Our 30 Seconds of Fame

Tonight my daughters and I appeared on the local television station, WAAYTV, in a story about local homeschoolers.

The reporter, Rebecca Shlien, is an acquaintance of ours from the Jewish community. We were both attending Shabbat dinner at the home of a mutual friend when the host announced "If anyone has any story ideas for Rebecca, let he know! She has to come up with two a day."

While I did take that opportunity to suggest a story about area homeschoolers, I can't claim credit for the story being aired. Apparently a few days after that evening, Ms. Shlien actually received this story as an assignment from her supervisor. Homeschooling is fairly popular in Huntsville, so it doesn't surprise me that the local television station would, at some point, want to run a human interest story on the local education trend. The timing, however, proved quite serendipitous.

We were delighted when Ms. Shlien contacted us and asked if we would allow her to come into our home and film some homeschooling activities and interview us. I felt this was a great opportunity for my kids, to see how a story is filmed, edited, and aired first hand. I also took the opportunity to coach my oldest in interviewing skills and etiquette. Make eye contact. Speak clearly. Anticipate possible questions you might be asked ahead of time and think of what you might say. She presented herself beautifully, and although the footage of her "interview" was not used in the final piece, it was a great educational experience all around.

And I must confess I was relieved to find that when the piece was aired, that not only did I appear to be a normal and articulate mother with civilized children, but Ms. Shlien presented homeschooling in a fair and favorable light.

Learning Through Experience

You've no doubt heard it said that learning is a multi-sensory experience. The educational philosopher John Dewey often wrote of the importance of connecting concepts with real-world experiences.

In our latest installment of American Girl books, my 2nd grader read of Josefina, a girl living with her father and sisters on a rancho in New Mexico prior to the Mexican American War. In the books, a severe storm devastates the family's flock of sheep, and Josefina's savvy aunt comes up with a plan to weave the rancho's wool stores into blankets that can be in term sold for money to replace the lost sheep.

Everyone, including 9-year-old Josefina, is instrumental in the plan, from gathering plants for dyes, dying the wool, spinning it into yarn, and weaving it into blankets to be sold. It is one of the many reminders in the series that children lived their lives very differently in history.

It might seem implausible to a child that such a young girl would be capable of doing such labors - until you make that child do it herself! Granted, a small plastic loom and cotton craft loops are a far cry from the work of a girl living on a New Mexico ranch in the early 19th century, but a struggling to get a few stubborn cotton strands woven properly provides an opportunity for understanding that cannot be gleaned from reading alone.

To quote a Chinese proverb:

     "Tell me, and I will forget.
     Show me, and I may remember.
     Involve me, and I will understand."

Opportunistic Science

The other night my husband came home from work with some dry ice used to ship some temperature-sensitive electronics to his workplace. A true homeschooling father, he couldn't believe that his coworkers were not equally eager to make off with as much dry ice as possible in order to educate and entertain their own kids.

So the payload was all his. He came home to find not only our own kids, but another homeschooled neighbor enthusiastically ready to behold the wonders of sublimation. Dry ice skittered across the counter. Spoons screamed. Mad scientist brews were made. Bubble worms emerged from bottles. Bottles were made to blow their tops. Laser pointers put on a show in swirls of carbon dioxide.

My daughter emphatically declared that her father should be employed by the science center where she takes monthly homeshcool science classes.

Unfortunately, I don't think that gig will pay the bills.

Lapbooks

"Lapbooks" are a popular trend among many homeschoolers. Apparently these folder-projects are called such because they are a "book" that fits in one's "lap"

I personally find the term a bit peculiar (don't all books fit in one's lap?), and around our home, we simply use the term "project", but no matter what you call them, they are fun way to break up the routine. While I do reject a lot of the project frenzy of public school, I do think it is valuable for my homeschooled children to have the experience of making a plan, manipulating materials, and assembling a project as a completed product.

Some lapbooks, like the one pictured above, are made from templates. I find this particularly useful for my 2nd grader, as it gives her a starting point. The templates also provide her with guidelines that prompt good questions to ask about the subject, in this case, literature, such as the nature of conflict and change in a given story. Activities can be included in the lapbook as well that prompt the child to become familiar with using a book's index, glossary, and table of contents.

The above templates were made freely available at homeschoolshare.com.

An American Girl Review

For my 2nd grader's social science curriculum this year, we have opted to use the series of juvenile historical fiction, the American Girl books. At first I went into this rather blindly, knowing only that my daughter had an interest in reading the books, and confirming with the children's librarian that the books were historically accurate. But beyond that, I've been pleased beyond all expectation. The books are not only accurate, but are told enchantingly from the perspective of a nine-year-old girl in each series. We chose to begin chronologically, with Kaya, the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) girl, moving on to Felicity of the colonial era, and so on.


What I really like is the history is handled in a very well-rounded way without being eye-rollingly politically correct. The books cover some of the shameful parts of American history, and also the stuff we're proud of - but it also shows how much of it is really a mixed bag. All the books (at least the ones we've read so far) have an ongoing theme of change - what is changing in the big picture - America - as well as what is changing in a girl's life at 9-10 yrs old in terms of relationships, desires, growth, etc. Some have other themes as well, such as liberty in the first Felicity book, in the background we start to hear about the start of the American Revolution, but more central in Felicity's life is her efforts to liberate a horse from an abusive neighbor, even though she has to break some rules to do so. The character in the next book becomes best friends with a girl who is from a Loyalist family, while her own is high profile Patriot family, and to some extent we see both sides of even THAT story, that is generally treated fairly one-sided in American schools. The books neither beat-up on America nor paint it as an infallible entity.

All the parents in the books that I've seen so far have opinions and explain their views to their daughter, but ultimately respect their daughter making her own choices. And the girls all so far respect their parents, even if they at times break rules or push boundaries.

I've also loved the way the books treat female roles. In every book so far we've seen a very accurate historical account of what a female role would be historically. Two things come out of that - the girl or other female characters either by choice or circumstance break out of that role (in a believable way), while at the same time the "traditional" women in the book are depicted as equally strong and capable women who contribute a great deal to their communities and families, and worthy of respect.

The girls themselves are strong, spiritual, kind, and competent. They have the appropriate failures of a child and of a human being, but the reader really gets a strong sense of how much burden and responsibility that girls were once expected to have. They developed real skills. In some ways, we are shown how people in history respected children more than they do now. Even in a society where women did not have equal rights and children were "seen and not heard", these girls were expected to be competent, capable, articulate, and to contribute to their communities in vital ways.

Junior Ranger Program

Last week, we joined another homeschooling family for a fun-filled family vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains. While there, all four of our girls (ages 5, 6, 7, and 10) became "Junior Rangers" by participating in Junior Ranger Program. The program is designed for children ages 5-12, divided into four age groups: 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12, and is available at most national parks and recreation areas. Some states sponsor similar programs at state parks as well.

Participation begins with the purchase of a Junior Ranger Handbook ($2.50 at Great Smoky Mountains National Park). The child must complete several steps, including participation in a ranger-lead program, one bag of litter pickup in the park, and the completion of eight out of twelve age-appropriate activities in their book. Some activities require travel and observation in the park, while others require interviewing a ranger. There are also a few are easier "filler" activities that can be done during downtime with just a pencil. Activities included things like leaf identification, learning about the meaning behind the Park Ranger badge, and going on a nature scavenger hunt.

