For two weeks, I have been painstakingly (emphasis on the first syllable) working on a blog post about...well, nevermind, I'll come back to that. Then the tics started again and now my thoughts on parenting and homeschooling are focused on Bean's blinks and head bobs and shoulder jerks.
From the time Bean was about two, it became clear to us and to other adults around her that if we were to seek out any number of diagnoses, we would probably find them. Teachers and school administrators have suggested occupational therapy, speech therapy and IQ testing. Take your pick of acronyms or diagnostic labels - many of them beginning with "A" - and it would not be a stretch to picture Bean. Well, some of the time. Her periods of equilibrium and disequilibrium have always been extreme. After eight years as her parents, we know that we will spend half of any given age wondering what's wrong and the other half wondering why we ever thought anything was wrong at all.
This is part of the reason we have never sought out professional help beyond our pediatrician. By the time we decide that Yes, this time we are really making that call, she - and we- have turned a corner and worked through things. We come back to our grounding philosophy for parenting her: she is who she is and when we remember Bean 101, we usually work through things pretty smoothly.
Bean 101 is our shorthand - in the absence of any diagnosis - for those things that make her uniquely her and uniquely challenging: loud noises disturb her (unless she is making them); change is hard for her - whether it is an emotion or a place or a person; she is intense at play and rest; she has an unusually strong inner compass; she is persistent, sensitive and has prodigious amounts of both mental and physical energy; sleep can be elusive for her; if she doesn't like the feel of something, it will be an uphill battle that may not be worth fighting to get her to try it once, let alone go back. She is also very empathetic, intuitive, caring, and curious. Many of these characteristics have mellowed as she has matured, but will come roaring back under stress (change, fatigue, illness, etc.) for a moment or longer.
One of the reasons we decided to homeschool rather than try the public school system or another private school is that we felt that in the school environment, sooner or later, we would be forced to have her tested for one thing or another. We have always felt that if we had a diagnosis, we would parent to the diagnosis and not to her own uniqueness. In our completely unprofessional, but dangerously over-read opinion, we think that if she is anything, it is borderline and we want to keep parenting on that border because, no matter how uncomfortable, it is real. It would be easier to be in one camp or not: "normal" is far too relative a term, so I will say that the two camps are diagnosable and non-diagnosable (How's that for hedging my bets? I just made up a word.)
And then came an open house at a new gym on Saturday. We had been talking with Bean for months about taking gymnastics again. She has taken gymnastics off and on at various gyms since she was three but often didn't like the class environment. Without a regular outlet for her acrobatic pursuits, our house feels like a Cirque du Soleil set. Once she started taking private ballet lessons and realized this was an option for gymnastics, we started looking into it. She was extremely excited about her first trial lesson with a coach at her previous gym, but the coach had her own ideas and it didn't go at all the way Bean or I had intended. After that disappointment last week, I immediately began looking at the few other gyms in the immediate area and a few in nearby counties. The newest incarnation of her first gym was having an open house in a new space so we all went.
As Dr. Yap and I stood in the cavernous space, watching from afar as she waited for her turn on the trampoline, Bean looking especially small and exposed in her shiny blue leortard, we realized at the same time that she wasn't merely fidgeting expectantly waiting for her turn: her shoulders were twitching, and her head was jerking forward.
This wasn't the first time we noticed her tic. Several months ago, she started jerking her shoulders, usually in the evening and at bedtime. At the time, I convinced Dr. Yap that this was nothing to worry about. I thought it was just another manifestation of her energy and like earlier bouts of throat-clearing, sniffing, and lip-chewing, this would pass if we didn't say much. Dr. Yap (who, it should be noted, has neither a medical degree or a PhD, we just all think she's brilliant and have thus bestowed upon her this honorary moniker - but don't tell her it's not legit) didn't like it but agreed to go along with it. Soon, it passed, and so did her obsession with "catching the 59s" - her term for trying to see the last number of each hour on a digital clock wherever she was. Just as this habit went from being maddening to worrisome, it passed.
Now, watching under fluorescent lights as two tics take hold of her slender frame, I know I will have a harder time convincing Dr. Yap that it's nothing. I try anyway (because I am no stranger to persistence myself.) The tics continued throughout the weekend and were soon joined by blinking. This was a much more persistent, continuous phenomenon than anything she had experienced before. We tried to ask non-chalantly if she was doing it on purpose or if she knew it was happening. By Sunday evening, she was having a hard time talking and said at bedtime that she wished she could stop blinking because it was bothering her eyes. Dr. Yap insisted that I take her to the doctor on Monday- no matter what any website said about tics being transient and unharmful in childhood.
On Monday, I made the appointment for that evening with her pediatrician and noticed fewer and less intense tics. I asked her if she felt like it was less and if she was trying not to do it and she said yes. Last night, her pediatrician agreed with me that the tics seemed in keeping with her intensity, energy, compulsive nature and likely (though unproven by any testing method) giftedness. He prescribed nonchalance for Dr. Yap and I and suggested that Bean try to talk about things going on in her head. The pediatrician agreed that she would probably outgrow some of her tendencies and that it was best to continue parenting the kid we have, without the guidance - or hindrance - of a diagnosis. I trust his assessment of Bean because besides being a good pediatrician and the father of three he has witnessed her intensity live and in person over the years. For good measure, and because he knew Dr. Yap would appreciate it, he also gave us a referral to a pediatric neurologist in the same medical group who happens to specialize in movement disorders.
Tics are not uncommon in young children, and until they have persisted for at least a year, they are considered Transient Tic Disorder, rather than the more familiar Tourette's Syndrome. Are we now heading down the road of giving a name and label to every aspect of our child, or are we simply being good parents, availing ourselves of good insurance and sound medical advice?
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wordless, But Not Silent
When we started our New York Times book project, I knew I better check as many of the Wordless Books out at one time as I could or I would lose my nerve - the literary version of ripping the bandaid off a wound or holding one's nose to take a bit of broccoli. One night after dinner everybody piled on the big bed and I "read" books to Boo while Bean sprawled on the end of the bed looking at books from the stack on her own. For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised (but I was glad there were only about 20 altogether.)
*Because I view this as a library project, all the links are to listings at the Santa Cruz Public Library. Some of these books are simply good reads, while others are good sources for homeschool subjects. I have highlighted this at the end of the entry, if necessary. I will also note books that the 2 year old liked but the 8 year old didn't (and vice versa.)
Anno's Journey
Written and Illustrated by Mitsumasa Anno
I think all of Mitsumasa Anno's books are beautifully illustrated and lead the "reader" into a world that is both magical and real. I highly recommend any and all you can find. Unfortunately, many of his books just don't grad my kids' attention. The details in Anno's Journey, Anno's U.S.A and Anno's Fleamarket are so minute that it is hard to describe a story they can hold onto. His math books are another story. Boo loved Anno's Counting Book so much that I snapped up a used copy. Bean spent an afternoon working out the math problem that makes up Anno's Magic Seeds in chalk on the patio. She also enjoyed Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar. Anno's Math Games I, II, and III can be hard to track down (we found I and II at our homeschool resource center and II and III at the library) but worth the effort. Bean and I went over and over these until she finally worked through them all and had enough.
Homeschool Connection: Anno's math books are all great for lower elementary level math, especially for kids who don't like workbook computation.
The Bear and the Fly
Written and Illustrated by Paula Winter
This wasn't available at our library and I haven't found it anywhere else. If anyone knows of this book, please let me know and tell me what you think.
A Boy, a Dog and a Frog
Written and Illustrated by Mercer Mayer
This story is perfectly illustrated and needs almost no narration. Really, the title says it all. That said, Boo (2) loved it and it's charms were lost on Bean (closer to 8 than 7).
Building
Written and Illustrated by Elisha Cooper
We've had a used copy of this book for some time, but I don't know whether this book is mis-categorized, or whether we have a different version because it is definitely not wordless. Cooper uses just enough words and just enough pictures to show how a building goes up. Both my kids are drawn in as the book goes from empty lot to finished building. The words are few and written in synchronicity with the illustrations: words march around the outline of the page to describe how the building is framed; as the walls go up, so do the words.
Homeschool Connection: This would make an excellent companion to What it Feels Like to Be a Building to begin a unit on architecture. (I wish I'd been clever enough to think of that a year ago.)
Changes, Changes
Written and Illustrated by Pat Hutchins
I was actually excited to see this book because we've seen an animated version from the Scholastic Video Collection (we got many of them form Costco) and I just thought it was darn near the best use of wooden blocks I'd ever seen outside a nursery school classroom. Both kids enjoyed the book version, but I missed the 70's music score that sounds like a marimba recorded in a coffee can.
Clown
Written and Illustrated by Quentin Blake
You can check this out for yourself, but Bean and I looked at it in the library and decided the titular clown was the kind that gives clowns a bad name among children and Blake's thin drawing style didn't give us enough else to work with - it didn't make it into the library bag.
The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher
Written and Illustrated by Molly Bang
The entry in the The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children described this as "eerie" and "startling" so I wanted to preview it at the library and give Bean the right of refusal. I kind of regret this since she promptly pronounced it too creepy. It didn't make it into the library bag that day, but I think I will give it another chance on the sly.
