K12: 1

Our oldest is in the sixth grade this year.  Last year, I found myself devoted more and more time to just his curriculum--so much so that the other four children were being a bit neglected.  Okay, they weren't neglected, it was just a lot of work for me.  This made me reach out to find other sources.  I have been hearing about K12.com for years and have even looked into it a time or two.  This summer I decided it was time.  I signed him up because I felt that he was ready to be challenged.  Then, because it was free curriculum (of course, not totally free, it is paid for by my tax money, but this is the first time I've been able to take advantage of that fund) and that is a totally new concept to the everyday home schooler, I thought about enrolling more of my children.  I have three who are school-aged.  My first and fourth grade girls are the workbook types.  I thought this online school would fill a desire for them as well.

First thing I noticed:  Paperwork.  Oh, yes, I thought to myself.  I've never had to do all this paperwork before.  Find the immunization cards, the birth certificates, the dental records, the Will, the oil change record, copy them all, fax them, fax them again because something didn't go through.  Fill out other forms, mail and call and check boxes on the web site.  Good grief.  I'm not signing them up to count money in the federal bank.  I just want some books for which I've already paid.

Some fun things along the way, though.  We get to choose an elective.  Different kids, different options, but they could choose from music, art, or language (which included Latin, French, Spanish, Chinese, or German).  The kids got excited thinking about which direction they might choose.

And then, the boxes came.  Seven boxes, three pods.

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Scholar Phase Co-Op

Over the next several posts, I plan to share some of the things I learned from a recent home schooler's conference I attended. This is one of those posts.

Many of us (including me) are worried about the great experiment of following the principles outlined in The Thomas Jefferson Education. (I remember the first phone call I made to a home schooling friend, "Do your children . . . read?" Ha. I was so ignorant of what home school could be!) It seems risky to let your children go along with the phases, which, to the uneducated onlooker, can look like a whole lot of nothin' going on. Some children start reading, writing and figuring much later than their public school counterparts and it becomes hard to trust the system. BUT DO IT! Keep at it. Work hard and believe in the outcome. It will happen. I am at a place with my children where I am seeing the promised results. At eleven, my boy has days where he is a practice scholar (while other days he is still firmly embedded in Love of Learning). That may be helpful for those of you who have a house full of Core phasers, but if you have older children, you may begin to wonder if they will ever hunger after knowledge like TJEd promises.



Dr. Jesse Meeks taught a class about mentoring our young adults through the Scholar phase and left me completely excited (instead of freaked, my former emotion regarding that phase) to enter this next phase of home education. I'm going to give you some of my notes, but first I have to tell you about his boys.


Dr. Meeks brought two of the boys (one was his son) from their Scholar Co-Op. Several questions were directed to them--seventeen year old boys who should have (according to the current social standard) been more interested in football, girlfriends, computer games and popular culture. They looked like normal teenage boys (shaggy hair, hooded sweatshirts), not who you may expect to see when you hear home schooled boy





(not that there's anything wrong with being the spelling champion of the universe). But then they started speaking. They used words like intrinsic and serendipitous without sounding contrived or like an egg head. They spoke with confidence, founded in a deep reservoir of knowledge instead of like some know-it-all-without-knowing-anything teenager. One had his own business, the other was learning Chinese. They said Crime and Punishment was a pretty quick book compared to some of the others they had studied (Atlas Shrugged, for example). When asked if they ever have time to read books that is outside of their curriculum, they responded, "Oh, for sure! We just stay up later." Here were a couple of boys that were staying up later to read Eragon because they had spent a good deal of the day reading Aristotle and Plato. They weren't staying up late to put together a passable essay for English because they spent all day gaming online. No, they were anxious to push themselves, to study, to grow intellectually. They said, and their parents confirmed, that they never needed to be forced or even reminded to do their studies. They studied because they wanted to. It gave my hope.


Now, how to mentor such students? Here is some of the information I jotted down from the class.

• This group selects a theme for the year. This year's theme was Do Hard Things. At the end of the year, they are running a marathon. Yes. I'm serious.
• Choose students that are at about the same level of commitment.
• Meet weekly, but times can change according to the schedules of the mentors. Four hours seems to be the right time frame for their group.
• Having several mentors keeps the students challenged, but allows the mentors to continue to pursue all of their goals and still be effective in the class. Depending on how many mentors your group has, you may only teach once per month or once every six weeks.
• There charge a small fee to help pay for some of the activities. (When they read Three Cups of Tea, for instance, the mentor gave them $100 dollars to divide how ever they decided with the instructions to "make a difference in the world." Their experiences were varying, inspiring, and instructional.)
• After an initial meeting of all mentors and students to discover interests, individual mentors have full authority to choose which books they will cover.
• Mentors provide opportunities to apply the lessons learned in the books. They want to do something, but they just may not know what to do. The direction a mentor gives is the WHY behind the mentorship program.
• Anything goes; public speaking, essays, invite guest authors/historians/experts, field trips, experiments, student lead discussions, etc.
  

