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????)