two boys, storytelling & child-led learning
Never miss an opportunity to let your children help with the housework, especially if they volunteer….
And remember, it’s not how well they get the job done….
Praise the effort. Praise yourself for raising self-sufficient children!
And for goodness sake, have fun!
We’ve been observing a lot of wildlife in our very own yard lately, though I think that’s because I have two inquisitive little boys who have the freedom to explore the yard often. The other day my son was taking stems off our butterfly bush (because someone taught us how to propagate it), and he found something interesting attached to the underside of a leaf. He came to me and said, “I think I found a ladybug pupa.”
I don’t even know where he learned that word, and I wasn’t sure he was right, but silly me, of course he was! I looked up the life cycle of a ladybug on A Life Cycle App. Sure enough, one of the pictures of the pupa stage looked exactly like what my son was holding in his hand. It also said that it takes about one week before the adult ladybug emerges.
So, we put the sprig in a jar with a wee bit of water to keep the leaves alive, and we waited a week. On the seventh day, we could see it moving. On the eighth day, it came out! It’s a yellow ladybug!
We took it back to the place where my son found it and released it.
What wild and wonderful things have you found in your yard?
{Homeschooling without a curriculum} {Eclectic Homeschooling} {Free print outs for your record keeping.}
Though I have seen countless blogs on the Internet offering advice on how to keep track of your child’s homeschool, I knew that I would have to come up with my own system or I wouldn’t stick to it. So I write this post with a grain of salt and encourage you to do the same. There’s no right or wrong here.
This past year was my “practice year” as I explained in my last post. I’m really glad I took the effort to keep track of what we did because it has helped me create a system that I think I’ll stick with.
First of all, I don’t use a packaged curriculum. I drew on different resources for my son’s “pre-kindergarten” year (which was actually kindergarten, and I’ll explain about that in my next post.) Most people call this eclectic homeschooling.
I consulted a preschool and kindergarten “course of study” that used to be on the World Book Encyclopedia website. I’m very disappointed they removed this page because it was very thorough, and upon reading whom they consulted to put it all together, I felt it was a good source. Fortunately, Beverly Hernandez got permission to put this list on About.com before they took it down! (Thank you, Beverly!) You have to click on a lot of links to read all of it, but I’m grateful it’s there. It’s comprehensive through the 12th grade.
I did not worry about covering everything on these lists, and I don’t think you should be either. I was only intentional about teaching a few choice subjects: reading, math, the solar system, and the weather. Everything else we covered through my son’s own interests! Yes, that’s right! (And I should note that after introducing him to the solar system and the weather, he took an interest in these subjects and we’ve done much more than I was planning. Yay “mostly child-led”!) (Okay, so I’m intentional about storytelling too, but that doesn’t feel like work!) Recently I went over these lists carefully, and I was able to check off every point except for one. (Estimation, which is under math, so I’m doing that now.)
This is what I did this past year to keep track of our homeschool. Click on the blue, highlighted text to access free charts in pdf format that you can print out, if you think they might help you. If you have Excel, and you’d like to get a copy of the files that you can tailor to your own needs, just e-mail me.
This sounds like a lot of work, but it didn’t feel like it because I came up with a strategy that worked for me. I took the effort to make the chart and summary a habit, and I didn’t stress over fine details.
I hope you’ll stay tuned by subscribing to my blog in the right-hand margin, and I hope you’ll share with me your record-keeping strategies!
Note: Below is my column as it appeared in the March 28, 2012 edition of the Barrow Journal. Scroll down to find some other helpful links and ways that I’ve tried to teach math.
When I was a young girl, I was gently reprimanded for using my fingers to do math. I had to do it in my head. Throughout school, I never liked math, and I never did well in it. I sat in the back of the room during high school geometry, and I barely listened to the teacher. For algebra, the teacher was my high school’s football coach, and I remember him bellowing out instructions like he was on the football field.
In college I majored in English, and one of my professors said, “English majors are notorious for hating math.” I was only required to take one math class in college, and I waited until my senior year to take it. The teacher was excellent, and my study skills had improved remarkably by that year. I got an A in the class.
Even now, math is not my forte. If I have to figure out how much to tip someone, it will take me much longer than most people.
But just because it takes me longer to figure out simple math, doesn’t mean that I can’t do it. While reading Discover Your Child’s Learning Style, I discovered that I’m a very strong visual learner. Though I knew I was visual, it surprised me at how much this learning style was dominant for me.
I started thinking about how I add, and although I don’t count on my fingers anymore, I actually visualize them in my head when I’m adding simple numbers. So, I guess I showed those teachers!
