Making School Something That They Look Forward To

After seeing this post at the Nurture Store, it struck me that these are the same principals I apply to our homeschool. Sometimes people ask me how I make school so much fun. Well, this is how- I follow the same principals from the Nurture Store's playcations to our school. You can make your school seem like a playcation too, and they will learn more because they want to.

I started this pastels art lesson by beginning it first myself, and soon everyone was at the table.

Make things look tempting: When I started nature study journaling or often when I do an art project or a craft, I just get all the materials ready and begin with the project myself. In no time, they are there, dying to do some, too. We have fun finishing it together and with my head-start I can often find out the tricky or difficult spots ahead of time and warn them of them, which makes the project run smoother. I also have a model to show them if they get confused on some aspect of the project.

They have been playing with this school project, a catapult, for over a year.

Katie taught Quentin all of his letters and some other skills.

Double up for maximum fun: Making school projects that transform into toys gives them lots of extra play. They will remember their history lessons if they play them. This is a type of narration. Sometimes they come back to me to clarify some aspect of the lesson that they were not sure about that they would not have otherwise thought of if they had not been acting it out.

Enlist help: Now that I have older kids, often they will help me with a lesson for their younger siblings or even do one completely for me. Utilize their talents and energy level. It is a joy to see this in action. If you only have younger kids now, think of all the seeds you are planting now, that you will be able to reap later.

Keep it simple: Sometimes it is easy to get too complicated with a craft or project and this not only leads to frustration and confusion but also the original purpose for the activity gets lost. They remember only the activity and not the lesson. Sometimes the activity will be counterproductive. Sometimes crafts or art projects in the end will look like a historical object or process, but if they make it differently than they did originally, this can confuse the facts.

Quentin is always using craft materials to make his own projects related to school lessons.

Go natural: The more you use toys that are battery-powered, television, video games and the like, the less likely they will want to make the effort to learn, imagine and play. By contrast supplying them with lots of interesting raw materials sparks creativity. Many times my kids come up with their own crafts and activities appropriate to the lessons learned.

Quentin made a quiver for his Robin Hood figure when he saw some arrow-shaped plastic toothpicks in my cabinet.

Mix it up: If you do the same subjects, the same materials, the same times of the day -day in and day out throughout the year, it will come boring and stale. We have been doing a Mainly-One-Subject-A-Day for over a year now and it works for us because things seem new and different if you haven't done it for a week. I also vary when and where we do our lessons -sometimes first thing in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon. If they are busy playing something productive than I will let them play and catch them right after lunch.  All of this adds some freshness. I do some subjects every day, but this varies according to the student. I do each day what each student needs to do regularly such as reading, math and foreign languages. I discuss these individually with each student and they agree that they need to do these things more regularly than once a week so they are participants to this decision. You really need to be partners in their education and empower them. It is harder to grumble if you have been a part of the decision.

James especially enjoyed reviewing Roman numerals by using pieces from an old RISK game.

Add a wow factor: I am constantly on the look-out for projects that really are exciting and fun. Keeping with the same sort of activities becomes mundane and ordinary. Even if I do a complete book such as a History Pockets book, I don't do the whole thing, one chapter after another. I do one and then wait a few weeks to do another one with other projects in between. Art projects are a great way to add a wow factor because there are so many good techniques out there now. Add CD's and DVD's, games, costumes, puppets, beautiful journals to encourage writing and drawing, art materials of all types, various math manipulatives, science supplies like magnifiers and dropper or plastic test tubes to your regular activities and always a stady supply of good books. Look at how you can use the same materials you have in a new way. This is especially important when budgets are tight. Model creativity and imagination.

James made this beautiful flower from the wax covering of some Baby Bell cheese. They see art materials in just about everything now.

Upcycle: The more you use recycled materials to make learning aids or playthings, the more you inspire and spark creativity. They begin to see the potential in these things themselves and begin to build their own items to go along with what they are learning. That is when your heart really sings.

Flexibility or Connecting to the Now

Our next door neighbor's ferret tends to get out and when he does, he sometimes comes to our house to visit. He sometimes opens the back door himself, so when the boys open the back door to go outside, he will surprise them by being there.

In the middle of our DaVinci picture study today, he came over to visit.
It causes a stir, not only because it is a surprise, and not only because the the boys want to pet him, but also because the cats and the ferret are not too sure about each other and we would like to avoid any confrontation between them.

His visit in the middle of our picture study, however, also prompted my six-year old to say, "Mom, can we do a picture study of a ferret?" My older children and I exchanged glances and smiles because we had just been looking at DaVinci's Lady with Ermine.

So, I replied that I thought we could.

So, I printed out a copy of it and we all examined it, with the image of the ferret fresh in our minds.

This lead to a curiosity as to  the difference between a ferret and a ermine.

