Okay, so I am here killing time, trying to avoid watching the Presidential address this evening. (Shudder) Much as I adore (cough, cough) the president and his brilliant (ahem) plans for our nation, I'd rather not slog through some spin-docotors predigested tripe as it is spewed through ole GW's mouth.
Yetch.
It would be one thing if he was actually speaking to us instead of that pedantic, mind-numbing regurgitated speech.
Oh, well.
It's given me time to think, and tonight I am thinking about my own theory of education. It's developing, somewhere past zygote but not quite full-term, just floating along, absorbing nutrients and changing and growing. I ran a DNA test and was shocked to see that there are an unusual number of parents of this child....either that or I just stole body parts in a Frankenstienish attempt to create a new life.
At any rate, here they are...
John Taylor Gatto--From him I stole a bit of guts, the courage to know I could do it better than they were. He also provided some beautifully derisive metaphors for public schooling that come in handy with homeschool-doubters.
Maria Montessori--the bones. She was one of my very earliest influences, back when my Dodo was still a baby, and the prepared environment has been a part of our life ever since. The backbone of my own sort of classical/eclectic/unschoolingness is my version of the prepared environement. My baby's gonna have great bone structure with genes like this.
Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise--the brains. I know they didn't invent the concept of doing history chronologically, but it was from their book that I first learned it. It was an epiphany for me, a glorious aha! moment. Their book is full of moments like that. I also stole Latin, Greek roots, and the idea of a spine to hold studies together without a structured plan. I don't think they intended it that way, but it works for us.
John Holt--The lungs, the deep breath of relaxation and confidence that learning is happening all the time, that learning is not something that has to be taught.
Early Childhood Educators--okay I am stretching my metaphor a bit with this one, since it isn't one actual person, but I have learned so much from this field. Where else would I have discovered the imaginary play, sensory play, sand tables, dry rice, collages, finger paint and wooden blocks so dear to my heart? From them I stole the heart, that lively beat that keeps us going. Also an inordinate fondness leaning towards obsession for arts and crafts supplies.
Ruth Beechick--her practical feet keep me down to earth. When I am off being obsessed with raising my super-brains to be scientists or mathematicians she grounds me, she says it's okay to slow down and just get through the day, learning is fun and that is how it should stay. Keep your expectations high, but they don't always have to be sky-high.
Mary Poppins--that droll, sometimes prissy but always kindly smile. A smile that speaks in a cultured British voice and says, "I am willing to give you some sugar to help that medicine go down, but if I believe this medicine is necessary then you will be taking it whether you care for it or not. But lets not ruin a perfectly splendid day worrying about it."
Charlotte Mason-- the eyes to see the natural world, and a large old-fashioned skirt just perfect for grasping children, or for shy children to hide behind, or as a nice shady canopy for our long, leisurely nature picnics.
Okay my metaphor is beyond strained, time to exit.
~EC
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
No Day-wid!
My Ugha has officially fallen in love with her first book! She has always enjoyed her board books, will sit still for repeated tellings of short, simple classics like Brown Bear, Brown Bear or The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but this time it's for real. This time the battered paperback book is sleeping next to her each night in her toddler bed right next to her bedraggled blanket, this time she gathers her baby dollies around her to listen as she "Weedz it ow-loud" from memory and cackles gleefully while describing the illustrations.
The lucky book? No, David by David Shannon.
The lucky book? No, David by David Shannon.
Math Curriculums
So now I've had a good chance to peruse the copy of Saxon 5/4 I bought for 14 dollars on CBD, had a chance to get the gist of it, use it for a week and see my Dodo's reaction. It is much, much more basic than I expected (or Dodo is farther ahead than I realized), and while it has entirely too much review, it still manages to lack enough specific new skill focused practice. Strange dichotomy. I wonder who thought it was a good idea to introduce a new concept and then give the students no chance to internalize it though practice, but instead have them do unrelated review problems? But since I am used to skipping around and don't bat an eyelash at using texts my way, I've found that Saxon is actually a decent choice to alter for use in the systematic, drastically condensed grade-level review I wanted. Better than I would have expected.
Singapore 4A and B were useless to me in that respect, there is almost no teaching except in pictures, which was dissapointing to me since I specifically wanted a different "take" on presenting concepts, another angle if you will. Another dissapointment was the subject matter--in 4A they focus on geometry nearly to the exclusion of everything else, so as a grade-level review it fails dramatically. This is a program to start early and stick with if you want a text you don't have to modify, It looks more interesting and coherent than an unabridged, unaltered Saxon, I won't argue that, but the grade levels in and of themselves do not lend themselves to comprehensive review.
I think my first impulse purchase of Mastering Mathematics last year turned out to be the best option for us after all. Shame I had to lose all confidence in it and myself and waste money chasing a "better" program. Ah, well, at least now I can really see that she really has learned with this program, and now I do have a better idea of grade level. (More 5-6 than the late 4th I thought) So it wasn't a total loss.
In related news, Scote is thriving on Miquon. It took a small mental adjustment on my part to really get it, but he took to it like a duck to water. I pulled all the pages in the orange and red books out (it's preforated, but very poorly-- I ended up using scissors) and stapling them into concept booklets of about ten pages each. He really likes choosing the concept he wants to work on each day and coloring in the progress chart on the inside cover. He'll say things like "Today I need to work on my clocks," or, "Maybe I should finish out all the subtraction today." It makes a big difference in motivation for him to have that amount of control. At first I had to really push the manipulatives at him, since he wanted to use his "mind fingers" on all the pages, but he is still a young 5 and inexperienced in math enough that I really felt he needed more concrete experiences even if he could already use his "mind fingers". It turned out to be the right thing, because using the cuisinaire rods in a systematic way has some very exciting mathematical side effects which enable him to make connections between mathematical concepts and discover new ideas all the time instead of just compute, which is what this math lab/discovery approach is all about. I wish I had known of this program when my Dodo was preschool age, she would have loved it. We did lots with manipulatives anyway, but Dodo loves structure in ways I can't fathom. She would have had conculsions of joy at the thought of coloring in a math progress chart at that age. I'm definitely going to get a copy for Ugha in another year or so.