I’m not sure how math is taught in school now, but I’m aware that several math curriculums available to homeschoolers use manipulatives for learning addition and subtraction. Using beads or small blocks, a student is allowed to move the pieces around and actually see that two beads plus two beads equal four beads. I don’t ever remember getting to use something like that as a child.
I don’t know if you can make someone like math if they aren’t good at it, but as I think about how I want to teach my boys math at home, I know I’m going to do everything I can so that it’s engaging. I want to show them how we use math everyday, and if they want to use their fingers, you can bet I’ll let them.
My five-year-old is very creative and loves stories, so I purchased the first two books in a series called Life of Fred. They aren’t too expensive, and the books are comprehensive through college-level math.
Life of Fred teaches math through a story about a character named Fred. It’s funny and quirky, and my five-year-old loves it, and he even asks to do more. It’s easy to do one chapter in less than an hour, and I like that there are only a few problems to work out at the end of each chapter.
The second book has proven to be a little beyond my son’s ability at this time, so I’ve decided to wait awhile before we work through it. In the meantime, I’m doing a few other things to teach him math.
At the library, we found the shelf with all the preschool and kindergarten level math books, and I’ve been checking them out and reading them at a leisurely pace. Some of the books are easier for him than others, but he seems to like learning about numbers through story. I try to get him to work out some of the equations, but I help him when needed.
He is an auditory and visual learner, so I downloaded some math songs to play on my iPod in the car, and we’ve watched several YouTube videos about math. I also try to teach him math while we’re cooking or baking together.
Before I started doing these things, I thought I was losing him because one bad day he told me that math wasn’t fun. After stopping the formal lessons and instead trying the story books and music, he delighted me one day by writing several equations on a piece of paper. He drew smiley faces: two smiley faces + three smiley faces = five smiley faces.
My husband and I were pleasantly surprised and it confirmed my opinion that children learn best when they aren’t forced to learn. Introduce them to ideas, books, educational television, and most importantly, show them how this stuff is used in everyday life. They will catch on and learn it at their own pace.
Note: So that was my column as it appeared in the March 28, 2012 edition of the Barrow Journal. Below are some helpful links and other ways I’ve tried to teach math.
Similar to how I have taught beginning reading, I have used resources that were available to me or inexpensive. I consider it all a work in progress, and as he gets older, I’ll try to find other resources to fill in the gaps.
What recommendations do you have for teaching early math skills?
I feel it’s important for me to define “child-led learning” as it works for my family because I’m sure there are different variations of child-led learning in each family who choose this way of homeschooling. (I think that’s great because every parent has to determine what works best for his or her child.) Unfortunately, people hear the term “child-led learning” and often come up with their own judgment about it based on an arbitrary news report, article or a homeschool family they have met. I think it’s wiser to hold off on our judgments until we know more about that family and the needs of the children.
For me, doing “child-led learning” means introducing my boys to a variety of ideas, subjects, books, places, classes, stories, and people. I am a facilitator and mentor. As we explore the world together, I’m going to observe what they love the most. When they gain interest in a particular subject, I’m going to let them delve into it further, and I’m going to do everything I can to help them learn more about it until they are satisfied. I expect some interests may peter out and others may be life-long passions.
I am going to make sure my children learn the basics: reading, language arts, math, science and social studies. In fact, according to the law in Georgia (U.S.A.), I have to, but I do believe that each child may learn at a different pace. I will nudge, but I will not push. If I nudge I can tell whether or not my child is ready for a specific subject by his reaction to it. I’m not going to force anything, and I’m not going to test (except when the state requires it). If I can find ways of helping them learn difficult subjects, I’ll do that, but I think it’s useless to make a child learn something he or she isn’t ready for or doesn’t want to learn.
I will also concentrate more on helping my children how to find answers to their questions, fostering their imaginations, and helping them learn how to manage daily life. I’ll write more about this in future posts.
As an example of encouraging my son’s passions, I am currently working on a snake project with my five-year-old. I am not interested in snakes, but he is, so I suggested we make a book about snakes. He loved the idea. Through this project, we are working on his research, writing and reading skills. It’s also part of his science requirement. If I can think of other ways to teach him basic skills through his love of snakes, I’ll do it. For example, we might use a measuring tape to see what the length of a snake is. In addition, (at my son’s request) snakes are always characters in our nightly stories.
As he gets older, I’m hoping he’ll be more in charge of deciding what his projects are and how we’ll complete them.
I should also mention that occasionally I will make my children do something. This goes back to my statement above when I said that I would introduce “my boys to a variety of books, places, classes, stories, and people.” For example, the nature center we go to frequently is offering an after-Christmas mini-camp. I know he will love this! But when I asked him if wanted to go, he said “No.” I know that he just doesn’t understand what a mini-camp is, so I decided that if we could get in, I’d make him try it. Fortunately, after I took the time to explain what it was about more thoroughly, he wanted to go. If he tries it and hates it, we’ll reassess, but trying is a must.
