Homeschooling Video

This is long, but well worth the time. Thanks JJ!

Is It Just Me?

Lee and Low Books has a new site for homeschoolers, which is nice and all, but this excerpt from the press release really irked me:

"It is vital for children educated in homeschooling environments to be exposed to different cultures and to learn to accept people for who they are, despite cultural differences."

Really? Just homeschooled children? 'Cause it seems to me that being exposed to different cultures and learning to accept people for who they are would be vital for all children. Oh, but I guess I'm forgetting that homeschooled children don't get exposed to other cultures because they never leave their homes.

Is that condescending or is it just me? Has the anger stage of my grief kicked in? Am I misdirecting that anger at poor 'ol Lee and Low when they were just trying to do something nice for homeschoolers? Be honest. I can take it.

Why Teach History?

The silence of our empty house has left me with lots of free brain time. You know, how your brain just goes and goes and thinks and discovers and opines and argues when there's silence? Your brains do that too right? With all this free brain time on my hands (in my head?) I decided to get some audio books to keep my thoughts company. Sure, I could listen to music but sometimes--most times, actually--I'm too hungry for information to be satisfied with music. I love music--don't get me wrong--it's what got our little family going in the first place (Warren and I met at a Grateful Dead show), but more and more lately I prefer information to melodies.

In an effort to provide some brain food for my silent, child-free days I went to the library and checked out some audio books. I got Beloved by Toni Morrison (because I haven't read it yet), Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Suzanne Clarke (because I have read it and loved it and am dying to know how they incorporate the footnotes into the audio book) and A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I was listening to the later this morning as I cleaned off our kitchen counter (it's spotlessly clean and free of papers and books and legos and playing cards and puzzle pieces and other junk as I type this).

Listening to this book made me wonder, Why do we teach history? What's our purpose in telling future generations the stories of the past? The obvious answer is to keep them from making the same mistakes. I mean, you hear people, even teachers, say that all the time right? However, history, as it's taught in most public schools (unless there have been big changes since I was in high school) fails miserably at this task.

For example, I didn't know that before the Vietnam War it was America who set up the government in South Vietnam (after France bailed) in an effort to keep the popular communist leader Ho Chi Minh from establishing a united communist country--regardless of the fact that he was extremely popular. I didn't know that when the people of Vietnam turned on the South Vietnamese (puppet) leader and he called the White House asking for help they told him it was 4:30 a.m. and they really couldn't do anything to help and never bothered to call back. I didn't know that soldiers who spoke out against the war were court marshaled and jailed. I knew protesters were attacked and sometimes killed. And I did know that people were put in jail, but I never imagined they were kept there for years on end. I had a vague notion that we were fighting a war that wasn't ours to fight but I didn't really know the specifics. Now, I know what I learned today is just one small sampling of what went on. I don't know the whole story, even now--still I was surprised by my ignorance. Okay, not surprised, exactly. I know my knowledge of history (even though it's one of my favorite subjects) is pretty dismal. But I did think I might have been clued in to these fact at some point before my 40th birthday (much too rapidly) approached.

One could argue that I've been in charge of my own education long enough that I should know these things right? Oh, but wait. We're not really taught to believe we're in charge of our education are we? The state, the teachers, the board of education are in charge right? Once we graduate our "education" is over. Hmm, that sounds like a problem. It certainly doesn't sound like a smart way to raise an informed populace. In fact, it almost sounds like the exact opposite of an informed populace.

That's kinda scary. So that's what I'm spending my brain time on. History. Thinking about it. Learning about it. Figuring out how best to share it.

One Thing I Love About Homeschooling

Jerry made a mix tape yesterday. Okay, it was a mix CD, but that just doesn't sound right. Mix tape on CD, maybe? Anyway, here's the play list:

Ninja - 7 Seconds of Love
Love Me Like You Used To - 7 Seconds of Love
EBay - "Weird Al" Yankovich
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) - Dead or Alive
Somebody Told Me - The Killers
When You Were Young - The Killers
Rockstar - Nickelback
S.O.S. - Jonas Brothers
Walk This Way - Aerosmith
Electric Funeral - Black Sabbath
Popcorn - Crazy Frog
U Can't Touch This (Radio Mix) - Crazy Frog
Bohemian Like You - The Dandy Warhols
Two Way Dreamtime - Directions In Groove
Through The Fire And Flames - Dragonforce
Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman
Happy Outro/End Credits - Klaus Badelt (from the score of the first Pirates of the Caribbean)
Mai Ai Hee (Dragostea Din Tei) O-ZONE (This video is really funny too. Maybe not for little ones though.)
How We Roll - Alvin and the Chipmunks (Download the music video for free on iTunes--Warren edited it!)
Witch Doctor - Alvin and the Chipmunks

Black Sabbath and Crazy Frog? Klaus Badelt and Weird Al? You betcha! Because he's not surrounded by disapproving "friends" at school telling him that if he listens to Nickelback he can't listen to Alvin and the Chipmunks, too. Gotta love a kid who can bop around to Popcorn one minute and lose himself in the sounds of a full orchestra in the next. I love homeschooling!

