In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the day we set aside to show gratitude, I’ve put together a list of things we secular homeschoolers have to be thankful for. Feel free to let me know of any others you can think of.
1. The Internet.
Whether or not Al Gore invented it, the internet is a boon for secular homeschoolers in so many ways. It’s how we research curricula and homeschooling methods. It’s where we find information on box turtles, Napoleonic era warships, and anything else that happens to catch our children’s interest. It’s where we can get free math worksheets and out-of-print books. Most importantly, it’s where we can find and connect with other secular homeschoolers through blogs, and websites, and, if we’re lucky, find a local support group to build a community.
2. Curriculum Choices.
When I first started homeschooling 10 or so years ago, there were very few curricula to choose from. There was Calvert, there was Saxon, but not much more. The number of homeschool specific curricula available now is astounding. I’ve looked at 10 and tried 5 Latin programs alone!
3. Libraries.
Well, this one is not quite fair. Everybody should be thankful for public libraries. But homeschoolers in particular benefit from libraries because we read so many books. Think of all the extra money going out the door if we had to actually pay for everything we read! Libraries also have programs for children and teens, which can help them build community with others, not just other homeschoolers.
4. Homeschooling Support Groups.
As I’ve written before, I believe one of the keys to successful homeschooling is a support group. I’m lucky to have such a group where we can meet in person once a week or more, but I think that online groups might fill the bill for some people who are the lonely secular island in a sea of religious homeschoolers.
5. Religious Homeschoolers.
They are the reason we have the right to homeschool at all. In my experience getting secular homeschoolers organized together for a specific, finite purpose is kind of like herding cats (as my Dad would say). You can do it, eventually, but neither the herder or the cats are happy about it. This is where religious homeschoolers have been, so far, better than the rest of us. They’ve been organized and systematic in their advocacy for homeschooling. They’ve put together grassroots lobbying groups and legal defense organizations to focus solely on keeping homeschooling legal and as few laws regulating us as possible. We owe a great debt of gratitude to these groups.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Video Wednesday
I absolutely promise this blog won't become just a place to post videos. But it IS Video Wednesday, after all. I really like this one. Enjoy, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 24, 2008
We interrupt our regularly scheduled post to bring you this very special video
Well, in all honesty, we've all just got a nasty cold here and I don't have the energy to do a post. This video also has nothing to do with homeschooling, unless you could adapt what this dancer does into an unschooling curriculum.
For more on this video click on this link.
For more on this video click on this link.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Frugal Friday
I've mentioned before at least one book that's available totally online -- John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of American Education. There are other entire books available online, too. The Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project makes available books that are in the public domain. Many of these books are very old -- pre-1923, but there are a few more recent books on this site, too. I've used this site for a couple of books and found it very easy to use. You can print out entire books or just parts. You decide what font you want and whether you want the pictures printed, too. I look to this site first whenever I need an out-of-print book and have usually found what I need.
Please comment if you know of other sources for free books online.
Please comment if you know of other sources for free books online.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Video Wednesday
First, you need to go check out the video on Homeschool The Revolution. I am, indeed, feeling a little demented today, so I thought I'd share this pop-punk/ska video with you. If you don't like your kids to hear the word "suck" used in this context, use earphones or turn down the volume.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Group Hug
Every Tuesday, at 1:30 in the afternoon, you can find the kids and me at a park – like clockwork. The park location changes weekly, but the day and time does not. This is when we connect with the community that nourishes us, consoles us, supports us. It’s our homeschooling group park day.
I can’t say enough about how great Tuesdays are. The kids wake up and immediately cheer. Just a couple of hours of lessons and then we’re off. We see our buddies and play and argue and share snacks and talk. It’s as important for me as it is for the kids. We get to be surrounded by our friends and feel normal for a change. Nobody asks us about “socialization” or tries to surreptitiously quiz the kids to see if their education is adequate.
Sometimes, we stay at the park until dark. The kids will often split into groups based on age and gender, but every once in a while, the whole group of them – maybe 10 to 15 of them – will work together on a huge project. One time they built a gigantic civilization in the sand, complete with a river to assist with trade, nature preserves, and a religion (Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).