Now, I must find those peers who will be ready for this kind of challenge in a few short years. Please, dear home schooling friends, stop moving away!

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Five Minute Room Rescue

Over the next several posts, I plan to share some of the things I learned from a recent home schooler's conference I attended. This is the first of such posts.



I have never met a home schooling parent who hasn't struggled with this question: I can keep the house or I can school the children. How could I possibly do both?



Yes, well, sometimes we don't do both. But the truth is, both must be done. There are a few tricks that I have learned over the years that work for my family. We usually (operative word, here) clean the house once per day. The floors must be swept, the carpets vacuumed, the dishes washed, the walls scrubbed, the laundry folded, but not several times each day. Even if we have one major cleaning (where the sweeping, vacuuming and washing is done), the house may still look like a disaster zone within moments. It is probably my most frustrating problem. (Okay, I have been known to curl in a ball and cry because of this problem!) Pretty much, if I am going to lose my temper, it is because I just cleaned for two hours but, judging by the tidiness of the house, it looks like I've been sitting on the couch watching Ellen or Judge Judy (is she even on anymore?) all day.



During Angela Baker's class, she used a phrase that I have adopted and used. It is the Five Minute Room Rescue. This is not the time to organize drawers or wash windows. This is just what it sounds like, an emergency rescue operation. I set the timer and we dash through the room--all of us, as fast as we can--for five minutes. If I have sluggish helpers, I have to set the timer again. It has never taken longer than five minutes.



Instead of storming about picking up shoes and newspapers and baby blankets on my own, everyone jumps up and gets the work done. It makes for a tidier home and a happier mother.



Try it. Let me know if it works for you!



Update: Apparently this is a FlyLady tactic with a slightly different interpretation. Thank you for the inspiration!

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Forum

For those of you who want a good revitalizer to your home school, consider attending this forum. It is in Salt Lake City on March 20th. True to their nature, our children/students are constantly changing. I have found that I have to remind myself of some of the basic principles of home schooling at least once a year to make sure that none of my little people are left languishing in a phase that is uninspiring. This all day forum fits the bill. While not each of the several classes I've taken have struck a chord, many have. If your classroom feels sluggish, bored, blah, February, this may be what you need. It is worth the ticket price.

Hope to see you there!

***Dr. Oliver DeMille has no idea who I am and the Forum has not paid me any kind of advertising fee. I wish they would. Heaven knows how many people to whom I have recommended this book!***

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Environment

A learning environment is one of the most essential ingredients in the successful home school.

• There must be bins of finger paint, construction paper, pop bottles, scissors, popsicle sticks and other craft/science project tools. These supplies will be used to create volcanoes, snowflakes, picture books, bridges, dinosaurs, light sabers and bird houses.



• Invest in good wall maps, globes and atlas'. You The children will wear them out with their greasy little fingers. National Geographic and Rand McNally both make wonderful and affordable maps. This one hangs in my son's room and is especially perspective changing.


• A home computer with good parental controls is a vital part of our home school. We use the internet to answer questions, find examples and facilitate learning. There are some amazing people out there who have made animations of Bernoulli's Principle, the Wright Brother's Flight, and weather patterns , just to name a few, that make learning come to life.


• The Library


• A stocked book shelf (shelves, eventually) is the core of our learning environment. I have found that if I have a variety of good books on the shelf, they will be read. My eleven year old son regularly reads 500 + page books. When he needs a new book at 10 o'clock at night, he just needs to walk into the living room. I'll cock five or six books which he might enjoy and give brief explanations as I go. From them, he'll choose his next read. We have the Childcraft books, Young Scientist Encyclopedias, Time-Life Books and other references. The rule we came up with picture books is that if we check them out from the library more than once, they need to be owned. I buy books from thrift stores, library sales and yard sales. Most often, though, because you can't rely on those other sources to have the specific book you need, when you need it, I go to the internet. http://www.abebooks.com/ has the best prices--often for less than $5. Amazon can also have good prices. (A word of warning about buying used books: buy only very good, like new or new quality or else you'll find yourself with a book that is falling apart and not worth the $2 you saved.)

Even if you don't hold school every day, within this rich environment, one can't help but learn.

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Young People's Book Club

Not long after a few friends and I started a book club, my son, then eight, wanted a book club of his own. Being a literature lover, I jumped at the idea.

A book club for little kids can be tricky. You can't just sit around a table draped in a lovely embroidered cloth and discuss words in some sort of highbrow way--when you are eight. I wanted it to be a fun experience where we proved that reading and then talking about books is delightful and even looked forward to. Mine are the only regular attendees who are home schooled (though we've had a few others come and go). All of the others go to public school. This provides a good mix of children, ideas and book exposure. We had been inviting the younger friends as they began reading better, but recently concluded that the age range was too broad. After a great deal of experimenting, we've discovered the following:

• Eight is generally the youngest they are able to participate in a discussion with any kind of flow. Before that age, we get lots of stories about their lost tooth, a Sponge Bob episode, and what they ate for lunch.
  
• By the time they are eleven, they are ready for the next level--less parental involvement, more serious discussion.


