Socialization, Really?

I’ve been homeschooling for a fairly long time; we’re in our 8th year.  In the beginning, it was difficult to tell people.  I wasn’t very confident and was just muddling through some very murky waters and at the end of the day, I didn’t feel like justifying myself to strangers, but still I tried.  A couple of years and some great experiences into it, I was much more confident and could hold my own in any discussion or debate, whether it was friendly or not.  The most common argument I faced was the socialization issue.  Total strangers would confront me in the supermarket and demand to know what I planned to do when my children couldn’t handle public places.  Never mind, that we were in a public place and my children seemed to be “handling it” just fine.  I had some real experience to share with people and some pat one liners for the rude questions, but as time wore on and homeschooling became more of a mainstream choice, the rudeness stopped and people, when they even mentioned it, were more curious and open and truly interested in what we were doing.

I enjoyed years of no confrontation.  People would comment on how well my children behaved, how polite they were, how well they spoke.  It happened so often, that while nice to hear, it became a bit trite if I’m being completely honest.

Recently, in the last six months or so people are starting to confront me again.  Again, it’s the socialization issue.  I can’t wrap my brain around why people
a.) feel that it’s any of their business
b.) think that they can say things without any real data to back them up
c.) are so blind that they can’t see what’s right in front of them

My children have lots of great friends from all different walks of life.  We see them very often.  They have different backgrounds, different religious views, different political ideas, different everything.  The children that I have met (and I have met hundreds of them) are by and large the most social people that I have ever seen.  They can speak publicly, they can have conversations with adults and very small children and everything in between.

I could take the low road here and attack other education choices, but I won’t.  I think that’s really what the problem is.  People aren’t respecful of other people’s choices and their rights and that’s a bigger problem than any socialization issue.  Supposed free thinkers, who I thought were progressive are spewing the same rhetoric at me that I heard 8 years ago.

The difference is that I no longer feel the need to justify my choice.  If someone has questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. The real question is, do you want to discuss it, or do you just want to fight?  I’m ok with it either way, but be clear what your intentions are.

Give Unschooling A Try

Please welcome my very good friend Joanne Greco, who is not only a terrific writer, but a wonderful advocate for unschooling and adoption.  Her experience and strength are a great resource to me and I’m thrilled to be able to share her with you!  She has a wonderful website dealing with all things “unschooling” at AnUnschoolingLife and a very popular adoption forum at ForeverParents.

Unschooling. Just the word alone can make some homeschooling parents sweat. I’ve seen it. But then again, I live in Florida so anything can make us sweat.

In it’s simplest terms, unschooling is homeschooling without a formal curriculum, and the tests and grading that usually goes along with it.

The term “unschooling” was coined by former teacher, John Holt. He became a fierce advocate for education reform, but eventually became disillusioned and decided that schools could never be reformed because they were so flawed. He then became a supporter of homeschooling but urged parents not to recreate school at home. Holt believed that children didn’t have to be coerced into learning. He said that given the freedom to follow their own interests, along with having access to a rich variety of resources, children will naturally learn.

For those of us that unschool, it’s more than not following a curriculum. It’s about how we, the parent, view learning and it requires a shift in your own thinking first. What are your personal views on learning? Are they based on your own school experience? When I removed my children from school and began homeschooling, I went through a deschooling process (which still goes on in some form or another to this day, five years later). During that time I read a lot of blogs and sites by unschooling families about how their kids were learning, and it interested me.

I started to see learning in things I hadn’t before. I realized that:

Real learning is not being able to memorize or regurgitate facts and meaningless information.

Real learning requires interest and meaning to the person learning.

Real learning requires access to the real world (something school can not offer a child).

If you’re thinking of relaxing your homeschooling methods and giving unschooling a try, here’s some tips for you to help make the transition smoother.

1. Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Apply that to your homeschooling. Be the change you want to see in your kids. If you want children that are interested in life and learning, be that kind of parent. Wonder about things outloud, ask questions, learn new skills and invite them into your world.

2. Be interested in what your child is interested in. If your child likes cars, taking him to the library to borrow books on cars is fine, but don’t stop there. Go to antique car shows, rent movies about cars and visit a local race track.