The girls get a private session with Ranger Mary Jo at Cades
Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Properly completing all the activities takes some time. We spent three half-days in the park in order to complete the whole program, which included visits to three major areas in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Clingmans Dome, Laurel Falls, and Cades Cove). Some activities we were unable to complete as they required visits to alternate areas, but with those three areas we managed to complete the necessary requirements. Completion results in recognition from a park ranger, the swearing of the Junior Ranger oath, and the child is given a certificate and plastic badge.

I'll be honest - with the exception of the enthusiastic youngest, most of the kids were in general, lukewarm about completing the program, but they all definitely learned something, and the program inspired us to have more focus and direction as we toured the park. The kids' participation definitely opened the door to direct personal educational interaction with rangers, and there were moments of enthusiasm for all four of the kids, even if they were a little dismissive about some of the less-exciting paperwork-type activities. I felt the activities were just challenging enough for each age group - requiring some effort from the kids without being dauntingly difficult for a short stay in the park. It would be challenging to legitimately finish the program during a single day in the park (especially if you are facing some inclement weather, as we did), but a 2-3 day visit should be sufficient.

Renewbot - Your Library Hero

If you're like many homeschoolers, you use the public library.

A lot.

Most "normal" people might hear the library check-out limit of twenty or thirty books and think (as I once did) - That's crazy! Why would anyone EVER need to check out so many books?

Well consider children's novels (thirty-minute reads) and early readers for two kids, resource books, research materials, along with anything I want to check out for myself as long as I'm there, and the list adds up quickly.

I am so intimately familiar with multiple branches of the Madison County Public Library, that I've come to think of it as the poor-man's public school. There's a father with two children that I see homeschooling his two children at the downtown main branch so often, I nod at him in recognition. The youth librarian knows who I am, and I've given up on using my childrens' library cards. After a point, the multiple library cards just complicates things.

I can't claim to be the most "on it" person, so on more than one occasion I've handed over hefty fines the library. I've been at peace with it, since I imagine the library needs the financial support, but my husband hasn't been exactly thrilled with handing over a sizable check for books we don't even get to keep.

Enter RenewBot - Your Library Hero! I was alerted to RenewBot by fellow blogger, homeschooler, and forum-buddy Beckie from Spookiez Spot. I've been using it for a while now and let me be the first to say, this tool is amazing. It not only automatically renews my books two days before they are due, but e-mails me if the books are nonrenewable, either because  of a hold or because I've exceeded the allotted number of renewals. Additionally, when I request holds, RenewBot emails me when the holds are processed and awaiting me at the library of my choice.

RenewBot is compatible with many libraries nationwide. I highly recommend it. I only lament that the site probably will cause a large loss of revenue for the public library. I may still have to make a donation at the end of the year, just to balance my karma.

The First Day of School

Today marks the first day of school for Huntsville City Schools, and though as a homeschooling family we have no need to follow a traditional school calendar, it is in many ways a "first" for us, too. The first day of the season with no summer activities, lemonade stands, or knocks on the door.

This summer was my first summer as a homeschooling mom. As a homeschool educator, it doesn't take long to learn why school curricula are so repetitive, or why schools and teachers like to emphasize summer reading lists and mathematics practice. Kids can lose their momentum fast, and it doesn't take long before you find yourself needing to review previously mastered material. As damage control, I decided to continue homeschooling through the summer.

However, I also made it a conscious policy not to let my plans to homeschool through the summer interfere with any summer fun enjoyed by friends and neighbors in public or private school. Aside from all the fabulous summer camp opportunities that I feel are especially beneficial to my home-educated children, I'm fortunate to live in a hopping neighborhood with a high population of schoolchildren.

Needless to say, our "homeschooling" this summer ended up being reduced to 1-2 hours a day, if that. By mid-July, I had pretty much given up, and kept it simple with basic math drills and reading.

The start of the public school calendar for us rang in a new school year as well. Calendars were made, and posted. Folders were organized, and we even purchased a brand-new bookcase designated for our school materials. Even a first-day-of-school-picture was taken.

Happy schooling!

Weapons, Religion, and Public School Policy

Some of you are no doubt familiar with the story last week of a Rhode Island public school banning the hat of second-grader David Morales. In order to participate in the school's "crazy hat day", David had decorated an army-themed hat with little plastic toy army men. The school banned the hat due to the school's zero-tolerance policy for weapons, because the toy soldiers were carrying tiny plastic military rifles.

When we read a story like this, it is easy to dismiss it as the rare insanity of an errant administrator. Surely this kind of decision-making is not common in public schools?

I myself was the victim of a bizarre public school ruling when my daughter attended public school in Kindergarten. Sensitive to the fact that my daughter was one of the few Jewish children attending her public school in Alabama, I asked her teacher if I could come into the classroom to share a bit about one or more Jewish holidays. I assured her up front that everything discussed would be in an age-appropriate, secular/cultural context. I also offered her a choice of several holidays, including Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which could have easily been reduced down to a brief lesson on different calendar systems and the sharing of some cultural items and foods.

Her teacher, however, did not feel comfortable with me bringing any remotely religious content into the classroom. After some discourse, I decided to drop the matter, out of respect for the school's desire to maintain a secular environment, as much as I disagreed.

Yet that December, I found my daughter utterly inundated with Christmas imagery and symbols. Truly, I had no problem with this aside from the utter hypocrisy of having Jewish celebrations banned from this classroom while my daughter remained exposed to Christmas revelry unabated. Still, understanding that Christmas is for a large portion of society a secular celebration, I remained silent until I saw the schedule called for a viewing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Now, I love Charlie Brown. I love the Christmas special. It's classic, and I have no issue with my children being exposed to this endearing piece of 20th century American culture. But the show has an undeniable Christian message, with Linus getting up on stage and telling the miraculous story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

I contacted the teacher and emphasized up front that I had absolutely no objection to this film being shown to my child, but that considering the religious content and the constant exposure to Christmas imagery, I could see no reasonable objection to me coming in and reading a Hanukkah counting book to Kindergarteners and letting them spin some dreidels.

After much hemming and hawing, the teacher did eventually permit me to come in and present some non-religious Hanukkah items. She also, much to my great objection and regret, cancelled the viewing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas."


This is the tragedy of the modern American classroom, which is increasingly becoming devoid of common sense. This is the tragedy of the American public, that has grown so hypersensitive, it demands an emotionally and intellectually sterile environment for its children. No one group, I think, is devoid of guilt in this phenomenon; the pacifist that is offended by army men, the Jew that is offended by the Christmas tree or Easter flowers, the Christian that is offended by Harry Potter books or paperboard witches at Halloween. The family with no mothers and/or fathers that wrings hands over the potential trauma of their child having to endure a Mother's or Father's Day activity. Health awareness has even put a stop to the sharing of birthday treats at many schools, and recess is increasingly being replaced by structured physical education activities.

It is without end. What began as an attempt to expand diversity in the classroom is rapidly transforming into something that excludes all practical diversity in favor a secular, predictable, safety-sealed educational experience.

