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Freedom in Education
We will all defend our basic first amendment rights with everything we’ve got – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly, and rightly so. As a society, we all value freedom, individual rights and independence from those trying to oppress our freedoms. Those are some of the most important and fundamental values our country has been established on. When it comes to education, though, it’s a whole other story. We insist that students need to learn what adults feel is important for them to know, in a way we approve of, and on a time schedule that has been pre-determined by bureaucracies far removed from the classrooms in America.
The learning process
Teachers are not free to instruct students in a way they feel will best fit their students. Often their hands are tied to teach in accordance with pre-determined criteria that will be tested and needs to be measurable. They are forced to only be concerned with the end product and not the process of learning.
The process of learning, therefore, can be very unpleasant, stressful, and pressured. Sadly, often that is what we feel is necessary to really learn something valuable. No pain, no gain, right? Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to education! Yes, sometimes there are spots where a student might have a little hump to get over in their understanding of a concept, which might not be as engaging, but overall learning should be joyful and is pretty natural to humans (young and old). If we just give them a chance to have the freedom to explore in education and not just be stuck with what bureaucrats feel is important for them to learn on their timetable, it all could look so different!
What can we do?
On this Independence Day, as we celebrate of our country’s independence and all our freedoms, I want to urge us all to embrace and encourage any actions that will promote freedom and independence (agency) in education. We all know as adults we learn more and retain better if we study something we have an interest in and if we are allowed to learn it in a fashion that fits our style of learning. Why would it be any different with children?!
When we go to the store, we expect a variety of products so we can pick the one we like best. Why do we not allow that in education?!
We are free to do so many amazing things. Why are children not allowed to learn what they’re interested in and in a way they enjoy, at a time when they’re ready for it?! Do all children walk exactly at the same age? Do they learn to read at exactly the same time? Never!
Why do we expect them all to understand the same things at the same time as everyone else when it comes to formal education?! If they don’t, we have them spend any free hours they might’ve had for play (a crucial part of learning that we so often neglect) to work on extra practice or tutoring so they can be “up to standard”. Who is setting the standards and why? I believe that often our own pride as parents are on the line when our child is “behind” so we want to get them “up to standard” so we will look like good upstanding parents with “smart” children.
Environment of consent
There are countless examples of people who were allowed to follow their own learning journey and who came out to be what we would label “geniuses”. All it took was for their base of knowledge to expand by exploring and poking around with what they found compelling and fulfilling. No significant discovery came about without a lot of trial and error. I’m not arguing for a complete absence of any guidance from adults. If children don’t have any input, they might not always know what there is to explore necessarily. However, if we can teach them in a relaxed and non-stressful environment to read, understand, and interact with what they read in a discerning way, can they not learn anything they set their heart on? That is how we, as adults, learn things. If we feed them with a rich environment of materials, books, videos, technology, and more than anything our attention, time, and love, they will set the pace and learn without coercion. We teach them about consent in every other part of their lives and we neglect that completely from our education process. Feel free to check out this excellent short video by Blake Boles.
Honor ALL our freedoms
The fact remains that our education system was set up on the Prussian model which was intended to create good soldiers and good factory workers, who work long hours on something they don’t necessarily enjoy day after day without complaining. We still do that in traditional schools and our world has completely changed! With the more rencent advances in AI, it is changing faster than we can keep up with. Are we surprised that we’re falling behind other countries? It is time to do better and honor and model the freedoms we have in every other part of our lives for our children in the education realm as well.
A place to start
If you don’t want to be solely in charge of all this change for your children, there are many options. One way would be to incorporate games into their curriculum (even video games) to make learning more engaging. Sit with your child, look through our catalog of classes, and let them pick some that interest them. Then, maybe you also pick a few that you feel might be helpful to them in the future, if you don’t want to teach all math and English yourself, and let go of the stressful expectations of a particular product at the end. Another way to enliven learning could be to watch some amazing documentaries together. Just enjoy a year of learning together and notice the difference! Let there be lots of choice! I am convinced that you will be amazed at the reciprocity of the learning between you and your children if you’re willing to also open yourself up to more joyful learning. We all have our own journey and the freedom to explore it. Let’s make freedom in education one of our valued freedoms as well!
