Unschooling Moments of the Week 12/31/10

I haven't been keeping track of any learning this week.  But the highlight of the homeschooling aspect of our lives this week is this!

Yippee!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Writing with Ease

One of the best resources I've run across for doing the Charlotte Mason/relaxed thing when it comes to copy work is Susan Wise Bauer's Writing with Ease curriculum.

I've always been enamored by the efficiency of copy work.  Since my kids don't take to handwriting (with the exception of my youngest) and since learning to write revealed itself as something we struggled with in unschooling (See my post here about why we do formal lessons in handwriting), copy work has proved itself to be of immeasurable help!  Copy work teaches:  penmanship, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, writing mechanics and literary analysis.  That's pretty efficient for 10 minutes at a pop!

We did our own free form copy work for a long time. I or the kids would just pick something to copy and these resources varied greatly.  However, I am so lazy that even having to gather the resources and get the kids to decide what they wanted to copy felt burdensome.  It was a preliminary step to just sitting down and getting the  actual copy work done.  My youngest kids seemed to enjoy penmanship books more, simply because they were ready-made.  So we moved into using them.  But while penmanship books may do some of the work of copy work, they don't do all and I kept thinking that we were missing an opportunity to make the experience richer than it was.

Then I discovered Writing with Ease.  All I can say is Susan Wise Bauer is brilliant!  I love the way these books are laid out.  I love the literature selections she uses.  I love the way she includes narration and dictation.  I love the short and sweet lesson time.  I love the intelligence behind the whole program.  The only problem is if your kids are learning cursive, I find I have to write out the passage to be copied in cursive first, so that the child can copy it over in cursive.  Not a big deal.  My kids have a very hard time looking at something in print and then copying it over in cursive.  It takes a long time for them to get fluent in cursive.  This is probably due to their eye tracking problems.

You can buy the guide in hardcover that instructs you in Susan Wise Bauer's methods and gives suggestions for copy work for a year.  This is the least expensive option, I believe.  I plunk out the money for the workbooks because, again, I am too lazy, and I love that everything is set up for us.  It truly is just pick up and go.  I think you can also download and print out pdf's.

I also ignore the grade levels.  I think that Writing with Ease 1 is for 1st or 2nd grade.  But since my kids are late readers, it didn't make sense for us to do things that way.  I think the passages are very challenging and can easily be used for older kids.  Right now we are about to start Writing with Ease 3 with my 12 year old.  I think if you make things too challenging kids get frustrated and are so busy rising to the level of the material they don't have time to really take it in and make it their own.  On the other hand, we had been doing Writing with Ease 2 last year but because of a developmental jump in my son, that seems too easy right now.  We didn't complete the book, and we just took a semester long break from it.  Again, I feel free to use a curriculum as best suits us at any given moment and try not to spend one second feeling bad about not doing things exactly as the author visualized.  The curriculum is a tool!  Remember the principle of subsidiarity.  You and the child decide what is best, not some stranger who is seeing things from a very different perspective.

The best thing about Writing with Ease is that all the learning comes from books.  Living books that children really read.

For Suzie - Wordless Wednesday

Books, My Aunt, My Grandfather and John Henry Newman

I've decided to devote all my blog posts this week to books.  Partly this is because I'm winding up my participation in 52 Books in 52 Weeks, a reading challenge hosted by Robin.  I'm also getting ready to begin the challenge anew in 2011.  I have been thinking about books a lot lately, too, because books are comforting escapes for me and right now my family is experiencing some raw, upsetting troubles.  My 87 year old aunt,  who has been a mainstay in the back of my life always, had to have her leg amputated yesterday.  This crisis has cast a pall over our Christmas this year.  I've done many things through tears on her behalf, though she would tut, tut at me for such behavior.  She's a very stoic, plucky, practical sort of person.

My aunt is the last of that generation of my family.  She's the family historian of sorts.  And she loves books.  She has a lot of them from my grandfather.  Here's a picture of my grandfather from the explorePAHistory.com site.  My grandfather, John Brophy, was the son of an immigrant coal miner (his father was from Ireland and his mother was an English Catholic.) who became a labor leader in the coal miners union.  This picture is from 1924.

Here's my grandfather's autobiography

My grandfather's family traveled from coal mine to coal mine, almost like migrant workers, for the coal companies used to manipulate supply and demand by shutting down coal mines when the price got too low.  This would leave the miners out of work, of course, and so they'd have to pick up and move to another town and another mine.  In this piecemeal way my grandfather got an education of sorts by moving from school to school until 5th grade, then he went to work in the mines.  However, he loved to read and by reading he educated himself and through his work in the labor union he pulled himself up and became one of those American dream types.  He became one of the top leaders in the United Mine Workers, eventually running against (and losing to) John L. Lewis. Later he help found the CIO (Committee of Industrial Organizations).  His papers are archived at the Catholic University of America library.  Here's an article from the Catholic Worker. that mentions him (and also mentions my aunt and my father who was studying at St. Meinrad).  Here's another little mention of him from Time magazine. (I'm so glad my grandfather fought antisemitism!)

