Psssst! Don't tell Tex, but I think he may have crossed over into being a confident reader! I noticed yesterday that when his brother was playing a video game and couldn't read something, Tex didn't hesitate to lean right over his shoulder and read it aloud for Noodle. And when I complimented Tex on being such a great reader and helpful brother, I actually got a smile instead of a sullen look or loud, contrary "I am NOT a good reader, I HATE reading!" And then today I was spelling out a word I didn't want Monkeygirl to hear (for the record, "princess", because that's just the kind of mama I am) and Tex immediately piped up with the word! Something about the wiring from Tex's ears to his brain works SO much better than the path from eyes to brain. He's always been able to repeat almost word for word any information that he hears and is interested in, and can remember it long after it has lost its tenuous grip on my synapses. In any case, I was stunned to hear him put it all together so fast, and thrilled for what this confidence could mean to him in the coming months of learning. I don't know that any of my kids will ever be the bookworm that I am, but I'm hoping they'll at least consider reading to be a useful and painless tool for growth.
In other reading news, we've begun the Harry Potter series. I'm rereading the entire series and I'm pretty sure we won't be going beyond the second book for a while. Which is fine, as there are a lot of other wonderful books out there to explore and read. But even after just a week of reading, Tex is really enjoying Harry Potter. I overheard him yesterday trying to teach Noodle how to ride a broomstick and play Quidditch. :-)
Friday, October 1, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
I think I'm getting the hang of this now!
Unschooling, that is. It's been quite an adventure, I must say, and it's certainly still a work in progress. Carrying the freedom over into our parenting has been a particular challenge, but one that I think is going to have to happen because I can't see how it would work to Unschool during the day and then revert to "what I say goes" behavior once we hit the dinner table. How confusing that would be for our children! It IS an effort, especially with Tex's argumentative nature to make all our work seem pointless some days, but I'm seeing enough overall progress in our relationships and the happiness of our home to remind me to keep the faith.
Academics are going well, such as they are. Tex's reading continues to improve, and his love of stories is growing and growing. We're three quarters through The Tale of Despereaux and Tex is thoroughly engaged. (Can I pause for a minute and tell you how much I LOVE reading to my children??? Granted, there's not much I like more than reading anyway, but being able to read aloud and have someone giggle with me is just priceless. I don't think I'll ever want to stop!) He's always been so adept at focusing on the story and building his own pictures while I read, it amazes me. Plus he likes my French accent. :-)
Tex continues to advance in math, as well. He's adding three-digit numbers, continuing to memorize the multiplication tables, he's understanding more about decimals and integers, and his fractions are really coming along. Oh, and our timeline! I admit I've been lax about adding items to it, but not a week goes by that Tex doesn't have a suggestion for something that should be up there. Last week he suggested I add the start dates for the Korean, Vietnam, and World Wars; this week he wants the first space flight and the moon landing to be written down.
Noodle is picking up reading, as well, at his own pace. He told me the other day that "I'm not reading, I just see the words and they make sense". Well. Okay, then. Noodle is also getting interested in addition, and most days will do me the favor of letting me know what x + y equals. Yesterday he told me that his Papa told him 8+8=16, then he asked what 8+9 equals. "Well, if you had 8 and 8, and that's 16, and then one of those numbers grew one more, then what would that be?" "Seventeen!" he exclaimed, with a huge smile on his face.
Both boys are enrolled in Taekwondo now, as well. Noodle is surprising me with his enthusiasm! This is my little guy who usually isn't a "joiner", doesn't really have much use for someone telling him what to do, and gets along quite well doing his own thing, thankyouverymuch. But he works hard in Taekwondo! Tex finds it more of a struggle, frankly, especially since his class is more fitness-focused and disciplined, and Tex would prefer a lower-pressure environment. But he's starting to make progress after a few weeks of classes, now, and I think he's feeling the reward of his persistence. In any case they both promised they would stick it out until Noodle's birthday in November, and I'm hoping that by then they'll be over the awkwardness and sure about whether it's something they want to stick with or not.
Monkeygirl is having a blast, I must say. She's almost three and has such a spirit of confidence about her! I love that I can see that for what it is: not willfullness or cheek, but a positive sense of self that empowers her to say "this is the way *I* like things, and my voice matters, too!" I can't help but think of the benefits she will have, growing up as my most free child. The only one never to have been schooled (both her brothers were in preschool by this age), the one who has experienced the least amount of yelling and strife in the house, the one with the fewest limits on her joy. Like our Noodle, Monkeygirl has an amazing sense of humor that she loves to share with her family. She's also beginning to explore letters such that she can now identify a handful reliably (O, T, M, B, A, X, Z, F, H, and Q, at the very least) and even some of their sounds.
Both my boys are also official Plants vs. Zombies lovers. Once again the persistence comes out in ways I would have never imagined. And before anyone scoffs at the limits of learning that a video game can spur, go play that game yourself, mister/ma'am! LOL It requires fast, strategic thinking and even makes MY heart beat faster! I'm proud of how they've stuck with it and learned to make decisions based on what kind of obstacles they're facing. So there. I've said it. My children have learned a lot from zombies. :-)
Academics are going well, such as they are. Tex's reading continues to improve, and his love of stories is growing and growing. We're three quarters through The Tale of Despereaux and Tex is thoroughly engaged. (Can I pause for a minute and tell you how much I LOVE reading to my children??? Granted, there's not much I like more than reading anyway, but being able to read aloud and have someone giggle with me is just priceless. I don't think I'll ever want to stop!) He's always been so adept at focusing on the story and building his own pictures while I read, it amazes me. Plus he likes my French accent. :-)
Tex continues to advance in math, as well. He's adding three-digit numbers, continuing to memorize the multiplication tables, he's understanding more about decimals and integers, and his fractions are really coming along. Oh, and our timeline! I admit I've been lax about adding items to it, but not a week goes by that Tex doesn't have a suggestion for something that should be up there. Last week he suggested I add the start dates for the Korean, Vietnam, and World Wars; this week he wants the first space flight and the moon landing to be written down.
Noodle is picking up reading, as well, at his own pace. He told me the other day that "I'm not reading, I just see the words and they make sense". Well. Okay, then. Noodle is also getting interested in addition, and most days will do me the favor of letting me know what x + y equals. Yesterday he told me that his Papa told him 8+8=16, then he asked what 8+9 equals. "Well, if you had 8 and 8, and that's 16, and then one of those numbers grew one more, then what would that be?" "Seventeen!" he exclaimed, with a huge smile on his face.
Both boys are enrolled in Taekwondo now, as well. Noodle is surprising me with his enthusiasm! This is my little guy who usually isn't a "joiner", doesn't really have much use for someone telling him what to do, and gets along quite well doing his own thing, thankyouverymuch. But he works hard in Taekwondo! Tex finds it more of a struggle, frankly, especially since his class is more fitness-focused and disciplined, and Tex would prefer a lower-pressure environment. But he's starting to make progress after a few weeks of classes, now, and I think he's feeling the reward of his persistence. In any case they both promised they would stick it out until Noodle's birthday in November, and I'm hoping that by then they'll be over the awkwardness and sure about whether it's something they want to stick with or not.
Monkeygirl is having a blast, I must say. She's almost three and has such a spirit of confidence about her! I love that I can see that for what it is: not willfullness or cheek, but a positive sense of self that empowers her to say "this is the way *I* like things, and my voice matters, too!" I can't help but think of the benefits she will have, growing up as my most free child. The only one never to have been schooled (both her brothers were in preschool by this age), the one who has experienced the least amount of yelling and strife in the house, the one with the fewest limits on her joy. Like our Noodle, Monkeygirl has an amazing sense of humor that she loves to share with her family. She's also beginning to explore letters such that she can now identify a handful reliably (O, T, M, B, A, X, Z, F, H, and Q, at the very least) and even some of their sounds.
Both my boys are also official Plants vs. Zombies lovers. Once again the persistence comes out in ways I would have never imagined. And before anyone scoffs at the limits of learning that a video game can spur, go play that game yourself, mister/ma'am! LOL It requires fast, strategic thinking and even makes MY heart beat faster! I'm proud of how they've stuck with it and learned to make decisions based on what kind of obstacles they're facing. So there. I've said it. My children have learned a lot from zombies. :-)
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Whose principles are these, anyway?
There are many challenges to Unschooling, and I think this one might just be the biggest for me so far. It's the idea that one kind of learning is as valuable as any other kind of learning, because different people need different information, and learn different things from the exact same presentation of information. That parents should not dictate the majority of their children's educations.
Now, I realize some of you are going to find this to be topsy-turvy, but bear with me for a moment. Let's take Tex as an example, and his process of learning to read. Now, y'all should know in advance that I love reading. Reading is the thing I do when I don't have to do anything else. If I sit down in front of the tv, or to eat, or on the toilet, I feel I am lacking if I don't have a book or at least a magazine for my companion. Tex, on the other hand, has always valued the story, but not so much the process of reading. He knew his letters when he was 2 (because he asked, and we answered) and he knew the sounds they made when he was 4 (because they taught that in preschool, and sometimes he wanted to know). He's had a good reading basis and as his parents we did everything we could to help him along in the reading process. He's played reading games on the computer and the kitchen table, we've read Easy Reader books and story books and chapter books, because reading is very important to us. The challenge is this: until he was naturally ready to read, all the games and encouragement and quizzing and pressure, all they really did was make him feel that he was less than a child who could read. Oh, he loves the stories and would have someone read to him all day long, probably, if any of us had that kind of time and vocal stamina, but reading has been a by-the-by sort of thing for him. It just wasn't something he needed to do, and it wasn't something he wanted to do, and I don't think our pressure and desire for him to read made him learn any faster. What they did do was make him feel slower. Noodle is reading now, at 5 1/2, words that Tex didn't figure out until last year, and he's done it with none of the pressure, none of the coaching, and none of the feelings of inadequacy.
