Summer Activities

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

Wow, I have to say, there is a LOT of kid-centric things to do in Kansas City. And I get the sneaking suspicion that I know about 1/4 of them at most.

I turned around twice and realized our summer is rocking full of cool activites. Because, after all, summer is all about kids. Which is super-cool for Emily. I don’t mind taking her to the activities, but I think we will be very busy people this summer. Here is what we have on tap so far…

Girl Scout Day Camp

In the middle of June, starting on a Wednesday evening and running all day on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – Emily should have an amazingly fun time at the Girl Scout day camp. I’m not sure if any of her troop mates will be joining her – they didn’t go on an overnight a couple of months ago – but hey, whatever, she will have fun and make plenty of older friends. Maybe next year her troop mates will catch on to her excitement and join in!

Even if your daughter isn’t a registered Girl Scout yet, you can still pay the extra $12 and join in. The day camp itself is only $25. An amazing price for plenty of fun in the sun!

Coterie Theatre Acting Class

How to Talk Like a Pirate in Five Days will have Emily buckling on her sword and slipping on the eye-patch from her old Halloween costume. The Coterie has classes at a variety of locations and it promises to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see what they do!

College for Kids @ Longview College

For the first time, Emily gets to participate in College for Kids out at Longview. I’ve been looking over their catalog with longing for nearly five years now! We found two fun classes, Fun Under the Big Top and Pinkalicious, that fit in our already busy schedule.

Pinkalicious will cut into some of the Girl Scout Day Camp – and I gave Emily three choices – 1) skip scout camp, 2) skip Pinkalicious, or 3) Go to Pinkalicious and be late on two days for scout camp. “I choose #3!” she said with a big jump. Alrighty then, Option #3 it is!

Learn more by clicking here.

Programs at Mid-Continent

Group of children listens to a presentation.

As always, the Mid-Continent Public Library has some AMAZING programs during the summer in addition to their summer reading program. Check it all out by going to this link. Keep in mind that many of these programs have a max and require pre-registration, so pull out your calendar and start signing up for what works for your schedule!

Programs at the Kansas City Museum

The Kansas City Museum is doing a drop-ins program this summer. No registration is necessary. There are also some kid-oriented programs on Saturdays. Go check it out by clicking here.

Swimming Lessons and Homeschool P.E. at High Blue

Yep, it is high time for some swimming lessons. This gets me off the hook for most of the swimming requests this summer and increases her comfort and independence in the water, two big pluses. The price is right – just $49 (early bird rate) for a month of twice per week lessons. For those who want more of an intensive course, there are 4-day per week swimming lessons in two-week long sessions.

I was pleased to hear that they are extending Homeschool P.E. through the summer for the first time. Considering I had just gotten it together in March, got too busy to enroll her in April and we are now in May – this is a great opportunity. Especially when it is only $18 (early bird rate) for the month.

Crown Center Puppet Shows and More

Crown Center wants your business…and they are using the lure of free puppet shows and much, much more to get it. While you are there, why not stop at the fountains and let the kids get cooled off. It’s almost as easy as sipping mai tai’s by the poolside…almost.

Passport to Adventure

Learning and fun – history and nature – are all incorporated together through the Passport to Adventure program. You can find the Passport at any of the locations in the pamphlet. There are a total of 26 location – everything from nature centers (Burr Oak Woods, Powell Gardens, Lakeside Nature Center) to history museums (Battle of Westport Museum, Wornall House). Go to a location in the book, answer the question and have the passport stamped. Visit 16 sites and turn in the Passport by 10/31 and receive a prize package.

How cool is that?

Powell Gardens Fairy Houses & Forts


From May 19th through October 7th there is a fairy houses & forts exhibition. I hope to visit and get some fantastic ideas on making a fairy house of our own (or two…or three). And what about a fort?! Learn more about it here.

It isn’t too late to sign up for most of these classes and events. So get to it! Fun and adventure are waiting this summer!

Note: I won’t be posting again until next Monday. Tomorrow is my birthday, Happy Birthday to ME! and Saturday is a city-wide garage sale, and we are manning a lemonade stand and then throwing a garden party in the afternoon. Hang tight, people and I’ll see you on Monday!

Posted in Community, Fun Stuff, Resources | Leave a comment

Free Books, Fun Stops – Promote Learning & Reading in Your Kiddos This Summer!

Posted on May 14, 2012 by

Last year we earned at least two or three free books. I love the summer reading program through our local library and so many others – here are a few links to get you started…

Mid-Continent Public Library Summer Reading Program

Learn all about the free books (up to THREE!) and other prizes you can win by clicking here. We have participated for the past two years in Mid-Continent’s summer reading program and others held throughout the year. The librarians go all out at the Grandview branch – last year we had a yellow submarine and Emily was jazzed about visiting the library (not that she isn’t normally…she LOVES the library and considers Miss Kelly (the storytime leader) one of her best friends. “I LOVE Miss Kelly!” How many umpteen times have I heard her say that? Too many times to count.

In any case, check it out here.

Nature Nuts Reading Program

Go into the Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center and sign up for any number of fun activities scheduled for this summer and be sure to pick up the Nature Nuts Reading Program flyer in order to receive a free nature explorer gift after you have read four books from the attached book list.

Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program

Click here to view the details on the program – read eight books and turn in the log for a free book AND a chance to receive a FREE color NOOK. I wouldn’t say “no” to a free NOOK!

Kansas City Public Library Reading Program

For those sports-minded individuals…registration for the kids 12 and under program starts on June 1st and just 12 hours of reading gets you a free book and Royals tickets (while supplies last!) Read all about their program here.

Whew! And If That Wasn’t Enough…

Here are several more that KC Metro Moms collected. Go get ‘em Tiger Moms!

Posted in Community, Homeschool - Language Arts, Resources | Leave a comment

The Lessons We Learn

Posted on May 11, 2012 by
 
“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” – C.S. Lewis
 

Don’t hit.

Chew with your mouth closed.

Be polite.

Share with others.

These are mantras we say to our children, ones we heard from the cradle. They are the beginnings of civilized behavior for those ever-increasing moments when we interact with others and define ourselves by our behavior in the outside world.

“Remember to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and to be a good girl.” How often have I heard that one? How often have I said it?

But the other day, and then again just last week, I was hit by a sobering memory.

We were at the Nature Center off of Troost on a hot Saturday and Emily had begged me to take her around the entire pond. We did, and on the way back she was sweaty and hot and said, “Wow, I’m so hot! It’s so goddamn hot out here!”

I blinked and turned around, unsure I had heard her right, “What did you say?”

Emily stared at the ground and kept walking. I asked again, “Sweetie, what did you say?”

She glanced up at me nervously, looked back down at the ground and mumbled, “ISaidItWasGoddamnHot.”

My heart gave a painful thump. “Oh Baby, please don’t say that word okay?”

She nodded but then asked, “Okay…but…why?”

“Because Baby…because if you swear, and other mommies or daddies find out, they won’t let you play with their kids anymore. They will think you are a bad person, that you have bad parents. And you’ll be lonely and have no one to play with. I know…because it happened to me.”

Just remembering it, brings back a rush of dark, sad, lonely memories. Neighborhoods filled with children I wasn’t allowed to play with. The fact is, I became an introvert for years upon years…because I was left without any choice. I learned the words from my mom…and some from my dad (although he tended to swear in German) and I became a huge potty-mouth. I didn’t realize how huge of a problem it was until I had no one to play with. And once that had happened, there was no going back, no second chances at all.

Oh sure, there was one family on Pine Street in Flagstaff that said they would give me a second chance. But their daughter had a best friend, and really didn’t see the point in having another friend hanging on. So she managed to convince herself and her friend one day that when I was singing quietly to myself I was actually swearing under my breath. As she left with her friend, saying that she couldn’t play with me if I swore (which I hadn’t) I shouted after them in anger and frustration…the great potty-mouth rearing its head just in time for my mom to hear. She called me inside, put dish soap in my mouth, and made me hold it there for five minutes (although it seemed far longer than that). It burned my taste buds so bad I couldn’t taste anything for over a week. She might have taught me most of those words…but it sure wasn’t okay to repeat them within range of her hearing.

The point is, I spent countless years alone, without anyone to play with, because I was that kind of child and quite obviously unsuitable for playing with other children.

 
“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” – C.S. Lewis
 

I’m still a huge potty-mouth. In mixed company I do pretty good at hiding it. I’ve actually had men apologize to me for using “damn” in a sentence. (Oh honey, if you only knew I could make a sailor blush with some of the stuff I say!) But in my family, surrounded by those who love and accept me, those who are stuck with me as their mom/daughter/wife and know me for the good person that I am, I have the worst potty-mouth ever. If you have ever heard me really let loose than you know are part of my inner circle of love and trust.

Weird but true.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve told myself to cut it out, to stop, because I’ve got impressionable minds and ears around and should NOT be saying crap and modeling such bad behavior. Never mind the fact that a majority of us swear in traffic, question the legal status of a person’s parents at the time of their birth or suggest they were fathered by a female dog – in English, German or French (and yes, I’ve learned to swear in three languages which disproves my claim that I’m “not good at foreign languages”). At this point, my five-year-old has heard it all.

I’ve explained it to her like this…

“There are things that we do in the comfort and privacy of our home that we do not, and can not do, in public. We can’t go out in our underwear or run around without a shirt outside. We shouldn’t pick our noses or eat our boogers in public either…or at Grandori’s house, remember how it grosses her out? (yes there was that kind of incident) And when we are in restaurants we are polite and eat with forks and spoons and knives and don’t climb under the table, talk or yell loud, or climb over the benches, remember?”

Emily nods and I continue.

“Using swear words, especially when it is a child saying them, is considered very bad behavior in public. There are just certain things that we do, or do not do, around others. It is part of what is considered polite civilized behavior.”

She nods again and I hope, for now, she understands and listens. I think of our neighbor’s children and a lesson that is still being learned (and enforced) over two years later.

The kids’ mom (Mom #1) thinks that the other neighbor mom (Mom #2) is “selfish” for not allowing her children to play with Mom #1′s kids. Without going into a great amount of detail, and considering that Emily plays with both sets of kids and enjoys and benefits from the relationships (I’m Switzerland, dammit!) I do believe and supports Mom #2′s decision. She didn’t come to it lightly, and the child in question (eldest of Mom #1) who lost the most in the deal (no one to play with on the block) has also learned a great deal – it has altered his behavior enormously and I truly believe he is a better person for it.

