Conversations with Little Boys

This is one of X's robots.

It is always interesting to learn what goes on in a little boy's mind. Recently, Jason was feeling very unhappy. He was standing at the bathroom sink, crying a little and pouting -- what the cause of his unhappiness I am not sure. At any rate, he looked up and saw his expression in the mirror. He stared at himself, then stuck his lower lip out farther. When Tom came in to check on him, Jason was busily making faces at himself. Seeing his father in the mirror, Jason said thoughtfully 'I don't think I am going to stick my tongue out anymore. It makes me look like a space alien.' Hmmm...

And then there is Xander: his biggest concern these days seems to be my lack of male genetalia. He is quite worried that if I can't pee, I will die and he cannot conceive of how I could pee without male equipment. After attempting to explain how things work, I surrendered to four year old determination -- one might say that I copped out -- and told him that his Gma Pat would explain.

Sigh. I don't like the winter seasons -- oh, the weather is nice. I like snow and the light is interesting. But every fall/winter, little boys get sick. Last fall/winter, we had to rush Xander to the ER in an Aid care at 2 in the morning. This year... we are on the first cold of the season. Monday night, Xander woke at midnight with a horribly croupy sounding cold. I got him up, fed him Ibuprofen to get his fever down, wrapped him in a blanket and we went to sit on the porch. Previous experiences with Jason have taught us that cold air helps. Xander loved it. He watched the stars and chatted. Finally, after about an hour or so, we came in and cuddled on the couch. About three am, I put him back in his own bed and went to lie down -- only to be awakened by Tom's alarm. Tuesday night and last night, Xander slept quite well -- only to wake at 5 am coughing and choking from all the stuff that had gathered in his chest. So, up again and outside. Then inside and into the tub. Again, I am firmly convinced of the healing power of water. Or at least it provides a pleasant distraction.

Pokemon Math

I am feeling quite pleased with myself. I have been trying to figure out how to use Pokemon as a teaching tool and I think I have done it. I had Jason sort his cards and remove all but the Pokemon cards themselves. We then played WAR with the face cards using the hit points as the value. At the end of the game, I had Jason sort the cards by value. He then multiplied the face value by the number of such cards and added all of those together to achieve the final value of the hand. I did the same and the higher number 'won' the game. How is that for creative thinking!!!:>

The reprecussions of Home Schooling

Okay


Now, for those who are unfamiliar with the art and practice of home schooling, let me explain that there are many many different approachs and philosophies. We are what one might term 'eclectic unschoolers'. Unschoolers are folks who follow the advice given by John Holt, one of the earliest advocates of home schooling and an ex-Public school teacher who specialized in teaching reading. Holt argued that it was the structure used in schools, as well as the 'one size fits all' mentality that causes many of the 'learning problems' in schools. Holt argued for 'child led' learning, in which children choose their interests and parents supply the materials they need. This, Holt argued, would allow children to retain the joy and excitement of learning -- and with a little creativity, parents can make sure that kids meet state 'learning standards.' Holt believed that children, by nature curious, often learnt faster and better when their interests drove them.


The eclectic part comes from a variety of other philosophies which I have grafted on: (1) Charlotte Mason was a 19th century educational reformer. Like Holt, she believed that learning should not be forced, that children learn best what interests them. She advocated the 15 minute lesson -- unless the child was fascinated by the topic in which case she suggested that they be allowed to indulge their interest to its fullest extent. She argued for the need for 'nature study' and for the use of what she called 'living books' as opposed to 'twaddle.' Into the latter category, she placed such items as the McGuffy readers, and 'dumbed down' versions of classic literature. For the harder books, she suggested that parents read to the children until they could read them themselves. She also included the idea of narration for early readers -- having the children explain what they had heard/read in their own words, first in the spoken form and then later in the written form. She believed that one understood better if one could process ideas in one's own words. There are many other aspects of her philosophy but these are amongst the most central. (2)Classical -- this approach argues for the inclusion of latin and greek and for the study of classics. It argues for the use of copy work -- also an element in CM -- having children practice handwriting skills by copying actual sayings/writings of classical authors. Poetry too is included in the classical method of study. The Classical method is rather more rigid in its scheduling than CM and much more so than unschooling but there are aspects of it that fit well with my own preferences and beliefs so we include portions of the approach in our 'school'. (3)Core Knowledge -- this is the most modern of the approachs, deriving from the idea of academic standards of learning. The CK approach presumes that there is a body of knowledge that children must encounter in order to be comfortable/productive in their own particular society. This last approach I include mainly because of testing needs -- children unfamiliar with these standards might well find themselves in trouble should they ever have to deal with the PS education system. It is also one of the most pre-programed of the approaches which makes it an easy fall back for those times when I am too tired or sick to create my own curriculum.:>