I hate sports. I'm not really good at any of them, I don't like learning the rules and regulations, I don't even like watching a great many of them. The Olympics are just my sports-speed: lots of variety and they only happen once every couple of years. I understand the importance of exercise and its value to the body, but beyond that I just don't. like. sports. But... just because I don't see the fun in them doesn't mean I shouldn't smile when my child tells me that his favorite team won the game, or celebrate when he climbs a rock wall all the way to the top, or bowls a better score than he ever has before, or finds the baseball card he's been after for months. I don't value sports, but I shouldn't discourage my kids from enjoying them.
So I have begun to see how it is that parents can damage their child's healthy sense of wonder and inquisitiveness by how we value different things and expect or demand our children to do the same. Do I think it's important to finish a really tricky level of a video game? Heck, no, I don't. But have I watched my husband stay up until 2 a.m. trying to get all gold stars on Mario Kart? Oh yes, I have. And I don't shame him for it. It's his life, it's his sleep deficit, they're his priorities. Why would I not allow my children to have the same freedom in as large a portion as they feel secure in handling? That's key, by the way, that you don't give children more freedom than they are capable of feeling secure with. And that's not a coded way of saying "as much freedom as they can have and still make the right choices according to MY values", it means that I have to watch my child to see if they are loving the freedom or feel they are being left to twist in the wind.
So it started this summer that we removed restrictions for "screen time": tv, video games, and computer time. We had originally only allowed them to have, maximum, about 45 minutes of video game play at a time, but when the restrictions were lifted I noticed that my kids have quite a spirit of persistence, WHEN it's something they are motivated to complete. They spent hours in focused work, figuring out the little tricks for each level, getting faster. We had discussions of teamwork, and the difference between encouraging and discouraging your playmates, and how to handle the frustration of losing. Why should I tell my son that it is more important to finish a chapter in a book than it is to finish a level on a video game, simply because I do not value video games as much as he does, and when he is learning so much from playing them? Is it fair to interrupt my child in an activity which he considers urgent, and engaging, and worth his time, in order to have him participate in an activity that I find more worthwhile? Assuming that health and safety are not at issue, WHY do parents have such a hard time letting children develop their own values?? WHERE did we get the idea that our children are supposed to grow up to like and value the same things that we do??
It's not easy, this shift. I have had to realize that joy is the most important thing. The joy my son gets from completing a level on LEGO Batman is the same joy I get when I finish reading a really good book, so why would I want to deny him that joy simply because it wouldn't be joyful for me? I wouldn't be very happy if someone insisted that I had to play video games all day long, if they found them to be more valuable and had that sort of authority over me. So it become a matter of giving my children the freedom to find their own joy, and not to judge if what brings them joy is not something I would have chosen for them. It is choosing to be a joy enabler, instead of a joy crusher.
Will I have limits on this? Clearly. I hope my children will not find joy in damaging the body or mind of another living creature, or themselves for that matter, and in those kinds of extremes of course I would take action. But I shouldn't care too much if they want to spend their time watching Wallace & Gromit and Fantastic Mr. Fox for a year, especially since I don't know if it could potentially lead to them designing and filming their own stop-motion animation and eventually a career in the film industry. I hope my children will come to know the power of Christ in their lives and work hard to be who He has called them to be. But I shouldn't worry too much if they do as I did and spend years exploring the possibilities, even if those years extend beyond mine and I never see them come to Christ. In fact it will be much better if I simply choose to live my life according to the principles I have chosen, to follow Jesus and love all my fellow men with the abundance and faith which He has shown to me, rather than shaming others (my children included) for not finding the same answer I have found. I would hope that as my children grow and become more mature, that they will take more responsibility for the care of the space we share, and be more conscientious of the work they create for others. But I shouldn't take 60 seconds from both our days and interrupt what they're doing to clean up a mess which I could have cleaned up in 10 seconds because doing so was valuable to me.
It probably sounds foreign to many of you. A few of you probably don't understand how this could NOT lead to children who are entitled brats. My only response is that if I ever feel I'm being taken advantage of, then I will discuss it with my housemates and trust in our love for each other to help us find a solution that works for everyone. I'm not out to coddle my children or remove all the strife from their life. I just think it makes a difference when you believe in what you're working for, and that my children should have the opportunity to feel that sense of purpose rather than having to work almost exclusively towards goals that I have chosen as the most worthy. I'd rather they get to be themselves all their lives instead of spending years trying to find joy in my expectations. And if I can just get that tattooed on my hands I might have a prayer of remembering it next time I find a swath of LEGO, ripe with value and sharp edges, all over our playroom floor. And when I DO remember, I will feel the joy of being successful at something I value: peace.
Now, I realize some of you are going to find this to be topsy-turvy, but bear with me for a moment. Let's take Tex as an example, and his process of learning to read. Now, y'all should know in advance that I love reading. Reading is the thing I do when I don't have to do anything else. If I sit down in front of the tv, or to eat, or on the toilet, I feel I am lacking if I don't have a book or at least a magazine for my companion. Tex, on the other hand, has always valued the story, but not so much the process of reading. He knew his letters when he was 2 (because he asked, and we answered) and he knew the sounds they made when he was 4 (because they taught that in preschool, and sometimes he wanted to know). He's had a good reading basis and as his parents we did everything we could to help him along in the reading process. He's played reading games on the computer and the kitchen table, we've read Easy Reader books and story books and chapter books, because reading is very important to us. The challenge is this: until he was naturally ready to read, all the games and encouragement and quizzing and pressure, all they really did was make him feel that he was less than a child who could read. Oh, he loves the stories and would have someone read to him all day long, probably, if any of us had that kind of time and vocal stamina, but reading has been a by-the-by sort of thing for him. It just wasn't something he needed to do, and it wasn't something he wanted to do, and I don't think our pressure and desire for him to read made him learn any faster. What they did do was make him feel slower. Noodle is reading now, at 5 1/2, words that Tex didn't figure out until last year, and he's done it with none of the pressure, none of the coaching, and none of the feelings of inadequacy.
I hate sports. I'm not really good at any of them, I don't like learning the rules and regulations, I don't even like watching a great many of them. The Olympics are just my sports-speed: lots of variety and they only happen once every couple of years. I understand the importance of exercise and its value to the body, but beyond that I just don't. like. sports. But... just because I don't see the fun in them doesn't mean I shouldn't smile when my child tells me that his favorite team won the game, or celebrate when he climbs a rock wall all the way to the top, or bowls a better score than he ever has before, or finds the baseball card he's been after for months. I don't value sports, but I shouldn't discourage my kids from enjoying them.
So I have begun to see how it is that parents can damage their child's healthy sense of wonder and inquisitiveness by how we value different things and expect or demand our children to do the same. Do I think it's important to finish a really tricky level of a video game? Heck, no, I don't. But have I watched my husband stay up until 2 a.m. trying to get all gold stars on Mario Kart? Oh yes, I have. And I don't shame him for it. It's his life, it's his sleep deficit, they're his priorities. Why would I not allow my children to have the same freedom in as large a portion as they feel secure in handling? That's key, by the way, that you don't give children more freedom than they are capable of feeling secure with. And that's not a coded way of saying "as much freedom as they can have and still make the right choices according to MY values", it means that I have to watch my child to see if they are loving the freedom or feel they are being left to twist in the wind.
So it started this summer that we removed restrictions for "screen time": tv, video games, and computer time. We had originally only allowed them to have, maximum, about 45 minutes of video game play at a time, but when the restrictions were lifted I noticed that my kids have quite a spirit of persistence, WHEN it's something they are motivated to complete. They spent hours in focused work, figuring out the little tricks for each level, getting faster. We had discussions of teamwork, and the difference between encouraging and discouraging your playmates, and how to handle the frustration of losing. Why should I tell my son that it is more important to finish a chapter in a book than it is to finish a level on a video game, simply because I do not value video games as much as he does, and when he is learning so much from playing them? Is it fair to interrupt my child in an activity which he considers urgent, and engaging, and worth his time, in order to have him participate in an activity that I find more worthwhile? Assuming that health and safety are not at issue, WHY do parents have such a hard time letting children develop their own values?? WHERE did we get the idea that our children are supposed to grow up to like and value the same things that we do??
It's not easy, this shift. I have had to realize that joy is the most important thing. The joy my son gets from completing a level on LEGO Batman is the same joy I get when I finish reading a really good book, so why would I want to deny him that joy simply because it wouldn't be joyful for me? I wouldn't be very happy if someone insisted that I had to play video games all day long, if they found them to be more valuable and had that sort of authority over me. So it become a matter of giving my children the freedom to find their own joy, and not to judge if what brings them joy is not something I would have chosen for them. It is choosing to be a joy enabler, instead of a joy crusher.
