Priorities: Choose LOVE

Today is Valentine's Day, so I wish everyone to be filled with love in their lives and in their hearts.

Valentine's Day drawn by Tiger

This post was inspired by a conversation I had with another homeschooling Mum, Mrs. W, recently.  Mrs. W brought her son home from school after he had experienced multiple difficulties in school -- the usual challenges such as bullying, being academically stifled, educational needs not being met.  She has been homeschooling her nine-year-old son for two years despite oppositions from her extended family and her husband.  In her own words, it's really down to her and her son to prove to all the naysayers that homeschooling is the best thing for her son.

I can understand and relate to her having to face opposition from family, but I was surprised to learn that she did not have her husband's support.  When I asked her why her husband did not think homeschooling their son was a good idea, Mrs. W told me the reason is because her husband is a "traditionalist" who thinks that their son is not learning unless he is seen to be writing in workbooks.  I offered some words of encouragement and comfort, but I couldn't help thinking to myself the following:

1. some people's idea of learning is dangerously narrow
2. being schooled is NOT the same as being educated
3. "conformists" would be a more appropriate term to describe those who do not question the 'that's-how-it's-always-been-done' way of life, even if the-way-things-always-have-been isn't working for them anymore

As our conversation progressed, Mrs. W revealed that her husband said something along the lines of, "You only have one shot at this.  What if you get it wrong?  What if he doesn't learn anything or have any qualifications when he's 16 years old?  Then you'll have ruined his life."

Do you hear what's really going on behind these words?  It's fear.  Mr. W is clearly so overcome with fear of the what-ifs that he would rather put his son back into the drudgery of school (where he had suffered miserably before) than to support his courageous wife to seek a new and better educational solution for their son.  This fear of the unknown is so illogical yet especially crippling to the creative essence of anyone.

If working through workbooks were the only way to learn, as Mr. W thinks it is, then by this misguided and very narrow definition, Tiger hasn't been learning anything for a very long time.  Especially when it started snowing again this week, Tiger has spent most of his time outdoors playing in the snow.

He has not gone near anything that resembles a workbook.  Instead, he has spent many happy hours throwing snowballs,

building a snowman, only to dismantle it by sculpting and burrowing in it,

looking and identifying 'mysterious' tracks,

marvelling at how intricate the ice crystals look on the car window,

and generally living and experiencing the snow and frost.

Is this not worth more than filling out pages of workbooks?  A few years ago I might have felt slightly worried (fear again) that Tiger was not 'keeping up with the school children'.  Nowadays, I see much more value in choosing to project love rather than fear onto my child --a love for life, a love for learning, a love for real first-hand experiences, a love for nature, a love for wonder and freedom....

I hope Mr. W will find it in his heart to let go of the fear that is preventing him from seeing the tremendous opportunity that lies in front of his child.  Choose to be guided by love and it will turn us into the wind beneath our children's wings; fear will only make us become wing-clippers.  This article might just enlighten Mr. W a little bit.


This post is linked up to:
1) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Winter 
2) Hearts for Home Blog Hop #4
3) Homeschool Mother's Journal: February 15, 2013 
4) Hobbies and Handicrafts - Feb 15 
5) Collage Friday- The Literature Fair
6) TGIF Linky Party #63#
7) It's a Wrap
8) Weekly Wrap-Uup: The One with the Video
9) Share it Saturday
10) The Sunday Showcase - 2/16/13
11) Hip Homeschool Hop - 2/19/13

Be a friend to the birds

What would you do to get to know new friends?  You might want to learn all about them, for example their behaviour, their favourite food, things they like to do at different times of the year, etc.

Better yet, pay them a visit,

and bring them some food.

If you're very handy, you might help them build a house.

A robin house

Or even a customised, dainty feeder (something similar to one of those 'World's Greatest Mum' type of mug).

Then have great fun watching your friends show appreciation for your effort by using your gift to them very often.

If your friends are very important and famous (as ours are), you might even take part in a national survey about them and journal all about them.

If your friends were really cool, you might even persuade your Mum to journal about them too!

This post is linked up to:
1) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Winter 
2) Hearts for Home Blog Hop #3
3) Weekly Wrap-Up: The One in Which Much was Accomplished
4) Homeschool Mother's Journal: February 8, 2013
5) Collage Friday - Finding Rest and Peace
6) It's a Wrap
7) Hobbies and Handicrafts - Feb 8
8) TGIF Linky Party #62
9) Share it Saturday - Valentine's Features
10) The Sunday Showcase 2/9/13 - Science Fun for Kids
11) Science Sunday: Where I've had family
12) Hip Homeschool Hop - 2/12/13
13) February 2013 - Homeschool Science Share & Tell

It has been featured in It's a Wrap; My Weekly Take Away.

Some things to think about...

