Entries from October 2009 ↓

Just a brief note to say that, apparently, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the best book that’s ever been written, and needs to go to the top of Gamma’s Lit Picks.  After a two hour marathon reading session this afternoon, we finished, and Gamma wanted to immediately begin again!  Gamma has also declared the book superior to the movie, and questions why they made the changes they did.  Why aren’t the slippers silver, like in the story?  Did you know the Tin Woodman used to be a real man? So many details left out that would have added to the story.  No answers here, but apparently a life-long love of fantasy borne in a single book…

You know those “homeschoolers” who always laugh at the ill-fitting moniker?  You know, the ones that are never actually home, and are always out exploring nature, frequenting museums, and taking more classes than your average college freshman?  Yeah… that’s not us.

We’re homebodies.  At least, I should say, Alpha and I are homebodies.  Gamma seems to follow suit, although whether that’s due to nature or nurture is debatable.  Epsilon has yet to make his preferences known.

So, most of our time, we actually ARE at home.  And I think that’s fine.  But I’m also trying to get out and do more with the kids, to expose them to what our area has to offer.  This week, we ventured out to the PASS, a science adventure park a mere ten-minute drive from our house.  It’s a former colliery, turned into a great hands-on museum.  Although, obviously, all the info and audio-bits are in French and Dutch, the areas of the museum geared for the younger set were relatively easy for me to translate on the fly.  Not that the kids cared about the text.  They were more concerned with trying out absolutely everything.

There’s lots more to explore, including a weather observatory that Gamma’s excited about, so I think this was a good find and we’ll be back frequently.    Where to venture next?

Enough with the mommy guilt.  Oh, I’ve got plenty in reserve for the coming weeks.  Plenty of concerns, fears, hesitations, but what ifs, etc. to keep you reading for months.  Instead, let’s take a look at the good.

Gamma and I made homemade currant bread while Epsilon played in the sink:

We found this in the yard:

The boys played outside in their pjs after dark:

Captain Courageous here had just watched a movie that scared him the night before...

...so he enlisted Epsilon to hold his hand as they ventured to the farside of the garden.

the young adventurers returning safely home.

Epsilon most definitely does NOT need to take naps anymore (according to him):

I made the mistake of leaving Epsilon on his own for five minutes so I could run upstairs and get dressed:

exhibit A

exhibit B

exhibit C

Unschoolish highlights of the week to set my schoolish heart at ease:

• finished reading Fantastic Mr. Fox and Gamma begged me to read it again.  Instead, we started and are nearly halfway through The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which Gamma says is way better than the movie.
• watched Pole to Pole and Mountains, two of the Planet Earth episodes.  This sparked much conversation regarding the circle of life, predators, and what happens to a species when its natural predators disappear.
• a cheap, plastic toy centipede sparked the question, “is this an insect?”, which led to a couple hours buried in our bug book, comparing insects, centipedes, millipedes, etc.  Fascinated that Alpha and I have seen enormous centipedes in Hawaii.
• Alpha and I have recently started working out in earnest, leading to questions such as “how fast can you make your heart run?  what happens if you make it run too fast?  will it explode?  can you make it run too fast?  Much time spent perusing the body encyclopedia, looking at heart info and identifying the muscles that we were working.
• read plenty of BOB books; also the titles to the chapters of the books we’re reading, the Cheerios box, instructions on the new Wii Mario Kart game, etc.
• wrote a letter to his cousin: I luv you Paige.  Gud job on yur driving test.  Love, Gamma
• taught Epsilon how to play with the Starfall site on the computer.
• watched a Just So Darwin episode on pufferfish.
• played with the Wii, on the computer, make-believe of all sorts, and built models with his Legos.

And lots and lots of other stuff.

Gamma has been dutifully bringing me one of the BOB Books every morning as of late, to read to me.  Not because I’ve asked him too, because I’d long ago written them off as uninteresting to him and resolved that there must be a better way.  (My attempts to find that “better way” hadn’t been terribly successful, and as you know, I’ve since taken a more relaxed approach to the subject.) And not because he enjoys them, because he does not.  But he’s suddenly decided he wants to learn how to read, and I must have at some point told him that these were books that would help teach him.

A couple months ago, I would have rejoiced at this.  And I do, in part.  I’m so glad he’s suddenly got this desire to read for himself.  I find him flipping through books, reading cereal boxes, store ads, etc.  But seeing his emotionless face as he slogs through these early readers, as if they are the dues he has to pay before he can move on to “real” books, saddens my heart.

