Noses and Eyes

Here's another activity that I pulled out the camera for.  We were learning about what our noses, eyes, ears, etc.. do and how they are different for animals.  We made it hands on by making pig noses and frog eyes.  The pig noses came out so cute, that I'm planning to use them to put on a play with these kids, "The Three Little Pigs".



Another Bird

Before I forget the name of our latest bird friend, I want to record it.  This is where I'm keeping track.  We have a couple of birds making nests on our outside lights.  They are house finches.  :)

The Beginning of Our Journey- Conclusion

I left my last thoughts hanging with some questions that I feel like I've found the answer to.  These are the questions I put in that post:

"How could I avoid the battle?  How could I inspire my kids to have self-motivation?  How could I teach children of so many different ages?  When would I find time to plan all those lessons?"

Ultimately, the real question is how do I teach my children to love learning?  As I've pondered on it, and as I've gone to seminars and read books (the ones I recommended in the earlier post) some things have clicked for me.

Here we go.  I hope this makes sense.

If I love bananas, I will naturally buy bananas.  Then I will eat them and buy more.  If we have bananas in our home, my children see me enjoying them, and I offer them to my children, odds are they will at least try them and will probably learn to like them.  If I hate apples, never buy apples, and never offer apples to my children they may never learn to like apples.  I use this approach when I teach my children principles of our religion.  I've long been a believer that I can't force my children to embrace prayer, a love of the scriptures, etc... but that I can teach and inspire them by example.  My children love to pray and they believe in prayer.  That is because they have seen me and my husband praying every day, and because we pray as a family.  They have observed from birth that prayer is important to us.  We encourage them to pray and explain why we believe prayer is important, but we don't force them to do it.  If I were to force it, I think they might rebel and decide that prayer is a chore.

One of the key ingredients to TJEd is "inspire, not require".  We learned about this in the first presentation that we attended, and that's when our answers started coming.  To inspire also can mean to lead by example.  Once this clicked for me it changed my whole perspective on teaching my children.  I realized that they way I teach my children our religion is by example, or I inspire instead of require when it comes to that aspect of our lives.  Of course that can apply to an academic education!  I will not learn something that I don't want to learn, but the way a person presents something and their excitement for it might peak my interest.  My children will not learn something they don't want to learn.  I cannot force them to listen.  I cannot force them to think and process information.  The way I approach something can peak their interest and motivate them, though.  So, if I want them to like bananas I will buy and eat bananas.  If I want them to understand the importance of prayer, I will pray on my own and with my family.  If I want them to love learning, I will study and learn with them!  This is one of the things that is so different about the TJEd theory/ method and if makes a lot of sense to me.  When I read these books and went to these classes, I was surprised that the very first step was to focus on my own education!   

Children are naturally curious about what is going on around them, and often value the things their parents value.  What messages am I sending my children about what I value?  If I only work or study when I have to, but spend all of my spare time in from of the tv what do they learn that I value?  What do they learn about work and studying?  If I read an awesome book and share my excitement about it during our dinner conversation what do they learn about what I value?  If I am curious about the recent disasters in Japan, and I decide to research earthquakes and tsunamis, are my children going to be curious too?

This is the hardest part about inspiring.  I can't inspire someone else to love learning if don't love learning.  So I might have to do some studying until I feel that very real light that comes from learning, and I need to keep it up.  If I do love learning, though, I believe I can inspire my children to love it.  If I do study, I believe my children will be much more inclined to study.  And if my children are feeling inspired, they will have the self-motivation to learn.  Then hopefully we can avoid the battle.  So far my children are loving everything we do in kidschool, and are very willing to learn.  I'm new at this, but I believe I have a good beginning.

That's one "ingredient" and there are more.  That's the one that stood out to me the most, though, and changed my way of thinking about home education.  As for the questions of teaching children of so many ages, and preparing lessons, I will briefly address those here, but elaborate later.  A child who is self-motivated to learn can have a lot of choice in what they study; then it will be more meaningful because it's what they are interested in.  No one can teach my child anything if he doesn't want to learn it!  There is also an "ingredient" of "structure time not content" which means to set aside a specific amount of time for learning each day, but allow for great flexibility in what is studied.  This makes lessons planning a lot easier.  So I set aside our morning hours for kidschool, and we have a basic routine with it, but our learning activity can be anything.  We don't have to work on reading every day for 30 min., then math for 30 min., etc...  If we are super curious about whales today, we can devote all our time to studying about whales, and it's going to be a lot more meaningful.  If we decide to work on addition, but it quickly becomes tedious and we're all getting frustrated with it we can move on.  As children get older and are more independent, they are able to study more on their own leaving mom for more time with the littler ones.  That helps with teaching different ages.

