In highschool I loved all subjects....EXCEPT-History! English was easy. Although I didn't enjoy being told what to read, I got my jollies from writing. And grammar rules were a breeze. After 13 years of it, I knew them pretty well. Math was self explanatory. I enjoy numbers and playing with them. After taking Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, II, and III, essentially all the same, I had a good grasp. Well, until I left highschool that is. Then I forgot most of it. Science was a blast, especially Chemistry (math based) and anatomy. (The body is SO fascinating!) I even liked JROTC, computer class, Early Childhood Education, the list goes on. (Of course I chose those classes.) But when it came to History, I LOATHED History. History was a thorn in my butt! Oh. If I could have done away with History. The way it was taught. Not linear. And my brain had the hardest time making connections. Memorizing dates and battles. Ugh. I literally left school with no knowledge of History aside from a few famous names.
I had given up all hope in knowing the time difference between the Great Depression and the Haulocaust. Or were the simultaneous? See? I still don't know. I hated History anyway. So who cared? The most I had ever learned about History was outside of school. Reading the American Girl Kit Kitridge books. Now THAT made History interesting! A girl. My age. Growing up in a different time. So much more detail than the paragraph about it in my school textbook! I ate the books up and now I at least have a solid basis for what the Depression was about. Alas, I still did not enjoy History in any way, shape, or form, unless I was reading American Girl.
My Hubby is a huge History buff, so my obvious ignorance in that area I believe made him question why he married me sometimes. I couldn't quite grasp why History made no sense to me. Maybe because I can't interconnect time periods and locations easily. Maybe because my lack of interest, whatever the reason...Those days are behind me.
It wasn't until the last few months was I able to let go of my ill feelings toward school taught History and realize there is a whole rich world of History from a different point of view. They say winners write History. And well, we weren't there, so we don't know. But that is the cool part. We can listen to both sides and see which we believe. (And we don't always agree.) We read Historical Living Books. We watch documentaries. We work on a time line. We draw pictures and pin them to different locations on the map. We bake period foods. We make History something tangible, something fun.
I have taken a deep interest in Abraham Lincoln. Could be because of S's recent obsession with the Civil War. Could be because he is just a well known figure from History. I think it is because of a documentary we watched called, "Stealing Lincoln's Body." It showed History from a whole different perspective. The stuff we were never told about. I just remember he had played a part in the whole slavery process. But to know his body was stolen? Now that is cool. I don't care who you are.
After watching that and viewing a film at the Chickamauga Battle Field and a documentary on Lincoln's early years in politics, I learned that he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I learned it put the South in an uproar. I learned WHY he was against slavery. I learned that he was challenged to a duel because of his slander toward other politics. I learned why Booth assassinated him. I learned....that there is so much more to History than what we hear. And it is worth learning about. Nothing gets my goodies going like a good 'ol fashioned two sided story.
Gosh, I love History....Now THAT'S a first!
Unschool-ology
Unschooling: Living Without School; Living Free Range-Freedom to Learn What One Wants When One Wants
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Getting Out of the Rat Race
While writing my previous post where I mentioned forcing S to do math while she was young, a floodgate of memories opened. It really made me start thinking, "What have I done?"
Then, as if God were speaking to me himself, a friend of mine told me a story the other day. She said her daughter is in Heritage Girls, a Christian Girl Scouts group. They receive service stars for serving 5 hours community service outside the group. She was so excited that her daughter was going to get a star. I mean, come on, how many other kids were going to have 5 hours under their belt? That'll show them when her daughter is the only one up there with a star...Then she heard these words, "Rubby Sue receives NINE service stars for her work in the community this Fall." 45 hours? In 4 months? On top of her schoolwork?! She couldn't believe her ears. They needed to step up their game if they wanted to beat-
It hit her like an 18 wheeler truck. This isn't a competition. Children's lives are not a race. That's one reason why we chose homeschooling to begin with. So we can just be ourselves and our kids can be themselves and not worry about the imaginary race so many people seem to be running. But it is everywhere we go. We have to continually resist the temptation to join in.
And she is right. So many years I have tried to resist joining the race, yet I have this amazing sense of accomplishment when we "out do someone." Is that wrong? Sure it is. But most of us feel that way. Doesn't make it right. Just means if you bash me or think bad of me because I said it "out loud", chances are you get the same feeling too. Think about it. That sense of pride you feel when YOUR child has the "the best looking project in the room." Even though you *may* have taken over just a teensy bit. The project instructions stated that parents were allowed to help. Doesn't controlling almost every aspect of the project count? It doesn't hurt to tell them that the head can't go next to the tail on their turtle Valentine box. It doesn't hurt to tell them that they need to trace a picture of the globe instead of drawing their own interpretation so their Geography Fair project looks nice and neat and presentable. Or does it? You know that feeling you get when your child can recite all the states like the back of their hand and the other child couldn't even tell you what a state is? (Of course their child can probably build their own Minecraft mod and well, yours can't. But never mind that.) You get that over inflated sense of pride while lying to yourself about how far ahead your child must be. Better than all other children IN THE WORLD! (Ok. Maybe not quite that far.) You know that smug feeling you get when you talk about all the raw foods your family eats and how much your children just LOVE fruit. And chores. They love doing their chores. You never even have to ask! Well, I think I have made my point. It isn't right. But we do it because we have this inherent need to be better than others, which, once we make it to motherhood, kinda transfers to our children, and we want them to be better than other people's kids because, well, they are our children. And that just has disaster written all over it....
This feeling of wanting to be better also does the opposite. It doesn't just give us pride, it also gives us an over inflated sense of being a failure when the other Mom talks about how she makes her own detergent (which you gave up on a year ago). Or when the other Mom's child can read better than yours, add better than yours, subtract better than yours. "Little Johnny can tell you all about the Chinese culture and traditions." You forget all the things your child knows that makes them unique. And you go home to innocent little Susie and you start drilling her on those math facts or practicing those easy readers-yea, we have been there. I think all of last school year we battled with that.
And where do we get? Is there ever an end? Oh wait, isn't that why it is called a rat race? I do believe the definition of rat race is "an exhausting, competitive routine."Accurate. It is in mommy groups, corporate jobs, NON-corporate jobs, schools, HOMEschools, between friends, between family members. It. Never. Ends. So how do we get out?
Well, I am not sure. So why did I write this post? Aren't I usually the all knowing Unschooling Mommy who has only been doing it for 3 years? Not really. But I like to think I have all the answers. Guess that is the rat in me. Honestly though, I wrote this post to remind MYSELF that my child is an AMAZING child. And so is everyone else's! The thing that makes them amazing is that they are all so unique. One of the Heritage Girl leaders was telling me one day that they girls are allowed to earn any of the badges that they want at home. And most of them do. They can purchase the badges and put them on the back of their vest. And it is so neat because you can tell a lot about their unique personalities. Samantha likes art. Brianna likes cooking. Andrea likes the outdoors. And Rubby Sue likes volunteering. How great that God made them all so different so that they can all contribute to this world in a different way. So why do we think it is okay to put ourselves and our families in a box and constantly compare them to other families?
If I could go back, there, there being when S was younger, especially her really early years when I wrote out schedules that included "Your Baby Can Read" and "Physical Therapy Time"....there are things I would change. Looking back I can appreciate that I was able to spend so much time with her, to see her learning and having fun too. I remember how she would beg for her favorite book-"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" again-again! And she would laugh and point to the letters and repeat the parts she remembered. I recall doing "nature walks" in our own back yard. When she was just 3. She would pick up leaves and put them in her little basket. She would giggle as she dug in the dirt and found worms and I would tell her a little about them. We would walk around the neighborhood across the street and she would ask questions. I would answer. (Her questions required a lot less Googling back then.) We had fun. And she learned. My did she learn! In fact, that is the way she should have learned the whole time. But when it came to "the basics," the colors, the shapes, the numbers I just went crazy. I set up a school calendar on a bulletin board when she was just 2 years old. I told her the date every day. I had a special worksheet we did and an informational video or something to go along with that theme...And now, I can't help but regret. I would change all those times that I held flashcards in her face. All the times that I sat out the counting bears and told her to count them or sort them out. To me, I was just being a good Mom. I was doing what any good Mom would do-getting her ahead of the game. But I wasn't doing what was best MY child like I thoughtI was. I was teaching her that the rat race is a way of life that you can't escape. If you can't beat them, join them, and make sure you are faster!
