Seasonal Changes

I think spring is finally starting to stick. We had a flush of crocuses in the yard that lasted about a day before a deer came and ate the largest bunches.

The pussywillow is coming to the end of its bloom. Snow delayed it twice. This is a valuable first food for the bees. I was happy to catch a few in action.

The goldfinches are throwing off their winter feathers. Their showy, bright yellow plumage is a welcome bit of sunshine at the feeders.

When my children were little, it was my greatest pleasure to take them out in the early days of spring to look for the signs that winter was almost over: tree buds, red-winged blackbirds and grackles, first flowers, early insects, spring peepers and birds singing. All tell the story of the season and the promise of life's renewal.

May you enjoy the longer days in the northern hemisphere.

The Flashcard Fiasco

Like her sister, my youngest has test anxiety. She's also indignant about the whole need to test, because of the randomness of what examiners think kids should know at a particular point in time. I don't know where she gets these ideas. (Who, me?)

Test anxiety is especially a problem with math. Every year I try to prepare her for her tests and every year we face meltdowns because she wants the reassurance of knowing her answers are right. At the same time, she fights me about learning the facts because she doesn't understand how they relate to the real world. I was also bad at math in school, so I'm probably not the best person to explain how irrational numbers help us. 

This year I asked if she would like a workbook to practice with before I ordered the test. She agreed. I then discovered that the company that makes the test we use only makes test prep booklets up to eighth grade. For high school age, they had test prep flashcards.

I usually like flashcards. Question on the front, answer on the back, sometimes with an explanation of why it works It sounded like a good solution, and even though I thought they were a bit pricey, I ordered a set.

I have never seen flashcards like these.

If the test didn't provide enough test anxiety, the flashcards did. Most of them are set up where they ask you to explain a concept, rather than a straightforward question. I was at a loss to explain half of them, and that was after I looked at the answer on the back. I had to enlist the help of my college graduate oldest child to help her with them. Tears have been shed. Tempers have flared. I've wondered if it's too late to move to a state that doesn't require testing. 

I'm kidding, of course. I don't want to move. And as much trouble as the flashcards give her, she keeps doing them. I don't think I ever saw her work so hard on a subject she dislikes. Every day she sits with a few cards, scrap paper, and a box of tissues and she tries. She  tries something that she thinks is hard. Really, no matter how she does on the test, I feel like we accomplished something here.

And when she needs to blow off steam, I completely allow the destruction of a flashcard. They make adorable little hats.

Routine Time Together

There is one chipmunk who is always first to our feeders. I often find him sitting on the side stoop as I come around the house to put out seed. He's become braver over the past few months. He used to run when I looked at him. Now I have to avoid stepping on him because he will rush over before I finish filling the last feeder. I started tossing peanuts to him.

I call him Spot because of that little mark on his nose. (Note: Spot might be a girl, I can't tell)

Just like the blue jays that call to each other when I come out of the house with my cup full of seeds, Spot has figured out how to get first crack at the food. He watches and learns. 

Other animals have also learned. I didn't get a photo, but yesterday a squirrel climbed up to our window to peer in. I was late bringing out food. I never put food on the sill or anywhere near it, but the squirrel figured out that I usually go in this place. Maybe it saw me inside, eating breakfast, and wanted to make sure I knew there was no seed.

Whether I have adapted to their habits or they have adapted to mine, or somewhere in between, these animals and I have learned from being around each other. Life has a rhythm in our daily routines and we follow that rhythm.

I look at the routines of our family life. They can be more chaotic now. We have a jumble of clashing schedules and summer schedules are worse. As children become young adults, it gets difficult to find those moments of routine, of coziness together, of play. They become so much more important because they are rarer. So we adapt. For us, time together includes occasional evenings watching cartoons or a movie, Sundays at church, possibly followed by a visit to the bookstore with grandparents, and even those fleeting moments when we are all in the car together, discussing something we heard or saw.  There is a rhythm to life in our time together. These moments are the greatest opportunity for growth and learning. We learn a great deal from simply being with each other.

