In which I describe our day and end up preaching a sermon
We are playing a little catch-up at home because we had taken a couple weeks of due to illness, but we were supposed to be on spring break for the past two weeks. Because none of our outside activities are currently meeting, it gives us a little leeway in our schedule.
Since today would have been spent at our co-op according to the schedule, we had a looser schedule today. We did do math, though. It's just easier to not take huge breaks with that. When you work with a child individually, you have a pretty good idea of how they are (or are not) learning things. I don't need a test result to tell me that, I am perfectly aware of understanding simply by asking a few simple questions. Over the past few days I have been realizing that one child has some pretty good math skills, but is missing some fundamental understanding of the four basic functions. How do I know this? Because I have to explain them every time we come to them.
I decided that we need to pause in the textbook and do some real work on really understanding adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Now with this particular child, I have learned that sometimes the only way to have my agenda paid attention to is to connect it to the child's special interests. It's how we tackled the subject of learning colors quite a few years ago. This child didn't care at all about learning the names of colors until J. figured out that by tying the colors to some of the favorite characters of the moment, there was purpose in what we were asking. I have a sneaking suspicion that math is falling into the same category.
Today I introduced the idea of Star Wars math. Each day the child is to write me four math work problems... one each for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They can be involved as desired and even be illustrated, all I ask is for the appropriate math problems to be done alongside. The idea was met with enthusiasm. I decided to go with the problems written by the child because only the child knows what is important at the moment. It is amazing how much more enthusiasm for long division there is when you vitally need to know exactly how many clone troopers will be on each space ship.
While everyone was working on their math, I spent some time working with R. This is how our mornings usually go. I get everyone settled, then while they work I have one-on-one time with R. Today I got out one of my older activity boxes that I made ages ago which has a child think about different attributes.
As you can see, I have boxes of four different shapes and four different colors. I also have wooden pieces in those same four shapes and same four colors. The child can either match based on color or on shape. This is fairly easy for R. It takes a couple of examples (yes, the red circle can go in the green circle box because we are matching shapes or yes, the blue star can go in the blue square box because we are matching color.) She really had little difficulty with and hasn't for quite a while. Because of this, I decided to see if she could do something a little trickier. The wooden shapes also come in three different sizes, small, medium, and large. I explained and then asked her to put the tiles in the correct pile sorted for size.
Here you can see her at work on this. This idea was at the very top of her abilities and she needed some help with it. But... with some help she was able to complete the task successfully. There is no way she could have done this even with help last year. Little bits of progress like this give me small glimmers of hope.
After the math was finished, I told everyone to get their art supplies because their art teacher from our co-op had done a video lesson for them since we won't be able to go next week. They all adore their art teacher and were very excited.
The lesson, which she created for the younger classes, was to draw Easter baskets. I just had everyone do it because I knew they would enjoy it. Here are their finished drawings.
And that was our homeschooling morning today. It wasn't a lot, but people did a lot on their own during the rest of the day on their own time. They read, drew pictures, wrote stories, played, took long walks, and enjoyed hanging out with their older siblings. Why have I written all this out, because I know it is not quite scintillating reading? Because with our country's current new normal, I see a lot of parents rather worried. What if they are not doing enough? What if their school time only takes a small amount of time? I want them to see that it's okay. Learning happens at lots of different times throughout the day, not just the ones labelled 'school'. Directed learning doesn't have to be onerous. It doesn't have to be worksheets and textbooks.
Learning, in fact, looks a lot like those Easter baskets. They all watched the same thirty minute lesson. They each drew an Easter basket (which, by the way, required focused attention, memory, fine motor skills, attention to detail, and not a little bit of patience... all extremely fine academic-y things to work on), but none of them is exactly the same. They each took the idea and made it their own. One is not better or worse than another (and if they were to ask me, that's my answer and I'm sticking with it!) Some focused more closely on one aspect, others on another. If I had wanted them to create carbon copies of each other, I would have just given them a coloring page with explicit directions. Instead, I love watching what they each do with the information around them. I love that homeschooling gives us the freedom that my children can learn this way... one child will do long division for Star Wars, another heaves math books across the room, cools off, and then completes the assignment easily, and yet another has really only understood fractions because of hours and hours of baking. They are very individual people, how could I expect their educational needs and desires would be the same?
Make the most of these months. Do not lose them to worry. Instead, watch your child, observe how they learn, see what they are interested in, challenge yourself to meet those two needs. And then, once you've done that a bit, it is okay... more than okay, even... to let them play, explore, rest, sit and stare, be bored, experiment, run, sleep, read in the rest of their time. It is all learning. It is all okay. They will not be ruined by this, but instead will probably grow and develop in ways you cannot imagine. Try to see that these couple of months could very well end up being the most important educationally for them, instead of the black hole that so many parents are afraid they will be.