But when we chose to unschool we said we were going to get away from that. We were going to set aside all that we had learned and start anew. If we haven't escaped that way of life, we aren't doing it right. We need to reevaluate, and fast! Something for me to ponder...
Then, as if God were speaking to me himself, a friend of mine told me a story the other day. She said her daughter is in Heritage Girls, a Christian Girl Scouts group. They receive service stars for serving 5 hours community service outside the group. She was so excited that her daughter was going to get a star. I mean, come on, how many other kids were going to have 5 hours under their belt? That'll show them when her daughter is the only one up there with a star...Then she heard these words, "Rubby Sue receives NINE service stars for her work in the community this Fall." 45 hours? In 4 months? On top of her schoolwork?! She couldn't believe her ears. They needed to step up their game if they wanted to beat-
It hit her like an 18 wheeler truck. This isn't a competition. Children's lives are not a race. That's one reason why we chose homeschooling to begin with. So we can just be ourselves and our kids can be themselves and not worry about the imaginary race so many people seem to be running. But it is everywhere we go. We have to continually resist the temptation to join in.
And she is right. So many years I have tried to resist joining the race, yet I have this amazing sense of accomplishment when we "out do someone." Is that wrong? Sure it is. But most of us feel that way. Doesn't make it right. Just means if you bash me or think bad of me because I said it "out loud", chances are you get the same feeling too. Think about it. That sense of pride you feel when YOUR child has the "the best looking project in the room." Even though you *may* have taken over just a teensy bit. The project instructions stated that parents were allowed to help. Doesn't controlling almost every aspect of the project count? It doesn't hurt to tell them that the head can't go next to the tail on their turtle Valentine box. It doesn't hurt to tell them that they need to trace a picture of the globe instead of drawing their own interpretation so their Geography Fair project looks nice and neat and presentable. Or does it? You know that feeling you get when your child can recite all the states like the back of their hand and the other child couldn't even tell you what a state is? (Of course their child can probably build their own Minecraft mod and well, yours can't. But never mind that.) You get that over inflated sense of pride while lying to yourself about how far ahead your child must be. Better than all other children IN THE WORLD! (Ok. Maybe not quite that far.) You know that smug feeling you get when you talk about all the raw foods your family eats and how much your children just LOVE fruit. And chores. They love doing their chores. You never even have to ask! Well, I think I have made my point. It isn't right. But we do it because we have this inherent need to be better than others, which, once we make it to motherhood, kinda transfers to our children, and we want them to be better than other people's kids because, well, they are our children. And that just has disaster written all over it....
This feeling of wanting to be better also does the opposite. It doesn't just give us pride, it also gives us an over inflated sense of being a failure when the other Mom talks about how she makes her own detergent (which you gave up on a year ago). Or when the other Mom's child can read better than yours, add better than yours, subtract better than yours. "Little Johnny can tell you all about the Chinese culture and traditions." You forget all the things your child knows that makes them unique. And you go home to innocent little Susie and you start drilling her on those math facts or practicing those easy readers-yea, we have been there. I think all of last school year we battled with that.
And where do we get? Is there ever an end? Oh wait, isn't that why it is called a rat race? I do believe the definition of rat race is "an exhausting, competitive routine."Accurate. It is in mommy groups, corporate jobs, NON-corporate jobs, schools, HOMEschools, between friends, between family members. It. Never. Ends. So how do we get out?
Well, I am not sure. So why did I write this post? Aren't I usually the all knowing Unschooling Mommy who has only been doing it for 3 years? Not really. But I like to think I have all the answers. Guess that is the rat in me. Honestly though, I wrote this post to remind MYSELF that my child is an AMAZING child. And so is everyone else's! The thing that makes them amazing is that they are all so unique. One of the Heritage Girl leaders was telling me one day that they girls are allowed to earn any of the badges that they want at home. And most of them do. They can purchase the badges and put them on the back of their vest. And it is so neat because you can tell a lot about their unique personalities. Samantha likes art. Brianna likes cooking. Andrea likes the outdoors. And Rubby Sue likes volunteering. How great that God made them all so different so that they can all contribute to this world in a different way. So why do we think it is okay to put ourselves and our families in a box and constantly compare them to other families?
If I could go back, there, there being when S was younger, especially her really early years when I wrote out schedules that included "Your Baby Can Read" and "Physical Therapy Time"....there are things I would change. Looking back I can appreciate that I was able to spend so much time with her, to see her learning and having fun too. I remember how she would beg for her favorite book-"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" again-again! And she would laugh and point to the letters and repeat the parts she remembered. I recall doing "nature walks" in our own back yard. When she was just 3. She would pick up leaves and put them in her little basket. She would giggle as she dug in the dirt and found worms and I would tell her a little about them. We would walk around the neighborhood across the street and she would ask questions. I would answer. (Her questions required a lot less Googling back then.) We had fun. And she learned. My did she learn! In fact, that is the way she should have learned the whole time. But when it came to "the basics," the colors, the shapes, the numbers I just went crazy. I set up a school calendar on a bulletin board when she was just 2 years old. I told her the date every day. I had a special worksheet we did and an informational video or something to go along with that theme...And now, I can't help but regret. I would change all those times that I held flashcards in her face. All the times that I sat out the counting bears and told her to count them or sort them out. To me, I was just being a good Mom. I was doing what any good Mom would do-getting her ahead of the game. But I wasn't doing what was best MY child like I thoughtI was. I was teaching her that the rat race is a way of life that you can't escape. If you can't beat them, join them, and make sure you are faster!
But when we chose to unschool we said we were going to get away from that. We were going to set aside all that we had learned and start anew. If we haven't escaped that way of life, we aren't doing it right. We need to reevaluate, and fast! Something for me to ponder...
No Math
About a week ago I posted all our "unschool plans" kinda an oxy moron....for the beginning of the year. Of course it is totally okay to have plans, but those plans are always flexible. Extremely flexible.
I was talking to my dear Hubby a day or two after I wrote up my plans. I told him I dreaded subtraction. Samantha doesn't like it. She doesn't want to learn the facts. His reply? "Doesn't she know HOW to subtract?" "Yes." "Then don't do it."
So it was decided. We are skipping math this semester. Because that is how us no-schoolers roll. Makes me sound like a bad parent doesn't it? Yea. It does. Go ahead and say it. That's okay. For those of you who see things from my perspective, you know why we are doing it this way. But seriously, what is she truly learning when I force feed her math facts and make her regurgitate them on the spot just because I want my friends to see how fast she is or because I want to make sure she is "up to par" with other kids? She is learning to hate math even worse than she does now. (Truth is, I think she only hates math because I messed up when she was little. At 2 years old, she was better with letters than she was with numbers. When her PAT teacher would come to the house, she would bring math games instead of reading because "She does enough reading with you. She doesn't like math because she isn't good at it. She needs to start doing more math." So, after that, I began talking all about how Samantha isn't good at math. "She doesn't like math. She needs to work on math more." Then I would try to force her to learn more about math. So sad when I look back because I remember trying to make her count bears and do flashcards with numbers because I was worried she would get behind-at 2 and 3 years old! I would get so frustrated and think that she was playing me. But she wasn't. She has a terrible time getting ahead of herself and that can be a real problem when you are doing math. To this day she still messes up when she counts. So relentless practice doesn't even help in this situation. It makes it worse. What I should have been saying to others in front of her was this. "Samantha loves to read. We love to focus on her strengths and what she enjoys." And to her I should have said, "Oh! Math is so fun! I love to count, but if you prefer to read, that is great too!" But I didn't. And the more she realized math came hard to her, the more I forced it upon her, the more frustrated she got. And some days she would be in tears.
