The good life

This is one of the weeks each year when I feel particularly joyful about homeschooling. The weather is fabulous. It is perfect for riding bikes, playing basketball, doing some planting and planning for next year, going to a park, picking apples, and just being alive.

That's what my kids are doing this week.

The rest of the neighborhood kids are taking the ISTEPs. The ISTEPs are Indiana's standardized test given in the fall to test what was learned the year before. It is a week of testing that holds way too much power over the fates of individual schools.

Many teachers see problems with the ISTEPs. They test the past year's learning, so the first weeks of school are review. Many schools spend tons of time teaching to the test. They are expensive and time-consuming. They are one of the many ways that good teachers are boxed in and controlled.

And our kids don't have to take them.

Instead today they went to Greek. In the car we talked about world politics and economics and Greenspan's new book. When we got home they did a spontaneous recitation/reenactment of a childhood favorite book, Where the Wild Things Are. After lunch they'll go outside. Heavy time in the books can come on the cold rainy days that are coming.

For now I'm going to grab my boys and head to the park.

Forget kindergarten

Great piece at National Review Online.

HT: Barb Frank

New color scheme

I love fall! Even though it's over 90 here today, I am declaring fall on my blog.

Why I can never claim to be a pure unschooler

Some of you will be disappointed in me today. Others may think that I'm just starting to get a clue. And still others will recognize that homeschooling can be a very fluid thing, always adjusting to what is needed at the time.

Today is a bit of a cranky mom day. Choir started today, so Jonathan and Andrew have to be at a school 20 minutes away at 7:25. I hate 7:25! My rule is that if I am going to get up and take them to choir they have to remain awake for the rest of the day. Evil, I know. But I need to have some sort of waking and sleeping routine, so they're going to have to adjust to an earlier bedtime.

I decided that math would be a good way to keep them awake. So I decreed a math day. Everyone has to do math. How much? As much as I say. Arbitrary, yes, but it keeps them awake.

Why math? Because I don't like math. It is difficult to learn math without studying it. If I were a pure unschooler I'd say something like, "That's okay. They'll learn it when they want and need to." And truthfully, I know they probably would. Given the choice I'd have skipped math altogether, and Bethany probably would have, too. But the SAT doesn't care if we don't like it, and high SAT scores can lead to scholarships. So they have to do math.

It's a carnival

The 88th Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Consent of the Governed. I'm sure this carnival will be full of good things.

Explaining learning

People understand school. They understand "education." They understand teaching. But what I've come to realize is that very few people understand learning.

They have a hard time grasping the absorption and growth of knowledge and understanding absent coercion or the assistance of an outside expert.

I was trying to explain to someone yesterday that, yes, my kids have learned to spell from reading. My daughter--who is an excellent writer--learned that craft by reading excellent writers.

We don't go "back to school" and that confuses people. I try to explain that they never stop learning, but that seems to confuse people, too.

When people find out that I was an education major, but changed my major after my practicum because I realized I would hate classroom teaching, they always suggest that it's ironic that I am a teacher now. But I'm not. I'm a parent. I actively teach my children very little. What I do do is provide them with opportunities and resources. I surround them with books and maps and music and art. I take them to parks and museums and antique stores and church and zoos and Target and beaches and coffee shops and soccer games and grandmas house. I let them weed the garden and wash the clothes and help me cook.

And we talk. All the time. We talk about the news, the book they're reading, and what the lyrics to our favorite Rush songs mean. We talk about why things are the way they are and what we can or can't do something about. We talk about moving to the country and the animals we'd have and what we'll name our dogs. We talk about what we could possibly do with all of our tomatoes and why Amish chickens taste so good and why lightening does what it does when it strikes different structures.

I don't think I could keep them from learning, except maybe by sending them to school.

Not back to school

I've been hearing about all of the cool not-back-to-school activities that people have been doing. We did something really exciting this year. We went shopping!

Yup, shopping. We spent over six hours searching for three items: a pair of black dress shoes for #2 son, and a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of black dress pants for #3 son.

The tennis shoes were easy. The black dress pants were almost impossible. Apparently the folks who make kids' clothes don't understand that some of us still believe in dressing up. They also don't seem to understand that there are LOTS of skinny kids out there. For all the talk about childhood obesity, I know way more moms with skinny boys than fat ones! Most of the pants made Andrew look like he was trying to leave room for smuggling something.

And then we have the black dress shoes. Why oh why did my children all get weird feet? The kind of feet that cheap shoes won't fit? It caused me tremendous pain to have to spend $80 for shoes for a rapidly growing 14yo. But we tried on over 20 pairs at a number of stores, and these were the only ones that didn't hurt.

So that was our exciting NBTS adventure. Next, NBTS housecleaning!