Will I have limits on this? Clearly. I hope my children will not find joy in damaging the body or mind of another living creature, or themselves for that matter, and in those kinds of extremes of course I would take action. But I shouldn't care too much if they want to spend their time watching Wallace & Gromit and Fantastic Mr. Fox for a year, especially since I don't know if it could potentially lead to them designing and filming their own stop-motion animation and eventually a career in the film industry. I hope my children will come to know the power of Christ in their lives and work hard to be who He has called them to be. But I shouldn't worry too much if they do as I did and spend years exploring the possibilities, even if those years extend beyond mine and I never see them come to Christ. In fact it will be much better if I simply choose to live my life according to the principles I have chosen, to follow Jesus and love all my fellow men with the abundance and faith which He has shown to me, rather than shaming others (my children included) for not finding the same answer I have found. I would hope that as my children grow and become more mature, that they will take more responsibility for the care of the space we share, and be more conscientious of the work they create for others. But I shouldn't take 60 seconds from both our days and interrupt what they're doing to clean up a mess which I could have cleaned up in 10 seconds because doing so was valuable to me.
It probably sounds foreign to many of you. A few of you probably don't understand how this could NOT lead to children who are entitled brats. My only response is that if I ever feel I'm being taken advantage of, then I will discuss it with my housemates and trust in our love for each other to help us find a solution that works for everyone. I'm not out to coddle my children or remove all the strife from their life. I just think it makes a difference when you believe in what you're working for, and that my children should have the opportunity to feel that sense of purpose rather than having to work almost exclusively towards goals that I have chosen as the most worthy. I'd rather they get to be themselves all their lives instead of spending years trying to find joy in my expectations. And if I can just get that tattooed on my hands I might have a prayer of remembering it next time I find a swath of LEGO, ripe with value and sharp edges, all over our playroom floor. And when I DO remember, I will feel the joy of being successful at something I value: peace.
Monday, August 9, 2010
First Day of "School"
So the public schools went back in session today, which always puts me in the frame of mind to get our learning kicked back into gear as well. This doesn't really mean anything other than me being less on the computer and cleaning up the house and more available to say "yes" to board games and setting up projects and going places. I may also strew more learning toys about in strategic locations and invite more involvement into my own projects, although in truth I'm making it a personal goal to be more open to assistance in my "grown up responsibilities" at all times.
I was astounded today to see how much Noodle's reading has progressed! It all started when we were returning from MonkeyGirl's parent/child gymnastics class (she's SO excited to be back!!) and the boys asked if we could play Silly Sentences when we got home. Sure, we can do that! So we get home, set out the puzzle-style words designed to fit together in a limited number of ways (articles only attach to adjectives and nouns, and nouns to verbs on the other side, then prepositions, which feed back into articles), and off they go putting sentences together. We don't take turns, we just all do our best to make the silliest sentences we can. Stuff like "The furry, blue banana climbed on the sad, scary duck." Except the game doesn't include commas, which bothers me. They have periods, why don't they have commas for multiple adjectives?? Yes, I am a grammar nerd. Learn to love it.
Anyway, back to the Noodle, he was doing a great job reading almost all of the words in the game, and even with the pieces that had pictures on them (nouns and colors) I could see him moving his lips to sound out the accompanying words. Then after lunch we played another game, it's some pirate octopus treasure game with beginning and ending sound blends that you can mix up to form multiple words (sw- goes with -ing, -ap) and again Noodle worked to sound out his own words and mine. We played that game three times!
Tex played with us once and in contrast to last year when he was still working hard to read each blend, most of them come to him quite instantly now. He's still not ready to give up the security and speed of someone else reading to him, but I'm confident that he is making steady progress. He is certainly interested enough in storytelling! We're almost finished with the last of Nick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, and I'm curious to see where we'll be going after this. Tex definitely likes to have adventure in his stories, so I'll probably continue in my hunt to see what sort of series are out there that would appeal. My particular challenge is to find something that might be interesting to both the boys, as our books usually end up being bedtime material and it's easier if they're both engaged. The big hits over the last year were the Star Wars junior novelizations, the Narnia series (though we stalled out at Voyage of the Dawn Treader), and How to Train Your Dragon. I may try to talk them into The Tale of Desperaux next, since it's funny and adventurous (AND has illustrations, a big draw for Noodle). Or we may finish The Odyssey if they want to continue the Greek theme, or D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. So many options.
Tex and I also had a fraction discussion today. This kid loves fractions. He was telling me how much of his banana he had eaten, and he started with an estimate of 3/4, then said "no, it was a little more than 3/4, I think. Like two and a half thirds." I came back with "oh, ok, so that would be 5/6". He thought about that for a minute and said "thank you for making that a simpler fraction, but do you know what? Even though what you said makes more sense, it's actually much easier to say 'two and a half thirds' than it is to say five sixths." I couldn't even argue with that. The word "sixths" is a pain in the tokhes and should be avoided at all costs.
I was astounded today to see how much Noodle's reading has progressed! It all started when we were returning from MonkeyGirl's parent/child gymnastics class (she's SO excited to be back!!) and the boys asked if we could play Silly Sentences when we got home. Sure, we can do that! So we get home, set out the puzzle-style words designed to fit together in a limited number of ways (articles only attach to adjectives and nouns, and nouns to verbs on the other side, then prepositions, which feed back into articles), and off they go putting sentences together. We don't take turns, we just all do our best to make the silliest sentences we can. Stuff like "The furry, blue banana climbed on the sad, scary duck." Except the game doesn't include commas, which bothers me. They have periods, why don't they have commas for multiple adjectives?? Yes, I am a grammar nerd. Learn to love it.
Anyway, back to the Noodle, he was doing a great job reading almost all of the words in the game, and even with the pieces that had pictures on them (nouns and colors) I could see him moving his lips to sound out the accompanying words. Then after lunch we played another game, it's some pirate octopus treasure game with beginning and ending sound blends that you can mix up to form multiple words (sw- goes with -ing, -ap) and again Noodle worked to sound out his own words and mine. We played that game three times!
Tex played with us once and in contrast to last year when he was still working hard to read each blend, most of them come to him quite instantly now. He's still not ready to give up the security and speed of someone else reading to him, but I'm confident that he is making steady progress. He is certainly interested enough in storytelling! We're almost finished with the last of Nick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, and I'm curious to see where we'll be going after this. Tex definitely likes to have adventure in his stories, so I'll probably continue in my hunt to see what sort of series are out there that would appeal. My particular challenge is to find something that might be interesting to both the boys, as our books usually end up being bedtime material and it's easier if they're both engaged. The big hits over the last year were the Star Wars junior novelizations, the Narnia series (though we stalled out at Voyage of the Dawn Treader), and How to Train Your Dragon. I may try to talk them into The Tale of Desperaux next, since it's funny and adventurous (AND has illustrations, a big draw for Noodle). Or we may finish The Odyssey if they want to continue the Greek theme, or D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. So many options.
Tex and I also had a fraction discussion today. This kid loves fractions. He was telling me how much of his banana he had eaten, and he started with an estimate of 3/4, then said "no, it was a little more than 3/4, I think. Like two and a half thirds." I came back with "oh, ok, so that would be 5/6". He thought about that for a minute and said "thank you for making that a simpler fraction, but do you know what? Even though what you said makes more sense, it's actually much easier to say 'two and a half thirds' than it is to say five sixths." I couldn't even argue with that. The word "sixths" is a pain in the tokhes and should be avoided at all costs.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
I Ain't Scared of Third Grade!
I have to admit, at first I was a bit apprehensive. We've just gone whole-hog on Unschooling, and here I am whipping out What Your Third Grader Needs to Know, worried beyond reason that there is going to be something life-changing in there, one thing that Tex NEEDS to know and cannot get without me sitting him down and telling him about it, and probably doing worksheets. Frankly, I wouldn't mind a bit, I love doing worksheets and seeing how many answers I can get right, 'cause I'm a smartypants like that. :-) But if there's one thing Tex can't stand it's being led down a path he's not independently interested in traveling, so it was with much trepidation that I opened up this "helpful" book.
Turns out I had nothing to worry about! Without further ado I present to you our third grade goals:
Language Arts
- continued reading of folk/morality tales, mythology, and fantasy (specifically mentioned are Tales of the Arabian Nights and Norse mythology)
- explore other genres of literature, particularly biographies
- grammar focus is on parts of speech, sentence structure, punctuation
History
- World focus is from the Roman Empire through the European exploration of North & South America
- National focus is on the original colonies through the American Revolution
Art & Music
- continued experience with and discussion of art and music, particularly how they can convey emotion, a story, etc. I would also like to tie music and art to any historical periods in which he is interested.
Mathematics
- using correct mathematical notation. Lately I've begun writing down equations as Tex and I have solved real-life "word problems", since it's what I do if I'm solving one on my own, too, and I imagine continuing that will spark him to do the same eventually.