I too, in retrospect, understand what the parents of those children who were banned from playing with me were trying to accomplish. They wanted their children to NOT use that language, to be polite and well-mannered and use clean words. Perhaps some of them even grew up to NOT be potty-mouths. Perhaps even one or two of them remember me, and when their children curse out loud say, “No, no, no Bobby, don’t say that word. I knew this little girl once, she was nice enough, but she said bad words and my mommy and daddy and everyone else’s mommy and daddy wouldn’t let us play with her anymore.”

Hopefully they won’t follow that up with, “I wonder what happened to that girl. I wonder if she is a felon right now?”

That would kind of suck.

Just saying.

I paid for my mistakes…and for the mistakes of those who taught me those awful potty-mouth words in the first place…over and over and over. Perhaps some of you wonder why in the world I didn’t take it to heart and simply stop cursing altogether. To that I simply say, “I’m hard-headed…bullish if you will. I am who I am and some things are simply not high on my ‘to be changed or improved’ list.” And again, somewhere along the line it became a litmus test of sorts, If you love me, and accept me, then you won’t condemn me or my raging potty mouth.

Weird but true.

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”- C.S. Lewis

I walk a fine line here. I recognize my own shortcomings, those glaring idiosyncrasies, and hope desperately I am not completely screwing the pooch and ruining my young child’s life. I hope that I am giving her a clear view of the real world, yet modeling the other behavior that I find so important – to be a good person, to give of herself, to be kind, to be empathetic, to think for herself…and so much more.

I hope that she will learn that the world is not black and white – that a child that swears is not a BAD person. That a bully can be redeemed, that a whiner can stop whining and take control of their life, that even a ‘loser’ wins sometimes, and so much more. I hope that in most cases, it will not be personal experience that she learns from, but the examples of others.

“Please don’t say that word, baby, I don’t want what happened to me to happen to you. Because you are a good person, probably a far better person than I ever was, and you deserve to have lots and lots of friends and fun. Swearing is for big people, and you aren’t quite there yet.”

That might not be the politically correct, socially acceptable discussion to have with my child. But you know what? It’s the one I’m having.

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”- C.S. Lewis

Posted in Challenges, Community, Self-Esteem | Leave a comment

Letting Go…Somewhat…It’s Progress…I Think

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

I’ve realized what it all boils down to. All of my fears and concerns about homeschool center around one central theme – language arts.

I have known how to read since the age of three. In other words, there isn’t a time I don’t remember reading. I have distinct memories of reading chapter books at the age of five.

I have loved reading all my life, voraciously consumed thousands of books, and I can’t imagine ever not reading.

And this is such a baffling conundrum for me – at least in regards to Emily and her older sister years before that. Somewhere deep inside, I’m just confused, How can you not know how to read? How can you stand not knowing?

Yes, I really catch myself thinking that. And when I’m not immobilized by this, I’m trying to force reading down my child’s throat.

After talking to both of my parents via email and phone, the consensus from the parental units appears to be, Relax a bit, would you? She will read. Just be patient.

Patient.

Me.

A few months ago I took Emily to see Seussical at the Coterie. We sat next to a mom who had two kids. “You homeschool? Oh my, you must be so patient!”

A look of dismay crawled across her face as I responded, “I’m probably the least patient person you will ever meet.”

I’m so NOT a patient person. That said, I’m going to do something rather extreme. I’m going to commit to waiting – to not pushing the writing and the reading – and letting Emily lead for a while.

How long? I’m going to give her until the age of seven before I get overly concerned. I will continue to promote reading, writing, and the love of books in everything I do. I can’t help but do that – it is who I am, after all. I’m a writer, a reader, a true bibliophile. I wouldn’t change that if I tried.

This new blog I like to visit – Raising Autodidacts – has a quote by Galileo that just hit me like a train. It says,

“You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” – Galileo

Sometimes truth, and the answer to what you are agonizing most, is staring you right in the face the entire time.

I think back to Danielle, now almost 24 years old, and an avid reader and writer as well. It seemed as if it took her forever to read. She managed to really get it around the age of 6-7. She recalls reading to her baby sister (her dad’s 2nd child) in the mornings to keep her quiet while her dad and his girlfriend slept in. Once she grasped reading, everything else fell into place. A fire had been lit and her reading took off, consuming so much of her time that I actually had to stop her from reading when there were other things to be done.

THAT is what I want to see in Emily. But like many things in life and human relationships, pushing for its existence will cause the opposite to occur. So I’ve tacked up the quote by Galileo and taken a step back…again.

Emily WILL learn how to read. In her time, in her way. My job is to help her find the joy in it. The rest will follow.

Posted in Challenges, Homeschool - Language Arts | Leave a comment

Websites…Lemonade Stands…Disneyland

Posted on May 7, 2012 by

Cool Blog/Websites

I found some interesting websites on Friday. Here they are:

I saw a blurb on a Facebook about a new documentary The War on Kids, which led me to visit AERO. Where I found an essay My Brain Said “No” by blogger Angela Harris. This led to me checking out her blog, Raising Autodidacts, which led to my downloading a couple of free Latin I lessons over at Visual Latin.

Visit Our Lemonade Stand…Disneyland 2013

Emily has been talking about doing a lemonade stand. I’m not sure what she is visualizing, but I know how much work we are talking about. Yikes!