While all of these activities are going on, the grown-ups chat and complain and challenge and reassure each other, sometimes stopping to wipe away some tears or mediate a conflict. It’s a diverse group of parents. I would never have met many of them if we hadn’t come together with our mutual desire to educate our children ourselves. They are some of the best friends I have ever had.
Studies have shown the mental and physical health benefits of having a strong support system. I think it is imperative for homeschoolers -- who, as Charlotte so aptly stated in her essay, are often on the fringe of society – to have this kind of community. We all need to have people to commiserate with on a regular basis, people who understand the situation.
This group didn’t happen overnight. We’ve worked really hard over the last 5 or so years to get a good core group of families. Things have sometimes been a little rough when we didn’t all agree about the form or direction the group should take. We’ve made mistakes but we’ve always tried to rectify them quickly and, most importantly, together.
With the children growing older – we have several teenagers now – we’re looking to expand and change a bit to meet the needs of the kids. My family has started to attend another wonderful group’s park days, trying to make new friends at a time when friends are becoming so immensely important to my 12 year-old son. We’re hoping to get the teens and tweens from both groups together for some fun, age-appropriate activities. Making this transition to include what would usually be the “high school crowd” is going to be a challenge. But it is so worth the effort.
I can’t say enough about how great Tuesdays are. The kids wake up and immediately cheer. Just a couple of hours of lessons and then we’re off. We see our buddies and play and argue and share snacks and talk. It’s as important for me as it is for the kids. We get to be surrounded by our friends and feel normal for a change. Nobody asks us about “socialization” or tries to surreptitiously quiz the kids to see if their education is adequate.
Sometimes, we stay at the park until dark. The kids will often split into groups based on age and gender, but every once in a while, the whole group of them – maybe 10 to 15 of them – will work together on a huge project. One time they built a gigantic civilization in the sand, complete with a river to assist with trade, nature preserves, and a religion (Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).
While all of these activities are going on, the grown-ups chat and complain and challenge and reassure each other, sometimes stopping to wipe away some tears or mediate a conflict. It’s a diverse group of parents. I would never have met many of them if we hadn’t come together with our mutual desire to educate our children ourselves. They are some of the best friends I have ever had.
Studies have shown the mental and physical health benefits of having a strong support system. I think it is imperative for homeschoolers -- who, as Charlotte so aptly stated in her essay, are often on the fringe of society – to have this kind of community. We all need to have people to commiserate with on a regular basis, people who understand the situation.
This group didn’t happen overnight. We’ve worked really hard over the last 5 or so years to get a good core group of families. Things have sometimes been a little rough when we didn’t all agree about the form or direction the group should take. We’ve made mistakes but we’ve always tried to rectify them quickly and, most importantly, together.
With the children growing older – we have several teenagers now – we’re looking to expand and change a bit to meet the needs of the kids. My family has started to attend another wonderful group’s park days, trying to make new friends at a time when friends are becoming so immensely important to my 12 year-old son. We’re hoping to get the teens and tweens from both groups together for some fun, age-appropriate activities. Making this transition to include what would usually be the “high school crowd” is going to be a challenge. But it is so worth the effort.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Guest Post -- My Homeschooling Roots
I am so excited to have our first guest post here at TRBAH. This essay is written by my dear friend, Charlotte Raby. Charlotte is a homeschooling mom of two brilliant girls and is also the author of A Breed Apart, 2002 Clara Award, http://www.readerseden.com/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=105.
I have been a die-hard homeschooling mom for many years. Yet I don't know how the initial urge came upon me or how it settled into conviction nearly ten years before my children were born. I had accredited it to a friend who said, while in the midst of planning her wedding, that she would home school her future children. Suddenly, I knew without a doubt that I would, too, and became utterly committed in that instant. But how could that be? I had never heard of homeschooling.
Or had I?
It makes sense that somehow, the homeschooling idea had been planted long before and that my friend's comment triggered recognition of my deep rooted belief. Yet, the impetus of what has structured my family's lives for the last twelve years has remained a mystery until now.