- practice, practice, practice all the math he can, including the maths of time, money, geometry, and graphs
Science
- Life Sciences - keeping ecosystems in balance (may include applied experiments such as a terrarium, or discussions of food chain interruptions, or following of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill); also the nervous system of the human body
- Physical Sciences - beginning to gather an understanding of: electricity, forms of matter and how to measure them, molecular vocabulary, astronomy
- biographies of scientists in any field of interest
So, that's it. Granted, I winnowed it down to the key focuses without worrying too much about the details, because I don't think it matters whether we read Pollyanna or The Tale of Desperaux if either way we get the same message of working hard and sticking to your principles in the face of adversity. But by and large these topics seem to be ones either A) lend themselves to being learned at any point in life, such that we could cover the Renaissance this year if that is where Tex's interests lie, and save the Middle Ages for another year when he is more engaged, or B) are so vital to being a functioning member of society that he can't help but learn them as a part of his daily life, such as grammar and the mathematics of time, area, or money. So I'm not really worried. If Tex wants to delve into WWII this year instead of the Roman Empire, I'm going to be okay with that. If Egyptian mythology catches his fancy instead of Norse, I think that's workable, too. Most of all I have faith that there's nothing Tex can't learn if he is motivated to do so, and that therefor anything he doesn't learn must be something he doesn't need badly enough at this time. That doesn't mean I'm going to take down our poster about punctuation until he asks for it, or that I'm going to avoid putting the electronics kit on the kitchen table too see if it catches his eye, it just means that I'm going to help him explore his interests to whatever depth he chooses without judging their worth according to the needs of my own life.
In other news, we've seen a recent surge in Tex's reading confidence lately. Just a few weeks ago he was still insisting on us reading everything, but lately he's started to take the initiative and read things for himself, only needing to spell out to us the occasional word. It's actually astounded both myself and Daddy-O some of the words he does NOT need help on. Tex would probably still tell anyone who asks how much he dislikes reading, but hopefully those days will be numbered as his confidence continues to grow.
I'll be back soon to post a little about some processes and projects I'm thinking of trying this year, to help make our learning time rich and memorable!
Turns out I had nothing to worry about! Without further ado I present to you our third grade goals:
Language Arts
- continued reading of folk/morality tales, mythology, and fantasy (specifically mentioned are Tales of the Arabian Nights and Norse mythology)
- explore other genres of literature, particularly biographies
- grammar focus is on parts of speech, sentence structure, punctuation
History
- World focus is from the Roman Empire through the European exploration of North & South America
- National focus is on the original colonies through the American Revolution
Art & Music
- continued experience with and discussion of art and music, particularly how they can convey emotion, a story, etc. I would also like to tie music and art to any historical periods in which he is interested.
Mathematics
- using correct mathematical notation. Lately I've begun writing down equations as Tex and I have solved real-life "word problems", since it's what I do if I'm solving one on my own, too, and I imagine continuing that will spark him to do the same eventually.
- practice, practice, practice all the math he can, including the maths of time, money, geometry, and graphs
Science
- Life Sciences - keeping ecosystems in balance (may include applied experiments such as a terrarium, or discussions of food chain interruptions, or following of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill); also the nervous system of the human body
- Physical Sciences - beginning to gather an understanding of: electricity, forms of matter and how to measure them, molecular vocabulary, astronomy
- biographies of scientists in any field of interest
So, that's it. Granted, I winnowed it down to the key focuses without worrying too much about the details, because I don't think it matters whether we read Pollyanna or The Tale of Desperaux if either way we get the same message of working hard and sticking to your principles in the face of adversity. But by and large these topics seem to be ones either A) lend themselves to being learned at any point in life, such that we could cover the Renaissance this year if that is where Tex's interests lie, and save the Middle Ages for another year when he is more engaged, or B) are so vital to being a functioning member of society that he can't help but learn them as a part of his daily life, such as grammar and the mathematics of time, area, or money. So I'm not really worried. If Tex wants to delve into WWII this year instead of the Roman Empire, I'm going to be okay with that. If Egyptian mythology catches his fancy instead of Norse, I think that's workable, too. Most of all I have faith that there's nothing Tex can't learn if he is motivated to do so, and that therefor anything he doesn't learn must be something he doesn't need badly enough at this time. That doesn't mean I'm going to take down our poster about punctuation until he asks for it, or that I'm going to avoid putting the electronics kit on the kitchen table too see if it catches his eye, it just means that I'm going to help him explore his interests to whatever depth he chooses without judging their worth according to the needs of my own life.
In other news, we've seen a recent surge in Tex's reading confidence lately. Just a few weeks ago he was still insisting on us reading everything, but lately he's started to take the initiative and read things for himself, only needing to spell out to us the occasional word. It's actually astounded both myself and Daddy-O some of the words he does NOT need help on. Tex would probably still tell anyone who asks how much he dislikes reading, but hopefully those days will be numbered as his confidence continues to grow.
I'll be back soon to post a little about some processes and projects I'm thinking of trying this year, to help make our learning time rich and memorable!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Radical Unschooling
Ha! Scared you, didn't I? I know, I know, Unschooling has gotten quite the poor treatment from the media lately, and any of you who have seen said treatments are probably thinking "Oh Lord, what is Brownie trying to do to those kids NOW?" But I'm convinced, y'all. I'm all in.
First, what IS Radical Unschooling? Well, basically, it's letting my children spend their days however (within the boundaries of safety and reality) they want to, trusting that they will learn what they need to learn in order to get by and even succeed in the world. It's me backing off on controlling the details and instead worrying only about controlling the environment so that it can be safe and stimulating. It's living our home life by the principles we find most important rather than a list of rules that can be challenged and broken by kids as well as adults. Speaking of which, I could use some help on the basic principles. Try as I might, the only one I ever come up with is "Be considerate of others"; it seems to cover a multitude of conflicts we usually have (not cleaning up dishes/wrappers, sibling arguments, yelling at a child to come do it NOW without any regard for the activity in which they were engaged, etc.) without being too wordy or sounding too hard.
Now, I must admit to a little bit of subterfuge. I was reading Sandra Dodd's Big Book of Unschooling right as the last "school year" was ending, so I decided to test the ideas by implementing them as temporary, Summertime rules. We told Tex and Noodle that they no longer had to clean up a room to play videogames, there were no restrictions on their tv time, and over the course of a few weeks we loosened up on meal times and food suggestions. We did all this with the idea that, if it didn't work, we could always go back to living by the rules when the "school year" started up again in August. But I don't think we're going to. The kids have responded so well, and our house is so much happier, I think that, as Alice Cooper said, "School's out forever". :-)
But relax, that doesn't mean we don't have responsibilities. In fact on the parents' part this is going to mean a lot of very conscious choices. If we're not going to dictate our children's food choices then we'd better only have food in the house we're okay with them choosing, possibly over and over again. If we're going to let them make their own learning choices then we can't guilt or shame them for not being interested in reading, writing, or science, any more than we'd do if they weren't interested in art, sports, or musical theory. Basically, if we're going to create an environment where they get to make their own choices, then we need to do what we can to make sure the limited choices they have are safe, largely healthy, and supported. Soon enough they'll be out in The World where there are millions of choices, a great many of them unsafe, unhealthy, and insupportable. I want them to have some practice before they get there.
First, what IS Radical Unschooling? Well, basically, it's letting my children spend their days however (within the boundaries of safety and reality) they want to, trusting that they will learn what they need to learn in order to get by and even succeed in the world. It's me backing off on controlling the details and instead worrying only about controlling the environment so that it can be safe and stimulating. It's living our home life by the principles we find most important rather than a list of rules that can be challenged and broken by kids as well as adults. Speaking of which, I could use some help on the basic principles. Try as I might, the only one I ever come up with is "Be considerate of others"; it seems to cover a multitude of conflicts we usually have (not cleaning up dishes/wrappers, sibling arguments, yelling at a child to come do it NOW without any regard for the activity in which they were engaged, etc.) without being too wordy or sounding too hard.
Now, I must admit to a little bit of subterfuge. I was reading Sandra Dodd's Big Book of Unschooling right as the last "school year" was ending, so I decided to test the ideas by implementing them as temporary, Summertime rules. We told Tex and Noodle that they no longer had to clean up a room to play videogames, there were no restrictions on their tv time, and over the course of a few weeks we loosened up on meal times and food suggestions. We did all this with the idea that, if it didn't work, we could always go back to living by the rules when the "school year" started up again in August. But I don't think we're going to. The kids have responded so well, and our house is so much happier, I think that, as Alice Cooper said, "School's out forever". :-)
But relax, that doesn't mean we don't have responsibilities. In fact on the parents' part this is going to mean a lot of very conscious choices. If we're not going to dictate our children's food choices then we'd better only have food in the house we're okay with them choosing, possibly over and over again. If we're going to let them make their own learning choices then we can't guilt or shame them for not being interested in reading, writing, or science, any more than we'd do if they weren't interested in art, sports, or musical theory. Basically, if we're going to create an environment where they get to make their own choices, then we need to do what we can to make sure the limited choices they have are safe, largely healthy, and supported. Soon enough they'll be out in The World where there are millions of choices, a great many of them unsafe, unhealthy, and insupportable. I want them to have some practice before they get there.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Second Grade Goals Analyzed
At the beginning of the year I wrote a post that included the basic national goals for second grade year. I would like to go back now and make note of what Tex covered in relation to those.
Language Arts
Geography/History
Fine Arts
Mathematics
Life Sciences
Physical Sciences
Language Arts
- continuing to read fables and folktales to illustrate good character and principles
- label basic parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) and learn about abbreviations/contractions as well as antonyms/synonyms
Geography/History
- be able to identify continents, some large countries and major cities, a few oceans, rivers, or other bodies of water, and some major mountain ranges
- have some understanding of ancient world history and the discoveries of important civilizations (Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, China, Africa...)