Teaching Independence

My husband and I have had self-sufficiency on the mind, lately, relating to topics of independence and liberty; the more you can do for yourself, the more free you are. My husband and I grew up in many ways rather coddled by good, caring, late 20th century middle-class parents that cared a great deal about our self-esteem and safety. So warned was I of the perils of strangers, that until the age of sixteen when I was forced to speak to strangers while working my first job in retail, I was too nervous to order a pizza over the phone. Now, we parent as part of a generation of parents that does more to serve their children than ever before. My husband and I are trying to grow more self-aware about our own failures to encourage our children's independence.

Last week, I had in my care four girls - two of my own, and two of a friend's - ranging in age from five to ten. With these thoughts on my mind, when my seven-year-old came to me asking to purchase the latest direct-to-DVD Barbie film release, I had an epiphany.

"If you want it badly enough, get out your piggy bank. It'll probably take most of what you have saved." I said.

She obliged without complaint.

"Now count it out," I said. As she counted out the coins, I reminded her here and there about denominations and skip-counting. "It'll probably be about fifteen dollars, but you'll need extra for the tax."

I then prompted the ten-year-old friend to explain to the others what a tax is, and how much it would likely be.

"Can we get candy to go with the movie too?" my five-year-old asked.

"You have a piggy bank too. Get it out. You probably don't want to spend more than three or four dollars on candy."

After they bagged their money, they all piled into my minivan and I drove them to Wal-Mart.

"If you want the movie and the candy, YOU get it." I stated as we drove to the store. "You will find the items you want to purchase, you will look at the prices, you will take the items to the front and pay for them. You will then lead us back to the car. I will follow you, but I will not help you. If you need help, you can ask a worker."

To my amazement, this experiment thrilled the girls beyond belief. They were literally starved for independence. They even stated with giddy glee "We are SO independent! This is awesome!"

I was pleased, but also horrified at myself. What the hell had I been doing for my kids that they could have been doing for themselves? Am I that lazy and cautious as a parent?

There were only two times I had to step in during the whole experience.

The first was at the check-out counter. Under the duress and pressure of waiting in the check-out line, the girls (understandably I thought) choked when it came to counting out the pocket change and dollar bills necessary to pay the clerk. My seven-year-old did the best thing she could independently do - she gave the entire bag of money to the Wal-Mart cashier, hoping the employee would count out the correct money for her.

The cashier, a woman probably in her early twenties, looked dumbfounded.

"How much is in here?" she asked.

"More than enough." I said, standing behind all the girls and out of reach, "Just count it out."

The cashier looked at me as if I had just presented her with a calculus exam. I muscled my way past the girls, and I held up each coin and dollar bill, reminding them how to count out the correct amount of money. Of course, when we got back to the car, I was sure to point out to them that the cashier was confused by money-counting - and couldn't do her job. A great illustration as to why we expect them to learn to do it.

The second time I had to step in was when the girls got disoriented in the parking lot. Rather than allow a gaggle of girls to wander around in a parking lot aimlessly, I pointed them in the right direction until we found our way to the minivan.

"I never pay attention to where we park!" the ten-year-old exclaimed.

"Me neither!" said my seven-year old.

Of course they don't. Because thus far I have been leading my daughters around like sheep. My friend had been leading her daughters around like sheep.

I decided right then and there, that it's time to make some changes. This wasn't just a one-time experiment, but a philosophy that from that day forward will guide the way I see my own children, my scouts, and any other child I am in a position to influence.

The Value of Summer Camp

My kids just finished an exciting week at Pine Ridge Day Camp, and the fun has just begun. In addition to finishing up this week of swimming, horseback riding, hiking, caving, arts & crafts and more, in two weeks we will be attending a Girl Scout gardening day camp, where I will also be in the role of counselor, as well as a week and a half of day camp at the local science center. Next year, I hope to begin to introduce them to their first experience at resident camp as well.

While I firmly believe that quality summer camp, whether resident or day, can be a valuable experience for all children,  I feel summer activities provide especially valuable opportunities for homeschooled children, as well as their parents. In addition to the obvious benefits of being able to try new experiences independently, homeschooled children get the opportunity to experience the day-to-day routine of the group experience, without having to commit to the grind and problems of public school, or the long-term expense of private school. Because camps are so varied, this experience can be catered to the interests and needs of the child, and also give the homeschooling parents and students a break from each other. 

If you are homeschooling, I urge you to look into what types of camp experiences might be available to your child. There are many opportunities available, including camps that share your religious values, and camps that welcome your presence and involvement if you desire. Many camps offer scholarships or funding for families who need assistance, through scouting organizations or churches, and some religious-oriented camps in the form of vacation Bible school, offer these experiences for free. 

When a child is ready, overnight camp is a fabulous independence-building experience for any child, and the memories, and sometimes skills, acquired there can last a lifetime.

Summer Schooling

School gets out early here in North Alabama, with most schools letting out at the end of May.

Here in homeschool-land, it had been my intention to continue schooling with the summer, with a lighter schedule to keep the kids fresh when it comes to basic mathematics and writing, perhaps letting the rest of it slide.

This will be my first summer as a homeschool mom, and as another homeschooling friend and neighbor forewarned, it has thus far been impossible to homeschool in our neighborhood.

Of course, I am grateful for the gaggle of children that roam the streets. They are, in fact, the only reason we chose to live in a suburban development when we moved to Alabama. We'd probably be hermits living on the mountain if we had our rathers, but eschewed our fantasy homestead for now in favor of skate-worthy sidewalks, neighborhood picnics, and neighborhood friends for our children. So far, we haven't regretted the choice. I'd be lying if I said the constant doorbell ringing did't grate on my nerves at times, but I am happy my children have neighborhood friends, especially now that we are homeschooling. While homeschool families are usually larger than average, we are blessed with just two, and living far from extended family, many of our friends and neighbors have become a surrogate extended family of sorts.

Still, educational setbacks can set in staggeringly fast, and now having had some experience teaching my children, I now understand why schools spend so much time in fall review. Lost time, and between friends and camps, I hope to sneak in a little education to keep us up to speed.

But for now - off to the neighborhood Memorial Day gathering!

Science Rant

Science at the elementary level should get back to the basics; make observations, learn to identify basic attributes of reality, and foster curiosity about the natural world. Memorizing every bone in the body or trying to explain climate change to a child who has no context with which to process or consider the information is a waste of valuable time. Time is a commodity, and it should not be wasted in the course of providing an education.

I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that elementary school science has become a platform for agenda in the public school system. I have seen it in public school science curricula, and more recently, in the curriculum put out by the Girl Scouts, "Journeys", in which girls are exposed to topics such as global warming, carbon footprints, and endangered species, and encouraged to "raise the awareness" of others.

As a general rule, children do not have the sufficient maturity or mathematical understanding to truly learn about these things in any meaningful way. Climate on a global scale is a wildly complex subject not even fully understood by modern scientists. Watch an episode of "Storm Chasers" and you'll see  demonstrated quite clearly how much of what is not known about science is still trying to be desperately tracked down by a bunch of  scientists and enthusiasts in a truck who experience failure more than success even in the process of gathering data.

I'm more than happy to share with my children and my scouts the idea of environmental stewardship. I'm thrilled if they learn to more wisely use the resources by putting paper in the recycling bin or, for the love that all that is holy, turning off the water and lights that are not in use, and not leaving the door wide open during the peak of Alabama summer.

But these things are fundamental life skills and basic lessons of good citizenship and respect for others. They are not "science".

The other side of it is this emphasis on the learning about the complexities of science that ultimately have no real meaning prior to the development of critical thinking skills and context.