Before my aunt went into the hospital where her hip replacement operation turned into a fiasco, she gave me a book that John Brophy had owned.  My grandfather was a devout Catholic.  He bought this 1864 (first edition, I think) Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Newman second-hand in 1934.  My aunt said that my grandfather had a keen interest in Newman, perhaps because he was English and my grandfather had been born there in the mining town of St. Helen.  My grandfather spent his whole his life devoted to improving the lot of the miners and all working people.  He was a Catholic 'liberal', something, post Roe v. Wade that many orthodox Catholics jeer at.  However, there was a time when being liberal did not mean being pro-abortion, but was seen as a way to be pro-people and not pro-big business.  Life was terribly hard for most working class folks back then and unions arose because of the deep injustices the working class had to endure.  As you can see from the inscription written in the front of Apologia Pro Vita Sua, my grandfather was motivated by deep religious conviction.

Here's what my grandfather wrote in the front of Apologia Pro Vita Sua.

Understanding Comics

This is a very cool book that my 18 year old gave my 11 year old for Christmas.  I'm next in line to read it.  I was intrigued by it when Sean, the 11 year old, started reading some to me.  The author/illustrator, Scott McCloud was trying to define just what a comic is.  We got into a discussion about why it is necessary to clearly define words in order to have a productive discussion.    The book discusses both the form and content of the art of comics.  And he does this all in comic book format.  This kind of thing is right up Sean's alley for he has a very analytical mind.

Here's the back cover blurb from Garry Trudeau

"In one lucid, well-designed chapter after another, he guides us through the elements of comics style, and . . . how words combine with pictures to work their singular magic.  When the 215-page journey is finally over, most readers will find it difficult to look at comics in quite the same way ever again."

McCloud addresses elements of design, the way we perceive things, the different styles of comics and so much more.  It looks fascinating!

Top Ten First Chapter Books My Late Bloomers Enjoyed

My kids have all learned to read late.  My earliest learned at the age of 8.  My others all learned at age 9.  My youngest just clicked with reading a couple of weeks ago.  This isn't necessarily because of unschooling.  I took my oldest out of school after first grade.  She'd been learning her letters and phonics since preschool.  I read voluminously to my kids.  But actual reading; the ability to sit and consistently decode words comes late to my offspring.  To make a long story short they all have been diagnosed with the same eye-tracking/focus/fatigue problems.  Probably it is genetic.  We go to a vision therapist to help the kids get those eye muscles to cooperate.  Whenever they finally click with reading it is such a joyous occasion!

There are actually many benefits to learning to read 'late.'  It builds character in the mother!  One learns patience!  And you don't have to wade through the twaddle that passes for children's literature.  My kids have been ready to read grade level books within less than a year of things clicking.  And then you would never guess they hadn't been reading for forever!  In an earlier post, I mentioned how cartoons and comic books served as their first readers of choice, but they soon moved into chapter books.

Here's our top ten list of first chapters books:

1.  My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
2.  Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
3.  The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill
4.  American Girl series (the Felicity series was our first introduction to these books)
5.  The Boxcar Children  series by Gertrude Chandler Warner (the original series)
6.  Bunnicula series by James Howe
7.  Wayside School series by Louis Sachar (These, perhaps, should be in the number one spot!)
8.  Frindle by Andrew Clements
9.  Books by Roald Dahl 
10.  Encyclopedia Brown books by Donald Sobol

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to you!

Here we are getting ready for Christmas Eve vigil.

Becky got a haircut!

Rick and Josh

Hannah using William's cup!

William.  He was struggling with getting his tie right!

That's me with Becky.  You can see how junky the kitchen is!

That is all!

Kontakion of Nativity.wmv

Food for the Poor

Food for the Poor is our favorite charity.  Not quite as glitzy as Heifer and it has the best efficiency rate for spending your donations on the actual poor instead of administrative costs.

Here's what Ministrywatch says.

Here's a blog on corporate efficiency that talks about Food for the Poor as a model company.

Our kids usually give something individually.  Donations can be as little as $10.00.

We also try to give something as a family.  Here's the link to the whole catalog.

Merry Christmas!

Faith & Family Live! : Speaking Christ's Language

Faith & Family Live! : Speaking Christ's Language

Books I Want to Read in 2011

I've been trying to keep a better record of books I read.  I used to never pay attention to what I was reading. I mean, I always liked reading good literature and self-help books and that sort of thing, but I never took it seriously as a hobby or saw it in terms of self-education.   But during the past few years, I've tried to be a bit more aware and systematic about it.  I think a major part of unschooling is making sure the parent maintains a rather high profile of self-education.  And reading is the time honored way of self-educating.

I'm making up a list of all the books I'd like to read in this upcoming year.  I had a good reading year in 2010, due in large part to my beautiful Kindle.

• The Moonstone by Wilke Collins.  I read The Woman in White a couple summers ago and loved it. This is his other famous book.
• Agnes Grey by Ann Bronte
• The  Tenant of  Wildfell Hall by Ann Bronte
• Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
• The Return of the Twelves by Pauline Clark  This is children's novel about the Bronte children growing up.  You can see there is a Bronte theme here.  I went on a bit of a Bronte jag this year which gave me the ambition to read all of their works eventually.
• Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell.  I believe I've read all of Gaskell's other major works.  I'd also like to read her shorter works.
• Something by G. K. Chesterton.  Perhaps The Ball and the Cross or The Napoleon of Notting Hill.  I'd also like to read some non fiction by him. I attempted What's Wrong with the World but didn't get far.  Maybe I'll try again.
• The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc
• Mary, Mother of the Son by Mark Shea - 3 volume work.
• The Idea of the University by John Henry Cardinal Newman.  I have read chunks of this but I'd like to read it straight through.
• Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Cardinal Newman.  I had heard about this book for ages but didn't realize it was a response to Charles Kingsley.  I've read some of Kingsley and liked him so I find this intriguing.  Plus I got an 1865 edition of this book (I might not read that particular book though, it is so fragile.).
• Dante's Inferno.  I"m going to be reading this with my high schooler this year.
• The Life of Samuel Johnson by Charles Boswell.  I started reading this but got bogged down.  I do want to take it up again and do it justice.
• Brahms:  His Life and Work - A couple years ago or maybe more, I heard about three minutes of an interview with a biographer of Brahms.  I have no recollection of the name of the author, but ever since I've wanted to learn more about Brahms.  I have a growing appreciation for his music.  This book looks good and, I can get it on the Kindle!