- early American history - basically any and everything -- from the natives to the first explorers, colonists, Western pioneers, and up to the Revolutionary War -- in which they are interested
Fine Arts
- as much hands-on experience as possible -- take kids to see performances or put on some ourselves, listen to poetry read aloud, see and discuss artwork and architecture
- introduction to different instruments and how they are classified into groups
- anything about the parts of a song, how plays are written, mediums of visual arts, etc.
Mathematics
- practice, practice, practice, in fun and useful ways
- memorization of basic addition and subtraction tables, skip counting, evens/odds, Roman numeral introduction, adding and subtracting time on an analog clock, learn HOW to +/- 3-digit numbers, and begin memorizing multiplication tables
- always practicing geometry, money, measurements, fractions, and word problems
Life Sciences
- human body - cells into tissue into organs into systems
- life cycles of animals/plants and how they relate to the seasons
- lots of hands-on experience with animals, plants, and nature
- biographies of important zoologists, animal activists, doctors, etc.
Physical Sciences
- the products of chemistry such as plastics, hands-on simple chem experiments
- how meteorologists gather data, how weather systems form
- the history of astronomy and how stars can be used to find direction, and how/why the sky changes with the seasons
- the behavior of light and sound, other physics basics
- simple machines, introduction to basic engineering and technology
- more awareness of the Scientific Method in everyday play
- biographies of important scientists
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Spring fever!
I love winter, and this year's was a spectacular specimen. Thanks to El Nino we had multiple snows that stuck, when in the last four years we've had none that did so for more than a few hours, so the kids really got some wonderful snow playtime. Unfortunately the main thing we discovered is that if you're going to go play in the snow, it really does pay to have all that "snow gear" that we never see in stores down here in Alabama. After a few good days of playing in the snow, freezing feet (no snow boots) and wet legs (no ski pants) were enough to get my kids over this snow business and ready for Spring. (Secretly, it's left me with a desire to plan a skiing trip in the next few years, complete with enough gear to keep us warm for hours of playing, but I'll tuck that away for now and get on with the point)
We have SO enjoyed the nice weather we've had the last couple of weeks. We've been out playing at parks, playgrounds, our own backyard, the Botanical Gardens with their new "tree house" exhibit, anywhere we can think of. The tree houses in particular have been a great source of learning, from their structure to the features of each, and even the physical skills needed to make use of them. One house even led to a discussion of pioneer living. We're also talking about the life cycles of different plants, why some we have to plant anew each year while others (like our beloved tulips!) come back on their own. And thank goodness, I remembered the butterfly hatching house I snagged on clearance at Target last fall and will soon have Painted Lady caterpillars for the kids to study and raise, AND I remembered the butterfly life cycle poster I bought online on clearance (do you hear an echo?) which I can display while the butterflies are shacking up at our place to help the kids keep up with the process. We also have a friend whose family is trying to hatch praying mantises (manti?), so with any luck our garden will be bursting with beneficial insects this summer!
Further academic news? Today while waiting for me to be free to read to him, Tex decided to just give it a whirl himself. I found this great Star Wars Clone Wars graphic novel at the library the other day when Monkeygirl and I dropped by while the boys were in P.E. at the Y, and it's really the perfect thing for Tex. Lots of picture cues, the words aren't too hard (he stumbled over "circuit" today, but who wouldn't? That word is crazy!), and lots of frames with stuff like guns going "zzzack!" and beasts saying "grrrr" and R2D2 saying "bwooooop". He can have read enough words to increase his confidence, but also get enough of the storyline from the pictures to enjoy it even when he can't read the words perfectly. I always thought comic books would be a good fit for him, I just hadn't found the right ones yet. We'll see where this leads. I can tell Tex's reading confidence is growing, which to my mind is the final hurdle to him being a mostly independent reader. Oh please, please, tell me that light at the end of the tunnel is NOT a train about to spoil my party! LOL
Also, good results with the book I mentioned in my last post. Every issue isn't solved yet, but there is MUCH less violence and much MORE willingness to talk to find solutions that are acceptable to all. It is hard as a parent to make that switch in my brain to acknowledging that having a five-minute discussion at an inconvenient time is still a better choice than having a full-fledged meltdown at a normal time, but more than anything it cements in my mind that Tex is a child who can not be parented in the "old school" fashion. This is a child who sees how Daddy-O and I treat each other, with good humor and flexibility, and his rigid mind sees no reason whatsoever than the rules should be different for his interactions with us. On one hand it's nice to know that this sort of experience will benefit him no end as he grows and forms relationships with many different people in different roles, so that he'll expect and give respect in equal measure, but it does make it necessary for us to give up that image of our family working like a well-oiled machine with Daddy-O and I at the head and our three wee ones following lovingly and dutifully behind as they trust us to know best. On second thought, though, that sounds kind of creepy... I think I like our way better. ;-)
We have SO enjoyed the nice weather we've had the last couple of weeks. We've been out playing at parks, playgrounds, our own backyard, the Botanical Gardens with their new "tree house" exhibit, anywhere we can think of. The tree houses in particular have been a great source of learning, from their structure to the features of each, and even the physical skills needed to make use of them. One house even led to a discussion of pioneer living. We're also talking about the life cycles of different plants, why some we have to plant anew each year while others (like our beloved tulips!) come back on their own. And thank goodness, I remembered the butterfly hatching house I snagged on clearance at Target last fall and will soon have Painted Lady caterpillars for the kids to study and raise, AND I remembered the butterfly life cycle poster I bought online on clearance (do you hear an echo?) which I can display while the butterflies are shacking up at our place to help the kids keep up with the process. We also have a friend whose family is trying to hatch praying mantises (manti?), so with any luck our garden will be bursting with beneficial insects this summer!
Further academic news? Today while waiting for me to be free to read to him, Tex decided to just give it a whirl himself. I found this great Star Wars Clone Wars graphic novel at the library the other day when Monkeygirl and I dropped by while the boys were in P.E. at the Y, and it's really the perfect thing for Tex. Lots of picture cues, the words aren't too hard (he stumbled over "circuit" today, but who wouldn't? That word is crazy!), and lots of frames with stuff like guns going "zzzack!" and beasts saying "grrrr" and R2D2 saying "bwooooop". He can have read enough words to increase his confidence, but also get enough of the storyline from the pictures to enjoy it even when he can't read the words perfectly. I always thought comic books would be a good fit for him, I just hadn't found the right ones yet. We'll see where this leads. I can tell Tex's reading confidence is growing, which to my mind is the final hurdle to him being a mostly independent reader. Oh please, please, tell me that light at the end of the tunnel is NOT a train about to spoil my party! LOL
Also, good results with the book I mentioned in my last post. Every issue isn't solved yet, but there is MUCH less violence and much MORE willingness to talk to find solutions that are acceptable to all. It is hard as a parent to make that switch in my brain to acknowledging that having a five-minute discussion at an inconvenient time is still a better choice than having a full-fledged meltdown at a normal time, but more than anything it cements in my mind that Tex is a child who can not be parented in the "old school" fashion. This is a child who sees how Daddy-O and I treat each other, with good humor and flexibility, and his rigid mind sees no reason whatsoever than the rules should be different for his interactions with us. On one hand it's nice to know that this sort of experience will benefit him no end as he grows and forms relationships with many different people in different roles, so that he'll expect and give respect in equal measure, but it does make it necessary for us to give up that image of our family working like a well-oiled machine with Daddy-O and I at the head and our three wee ones following lovingly and dutifully behind as they trust us to know best. On second thought, though, that sounds kind of creepy... I think I like our way better. ;-)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
How to Keep Your Child from Exploding
This entry is going to revolve around some struggles that Tex has had for most of his life, which are a large part of the reason why we chose homeschooling for him in the first place. Along with a diagnosis of mild Sensory Perception Disorder which makes certain activities and concepts more challenging for Tex, he also has a certain, shall we say, lack of social graces which can make interacting with others a little awkward and confusing. Tex is not at his ease when dealing with new social situations, he struggles with wanting to be funny and "cool" and it just not coming naturally to him, and he is often unsure of what people expect from him and how to convey his own very rigid expectations to others. We have a lot of fits and arguments at home due to these issues, and it is exhausting for the whole family. Not that Tex isn't a fabulous and wonderful child, he IS, he just also happens to be very emotionally challenging. I've gone back and forth lately over whether he actually needs to see some kind of therapist to help him with his anxiety and frustration, but eventually (with the help of the less-inclined-to-tinker Daddy-O) decided that what he needs is time and closer guidance. Which is all well and good considering that intra-and interpersonal relationships are kind of my bag (degree in Social Work), but still, it's different when it's my own child I'm trying to walk through these delicate situations, which usually involve (you guessed it) ME! And I challenge any therapist out there to be calm and constructive when their client is whacking them with a lightsaber.
After a particularly hurtful battle last week I went to the bookstore seeking comfort and assistance. I browsed the Parenting section thinking "they haven't written the book yet for the kind of hell I'm in, knowing I have the skills to help my child and having no idea how to put them into practice", when voila! I came across The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene. "Explosive, yes, that fits," I thought, flipping through the book. I saw enough that first night to warrant bringing the book home, and it is just exactly what I needed. I've long felt that having children should be much more like learning to live with a roommate than it should be like training a pet, so Greene's Collaborative Problem Solving routine is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for to help us find a mutually satisfying solution to the big issues we face in our home. No "I'm the parent and I pay the bills so we do it my way" because A) frankly, making that stick is more trouble than it's worth and B) it doesn't really teach my kids the kind of life lessons I'd want them to retain, anyway. I want my kids to believe that they CAN change their situation in life, in ways that are effective and considerate of others, and I realize that in order for them to have that belief they need to see it in motion and even practice it themselves. So I'm excited to have a new resource helping us help Tex as he navigates the social minefields coming his way.