This lead to research, which led us to the fact that apparently there is a bit of debate as to whether she is, in fact holding

an ermine or

a ferret?

This led us to looking at the classifications.

The Mustelidae is a large and diverse family which includes many species. Ermine are from Mustela erminea. They are stoats and are only referred to as ermine when they turn white for the winter.

Ferrets are the domesticated descendants of the European polecat, Mustela putorious. (Don't you love that name?)

So our little visitor, instead of a diversion became an enrichment to our studies.

By the way, I wanted to show you something I learned about this painting.
There is a new technology available that virtually restores paintings so that they can be seen closer to how they looked when they were painted.

"If you read a child a math book" (with apologies to Laura Numeroff)

If you read a child a math book...(like Mummy Math)

he will want to make Platonic Solids models...

with toothpicks and gumdrops...

like tetrahedrons...

and octahedrons...

and that might make him a little confused...

but he'll keep working at it and he will get it...

 and then he might want make polyhedra models...

and that will remind him of one time we counted shape faces and he'll want to do it again...

and that will make him want to count the vertices and edges...

and that will lead the oldest child to remember when we did this before and that will lead to

Euler's Polyhedron Formula,
V-E+F=2...

and that will lead to counting in positive and negative numbers...and then he'll want you to read another.

Living math books with these geometric concepts:

• Mummy Math by Cindy Neuschwander (grades 1-4)
• Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone by Cindy Neuschwander (Grades 3-5)
• Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories From the Lives of Great Mathematicians, Luetta Reimer (ages 8 and up)
• Leonhard Euler and the Bernoullis: Mathematicians from Basel, M. B. W. Tent (6th grade and up)

What is a polygon? 

The first time we visited the topic of polygons, we used some paper polygons. The we made a chart, counting the edges and vertices with a marker. The older students could plug in Euler's formula. While talking about it we discovered that the same formula can be applied to 2-dimensional figures with a constant of 1 instead of 2. Makes one think, huh? 

This time we used toothpicks and gumdrops, which we have done before. Toothpicks and gumdrops are good to work with to make regular polygon because the equal sized toothpicks make them automatically have all their sides the same length. This time when we counted the edges and vertices, they were easy to count because the edges are the sides, denoted by how many toothpicks are used and vertices are where two sides meet up, denoted by how many gumdrops are used. This time, because we wanted to look closely at the Platonic solids, they measured the angles with a protractor and (with a little adjusting) correctly determined that three of the five Platonic Solids are made out of equalateral triangles. I thought it was interesting that Tiffini at Child's Play, when she did this lesson, also brought the children's attention to Polyhedral Dice and their shapes, which made counting the sides even easier as that is how the dice are named. We use those dice all  the time for our math games.

On Homeschooling

Hi, I've just had some time to go read more on your blog, and I just wanted to say that you are doing some really amazing stuff. As a homeschooling parent, it would seem like one needs to be almost an expert in everything. Which seems really kinda daunting at the moment to me! How do you start out, and how do you manage the expectations around shouldering the sole responsibility for your children's education? -Gwen

This is not an easy question to answer, Gwen. Homeschooling happened rather gradually with me because I needed to take my daughter out of school pretty much from the beginning. She was diagnosed with autism when she was three years old and still not talking. I went with her when she went to public school Kindergarten because she needed extra help with communication but I was then pregnant with my son and I knew I could not go to school with her the following year. It is a long story that is not pertinent to this question, but I only go into this enough to say that I had to take her out of public school and homeschool her as early as first grade. I was fortunate enough at this time to know someone who was already homeschooling and she put me in touch with the local homeschool support group, which helped with social activities, field trips and other learning activities. I then researched what curriculum was out there and ordered lots of catalogues. I also found out about a Homeschool Convention and our whole family (of four at that point) went to it. It was this huge convention center filled with booths from all the curriculum sellers as well as lectures you could attend, one right after the other, with speakers on all sorts of topics.

I, of course, made mistakes, just like I made some mistakes in all aspects of parenting with my first. But, as with parenting in general, I learned from my mistakes, and was able to tailor my schooling to fit our whole family's needs. Since I started from the beginning, I could handle her homeschooling fairly easily, and I grew with her. (She, by the way, "no longer qualifies for the diagnosis of autism.") I was able to pre-read everything that she read so I was moving right along with her. When we hit high school subjects, it wasn't a big shock, because it was just the next step up. As each of her brothers were born, it was just adding another to the school and I, of course, started from the beginning with each of them, whenever they expressed interest in learning. My first son learned to read just from sitting in the high chair while I taught my daughter to read. By the time I stared workbooks with him, much to my surprise, he already knew it all! He was already reading.