3. Look for learning in things your child does. If you’re having a hard time seeing the value in their interests (such as a video game), look for it. It’s there. Keep a notebook to help you remember it all.

Unschooling can be a wonderfully rewarding experience for you and your family. It has been for us. It’s not as scary as you might think.

Joanne Greco has been unschooling her kids since 2004 and writes about it at An Unschooling Life.

How to Create a Killer Report

Recently I became a contributor to Blissfully Domestic and while familiarizing myself with their guidelines for posting, I came across a terrific article about how to create more compelling blog posts using Flickr.  As I take most of my own article photographs, it never occurred to me to use Flickr for photos… and while I upload all of my images as creative commons licensed images, I never thought about using other photographer’s cc licensed photos for myself!

You should really read the article, it explains so much better than I ever could.  It’s alright, I’ll wait here. I even set it up to open in a new window, so that you can find your way back here when your done, by simply closing the new window.

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Hi.  Welcome back.  Great article, right?

So the other day the boy child needed to create a report for his virtual class and needed to use images to get the full credit for the assignment.  I had, what I thought, was a brilliant idea so I taught Travis (and Haley) to use Flickr as well.

I bookmarked (favorited, whatever) in their browsers, the direct link to the creative commons search page on Flickr, and typed in our first subject, “Hammurabi“.  It returned beautiful images that he could use in his report.  I taught him how to link the picture to the proper page as well as add a text link to give credit.  He created a terrific report with stunning images and the teacher gave him the maximum number of points and even had some lovely comments.

Since then we’ve used it for assignments about weather and religions and I can’t imagine a topic that wouldn’t return at least a few images.  In addition to the reports, it also gave me the opportunity to talk about copyright, and usage and protecting your own original content as well as that of others.

’cause as a Homeschooling Mom we’re all about combining lessons, aren’t we?

Settling Down

We have just completed week three of our school year and I think things are settling down just a little.  There’s always a bit of acclamation time when we transition into a new season, but this one…. If I’m being completely honest here, was a bear!

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that we’re completely responsible for our own schedule.  The scary thing about that is that we’re completely responsible for our own schedule.  If something goes wrong, or doesn’t get done, I’ve got no one to blame but myself.  I’ve learned over the years to allow a couple of weeks for adjustment, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t panic sometimes. After all, this is my children’s education that we’re talking about, their future is in my hands.

So here’s what we’re doing for now.  As always, I reserve the right to alter it as I see fit.

Weekly Schedule

Monday	Log in to Florida Virtual, Plot course for the week. Start assignments for Science and Social Studies Start Math Lesson Reading Grammar, Spelling, Writing… Whatever is on the plate for that week Swimming or Walk
Tuesday	Science Social Studies Math Reading Grammar, Spelling, Writing, etc. Swimming or Walk
Wednesday	Science (finish for week if possible) Social Studies (finish for week if possible) Math (finish for week if possible) Reading Grammar, Spelling, Writing, etc. Swimming or Walk
Thursday	Dad’s day off - Family Activity and Family Dinner Finish up if we’re behind on anything
Friday	Open day for park, field trips, co-op, casual get-togethers, parties, etc.
Saturday	Hopefully a free day, but if necessary finish up any project or quizzes, etc.
Sunday	Free day

And that’s how we’re rolling so far for the ‘09-’10 school year.
So, what are you doing?

First Day Back

I didn’t mean to take the entire summer off, really I didn’t.  What was meant to be a brief hiatus, a couple of weeks at the most, turned into the entire summer.  Then that move took a lot out of us and before I knew it, here we were at the start of our school year!  The kids are sighing and tutting over their assignments and it’s my job to motivate them and keep them on track, but the truth is that I just want to go lay by the pool!

It’s already noon and Travis is halfway through his math assignment (it’s only 16 problems) and Haley is redoing her history assignment because she apparently didn’t actually read it the first time. We’re starting with two virtual classes and I, as a parent, would like my children to make a good impression the first week and not have to worry about being the problem family… (there’s time enough for that later!) but we are not off to a terrific start!

I know that it’s just transition pains, we’ve been through it before, but it certainly makes the case for year round schooling.  At least in my mind it does. I think I just might call an emergency PE class and get into that pool anyway.

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