I had a fun moment watching Tex play and show off his understanding of math concepts. The kids were playing restaurant and Tex asked me for my order, I gave it, and he was ringing up my total when I said "wait, wait, I have a coupon!" Without even batting an eye (because he knows his Mommy and her love of coupons) he said "okay, ma'am, your coupon is for 50% off, your total was 4 dollars, and 50% is half, so half of four is two. You owe me two dollars, ma'am." I mean, come ON!! I know it's basic, but the kid goes from percentages, to fractions, to division with perfect understanding of what those concepts are! And he's not even 8 years old!
Oh, one other thing we've been enjoying lately is that I'm reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief to the boys and Tex is now all interested in Greek mythology. He even told me the other day that he'd like to learn Greek so that he could read the myths, but was pretty stoked when I told him the libraries will have books of Greek/Roman mythology written just for kids his age, instead. He really enjoyed looking at the Greek section of a giant encyclopedia of mythology he found on our shelves, but it was more an index of characters and creatures than a collection of the stories. It will be nice to have my memory refreshed, since I keep confusing Ariadne with Arachne, and Perseus with Theseus, and can never remember which names are Greek and which are Roman! Plus I have a comic book of The Odyssey I'd love to whip out. ;-P
After a particularly hurtful battle last week I went to the bookstore seeking comfort and assistance. I browsed the Parenting section thinking "they haven't written the book yet for the kind of hell I'm in, knowing I have the skills to help my child and having no idea how to put them into practice", when voila! I came across The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene. "Explosive, yes, that fits," I thought, flipping through the book. I saw enough that first night to warrant bringing the book home, and it is just exactly what I needed. I've long felt that having children should be much more like learning to live with a roommate than it should be like training a pet, so Greene's Collaborative Problem Solving routine is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for to help us find a mutually satisfying solution to the big issues we face in our home. No "I'm the parent and I pay the bills so we do it my way" because A) frankly, making that stick is more trouble than it's worth and B) it doesn't really teach my kids the kind of life lessons I'd want them to retain, anyway. I want my kids to believe that they CAN change their situation in life, in ways that are effective and considerate of others, and I realize that in order for them to have that belief they need to see it in motion and even practice it themselves. So I'm excited to have a new resource helping us help Tex as he navigates the social minefields coming his way.
I had a fun moment watching Tex play and show off his understanding of math concepts. The kids were playing restaurant and Tex asked me for my order, I gave it, and he was ringing up my total when I said "wait, wait, I have a coupon!" Without even batting an eye (because he knows his Mommy and her love of coupons) he said "okay, ma'am, your coupon is for 50% off, your total was 4 dollars, and 50% is half, so half of four is two. You owe me two dollars, ma'am." I mean, come ON!! I know it's basic, but the kid goes from percentages, to fractions, to division with perfect understanding of what those concepts are! And he's not even 8 years old!
Oh, one other thing we've been enjoying lately is that I'm reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief to the boys and Tex is now all interested in Greek mythology. He even told me the other day that he'd like to learn Greek so that he could read the myths, but was pretty stoked when I told him the libraries will have books of Greek/Roman mythology written just for kids his age, instead. He really enjoyed looking at the Greek section of a giant encyclopedia of mythology he found on our shelves, but it was more an index of characters and creatures than a collection of the stories. It will be nice to have my memory refreshed, since I keep confusing Ariadne with Arachne, and Perseus with Theseus, and can never remember which names are Greek and which are Roman! Plus I have a comic book of The Odyssey I'd love to whip out. ;-P
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Design Central
Oh, Tex and his grandiose plans. He's had them since he was born, I think, and reality never does quite live up to his expectations, but he keeps plugging away. I've been fascinated to watch the evolution of several projects this week.
There was the allosaurus we made last year, with the crushed-aluminum foil skeleton and heavy, baked-on polymer clay. The foil would crush closer together every time we squeezed more clay on, leaving air pockets and saggy clay that eventually drooped off the form. Tex tried again using a foil skeleton and a lighter plastic clay, this time making a velociraptor, but the air-dry clay shrunk where it wasn't well-smoothed and revealed gaps. Finally, two days ago we constructed a skeleton out of wire coat hangers. I did the grunt work, of course, bending and snipping the wires according to Tex's specifications and holding the frame steady while he worked clay onto it and shaped it into a velociraptor. He gave the velociraptor teeth, a pattern to his skin, a bumpy ridge on his tail, a curved second toe-claw, and three feathery plumes on his head. Even the positioning had to be precise, with the tail acting as a cantilever to the beast's head so that his whole spine was almost parallel to the ground. This kid knows what he is doing! And I am happy to report that after two days' drying time Tex's velociraptor is standing upright on his own power as well as having a flawless complexion with no gaps! Can't wait to see how this guy is going to be painted in the next couple of days.
Tex also has an abiding interest in costuming. No surprise given his backstage-crew parents, but it has taken forms I never would have suspected before having children. In the last few years we have made together: a dilophosaurus costume, complete with painted long-johns, sculpted foam head, and Jurassic Park-style neck frill; an oviraptor costume, using a balaclava as the basis for the head and adding a feathered back ridge and tail to the dilophosaurus long johns; and an unfinished R2D2 that sits in the corner of my room awaiting inspiration. We have now begun the long process of designing and creating next Halloween's costume!!! I suppose I should be happy that we've moved off dinosaurs but finding out my next challenge is going to be a robot by the name of General Grievous, from Star Wars Episode III, sort of made me long for a functioning pterodactyl costume order. But we must press on...
So Tex spent much of last week or so Googling "General Grievous" images to find the form he'd prefer and angles that allowed us to get a good look at how things really go together. Then he and I took a trip to the home improvement store yesterday. We investigated plumbing fixtures, tubes, wires, pipes, dowels, tried things on, speculated on form vs. function, and finally walked out with the makings of two matching lightsabers: two 9" turned table legs for the handles, to be painted in a pattern of silver and black, and a 1 1/2" dowel to be cut in half, painted green, and used for the blades. The costume itself is going to take a lot more work and trial-and-error. There were some great plumbing parts that we think we can use as the basis for the feet, then use copper tubing wrapped in black duct tape to form the metal toes. The arms and legs will be the biggest challenge, while the face we're confident can be made from pieces of PVC pipe cut into semi-circles and glued together before painting. A cloak will most certainly be used to great effect. At this point I'm just happy Tex decided to settle for two-armed mode instead of four-armed, but even there I don't want to hold my breath! One thing is for sure, we will probably use all 9 of the months he's allotted us.
In the meantime we have a smaller costuming goal: wings. Tex wanted to dress up as some Transformer from Beast Wars today, and this guy apparently has eagle wings. The closest thing we have in this house is Monkeygirl's pink fairy wings. Definitely not beast-ish. So again we bust out the wire coat hangers, the wire cutters, the last of our stash of brown pleather, and a boatload of craft glue. Tex designed the wings himself, explained it to his poor, old Mother's tired brain over and over until I got it (he finally had to get out the string, cut it, and have us both pretend to be wings connected by the string in the way he wanted before I understood), and consoled me when I completely mucked it up by forgetting to make the wings in mirror images so that the right side of the fabric would face out. He even found the solution: making the wings smaller so that I could cut the correct mirror from one and then trim the other to match.
And lest you think that we're all makeup and show tunes around here, I have more reading progress to report. Tonight at bedtime (historically Tex's worst time for trying to read, and who can blame him after a long day?) I was reading aloud from Watch Out for Jabba the Hutt when out of the blue Tex took over and read a few sentences, without hesitation and with perfect comprehension: "Anakin and R2-D2 fly together in a spaceship," "Yoda is one of the most powerful Jedi. He is small but very strong and wise," and "He is big, bad, and cruel, but his son, Rotta, loves him!" Whew, it's just nice for me as a mom to know that all those crazy letters on the page are starting to make easy sense to him now, and that he's gaining in confidence every time he reads successfully.
There was the allosaurus we made last year, with the crushed-aluminum foil skeleton and heavy, baked-on polymer clay. The foil would crush closer together every time we squeezed more clay on, leaving air pockets and saggy clay that eventually drooped off the form. Tex tried again using a foil skeleton and a lighter plastic clay, this time making a velociraptor, but the air-dry clay shrunk where it wasn't well-smoothed and revealed gaps. Finally, two days ago we constructed a skeleton out of wire coat hangers. I did the grunt work, of course, bending and snipping the wires according to Tex's specifications and holding the frame steady while he worked clay onto it and shaped it into a velociraptor. He gave the velociraptor teeth, a pattern to his skin, a bumpy ridge on his tail, a curved second toe-claw, and three feathery plumes on his head. Even the positioning had to be precise, with the tail acting as a cantilever to the beast's head so that his whole spine was almost parallel to the ground. This kid knows what he is doing! And I am happy to report that after two days' drying time Tex's velociraptor is standing upright on his own power as well as having a flawless complexion with no gaps! Can't wait to see how this guy is going to be painted in the next couple of days.