Relationship-based student-centered education
As adults, we won’t put up with what we, as a society, expect children to be happy with! If, as adults (and this does often occur at a job or even with traffic school after a traffic ticket), we have to sit through trainings that are irrelevant to what we are interested in, there would be the person here or there who would dutifully sit through the trainings and pass whatever test is at the end. Those are the people who probably did well in school. Everyone else will probably try to find the fastest and least painful way to get through the training and if there is any chance of skipping it or just reading a paragraph about it to sum it up, most would take that route. Why? Are they just being lazy? No, I think not at all, in fact, they are intelligently choosing to do something better with their limited amount of time. We all are curious and learn all the time whether we want to or not, even as adults, but we are only curious about certain topics and we also only learn in particular ways that differ from our neighbors’. As a general rule, we need to have an interest in what we are supposed to be studying or it is just not an enjoyable activity! Maybe some other incentive will get us to do it (like a paycheck) but definitely not for our own enrichment and fulfillment.
In addition, compared to children in typical schools, adults take lots of breaks. At work, adults can usually get up and go to the bathroom or go get a drink or check in with a colleague (unless in the middle of a meeting, of course) and they are getting paid to do all this. For children, we expect them to sit still for far too many hours, in many schools they’re not even allowed to go to the bathroom whenever they need it without a special pass, and they definitely can’t just get up and go chat with a friend or eat a snack. For that there will for sure be unpleasant consequences. They are even more scheduled than adults plus they don’t get paid to do so! They’re young and need lots of active movement and aren’t made for environments more strict than offices!
How are we surprised that they start to hate learning?! Why do we wonder what happens to the creativity of children especially as they grow older or why there is such a lack of critical thinking? How are we shocked that they don’t do a great job all the time or try to rush off the homework so they can go play or hang out with friends? That’s what they’re made to do at that age according to their developmental stages! Of course, as with adults, there are always some things here and there that we all just need to do like the dishes and the laundry. I haven’t met many people who love doing those, but that doesn’t take up the majority of our lives! For school-aged children, as we do it, school and homework form the main part of their day. Most of their productive hours are forcibly consumed in this way. No wonder they’re so happy when it’s summer break or any sort of holiday. I believe not keeping kids actively involved in their own education is a futile attempt to fill up their brains with some irrelevant information and not giving them the tools they need for their future!
In contrast, children attending the classes at Learn Beyond The Book and other like-minded organizations, don’t want the school year to end and are sad when it’s the last day of classes. Of course, they also look forward to summer vacation trips, but they aren’t counting the days for “school to be over”. Our philosophy at Learn Beyond The Book is that students choose what classes they would like to be part of. Even if those classes end up being the main core subjects, once registered and in the class, the instructors follow an interactive, Socratic method of discussion and active involvement of students to make sure topics are studied that interest the students and in ways that support their learning styles. Since the class sizes are small (less than 12 students), it is possible to individualize a lot of learning.
We also believe that students and instructors learn from each other and we try to stay in a growth mindset where we are open to continually learn, question, reflect, discuss, and form new insights. We are interested and eager to hear student and parent feedback and invite everyone to be part of our learning community. We also ensure that the community is filled with adults who really enjoy being with children, have empathy, and are kind. We encourage an environment of collaboration, rather than competition, and a non-judgmental space where mistakes are learning opportunities. Students are reminded to be kind and empathetic as well as encouraging to their friends. At Learn Beyond The Book, we believe wholeheartedly that true learning does not take place when there is not an authentic, caring relationship between the teacher and the student as well as between fellow students, so our goal is to foster a sense of caring community in all that we do, creating a safe space to grow. The results are amazing!
If our goal is for students to learn, we need to change the narrative of education and make it more in line with this quote by Benjamin Franklin –
“Tell me and I forget,
Teach me and I remember,
Involve me and I learn.”
A great video on this topic is this one by Blake Boles about consent in education. I can’t agree with him more!
If you have a learning community and need help to change the environment, reach out and let’s see how we can help. If our learning community sounds like yours, we would love to connect and say hi; we love to know of others like us across the country and globe.