Look-Alikes
Written and Illustrated by Joan Steiner
This series of books, which is filed in the "Indoor Amusements" section of the Dewey Decimal System, creates two-page worlds made out of found objects. I could imagine some kids spending hours looking at the pictures, but Boo paid no attention and Bean was only mildly interested. I think it was hard for them to tell what some of the quaint objects were. Still, I like this as a good quiet-time book to be pulled off the shelf occasionally for independent viewing and I would pick up a used copy if I stumbled upon it.
Paddy Pork
Written and Illustrated by John S. Goodall
The Guide actually listed Naughty Nancy, but since our library didn't have that, we checked out two Paddy Pork books, Creepy Castle and The Life of a Farm by Goodall. They all have the same format: wordless pages with beautifully painted illustrations which tell the story on a series of pages and half-pages, which cleverly change the action. The Paddy Pork books were mentioned in the Guide, and Boo liked those. Bean and I especially liked The Life of the Farm, which takes place over several centuries on a pastoral piece of land somewhere in Europe.
Sector 7
Written and Illustrated by David Weisner
This book about a boy wandering into the cloud factory is kind of weird and kind of beautiful, but feels like it's missing something. Bean kind of liked it and Boo kind of didn't. Forget that though, and let this book lead you to the other wordless picture books by David Weisner in the the JEasy section of your library. Flotsam is an especially wonderful visual fantasy. I would even buy a new copy of it, just to have around for those times when children or adults need to get lost in something definitely weird and definitely beautiful.
Snowman
Written and Illustrated by Raymond Briggs
For the sake of the project, I made myself narrate this frame by frame to Boo one evening at bedtime. And you know, this tale of a boy and his snowman was charming.
Will's Mammoth
Written by Rafe Martin and Illustrated by Stephen Gammel
Our library only has copies of this book about a boy and his wooly mammoth at outlying branches so it took us a while to get to it and by the time we read it we were deep into the Picture Book section of the Guide. We were finding so many sublime treasures among the picture books that Will's Mammoth fell flat for us and failed to get anyone's attention. Maybe if we had read it in that first night of wordless book bliss...
Zoom
Written and Illustrated by Istvan Banyai
This book and its sequel, Re-Zoom, are exactly what wordless picture books should be: beautifully illustrated, mind-stretching, and captivating. Bean and I loved these, but Boo lost interest after the first perspective-jump.
*Because I view this as a library project, all the links are to listings at the Santa Cruz Public Library. Some of these books are simply good reads, while others are good sources for homeschool subjects. I have highlighted this at the end of the entry, if necessary. I will also note books that the 2 year old liked but the 8 year old didn't (and vice versa.)
Anno's Journey
Written and Illustrated by Mitsumasa Anno
I think all of Mitsumasa Anno's books are beautifully illustrated and lead the "reader" into a world that is both magical and real. I highly recommend any and all you can find. Unfortunately, many of his books just don't grad my kids' attention. The details in Anno's Journey, Anno's U.S.A and Anno's Fleamarket are so minute that it is hard to describe a story they can hold onto. His math books are another story. Boo loved Anno's Counting Book so much that I snapped up a used copy. Bean spent an afternoon working out the math problem that makes up Anno's Magic Seeds in chalk on the patio. She also enjoyed Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar. Anno's Math Games I, II, and III can be hard to track down (we found I and II at our homeschool resource center and II and III at the library) but worth the effort. Bean and I went over and over these until she finally worked through them all and had enough.
Homeschool Connection: Anno's math books are all great for lower elementary level math, especially for kids who don't like workbook computation.
The Bear and the Fly
Written and Illustrated by Paula Winter
This wasn't available at our library and I haven't found it anywhere else. If anyone knows of this book, please let me know and tell me what you think.
A Boy, a Dog and a Frog
Written and Illustrated by Mercer Mayer
This story is perfectly illustrated and needs almost no narration. Really, the title says it all. That said, Boo (2) loved it and it's charms were lost on Bean (closer to 8 than 7).
Building
Written and Illustrated by Elisha Cooper
We've had a used copy of this book for some time, but I don't know whether this book is mis-categorized, or whether we have a different version because it is definitely not wordless. Cooper uses just enough words and just enough pictures to show how a building goes up. Both my kids are drawn in as the book goes from empty lot to finished building. The words are few and written in synchronicity with the illustrations: words march around the outline of the page to describe how the building is framed; as the walls go up, so do the words.
Homeschool Connection: This would make an excellent companion to What it Feels Like to Be a Building to begin a unit on architecture. (I wish I'd been clever enough to think of that a year ago.)
Changes, Changes
Written and Illustrated by Pat Hutchins
I was actually excited to see this book because we've seen an animated version from the Scholastic Video Collection (we got many of them form Costco) and I just thought it was darn near the best use of wooden blocks I'd ever seen outside a nursery school classroom. Both kids enjoyed the book version, but I missed the 70's music score that sounds like a marimba recorded in a coffee can.
Clown
Written and Illustrated by Quentin Blake
You can check this out for yourself, but Bean and I looked at it in the library and decided the titular clown was the kind that gives clowns a bad name among children and Blake's thin drawing style didn't give us enough else to work with - it didn't make it into the library bag.
The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher
Written and Illustrated by Molly Bang
The entry in the The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children described this as "eerie" and "startling" so I wanted to preview it at the library and give Bean the right of refusal. I kind of regret this since she promptly pronounced it too creepy. It didn't make it into the library bag that day, but I think I will give it another chance on the sly.
Look-Alikes
Written and Illustrated by Joan Steiner
This series of books, which is filed in the "Indoor Amusements" section of the Dewey Decimal System, creates two-page worlds made out of found objects. I could imagine some kids spending hours looking at the pictures, but Boo paid no attention and Bean was only mildly interested. I think it was hard for them to tell what some of the quaint objects were. Still, I like this as a good quiet-time book to be pulled off the shelf occasionally for independent viewing and I would pick up a used copy if I stumbled upon it.
Paddy Pork
Written and Illustrated by John S. Goodall
The Guide actually listed Naughty Nancy, but since our library didn't have that, we checked out two Paddy Pork books, Creepy Castle and The Life of a Farm by Goodall. They all have the same format: wordless pages with beautifully painted illustrations which tell the story on a series of pages and half-pages, which cleverly change the action. The Paddy Pork books were mentioned in the Guide, and Boo liked those. Bean and I especially liked The Life of the Farm, which takes place over several centuries on a pastoral piece of land somewhere in Europe.
Sector 7
Written and Illustrated by David Weisner
This book about a boy wandering into the cloud factory is kind of weird and kind of beautiful, but feels like it's missing something. Bean kind of liked it and Boo kind of didn't. Forget that though, and let this book lead you to the other wordless picture books by David Weisner in the the JEasy section of your library. Flotsam is an especially wonderful visual fantasy. I would even buy a new copy of it, just to have around for those times when children or adults need to get lost in something definitely weird and definitely beautiful.
Snowman
Written and Illustrated by Raymond Briggs
For the sake of the project, I made myself narrate this frame by frame to Boo one evening at bedtime. And you know, this tale of a boy and his snowman was charming.
Will's Mammoth
Written by Rafe Martin and Illustrated by Stephen Gammel
Our library only has copies of this book about a boy and his wooly mammoth at outlying branches so it took us a while to get to it and by the time we read it we were deep into the Picture Book section of the Guide. We were finding so many sublime treasures among the picture books that Will's Mammoth fell flat for us and failed to get anyone's attention. Maybe if we had read it in that first night of wordless book bliss...
Zoom
Written and Illustrated by Istvan Banyai
This book and its sequel, Re-Zoom, are exactly what wordless picture books should be: beautifully illustrated, mind-stretching, and captivating. Bean and I loved these, but Boo lost interest after the first perspective-jump.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Looking for the Tower of Babel
One of the things I like about homeschooling is that when there is an academic or behavior emergency, we can deal with it immediately, ourselves - without emails, phone calls and meetings with the teacher or principal. Likewise, when something isn't quite working, we can decide ourselves whether it's an emergency or not. If it's not an emergency, we can let it simmer until we come up with something new to try. Right now, foreign language is bubbling on my back burner.
When we first started homeschooling, I had a vague notion that we would include a language in our curriculum - mostly because it was possible and because Rebbeca Rupp listed it as a subject for each grade in Home Learning Year by Year. I had no clear goals for this subject and figured that whatever we did would probably be more than she had done in her private school and definitely more than she would have done in a public school. (The private school provided weeekly Spanish instruction for K-3, and several of the local public schools have popular Dual Spanish/English Immersion programs, but not at the public school Bean would have attended.) I took six years of French between 7th grade and college and one, mostly-forgotten year of Mandarin in college. I have always loved languages and want Bean and Boo to be exposed to other languages and learn at least one apiece, but I have never been fervent enough in this wish to instill a second language at home.