Wordless Wednesday - 12/22/10

Today is Sean's 12th birthday!

Sean's been collecting old hand held games.  Here is Sean playing the first hand held SuperMario Bros game, 1988.

The boys thought these were the coolest things ever.

This is the Gamegear.  First Sega system handheld with color and built  in light.

Tweaking for the New Year

I'm assessing what's working and not working for us right now.  I'm also thinking about what I'd like to explore.  (I usually get overambitious.)

1. I want to start going to a daily Mass at least once a week.  I've really gotten out of the habit lately.   Mostly because Becky tends to sleep late, be grumpy when she awakes, and needs her momma there in the a.m.  The boys started off in September going to the 9:00 a.m Mass almost every morning but entropy set in after a while.  So my plan is to have one morning when I can go to mass and the older kids are responsible for putting breakfast on the table for me.  We'll probably just do cheeses, fruit and rolls.  Something easy.  They have never shown much interest in cooking and I, I am sad to say, haven't taught them much.

2.  I'd like a little bit more order in our breakfast read alouds.  I've been reading Charlotte Mason blogs and websites and I'm feeling a bit of her influence.  I think on Mondays and Wednesdays we'll do Bible History and Fridays I'd like to get back in the habit of reading Sunday's scripture readings to the kids.  Also, we'll read saints stories as they are appropriate.  Tuesdays will be Latin/Art class, so we don't do the regular read alouds.  Thursday I think I'll continue reading the Mathematicians are People Too.  After we are done with that, I'm tempted to read the Vision book on St. Philip Neri.  He is associated with the city of Rome and Hannah will be living in Rome all semester.  And I know very little about him so I'm anxious to read it to the kids and see what we can learn.  Of course if it doesn't grab them, I guess I'll come up with something else.

3.  I'll continue reading The Story of the Romans by Guerber.  Sean, my I-don't-like-history son, is starting to warm up to it.

4.  I think there will be a lot of study of all things Roman because of Hannah's semester there, so I have a lot of resources/ideas going on in my head.  I'm going to ask Hannah to send us a post card a week, so we can start a collection and learn about the city of Rome and its history that way.

5.  I'd like to add in poetry memorization to our morning repertoire.  My kids usually like memorizing but we've gotten away from it.  So I want to encourage that again.  I printed out some Charlotte Mason PNEU schedules.  She talks about 4th graders memorizing 400 lines of poetry.  Well, I don't know if we can make that goal but I do think it would be nice to memorize some favorite poems and maybe Psalm 23.  Also, the PNEU had the 4th graders memorizing Henry V's speech.  I think that might be a fun thing to do, read about Henry V, watch the movie and then try to memorize either 'into the breach' or St. Crispian's Day.  That's pretty ambitious.  The handwork for that year for the Charlotte Mason children was making a whole scene from the battle by sewing little tents and making clay figures of soldiers and knights.  Sounds cool!  I'm dreaming big here!  I'd also like to get in a little Latin memorization, like a prayer.

6. Sean might start taking music lessons again.  He's interested in maybe the clarinet and someday playing in a band.  We'll see.

7.  Sean doesn't want to return to art class.  He didn't really care for the teacher (that's usual!).  Becky is going to continue though.  But Sean is already complaining of boredom at times and I'm thinking during the dull winter months it might be nice to have some other structural thing to do, so I'm considering signing him up for Bravewriter.  He seems mildly open to it.  We'll have to talk about it.  Again, we'll see.

8.  I also want to start doing the Outdoor Hour Challenge.  I know January is probably a bad time to do this, but I figure we could try for once a week and some some kind of nature study.  Sean isn't into this but I'm hoping to drag him along.  Becky has started noticing all the birds' nests in the bare winter trees and keeps remarking on them.  We've also noticed a couple of great horned owls in the last two weeks!  And we can also see hawks and falcons as we drive along the roads.  So she's gotten fairly interested in birds.  I got her a birds' nest guide for Christmas.  I think we should start filling our bird feeders again.  I hope to do the Great American Bird Count this February, if the kids are interested.

9.  I am hoping to get a P.E./running class started at a local sports complex that works with homeschoolers.  Ideally that will happen on Friday afternoons at about the same time as our spring/fall tennis classes usually are held.

10.  I got the book Science Experiments You Can Eat.  It looks fun.  I was hoping to try that out to see if the kids would be interested.

I sort of wanted things to be more rhythmic so that there is a nice flow to the days.  I was thinking Monday or Wednesday could be either Outdoor Challenge or drawing days, depending on the weather and other things.  Tuesday would be Latin/Art/Bravewriter, Thursday could be Science day and Friday-P.E.  That's my dream plan.  Of course we'd have to factor in 4H, American Heritage Girls, Monthly Meetings (homeschool group), History/Lit for Josh on Wednesday afternoons, Vision therapy, CLC for Josh, Josh's Biology and Algebra/Geometry tutoring and possible music lessons.