We are planning our Annual Garden Party for May 19th, which is the same day as the city-wide garage sale. I swear, I have the worst luck in picking a good day for our party each year – either it is too late in the summer and everyone has run off for their summer vacation (plus it’s so miserably hot no one wants to be in the yard) or I’m hitting Memorial Day weekend or Mother’s Day weekend or the city-wide garage sale.

Oh well. This year I was determined to go garage-saling in the morning and do the party in the afternoon. That changed again when Emily brought up the lemonade stand. And on Friday morning I woke up and thought, “We need to sell our homemade Lavender Lemon Soda, two kinds of cookies, and advertise the fact that Emily is trying to save for a trip to Disneyland.”

Yeah…saving for Disneyland. She wants to go back (who wouldn’t?) and I’ve insisted that this time we have to go as a family since my husband has never been. That’s right, the man grew up in California and NEVER went to Disneyland.

That kind of boggles my mind. I think I’ve been there at least five times in my life, three times as a child, twice as an adult.

In any case, back to the lemonade stand. I’m going to paint some signs to direct people towards our stand on the garage sale day. We will set up the stand on May 19th and run it until 1pm. Stop by and try some lavender lemon soda $1 for a large cup and 50 cents for a refill (or buy a 2-liter for $5). We will also have two kinds of cookies – lemon thyme crisps and something else (I may do a chocolate chip, or perhaps another herbal cookie) for just 50 cents each.

Shop the garage sales, wet your whistle with homemade lavender lemon soda, and nosh on some cookies to keep up your strength as you hit the rest of the garage sales.

Your stopping by will help our daughter (and your children as well) learn the value of saving, goal-setting, entrepreneurship and more! Just look for the signs on 162nd and 163rd and Hight Avenue in Belton!

Items offered for sale will include: Lavender Lemon Soda, Lemon Thyme crisps, the Beez Kneez All-Day Moisturizing Lotion, various homemade jams and jellies, fresh eggs, and more!

More on Disneyland

After visiting Cheap Tickets and the Disney website, I have put a price tag on the whole thing. I’m shooting for airline tickets, a 3-day stay in a Disney hotel (includes 3-day park hopper pass and several other cool features), and a 6-day visit to San Francisco to see friends and family. I’ve never done the whole “Disney experience” – and if we can pull it off that would be incredibly cool. All in all, it looks like $2,800 total for everything including flights and visiting SF. So I’ve put Emily and I at a goal of saving half of that amount. Call the rest the visit to SF (give or take a few hundred dollars) and we will be able to handle that with savings if we behave ourselves.

We began setting money aside for Disneyland a few weeks ago. I emptied out my wallet of any cash I had earned at the classes I teach (several have participant materials fees) and we have also been putting in the gas savings we get by shopping at HyVee and then getting the discount at the HyVee gas pump. (I got over $2 yesterday when I filled up!)

I told Emily that as long as she helps me with classes we will take any cash earned at those classes and put it into the Disneyland savings. The earnings I receive from the classes themselves are part of household income though, NOT savings to Disneyland.

I put together this graph on Friday morning…

We will probably color it later.

At this point we are at about 6% of our goal, with approximately 13 months to go. IF we were able to save at the rate we have in the past month, I estimate we would have about 75% of our goal by June 2013. So it looks as if a lemonade/farm stand will be absolutely necessary – possibly grouped with a garage sale or two as well. I think I will also add our egg money to the total, that’s at least $24 more each month.

Imagine if we could actually pull this off!

How would that make Emily feel to know she had helped make something as big as a trip to Disneyland happen?

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see how well we can do!


Posted in Entrepreneurs & Entrepreneurship, Fun Stuff | Leave a comment

Handed My Own Life

Posted on May 4, 2012 by

I have a book on my bookshelf, The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing. It has traveled with me, from Missouri to California in 1994 and returned again in 1997. I rarely open it – it is the memory that it evokes, in one simple sentence, that has compelled me to keep it for nearly twenty years.

A relic from an English 101 class, there is an excerpt, titled “Handed My Own Life” by Annie Dillard. It tells the tale of youth, and Annie’s obsession with a microscope and the elusive amoeba. After owning the microscope for over six months, she finally hits pay dirt and rushes upstairs to call to her parents to hurry and come see this amazing creature she has been seeking for so long. They decline and she writes,

“She did not say, but I understood at once, that they had their pursuits (coffee?) and I had mine. She did not say, but I began to understand then, that you do what you do out of your private passion for the thing itself.”

There is such a deep beauty in those words, you do what you do out of your private passion for the thing itself that even to this day it brings tears to my eyes. Reading those words…changed my life. Perhaps, in a sense, they gave me permission. I was so wrapped up in doing ‘what was right’ or ‘what was expected’ or trying to please others that it took a while for the words to sink in and fully take hold.

You do what you do out of your private passion for the thing itself.

And I cannot help but think that this is key in what must come next.

Growing up, my daughter Danielle showed an interest in drawing. I was secretly delighted. I had shown a talent for it when I was very young, but never pursued it. I joke now that drawing stick people is difficult for me, but there was a time when I could sketch a reasonably life-like flower…I just…didn’t keep at it.