Respecting Our Children's Interests

My oldest has been playing Pokemon Go. She has the only device that is new enough to handle it, so she shares it with her brother and sister. The library we work at has two Pokemon gyms and a Pokemon stop, so a lot of what she's collected came from there. She learned she walks about 3km (1.86miles) whenever she's at work. Library employees spend a lot of time on their feet.

It's been frustrating for me to hear so much negativity associated with this game. The NYC police commissioner, while reporting on incidents involving the game, complained, "That craze is one of the stupidest ones that I've seen. Don't understand it, don't intend to understand it. Has no appeal to me." That seems to sum up the problem. Adults who have no interest in the game are passing judgment without trying to understand what it is about. For years, I have heard so many parents lament that their kids aren't getting out/getting enough exercise. The creators of Pokemon have been trying to get kids outside for years, and now they hit on something that actually works. Even before the problems with luring players into unsafe areas and thefts of devices, Pokemon Go had a message on its app to remember to play safely. I know this because I asked my kids about it. I asked them to explain the game to me. Talking to kids seems to be the biggest problem for adults. Mocking a game that our children enjoy only makes them less likely to share their interests with us.

The people who are running into trouble playing the game are the ones who are not following common sense safety. If I'm doing something I love, like photography,  I get distracted too, so I try to remember the basics: Try not to go out alone. Be aware of your surroundings. Secure your valuables (in this case, personal info on your device). Keep off of private property. Don't play while driving. We have heard all of this advice before when texting was the big thing, when smartphones became popular, even when we were wandering around plugged into Walkmans when I was a teen back in the stone age (battery age?) of technology. There are probably examples before that, but that was the craze I grew up with.

My point is that safety is not an exclusive issue to this craze. We need to remember that the things we consider trivial might be very important to our kids.  If you want to build a relationship with them, be involved. Go with them on their Pokemon hunts. Walk with them. I think it's great that this is exciting kids (and older). They are getting outside. They are getting exercise. And some might even benefit from stealth learning as they find Pokemon near historic sites and monuments.

Coming to Flower

I once had a discussion with a friend and fellow gardener about finding "volunteers" in the garden. She said she never had volunteers, but it was probably because she was a compulsive weeder. As soon as something sprouted that she didn't plant, out it went.

I tend to weed slowly. I like to make sure I can identify the plant before I pull it up. You can't always tell what you are growing when it's a seedling. I have had unusual flowering plants appear in my yard simply because I waited to see what would happen. A year or two ago, a droopy petaled flower appeared in our yard because I decided not to weed it. It turned out to be a woodland flower called white avens.

White Avens, geum canadense

There is a saying that a weed is a flower in the wrong place. But it can also be in the right place and we just don't recognize it yet. Watching something grow without knowing what it will become takes patience and acceptance. Sometimes you have to let things be and see what develops. What we consider annoyances today can surprise us when they come to full flower.

Never Too Old to Homeschool

Yesterday was Siblings Day. This post is dedicated to my sister.

When I decided to homeschool, I knew there would be subjects where I lacked skill. Luckily, I had my big sister to rely on for the holes in my own education.

I remember calling her in tears because I couldn't figure out the algebra problem my oldest needed help with. She talked me down, and in the process I learned a little about algebra. 

My oldest was afraid of bugs when she was younger. At that time, my sister worked at the Natural History Museum in L.A. We took a trip to California, and she introduced my daughter to the museum's bug guy. Thanks to my sister and her entomologist friend, my daughter was picking up grasshoppers by the end of our trip. Large grasshoppers. We all learned a lot about bugs.

When my son showed ability with a camera, I turned to my sister for help. She is the family photographer. She emailed lessons to him with photo assignments. I emailed his photos back to her and she critiqued them for him. In the process, I learned a little about photography.

When we moved into a house, I was excited to start gardening, but I didn't know the first thing about growing plants. My sister gave me the advice and knowledge I needed to begin. I remember the advice that stayed with me the most: Every gardener loses several plants every year. That's how you learn what works in your yard. This gave me the confidence to not give up. Gardening is one of my greatest pleasures to this day. I learned a lot about gardening and composting from her and her husband.

