The Self-Propelled Advantage

I love teaching.  I love sharing in the learning of my children.  It brings me joy and I feel fulfilled.  I love planning our school days and spending them with my children.  I could even do a decent job of it when I had just a couple young children.  But then my family grew and they started growing up.  I became way too busy.  I even found myself spending up to 8 hours a day teaching only three of my children.  Something was a miss, and I was quickly becoming overwhelmed, the one thing I preach against being.

Even when my children were young, I saw the wisdom of working myself out of a job.  I wanted my children to become self-motivated, self-learners.  This has always been my desire, however it didn't seem to be happening.  For some reason, my methods were not giving the desired outcome.  But I wasn't sure where the problem was. 

So, I do what I usually do when I find I am in over my head: I PRAY.  

And what do I find? Underwhelmed Mom, Joanne Calderwood from URtheMom.com.  She teaches the why and how of teaching self-learning.  I browsed her website and learned some very valuable things.  The first one struck me as a DUH!!  That "duh", was simply this: Give them the planners.  I had a beautiful school planner wherein I kept track of everything.  I had check lists for the kids but I kept the control.  I realized that if they were going to really own their own education, they needed more power.  I quickly made some planners for them.  That simple thing did WONDERS.  They could see what they needed to do, how long it would take, and then have the joy of crossing it off when done. 

 I decided to order her new book (the Kindle version is less than $8.00).  I am glad I did.  I had many of the tools already, but in this format, I was able to put the pieces to create a better whole.

Not just for Home Schoolers:
The Message is for All Students

She also has several hours worth of audio over at Blog Talk Radio that is fascinating to listen to.

The thing I like most about Joanne message is that it is Not just for Home Schooled Kids.  Her message is for all students and all parents. 

My days are already easier.  I am less stressed and have the time and energy to do more fun things with them.  In other words, the quality of our time is better.  My vision for them has expanded.  

The kids are less stressed and they have more time to enjoy.  I still have a lot of heart training to do (mine as well as theirs. After all, it was mostly my attitude that needed tweaking.)  But I am so much closer to my goal of having self-motivated learners.  

I challenge you to give your children the Self-Propelled Advantage.

Coding

I've been thinking about coding and computer programing for a while.  I am only fleetingly familiar with computer coding from messing around with my blogs.  But just that little bit has peaked my interest.  I wish I knew more.  And every once in a while I do come up with an idea and wish I knew how to make a program to do "that."

My brother alerted me to this video.  It didn't take much to convince me, not with it already in the back of my mind.  Basic computer coding/programing will be added to my family's class schedule and part of our graduation requirements.

A Master Plan

I was first introduced to the idea of developing a Master Plan by Diann Jeppson at the TJED Transition to Scholar seminar in 2005.  A Master Plan is that road map to guide you through this home schooling (and perhaps even child-rearing)  journey.  Whether you follow your state's curriculum guidelines or un-school or fall somewhere in between, a plan is essential.  Without it, you begin to feel unsure, uncertain, and nervous about what to do.  You might double guess yourself, question your ability, rely on "experts" or even give up entirely.  A Plan will give you the direction to fulfill your desires.

Although I was struck with the wisdom of going through this planning and reflective process, I did not create my own until the following year when I was being mentored by Donna Goff.  Both of these women approached their master plans in a slightly different way and format.  I found myself not quite jiving with either.  It wasn't until I looked at both plans, that I saw a way to do it for me.  I essentially combined elements of both formats and then continued to simplify.  This is what I ended up with:

• The Library (this is by far my largest section)
• Gospel Classics
• Classics
• Children's Literature
• Literature for Youth and Adults
• Non-fiction
• General Knowledge Classics
• Curricula I Intend to Use
• Other Possibilities
• Home Culture and Cultural Literacy (Breadth and Depth: Fields of knowledge I want to experience with my children.  e.g. Math, math history, mathematicians; physical geography and explorers)
• Adult Skills (Skill areas I want my children to gain proficiency in before they reach adulthood e.g. baking, home and auto maintenance)
• Experience (Experiences/proficiencies I want my children to gain before they reach adulthood. e.g. public speaking, swimming)
• Organizational Programs (Programs connected with specific organizations that I want my children to complete. e.g. church programs, Boy Scouts)
• Places to Go (Places and events I wish to take my children for the purpose of rounding out their education and experiences. e.g. see congress in session)

Your family culture should be represented within your Master Plan.  Mine reflects my family's religion, love of sailing, and involvement in the Boy Scouts.  Creating your Master Plan requires time and some work.  You do not have to rush the process, but I encourage you to preserver.  It is a valuable process and resource.

Every time I begin planning for the coming academic year, I reread my Master Plan.  I review how we have done and how I can meet my family's needs.  I tweak it if needed, but the essentials have remained the same.  This process has helped me keep focused on the Big Picture.  I can better see the growth my family has made and this gives me joy.


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To develop your own master plan you can use my template.  To see how others have done it, you can see Diann Jeppson's example in A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion, by Oliver and Rachel DeMille and Diann Jeppson  or visit my first mentor Donna Goff at Mentoring Our Own

The Tuition Bubble

Something of which to be aware.



What do you think?
Is a college education still important?
Should it be?
Is the debt worth it?
What other options are there?

A New Focus

Families grow, children grow, needs change.  My application of educational principles has evolved.  It was easy when I had one.  I could make stuff up as I go or as the need arose.  I was able to get away with very little planning or record keeping.  I didn't like schedules - I felt that they cramped my style.