There are other things that will be required of my boys like contributing to the care of the house and each other, but I hope to approach this in a manner so that they understand the value of it and want to do it. I will write more about this in future posts as well.
What is your perceived definition of child-led learning? Do you think it’s good or bad?
Please stay tuned. After the New Year I’ll be starting a series of posts about our homeschool mission, priorities, and how we do it on a daily basis.
An Eastern King Snake. This photo is courtesy of Bill Peterman. Check out his wonderful herpetology photos by clicking here.
One of the main reasons I want to homeschool is so that I can allow my child’s interests to guide us in the learning process. As if to test me on this philosophy, my five-year-old son has taken a keen interest in snakes.
I have never been particularly fond of reptiles or amphibians, but truthfully I just never gave them much thought until I met one of my best friends who is a herpetologist. She shared her love of frogs, salamanders and snakes with me and though you still won’t find me out trying to catch any, I have a respect for the little critters.
Now my son is into them, and thanks to the Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens, he gets to see and touch them quite often. We are taking classes out there, and we’ve been to snake day twice, and recently we went to Scary, Slimy, Oozy Day, which was their Halloween festival. It definitely satisfied my son’s slimy, oozy side.
A while back I bought my son two posters for his room at the Nature Center. One features photos of snakes and the other frogs. “Snakes of Georgia” hangs on his wall right next to his bed. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking when I bought that poster, but seriously, I’m thrilled when he wants to learn about anything, snakes included.
And it’s funny how you can get used to “slimy and oozy” just like your nose gets used to bad smells. Now I’m kind of fascinated with snakes or at least one in particular: the Eastern Kingsnake.
I saw my first Eastern Kingsnake several weeks ago in our yard. I thought my cat was going after a lizard, and when I approached her to save the lizard, I saw it was really a baby snake. It was black with yellow strips – pretty, as far as snakes go. Unfortunately, the snake disappeared under a thick layer of leaves before my son could see it.
Curious, I ran upstairs to look at my son’s poster and found out that it was an Eastern Kingsnake, and I was relieved to note that it was not listed as venomous.
Several weeks later, my husband saw an Eastern Kingsnake while he was out jogging. It was near our house, so he ran to get us, and we watched the snake slither into the woods. I don’t know if it was the same snake that I saw, but it was also a small one.
Since then I have learned that Eastern Kingsnakes are very good snakes to have around. The main reason is because they eat venomous snakes, and a favorite meal is the copperhead. When I was at Slimy, Oozy Day, a UGA ecology student told me that copperheads are on the rise in Athens-Clarke County, and they think maybe one reason is because the Eastern Kingsnake is in decline.
I looked up the Eastern Kingsnake on the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory’s (SREL) Herpetology website, which is a great resource, if you’re interested in snakes or other reptiles or amphibians. This site describes Eastern Kingsnakes as “shiny-black, smooth-scaled snakes with white or yellow chain-link bands that cross the back and connect along the sides.”
I learned that Eastern Kingsnakes are resistant to the venom of pit-vipers, and they can eat copperheads, cottonmouths and rattlesnakes. They also eat lizards, rodents, birds and turtles eggs.
There is some concern that these snakes are in decline in some areas of the Coastal Plain and in Florida. The reason is unclear. There was once a large population of this snake near the Savannah River Site that has disappeared over the last 20 years.
So please take heed: If you see an Eastern Kingsnake in your yard, DO NOT KILL IT! In fact, you shouldn’t kill any snake. Most snakes are not venomous, and they are very beneficial. They eat rats, mice, insects and other pests.
According to Geoff Stein, author of “Snakes – Good for the Garden,” snakes do not damage the environment at all. “They don’t dig holes….They don’t chew or damage the landscape….They don’t contribute one bit to noise pollution,” he says. He goes on to point out that snakes will not bite unless stepped on, picked up or forced into a corner or otherwise threatened. Usually snakes just want to get away.
There are venomous snakes that we need to be wary of and usher out of our gardens, and if you’d like to learn more about those, the SREL website is a good place to go.
So, as scary, slimy and oozy as some of us think snakes are, we need to respect these creatures, who help balance the ecosystem in important ways.
This column was originally printed in the November 2, 2011 edition of the Barrow Journal.
***
OUR SNAKE PROJECT
Since my five-year-old loves snakes so much, I suggested another project for him. We’re making a “book” about snakes. We’re using his poster as a guide by going down the list from top to bottom. Our book is in a three-ring binder. We look up the snake online, and my son chooses a photo, and he writes the name of the snake on the page. Then I write in some facts about the snake. I hope that as he gets older and learns how to read, he’ll enjoy this little resource we’re making. (I always note where we get the information and give credit to the photographer, if possible.)
