Slowly Making My Way Back

Hello, everybody!  Remember us?

Many things have gone on at the home front since mid-December, which explains my absence on this blog.  There has been much joy, with the birth of my new nephew thousands of miles away (which Tiger is very happy about since he is therefore no longer the youngest member in the family),

and Tiger recovering from his nasty ear infection in time for us to enjoy a wonderful Christmas with all of the family.

As if all these excitement was not enough, my little cozy world was, and still is, somewhat "shaken" by a few remarks and observations that I received both online and offline.  As though being hit by a wave of personal issues all at once, I had to take time off from blogging and from many other activities to think things over, to untangle each interconnected piece so that I can tackle each one effectively.

Meanwhile, one of the issues/topics that have come up again and again over the years in various forms is that of giftedness.  I intend to share more of our experiences very soon.  While you're waiting for me to get my act together, may I direct you to a few related posts that I have written over the years, particularly this one that was written in 2012?
 

No Wonder!

I have been very quiet on the blog lately, mostly because I have been intentionally resting as an attempt to recover from what felt like a burn-out towards at the beginning of July.  While Tiger has been spending most of his time doing what I said we would do for the summer, I spent some time looking through the past year's diary and worked out some stats.

We clocked a total number of 139 days out in the past academic year, which means that we were out nearly half the time (42%)!

That comes to an average of 13 days out each month!!

To make sure that I get an accurate view of how we spend our time, I include only those days when we go out for either classes, seminars, or field trips.  That ensures that things like grocery shopping (we still buy our groceries off-line) and sports classes that are within 10 miles from our house don't get counted.  The picture I get shows that field trips take up more than half our time (55%) outside, while going to one-off classes and seminars is the other reason to be out and about.

No wonder I feel exhausted!  Right.  I'd better go and lie down somewhere to recover from the shock of it all...

From the Devil's Mouth

Very recently, I started the habit of keeping a commonplace book, which is a fancy name of  what is essentially a reading notebook or what Tiger calls a "quote book".   It is a very simple yet effective method to help one slow down and think of or reflect upon what one is reading, or at least that is how it has worked for me so far.  This practice has been used for centuries by numerous people, and all it takes to start is a pen and a notebook.

This week's entry is, at first glance, simply too long to be handwritten out, so I am sharing it here with all who are interested in education and who have been observing how numerous "progressive" educational reforms have turned out.

The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be “undemocratic.”  These differences between pupils – for they are obviously and nakedly individual differences – must be disguised.  This can be done at various levels. At universities, examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks.  Entrance examinations must be framed so that all, or nearly all, citizens can go to universities, whether they have any power (or wish) to profit by higher education or not.  At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing things that children used to do in their spare time.  Let them, for example, make mud pies and call it modelling.  But all the time there must be no faintest hint that they are inferior to the children who are at work.  Whatever nonsense they are engaged in must have – I believe the English already use the phrase – “parity of esteem.”  An even more drastic scheme is not possible.  Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma — Beelzebub, what a useful word! – by being left behind.  The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval’s attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT.

In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I’m as good as you has fully had its way.  All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows?  And anyway the teachers – or should I say, nurses? – will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching.  We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men.  The little vermin themselves will do it for us.

Of course, this would not follow unless all education became state education.  But it will.  That is part of the same movement.  Penal taxes, designed for that purpose, are liquidating the Middle Class, the class who were prepared to save and spend and make sacrifices in order to have their children privately educated.  The removal of this class, besides linking up with the abolition of education, is, fortunately, an inevitable effect of the spirit that says I’m as good as you.  This was, after all, the social group which gave to the humans the overwhelming majority of their scientists, physicians, philosophers, theologians, poets, artists, composers, architects, jurists, and administrators.  If ever there were a bunch of stalks that needed their tops knocked off, it was surely they.  As an English politician remarked not long ago, “A democracy does not want great men.”

 -- Screwtape Proposes a Toast, C.S. Lewis

That Which Matters

1.  Being Kind and Helpful

In this day and age when being competitive and getting ahead (often at the expense of others' welfare) are held up as the keys to 'success' (whatever that means), I am very glad to see Tiger having the good sense of offering help to others on several occasions, one of the examples that I happened to catch on the camera took place during his recent wall climbing session.  When it was other children's turn to climb the wall, Tiger concentrated on belaying the rope properly to ensure safety for the climber.  Once he got his harness secured, he went to help the younger children with their harnesses and knots, all without being prompted by anybody.  In fact, he did not even know that anyone was watching him, because the Outdoors Activity Centre was very busy and chaotic on that day and I was sitting quite far away from the children.

These are very small acts indeed but to me, such small instances of unconscious behaviour reveal a lot about someone's character.


2.  A Strong Family Relationship

A solid, loving relationship is something that we work hard to cultivate and maintain in our family, but is not something that I expect Tiger to constantly have to demonstrate or to prove himself at.  Therefore, it is always a very pleasant surprise when he actively demonstrates his affections:

• a note (photo 1) on which Tiger dedicated his recent drawings (photos 2 and 4) to me;
• a 'magic' ring (photo 3) that Tiger made for me;
• photo 5 is self-explanatory.  It is written on an envelope that contains a handwritten note to me for Easter.

