Math Week

Aiden is in charge of the lessons this week. He has decided that they haven't been doing much math lately, so that is the theme for the week. They've both spent a while on Khan Academy doing the practice and earning points/badges. We've played around with this before, but I had forgotten how great it is. Although you have to do a set number of problems correctly to become proficient, you can skip around on the flow chart and it will back fill proficiency as needed. Best of all it's FREE!

He also wrote 10 story problems for Zoë to do based on Halloween. They're cute problems like "You get 12 Reece's peanut butter cups, but Dad gets a 25% toll. How many peanut butter cups do you have left?" We've also been playing math games like Equate and Set. Basically he said he wanted to find a way to do math things that Zoë would enjoy.

We are also as a family learning Sign Language. That has been a lot of fun. The kids are excited that they can now "talk with their mouths full." We checked out books from the library and have a friend that knows ASL so we can practice with her. Most of our dinner conversation last night was spent sharing signs and trying to talk in sign.

My big issue right now is coming up with a way to evaluate success in their learning by the end of the year. I've started to piece together some vague ideas and in the end I'm hoping to have a questionnaire we can each use to see how we think things are going. It needs to be life skills/job performance based instead of a standardized test. In this information age it isn't important that they can recall mundane facts, but rather can they work on a team, can they communicate (in many forms) their ideas to others, can they solve problems creatively...that kind of thing. I'm constantly evaluating and thinking about these kinds of things, but it would be nice to have it in writing with specific examples. In the end it will probably help if I need to create high school transcripts for them too.

Pasta, Link and enzymes

As usual our week off doesn't mean a lack of learning, just a lack of record keeping for me and a very relaxed schedule. On Monday we all tried our hands at making pasta. It tasted fantastic, but I'm not sure it's worth all the work it took. Tuesday the afternoon was spent planning and designing a treehouse that the kids are going to build with their Grandpa. They were also both bitten by the cleaning bug and spent hours cleaning their room in the morning. It is so great when they do things like that without being told!

Zoë has more sewing lessons with Nana this weekend, and I'm sure they'll be busy finishing Aiden's Halloween costume. He's decided to be Link from the Zelda games. He's even growing his hair out to fit the image.

I also wanted to share this success story with everyone. If you're not familiar with Foldit, it is a game put out to help scientists fold proteins to try to find cures for diseases. Apparently a gamer has accomplished in 3 weeks, what they have been trying to do for years. We have played around with Foldit for about a year now. It's amazing what can be learned through games!

A Much Anticipated Update

This picture was from our nature hike in Bush Wildlife Preserve in August. Despite the heat it was a great day and we discovered lots of new things.

Now that summer is finally over I'm starting to get back into our groove. This is our first week with all of the fall activities running. In a push to get Zoë involved in more social activities, we've added even more to our schedule this year. She has joined Team Spark in the First Lego League and the local 4-H club. We also have soccer, piano, JET and Tae Kwon Do for both of the kids. My Google Calendar looks crazy!

Two weeks ago the kids came down for breakfast with the idea that they were going to take turns planning activities for a week for each other. Zoë started last week with a reading unit. They read the first book in the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Katheryn Lasky. She made a scavenger hunt for Aiden to do in order to give her reading directions to him. They also researched owls, drew accurate pictures of owls, made up their own kind of owl and discussed the book. What most amazed me was Zoë's ability to tailor her lesson to Aiden. She knows that he doesn't really like to read and has a tendency to read 5 pages of a book then put it away. So the first day she gave him his first scavenger clue which told him to read the first chapter of the book. When he finished that, he could have the second clue and so on. By the end of the day he was so engrossed in the book that he kept reading past where she told him he could stop.

This week is Aiden's week. He is calling it Game Week. He's helping Zoë design her own Scratch game, playing different games with her, and they're making their own board games. It has been so enjoyable to see them get up each morning and be excited about what they're doing for the day. They really seem to like taking charge of teaching the other about something that interests them.

Zoë also had a sewing lesson yesterday at the place she got her new sewing machine. I could tell that the woman teaching the class was a little apprehensive that I was just planning to leave Zoë and not take the class with her. By the time we got back an hour later of course the woman had changed her tune. She raved about how quickly she learned things, and what a pleasure it was to teach her. Of course I knew that would be the case, because we all know that Zoë should be an ambassador for homeschooling and is a delight. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly she picks things up and amazes the people she meets!

Let the crazy summer begin

Tomorrow officially begins our hectic summer schedule. We're heading to Chicago for 3 days on the Amtrak. We're hoping to see the Museum of Science and Industry, the Chicago Art Institute, the Adler Planetarium, and eat some deep dish pizza. It will certainly be a whirlwind trip, but I'm sure we'll have a good time.