For a few years we belonged to a homeschool co-op, which is a type of school in which the parents share the responsibilities of teaching various classes and entertaining the babies in a nursery while the older children attend classes. The classes tapped into whatever talents the parents happened to have. We had a parent who had been an art teacher. We had one who taught piano. Some had majored in chemistry or theatre in college. All of these talents were pooled to the benefit of us all, and our children were able to experience being in a class setting, and having someone who was not their parent as a teacher.

By the time my youngest was able to participate, I decided that I had enough children to have my own group activities at home. This is what you now see in many of this blog's entries. They each learn at their own level. Sometimes my youngest get what they can out of an activity and then, once they have had enough, they wander off to do their own activities (often recreating what they have just learned with their toys!) and I can concentrate on challenging my older children a bit more. My older children, too, have learned to help my younger children with some of the activities and have learned the valuable skills of patience and how to teach others. It has made the bonds between them stronger as well. My younger ones learn by watching my older children as well. My now graduated daughter often teaches my younger ones because she has lots of energy and enthusiasm. My youngest son now often runs to my daughter to show her his latest work and get her praise.

Reading is a big activity at our house. Not only do they have ample time to read books of their choice, but we also read to all of our children every night. Often it is literature relating to what they are learning in history or some other subject. We savor these moments of being together and it is an important part of our day. When I pull out a book, new to my younger children, but much beloved in our family, the older children often act like they are seeing an old friend.

You don't have to be an expert in everything. My husband and I were having difficulty at one point with teaching my daughter algebra. We found a homeschool algebra class for her and she was able to learn with a different teacher and a group of teen peers that which was difficult to learn at home. Sometimes teens get together for study groups as well, in which they peer teach.

Through the whole process of homeschooling, which now just seems like part of parenting in general, my primary goal is not to teach any one set of facts. I don't want them dependant on me or anyone else for their learning. Learning should ultimately rest on their own shoulders, and not be dependant on anyone else. I try then, to teach them the skills of reading, writing, basic mathematical concepts and research. Once the foundation of this is laid in place then it can be built upon by a refining of those skills and by adding knowledge of a wide range of subjects. For this reason, although I have a basic idea of the direction of our school subjects, it is often interest led. You will find at our house that everyone follows their own interests on their own time, and there are beloved books, like our history and science books, that seems to pass continually from one hand to another, not because of assigned readings, but because they want to learn, want to know. They ask questions; we discuss things that come up. Sometimes I don't know the answers to the questions, so we find out the answers together. I don't have to be the all-knowing teacher, I just have to be willing to learn myself, for it is true that learning never ends for those with a willing heart.

On Gratitude

I think one of the most amazing side effects of studying history is the gratitude that it generates. If you really study it, not just memorize facts and dates, but really put yourself into the time period, in the shoes of those who were there, you marvel at all that they went through. You marvel at how hard it was to get something to eat and to prepare it for your families. You become grateful for the fact you can just turn your faucet knobs on your tub and get lots of water just the temperature you want, and that you can enjoy this luxury every day. You become amazed that you do not fear that the birth of a child might take a loved one from you or that at any time you might lose your whole family from a sudden disease. You become grateful for all the heroes who have made this possible.

Questions About Planning Lessons & Spelling

I had a reader ask:

How do you plan your days? Do you sit down say on Sunday and go over all the topics you want to cover and figure out what coloring pages to print out, what experiment supplies you need etc? Or do you do it the night before? You always seem to have the day planned out so well. Also, Do you work on spelling?

I have used many systems over the years as my style of teaching changes, the needs of the family changes and as I try new things. For the last two years I have used a system that really works for me. I used to have a planbook in which I would map out at least a week or two's worth of activities. This would always get off track as sickness, unplanned events or activities that didn't turn out get scratched out. I would get frustrated as I kept having to erase and rewrite the same things over and over again in different boxes. I briefly went through a phase in which I made plans on pieces of lined paper and then only fill in the planbook as we finished them. Then it occurred to me that I could have two planbooks, and that is the system I use now.

The first one has a general plan of what I think would be the next step in each of the subjects. For example, for history, I write down the things I like and plan to do in the curriculum I use. I don't do everything. I pick and choose what I think they will like, and what I think has enough learning in it for the effort. I hate crafts that don't really teach anything. Anyway, I sketch out in pencil about two weeks worth, maybe three, and this is what I use to plan getting materials, etc.

But as each day comes, I let the boys have some direction in how the school goes, too. I let them know at the beginning of the day the ideas I have for the day, and they usually are enthusiastic about it. Sometimes they have ideas to add or ways to modify or change things. If they seem reasonable, we will make those changes. Sometimes this means that I have bought materials to use and we don't use them. That's okay. It rarely happens, and if they are not perishable, they just go in our general school supplies and usually get used some other time. I wouldn't allow them to make changes if I felt they were just trying to take the easy way out, if they were reducing things just to get out of work, for example. They know that by now and don't really try that much at all. Sometimes they have ideas that are just different because they read something on their own and want to do something more along those lines, etc. We talk and work it out and then we pretty much have the day planned. The day's plans too can include things like baking cookies or other fun things if that is appropriate. Just the other day we were all feeling washed out, so I scrapped the plans I had sketched out a week ago and we baked and rested and played games instead.