I bought Danielle reams of sketch paper, watercolor paper, colored pencils, all sorts of paints, and anything I could think of. I liked watching her sketch, or having her bring me her most recent creation, and she seemed so happy doing it. And she has truly improved over the years, enough so that I was proud to display her artwork on my first fiction book, War’s End.

The art work she provided for War’s End is a close second to my ultimate favorite, the Tree Lady, which she sent to me a year or so ago…

Danielle is also a writer and I look forward to someday seeing her name in print. A voracious reader, writer, and artist, she follows her passions as much as possible while she juggles a relationship, full-time college classes, and an online book-selling business of her own.

Which brings me back to Emily. I return again to Ken Robinson’s speech,

“It is about passion. Often people are good at things they don’t really care for. It’s about passion and what excites our spirit and energy and if you’re doing the thing you love to do and that you are good at, time takes a different course entirely…human flourishing is not a mechanical process but an organic process.”

How do I feed/ignite a passion within her? How do I tap into her interests and promote learning through those interests, tailoring Emily’s learning so that she enjoys the process, asks to learn more, and finds the experience rewarding?

What excites and motivates Emily? And how can I use that excitement and motivation to promote learning and growth?

When I thought about it, the first answer was…people. Emily loves interacting with others. Us…Neighbors (all ages)…Even strangers. To say that my child is gregarious always feels like a massive understatement. She has this knack for charming kids and adults – it’s rather surreal.

I need to continue to foster this passion – not only in providing her social opportunities (local events, classes, and play dates) but also by including her in more of my classes. Or as a reader suggested the other day, crafting a couple of classes that Emily could eventually teach herself. How fun would that be for her?

The other day at a Grow Herbs, Give Gifts class the librarian was asking me what days of the week I preferred to teach classes. I told her that any day was fine – I had originally limited the days to Tuesdays and Thursdays since those were the days that Dave was not in class and could watch Emily instead of me bringing her to a class. However, several schedule conflicts led to me having to bring her anyway, which led to me realizing that she could and would behave herself quite well during an event.

So, here are a few steps that I see as essential in our new homeschool approach for our little family…

Step #1 – Continue to provide a wide range of social and educational experiences. Foster relationships with other parents and expose Emily to a large network of other playmates.

Step #2 – Examine ways in which I can foster her self-esteem by including her in my current class offerings and perhaps tailor future class offerings to include her knowledge base (yes, she’s five, but she does know a lot about gardening, chickens and bees) and eventually transition to encouraging her to teach her own classes at some point in the future if she continues to show interest.

Step #3 – Increase the creative arts projects and experiences. Dance and sing more, paint and shape, play with clay, sketch, make kids crafts. Do Yoga Kids: For Ages 3-6 in the mornings we aren’t running off to events. Garden and dig in the dirt more. Play with Legos and jigsaw puzzles. Read more books. Cuddle more. Cook more in the kitchen together. Make that fairy house I’ve been talking about. Take walks at least twice per week.

I think that, like I did with Danielle, I need to watch Emily, and respond to her interests and passions by giving her more and more opportunities to engage in what she loves best. I think too that, the reading and the math and all of that rote knowledge will follow. I can accomplish many of these goals by reading the Hello Math Reader series, encouraging her to learn more of the Dolch sight words, and filling out the knowledge of our nation and world history and culture in a variety of books from the library. Just as I’ve been doing all along.

 I’m also going to get some reading done. I’ve got Sir Ken Robinson’s two books –

and

And the book on the Finnish model of education is also on its way…

So in short, I’m going into the end of our first year of homeschool with the plan above, while still hanging on tightly to the goals for learning as defined in Rebecca Rupp’s Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School. I’m not going to pull my hair out over the lists of learning goals, but I will still be paying attention to them. As for that goal of actual literacy and interest in reading? Well, I’m going to model some good behavior and re-incorporate regular reading into my daily routine! Perhaps we will include ‘reading time’ into our days where we each have a book to read, and Emily can choose to page through it and guess at what is being said, or puzzle it out with help from me. We’ll see how that all irons out.

In the end, I hope that I can do for Emily what Annie Dillard’s parents were able to do for her – foster the passion and encourage her to be motivated to reach for her dreams, learn where her true talents lie, and take hold of her future with both hands. I want her to find that perfect union that Sir Ken Robinson describes “where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together.”

He goes on to say,

“We need to evolve a new appreciation of the importance of nurturing human talent along with an understanding of how talent expresses itself differently in every individual…We need to make sure that all people have the chance to do what they should be doing, to discover the Element in themselves and in their own way.”

As a mother, and a teacher, all I can think of is, “How can I do my part to make sure this happens?”

I think I’ve definitely just stepped over that little black line between schooling and unschooling. Hang in there, it is sure to be an interesting ride!

Posted in Bonding, Challenges, Unschooling | 1 Comment

A Lovely Morning

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

I have a cleaning scheduled for later today – but this morning was a nice, quiet start. With an upcoming Extreme Jams class to prepare for, I was busy picking roses to make the Rose Petal Jam. Emily woke up at about 8:30 and I met her at the front door with a painted rose.

She is always picking flowers for me, I figured it was time I picked one for her!

It certainly did bring a smile to her sleepy face.

“There’s a ton of strawberries out here that look ready to eat,” I told her. We have a wild strawberry patch in the front that Emily loves to nosh on. I find them tasteless, but she absolutely loves the little things. She got dressed while I picked enough rose petals to fill a second colander.