When we told Oma that we were homeschooling, she excitedly offered to buy the Rosetta Stone Home School versions for the first year of one or more languages. (She was so quick and enthusiastic with this offer I had a sneaking suspicion that she knew this was coming and was just waiting to get news so she could buy the items in her Amazon cart.) I wanted Bean to do either French or Mandarin, but I was undecided and my vision for foriegn language was ambiguous, so I asked her what she wanted to study and she said Dutch and Chinese. This wasn't a huge surprise since she and Boo are half Chinese and the only eighth on my side that ever gets mentioned is Dutch. (In real-life, Boo and Bean have both Dutch and Chinese names.)
At the beginning of the school year, we installed Rosetta Stone on Bean's laptop with anticipation and attempted to do two or three lessons from each language every week. Bean raced through the first unit in about six weeks for each language, but lost steam around the holidays. Right now, she's back to doing Dutch two or three times a week, but mostly avoids Chinese.
Despite Bean's flagging interest, we both like Rosetta Stone and I would buy it again - but I would probably skip the Homeschool version and would try not to buy the headset/microphone combo which as near as I can tell is useless. (Or maybe the headset was just overridden by the computer's microphone, I didn't investigate since the program was understanding her for the spoken portions.) Rosetta Stone's approach is to immerse the student in the language and to this end, there is not English instruction, but the student uses the pictures and repetition to learn the language. With the Dutch, I can tell this approach is definitely working with Bean. It helps that there are some similarities between Dutch and English vocabulary and syntax, since they are both Germanic languages. Chinese is so different that it's definitely more of a struggle, especially if Bean doesn't keep up with it on a daily basis.
We are at the point in the year when we're starting to think about what's next and it's clear that my non-committal approach to foreign language has yielded predictable results. I think that true mastery of a language will require both more effort and a broader approach. I have not researched this, but I think if Bean is really to master a foreign language, we will need to add other elements to the curriculum, such as games, video tapes, hands-on materials, and a regular time to meet with a native speaker. I have only just begun researching the options and would love suggestions if anyone has good resources.
Bean looked at Livemocha when she first asked about learning Arabic, but didn't like that it was interactive, but different from Rosetta Stone. This could still be a good option at some point though, since the site also has games and gives you the opportunity to chat with native speakers and other students. We have a children's language school in our town which offeres several languages for kids to learn in a small-group setting. This could work well in combination with Rosetta Stone or some other instruction. We know all about Muzzy, since I purchased the Mandarin version for Boo so he would have Chinese "lessons" too. We really regret buying this program because it's low production values just don't match the inflated price. I am curious about the Little Pim series for Chinese, Arabic and French, but I'm wary about buying another video sight unseen.
Right now, I am wondering if we should just keep puttering along doing what we're doing until it becomes clear that Bean wants to focus on one language or another and then add the extra pieces. Since foreign language is not required by the state of California for third graders, we can basically do whatever we want. Besides puttering along, we could change or add languages - I want to add French and Bean wants to add Arabic. I am concerned that Rosetta Stone will be as challenging for Arabic as it is for Chinese. I have been exploring other resources for Chinese, such as the courses offered by Cheng-Tsui and will probably need to do some research for Arabic. I am also torn between indulging Bean's clear love of languages and giving her a chance to build confidence in one before adding more. She really loves Dutch and it's connection to her heritage, but it's not the most useful language to learn - and maybe that doesn't matter. Just the act of learning a foreign language must have intrinsic value: wiring new pathways in the brain, opening one up to other cultures, and teaching problem solving come to mind immediately.
The big question for me is how much to involve Bean in this decision. That is always a delicate dance, and even more so when it comes to homeschool. Bean is intense, sensitive, and strong-willed and one false step can lead to years of refusal to even consider a particular path. When she is reluctant to do something, giving her choice can help her be engaged in the process and more enthusiastic. On the other hand, giving her choice when she is already uncertain can be overwhelming. Sometimes I can tell clearly which way the winds are blowing, but other times she keeps her feelings to herself enough that I don't know something is troubling her until I start trying to mess with the status quo.
Things to ponder...and did I mention that I want to add Latin at some point?
When we first started homeschooling, I had a vague notion that we would include a language in our curriculum - mostly because it was possible and because Rebbeca Rupp listed it as a subject for each grade in Home Learning Year by Year. I had no clear goals for this subject and figured that whatever we did would probably be more than she had done in her private school and definitely more than she would have done in a public school. (The private school provided weeekly Spanish instruction for K-3, and several of the local public schools have popular Dual Spanish/English Immersion programs, but not at the public school Bean would have attended.) I took six years of French between 7th grade and college and one, mostly-forgotten year of Mandarin in college. I have always loved languages and want Bean and Boo to be exposed to other languages and learn at least one apiece, but I have never been fervent enough in this wish to instill a second language at home.
When we told Oma that we were homeschooling, she excitedly offered to buy the Rosetta Stone Home School versions for the first year of one or more languages. (She was so quick and enthusiastic with this offer I had a sneaking suspicion that she knew this was coming and was just waiting to get news so she could buy the items in her Amazon cart.) I wanted Bean to do either French or Mandarin, but I was undecided and my vision for foriegn language was ambiguous, so I asked her what she wanted to study and she said Dutch and Chinese. This wasn't a huge surprise since she and Boo are half Chinese and the only eighth on my side that ever gets mentioned is Dutch. (In real-life, Boo and Bean have both Dutch and Chinese names.)
At the beginning of the school year, we installed Rosetta Stone on Bean's laptop with anticipation and attempted to do two or three lessons from each language every week. Bean raced through the first unit in about six weeks for each language, but lost steam around the holidays. Right now, she's back to doing Dutch two or three times a week, but mostly avoids Chinese.
Despite Bean's flagging interest, we both like Rosetta Stone and I would buy it again - but I would probably skip the Homeschool version and would try not to buy the headset/microphone combo which as near as I can tell is useless. (Or maybe the headset was just overridden by the computer's microphone, I didn't investigate since the program was understanding her for the spoken portions.) Rosetta Stone's approach is to immerse the student in the language and to this end, there is not English instruction, but the student uses the pictures and repetition to learn the language. With the Dutch, I can tell this approach is definitely working with Bean. It helps that there are some similarities between Dutch and English vocabulary and syntax, since they are both Germanic languages. Chinese is so different that it's definitely more of a struggle, especially if Bean doesn't keep up with it on a daily basis.
We are at the point in the year when we're starting to think about what's next and it's clear that my non-committal approach to foreign language has yielded predictable results. I think that true mastery of a language will require both more effort and a broader approach. I have not researched this, but I think if Bean is really to master a foreign language, we will need to add other elements to the curriculum, such as games, video tapes, hands-on materials, and a regular time to meet with a native speaker. I have only just begun researching the options and would love suggestions if anyone has good resources.
Bean looked at Livemocha when she first asked about learning Arabic, but didn't like that it was interactive, but different from Rosetta Stone. This could still be a good option at some point though, since the site also has games and gives you the opportunity to chat with native speakers and other students. We have a children's language school in our town which offeres several languages for kids to learn in a small-group setting. This could work well in combination with Rosetta Stone or some other instruction. We know all about Muzzy, since I purchased the Mandarin version for Boo so he would have Chinese "lessons" too. We really regret buying this program because it's low production values just don't match the inflated price. I am curious about the Little Pim series for Chinese, Arabic and French, but I'm wary about buying another video sight unseen.
Right now, I am wondering if we should just keep puttering along doing what we're doing until it becomes clear that Bean wants to focus on one language or another and then add the extra pieces. Since foreign language is not required by the state of California for third graders, we can basically do whatever we want. Besides puttering along, we could change or add languages - I want to add French and Bean wants to add Arabic. I am concerned that Rosetta Stone will be as challenging for Arabic as it is for Chinese. I have been exploring other resources for Chinese, such as the courses offered by Cheng-Tsui and will probably need to do some research for Arabic. I am also torn between indulging Bean's clear love of languages and giving her a chance to build confidence in one before adding more. She really loves Dutch and it's connection to her heritage, but it's not the most useful language to learn - and maybe that doesn't matter. Just the act of learning a foreign language must have intrinsic value: wiring new pathways in the brain, opening one up to other cultures, and teaching problem solving come to mind immediately.
The big question for me is how much to involve Bean in this decision. That is always a delicate dance, and even more so when it comes to homeschool. Bean is intense, sensitive, and strong-willed and one false step can lead to years of refusal to even consider a particular path. When she is reluctant to do something, giving her choice can help her be engaged in the process and more enthusiastic. On the other hand, giving her choice when she is already uncertain can be overwhelming. Sometimes I can tell clearly which way the winds are blowing, but other times she keeps her feelings to herself enough that I don't know something is troubling her until I start trying to mess with the status quo.
Things to ponder...and did I mention that I want to add Latin at some point?
Monday, February 28, 2011
The New York Times Book Project
I love the idea of starting at the beginning of a list of something and working your way through it, a la Julie/Julia. Thanks to The New York Times Parents Guide to the Best Books for Children I finally have my own obsessive, list-based project.
The Guide came to me as a gift from Dr. Yap when Bean was but a wee thing, because, being the good partner that she is, Dr. Yap knew how much I loved books and knew they would be a big part of my parenting life. Before I was even pregnant - before we even tried to get pregnant - I started collecting my childhood favorites, beginning with Blueberries for Sal, The Story of Ping, and the entire Beatrix Potter collection. When Bean came into the world, she already had entire bookcase full of books.
