Learning Snapshots

Letters: Letter posters. Happy Birthday banner with letters by Luke & Liv. Luke started printing Liv's name totally on his own & on his own initiative.

Fun & shapes & basic engineering with play doh


Thanksgiving: meaning, history, art

Exploring measurement & comparing sizes

Lots with dinosaurs this month

Reading!

Measurement with sweet rewards

Library story time & people in our community

A few learning activities from the past month that were easy to snap a shot of & record.

Barely Blogging

The last three weeks have seen sick kids, family vacation, Thanksgiving holiday, husband home a lot, and evenings spent either away or filled with other activities or with husband or as an exhausted pregnant mom going to bed early. And that is why I haven't even thought much about my blog, none the less actually blogged. And tonight's time here is very brief. First, to post this excuse and second, to mention that I'm about to update my "good reads" links - adding two articles I've come across recently. Both relate to my 10/11/11 post and my thoughts on play and early academics. Both do a good job of pinning school starting age more on economics and other needs than what's best for the brain of an individual child. . . . . very interesting reads!

In "good reads" links, see "What Can Slow Schools Teach Us" & "The Case Against Pre-School" (It was the second little short article on this page that first caught my attention; the top article is commentary on it.)

Soon I will share some pictures on November learning activities. My research and pondering time on what to do with my kids' education has been very little but there has been some discussion time on options and I did order a math book (Singapore Earlybird) to start working on with my soon-to-be-kindergartener! I'm anxious to get back to my old notes and contemplating educational philosophies and my approach for next year but honestly don't know how much serious research will happen in the near future with holidays and then baby on the horizon!

Good Day :)

Here's to a GREAT day at the end of a tough week. Today's the kind of day that makes me want to be home with my kids all the time, feel like a successful mom, and ready to dive into homeschooling. The kids are kind, well-mannered, and working and playing together wonderfully. They are using their time wisely and learning like crazy totally on their own initiative. They've measured and compared sizes of toy dinosaurs, spent time with books, written and drawn, played school and taught each other things in the most adorable ways, addressed envelopes, and asked me meaningful questions and to teach them things. I have watched and been ready with materials or encouragement, read a few books, and answered questions! Love it! I need days like this to keep me going. I am excited for our future learning together.

It helps me too, to remember that when I was a teacher in a classroom, there were good days and bad. In any pursuit in life, some days are more encouraging than others. It's ultimately about staying the course because we believe it's the right path and not giving up, nor just staying, because of experiences and feelings, good or bad; because in anything there will be both.

I Want A Perfect Option

I blame it at least partially on the time change, but it has been the kind of week where I think about sending my kids off to school A LOT.

I started my morning figuring out how many miles I'd be driving to the two Christian schools on my horizon. Both are 2 or 3 days at school and 2 or 3 days independent study at home options. School A is 11 miles from my house and 3 days per week: 44 miles/day, 132/week, 110/week if I didn't drive back home during school hours one day. School B is 21 miles from my house but only 2 days per week: 84 miles/day, 168/week, or 126/week. Keep in mind, this is with 2 younger siblings riding those round trips in the car and gas money on top of tuition. The tuition is very reasonable primarily because these are not full time schools, but still the costs add up and when I think of having multiple students in school not too far in the future, the costs really multiply! These are both schools I have a lot of respect for and seriously consider during weeks such as this. The biggest negative, for me, after the driving and money, is that the days at home are not really homeschooling. I love education! I want to be the one educating my children. I want to make curriculum choices! I want control! I'm excited about the possibilities. I just don't necessarily want my children 24/7 and I want them to have some other educational experiences . . . . so, not to re-do my "What I Want" post . . . . the fact that I'd like them to get some extra-curricular classes in a somewhat regular school setting once or twice a week is nothing new.

Later in the day I started googling local charter schools. Oh ya, that was after I searched for Christian schools in my town for the 29th time hoping I had missed something. I used to work for a homeschooling charter school and I know they are all different and they can have a lot to offer a parent like me. The school I worked for would be the perfect option if I lived in Temecula and I even looked at the possibility of commuting for some classes, but it looks like it would have to be twice a week and that is a lot! So, other charters that appear to offer homeschooling . . . . meaning parent-choice and freedom not just a lot of prescribed things to complete at home . . . . I say appear because, granted, I'm just looking at websites here; I'm in the very preliminary stages of a half-hearted search . . . . possible next step would be phone calls and tours . . . . Charter A with once a week classes about 20 miles from my house and Charter B with once a week classes 46 miles from my house. Both are strong possibilities right now. Classes once a week, if I stayed in that area that one day, would be 40 miles/week or 92 miles/week respectively. Charter B actually really excites me. Why can't it be closer to home?! I definitely need to do more research but my mind won't stop contemplating how I could manage an hour one way drive with a toddler and baby and then spend one day a week in a far-off city doing parks and whatever else I can think up . . . . hmmm. It is a good location for meeting family for lunch and such. Would I be able to do it? I probably wouldn't cook big dinners those nights. The school offers performing arts and other programs and I'm sure it would turn into more than once a week as my son got involved, but hopefully this wouldn't be a big issue until later in elementary school when the other two could handle the drive better and be in school some of the time too. For the drive I'm imagining audio books, learning songs, discussions, lots of good time at least for kids over about three . . . . that would be in the future. And as my husband pointed out, friends would be made that lived far away. There are definite cons. I don't know where my answer lies.