“Mama, these strawberries are covered with seeds. I think they will grow if we plant them.” She said, examining the wild strawberry fruit. I wasn’t as sure as she was, but when she asked for a little dirt I pointed to the bag of used coffee grounds we had picked up from Starbucks the other day.

“Why don’t we use this?” I said to her as she pointed to a small hole in the mulch she had dug for the ‘strawberry seeds’. We dragged the coffee grounds over and as she filled the hole, I noticed some of the beans I had planted were sprouting up. I began to apply a handful of coffee grounds to the base of each plant and pull any weeds I saw at the same time.

“Can I help, Mama?”

“Absolutely! All of the tomato plants would love some of these coffee grounds as well.” We both got to work and pretty soon we were singing an impromptu song about the coffee grounds and Dr. Coffee Ground Emily “come to save the day.”

Later, after we returned inside with the colander full of rose petals I set to work rinsing them and prepping them for the jelly-making. Emily wandered outside and called to me, “Look out the window and find me, Mama!”

I looked out the window…no child to be seen…

Oh wait a minute, why is that Ozark Blue Star waving about like that?

There she is!

Wild strawberries, fun with coffee grounds, piles of rose petals, and hide and seek…what more could we ask for on a Thursday morning?!

How about some fresh rose petal jam?

All neatly packaged up…

And a few leftover roses for our table…

Posted in Bonding, Fun Stuff, Homeschool - Science, Unschooling | Leave a comment

The Tangible and the Intangible

Posted on May 2, 2012 by

We destroy the love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards, gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked to the wall, or A’s on report cards, or honor rolls, or dean’s lists, or Phi Beta Kappa keys, in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else.–John Holt

Ouch…for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else.

If you haven’t felt that way, if you haven’t had the feeling that you are somehow better than someone else, at least once in your life, then you are a far better person than me. I am reminded quite forcefully of a Young Turks video clip recently that talked about Finland’s education system and also this article in the Atlantic Monthly.

No school before the age of 7…

No competition. Let me say that again…NO COMPETITION?! (how un-American!)…

No standardized testing until the age of 16…

When Finland finally did allow testing of their 16 year old children coming out of this program, they tested #1 in the world.

Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education’s Center for International Mobility, has written a book on the subject…

 

I’ve ordered a copy of it from Amazon. I’ll try and post a review of the book once I’ve read it.

It seems that, in many ways, what I see before me is a war between the tangible and the intangible. Is she learning? Gee, I guess so. (Intangible – how does one define learning?) I pull out the list for Kindergarten Goals and pore through it, checking off the items that she knows. Yep, definite progress. (Tangible, I guess – based on a list that someone else made and seemed to think was the appropriate one to use)

Again I am reminded of Ken Robinson, “Learning is not linear, it’s organic.” How does one define it?

After reading the article and watching the video, I am tempted to simply drop everything and say to Emily. “Go play. Dig in the dirt. Let me know when you want to go for a walk, okay?” And keep saying that…until the age of seven or so. How radical is that? What could possibly happen in the meanwhile, between 5 1/2 and 7 – that might very well define this child’s life and her lifelong interests, if given that opportunity?

Inside me a war wages – ego, indoctrination, and that malcontent with a purpose – all struggling for dominance. All clawing for a win and the perfect solution. What if there isn’t a perfect answer?

Last night we read a story…

Which I really enjoyed (so did Emily). I highly recommend buying it or borrowing it from the library. It isn’t without its overt message – “the person who keeps their campaign promises is the right person for the job.” I explained to Emily that each time I vote, I have such hope that this one will be different and have inevitably been disappointed. Emily understood the message loud and clear without coaching. The clarity that a five-year-old sees the world with is truly refreshing.

Afterward we paged through a kids’ craft book…

I’ve had this book for a couple of years and I’ve never really used it. We paged through it, went cover to cover, marking projects. It’s arranged by seasons. As we got to a section on making wood spoon people I had a sudden spark of brilliance – “Emily, how would you like to teach a class with me? You know, both of us, teaching the class together?” She had just gone with me to a class on Saturday and behaved wonderfully, but it hadn’t been a class she was able to actually participate in. What I was suggesting to her was a class that she could help teach and her eyes widened and a huge grin spread over her face.

“I could help teach the class?” she asked, a tone of uncertainty in her voice. As if she wasn’t sure she had heard me right. As for me, I had a clear vision of the reality – both of us standing in front of a class filled with parents and their young children, introducing the wooden spoon people, Emily saying their names. Starting the attendees off with the crafts in front of them and Emily pointing out the different materials needed, passing them out, and helping out. Absolutely she could do this.

“Yes, we will have to learn how to make the wooden spoon people together, so we would have examples for the kids and their parents. And then we could invite families to the class, teach them how to create the spoon people, and have some puppet shows together with the kids. What do you think?”

I don’t think I would have gotten a more positive reaction if I told her she could eat candy all day. She was quite excited.

I have an ‘in’ with the Mid-Continent Public Library system since I teach many different classes with them (mainly cooking, gardening and crafts classes – see here for details) – I send off proposals for all kinds of classes and many of them are picked up by the 22 different locations – so why not have a kids class? We could put together a portable puppet theater, get some spoons from the local Dollar store, and get to creating a set of dolls.

