Summer School...

So much for a long, lazy summer. :)

Not that I'm upset in the least, but I think its interesting that my stepson, Danny, arrived from Florida 3 weeks ago with a request for me to teach him Algebra II (okay, you can stop laughing now) and help him complete American History after failing it the first time... I'd like to think my homeschooling prowess has reached a wide audience, but I know in reality that it's simply because my practical stepson merely wants to get a headstart on next year (and avoid the American History teacher, whom he professes to dislike intensely) and he knows I'm homeschooling Kennedy -- thus, instant summer school options!

In typical teenage fashion, however, Daniel has been less than enthusiastic about opening his Algebra II book (which I so magnanimously drove to North Raleigh to buy for him after he indicated his interest in completing a whole course over the summer!). Neither is he very excited about reading, even though his book is ironically titled "My Brother Sam is Dead." :)

I spent all this week trying to figure out what I can do to inspire him to stick to his goal, and I realized today that I don't have to do anything! :) His task is simple: 1) complete the Algebra II textbook, and 2) read 6 novels that cover a specific period of American History and write a one-page report about what he learned -- all by August 15th. So far, after 3 weeks, he's read two chapters of his novel, and completed 3 out of 12 chapters of Algebra. So, in a renewed spirit of "it's not my problem," I reminded him this morning that he has 5 weeks left to finish both courses, and that I will remind him gently every day, but if he doesn't complete, he just has to take those courses at school in the Fall! The bottom line is he'll be stuck in school all day -- something he is trying to avoid.

Well, if he wants to avoid that enough, he'll get the job done... if not, he'll have wasted an opportunity, but all it cost me was $20 for the Algebra textbook (and a few moments of sorrow for all that wasted opportunity).

Did I tell you that my oldest daughter is entering a PhD program this Fall??! :)

Flat Travelers!

Well, even though we've been on summer break for a few weeks, we've discovered a new activity that runs the risk of being addicting if we're not careful! It's called "Flat Travelers," and it's based on the main character in the Flat Stanley books. In the books, Stanley is flattened by a bulletin board, and his parents send him in an envelope to California to spend time with friends.

The concept has been embraced by the educational community in a variety of ways. Many elementary classrooms use the concept to add a spark creativity to penpal activities. For homeschoolers, the idea is the same, but some of us have incorporated an exploration of geography and world culture into the exercise.

To begin with, you have to decide whether or not to make and send a flat traveler, or to host one. We decided to do both (although we waited for our first traveler to arrive here so we could see what we needed to create for our travelers).

The process is pretty simple. If you are sending one out, you have to make one first! You create a person or thing on paper -- you can use coloring book characters, or sketch your own. Our first traveler was a North Carolina Red Wolf, because it symbolizes our state and Kennedy's favorite college (Go Pack!). Then we glued it to posterboard, cut around it, and then laminated it. It was small enough to go in some old Christmas card envelopes we had left over, and we included a "passport" -- a folded sheet of paper that included something about our family, and space for our host family to write about what they do with our flat traveler once it arrives at their house. We put all that in the envelope and shipped it out to Houston, Texas! We also sent out a "Gregg" (from the Wimpy Kid books) flat traveler to Utah!

If you are hosting, you simply tell someone who has a traveler to send that you are willing to host, and then wait for your visitor to arrive! We are currently hosting "Flat Fairy" and "Skinny Sarah," both of whom were hand-drawn. They made us anxious to create a new one of our own, instead of printing pictures off the computer like we did the first time! :)

We have taken Flat Fairy and Skinny Sarah with us to a number of events. Flat Fairy went with us to Sam's graduation and hip-hop class, helped us with our yard sale, and went with Kennedy when she dog-sat for a week. Then Skinny Sarah arrived. Both Flat Fairy and Skinny Sarah have gone to the pool with us, attended two Fourth of July parties, and accompanied us to see "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." We've been snapping pics of them at each event that we'll share with their families when we get ready to ship them home.

I'm hoping we can take them both with us on a tour of Raleigh next week -- to the state house, state legislature building, and the Museum of Natural History at the very least, maybe even Blair House (governor's residence), the RBC Center and Carter-Finley Stadium, and the bell tower at NC State. Then we'll package them up, add their pictures, some North Carolina brochures, and some post cards, and send them back home.