My sister is always ready to share her knowledge and resources. You only need to ask. In the process, I realize she homeschooled me as much as I teach my own kids. Which is nice. You should never be too old to learn new things, and our family and friends are our own rich resource of knowledge.

Let Your Child Surprise You

My youngest always manages to surprise me. Our crocuses came up early because of a warm March. She photographed them. I never know when she does these things. She is a very quiet and intense thirteen year old. Like her older sister, she is very critical of her talents, but she does indeed have a gift with the camera. Here is a sample of what I found on the camera when I cleared some of my photos from it:

All of these are untouched and not cropped, exactly as I pulled them off the camera. I'm equally amazed because I have a hard time getting a clear shot this close up with her camera (my own camera broke a couple of years ago and I borrow hers). She is an incredible photographer.

When we give them the freedom and allow them the opportunity to explore without interfering, our children can really surprise us with their skills. How has your child surprised you?

You Can Lead a Student to Learning But You Can't Make Her Think

There is a lot to be said for interest-led learning. If you don't have your child's attention, all of the curriculum you throw at her has the effectiveness of throwing darts at a moving target while blindfolded. You might hit it every once in a while, but not with enough consistency to make either of you happy.

My own issue is that I don't fully understand my daughter's current interest, manga and anime. I try, but because there is so much variety in these Japanese art forms, I tend to miss more than I hit.

There was the time I thought she might like some manga guides that taught different topics like physics and  algebra. My reasoning was that I taught my son everything from math to English grammar using dinosaur-themed ideas and workbooks. I will never forget my daughter's words to me: "Just because I like manga doesn't mean I like all manga!" Her discerning tastes about the genre made it hard to hand her material and think she would look at it because it was manga.

Instead, I've tried to take a more active interest in her obsession. I watch anime series with her occasionally. Not as easy as it sounds. We have to watch them in the original Japanese because English dubbing is not always word to word translation. That means we have to read subtitles. Try reading subtitles in the evening after a long day when you already have the title of slowest reader in the house. But viewing it with her has helped me see what she is learning. If I know that, I can discuss it with her, and I can put the educational spin on it and add it to the quarterly report.

I admit I have not yet read any of the mangas, but I have been able to get her to tell me about some of them. She also discusses them with her big sister, which is great, because I can listen in on some of their discussions or get the synopsis later from my older daughter. I also found a magazine for fans of manga and anime that interested her. She's already complained about some of the reviews in it. I'm encouraging her to write her own reviews or write letters to the editor when she feels her favorite titles suffered an unfair review. At the very least, I can tell she is engaged and interested in what she is reading and is critically thinking about it.

Oysters of Learning

I have seen parents, both homeschoolers and not, search the library for optimal resources for educational enrichment. They look in all of the usual places -- study guides, shiny new canned curricula, classic stories, leveled readers, etc.-- to find those pearls of wisdom that will set their children off on the straight and narrow path to college, a "safe" career, and economic stability. 

I'm probably the wrong person to ask when they come up to the desk looking for a way to get their kids excited about the subject of the day.

  

Pearls don't come pre-strung. Every pearl starts its life as an irritation inside of an oyster. Oysters are not beautiful. They are rough and grungy gray. They don't move a lot. Think about it. They spend all their time in beds. And yet this very plain creature will take years building layer upon layer over a grain of sand until it carries a treasure within. 

That thing that irritates us might be building the pearl of our children's future.

I find learning in unusual, rough places. That movie that everyone panned might tell a story that was inspired by a classic. Watching it might make me curious about the original story, so I go and read it. That comic book that makes parents roll their eyes might show how very different people learn to work together and combine their strengths for a common cause. That video game kids spend hours trying to master might give more concrete lessons on physics, geometry, and strategy than a semester of science, math, and logic.

Just because you can't see the pearl, doesn't mean it isn't there.