For some reason, though, I resisted the Guide and it was shuffled from bookshelf to desk and back again many times. I would occasionally crack it open- guiltily - see a few favorites, look at the publication date (2000 for the 3rd Edition Revised & Updated), try to start at the beginning with the Wordless Books, then put it down again. Without thinking through how timeless children's literature is (two of the books I listed above were published before my mother was born; most of Beatrix Potter's books came out before my grandmothers were born) I declared the book out of date and therefore possibly inferior.
The Wordless Books section also thwarted me. We only had two of these tomes, The Snowman and Goodnight, Gorilla (which is listed in the Guide's Picture Book section, but which I definitely consider wordless), both were gifts and I did my best to ignore them and would have given them away if I had been capable of parting with books. I am a reader and a writer and I wanted words, darnit, and did not want to narrate the story of my own accord in my sleep-deprived state. Bean never seemed to notice and never had more than a passing interest. Boo noticed them, loved them, and insisted that I "read" them, completely ignoring my pleas that these were books he could actually read himself.
Of course, one could just circumnavigate this section. But I couldn't. It would have taunted me. And how could I have gone through all the other sections and bypass that one. Better to give the whole thing a pass. Back on the shelf went the book.
Then came homeschooling and weekly trips to the library. It was great fun exploring all the "Youth Library" had to offer and making discoveries, but after a while I felt like I needed a little structure. So I took out the Guide and invented a project. An obsessive-compulsive project involving a list and books. Really, the only thing better would be if it also involved chocolate. (Note to self: look for a list of world's best chocolate and start saving airline miles. I'm sure I can make a homeschooling project out of this.)
Here are my rules:
* Books to which I know Bean will fundamentally object. This includes most ghost stories (though I have read the book descriptions to Bean and one or two sounded interesting to her, ghosts or no ghosts), and books whose point is to make fun of someone or something in a possibly mean-spirited way. That includes The Stupids series by Henry Allard (I looked at a used copy at the kids' consignment shop just to be sure), and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (we had a gift copy when Bean was younger and it's one of the few books I have ever given away without a second thought). No judgement here if others like these books (they've been vetted by the Times after all); they are just not our thing and will not help with the cause of building lifelong readers and learners.
Originally, I thought we wouldn't read books that were about any specific religion, unless they seemed liked a good introduction to another culture. I quickly realized this meant that I was saying yes most books about Judaism and all the books about Islam and Buddhism, and no to all the books about Christianity. I decided that I had to say yes to all the books about religion. After all, there weren't many and this really is a secular list. These are good books that happen to relate a story rooted in one religion or another.
We actually started this project in January, so we're mostly finished with the Wordless Books and very close to finished with the Picture Books. I will give a review of our favorite and not-so favorite Wordless Books soon.
The Guide came to me as a gift from Dr. Yap when Bean was but a wee thing, because, being the good partner that she is, Dr. Yap knew how much I loved books and knew they would be a big part of my parenting life. Before I was even pregnant - before we even tried to get pregnant - I started collecting my childhood favorites, beginning with Blueberries for Sal, The Story of Ping, and the entire Beatrix Potter collection. When Bean came into the world, she already had entire bookcase full of books.
For some reason, though, I resisted the Guide and it was shuffled from bookshelf to desk and back again many times. I would occasionally crack it open- guiltily - see a few favorites, look at the publication date (2000 for the 3rd Edition Revised & Updated), try to start at the beginning with the Wordless Books, then put it down again. Without thinking through how timeless children's literature is (two of the books I listed above were published before my mother was born; most of Beatrix Potter's books came out before my grandmothers were born) I declared the book out of date and therefore possibly inferior.
The Wordless Books section also thwarted me. We only had two of these tomes, The Snowman and Goodnight, Gorilla (which is listed in the Guide's Picture Book section, but which I definitely consider wordless), both were gifts and I did my best to ignore them and would have given them away if I had been capable of parting with books. I am a reader and a writer and I wanted words, darnit, and did not want to narrate the story of my own accord in my sleep-deprived state. Bean never seemed to notice and never had more than a passing interest. Boo noticed them, loved them, and insisted that I "read" them, completely ignoring my pleas that these were books he could actually read himself.
Of course, one could just circumnavigate this section. But I couldn't. It would have taunted me. And how could I have gone through all the other sections and bypass that one. Better to give the whole thing a pass. Back on the shelf went the book.
Then came homeschooling and weekly trips to the library. It was great fun exploring all the "Youth Library" had to offer and making discoveries, but after a while I felt like I needed a little structure. So I took out the Guide and invented a project. An obsessive-compulsive project involving a list and books. Really, the only thing better would be if it also involved chocolate. (Note to self: look for a list of world's best chocolate and start saving airline miles. I'm sure I can make a homeschooling project out of this.)
Here are my rules:
- We will work our way through all of the sections in order: Wordless Books, Picture Books, Story Books, Early Reading Books, Middle Reading Books, and Young Adult Books. I readily concede that Bean (7) is not ready for the likes of Tiger Eyes, Forever (Judy Blume books about the death of a parent and first sexual experiences, respectively), or most of the other books in the Young Adult section, but it will be a long time before we get there - the first five sections have a combined 933 selections (and many of these are series with extra volumes demanding to be read). If I get there before she's ready, I will read the ones I haven't already to myself.
- I will get as many books as I can from our library. When I come across used books that are on the list, I may purchase them, especially if they are unavailable at the library.
- No Amazon. Except for the 10-volume A History of Us, which I would rather have here than keep borrowing from our homeschool program.
- I will save holiday books for the appropriate time.
- With a very few exceptions, we will at least look at every book we can find. Here are the exceptions:
* Books to which I know Bean will fundamentally object. This includes most ghost stories (though I have read the book descriptions to Bean and one or two sounded interesting to her, ghosts or no ghosts), and books whose point is to make fun of someone or something in a possibly mean-spirited way. That includes The Stupids series by Henry Allard (I looked at a used copy at the kids' consignment shop just to be sure), and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (we had a gift copy when Bean was younger and it's one of the few books I have ever given away without a second thought). No judgement here if others like these books (they've been vetted by the Times after all); they are just not our thing and will not help with the cause of building lifelong readers and learners.
Originally, I thought we wouldn't read books that were about any specific religion, unless they seemed liked a good introduction to another culture. I quickly realized this meant that I was saying yes most books about Judaism and all the books about Islam and Buddhism, and no to all the books about Christianity. I decided that I had to say yes to all the books about religion. After all, there weren't many and this really is a secular list. These are good books that happen to relate a story rooted in one religion or another.
We actually started this project in January, so we're mostly finished with the Wordless Books and very close to finished with the Picture Books. I will give a review of our favorite and not-so favorite Wordless Books soon.
Monday, February 21, 2011
An Ode to the Library
As I lug 50 pound bag of books across the street or around the corner
the kids running ahead or lagging behind
I don't mind the weight because I know four small hands will soon put it all in the book drop
taking peaks in the slot hoping to see hands on the other side whisking away the volumes
The empty bag will droop from my shoulder as I lag behind the kids
already at the top of the stars
They run ahead and make their rounds (puppet theater, discovery table, reading table)
Quickly
Making sure all their favorite spots are still intact
And looking to see what's new, different
I wander off, filling the bag as I go
From zero to fifty pounds
Thrilling at small discoveries and looking around for an adult to whom I can gush about the genius of the children's librarians
I hold my tongue, deciding not to divulge the secrets I have sussed out since we became more than occasional visitors
The abecedarians and counting books perch on their own shelf
Neat ABC and 123 spine labels setting them apart from the rest of the story books to come.
Next come the Mother Goose books
which I bypass
though I know someone will be glad to find them
The two year old is making a quick stop at the drawing table
before following me along to the section of holiday books
(What a nice idea, why don't all libraries do this?)
I lose the toddler as I pass down the magical aisle of 398.2
A whole row of fairy tales and folk stories
Standing apart from the rest of the Dewey Decimals
A gateway between the JEasy storybooks and the serious world of nonfiction
(I wonder if anybody ever thought of putting 811 Poetry in it's own aisle
a sentry in verse between the whole rest of the Youth Library
and the edgy corner of the Young Adult Section)
One of the librarians smiles and asks if I need any help
Not this time, but the next time I am looking for patience-themed literature
or my daughter needs to find books on runic alphabet systems
I will seek out her
or one of the other Oracles in the children's section
Before I make my way to the special shelves with themes that the librarians have divined are important this season
I pass by the seven year old, sitting on a cushioned bench for one
at the end of a row
Engrossed in a book she didn't know existed until she walked by it
a few minutes ago
As I cruise around the chapter book section
My toes curl with joy, sure that my children's librarians are the only ones smart enough
to give shorter chapter books there own wall
so kids who are beyond the controlled words of a Dr. Seuss Reader but not yet ready for the wider world of Harry Potter, the Phantom Tollbooth, and the Rats of Nimh
Can still read big kid books and stretch their reading muscles
The bag is now too full for anything but the board books the two year keeps running up to stuff inside
I realize I haven't looked at the community table in a while and take a look at the stacked flyers
(After all being a purveyor of information to the community is the heart of a public library)
I find both kids sitting on the floor in front of the shelf that inexplicably
(but probably because of space)
contains both manga and extra-large board books
- one is reading Kilala Princess and the other is looking at Wheels on the Bus.
