The Benefits of Boredom

I had a talk to day with my friend Cat Herder and we touched on many topics, one of them being the benefit of boredom for children.

Yes, that's right. BOREDOM.

What do kids do when they have unscheduled time and no TV, computer, or organizing adult to coach them through it?

Cat Herder brought up the topic because her son, also homeschooled, had spent the weekend at a friend's house and the two kept trying to go in and play on the computer or ask Mom for something to do. Mom just kept sending them back outside.

This wasn't cruelty or neglect - the house was safe, secluded, on the banks of a calm creek, and boasted its own basketball hoop and a play set in the back. There were plenty of balls and toys, etc. But instead of rambling, poking in the mud, or shooting some hoops, the boys spent the first day trying to get someone or something else to organize their fun.

Cat Herder's reasoning - they didn't know how to be bored. More precisely, they didn't know how to recognize boredom and deal with it themselves by making their own fun. There they were, completely unscheduled, and the expectation was that some adult, or machine, should tell them what to do.

Her resolve now is to try and make sure that her son gets more of this unscheduled time - preferably in the company of other kids (a bit of a problem as he is an only child).

Her comments made me think about my daughter's recent explosion of creativity. Since we started homeschooling, I've had very strict guidelines on TV time. Once school work is over, if there it isn't time for the TV to come on, then it doesn't come on. The first few days of this The Girl was at a loss. She actually did extra math, the first day.

Then, literally over night, she started drawing and playing her electric keyboard intensively, and asking for a guitar. While she has always like to color, this intensive drawing was new. and the musical interest was a complete shock to me. We have had that keyboard for four years, and she rarely did more than set it to play automatically so that she could dance. Now, she has memorized most of the songs on it!

We haven't started guitar lessons yet, but she is very intent upon playing her instrument and spends a lot of time just exploring the sounds it will make. It kind of reminds me of a baby learning to talk.

Our curriculum, Oak Meadow 4th grade, has supported this blossoming in creativity to an amazing extent, but I truly think that boredom has been the key to bringing out all my daughter's hidden talents.

Let's learn oceanography with SpongeBob!

When I first made the decision to homeschool, my best friend, The Cat Herder, told me there would be great days ahead. Days of learning, exploring and wonder at my daughters capacity to soak up information like a sponge.

She also told me here would be days when we studied Oceanography with SpongeBob.

That was Friday.

The thing is, it had little to do with The Girl, she was no more reluctant than usual - all ready to do her favorite subjects (math, drawing)and needing a bit more guidance to get through her least favorite work (reading, writing, grammar). I however, was in no positiong to do much of anything.

I had work - contract dealines looming, and a back log from earlier in the week to get through. I simply had too much going on, and I felt guilty that I wasn't keeping up.

But you know? I also realized that we had a lot more time to do that. That we were going to get back to things on Sunday (Saturday is our day off). The world didn't end just because I had to juggle my priorities in favor of work for one day.

Cool.

:-)

My first Usborne show went well, and our first week of homeschool has been great. Things seem to be settling down, and although I have a few money issues on the horizon, I'm feeling pretty good about the economics of the house.

I think I have learned more about my daughter in the last week than I learned about her all last year.

1. She loves to make music. I never knew this! She spends hours now playing her electric keyboard and she wants to take guitar lessons. why did this never come up before? I think she was just too tired - school didn't leave much time for anything else.

2. She has a real love for art. Not just coloring, which I knew she liked, but painting and drawing and looking at other people's work. I'm blown away by this.

3. She writes well, but could care less about spelling. Oh well, I guess it couldn't all be good news.

:-)

4. She ADORES math beyond all reason. At least beyond my ability to reason, since math was always my least favorite subject.

Last Monday this conversation really happened:

Me: Okay, so you can do these math exercises for practice tomorrow at Grandma's house. Now go finish your chores and then you can watch TV.

The Girl: But I want to do my Math practice NOW.

Me: Well, okay. You can do the math practice tonight if you want to, but you have to go and finish your chores first! Absolutely no math until your chores are completed, young lady!

The Girl: Oh, all right. *pout*

I still can't get over it - I would have scrubbed toilets to get out of math! I think she must have been switched at birth.