Tex also has an abiding interest in costuming. No surprise given his backstage-crew parents, but it has taken forms I never would have suspected before having children. In the last few years we have made together: a dilophosaurus costume, complete with painted long-johns, sculpted foam head, and Jurassic Park-style neck frill; an oviraptor costume, using a balaclava as the basis for the head and adding a feathered back ridge and tail to the dilophosaurus long johns; and an unfinished R2D2 that sits in the corner of my room awaiting inspiration. We have now begun the long process of designing and creating next Halloween's costume!!! I suppose I should be happy that we've moved off dinosaurs but finding out my next challenge is going to be a robot by the name of General Grievous, from Star Wars Episode III, sort of made me long for a functioning pterodactyl costume order. But we must press on...
So Tex spent much of last week or so Googling "General Grievous" images to find the form he'd prefer and angles that allowed us to get a good look at how things really go together. Then he and I took a trip to the home improvement store yesterday. We investigated plumbing fixtures, tubes, wires, pipes, dowels, tried things on, speculated on form vs. function, and finally walked out with the makings of two matching lightsabers: two 9" turned table legs for the handles, to be painted in a pattern of silver and black, and a 1 1/2" dowel to be cut in half, painted green, and used for the blades. The costume itself is going to take a lot more work and trial-and-error. There were some great plumbing parts that we think we can use as the basis for the feet, then use copper tubing wrapped in black duct tape to form the metal toes. The arms and legs will be the biggest challenge, while the face we're confident can be made from pieces of PVC pipe cut into semi-circles and glued together before painting. A cloak will most certainly be used to great effect. At this point I'm just happy Tex decided to settle for two-armed mode instead of four-armed, but even there I don't want to hold my breath! One thing is for sure, we will probably use all 9 of the months he's allotted us.
In the meantime we have a smaller costuming goal: wings. Tex wanted to dress up as some Transformer from Beast Wars today, and this guy apparently has eagle wings. The closest thing we have in this house is Monkeygirl's pink fairy wings. Definitely not beast-ish. So again we bust out the wire coat hangers, the wire cutters, the last of our stash of brown pleather, and a boatload of craft glue. Tex designed the wings himself, explained it to his poor, old Mother's tired brain over and over until I got it (he finally had to get out the string, cut it, and have us both pretend to be wings connected by the string in the way he wanted before I understood), and consoled me when I completely mucked it up by forgetting to make the wings in mirror images so that the right side of the fabric would face out. He even found the solution: making the wings smaller so that I could cut the correct mirror from one and then trim the other to match.
And lest you think that we're all makeup and show tunes around here, I have more reading progress to report. Tonight at bedtime (historically Tex's worst time for trying to read, and who can blame him after a long day?) I was reading aloud from Watch Out for Jabba the Hutt when out of the blue Tex took over and read a few sentences, without hesitation and with perfect comprehension: "Anakin and R2-D2 fly together in a spaceship," "Yoda is one of the most powerful Jedi. He is small but very strong and wise," and "He is big, bad, and cruel, but his son, Rotta, loves him!" Whew, it's just nice for me as a mom to know that all those crazy letters on the page are starting to make easy sense to him now, and that he's gaining in confidence every time he reads successfully.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
The Scientific Method
So it came up this week that Tex has the Scientific Method as a part of his Scouting requirements, and although they get a healthy dose of it from The Mythbusters I'm always happy to take opportunities to use it in real life. So. Noodle is a nut for "experiments". This mostly just means mixing stuff together, and it doesn't even have to be sciencey (yes, it's a word, so hush) stuff, it can just be bubble bath and water. But on this particular day he wanted to repeat the experiment of the day before by mixing baking soda with various liquids to see which ones could make it bubble the most. He though chocolate and strawberry syrups mixed together had a good chance at the title. So we chose five liquids: the syrup mixture, fresh lemon juice, pasteurized OJ, honey, and filtered water. Noodle helped set up five separate samples of baking soda, and Tex joined in at this point to help me use litmus papers to test each liquid. The fresh lemon juice got the biggest reaction, turning the litmus paper a dark red almost immediately. Next on the list was the OJ, while the syrups, honey, and water all appeared to be rather neutral. We devised a system to rate the reactions, listing a "1" as no reaction, a "2" as a mild bubbling, and a "3" as a very fizzy reaction. After adding water to one sample of baking soda and recording a "1" reaction, we dipped litmus paper in the solution and it immediately turned a deep bluish-green.
Then the real fun started! The honey and syrups had to be thinned with water after our initial attempts resulted in little baking soda-covered balls of viscous liquid, but still rated as "1" reactions. The pasteurized OJ was rated a "2" for its light fizzing. The lemon juice was the clear winner with a big, bubbling foam that threatened to overtake its container! Then Tex and I wondered if fresh orange juice would have a different reactions than store-bought, so I grabbed what I thought was an orange and sliced it open only to find that it was really a grapefruit. Oops. Well, no matter, the Mythbusters make mistakes all the time, so we decided to include fresh grapefruit juice in our sample, too. We then squeezed some fresh OJ and tested both with litmus paper. The color of the litmus paper dipped in grapefruit juice was quite as dramatic as the lemon. The orange juice was less so, but more acidic than the pasteurized variety. Tex and I compared the blue base paper with the red lemon paper and noted that the biggest reactions came when combining the substances that had the most dramatic color changes, and from that he predicted that the grapefruit juice was going to have the biggest reaction of the two new liquids, but that the fresh OJ would have more of a reaction than the store-bought. And boy was he right! Noodle couldn't get over the fizz of the grapefruit juice and had a blast mixing it with baking soda, then mixing the lemon and grapefruit juices and adding them together. Two happy guys. :-)
Then the real fun started! The honey and syrups had to be thinned with water after our initial attempts resulted in little baking soda-covered balls of viscous liquid, but still rated as "1" reactions. The pasteurized OJ was rated a "2" for its light fizzing. The lemon juice was the clear winner with a big, bubbling foam that threatened to overtake its container! Then Tex and I wondered if fresh orange juice would have a different reactions than store-bought, so I grabbed what I thought was an orange and sliced it open only to find that it was really a grapefruit. Oops. Well, no matter, the Mythbusters make mistakes all the time, so we decided to include fresh grapefruit juice in our sample, too. We then squeezed some fresh OJ and tested both with litmus paper. The color of the litmus paper dipped in grapefruit juice was quite as dramatic as the lemon. The orange juice was less so, but more acidic than the pasteurized variety. Tex and I compared the blue base paper with the red lemon paper and noted that the biggest reactions came when combining the substances that had the most dramatic color changes, and from that he predicted that the grapefruit juice was going to have the biggest reaction of the two new liquids, but that the fresh OJ would have more of a reaction than the store-bought. And boy was he right! Noodle couldn't get over the fizz of the grapefruit juice and had a blast mixing it with baking soda, then mixing the lemon and grapefruit juices and adding them together. Two happy guys. :-)
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Just keep learning, learning, learning
I love this life. There is nothing better than being able to have my children around me and watch them learning. Sure, there are days when I would happily duct tape them all to the couch just to get a half-hour of uninterrupted Quiet Time, but I can wait a couple years until they're more capable of giving me that gift. ;-)
Only problem is: if I don't blog more often, I totally forget all the stuff I was going to mention! We've done SO much the last few weeks since getting back into our homeschool schedule after the holidays, and I'm going to try to remember as much as I can.
We got a microscope for Christmas, and it has already yielded hours of entertainment and learning. It is a compound microscope, so it can view both slides and 3-D objects with its different light sources. We've examined the difference in crystals between table salt, kosher salt, and sugar. We've looked at dead bugs up close. Today Tex and I made our own slide with mold from an old croissant (it's not bad housekeeping, it's science!), and another with water from the toilet (nothing in the water moved, which I found wonderfully reassuring), and plan to get some pond water next time we're out and about, and examine it for beasties.
Noodle was busy experimenting with some acids and bases to see what happens. Tex bought some Pucker Powder at the science museum last week and I noticed that a main ingredient was citric acid, aka the stuff that Noodle likes to mix with baking soda and water and watch it bubble. Noodle begged and pleaded and got Tex to part with one teaspoon of his Pucker Powder to see what sort of reaction it would yield. Unfortunately it didn't do much other than make colored water, but it was worth a shot! We then moved on to squeezing lemon wedges onto the baking soda, and that got a much more exciting reaction! So much fizzing! Noodle was very happy until he discovered that lemon juice and cuts on one's finger do not mix well. Sometimes science hurts. :-(
What else? Well, a couple weeks ago we had an Alabama snowstorm, which means we had actual snow that stuck on the ground and could be made into snowballs and tiny snowmen. Of course the kids had a blast, and we got out our magnifying glass to observe the crystal formation in the snowflakes. We were also completely tickled to discover that one of our nearby ponds was completely frozen over, a phenomenon I've never seen in this town. We went to explore and see how thick the ice was. I thought it couldn't be more than an inch, but after banging and digging with sticks and rocks for a good while we had to stop because we couldn't get farther than about 3 inches deep. Knowing it was that thick, I decided we could risk a little "skate" around the rim where I could actually see the dirt and grass underneath the ice. We talked about ice safety and listened to the faint creaks from the ice as we walked around the edge. The boys would have stayed all day but MonkeyGirl thought landing on her bottom on the cold, hard ice lost its luster after about a dozen times.
