What the heck, here's another homeschool post just because I am stubborn. I have been thinking about what we've been up to this fall and it occurred to me that I haven't been journaling any of it weekly as I'd planned, so I figured I'd go back over the list of notions I had in September and see if Just Life covered our bases. This is part of ongoing attempt to discern whether or not I can mentally handle embracing unschooling, or if I'll freak out that I'm missing something by not being more organized. As the kids are so young, I figure I can't destroy their educations at this point, so I can stay in experiment mode.
So let's see how my plans versus my reality checked out
The Plan Was:
Art: art time daily: finger paint, water color, crayons, pencils, markers, clay, collage; continue to review drawing concepts from Drawing with Children. I would like to start formally sitting down with Nat and doing the lessons from the book, but she isn't quite there in either attentiveness or fine motor skill. After a few months of Suzuki violin, I think she will be ready.
What Really Happened Was:
Nat definitely does some drawing at the least, every day, if only on her magnadoodle board. She probably does a fancier art project 4-5 times a week. One of her babysitters loves to do art with her and between she and I and a recent Christmas haul from Grammie, Nat has lots of different art supplies and media. I talk form with her, but not that much. She is grasping the concept of shadows in life pretty well, which was one concept from the drawing book she definitely didn't have when I taught her to draw various shapes and lines. She still isn't mature enough to have any sit-down/pay attention instruction. It all has to just be sneaky. Here's a recent sketch I had to photograph before it was lost to ancient magnadoodle history. It is baby sitter, J, complete with glasses and beard. The intention behind the halo stuff Nat puts around all her faces is a mystery, but we all love it:
The Plan Was:
Music: tap; Suzuki violin; informal dance and song at home. The tap lessons are super cheap--almost free, really, through the Parks and Rec department. The Suzuki violin? I don't know yet. I assume it will cost a fortune. Our downstairs neighbor (for another week), the professional quartet violinist is doing all kinds of legwork to find us a teacher he likes.
What Really Happened Was:
Ha! We've got informal song and dance at home covered.
As for lessons, Nat sort of hated tap lessons--not the shoes, not the dancing, not even the teacher, or even following instruction. She hated that tap lessons usually happened about an hour after Cole arrived home from a 3-4-day absence and Nat had no interest in wasting Cole-mom time in a dance class. We gave up at about week four, because I didn't want her to have a super awful experience in the hope she'll happily try again in a few months, once we figure out the added behavioral dynamics of Cole's commute. As for Suzuki, boy am I glad I didn't plop down a big wad a cash so she could hate that. (Tap was $20 for ten weeks, so we were out $12 for the lessons she missed. Big whoop.) I'm putting that off for a year. We'll try again next Fall.
The Plan Was:
Movement: tap; informal playground play etc. If Nat is behind her peers in anything, it is gross motor skills. She can do everything, but she does it with great caution (except swimming, it seems). The more opportunities she has for success in the physical realm, the better. I wanted to start her in capoeira this fall, but it looks like we'll have to wait until she's 6 or 7 to go to the school I found. Meanwhile anything that helps her with timing, balance and rhythm is probably good groundwork for it and tap should fit the bill (plus she is soooo excited about tap!).
What Really Happened Was:
Tap again, ha! Before the weather got hideous, Nat was hitting playgrounds 3-5 times a week with baby sitters mostly, but me occasionally. But we lucked out and baby sitter, C, is a former yoga instructor and sometimes does little yoga things with Nat. I do this too. In fact, we got a cute "baby" yoga book (more toddler/preschooler yoga, really) and do it together every now and then. I keep thinking I'll take the kids out onto the balcony and just let them play in the snow drifts out there, but I haven't worked up the stamina yet as the weather has been biting--single-digits and teens lately.