Learning a Business

Tomorrow, I'll be hosting my first Usborne Book party, as both the consultant and the hostess, and the only person more excited than me, is The Girl. She has already figured out which of the books she is going to recommend, and which of her old teachers might like which books. All this work is to help her sell books. She's getting five dollars for every show she helps me set up and break down, as well as a dollar for every book she sells.

:-)

She's been figuring costs, discussing the good and bad points of books, and working on how to be polite to customers. Even if I only break even with my investment in Usborne, it's worth it. The experience is better than any curriculum I could have bought.

Usborne Books at Home is not my main business, or anything. I went into it hoping to bring in a little extra money every month. My main goal being to pay for health insurance which take a huge bite out of my monthly income at the moment, while getting bunches of The girl's favorite books at discount prices.

So, I'll let you know if she ends up starting her own fortune five-hundred - hopefully she'll be able to support me in my old age!

:-)

One Step Closer to the Beginning

The Girl persists in the theory that we don't start "school" until September 3rd. This despite the lesson on how fractions and percents relate to each, which she started and which took up most of our lunch time the other day.

Shhhhhh. Just don't tell her she's learning.

;-)


Anyway. We are planning our first fieldtrip for sketching a livable, but uninhabited area. This will eventually work its way up to being the basis for our model and for discussing our local geography. My friend D. who also homeschools, will be bringing her two kids and we're going out to the pond that my mom lives on.

I'm excited, but I hope the The Girl's overwhelming need for perfection doesn't freeze her up when she's sketching. I'm debating on bringing a camera. She loves taking pictures, but I'd really like her to sketch as well.

If she learns one thing this year, I want her to learn that she can fail and the world won't end. She can be less than perfect, and it might still be fun.

She's already got the fractions and percents down, but the perfection issues are much more challenging.

How to start the homeschool year, without starting school

Next week, I go back to school (I teach part time, and we go back WAAAAYYYY before the kids do). So school has been on my mind.

I'm itching to start our homeschool routine. The Girl, on the other hand, is offended by the very IDEA that we might start homeschool before all the other kids start regular school. She is very much stuck on the calendar, still, and I can understand that since this is the first year we have homeschooled at all.

Rather than push it on her, I have just gotten out some of our cool new curriculum items and started planning for our first week. It took about two seconds for The Girl to come and look over my shoulder.

"What's that?" (Points to picture in Oak Meadow text)

"That's part of the instructions for the model we are going to build for your social studies lessons." ( I continue making notes.)

"Huh." (Looks completely indifferent... and yet does not walk away.) "What're those?" (points to stack of sketchpads)

"Those are going to be your main lesson books and journal. That's where you'll have your writing and stuff. And you get to write everything in colored pencils."

"Cooooooool." (Eyes light up and she fingers the paper.)

"Hey, remember we don't get to start until September!" (I start putting things away.)

"Oh, right." (Long pause.) "Can I just look at the math book for a little bit?"

"Well, okay, but just look through it. We aren't starting school yet."

What followed was a 45 minute review of place values, how to do math in your head and check it with a calculator, and an introduction to double digit multiplication.

Bwahahahahaha!

My evil plan is working!

Summer High Point: Missoula Children's Theater

I meant to write more about the VaHomeschooler Conference - Which was GREAT!

BUT... For the last week we were completely taken over by The Girl's participation in The Missoula Chidlren's Theatre's production of "The Little Mermaid" (not of Hans Christian Anderson Fame - or Disney, for that matter).

Two wonderful actresses rolled into town in one of MCT's Little Red Trucks, and in just five days went from auditions to two final performances. They were amazing, and they pulled the absolute BEST from these kids.

I can't express how HUGE this was for the Girl. She wanted to do it; it was her idea, I didn't have to roust her out of bed in the morning, or fuss at her to practice her lines - and when performance came on Saturday, she ROCKED.

Now I'm working on finding another drama or children's theater production for her to take part in, and she is already looking forward to next summer, when she'll try out again.

If you haven't got theaterin your area, I strongly recommend applying to MCT to arrange a visit from one of their Little Red Trucks. You will be floored by what your two actors, a truck full of props, and your kids can do.