Emily already has their names picked out…Shirley (her favorite clerk at the post office who gives her lollipops), Curly, and (I came up with this one) Surly. She wanted them all to rhyme, she said.

And if you are sitting there wondering what all this has to do with homeschool…well…I would posit that it has everything to do with homeschool. Call it a theory, a scientific experiment of sorts. The question you should really be asking yourself is where will it lead to?

Can you imagine this child in five years? What class of her own will she be teaching?

On Monday evening she accompanied me to a Grow Herbs, Give Gifts class at the Riverside MCPL branch. She helped pass out the various materials, brought cookies to each of the attendees, and was an excellent helper. If she can do this at 5 1/2 years of age, and add her own details (“Basil is edible” or “Chickens are omnivores, you know”) imagine what she could be doing at age 10, or 15?

Where could experiences like this lead to?

Which brings to mind an interesting discussion I had with a neighbor child the other day in my backyard…

ME: So I’m testing out two hypotheses right now in regards to coffee grounds.

CHILD: Ugh, I HATE science!

ME: (ignoring this statement) So I’m testing out whether plants can be planted directly in coffee grounds, basically using it as potting soil, AND I’m spreading it in areas I don’t want my dog to lie down on.

CHILD: Yeah, you told me about that the other day. That is so cool! We’re covering plant cells right now (rolls eyes), it is SO BORING!

ME: Have you seen a plant cell in a microscope yet?

CHILD: Oh no, we aren’t allowed to use microscopes.

ME: (laughing) No wonder you think science is boring.

The first chance I got to look through a microscope? College.

The first chance Emily got? Two months ago at the vet’s office when we took our dog in – Dixie ended up having a yeast infection in one of her ears. After I explained that Emily was homeschooled he took her back and let her look in the microscope for mites.

Just like the neighbor child, I hated science too. Until I got to college. I still wasn’t overly impressed with science at the time, but I did enjoy the experiments and looking through microscopes. Is it any wonder kids end up desperate for summer to begin?

I’m still working on this conundrum of learning/measurement/evaluation/curriculum choice. So this will be another “to be continued.” However I want to leave you with this quote from the article I linked to above. It speaks volumes about how deep of a change in thinking the Finnish have accomplished and how different it is from the current American model…

“As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs. ‘There’s no word for accountability in Finnish,’ he later told an audience at the Teachers College of Columbia University. ‘Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.’”

I bow to his wisdom.

To be continued…

Posted in Bonding, Challenges, Unschooling | Leave a comment

Ken Robinson Has It Right…Which Leads to the Question…

Posted on April 30, 2012 by

How do I, as a parent and home educator, get it right for my child?

I was recently listening to a TED talk featuring Ken Robinson Bring On the Learning Revolution! in which he says, “Education in a way dislocates very many people from their natural talents.”

Immediately my mind flashed to last Friday and the disastrous end to homeschooling for the day. A few worksheets of writing practice (numbers and the alphabet) took forever to complete. In the end, it took Emily FOUR HOURS to finish just a few worksheets (about 30 minutes – tops – of schoolwork).

In between there were tears…yelling…it was awful.

And I was left wondering why something that worked so well the first few days, failed so miserably on that day.

Robinson called for a revolution in education and again my mind flashed to Friday. As we drove away from a cleaning, heading towards a handful of errands, I explained, “I have a responsibility to educate you, to help you learn. The biggest one right now is learning how to read, how to write. Daddy has to work and go to school, I have to do cleanings, teach classes, write and educate you. Your job is to learn. We all have jobs to do.”

Later this led to a discussion about how if learning was her job, she felt she should get money for it (a logical conclusion since she sees us getting paid for our work). Which brought to mind Joel Salatin’s quote about allowances for children, “No child should be paid to breathe.”

Mmm…yeah…NO. “Perhaps I misspoke. When I speak of work, I speak of having a purpose in life, which gives our existence meaning. Yours right now is to learn and play. Right now, that is your life purpose.”

As I sat back, satisfied with my reasoning, Ken Robinson brought up the subject of “the tyranny of common sense” and quoted Abraham Lincoln who said in a 1862 speech, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country.”

Robinson went on to discuss the idea of “to disenthrall” – pointing out that there are certain things we take for granted, things or ideas that we simply accept without question.

Such ideas, perhaps, as that the only way for Emily to learn how to write is have her practice writing letters and words over and over again. [sigh]

Perhaps this is the key to successful homeschool. The rules I have learned, even in the most liberal touchy-feely, Montessori-based schools of my youth, were…inadequate and flawed. As I argued with Emily, explaining that she HAD to learn how to read, that she HAD to learn how to write – I found myself hitting a wall that was, quite suddenly, not made of bricks, but of glass. And it had a door…

Does she need to read? YES.

Does she need to be able to write? YES.

Is having her practice with worksheets the only way? NO.

I realized I was taking the easy way out. I said to myself, If she practices her letters, then I will know that she knows them. But if she doesn’t practice, how will I know she can write? Circular logic at its best.

Instead I realized that instead of boring her to death practicing writing letters that she already knows most of, I could test her, make it into a game of sorts, and then help her refine her writing skills where it is needed. Like remembering the differences between ‘b’ and ‘d’ or ‘p’ and ‘q’. And that is just one way I could do it.