The Plan Was:
Reading: informal books at home, library, bookstore, etc. That is, no real change from what we're doing now. Nat's reading is coming along quite organically. She can read well enough to make it through a K-1st grade reader, based on what they have in those sections of the bookstore, but we never sit down and make her read. We read to her and she picks up books and reads on her own when the mood strikes her (some from memory, some completely made up and sometimes the actual words on a page), reads to Selina; she reads signs and labels etc. and generally seems quite pleased to be in on the secret code and picking it up more and more every day. I hope I never have to burst her bubble by drilling her in any way. Hopefully she'll just continue along like this without a hitch.
What Really Happened Was:
Reading at home: check. Bookstore story time every week: check. Okay, we haven't made it to the library. I am much more of a bookstore person, I can't help it. I know they need to learn library skills which begins with learning what a library is and how it works to borrow books and all that. I'm just lazy. As for reading skills, Nat is whooshing along at a lightening pace in that department. My mother bought Nat some Dr. Seuss cards with words and pictures and it's some kind of rhyming game. She figured the words (key choices from common Seuss literature) would be a challenge for Nat. Um, she knew them all on the first try. I don't know the official rules of the rhyming game they are supposed to be used for, but Nat made up her own game. Here's how it goes:
Nat: (holding up the card with the word "small" on it) What's this?
Me: um..."big!"
Nat: No, (looks through pile of cards and pulls out the one that says "big") This says "big." This (indicating the original card) says "small."
She did that with about eight cards yesterday before getting bored and moving on to destroying something by dumping milk on it or something equally more age appropriate than her reading. Tonight we read three books together at bedtime and she knew about 90% of the words. And she is finally starting to get that words make up sentences and trying to read for comprehension. When I read to her, I notice her eyes following the words on the page while I read, even when she isn't pointing to words and asking me what they say.
Can you tell this reading thing totally fascinates me? Totally. Coolest thing next to your kid learning to talk (aka: Selina's Big Agenda).
The Plan Was:
Other language arts: French class sessions twice weekly, one afternoon with fluent baby sitter weekly, French videos on other days; informal "writing" letters and words as Nat is interested. As with reading, writing. Nat likes to doodle letters and short words (okay, mostly her name) but I don't drill her in this at all. See fine motor development above. When she's ready for drawing lessons, we'll do some writing too--as long as it's fun. As for French, I found a corporate language school for kids and plan to take her to twice-weekly, 90 minute classes. I also found a fluent baby sitter who isn't available during most of the times I need someone, but is available at least one afternoon per week. According to a book I read about helping your child acquire a second language, this should be just enough if you add a video or two on our "off" days and a reading session or two with our French language picture books and the occasional, word or two of reinforcement from me. (My French is dreadful.) There is also a chance we may be able to get a deaf or otherwise ASL fluent baby sitter for some of our baby sitting time, but I haven't met anyone yet. Cole has a contact in an ASL program, though, and we are hoping he can refer us somewhere to post a job ad. Otherwise, I will keep up the ASL as best I can with both kids. Eventually I would like to do an interpreter's program myself. We will see.
What Really Happened Was:
French! Ha! Didn't happen. And now I am 90% convinced to give up and do Spanish because it is all around us and will be so much easier to reinforce, even if I don't really know it. I'll just have to learn it too. ASL is pretty much plateaued with Nat and me. But we are holding and not slipping, because we're teaching Selina and she's learning a lot of signs and words, both, these days. She loves, loves, loves, Signing Time. She goes around singing the theme song. Her signs are sloppy and barely discernable unless you are me and know what she is trying to do. But she thinks she's making sense and she has more receptive ASL than expressive, as with her spoken English. But her spoken English is just a tich better than her signing, I think.
I'd still like to do an interpreter program. But my free time is no more now that I have a paying job.