Another Rant on Testing

I heard a report the other day that gave me hope for the future of education. Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is recommending that colleges put more emphasis on community service rather than personal achievement. This is significant because among the recommendations it calls for a reduction of AP courses and making some SAT scores optional. Optional testing? This is an amazing development!

I've spent most of my homeschooling years expressing my concern over the workload students face from grammar school through their high school years. I lamented how we only saw neighborhood children for one or two weeks every year, in that nebulous space between the end of school and the start of summer camps. It seems as if children are subjected to nine to five jobs before they know their alphabet and numbers.

The same day I heard the report above, I read another article about how kindergarten has become the new first grade. This is not a surprise to me. I still remember being shocked fifteen years ago when a mother complained to me about her daughter having an hour's worth of homework in kindergarten. I see parents at the children's library who take out piles of leveled readers to prepare their children for first grade. What happened to reading for fun? What happened to reading together? Play is the work of the child. They learn through all of their senses. They need to move and explore as much as they need to sit and think. No one seems to have the time for such frivolous activities. Because of No Child Left Behind and Common Core standards, everyone is busy preparing for the tests.

I raised my kids with the understanding that the tests were done to figure out where there were academic weaknesses, but even I have started teaching to the test. I get nervous about unschooling my youngest and afraid that if she doesn't do well on the tests, I will be told to put her into school. The fear has increased since I started working part-time. So I train her, especially with math. And I end up feeling like I'm a fake because I try so hard to please the schools.

In a perfect world, tests should only be used to measure academic progress, but I wonder if that is a ridiculous concept as well. My oldest could rattle off the names of the first twenty five presidents when she was nine. But it is not vital information for her in her chosen college path, so she has long since forgotten the order. Instead, she's learned how to research, so if she has a sudden desire to know how Zachary Taylor died (recent conversation), the information is as close as a Google search. Don't knock the internet. If you learn how to use it properly and check sources, a world of knowledge is at your fingertips. Which led my daughter and I to come to this conclusion: Tests should test students' ability to look things up and find the information they are looking for, either in books or on the computer. Students should learn to discern fact from opinion and from fiction and draw their own conclusions.

Reading Outside the Books

What are you reading?

It doesn't sound like a complicated question. Every quarter -- for 17 years now -- I list the books currently read by my homeschooled children. Kids read books. It's not that difficult. Is it?

My youngest made me rethink a lot of my assumptions about learning. Ever the rebel, she balked at my traditional methods to teach her to read. She learned by playing a word heavy computer game. Her brother and sister would read the instructions and story to her and she eventually just started reading.

She is also a natural speller and has excellent penmanship, two things I thought were truly teachable. My son taught me otherwise. No amount of writing helped. It frustrated him. Do you know what happens when you are stressed and try to write? You're handwriting and spelling get worse.

Considering my experiences, it was not a surprise I had to rethink what it means to read. I couldn't write down all of those wonderful classics I had written on my oldest daughter's reports. I couldn't even write down the classics adapted to graphic novels that I had for my son. My youngest enjoys manga and anime.

For those who need the lesson, manga and anime are simply the terms used for Japanese comics and animation. It's a wide ranging field full of the genres you would expect in our own Western culture -- school based fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, sports, etc. -- but you get this from a culturally different perspective. You also read manga (if the publisher stays true to the art) from right to left and if you watch the anime in the original Japanese, you get subtitles. Lots and lots of subtitles.

From watching anime with my daughters, I know they both read very fast. Because I don't and I often need to ask what was said. My youngest is picky about what she watches. The story needs to be good and it needs to be funny or she moves on to something else.

So what is my daughter reading? How do I express that to an educational engine that has reduced reading to the sum of its parts? Because reading isn't about levels and requirements and keeping track of minutes. It's about reading what interests you, even if the words don't happen to fall neatly on a page.

Swimming Upstream: Thoughts on Testing

I didn't plan to test my daughter the week before schools started testing, it just happened that way.

Today's paper gave stats on how many students opted out this year. I'm proud of the parents who are standing up for their children. It's hard to swim against the current, but sometimes it is the only way to effect change.