That is why I have the second planbook. In it I record what we do actually do. That just keeps me with a sense of our weeks and months passing and that we are accomplishing things in those weeks and months. Sometimes I look back over this second planbook to look for a particular activity. Also, I have this second book because I can keep this one pretty neat as I fill it in after the fact. The first one gets erased a million times and things scratched out and lines going here and there as things get changed or modified. Also, If we take off a day I hadn't planned...say a sick day or an unplanned, last-minute field trip, I just start up where we left off so something that is in the MONDAY column might not happen until TUESDAY or WEDNESDAY. In this way the planbook gets really off in terms of the days of the week. I just don't pay attention to the days of the week in that one, just one day after the other.

Life isn't as neat as we plan either. That's okay. In that way, I guess I lean toward the unschooling camp. The second book just shows what we did, day by day. It really isn't a PLAN book at all. It is a short few words journal of what we did. I tried to do without it at first, but since the planbook gets so crazy, I need the second book to feel a sense of order and progression. It is also good to show any review board or whatever your state might have to show what you have done as well.
So, I don't print out pages or whatever until we have had our morning day planning session. After we plan our day, I print out pages and while I am doing this, they have a few minutes to chill out before we start school activities. It works for us.
To answer your question about spelling....I work on spelling with my seventh grader. He was a horrible speller but since we have been using Sequential Spelling he has been doing a lot better. I recommend it but it's down side is that it starts out with really simple words and a lot of kids, especially older kids, get offended by that. It works very differently than other programs because it doesn't not rely on memorizing words, but through repetition, the student really learns how the letters combine. My eighth grader is autistic but has savant skills in spelling. I haven't met a word he couldn't spell, so I don't bother with spelling with him. My third grader is severely dyslexic and is still only reading at a first grade level, so I haven't started him on spelling yet. He is struggling too much with reading right now. Although he has just recently started with Explode the Code Online and that seems to have a spelling component too. My Kindergartner isn't doing spelling yet.
Hope all this helps, and that I did not ramble too much about things that don't apply to you or your questions. : ) I do tend to go on when talking about my favorite subjects...schooling and kids!

Tiering A Science Experiment: The Celery Experiment

For the youngest students you can show them the holes in the end of a freshly cut piece of celery... and ask them what they think will happen if...
you make cups of colored water...

and put the celery in them.
You can even split one stalk in the middle and put the two ends into cups of colored water.
In a few days, have them draw what they see.
That they understand that the plant draws the colored water up through these tubes is all that is necessary for Pre-K-2nd grade students.

For older students, when you show them the holes at the bottom of the celery stalk, you can have them imagine these holes running through the stalk and have them sketch what they imagine. In a few days, when they see the coloring in the celery stalks, you can talk about how the "veins" in plants are called xylem, and that the xylem takes water and minerals from the roots to other parts of the plant. You can also tell them that there are other tubes in plants called Phloem, which take the sugars (the plant's "food") created during the process of photosynthesis to other parts of the plant. Using this information, your child can add to their original sketch, adding color and labels. (This information is in Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany, for 3-6 grade students.)

For even older students, use a wilted celery stalk. When they see that the wilted stalk stands up again, you can talk about how plant and animal cells are different. Animal cells are round and the nucleus, which contains the DNA, are in the center. Plant cells are more square in shape and have a cell wall. The nucleus is not in the center, but have something called the central vacuole in the center. This vacuole is like a water balloon and when the cells have plenty of water, this vacuole fills up and presses against the cell wall, causing rigidity in the cell. This rigidity in the cells makes the plant in general stand up straight. It is the water leaving the cells that make plants wilt. They can sketch what they have learned in their lab reports. (This is an experiment done in Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science, a book for 6-8th grade students.)

One experiment; three levels of learning.

See how Homeschool Creations has made the celery experiment more exciting and complex by adding sugar, baking soda and salt to the water.

Discoveries

The best way to spark interest in a subject...is to not just tell them...but give them the materials

(such as a battery and the bulb and wires from old Christmas tree lights)... and let them make their own discoveries. They will never forget that moment of discovery.
Once you have their interest, you can then show them a few things you know. At that point it won't just be you lecturing to them...but a shared experience.
You can then set some ground rules about how to handle the materials...and then let them make discoveries for themselves again.
There is always another day for you to share what you know and for them to share what they have discovered.