I don't like that last paragraph, but I'm not sure how to explain these thoughts so briefly (which is necessary for me right now).  Anyway, I guess this is the end to my introduction on the why and how we homeschool.  Upcoming posts will better explain the how.  (I really need to learn how to write conclusions!)   

Birds

We've finally identified a few birds!  In addition to our friend the cardinal (who will never come close enough for a picture) we now know the names of a few more feathered friends. 

Red Winged Blackbird: This one was actually spotted in Chicago while we were on a little trip, but since we've been bird watching so much I took a picture.

American Tree Sparrows:  These have been visiting our bird feeder every day, and today I managed to get a couple of pictures while we were in the backyard.

American Robin:  There are two of these that are around a lot as well.  This one wasn't very afraid of me.  He moved very calmly away from me whenever I moved toward him.  It's a good thing I have a zoom on my camera or I wouldn't have any of these pictures!

We also spotted some blackbirds today (I think), and our black and white friend whose name I have yet to discover.

The Beginning of Our Journey-Part 3

Once I was committed to homeschooling, I started thinking about how I wanted to do it.  I'm very much a figure it out myself kind of person, so the only thing I knew was that it was going to be MY WAY...whatever that was.  :)  So, I thought about the experience I wanted for my children and then brainstormed ideas on how to accomplish those things.  Mostly these sessions took place as I was laying in bed at night, or when Jim and I were talking in the car.  I never wrote anything down, but was forever thinking on it so my ideas started to take shape.  I was also reading some books about families who'd successfully homeschooled.

The number one thing I want for my children in their education experience is for them to love learning.  I didn't have that experience as a child and an adolescent, but I did as a college student.  I said previously that college was a humbling experience.  I discovered that I was far from being the top student, my talents that had been so highly praised weren't all that amazing, that education wasn't about sports, choir, and band, and that school was about learning.  My first semester I failed my American Heritage class.  I actually enrolled in it again for the following semester, but so many other students did poorly in that class that the curve brought me to a solid D, and I dropped it for fear of doing poorly in it again.  I'd barely passed, and I wasn't brave enough at that time to improve in that area.  I would love to take it again now.

At some point during that humbling semester, my viewpoint changed for my education.  I began studying for the first time in my life, and I stopped caring what my grades were.  In saying that, I don't mean that I didn't care to do well, but that the praise (or imagined praise) for the good grades became totally unimportant.  I certainly wasn't happy about my big fat D (which is the very first grade that appears on my college transcripts) or what it did to my GPA, but by the end of the semester I was more disappointed that I hadn't actually learned anything in that class.  As I studied my goal really became learning, and as I learned I felt a very real light come into my life.  I studied hard throughout college and had an incredible experience.  I never found myself focusing on my grades again.  As far as grades go, they were good for the most part.   This was only a reflection of the fact that I wanted and was trying so much to learn what those classes had to offer.  Grades really weren't important to me.  At the end of every semester, my grades were a total surprise to me.  I never tracked my percentages or worried about the outcome...and that made all the difference.  When I graduated I was really sad that my college experience was finished.  What a contrast to my high school graduation!  Someday I hope to go back college.

I want my children to love learning the way I did in college...the way I do now because I still study things that interest me.  I don't think they should have to wait that long, and if they don't get a chance to experience a love of learning as a child, there is no guarantee that they will experience it as an adult.

The question now is how I can help them love learning.  This is where I came up with a lot of ideas, but I was still missing some pieces up until a year ago.  I knew that I couldn't make it a battle or they would dislike school and so would I.  I had some fun ideas which I still think are good: field trips, hands on projects, and studying things that are happening in our lives (i.e. when I'm pregnant or when the spring plants are starting to grow or when new laws are passed, etc.).  I knew that my kids would need personal drive or we wouldn't succeed.  I knew that I would need to be committed for a certain time of day or it would be difficult to make it happen.  I knew that my kids would learn best when the material was on their level.

It seemed very overwhelming!

It's a good thing I had such a strong confirmation that this was what I needed to do for my children, or I may have given it up.  I gave myself a lot of pep talks.  Surely if one teacher could teach 30 kids in a classroom, I could teach a much smaller number.  Those 30 kids in her classroom aren't all on the same level as each other anyway.  I could surely do as well.  I didn't know how to make most of those things above happen, though.  How could I avoid the battle?  How could I inspire my kids to have self-motivation?  How could I teach children of so many different ages?  When would I find time to plan all those lessons?  The answers came, and at the right time.  I haven't actually succeeded in these areas yet, but I honestly feel like I know how to do it.  When I learned some new ideas, a very real peace came to me and it was like the missing pieces of a puzzle came in.  I will get to that, but I need to back up a bit here.