While we’re doing this, I read about the snake to my son, and he also likes to watch some video about the snake, if we can find one.
Would you be willing to visit a slimy and oozy world for the sake of your child’s passions?
A bit of homeschooling philosophy: Learning is like a chain link fence.
Not a crummy, dusty fence in a barren lot, but a fence with bends and dips and muscadine grape vines interlacing it. Every time we learn some small fact, we add a link. We build a fence of knowledge and wrap it around our minds. As we add more links, the fence gets bigger and so does our mind. It’s not a fence that blocks out anything….no no…It doesn’t block anything out unless we stop adding links to it. It’s more of a container with wild grasses, ideas, questions, fruit and nectar growing inside and overflowing…
***
I don’t purport to say that this is an original concept. Not at all. I’m only reporting on what I’ve been witnessing with my child, and in addition, I am a writer, so I like to think in metaphors.
I’ve been thinking about this as my child asks me questions…
…and I endeavor to answer.
For the Native American question, I was prepared. Last year I bought a really cool book titled The Very First Americans. It introduces many of the Native American tribes. It’s general but full of good information for that first question. It’s the first link in my son’s understanding of Native Americans.
The question, “What is inside Jupiter?” came as a result of our study of the solar system. My son has told me that Jupiter is his favorite planet. To answer that question, we looked online, and once I said “gas,” that was enough for my son. But…but…but… I was tempted to add on to that, read more of the website or at least explain what “gas” is. But he didn’t want to know all that. He just wanted to know what was inside Jupiter. It’s another link in his knowledge of the “The Solar System.”
“What is inside our body?” He has asked this question in many ways over a long period of time, so I know that it’s something that truly interests him. When we went to the toy store to pick out his birthday presents, he picked (all by himself) a human anatomy model. He loves it, and we’ve dissected it several times. He also requested a book on the human body, which I got for him, and he’s even watched a long National Geographic documentary on the human body. So I haven’t had to answer that question. He’s been finding out for himself. He’s got a lot of links on his knowledge of the human body.
My son loves plants and planting. This summer I was going to keep gardening at a minimum since I’m so busy with the kids, but my son delighted me by becoming the gardener. He helped me plant some tomatoes, and then at his request we’ve planted pumpkins, beans and lettuce. I’ll talk more about his study of plants and seeds in another post, but suffice it to say, he has many links on plant knowledge too.
“Did he die?” It might be a strange question for a five-year-old to ask, but I don’t think so. As we begin to tell him about history and time, it’s inevitable that he must learn about death. So this question pops up a lot when we’re reading books or watching T.V. with people he’s never seen before. It must be his way of figuring out many things all at once, including time and life and what those mean.
“What is God?” I have talked about God before, but the first time my son asked me about it, I got very excited. There’s so much I want to teach him and share with him. My beliefs. The beliefs of others. I want to hear what he thinks too. But I remembered the Jupiter question, so I treaded softly. I told him in as simple of terms as I could muster, and then I read the book I’ve been saving, In God’s Name by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. I think by the end of the book, he was bored with the subject.
I pondered that for a few days. I wasn’t satisfied with how I answered him, and I thought of other ways I might approach the subject. How can I be more prepared next time? But that is when I realized that learning is like a chain-link fence. At first I thought “learning is like a chain with links,” but no, that wasn’t good enough. We take our knowledge in many directions. We make decisions. One by one, we add a little knowledge. We build on it. The more we study, the longer it gets.
I thought, that was his first link in the God question.
I don’t expect my son to remember all the details he’s learning. I certainly had to brush up on my knowledge of the solar system before I taught it to him. But I do know that learning something over time, repeatedly, especially if it’s something we’re interested in, will help us in mastering that subject. Students are told by their professors to start studying right away and not wait until the last minute! A cram session the night before an exam does little for long-term retention.
I’m writing this as a reminder to myself more than anything. If I fear I haven’t answered a question well, I shouldn’t worry too much. My son is building a fence of knowledge that he’ll piece together over time. By mostly following his lead, I hope that if we don’t master long-term retention, we’ll at least foster a love of learning, and we’ll find some surprises along the way…
What is your metaphor for learning?
Note: This column was first published in the Barrow Journal on September 28, 2011. You can view the online version by clicking here.
When I was pregnant with my first baby, my husband and I took advantage of the free music concerts at UGA. One of the concerts my husband wanted to attend was a performance of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. It was during that concert that I felt my baby move for the first time.