This time, I don't have an extra set of big hands
so I bypass the blue canvas bags, each filled with books all about music, or nature, or our bodies
-relics from a time when there was staff enough to take books into local preschools
Now there for families
I try to sneak over to the checkout table without picking up an extra set of helping hands
And feel a wave of anxiety
not because of the new self-checkout system
but because I might have missed that gem that will be checked out for the next two months.
As I wrote this, I was taking a mental tour of the Santa Cruz Public Library Central Branch, but my family visits most of the other branches of the City-County Public Library System and their Children's Sections contain similar secrets and hidden corners.
the kids running ahead or lagging behind
I don't mind the weight because I know four small hands will soon put it all in the book drop
taking peaks in the slot hoping to see hands on the other side whisking away the volumes
The empty bag will droop from my shoulder as I lag behind the kids
already at the top of the stars
They run ahead and make their rounds (puppet theater, discovery table, reading table)
Quickly
Making sure all their favorite spots are still intact
And looking to see what's new, different
I wander off, filling the bag as I go
From zero to fifty pounds
Thrilling at small discoveries and looking around for an adult to whom I can gush about the genius of the children's librarians
I hold my tongue, deciding not to divulge the secrets I have sussed out since we became more than occasional visitors
The abecedarians and counting books perch on their own shelf
Neat ABC and 123 spine labels setting them apart from the rest of the story books to come.
Next come the Mother Goose books
which I bypass
though I know someone will be glad to find them
The two year old is making a quick stop at the drawing table
before following me along to the section of holiday books
(What a nice idea, why don't all libraries do this?)
I lose the toddler as I pass down the magical aisle of 398.2
A whole row of fairy tales and folk stories
Standing apart from the rest of the Dewey Decimals
A gateway between the JEasy storybooks and the serious world of nonfiction
(I wonder if anybody ever thought of putting 811 Poetry in it's own aisle
a sentry in verse between the whole rest of the Youth Library
and the edgy corner of the Young Adult Section)
One of the librarians smiles and asks if I need any help
Not this time, but the next time I am looking for patience-themed literature
or my daughter needs to find books on runic alphabet systems
I will seek out her
or one of the other Oracles in the children's section
Before I make my way to the special shelves with themes that the librarians have divined are important this season
I pass by the seven year old, sitting on a cushioned bench for one
at the end of a row
Engrossed in a book she didn't know existed until she walked by it
a few minutes ago
As I cruise around the chapter book section
My toes curl with joy, sure that my children's librarians are the only ones smart enough
to give shorter chapter books there own wall
so kids who are beyond the controlled words of a Dr. Seuss Reader but not yet ready for the wider world of Harry Potter, the Phantom Tollbooth, and the Rats of Nimh
Can still read big kid books and stretch their reading muscles
Making sure to give the JEasy+ shelves a little attention
(I always worry that others haven't discovered this section of picture books with more words
about slavery, World War II, child labor, Anti-Semitism...)
I quickly peruse the CDs, looking for Beethoven for Kids and the Red Balloon.
The bag is now too full for anything but the board books the two year keeps running up to stuff inside
I realize I haven't looked at the community table in a while and take a look at the stacked flyers
(After all being a purveyor of information to the community is the heart of a public library)
I find both kids sitting on the floor in front of the shelf that inexplicably
(but probably because of space)
contains both manga and extra-large board books
- one is reading Kilala Princess and the other is looking at Wheels on the Bus.
This time, I don't have an extra set of big hands
so I bypass the blue canvas bags, each filled with books all about music, or nature, or our bodies
-relics from a time when there was staff enough to take books into local preschools
Now there for families
I try to sneak over to the checkout table without picking up an extra set of helping hands
And feel a wave of anxiety
not because of the new self-checkout system
but because I might have missed that gem that will be checked out for the next two months.
As I wrote this, I was taking a mental tour of the Santa Cruz Public Library Central Branch, but my family visits most of the other branches of the City-County Public Library System and their Children's Sections contain similar secrets and hidden corners.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
But Don't You Have a Toddler at Home?
Why yes. Yes I do have a toddler at home. Boo is 2 and a substantial amount of change, putting him squarely in the toddler category. While trying to homeschool a going-on-eight-year-old with a toddler at home does have its challenges, it's not crazy. Well, not completely crazy.
When we first started to homeschool Bean, Boo was about 18 months old and he was very excited to have his big sister home. He wanted to sit on my lap or in her chair while we were doing schoolwork. Or he wanted to do something too. For a while, I found something comparable for him to do - crayons and paper for example- so he wasn't left out of all the fun. There was an all-too-brief period when we counted on his nap time to do more concentrated work; and then his nap became less reliable.
Gradually, it's all smoothed out and Boo is used to school time and busies himself easily, sometimes after I read one of "his" library books to him. The last couple of weeks however, busying himself means he sits on the sofa with either Netflix on the iPad (yes, he can manage this almost entirely on his own) or a movie on the portable DVD player (the only part of this he can't manage is opening the door to the movie closet.)
I am not opposed to either Boo or Bean watching TV or using the computer in general, they are a part of the world in which they live. However, I do monitor content and call a timeout on the TV/computer when their self-regulation leads them to marathon media sessions a few days in a row. Bean only occasionally gets into a media rut that requires intervention, but she has never been one to just watch TV without doing at least one other thing at the same time. Boo, on the other hand, has no problems sitting in one place staring at the screen for two hours straight. He has a "better" attention span than Bean. At 29 months.
It looks like I will be doing preschool at home sooner rather than later, because in this house, necessity is the mother of homeschooling. We plan to enroll Boo in a Waldorf-ish home preschool near our house in the fall, just two mornings a week, but that's months away and my toddler needs some directed playtime NOW. Peese.
After reading a lovely article about turning every daily experience into a preschool opportunity, and almost falling asleep looking at a site after site that suggested theme weeks, and then having a moment or two of feeling complete and utter inadequacy while looking at several Montessori "Bambino Academies" I realized I HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE.
That's right. This is not the first time I've had a two and a half year old in the house and it's not the first time I thought about preparing a rich learning environment - I just wasn't thinking of it as school the first time around. Even though Bean was trundled off to a Montessori program at 18 months, I still did a lot at home with her. I still find dried beans in odd places and come across teeny tiny scoops and tongs in the kitchen drawers.
I have been trying to tame the playroom and art closet (again) and have started mentally setting aside materials that would be perfect to bring out one at a time in the mornings for Boo. Over the years, as they have segued from toddler learning materials to big kid toys, many of these things have become jumbled. I spent a rainy weekend morning going through the box of lacing "stuff" and sorting out lacing beads and the lacing frame from the lacing cards. Then I tackled the dozen or so sets of flash cards that had become one humongous game of Go Fish. I set aside the sign language cards, the money and time sets, and the phonics set then further segregated the remaining cards into small, manageable groups: shapes, numbers 1-20, letters, solar system, ocean/marine life, ecosystems, bugs.
I rescued some plastic trays from Bean's art table and will start setting out work for Boo this week. I also pulled out a few preschool teacher's books that I found at a church rummage sale, moving them from the Someday stack in the playroom closet to the Right Now reference box on my desk. One is Investigating Science With Young Children by Rosemary Althouse and the other is Start to Finish: Developmentally Sequenced Activities for Preschool Children by Nory Marsh (this one shows up on a lot of lists online, but without any pictures or information and appears to be out-of-print).
The first one is more for inspiration, but I think I will use Start to Finish more directly. The activities are intended to strengthen the skills that will eventually be needed for holding a pencil and using scissors. The first activities are "Stringing Medium-Sized Beads," "Pegboard Patterns," "Playing Paper Basketball," and "Putting a Lid On It" (screwing lids on jars.) I would probably have done most of the activities on my own, but it's nice to have a guide.
And of course, before, after, and during the school day there is lots of reading. Boo is always around when Bean or I are reading her history, science and literature lessons out loud and I always include what Bean calls "Boo Books" during our reading time.
We'll see how this goes and I'll report back.
When we first started to homeschool Bean, Boo was about 18 months old and he was very excited to have his big sister home. He wanted to sit on my lap or in her chair while we were doing schoolwork. Or he wanted to do something too. For a while, I found something comparable for him to do - crayons and paper for example- so he wasn't left out of all the fun. There was an all-too-brief period when we counted on his nap time to do more concentrated work; and then his nap became less reliable.
Gradually, it's all smoothed out and Boo is used to school time and busies himself easily, sometimes after I read one of "his" library books to him. The last couple of weeks however, busying himself means he sits on the sofa with either Netflix on the iPad (yes, he can manage this almost entirely on his own) or a movie on the portable DVD player (the only part of this he can't manage is opening the door to the movie closet.)