I realize too that she recognizes my game for what it is – make work. In my mind, it made sense at the time. LOOK – she can write her ABCs! LOOK – see how busy she is with homeschool? LOOK – at the pretty little girl so eagerly learning, so obviously ahead of her peers.

I recognize that not only am I still searching for the perfect learning opportunity, but that I’m settling for a quick fix, one that will let me walk away satisfied and oh so proud of myself. Quite the feather in my cap. I taught my daughter how to READ. I’m her TEACHER. Just LOOK at my brilliant daughter.

My ego was involved – and I recognized it for what it was. In some small (or big) way – homeschooling my child wasn’t just because it was right for her, or because I wanted the best learning program for her, it was about my ego and pride.

It was…difficult…to face those realities. More difficult still to realize that setting my pride and ego aside would not make the magic curriculum or learning tools appear. And again the question hit me again – How do I, as a parent and home educator, get it right for my child?

Ken Robinson went on to explain that one of the realities we often accept without question is that “life is linear” – if we do things in a certain order, (get good grades, go to college, get that degree) then good things will happen to us, we will be “set for life.” Reality, as he pointed out, is quite different. He said, “life is not linear, it’s organic.”

Or this statement, “We have built our education systems on the model of fast food…where everything is standardized…it is impoverishing our spirits and energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies.”

I remain convinced that homeschool is the best alternative available to us right now. So the question is – how do I nourish my daughter’s mind and her inquisitive spirit. How do I feed her tidbits of knowledge, tickling her interest until she reaches out, grasps hold of her education and jumps in to what she wants with both feet?

Robinson went on to say, “It is about passion. Often people are good at things they don’t really care for. It’s about passion and what excites our spirit and energy and if you’re doing the thing you love to do and that you are good at, time takes a different course entirely…human flourishing is not a mechanical process but an organic process.”

“It’s about personalizing education to those people you are actually teaching.”

Okay, I’m on board with that.

Robinson closes by quoting a poem from Yeats, and then saying, “Every day, everywhere, children spread their dreams beneath our feet, and we should tread softly.”

So…just how do I accomplish this goal? How do I make sure she is getting “the basics” so that the OCD, list-making, number-ticking side of me is satisfied? How do I bring the cornucopia of knowledge before my child, refrain from trying to stuff it down her throat, and instead light the fire of learning within?

Yeah…that is the question.

To be continued…

 

Posted in Challenges, Homeschool - General, Self-Esteem | 2 Comments

Dolch Words…Papier-Maiche…Progress…

Posted on April 27, 2012 by

Dolch Words

Well we are doing quite well with the Dolch Words. We are now up to 27 flash cards (started with sixteen and there are a total of 40 in the Pre-Primer set). My friend’s suggestion to pick out the ones she was best at really paid off. Not only is Emily learning the words at an exponential rate, but she is excited about it.

Excitement…interest…you know, the keys to learning effectively!

“It’s time to do some homeschool today, Emily.”

“Okay, I want to do my words first!” She grins and points to the flash cards. And who am I to deny her?

As we hit an easy section of the cards – run, a, the, in (and so on) I tease her as she whizzes through them, “Oh my goodness! I can’t keep up, you are so good at this!” She grins and spits out the words even faster. When she hits a word she doesn’t know the grin is still on her face and it stays there, her eyes snapping with interest as she attempts to sound out the word. “That one can’t be sounded out,” I tell her, “it’s one of those words you will just have to remember.” She often spits out the word right away – accessing the memory file of ‘those words’ and we move on.

On Wednesday she also pulled out one of her Hooked on Phonics books and lay down on the swing outside and read to me. I was captivated by the image before me. She looked so pretty, so happy and content, even as she struggled to read some of the words. I wish I had had my camera with me.

I realized, looking at her then, that soon the scene of Emily with a book in her hand will no longer be new. If much of the family heritage on both sides is passed to her, it will become a regular daily occurrence. I love the thought of it.

Papier-Maiche Piggies

We didn’t do anything with the papier-maiche pig for days. But on Wednesday after we had finished our reading exercises we got to work. It turns out that duck tape works very well for attaching feet and snouts to papier-maiche pigs.

I added 1 cup of flour and two cups of warm water together to make some more paste and Emily got to work…

This time we went outside, papier-maiche is a messy, messy project!

I put Emily’s hair up to get it all out of the way of the goop. It makes her look so grown up!

Fun with papier-maiche. Really, what could be more fun? Even our new puppy Bella had to check it all out…

The feet and snout are now firmly in place and well covered. I added the ears and tail after the whole concoction had dried at the end of the day. I didn’t papier-maiche them, though. I’m wondering if we can just get away with painting the doggone things now.

I think that the goal is to make this into a piggy bank. I need to double check with Emily on that. But if so, then it may be time to cut the slot in top, deflate the balloon that is inside, and add a hinged door to the bottom for easy coin removal. Then we can paint it.

So there you have it…I guess I can handle kids arts and crafts after all. (I still feel completely out of my element, though!)

Hmmm…perhaps I should teach a class on the subject. That would make me more motivated to try this again. And then there is also the thought of perhaps making a birthday pinata…hmmm…

 

Posted in Arts and Crafts, Homeschool - Language Arts | 1 Comment