Entertaining and spot on, as usual.
If anyone has missed Sir Ken Robinson's first TED talk on creativity in schools, you can view it here.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
About Those Phonograms...
In my last post, I mention how reading didn't come easily for my daughter. What I didn't mention, was that teaching reading didn't come easily to me either. I was a voracious reader as a child, and I just assumed, wrongly so, that my daughter would just naturally take after me. She loved to be read to, and I spent many days, cuddled with her on the couch, reading through countless books. She memorized several stories line by line, and often begged me to read her favorite books over and over again. I was thrilled that she loved books so much, and was certain that she would enjoy reading all on her own just as much. Of course, as per my last post, that just wasn't the case.
I went through several reading and phonics books, and I can't really say what eventually worked. I'm sort of leaning toward it just having been due to her readiness, but I may be wrong. We used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and that was a bust. I know it works for many children, but I kept getting annoyed with their orthographic method. Perhaps that was just my hang-up, but we dropped it after a while. Next came Phonics Pathways. I liked it. It was traditional, and straightforward, but my daughter found it boring. Then we tried Reading Reflex. That worked much better! I was getting warm! All the while, I had been "hearing" about the Spalding method, but reviews out there describing the method as difficult to wade through, really intimidated me and I kept passing it up. Eventually however, I built up the nerve to try, particularly when I found a helpful companion program called Reading Works. Thanks to that program, and the consistent hand-holding it offered, I was able to wade through the Writing Road to Reading (Spalding). The program made sense to me, and my daughter was progressing.
In working through the phonograms, I was finally cognizant about just how difficult the English language can be to learn. In this post, I'm referring specifically to English language reading, but spelling is also a stumbling point for many. Take the phonogram OUGH for instance--bough, though, through, rough, bought, cough! None of these is pronounced the same way! While I pronounced them properly, with nary a thought to their differences, seeing them listed all together like that really made me a lot more able to understand my daughter's confusion. I realized that it would take some work, and I ceased pressuring my daughter to understand something which was quite illogical to her at the time.
All of the above has reminded me of an episode of I Love Lucy, in which Ricky aptly illustrates what he regards as the "problem" with the English language. I quite agree with him.
I went through several reading and phonics books, and I can't really say what eventually worked. I'm sort of leaning toward it just having been due to her readiness, but I may be wrong. We used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and that was a bust. I know it works for many children, but I kept getting annoyed with their orthographic method. Perhaps that was just my hang-up, but we dropped it after a while. Next came Phonics Pathways. I liked it. It was traditional, and straightforward, but my daughter found it boring. Then we tried Reading Reflex. That worked much better! I was getting warm! All the while, I had been "hearing" about the Spalding method, but reviews out there describing the method as difficult to wade through, really intimidated me and I kept passing it up. Eventually however, I built up the nerve to try, particularly when I found a helpful companion program called Reading Works. Thanks to that program, and the consistent hand-holding it offered, I was able to wade through the Writing Road to Reading (Spalding). The program made sense to me, and my daughter was progressing.
In working through the phonograms, I was finally cognizant about just how difficult the English language can be to learn. In this post, I'm referring specifically to English language reading, but spelling is also a stumbling point for many. Take the phonogram OUGH for instance--bough, though, through, rough, bought, cough! None of these is pronounced the same way! While I pronounced them properly, with nary a thought to their differences, seeing them listed all together like that really made me a lot more able to understand my daughter's confusion. I realized that it would take some work, and I ceased pressuring my daughter to understand something which was quite illogical to her at the time.
All of the above has reminded me of an episode of I Love Lucy, in which Ricky aptly illustrates what he regards as the "problem" with the English language. I quite agree with him.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Classical Education or Bust
When we first decided to homeschool our children, I was filled with all of these romantic thoughts of how joyous it would be to educate them. Actually, I probably would have not even used the word "educate." I preferred saying that I would facilitate my children's learning. Somehow, that seemed less controlling in my view. I remember having read John Holt's Teach Your Own, and being completely enthralled by the idea of unschooling. Heck, I still am! It made sense to me. It was organic, and wonderful, and yet really really tough--at least for me. Within a few months of starting out as "unschoolers" (in quotes because I'm sure there will be those who may believe, as even I do, that I went about it all wrong, and therefore wasn't technically a practicing unschooler), I was stressed beyond belief. A large part of it was because I didn't trust the method would work for me. I still wholeheartedly believe that it can work for nearly any child (if not all children), but perhaps not for every parent, as was the case with me. So I branched out and my homeschooling library grew to include books on other methods.