All this is practice for our project that will start in August, where we'll be sending a flat traveler or two on a cross-country journey. We're hoping that over the course of this next academic year, we'll watch our travelers visit all 50 states. We'll post their progress on a blog of some kind -- either this one or one that Kennedy creates for that express purpose -- and gather the materials from each state that the host families send to us. It should be a GREAT activity with lots of learning potential -- and isn't that what homeschooling is all about?! :)

A Joke!

Okay, in light of last week's blog posting, I'd like to share a couple of jokes with you that captured the fun side of homeschooling:

#1: Socialization seems to be the big issue among homeschool critics. One mom, when asked "What about socialization?" always answers with "I know... it's a big problem for us, but we're trying to cut back!"
:)

#2: My daughter came home from a play date the other day with a former classmate who is still going to public school. Obviously the socialization issue was asked of her (she's 10, mind you) while she was there, because when she came home, her first question of me was "Mom, are we socialists?" I was quite taken aback, but after a few questions, I realized that when she was asked about how we were dealing with "socialization," she incorrectly thought they were asking about "socialism." Too funny!

#3: A good friend sent me this:

One day, a homeschooled boy heard his mom talking to someone in the kitchen. He went in to see who was visiting, and found his mother grumbling and muttering to herself in frustration. He asked, "Mom, what are you doing?" Her answer was, "I'm having a parent-teacher conference." :)

Have a great week!
~Lynanne

Ten Reasons to Homeschool

I read a very disturbing blog posting this morning called "The Case Against Homeschooling," which fortunately was rather transparent and poorly stated, but unfortunately was widely read and very typical of those who disagree with homeschooling for all the wrong reasons.

The blog itself can be found at http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/. You may check it out so you have a frame of reference, if you wish.

I am using this post to answer each of Ms. Sciacca's points. It is obvious to those who are homeschooling for educational reasons that she is completely clueless about why most people pull their kids from school -- or homeschool from the beginning. In our broken public school system (which has become focused on crowd control and "managing" the social issues created by forcing together children from different walks of life to learn the same way at the same time), parents are told that they do not know what their children need, are disrespected by the educational establishment at almost every turn, and are unable to advocate for their child(ren). When you add the increasing problem of bullying, gangs, the movement away from real teaching to concentrate on preparing children for testing, and the basic disrespect for authority that is rampant in most public school classrooms, and you have a recipe for failure that no one is dealing with.

Those of us who are able to teach our children at home, and are willing to make the financial and logistical sacrifices to do so, are making sure our children are raised to be problem-solvers and inventors instead of mindless clones who can walk silently in a straight line and ace a multiple-choice test. Last time I checked, workplace productivity in the real world was measured by the practice of creativity and deductive reasoning, not whether or not you used a Number 2 pencil and followed directions to the letter!

Here are my responses to Ms. Sciacca's blog post:

10. Whether or not some college students out there use "homeschooling" as an insult when tormenting other students who don't seem "cool" to them is more a measure of their immaturity and poor upbringing than any short-comings on the part of the homeschooled student. It is behavior like this that goes unchecked in public school classrooms and playgrounds, and I would much rather my child be labeled as a "homeschooler" than learn how to be insulting and antagonistic so she can be "cool." By the time she's in college, she will be better equipped to handle people like that, and she will be uninterested in hanging out with kids who behave that way in the first place.

9. Contrary to Ms. Sciacca's comment that "a student's classroom shouldn't be where they eat Fruit Loops and meatloaf," I disagree in principle. I believe that a student's classroom should be the entire world, and if that means they read the morning paper while they eat breakfast, or discuss their current lapbook project over dinner, then that's perfectly acceptable -- even encouraged -- at my house. We have converted our den into what we call "the class room," yet most of our work is done at the coffee table in the living room or at our kitchen table. We love the flexibility of having a snack while we're working on a project, or incorporating a Discovery channel program into what we're doing, and that requires the ability to move around and use different environments at different times of the day. Although we rarely eat Fruit Loops, my daughter loves helping me cook and bake, and that has the same educational value as long division or diagramming sentences. And am I supposed to teach her math and life skills only from a book at a desk, or is it possible that the hands-on approach to measurement and learning to cook has more value than reading about it?