Fast forward a few years until my first born is five-years-old. He loves the cartoon Little Einsteins, which features music by a famous composer in each episode. Out of all the music he hears on that show, he begins to hum (constantly) Beethoven’s 9th symphony or the part we are most familiar with: “Ode to Joy.”
Is it a coincidence, or is that just a catchy tune? Obviously it’s a catchy tune, but I’ll always wonder if that prenatal exposure might have given him a predisposition to liking that music. Anything is possible, right?
So our house is full of Beethoven these days. I don’t think my five-year-old’s renditions of “Ode to Joy” are what Beethoven had in mind for his work, but I can say that forevermore I’ll be able to identify at least one piece of famous music.
I am not musically inclined. I love listening to music and I like a variety of genres, but I am hopeless when it comes to remembering even the simplest lyrics. I can carry a tune only so far, and you don’t want to know about my attempt to play the flute in the fifth grade.
My husband, on the other hand, while not a musician, is much more knowledgeable about music. While I would rather listen to talk radio, he keeps his iTunes library neatly organized into categories and genres. He listens to everything from classical to hard rock. He likes to look up information about musicians, and sometimes he relaxes by watching excerpts of concerts on YouTube.
When my son first began to hum “Ode to Joy,” I couldn’t name the tune even though I had heard it hundreds of times. (Yes, I’m that pitiful.) I told my son to ask his father about it. So that evening my husband pulled up a YouTube video of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. Then my little boy started to ask questions.
“Is that Beethoven?” he asked as he pointed to one of the musicians.
We had to explain that Beethoven lived a very long time ago and that he died a very long time ago.
Pointing to another musician in the symphony, my son asked, “Is he dead too?”
While it’s fun to find learning opportunities in a child’s interests, it is difficult to balance what we adults want to teach with what a five-year-old really wants to know.
“No,” we said, “he’s not dead.”
Then we found a photo of Beethoven, and this made my son very happy. And then he patiently listened to that whole section of the symphony.
Since he was so interested in this music, I asked my son if he’d like to do a project on Beethoven, and he was enthusiastic about the idea. He wanted to make a book, so we printed out a photo of Beethoven, wrote a few facts about this life, included a map of Germany with an arrow pointing to Bonn (where Beethoven was born), and then we added the sheet music for “Ode to Joy.” We punched holes in the side of the paper, tied the pages to together and voila – a little book to showcase his obsession.
My son continues to hum, chant, and create odious lyrics for “Ode to Joy.” He also tries to play it on our small piano, and when we go somewhere in the car, he requests Beethoven’s 9th symphony, which my husband is more than happy to play on the stereo.
I can’t complain that my son loves Beethoven’s 9th symphony. Will it turn into something else? A musical talent? I have no idea. But I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.
{Pointing to Bonn, Germany, which is where Beethoven was born}
What is your child’s latest obsession?
Today I was having a conversation with my husband, which happened to correspond with something I have been reading in Discover Your Child’s Learning Style. I’ll talk more about that book (and I’ll write a newspaper column about it) once I’ve finished it, but I wanted to share with you what my husband told me now.
My husband is a big fan of podcasts. (I am too, but I don’t have much time to listen to them.) One of his favorite podcasts is Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour. It sounds like a fabulous show. My husband is always telling me the story of whatever scientist that is being interviewed by Dr. Kiki, and someday, I will get around to listening too….
But today he was listening to a scientist who is beginning his graduate studies on sharks, which sounds fascinating, but I’m not writing about sharks today. What I want to tell you is that Dr. Kiki always asks her interviewees how they got interested in the subjects they specialize in. After listening to several episodes, my husband has noted a trend. There are usually two factors that contributed to each scientist’s area of interest:
1) Their interest began in early childhood and never went away, and
2) They had an adult that helped foster and support their interest.
For example, the scientist who studies sharks says that when he was a child, his parents got him a membership to the local aquarium. He said they would drop him off at the aquarium, and he would go sit by the shark tank all day.
When my husband told me this, I was excited to tell him about the chapter I read last night in Discover Your Child’s Learning Style. Chapter 7, “Interests: So Easy to Overlook,” encourages parents to listen to and help their children follow their interests and passions. More importantly, authors Mariaemma Willis, M.S. and Victoria Kindle Hodson, M.A. note that many parents don’t encourage their child’s interests because it may not lead to a practical vocation or means of making a livelihood. But this can have a negative impact. Even if the child does not turn his/her interests into a vocation, it is important that they continue to pursue their interests in their free time.
Think about it. Adults are much more likely to be able to get through their daily grind of work if they have something to look forward to on the weekends, right? Keeping our hobbies and dreams alive is paramount to staying healthy, active and giving us more peace of mind.