I think I ascribed to the "better late than early" philosophy for as long as it took before I was inundated with questions from well-meaning friends and family regarding my daughter's progress. Some people are able to field these questions effortlessly, but I was still working on thickening my skin in all matters related to home education. And frankly, the only reason I decided to jump on board with the whole "better late than early" view to education, was because I had already tried pushing early academics and made absolutely no progress. I guess you could say that personally, I was a reluctant advocate of the "better late than early" approach to homeschooling. Choosing to wait wasn't my preference, but it made me feel better to know that there was a school of thought out there that saw nothing wrong with waiting. Still, I felt conflicted.
I went on to read about the Charlotte Mason approach, and then moved on to other books on classical education. That's when I became interested in The Well-Trained Mind. It was the sort of education I wished I had had. I quickly fell in love with the method, and tried to follow the schedules perfectly. I later learned that those schedules were only added to the book at the insistence of the publisher, and that they were only just loose suggestions. Still, I wanted to do it all. But I ran into a wall. My daughter was not learning to read as effortlessly as other children I read about on homeschooling boards. She struggled so much. I found that my perfect schedule was getting left behind. There was no time for all of the cool and interesting things I had planned to teach her, because our days turned into hours-long reading lessons. It ceased to be fun, for her and for me. And here's where I feel very ashamed of myself. I built that initial difficulty up into this insurmountable obstacle. I wasted precious time getting my daughter to excel at reading, without realizing that I was making it all such a tedious chore. Thankfully, it was around this time that I started to seek out support again online. And go figure, there were several other homeschoolers out there who were experiencing the same things! These homeschoolers also wanted to give their children a classical education, and were finding ways to do so, regardless of their children's struggles with reading. This was a major a-ha moment for me, because in my mind, I was still regarding the task of reading, and writing, to be prerequisites to a classical education. Once I eased up my expectations, and we started to conduct a lot of our lessons orally, setting aside a decent amount of our time each day to reading and writing instruction, things started improving. Those romantic ideas I had when I first started out, were not wholly unfounded after all. Granted, among our good days, were a smattering of difficult days. And as good as the good days could be, the difficult days were HARD, often bringing me to the verge of tears. But we pressed on. (Note: We eventually made our way into a more Latin-centered classical approach, but that's another story, best kept for another post!)
My little girl is now fourteen years old. She's a reader. She's still a reluctant writer, but she's making progress. She works very hard, and has taken ownership over her education. Yesterday, as we were discussing John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," and really getting into our literary analysis, I was just struck by how much she's matured. She's grown to be such a sweet, mature, and introspective young lady. I don't think I've ever enjoyed homeschooling her as much as I do now. She is such a pleasure to be with, and discuss things with. This is exactly what I had hoped to get out of our homeschooling, all those years ago when I first romanticized about setting out on this journey. She may not be getting a "by the book" classical education, but she certainly seems to be no worse for the wear.
I think I ascribed to the "better late than early" philosophy for as long as it took before I was inundated with questions from well-meaning friends and family regarding my daughter's progress. Some people are able to field these questions effortlessly, but I was still working on thickening my skin in all matters related to home education. And frankly, the only reason I decided to jump on board with the whole "better late than early" view to education, was because I had already tried pushing early academics and made absolutely no progress. I guess you could say that personally, I was a reluctant advocate of the "better late than early" approach to homeschooling. Choosing to wait wasn't my preference, but it made me feel better to know that there was a school of thought out there that saw nothing wrong with waiting. Still, I felt conflicted.