I don't have the luxury of opting out. Testing is part of the requirements for homeschooling in our state. Since I'm already swimming upstream, I would rather save my energy for more important things. We stumble through a week of testing each year and in return we have the freedom to not test her for the rest of the year.

This year, our test changed to align with goals of the Common Core. We don't have the benefit of the curriculum that goes along with the test, we wouldn't follow it anyway, so any prep must be crammed into the week or two before the test is administered. It's annoying, but nothing we haven't dealt with before. I'm learning to take deep breaths to deal with my own anxieties over these tests and try to remember that the test is a tool. It helps to identify where she is strong and where she not. That is the point of it.I try not to worry about topics we haven't covered, because we are not learning on the same schedule as children in school. She is not behind, we are on a completely different clock.

I already knew she was good at reading and language arts, but I learned that my daughter is also really good at word problems. If every math question were a word problem, she probably wouldn't stress about math at all. Unfortunately, the same doesn't hold true for straightforward calculations. I was like that. Carefully figuring each sum to assure myself I had the correct answer slowed me down. I never figured out the beauty of patterns in math because I was too intimidated by numbers and trying to count out the right answer. I could never finish all of the problems in the allotted time. I thought math was a race I couldn't win. It made me hate math.

Our society looks at testing backwards. We worry about our children doing well instead of their well being. A test should help teachers and parents to identify areas to improve and determine whether they are ready for the next level. If we tell them that passing is all that matters, as if they are winning a game, they learn that passing is all that is valued, not learning. Is it any wonder that cheating and risk taking is on the rise? When are we, as a society, going to learn that the answer to education reform is not found if we keep looking for it in the same places--an extended school year, more homework,  a high score on a multiple choice test? You don't find change when you swim in circles.

I think educating your own or opting out is where true reform lies. Filling in bubbles leaves you without air. It's hard to swim that way.

The Time of Sparkles on Dirty Snow

The snow is melting here. Finally. We can see the front yard again and we pulled out some of the Christmas decorations that had frozen into the ground in January. Birds are pairing off, crocuses are pushing their green blades through the mulch, and our first flowers, winter aconite, are blooming. In spite of a few hiccups of late-season snow and unstable temperatures, spring most assuredly has arrived.

Watching the dirty piles of slush and snow seems cleansing. Have you ever looked closely at those melting patches? They are more than just tired hills of dirt-peppered ice. On a sunny day, the light hits it and sets it all aglitter. In spite of all, it is beautiful, and then it's gone. It disappears into the soil and the earth prepares to reward our patience with growth. Soon the yard will be full of green and flowers.

Homeschooling is like that, don't you think? If you looked at our house on an average day at the height of our homeschooling years, it was full of piles of books, paper, crafts, toys, and games. The swirl of activity left a mess in its wake. The clean-up seemed endless. The detritus of our unusual life filled our home. Now that it is melting away with two grown children, I stop and notice those sparkles as we advance into a new phase of life. I appreciate the close knit relationship of my children. I enjoy listening to their conversations, their aspirations. I try to help them where I can as they reach for their goals. As childhood recedes like a mound of snow at the end of winter, I notice the glitter of their personalities, their dreams, their hopes for the future. We see it up close for this brief period before they set out on their own to have adventures and begin their adult lives.

Don't forget to look for those sparkles on dirty snow.

Recipes are just Guidelines, Really

My 18 year old son is learning to make chocolate chip cookies. He already knows how to make scones, pancakes, waffles and a couple of pasta dishes, but like his big sister, he was slightly intimidated by the cookies. She suggested he start with a recipe from our Fannie Farmer cookbook, the same way she learned.

