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.