I went on to read about the Charlotte Mason approach, and then moved on to other books on classical education. That's when I became interested in The Well-Trained Mind. It was the sort of education I wished I had had. I quickly fell in love with the method, and tried to follow the schedules perfectly. I later learned that those schedules were only added to the book at the insistence of the publisher, and that they were only just loose suggestions. Still, I wanted to do it all. But I ran into a wall. My daughter was not learning to read as effortlessly as other children I read about on homeschooling boards. She struggled so much. I found that my perfect schedule was getting left behind. There was no time for all of the cool and interesting things I had planned to teach her, because our days turned into hours-long reading lessons. It ceased to be fun, for her and for me. And here's where I feel very ashamed of myself. I built that initial difficulty up into this insurmountable obstacle. I wasted precious time getting my daughter to excel at reading, without realizing that I was making it all such a tedious chore. Thankfully, it was around this time that I started to seek out support again online. And go figure, there were several other homeschoolers out there who were experiencing the same things! These homeschoolers also wanted to give their children a classical education, and were finding ways to do so, regardless of their children's struggles with reading. This was a major a-ha moment for me, because in my mind, I was still regarding the task of reading, and writing, to be prerequisites to a classical education. Once I eased up my expectations, and we started to conduct a lot of our lessons orally, setting aside a decent amount of our time each day to reading and writing instruction, things started improving. Those romantic ideas I had when I first started out, were not wholly unfounded after all. Granted, among our good days, were a smattering of difficult days. And as good as the good days could be, the difficult days were HARD, often bringing me to the verge of tears. But we pressed on. (Note: We eventually made our way into a more Latin-centered classical approach, but that's another story, best kept for another post!)
My little girl is now fourteen years old. She's a reader. She's still a reluctant writer, but she's making progress. She works very hard, and has taken ownership over her education. Yesterday, as we were discussing John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," and really getting into our literary analysis, I was just struck by how much she's matured. She's grown to be such a sweet, mature, and introspective young lady. I don't think I've ever enjoyed homeschooling her as much as I do now. She is such a pleasure to be with, and discuss things with. This is exactly what I had hoped to get out of our homeschooling, all those years ago when I first romanticized about setting out on this journey. She may not be getting a "by the book" classical education, but she certainly seems to be no worse for the wear.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Smile, You're on Candid Camera!
Note to self (and whoever else may be reading out there): Think twice before getting your children a video camera. I'm only half-serious here of course. I would never dream of stunting my children's intellectual growth by planting obstacles keeping them from their chosen mode of artistic expression. But today, I came >thisclose< to doing just that, right after I heard the unmistakable sound of my own voice coming at me from the living room. I peered over in the direction of my voice, now emanating loudly from the television set, and there were my two youngest children, having a nice laugh over what they had candidly captured. And what did they capture, you may ask? Why, an embarrassingly frequent episode of my freaking out over yet another misplaced item, of course! In the video, I accuse my prankster daughter of hiding the item (this time it was her kung fu shirt that I had only just washed and dried). Don't worry guys, I'm never forceful when making these accusations, even though I'm seldom off-base. If something is awry, you can pretty much assume "prankster daughter" is behind it, but really, that's beside the point.
Anyone who has, ahem, ever had the pleasure of knowing me for more than a nanosecond, will have undoubtedly witnessed many such episodes. I lose everything. I lose my glasses daily. Well, it's not like I can see them when I'm not wearing them! Pencils mysteriously go missing. My keys? Heck, I lose those in my own purse. I'd be hard-pressed to turn up a matching pair of socks, particularly if they're patterned ones. Oh, how I love just plain white socks! Anyway, I know I haven't written much, but surely this post will clue you into the chaos that has currently unpacked and settled into my own head. And now I have digital proof of it all! There's nothing like seeing and hearing of your faults in full color and surround sound. Perhaps I should thank the kids for bringing this to my attention. But that would just encourage them to keep taping. I guess I'll consider my self-improvement in this area an early New Year's resolution.