Thanks to the magic of YouTube (I love YouTube, too.) you can listen to most of these songs and watch the music videos by clicking on the above links! I highly recommend Mai Ai Hee. It's guaranteed to make you smile.

Brief Political Interlude

1/27/08 update - So the letter to the German president is legit. This was confirmed by my German friend as well as Daryl Cobranchi from HE&OS, who said he's been in direct contact with unschoolers in Germany. Feel free to click away at that little plus sign, but maybe do some research before sending any money to HSLDA just to be sure the leaders of that organization share your values.

Note as of 1/26/08 - After I posted this it was brought to my attention that HSLDA isn't always on the up and up. I confess to knowing nothing about the political world of homeschooling and the organizations that represent it, but I did find this interesting discussion about the HSLDA and unschooling at Home Education & Other Stuff. It's from 2003. If you're in the dark, like me, you might want to check this out. If I find out that there is something weird going on with this I'll just remove the post entirely. I'm also asking a friend of mine to translate the letter on the German site so I can be sure we're not adding pluses to something that we don't really believe in. Stay tuned.

This is from the Home School Legal Defense Association:

Help Germans Ask Their President: ‘Why isn’t Homeschooling Allowed?’

German President Angela Merkel has a website where it is possible to ask questions of her directly. It has been reported by Germans that those questions that receive the most number of “plus” signs will receive an answer. German homeschoolers are asking homeschoolers from all over the world to vote in favor of this question. Click here and then click on the plus sign to register your vote to have President Angela Merckel answer the question “Why is homeschooling not allowed in Germany?”

Germany is a federal republic in which states are responsible for education. In all of Germany, states treat homeschooling as illegal, and parents are fined thousands of dollars, put in jail or have child custody taken away by the government. Incredibly, federal courts have chosen to interpret the federal constitution against parents and have ruled that it is an “abuse of parental rights” to homeschool. The only solution will be if German states change their laws. In order for this to happen, public officials, including Angela Merckel, will have to realize that German public policy regarding homeschooling is out of step with the rest of free democratic societies that embrace pluarlism in education and recognize that parents have the right to homeschool their children.

Thank you for helping homeschoolers in Germany seeking freedom to educate their children at home. Your vote counts!

It's really fast and easy to help. Just click the above link and look for the plus sign on the bottom right hand side of the page, then click on it. That's all there is to it.

Back On The Rollercoaster

Was it just yesterday that I said "I love this!"?

I woke up this morning with doubts. Maybe I've just misinterpreted the residual sadness from watching Japanese Story as unschooling doubt. Even so, I find that when I'm feeling doubtful the first thing I want to do is hide J's computer and whip out the Saxon math. Oh yeah, and assign lots of chores.

Luckily for J I wake up earlier than he does, so I have time to google things like "unschooling doubt" before my angst gets the better of me. This morning's google search led me to a gem of a web site. It's called The Home-School Curriculum Advisor and the page that was so helpful to me this morning was Unschooling: Is It Right For You?.

One of their suggestions is that, as a new homeschooler, you take some time to determine your core values and develop your educational philosophy. Mary Hood made the same suggestion in The Relaxed Home School. I really do need to solidify my beliefs. Maybe once I have a stronger grasp on my own personal philosophy and values my doubts will wane and this ride will level out a bit--the highs are fun but I could do without the lows.

Isn't homeschooling great though? How often, especially where education is concerned, are we asked to develop our own philosophy and consider our core values? We're more likely to be handed core values on a platter while someone else's philosophy is shoved down our throat.

When we choose to unschool we grant credence to our children's philiosphies and values as well as our own. What a gift! If our kids never learn that the philosophies we live and work by must always come from other people, won't they be more likely to live lives that are consistent with their own beliefs? And aren't we happiest when the way we live is an extension of the things we believe?

I've found my way back to "I love this!". Phew!

What Happened Next (part 2)

I left off yesterday with number four on the list of What Happened Next. My poor husband ended up sounding a bit curmudgeonly (or entirely sane, depending on your attitude toward learning), so I'll go back and try to explain where he was coming from.

1. I told my husband about my plan to unschool our son and he said (though he later denied it) "Well, I just don't want him having fun all the time." Even though my husband (I'll call him WG) tried to deny this comment, he really is concerned that J will spend his days having fun and end up not learning anything. Anyone that's been through thirteen years of school knows that "fun" is not a regular part of the curriculum, so I understand his concern. However, even though unschooling is probably best practiced when both parents are of the same mind, I'm forging ahead with my plan. I have asked WG to trust me and he has, sort of, agreed. He didn't actually come right out and say he agreed, but he didn't say he didn't trust me so I'm taking that as a yes. I'm also thinking I might ask him to refrain from asking "What did you do today?" It's way too much pressure.