8. Yes, homeschooling is very selfish. As a mother, my job is to make sure that at the end of 18 years, my daughter is mature and self-sufficient enough to enter the adult world and make her own choices. As an educated adult, I have determined after much soul-searching, research, and experience, that the North Carolina school system offers nothing of value to my daughter after the 4th grade, and actually contributed to a stress-induced anxiety disorder that our family has successfully resolved after 6 months of homeschooling. The students that my daughter was supposed to be influencing -- from lower socioeconomic environments and less-educated families -- bullied her, openly defied school rules, convinced her that "behaving" smart was not cool, and actively slowed the educational process down by demanding the constant attention of the teacher to keep them under control. The only influencing being done here was BY those less fortunate, and my daughter was never able to compete with the aura of negativism that existed in her public school classroom.

In addition, Ms. Sciacca's assertion that the pool of homeschoolers is increasingly wealthy and well-educated families is not accurate, but even if it was, wouldn't that be an indication that those same people are realizing that their children aren't getting an adequate education in public schools? And that they understand that they are educated enough to provide more opportunity for education and exploration of the world around them than the crowd control-focused teachers in the beleaguered public system? Isn't it our JOB to protect our children and point them in the right direction? If that makes me selfish, than I'm proud to be so!

7. I am not Christian, but I am not a nonbeliever, either. To say that "God hates homeschooling" is just a bold attempt to incite a reaction. Although many Christians do homeschool, it's rarely in reaction to the lack of prayer in schools or the fact that we don't teach the Bible there. Families have successfully transferred their moral code to their children outside of the school environment for centuries. What HAS changed has been the transference of the religious and political debates of our time to the playgrounds and classrooms as children regurgitate what they hear their parents say around the dinner table or with friends/family. In the old days, adults did not talk about religion or politics around children because they knew that young minds weren't able to digest the issues. Now, it's all around us (thanks, CNN) and it isnow acceptable to tell our children to go to school and tell all their friends who to vote for and that they'll go to hell if they don't go to church. We shouldn't be promoting religious and political debate among our children -- all they understand is the emotion behind it, which is much easier to fling at other children and much more injurious than the actual information the children hear. Funny enough, we're involved with two homeschool co-ops, with families of a variety of religious and political backgrounds, and religion and politics have never come up in conversation among the parents, let alone among our kids -- those things are handled as private family matters, as they should be.

6. To think that homeschooling parents are "arrogant" because they assume they can teach their children better than a teacher with two masters degrees is simply a sign of an insecure public school teacher. First, for a teacher to think it's his or her JOB to "instruct" and her students' JOB to sit still and soak in her incredible knowledge is clearly still bound by outdated practice in teaching and learning. The movement AWAY from "teachers impart, students drink in information" is well underway, and most colleges are embracing the notion that true learning comes from active student exploration rather than being led to knowledge by an omniscient, all-knowing adult. Second, to think that a double major in English and education, two masters degrees, student-teaching, and years in the classroom somehow automatically makes you a great teacher is truly an arrogant assumption. Third, in my 16 years of dealing with public school staff, none of the guidance counselors I dealt with had any clue how to counsel students -- especially on college decisions. Basically, there is no information a teacher has that a creative, intelligent parent can't find with some sleuthing, and one of the reasons most homeschooled children are so bright is that they've learned how to find information by themselves with the "guidance" of their parents rather than simply being "told" about it.

5. "As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off." That pretty much sums up the reason she wrote this entire list in the first place. It's easier to attack something that threatens you than to find out why it's happening and work out a constructive way to reverse it (like improving the educational system to meet the needs of bright, motivated children).

4. Racism and intolerance is bred within families who start out racist and intolerant -- it doesn't develop without a seed, and it's absurd to think that the public school classroom is the only remedy. The school I pulled my daughter out of was 70% Caucasian, 25% African-American, and 5% Hispanic. There were a few adopted Russian and Asian kids, but primarily it was suburban, white, middle class students. My homeschool co-ops include Vietnamese, Korean, Native American, African-American, Eastern European, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, and Caucasian families, to name a few. We have over a dozen religious faiths represented and quite a variety of family types. My daughter's exposure to different socio-economic and cultural influences has greatly increased since she started homeschooling, so there's no risk of intolerance or racism in our household (not that there ever was in the first place!).