Master Class with Bernstein

I think we live in a wonderful time for unschooling.  I mean we don't have to be like Abraham Lincoln and walk eight miles or whatever it was to borrow a book!  We've got the magic of the internet.  And while there are dangerous and problematic things that go along with such easy access to communication and knowledge, there are many wonderful benefits.

For instance, Youtube!

My music buffs have been learning from Leonard Bernstein lately.

To me this is almost miraculous!  My kids can be sitting around talking about music and start asking questions about just what it is a conductor does and then go to youtube and wind up spending the next hour watching various clips of Leonard Bernstein teach them all kinds of things.

Vienna Boys Choir - Advent

Yesterday, we went to see the Vienna Boys Choir in concert.  It was a lovely concert, with both traditional and contemporary interpretations of Christmas.  It was quite religious as 1) They are from Austria, 2) They still sing for the Cathedral there.  The boys were darling and the choirmaster was a very interesting person, originally from Lima, Peru!

Here's a link to their website.  It is rather late in Advent now, with only 5 more days until Christmas, but you can click on the Advent button in the top right hand corner of their main page and listen to a lovely clip of their singing for every day of Advent.

Unschooling with Orson Welles

My 18 year old got interested in Orson Welles back in the summer.  While we were at the beach we all watched The Third Man together.  Will thought Welles was terrific.  A couple months later, he watched Citizen Kane and again was amazed by Welles.

At the same time he was really getting into G. K.  Chesterton.  Imagine his delight when he discovered that Welles back in the 1930's had done a radio show based on The Man Who Was Thursday!

Check out this website for more fantastic radio shows by Welles.  Sean, the 11 yo, spent an hour yesterday listening to Welles' retelling of A Christmas Carol (The day before we watched Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol , another classic interpretation).

The Leaning Tree of Christmas

The Christmas Tree sales guy cut the hole in the middle of the trunk funny.  Rick and Will tried to fix it but, um, well you can see the result!

You can see my beautiful icon behind the tree.  My friend Ioana painted it.  Check out her website

Becky couldn't wait and set up the nativity creche.

How to Be a Classical Unschooler

This question came up on the Catholic Unschoolers list.  The short, easy answer is: 

1.  Become a classical scholar yourself.

2.  Surround your children with things that will spark an interest in classical education.

Here's a link to a post by Leonie on unschooling questions, one of which deals directly with being drawn to both classical and unschooling as ways to educate one's children.

St. Jerome Classical School

This is a cool article about how a Catholic grade school was revitalized  by the classical homeschooling movement.

Take a look at their curriculum!  So much is straight out of homeschooling catalogs!

This priest is the uncle of my 11 year old's best friend!  He is a very cool guy!

Check out this video.

Unschooling Moments of the Week - 12/17/10

Becky got glasses!

Monday - I honestly can't remember Monday.  This is why I have to remember to write things down!

Tuesday - We went to Latin/Art class.  Latin was fun.  As a treat before Christmas break, we read and studied the English poem Horatius at the Bridge.  We learned about about feet, meter, alliteration, etc.  Tuesday evening we had our 4H Christmas party.  It took place in a nursing home.  The kids did a skit on the Twelve Days of Christmas (really it was just a silly acting out of the song).  Then they sang lots of lovely carols to the patrons of the nursing home, and gave them little angel ornaments they had made at an earlier meeting.  It was really sweet and filled me with good Christmas cheer!  Then the kids played charades, had a little gift exchange and ate cookies and punch.

Josh and Sean at the Christmas party.

Wednesday - Josh and I and our teenage friend all met for literature and history, after three weeks of not meeting.  We finished Confessions by Augustine.  Hurrah!  We also did a lot of work in Classic Language Arts.  Both students are going to write a 3 page paper on early Church heresies and read Augustine Came to Kent over Christmas break (we are not meeting for another two weeks).  Becky went to VT and Josh went to CLC.

One of Becky's many little impromptu projects.  She made prayer cards!

Thursday - Snow Day!  Everyone just hung out.  I had no focused energy but I did manage to tidy up our study which had become abysmally messy.  Poor Josh though had to study for his Biology final on Friday and also finish up math homework.  He didn't go to his tutor as usual.  He's going Friday after Bio.  Then he is on Christmas break.  Will's piano jury got cancelled due to the weather.

I found this drawing by Sean.  A bit scary!  Where does he get his ideas???

Snow!

Friday - today I'm determined to have more get up and go!  We might do a little bit of formal stuff before I completely abandon it for the next two weeks.

Here are just some of the books we delved into this week.  I have a feeling that David Copperfield is going to be showing up for months.  I am trying to read it out loud to everybody and it is very hard to get my crew all together for long enough periods of time to read more than a few pages.  This might take a while!

Here's some stuff that Josh is working on:

These are all the biology cards his written up so far.  He uses them to study vocabulary.

Some Algebra (I haven't corrected it yet!).

Some photos Josh took for his tree study lab.

And finally, unschooling Latin via Christmas carols!