This criticism of science is not restricted to the public school arena. I have seen it in private school, or even in homeschool science curricula. Everyone seems to be jumping on this bandwagon in terms of framing elementary level science lessons in this manner.

The key to educating a child - especially a young child - is to give them the tools they will need to expand their own knowledge. The most effective educator is not simply a provider of knowledge, but a mentor that guides the child to eventually seek that knowledge for herself.

In the photo above, my daughter using an antique balance and counterweights to compare the weights of seashells she found on the beach. She was guided to independently categorize shells based on self-selected criteria.

Science Centers and Community Support

Our family is proud to boast membership at Sci-Quest, Huntsville's most premiere science education center for children.

By "premiere" I mean the center is located in a large unused warehouse-like building at a satellite campus of the local community college, but this tin man has a heart. My children enjoy monthly homeschool science programs there as part of our homeschooling routine, summer camp sessions, and mostly functional exhibits.

Functional is key.

Our membership also grants us access to many other network science centers throughout the country. So far, we have taken advantage of this perk to visit two other centers that are essentially on opposite ends of the science center spectrum; the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Emerald Coast Science Center in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

McWane is the arguably the local granddaddy of science centers. Boasting four floors of exhibits ranging from aquarium-quality marine life exhibits to high-end robotics, this center has a lot to young kids to observe and experience. Anyone who frequents children's museums will quickly pick up on recurring themes, as exhibits repeat from one venue to the next, but McWane pretty much has it all.

On the other end of the spectrum, Emerald Coast Science Center is one of the sorriest excuses for a science center I've ever seen. The living organism exhibits consisted of what look liked my neighbor's pet turtle and a couple sad-looking fish, and many other exhibits were dirty, broken, or stuffed with trash.

Both McWane and Emerald Coast had many broken exhibits - both exceeding by far the number of broken exhibits at Sci-Quest. Emerald Coast was the worst perpetrator, though perhaps it could be forgiven due to being obviously underfunded, but McWane, while clean and well-kept, also included a number of broken exhibits. Sometimes, these fixes seem like they would be exceedingly simple. (An aside, our family once saw an exhibit at the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that illustrated "how much is a million". One of the larger numbers was missing a zero, basically making the entire exhibit erroneous due to a simple typesetting error!)

Sci-Quest has remained relatively liberated from this problem, which I can only attribute to the large amount of community support it receives. Each exhibit is sponsored by a corporation, family, or individual that commits to its maintenance and repair. I'm sure this is largely made possible by the disproportionate number of engineers in our city (1 out of every 13 adults), but here is an example of how much of a difference community support can make.

We have not done it yet, but it is our resolution to adopt an exhibit ourselves, and when we do so, I will be posting about it in this blog. In addition to supporting the center, what a fabulous project for homeschooled children!

Road Schooling

My family had the opportunity this week to take advantage of our freedom to travel in the middle of the school year - not an organized home school event such as our recent trip to Birmingham, but as a private family getaway. My husband's work took him to Eglin Air Force Base, including a paid for off-season condo on the beach in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. For a mere $10 additional fee per day, the family could join him, and with no attachment to a school schedule, we did just that.

I did bring on the trip a large box of our schooling materials, but aside from daily math and writing lessons, the bulk of this was ignored in favor of outings and beach trips. Over the course of the week, my children collected shells on the beach (later to be used for a science measurement exercise), learned first-hand about bio-luminescent plankton, saw dolphins swim in the wild, played in the surf and learned about tides, saw jellyfish in the wild, boarded an ocean-going vessel for the first time in their lives, visited a science center, touched a baby alligator, stopped in our state capital city, and visited the Air Force Armament Museum and learned about historical aircraft and weapons from their engineer father. Could the same have been accomplished during a week in a public school classroom, or even during a typical week of education at home?

When I first began writing this blog entry, the term "road schooling" came to mind, although a quick Google search revealed that I'm far from the first person to coin the term. The article "Road Schooling" for the Education of a Lifetime by Carol White shares more about the experience than I can in recounting our one week getaway, but our experience, especially so soon after our Birmingham trip, really afforded me the opportunity to expand my horizons in terms of what true freedom means when it comes to educating my own children. 

Travel is always an excellent way to learn. Even as an adult, I know lessons become etched into my mind through experience. What was once a vague awareness of Mediterranean culture and geography crystallized into reality once I spent two weeks in Turkey, Israel, Greece, and Cyprus. I could only logically conclude that this phenomenon is only magnified in children, who even more frequently than adults misperceive reality based upon what is gleaned from text or other media. 

Of course, long-term road schooling is not something that is practical or feasible for every family, but whether travel can be for a day, a week, a month, or a year, travel broadens the mind faster than any curriculum or method I can imagine.

I have often heard my friends with children in public school lament that they are bound to a school schedule, and strict attendance requirements make traveling on their own time difficult. Pressure from the schools drops heavy because attendance equates to funding in the world of public education. While I certainly do not advocate any decisions that diminish a child's education, the bottom line to me, as is always my theme; liberty! It goes without saying that if you homeschool, you have the liberty to take your child, where you want, when you want. 

But I affirm that if your child is in public school, you have that liberty as well. Your family is your own, and your family's time is a precious commodity. As a parent you decide what is in the best interest of your child. Do not make excuses, the choice is, ultimately, yours. I beseech all parents out there, homeschooling or not, to take the opportunities you can to expose your child the greatest of classrooms that has no bounds. If you must deal with consequences, deal with them, but do not deprive your children of unique and rare experiences that come along because you fear school administrators and social workers. This is not to suggest that truancy should be trivialized - do the responsible thing, but do not let life pass your family by because government schools try to shackle your time in their never-ending quest for maximum funding. Your time, your freedom, is yours.

Creation Science at DeSoto Caverns

Today I share with you our visit to DeSoto Caverns in Childersburg, Alabama. This visit was the first stop on our three-day homeschool group adventure in the Birmingham area.

At the caverns we participated in an educational program. Apparently we were the first group they had ever presented with this program. School groups rarely go there for reasons I will make clear in a moment.

The kids got to be "junior paleontologists" unearthing a faux mastodon (complete with a "bone" trunk. Yeah.) They also unearthed bits of "planted" real fossils that the kids got to dig up. This was all actually in the cave. The kids had a blast doing this - digging, then sifting, then categorizing and identifying the findings. The kids even found a couple real (non-planted) fossils, being the first group there I'm sure helped. 

About 15 minutes into our "dig" we are stopped because a tour was coming through to see the "light show". So we are invited to sit down and watch the "light show".

The cave went dark and we were informed that it was time for their "Easter light show". It's seasonal. Apparently they do Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day and "Creation" when there is no holiday. 

In normal civilization a warning would have been issued to those who suffer from light-induced seizure disorders, because what followed was a headache-inducing flash of light and color and spewing-water-from-stalagmites. The flashing kept tempo (sort of) with a muffled recorded voice telling the story of Easter with echo-y crappy music in the background. At some point, there was an LED cross that lit up.

Now dear readers, I would like to state here that I have only respect for my friends of the Christian faith, and I am not mocking specifically the cave-tribute to Jesus but.... it was a REALLY TACKY cave-tribute to Jesus. All I could see in my head was this insanity being on an episode of "The Simpsons" with Ned Flanders taking his family on a really hyper-religious road trip.