Since today would have been spent at our co-op according to the schedule, we had a looser schedule today. We did do math, though. It's just easier to not take huge breaks with that. When you work with a child individually, you have a pretty good idea of how they are (or are not) learning things. I don't need a test result to tell me that, I am perfectly aware of understanding simply by asking a few simple questions. Over the past few days I have been realizing that one child has some pretty good math skills, but is missing some fundamental understanding of the four basic functions. How do I know this? Because I have to explain them every time we come to them.
I decided that we need to pause in the textbook and do some real work on really understanding adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Now with this particular child, I have learned that sometimes the only way to have my agenda paid attention to is to connect it to the child's special interests. It's how we tackled the subject of learning colors quite a few years ago. This child didn't care at all about learning the names of colors until J. figured out that by tying the colors to some of the favorite characters of the moment, there was purpose in what we were asking. I have a sneaking suspicion that math is falling into the same category.
Today I introduced the idea of Star Wars math. Each day the child is to write me four math work problems... one each for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They can be involved as desired and even be illustrated, all I ask is for the appropriate math problems to be done alongside. The idea was met with enthusiasm. I decided to go with the problems written by the child because only the child knows what is important at the moment. It is amazing how much more enthusiasm for long division there is when you vitally need to know exactly how many clone troopers will be on each space ship.
While everyone was working on their math, I spent some time working with R. This is how our mornings usually go. I get everyone settled, then while they work I have one-on-one time with R. Today I got out one of my older activity boxes that I made ages ago which has a child think about different attributes.
As you can see, I have boxes of four different shapes and four different colors. I also have wooden pieces in those same four shapes and same four colors. The child can either match based on color or on shape. This is fairly easy for R. It takes a couple of examples (yes, the red circle can go in the green circle box because we are matching shapes or yes, the blue star can go in the blue square box because we are matching color.) She really had little difficulty with and hasn't for quite a while. Because of this, I decided to see if she could do something a little trickier. The wooden shapes also come in three different sizes, small, medium, and large. I explained and then asked her to put the tiles in the correct pile sorted for size.
Here you can see her at work on this. This idea was at the very top of her abilities and she needed some help with it. But... with some help she was able to complete the task successfully. There is no way she could have done this even with help last year. Little bits of progress like this give me small glimmers of hope.
After the math was finished, I told everyone to get their art supplies because their art teacher from our co-op had done a video lesson for them since we won't be able to go next week. They all adore their art teacher and were very excited.
The lesson, which she created for the younger classes, was to draw Easter baskets. I just had everyone do it because I knew they would enjoy it. Here are their finished drawings.
K.
G.
L.
Y.
H.
And that was our homeschooling morning today. It wasn't a lot, but people did a lot on their own during the rest of the day on their own time. They read, drew pictures, wrote stories, played, took long walks, and enjoyed hanging out with their older siblings. Why have I written all this out, because I know it is not quite scintillating reading? Because with our country's current new normal, I see a lot of parents rather worried. What if they are not doing enough? What if their school time only takes a small amount of time? I want them to see that it's okay. Learning happens at lots of different times throughout the day, not just the ones labelled 'school'. Directed learning doesn't have to be onerous. It doesn't have to be worksheets and textbooks.
Learning, in fact, looks a lot like those Easter baskets. They all watched the same thirty minute lesson. They each drew an Easter basket (which, by the way, required focused attention, memory, fine motor skills, attention to detail, and not a little bit of patience... all extremely fine academic-y things to work on), but none of them is exactly the same. They each took the idea and made it their own. One is not better or worse than another (and if they were to ask me, that's my answer and I'm sticking with it!) Some focused more closely on one aspect, others on another. If I had wanted them to create carbon copies of each other, I would have just given them a coloring page with explicit directions. Instead, I love watching what they each do with the information around them. I love that homeschooling gives us the freedom that my children can learn this way... one child will do long division for Star Wars, another heaves math books across the room, cools off, and then completes the assignment easily, and yet another has really only understood fractions because of hours and hours of baking. They are very individual people, how could I expect their educational needs and desires would be the same?
Make the most of these months. Do not lose them to worry. Instead, watch your child, observe how they learn, see what they are interested in, challenge yourself to meet those two needs. And then, once you've done that a bit, it is okay... more than okay, even... to let them play, explore, rest, sit and stare, be bored, experiment, run, sleep, read in the rest of their time. It is all learning. It is all okay. They will not be ruined by this, but instead will probably grow and develop in ways you cannot imagine. Try to see that these couple of months could very well end up being the most important educationally for them, instead of the black hole that so many parents are afraid they will be.
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