Real-life Learning
What better way to learn about engineering and building than from an engineer? Just one more way that Learn Beyond The Book brings learning and real-life together. Michael Marchesan was trained as a civil engineer who discovered that he really enjoyed teaching and tutoring, so for the past few years, Michael has been teaching Math, Engineering & other subjects at Learn Beyond The Book. We’ve had some fun watching the kids design and build bridges, housing structures complete with drainage systems, and other projects!
Why would anyone want to learn these skills? Not only does it come in handy for students who want to pursue a career in a STEM field, but the classes encourage critical thinking, problem solving, and designing of solutions. Then, students have the hands-on experience of building what they’ve designed. They get to use real tools and are encouraged to be creative within the parameters of the projects! In our changing world, these skills are becoming more and more invaluable by the day!
For early elementary students, we offer Lego Robotics & Engineering to introduce these skills.
For a full list of our Fall classes for Math & Engineering, click here
Happiness in Education
Happiness…. What is it? Most of us will probably define it as something that we all strive for, something that is even listed as one of our “unalienable rights” in the Declaration of Independence – the right to the pursuit of happiness. The Webster’s Dictionary calls it
a : a state of well-being and contentment : joy
b : a pleasurable or satisfying experience
Amidst all the talk about happiness, including countless seminars and books, it appears to me that we don’t always put a high enough premium on it when it comes to the world of education. It seems we have forgotten that happiness is also an unalienable right of children and not just adults. So often we see kids dragging themselves to school, experiencing little joy from the process of learning, even though education is one of the most wondrous of life’s experiences!
This saddens me, and makes me very determined to work for a change! The incorporation of happiness and joy into the process of learning is grossly undervalued in most of our educational systems today. Our lives are so short; this is a reality I have just recently experienced again with the death of my father. Why would we spend extended periods of time in self-imposed misery when we don’t have to? Sadly, most kids don’t have any say in this whole process of imposed joylessness. They get dragged to school with no choice and the frustration that creates can spill out in the form of a variety of undesirable behaviors.
There are many enjoyable and engaging ways to learn. The industrialized method that we’ve been using for the past century is, increasingly, not one of those. Wouldn’t it be more engaging for students to learn through experiences, projects, apprenticeships, and from people with a passion for the subject than to spend an inordinate amount of time practicing for a test? If an adult wants to learn something, they find someone who knows the subject, spend time with them and learn in a hands-on, experiential way–why is it not the same for kids? When teachers are saddled with increasingly large class sizes, required to spend many days testing and many more preparing for these tests, and required to cover all subjects, it is virtually impossible to engage every child in the most inspiring way. Putting aside the fact that it takes all the joy out of teaching, there are other problems with that model as well. If that teacher really is not a fan of Math, do you think it will not come through in her teaching? If she freaks out when she sees a bug, do you think her Science class will take a hands-on approach, or be the best these kids have ever had? Of course not! Everyone has their limitations, and someone who does not enjoy a subject isn’t the best choice to be teaching it.
At Learn Beyond The Book, we have taken many of the problems we’ve seen in traditional schools and created solutions. Not only are all our classes taught by individuals who are highly passionate and knowledgeable about their subject, but also by kind, compassionate individuals who think of the children as whole human beings, engaging them as individuals and encouraging them as a group. We see children as resourceful, and value their input as part of the educational process. We create classes where they feel embraced and respected as they actively participate in their own learning, where they more easily remember what they’ve learned, because they were engaged in the learning process, not passive bystanders!
Learn Beyond The Book maintains small class sizes to create an intimate and safe environment where kids can try things, fail, learn from their mistakes, succeed, and celebrate each other’s successes. What is the result of all this? Happy kids who can’t wait to come to class! It’s a win-win for students, teachers, and parents. All the kids attending are either homeschooled or hybrid schooled, which combines independent learning with several of our classes. We provide support to homeschooling families and high quality class options to families who enroll in home-study charter schools. Homeschooling parents love this system because it provides them with some free time and a break from the feeling that they have to become an expert in every subject, especially the ones they do not enjoy themselves. Many times we’ve even seen parents become more interested in learning about a topic that they previously didn’t find interesting, because their kid has been so inspired by a class and shared their excitement with a parent. Our teachers enjoy teaching because they have freedom to teach the kids in the way that they best learn, considering all the different personalities and learning styles in their class, and without being bound by stringent testing and grading standards. Our students have a great time learning and doing it all surrounded by good friends and a supportive, less competitive atmosphere. It is all so exciting to observe!