After the "light show" I'm thinking about the faux mastodon with its bone "trunk" and I'm thinking "These guys are TOTALLY gonna be young-Earth creationists". So I start reading their laminated "educational" cards about mastodons going extinct "a couple centuries ago". The guy leading the "educational event" later made comments about stalagtites growing at ridiculously fast rates (but only when no one's looking, mind you. Apparently once the caves are "exposed to air" they stop the crazy growth which is why no one has observed it.) There was also a comment about a T-Rex fighting a woolly mammoth in a battle to the death.

Thank goodness my kids were too young to notice any of this. They still did get something out of the sifting and the identification and the categorizing of objects. Good for them. I was relieved that all the other families in the homeschool group were also rolling their eyes at the light show and the fictional information about prehistoric creatures and other erroneous "education".

After this the kids panned for gems (planted gems, very fun), and went through a fence maze. Even though it was wet and freezing, everyone really enjoyed themselves.

I have to say, it was a good time, and in spite of my theological differences with the proprietors, all the employees there were very friendly and helpful. Something I will never forget but, I can't say I'll be going back there anytime soon.

For those of you out there that are young-earth creationist parents that live in or will be visiting north-central Alabama, you now have a must-see educational destination to add to your list.

Homeschool Field Trips and Travel

Last week, my family and I attended our first trip with a homeschooling group. We found out about this trip through Everest Academy, a cover school based out of Birmingham, Alabama. The trip itself was organized by Nancy Melkerson, an absolutely fabulous veteran homeschooling mom and fellow Girl Scout leader from Auburn. Nancy took it upon herself to not only reserve the Girl Scouts' Kanawahala Program Center for our use as an economical accommodation, but also made field trip arrangements at several educational sites local to Birmingham at little or no cost. Thanks to Nancy's expert planning, for under $200 my entire family of four enjoyed three days and two nights in Birmingham and visited De Soto Caverns, the Birmingham Botanical Garden, the Birmingham Zoo, the Birmingham Museum of Art and the McWane Science Center, including special educational programming at many of the sites. You can't beat that!

I'll be posting separate entries summarizing our experience at some of the sites, but I wanted to first post some initial thoughts about homeschool group educational experiences in the form of field trips and overnight travel.

With the number of homeschooling families growing, there are increased opportunities for homeschooled children to take advantage of fabulous educational programming and opportunities offered all over the country alongside other families. Museums, state and national parks, research centers, and more, often have excellent daytime programs at great rates for schools, and these opportunities are equally available to homeschool groups if people take the effort to pool resources and plan. Even some more corporate entities such as cruise lines and other destinations welcome homeschoolers as an opportunity to tap into a demographic that can provide revenue during their off season. Disney World has even started marketing "Home School Days" during their slowest months of October and January, attempting to entice homeschoolers to the parks with drastically reduced rates and educational program offerings at EPCOT. By traveling as a group, often families can enjoy even greater savings.

But finances aside, travelling with other homeschoolers is a great opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people and make new friends. I, for one, really enjoyed the opportunity to socialize with some new people, and loved watching my children learn and play with children from outside Huntsville. Nancy even arranged for us to have archery lessons at the Girl Scout camp followed up by a marshmallow roast, and I know Everest Academy is planning a a "School at Sea" group trip this summer to Mexico at an amazing price, which will include not only the typical cruise offerings but some on-ship educational opportunities for the children. We may not make it this summer, but it's definitely on our "to do" list!

We're still newcomers to the world of homeschooling, and these unusual experiences for our family is one of the benefits I'm enjoying the most.

Teachable Moments

One thing I have come to cherish about educating my own child are the little unplanned "teachable moments".

Today I had such a moment during my 7-year-old daughter's science lesson. The science lesson was a basic exercise in observation and measurement, and included the assignment of weighing five small objects on a kitchen scale and recording their weights in a notebook.

One of the objects my daughter selected was a small box of orange Jell-O. The box weighed exactly 95 grams, which in and of itself caused my daughter to gasp in amazement. It weighed so much more, after all, than the quarter or the pencil. Glancing over her shoulder, I pointed out to her the small numbers on the corner of the Jell-O box that indicated a net weight of 85 grams.

"Why do you think the box says it weighs less than the scale does?" I asked my daughter.

She bit her lip. "The box might be wrong?" I have already trained her to have a healthy skepticism of packages and advertising.

"That's a possibility." I said. "It could be wrong. But usually packages are pretty accurate when they tell you how much the stuff inside the box weighs."

Picking up my emphasis on the word inside, she perked up. "The box probably weighs extra!"

"Maybe!" I said. "How much extra, do you think? If the Jell-O plus the box weighs 95 grams, but the Jell-O itself only weighs 85 grams, how much do you think the box weighs?" We had just practiced "completing the ten" in math, along with word problems, so I was really hoping she'd get this.

"10 grams!" she said.

"Let's find out if you're right!"  I tore open the box and dumped the Jell-O powder into a bowl. Anything in the name of education. Besides, if anything deserved a fruity gelatinous dessert reward, this certainly qualified.

I gave the empty box to my daughter to place on the scale and held my breath, hoping I wouldn't be forced to explain margins of error.

Fortunately, as if on cue, the number 10 appeared on the scale. I let out a sigh of relief.

"I was RIGHT!" My daughter squealed triumphantly, her face beaming with pride.

I'm not sure which of us was more excited.

I know all parents can experience moments like these no matter how their children are educated, but home education certainly affords more opportunities.

Aside from increased opportunity, there is also a fundamental shift in mindset that comes with the decision to take responsibility for the education of one's own children. I considered myself a relatively engaged and involved parent when my child attended public school, but I do have to admit there was a large part of me that considered her education somebody else's job. Adding to that the burnt-out exhaustion that comes 6:30 am alarms, buses to catch, arbitrary projects to keep up on, permission slips to sign, homework to do, I can't honestly say I was actively engaging my daughter in critical thinking exercises as much as I would have liked.

Would I have had her weigh a box of Jell-O if she were still in public school? If she for some reason had, would I have extended the experience by reading box weights, asking questions, and stopping to make an unplanned bowl of Jell-O just to prove the answer?

I don't think I would have, and I am so very grateful that today, I did.

Curriculum Selection and the Free Exchange of Ideas

My seven-year-old daughter recently completed her phonics program, conveniently coinciding with her self-realization that she is capable of true, independent reading.

This, of course, opens up a wealth of opportunities for learning. No longer is her learning limited by her five physical senses, but the awakening of a sixth mental sense enables her to independently absorb and process information in a whole new way.

The past week I have simply allowed her to revel in her newfound superpower by giving her ample time to read simple chapter books and other library selections at her reading level. Absent our usual phonics lessons, however, and armed with her ability to read, I realized we would be best served if I devised a concrete plan as to where her education should progress from here. We have both been satisfied with her math curriculum, but everything else had thus far taken a back seat to phonics.

The whole process of curriculum selection has been something I have found daunting from the start. While I am not a firm believer in the absolute necessity of a firm curriculum for homeschooling, I do find some structure helpful. Selecting one, however, proved to be more difficult than I anticipated. Up until now, it has been natural to procrastinate in order to allow my daughter to focus on learning to read, supplemented by a solid mathematics curriculum and the random exploration of social studies and science.