I realized I haven't followed a recipe for the chocolate chip cookies in a very long time. I learned with the Toll House cookie recipe on the back of the Nestle's chocolate chips many years ago. Once I got the hang of it, I started improvising. At first, I wanted to see what would happen if I used only brown sugar. At this point, my cookies are an adventure every time I make them. I throw in different flours, perhaps add wheat germ or flax seed. I might substitute olive oil for some of the butter, or experiment with the amounts of baking soda and baking powder. If I feel really lazy, I don't even use measuring cups, trusting my sight and touch to tell me if my measures are right. I follow my whims and curiosity. Baking is another outlet for my creativity.

And because my mind is so very random, I started thinking lately about how schools try to use a recipe for education--
Whip up 2 credits math,  fold in 2 credits English. In a separate bowl, mix together 2 credits each social studies and science, 1 credit health education, and arts classes to taste. Whisk all subjects together and set in testing situations for at least 6 hours every year. Serves all students. (adjust serving size per district) Prepared for college placement.

The thing is, recipes are a good starting point, but if you want to make sure everyone enjoys the results, you have to tweak the recipe. I don't use eggs or nuts in my cookies if I know someone has an allergy. Sometimes I cut down on the sugar or salt. I add chips or cocoa to increase the chocolate goodness. I don't just bake cookies. I want this to be an experience that brings a smile and happy memories.

My son's first cookies were a bit messy. I think they needed more flour. They still tasted good. We're encouraging him to try again. With each batch, you learn something new about the nature of the dough and how to make them better. For me, the whole point of using a recipe is so that, eventually, you don't need a recipe.

Intangible Talent

My oldest is a tough act to follow.

She's multi-talented, an A student at college, and able to make everyone around her fall in love with her charm, her sense of humor, and her ability to get excited and talk about any number of topics.

My son is the middle child. He is also very talented, but not in the same way as his big sister. He's doing an internship rather than the college route, which is a hard road in our college oriented community. He's also very shy, and if you are not able to hit on one of his topics of interest, any attempts at conversation will fall flat.

I've noticed how hard it is for others to engage him. Family members won't even notice when they cross the line and shut him down. Many don't make it past the hair. He has a lot of it, and it is like my own, very curly and hard to manage. Since he doesn't want to cut it, it is very high maintenance. I'm still teaching him not to forget to condition it regularly, and even with conditioning, there are days when his hair simply decides to do its own thing. His is thicker than mine (which is pretty thick) so it takes a lot of work to get it to look calm. People treat you different when your hair is not tamed. Even when it is, a young man meets regular questions about when he plans to cut it. My son doesn't do well with snappy comebacks, so he simply stops talking. He's not able to play the social games as well as my oldest. If you are nice to him, if you appreciate him, he will respond in kind. If he thinks you will mock his interests, he withdraws.

Those who are able to move past the hair have trouble moving past his computer time. He's on a lot. Not just for games, but for his artwork. His internship at the Digital Arts Experience has really been great. He's learned so much about the process of creating animation, which is necessary if he wants to do game development. The problem with most of your work being online is that it is hard to whip out at a gathering. My daughter is always knitting or crafting gifts. Her skill is very tangible. Most of our family and friends don't know how talented my son is because it's not something that you can display until it's finished. Unfinished computer animation is just pictures on the screen. 

The people at the DAE appreciate him. They always tell me how helpful and creative he is, how hard he works. You need that support when you are an artist. After a year of designing, modeling, rigging, lighting, and everything else that goes into the process of creating animation, he now has something very cool to show family and friends. I hope you enjoy Steve the Gunnasaurus.

Shifting Identities

Coming to my blog makes me feel guilty lately. It's been so long since I posted a comic strip.

Life as a part-time unschooler has been wearing on me lately. I love my job and I love being mom to creative homeschooled kids, but at the same time I'm frustrated. My focus has shifted. I'm not the one home with my youngest and last homeschooler. I don't bring her to as many activities as I used to bring her siblings to. I can't even convince her to come to work with me regularly, which I considered an advantage of working in the library. I miss being around my kids.

At the library, I meet a lot of children and their parents, as well as children with babysitters. The majority are on the public school path. I don't see as many homeschoolers here. There simply isn't that large a population of homeschoolers in our area. To the patrons, I'm the library clerk (or librarian, as most don't know the difference). I feel a loss of identity here, or a second identity forming, as if I were a superhero or spy, living a double life. I can hear the intro...