I am not opposed to either Boo or Bean watching TV or using the computer in general, they are a part of the world in which they live. However, I do monitor content and call a timeout on the TV/computer when their self-regulation leads them to marathon media sessions a few days in a row. Bean only occasionally gets into a media rut that requires intervention, but she has never been one to just watch TV without doing at least one other thing at the same time. Boo, on the other hand, has no problems sitting in one place staring at the screen for two hours straight. He has a "better" attention span than Bean. At 29 months.
It looks like I will be doing preschool at home sooner rather than later, because in this house, necessity is the mother of homeschooling. We plan to enroll Boo in a Waldorf-ish home preschool near our house in the fall, just two mornings a week, but that's months away and my toddler needs some directed playtime NOW. Peese.
After reading a lovely article about turning every daily experience into a preschool opportunity, and almost falling asleep looking at a site after site that suggested theme weeks, and then having a moment or two of feeling complete and utter inadequacy while looking at several Montessori "Bambino Academies" I realized I HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE.
That's right. This is not the first time I've had a two and a half year old in the house and it's not the first time I thought about preparing a rich learning environment - I just wasn't thinking of it as school the first time around. Even though Bean was trundled off to a Montessori program at 18 months, I still did a lot at home with her. I still find dried beans in odd places and come across teeny tiny scoops and tongs in the kitchen drawers.
I have been trying to tame the playroom and art closet (again) and have started mentally setting aside materials that would be perfect to bring out one at a time in the mornings for Boo. Over the years, as they have segued from toddler learning materials to big kid toys, many of these things have become jumbled. I spent a rainy weekend morning going through the box of lacing "stuff" and sorting out lacing beads and the lacing frame from the lacing cards. Then I tackled the dozen or so sets of flash cards that had become one humongous game of Go Fish. I set aside the sign language cards, the money and time sets, and the phonics set then further segregated the remaining cards into small, manageable groups: shapes, numbers 1-20, letters, solar system, ocean/marine life, ecosystems, bugs.
I rescued some plastic trays from Bean's art table and will start setting out work for Boo this week. I also pulled out a few preschool teacher's books that I found at a church rummage sale, moving them from the Someday stack in the playroom closet to the Right Now reference box on my desk. One is Investigating Science With Young Children by Rosemary Althouse and the other is Start to Finish: Developmentally Sequenced Activities for Preschool Children by Nory Marsh (this one shows up on a lot of lists online, but without any pictures or information and appears to be out-of-print).
The first one is more for inspiration, but I think I will use Start to Finish more directly. The activities are intended to strengthen the skills that will eventually be needed for holding a pencil and using scissors. The first activities are "Stringing Medium-Sized Beads," "Pegboard Patterns," "Playing Paper Basketball," and "Putting a Lid On It" (screwing lids on jars.) I would probably have done most of the activities on my own, but it's nice to have a guide.
And of course, before, after, and during the school day there is lots of reading. Boo is always around when Bean or I are reading her history, science and literature lessons out loud and I always include what Bean calls "Boo Books" during our reading time.
We'll see how this goes and I'll report back.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Handwringing
Every day, I worry about something - big or small - related to homeschooling. The one thing I worry about more than anything else is writing, in all its aspects. From an educational perspective, I think writing can be broken into three categories: penmanship, grammar and mechanics, and what I call the business of writing - knowing and working with different forms, such as poetry and stories, as well as being able to construct a sentence, and a paragraph and string these together coherently and orderly.
Bean is "advanced" in many areas academically. (This is a whole other blog post, but as I tell her, she is in Anneke grade). She is way ahead of where her age-level peers are expected to be in math, history and science. She is somewhat ahead in reading. When it comes to writing though, she is, at most, writing as other 7 and 3/4 year olds do.
Her penmanship has gotten better over time, but she persists in starting many letters at the bottom instead of at the top and still reverses some letters. I have wondered many times about whether occupational therapy was necessary, but keep hoping it will work itself out in time. At the beginning of our "school year," in August, I was thought some "remediation" might help, so I started having writing in a journal, just concentrating on one letter a day, capital and lowercase, and one number. I wrote an example at the top of the page, with arrows showing which direction each part of the letter should be written. She might produce one or two perfect specimens, then fill the rest of the page quickly and sloppily. Or she might insist on writing every letter her way, not the "right" way. Even when she was trying, only a few letters out of a hundred might match my example. My thinking behind this exercise was that doing it the correct way a bunch of times would create muscle memory. I realized though, that she was either incapable or unwilling to focus on writing the letters correctly.
So I stopped the journal pages and had her start doing the Handwriting Without Tears cursive workbook. I thought she might take to the more fluid writing style. She has always disliked the drawings in the HWT books and didn't like them any better in the cursive book. We have kept up with that sporadically and in recent weeks, she has all but stopped working on cursive. I do not have strong feelings about her learning cursive, but I do think she needs to be able to read cursive and write her own signature.
I know that if she were in a regular school classroom, she would be doing more writing every day, and that it would get easier over time. She knows I think it's important and she often comes up with writing projects that are completing of her own making: writing "reports" about things she is reading, writing short letters, copying down song lyrics. Usually, these are all only a few sentences long, but when she is writing for herself, she has much better penmanship than when I require her to write something specific.
The problem is, we need to provide work samples to our public school consultant teacher as part of the state reporting requirements. Often, these projects are written in scattered journals or on scraps of paper. I have to hunt them all down to show our consultant. Sometimes, when she's written things privately and not shared them with us, I feel it would be a violation to show them to the consultant. She really hates the idea of having to show work to Joanne. It has nothing to do with Joanne, she just doesn't like having to talk about her work or prove her knowledge about anything - unless it's her idea.
The only part of Language Arts that Bean finds interesting is vocabulary and discovering word origins and meanings. She loves using Dictionary.com. We used to work on grammar and mechanics, but after playing musical workbooks for several months, I stopped pushing it. The curriculum we are using has the language arts lessons embedded within both the literature and social studies activities, but she usually finds reasons for not wanting to do the exercises. Even though her writing is fairly small, she gets anxious about only having a few lines to complete. Most of the activities are presented with the expectation that the student will answer in complete sentences. There are none of the endless "fill-in-the-blank" exercises that I remember and that are common in workbooks. She doesn't like those either, but at least they would give her more practice and allow her to build up to writing longer sentences. I have offered to let her write her answers in a journal, but she doesn't want to do that because she knows I will then show it to Joanne.
I go back and forth on the whole writing thing between insisting on a certain amount or type of writing everyday and relaxing my expectations to see how she develops on her own. Right now, I'm following the latter approach. I know that she is always more willing if she is interested and if it doesn't seem like pointless busy work. Sometimes I am okay with this, and sometimes I just want her to do what I think she would have to do in "regular school." I have heard of kids who are unschooled who don't write at all until they are 13, then they enroll in a community college course and they start writing like the Dickens. I've always thought these were homeschooling urban legends
Lately, I am getting a lot of inspiration and validation from Creative Homeschooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families, in which Lisa Rivero notes that many gifted children have asynchronous development: they can be ahead in some areas while at developmental level in others. I have not investigated this further, but she also says that many gifted kids lag in handwriting.
My current plan is to keep working through the MBtP curriculum, one unit at a time, and keep offering the activities to her, but not forcing them. I have been gathering the materials to do a homemade Poetry unit whenever we finish MBtP- or whenever we decide to be done with it. This will include both reading and writing poetry. I am also thinking about using If You're Trying to Teach Kids to Write, You've Gotta Have This Book to start using for daily writing projects.
Bean is "advanced" in many areas academically. (This is a whole other blog post, but as I tell her, she is in Anneke grade). She is way ahead of where her age-level peers are expected to be in math, history and science. She is somewhat ahead in reading. When it comes to writing though, she is, at most, writing as other 7 and 3/4 year olds do.
Her penmanship has gotten better over time, but she persists in starting many letters at the bottom instead of at the top and still reverses some letters. I have wondered many times about whether occupational therapy was necessary, but keep hoping it will work itself out in time. At the beginning of our "school year," in August, I was thought some "remediation" might help, so I started having writing in a journal, just concentrating on one letter a day, capital and lowercase, and one number. I wrote an example at the top of the page, with arrows showing which direction each part of the letter should be written. She might produce one or two perfect specimens, then fill the rest of the page quickly and sloppily. Or she might insist on writing every letter her way, not the "right" way. Even when she was trying, only a few letters out of a hundred might match my example. My thinking behind this exercise was that doing it the correct way a bunch of times would create muscle memory. I realized though, that she was either incapable or unwilling to focus on writing the letters correctly.
So I stopped the journal pages and had her start doing the Handwriting Without Tears cursive workbook. I thought she might take to the more fluid writing style. She has always disliked the drawings in the HWT books and didn't like them any better in the cursive book. We have kept up with that sporadically and in recent weeks, she has all but stopped working on cursive. I do not have strong feelings about her learning cursive, but I do think she needs to be able to read cursive and write her own signature.
I know that if she were in a regular school classroom, she would be doing more writing every day, and that it would get easier over time. She knows I think it's important and she often comes up with writing projects that are completing of her own making: writing "reports" about things she is reading, writing short letters, copying down song lyrics. Usually, these are all only a few sentences long, but when she is writing for herself, she has much better penmanship than when I require her to write something specific.