In my experience, happy teachers teach more effectively, and happy students are more efficient learners. Many of our families have remarked about the change they see in their kids when they are learning in our more happiness-inducing atmosphere. Imagine how your child might blossom in such an environment.
If you are interested in a different kind of learning environment for your children, feel free to check out our website and all of our Fall classes.
Why I love homeschooling and hybrid schooling as much as I do
As this calendar year draws to a close, my appreciation for homeschooling and hybrid schooling (a mix of school at home and outsourced classes) keeps growing. As new students attend classes at Learn Beyond The Book, I feel so grateful for the opportunities we have, especially where we live. An individualized education for each kid is possible! It takes work, but so do most things that is worth anything in life.
Here are some things I love most about homeschooling/hybrid schooling:
- Kids can learn at their own pace and in their own style!
Everyone is so different! As adults, we all know it, accept it, and even appreciate that about each other, but in schools there is so much pressure to conform to a certain standard and all at the same age. When you homeschool or do hybrid schooling, you can truly customize education! Then it’s not a one-size-fits-all education, but a have-it-your-way education! It’s the way of the future!
If you, for example, feel that your child is advanced in Math, you can put them in the skill level class that you feel they need to be in by either getting the curriculum for that level or attending a skills-based Math class at Learn Beyond The Book or signing up for some sessions with a great tutor. If you feel they’re a little behind in Reading, there is a class for every level. If they’re really interested in Science, there is a class for that as well! Homeschooled kids are so used to kids of all ages that they don’t even bat an eye if an older or younger child is in their class or on their level. We always stress in all our classes at Learn Beyond The Book that you can only know something if you’ve learned it, so we make sure no-one ever has any comments like “You don’t know that?!” That way every class remains a safe learning environment for everyone to be in, on an emotional level as well as academically.
On the other hand, if your child is extremely interested in Technology, why not build their education around their interest? Why not sign them up for a Minecraft Science Modules class if they are a Minecraft fan, or help them learn how to program their own Video Games? If they love History, focus most of their learning around their interest and see their love for learning blossom!! We love to provide all these different kinds of classes to homeschooled kids so that they can excel in their areas of interest.
- Homeschooled kids, especially as they get older, have more time to themselves – no unnecessary busy work and homework that leads nowhere. Teens tend to know themselves better, because they have more time to focus on what drives them and what they like to do when no-one is telling them what to do. This leads them to discover what their passion in life is or just what they enjoy doing and it could lead to a future career. When some of my children were in high school, they took a lot of community college courses and even with a pretty full load they still had hours more per week to themselves than their public school peers.
What did they do with their time? The one spent hours a day practicing singing in the band he was in, then moved on to spending hours on a flight simulator and starting to read airplane manuals, watching countless documentaries, reading books about people he admired, which all lead him to his desire to study Aerospace Engineering. The other spent hours a day playing video games and hanging out on Skype with his friends after learning some special effects video editing, with which he has earned some money and he developed his art. Then he dabbled in Filmmaking classes, learned all about lighting, editing, Photoshop, multimedia art, and more at the local community colleges. Now he studies concept design for the entertainment industry and uses, as he told me the other day, every single thing he ever delved into, even the map building software that was linked to a videogame he loved as a teen. The focus was not on getting him to stop playing video games, because that would’ve been futile, but to make sure that he doesn’t just play but use it in some creative way, which I asked him to do every day at some point and he usually happily did that, because it was still linked to his big love of games. He has now learned within days a complicated game development software and started building his own game while using his own concept design art for it, using all the skills he acquired in that time when many might have thought he was just wasting his time on games. One interest leads to another and as long as we are helping to guide things to a healthy place, eventually they find who they really are. If they are told constantly what to do and when, they barely know who they are, end up with years in college for a degree they aren’t that interested in and thousands of dollars in debt later, they end up in a career that they don’t love and when midlife hits, there is a crisis.