Anyone who has, ahem, ever had the pleasure of knowing me for more than a nanosecond, will have undoubtedly witnessed many such episodes. I lose everything. I lose my glasses daily. Well, it's not like I can see them when I'm not wearing them! Pencils mysteriously go missing. My keys? Heck, I lose those in my own purse. I'd be hard-pressed to turn up a matching pair of socks, particularly if they're patterned ones. Oh, how I love just plain white socks! Anyway, I know I haven't written much, but surely this post will clue you into the chaos that has currently unpacked and settled into my own head. And now I have digital proof of it all! There's nothing like seeing and hearing of your faults in full color and surround sound. Perhaps I should thank the kids for bringing this to my attention. But that would just encourage them to keep taping. I guess I'll consider my self-improvement in this area an early New Year's resolution.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Incapacitation via the Hindu Squat and Other Such Things
Just the other day, in an effort to supplement my current weekly exercise routines, I went onto youtube and started viewing instructional workout videos. I stumbled across one for the Hindu squat. My interest was piqued. It seemed like a good idea, that is until the next day when I found myself nearly incapacitated.
Falling out of shape took no time at all. In a matter of weeks, I started to feel sluggish. Walking up a flight of stairs was enough to get me out of breath. As my work schedule became more demanding and I was spending even more time seated in front of my computer screen, the pounds started piling up. I found myself getting into cooking ruts, making tons of pasta and rice dishes which were quick and easy, and of course, that didn't help at all.
In the meantime, I was intent on keeping on top of the kids' levels of activity. It's funny how I was so hyper-focused on their keeping physically fit and active, while dismissing my need for the same. The girls had been involved in dance classes for several years, but I had yet to find something for my son, who is very physically active anyway. He's the sort of child that has to move to think. He needs frequent breaks from his schoolwork to stand, walk around, jump, and run. Yet despite his high levels of physical activity, he wasn't particularly interested in sports. He was however, very interested in pursuing martial arts, especially kung fu or jeet kune do, thanks to his love of Bruce Lee films, brought along in large part by my husband's love of the same. I set out to find a kung fu school which proved much more difficult than I thought. There are karate and tae kwon do schools seemingly everywhere, but kung fu lessons were much more difficult to find. Thankfully, before too long, I was able to find a place not terribly far from home that offered a free introductory lesson for my son. We all tagged along and the sifu insisted that we all take part as well. Yes, even me. This was definitely not my intention in going, but I figured, I may as well give it a shot. Not fifteen minutes later, I found myself quite unable to move. Every muscle in my body ached. Even just lifting my arms to adjust my glasses, was painful. It's funny to me now, but right then, it all became a major epiphany for me. I quickly talked things over with my husband, and we all decided to enroll. It is one of the best decisions I've made for myself and my family in a long while.
The past few months have made such an amazing difference in my life. Not only have they tested my will in so many ways, but I am sharing this new journey with my family, and what great motivators they have proven to be. Just a few short months ago, I could barely make it through fifteen minutes of training, and here I am, able to do that and more. Granted, the Hindu squat experiment has shown that I have a long way to go, but I'm less disheartened by that realization now, considering how far I feel I've come already. I will from time to time, update this blog with my progress in this area, and as I discover new aptitudes and challenges along the way. Until then, in the words of Bruce Lee: "There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." I hope to do just that.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Letting go of that OCD (or trying to)
Recently when I was proofreading a friend's paper for a graduate class she's been taking, I noticed that her spacing between sentences wasn't uniform. I had to fight against an intrinsic desire to update all of the spacing to two spaces as was common when I first learned to type on an antiquated machine called a typewriter (remember those?), but of course that is no longer considered the proper form. No longer is it correct to follow a colon with two spaces either. Oh, the horror! And just now, I was reminded of this new (yes, it's still new to me) and now firmly established form as I look over my last post and see that my left margin isn't all lovely and flushed against the side because I still subscribe to old school spacing! I'm not necessarily of the "you-can't-teach-an-old-dog-new-tricks" variety, but why mess with something so basic and as ingrained as proper sentence spacing? I mean, really. I understand that the computer has made all of it irrelevant, as it adjusts for proper letter spacing all on its own (shudder), but yikes.
If it wasn't for that dang left margin looking so well, NOT uniform, I'd probably stick to my guns and just type as I always have. To have to catch myself after every single sentence is just torture, akin to Chinese water torture I'd fathom. How such an insignificant (to most) little detail could grate on me so much, I'll never understand.
And I thought it was bad enough when Pluto was demoted. Sure, I understand that it is neither terrestrial or jovian, but again, really? Well, I just wanted to say, Pluto, I've got your back. And all this because you're a dwarf and a bit of a tag-along. In my world, "My Very Educated Mother" still serves us "Nine Pickles." (Note: for those not familiar with the planet order mnemonic, it's My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles--or Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). Kids today are being served Nachos. Nachos! Can you stand it?