The problem is, we need to provide work samples to our public school consultant teacher as part of the state reporting requirements. Often, these projects are written in scattered journals or on scraps of paper. I have to hunt them all down to show our consultant. Sometimes, when she's written things privately and not shared them with us, I feel it would be a violation to show them to the consultant. She really hates the idea of having to show work to Joanne. It has nothing to do with Joanne, she just doesn't like having to talk about her work or prove her knowledge about anything - unless it's her idea.
The only part of Language Arts that Bean finds interesting is vocabulary and discovering word origins and meanings. She loves using Dictionary.com. We used to work on grammar and mechanics, but after playing musical workbooks for several months, I stopped pushing it. The curriculum we are using has the language arts lessons embedded within both the literature and social studies activities, but she usually finds reasons for not wanting to do the exercises. Even though her writing is fairly small, she gets anxious about only having a few lines to complete. Most of the activities are presented with the expectation that the student will answer in complete sentences. There are none of the endless "fill-in-the-blank" exercises that I remember and that are common in workbooks. She doesn't like those either, but at least they would give her more practice and allow her to build up to writing longer sentences. I have offered to let her write her answers in a journal, but she doesn't want to do that because she knows I will then show it to Joanne.
I go back and forth on the whole writing thing between insisting on a certain amount or type of writing everyday and relaxing my expectations to see how she develops on her own. Right now, I'm following the latter approach. I know that she is always more willing if she is interested and if it doesn't seem like pointless busy work. Sometimes I am okay with this, and sometimes I just want her to do what I think she would have to do in "regular school." I have heard of kids who are unschooled who don't write at all until they are 13, then they enroll in a community college course and they start writing like the Dickens. I've always thought these were homeschooling urban legends
Lately, I am getting a lot of inspiration and validation from Creative Homeschooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families, in which Lisa Rivero notes that many gifted children have asynchronous development: they can be ahead in some areas while at developmental level in others. I have not investigated this further, but she also says that many gifted kids lag in handwriting.
My current plan is to keep working through the MBtP curriculum, one unit at a time, and keep offering the activities to her, but not forcing them. I have been gathering the materials to do a homemade Poetry unit whenever we finish MBtP- or whenever we decide to be done with it. This will include both reading and writing poetry. I am also thinking about using If You're Trying to Teach Kids to Write, You've Gotta Have This Book to start using for daily writing projects.
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| Sketching in the backyard |
Monday, February 7, 2011
Free Range Math
Math is one of Bean's favorite subjects and has been the hardest to settle into a good learning routine. So far, we have tried Envision, Right Start, various workbooks, including those from Critical Thinking, BrainQuest, and Math Made Easy. She quickly rejected Envision, Critical Thinking, and BrainQuest, complaining that the illustrations were distracting, or the work was too easy or encouraged the student to use a method she could work around. Sometimes she complained that the directions or set up made no sense - and she was often right. By September, we finally settled into Math Made Easy workbooks, but she wanted to pick and choose what she did and I worried about how I would keep track of what she knew and what needed work.
When we bought MBtP, I looked into RightStart Math, the program they recommend and sell. (There's a great description of the program on this blog). I accidentally bought the 3rd grade level (Level D), but ended up deciding this was okay, since we were beginning the program in the middle and RightStart has a very specific methodology and way of using manipulatives. Also, it seems rather arbitrary what each different math curricula considers skills for 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. I liked that I finally had a script for teaching math and had some guidelines, since I'd just been winging it before. I also liked that the curricula used a lot of "real world" examples, such as using the calendar to practice 2 and 3-digit addition, using analog clocks for adding time and practicing fractions, etc. The program emphasized understanding the concepts, rather than understanding a specific methodology. Also, memorization and timed facts practice was de-emphasized. All good things.
Bean liked that the teacher guide and student worksheets were straight-forward black and white with no embellishment. She also liked using a white board to work things out and enjoyed learning calculator tricks. That was it. She found the sheer scope of each lesson overwhelming and did not appreciate the repetition that formed the Warm Up for each lesson. After the first week or so, I could tell her energy was flagging and this was starting to seep into the rest of the day. She finally told me, tearfully, one evening at bedtime that she thought the math program was too hard and she just wanted to work on grids and coordinates.
Okay, it's time for an aside. And a confession. Along the way, we have picked up several Math Mosaics workbooks from MindWare that Bean liked to do for fun, but I had never used them as curriculum. She solves the problems and each answer represents a point on the grid which leads to drawing a treasure map, writing a hidden word, or drawing a picture - depending on the book. Several months ago, she discovered the Graphbook app on the iPad, which shows "3D" models of different functions on a coordinated plane. Bean thought they were cool and when I told her they were representations of equations, her response was "Okay, I want to learn THAT." I made noise about it being a while before we got to that, but said in the meantime we could do the Multiplication Mosaics for math.
And then I ordered a shiny new curriculum that would make my life easier and forgot about her request.
The confession: I do not believe in math facts or, at least in forcing kids to learn them. At least not my kid. If Bean were the kind of student who rose to the challenge of memorizing facts and one-upping herself in time trials, I would give it a good go. She is not that kind of kid and I am not the kind of parent who can endure the torture of force-feeding times tables. I have seen the future and I know that it is calculators. I know that having the times tables down and having some addition and subtraction tricks up your sleeves can make things easier as the math gets harder, but I think that kind of mastery can come with repetition and just doing equations. I had a math professor in an advanced level math class admit - after making blackboard errors more than once - that he was terrible at arithmetic and that it was the excitement of what all those numbers could do together that kept him in math. So...
Last week, we officially went off the grid in math. Or rather, on the grid. I went out and bought every single Math Mosaics workbook we didn't already have - Decimals, Fractions, and Algebra. I also got a few logic problem workbooks also by MindWare. Toss in a middle school level geometry workbook Bean asked for during a bookstore trip and there's our new math curriculum. So far, so good. The problems are challenging enough to hold her interest, the grids are fun to fill in, she likes the excitement of seeing what pattern her answers will make on the grids, she is learning some pretty advanced concepts and she is getting lots of arithmetic practice (though I am letting her use a calculator as a back up.)
When we did the first exercise in the Algebra book, I explained Order of Operations, parentheses and how to solve a quadratic equation as we went along. I didn't really expect her to get all the concepts down and just saw it as a good way to practice arithmetic and coordinate systems and figured it would be good introduction to algebra. I was surprised the next day when we had a quadratic equation and I asked her if she remembered how to solve those and she said "Yes. FOIL." And then correctly told me what that meant and showed how to go about solving it.
Now I'm throwing caution and the math textbooks to the wind and going with it, somehow trusting that it will all work out, even without the rigorous daily practice and neatly typed home educator manual. I have several books of math projects that I want to fold in eventually, but for now, we're all about the x axis and the y axis.
When we bought MBtP, I looked into RightStart Math, the program they recommend and sell. (There's a great description of the program on this blog). I accidentally bought the 3rd grade level (Level D), but ended up deciding this was okay, since we were beginning the program in the middle and RightStart has a very specific methodology and way of using manipulatives. Also, it seems rather arbitrary what each different math curricula considers skills for 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. I liked that I finally had a script for teaching math and had some guidelines, since I'd just been winging it before. I also liked that the curricula used a lot of "real world" examples, such as using the calendar to practice 2 and 3-digit addition, using analog clocks for adding time and practicing fractions, etc. The program emphasized understanding the concepts, rather than understanding a specific methodology. Also, memorization and timed facts practice was de-emphasized. All good things.
Bean liked that the teacher guide and student worksheets were straight-forward black and white with no embellishment. She also liked using a white board to work things out and enjoyed learning calculator tricks. That was it. She found the sheer scope of each lesson overwhelming and did not appreciate the repetition that formed the Warm Up for each lesson. After the first week or so, I could tell her energy was flagging and this was starting to seep into the rest of the day. She finally told me, tearfully, one evening at bedtime that she thought the math program was too hard and she just wanted to work on grids and coordinates.
Okay, it's time for an aside. And a confession. Along the way, we have picked up several Math Mosaics workbooks from MindWare that Bean liked to do for fun, but I had never used them as curriculum. She solves the problems and each answer represents a point on the grid which leads to drawing a treasure map, writing a hidden word, or drawing a picture - depending on the book. Several months ago, she discovered the Graphbook app on the iPad, which shows "3D" models of different functions on a coordinated plane. Bean thought they were cool and when I told her they were representations of equations, her response was "Okay, I want to learn THAT." I made noise about it being a while before we got to that, but said in the meantime we could do the Multiplication Mosaics for math.
And then I ordered a shiny new curriculum that would make my life easier and forgot about her request.
The confession: I do not believe in math facts or, at least in forcing kids to learn them. At least not my kid. If Bean were the kind of student who rose to the challenge of memorizing facts and one-upping herself in time trials, I would give it a good go. She is not that kind of kid and I am not the kind of parent who can endure the torture of force-feeding times tables. I have seen the future and I know that it is calculators. I know that having the times tables down and having some addition and subtraction tricks up your sleeves can make things easier as the math gets harder, but I think that kind of mastery can come with repetition and just doing equations. I had a math professor in an advanced level math class admit - after making blackboard errors more than once - that he was terrible at arithmetic and that it was the excitement of what all those numbers could do together that kept him in math. So...