- The fact that homeschooled students have more free time than kids in traditional schools usually also allows them more time to spend with family and friends and as a result they develop really deep and meaningful relationships that often last a lifetime. Bonds between siblings are very close if nurtured properly by the parents, because they spend a lot of time together. They are also often a little less influenced by what their typical teen peers and society would think is “cool” and enjoy simple wonderful things in life. Because they are used to being around their parents and other adults, they appreciate parents more than most school kids who are gone from their parents for almost all productive hours of the day. As they grow, it often becomes more important for them to have a little more independent time with friends, which is when nurturing classes and group social events come in handy (like the ones at Learn Beyond The Book), because they have healthy interactions with friends with the guidance of a compassionate facilitator. All this make for kids who are socially very well adjusted because they are so used to interacting with all different ages from adults to younger kids with the mixed ages of families, classes, parkdays and social events. They aren’t just used to interacting with their exact age peers. As the excellent movie, ‘Class Dismissed’ put it, there is no need to group kids “by date of manufacture”. I love that term!
In our classes at Learn Beyond The Book, all students are treated with the same respect we would give an adult, so all their opinions are treated as valuable and it makes such a big difference in how they perceive themselves and their fellow students, no matter what the age.
I can keep talking for much longer, but these are my top three reasons for loving homeschooling and hybrid schooling as much as I do! More in my next blog, thanks for reading!
New hybrid school program for Santa Clarita starting Fall 2015!
The great news about charter schools just keep coming this week!!
As you know, Learn Beyond The Book already partners with 10 great charter schools offering classes and social groups, fieldtrips, and more to their students and will continue to do so (Golden Valley, Sky Mountain, Gorman, SCVi, iLead Lancaster, iLead Exploration, Sage Oak, Albert Einstein Academy, Excel Academy, and Mission View Charter Schools).
I’m very excited to let you know that Inspire Charter School has partnered with Learn Beyond The Book, to provide a true hybrid program for homeschoolers/hybrid schoolers in a new Specialty Program, starting Fall 2015. There are many benefits for you as a result of our partnership. Most families will love the ability to choose up to any six of the available Beyond The Book classes each semester. These classes are available tuition free for all enrolled Inspire Charter School students. If students want to take more than the six classes, parents are free to pay the rest out of pocket.
The whole goal of Inspire is to simplify things in order to give students the best individualized education program possible. Inspire provides special education services and the teacher assigned to your student will be available for assisting parents in getting any questions answered that you might have about the program or homeschooling in general.
A credentialed teacher, assigned to the students at Learn Beyond The Book (one of our own local teachers), will be on site at Learn Beyond The Book at regular predetermined times and they will be collecting the monthly work samples, most of which will be created during Learn Beyond The Book class times from students/parents, as well as an attendance calendar, which has to be initialed by the students and signed by parents for all days attended in the month. Since the teacher will know the students from being on site, they wouldn’t have to meet with them and the parents for an hour each month. Parents also won’t have to fill out any specific learning logs. We are excited to have Kelli Mejia, a homeschool mom herself, be our first teacher!
If your student chooses to use the online courses available to them, the funding for those will not reduce your tuition-free classes. For K-8 students, K12 or Odysseyware is available and A-G approved APEX for high school students. Students in high school could replace APEX courses with community college classes and/or test out of certain courses. High School Science courses with labs done through APEX will have labs completed by attending 2 Saturdays per semester of lab time. Electives taken at Learn Beyond The Book can count for credit under certain circumstances, so please see this article for more details. High school credentialed teachers are available all week for students’ questions via phone and online and classes taught by our own credentialed teachers will be able to count for high school credit.
When testing time rolls around, all Inspire state testing will also be conducted at Learn Beyond The Book’s facility and proctored by the assigned teacher(s). Inspire doesn’t believe in teaching to the test so students will not feel pressure about that.
If students want to use funding at other vendors as well, they can enroll in a different program of Inspire with an annual budget of $1,000 for enrichment with the core subjects being done through one of the online platforms (K12, Odysseyware and APEX). In this program, students have to use the online curriculum.
There are limited spots available for the Fall, so don’t delay your enrollment if this sounds like a great fit for your family. Then also register on our site for the classes you want and put Inspire down as your school.
A free information meeting to provide you with more details about Inspire’s partnership with Learn Beyond The Book was held on July 16, 2015 and here is a partial recording of the meeting (forgot to push record right away, but what you missed is in this article).