Now, I am working on how to follow on from this

The VaHomschoolers 2007 Conference or "How I Spent My Mommy's Day Out In Richmond"

Last weekend I went to my first ever homeschooling convention, and it was a blast! There was so much good stuff going on, that my friend, The Kitchen Diva, and I didn't actually get to see everything we wanted.

We arrived a little late on Friday, having taken a right at Albuquerque when we definitely should have gone left. Check in was no problem and the hotel was clean and quiet.

We went out to dinner and then, like the diligent homeschooling moms we are, we reserved tickets for the IMAX showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Once we knew we were getting to see Harry and friends on the largest screen in Richmond, we toured the booths of the various providers who had set up in the front hall and atrium of the Richmond Science Museum. There were several booths that impressed me. All of them were interesting, but I'm just going to give the highlights here:

Fun Books, a bookstore from up near Baltimore had a great selection of books and software for homeschooling. Most importantly for me, they had Rosetta Stone's Homeschool Japanese I on SALE!!! Wheee! That was definitely my biggest purchase.

DNA Depot had really cool science kits that allow kids to explore everything from fruit DNA to the effects of pollution on sea babies. I will definitely be looking into those next year.

And the booth that I probably spent had the longest conversation at was the one forCollege Solutions. Being financially strapped, right now, had me thinking hard about what I'm going to do to pay for The Girl's college. Really, there are only seven or eight years to go! (watch as I try not to panic).

College Solutions acts as rent-a-guidance counselors, helping parents to navigate financial aide applications, finding scholarships, and even helping students prepare for the change in living away from home. Karen and Julie, the ladies behind the company, were friendly and impressed me with their understanding of homeschoolers' needs and strengths.

But it was Friday night, and at 7:00 PM I turned into a Harry Potter Fan and didn't think of college finances again until the next day!

Next time: More booths, Presentations, and Earning opportunities that allowed me to take parts of the convention off as a business expense.

:->

Scurry and Scratch

The worst thing about trying to homeschool and being a single parent has to be the tension that develops between working and educating you child. Working from home certainly sounded a lot easier when other people were talking about it. There always seems to be something that has to be done this second, and there never seems to be enough money.

So, what do we do? (Besides start a blog to whinge and moan in?)

First of all, realize that something is going to have to give. You can't do it alone. I moved 250 miles to be near my mother because I knew she would help with childcare. If you don't have a family member that is eager to watch your child on the days when you have to be out of the house, then try to hook up with friends, other homeschooling moms, a babysitting co-op, or in a tight pinch, a reliable babysitter for occasional days. (It's often easier to get regular days scheduled, so you might consider that as well, if you can afford it.)

Another thing to think about is ways to take your child to work with you. When The Girl was an infant I was lucky to have a job where I could take her to work with me. Now she is almost ten years old, and she generally knows how to behave when I have to have her at a job site for some reason. We often go to the library together where she can study and I can do research, get on the Internet to check mail, and work on other projects.

Finally, I have actually gotten a part-time job outside the house to smooth out my cash flow. Because it is only part time, I can still spend a lot of time at home working on my business and one our homeschooling projects, and my mom loves taking her most local grandchild on field trips while I'm out at the salt mines.

It makes for a hectic life, and a fair amount of running up and down the road in the car, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

Taking the Plunge

In my last post, I mentioned that I got a shock at the beginning of my daughter's second grade. I'm sure it was something that has happened to a lot of parents, but I couldn't believe it was happening to me. After all, I always reviewed The Girl's work and report cards, I went in for conferences when the teacher asked me to - which wasn't all that often. I helped my daughter with her homework (spelling words and math). I thought I knew about my daughter's school work and education.

Apparently, I was wrong.

My daughter's new teacher, Mrs. C, called me in shortly after school had started and explained that my daughter was almost a full year behind in her reading.

A full year.

Her reading level in first grade had hardly progressed at all - and I hadn't realized it. I found out later that her first grade teacher hadn't realized it either. The Girl is very smart and good at compensating. She didn't need to be able to read to get by in class. She had us all fooled.

That was when I started seriously considering homeschooling. Not because the school was falling down on the job - although I was pretty unhappy with things at that moment - but because I had fallen down on the job. I had abdicated the responsibility for my daughter's education to an institution, and now she was paying for it.