Tiger is also very close to his father, who he worships and with whom he spends a lot of time doing outdoorsy things.  Upon realising that such a close father-and-son relationship is becoming a rarity in Britain nowadays, I feel an increased respect for my husband for taking very conscious steps to be the responsible, supportive and available father that he is to Tiger.


3.  Integrity and a Healthy Self-Esteem

It may seem strange at first to see the positive side about getting a full page of wrong answers, but what I see in this when I marked this page of maths problems that Tiger handed in to me as part of his independent learning (he is teaching himself all aspects of fractions without my input) is a very healthy sense of self-esteem.

He is not freaking out because he doesn't know how to how to solve those problems.  The fact that he has written "I am confused!" at the bottom of the page shows me that:

1. he is able to admit to himself and to me that he doesn't understand something
2. he doesn't feel the need/pressure to know the answer to everything
3. he is willing to try to work through the problem even though he knows that he is not going to get the correct answers

The most valuable part of this exercise is that, Tiger had the answer booklet right by him when he worked through these problems, so it would have been easy for him to copy the answers and "look good/clever/perfect".  He didn't.  He chose to be honest, with himself and with me.  To me, this is worth more than scoring 100% in any exam.

It took less than two minutes to explain the concept to Tiger, then he's off correcting himself by working through the problems again and getting the right answers.  Note the change in his qutoe to "I am not confused!"

4.  Physical Strength and Good Health

Having better health and a stronger body this year has opened up many more opportunities that were previously unavailable to Tiger last year.  Compared to the same time last year, Tiger is able to spend a lot more time outdoors -- he is even asking to go for long walks these days, which in turn increases the opportunities for nature study.

Tiger is also involved in different sports each week (he is a very busy boy):

• mountain biking
• climbing
• table tennis
• tennis
• swimming

Being so active outdoor seems to help Tiger burn off his excess energy to the extent that his attitude and the resulting quality of work produced indoors are both much better than before, which in turn fosters a very positive atmosphere at home in general.

Here is John Taylor Gatto's view on what really matters.

Our Routine for Year 5

As we haven't started our new term yet, I am not able to write a day-in-the-life post.  However, I do have some idea of how our day should turn out when we start.

The basic structure of our day goes like this:

• Wake up
• Breakfast
• Morning chores
• Morning lessons part 1
• Break
• Morning lessons part 2
• Lunch
• Lunchtime chores
• Afternoon lessons

However, no two days are the same, as most homeschoolers will tell you.

The timetable above reflects the emphasis that I feel is needed in Tiger's Logic Stage years: English, specifically writing.  I have been very gentle with Tiger when it comes to the process of writing in his elementary school years, giving him time to develop his fine motor skills and build up his stamina to write more than one sentence at a time.

This past summer we have done a few dictation sessions and some copywork.  The outcomes of those far-and-few sessions show me that Tiger is now ready to write for a longer time than before and is ready for some formal instructions to get him started on the road to writing.  While some children are natural writers who can write long compositions with zero or minimal instructions, Tiger is not one of them, and he recognises this in himself.  To this end, he feels more comfortable having some kind of structure to guide him along (as do I!) and he sees the value of using a formal writing programme to bridge the (very wide) gap between his reading level and his writing level, so we'll be spending most of our time in the new year to develop his writing ability.

This seems like a U-turn from our more autonomous approach from a year ago.  It is in some ways, in that there are certain basic skills that Tiger needs to master before he can confidently progress onto the next level of learning.  Acquiring these skills (e.g. writing) isn't always going to be fun or easy, so if I didn't plan them into our week, there is a very high chance that they will get pushed aside and we will not have progressed at all on those specific areas by next summer.  The timetable helps us stay focused on our tasks but we are not bound by the clock to move to the next subject if and when a topic really takes our interest.  Homeschooling allows us to maintain a high degree of autonomy and flexibility in our learning approach while keeping a focus on achieving the goals that we have set for ourselves.

Having a timetable while maintaining an interest-led approach makes perfect sense to me but perhaps not so much to the reader yet.  Afterall, I do have the advantage of having all my plans, schedules, activities and calendar at hand so I have a clear view of what's going to happen.  We shall see how the new year pans out.  It promises to be a very busy and exciting year of learning.

Each year our approach seems to alter just ever so slightly:

• Year 2's schedule
• Year 3's schedule
• Year 4's non-schedule and how our day looked like

This post is linked up to:

1. The Homeschool Mother's Journal (8/23/14)
2. 6th Annual "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop: Day-in-the-Life Week
3. Hip Homeschool Hop - 8/26/14
4. Finishing Strong #27 - Electives
5. Collage Friday - Who Let the Homeschoolers Out?
6. Weekly Wrap-up: Pre-Break Week