He has a few Bionicles books, just beyond his reading level, that he’s been skimming through.  I pointed out that he could just as easily hone his reading skills on books like these, as there is nothing magical in the BOB Books.  He looked hopeful, and I think he’s chewing on that idea.  I’m hopeful, too.

Years, ago, before I finally got brave enough to have laser eye surgery, I wore contacts.  Either contacts or coke-bottle glasses.  20/200, no lie.  With astigmatisms.  My nieces, so very near and dear to my heart in those pre-children days (children of my own that is, and the girls are still very near and dear!) would watch me put in my contacts with awe.  They always said I was “putting in my eyes!”

I am so glad to have stumbled across this today.

I feel as though I’ve been looking at homeschooling through old, jaded, public-schooled eyes.  Now that I’m attempting to journal (on paper, not here) Gamma’s goings-on and questions, I’m seeing far more learning and inquiry than I could have imagined. And I’m sure I’ll “see” more as I really learn to recognize the learning taking place right before me.

My head is still spinning.

I have read more about educational theory and philosophies in the past week or two than you can imagine.  I’ve run into a multitude of choices I didn’t even know we had.  Reggio?  Steiner?  Project-based?  Problem-based?  I find it very telling that the choices that appeal to me most are the ones that most closely line up with unschooling. But let me assure you, if we’re applying labels, Alpha will be much more comfortable with the term inquiry-based learning.

The Camp Creek blog has been just a wealth of information and inspiration.  THIS is an approach I think could actually work in our house.  For EVERYONE.  However….

I find it rather ironic that, when I first set up this blog, I made a point on our about page of saying “we don’t label our children.”  So why am I so insistent upon labeling our children’s education?  Searching for an identity in the homeschool blogging community, maybe?  (as if being a secular/atheist homeschooling family isn’t identity enough!!)  I don’t want to be fenced in by a label three years from now, when Gamma decides he wants to, I don’t know, tackle math in a textbook.  Or when Epsilon is a little older and loves phonics and workbooks and lots and lots of structure.  (ha ha ha)

So I have decided to abstain from the worksheets, and the phonics program, and the checklist.  Instead I’m going to more actively track his interests and his questions, and encourage him to pursue them.  And document everything, for my own sanity.  I’m finding that, when I do that, the other things get accomplished along the way.  Let’s see if it continues.

We are still here.  I am doing lots of reading and thinking and processing.  It’s all good reading and thinking and processing, I promise.  Just not ready to go into detail — the thoughts have not all been processed and are still currently whirling around inside my head.

It’s been over two weeks since we cracked open our phonics program.  And yet Gamma’s reading more than ever.  I’m learning to sit back and relax and enjoy watching the progress, rather than trying to instigate it.

Learning being the operative word here.  It takes time to learn to relax.  Who knew I was so uptight?  In the meantime, I’ve been crocheting.

Keeping my hands busy and out of his business… some of the time.

*edited to link to Nicole’s fabulous basic sock pattern.  I could never have come up with this on my own!

the pack will play, apparently.

Alpha is in London at the first ever TAM London event.  I’m practically rabid with jealousy.  But I’m trying to contain myself.

I had grand plans for the weekend — taking the boys out every day to do something cool and different.  A hike, perhaps a zoo or wildlife preserve, maybe a movie.  But when we woke up this morning, all they really wanted to do was stay in their jammies and play.

So that’s what we did.

I’ve done some editing as of late around here, to reflect our slightly less-schooly mentality (haven’t gone all the way, sorry JJ!).  Note the change from “teaching them to think for themselves” to “thinking for ourselves… all day, in every way.”    The reading seems to be rolling along just fine, despite my interference.  So, for the time being, I’m letting go of that.   I think Gamma’s getting more out of reading the instructions for video games, et al, than he was getting out of our phonics program.  Recently, he seems to be quite intrigued by maths, so we’re working on that more.  Funny to me, he still gets the numerals 6,7,8, and 9 confused, but he can add and subtract, and even multiply numbers much higher.  The concept is there, just not the notation.

Also, Gamma’s Lit Picks in the sidebar will no longer contain just our current reads.  Rather, it will hold only the cream of the crop — books Gamma personally recommends for other adventure-loving, thrill-seeking, irrepressible five year old boys!  As you can all ready see, we’ve been on a bit of a Roald Dahl kick, as of late.  We’ve also read Winnie the Pooh and attempted The Wind in the Willows, but neither of them have passed the 5-year old boy test!  Hopefully, someday, this list will help other starting-out homeschooling mums, desperate for good literature for their young sons — sons who are left cold by the current “recommended” reads for this age group!