Tag Archives: Education

Life’s a Beach!

Posted in children, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Uncategorized, Unschooling by

During the summer we often take the day off from school and hit the beach with family or friends.

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(Dude, we must be those homeschooler types you hear about that are grooming the next Jeff Spicoli…what could you possibly learn in that vast nothingness?!?)

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Well it’s not all boogie boarding and sunbathing…

We dig…

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We search…

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We find…

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We research…

We often stop by the local sea center and ask questions after a productive day at the beach, as well as pet their fishy friends.

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They let us use their equipment and microscopes to look at our teensy tiny microscopic finds.

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You decide if a day at the beach is worth cutting class.

I think so!

P.S. Did I mention I’m typically lounging in a chair, enjoying the sunshine, the warm sand in my toes and hanging out with good company or a good book. And I also learn a few interesting things along the way!

I mention this because so many parents THINK they don’t have what it takes to homeschool, but the hardest part of homeschooling is making the decision to do it!

The Benefits of Relaxed Homeschooling Year Round

Posted in children, Deschooling, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, School-at-home, Unschooling by

First off I should let you know we are considered “relaxed schoolers” And we relax-learn year-round for many reasons, some of the main reasons are:

1) I noticed my children (back when we attended school) defined learning as something you can only do at a desk with dictation by a teacher. You simply could not learn in any other situation. In fact they protested anything they deemed as school-ish outside of school hours. The class room situation quickly killed their lovely spirit and curiosity to learn, which broke my heart and frustrated our whole family. The children were stressed and their behavior reflected their stress.

By relax schooling my children have reconnected with the freedom to choose WHAT they want to learn, WHEN they want to learn it, WHERE they want to learn it and HOW they want to learn it. Which has translated into a constant stream of learning. They no longer protest the process of learning. Life is once again a peaceful learning experience, year round.

The process of “de-schooling” took my children a few months, but we didn’t see complete fruits of our labors until we as a family found trust in ourselves, our abilities and overall our family groove.

2) Before school I was a “strewing” type mama. Which is an unschooling term. And I stopped that when the kids were in school. I assumed they were getting their education at school. I assumed very wrong. Once we pulled out, I started strewing again. And once again our entire lives became educational; therefore, we homeschool year round, whether we want to or not. ha ha!

Everything we do has a degree of learning to it.

Example:

An average morning could look like this…sleepy heads surfacing, wanting to snuggle and listen to an audio book.

The audio story may lead my son to research the status of Pluto as a planet or not. He will talk non-stop about it, research it, make crafts of it, etc for a few days afterwards. Or become a detective like the main character in the story and start a sleuthing club.

My daughter might want to watch a cartoon DVD. I agree to let her watch, as long as the language of the DVD was switched to french. She will build a fort on the sofa and start talking to her stuffed animals in french.

It is still early in the morning, they are still in their PJs and nibbling on their breakfast….their minds are engaged in something interesting to them. The wheels are turning and I haven’t opened one text-book yet.

3) year round schooling allows you to take time off as needed.

I follow a few curriculums, because it makes record keeping for the state that much easier. I only follow curriculums my children enjoy.

I will give a giant shout out to the math program “LIFE OF FRED” my son will literally BEG me to do more and more chapters. My daughter is not a fan of math, but she is a fan of snuggling up with mom on the sofa to hear a story about math and the life of the crazy little character Fred.
http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/11catofbooks.html

If we sit down to do some text-book type schooling, and it isn’t going smoothly, If it is causing frustration for me or the kids, we can simply take that day off and come back to it at a later time.

Our state requires 175-180 days of school, depending on the year. By homeschooling year round, I don’t have to really worry about taking a day off or even a week off now and then. There is no way we will have 185 bad days each year and if we do, then something drastically needs to change! In fact we normally hit our 100th day of school at least a month before the public school hits theirs.

Other reasons we might take a day off are less stressful reasons…maybe friends or family come to visit. A spontaneous trip to Legoland. It is simply a beautiful day out and the beach or a hike sounds more appealing. It snows on our mountains and we want to make a snowman or go sledding. There are plenty of fabulous reasons to ditch the text books and head outside for a great learning experience.

Some families enjoy having a hard start and stop to their school year, but that does not work for our family. We see learning as something fun and a natural part of life that doesn’t stop in the summer or on the weekends.

My children do have some friends that attend school and can’t understand why my children love schooling year round. It does not compute with the kids that attend school, because they live for the summer break….to make that less confusing we simply call July our summer if people ask.

As I typed out this blog, my son was explaining this balancing experiment to his sister. (He learned all about this experiment from the tv show Beakman’s world. I am not anti-TV, but I am a firm believer that TV options for kids NEED to have an educational element. TV needs to spark curiosity that extends into their real life.)

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And now that I’m about to hit publish on my post my son comes up to me and says “excuse me mom, but do you think you could give me some homework?” I ask “like what kind of homework?” He says “oh I don’t know maybe like go research our solar system or something?” I send him off with a post-it note that says “research and write down five facts about our solar system” he runs off with a giant smile….a moment later he asks if I can take him to the library today…so there you have it, we will be going to the library today. 🙂

That is what homeschooling in our house looks like! That is what learning should look like IMHO and that is why we have a relaxed homeschooling style and why we do it year round.