Recently, one of my daughters came home from an activity humming a tune that she had learned from her friends, and which she said she couldn't get out of her head. I knew the song very well and sang it for her. She wanted to know more about its source, so my husband and I shared with our two daughters one of our favorite childhood television shows --The Addams Family. As we laughed together, I was a little disconcerted to find myself feeling a communion with the kooky Addams Family. I dismissed it as a wistful nostalgia that one often feels when revisiting their past. However, as the feeling continued to grow, a truant officer arrived at the Addams' home to explain why Gomez had to send his children to school. Gomez replied, "Why have children if you're just going to send them away? I'm against the whole thing!" And then it hit me: the Addams Family homeschooled!
It got better. The parallels of their life style and attitudes to those of modern homeschooling families are uncanny. Truly. My husband asked if I was sure that I wanted to equate homeschoolers to the Addams Family, and I understood his meaning. Like the Addams Family, homeschooling families are considered the fringe of normal society, those strange people with unfathomable motives and ideas who spend every waking moment with their children, who are shunned and feared by others.
But, that's just the point.
Sending their children to school never occurred to the Addams Family as it also often never enters the minds of their modern counterparts. That we will keep our children at home is understood from the beginning, or becomes a strong desire as the time to send them away looms ever nearer. As Gomez said, "I don't think I can stand to be away from them, Morticia!" Maintaining family connections throughout the day feels right. Indeed, Gomez explained to the officer how Mamá (the grandmother) educated the children, especially in music, art, ballet, and history, while Uncle Fester worked with them in science. Most modern homeschooling families emphasize many of the under-funded and more humane aspects of society, like the arts and the sciences. True, we do it without dynamite and daggers (well, most of us do, anyway), but the fact is that homeschooling is a family affair.
Just as Morticia, an accomplished horticulturalist, includes her children in the feeding and care of her poisonous and carnivorous plants, and Gomez includes them in planning toy-train crashes and the mechanics of dungeon torture devices, homeschooling parents include their children in all aspects of their own daily lives and hobbies. In addition to regular academic subjects, homeschooled children are exposed at an early age to all of the humanities, in-depth science, a multitude of field trips and experts, museums, finance, logic, cooking, sewing, robotics, gardening, Latin, Chinese. And all of this is usually done before the end-of-day bell rings in traditional schools, but often naturally continues into the evenings and weekends.
The home of the Addams Family is a natural history museum, with a two-headed turtle, a preserved Hun warrior and giant Kodiak bear, and other taxidermy specimens and items of interest. Wednesday, their six year old daughter, breeds thoroughbred spiders, and Pugsly builds things. A typical homeschooling family's home looks much the same, with most surfaces covered by the children's various projects, such as breeding worms, dioramas, hundreds of books, bugs, rocks, written reports, musical instruments, owl pellets, goat hearts, mummifying chickens. The kitchen counter holds their experiments on gases; the dining room table displays their physics experiment on magnetic motors. And of course, all of this is mixed in with their parents' paraphernalia of various hobbies and interests.
The Addams Family enjoys their evenings together in the family room, at work on their own projects, communicating openly. Morticia might be knitting while Gomez has a drink and cigar with the newspaper; the children play on the carpet and Lurch plays the harpsichord. A homeschooling family looks much the same. The mother might be knitting while the father will have a drink with the paper; the children play on the carpet and play the harpsichord.
Both families often allow their children to seek out their own activities and gifts, without being bound to traditional roles and modes of thinking. When it comes right down to it, the Addams Family is bonded, loving, communicative, and supportive. The adults love their kids, they love being with them as much as possible, and they love talking with them. The family enjoys a hands-on approach to nearly all of their learning endeavors. I felt such a strong sense of connection to little Wednesday, when she learned about Marie Antoinette from Mamá and had Pugsly chop off her doll's head before they ran gleefully out to the cemetery to bury her.
Mystery solved.
I can't wait to find out what I learned from The Munsters!
I have been a die-hard homeschooling mom for many years. Yet I don't know how the initial urge came upon me or how it settled into conviction nearly ten years before my children were born. I had accredited it to a friend who said, while in the midst of planning her wedding, that she would home school her future children. Suddenly, I knew without a doubt that I would, too, and became utterly committed in that instant. But how could that be? I had never heard of homeschooling.