Discover Your Child’s Learning Style also provides a chart on possible careers that match a child’s talents with their dispositions. It’s not an exhaustive list, but the authors want parents to realize that there are many more careers out there than they may think at first. For example, if your child is interested in music, it doesn’t mean that being a performer is the only option available to them. Think of all the careers related to music: performing, producing, songwriting, agent, management, teaching, coordinators of concerts, ticket sales, or maybe they will want to work at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Furthermore, I believe parents who support and encourage children’s interests will help them find activities, volunteer work and/or internships that will look great on resumes and go a long way in assisting their children to find a vocation that will be meaningful and satisfying to them.
This is the biggest reason we want to homeschool. We want our children to have the freedom to delve into the subjects that make them happy and will make them want to learn. But you don’t have to homeschool to help your children. You just have to give them the freedom and support to discover their passion.
Above is a photo I took in the upstairs of the log house at the William Harris Homestead. Oh, what those walls could tell us if they could talk!
There is nothing I love more than old, family stories. I have written a few of my grandmother’s stories for the Barrow Journal, and recently I wrote a story about the Harris Family, whom I am related to through marriage.
My Great Aunt Jesse Harris wrote down a story about her husband’s great uncle, who committed murder in 1841 very near where I live today. It was a heinous act that makes a fascinating story all these years later, and if you’d like to read it, click here.
But what does this have to do with homeschooling? For that matter, what do stories have to do with homeschooling? Everything, I think!
The word “story” is such a buzz word for me. Within that one word, I think about life, lessons, wisdom, writing, creativity, entertainment, history, and the story that is mine ~ my life as it unfolds.
In The Wonder of Boys, Michael Gurian writes, “Kids of all ages, adults too, often learn more from listening to the tale and its in-depth interpretation than they do from a lecture by a parent, mentor, or educator. Stories ‘speak to their souls’ in a way nothing else can.”
I want to teach my children where they came from by sharing with them the stories their great-parents passed down to me. They’re not going to learn only the names of their ancestors, but they’re going to hear these stories and anything else I can remember about my grandmothers and other family members.
I want to teach them about their local history as well as their world history by sharing with them, for example, tales from the Harris Homestead, or visiting locals museums and reading the local literature.
With these stories and with other stories, whether real or made up, I want to teach my children about life. I truly believe that stories can help us make wiser decisions as we piece together the stories of our own lives. Children may see themselves in the characters they hear about, and they can evaluate for themselves whether or not those characters made good decisions and see what the outcomes were for those characters.
I want to teach my boys the value in oral storytelling and how it has informed many different cultures and religions about their own identity. As we do this, we will be helping them create their own identities.
I had the privilege of knowing the late J.J. Reneaux, an award-winning storyteller and musician. In the short time that I knew her, she taught me much about the value of stories, and because of her urging, I went to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. It’s one of my goals to take my boys one year when they are old enough to appreciate it.
Last but not least, stories are a wonderful way to teach children the basics of reading, writing, language and even math and science!
I could go on and on about stories, but I won’t. Please tell me what you love about stories, any resources that you might know about, or share a good story that kids might love to hear!
Meanwhile, here are some interesting links/resources that I have found relating to storytelling and teaching:
Tell Me a Story by Chase Collins ~ a book recommended by Michael Gurian in The Wonder of Boys. I have ordered myself a copy, so I’ll be sure to write about it someday.
National Storytelling Network’s Overview ~ lists some good points on why storytelling is important
Using Stories In the teaching of Life Lessons by Hermann A. Peine, Ph.D. (PDF format)
Stories as Teaching Tools: The Humane Society of the United States
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The best part of homeschooling is the field trips! There are countless venues and opportunities out there where children can explore and do hands-on learning. Once I met a homeschooling family that went only one place for their vacations. Though there’s many places I could visit again and again, it baffled me that they would do that while homeschooling. There are so many places to take kids, if you are able! As homeschoolers, especially, I believe we should take advantage of historical sites, national parks, and the wonderful venues that cities offer us.
We are very lucky that we live within driving distance to a large city. My in-laws are visiting right now, so last week we all went to the Georgia Aquarium. My 4-year-old is obsessed with ocean animals. Though it’s an expensive venue, we have been able to get some very good coupons in the past, so we’ve taken him a few times. With my in-laws, we realized it might be a better deal to go ahead and get a family membership, especially since we are thinking of taking my son there for his upcoming 5th birthday too. (Shh! Don’t tell!) So it wasn’t planned, but we took the plunge. They also offer some homeschool classes there, so I’m hoping we can take advantage of those next Fall.
I do my best to visit free places, but when my child loves and is so interested in something like this, I think it’s worth it.