The Unsocialized Homeschooler

Posted in children, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Unschooling by

The socialization of homeschooled children is a common topic that many homeschoolers are asked about by non-homeschoolers.

When people are considering homeschooling, often they fear their child will miss out on the socialization a classroom brings.

When people are unaware of what exactly goes on in a homeschooling home, they assume the children are unsocialized or rarely get to play with children their own age.

People assume homeschooled children only socialize with their siblings as playmates.

Socialization seems to be one of the biggest concern of the non- homeschooling community.

As a homeschooler, socialization is my least concern, and I’d like to share with you why.

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Each week on average we have 3 play dates with a variety of friends.

Each week we meet up with a homeschooling group and have a park or beach day.

The homeschooling group arranges monthly field trips.

We have sleep overs, camp outs, BBQs, parties, community activities, etc.

We sign up for clubs, sports, dance, horse riding, music, etc.

I was recently told by a friend whose children attend the local public school, that my children have more of a social life than hers do. She confessed, she had worried about homeschooling kids, thinking they sat at home all day with nothing to do, while the other kids were at school playing with friends.

The truth is, school kids spend majority of their day sitting in the classroom, not outside playing with friends. Where as homeschooled children are generally finished with their studies hours before school kids are let out for the day; therefore, homeschool kids get to spend the rest of their day truly SOCIALIZING with friends.

If you are concerned or would like more information on the topic of socializing homeschooled children, here are two really good books on the topic.

Kreative Kids!

Posted in Family, Homeschooling by

I love that my kids think “outside of the box”!!!

Yes there are times (like when my son’s creativity blew out our internet!) that can be frustrating, but over all I wouldn’t trade my outside of the box thinkers for anything!

Teaching themselves how to skateboard. After a few scary attempts down our driveway, they decided they might try to hone their skills on the trampoline. According to the kids, the falls are less bloody.

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I love that they are working on problem solving skills and physics on their own…gives me  a reference for later science lessons, a reference they can relate to. 🙂

It’s no surprise “Speed and Velocity” by “They Might Be Giants” happens to be a favored song in this house, as is any science experiment that involves speed and velocity!

Where Did I Come From Mommie?

Posted in Family by

Kids are curious. Lets start with that. They have questions. Lots and lots of questions. Sometimes those questions catch you off guard. Well before that time came (learning from friends that had gone before me) I prepared!

I bought a pop up children’s book that explains where children come from. I was going to be ready. No catching this mama off guard! I’m ready bring it on!

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Dr. Ruth was at my side. Who could explain it better right? I flipped thru the pop up book and it seemed pretty darn good.

As my children toddled on, there were a few times I thought the book was ready come out. But turned out they wanted to know more about where baby chickens came from…Dr. Ruth didn’t cover that.

Finally the day came. Sex Ed was about to take place. I get out the book and cuddle up on the sofa to read this amazing story of love and life and as I’m reading aloud I hear my words as if from a bubble. The words came out of my mouth so fast, too fast for me to stop them, but at the same moment the words came out in such slow motion I felt like I was in a time warp.

“The penis goes into the vagina”

Oh my holy moly mama me…..did that seriously just come out of my mouth, did my curious child pick up on it? What questions will come now? Do i need to make it clear that my daughter and son are NOT to give this a try? Do i mention some RULE like you need to be married first? oh my mind is racing with allllll the what ifs you can imagine and them some! As I stumble thru the rest of the book trying to pre-read before another one of those graphic details flies out of my mouth. I realize the worst is over, what more can Dr. Ruth have me say now. THE PENIS GOES INTO THE VAGINA….there is no more to tell. That was my brave motherhood moment and if I could do it over I’m not sure how I would have handled that one minor detail of just HOW DOES the sperm get to the egg mommie?

So I thank Dr. Ruth for leading me in this tricky path, but I have words of wisdom for those of you that haven’t approached this place in parenthood yet.

ALWAYS read the book you plan to teach with IN FULL, so there are no surprises.

Think of all the crazy questions your child might come up with once they are fueled with this new found info and be prepared to inform them that under no circumstances are they to attempt this with a sibling, friend, etc.

OH that brings me to parenting manual RULE #2

Make it very clear to your child their privates are PRIVATE! They should not be exploring them with siblings, friends and for sure never ever ever an adult! And make it clear, if anyone is interested in exploring their privates they MUST tell you! Keep your children safe. They can’t go running around this world in the dark, but once they have this info, they need to know the boundaries and they need to be VERY CLEAR boundaries!

So in the long run, I am very glad Dr. Ruth was there for me and in such a clear matter of fact way, but I wish I would have been prepared for that one sentence before I heard it coming out of my mouth in such graphic detail! I do recommend the book if you are at the this place with your children.

And I will say now that my children know it ALL, they don’t seem remotely interested in it. So it might be an easy way to just get it over with and no longer wonder when that awkward moment might come. Just read the story book and move on to their next question…in my house it was: “Mom, can I wire this old phone to these jumper cables and then wire them to this circuit board bit and put it in the plug jack and make my own cell phone?”

Is there a book on that? Dr. Ruth’s guide to child engineers that want to electrocute themselves at each turn?