Luckily, Mrs. C was wonderful, and we all worked hard to make up for lost time. Eventually we discovered The Girl had a rather serious vision problem. The eye doctor was seen, glasses were bought, and The Girl began gaining ground quickly.

But I spent second grade living in her teacher's pocket, and The Girl was spending an average of two hours a night on homework - sometimes three - and she was in second grade.

There had to be a better way.

I started researching, talking to people I knew who were already homeschooling, and looking for curriculum. I didn't want to jump in unprepared, so I decided to wait a year. After all, I there was the chance my research would convince me it wasn't practical. More importantly, there was the chance that The Girl would have a strong opinion against leaving school.

Well, in just four days school lets out for the summer, and for the first time my daughter won't be saying 'see you next year' to her classmates and teachers.

Weird.

She's not leaving because she had a bad year - third grade has been wonderful. She's not leaving because she hasn't made progress - she's ahead in math and finally caught up to grade level in reading.

She's leaving because there are so many things she wants to do that she can't do if she stays in public school. (She is planning on starting Japanese in the fall, and is trying to convince me that she can do Spanish at the same time.) Turns out she does have a strong opinion about homeschooling - and is all in favor of it.

And I'm taking her out because I've figured out a schedule that will let me be in charge of her education. I want to do something more integrated, and with greater flexibility, and I think I have found the curriculum that will let me do that.

Most of all, I want to feel like I know exactly where she is at.

And so we are off! Stay tuned (and maybe wish us luck)!

Tipping the Scales

About the time The Girl entered school, I made friends with a woman that was homeschooling her two children. Let's call her D. At the same time, my brother and his wife were also homeschooling their two elementary aged children. Suddenly, homeschooling was very much on my radar.

You would think that talking about homeschooling would get me interested in pursuing the possibility for my daughter, but all it did was make me more certain that homeschooling was not for me.

D. and her kids are unschoolers, and while I admired how well it worked for them, I didn't feel like I could do it and provide all the skills and information my daughter needed. Unschooling is child led, and it seemed to me that parents had to be ready with all kinds of references and information for whatever happened to come up.

In short, I was intimidated beyond words.

My brother and his wife were using a curriculum that was more of a school-in-a-box. It worked for them, but as a single parent I didn't think I could earn a living and have a school at home.

On top of that, I had the classic "what about socialization?" fear. I did okay when she was home, helping her with homework and taking her on the occasional play date, but I was trying to build a business. How was I going to get anything done if she was home all day? I had visions of her sitting in front of the TV morning to evening while I typed. Not good.

Thus, it was decided. School was the best place for her to learn, no matter how intrigued I was by the idea of homeschooling.

I found out at the beginning of second grade that pretty much all my preconceptions were wrong. I look back on it now, and all I can say is... Oops.

Next time... More on throwing out preconceptions and looking for curriculums.

Decisions, Decisions

It seems appropriate for a first post to discuss the decision that led me to take up homeschooling. Of course, I say that, and then immediately realize that it wasn't just one decision, but a domino chain of choices made by both my daughter and myself that has finally brought us here.

I was not someone who wanted to stay at home with my child and homeschool her from infancy through to her first Nobel Prize. I was afraid I didn't have the patience to do it, and I knew I didn't have the kind of money that would allow it. So it was with great relief that I put The Girl into daycare just short of her first birthday. She loved it. She had great teachers in a pre-school that was underwritten by a local ecumenical organiztion. The affordability and exceptional staff made it the perfect solution for us.

At that time I had left education and was working in the IT field. The hours got longer as I moved up the ladder, and eventually I found that The Girl was spending almost 50 hours a week in daycare. I decided that was a bit too much of a good thing.

In order to spend more time at home with my daughter, and to escape the stress of the IT industry, I moved to the country and started my own business, eventually combining the business with teaching part-time at the local elementary school.

While I was happy to be home with The Girl more, I still did not seriously contemplate homeschooling. I didn't feel up to the task, and I wasn't sure where I would find the time. The local elementary school was good. I liked the building, the teachers, and generally I liked the curriculum. It never entered my head that I might look for other options.

But now, here I am choosing a curriculum. More on how I got to this point in the next post...