We've also been making a concerted effort to be sure the kids get their "P.E." every day. Of course some days that's as easy as going to a park and letting them run and climb until they're sweaty and worn out, but Tex also attends a homeschool P.E. class at the YMCA every week and attends Little Gym's homeschool class once a week as well. He's really improved his body strength and can now do a pullover on the bar and a straddle roll, and in P.E. he's started making home runs in kickball and doing better on the Presidential Fitness events. We have also begun, as a family, to use our new Wii Fit Plus that we got for Christmas every morning. Tex especially loves it and gets some good aerobic exercise doing the hula hoop, short jogs, and obstacle courses. It's a nice way to get him moving first thing in the morning.
And finally, our reading progress. I mentioned that Tex had finally had his lightbulb and realized that he could read, but I think he's been a little disappointed that every word isn't easy to read. So I mention to him that he's going to have to practice to get better at it, which is usually met with a rant about how "I don't like reading, I'm never going to read, you're going to have to read to me forever!" LOL But the other night when he lamented that he couldn't read Star Wars on his own and had to wait on pokey ol' Mommy, I mentioned it again, "honey, the more you practice reading, the more confident you'll be, and the more you'll be able to read, and before you know it you'll be flying through whatever books you want to." He seemed to think about it for a moment and then said, "ok". And since then he's been doing more spontaneous reading on his own and not taking it so badly when he's not immediately correct. We even, Tex, Noodle, and I, played gummi words for about 45 minutes yesterday and they both did amazing. I bought these cards designed to help you recognize "word families", so they have things like "___ight", or "___ump" on them. So then we just took our gummi letters and made "bright", "light", and "plump rump" (Tex's favorite). Even Noodle was doing great with the families like "_at" and "_ig". I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were both reading independently over the summer!
Only problem is: if I don't blog more often, I totally forget all the stuff I was going to mention! We've done SO much the last few weeks since getting back into our homeschool schedule after the holidays, and I'm going to try to remember as much as I can.
We got a microscope for Christmas, and it has already yielded hours of entertainment and learning. It is a compound microscope, so it can view both slides and 3-D objects with its different light sources. We've examined the difference in crystals between table salt, kosher salt, and sugar. We've looked at dead bugs up close. Today Tex and I made our own slide with mold from an old croissant (it's not bad housekeeping, it's science!), and another with water from the toilet (nothing in the water moved, which I found wonderfully reassuring), and plan to get some pond water next time we're out and about, and examine it for beasties.
Noodle was busy experimenting with some acids and bases to see what happens. Tex bought some Pucker Powder at the science museum last week and I noticed that a main ingredient was citric acid, aka the stuff that Noodle likes to mix with baking soda and water and watch it bubble. Noodle begged and pleaded and got Tex to part with one teaspoon of his Pucker Powder to see what sort of reaction it would yield. Unfortunately it didn't do much other than make colored water, but it was worth a shot! We then moved on to squeezing lemon wedges onto the baking soda, and that got a much more exciting reaction! So much fizzing! Noodle was very happy until he discovered that lemon juice and cuts on one's finger do not mix well. Sometimes science hurts. :-(
What else? Well, a couple weeks ago we had an Alabama snowstorm, which means we had actual snow that stuck on the ground and could be made into snowballs and tiny snowmen. Of course the kids had a blast, and we got out our magnifying glass to observe the crystal formation in the snowflakes. We were also completely tickled to discover that one of our nearby ponds was completely frozen over, a phenomenon I've never seen in this town. We went to explore and see how thick the ice was. I thought it couldn't be more than an inch, but after banging and digging with sticks and rocks for a good while we had to stop because we couldn't get farther than about 3 inches deep. Knowing it was that thick, I decided we could risk a little "skate" around the rim where I could actually see the dirt and grass underneath the ice. We talked about ice safety and listened to the faint creaks from the ice as we walked around the edge. The boys would have stayed all day but MonkeyGirl thought landing on her bottom on the cold, hard ice lost its luster after about a dozen times.
We've also been making a concerted effort to be sure the kids get their "P.E." every day. Of course some days that's as easy as going to a park and letting them run and climb until they're sweaty and worn out, but Tex also attends a homeschool P.E. class at the YMCA every week and attends Little Gym's homeschool class once a week as well. He's really improved his body strength and can now do a pullover on the bar and a straddle roll, and in P.E. he's started making home runs in kickball and doing better on the Presidential Fitness events. We have also begun, as a family, to use our new Wii Fit Plus that we got for Christmas every morning. Tex especially loves it and gets some good aerobic exercise doing the hula hoop, short jogs, and obstacle courses. It's a nice way to get him moving first thing in the morning.
And finally, our reading progress. I mentioned that Tex had finally had his lightbulb and realized that he could read, but I think he's been a little disappointed that every word isn't easy to read. So I mention to him that he's going to have to practice to get better at it, which is usually met with a rant about how "I don't like reading, I'm never going to read, you're going to have to read to me forever!" LOL But the other night when he lamented that he couldn't read Star Wars on his own and had to wait on pokey ol' Mommy, I mentioned it again, "honey, the more you practice reading, the more confident you'll be, and the more you'll be able to read, and before you know it you'll be flying through whatever books you want to." He seemed to think about it for a moment and then said, "ok". And since then he's been doing more spontaneous reading on his own and not taking it so badly when he's not immediately correct. We even, Tex, Noodle, and I, played gummi words for about 45 minutes yesterday and they both did amazing. I bought these cards designed to help you recognize "word families", so they have things like "___ight", or "___ump" on them. So then we just took our gummi letters and made "bright", "light", and "plump rump" (Tex's favorite). Even Noodle was doing great with the families like "_at" and "_ig". I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were both reading independently over the summer!
Better late than never
Here's an entry from Daddy-O about a pre-Christmas trip to Atlanta:
Brownie and I decided to break up the trip to Atlanta (technically, Gwinnett County/Lawrenceville/Duluth) by stopping at the Tellus NW Georgia Science Museum. For being next to the middle of nowhere, that place ROCKED! There was a gorgeous collection of prehistoric creature skeletons (including a T-Rex, Edmontosaurus, and mosasaur), huge minerals/crystals, many planes, trains, and automobiles...and the little kid section was pretty big. Thanks to our having a membership to the science museum here in town (which is very mediocre and basically a scienced-based, educational, indoor playground), we got in to the museum for free. It was an absolute hit for the whole family and will likely become a regular stop whenever we travel to ATL.
Brownie and I decided to break up the trip to Atlanta (technically, Gwinnett County/Lawrenceville/Duluth) by stopping at the Tellus NW Georgia Science Museum. For being next to the middle of nowhere, that place ROCKED! There was a gorgeous collection of prehistoric creature skeletons (including a T-Rex, Edmontosaurus, and mosasaur), huge minerals/crystals, many planes, trains, and automobiles...and the little kid section was pretty big. Thanks to our having a membership to the science museum here in town (which is very mediocre and basically a scienced-based, educational, indoor playground), we got in to the museum for free. It was an absolute hit for the whole family and will likely become a regular stop whenever we travel to ATL.
Brownie here: Tex and I spent some quality time with the skeletons of prehistoric creatures. I asked him to explain to me the difference between bird-hipped and lizard-hipped dinosaurs and we went around the room classifying each. We found that the pterosaur had a completely different-looking pelvis than any of the other skeletons. And we learned that dunkleosteus is pretty intimidating even when he's a fossil. After that the kids had a blast excavating dinosaur skeletons and especially enjoyed the water feature where you get to "pan for gems". Tellus has little bits of lapis, tiger eye, quartz, jade, malachite, jasper, and other shiny bits buried in sand, covered by running water, and you have to scoop some up and find the gems buried inside. We left with a small bagful that they are planning to use to decorate a small trinket box or something similar.
Friday's big adventure was to drive to I-285, hop onto the MARTA rail, take it to Midtown, visit the Federal Reserve Bank, and back. In case you didn't know, it was raining like crazy on Friday. Thankfully, the MARTA station was only half a block from the Federal Reserve so it wasn't far; but even after hanging out at the visitor's center for about an hour, our clothes were still quite damp. Then we had the pleasure of running back through that rain to the station. But since the Fed was free, two of the three kids rode the rail for free, and parking was free, it was a fun, educational activity to fill the day with the boys. While the Federal Reserve was our "destination," Noodle's primary interest was in riding his first subway car. He was been very interested in the driving capabilities in the Sim City 4: Rush Hour set. He loves to build a city of infrastructure and then drive/pilot cars, trains, planes, and boats on the screen. The anticipation of finally riding in a subway train had Noodle absolutely giddy.
Friday and much of Saturday was spent at the relatives' home. Well, more specifically, in their basement. They had the Wii set up there and it was the boys' first exposure to RockBand/Beatles RockBand. After all the playing, Tex has been singing numerous lines from the songs. Although he had mild interest in "Ticket to Ride" and "Drive My Car" a couple of years ago, the only songs he actually sings to himself are ones from Depeche Mode and Duran Duran along with "Smoke on the Water." Now he's going around singing verses of "Eight Days a Week" and "Yellow Submarine," and thankfully only a few lines of "I Am the Walrus."
Me again: the kids, especially Tex, have really been enjoying singing lately. Tex is getting more confident with singing aloud in the car and even when he's listening to music in his headphones. He does pretty well! I'm toying with asking him whether he'd be interested in singing with the children's choir at church.
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