The Two Andrews

http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/wdb-kpw-11

I signed Josh up for this seminar.  It's happening about 40 minute drive from our home.  I wish I could go too, but I don't know about being that far away all day long.  Maybe my husband can work from home.  Will would be home for most of the day but would have to leave right before I'd get home.  I am so tempted. . . . . .
Josh knows I'm concerned about his writing.   He is just so uninspired.  He wants to be a creative writer but he just can't seem to get his thoughts on paper.  And when he does some fact-based writing for our history/literature studies or for his Biology course, it is really, really hard for him.  He openly rebels against it.  So I asked him if he'd like to go to this seminar.  I've heard Mr. Pudewa speak before and found him really inspirational even though, frankly, I've never been able to get my head around his writing curriculum.  I've tried but my brain goes all fuzzy and I can't focus on it.  I'm like that sometimes!

And I've read Mr. Kern's blog.  Sometimes he's a bit too conservative for me, but I like much of what he says.  Anyway, I just thought maybe listening to these guys would make Josh think about writing in a fresh way and maybe see it as a challenge to be conquered.

So we'll see.  (But I really want to go. . . . )

Unschooling Math Some More!

Since Advent the little bit of formal math we do has pretty much gone by the wayside for a while.  But since I did my usual thing of moving books from the shelf to the coffee table, there are a lot of math books lying about.  Last week, Becky and I had looked through this book, just casually.  I mentioned to her that her older sister had a done a science fair project from this book on how computers use the binary number system.  Well, a few days later, Becky got inspired to make a 'computer' like her older sister had done.  She had fun making it but I wasn't sure she'd actually gotten the concept of binary numbers down.


Fast forward to yesterday.  It was midmorning and we'd done some penmanship but I wanted to do something else too that was 'educational', so I said, "Hey kids, let me read aloud to you about math.  Here's the book Hannah says I should read to you."  Sean protested that he wanted to do a Sudoku while I read to him.  He got out his DSI and started on a Sudoku Extra.  He showed me his strategy for figuring out what number went where.  He's very systematic about it.

So I started reading.  We read about Thales figuring out how to measure the height of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.  Sean vaguely remembered the story from when I read it aloud years ago.  After that, I picked up this book and said, "I've never really read this book.  Let's see what it's about."  Well, the very first topic in the book was about the base 2 number system!  So I read it.  Becky was a bit puzzled by it, so I grabbed a scrap of paper and pencil and we figured it out.  And she got it!

Wordless Wednesday 12/15/10

Discipline and Children

I like the gentle, loving, Christian and practical approach that the folks at this site take.

Check it out!

Valleys

The sunny picture that many unschoolers like to paint is that they are always happily engaged in some great project.  Or, on the flip side, if their child is busy playing video games eight hours a day, they go on about how the child is learning to self-regulate and how much quicker their hand-eye coordination is, as a result.  Or how the video game really is teaching them about percentages, or some other rather strained, attenuated benefit.

To all this, I say BOSH!

I remember seeing an unschooler interviewed on TV, where she (or he) talked about how free their days were and how they could just pop down to the museum if they felt like it.  I think I gave a very loud derisive snort at this!

What if you don't have the capability to pop down to the museum anytime you want?  What if you don't live near a museum?  What if you can't afford the parking even if you could pop over there?  What if you have morning sickness and even though your children are chomping at the bit to go, you, yourself can't manage it?  What if you are potty training and simply can't go anywhere right now?   What if you can't pry junior away from the video game long enough to take him to a museum?  What if you have a kid who hates museums?  What if you have one kid who hates field trips and another who loves them?  Who wins?

I'm just fixating on this museum thing to illustrate my point.  But it extends to all sorts of things as well.  I want to reassure you that these things are much more complicated than the breezy, "let's just pop down to the museum" front that often is put forth when defending unschooling.  So if you have found unschooling much more complicated than the impressions you've gotten, don't think you are doing something wrong!  Don't beat yourself up because life isn't one continual lark because you are unschooling.

Life is life and is often far from being a lark!

You can spend a lot of energy modeling a love for learning, trying to provide your children with all sorts of wonderful opportunities, strewing lots of interesting things around your home and it can all fall flat with a loud splat!  It can be very discouraging.

On the other hand, when I was going through phases of being more regimented about schooling or when I witness other mothers who are very school-at-home, their lives aren't all sweetness and light either.  In fact they are often consumed with anxiety or worn down by their reluctant learners who aren't keeping apace of whatever curriculum they've chosen.  There is frequent talk about burn out and very often the parents decide that homeschooling isn't for them and the kids wind up back in school.  I think curricula tend to bring out the perfectionists in many mothers which is a deadly, deadly thing to joy in learning.  They all think they should be just like those well kept moms with their smiling children sitting around working through stacks of workbooks on the kitchen table just like the catalog cover.

The truth is life and learning are both full of peaks and valleys and as you journey through, you will encounter both, no matter what.  The thing to do is to keep walking!  Or in the case of unschooling:

1.  Keep exploring (even if it is just you doing the exploring for now)
2.  Keep conversing
3.  Keep thinking
4.  Keep suggesting
5.  Keep strewing
6.  Keep cuddling/laughing/connecting
7.  Keep praying!

As my mother used to always say, whenever we encountered troubles:  This, too, shall pass.

You'll eventually move through the valley and onto the mountain.  And it is a joyful, joyful place up there!