Spotlight on Homeschool Wind & Percussion Band
Have you ever wished your child could play in a Wind & Percussion band at school, but thought that it might be hard to pull off because of the fact that you’re homeschooling? Maybe you don’t want to pay for Flute, Trumpet or Drum lessons first and then get into a band, because maybe the kids won’t even want to take it or won’t be excited about practicing, even though you see the benefits of learning to read music and play an instrument.
Well, there is good news. At Learn Beyond The Book, we have started a Band program and it has been so fun! The kids don’t have to be trained in any instrument before joining the band. They can join and receive lessons as part of band practice. The motivating factor for getting better is that they’re playing in a band with their friends and that usually helps motivate them to practice.
Our awesome band director, Kris Chase, has played in a lot of bands and can teach all the different wind/percussion instruments. We have Beginnning and Intermediate Band, so if your child has already been trained in one of the instruments, they can join the Intermediate Band and if they are brand new, Beginning Band would be perfect. The Band meets Monday afternoons starting 9/14. Beginning Band meets at 5-5:45pm and Intermediate Band meets 4:15-5pm.
A great perk is that we are allowing homeschool parents of enrolled band students to join us for free if they would like to play as well.
Why homeschool parents want to quit and why they don’t have to – part 4
As I’ve discussed in previous blogs, there are many reasons why homeschool parents think of giving up, but today I want to give you the final two in this series accompanied by some possible solutions.
• I’m not patient enough to do this
Although it is true that some people have a more patient disposition without even trying, a lot of people will be much more patient if they put themselves in their children’s shoes. I challenge every homeschooling parent to learn a skill they are not familiar with especially one that is hard for them, to feel the inadequate feeling that comes with that.
I recently started to learn the flute and even though I already read music, it was not easy at all and I was just imagining how hard it must be if someone doesn’t even read music yet. It gave me even more patience for kids just learning a new language or Math concepts. A lot of the time, especially learning those skills, it seems crazy how often the kids forget the facts they’ve learned and knew perfectly the day or week before, but it has not been cemented in their brains yet if they forgot it. I used to think my kids were just lazy and not trying their best until I learned how much repetition it takes to make it second nature in our minds.
Possible solutions:
– Don’t accept that you’re not patient as a character trait, but work on becoming more patient by e.g. learning something new yourself and/or thinking from the child’s perspective
– If you have a particularly hard time staying patient with a certain topic, consider a tutor or other teacher. We are most impatient in the subjects that we’re really good at, because to us it is already like second nature and way too obvious, so it’s hard to be patient with someone who might have a harder time with it.
• I’m worried they don’t have enough friends
The question about socialization is a big one amongst non-homeschoolers and often brought up to try to persuade homeschoolers that they really aren’t doing a good thing. However, if you have a concern about your child’s social group, there are many ways to solve it.
Possible solutions:
– Get more involved with your local homeschool groups. Join a Meetup or other homeschool support groups in your area.
– Enroll in some classes where your students will meet others and see them on a regular basis.
– Make socializing a priority and take initiative setting up playdates or hang out times.
Why homeschoolers want to stop homeschooling and why they don’t need to – Part 3
As we’ve discussed in previous blogs, there are many reasons why homeschoolers feel the urge to stop homeschooling or those considering it think that they rather shouldn’t pursue it. Here are a few more:
I’m scared my kids will have gaps in their education
This seems like a perfectly legitimate concern until you actually start homeschooling and realize just how many gaps you yourself have even though most of us went through traditional school and were even very good at it. If you ever learned some of the stuff, you already forgot it long ago, since it is not useful to your current life. If a child has learnt how to read, write and do basic Math, he/she can learn everything else they desire to learn on this planet, maybe with the help of some expert, but they are capable of filling in any gaps that you might’ve left. As parents we are so concerned for our children’s well-being that we are most likely not to leave gaps and a disjointed curriculum would have a better chance of leaving gaps.
Possible solutions:
– Check to see if your children have critical thinking skills and if they question things around them and you’ll know if they’re interpreting their surroundings accurately.
– Ask lots of insight questions and you will soon span all disciplines of learning just based around a common theme.
