Some Body

I had been teaching Simone science by having her do copywork.  I would give her sentences about what elements, atoms, molecules and body tissue were and she would have to copy them in her own handwriting.  But once I got into human organs,  I realized that copywork was not going to help her remember the their functionality as much as this game Somebody that I had seen in the Rainbow Resources catalog.

Now even Max is learning about the digestive system!  It seems to be working because this morning Simone told me that her gummy bear almost went down her trachea instead of her esophagus.  

Homeschool Shortcut

One of the cool things about homeschooling more than one kid is that the younger ones absorb what the older ones are learning.  Max has an advanced vocabulary for a 5-year-old.  They were watching Shrek and some humans were reacting (badly) to the sight of the title ogre.  Max exclaimed, "Man, those guys are horrified!"

Another cool thing is that the older kid can teach the  younger for you!  Part of Simone's spelling is to put the spelling tiles in alphabetic order.  She already knows how to do that quickly so she took it on herself to "teach" Max his letters!  She pretended she was the teacher and worked with him to put the letters in order.  When he got stuck as to what was next, she would prompt him to sing the ABC song with her to retrieve the answer.

She was so excited about teaching Max that she wrote a lesson plan book right after.  It consisted of only two pages, but that was enough because Max was done with being the student.  

Common and Proper Nouns

Simone thinks I'm in loooovvveee with nouns.  They're fine.  Sure!  But I'm just trying to teach her grammar.    She doesn't quite get it yet and we have to revisit the concept regularly.  Well she had had enough of nouns today after 45 minutes of homeschooling so when I asked her to give me a common noun she said with a smirk on her face, "Poopoo!"

I was about to scold her into taking the lesson seriously when I had a bright idea.   If I have the definition correct, I think this is a teachable moment.  I said to her, "You're right, Simone!  Poopoo is a 'thing!'  Now do you  know the name of a specific poo?"  At this point she was just giggling because I kept saying poopoo, so I answered the question for her.

"I'll tell you.  'Mr. Hankey' is the name of a particular poo! So 'Mr, Hankey' is a proper noun and 'poopoo' is a common noun!"

Hurray for knowledge!

First Adventure in Homeschooling!

We decided that I would start Simone's 1st grade homeschool during the summer after her Kindergarten.  In fact, we started the Monday after her last day of school.  My belief is that learning, formal or not, happens all the time.  The only reason why there is a vacation in compulsory education is that, historically, children needed to help their farming parents between the months of June and August to reap the harvest.

I have been preparing for about 3 years for the moment I would start homeschool.  I had chosen The Well-Trained Mind as a structure for teaching Simone, but I can already see that we might veer from its organization.  In fact, I go through a re-evaluation of teaching methods every day!!!  Issues include number of breaks, when is the best time to teach Simone, where is the best place to teach her, how to present information, and how to mix up the subjects from day to day.

One thing I have learned with how I present information is  I need to be more interesting!

Simone straight up told me that I am boring.  Wha- what WHAT?!?!?    Me? Boring?  Well that was a shocker, but a very constructive criticism.  AND an instigation to give more props to teachers who teach more than one child!

The funny thing is that our first day was one of our most creative.

I had bought a lot of e-books from Teacher Express, a sub-company of Scholastic, Inc.  For the first day, I turned to one of their activities.  I chose the brain hats because Max had recently asked about our brains and where it is.  Simone really liked coloring hers.   Max got frustrated that he couldn't color and cut as well as his sister.

After a few more days of our doing worksheets, Simone kept telling me that learning is borning.  So for one of our writing prompts, I asked, "Why do you think learning so boring?"  Here is her answer.

"Because you do it difrnt"

On the left is a picture of Simone with her teacher Mrs. Dye.  Simone is happy and standing tall.

On the right is a picture of Simone with me.  She is cowering in a corner.  She told me, "Here, I am crying."

My ultimate goal is not to copy what teachers do, but I do want to get her more excited about learning.  Simone did comfort me by telling me that she likes how I teach her Spelling. 

I think Simone might be more of a kinetic learner than I originally thought.  Well ... here's to learning more about learning.  

Quelling the Tiger Mom in Me

Simone successfully finished her first year in compulsory education.  My measure of success is that she merely went to school everyday that she was healthy enough to.  I knew that she wouldn't like it at first, but I suspected she would tolerate it eventually.   Luckily for all of us, she accepted this new routine and many days she came home smiling and recounted some fun experiences she had with her new friends.

As is to be expected, there were bumps along the road.  Within the first few months, Simone told me stories of classmates saying mean things to her.  "Everyone is trying to be mean to you."  "I don't like your hair."  "Stop looking at me!"  There were even incidents of kids taking money from her.  It wasn't a case of being bullied to give her lunch money away; instead she just happily obliged when classmates asked her for money.

It was no surprise during Simone's first quarter awards ceremony that she got Honor Roll.  But it wasn't that hard since their school- and homework was reading the words for colors and coloring the correct shapes.  As the year progressed, we found out what Simone's strengths and weaknesses were.  She excelled in Reading and remembering the science topics, but her printing left much to be desired.  We knew that she would get awards during her second quarter, but I had not expected she wouldn't be on the honor roll.  The tiger mom in me started to worry.

Simone does not look enthused.

