On My Soapbox

So, I've been mulling over the Monday homeschooling segment on the Diane Rehm Show. I'm really happy that NPR is talking about homeschooling, especially the impact of the recent California appeals court decision (please listen to the show and read the court decision if you can), but I think the guests illustrated a problem I see within the homeschooling community: we, as a group, apologize for not sending our kids to school.

The guests on the show were a homeschooling mom, a lawyer from HSLDA who is a homeschooling dad, and Professor Rob Reich from Stanford (much more about him in an upcoming post). The mom and the lawyer were well spoken, but they were constantly on the defensive. Someone calls in and asks the stupid "socialization" question, and the mom says, "That's a good question!" and proceeds to list the ways she socializes her children (because, you know, it's important to socialize homeschooled children with "regular" kids). The professor says that strict regulation of homeschooling, including frequent forced testing, is needed and the mom and lawyer say, "We test our kids." The lawyer from HSLDA literally says that HSLDA does not oppose testing (HUH?). The professor says that the state should review curricula used by the homeschoolers, and the mom says, "Well, we use Calvert!" Someone questions how anyone could possibly be qualified to teach all levels from elementary school through high school chemistry, and the mom says "It's all right here in the curriculum!" They are apologizing for doing something they supposedly believe in enough to appear on a national program!

I started thinking about what my friends and I would say if asked these same questions. I would say to the "socialization" question, "Don't bother me with that stupid question unless you can explain to me why you accept that a 7 year-old 1st grader is "adequately socialized" when she is surrounded by all these other cool 7 year-olds for 7 hours a day, yet is not allowed to speak with any of them except during a 1/2 hour lunch period and a 15 minute recess!" SH would say, "The only thing a state-administered test measures is how well prepared the kid is for that particular test. " LB would say "Curriculum? Who needs a curriculum? You don't need a curriculum in the real world." JJ would say, "You must have had a really poor high school education to not be able to guide your child through all of his high school courses!"

These are GOOD answers, these are answers that get to the heart of the problem. Our school system is like a religion that we're not allowed to question. The paradigm (as EG would say) is that school is good and everything else is suspect. What if we shift the paradigm and when someone asks, "Why don't you send your child to school," you answer, "Why do you send your child to school." Make them look for the answer.

My message to Diane Rehm is that if she wants a real discussion about homeschooling, she should invite John Taylor Gatto to her show.

And any one of my friends.

Frugal Friday

My brother, of all people, mentioned that my earlier post made it sound as if only affluent families can homeschool. I actually watch my homeschooling expenditures very closely and I know many people who successfully homeschool on a limited budget (most homeschooling families are one-income homes). I've asked my friends to send me tips which I will share in a regular "Frugal Friday" post.

The tip I received most often, and one I use all the time, is to use your local library. I'm always amazed at the books I can get from our library. I can't always get what I want, but the library helps limit what I have to buy. In our library system, I can find a book at one branch and have it transfered to the branch closest to me so I can pick up everything at one place.

Many libraries even have special programs for kids, too. One friend takes her 12 year-old daughter to their local branch library to participate in a "stock market" club where the kids play an online stock market game. She also told me that there are book clubs available for kids. These programs are for all kids, not just homeschoolers, so homeschooling kids can socialize with school kids, too.

I'd like to thank SG for agreeing to be interviewed for this post!

It's An Institution

We live about a mile away from the local elementary school. My neighbors have frequently acted shocked when I say I homeschool, because the local school is supposed to be so wonderful.

My kids sometimes have Little League practice at this school. The first thing Lucretius noticed about the school is that none of the classrooms have any windows. In order to make up for this problem, I guess, they've put in some little gardens and some signs that say things like "Self-Esteem Street" and "Diversity Garden" (I am not making this up).

There has always been a 4 foot chain link fence around the playground, which, I would think is pretty standard in schools. When we first started going to the school there was a little gate that you could go through to get directly to the playground. A couple of years ago, the gate disappeared, but the kids could still drop their gear bags over the top and climb over the fence, which I gladly helped them do. Then I would wind my way through the school to get to the playing field. I figured that the school must have had some trouble with people coming in after school and messing with the playground equipment and wanted to make it a little more difficult to get in.

Last week I noticed that the chain link fence has been replaced by a six-foot wrought iron fence all around the play area. It, quite literally, looks like a prison fence, although it has no barbed wire coiled on top. It suddenly occurred to me that this fence was not put up to keep people out of the playground -- I have never noticed any graffiti or broken playground equipment.

This fence was constructed to keep the children in.

There's more than one way to butter your toast

I've been homeschooling my children for over 11 years and I've seen a lot of very successful methods to allow kids to learn. Some methods involve actual teaching, some involve discovering your child's interests and responding accordingly, and some are a little both.

My method involves a lot of teaching, although I watch my kids intently to see what works and what doesn't. I have three children, ages 11, 9, and almost 6, so the method I'm describing is mainly for my 11 year-old, although I'll also talk about the changes I've made to fit the other two.