Does it teach S she doesn't have to do things just because she throws a fit? I don't think so. (She never threw a fit to begin with.) I think it teaches her that I am attentive to what she needs. Her mind isn't ready for it. Besides, why does she need to be so fast right now? She isn't a computer. She needs to be taking this time as a child to practice thinking for herself. Besides, in a few years she will have more experience with numbers and adding in her own head will become cake. Just like doing Algebra in my head is cake now. Granted, numbers are my specialty, so she may never get that far, but addition and subtraction-absolutely. Without a doubt in my mind. I know 100% that forcing her to do math will do infinite more damage than her not knowing her math facts at barely 6 years old. She is supposed to just now be in Kindergarten for Heaven's Sake! And another point, if she has as hard of a time in math the rest of her life as she does now, she obviously won't choice a career path that requires it. And if she does, well, at least there is some motivation to learn it!
For now we will just focus on what pertains to our own lives. I am currently deciding what I want to learn about. S is still engrossed in her art. And J is still engrossed in his coding. I'd say a little off the path of the new "common core." ;) But learning all the same.
I was talking to my dear Hubby a day or two after I wrote up my plans. I told him I dreaded subtraction. Samantha doesn't like it. She doesn't want to learn the facts. His reply? "Doesn't she know HOW to subtract?" "Yes." "Then don't do it."
So it was decided. We are skipping math this semester. Because that is how us no-schoolers roll. Makes me sound like a bad parent doesn't it? Yea. It does. Go ahead and say it. That's okay. For those of you who see things from my perspective, you know why we are doing it this way. But seriously, what is she truly learning when I force feed her math facts and make her regurgitate them on the spot just because I want my friends to see how fast she is or because I want to make sure she is "up to par" with other kids? She is learning to hate math even worse than she does now. (Truth is, I think she only hates math because I messed up when she was little. At 2 years old, she was better with letters than she was with numbers. When her PAT teacher would come to the house, she would bring math games instead of reading because "She does enough reading with you. She doesn't like math because she isn't good at it. She needs to start doing more math." So, after that, I began talking all about how Samantha isn't good at math. "She doesn't like math. She needs to work on math more." Then I would try to force her to learn more about math. So sad when I look back because I remember trying to make her count bears and do flashcards with numbers because I was worried she would get behind-at 2 and 3 years old! I would get so frustrated and think that she was playing me. But she wasn't. She has a terrible time getting ahead of herself and that can be a real problem when you are doing math. To this day she still messes up when she counts. So relentless practice doesn't even help in this situation. It makes it worse. What I should have been saying to others in front of her was this. "Samantha loves to read. We love to focus on her strengths and what she enjoys." And to her I should have said, "Oh! Math is so fun! I love to count, but if you prefer to read, that is great too!" But I didn't. And the more she realized math came hard to her, the more I forced it upon her, the more frustrated she got. And some days she would be in tears.
Does it teach S she doesn't have to do things just because she throws a fit? I don't think so. (She never threw a fit to begin with.) I think it teaches her that I am attentive to what she needs. Her mind isn't ready for it. Besides, why does she need to be so fast right now? She isn't a computer. She needs to be taking this time as a child to practice thinking for herself. Besides, in a few years she will have more experience with numbers and adding in her own head will become cake. Just like doing Algebra in my head is cake now. Granted, numbers are my specialty, so she may never get that far, but addition and subtraction-absolutely. Without a doubt in my mind. I know 100% that forcing her to do math will do infinite more damage than her not knowing her math facts at barely 6 years old. She is supposed to just now be in Kindergarten for Heaven's Sake! And another point, if she has as hard of a time in math the rest of her life as she does now, she obviously won't choice a career path that requires it. And if she does, well, at least there is some motivation to learn it!
For now we will just focus on what pertains to our own lives. I am currently deciding what I want to learn about. S is still engrossed in her art. And J is still engrossed in his coding. I'd say a little off the path of the new "common core." ;) But learning all the same.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Conversations
I recently read a post on Sandra Dodd's website called "Communicating." It is a post about doing two things at once. Taking the time you wouldn't be doing anything: riding in a car, building blocks, learning on a truck-and using that time as an open forum for communication. With no strings attached. No agenda. Just open discussion.
This is a big part of our life as unschoolers. We ride in the car-a lot. And we will probably continue to ride in the car a lot for their rest of our homeschool lives. There is always some place to volunteer, some errand to run, an activity to attend. And library day is back before you know it. We use this time to build a relationship. To learn. To talk about anything and everything. And while some days it is just S talking on and on about her friends and the newest My Little Pony episode, which is fine...other days it is about goals, theories, and curiosities. And that is where it gets deep and we really get to know each other. Where we bounce ideas around, debate, and try to understand the other's point of view. This is one of my favorite parts of being a Mom. This relationship building.
Today it all started when S said, "Look, Mom, we just crossed the Tennessee state line. Why is that exit 1B?" She inquired. I answered. And then that answer lead to discussion about different states. Which lead to discussion about moving to another state (as an adult). Which lead to talk about travel. Which lead to talk about one day exploring the ocean to look for tropical fish. Which lead to discussing tropical fish. Then handing my phone over to S for her to look up photos and videos on tropical fish and relay the information to me...Whew! What a conversation.
Although our family dinners and car rides are open forums for discussion-and highly utilized, we tend to unconsciously try to fill the silence with meaningless chatter during game play or while working on our Nature Study, etc. I am thinking maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't. Maybe we should let the silence flow and see where it leads us. Maybe we should get out that zen garden or those tangram blocks, those idea sparkers and conversation starters, and see where it leads us. May lead to more silence, and reflection. May lead to a deep discussion about the Great Wall of China while playing with clay. (Once S started a conversation about the Statue of Liberty while playing Play Doh.)
Conversation is the key thatcopen's Pandora's box of endless learning possibilities. That's a key I never want to lose.
Well curiosity got the best if me as I realized I didn't quite know what Pandora's Box was. So I looked it up. Interesting myth. Deserves more research. I'd love to give Greek Mythology a whirl....
This is a big part of our life as unschoolers. We ride in the car-a lot. And we will probably continue to ride in the car a lot for their rest of our homeschool lives. There is always some place to volunteer, some errand to run, an activity to attend. And library day is back before you know it. We use this time to build a relationship. To learn. To talk about anything and everything. And while some days it is just S talking on and on about her friends and the newest My Little Pony episode, which is fine...other days it is about goals, theories, and curiosities. And that is where it gets deep and we really get to know each other. Where we bounce ideas around, debate, and try to understand the other's point of view. This is one of my favorite parts of being a Mom. This relationship building.
Today it all started when S said, "Look, Mom, we just crossed the Tennessee state line. Why is that exit 1B?" She inquired. I answered. And then that answer lead to discussion about different states. Which lead to discussion about moving to another state (as an adult). Which lead to talk about travel. Which lead to talk about one day exploring the ocean to look for tropical fish. Which lead to discussing tropical fish. Then handing my phone over to S for her to look up photos and videos on tropical fish and relay the information to me...Whew! What a conversation.
Although our family dinners and car rides are open forums for discussion-and highly utilized, we tend to unconsciously try to fill the silence with meaningless chatter during game play or while working on our Nature Study, etc. I am thinking maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't. Maybe we should let the silence flow and see where it leads us. Maybe we should get out that zen garden or those tangram blocks, those idea sparkers and conversation starters, and see where it leads us. May lead to more silence, and reflection. May lead to a deep discussion about the Great Wall of China while playing with clay. (Once S started a conversation about the Statue of Liberty while playing Play Doh.)
Conversation is the key thatcopen's Pandora's box of endless learning possibilities. That's a key I never want to lose.
Well curiosity got the best if me as I realized I didn't quite know what Pandora's Box was. So I looked it up. Interesting myth. Deserves more research. I'd love to give Greek Mythology a whirl....
Monday, January 5, 2015
Unschool As A Family
It is a lazy Monday afternoon. I see us living as a family, free of schooling. J is off work on Mondays so we slept in, but not too late. We know if we sleep too late the day will pass us by. So we cuddle for awhile and talk about our dreams, which ironically were about the same thing (relationship building-one of my favorite parts of the day) and then get up when we aren't tired anymore. I care for the animals and start our breakfast/Hubby's coffee....not because anybody tells me too, but because IF I want animals, THEN I need to feed them and water them to keep them alive. IF I want breakfast, THEN I need to cook it. I like the IF/THEN way of seeing things...