The Plan Was:
Math: tap; violin; money concepts; clock, time and calendar concepts; cooking. I figure I can start drawing Nat's attention to money and how we use it, how it is valued and how the things we buy are valued by it (paying attention to the price tag on grocery items, etc. and talking about how much it is and how we pay). I can start using a calendar for the family that is out in open sight unlike the one I have now tucked behind a cupboard modestly, and showing her dates and days every morning. We've started saying "five more minutes" or "fifteen more minutes" to her and she has no clue what that means (nor should she, at her age!), but I am planning to just start telling her how long things are and letting her begin to get a feel in her bones about the relationships between numbers and time. Then we can do the whole thing with clocks and learning to actually tell time. I want her to have a rough idea of the concept before I throw the technology at her.
What Happened Was:
No tap, no violin.
As for money, not so much. I admit, I try my best to shop without the kids. When they do come along it's all I can do to keep them from grabbing and breaking and eating and opening everything. Now, I should probably just take Nat sometimes but I haven't done it much lately.
Time concepts we are definitely working on. I tell them approximate times it will take for various things to happen in minutes or hours. We talk a lot about what's going to happen on what days of the week and we have some regularly scheduled things so that is helpful. I intend to make a one-week calendar we can update every week so Nat can visualize the days passing and learn to count them until Cole gets home. Should have done it before now, really, but we've been so discombobulated with house-shopping and moving and now unpacking, and between all that and my new job, I just don't have enough of a routine yet. I will though. The playroom is slowly taking shape and come January, I plan to set up a calendar corner.
The Plan Was:
Science: cooking; nature and animal observation; regular trips to the aquarium (Cole bought us an annual family pass!)
What Happened Was:
We haven't done nearly as much cooking together this fall, because the temporary loft digs did not have a kid-friendly (okay, or adult-friendly) kitchen. Now I have my new kitchen organized and I am ready to get into the cooking swing again. Nature has given us plenty to observe (and hear and feel) lately! As for the aquarium, we've gone about four or five times this fall. It's a nice afternoon for us. but we anxiously await the return of the whales and dolphins who are "on vacation" while their habitat is all revamped.
The Plan Was:
Social Sciences: learning about different family structures; following the presidential election and introducing the concept of voting and democratic government. Nat's really been interested in the makeup of different families lately. With that comes race and gender and all the complex intersections that make up our own family. She is an avid fan of Barack Obama (because we have made her one) and we watch the news every night. No, my three year old doesn't actually understand the news. but we can start talking about ow we live in a country and the people in the country choose a leader by voting etc. Great opportunity for that!
What Happened Was:
Like every other obsessive Obama parent out there, I managed to teach my kid to recognize not just his face, but it would appear, his voice on the radio (we haven't had regular t.v. since moving to Chicago. That's kind of Cole's priority and she hasn't been around to set it up. The kids watch DVDs on the laptop computer.) That doesn't mean anything except that Nat has learned the concept of celebrity, of course. And the word "president."
But she is learning more about the concept of voting, which also appears in a couple of her picture books about African American history. And of course, she went to vote with me. As for families, she is definitely learning family structures. She's looking around and seeing that most kids have moms and dads, most kids grow in their moms' bodies, most kids are the same color as their parents. We have a variety of kids' books that feature families closer to ours (though it takes three or four "weird" family books to cover all of our peculiarities) and we read them. She doesn't ask direct questions, but she does still want to call Cole, "Daddy Cole-Mom" and sometime me, "Mommy Mama Shannon" which we think is amusing. She can tell you, if you ask, that she has two moms and a birth mother (our compromise between two and three moms, given that her first mother is not in a regular relationship with her and we wanted her to have a way to talk about the difference). And she knows that Mama Rose waited and waited for baby Nat to grow in her body and be born while Cole-Mom and Mama Shannon waited and waited to hear that baby Nat was born, etc.--our whole little birth and adoption story.
Nat knows the terms "lesbian, gay, adoption, married, and in love." She doesn't 100% understand the concepts behind them all but I figure she'll pick it up. The ones she knows best are "adoption" and "in love." Yesterday I would have said she understands "married" but today she told me that she and Selina were married, so I guess not.
The Plan Was:
Socializing: area homeschool play group; Black families homeschool play group; queer families play group; church. And then there's every stranger who walks down the street. Nat is best friends with the whole world.