Aiden has been very busy preparing for his upcoming Bach piano recital. He was determined to get it in before heading to his grandparents for two weeks at the end of May. That has meant many hours on the piano, some frustration, but generally a very determined attitude. He has also been making programs using Scratch and has developed a fortune teller complete with some very odd fortunes. Once he publishes it, I'll post a link.

Zoë has been busy finding ways to earn money to go to Camp Ondessonk this summer. One of the things she is doing is making the invitations for her grandparents' 50th anniversary party. In order to do this, she has been learning to use Photoshop. It has been a great experience, and the invitations are looking fantastic.

Last week they also volunteered to donate baked goods for a fundraiser through Tom's work. They made a triple chocolate cake (thanks to Aunt Laura's recipe). The funniest part was that they decided there would need to be a trial cake made since they had never baked anything like it before. So the week before, I agreed (who could argue their logic), and they made a cake for us first. It turned out fantastic!

Yesterday their grandpa took them to get fishing equipment and out for lunch (another great perk of home schooling!). They spent the afternoon learning how to ready the line, cast, and catch fish. They had a great time and caught about 8 fish over the course of a few trips to the lake. Their grandma also dug out an old melodica which they have been playing around with.

A Successful Week

Last week was definitely one of those "this is why we home school" weeks. It was filled with challenges, frustration, success, but most importantly child-led learning. It also helped that I managed to squash the little voice that only knows one way to learn, and was actually able to facilitate their learning.

Zoë managed to make 2 skirts and a shirt as part of her fashion project. Her seam ripper got a workout, but she kept at it and is very pleased with the result. She's also working to improve her blog and started reading the first book on her completed reading list. In her downtime she has been learning how to use Scratch (an open-source program put out by MIT to help people learn how to program).

We also managed to find (thanks to one of the gifted homeschooling listservs that I belong to) an online physics program. The kids decided that they were interested in taking the 6 week class on sound. So they split the cost and used their education budget to join the class. They're really enjoying the live webcast and the fun experiments he has them do. They will have to do the last class while they're at their grandparents, but otherwise it fits nicely into our schedule.

Aiden has been busy making a "cat battler" game on Scratch. Originally he wanted to make a Zelda type room using game maker, but by mid week he was completely frustrated. Scratch seems to be more of a middle step between gamestar and game maker. It was still frustrating for him, but he managed to complete his project. He also made a funny illness diagnoser.

Next week is very busy. We're going to the FIRST Lego League Championship, watching the space shuttle launch, having a piano recital, and a day at JET.

Treading New Waters

It has been quite an eventful week in our household. After only a few weeks of hard work, Aiden has already managed to meet his gamestar mechanic goal. On Monday his game "Meso's Adventure (Part 1)" made it to the front page on the top rated games. We all went out to dinner to celebrate. Since then we've started discussing new goals and the idea of balance in learning. I'm all for games as a tool, but I can't bear the thought of it being the ONLY tool! So he is now self-imposing his own restrictions on daily screen time.

Zoë has been preparing for her art show this Sunday. In addition we're starting a new approach to her learning. I gave her a list of about 25 "courses" that she could pick from to study and she narrowed it down to 4. Taekwondo, piano, and French (she decided) will be mandatory. Starting on Monday she will be doing fashion design, blogging, astronomy and an independent study literature in addition to the mandatory things. Each week we will work together to set new goals. Hopefully this balance between help with goal setting and child led learning will be successful.

Our First Hurdle in Deschooling

This week has been fairly uneventful. Last night the kids decided to have a kids camp out. They said it wasn't a survival night because they wanted a tent and didn't want to have to find their own food. So they spent the night by the fire they built toasting marshmallows and then slept in the tent. They had egg salad for dinner made by boiling eggs in a wax paper cup in the fire. They also wrapped potatoes in foil and cooked them in the fire. It never ceases to amaze me what children are capable of when the adults get out of the way!

Aiden has decided that he has exhausted his learning on game star mechanic. His goal was to make a game that ended up on the front page of the top rated games. Currently one of his games is on page 3 and still moving up. He also made a 100 level game that took him over 100 hours of work. He's still making games there, but he's also now learning game maker, which is a much more powerful game making site. I've also loaded lynx on their laptop because he said he'd like to start learning coding. This will truly be a test of his ability to teach himself. I know absolutely nothing about programming and will be of no help whatsoever.

Right now it's Zoë that seems to be floundering. I'm not sure if it's because she is having a harder time adapting to coming up with her own ways to spend her learning time or some other reason. She's the queen of accomplishing anything I ask her to do, but she seems to be struggling with things on her own. She keeps coming up with great ideas, but seldom finishes them. Right now she wants to have an art show, and I feel like I'm having to tug her along the process. She just doesn't seem to be able to find a passion and dive into it.