Last week, we officially went off the grid in math. Or rather, on the grid. I went out and bought every single Math Mosaics workbook we didn't already have - Decimals, Fractions, and Algebra. I also got a few logic problem workbooks also by MindWare. Toss in a middle school level geometry workbook Bean asked for during a bookstore trip and there's our new math curriculum. So far, so good. The problems are challenging enough to hold her interest, the grids are fun to fill in, she likes the excitement of seeing what pattern her answers will make on the grids, she is learning some pretty advanced concepts and she is getting lots of arithmetic practice (though I am letting her use a calculator as a back up.)
When we did the first exercise in the Algebra book, I explained Order of Operations, parentheses and how to solve a quadratic equation as we went along. I didn't really expect her to get all the concepts down and just saw it as a good way to practice arithmetic and coordinate systems and figured it would be good introduction to algebra. I was surprised the next day when we had a quadratic equation and I asked her if she remembered how to solve those and she said "Yes. FOIL." And then correctly told me what that meant and showed how to go about solving it.
Now I'm throwing caution and the math textbooks to the wind and going with it, somehow trusting that it will all work out, even without the rigorous daily practice and neatly typed home educator manual. I have several books of math projects that I want to fold in eventually, but for now, we're all about the x axis and the y axis.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Down the Rabbit Hole
When people find out that we homeschool, the number one thing they usually want to know is how much school we do everyday, or really "what the heck do you do all day". The short answer to that question is 2-3 hours of structured school work daily - give or take half an hour. Here's the long answer:
Four mornings a week, Bean (7) does RightStart Math Level D (Third Grade), and the literature and science/social studies portions of Moving Beyond the Page (Age 8-10). After lunch Bean does either Rosetta Stone Dutch, Rosetta Stone Chinese, or Handwriting Without Tears Cursive, alternating throughout the week. Each of these takes about 20 minutes.
Once the heavy lifting is done for the day, Bean either uses the computer or works on an art or building project. If she's not on the computer, I pull out various books and read aloud to both Bean and Boo (2). We read one short selection each from What Your Preschooler Needs to Know, and from the Third and Fourth grade editions, followed by one or two of our library picks for the week, a book from our home library, and anything Bean is researching. Currently, she is working on a presentation and report about Ethiopia for her homeschool class. I don't really consider reading time part of our academic work, but it is equally important and I think it's everybody's favorite part of the day.
After all that, we head to the park! Two days a week, Bean has dance classes in the afternoon instead of park time. We visit a local library at least once a week, usually one afternoon after lunch and often again on the weekends when Dr. Yap is home with us. This is another favorite time during the week and we usually try to go to a different branch library each week for variety.
We homeschool through the auspices of our local school district and one morning a week Bean attends a mixed-age 3-4 grade enrichment class. Each year the group focuses on one subject area and this year the theme is Countries and Cultures, geography. During this time, Boo and I usually head to our favorite kids' consignment shop to look for used books.
We don't do any school work on the weekends or holidays when Dr. Yap is home.
I discovered early on that morning is the best time to do any focused academic work (or should I say focused academic work that isn't of my daughter's choosing). The only thing about school that seemed to work for my daughter was having a schedule (except when it changed), and she asked me to schedule in "recess," snack and lunch breaks. We tried this for a few weeks, stretching the day into the afternoon alternating school work with play time, but we realized together that it would work better to just get everything done in the morning.
Theoretically, we start at 8:30, but with one thing and another, it's often more like 8:45. We're all early risers here, so lunch is usually early too. If math or literature are long or intense, we may truncate science/social studies - or skip them altogether. In our house, a lot of science and social studies happen throughout the day in the normal course of things between what we read and things that come up for discussion. This happens also happens with math and literature, but not as immersively. I always feel like the only required portion of our curriculum is the 3Rs and everything else is like movable type.
Bean wants to add more languages, but we'll have to restructure our curriculum to do that. Using a packaged curriculum is new for us, and I may go back to a more DIY approach when we're finished with this "year."
Four mornings a week, Bean (7) does RightStart Math Level D (Third Grade), and the literature and science/social studies portions of Moving Beyond the Page (Age 8-10). After lunch Bean does either Rosetta Stone Dutch, Rosetta Stone Chinese, or Handwriting Without Tears Cursive, alternating throughout the week. Each of these takes about 20 minutes.
Once the heavy lifting is done for the day, Bean either uses the computer or works on an art or building project. If she's not on the computer, I pull out various books and read aloud to both Bean and Boo (2). We read one short selection each from What Your Preschooler Needs to Know, and from the Third and Fourth grade editions, followed by one or two of our library picks for the week, a book from our home library, and anything Bean is researching. Currently, she is working on a presentation and report about Ethiopia for her homeschool class. I don't really consider reading time part of our academic work, but it is equally important and I think it's everybody's favorite part of the day.
After all that, we head to the park! Two days a week, Bean has dance classes in the afternoon instead of park time. We visit a local library at least once a week, usually one afternoon after lunch and often again on the weekends when Dr. Yap is home with us. This is another favorite time during the week and we usually try to go to a different branch library each week for variety.
We homeschool through the auspices of our local school district and one morning a week Bean attends a mixed-age 3-4 grade enrichment class. Each year the group focuses on one subject area and this year the theme is Countries and Cultures, geography. During this time, Boo and I usually head to our favorite kids' consignment shop to look for used books.
We don't do any school work on the weekends or holidays when Dr. Yap is home.
I discovered early on that morning is the best time to do any focused academic work (or should I say focused academic work that isn't of my daughter's choosing). The only thing about school that seemed to work for my daughter was having a schedule (except when it changed), and she asked me to schedule in "recess," snack and lunch breaks. We tried this for a few weeks, stretching the day into the afternoon alternating school work with play time, but we realized together that it would work better to just get everything done in the morning.
Theoretically, we start at 8:30, but with one thing and another, it's often more like 8:45. We're all early risers here, so lunch is usually early too. If math or literature are long or intense, we may truncate science/social studies - or skip them altogether. In our house, a lot of science and social studies happen throughout the day in the normal course of things between what we read and things that come up for discussion. This happens also happens with math and literature, but not as immersively. I always feel like the only required portion of our curriculum is the 3Rs and everything else is like movable type.
Bean wants to add more languages, but we'll have to restructure our curriculum to do that. Using a packaged curriculum is new for us, and I may go back to a more DIY approach when we're finished with this "year."
Friday, January 21, 2011
Another Entry on the Never Say Never List of Parenting
That's it in a nutshell. We never thought we'd homeschool, but almost a year later, here we are with no plans to go back.
I should say, we never consciously planned to homeschool and evenly passionately disavowed homeschooling as a valid option for our family. But all along, my partner Dr. Yap, had been amassing a collection of educational toys and manipulatives to rival most Montessori classrooms and I had been an expert at uncovering kidlit gems at every used book source in our area. Seriously, the library of children's books in our house is vastly superior.
When our daughter was underwhelmed with first grade and insisted that she learned more at home, the decision to homeschool, rather than look for other school options, came surprisingly easy. She went, she saw, she wasn't interested. We jokingly say that our daughter is a grade school dropout, but in truth, we - her parents- are also elementary school failures. I realized during the years of preschool, kindergarten, and half of first grade that I had very strong opinions about what and how my children should learn. I also found the constant need for parent participation in all levels of the school experience to be exhausting. This might seem odd since I've taken on all of the schooling, but what I do now is all my choice. I'm not supervising other people's children, I'm not fundraising (whew!), and I'm not overseeing homework whose value I question, and I'm not pretending to be excited about school events and ephemera just to keep my child interested.
So here we are. Homeschooling a seven year old and preparing to do the same when the two-year-old is ready.
I should say, we never consciously planned to homeschool and evenly passionately disavowed homeschooling as a valid option for our family. But all along, my partner Dr. Yap, had been amassing a collection of educational toys and manipulatives to rival most Montessori classrooms and I had been an expert at uncovering kidlit gems at every used book source in our area. Seriously, the library of children's books in our house is vastly superior.
When our daughter was underwhelmed with first grade and insisted that she learned more at home, the decision to homeschool, rather than look for other school options, came surprisingly easy. She went, she saw, she wasn't interested. We jokingly say that our daughter is a grade school dropout, but in truth, we - her parents- are also elementary school failures. I realized during the years of preschool, kindergarten, and half of first grade that I had very strong opinions about what and how my children should learn. I also found the constant need for parent participation in all levels of the school experience to be exhausting. This might seem odd since I've taken on all of the schooling, but what I do now is all my choice. I'm not supervising other people's children, I'm not fundraising (whew!), and I'm not overseeing homework whose value I question, and I'm not pretending to be excited about school events and ephemera just to keep my child interested.
So here we are. Homeschooling a seven year old and preparing to do the same when the two-year-old is ready.
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