Speaking of IF/THEN, right about the time I finish J's coffee, he walks in the kitchen. He begins talking about some mods he brought up on his computer just now. He is a gamer, but he doesn't just game, he delves deeper into the coding in the games. He likes to play with them and modify them. He likes to find glitches and cheats and solve puzzles that aren't vital to beating the game. He likes to create his own missions and try extra hard for the achievements. He likes to take gaming to the next level. Back to the mods. He tells me about some of the ones he found that help you with lock pick easier. Or the mods that add a whole extra area to the map. He starts to wonder. "You know what would be cool? If I could make a mod to take my songs from Spotify and have them play through the game. But it would have to stop when someone starts speaking on the game." As much as I love an opportunity to learn, I couldn't resist. "How would you code that?" He leans back against the counter as I add sugar to his coffee. "Well, I'd have to bring up the game coding. Depends what type they use, but if you are looking at Java, I believe it would be "IF (insert coding for the initiation of talking.) Then Pause. Then IF (insert coding for the termination of talking) THEN Play....No No. Maybe it is IF-ELSE. I'd have to look that up. I have some more reading to do in my COMP-TIA book today. I will look it up after I finish that."
He leans against the back window and takes a sip of his coffee. "Next week I will buy some machetes so we can get that land cleared out and start a garden. I'll ask Chris to help me and I'll give him some potatoes in the Fall." "Maybe we can grow enough and trade them for some eggs. But I am not sure that you are going to get the land cultivated early enough." "I'll do raised bed this year and see how it goes. We have rocky soil." "Okay. And I'll get a list going and see which plants, out of the ones you want to grow, are companion plants." "Thanks. I'll start doing the math to see how many cubic feet of soil we need. I'll talk to Samantha and see if she wants to help again this year. Maybe if we work together we will get better results. Last year was a disaster!" "Gee. Thanks!"
That was just this morning BEFORE S even woke up. She was up late last night playing in some kinetic sand. Then she watched some videos on art, did some drawing, played some video games. Talk about problem solving. She started to get stressed and was stuck on a problem for awhile, so she laid down to watch a movie and passed out around 2 AM.
J and I enjoyed some down time while she slept. I decided to do some research on Women's Suffrage, sparked by mine and S's reading of the Samantha American Girl books. I never knew that the Women's Rights movement started at the beginning of the 1900s! I also learned a few fun facts, like DC's creation of Wonder Woman was due to the Women's Rights movement and was created by a woman psychologist. Interesting. Then I went on to write this. And later I will employ Samantha, if she wants, to help me paint my latest Pinterest project-a pallet couch.
Samantha is finally up and moving around. She got her own lunch and saw that I was typing this on J's computer. She asked J how he fixed it and he told her about drivers. (All he needed was to get the computer to stay on long enough to download them.) She was so excited that we are up to 3 computers again. So she sat down with her lunch and went to town on the Macbook. She is currently playing some reading games.
Productive day. Not all days are, but most days are something like this. Some days involve hiking, which we may still do later today. Some days are lazy days, but even then they involve some kind of learning. Lately we have enjoyed watching the show House, which we have been known to do all day on a rainy day. But I will tell you one thing, we learn a LOT from House. Of course we don't take things for what they are on the television. If we are interested in a new disease they mention, we pause it and bring it up on our phones. The same thing with shows we have watched in the past like Dexter-police work and Walking Dead-survival methods.
I know this is a Blog about my dearest S, but I wanted to make a post about all of us, particularly J and I because I want to emphasize that no matter your age, there is SO much learning to be done! At S's age, it is mostly about play. Playing games. Playing toys. Playing with friends. You can learn problem solving. You can learn about cooperating, following rules, adding, subtracting, reading...And in S's case, things like roller skating, which she hopes to be good at by this coming up Valentine Party. (Her friends, the Weaver's, are teaching her.) Oh. And it is about reading. Lots of reading. You can never be 100% sure weather the scientific "facts" and History (written by the winners) is accurate, but if you know how to read and research, then you can look it up and decide what you believe. And if you can't decide what you believe, at least you know about the different sides of the story.
Everything we learn in this house-everything we TRULY learn-is all for fun. Things we want to know. Even if it is things we HAVE to know, like reading, in order to learn the things we want to learn for fun, it is all by choice. It is all individualized, based on what will do us good at that time, what we need in our lives. And the coolest part is that we can bounce it off each other and share what we know. We can truly become involved in each other's interests, which broadens our knowledge. When DH tells me about coding, I may not know all he knows, but it makes more sense to me than it did last night. When I tell J and S about the newest antihistamine oil blend that I found, they understand oils a little better. J asked me the other day to explain how colloidal silver works again. And now he has a better understanding of how his medicines work in his body. And when Samantha hears all about these things, she learns more than just what interests hers. But I think what benefits her most is sharing what interests her. When you teach what you know, you learn it better. And when you are sometimes the teacher and sometimes the student, you learn how to take on both roles-how to learn and how to be taught.
Here is a short list of our current deepest interests:
Samantha: Toys-duh, Art, Early 1900s, Historical Wars, and all American Girl Books, Animals, California
Jessie: Gardening, Computer Coding and Hardware, Video Games, Survival and Guns (He likes to study up on this with a friend.)
Me: Organic Medicines and Essential Oils, Conception and Pregnancy-done tons of research on this lately, Cooking-New Recipes, Pallet Projects, Writing/Blogging
Life as an unschool family is sometimes stressful, mostly when I create the stress and pull back on my own beliefs because everybody tells me how insane I am, but the more I let go, the easier it gets. The more I can see progress in all of us, progress in our relationships. Progress in our ability to learn and our ability to lead ourselves and others. Now time to go learn to use my new paint gun!
UPDATE: And now it is *near* the end of the day. We will all probably lay down around 11 since Hubby has work tomorrow. We spent our day on separate projects. S helped some with the paint gun, but it was a pain to figure out so she lost interest. She jumped on her trampoline and practiced gymnastics. She did some Pilates on a workout mat outside. She went through the recycling and picked out an empty bottle of St. John's Wart. Got out paper, A hole punch. A green oil pastel. And started making "her own medicine like Mommy." She drew pictures of the family and told stories with them. And learned to use the new camera we got for Christmas so she could take photos of her drawings. J cleaned out his work van. Then came inside and played his games and worked on some more coding. I worked on my pallet couch and got a few pallets finished. Came inside and made dinner. Learned how to better slice the potatoes for making french fries and worked on finding a new recipe for fry seasoning. Dinner was spent discussing solar power and how watches are made. (S brought up the topic. She is a curious child.) I picked up some groceries. Cleaned house so I don't have to tomorrow. (S has a playdate with a new friend from CHEA.) And then J moped around about how he didn't get a birthday cake. Never mind the fact he had a 3 course meal and then some last night on his actual birthday. He requested that I make one and S decorate it. (She loves decorating cakes thanks to her favorite You Tube Channel, Nerdy Nummies.) So I found a recipe and that is what we did. S learned how to make a two layer cake and was able to use her icing tips for the 3rd time. She is improving no doubt. Cake is done now and we are eating it, The rest of the night will be spent relaxing. I'm sure we will watch House after baths. S might lose interest and play instead. Then reading, talking. saying our prayers, and going to bed. I'll be ready for sleep as soon as 11 o'clock rolls around!
He leans against the back window and takes a sip of his coffee. "Next week I will buy some machetes so we can get that land cleared out and start a garden. I'll ask Chris to help me and I'll give him some potatoes in the Fall." "Maybe we can grow enough and trade them for some eggs. But I am not sure that you are going to get the land cultivated early enough." "I'll do raised bed this year and see how it goes. We have rocky soil." "Okay. And I'll get a list going and see which plants, out of the ones you want to grow, are companion plants." "Thanks. I'll start doing the math to see how many cubic feet of soil we need. I'll talk to Samantha and see if she wants to help again this year. Maybe if we work together we will get better results. Last year was a disaster!" "Gee. Thanks!"
That was just this morning BEFORE S even woke up. She was up late last night playing in some kinetic sand. Then she watched some videos on art, did some drawing, played some video games. Talk about problem solving. She started to get stressed and was stuck on a problem for awhile, so she laid down to watch a movie and passed out around 2 AM.