I've also noticed that since we've started this hands off approach to learning, Zoë has become much more bossy toward Aiden. It's almost like she can't handle the idea of letting him do his own thing and if I'm not going to tell him what to do, then she will. It's very interesting to watch. Several times this week he has come inside saying "I'm not playing with her anymore. She's just bossing me around and it isn't any fun." I feel like if she could find somewhere to put her energy and focus, this might go away.

A Time for Growth

This has been a difficult week filled with lots of lessons and possibilities for growth. Aiden has experienced disappointment, joy, consequences and rewards all in a few days. Tom says we might look back on this week as a real turning point for our family. I certainly hope he is right.

For some time now we have been aware that Aiden has a lack of impulse control and tends to rush through things that he views as easy without giving any effort. This could not have been more clear than at Tae Kwon Do testing this weekend. About half of the time he was trying his hardest, the other half he was barely even moving. After talking with his instructors we found out that his effort at testing was much greater than it has been in class. So we had a long talk with him and decided that he would have to pay for 50% of his next testing since he's only giving 50% effort. Since that discussion he has worked very hard in class and has improved drastically.

This week has been a running dialog about how he wants other people to view him and how his actions can distort those views. He has researched impulse control and developed his own exercise to teach himself to improve in this area. I was very impressed with the exercise, and it seems to be helping so far. What most impressed me most was his ability to use the research to develop something that would be effective for him, and then try so hard to make it work.

This morning I stumbled on the idea of how to relate all of these things to something he is passionate about. I asked him how he wanted other people to think when he posted a new game on game star mechanic. Did he want people to be excited to see his name attached to a game? Would he want them to find it challenging, and feel like he had worked hard to create it? Also, did he just make easy games since he has already learned how to make them, or did he prefer to keep challenging himself with something that he already knows but could improve? This last question seemed to hit home for him. I hope that I was able to help him move past his idea of "if it's easy it's not worth trying," and allow him to see how his behaviors might give an impression to other's that he does not want them to have.

By no means do I think all the problems are solved, but it does feel like we're headed down the right path now. It's interesting to me how when I give up the control and make him accountable for his actions, changes happen much easier. Of course logic tells you that's true, but it isn't until you actually analyze how you are still controlling things that you're able to let go and let them grow WITH you, not FOR you.

The adventure continues

Since last week was such perfect weather, and the neighborhood children were all on Spring Break, the kids were able to play outside most of the week. Thursday we had our first annual park-a-palooza. I surprised the kids by taking them to Civic Park in the morning to play while I walked. We were joined by our friends and continued to play for a while. Then we told them it was time to leave and drove to another park. They had no idea what was going on, but were thrilled when we pulled up to the next place! In all we went to 4 different parks and had a picnic lunch. It was a great day. Next time the kids get to plan which parks we go to.

Aiden is currently working on having a top rated game on game star mechanic. He just finished making a 100 level game (the previous high on the site was 50 levels), and now he's setting his sights on the top rated prize. He talked with me about things he could do to meet the goal. In the end he decided that he should spend more time playing and commenting on other people's games in order to drive more traffic to his games, and less time creating new games. He also thought that his comments and ratings should be polite and helpful, otherwise people would be unhappy and not play his games. It was a very interesting conversation, and I was pleasantly surprised at how insightful he was.

Zoë has a couple of projects going. Yesterday she decided she wanted to learn how to draw better, so we checked out lots of drawing books from the library and she spent the evening drawing. She's decided that she would like to have an art exhibition of her work, and is in the beginning of planning the event. Also, today she decided that she wanted to start her own blog and webshow. So I set her up with her own blog which she has titled "Zoë's Awesome Life." She's working on her first post. For now I've told her that prior to publishing anything either Tom or I need to proof read it. I'm not going to fix grammar or spelling errors, but rather looking for inappropriate content while she learns the rules of sharing on the internet. It will be interesting to see where these things go.

I've been busy modeling learning behaviors by trying to figure out photoshop creative suite. Wow, is that challenging! Here's a look at my first attempt. Obviously, I have a lot to learn. My hope is that one day I can use my creative juices to help make covers for Tom's writing. In the meantime he gets to be an evil wizard on the run from Azkahban.

Self Evaluation and Reflection

I've spent the last two months wrapped up in some self-evaluation. It all started from a deep feeling of dissatisfaction that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I've finally discovered that the unhappiness is coming from my desire to maintain control (which of course is just an illusion) over my family and the kids education, coupled with a desire to explore my own interests. Thus begins another evolution of our homeschooling experience.

I've noticed as two years have passed, things have slowly changed around our house. When the kids were first pulled out of school we had a strict curriculum that we followed daily. As time went on I noticed that the curriculum wasn't enough. The kids either plowed through the material quickly, weren't interested, desired more than the curriculum had to give, or were sick of doing the same things. So I slowly began to steer away from the curriculum in order to continue to foster their desire to learn. I began to give them control over how they spent their days, but required certain things to be finished at the end of the week. This seemed to help for a bit.