What Happened Was:
Shy mother plus big move plus new job equals: I suck at this part. Nat has two baby sitters. She socializes with them. We have a play date about every-other week with pal, L and his nanny, Mama Shannon's pal, A. (They sometimes meet us at the bookstore for story time and we all go out for brunch!) We went to a big annual picnic for our adoption agency and hung out with some queer parents. We used to meet some of the same people repeatedly, at the various playgrounds but we haven't been to a playground in a few weeks because did I mention the weather? I have not participated in any homeschool group activities or made it to church YET. We are all about getting down and doing these things--putting them into our new routine--after winter break. Again, I plead just-moved-across-the-state! Clearly I will have to make a special effort to routinize these kinds of things. I'll probably end up volunteering for something. Usually, I can get myself (and my kids) out in the world with more success if I make myself sign up to be in some kind of leadership role (oh the irony!).
The Plan Was:
Free play: baby sitting four afternoons weekly with unstructured play time. And--ahem--the unstructured play time that happens when Mama Shannon says, "go play with your sister and don't ask me whether dinner is ready one more time! I will call you when it's ready!" and the like...
What Happened Was:
Score! They definitely gets loads of this. Whether they want it or not. You can call it "benign neglect." I prefer "unschooling."
So, areas to improve:
Get to the library.
Get to a homeschool group--preferably at the library.
Take Nat shopping once in a while.
Start cooking again more regularly.
Get to church.
Get a calendar and start paying regular attention to it.
Forget lessons for a while, but start researching Spanish classes.
Not so bad. I give us a B+, especially if we get graded on a people-who-just-moved curve. (Yes, there's that card again.) Experienced homeschoolers: what would you give us?
I am totally and completely happy to send my kids in school but I do like to mess up schooleducation with moms way of doing things so your schedule makes my fingers itch. If I were you I think I would be mixing somethings up. I think making a calendar together would be a fantastically fun artproject and while you make it you can start to explain the use..
I think it would be great fun to make soem books with Natnow or when she's older. I have done so with my kids just to make them understands that books are written so it reflects someones ideas and to see what they would put into it. I think making a my family book would be fun or making a maariage book someday (maybe even as a weddinggift)
As an aside my daughter will be 4 on the 7th of january and she just missed her first real wedding (my uncles got wed on friday) because she was singing there is poop in my underpants in the weddinghall. But she just asked her uncles to kiss again and sais so now you've been married again! So marriage is kissing ;)
Posted by: mijk | 21 December 2008 at 04:16 AM
Unschoolers don't give grades so I won't grade you! If it's working for you and it's working for the kids then it's working! You are definitely more on the "homeschooling for excellence" unschooling side than our more anarchist group/values and it sounds like this approach is really working for you and the girls. It sounds like they have enough freedom to do their thing and you're getting enough feedback in their progress to feel good about doing your thing. That's all that matters.
Posted by: dawn | 21 December 2008 at 10:44 AM
Shannon, I really like your homeschooling posts. They remind me that there's a lot of ways I can teach the boys while we're going through our day. We're just getting into crayon time and other toddler activities, I'm pretty good at the "unschooling" lessons!
Posted by: Lindsay | 21 December 2008 at 02:01 PM
Our boys are older and go to school, but a few ideas from what we have fun doing in the afternoons:
- both of them have loved "making books"- stapling together sheets of paper and drawing pictures and writing words on them.
- they also really enjoy making stop motion movies - not sure exactly what that teaches them beyond persistence, but they love it!
Posted by: Jennifer | 21 December 2008 at 10:34 PM
I love the making a book idea. We'll be doing the public school route eventually, but I will be supplementing at home.
Posted by: Jen S. | 21 December 2008 at 10:49 PM
Psst... Remember me? My blog is up and open again finally about my several month long siesta! I miss you guys!!!!
Posted by: GirlSpeaks | 26 December 2008 at 04:53 AM