Tagentially related, I think I preferred living in a world where brontosauruses (brontosauri?) existed, and were still known as brontosauruses. "Apatosaurus" just doesn't have the same ring to it. And from the looks of it, the triceratops might be on its way out, too. Oh, the inhumanity!
Busy-ness
Well, October has been kind of busy, and I've been in a haze precipitated by a near constant dosage of allergy medication. 'Twas my pulmonologist's idea...something about nipping symptoms in the bud or some such thing. The result however, has been that I've been in this zombie-like state for weeks--zombie-like yes, but with no appetite for brains. I've managed to avoid allergy induced asthmatic flare-ups, but egads, this is intolerable. I feel as if I have to broadcast that I'm really not this slow...at least not regularly...as far as I'm aware anyway.
School has gone well, particularly considering all of the above. Dd1 seems to be taking greater charge of her education. I've always felt like I've had to be her cheerleader in all things. Well, that's not entirely true either. She does do some things without any prompting, but keeping on top of her assignments has always been a challenge. Then of course, sometimes I doubt whether or not the reason for this is that perhaps I'm expecting too much of her. If anyone is out there, reading my blog, please feel free to opine on this topic. I originally set out to expect her to write about two one-page "response" papers per week, in addition to the assignments required in her writing program. I often provide her with an essay question to answer, but she is welcome to write on any relevant topic she may choose. There is a bit of writing involved across our curriculum, but nothing too over-the-top--i.e. the occasional outline of a passage in one of her books (Chemistry, Rhetoric, etc.). I haven't quite gotten comfortable with her just reading through her history book on her own. Maybe it's just my hang-up, but I don't believe that she really absorbs the information in one reading. So, I've taken to reading ahead of her, keeping my own notes which she's welcome to reference, and we just chat about the section's material. Is this too much hand-holding? I'm genuinely curious. Every now and again, I pop on over at the WTM boards and check to see what other children her age (14) are doing, and it seems that several are way more autonomous at that age. I realize that no two children are the same, and that ultimately, I should follow my conscience and do what is best for my particular child, but I'm always worried about making her too dependent in the process.
Dd2 is proving to be challenging in another way. She is such a driven child...but only for things that she loves to do. She's an amazing artist. Really and truly. And I'm not just saying this because she's my child. She has an amazing eye for subtle detail, and she is such a visual learner. Rather than pry her away from her sketchbooks, I'm trying to incorporate art across her curriculum. Her eyes just brighten up when she knows she can turn whatever she's learning into a drawing of some sort. And oddly enough, this excitement even plays a part in her math lessons. We use Singapore Math, and there are many opportunities for drawing models with that program. Yes, she even gets excited over something as simple as model drawing. Granted, she takes some artistic liberties with regard to these diagrams, but I'm not complaining. Oh, and we did decide to take part in a special homeschool series of art classes at one of our local museums. The first session was on contour drawing, and she was just so excited. This was our first time taking part in something art related outside of home, and so far, so good.
As for my ds, well, he is about as well-rounded as they come. He seems to be equally interested in everything, and shows an aptitude for everything we've covered as well, with the exception of the physical act of writing. Even small amounts of handwriting frustrate him, and he's permanently attached to his eraser. I've never seen a child so intent on erasing, even when erasures aren't even necessary. I'm guessing this could be a tendency toward perfectionism, and frankly, that scares me a bit. Sounds a bit like me actually, hence my worry. Why couldn't he have inherited something else from me? Well, he does have his Mama's hair. ;) While I don't want him to be careless, I certainly don't want him to be so hung up on being perfect either.
