Bored Board & Capitols

Inevitably, despite our full schedule, there are days when I hear "I don't have anything to do." It usually means G wants to snuggle or play a game and sometimes we do. Other times there's just too much on my plate and I need to tackle my own tasks so I've recently created the Bored Board. I pulled unused bulletin board from the basement, brushed off the dust and hung in the hub of our house
(inspiration from http://iblog4boys.blogspot.com/2012/04/do-you-strew.html)

added a little note

and an envelope of ideas he can do on his own

and direct him to go pick something to do.

Ideas include:

1. practice juggling
2. practice chinese yoyo
3. unload the dishwasher
4. find a path from France to Turkey through 9 countries 
5. roller blade around the house
6. write a letter
7. make your bed
8. lay in your bed for 6 minutes and try to think of nothing at all
9. take the dogs out to play in the yard. 

some are fun, some are less fun, but once he picks he has to try it. It buys me some much needed time. 

Right now it's a novelty and he'll ask for something from the envelope instead of play a game with me. I don't know if it will always work so well, but I hope it will always come in handy. Maybe in the future he'll remember a fun idea idea and use it without needing the envelope or maybe it will be a looming threat of a dread that might come from the board that will encourage him to find his own path. Either way I see it as a tool with great possibilities.

Also inspired from (http://iblog4boys.blogspot.com/2012/04/do-you-strew.html) was making use of potty time

We've been learning capitols of states randomly in the car as we spy license plates of out-of-towers, which has been wonderful for east coast knowledge, which we see quite often, but has let a large portion of the country go unnoticed. Now at bath time G asks me to ask him states. I intentionally don't notice when he looks at the nearby map for the answer, and praise him for his memory. He giggles at his secret arsenal of information behind me, but is confident he will be winning future games in the car against his much older brother. 

G's journey

Looking back over the year is amazing to me.
I started here

and am now here:










Ok, I admit that's an exaggeration, if not a downright lie. We do have a variety of activities that we try to make weekly. MBV community center, Circus school, Tae Kwon Do, Homeschool Village Co-op, Soccer, Little League, bowling. Add in playdates, field trips, C activities, and my job and it makes for a very full schedule. How it all happens and I make sure they are fed and clean is somedays beyond me. (It means they may get cut up fruit called dinner, or wash off hands and feet with a washcloth and call it a bath.)

Then there's the "school" part of our life which we squeeze in a couple times a week.  G has worked through the elementary series of Life of Fred and is now in Fractions. After a horrendous First Language Lessons trial run which resulted in real tears before I realized it was not  good fit for us, we discovered Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Island and are working our way through the series. That's it! No sit down and learn science, social studies, art, music, gym, computers. I can't completely let go of the idea that kids need to be taught, despite being witness to many unschoolers who are learning and growing all the time, but I have been able to dial it back considerably. Partly because I've been blessed to find amazing homeschoolers and unschoolers who offer encouragement and ideas and partly because G reads, a lot.

Horrible Science, Horrible Geography, graphic novels, fantasy stories, poems. In the car, in the bed, all together, alone instead. It doesn't matter he loves books. I love that he loves books.

  (A smattering of the books laying around)

Someone a long time ago told me "Reading is overrated." I was horrified and retorted"If you can read, you can learn anything!" There we have it folks. The core of my educational beliefs. My avid-reader chicklets can now read and learn anything they want and need.Why do I need to teach them? Well, I still need to teach them so that I don't feel like I've missed something and failed them in some way. They are going to be just fine no matter what I do or not do.

One year on the trail

This blog was meant to chronicle our first year of homeschooling. It has been untouched for over a year. DOH!

The short of it...

It has been eye-openingly wonderful, amazing, fun, enlightening, and difficult. Let's not forget difficult.

C started his first homeschooling class while still in public school. 52. A challenge to read and blog 52 books  (of mutual choosing) in 52 weeks and keep a blog on them. We revised, amended, extended, and finally completed this project. I feel good about the conversations that resulted from his books, and I'm proud of his dedication. I would not recommend this project to others! 52 books in 52 weeks is intense even for voracious readers, add blogging in and it's a rough schedule. It left little time for him to read books of his choosing. Toward the end I wondered if I was killing his appetite for books altogether. I was relieved when 2 days after his reading was complete he had completed 2 novels of his choosing.


C signed up for English Composition at Community College on campus in the Fall '11 semester. I took on role of detective when C told me he had gotten an email from his professor:

1. dont worry about our views coinciding or not - you'd be amazed at the variety of views i am capable of accommodating without hurting myself 
2. your writing is so good i dont really know whether i can teach you anything within the framework of this syllabus. as i said, i would like to talk to you more and see if there's anything i can do to help you
3. write journal only if you have time and/or desire. in your case, it is absolutely not a requirement. unfortunately, you do have to turn in the regular essays for me to justify your (almost inevitable) A at the end of the semester.

It seemed unlikely to me that a 15 year old would do so well on 2 assignments that it would warrant this rave from a professor even at community college, and very convenient that he would be given a pass 1/2 of his written work. The mail was sent from a gmail account not a college assigned .edu. Ultimately, I determined this was a legitimate email. Towards the end of the semester, C complained that the work was too easy, it was like 3rd grade. Surely, he was exaggerating. Except he wasn't. I spied worksheets in his folder on when to use its or it's, and there, their, and they're. I'm horrified by the education system. I remind you this was not an English skills get you up to par to take on the college credit courses. This was college level credit. YIKES.

The other problem I had with this course was it was twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes. Not enough time to do anything while I waited. I often brought Gideon and spread out in the back of the minivan and did his lessons. Thankfully, a mild winter made this possible without running the car unnecessarily.  C is currently taking Business Law and Business Organization and Management with MCCC Spring '12 and 3 more courses in the Fall. All online! Next Spring he can do what he wants, he'll be able to drive himself over there as many times as he feels the need. I however think once more for registration will be plenty for myself.

He started Trig with Life of Fred, but quickly found this method not suitable for him and has taken on Math U See Precalculus, a much better fit.

Physics Demystified served as science with field trips.

Japanese with FREE Livemocha.com

He studied Macroeconomics and hopes to take the CLEP exam.

American Government is a free class run by another mom. A handful of kids come together and discuss politics, policy, current events. They started with a dvd lecture series but decided to start learning through movies such as The People Speak, Separate but Equal, Thrive, Monumental.

About a month ago we got the call that the e-cubed group for which Caleb had been put on the waiting list had an opening. It's a great teen led group that meets weekly. They have book club, art, science, music, and country classes that rotate throughout the month. I am very impressed with them and Caleb seems to be open to trying things and joining in. It's been a great addition to our hectic lives.

He's been involved in a guitar meet up once a month showing off the efforts of his daily practice,  Tae Kwon Do  lessons weekly, and writing fan fiction or card games at the homeschooler meetup at Minnie B Veal Community Center. Plus soccer will be starting this week. It's a jam packed week for us. Next post will cover the evolution of G's first year.