Mid-week

So far this week we've...

constructed with everything we had at hand,

done math with the help of a robin,

started a love affair with the roll playing game genre,

practiced yoga (?) and spelling together,

and gone in search of fall.

Jon and I woke up as usual every morning this week, dragging ourselves out of bed and into the day as quietly as possible, since we hadn't heard from the munchkin down the hall yet. But do you know where we found him each and every morning? Sitting at his desk in his office, creating. He wrote and illustrated a play one day, he drew pictures of myths another day, and he brought us declarations of a child's love another morning. I love this, that he is driven by his own intentions and his own desires and creating in his own individual way. It is a gift of homeschooling that we are able to approach everything so as to meet those desires. Our son is a character, as all children can be, and I love that his individuality has not been hampered by peer pressure or the like (or by the early arrival of the school bus, for that matter).

I'm sure all homeschoolers have their moments of doubt, and I would be lying if I claimed to be any different. Following an unconventional course can be hard. Rarely is it met with outright approval, more likely it is met with skepticism, argument, and judgement. But researching, contemplating, deciding, and then taking the path that you believe is right? It's priceless. It's worth more than all the approval in the world. And I am reminded at least once every day of why our path is the right one for us, be it by the robin at the table during math, the yoga moves during spelling, the games during lunch, the meandering hikes after, the lazy Lego play in the afternoons, and that's all the reward I need for taking the road less travelled.

It's a beautiful life.

On a Wednesday

Upon taking up homeschooling I was forewarned by many of our peers that the biggest danger is over scheduling. One might think that homeschooling meant staying at home, but I assure you, this is far from the truth. Not only do we run all the standard errands, but we tend to make good use of local activity spots, and there is almost no end to the programs now available to homeschoolers. How about a day at the museum? The zoo? The botanical gardens? Need music lessons? Want to go to a theater shows? How about science classes at the local homeschooling coop? Swimming? And that's on top of the store, the bank, the recycling center, and all the other standard errand stops.

So it can be an effort not to over-book. Calvin has weekly swimming lessons, and we volunteer at our library at least twice a week. We try to keep our errands down to once a week, and we meet with our homeschooling group once a week. Even condensing some of those activities into the same day, we are out and about at least three days out of a five day week (the weekend being a whole different animal), and that's not counting days that we decide to spend enjoying some of our favorite haunts, like Henry Ford or the Detroit Zoo. So homeschooling is not a lonely or isolating activity by any means. On the other hand, it does allow the occasional weekday spent entirely in pajamas.

Missing the bus (for another year)

We live in a small cul de sac. Five houses, only ours being home to a child, and not a child who goes to school, yet of all the places in the neighborhood they could have designated as this year's bus stop, they chose the corner of our cul de sac. The first day of school and we are all snug in our beds, right where we like to be at 7:30 in the morning, and what should awake us at such an unseemly hour? The crazy laughter and singing from the school bus stop just outside our windows. I guess they just wanted to make sure we did not miss out on all the joys of a public education.

So we got up early for the first day of school after all. I went running, Calvin dressed nicely, we had breakfast at the counter, and we trudged to the front porch for photos (I wouldn't want to be left out of the facebook "first day of school" photo frenzy, after all), and then we went about our Tuesday as we have on many other Tuesdays before it.

Goodness. He's growing up. This year would see him in first grade in the public school, but in our house he learns outside of grade restrictions. Instead we try to go where interest and ability guide us. Calvin spent everyone else's first day of school playing piano, doing a math sheet or two, writing in his journal, reading Through the Looking Glass, taking swimming lessons, going out to lunch with his grandparents, grocery shopping, sorting books at the library, and building with Lego blocks. The rest of the week wasn't too different.

Having begun with the Well Trained Mind we have changed things a bit over the past month, spending the morning with more "formal" lessons, and the afternoon in choice learning. We're working in Math-U-See's Gamma books, we are midway through the Story of the World, which we combine with Intellego's history units, and we are also midway through the first BFSU book, which boils down right now to multiplication, the history of the ancients, and, right now, earth and life sciences. In addition we are using Spelling Workout book C, and First Language Lessons book 1, but because Calvin is such an avid reader most of those lessons are unnecessary, and I'd leave them behind if Calvin didn't seem to enjoy them so. More important will be what he reads, and choosing material that is both age and ability appropriate has been a challenge.

Even though we do not really take the summers off the way others do, this is the way we are beginning what feels like a new school year. It feels too defined to me, too far from our unschooling beginnings and hopes, but Calvin is thriving with this plan, and I find it comfortable. Some day soon, I would like to define for myself just what it would mean to teach following a desire with research, trying, and doing, but Calvin helps me with the planning now, and is interested in all that we do. It is a change in our methods, but I'm sure they will change again, which is the point of homeschooling for us: doing what works at the time.

And so we embark on another year of missing the bus to school.

Journaling our trip to the lake.

Reading Anansi stories.