2. I decided to join an Independent Study Program (ISP) with leanings toward unschooling. At first, I thought I wouldn't join because it costs a couple hundred dollars a year and I'm quite capable of doing my own paperwork and taking care of the legalities of homeschooling, which are the main sevices they provide. Now that I'm unschooling, though, I really think I'll need their other service--helpful advice. The couple that runs this program unschooled their two children. Both of their kids went to college, are leading happy, presumably fullfilling, lives and neither of them was killed at sixteen as result of their parents decision to unschool. Phew!



3. My grandmother bought J his own laptop. This put my commitment to "deschooling" to the test at once. Naturally, all he wanted to do was play on his new computer. This was about as far as you can get from what usually goes on in our house. Let me put this into perspective for you. J spent the last five years at a Waldorf school. Waldorf schools advocate a strict ban on technology for all children. Our family never adhered too stricly to this idea (I hate being told what to do) but we did limit J's time in front of the computer and television to two hours on the weekends. He has never before been free to choose how much time he spent on the world wide web or gaping at the "idiot box." For the first week, since the computer was new and since I'd heard about "deschooling," I decided to give him the freedom to use it at will. I'll tell you how that went later when I get to our first week of "deschooling." For now, I'll just say he's no fool. J took full advantage of my change of heart. He was one happy boy.

Me? An Unschooler?

I never imagined I would be unschooling my son. Sure, I'd heard of unschooling. And from what I'd heard it was not right for our family for two reasons. Firstly, I thought it was a scam. I just didn't believe all those people who said their children were studying geometry (or any of the "ologies") for the fun of it. I guess that tells you something about my relationship with math and science. It just sounded too good to be true. Secondly, unschooling would require that I hand control of my son's education over to, well, my son. I wouldn't be able to plan lessons, or even plan our weekly schedule in advance because I wouldn't know what J would be interested in until the moment he discovered his interest. I love planning. I love scheduling. I love list-making, and I love crossing things off my list. Unschooling would require that I let go of all these things and more. I would have to trust. And I'd be putting all that trust in an eleven-year-old boy who thinks butt jokes are the height of hilarity.

So, I found myself at the edge of a cliff. Behind me, on solid ground, was traditional homeschooling. Among the landscape that made up this method were math worksheets, book reports, and english lessons. There were also arguments, tears and frustration. In front of me, deep within the chasm just beyond my big toe, lay the world of unschooling. It was vast and dark and downright terrifying. But my instincts told me to jump.

School At Home

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy. -Robert Burns

In other words: Even the most carefully prepared plans can go wrong.

Here is a log of our first three days of homeschooling:

September 5, 2007, A Fine Start

Today was our first day of school. I had to interview someone for my newspaper column at 9 a.m. so J stayed home and watched a DVD on Pompeii. When I got home we did Saxon Math, Writing Strands, ate lunch, went to the library to get some books on Ancient Rome (had to drag J away from the Manga section), stopped by Monkeyhouse Toys so J could show off his munny and wooden sword to Myra, the fabulous store owner, then went to the California Science Center. At the Science Center we explored the properties of fog, earthquake-safe building, and how fear manifests itself in the human body. Back at home we ate dinner and watched some beatboxing on YouTube. We both agreed it had been a "cool" first day of school.

September 6, 2007, The Unravelling Begins

Today was a bit of a struggle. We started with math (big mistake). The lesson was simple, a review of addition and subtraction, but J was completely unfocused and took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to complete his work. I'm not sure how to handle this situation. I could give him a certain amount of time to complete it with my help and then leave him on his own to do the rest. How will that work? Leave him alone in his room to do it? Have him complete the work later in the day as "homework?" That seems pretty lame but maybe I'll try it. That will be Plan A. I won't start the day with math, though. It puts both of us in a foul mood right from the beginning.

In spite of the math debacle we managed to enjoy the rest of our day. We watched the Pompeii video again. This time J (reluctantly) took notes. Then we had lunch and went to our first Park Day. J had a good time, made some new friends and had a few Yu-Gi-Oh duels. Day two was definitely not as good as day one.

September 7, 2007, We All Fall Down

The plan didn't work. I had decided against Plan A. What's the point of homeschooling if you still have homework? Instead I thought we'd take the math to a cafe. So, we headed down the hill to our corner cafe, math book and pencils in hand. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. I was oh, so determined to make this outing enjoyable and end the day with a feeling of accomplishment. I bought J a piece of his favorite coffee cake. I got some tea for myself. We sat at a table on the patio, opened the math book, and took out his worksheet. Within fifteen minutes J was crying. As the tears rolled down his face he scowled at me and said "You said this was going to be fun. This. Isn't. Fun."

For some reason (maybe I was tired and stressed out, maybe I had put too much importance on the success of this one outing, maybe--more likely-- it's because there were people looking at us and I was embarrassed) I got really angry. I didn't erupt, though, I stewed. Quietly, I gathered up our books and said, "Let's go home." J trailed behind me as I stormed up the hill to our house. When we got home he went to his room and I went to mine. We didn't speak for almost three hours. During those hours I researched public middle schools on the internet. I called my sister and complained. I cried. Then I googled "unschooling."