Singapore 4A and B were useless to me in that respect, there is almost no teaching except in pictures, which was dissapointing to me since I specifically wanted a different "take" on presenting concepts, another angle if you will. Another dissapointment was the subject matter--in 4A they focus on geometry nearly to the exclusion of everything else, so as a grade-level review it fails dramatically. This is a program to start early and stick with if you want a text you don't have to modify, It looks more interesting and coherent than an unabridged, unaltered Saxon, I won't argue that, but the grade levels in and of themselves do not lend themselves to comprehensive review.
I think my first impulse purchase of Mastering Mathematics last year turned out to be the best option for us after all. Shame I had to lose all confidence in it and myself and waste money chasing a "better" program. Ah, well, at least now I can really see that she really has learned with this program, and now I do have a better idea of grade level. (More 5-6 than the late 4th I thought) So it wasn't a total loss.
In related news, Scote is thriving on Miquon. It took a small mental adjustment on my part to really get it, but he took to it like a duck to water. I pulled all the pages in the orange and red books out (it's preforated, but very poorly-- I ended up using scissors) and stapling them into concept booklets of about ten pages each. He really likes choosing the concept he wants to work on each day and coloring in the progress chart on the inside cover. He'll say things like "Today I need to work on my clocks," or, "Maybe I should finish out all the subtraction today." It makes a big difference in motivation for him to have that amount of control. At first I had to really push the manipulatives at him, since he wanted to use his "mind fingers" on all the pages, but he is still a young 5 and inexperienced in math enough that I really felt he needed more concrete experiences even if he could already use his "mind fingers". It turned out to be the right thing, because using the cuisinaire rods in a systematic way has some very exciting mathematical side effects which enable him to make connections between mathematical concepts and discover new ideas all the time instead of just compute, which is what this math lab/discovery approach is all about. I wish I had known of this program when my Dodo was preschool age, she would have loved it. We did lots with manipulatives anyway, but Dodo loves structure in ways I can't fathom. She would have had conculsions of joy at the thought of coloring in a math progress chart at that age. I'm definitely going to get a copy for Ugha in another year or so.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Holiday Update
Okay, here are the new holiday/new year fun additions to our homeschool,
PE--a trampoline ( it still reaches 70 degrees in the afternoons here), boxing gloves and bag, and Bella Dancerella
MUSIC--a yamaha digital keyboard and usborne piano books (!)
ART--child-sized masterpieces
MISC--Lucky Ducks for Ugha (colors--too basic even for her, but cute), Domino Construction set for Scote, and the coolest roll-up jigsaw puzzle keeper and a box with ten glow in the dark puzzles for my Dodo.
We also had the opportunity to visit a cotton farm and collect some left-over cotton, harvest, estimate and count pecans, and visit (no riding this time, alas) some horses.
We went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which was good, but much faster paced than the book) but never made it to Narnia...at least not yet.
The holidays have finally passed, and even though it was wonderful, I think all of us are itching to get back into school. No way could we be happy doing nothing until the 9th like our public school counterparts. Ten times a day I hear, "What can we do? Can't we just do math at least? When are we doing school again?" and I say "Jump on the trampoline, play video games, blah, blah, blah."
We are totally ready to get back to school, provided we can continue to wear our fuzzy Christmas PJs all day. I don't see why not, I'd wear them to the store if I didn't hate drawing attention to myself.
Now, I mean we are itching to get back to our routine, back to our book learning, and back to our obsessions, as opposed to the way my sisters-in-law might mean school, as in "I can't wait to get these little monsters out of my house and back to being raised by a series of random, poorly-educated, underpaid strangers while I watch endless hours of patronizing drivel on TV."
PE--a trampoline ( it still reaches 70 degrees in the afternoons here), boxing gloves and bag, and Bella Dancerella
MUSIC--a yamaha digital keyboard and usborne piano books (!)
ART--child-sized masterpieces
MISC--Lucky Ducks for Ugha (colors--too basic even for her, but cute), Domino Construction set for Scote, and the coolest roll-up jigsaw puzzle keeper and a box with ten glow in the dark puzzles for my Dodo.
We also had the opportunity to visit a cotton farm and collect some left-over cotton, harvest, estimate and count pecans, and visit (no riding this time, alas) some horses.
We went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which was good, but much faster paced than the book) but never made it to Narnia...at least not yet.
The holidays have finally passed, and even though it was wonderful, I think all of us are itching to get back into school. No way could we be happy doing nothing until the 9th like our public school counterparts. Ten times a day I hear, "What can we do? Can't we just do math at least? When are we doing school again?" and I say "Jump on the trampoline, play video games, blah, blah, blah."
We are totally ready to get back to school, provided we can continue to wear our fuzzy Christmas PJs all day. I don't see why not, I'd wear them to the store if I didn't hate drawing attention to myself.
Now, I mean we are itching to get back to our routine, back to our book learning, and back to our obsessions, as opposed to the way my sisters-in-law might mean school, as in "I can't wait to get these little monsters out of my house and back to being raised by a series of random, poorly-educated, underpaid strangers while I watch endless hours of patronizing drivel on TV."
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