Biomes

Assistance

Zoo babies (and more)

Speaking of flexible summer days, today we dropped everything and headed over meet the new river otter pups just introduced on exhibit. Actually, our zoo has several babies this year, including a camel calf we did not get to see, and river otter pups and grizzly bear cubs, all of which were very entertaining while we were there. We had a chance to see the otter pups nursing, swimming playfully, and even tumbling down the slide in a head-over-tails ball of baby otters. We also watched them them follow and perfectly mimic their mother's every move in what could only have been a river otter's version of home (zoo) schooling. The lesson included swimming, looking for food, and waste elimination, and it looked quite a bit like follow the leader. One of them must have stepped out of line, though, because we actually saw his mother drag him by the scruff, under water, across the entire exhibit, then haul him out of the water onto the shore (he's as big as she is, mind you), and sit on him. We didn't see what got him into that trouble, but I think he's not likely to do it again.

The grizzly cubs were equally as precious. The three brothers were brought to the zoo late last year after their mother was killed by a poacher (story here), and they are immensely fun to watch. While we were there they swam, chased each other, and tumbled over and over a log that was in their pool. It was as though they were daring each other to be increasingly brave. There were other animals that we greatly enjoyed this trip, too, like the giraffe drinking from a spigot, the ostrich eyeing us warily from the shade, the penguins (of course), the polar bear who was just a glass width away, and some hoppity kangaroos. We ate lunch in the shade of a powerless carousel (the power still out in parts of the zoo from last week's storms), and even happened to spy some non-resident birds: black-capped night herons (adult and juveniles), and a red bellied woodpecker. Wildlife at the zoo, just imagine that.

We have gotten pretty good at spotting interesting wildlife, actually. I am a naturalist at heart, much of my college learning being focused on animals, their behavior, evolution, adaptations, and habitats, and Calvin has long taken part in seeking, finding, and quietly observing nature with me. Recently we have started to talk more in depth about what differentiates various types of life, like plants from animals, or mammals from amphibians, reptiles, or birds. A few weeks ago, partly following suggestions in BFSU, we talked at length about energy as the driving force behind life and about speciation, which really added to our enjoyment of all critter sightings while we were hiking on vacation, and the same can be said about today's sightings, both wild and not-so-wild (and one green heron sighting back in our own yard). Which means, I guess, that this only seemed like just another trip to the zoo, and that, in fact, brings me back around to what I was saying yesterday about learning and life fitting quite nicely together, quod erat demonstrandum.

Or, put more simply, we had a great time at the zoo today.

Baby river otters!

Little bumbles

Black-capped night heron being sneaky in the vulture enclosure

Black-capped night heron juveniles being sneaky (and avoiding their parents) in the ostrich and kudu enclosure

Animal watching...

People watching...

Grizzly cubs (including the little guy above)

Young polar bear

Adult polar bear

Sadly, a powerless carousel
American bison

Peacock

Little boy on an elephant sculpture

Red bellied woodpecker (from very, very far away, and very, very cropped in, but he's there)

Green heron flying over our yard at home

Summer school

There is no real consensus amongst homeschoolers regarding the issue of summer schooling. I know several families in our co-op take a break right along with conventional schoolers, or spend the summer months catching up on reading or revisiting topics they found difficult during the school year. Since Calvin has only just turned six we don't have a set yearly schedule as yet, but we've never considered taking the summers off. I believe I've written about this decision before, mentioning that we see no more reason to take a break from "schooling", or learning rather, than from life itself. But while we still hold to this philosophy, we have made some changes in our daily schedule, and the issue of summer schooling warranted a second glance.

Until very recently we've been dedicated unschoolers, traipsing from one curiosity to another as the day wore on. I found, though, that Calvin responded better to having more direction in his day, so since early May we've been leaning further and further into the classical education world. We spend a little time each day on math, reading, grammar, handwriting, and spelling, throw in history or science to go with it, and spend the rest of the day exploring whatever else we wish. Calvin now has workbooks that he loves for both math and spelling, and I've been combining the other subjects with the history and science in order to tie it all together. We also hit up the library at least once a week, taking home each time a well-rounded collection that includes books of Calvin's choice on science, history, art, poetry, biography, and music. This has been a happy change for us, especially since we aren't actually following a strict curriculum, but are, I believe, combining the best of two great homeschooling methods (those being unschooling and classical).

So how has this change affected our view on schooling in the summer? Actually it hasn't, because we still believe that learning is a way of life, but while the new methodology hasn't altered our view on summer, the summer has changed our methodology somewhat. At this time of year, with buzzing insects, calling birds, and brightly colored and odorific blooms, nature is practically standing on tiptoe and demanding extra attention, and it simply is not to be denied. It seems only natural that in the summer we spend less time on worksheets and more time in the field, less time on history, more time on science. So when we went on vacation last week we didn't take workbooks of any kind, but we did take our wildlife handbooks (and we love the Stan Tekiela series for our state), our hiking shoes, and our innate curiosity. We also took books about Michigan, and Mackinac Island, plus lots of other reading for quiet moments. And I figure something is going right when, on the beach, the boy is making a sand model of Bilbo's Shire.

And when we are worksheeting, we are often doing so from the breezy comfort of our deck while sipping lemonade.

Reading the Mahabharata in the shade