Is the fact that there is no perfect option God's way of forcing me back to 100% homeschooling? Although, 100% homeschooling in my eyes should include outside activities or classes in one form or another, so I think I'm still there. I had more passion for homeschooling before the reality of the hard work and craziness came about and now many days I'm ready to abandon ship but know I shouldn't leave what I think I'm supposed to do out of fear. Yet, I'm not 100% sure that it is what I'm supposed to do, so I look at schools and possibilities. I find nothing great. I go back to 100% homeschooling but look for the best way to get those outside activities and classes and find nothing perfect. Here I am. I pray for God's plan for my kids' education and for help with my daily use of time, need for inspiration and direction, my patience, and my willingness to work hard.

• Greater San Diego Academy

• The Classical Academy (& see link from page to blog/FB)
  

• Reviews

Core Phase

A Thomas Jefferson Education is a book that grabbed my attention and has significantly impacted my ideas about education. I have since read other books by the same author (DeMille) and attended several related seminars. The educational philosophies put forth by the Thomas Jefferson Education (TJ Ed) model deal more with the how and why questions of education and not directly with the what or specific content questions. I think it is easy to get too focused on the whats and neglect the weighty aspects of the hows and whys.

TJ Ed divides childhood into various phases, the first being Core Phase. Phases are not strictly related to physical age but Core is generally early childhood through age six or so. By age six a person's basic framework about life is formed - ideas about good/bad, right/wrong, true/false. TJ Ed says these core issues should be the focus of learning during early childhood and are the foundation for all else.

The acquisition of "scholarly" skills is not as important as these lessons during this phase. Ample research supports the position that later readers are life-long readers . . . . A child who plays at and practices learning through the Core Phase will approach skills acquisition at the self-appropriate time and pace with relish and self-confidence as her aptitude increases and the meaning of the tasks gains context through her experiences.

The culture and values of the family are learned through work and play together, with a parent or as a family. Good/bad, right/wrong, true/false are discussed at every real opportunity or example found in literature. Life, based upon family belief system, is lived out in the home environment authentically day in and day out. Children are a part of reading, prayers, work, everything. Culture is transmitted to the next generation "when you lie down and when you rise up."

My children are still young and Core Phase should be my current focus and it is definitely something I do not want to fail to be diligent in even as concerns about schedules, academics, and a messy house compete for my attention. As the speaker at one of the seminars I attended cautioned us, "if you haven't taught your kids Core Phase, please don't educate them. Smart evil people are worse than dumb evil people." I want my kids' hearts to be foremost. I want them to do good, love justice, and walk humbly with their God. It is in His light that we see light. This is the core; this is the beginning.

DeMille says "greatness isn't the work of a few geniuses, it is the purpose of each of us." There is great and divine purpose and potential in each life. Academic skills may be useful in carrying out God-given purposes and potentials but academics certainly will never be the cause or zest. Like I noted earlier, DeMille's model addresses the whys of education.

Our purpose is to train thinkers, leaders, entrepreneurs and statesmen - individuals with the character, competence and capacity to do the right thing and do it well in business, government, church, school, family, entertainment, research and other organizations . . . . to perpetuate freedom, to prepare people who know what freedom is, what is required to maintain it, and who exert the will to do what is required. These two goals are accomplished by the third: teaching students how to think.

I want my children to read, write, do math, and in all ways excel academically. I believe they will. I do not see them doing these things in their early years because this is not my first priority nor my starting point. My kindergartener will study letters and numbers but it is my hope that by six(-ish), it will in his his heart that a foundation has been built with the regular school skills of the mind to come alongside later. It is my hope that he will first understand that there is a mission and calling of paramount importance upon his life. That he will know he was created for a purpose and will then be compelled to prepare himself in every way, including academically, to walk out that purpose. In whatever realms my children serve in their adult lives, may they be people who serve and lead with great effort, compassion, vision, selflessness, and character because right now, before they turn six, they get straight concepts about good/bad, true/false, right/wrong.

What happens when a society does not prepare leaders? We get managers and professionals leading in areas they have no training for, such as government, and we get a nation of followers who see no problem with that because they have no experience with anything else. In a nation where the government is supposed to be the servant of the people, it is easy to see that our traditional form of government and its cultural underpinnings will deteriorate beyond repair if the citizen neglects to fit himself for leadership; eventually the result is widespread specialization complemented by arrogance, pride and general ignorance. This was the legacy of Germany in the 1930s - a highly trained but uneducated people easily swayed by Hitler.

Now how I'd love to go right into the root word liber and how liberty and learning are connected and how the voting citizens of Ancient Greece were the liber class because they were educated in the original sense of a liberal arts education and were prepared to be a free people who could govern themselves . . . . This post is already too long I am sure and it is not as cohesive as I wish. The point of my blog is to motivate ME and to make my mind re-examine things and this post may wander but it is all connected in my mind and there is so much more but the time changed this week and my kids wake-up time didn't and I am tired. I need inspiration and direction to put into practice my Core Phase aspirations. This has been a tough week at home with the kids!

Learning Snapshots

Luke has an uncanny affinity for mud! This month when he needed some mud time, I had him write letters in the mud.


He also wrote in sugar. He was very motivated to practice numbers and shapes when he got to lick his finger after each task.
We painted with number stamps and made letter and number magnets out of bottle caps. He experimented with forming words but I really need stronger magnets for the backs of the caps, right now they don't stick well and cause frustration!
Reading, reading, always more reading!

Gymnastics class, Fire house visit, fire safety

Luke's goose! This is impressive for Luke.

Morning God journal

A few learning activities from the past month that were easy to record in snapshot form.