My four-year-old was in heaven. He had to go to the area where he could touch sting rays, sea urchins, star fish and other sea creatures about three times! I think my 20-month-old is finally at an age where he could benefit from the stimulation too. It was a fascinating experience for all!
Where are your favorite places to take your kids for some fun, learning and wonderment?
As promised, here is the second column that I wrote for The Barrow Journal on homeschooling a preschooler. In it I write some specific examples of what I do to teach my son, such as activity books, games, puzzles, and some of the arts and crafts we do. Next week I’ll post the third column, which focuses solely on the online resources that I have used with him.
Click here to read the full column, or you can scroll down to see some related links and photos.
One of the activity books we have used…. It’s probably the most “school like” thing that we do.
My son and nephew playing a game together. We love games and puzzles, and we use a lot of them. To learn more about the benefits of playing puzzles, click here. To learn about an easy sight word game I invented, click here.
When I first began to wonder what kind of arts and crafts I could do with my son, I discovered that he didn’t like to paint or draw, but he liked using scissors! He cut up small bits of paper, so I began to use those scraps to make paper animals. This is the first one I made. He calls it his “rainbow fish” after the popular children’s book of the same name.
I try not to spend a lot of money on homeschooling, but not long ago I invested in a laminator. I got this one on Amazon for about $30, and a packet of 50 laminating sheets for about $11. The sheets will last a long time. I’m very happy with it, and I think that it’ll be very helpful over the long haul.
This is one of the projects we did with the paper animals. We learned all about what kinds of animals live in trees. On our first day of making the tree, we took a white sheet outside and shook some branches over it. At that time, the trees in our yard yielded only an ant and a spider, but we knew all sorts of animals live in trees. We made a new animal every few days. :)
Now we have an ocean on the wall. However, I have not taught my son what lives in the ocean because HE TEACHES ME. This kid is obsessed with ocean animals, and we already had a full supply of paper ocean animals to fill up our ocean. (And some of them are not on the board because he likes to play with them.)
For a long time, it was Mama making all the animals, and my son refused to help. This was a little frustrating for me, but I didn’t pressure him to change (too much), and over time, he started to help make parts of the animals (like the teeth of the saw shark above), and now he will even make the animals by himself! Hooray! Sometimes he gets busy making animals while I’m busy doing something else. Double Hooray!!
I really think having an activity room helps encourage him to create and learn on his own.
This is the first animal he made: a whipnose. They are fish that live in the very deep parts of the ocean and have fishing-pole-like noses.
Here is his lion fish. He likes to look in the animal encyclopedia that my nephew gave him for Christmas for new animals.
And I’m happy to say that he also likes to paint and draw now too!
What kinds of things do you do to help your children soar?!
More Preschool Posts:
Soon I will post the second in my series of columns about homeschooling a preschooler, but first I thought it might be appropriate to start at the very beginning….That is, how I taught my son his ABCs and 123s.
I believe that learning happens all the time, and as Maria Montessori said, it begins at birth. There are the kinds of things we teach ourselves, such as learning how to walk, talk, love and explore. Then there is the “school” kind of learning: learning the language our parents speak, our history, math and critical thinking. Every kind of learning is important.
Of all the things I want to teach my sons, what I hope to teach them above all is to love learning. This world is beautiful, distressing and complex. I hope to instill in them the desire to discover, and I want to teach them how they can find answers for themselves. I also want them to know it’s okay to keep asking questions and how to embrace mystery, if need be.
That may sound lofty, but it’s for those reasons that I try to take my son’s lead with learning, especially now when he’s only four years old. If I push anything on him, he’s going to balk. As long as he’s inquisitive and thinks what we’re doing is fun, I’m going to roll with it. (We will re-evaluate this method as he gets older.)
But I don’t sit back and wait for him to pick up a book either. I show him books, and I introduce new ideas to him. Usually he thinks my suggestions are pretty cool. After all, he is FOUR.
My eldest son learned his ABCs very early. By 21 months, he could correctly identify each letter. That is, I could say, “Point to the M,” and he would point to the correct letter. I taught my son his letters in a variety of ways, but I think what helped him the most was our lessons in the bathtub.
I bought those letters that you can use in the tub, and we would play with them, and I simply stated the names of the letters as we moved them around. Sometimes we would line up three letters on the edge of the tub, and I would say their names as I pointed to them. For a while, I thought that what I was doing was pointless and that he was probably too young to get it, but then one night I asked him to pick up such and such letter and he did it! And then he did it again! I was amazed!
Nowadays Daddy usually gives him a bath, but not long ago I did, and that night he wanted to try to “build words” like they do in the PBS show “Word World.” (I also credit and thank educational television shows for teaching my son the basics better than I can! If used properly, T.V. is not bad for kids! You can read a column I wrote about children and television here.) You can see one word we built above. I had to assemble it on the toilet because his younger brother kept grabbing and throwing the letters around.