I find the following clip to be relevant (to me personally) when thinking about the direction of our homeschooling journey, the values I would like to impart to Tiger, and the type of education I would like him to be exposed to:

In the process, it is worthwhile to appreciate the times we have with our children and the preciousness of childhood, all of which pass by ever so quickly:

Atypical homeschool day with an 8-year-old

This morning while catching up with the blogs, I came across an invitation to share your homeschool day in the life.  It sounds like a fun idea to see how we spend our time on any particular day.  Since there is no typical day in our homeschool anymore, I thought today is as good as any day.  I must say, on hindsight, that today is an atypical day, since yesterday didn't look like this at all, and tomorrow will be different again, next week is yet another story altogether.  Nonetheless, here's my best shot at capturing this particular Friday. 

8:30am - After saying goodbye to Tortoise, Tiger and  I have our breakfast.  Tiger then makes sure that he has done his morning chores before I finish my cup of coffee, as that signals the start of 'lessons'.  This morning, Tiger is all fired up to go and he decides what he wants to learn today:

9am - I've finished drinking my morning coffee while checking emails and the news.  Lessons start.  Tiger wants to start with Classical Civilisations this morning so we discuss whether he wants to continue with studying the myths or wars.  I have a new book on Greek myths that I am eager to start with Tiger, but he chooses to study battles.  He looks through the "textbook" of his choice for this topic:

This is one of Tiger's favourite books.  He reads it very often and uses it to choose a certain character or battle to study.  Today Attila the Hun has got his interest, so we watched the following documentaries together:

We always watch documentaries together as there are frequent pauses in-between when we stop for discussions about what we are watching.  For example today's discussion range from the character of Attila, his upbringing, his lineage, his battle strategies, to the fall of his kingdom after his death and whether how he had spent his life had been worthwhile.

While all that is going on, I laminate some Latin flash cards that I had printed off a while ago and make them into small piles to be ready for use at some point in time later.

11am - Break for fruit and yogurt.  After food, I tidy up a little around the house while Tiger reads to himself.

 

11:30am - I set out the art supplies for Tiger to put an entry into his nature journal.  He was not enthusiastic about it at first, but he changed his mind after I showed him what I have done in mine and said that we will work together.  He gets on with his entry happily while I draw alongside him.

 

12pm - I'm starving so I put the pizza in the oven, and go back to work in the nature journal. 

12:30pm - Lunch is ready, and so are we!  Tiger has completed his entry.  We packed everything away from the dining table, Tiger does his kitchen duties, and we have lunch.  More talking and discussion about various topic take place over lunch.

 

12:45pm - I remember that we have to collect a parcel so we jump into the car and go out to do the errand.

1:30pm - Back home.  I try to persuade Tiger to add to his journal entry (so that I can complete mine at the same time) but he says he has done enough art for today and he has decided to replace Art with Maths.  He knows what he wants to do with Maths so while he is busy working through coordinates problems, I work in my nature journal.  Every so often I am called to see what Tiger has done in three games he has found and worked through by himself:

1.  Cops and Robbers (he broke the record in this by solving the answers in 3 steps)
2. Lost
3. Archery (he scored over 3000 points in this)

3pm - I've completed my entry.  It's time for afternoon tea.  I empty the dishwasher and do another round of quick tidying up.

3:30pm - Tiger puts on an audio book and spreads himself out on the floor with paper and Sharpies.  Since he is busily engaged, I carry on with housework.

4pm - I ask Tiger whether he wants to do science together.  He tells me he is preparing to go on an expedition.  I think it's not a good idea to stop a boy from going on an expedition so I left him to it, after he has explained his route on the maps that he has just drawn.

4:30pm - I start to prepare dinner.  I also ask Tiger to start tidying his room for the day.  He asks for a 15-minute extension because he hasn't completed his expedition yet.  I said ok.

4:45pm - Tiger goes to tidy his room.  Wow, if only he were so obedient every day!

5:15pm - All the preparation for dinner is done.  While dinner is cooking in the oven, I offer to help Tiger tidy his room together.  The level of cleaniness is not the same when Mum takes action.  Everything has to be put away, straightened up, dusted, and hoovered.  His room is now spotless.

6pm - Tiger has his dinner while I continue to potter around the kitchen and lounge.  Where does all the endless mess come from?!

7:30pm - Tortoise comes home, gets changed and spends some time with Tiger.  Tiger is exceptionally tired tonight so he gets himself ready for bed by 7:50pm.

8pm - Tiger is in bed.  Tortoise and I say goodnight to him then have our dinner together.  This is our time to catch up with each other's day.

10pm - Tortoise and I catch up with our respective emails and web browsing.  I start to type this blog post.  It is 11:15pm now and I have had enough of this post.  That's it for today.  I'm going to stay up a little longer to catch up on the news.  It's Friday night so I'm allowed to stay up late.  :-)


This post is linked up to:
1) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Winter 
2) Hearts for Home Blog Hop #2
3) History and Geography Meme 60
4) Weekly Wrap-Up: The One where I Considered Drinking
5) Homeschool Mother's Journal: February 1, 2013
6) Collage Friday - From the Beach (Beech)
7) It's a Wrap
8) Hobbies and Handicrafts - Feb 1
9) TGIF Linky Party #61
10) Share it Saturday
11) The Sunday Showcase - 2/2/13
12) Hip Homeschool Hop - 2/5/13

An evolving story

I read the original writings of A.S. Neill a few years ago, and had mixed views about the Summerhill School that he founded.  I especially don't agree with his view of sidelining the parents, except maybe he was reacting against 'Tiger parents' of his days and the post-Victorian era discipline imposed on English children.