While shopping curricula, I encountered two major obstacles to making a choice. The first, with all due respect to my Christian friends, is the incredible abundance of Christian-based curricula available. Some of these curricula are by all accounts excellent. We are Jewish, and even though many non-Christian homeschoolers modify these materials for their use, I did not really wish to take it upon myself to determine which curricula might be adaptable to my beliefs and which might not.

The second obstacle is that many secular curricula replicate public school at home. The same flawed educational philosophy that is burdensome in a classroom is even less relevant in the home environment, where time-management and testing strategies intended to address issues of classroom management are completely unnecessary.

Additionally, many of these curricula, whether of the secular or religious variety, are in my opinion unnecessarily commercial. They are packaged with piles of expensive books that could be just as easily borrowed from the library, binders of materials that could just as easily be digitized, and consumable materials that can in many cases be obtained more economically by simply looking around one's home. On the other side, many of the more economical curricula lack quality and substance.

Sorting through it all can be a nightmare, and the free access of information on the internet is a double-edged sword. Anyone can publish on the internet, which results in piles of garbage, but also a few independently produced jewels that would have been virtually inaccessible prior to the advent of the world wide web. Not only can an independent educator produce a quality curriculum without access to publishing resources, but he has the capacity to make his case for his curriculum, and a potential buyer has an opportunity to preview content and discuss it with other homeschoolers online. Independents in this and many other media fields are no longer relegated to obscure catalogs, but can now present themselves to the world for scrutiny. They sink or swim on their own merits rather than remaining at the mercy of publishing or media industries.

The math curriculum I have been using thus far is created and sold digitally by such an independent educator, and after much searching, I finally have made my choice as to which general curriculum we will use. First Step appears to be similarly excellent, and though it lacks professional typesetting and editing, its values and approach to education appear match my own.

I can only surmise that this freedom also plays into the dramatic increase in popularity of homeschooling over the past decade. With so much information so freely available, the pedestal of the establishment comes crashing down. We do not have to accept the educational philosophy of the state, or even listen solely to the music that the recording industry arbitrarily chooses to publish. Ideas are now on a more even playing field, empowering us to make freer and more informed choices, not only related to education, but to virtually every aspect of our lives.

SpellQuizzer Giveaway

Liberated Education is hosting a SpellQuizzer giveaway!

SpellQuizzer (reviewed here) is a spelling utility that can be used with any homeschool spelling curriculum or teacher-assigned spelling list from school.

If you are interested in a chance to win a free SpellQuizzer license (retails for $29.95), post a comment below. The deadline is Monday, March 15th, 2010 after which a winner will be selected at random and contacted via e-mail.

Spelling Program Review

Last week, I was contacted by creators of SpellQuizzer to review their product.

As I mentioned in a previous review, I have thus far been using a spelling program in the bundled online ClickNKids phonics/spelling curriculum with great success. It is a full spelling curriculum, but for early readers only. While my first grader is progressing well with the program, it is a program that definitely has a limited lifespan. It is marketed as a K-3 program, but I anticipate we will be done with it before the end of this year.

So, this being the case, I was glad to accept an invitation to review a spelling program.

I will say right out that SpellQuizzer is not a spelling curriculum, but rather a spelling utility. It is a very versatile and powerful tool for just about anyone with a school-aged child, whether the child is being educated at home or in a traditional classroom setting. It is not, however, plug-and-play. The program only includes a few sample lists, and is tool that requires input from a teacher, parent, or student, either in the form of custom lists or by downloading additional lists from SpellQuizzer. While it is fairly simple to use, it is not as immediately intuitive as some "kid" programs, and younger children may require adult support in setting up a spelling list. Older students can enter their own spelling words and even record audio in order to simulate their own spelling test at home.

The program's user interface is very spartan. There are no childish bells or whistles, making it suitable for use all the way through high school, though certainly spelling lists can be customized with amusing audio to entertain younger users. Upon loading it up, options are presented to create a list, edit a list, take a quiz, or to import/export lists, which I presume is especially useful for classroom use. The program includes suitable help documentation and an automatic spellchecker that includes both US and UK English.

Spelling lists can be created using any words you wish, and audio recitation of the word, including use in a sentence, is definitely recommended for optimum results. I was delighted to discover that the program allows for repeated instances of the same word, with different recorded sentences, which allows for diverse quizzing on homophones. There are options for spelling words to be quizzed in succession or in random order, or you can manually change the order of words in a spelling list if you choose.

On the technical side, while the user interface is nothing special, SpellQuizzer appears to be cleanly programmed. I did not encounter any bugs or crashes, and the program is not an inexplicable resource hog, which is something I've encountered with many other educational programs.

I can honestly recommend SpellQuizzer. For $29.95 it is a great, evergreen tool to have on hand for both classroom students and homeschoolers. Additionally, it would make a fantastic tool for many elementary teachers and English teachers.

Stay tuned, as we hope to host a SpellQuizzer giveaway in the near future!

The Age Dynamic

The first time I took my daughter to the homeschool P.E. class at the local YMCA, I was alarmed to discover that the activities were separated into just two age groups; one for ages 5-11 and another for those ages 12-18.

When I eyed the pre-adolescent boys approaching from the parking lot, I have to admit I had second thoughts. "My 7-year-old daughter playing dodgeball with 11-year-old boys?" I thought. "Are you KIDDING me?" I was a new homeschooling parent and this was my first experience with any kind of group activity.

I do think my cause for concern had some validity. In American society at large, where most children are grouped by exact ages for schoolwork, recess, and extracurricular activities, many children never learn how to appropriately and comfortably interact with children of different ages. I know many parents who are uncomfortable with the idea of their young child merely sitting for ten minutes on the same bus with fifth graders. This concern is not entirely without reason, as many young children in this setting are intimidated by children even a year or two older, and many older children remain unfamiliar with how to treat younger children. I myself have a memory of playing at recess as a kindergartner and hearing the sing-song voices of first graders mocking "Lit-tle ba-bay kin-der-gartners! Lit-tle ba-by kin-der-gartners" as they clutched on to the chain-link fence that segregated the kindergarten playground.

So when the group of homeschooled children, including some giant ten and eleven-year-old boys, gathered around their teacher at the YMCA, I was a bit unsettled. My nerves became really frazzled as I heard the teacher announce that the children were going to play something called "scatterball". I'm still not clear on the rules, but it sounded like a hybrid between dodgeball and unmitigated chaos. I watched with reservation as my tiny first grader trotted after them, looking a little insecure herself. Jeff, the instructor, seemed like a very responsible young man, so I swallowed my reservations, sent up a brief prayer, and drove off to pick up my four-year-old and her friend from their preschool program.

Fifteen minutes later, with two preschoolers in two, I pulled my Sienna into the parking lot adjacent to the field where the group of kids were playing scatterball. I cringed as a giant, prepubescent hooligan hurled a red rubber ball full force at another, sending him out of the game.

Then, at the next opportunity, the same monster turned around with ball in hand to confront my daughter. I held my breath. The fifth-grade boy - perhaps not a monster after all - lobbed the ball towards my daughter with first-grade force. She tried her best to dodge out of the way. She failed, but the ball bounced harmlessly off her leg. This boy had treated her fairly, with the judgement of an adult playing a game with young children. He knew not only to lob the ball more gently at her, but also to include her in the game. "Of course," I said to myself. "He is homeschooled. He knows how to interact with children of all ages. He does not spend all his waking hours exclusively with 11-year-olds."