3. "Socialization" is the great fallacy of homeschool critics. They spout off about how dangerous the lack of socialization is -- again, as if the public school environment is the only place on the planet where children learn to get along with one another. Between homeschool co-ops, sports teams, art classes, drama camps, family get-togethers, scouting programs, and playing with their friends in the neighborhood, children get plenty of time with other children during the course of a week. Homeschooled children do not learn in a vacuum, and their parents have them out and about in the world far more often than children who are juggling the mandated 6.5 hours of school plus homework every night.

2. The arrogance issue again -- Ms. Sciacca asserts that homeschooling parents are arrogant because our wealth and education tends to make us risk-takers. First, I'm still looking for all my wealth. After paying education taxes to the county and state, and then paying for all the resources for my daughter's education on top of that, I'm happy to hear that I'm wealthy. If Ms. Sciacca knows where my wealth is hiding, I'd really like to hear from her! Second, if I'm arrogant because I'm well-educated, then "guilty as charged." I am proud of the fact that I constantly read and explore my world, even though my formal schooling is behind me. I happen to think that makes me a better person!

1. Have you ever heard the saying... "Geek as a child, successful professional as an adult"? How many of us have gone to our high school or college reunions to discover that the geekiest of our class have turned out to be the most successful, and the coolest kids turned out to struggle the most? Ms. Sciacca says "have you met someone homeschooled? Not to hate, but they do tend to be pretty geeky." She sounds just like the college kids she highlights in #10, and definitely nothing like what I want my daughter to turn out like. I've met many homeschooled kids this year, and very few are geeky... however, I'd rather have a geeky child who isn't ridiculed by people like Ms. Sciacca and grows up to create or invent something that saves society from people like her.

Nuff said...! :)

Wow! I can't believe it's been over 6 months since I've posted on this blog! I really need to get back at it, especially now that Kennedy is officially homeschooling. Yep, we pulled her out in November on a trial basis during track-out, and it was obvious that learning outside of the traditional classroom was the fix for most of our school issues.

So, we leapt off the cliff of learning at home, with a bright kid with a bad attitude about school. It took several months before Kennedy was asking to learn specific things and/or open to learning opportunities that I suggested. We joined a homeschool co-op with our friends Miss Jill, Marissa, and Noah, and quickly began to look forward to their weekly meetings. I questioned our decision many times, but our co-op friends kept me sane and Kennedy slowly "deschooled." I can honestly say that despite all my misgivings and the huge disparity between our enthusiasm levels at the beginning, I have learned a great deal about my daughter over the last 6+ months, and we're now in a place where I can tailor what we do to her learning style and enthusiasm levels instead of mine -- i.e., (and this is a big one for me) not go too "over the top" on activities that she's not really into. That flexibility is worth its weight in gold, and knowing that her learning style is different than mine makes it so much easier to get through the things that I know she needs while making sure that she explores the things she is "into" right now as well!

So, I've posted a photo of her and her friend, Kaya (on the left), at a recent luau event in our neighborhood. Kennedy is happy, enjoying life and learning, and aside from a little boredom now and then (a product of being the only child at home right now), she is doing great! We've already picked out a critical thinking program for her to work on over the summer and we've selected our curriculum for next year. We'll be using a computer-based middle school curriculum for math and science, and a California standards-based unit study program for English, social studies, and science. Kennedy has tested out of 6th grade math, so we have found a math club in the area that is run by a PhD that offers projects on upper-level math concepts such as modeling and basic computer programming. Our co-op is taking a step up next year, as well, and planning the material we want to cover for a whole semester at a time. It will include a writing component, science and social studies topics, and (I'm hoping) a critical thinking program where the kids can begin to analyze and think about the things they're learning.