As we gravitate increasingly towards the autonomous approach in our homeschool, I am finding the following 12-part film rather refreshing in terms of clarifying how that school works.

I was surprised to find the atmosphere of the school (as portrayed by the film) to be very similar to that of our homeschool on most days.  More interestingly, the sign-up sheet that the children in the film use to decide what they want to learn is almost identical to what we use at home.

Without consciously thinking about it, we have arrived at a very similar approach towards educating children.  It is very interesting to see the similarity between the school's education philosophy and what is broadly known in homeschooling circle as 'unschooling', autonomous, child-led, or delight-directed education.  Summerhill's environment is as close as any Ofsted-registered school can hope to get to what many autonomous homeschooling families around the world are already giving their children -- the freedom to be themselves and to know themselves.

I found a 1964 interview with A.S. Neill here, so you can watch it for actual school footage and listen to what he said.

We don't usually see or hear about pioneering homeschooling families in the UK, but I found one here whose views sum up the general idea in this country.  Got to love that woman's quiet, determined defiance.  Things haven't changed very much since then.

This post is linked up to:

1) Hearts for Home Blog Hop #2
2) Homeschool Mother's Journal: February 1, 2013
3) TGIF Linky Party #61
4) Share it Saturday
5) The Sunday Showcase - 2/2/13
6) Hip Homeschool Hop - 2/5/13

How did he do it?

We resumed lessons this morning with maths.  Usually we do a little bit of mental warm up with me asking Tiger to solve a few maths equations just to start his cogs turning, especially after last week's cold and total absence of any form of formal lessons...

This morning's warm up question was: what is £9.87 x 32?

I asked the question verbally while Tiger wrote it out in his exercise book.  He wrote it out below:

And stared at it for a minute (I don't have the patience to wait for more than a minute for a maths answer) before I suggested to him that maybe it would be easier to write the question out vertically and use the long multiplication method.  He accepted my suggestion and dutifully wrote it out as requested:

As you can see from the above, my suggestion didn't go very far to help Tiger.  After another 30 seconds of staring at it, he gave up on my suggestion and said he wanted to 'think about it'.  He took 30 seconds before telling me the answer: £315.84

I had to double check the answer with a calculator.

When asked how he did it, Tiger couldn't explain his mental process to me, although I could guess it from the way he gave me the answer.  He gave me the answer in two parts.  First, he told me it was '£315 and something', then in the next few seconds, he had worked out the rest was 84p.

Tiger was very pleased that he got the correct answer, but quickly told me that he doesn't want to do anymore today since his brain is 'worn out from all that calculating'.

If he were in school where everyone is expected to show their maths workings on paper in a step by step manner, Tiger's unusual mental process would probably be labeled as some kind of 'learning difficulty' or 'special need', whereas being taught at home means that he is in an environment with a parent who recognises and supports his unique way of learning.

There has been much debate in the UK about how maths is best taught in schools.  There doesn't seem to be any consensus yet (I don't expect there to be), but Tiger has seldom been taught to memorise anything (we tried to do that with grammar following the WTM recommendations and we both found that to be excruciatingly dull and ineffective), not least learning time tables by heart.  I don't believe in rote learning.  We are more inclined towards gaining an understanding and appreciation of how things work, including mathematics.


This post is linked up to:
1) Math Monday Blog Hop #84
2) Hip Homeschool Hop - 1/29/13

Our winter week: snow fort, warm cookies, and games

This week there hasn't been a lot of academic work going on.  I blame the snow.  For most of the week, schools in England have been shut because of the weather, so I let Tiger play in the garden while the snow lasted.   I discovered that my boy is not into making snowman.  He's more interested in making a snow fort, which shouldn't surprise anyone, really.

While Tiger was working hard outdoors, I stayed indoors to make him some ginger and oat cookies to come in for:

Unfortunately, Tiger then caught a cold and the rest of the week was spent indoors.  Luckily we have games to keep us occupied.

This post is linked up to:

1) Look What We Did: January Link-Up
2) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Winter

3) Hearts for Home Blog Hop

4) Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Renewed Motivation
5) Homeschool Mother's Journal: January 25, 2013
6) Collage Friday - Feeling Like a New Person
7) It's a Wrap
8) Hobbies and Handicrafts - Jan 25
9) TGIF Linky Party #60

10) Share it Saturday

11) The Sunday Showcase- 1/26/13

12) Hip Homeschool Hop - 1/29/13