This concept is not entirely new to me. My daughter spent a year enrolled in a Montessori preschool, and Marie Montessori's philosophy included stressing the importance of a multi-age experience for children in the course of their education. While there will be those that are skeptical of the viability of a multi-age classroom, to me there is no doubt that there is great social value in giving children the opportunity to interact with a diverse age group.

In Defense of Screen Time

There is an increased emphasis on the reduction of "screen time", that is, time spent by children in front of "screens" whether it be television, console gaming, or computer use. I have always had a bit of a problem with these campaigns in that parents who make the mistake of substituting technology for creativity and relationships are not the same people who are going to read parenting articles about the perils of screen time. Certainly I agree that a heavy diet Spongebob Squarepants or Hannah Montana is not the best investment of a child's growing mind, but I fear more worthy productions are unfairly cast into the same category of technology that is judged as vile and blamed for the epidemic of ADHD.

At the same time, those who do take these recommendations seriously I think sometimes take them too seriously. I have heard well-educated and well-meaning parents proclaim that they would never subject their child to film or software presentation of educational materials when books are an option. Books are revered, as if books are not also a kind of information technology.

Particularly in regards to homeschooling, it in my humble estimation a mistake not to take advantage of the variety of technology now available to the educator. While I do believe books and printed materials are essential tools to the homeschooling parent, these materials do not engage as wide a variety of learning styles as computer and video productions that integrate audio, visual, and musical elements into learning.

Ideally these subjects might be best experienced in vivid reality. To quote philosopher and education reformer John Dewey, "Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself." Dewey's philosophy grew out of the early 20th century as the public school as we know it today really took root in American society. While the public school served to provide an education to the masses, it divorced the child from the education provided by the rich personal experience of touching, feeling, and doing. When a real experience is not possible, modern technology can enhance what can be gleaned from books. While it may be most educational to travel the Mississippi River itself, a video where the student can see and hear the subject offers something that a map and a book cannot.

Homeschooling has increased in popularity in recent years I believe in part to the existence of the internet. Parents now have access to information, videos, programs, and curricula that exceed that of the public school teacher whose hands are often tied by federal, state, and district regulations. Between downloadable content, interactive online lessons, videos and educational web sites and articles for educators, the parent no longer needs to rely on the education system to access all he or she needs to provide their child with a quality education. Many online or video programs, such as Teaching Textbooks and ClicknKids, offer instructors more skilled and articulate than either the parent OR the public school teacher. Utilizing these resources, many parents find their kids more self-motivated and independent.

This is not to say that the internet is a replacement for the public school system, but that in the 21st century, the resourceful, intelligent, dedicated parent has much greater capacity to take responsibility for educating their own child, and information technology and audio-visual media are both key tools to enable this unprecedented level of freedom in education.

Finding Local Activities

I'm often asked by other homeschooling parents how I learn about all the various homeschooling activities in which we are involved. Many of these parents have been at this longer than I have, so I must know something others don't, which mostly involves liberal use of the internet and telephone. While many of these programs are unique to Huntsville, Alabama, I suspect similar programming exists in towns throughout the country, so I'll share what I know:

- YMCA: Our local YMCA runs a physical education program for homeschooled students that includes team sports, games, and the Presidential Physical Fitness program. The program runs twice a week from 12-1 at the very economical cost of $25 a month. I'm sure many other YMCA centers have similar programs or would be willing to start them.

- Science: Homeschool Science is scheduled once per month at our local children's science museum. These programs run one hour for elementary age and two hours for middle school age with hands-on experiments and projects. Another program, which I don't participate in, is a life science program run at the Botanical Garden. Our science museum here in Huntsville is not the most elaborate out there, so similar opportunities may be present at a science center, botanical garden, or arboretum near you.

- Social Studies: Monthly 1-2 hour social science activities take place at various historical and children's museums in town. Some fabulous experiences that we have signed up for have included such activities as re-enacting an underground railroad experience, food preservation of the past, textile making, and others. Many museums and historical have programs in place for scouts of school field trips, and if they are aware of a level of interest in the homeschooling community, will gladly run such programs on slower days, which makes for a great intimate experience for smaller groups of homeschoolers.

- Visual and Performing Arts: Local arts centers, museums, dance studios, theater companies, and music schools that offer afternoon and evening lessons and classes are often slower during the morning and early afternoon hours. Homeschool classes are offered during these hours in order to profit from those time slots, and if there is sufficient interest, these classes can be a fantastic opportunity for your homeschooled student to benefit from fine and performing art exploration in a small class size.

- Travel: Keep an eye open for fantastic off-season educational travel opportunities geared towards families who homeschool. Walt Disney World features "Home School Days" in January and October, with discounted rates and educational programming. Homeschool cruises are advertised, and many homeschool groups organize great educational trips and programs at bargain prices.

- Homeschool Groups: Perhaps the single most component in finding information about these activities is to connect with other homeschooling families. If your state requires affiliation with a cover school or district homeschool program, this may be self-evident. Internet groups are also a great way to connect with local homeschoolers, such as Meetup.com or Yahoo Groups. Many of these groups are organized by philosophy as well such as by religious ideology or teaching style. Members can inform each other of local offerings or work together to organize group field trips and educational activities.

Phonics Program Review

If you visit the ClickNKids web site, it looks campy. The cartoon characters Click N. Kid and Cosmo Cat dance hyper-actively across the screen in a new 3-D advertising video encouraging parents to sign up for their service.

I originally signed up for ClickNKids as a temporary measure. I began homeschooling my first grader sooner than I had anticipated, and lacking any formal phonics program, this one seemed adequate, accessible, and affordable after a trial run on one of their free lessons.

I have since relied on ClickNKids as the sole curriculum for spelling and phonics for my first grader, and have begun using it with my preschooler as well, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. One caveat is that the program is strictly fundamentals for new and early readers; this is not an appropriate program for children who already possess proficient or advanced reading skills. This program is also best suited for a child who is willing to work independently.

The instructor in this program is clear and patient, with an encouraging tone and very tonally distinct in the pronunciation of various phonetic sounds, sound combinations, words, and sentences. In the phonics program, children will get experience in phonics, sight words, oral fluency, spelling, and dictation. Certain language concepts are also discussed, such as prefixes, suffixes, and homonyms.

The earliest lessons are appropriately short (5-10 minutes) for the preschooler or kindergartner with a shorter attention span. These have been tested and met with the approval of my very stubborn 4-year-old. The youngest students will probably require some parental follow-up, until the child develops enough confidence and proficiency to fully engage with the program. Slowly the lessons work up in duration, and the most advanced lessons, which have been tested quite thoroughly by my 7-year-old, extend up to 30-45 minutes and include all aspects of reading. Parts of the lesson are timed, others are self-paced, and a lesson report at the end allows the parent to review the lesson with the student if desired.

The spelling program is significantly more challenging than the phonics program, and should probably not be used until a child has basic reading proficiency. Spelling words and exams are included, and the spelling program likely has more longevity than the phonics program.

The most excellent feature of this program, I believe, is the ability for children to learn independently age such a young age.

The program is designed for use for grades K-3, though the typical homeschooler will probably complete the program by the end of first or second grade.