Two years ago, most of Logan's friends were getting ready to start preschool and some had started.  I began to feel pressure to begin organized homeschool with him, but I didn't feel it was quite right.  I still felt that the most important thing for him was learning right and wrong, good and bad, cause and effect, how to play, how to work, how to love others, etc.  Then the ward boundaries in our stake were realigned.  (This means that in my church they changed the boundaries for the various congregations in order to make sure the needs of the people were being met.)  We hadn't moved, but ended up in a new ward (congregation).  I had loved our old ward and wasn't very happy about the change, but tried to make the best of it.  A few months later I was asked to serve in our church's children's organization, the Primary.  There were other women serving with me, and one day we had a leadership training.  After the training I was talking to Laura (who would later become a dear friend) because we were in our ward's Primary together.  Somehow the subject of homeschool came up and I shared my views on the matter with her.  We had a nice discussion, and she told me that she thought I would be interested in a method called Thomas Jefferson Education, TJEd.  She later e-mailed me a bit about it, but I didn't really read it because I didn't think I was interested.  I'm so hard headed sometimes!

A few months went by, and most of Logan's friends started preschool.  I promised myself that when he was four I'd have organized preschool with him because I still didn't feel like it was time.  Then in February (one year ago), Laura invited me to a presentation about TJEd.  I probably wouldn't have gone, except that I was a little curious, it was free, and she had become my friend.  There was a blizzard that night, too, but we'd already arranged a babysitter and the place for the presentation was literally across the street.  I will admit that I went not expecting much, but I found myself hanging on the edge of my seat through the whole presentation.  This was when my answers started coming and the pieces of my puzzle came together.  Everything in the presentation fit with what we were already thinking, but at the same time it was a new way of considering education.  Jim and I were incredibly excited and motivated after the presentation!  We bought the books on the spot and started reading them the next day.  We walked away knowing that we'd received some answers for our family that night.  Thank heavens our ward boundaries were changed and I had the opportunity to make a new friend!

Here is where I have to be careful that my ramblings don't become confusing.  Up to this point, I've simply described my thought processes in a chronological order.  Once we bought those books, we were piecing things together so quickly that everything melds together from then to now.  I really want to record the things I've learned, though, so I'm going to try in subsequent posts.  I know this is a bit of a cliff hanger because I haven't explained what my answers were, but I'm going to get to that soon I hope!  (Just trying to write things in a reasonable order...)

For now I will share some links about the TJEd info I've referred to and a note about TJEd:

While most people who use the TJEd method are homeschooling, I think it's something that can help any person improve their own education and inspire others.  It would be incredibly helpful to a parent who is not homeschooling.

To see a little bit of that presentation that I went to go here:  http://www.youtube.com/user/TJeducation#g/u
  It has a different title and was given somewhere else, but it is by the same man, Dr. Brooks, and I listened to a little bit of each clip so I know he's sharing the same information.  If nothing else it is a very enjoyable presentation.     

The book I most recommend is: A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders by Oliver DeMille.  It's a very easy read and I found it to be very inspiring.
You can find the books I bought here: http://www.plutarchpublishing.com/
The Brooks family runs the company and literally ships the books the same day that they receive orders.  It is possible to find a cheaper price for these books online sometimes, but I have yet to see them in a library (darn it!). 

           

Two Learning Activities

We've had a couple of learning activities in the past few days that the kids really enjoyed.  The first one was that we held our "store" again.  This time we pretended that the kids woke up one morning as grown-ups, and none of their kid sized clothes fit so they needed to shop for adult clothes.  We incorporated the money again, and then just for kicks I interviewed Logan for his first adult job.  He wanted to be a pilot.  He did rather well for a four year old.  :)

They liked this activity so well, that they kept repeating it later that day.

The other activity was sparked from the fact that we have a LOT of birds in the area that we live and we are constantly watching them in our backyard.  I thought it would be fun to see if we could get a closer view of these birds, and try to identify some of them.  So we spent a couple dollars on birdseed, and made ourselves a bird feeder.

It's made from an ice cream bucket and a sour cream container bolted together on the bottom.

We painted it yellow...

Then added our beautiful artistic touches!

We hung it outside our dining room window where we can also see it from the living room and kitchen, and we've had a lot of feathered friends come to visit!  Unfortunately I haven't been able to get a good picture of one because they always fly off before I can.  The visitor in this picture is our most common guest, but we haven't figured out what he is.  So far my best guess is a black phoebe.  We've got a lot of other birds visiting, though: blue ones, yellow ones, brown ones, red ones, with so many patterns, and we definitely identified a bright red cardinal (although he wasn't enjoying the birdfeeder).  He must live in a nearby tree because we hear his call every morning at 6:30 and it's VERY distinct.  At first I thought I was hearing a bird call, but then I thought it might not be because it was so rhythmic.  Today I stood a few feet away from him and watched him do it.  I guess I can't ask any neighbors to turn off that "alarm clock".  Anyway, our whole family is enjoying these birds.  The kids are fascinated and Logan has all sorts of questions about them.