Eventually, before I even realized it myself, the kids were showing me signs that even this plan was not enough and I was still controlling all the information and learning. Then we started exploring topics of their own interest. I began to set up lego mindstorm challenges, hosted a chemistry jeopardy game, encouraged them to build Rube Goldbergs again, and began reading everything I could get my hands on about learning styles and child led education.

Two weeks ago, in an effort to encourage their own exploration, I moved all of our school supplies into Zoë's old bedroom. They happily helped me carry everything up from the basement, and helped organize the room. They even made a sign for the door and named the room the "Explore Room." Within minutes they were diving into everything. It was absolutely amazing to watch this unfold! Their excitement was contagious.

Since then I have said nothing to them about schoolwork or provided them any ideas of things to do. Instead, I have sat happily with them in the Explore Room doing my own reading and research. Anytime they have a question or want to play a game, I put my things aside and help them. I have been silently watching their ideas unfold, and wow what ideas they have!

They have made all kinds of animal masks using paper plates complete with short plays with their new cast. They started studying American history, used the invention kit to design their own car and spring, learned about the human body by dissecting their human model, learned about the fifty states by playing the scrambled states game, spun the globe and started researching the country that their fingers landed upon, and read countless books. All of this in only a week during which time both of them have been sick and running a fever. Never once did I make any suggestions. I have only encouraged them each step of the way. I was feeling great! This is what learning should be like!

That was until yesterday when control reared its ugly head again. Aiden decided he wanted to teach the dog how to play dead. Instead of letting him figure it out, I got online, printed out instructions and found videos for him to watch. I should have known from his lack of interest in watching the videos or reading the instructions that he didn't want my help. Instead I ignored the signs and continued offering my thoughts on his process. I was so caught up in "helping" him that it wasn't until too late that I realized what I was doing. Finally after about 20 minutes of me butting in he shouts "this is just too frustrating, he's not making any progress and I can't do this." I watched him go from an enthusiastic child with a brilliant idea, to a deflated, unhappy shell. My desire to control what and how he was teaching the dog created this and I couldn't take it back.

I debated what to do now. Finally, after a talk with Tom I decided to apologize to him for impeding his progress and let it go. So while we all ate dinner together, I told him I was sorry for butting into his idea, and would be trying very hard from now on not to do that again. He seemed pleased that I noticed and apologized for my behavior. I can only hope that he'll go back to his idea of training the dog new tricks again.

When we originally started homeschooling I was worried that I couldn't teach them everything they needed to know. Now two years later what I'm really learning is how to get out of their way and let them teach me! There's no such thing as knowing everything. What is most important is continuing to foster their natural desire to learn about the world around them on their own terms, thus enabling them to learn how succeed on their own.

New Year, new start

I refuse to make new year's resolutions, but I have always loved the feeling of a fresh start. It's a great time to think about all that you have accomplished and set new goals. I realized this year that it was incredibly hard for me to think of any personal accomplishments. I had no trouble thinking of all the things the rest of the family has done, but for some reason it was difficult to come up with anything for myself. Although that's not a terrible thing (I do create the environment for the family enabling them to be so successful), I would like things to be slightly different this year. So I'm working.

I'm not sure that I could even think of half of the things we've done since my last post. A few highlights were Zoë's book one piano recital, she finished her math level, we've started an anthology writing group with the Nuehring girls, Aiden is halfway done with Algebra 1, and I've continued to tweak our school days.

Words can't even begin to express how proud I've been of Zoë these last few months. She has been the poster girl for perseverance, dedication, and hard work. She set goals for both piano and math back in August and managed to meet them both. I have always known that she can do anything she puts her mind to, and the past two months have just reinforced that. It has been truly amazing (and exhausting) to help her succeed.

Aiden has hit one of the crossroads we (and lots of other people) call the dip. He's working to learn a Bach Minuet in G and has just hit his first struggle. I've watched in the last couple of months as his playing has become stagnant or even gotten worse. After thinking about things, I have realized that this is probably the first time in his life that he is doing something he actually finds difficult. The problem is that it seems to be the same for math too. He's finally working with concepts and things that take him time to understand, and he is really struggling. On Tuesday I sat down and had a long talk with him about all of this. I explained to him that these kinds of things are the biggest reason we've decided to home school them. No matter how smart someone is, the thing that sets us apart is how we get past these struggles. They were never going to find these struggles in school, and therefore never learn how to handle them. We discussed measuring success in smaller increments, and just keeping your head down and plodding along one thing at a time.

He seems to be doing a little better the last few days. Perhaps just having the chance to voice his frustration has helped some. I don't think he was even exactly sure what the problem was, but recognizing that all of us go through this can't hurt. If I can teach him how to get out of this dip, that will be the best lesson he can learn his whole life.