Strange visitor from an alternative reality, she is Homeschooling Mom! Protector of learning, advocate for her kids, and who, disguised as Cristina, mild-mannered library clerk, fights for truth, knowledge, and a homeschooling lifestyle!

Except I don't talk about homeschooling much at work. Homeschooling isn't something we do, it's who we are. Instead, I compliment kids who borrow books my family loves. I recommend biographies by Mike Venezia to young readers because they were engaging to all of my children. I suggest graphic novels for reluctant readers (which some of their parents don't approve of--"You mean...comic books?"). I've reassured parents that it's OK to let their kids read books below their reading level if the children really love them. It's weird, I feel like I'm trying to homeschool the community.

Lately, my time has also been eaten up by my volunteer work at the library and the nature center. Each have big events coming up on the same weekend. These are also separate identities with their own sets of responsibilities. Superman had it easy. I'm stretched a bit thin.

To maintain my sanity, I try to do some creative things, even though I don't have the time or energy for comics. Here are my latest CD creations. I'm hoping to add more soon. Because I don't have enough to do!

Cat

Spirit of the Wind

Minotaur

A Little Classical Unschooling

Last week, Sierra decided that she wanted more structured learning. She didn't think unschooling was working out for her. I said okay.

I neglected to mention that taking ownership of her education is one of the reasons I decided to try this method.

We set aside time to sit outside and discuss how she learns best and what she is interested in. I always fall back on the classical trivium since it's a very logical setup. Each year, I throw books and information in her path from where we would be on the trivium if she were classically educated. This year would be the modern age and physics. When I'm working in the children's room at the library, I scan the shelves for interesting books on various physics topics and biographies. We pulled down an old Science-in-a-Nutshell levers kit I had saved from the older two. I'm thinking I'll have her build a bridge at some point. Math will be freestyle. I'm planning on using our bathroom dry erase board for writing problems. She's also expressed interest in learning about different places, so she started the year reading about Australia. London will be next.

At the same time, I've started watching Sailor Moon with her. She watched it a while back with her big sister. The two of them learned that it was much better in the original Japanese with subtitles than in dubbed English, so that is how we are watching it now. My kids enjoy anime, and seeing it this way has given me new respect for the style. Did you know some of the earliest anime movies were inspired by art coming out of the Disney studios? I thought that was interesting.

Right now, Sierra is reading Watership Down and the final Skulduggery Pleasant book by Derek Landy. We still get together with other homeschoolers on Wednesdays and she's still volunteering at the nature center cleaning cages and feeding the resident animals. I hope I'll have the time for some museum trips as well. And because it is harder for me to keep track now, she's started telling me what she's doing so I can keep notes of everything for the quarterlies. 

Life is different, but still very much the same.

Homeschooling Does Not End with Home Education

We drove our oldest back to the university today and helped move her into her dorm.

This year, she knows and chose to room with the three girls sharing her dorm room. I thought it looked like a Brooklyn apartment. It's two levels, not a lot of storage room, and only one shower for them to share (luckily, there is a second bathroom, just a toilet and sink, so she's doing better than if she were home with us!)

Moving back has concerned her. She knows money is tight. She's worked hard all summer at the library while taking a summer course online. There have been several times when she wondered if she should quit school because she sees herself as our biggest expense.

I see this as a continuation of our homeschooling methods. I know she is happy there. She is learning illustration techniques I don't know. She is networking with artists and living with other art students. And in this environment, she is still shining with her unique perspective and creativity.

We made sacrifices to keep them home. Why would we do anything different now that they are starting to test themselves in the world?

Summer "School" for the Whole Year

I don't know about your area, but around here the Back-to-School frenzy has already started. The newspaper is full of ideas for "what to do" with your kids while you are waiting for school to start. There are also suggestions for getting your child back into "school" mode. Parents and teachers worry about students getting back into a "normal" sleeping routine and fret over summer brain leakage. One parent in the article talked about how she had gathered her children's school clothes and summer assignments together to prepare for the start of school.