– Make use of classes by experts where they can learn the things you aren’t comfortable teaching.
– If you are nervous you’ll leave gaps, feel free to check the standards listed on the CA Department of Education site, which would mean you would at least be leaving the same gaps everyone else in California schools would have.
– You could again enroll in a charter school where a credentialed teacher will be supervising your journey and can help you make sure important things get covered.
I’m worried I’ll mess them up
This concern is solely based on the responsibility we feel to “produce” good adults, productive and involved citizens and all around someone that everyone would like to have around. We feel inadequate in ourselves to pull that off.
Once again, just the fact that you’re concerned about it, most probably means you’re not messing them up. However, “messing them up” should be defined. I think it probably will have a lot to do with leaving gaps in their education, which I discussed above. There does come a point where fighting with your children to get them to do school work could start damaging your parent-child relationship and create a “messed up” view of education where they start hating it. I believe that is the point where a change is needed.
Possible solutions:
– There are many solutions though and most of the time this starts happening as the kids enter puberty where they really are just trying to figure themselves out and establish that they are individuals and don’t want to just be followers and feel like puppets. This is perfectly normal and healthy for them to do and once you know that is what is happening, it becomes less personal and we feel less defensive as parents. It is especially hard when this happens to your firstborn, because your sweet, friendly child suddenly becomes less happy and even rude and disrespectful to you at times and you’re not used to it happening at all. It does pass and it is important to give kids some space to develop into their own during this time. The more they see you respect them and this process, the more likely they will be letting you into their world, because you are not trying to control them.
One of my friends likened this stage of development to that of a chrysalis turning into a butterfly. All that has to be done with it is to leave it alone and provide the conditions for it to successfully emerge. If you ever tried to shake around the chrysalis or tried to help the butterfly get out when it is stuck in the process of coming out of the cocoon, you know that it is interfering with nature and never works out well. We’ve had a few butterfly gardens and it never works to try to “help”. As parents the most important thing is for us to be available to them and assure them of our love and providing an enriching world, but not “shake around” their chrysalis or try to control their emersion as they try to mature.
– At this point in time, it also really helps kids to have a lot of social interaction with friends and often they appreciate other teachers in their lives, not just their parents. Find a good class and teacher in the neighborhood in the topic they are most interested in and expose them to other good teachers and role models.
Why homeschool parents want to quit and why they shouldn’t
As homeschooling families, we all have our good days and our bad days, just like any other regular family. The only difference is that, since we homeschool, we might potentially be with the kid who is causing us distress the whole day while other families might have some hours that the child is at school to think about how to handle the situation when the child returns from school, time to sort of push the “reset” button. So, our bad days sometimes feel like bad weeks, bad months or even a bad year. There are many reasons for things going wrong and for most there are solutions that work differently for different children. Today I want to write about what it is that pushes most families to thinking that they should stop homeschooling (or never even start) and invite you to investigate why that shouldn’t make you stop and how it can potentially be solved. Most of all I want everyone to realize they are NOT alone in these struggles, it is very common.
Here are some common concerns that homeschoolers face during the years of homeschooling:
• Student(s) resisting instruction
• It’s too expensive
• We have a lot of hard days
• I’m scared my kids will have gaps in their education
• I’m worried I’ll mess them up
• I’m not patient enough to do this
• I’m worried they don’t have enough friends
In this article, the first in a series, I would like to explore just the first concern and in subsequent articles, the others will be discussed.
• Student(s) resisting instruction
Many of us probably have encountered the child who, when called to start “school”, gives a sigh and asks, “Do I have to?” Although that is not a fun thing to hear when you spent several hours preparing something that you think would be important or even fun, it is important to not take it personally.
Remember the following possibilities:
– If you were waking the child up to go to the school down the street, you probably would’ve had the same response, but wouldn’t have thought anything of it, because that would be “normal”, because everyone else also deals with that and you’re not anything unusual.
– A lot of times if you have a child just coming out of traditional school, they might need some time to deschool first.
– It’s not always easy and neither is it fun to be pulled out of doing something you’re really enjoying to do something that you might not be that interested in. We don’t even like it as adults.
Some possible solutions:
As is the case with all homeschooling issues, there isn’t just one answer, but several possible options that might be helpful.