J and I enjoyed some down time while she slept. I decided to do some research on Women's Suffrage, sparked by mine and S's reading of the Samantha American Girl books. I never knew that the Women's Rights movement started at the beginning of the 1900s! I also learned a few fun facts, like DC's creation of Wonder Woman was due to the Women's Rights movement and was created by a woman psychologist. Interesting. Then I went on to write this. And later I will employ Samantha, if she wants, to help me paint my latest Pinterest project-a pallet couch.
Samantha is finally up and moving around. She got her own lunch and saw that I was typing this on J's computer. She asked J how he fixed it and he told her about drivers. (All he needed was to get the computer to stay on long enough to download them.) She was so excited that we are up to 3 computers again. So she sat down with her lunch and went to town on the Macbook. She is currently playing some reading games.
Productive day. Not all days are, but most days are something like this. Some days involve hiking, which we may still do later today. Some days are lazy days, but even then they involve some kind of learning. Lately we have enjoyed watching the show House, which we have been known to do all day on a rainy day. But I will tell you one thing, we learn a LOT from House. Of course we don't take things for what they are on the television. If we are interested in a new disease they mention, we pause it and bring it up on our phones. The same thing with shows we have watched in the past like Dexter-police work and Walking Dead-survival methods.
I know this is a Blog about my dearest S, but I wanted to make a post about all of us, particularly J and I because I want to emphasize that no matter your age, there is SO much learning to be done! At S's age, it is mostly about play. Playing games. Playing toys. Playing with friends. You can learn problem solving. You can learn about cooperating, following rules, adding, subtracting, reading...And in S's case, things like roller skating, which she hopes to be good at by this coming up Valentine Party. (Her friends, the Weaver's, are teaching her.) Oh. And it is about reading. Lots of reading. You can never be 100% sure weather the scientific "facts" and History (written by the winners) is accurate, but if you know how to read and research, then you can look it up and decide what you believe. And if you can't decide what you believe, at least you know about the different sides of the story.
Everything we learn in this house-everything we TRULY learn-is all for fun. Things we want to know. Even if it is things we HAVE to know, like reading, in order to learn the things we want to learn for fun, it is all by choice. It is all individualized, based on what will do us good at that time, what we need in our lives. And the coolest part is that we can bounce it off each other and share what we know. We can truly become involved in each other's interests, which broadens our knowledge. When DH tells me about coding, I may not know all he knows, but it makes more sense to me than it did last night. When I tell J and S about the newest antihistamine oil blend that I found, they understand oils a little better. J asked me the other day to explain how colloidal silver works again. And now he has a better understanding of how his medicines work in his body. And when Samantha hears all about these things, she learns more than just what interests hers. But I think what benefits her most is sharing what interests her. When you teach what you know, you learn it better. And when you are sometimes the teacher and sometimes the student, you learn how to take on both roles-how to learn and how to be taught.
Here is a short list of our current deepest interests:
Samantha: Toys-duh, Art, Early 1900s, Historical Wars, and all American Girl Books, Animals, California
Jessie: Gardening, Computer Coding and Hardware, Video Games, Survival and Guns (He likes to study up on this with a friend.)
Me: Organic Medicines and Essential Oils, Conception and Pregnancy-done tons of research on this lately, Cooking-New Recipes, Pallet Projects, Writing/Blogging
Life as an unschool family is sometimes stressful, mostly when I create the stress and pull back on my own beliefs because everybody tells me how insane I am, but the more I let go, the easier it gets. The more I can see progress in all of us, progress in our relationships. Progress in our ability to learn and our ability to lead ourselves and others. Now time to go learn to use my new paint gun!
UPDATE: And now it is *near* the end of the day. We will all probably lay down around 11 since Hubby has work tomorrow. We spent our day on separate projects. S helped some with the paint gun, but it was a pain to figure out so she lost interest. She jumped on her trampoline and practiced gymnastics. She did some Pilates on a workout mat outside. She went through the recycling and picked out an empty bottle of St. John's Wart. Got out paper, A hole punch. A green oil pastel. And started making "her own medicine like Mommy." She drew pictures of the family and told stories with them. And learned to use the new camera we got for Christmas so she could take photos of her drawings. J cleaned out his work van. Then came inside and played his games and worked on some more coding. I worked on my pallet couch and got a few pallets finished. Came inside and made dinner. Learned how to better slice the potatoes for making french fries and worked on finding a new recipe for fry seasoning. Dinner was spent discussing solar power and how watches are made. (S brought up the topic. She is a curious child.) I picked up some groceries. Cleaned house so I don't have to tomorrow. (S has a playdate with a new friend from CHEA.) And then J moped around about how he didn't get a birthday cake. Never mind the fact he had a 3 course meal and then some last night on his actual birthday. He requested that I make one and S decorate it. (She loves decorating cakes thanks to her favorite You Tube Channel, Nerdy Nummies.) So I found a recipe and that is what we did. S learned how to make a two layer cake and was able to use her icing tips for the 3rd time. She is improving no doubt. Cake is done now and we are eating it, The rest of the night will be spent relaxing. I'm sure we will watch House after baths. S might lose interest and play instead. Then reading, talking. saying our prayers, and going to bed. I'll be ready for sleep as soon as 11 o'clock rolls around!
Friday, January 2, 2015
Purposeful Parenting Changed My Life
I have been practicing Purposeful Parenting for some time now, around the time we decided to unschool-so about 2 or 2-1/2 years now. There are good days and bad days. I definitely have bad days and fall short on many occassions. But it has been a work in progress.
I recently started reading a series of articles on Sandra Dodd's unschooling website and ran across another method used in Purposeful Patenting that I always found quite silly when I heard it mentioned.
Values, but....no rules? Who ever heard of such a thing? Then something she said rang true. It was something along the lines of this....Rules externally motivate us through fear, threats, or punishment to blindly obey orders. Values internally motivate us to think about the difference between right and wrong. For example, S used to have a problem with pushing her Uncle when he made her mad. Now, instead of having to remember the rule "No hitting" and assuming pushing does count, she asks herself 2 questions. Would God like what I am about to do? Am I hurting or helping?
*Disclaimer: I realize that in real life we have "laws" but those laws also tend to be morally based-such as no stealing or killing-and nowhere near as strict as those inside our homes. As an adult I can cuss-if I want. I don't have to eat my greens or clean my plate if I choose not to. And I'm allowed to get angry and have a bad day. Unlike children who are *usually* punished when their emotions take control. (I have learned the only way S will know how to control her emotions is for me to get ahold of mine first. How can I expect her to know the difference in right and wrong emotional behaviors if I-the adult- can't model the proper way to show anger or sadness?) Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent....
The day after I read about values and principles I decided to see how it would work. Research. Then experiment. We sat down as a family and came up with our own values and questions to ask ourselves. (Below)
Value: (Spiritual) God First. Always. God's plan before our plan. God's time before our time. God's people before ourselves.
Questions:
Is this what God wants? Would God approve of what I am about to do?
Am I listening to the devil?
Am I serving my God the best way I know how?
Value: (in conjunction with God's people being before ourselves) Treat others the way you think THEY want to be treated.
People are more important than things.
Questions: Can I put myself in their shoes?
Do I want to lose a relationship over this?
Am I hurting or helping?
What can I do to help?
Value: (Educational) Learning is Life. It is natural. Always be learning something. All learning is equal. Follow your interests. Be passionate about something. Be Yourself.
Questions:
Have I learned something today?
Am I allowing learning to happen or am I hindering it?
Value: (Home) Houses are for living. Making a mess is good, as long as you clean it up because organization and cleanliness making living and learning easier.
Questions:
Am I taking care of the house God Blessed me with?
Value: (Health) Our body is God's temple.
Questions:
Is what I am doing or putting into my body healthy?
Value: (Personal) Be honest. Be caring. Love others. Be compassionate. Be respectful. Be a good listener.
Questions:
Am I being the best person I can be?
Am I being completely honest or am I lying?
*This is not an unalterable list. It is is open for discussion an add on at all times in this house.
The results? I have seen an amazing improvement. Although none of us are perfect still, it has helped us in all aspects of our lives.
