For the love of boys

For those of us who love our boys........And for those who just need a laugh.........

Co-ops

One of the homeschooling groups that I belong to formed a cooperative about a year and a half ago. My family does not participate in the cooperative because it is not the best fit for us. As a family, we would prefer to barter skills with another family. Exchanging knowledge in a more one on one basis feels comfortable and less stressful. It is also more flexible for us that way.

Co-ops, as they are more commonly known, come together because a group of parents got together and decided to volunteer their talents and experiences and "teach" a class. One parent may be strong in math and another may be fluent in a second language. Some older children can even teach a class. For example, if someone has a teenager who took dance lessons as an itty bitty, that teen may want to teach a group of 5 to 7 year olds some dance steps.

For those parents who are not hosting a learning activity, it is important to be present to be responsible for your own child(ren). Co-ops are usually not an experience where you can drop off your child(ren), run errands and pick them up in a couple of hours. Medical issues, behavior issues and meltdowns happen to the most angelic of offspring. It is also important to be available to provide any possible assistance.

When you choose to participate in a co-op, it is a commitment. Most co-ops operate in block sessions. For example, a co-op may run a series of classes for 6-8 weeks, break for a period and then start up again for another 6-8 weeks with new classes.

Most co-ops are free. Other may choose to charge a "tuition" fee or ask for a small fee to cover materials.

Cooperatives are not for everyone. Visit a co-op class before deciding to join. Get to know some of the members and understand the philosophy and/or expectation of everyone involved.

Ending Violence

Ending violence, in all its forms, is a social issue that my family passionately supports.

This year will be the 3rd year in a row that my family will be participating in a walk to end violence. Thank you so much to everyone that sponsored us and supported the agency in the past. Our goal this year is to raise $1000.

Please visit our First Giving fundraising page to the right to make a donation.

Thanks in advance to everyone who contributes to meeting the goal.

Photos to follow..................

For more information on the agency we are raising money for, please visit their website at www.free-to-soar.org

Extra curricula activities

Extra curricula activities are an important part of the homeschooling experience. As a taxpayer, my children are eligible to participate in sports and other activities through the local public school. But as a family, we choose to find alternative avenues for outside activities. Our local community center, private clubs and bartering with other families works best for us.

For the first 2 years, my 2 oldest participated in swimming lessons; one session after the other. During the summer months, we joined the reading program through the public library. For our 3rd year, things needed to be changed up. So, my 2 oldest and I joined a fencing club. (I hope that my children are proud to have their pregnant mom fencing with them. I try to be a good example for them and I want to be more than just a "taxi driver".)

Our fencing season runs October through March. We are having so much fun. We will start swimming again this summer. The summer reading program is literally mandatory for us.

The video attached is of my 13 yro son (dark pants w/white stripes) and my 10 yro daughter (white sneakers) bouting tonight. I think that they are pretty good for rookies!

Why we home school

The 2006-2007 school year was the last year that my 2 oldest children attended public school. My son was in 5th grade and my daughter was in 2nd grade. It was during that school year that I began investigating the home schooling lifestyle. The thought of my oldest attending the local middle school for 6th grade and on terrified me. Smoking, drinking, sex, bullying seem to be intensified from the middle school years on.

As for my daughter, I was seeing some "ugly" behavior. She and her peers seemed to be more interested in what each other was wearing, which boy thought they were cute and talking to each other on the phone. School work seemed to be low on the list of priorities.

I wanted better childhood experiences for my children than what some people deemed "rights of passages". And I also wanted to get back to some core family values. In addition to learning a lot of first year, I felt that I was spending an equal amount of time undoing some inappropriate behavior learned while attending public school.

I found last week's poll results interesting. Last week's question asked "Why do you home school?" The majority of the votes were for "other". I would like to hear from people as to what "other" is for them.

1st Library Card

Today was my son's 5th birthday. For about the past six months, all that he has wanted for his birthday was his very first library card. He was so anxious all day. He waited patiently for daddy to come home from work so that his whole family could share in the excitement. He has been working so hard learning to read and write. We have been working in the the McGraw-Hill workbooks for preschoolers. And we have been teaching him to read using the Bob Book series by Bobby Lynn Maslen, along with other ancillary material.