Extracurricular, you ask? She's staying involved in theater classes (playing a Simon Cowell-type character in a play next week, actually), trying out again for challenge soccer, and joining a children's chorus here in Holly Springs. This summer she's taking a comedy improv camp and maybe even cooking and cake decorating classes for kids. AND, I almost forgot -- she starts her electric guitar lessons again after her play is over next week. :)

Gotta go... but now that we're through the rough part of figuring out where we're going, it will be easier to find the time to write about our journey. :)

Pictures of Summer

Between work and Rotary activities, summer has been flying by and I just realized I hadn't posted anything here in almost a month!!

So, here are some photos of summer activities -- I'll post a few more tomorrow as well.

Most notably, we have been to see the Rothwell's in Lenior (who have new baby ducks!); to see Gallagher (the comic) in person at Charlie Goodnights with our good friends, Mark and Maria; to a Jonas Brothers concert last Wednesday at Alltel Pavilion with Jill Dunn and her kids; and to a Durham Bull's game with the Girl Scouts!!
Can you tell which picture is from which event?


We drive to Florida on Friday morning for 3 days to drop Danny off with his mom for the school year, and after I get back I'll write a more interesting update. :)

I've also put a couple of summer pics of the older girls in the right-hand column -- aren't they gorgeous??!

Tennis, Sleepaway Camp, Fireworks, and Fifth Grade

The last ten days have been frenetic! With soccer on a back burner for the moment, Kennedy asked if she could try tennis. She took lessons two years ago with 3 other kids in our subdivision, taught by a friend who had worked as a tennis pro in a previous life, but that was two years ago, and we haven't frequented the courts here in Holly Glen since. So, I found a tennis clinic at the local tennis club for her age group and she's been attending lessons twice a week for a couple of weeks. This, of course, is in addition to the theater class she's taking on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so her afternoons are pretty full. It's hard trying to juggle summertime activities while still going to school -- everyone else is boating, swimming, playing tennis, and vacationing while Kennedy and her pals are taking end-of-grade tests and transitioning from 4th to 5th grade!

Then, we had the long-anticipated "Horse Camp" -- Kennedy survived it, but not without a few tears and much angst at bedtime. She still won't say she "had a good time" but she also isn't ruling out a return next summer. Her only opinion on that so far is "I don't want to stay FIVE days next time, Mom!" :)

When we drove to Camp Mary Atkinson to pick her up on Friday, she was very calm and showed us her horse, Ruby, and talked non-stop about her favorite counselors, so I think she'll remember the experience with fonder memories as she puts some distance between now and then. When I get her photos developed, I will post some -- I'm sure they'll be hilarious!

We brought her home just in time for the annual block party for the Fourth of July. All the neighbors got together for the 4th year in a row, and we were able to complete our tradition of cul-de-sac fireworks despite a couple of torrential downpours in the middle of things -- we even enjoyed a whole stack of fireworks of "questionable origin" (can you say South Carolina?) thanks to Nina Haynes! I totally forgot to take photos during that evening, so you'll have to take my word for it that it happened at all. :) Saturday night was the night of the Holly Springs town fireworks, and after we cooked dinner on the grill, we scuttled down to the new Wal-mart parking lot and set our folding soccer chairs up with all the rest of the rednecks! All that was missing was the cooler of beer and sparklers for the kids! The rain started during the show, and we all prayed that they'd get to the finale before the heavens completely opened!! They did, and I took a couple of pics that I have uploaded on the right side of this page for your admiring eyes!

Sunday we snuck in a movie - I took Kennedy to see Kitt Kittredge, American Girl, in celebration of starting 5th grade on Monday. It was a pretty good flick -- a bit predictable, but prompted a lot of questions from Kennedy about the Depression and hobos, and such. That and a little mother-daughter shopping at Justice for a new backpack, lunchbox, and back-to-school outfit, and we were ready for school!

The 2nd annual Back-to-School shaving cream fight, sponsored by the Savoldi's, was postponed by rain until Monday afternoon, but all the neighborhood kids under age 12 were invited to the cul-de-sac for a shaving cream war. Much fun was had by all and Kennedy went through two full cans of shaving cream in 20 minutes!! Fifteen kids and 30 cans of shaving cream later, the cul-de-sac looked like it had snowed and the kids looked like Italian gellato! It was a great way to kick off the new school year!

This weekend is Mark's birthday, so I'm sure I'll have some cool new pics to share by Sunday! :)