I would call myself a Classical Homeschooler. Within that designation, there are a couple of different schools of thought, and I tend toward the more traditional type of classical education. After a lot of research and debate, I started out using the book The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. It's a fantastic resource for curricula and other publications to use. It's kind of a "how-to" book on how to homeschool your child in the classical method (they also describe ways to supplement a schooled education as well). The authors warn the reader not to try to implement everything they recommend. I, however, made the rookie mistake of trying to do everything the exact way the authors told me to. I discovered, by trial and error (0f course), what worked for my oldest as time went on. I don't think he's too terribly damaged by my attempts at super schooling! For reasons I will describe in another post, I now think of The Well-Trained Mind as a neoclassical curriculum.

I was introduced to a more traditional way of education when I attended the HENA Conference last year (2007). I met Drew Campbell, who wrote The Latin Centered Curriculum, and spoke to him and some other homeschoolers who were following his method of teaching. It's a much simpler way, I think, to cover all the bases. I continue to use The Well-Trained Mind for its incredible history resource list.

So here's the basic curriculum for 11 year-old Iulius (not his real name -- he chose this as his "Latin name").

• Math -- I am lucky enough to have married a man with a Master's Degree in Applied Mathematics. He's currently teaching Iulius geometry.
• Latin -- Iulius has just finished the Latina Christiana series, which worked very well for him, although we often discussed the Christian implications of the program and put a secular spin on it. It uses ecclesiastical pronunciation, which Iulius is going to have to unlearn, although I don't think he'll have too much trouble with that. What's good about this program is that you can purchase a DVD instruction set, which is good for parents with limited Latin exposure. This is not the program I'm using with my other two children. I'm getting ready to start Iulius in Lingua Latina by Hans H. Oerberg. I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I've bought all the books I can think of, so I'm hoping for the best.
  
• Greek -- We're working on the first book of Elementary Greek, by Christine Gatchell. This is a Koine Greek (sometimes called "New Testament" Greek) program, so I'm also looking at Athenaze, which is an Attic Greek program. Athenaze supposed to be more difficult and for older kids than Elementary Greek.
• Classics/Literature -- Iulius and I have just finished reading Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in translation. I'm researching the different translations of Virgil's Aeneid for our next epic.
• Writing/Grammar -- I must admit we're floundering a bit in this. I'm trying to teach Iulius, who happens to be a very good natural writer, in the progymnasmata method of writing. I'm trying to use the ClassicalWriting program, but I'm having problems implementing it. It has too much "busy work" for my or Iulius' taste, so I'm trying to streamline it a bit.
• History -- Iulius uses the history resource list for 6th and 7th Grade from The Well-Trained Mind. He's currently reading The Story of the Renaissance by Suzanne Strauss Art.
• Handwriting -- We use the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series.
• Science -- We generally "unschool" science. My husband will demonstrate or talk about whatever scientific interests the kids show. We also like to do a lot of nature walks, which open scientific discussions.

For 9 year-old Lucretius, reading has been a little bit of a struggle. He's quite a good reader now, but lacks confidence, so that's what we're mainly working on. I won't start Lucretius on a writing/grammar program until the summer and he won't start Greek for another year or so. Otherwise, if I don't mention a subject, then I'm using pretty much the same thing with Lucretius and Aemelia that I'm using with Iulius.

• Math -- My husband works off of the Spectrum Math program for the younger two children.
• Latin -- a friend with a degree in Classics turned me on to The BigBook of Lively Latin, by Catherine Drown. You pay for access to the website and then print the chapters as you need them. I think at some point, the website will be published as a regular book. The website also has mp3 files for pronunciation (both ecclesiastical and classical) and has some games to play. Lucretius is just starting with Latin and we're going very slowly.
• Classics -- I'm reading D'Aulaires Greek Myths to them and referring to the Memoria Press guide to help round out the program.
• Reading/Literature -- I have Lucretius reading graded readers about things he's interested in. Right now, he's reading two pages a day in a DK "proficient readers" level book about the Trojan War. I've also implemented a 10 minute a day independent reading time, where I sit close by, so he can ask me questions. He really seems to enjoy this time.
• History -- We use Story of the World, by Susan Wise Bauer. Lucretius is in the 3rd volume right now. We also get outside books if there's something particularly interesting that we want to research.
• Spelling -- We use Spelling Workout from Modern Curriculum Press. Iulius used the series through the beginning of this year and really seemed to get a lot out of it.
  

Almost 6 year-old Aemelia gets the benefit of everyone else's lessons as well as her own. Her two most important lessons are reading and math.

• Reading -- She's zipping through Phonics Pathways by Dolores G. Hiskes. I'm also reading the Winnie-The-Pooh books to her as well as nursery rhymes and other fun poetry.
  

We're usually involved in a couple of read-aloud books, too. I'm reading them The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff and their dad usually reads a chapter of a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book before bed.

I know this looks like a lot, but the kids are usually done with all of their lessons, including their piano practice, by lunchtime. Afternoons are spent at park day, art class, ice-skating, or just hanging out. It's important to me for the kids to have a lot of open time to do whatever they want.