Unschooling Examen

I'm currently reading The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin, S.J.  It is a deceptively simple how-to book on the Ignatian Examen (as well as other elements of Ignatian spirituality), which is a method of prayer developed by the founder of the Jesuits.    Father Martin, though, also invites everyone, atheists, agnostics, whoever, to use it as a tool to live a more intentional life.  I think it is a wonderful book.  In fact, I've purchased several copies that I'm giving as gifts to various people in my life.

Father Martin also wrote another favorite read of mine this year, My Life with the Saints.  Leonie, one of my favorite Catholic Unschoolers, wrote a couple of wonderful posts at her blog applying the examen to unschooling.  Check out her thoughtful posts!  I love the idea of examining one's day to see what learning has gone on.  Really it is the idea of journaling one's activities, conversation, etc taken to a higher plane!

Unschooling Moments of the Week - 12/10/10

I didn't take many pictures this week.

Monday - went to visit my aunt who is doing poorly.  Becky came with me.  My aunt loved to paint and Becky got to admire her paintings and then show her own work from her art class.  Sean stayed home and did a little copywork, a little math, a little Latin and read his chapters in Li Lun and St. Peter's Catechism.  Josh did a little work during the day but spent an inordinate amount of time trying to beat some computer game.  After we had studied for our Latin test on Tuesday, oh about 9:30 or so at night, he suddenly realized that he had a Biology test the next day.  So I let him skip Latin so he could study for it.  I knew he knew the Latin but he was panicked about the Biology.  So he spent Monday night and Tuesday morning studying Bio.

Other stuff - Becky played this old little electronic hangman game that I think was a prize in some happy meal ages ago.  Anyway, she played it for hours.  She also suddenly started writing in an old diary as well.  Checked off language arts for her!

Tuesday - I went to Latin, Becky and Sean to art.  Will took Josh to Biology.  He got a 106 on the test (extra credit)!  I wound up bringing back some little girls who played with Becky quite nicely.  Sean had a playdate with his friend Jack which I had completely forgotten about.  Because Sean had a 4H  project near his friend's house, we wound up having a little date.  We ate Mexican food out and then went to 4H.  He enjoyed this project more than the cooking one last time.  It was origami and we had good time learning about it as we are complete novices.

Wednesday - Josh did some math, not sure what else.  Becky, Sean and I went to our homeschool group's monthly meeting.  Only one other family showed up.  I guess it was too close to Christmas and we had another main event going on this week with the group on Friday.  We went to Mass, as it was a holy day, Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Becky went to VT.  Will went to his music lesson.  Wednesday night Josh went to his CLC.  Will went with him to go to Mass.

Thursday - Got a new dishwasher in the a.m!  Josh finished up Algebra homework and then went to tutor. Went to the library then to Target to buy stuff for our parish's giving tree.  Then kids went to the puppet show practice.  Will went to his piano lesson.

Friday - Will went off to Boston on the train for his audition at Berklee College of Music Saturday morning.   We are all excited and nervous for him! Josh went to his Biology study group.  Becky and Sean did a little penmanship.  Then we were off to noon Mass given just for us homeschoolers.  Then we had a potluck lunch and a wonderful puppet show to tell the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Sean with Father Moretti

Becky was an 'angel" stage helper and she also worked Juan Diego's Uncle's marionette.

Here she is pushing the ship that brought the bishop to Mexico.

Here is Sean working the marionette of the bishop in the story of  Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Here is the whole cast.  The pictures are pretty fuzzy because I forgot my camera.  I wound up using Sean's DSI!

During the week we've continued our reading of The Little Apostle on Crutches, The Story of the Romans, Westmark and David Copperfield.  Sean is reading Coraline.  Josh read a bunch of manga books.  Becky started reading Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Why We Do Some Things Formally

For a long time I wouldn't classify myself as an unschooler because there were certain subjects that we did work on in a more formal way.  I called myself 'unschoolish' instead.  Or "influenced by unschooling", or "relaxed," or. . .well, you get the picture.

But then a little while ago, I again stumbled on Pat Farenga's definition of unschooling (which I never seem to remember exactly right so I'll just copy and paste from him directly!).

"I define unschooling as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world as their parents can comfortably bear."


Even though I'd read this definition many times before, it suddenly clicked in a way that it hadn't before.  I think I didn't quite get what Mr. Farenga was getting at because I kept seeing what we did through a filter of judgment.  I'd read what radical unschoolers would say about children and education and a lot just wouldn't ring true to me.  In the 14 years we've been at this homeschool journey, I've actually tried radical unschooling twice for about a year each time.  Neither time went very well to be truthful.  And in reaction to the chaos that ensued I'd swing back to trying to be very formal with our studies (though even when I was 'very' formal I still was much less formal than a lot of folks!).  So since my interpretation of what I thought radical unschoolers were about didn't fly in my home, I felt that I wasn't REALLY an unschooler.


But then I started thinking some more!  And the things that we do in our formal studies are things that we have arrived at organically.  They are subjects that in various ways made themselves something that we needed or preferred to address in a more traditional mode of learning.