I started to think I should be harder on her to do her homework more neatly.  We were already wrestling with having to do homework in the first place. I had grown up with a gigantic emphasis on grades and delivered the final As and Bs.  But I honestly couldn't regurgitate any of the information that did not initially interest me.  I hated literature and was so poor at comprehension.  History was not interesting unless we were talking about mythology and folklore, which I read on my own and didn't learn in school.  I didn't want Simone to be so focused on getting the grade that she didn't learn anything.  But inside I still used the honor roll as an external gauge.

The kids were told to give themselves a pat on the back.

I tried not to worry about it when she didn't get honors.  I congratulated her for getting the "Citizenship" and "No Tardies" awards, but I also talked to my friends about my feelings of incompetency as a mother.  In the end, I didn't push her extra hard on her writing and just continued to read to her.   I fostered her extracurricular interests such as gymnastics and dance.  I tried to be a kick-back mom about her grades because I know she is an intelligent girl who has a thirst for knowledge.   If Handwriting was the only thing keeping her from Honor Roll, then so be it.  Heck! 5-year-olds aren't usually developmentally ready to do such fine motor skills for penmanship.  At least Simone was doing well with other subjects.

Well, a surprise happened after her 3rd quarter awards ceremony.  No, she didn't get honor roll.   A couple of days afterwards, she expressed her desire to get onto the coveted Honor Roll!  I don't know if it was because her friends were on it.  I don't know if I subconsciously pushed her to want it (I hope that isn't it - I know my face can reveal my emotions when I don't want it to).  But now that she really wanted to improve, I really wanted to help her with all my might!

Honestly, I didn't do anything.  She did all the improving by herself!  The only thing I did was point out to her that her low grade in Handwriting was what was keeping her from getting the award she wanted.  With that info, she took more time and patience to write more legible letters.  And wouldn't you know it, Simone ended up with not just Honor Roll in her last quarter, she also got the "B.U.G." award which is given to kids who "Bring Up Grades!"

Look at her joy in getting an award!

Simone learned a lot in her first year of Kindergarten.  She learned about nocturnal and diurnal animals, the phases of the moon, how to count to 100, how to add and subtract, the rainforest and its four layers, America and its symbols, and 2D vs. 3D shapes.  She also learned how to verbally express her feelings to kids who were being mean to her, the consequences of talking back to her teacher, and the joys of having best friends.

I too learned a lesson:  that true change will come from Simone if she initiates it.   She is as stubborn as her mother after all.

Yrotsih, or History Backwards

I've been plagued with the question, "Should I start homeschooling Simone at 1st grade or at 2nd grade, which is when we move to a new Coast Guard station?"  I brought up the dilemma to Michael and said that we could follow the well-trained mind curriculum if I afterschooled Simone the history part, Ancient Civilizations to Middle Ages. 

Maybe it's the philosopher in Michael that he brought up more questions to my question, but he pointed out, "I don't know if it's the best thing to teach Simone in the conventional chronological order."  I welcomed his opinion and elaborated that the beginning of known history is so far removed from what Simone knows now that it may not be interesting at all to her.  He thinks that going backwards might be best to teach history backwards.  

I'm now researching how I would go about it.  I'm not fully on board, but I'm very intrigued because I know I didn't retain very much history when I learned it the conventional, mostly chronological method.  But then again, maybe history was taught poorly to me.  But then again, maybe if it were tailored to what I was experiencing around me, maybe I would have been more interested.  Who knows, but I'm definitely going to consider teaching history from the present to the past. 

 

 

Opposition

The tides have changed with my mom's support for homeschooling.  She used to be all for it when I said I wanted to homeschool Simone at around 4th grade.  Lately, I've been thinking I want to homeschool her sooner - like 1st grade!  Since we're going to do Classical education which is taught in cycles of  4 years, I was leaning towards starting her at the beginning of a cycle in 1st grade instead of starting in the middle at 2nd grade. 

When I told my mom this yesterday, she made it known that she thought it was a bad idea.  Her main argument for keeping her in school was that Simone needs to be exposed socially so she can deal with peer pressure.   She asked why I thought homeschooling was a good idea, and I responded that it's more efficient.  Again my mom stressed that Simone needs socialization, which I think is something that she can get through gymnastic classes, swim classes, 4H, etc.  Yes peer pressure will always be around, but I don't need her to be in school 6 hours to learn about.  One hour intervals is fine enough.  

My mom further argued that Simone may not listen to me.  I had just told her how Simone wanted to do things her way when I asked her to write "I can hop."  Simone did do it her way, but she ended up writing an extra letter with "I can play." I like to think of it as Simone's way of subliminally encouraging me to let her have fun.  I answered my mom with an analogy.  "Just like with breastfeeding in which 'there is no try, only do,' I will just have to force Simone to listen to me."  My mom, I could tell was not satisfied so I told her in a light and jovial tone, "I can tell this is all going over your head and you don't agree."  She laughed too and said, "We'll just agree to disagree."

Honestly, it angers me.  But it's not worth it to try to convince her I think we're doing the right thing.  And actually, it's not the only right thing to do.  My niece and nephew who will go to conventional schooling will learn as much as our kids!  There's many ways to do things; I just wish my mom would see that alternate paths can lead to the same endpoint.