• We always discuss the book for at least fifteen minutes, but have gone as long as forty. The idea is to get them wanting more from a book than just turning pages and filling time. Think a little deeper, wonder a little more.


• Since we meet after school, a snack is required. I've always made our food mesh in some way with the book. It has made for a great variety and the kids like to speculate about what food I'll come up with.


• A game is the third leg of our formula. Actually, it's often several games, but they too, like the refreshment, relate to the book. Considering their ages, it's usually a moving game.


• One hour and fifteen minutes is the magic time allotted. It's almost always when we're wrapping up--and my sanity begins to unravel.

Here is our list:

• Caddie Woodlawn

• The Hobbit (We ate bacon, biscuits with honey butter and drank herbal tea.)

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tasted both cabbage soup and chocolates.)

• Harry Potter (Had fun naming regular candies Potterish names. We also learned some magic.)

• Island of the Blue Dolphin

• Where the Red Fern Grows

• My Side of the Mountain (We continued our meeting a few days after book club when we went to visit a man who raised hunting falcons.)

• Holes

• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

• Among the Hidden (Most of our kids come from large families, so we had some good discussion about what a limit of two children per family would personally change our lives.)

• Johnny Tremain

• The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler (Since they were hiding out in the museum and part of the plot included a statue, we carved our own out of soap.)

• Fablehaven (Our best, and longest, discussion by far.)

• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

• All of the Nate the Great Books (Pancakes, obviously.)

• Whittington (Worst discussion, best games.)

• Sarah, Plain and Tall

After three years, my son, now eleven, has started his own book club. He doesn't want me to be in charge or even in the room. He wants it to be their book club, their insights, their questions. I am delighted. Give it a try and have fun broadening the reading experience for those you educate.

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Where To Start

My Dear Friends,

This post has been a long time in coming. Yet another friend has asked the question, "Where do I start?" This question will not go unanswered any longer.

First, you must know that home schooling is difficult. Mom has to be on the ball all of the time. Just that sentence is heavy because we are also responsible for their spiritual development, their grasp of table manners, and keeping them in clean clothes. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t see the benefits. I said, I wouldn't do it if I didn't see the benefits. You can do it if your husband isn't on board, but I would not recommend it. You will discover that you must defend your decision to your dad, your grandmother, your neighbor, the lady on the park bench, your pharmacist, the stranger at the gym, the librarian, the post man, and practically everyone to whom your child says, "I'm home schooled." Or to anyone who wonders why your children are at Walmart in the middle of a school day. Or to, well, everyone. Get ready for that. Be ready to have thick skin when someone says, "WHAT?? You're crazy!" or "Honestly, how could you do that to your daughter?" or "I'd kill my kids if they were around all the time." I promise, you will need your husband on your side. Additionally, I've yet to see an effective home school where Dad was absent--not that it can't be done, I've just never seen it. You'll also need him to be understanding of having maps and penmanship posters on your living room wall, Spanish language tapes playing in the car, and science experiments growing in the kitchen window.

So, where do you start? In my opinion, go straight to the classics. Do not waste your time on self-help books; this includes the plethora of "why public school sucks" books. There are some that come highly recommended, but wait on those until you have a sound background in the classics. You may be surprised how lame those books become when compared to A Tale of Two Cities, Little Women, and Swiss Family Robinson. Anyone who is reading a classic with the awareness of her responsibility of teacher/mom will find what they need within those time-honored pages. Plus, they are more fun. There is a captivating story to lead you through the "How do I teach responsibility to my seven year old?" instead of a generalized list that someone wrote about how all seven year olds operate. Please. Like any child–even those in the same family–learns the same way, at the same rate.

The two most important educational/parenting resources, in my experience, are the scriptures (including the Ensign) and the Holy Ghost. I have read a few self-help books. One of them was an assignment. The sassy way I took notes was to write a scriptural passage in the margin to illustrate how the prophets taught the same principle in a better and Christ-centered way.

Back to the classics for a minute. It isn’t enough to just read the books, we must also write about them, muse over them, discuss what you are learning with your spouse and your children. I have done the discussion part from the beginning (mostly because I can’t shut-up about anything) and it is paying off in a big way. Now, my children will be reading from a book and will race into the kitchen to tell me, "MOM!! Do you know what just happened??!!" and then will go on the explain the reason for their strong emotion. This is the Newborn Smile of home schooling. Thrilling.

I'm only going to refer you to one resource with which to begin. It is called A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille. It is a complete paradigm shift in what you think about educating children. Buy it, get it from the library, borrow it from me, whatever. You must read this book. There are hundreds of home schooling philosophies. This is the one that speaks to my husband and me. Wherever you decide to school your children, you need to read this book.

This is, like anything that is hard, a rewarding job. Think about how much you will learn, not just the kids. When I try to explain how I’ve changed since I started TJEd, I just say I feel bigger–fleshed out. I have so so so much to learn, but it is a great ride.

Good luck. Feel free to ask me questions. I'm always thrilled to talk about home school.

The MotherShip

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