1)  Handwriting - to make a long story short my oldest son struggled tremendously with handwriting.  I'm not talking just neat handwriting.  I'm talking that he couldn't form a letter to save his life!  After years of being relaxed about it (or often trying to inspire him to practice handwriting and failing miserably!), and listening to those who said handwriting is obsolete (wrong!) and he just needs to learn to type, I got really concerned when he was in 8th grade and still couldn't write.  Well, he wound up getting diagnosed with dysgraphia.  His handwriting skills were at a beginning second grade level while his vocabulary was college level.  Big, big gap!  He went into physical therapy for a year.  The therapist had him doing all kinds of crazy things like bouncing on balls and crossing the midline and such.  She also worked with him on just plain old handwriting practice.  He emerged from that experience with so much more self-confidence.  He could write!  It seems he knew all that time that he wasn't learning this skill like other kids and it affected his self-esteem.  It was, in fact, debilitating to him.  But, wow, did he blossom afterwards. Handwriting is still his weakness but he's so much better than before!  He can cope now! So after that my husband decreed that we all were going to work on handwriting in a consistent way.  For years we kept copy books, and if we didn't do anything else that smacked of 'school' all day, we'd at least take out our copybooks after breakfast and copy something.  The kids could pick.  They often picked jokes or riddles or limericks.  Sometimes we copied poems or the first lines of the books we were reading.  Or we'd copy prayers or songs or Latin phrases.  On Friday's we did freewriting.


Lately, I've relied more on penmanship books.  I don't know why, except with my younger kids they seem to appeal to them more.


2)  Math - math is the one thing that really seems to need a more systematic approach.  I do think when a kid gets to about 12 or so it seems logical and practical to get ready for higher math if you are hoping for college in the future.  Basically so the student won't feel so overwhelmed by trying to plow through high school level math in hurry so they can qualify for college entrance expectations or do well on the SAT.  I truly think you can unschool math up until that time.  And if college isn't something you are shooting for at age 18, then you can probably relax for longer.  We started formally in Saxon math when my oldest daughter was contemplating attending a local high school.  We got a math tutor for her so that she'd be ready for high school Algebra (because I was not confident in my math teaching skills!).  She wound up liking math.  Her brother who is just 19 months younger than her soon followed suit.  Even though we wound up homeschooling through high school, we kept up the math tutoring.  Then my second son, I think when he was about 10, demanded a textbook like his older siblings.  He was interested in math and he wanted a book to teach him!  He worked through the book pretty independently.  Eventually, when he got a couple years older he also began to learn from our math tutor.  Well, last year my then 10 year also demanded the same textbook!  So he followed the same pattern as his older brother.  And finally my youngest daughter demanded her own textbook. So for the first time ever in our homeschooling career I have my 9 year old working in Saxon 4/5.  We are doing it pretty lightly though.


So after we do handwriting, we usually do some math.  This typically can happen anywhere from one to 4 times a week.  I don't think we've made it for all five school days in a long time!


3)  Latin - this is really Mommy instigated because of my love for classical learning.  I've been taking a Latin class alongside my 10th grade son for three years now.  For my younger kids, I try to teach it in as friendly a way as possible.  My kids actually enjoy learning Latin for the most part.  There are time when they'd rather not, but overall I think they find satisfaction in it.  None of us, so far, seem to be any great Latin scholars.  It isn't a passion or anything.   We do it really gently and in the most fun way I can find. Since I am learning Latin right alongside them we can be comrades at arms.  I have found with my kids anyway, that if you aren't always pushing them through 12 different subjects weekly, being the moving force behind one course goes pretty smoothly.  They aren't burnt out from Mommy constantly pushing them to do things.


So that's the evolution of the formal aspects of our home learning.  At least in the younger years.  My high schoolers take outside classes a lot and I have, every year, self designed some course of study in the 'Humane Letters' area (literature and history) at the high school level.  We have always invited other high schoolers to join us so it has a 'book club' feel to it.


This, by the way, is very similar to the Latin Centered Curriculum's basic approach in the early grades.  The author, Andrew Campbell, basically argues that handwriting, phonics then Latin, and math are all you really need in addition to lots of read alouds.  He adds in classical writing and Greek later and gets much more structured but his initial approach is beautiful in its simplicity.  I especially appreciate the first edition of his book.


So this is how, after a long and circuitous route, we found how much I could 'comfortably bear' when it comes to unschooling.  It's a good fit, so far.

Wordless Wednesday 12/8/10

Okay, not quite wordless!  And a bit random too!

A bust of my grandfather.  Barely a 5th grade education, yet a highly learned man.

Two inspirations:  my grandfather and Einstein!



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First attempts at origami

Paper dolls inspired by a lesson on symmetry.

More Sudoku and History Cartoons

Some kids are easier to unschool than others.  My 11 year old goes on these jags where he becomes completely submersed in whatever it is he's interested in.  Right now it is Sudokus, the evolution of handheld games (yep!), and talking about the history behind comics/cartoons.

He got a $2.00 Sudoku app on his DSI, so he's been doing all sorts of Sudokus and other variations (one that he mentioned was particularly hard to him is called Sudoku Jigsaw).

I even noticed that there was a Sudoku on the back of our Trader Joe's Frosted Flakes box that he filled in.

A few days ago, Sean rounded up all the handheld systems we've accumulated over the last decade.  This is my husband's fault.  He is a total geek when it comes to anything electronic!  Over the last 10 years or more, between (among???) him and our three sons we've got quite a collection.  I pay so little attention to this that I didn't realize how many!  Anyway, Sean started to show me the oldest to the newest and explain each development as each one came along, including details about how they were marketed and who their competitors were and all kinds of amazing detail.  I told him that he was making himself an expert on the subject that he should pretend that he is a curator in a museum on electronics and he should put together a display just like they do in museums.  I think he thought that was a pretty cool idea.  His dad also thought so, so they've been working together on learning more about this stuff.  Right now, in the pre-holiday busyness, I'm too scattered to focus on this but maybe at some point something will result from this.