The Pattern and Structure of Early Math

This week, after several weeks of studying geometry, clock-reading, and measurement, our excellent math curriculum shifted back to a review of addition and subtraction in order to prepare my 7-year-old for the math topics to come; two-digit addition and subtraction.

During these review exercises, I found I was not at all satisfied with my daughter's level of proficiency with the basic addition and subtraction math facts; she was still using her fingers. This finger-counting is a product, I believe, of her experience in the public school system.

Our local school is lauded for it's high API (Academic Performance Index), yet in our state (Alabama), benchmark testing for kindergarten and first grade is restricted to reading proficiency. The unintended consequence of this emphasis on reading is that math is neglected in some cases. Teachers at these youngest grades will be held accountable for poor reading performance, but not poor math performance. My daughter was routinely handed one-digit addition worksheets, with random problems. From what I can glean, this involved minimal, if any, formal instruction, and after several months, subtraction never even made it on the menu. So meanwhile, with our excellent place value units since homeschooling, my daughter can add 6+40 without a moment's hesitation. But 6+2? Finger time.

Finger-counting isn't all bad; counting objects is the foundation of addition. But at this point in the game, a child should be able to add 2+4 without that crutch. Similarly there are criticisms of much of an emphasis on memorization. How can you be assured of comprehension if the child is just parroting back the "right answer"?

To answer this question I hit the almighty YouTube where Maria Miller, author of my math curriculum of choice, "Math Mammoth", very directly explains a happy medium. Memorization born of structure and pattern that children can visually observe in "fact families". Consider all the possibilities for a sum of 6:

Brilliant! So why was my daughter being thrown random addition worksheets for three months, using an expensive curriculum? Why isn't this method used in our public schools? Why isn't this math curriculum, sold for a whopping $30 for a year, something a public school can consider in an age of tight education budgets?

Miller explains to me that the requirements vary so much from state to state, and even district to district, that it is impossible for a small-time educator such as she to accommodate the various demands. Only big brand curriculum, like Saxon Math, can morph at will to mesh in with the bizarre and ever-changing requisites of government-run education. This flexibility comes with a major price tag.

Meanwhile, she says, many teachers are purchasing her curriculum for classroom use in any case, deviating from the norm in the interest of giving children a quality education in mathematics.

I remember my mother, a teacher of twenty years, telling me the state of California had a "phonics/whole language pendulum". Occasionally the pendulum would find a sweet spot in the middle, but sooner or later, the pendulum would inevitably swing too far one way or the other, to the point of banning the use of phonics or whole language instruction in the classroom. In either case, teachers of merit would have to smuggle materials utilizing the unfavored method like academic contraband.

How ridiculous.

20 Great Reasons to Homeschool

The Public Library

One resource for homeschooling that I have really come to appreciate is the public library. At least here in Madison County, Alabama, the county library system is incredibly underutilized by the public. I have to confess, I didn't use it much either prior to homeschooling. I occasionally attended the story hour for preschoolers and toddlers when my kids were younger, and have on occasion taken advantage of library events for kids. These events are fairly well-attended, but I hadn't used the library much to check out actual books for a while. I've always in theory favored the idea of public libraries, but I must admit I had come to consider the library to be something that I had outgrown. With the advent of the internet, seldom would I actually need to drive all the way to a library to research anything minor, and between gifts, used bookstores, and simply being an adult with enough income to purchase my own reading material. Of course the library holds a bit of antiquated magic and I would take my children there for a token trip once in a while, but ultimately I remained unconvinced that the responsibility of returning books downtown was worth it for children's books that are read in a fifteen minute session.

Once I began homeschooling, I began to look at the expense involved in providing my early reader with ample and diverse reading material. This expense is magnified by my decision to embrace literature-based education for early social studies and science. I could hardly justify the purchase of so many books when they could be borrowed for free.

I quickly learned that the library no longer requires me to look through a dusty card catalog or even wait my turn to use a public computer. Not only does the public library have an online catalog with details and pictures to rival that of Amazon (ok, not quite, but more than you might expect), but I can put a hold on any available item in the entire county library system, and apparently magical book elves (also known as underutilized library workers) will locate them and transport them to any branch of my choosing for pick-up. They even call me when the material is available - usually no more than a few days. I can't get that kind of service at Border's.

Last fall, I took my Girl Scout Troop to the library for a tour. There is a very bright-eyed youth librarian who was extraordinarily helpful. I wonder if she'd accommodate some homeschool book discussion groups?

Math Rant

Anyone who has made the mistake of expressing interest in the details of our homeschooling has probably already been subjected to my math rant. But for posterity, I shall repeat it here, and warn that this is largely an editorial about the early math curriculum used by Huntsville City Schools in Huntsville, Alabama.

When I first pulled my first grader out of school in November, it occurred to me that in spite of daily math homework for nearly four months, I had never seen my daughter bring anything home but a single-digit addition worksheet. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that prior to withdrawing her from school, I had never noticed this. She was so inundated with reading, reading, reading, that repetitive nature of her mathematics assignments had escaped my notice.

I grant that repetition is a necessary part of learning math at all levels. But four months of single-digit addition, with virtually no variation, is beyond necessary repetition. To make matters worse, when I began to evaluate my daughter's math skills, I found that she had virtually no addition facts memorized, still stumbled over 12, 13, 14, and 15 when asked to count from 1-20, and still wasn't positive whether 30 or 50 comes after 29, even though according to her report card she had mastered these skills. In spite of this daily repetition of addition, she could not easily answer calculate 20+1. If it wasn't able to be counted on her fingers, forget it.

It then occurred to me that in early elementary in Alabama, testing focuses around DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), and to my knowledge at these early grades, mathematics is only minimally included in assessments, and thus in the classroom. In particular our school (Hampton Cove Elementary School) prides itself on its statistical superiority, and it is my theory that at least some teachers emphasize reading at the expense of other subjects. My own daughter's teacher even mandated that all her students participate in the extracurricular "Accelerated Reader" program.

Many educational experts will point out, correctly, that reading is the foundation for academic learning in school. But to diminish the importance of mathematics at this early age is a tremendous error. It is clear that the enthusiasm and emphasis placed on reading is not similarly placed on mathematics, as the sentiment is echoed by the majority of students all the way through high school and even college, where many liberal arts programs are devoid of any mathematics requirements.

Huntsville City Schools uses Saxon Math, a curriculum that has its advocates among public school educators and homeschoolers alike. I am not certain this curriculum was being used effectively at my daughter's school, but judging by what was brought home and her resulting lack of understanding, I can only conclude it is ineffectual for first grade, at least in my daughter's case. Doing more thorough research on the curriculum, it uses a "spiraling" approach that my husband (a physicist and engineer) had long criticized in California that unnecessarily delays learning. Common teaching methods in the United States "spiral" far longer than in other countries, and we continue to lag behind in math and science.

The curriculum is not cheap either. Our school, for its lack of funds, also hit up parents for $15 each to help offset the cost of this curriculum.

For $15, I purchased an entire semester's curriculum from Mammoth Math. The web site isn't as polished, but it is a solid curriculum, developed by an educator with a Master's degree in Mathematics from Finland. Within weeks of using this affordable, downloadable curriculum, my daughter obtained an understanding of place value and number patterns that she was then able to apply to addition and subtraction, expanding her mastery to something based on comprehension rather than repetition.

Again, repetition has its place, but devoid of comprehension, repetitive exercises are are a waste of time.