May Entry at home / school / life

I've been intending to post a link!

This month I wrote about rhythms and routine, and I shared a photo from my daughter's lovely collection from her China trip!

photo by Maddie Simmons

I am looking forward to things getting settled again. I yearn for a routine that includes all the things I have come to expect in my day-to-day life. Most urgently, I am looking forward to planned time with my kids again.

Nearing the end of May, we are not quite back into a grove yet, but we are getting there!

April Entry at home/school/life

Sorting through Subjects in an Everything-is-Connected Manner of Homeschooling is the title of my April entry at home/school/life. Here's a bit:

Our family takes an “everything is connected” approach to life, but some people prefer to break the world into subjects, perhaps for the sake of being thorough (or because the setting of school requires it of them). It gives you more of a checklist approach to life. Have we done our math today? Have we practiced reading? Have we learned to spell a few words today? Have we spent some time with nature, making sure we are learning about the way of the world? Have we contemplated cultures, people, or methods of governing?

These are all things we encounter daily, and the flow of life naturally takes us there.

Coming from a subject-oriented education myself, I found it surprisingly hard to turn it into words my nine-year-old, unschooled kid could relate to.

Sharing My Experiences with Unlimited Screen Time

My latest post for Home/School/Life has been up since Monday and is getting many shares. I expected it to hit home with a lot of homeschooling parents, and among those who unschool especially. I've been pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback I've gotten from outside the homeschool community. Colored, as it may be, by the fact that many are people who know my kids personally and can attest to the fact that they are decent, upstanding, contributing members of society.

Received my first negative response to it today, which was clearly a gut reaction, probably not even someone who fully read the piece. Honestly, I'm a little surprised it took so long. I'm going to take it as a sign that I'm finally starting to speak out enough. If I'm getting enough attention to reach beyond the obvious cheerleaders and folks who are looking for discussion and ideas, I'm putting my time to better use than when I was just talking about it all to myself.

Here's the link, and here's the teaser.

"...our family ended up taking a little different path. My desk soon had two computers. My kids had the option of working alongside me, or going out to play, or doing any of the myriad of activities they spent their time doing, pretty much any time and for as long as they wished. My kids reached for a keyboard and a mouse probably as often as they reached for building blocks and crayons."

And this would be a good time to add that if you haven't checked out what Home/School/Life has to offer, you should check it out now. It's a beautifully constructed, very thoughtful little e-magazine with a growing audience of thoughtful, seeking parents who seem to be truly interested in the exchange of ideas and in supporting each other in this journey (raising kids/growing as parents/whatever you want to call it).

February Entry at Home/School/Life

Too many good intentions! Too much going on. This short month has gotten away without me.

Now that it's almost time for March, here's a link to my February entry at Home/School/Life:

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda – Homeschooling Better, After the Fact

An excerpt:

"And as I’m being honest, I have to remember that any bit of arm twisting I might have done to prepare her for this test before it was important to her, wouldn’t have done much good anyway. It wasn’t in our repertoire, me making unilateral decisions about what we were going to study and why. Our focuses have always been a team effort. My role has been to participate, assist, and sometimes stay out of the way."

January Entry at Home/School/Life

I nearly forgot to link my entry from this month's Home/School/Life. You can find it here.

“Can we build a wall?” the members of my family asked. “Would it remain standing? Could we put an actual door in it?”

Driving Lessons, a Mom’s View from the Passenger’s Seat

My new entry is up at home/school/life. You can run right over and read the whole thing here.

I would like to say that after so many years of unschooling, it is easy now to trust, to embrace the sometimes jerky starts and stops, the sudden braking when you thought you were accelerating and vice versa. I would like to claim I have learned better, but I am still guilty of embracing those old straight roads of my past. I am tempted to say to my son, “Just let me take you there. I will do the hard part. I’ll keep driving; you just tell me where you want to go.”

Directions to Some Excellent Posts about Math

I need to take the time to sort my own thoughts and experiences with math, both for myself and for my children, but if you are unschooling (or homeschooling) -- which I assume you are if you have arrived here -- I highly recommend that you take the time to run (not walk) over to Laura Grace Weldon's blog and read...

1) Math Instruction versus Natural Math: Benezet's Example

and

2) The Benefits of Natural Math

Call that my linky-love for the week.

Now Blogging at Home / School / Life

Be sure to check out Home / School / Life Magazine where I am now a member of the blog team. I look forward to posting monthly notes there about life with teen/young adult unschoolers.

I still plan to write here, as well. More frequently, perhaps?

44 Presidents

Thanks, Rebecca, for the link.

World eBook Fair

Access to eBooks online... until August 4, you can download free eBooks from the World eBook Fair.

The Size of Things

I mostly wanted to bookmark this to show my children, but then I thought there would be others who would enjoy this illustration.

Consuming Kids

A friend from a local homeschool group shared the following.



JoAnn's comments:

This morning I just went to a screening of this documentary:

http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/events/consumingkids.html

I give this film my highest possible recomendation, and it is my fervent hope that every parent in America would view this film immediately. In fact, I took my 11 year old with me to see it, and she was very glad that she saw it, and felt that it helped her to better understand and look with a more critical eye at a lot of things that are currently targeted to her age group. In addition, this film looked separately at every developmental stage from infancy to post adolescent, and also at differences in marketing for each gender.