Wait a minute...Summer assignments? I thought one of the joys of summer vacation was the lack of homework? Sad but true, I've heard this from parents at the library. Some schools assigned four summer reading book reports. And just to make certain kids are well rounded from the experience, the schools specified two reports on works of fiction, one on a biography, one on a work of non-fiction.

I shake my head over it all. 

How I loved summer! I spent most of it wandering around our backyard. I remember lounging in the hammock reading "The Wind in the Willows," not because someone told me to, but because I wanted to. I watched TV. Sometimes I played with other kids, but not usually. Other kids complicated my quiet world and most of the time with my two older siblings usually ended in fights or tears or both. I preferred sitting with our chickens and in later years, our pigeons. I set up my plastic animals and used my Matchbox cars to play safari. I would peel the bark away from sticks to use as toys. I collected morning glory seeds and pretended they were coffee beans. I had unlimited time to draw. Most of the time I simply moved dreamily about the yard making up stories in my head. I'm sure it looked like I was bored, but I wasn't. The things I did and learned during the summer always stayed with me.

It makes me wonder: Why are we surprised children forget so much school learning over the summer? Schools try to cram a myriad of information into kids during the school year with the main goal of a passing grade on a test. For what purpose? To move up to the next grade and do it again? How is that incentive? I never got the hang of school math when I was little because, to me, it was all endless numbers on a page. In summer I built a dollhouse (geometry) and learned how to make miniatures to scale. I didn't consider it math, and so I decided I was terrible at math. For me, history was wars and dates in school. In summer, it was trips to places like Colonial Williamsburg or the Cloisters. I didn't consider this history, so I decided I was terrible at history.

I'm grateful I had the opportunity to homeschool/unschool my kids. I'm glad I gave them the room to be creative and spend their days like I spent summer. Learning should not be an "old grind". Learning should be endless days of summer--thinking, doing, exploring the world around you and within you.

Update on our Life

Some of my readers wondered how my family is doing. I figured I would post an update.

My husband has work! It is temporary for now, through September, but hopefully they will hire him for longer term. We will take any well wishes, thoughts, prayers, or crossed fingers that they keep him on. He is also working from home. This is good and bad. On the bad side, I've had to give up part of my bedroom to the home office. We have little room to spare. On the plus side, having him home gives me an easy answer for those awkward questions of "How will you continue to homeschool while working?" Much easier to say someone is home with my youngest than try to explain that we don't really follow school hours.

Marina and I are working regularly at the library. It's neat to carpool with my daughter. I'll miss this when she heads back to university the end of the month. I am getting the hang of clerking, although the circulation desk is still anxiety-provoking for me. Every time I'm at the desk, there seems to be a new and unusual problem. It keeps me on my toes. Which is why I prefer working in the back, checking in library materials. I like knowing I can handle things without asking my supervisor for help every five minutes. I also enjoy the children's room. Kids make me smile.

My son continues interning at the Digital Arts Experience. He also helped me run a few workshops this summer teaching juggling and balloon sculpture. And I think he is now my height or a little taller. I'm not sure. He slouches.

Sierra has been volunteering at the nature center. I help her to clean cages and feed the menagerie there. She's become adept at handling the hedgehog, doves, turtles, and chinchillas. We haven't lost one yet. She is also really good at giving food and water to the hissing cockroaches, a task that turns my stomach every time. I'm afraid one of them might crawl up my arm when I take their dishes out. She doesn't even flinch when they hiss because she needs to push them aside to set the bowls down. She's a brave girl, that one.

That's about it for now. We are really grateful for all the support everyone has given us, in our solid and virtual lives. Your positive vibes kept us on track through the uncertainty, and I feel honored--blessed--to know so many kind and caring people. I have some posts in my head, and as soon as I have some time and energy I plan to write them down.

Please forgive any errors as the cat has taken to laying in front of my screen when I sit at the computer. This makes proofreading a challenge.