Or had I?
It makes sense that somehow, the homeschooling idea had been planted long before and that my friend's comment triggered recognition of my deep rooted belief. Yet, the impetus of what has structured my family's lives for the last twelve years has remained a mystery until now.
Recently, one of my daughters came home from an activity humming a tune that she had learned from her friends, and which she said she couldn't get out of her head. I knew the song very well and sang it for her. She wanted to know more about its source, so my husband and I shared with our two daughters one of our favorite childhood television shows --The Addams Family. As we laughed together, I was a little disconcerted to find myself feeling a communion with the kooky Addams Family. I dismissed it as a wistful nostalgia that one often feels when revisiting their past. However, as the feeling continued to grow, a truant officer arrived at the Addams' home to explain why Gomez had to send his children to school. Gomez replied, "Why have children if you're just going to send them away? I'm against the whole thing!" And then it hit me: the Addams Family homeschooled!
It got better. The parallels of their life style and attitudes to those of modern homeschooling families are uncanny. Truly. My husband asked if I was sure that I wanted to equate homeschoolers to the Addams Family, and I understood his meaning. Like the Addams Family, homeschooling families are considered the fringe of normal society, those strange people with unfathomable motives and ideas who spend every waking moment with their children, who are shunned and feared by others.
But, that's just the point.
Sending their children to school never occurred to the Addams Family as it also often never enters the minds of their modern counterparts. That we will keep our children at home is understood from the beginning, or becomes a strong desire as the time to send them away looms ever nearer. As Gomez said, "I don't think I can stand to be away from them, Morticia!" Maintaining family connections throughout the day feels right. Indeed, Gomez explained to the officer how Mamá (the grandmother) educated the children, especially in music, art, ballet, and history, while Uncle Fester worked with them in science. Most modern homeschooling families emphasize many of the under-funded and more humane aspects of society, like the arts and the sciences. True, we do it without dynamite and daggers (well, most of us do, anyway), but the fact is that homeschooling is a family affair.
Just as Morticia, an accomplished horticulturalist, includes her children in the feeding and care of her poisonous and carnivorous plants, and Gomez includes them in planning toy-train crashes and the mechanics of dungeon torture devices, homeschooling parents include their children in all aspects of their own daily lives and hobbies. In addition to regular academic subjects, homeschooled children are exposed at an early age to all of the humanities, in-depth science, a multitude of field trips and experts, museums, finance, logic, cooking, sewing, robotics, gardening, Latin, Chinese. And all of this is usually done before the end-of-day bell rings in traditional schools, but often naturally continues into the evenings and weekends.
The home of the Addams Family is a natural history museum, with a two-headed turtle, a preserved Hun warrior and giant Kodiak bear, and other taxidermy specimens and items of interest. Wednesday, their six year old daughter, breeds thoroughbred spiders, and Pugsly builds things. A typical homeschooling family's home looks much the same, with most surfaces covered by the children's various projects, such as breeding worms, dioramas, hundreds of books, bugs, rocks, written reports, musical instruments, owl pellets, goat hearts, mummifying chickens. The kitchen counter holds their experiments on gases; the dining room table displays their physics experiment on magnetic motors. And of course, all of this is mixed in with their parents' paraphernalia of various hobbies and interests.
The Addams Family enjoys their evenings together in the family room, at work on their own projects, communicating openly. Morticia might be knitting while Gomez has a drink and cigar with the newspaper; the children play on the carpet and Lurch plays the harpsichord. A homeschooling family looks much the same. The mother might be knitting while the father will have a drink with the paper; the children play on the carpet and play the harpsichord.
Both families often allow their children to seek out their own activities and gifts, without being bound to traditional roles and modes of thinking. When it comes right down to it, the Addams Family is bonded, loving, communicative, and supportive. The adults love their kids, they love being with them as much as possible, and they love talking with them. The family enjoys a hands-on approach to nearly all of their learning endeavors. I felt such a strong sense of connection to little Wednesday, when she learned about Marie Antoinette from Mamá and had Pugsly chop off her doll's head before they ran gleefully out to the cemetery to bury her.
Mystery solved.
I can't wait to find out what I learned from The Munsters!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