It covered the full gamet including the history of government regulation of media, the breadth of marketing (schools, ipods, targeted radio on school busses, cell phones and much more) how market research is done (and this will chill you to see how children are even being recruited to surrepticiously gather data on peers, how brain waves and eye blinks are recorded in response to various types of visual stimuli) and how this all is affecting the health and well being of our entire citizenry.

Leap of Faith

This is a speech by Dagny, an unschooled teen, that I bookmarked ages ago with the intention of sharing it. It was given at the NE Unschooling Conference in May of 2008.

Take a moment to read it when you have some time to sit back and just reflect on the words. There is a lot of wisdom here.

My favorite part is this:

Parenting should be a gift to you, not a curse. Parenting should be a beautiful and scary thing. Not a wrong and stressful thing.

...

We have a trusting family base who are always there and knowledgeable and kind and supportive of us and our needs and wants from this life. Trust comes in many forms and I've found my parents’ trust in unschooling to be the most necessary part of the whole unschooling process.

I also love that she lists "42" as one of the possible meanings of life.

My kids and I recently read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy together. Although I have friends who have loved the book (and series?) over the years, I had never read it myself. I was worried that it would be above my kids' heads, but all three of them loved it, and I'm talking laugh-out-loud, quoting passages loving it. I learned to appreciate something I wouldn't have tried on my own.

Dagny's mother, Rue Kream, is author of Parenting a Free Child: An Unschooled Life.

Teen Driving Site

For those of you who are looking to have teen drivers on your hands soon, Teendriving.com has a lot of good information for parents and young drivers, everything from tips on teaching your kid to drive to information on insurance and safety products.

Our Courts

Here's a website that looks promising. It seems to still be under development, but I am especially intrigued by the "games" section which is supposed to be complete by the summer of 2009.

ABOUT OUR COURTS
Our Courts is a free, interactive, web-based program designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our democracy. Our Courts is the vision of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is concerned that students are not getting the information and tools they need for civic participation, and that civics teachers need better materials and support. On this site, you will find information and useful teaching resources for an engaging civics curriculum.

I'm curious about how other homeschoolers approach civic participation. One of the things that really impressed me about the very first homeschool family I ever knew of (years ago) was that the children were so aware of and involved in current events. The oldest (I think around age 15 at the time) was actually working on a campaign for a local politician.

Isn't the best way to learn about it to get out there and be involved? Are there any avenues of participation that you have found especially enjoyable? Any ways your kids have gotten involved that you would like to share?

Do you know your states?

Here's an online puzzle that will keep you entertained for a bit. You have to put each state in it's place on the map. Can you do it?

State Map

Thanks for the link, Claudia.

Interactive Brain Tour

I enjoyed this quick tour of the human brain from the Alzheimer's Association, and I thought there were probably a number of others who would find it interesting, as well.

Open Culture

Open Culture is a website my husband found. He's just been given his first MP3 player, a hand-me-down from our daughter, and he's become a big fan of the world of podcasts and lectures that he can download and carry it with him to listen to whenever he wants.

There is truly an impressive collection here - everything from free audio book links to foreign language lessons. It has a list of university lectures by subject from across the nation.

Television and music.

Science and law.

I warn you; it's one of those places (much like a great library) that makes you feel there will truly never be enough time in the world to explore every avenue of interest.

My oldest (age 13) has begun browsing the site. I think it would be a great resource for older kids and adults.

Where is your favorite place to play online?

We are looking for suggestions to add to our online games page. A permanent link will remain on the bar at right.

What are your favorite places to spend time online? (Preferably free, or for a small fee.) Ask your kids what they recommend. We will add to this page as favorites are suggested.

Send your suggestions to goobmom23 AT yahoo DOT com.

Homeschool Day Book

There is a new record keeping tool on the market that was created by a homegrown homeschooling family - the Homeschool Day Book.

Here's what Cindy has to say about the product:

My husband has put together a homeschool record keeping software product, and it was designed with unschoolers and relaxed homeschoolers in mind. Basically, it was designed to work for our homeschool, but be flexible as we might change. Anyway, he's got it up and running and for sale on its own website.

http://www.homeschooldaybook.com/

It is really easy to use. One thing that I've thought of for unschoolers is that you could actually just do one entry a day, like a blog entry, and attach all the "subject" labels that would apply to that day's activity. So, it's a good way to look back over what you've done, and also a good chance to think through how things are going by writing about it each day. Just one way to use it.

At the website you can download a free trial version (fully featured, just limits how long you can use it until you pay). And if you decide to buy, there is an "early bird" sale going on right now. It's usually $49, but while it is still brand new, it's for sale for $29.

I'm a record keeper at heart (though I usually prefer to refer to myself as a scrapbook keeper or a family history professional), so I downloaded the free trial to see how I liked it. I have to say that the nitty-gritty detailed record keeper in me was pleased as punch. You could accomplish the same thing with a spreadsheet program, but if you don't enjoy setting up spreadsheets and formulas, this program has an easy interface and would be handy for record-keeping no matter what your homeschooling style.

As I was plugging in my own family's activities from the past few days, it occurred to me that this program would be ideal for 4-H record keeping, as well. In fact, I like it so much better than what the extension office has created (word documents with expandable tables for data entry) that I am contemplating a purchase of this software for 4-H project record keeping alone.

If you are lookin for record keeping or documentation assistance, this is one program I would actually recommend.