Now why the mini-diss on approaches used? Well, I was thinking about how children learn -- and this because of both boys. Jason is learning to spell but NOT using standard spelling approaches. He is interested in writing -- stories, poems, signs etc. When he wants to spell something, he asks me. Usually, unless the word is hard to figure (like 'wear') I help him sound it out. He is quite remarkably good -- I suspect in part because he reads so much that he has seen the words he wants many times over and just needs a little reminding to see them in his mind.


Well, here is the latest news on that front: Xander, who LOVES letters and numbers and the writing of them, has picked up Jason's habit. Just a short time ago, he decided that he wanted to write the word 'Stolen' so he asked me how to spell it! It was really rather funny to watch him, pad in hand, writing out the word 'stolen' but he did it. Turns out he was creating a story about some robbers who were running around stealing letters...


At the moment, Jason is very kindly reading to his little brother. This is included in his 'schooling' as I believe that reading out loud is helpful in many many ways. So while I write this and handle 'business' matters, Jason is doing some 'home work'.


Enough for now. I am going to include a picture of the chyrsalis that we found on Tom's cherry tree. We collected it in a glass jar and watched it over days.



We all made guesses as to what it might be. In the end, it turned out to be.....

A lady bug!!!! How wonderful. I had never thought about it before but it is lovely to think that ladybugs are living on Tom's cherry tree.

Some new stories -- September 2008

Sigh, it has been awhile. I shall try to do better at keeping up with this blog but life has a way of challenging my time management skills.

Where to begin? Well, Jason is 7 now and in March will be 8. That, in the HS world 0f Washington state, means that I need to start thinking about submitting a DOI. I actually have the thing written and printed. I will need to submit it the first term that he is 8. I am thinking that that probably means Spring Term. Hmmm...

Now, thinking about this, and about the fact that with the submission of the DOI comes the requirement that Jason have yearly assessments of his progress done, I went ahead and did some home 'assessments' using ones I found on the web. His math skills need work, not a surprise, but his reading? According to the San Diego assessment, he is reading at the 11th grade level. His vocabulary and comprehension are truly impressive. The words whose pronunciation and meanings he stumbled over are ones that many adults would miss. What most impressed me, however, was his understanding of word meanings and his ability to communicate those.

And then there is Xander -- he really wants to learn to read, for the same reason that Jason started reading independently, he is tired of waiting on other peoples' convenience. So we are going to work through the 'Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons' and see how that works.

Last night we read some books on Ancient Greece for part of our bedtime reading. The first book, count your way through Greece, sparked all sorts of interest. So... we are going to make Greek food Sunday night, boys are going to help. They want to make bahklava. We will see on that one!

I did find instructions on how to make Rose Water, a primary ingredient in the recipe and darned expensive if one was to buy it. That would be fun -- and a good lesson in condensation as well. Think I will see if I can find all the bits for it.

And then there are the Art projects -- Xander saw the pictures of Ancient Greek Metal work and decided that that was what he wanted to do. So I told him that we would flatten and stretch some coke cans and he and Jason and I can tap designs in them. He, of course, wants to build the Tin Woodman out of the cans. That is a little advanced for any of us at the moment... And then there are the Greek Red/Black Vases. I told the boys that we would make our own clay, create the vases, fire and paint them. Now I have to come through. Looks like a trip to the Art supply store is in order -- we need to get paints and I need to locate some flourescent fabric paint (white) for Xander's Halloween Costume. (He has decided to go as a Ghost Pirate Skeleton...)

Another thing that came out of reading the book was... skeletons. Yep. The book was talking about the two major industries in the Greek Islands, fishing and sponge collecting. The first is in trouble because of over-fishing and pollution but the second is a growth industry. Bad news for the sponges. However, the book also mentioned that sponges are the skeletons of Marine animals and so I found myself promising the littlest one that we would find some/buy them, and compare them with cellophane sponges as a 'science' experiment. Hmmm... the things I get myself into!

Okay, enough for this update. Will write more tomorrow.