Now that he had his first library card, it was time to pick out his first book under his name. (Usually it's myself or one of his siblings that check out books for him.) So what did my son pick out for his book.....drum roll please..........DRAGONS & KINGS by Jackie French Koller. It is going to be an adventurous read but he is most definitely read for the ride.

Mommy loves you "A". You make me so proud.

Socialization

Socialization. The "S" word. Whenever people find out that I
home school, their first question(s)/concern(s) were always:
"What about socialization?"
"Aren't you worried that they won't have friends?"
" How will they learn to interact with people?"
The socialization question never intimidated me. I knew that my family wasn't going to be deprived of interacting with others. Instead, when I took my 2 oldest children out of public school, I knew that a whole new world of possibilities and experiences awaited them. I knew that we were not alone and that soon, we would be interacting with people just like us.

At first, I was so excited that we were home schooling, that it was a pleasure to educated those unfamiliar with the lifestyle. Then, it started to feel like a passive aggressive attack. People, including some family members, were implying that my children were going to be socially challenged and not ready for the "real world" because they weren't contained in a classroom for 7 hours a day, 180 days a year with peers their own age.

Valuable social skills are not learned in a public school setting.
They are learned at home. They are learned while volunteering in the community. They are learned by being involved with field trips and home school support groups. Involvement through other areas of interest is another way to prevent isolation and promote socialization.

Regular interaction with varying types of people of varying ages and varying life experiences, along with adults who portray a positive example, is how we learn to act appropriately and responsibly in the "real world".

Eclectic

My family and I decided on an eclectic curriculum. Just like us, it is a little bit of everything. Right now, we are using workbooks by McGraw-Hill. Their workbooks range from Pre-K through 8th grade. These books can be found at either Staples or www.amazon.com. For "textbooks", we shop library sales. A lot of times, libraries will have a book sale event 2 - 3 times a year to get rid of books with low circulation. At one sale, we literally got 200+ books for $25. Thrift stores are also a great resource. From my experience, both libraries and thrift stores get books donated by local colleges.

I also like finding great books on Amazon.com. We get some great deals from the independent book sellers listed there.

Then there are the hands on experiences that books can never teach. Hands on science museums, backyards, dirt, rocks, cloud watching, family walks, etc are great conversation starters that lead to further investigation into a specific area of interest. My eldest son found a frog once during one of our mammoth walks. He was able to pick up the frog, go to the library, figure out what kind of frog it was and then set it free again.

In my opinion, there needs to be a balance between parent directed and child directed learning. As both parent and teacher, there are just some absolutes that need to be taught. There are also some experiences, that if I did not insist on, they would miss out on. They might not appreciate it in the moment, but later on, when that same opportunity avails itself again, my children are the first to say "Can we go to that?"

Our 1st Year

Our first year was full of experiments. Experimenting with days and times to work and learn. Experimenting with different workbooks and curriculum and software. Finding appropriate and stimulating outside activities (swimming, reading programs, fitness programs, etc). My mailbox was full of catalogs. It was, at times, overwhelming but I knew in my heart that we, as a family, were doing the right thing and that time and patience would be our greatest asset. It was going to take time and patience to sift through all this newly found information. It was going to take time and patience to find a curriculum that worked for my children. It was going to take time and patience to understand the laws in my state regarding documenting "educational progress".

In 2006, our first year, only 2 of my children were of compulsory age to be educated. I made the decision that year to keep my 3rd and 6th grader on their respective levels in the areas math and English. I decided that for the areas of history, science, geography, art and second language that we would all be studying the same topics. Each of them understood and discussed the topics at their own level of understanding. That part of our first year worked out great for us.

Welcome

The best advice I ever received when I decided to home school was this:
"The kind of parent you are, will determine what kind of teacher you will be."
Three years into this home schooling adventure, and that statement has never felt more true.
During our first year, I was so anal with my children.
I kept saying:
"Make sure you keep all your scrap paper. I have to prove you did the work."
"Make sure you name and date all your work. I have to prove you did the work."
"Make sure........I have to prove you did the work."
I must have driven my family completely nuts!!!! I was so worried about being able to prove to my local school district that my children and I worked hard all year long learning that I must have made the experience unpleasant at times.
The second year, I did not care if they throw away all their scrap paper, etc because as my child's teacher, I knew that they did the work. I knew that they understood the work. And I knew they had learned something.
Now that we are in our third year, we finally found a system that works for us.