Now that I have four school age children I have had to rethink things.  I realized that my "style" was a mess (cramped or not).  I needed a more routine schedule and actually had to plan.  The kids were needing it too.

So I am using more prepared curriculum than I have in the past, more workbooks and independent work and I like it - much better than I would have thought a year or two ago.

This is the first year I actually have a "lesson planner."  It is essentially a calendar and journal.  I plan only about one or two days ahead.  Never more than a week ahead (With the exception of planned read-alouds.).  At the end of each day or lesson, I write down what we did and what we will do tomorrow.  I make notes about what went well or poorly.  I used to be able to remember where they were in their progress.  I just can't do that anymore.  My planner is my brain/memory for that.

And it is working well.  I feel that we are getting much more done than before.  The kids do too.  I'm sure that we will evolve and refocus in the future.  But this is where we are now and I am happy with it.

Resources for the 2012-13 School Year

It wasn't very long ago when I had a very simple curriculum plan.  It looked like this:


Daily scripture study
Reading stories and discussing them.
Family Work
Faith in God
Scouts
Individual interests

They have grown now and need more.  I liked the simple focus of building a foundational core.  I am glad I spent those years the way I did.  I don't regret it.  The academics were not forgotten, however they took a backseat to that foundational curriculum plan.  I have learned that Dr. Raymond and Dorthy Moore were right: they can catch up academically- so "better late than early."


We still have the same basics but have added the academic element.  I have never paid much attention to grades; I deal better with ages so I'll give it to you that way.

This year I have a 13 year old boy, an 11 year old boy with autism - He has delays and is academically about first-ish grade.  I have an 8 year old boy and a 5 year old girl.  (My two year old boy isn't quite ready for school yet.)  I find myself in the position of having 3 in need of individualized phonics instruction concurrently. They need different types of instruction and are at different levels so I cannot combine well.  This all takes more time from me each day.  I cant wing it as well as I could before in this new climate.  I am so grateful for wonderful resources to help me so that I do not have to reinvent the wheel.

I basically have two tracks one for the independent reader and another for the not quite yet independent readers.

This is what we are doing this year:

My oldest is doing Visual Latin this year.  He is really enjoying it and even said that Latin is his favorite subject.  HA!  Who wudda thunk?

We are trying out the Writing Course by Fred Lybrand this year.  I came across this last year in my investigation of the Robinson Curriculum.  With RC you have your students spend about 1/2 - 1 hour of writing each day.  Lybrand wrote this to assist that process.  I'll have to let you know how it goes.  Only my oldest is doing this right now.  It is designed for children about 10 and over and the others are not there yet.

I do like this one.  I like the way students practice their words in a multi-sensory way.  I like the fact that it is one book that works for all students 8ish and above.  Again, only my oldest is here thus far.

We were using Life of Fred and Singapore last year but went back to Math U See for this year. My oldest was struggling in Life of Fred. The concepts were not being explained well enough for him.  We both agree that Life of Fred would be a great review for him, but not a main text.  He is doing much better now.  The younger ones were using Singapore.  I liked how Singapore explained things.  It was similar to Math U See in some ways and a served as a slightly different way of reinforcing the concepts.  However I kept using Math U See resources and techniques enough that we just migrated back.  I would not be apposed to Singapore in the future though.

(Just as a side note.  In my education classes for my teaching degree the classes stressed the importance of making math visual and meaningful.  All of the examples, that everyone else was ooing and aahing over, all those epiphanies were all review for me because of Math U See.  I had already learned how to visualize math concepts from teaching with MUS.  cool, huh?)

Of course we will use the Scripture Story Books.  This is a picture of the DVD's which we also have and watch sometimes, but we really like the books.  The Friend Magazine is also a staple around here.

I ran across Heritage History at the Washington State Homeschool Convention.  It is similar to a lot of the other living history programs, Ambleside, Old Fashioned Education, Robinson, etc.; except that it was all there ready to go.  The book collections come in pdf ready to print or read online or in epub and mobi to move to the e-reader.  This I loved; I don't have to mess searching for the right formatting or conversions.  It also has beautiful maps and a curriculum guide.  We are doing Middle Ages this year.  

I always dismissed Explode the Code in my effort to avoid workbooks. I thought they were redundant and boring.  Now that I have essentially three children needing that intensive phonics at the same time, I needed some help.  I am very impressed with the program.  The kids enjoy them and really need the repetition.  I am adding the Beyond the Code books to our routine.  I hope it will give them additional reading practice while working on the comprehension aspect.

This year we are doing Physics and Astronomy.  This is a pricey curriculum and I have children in the pre-level one and level one ages (now called focus on elementary or focus on middle school).  I decided to get both levels of the first curriculum and see how I can combine them.  In a lot of ways I am just using the older level for all of them.  It is too much for my Kindergartener, but the other guys are catching on to much of what is intended for an older level.  I think I will probably just get the middle school level in the future.  They will revisit the same subjects in few years at a deeper level.

I have gone back and forth on handwriting.  Printing first, cursive first, italic instead, capital letters first, lower case first, blah, blah, blah.  Each perspective has its points.  For me I have an autistic boy who learned capitals first and refuses to learn anything else. (does it really matter?  I don't know).  But for know I am sticking with this.  I like it.  At least with book C and above.  Books A and B teach the letters in alphabetical order.  I really do like it when they teach it in stroke families.  C and above do.

Really, that's about it.  I am trying to keep things very simple as I finish my own degree.