And that seems to cover things as they currently stand. Oh, I did go ahead and assign some long term assignments for the kids...stuff I think they would enjoy. In an effort to capitalize on their love of art (all three of them enjoy art, it's just that my middle dd LIVES it), I've asked the kids to come up with their own manga. They are open to developing their characters and storylines fully into a short graphic novel, but really, there are no real requirements. This is just something I think they'd enjoy. Last year, I had them make short claymation stop-motion films, and they were hilarious. If I can figure out how to post a few of their videos here, I will. Given their interest level, I may just have them design their own board games based on their manga characters and storyline. I bought those game kits from Bare Books a while ago, and I actually had forgotten I had done so. I stumbled across them the other day and got excited all over again. 'Tis the one positive aspect of being a bit absent-minded. Everything old, seems new, as you're always looking at things with new eyes. Uh-huh...this is a glass half full kind of day.
Happy homeschooling!
School has gone well, particularly considering all of the above. Dd1 seems to be taking greater charge of her education. I've always felt like I've had to be her cheerleader in all things. Well, that's not entirely true either. She does do some things without any prompting, but keeping on top of her assignments has always been a challenge. Then of course, sometimes I doubt whether or not the reason for this is that perhaps I'm expecting too much of her. If anyone is out there, reading my blog, please feel free to opine on this topic. I originally set out to expect her to write about two one-page "response" papers per week, in addition to the assignments required in her writing program. I often provide her with an essay question to answer, but she is welcome to write on any relevant topic she may choose. There is a bit of writing involved across our curriculum, but nothing too over-the-top--i.e. the occasional outline of a passage in one of her books (Chemistry, Rhetoric, etc.). I haven't quite gotten comfortable with her just reading through her history book on her own. Maybe it's just my hang-up, but I don't believe that she really absorbs the information in one reading. So, I've taken to reading ahead of her, keeping my own notes which she's welcome to reference, and we just chat about the section's material. Is this too much hand-holding? I'm genuinely curious. Every now and again, I pop on over at the WTM boards and check to see what other children her age (14) are doing, and it seems that several are way more autonomous at that age. I realize that no two children are the same, and that ultimately, I should follow my conscience and do what is best for my particular child, but I'm always worried about making her too dependent in the process.
Dd2 is proving to be challenging in another way. She is such a driven child...but only for things that she loves to do. She's an amazing artist. Really and truly. And I'm not just saying this because she's my child. She has an amazing eye for subtle detail, and she is such a visual learner. Rather than pry her away from her sketchbooks, I'm trying to incorporate art across her curriculum. Her eyes just brighten up when she knows she can turn whatever she's learning into a drawing of some sort. And oddly enough, this excitement even plays a part in her math lessons. We use Singapore Math, and there are many opportunities for drawing models with that program. Yes, she even gets excited over something as simple as model drawing. Granted, she takes some artistic liberties with regard to these diagrams, but I'm not complaining. Oh, and we did decide to take part in a special homeschool series of art classes at one of our local museums. The first session was on contour drawing, and she was just so excited. This was our first time taking part in something art related outside of home, and so far, so good.
As for my ds, well, he is about as well-rounded as they come. He seems to be equally interested in everything, and shows an aptitude for everything we've covered as well, with the exception of the physical act of writing. Even small amounts of handwriting frustrate him, and he's permanently attached to his eraser. I've never seen a child so intent on erasing, even when erasures aren't even necessary. I'm guessing this could be a tendency toward perfectionism, and frankly, that scares me a bit. Sounds a bit like me actually, hence my worry. Why couldn't he have inherited something else from me? Well, he does have his Mama's hair. ;) While I don't want him to be careless, I certainly don't want him to be so hung up on being perfect either.
And that seems to cover things as they currently stand. Oh, I did go ahead and assign some long term assignments for the kids...stuff I think they would enjoy. In an effort to capitalize on their love of art (all three of them enjoy art, it's just that my middle dd LIVES it), I've asked the kids to come up with their own manga. They are open to developing their characters and storylines fully into a short graphic novel, but really, there are no real requirements. This is just something I think they'd enjoy. Last year, I had them make short claymation stop-motion films, and they were hilarious. If I can figure out how to post a few of their videos here, I will. Given their interest level, I may just have them design their own board games based on their manga characters and storyline. I bought those game kits from Bare Books a while ago, and I actually had forgotten I had done so. I stumbled across them the other day and got excited all over again. 'Tis the one positive aspect of being a bit absent-minded. Everything old, seems new, as you're always looking at things with new eyes. Uh-huh...this is a glass half full kind of day.
Happy homeschooling!
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