. We have researched, talked, and prayed about how to educate our children and this blog is a collection of entries chronicling this journey of discernment.