The other thing that grabbed Sean's attention was this book.  This is something his dad actually bought many years ago for himself.  Leafing through it made Sean ask a lot of questions about World War II.  He didn't get a lot of the references in the cartoons and he was puzzled by many of them.  I haven't had a chance to, but as soon as I do get a chance, I'm hoping to sit down with him and read some of the cartoons together so I can explain some of them to him.

The Pioneer Woman Discusses Unschooling!

Check it out!

Comics and William the Conqueror

Comics have been such a source of learning for my kids.  I think Bill Watterson should be canonized!

I'll never forget the time, my oldest son, Will, who had been diagnosed dyslexic, came downstairs (this was two weeks before he turned 9) and said with great excitement in his voice, "Mom, I can read!"  He then proceeded to read me a comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes.  I do believe it had words in it like Tyrannosaurus Rex and the like.  Calvin and Hobbes proved to be the first 'reader' of choice for my boys.

Peanuts, Dilbert, The Far Side, F Minus, Family Circus and more all have been great founts of all sorts of learning explorations.

Sean, my 11 year old, is the most fascinated by actually creating comics of his own.  While my older two boys went through mild phases of this, he has actively worked on cartooning for a while now.

Yesterday, he came up to me with some pictures he had printed out.  "Mom," he said, "I went to Wikipedia to read about the history of comics and these are the oldest comics in the world."  I looked and was amazed!  "These are from the Bayeaux Tapestry!"  Yep, I'll have to go read the Wikipedia article, but somehow we got from cartooning to a discussion about William the Conqueror and the Norman Conquest in 1066.

I just love connections like that!

By the way, I have seen the actual Bayeaux Tapestry.  When I was in France for six weeks as an 18 year old,  we took a special trip to see the Tapestry.

Looking at the Tapestry up close here, I can see how they look comic-like.  I love the fact that there's Latin!

Teaching Chastity

The best resources for this particular topic we've found, is stuff by Jason Evert (and his wife Crystalina).    Here's his new website link.  I say 'new' because when I was tackling this issue back when my oldest was entering her teens, his website was called Pure Love, but I think that name attracted too much icky traffic or if you remembered it slightly wrong you'd wind up at some p*rno place, so he changed it.  He used to have a secular site too, that addressed all the reasons for chastity but left out the religious stuff, but I can't seem to find that anywhere.

The Youth Ministry at our parish had Evert speak way back when I think my oldest daughter was 14 years old.  That inspired us to get one of his books.  My daughter read this over and over again and had many heated discussions with her friends.  I really think that when she started dating (maybe she was 16?) she was well prepared to take on this issue. She had a lot of clarity about it.  And because of Evert's very open, humorous, no holds barred approach we were able to talk freely about the subject.  It helped me as the mother!

The Everts also have (or maybe had, I haven't kept up with it), a show on EWTN.  I watched it a couple of times but never with my teens!  They were off doing something else, I guess.  Anyway, we seem to have this topic covered by other means so the TV show didn't seem necessary.  Maybe it will for the rest of my kids.  One never knows!

I also really like Matt Pinto's Did Adam and Eve Have Bellybuttons?  This isn't just about chastity but covers all sorts of questions teens ask.  I think it makes a terrific confirmation gift.

My daughter also took a course through the Youth Ministry at our church that used Theology of the Body for Teens. I thumbed through the book and found it a little too workbooky, fuzzy . . . .I don't know.  I think that it might be a good approach for schooled kids who are used to lessons being presented in that manner, but it didn't appeal to me so much.  My daughter was an older teen at this time and she wound up educating the kids who were public schooled on the topic.  She felt like it didn't teach her anything she hadn't already learned.  BUT, it might be just the ticket for you and your teen.

For some reason my kids did not like the Amy Welborn series of books entitle Prove It.  They felt they were condescending in tone.  But I know of other moms and kids who enjoy them.  These books  also address all kinds of topics, not just chastity.

Our parish is such a blessing to us, because they have the Youth Apostles running teen groups.  My two teen boys have learned about chastity by attending their Catholic Life Communities.  This is an absolutely fantastic teen group that I can not highly recommend enough!

Even if you aren't Catholic and you happen to be reading this post, you might want to check out some of the sites I mention just to broaden your own education about how the Church approaches human sexuality.  I just hate the way the mainstream media constantly and ignorantly mangles this issue.  Drives me batty!  So if you really want to be in the know about what the Pope says, please never rely on the MSM.  Better to go right to the horse's mouth!  (Isn't that true of everything????)

Unschooling Moments of the Week 12/3/10

I covered unschooling math in this post.

Here are books we delved into this week:

Wednesday was the first night of Chanukah.  Which means latkes!

And Dreidel!

And chocolate gelt!

Advent continued of course.  Friday, day six = 3 regular stars, one star of Bethlehem and two sheep!

From our Latin Advent Calendar we've learned six Latin words:  spes (hope), nox (night), lux (light), aurora (dawn), pax (peace), infans (infant).

Josh did his usual Latin class, Biology class and math tutor.  We didn't meet for history or literature this week, but he did sorta, kinda do the Chapter 4 test in History of the Church.  Almost done with Augustine!

Will seems to have spent most of the week sleeping or practicing music.  For hours.  And hours.

There was so much more that went on but these are the highlights!