For me, when I have tried to learn to "bite my tongue" in the past, I haven't been able to because I had no plan in place. Now I HAVE to pause to think every time I say something other than small talk. And even then, if I am about to say something about somebody who frustrated me or how angry I am at such 'n such for whatever, I Stop. And Think. "Will that hurt or help?" It has become a habit. It has become a good habit.
I see DH and DD's minds at work as well. I see S pausing more in the middle of her sentences. I see my Husband walk out if the room if he feels aggitated.
It has been such a great tool to use! And everybody was able to take part instead of us just imposing a list of rules or having unspoken ones like, "No spitting on people." and expecting her to know that it is wrong.
I think the people who came up with this have something here. Like they say, "Rules are meant to be broken." But if there are no rules, there is nothing to break. Going against your own morals and values is harder than going against somebody else's list of arbitrary limits.
Side Note: I have also extended the "Purposeful" lifestyle to my marriage. The longer we are together, happily married, I wonder, "How much longer until my marriage crumbles?" Negative outlook, I know, but everywhere I am I hear people talk about how marriage is miserable and how you are destined for disaster at some point. And it scares me to not know what lies ahead. I always judged the strength of our marriage based on the trials we have made it through. I considered it a major feat to make it through a teen pregnancy/relationship and to have made it through what happened with Lucy. But sometimes I wonder if that was not the worst of what is to come. I never can be sure. But I can do whatever it takes to keep a focus on my Husband and not lose him by become drowned out in my daily life. Of course I am tired when he gets home. I have spent the day cleaning, caring for 4 animals and a child. I've been "unschooling" all day with S. My brain is fried. And I still have to cook dinner, clean it up, take the doga out, clean the house, continue to care for S....you get the picture. Where is time for my Husband?
One of my good friends who has been married 15 years and has faced her share of marriage trials gave me some advice I will never forget. She told me that my Husband is the king of his home, right under God. He provides for his family and should be treated like royalty. (We have the same views as far as family structure and gender roles goes, so her advice really hit home for me.) No matter how grouchy my Hubby gets. No matter how tired I may be, I make it a point to do four things. 1. Rub his back. (My friend says she rubs her Husband's feet, but we do not do feet in this house...so...back it is.) My Husband loves a good back rub. So I made him a special lavendar/coconut oil lotion to help him sleep at night. If he has had an especially rough day I like to diffuse some lavendar and get my other oils out to give him a relaxing essential oil massage. He enjoys it and it makes him feel special. 2. Make sure he always has a drink. Right now in the winter, it is hot tea or coffee. I have found recipes for watermelon water and strawberry lemonade for the Summertime. Yum. He always appreciates being taken care of like that. (I don't care what anybody says about him being to needy and relying on me, it makes him happy and it makes me feel good to take care of him. Short rant over.) 3. I am there to fill any *Reasonable requests he has. 4. We spend time together. Whether S is asleep or awake has no bearing. We always lay down and watch something or talk for awhile before bed. And some days we go out as a family or on a date. Whatever we do, we make sire we get at least an hour together. There are 7 hours at night between him getting home and bed. I think I can make an hour of time. It has created a better bond between us. Although I know it won't be the answer to every problem we will ever face. A bond will at least make it easier. I have mindful about those 4 things for about the past 9 months but it didn't take long to see improvement.
Whether it is purposeful parenting or purposeful marriage, it is the key that opens the door to better relationships. It is mot definitely worthe the effort of being purposeful.
I recently started reading a series of articles on Sandra Dodd's unschooling website and ran across another method used in Purposeful Patenting that I always found quite silly when I heard it mentioned.
Values, but....no rules? Who ever heard of such a thing? Then something she said rang true. It was something along the lines of this....Rules externally motivate us through fear, threats, or punishment to blindly obey orders. Values internally motivate us to think about the difference between right and wrong. For example, S used to have a problem with pushing her Uncle when he made her mad. Now, instead of having to remember the rule "No hitting" and assuming pushing does count, she asks herself 2 questions. Would God like what I am about to do? Am I hurting or helping?
*Disclaimer: I realize that in real life we have "laws" but those laws also tend to be morally based-such as no stealing or killing-and nowhere near as strict as those inside our homes. As an adult I can cuss-if I want. I don't have to eat my greens or clean my plate if I choose not to. And I'm allowed to get angry and have a bad day. Unlike children who are *usually* punished when their emotions take control. (I have learned the only way S will know how to control her emotions is for me to get ahold of mine first. How can I expect her to know the difference in right and wrong emotional behaviors if I-the adult- can't model the proper way to show anger or sadness?) Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent....
The day after I read about values and principles I decided to see how it would work. Research. Then experiment. We sat down as a family and came up with our own values and questions to ask ourselves. (Below)
Value: (Spiritual) God First. Always. God's plan before our plan. God's time before our time. God's people before ourselves.
Questions:
Is this what God wants? Would God approve of what I am about to do?
Am I listening to the devil?
Am I serving my God the best way I know how?
Value: (in conjunction with God's people being before ourselves) Treat others the way you think THEY want to be treated.
People are more important than things.
Questions: Can I put myself in their shoes?
Do I want to lose a relationship over this?
Am I hurting or helping?
What can I do to help?
Value: (Educational) Learning is Life. It is natural. Always be learning something. All learning is equal. Follow your interests. Be passionate about something. Be Yourself.
Questions:
Have I learned something today?
Am I allowing learning to happen or am I hindering it?
Value: (Home) Houses are for living. Making a mess is good, as long as you clean it up because organization and cleanliness making living and learning easier.
Questions:
Am I taking care of the house God Blessed me with?
Value: (Health) Our body is God's temple.
Questions:
Is what I am doing or putting into my body healthy?
Value: (Personal) Be honest. Be caring. Love others. Be compassionate. Be respectful. Be a good listener.
Questions:
Am I being the best person I can be?
Am I being completely honest or am I lying?
*This is not an unalterable list. It is is open for discussion an add on at all times in this house.
The results? I have seen an amazing improvement. Although none of us are perfect still, it has helped us in all aspects of our lives.
For me, when I have tried to learn to "bite my tongue" in the past, I haven't been able to because I had no plan in place. Now I HAVE to pause to think every time I say something other than small talk. And even then, if I am about to say something about somebody who frustrated me or how angry I am at such 'n such for whatever, I Stop. And Think. "Will that hurt or help?" It has become a habit. It has become a good habit.
I see DH and DD's minds at work as well. I see S pausing more in the middle of her sentences. I see my Husband walk out if the room if he feels aggitated.
It has been such a great tool to use! And everybody was able to take part instead of us just imposing a list of rules or having unspoken ones like, "No spitting on people." and expecting her to know that it is wrong.
I think the people who came up with this have something here. Like they say, "Rules are meant to be broken." But if there are no rules, there is nothing to break. Going against your own morals and values is harder than going against somebody else's list of arbitrary limits.
Side Note: I have also extended the "Purposeful" lifestyle to my marriage. The longer we are together, happily married, I wonder, "How much longer until my marriage crumbles?" Negative outlook, I know, but everywhere I am I hear people talk about how marriage is miserable and how you are destined for disaster at some point. And it scares me to not know what lies ahead. I always judged the strength of our marriage based on the trials we have made it through. I considered it a major feat to make it through a teen pregnancy/relationship and to have made it through what happened with Lucy. But sometimes I wonder if that was not the worst of what is to come. I never can be sure. But I can do whatever it takes to keep a focus on my Husband and not lose him by become drowned out in my daily life. Of course I am tired when he gets home. I have spent the day cleaning, caring for 4 animals and a child. I've been "unschooling" all day with S. My brain is fried. And I still have to cook dinner, clean it up, take the doga out, clean the house, continue to care for S....you get the picture. Where is time for my Husband?