Another fun activity we did was writing the alphabet on the sidewalk outside and then walking along and saying the letters.
I also used the chalk to teach him numbers. I wrote the numbers with the chalk on the sidewalk, and I drew dots under each numeral…..1 dot for the number one, 2 dots for the number 2, etc. Then we would find objects to put under each letter: 2 acorns, 3 leaves, etc. I think this really helped him to understand what the numbers meant.
These are simple exercises, and they were simply part of our routine. I did not do any planning. I just took advantage of the moments when my son was focused and willing to learn.
Moral of the story: Teach when child is willing and you have the energy!
It should not go unmentioned that my youngest son, the 19-month-old, is a completely different character! Even if I had the opportunity to spend leisure, uninterrupted one-on-one time with him like I did with my first child, I’m not sure he would learn the same way. He never sits still. In the bathtub, he’s a fish flipping from one side to the other, and he chews on the letters.
I have not tried to teach the 19-month-old anything because I just don’t have the time or energy, but I’m not worried about him. He is vibrant, curious, and he loves books. He loves nothing more than sitting in my lap with a book and flipping through the pages. Sometimes he’ll point to the images and say, “ugh!” which means I need to tell him what it is. He will definitely learn differently than his older brother, but as you can see, he has already taken the lead on how.
If you have any other fun, easy methods for teaching toddlers the basics, please leave a note in the comment section!
This post was written on April 22, 2010.
The other day I watched this news segment from Good Morning America, “Extreme Parenting: Radical Unschooling.” I could not have been more astonished at such an extremely biased news report. The reporter obviously did not do her homework, and she seemed more than ready to paint a negative picture of this alternative form of education.
Let me be clear. I’m not saying that unschooling is good or bad. I don’t have enough knowledge or experience with it to make that call. But I have read enough about homeschooling and unschooling to know that it is a worthwhile option to look into.
This report focuses on what the children have not been exposed to as well as some irrelevant issues, in my opinion, like a teenager staying up all night. Teenagers tend to keep crazy hours, and I don’t think this is going to reflect on what kind of adult they become. I saw a very short image of many garden plants the teenagers were cultivating, but nothing was said about them, and in fact, the reporter never bothered to ask what the children have learned and what they are ready for. Furthermore, the interviews with the family seemed edited and their answers were truncated. There was a short blip about another family who unschools, but in all, I did not get a clear picture of what either of these families look like. When I listened to this report, I could hear the reporter’s negative questioning much louder than anything else.
The report also indicated that the unschooling parents also used a relaxed structure and little or no discipline with the children. Though unschoolers may use a relaxed parenting style, I think it should be noted that every homeschooling and unschooling family looks different. Again, I think these families were unfairly misrepresented, but no one should look at one family and think that every unschooling family does things the same way.
I recently read The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith. It’s just one of many books about homeschooling/unschooling that I would like to read. From this book and the many testimonies it offers, I know that there are many unschooled children who are capable learners who can effectively live in society. I would wager that most unschooled children are much more willing and able to do the hard work it takes to accomplish something because they know first-hand why it is beneficial and rewarding to work hard at something.
I was particularly struck by one example in the book of a twelve year old boy who decided for himself that he wanted to try public school when he entered junior high. (His siblings chose to remain at home and continue unschooling.) He said he liked the challenge of school, and when he was presented with a group project, his attitude was “let’s have fun and see what we will learn.” The classmates in his group, on the other hand, had the attitude of “let’s finish this as quick as possible so that we can go home.”
Indeed, I remember having this same attitude in school, and all my friends had it too. My husband, a college professor, is dismayed by the lack of motivation of his students. Many of his students cannot write, and he deals with a large amount of plagiarism each semester when his papers are due. He often comments to me that he is unsure these kids are ready for the real world. In other words, why question an unschooled child’s future when there are so many children in our current system who are not prepared for college or other “real” jobs?
Whether or not one agrees with “unschooling,” we must admit that our current system is losing a vast number of students. Children begin life believing that the world is an exciting place, and they are eager to learn. Now that I’m nearly forty, I also know that there is so much out there to explore and wonder about. What can be done to help children not lose this spark?
At least these parents are taking their children’s education into their own hands. They are trying something different. I absolutely believe that if children are given a nurturing environment, exposed to the world through real-life experiences (and not just sitting in a classroom all day), and offered a variety of resources, they will want to keep learning and they will love learning.
I support and admire these families. They have the right to do what they are doing, and I will look to many more (expanded and unbiased) examples of unschooling before I decide whether or not it is good for children.
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For another good post regarding this news report by a father of an unschooled child, click here.
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