– Give the child a time that school will start and it is great to have that be a consistent time, e.g. 9am every morning or 2pm or whatever time works best with their natural rhythm and age (teens usually like to sleep in way later).
– Give the student some warning, e.g. remind them about 10 minutes before they need to start.
– Some families let the student set their own schedule. They are given an assignment sheet for each day and they have freedom to do those things whenever they would like as long as it’s done by the end of the day. This encourages time management and self-regulation, but it might have to be slowly implemented with younger children who might have a hard time to manage all their time right away.
– Reconsider the curriculum you’re using if this is a common occurrence where the child is complaining about doing school work. It might not fit their learning style or modality. Keep the lines of communication open and don’t take anything personally.
– Always encourage them to give you feedback. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Try to feel what they’re feeling. The more they have a say in how and what they’re learning, the more likely they will be active participants.
– If the problem persists, consider setting up a meeting with a homeschool consultant (like myself) to discuss potential solutions for your specific situation.
More on the other concerns in my next article.
Spotlight on Math
Last week I wrote about the importance of Language Arts in the curriculum of every student and this week I want to highlight the importance of Math.
For a lot of students Math is a nightmare and they just can’t wait to be done with it for life. I always tell them that they will never be done with Math, since we use it every single day. There is a level of Math though that few people ever use unless they get into a career like Engineering, Architect, or Math teacher. Even though it is not everyone’s favorite thing to do, it sure can be taught in more interesting ways than it sometimes is. Some parents/teachers really hate it themselves and never quite got it down themselves and now years later, after not using it, they have forgotten a lot of it. Math is like a second language and therefore needs to be taught as such, with constant repetition until it becomes second nature to the speaker.
At Learn Beyond The Book our Math classes are taught by individuals who absolutely love numbers and Math and will impart that love and passion to their students. We employ lots of games and projects as well as hands-on manipulatives for a lot of it, whenever possible.
We also break Math down in the components & skills that make up higher Math. We start out with a very strong emphasis on Place Value, which is essential to grasp and then Adding & Subtracting, plus things like reading clocks, counting money, etc. Once students master these concepts and Math facts, they move on to the Multiplication & Division class. Once they mastered those skills, which of course build on addition & subtraction, they are ready to move into the Decimals, % and Fractions class. Then we introduce them to positive and negative numbers in the Integers, Measurements & Word Problems class, some basic Geometry, Graphs, and cement all of that with word problems. Finally, they are ready for Pre-Algebra and higher Algebra and Geometry classes, which would be the next levels. Just understanding that progression already helps a lot to know where everything fits in place. Lots of curriculum teach a little of everything and don’t review enough for students to really master anything and so when they return to the same skillset the next year, they don’t remember it anymore and it is discouraging. Mastery is such a crucial aspect of Math instruction.
When I was in school, we learned Math more like parrots than thinking people and it was very confusing to most students and even though I loved the numbers and manipulating them, I didn’t have a clear understanding of what I was in fact doing. So, my goal in teaching Math, is to make sure students understand what they’re doing and why, because without that, they’ll feel lost and never be able to apply it to real life situations.
Of course, there are the applications of Math as well, so we also have some creative classes that mix Literature with Math for those students who love stories. We use the Sir Cumference series of books to demonstrate several Math concepts and do projects based on the story for the week. Another class that apply Math in a very important way is the Economics & Personal Finance class, titled “Where’s the Money?”. This class gives students all the skills they need to manage their own personal finances and even start a small business. They learn through projects, games (money & review) and lessons. Near the end of the semester, we have an Entrepreneur Day and also a fieldtrip to the Federal Reserve Bank planned.
For those students who might really not like Math, the Math through Logic & Games class might be a great fit, since they play games, but learn Math at the same time. The teacher, working on her PhD and a Mensa member is so fun and has as much fun as the kids with the games!
Even given all this, we also have Math tutors available to help with homework or for students who need a little extra practice during the week which can be scheduled by appointment.
Whether you sign up for a Math class or do it at home, please make sure your students master the Math skills before moving on. To me there is no such thing as Gr.5 Math or Gr.2 Math, because every student is at a different level with it and either acquired certain skills or not.
Patience and encouragement in teaching it is key to students’ success. Happy teaching!