One of my good friends who has been married 15 years and has faced her share of marriage trials gave me some advice I will never forget. She told me that my Husband is the king of his home, right under God. He provides for his family and should be treated like royalty. (We have the same views as far as family structure and gender roles goes, so her advice really hit home for me.) No matter how grouchy my Hubby gets. No matter how tired I may be, I make it a point to do four things. 1. Rub his back. (My friend says she rubs her Husband's feet, but we do not do feet in this house...so...back it is.) My Husband loves a good back rub. So I made him a special lavendar/coconut oil lotion to help him sleep at night. If he has had an especially rough day I like to diffuse some lavendar and get my other oils out to give him a relaxing essential oil massage. He enjoys it and it makes him feel special. 2. Make sure he always has a drink. Right now in the winter, it is hot tea or coffee. I have found recipes for watermelon water and strawberry lemonade for the Summertime. Yum. He always appreciates being taken care of like that. (I don't care what anybody says about him being to needy and relying on me, it makes him happy and it makes me feel good to take care of him. Short rant over.) 3. I am there to fill any *Reasonable requests he has. 4. We spend time together. Whether S is asleep or awake has no bearing. We always lay down and watch something or talk for awhile before bed. And some days we go out as a family or on a date. Whatever we do, we make sire we get at least an hour together. There are 7 hours at night between him getting home and bed. I think I can make an hour of time. It has created a better bond between us. Although I know it won't be the answer to every problem we will ever face. A bond will at least make it easier. I have mindful about those 4 things for about the past 9 months but it didn't take long to see improvement.
Whether it is purposeful parenting or purposeful marriage, it is the key that opens the door to better relationships. It is mot definitely worthe the effort of being purposeful.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Progress Report for This Year SO FAR
Ah. These reports always make me feel better about what we have been covering throughout the year. And WHEW-EE, Samantha sure has covered lots of art! She is an artist though, so that is her job. I have worked on her progress report since September, adding a little at a time. And at the end of the actual year, I go over it and revise it, adding things I may have forgotten. I marvel at how many pages just the big stuff takes up. (Our day to day living is detailed in her journals I keep for records.)
We still have TWO more semesters. (We run like this September-December, January-May, and June-August, for paper work's sake. It helps me know where to begin and where to end on progress, even though we do year-round "school.")
I jumped ahead and added some things I know she will be doing next year. I know she will start swim classes. I know we will be reading some of the Molly American Girl books. I know she wants to continue to learn some math facts with her new card games that she loves. And I know that she will be doing a project of Egypt (or possibly California) for the Geography Fair. I have this nagging feeling it will switch to California pretty soon. (She has this undying love for the way the land and weather are portrayed in that area.) I also know she wants to learn how to knit with a loom and do some more You Tube videos with real clay!
Oh, how exciting it always is to start a new "chapter." Even though we only segment out our learning and life phases for paperwork purposes, there is always a difference we can feel and see as each new semester starts, weather it is renewed interest in old hobbies after the long Summer, new learning experiences after receiving numerous art supplies for Christmas, or a new sense of adventure rediscovered during the warm months, every part is always so exciting! And I know I can't wait for 2015.
Samantha Anne Mays
Progress Report 2014-2015
Curriculum
Description: Samantha
learns using a relaxed custom curriculum meant to teach her the basic concepts
of each subject and allow for growth in areas that interests her most. She uses
a range of learning tools and experiences from books, games, and movies to real
life and hands on activities. Samantha choices her own units of study, which is
then extended to include all the core subjects as well as other areas such as
Bible Study, Arts, and Music.
Unit Studies
Samantha
has completed a variety of unit studies (of her choosing) this year.
Dogs: Samantha really
enjoys dogs and has two of her own, so she chose to complete a study on dogs.
During that time everything she did was about dogs, from looking up images of
dogs to consistently looking up questions about dogs.
Activities: You Tube Dog
Training Videos-Zac George’s Channel, Clicker
Training, Care and Observation
Books: Marley and Me, Bad Dogs, and various informational books about dog
breeds, caring for dogs, and dog training and competitions
Art: Samantha main unit
of study this year, has been art. She has covered various form of art from
sewing and knitting to drawing and painting. She has used numerous mediums to
make her creations and finds her inspiration in many different places from
outdoor scenery to studying another artist’s work. She has even been inspired
by classical music selections.
Sewing: Samantha continued
to hold an interest in sewing from last year and has learned many new skills. She
can thread a needle and has been practicing needlepoint in order to make her
sewing more precise. She can also prepare her sewing machine and use it with
minimal assistance to complete a project. Some projects she has completed
include a pillow, cat outfit and doll clothes.
Crocheting: Samantha also
showed an interest in learning to crochet this year and went to her grandmother
for assistance. She started by learning to cast on and hand placement and can
now finish a complete chain. She hopes to be able to complete a dish cloth in
the next few months.
Knitting:
You Tube Videos: Samantha has taken
her art to a new level by making her own instructional videos, usually
containing instructions on how to make Play-Doh figurines based on video game
characters-inspired by the sweet treat You Tube channel Nerdy Nummies by
Rosanna Pansino. Samantha has also made videos on cake decorating, clay making,
and magic tricks. Samantha goes through the process of planning: what to make,
how to make it, gathering materials, rehearsing what she will say. Then I
assist her in filming the videos, sometimes taking several takes for one
scene. She has her own You Tube account
and has learned to post her videos/upload, name, and type a description. (She
follows a few channels such as How It’s Made, the History Channel, Zac George,
and Nerdy Nummies. She also enjoys browsing the videos on You Tube for art
videos and other topics of interest.) Samantha will soon learn how to edit
videos on her own.
Drawing and Painting: Samantha loves
drawing and painting and practices several hours a day. She loves reading How
To books and looking up videos to help her understand how to make things look
more realistic. She has started a few projects including several of her own
books.
For her
best book, she spent the day at the library looking for Children’s books about
foxes to get an idea of the illustration style she wanted to use. She named her
book The Fox and the Chicks. She
illustrated the cover, typed the story with some assistance, and completed the
pictures inside using sketch pencils and charcoals.
Her
paintings have made a marked improvement over the last year. She is learning to
control her brush strokes better. She can mix colors to make the colors she
wants. And she knows the effects each type of paint makes. Some of the projects
she completed with painting include her own interpretation of Starry Night, her
favorite painting by Van Gogh and her painting interpreting The Four Seasons
classical music by Vivaldi.
Field Trips: One of Samantha’s
big field trips this year was to the Downtown Chattanooga Bluff View Art
District. Samantha took a walk through Downtown Chattanooga, an art focused
area. As she walked to the Art District she saw many statues, some that were
abstract and others that were merely statues of people. She read about each one
and talked about it, what she liked, what she didn’t like, what it could mean.
Once she entered Bluff View, she visited the River Cress Art Gallery where
there were many different styles of art. Each medium of art was in in a separate
room. There was a glass room, a room with pottery, yard art, wood, paintings,
drawings, etc. (Samantha found inspiration in an oil painting on wood and was
determined to learn to use oil paints. She received a set of oil paints for
Christmas and has been experimenting with them ever since.) After the art
gallery she discussed what it must be like being an artist, starting out as an
artist, how to get displayed in an art gallery, the prices of art, art styles,
mediums, and interpretations.
Reading:
Samantha
started the year being able to read simple sentences without having to stop and
sound out each word. Most of her reading has evolved into recognition more than
phonics. By December Samantha was able to read storybooks on her own and
intermediate elementary chapter books (8+) with some assistance. She even
practices her reading throughout the day without being prompted by challenging
herself to read road signs, text messages, instruction manuals, game boards,
etc. She also challenges herself to spell out the word she is trying to convey
when she talks as opposed to saying the word. Her reading has become so fluent
that she rarely stops to sound out a word. Her spelling has become just as
second nature as her reading. Although there is still room for improvement,
Samantha ended the Fall semester “a reader.”
Samantha
has read a variety of texts including those listed above in her unit study
topics, hundreds of easy reader books, children’s classics, cookbooks, poetry
books, historical fiction, and books about topics she is interested in such as
books about horses and gymnastics.
She listened
to and assisted in reading chapter books such as Marley and Me, The Samantha American Girl series including Meet Samantha, Samantha Learns a Lesson,
Samantha’s Surprise, Happy Birthday, Samantha, Samantha Saves the Day, and Changes for Samantha as well as the
Samantha Mystery series including The
Curse of Ravens Court, The Case of the Stolen Sapphire, and The Call of the Loon.
The second
semester she focused on the Molly American Girl books about World War II (See
History).
Grammar and
Punctuation: Samantha
has a firm grasp on tenses as well as a beginning understanding of punctuation.
She knows what periods, exclamation points, question marks, and quotation marks
are for. She is beginning to use capitalization and punctuation in her writing
when she writes letters to friends, notes in her diary, or when writing her own
stories.
Activities: Samantha takes
bi-weekly trips to the Library. Each visit she checks out 20+ books, some
related to her unit studies and others not. Some she reads individually and
others are read to her in a variety of environments such as the Library, home,
outside, and in the store or car.
Math:
Samantha
began the school year true counting to 100. By December she was able to true
count to 1,000 by 1s and 10s. And can, although does not when prompted, count
by 2s and 5s. She has continued to work on her addition and subtraction fact
memorization and by December knew all her addition facts from 1 to 10. She also
started working with double and triple digit addition, including “carrying the
1.” To help her better understand the concept, we covered place value by
learning expanded form and using an “underlining method” on the marker board.
At the
beginning of the 2015 year Samantha started covering the same areas with
subtraction…
Samantha
has continued to be exposed to and learn a little about fractions. However, by
December, she still has limited understanding of what a fraction is. For
example, she understands that if the pizza is cut in half, we both get one
piece. But she does not understand how to complete word problems with fractions
or divide out more complex fractions.
Samantha
continued working with money this year by becoming more familiar with the value
of each coin, how to add totals in columns, and how to skip count to add
aloud-beginning. She is around money daily whether she is making a purchase
herself and receiving change, watching others make a purchase, going to the
bank, and watching budgets be made.
Activities: Samantha learns
math through playing board/card games such as Go to the Dump by Right Start
Math, Smath, Math War, Math Mat, and Race to a Quarter. She frequently plays
computer games such as funbrain.com, fun4the brain.com, powermylearning.com,
and cool-mathgames.com.
Science:
For Science
this year, Samantha has been focusing on Earth (Geology) and Life (plants and
animals) Science through camping and hiking. She has been to many different
parks and trails in the southeastern part of the United States. Samantha is
familiar with some of the plants and animals in the parks. She has learned
about which insects are poisonous and which are safe. She has learned about some
of Earth’s formations and how to find them on the map. (Beginners Map Reading) She
has learned about weather patterns and causes for specific patterns, while being
stuck in the rain many times. She has also learned to start predicting the
weather. She has watched and assisted in building fires, giving her better
understanding of its properties and uses.
Samantha
has covered some Medicinal Science, holistic form. Throughout the year Samantha
has learned more on how to make and measure the PPM of colloidal silver. She
has also begun learning about essential and carrier oils and how to mix or
diffuse them to help with illness or injury.
Samantha
has completed several Nature Studies every month. She has a nature journal and
art set with pencils, colored pencils, pastels, and water colored paints, any
of which she can use in her portraits. She has used each of these individually
as well a mixture of them together. Topics range from unit study related, such
as dogs, based on what she has heard, or seen in pictures and videos, to nature
related topics based on close observation such as the top of the clouds from
the Chimney Tops Trail in Gatlinburg.
Samantha
has also used a variety tools throughout the year. She has used measurement
tools such as a ruler, scale, and measuring cups/spoons, as well as observation
tools like a magnifying glass and microscope. She is learning more in depth how
to use these tools and why we use them.
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0881984.html
Activities:
•
Nature Sketch Book
•
Caring for Pets
•
Fishing Trips
•
Camping Trips
•
Everyday Questions
History:
Civil War: Samantha’s carried her
focus on the Civil War through the first part of the school year.
Activities: She continued to
look through non-fiction books, watch documentaries online, and visit local
sites. (Our area is full of Civil War History including the local Battle Field
which has many statues with inscribed histories and stories on display as well
as a museum where they show a historically based film, put models on display
along with several gun cases full of era guns, and put on reenactments.)
Field Trips: Samantha took a
trip to a local reenactment at the Western Atlantic Railroad Tunnels. She was
able to visit several tents set up to tell about popular sports and hobbies of
the time such as archery and quilting. She sat through an outdoor reenactment
and asked questions about the battle. She also was able to tour the WAR Tunnels
museum, which included Civil War relics such as guns, bullets, and old letters,
and even walked through the actual tunnels.
Early 1900s: Once Samantha
completed her Civil War study, she started started studying the Victorian time
period, starting in 1904. She read several of the American Girl Samantha books,
which tell the story of a little girl growing up in the Victorian era. We made
the study come to life while looking through a book that discussed all aspects
of the Victorian era: hobbies, clothes, toys, etc. She also cooked recipes from
a Victorian recipes book.
World War II:
Activities:
·
Timeline
Geography:
Activities: See Unit Studies:
Egypt
Samantha
continued to get familiar with the US and World maps this year. Both are on
display in the hall and Samantha enjoys looking over them in her free time. She
focused mainly on Map Reading skills this year. She learned to use grids for
location-introduction to longitude and latitude. (Battleship has been a great
resource for this.) She has also learned about map keys and legends, direction,
and geographical feature maps. (For this we used _____ games.)
Physical Education:
Samantha
stays active during the day by playing outside-doing flips, running, playing
games with friends, playing on the playground, learning to skate, or simply
taking a nature hike. She also spends much of her time on her trampoline
practicing her gymnastics.
Samantha
participated in a homeschool gymnastics class for the second year through
Southern Adventist University. This year, however, she only attends class once
a week for an hour. She was placed in a mixed class that put emphasis on form
for basic exercises including rolls, cartwheels, headstands, stall bars,
trampolines, ropes, and other exercise.
For Spring
semester, she continued gymnastics and also began swim classes through the
University.
Music: Samantha is
surrounded by a variety of different music in her everyday life including
Gospel, Classical, Rock, Pop, Country, and traditional music from other
countries.
Her
favorite music is Classical Music, with her favorite artists being Vivaldi and
Beethoven. (She enjoys Bach’s softer music.) She could sit and listen to
Classical music for hours and hours. Many of the more famous pieces she has
memorized and likes to create art to accompany the music.
Art: (See Unit Studies:
Art)
Fine Arts:
Technology:
Now that
Samantha can read and spell and enjoys writing her own books, she showed
interest in learning to type. She practices and plays games on http://www.freetypinggame.net/ By
December she knew where her home row keys were located and knew how to place her
hands and reach each key without moving her other fingers. She can type at an
average of 12 words per minute, 8 words adjusted speed.
Activities:
·
Playing on the Computer, Wii U, etc.
·
Home Economics: Samantha is able to
do a variety of housework with little or no assistance. She understands the
basic concepts of cooking/baking from scratch, simple cleaning, and household
errands. Samantha has ample knowledge about the health benefits of eating
organic foods. She is familiar with the process of making household detergents
and cleaners. Samantha goes grocery shopping on a regular basis and knows to
look at the labels and ingredients and what to look for. She has been taught
the benefit of buying from local farmers and is encouraged to do so. Samantha
is also learning ways to be more economical with her money.
Bible Study: Samantha has a
basic knowledge of the Bible and some of the stories in it. She knows who her
creator is and what he sent his Son to do for us. Recently we have begun
putting emphasis on reading the Bible for herself and interpreting it based on
its Hebrew origins. As she begins reading more independently, she has taken
over most of the reading portion herself.
Volunteer Work: Samantha assists in
volunteering two places: Women’s Enrichment Center in Dalton and West Side
Elementary School.
WEC: Twice
a month Samantha assists me in volunteering at the Women’s Enrichment Center.
This year she has been able to complete more simple office work such as making
copies, licking envelopes, and placing stamps.
WES:
Samantha takes bi-weekly trips to WES during the school year where she helps
with clerical work such as making copies (like at WEC) or classroom assistance
such as making work samples.
Special Field
Trips: Ripley’s
Believe it or Not Gatlinburg, TN, Cades
Cove Smokey Mountain, TN Ruby Falls
Chattanooga, TN, Pumpkin Patch
Riceville, GA, Apple Picking Elijay, GA Pioneer
Days Audubon Acres Chattanooga, TN,
Conclusion/Main Goals:
Samantha is
on track to meet her goals for the 2014-2015 school year.
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