Perfect example that learning can happen anywhere.

J.A. hates to write. But she doesn't mind writing lists. So she wrote our shopping list for thanksgiving while I took my shower. She sat on the toilet and we talked about what we would be cooking and what we would need from the store. This just proved to me once again that learning can happen anywhere!
Words spelled correctly:
Yam, coolwhip, cheese,stuf(f)ing all but the second f. pumpk(i)n.

Homework!


Damion was doing his homework yesterday. One of the 5 things he had to do was to answer the questions at the end of a weekly reader. He did what was required and I picked up the Weekly Reader and started reading one of the articles that was titled The Hubbub Over Homework.


Now for some history:
(Damion and I used to spend hours with his homework every night. This started in the first grade. We would both be in tears by the end of the night. We would spend up to 3 hours a day! It was never under an hour, and this was with a parents help, IN THE FIRST GRADE! The teacher said that we were the only parents to complain of to much homework. He was having an extremely difficult time. It never go any better.)

( I have now completely taken myself out of "helping" with his homework. He has figured out some pretty awesome avoidance techniques! He would act like he didn't understand and did things just to push my buttons so that I would loose my cool and end up telling him them answers just to get it done....Were talking 3 hours here! I slowly backed off more and more each year. This year I have came to the conclusion that the schools need to see exactly what he is doing, not what I am correcting. Besides I don't agree with placing so much homework on the children. I have put very little emphasis on the homework. I have come a long way sense he was in the first grade!)

Back to the story:

Damion did his assignment. He filled in all the blanks and and matched all the letters to the numbers by process of allemination. As far as I could tell he did ok.

After Damion saw that I was done reading the paper he said to me, "What did it say." Confused I said, "What? What did what say." "The paper" he answers. "What did the paper say, I know it was about homework, but what did it say about it?" Now I was extremely confused. I told him. "You tell me what it was about. You did your homework didn't you?" He answers, "Well, yah!"
"So how did you do it without reading it?"
"Oh, I read the questions first then go and find the answers."

Thus no real reading is required. Just skim the page for corresponding words, voula ~ there is your answer. Besides filling in the blanks and putting the columns of numbers and letters together is the important part right? The teacher doesn't care if you really understand it.....Does she? She just checks to see if you filled it in. I have a feeling that he doesn't even "get" that he is supposed to understand it. He just thinks that you are supposed to "do" it.

Then it occurred to me......a memory.....From long ago. Wow, I used to do that. I got good grades. How much do I remember? I can't even answer that because I can't remember what it was that I was supposed to remember! But I did what was requied to pass. That's what you had to do to keep the teacher and your parents off of your back. Pass. Look good on paper.
I found this particular incident hilarious. Ironic even. He did his homework, made the grade, passed and had no idea what the article said.

Here is the article.

The Hubbub Over Homework

As homework loads grow, experts debate it's value.

Homework is on the rise! Nine- to 12-year-olds are spending 20 percent more time studying at home than they spent in 1997, according to a recent study from the University of Maryland.
"Kids spend an average of 50 minutes to 75 minutes studying every day," the study's author, Sandra L Hofferth, told WR News. Some education researchers think that's to much. Two recent books have experts asking, is homework helpful?

No! Homework doesn't help students.

In their new book, The Case Against Homework, Nancy Kalish and Sara Bennett write that homework restrains, or holds back, kids from participating in school sports and other extracurricular activities. "It's the youngest kids who seem to be getting the most homework," Bennett told WR News, "and they're the least ready to do it."
Alfie Kohn, the author of The Homework Myth, thinks that assigning homework in elementary school is futile, or pointless. "No scientific studies have shown that kids benefit from homework in any way before high school," he told WR News. He argues that too much homework can make learning a frustrating chore instead of an opportunity.

Yes! Homework is a learning tool.

Other education officials say homework is an essential or necessary, part of the learning process. "It's important [for kids] to get used to doing homework," Harris Cooper of Duke University to WR News. Cooper is one of the country's leading researchers on homework. He says students should get in homework habit early because studies show that doing homework improves academic performance in high school.
Cooper suggests that schools find a balance to the homework equation. Eliminating it makes no more sense than "piling it on," he says. "I think homework is helpful to most kids," elementary school teacher Pepper Schrock of Orlando, Florida, told WR News. "I try to give meaningful projects as homework."



Well, Damion surely found his homework to be meaningful, huh?

Publik Edjukashon Sistum




I think it's about to turn into a war.

A battle has come up that I didn't think would. We had a "parent teacher" conference with Austin’s teacher last Thursday. In this case I think that I will call it a "teacher teacher" conference because she dominated the whole conversation and didn't care what we had to say. Austin, is in the "gifted" (but they are not allowed to say gifted anymore) program and has been since kindergarten. In the program he is pulled out of regular class for some extra reading/english based things. Well... he is starting to get into trouble in school. He will not shut up, is getting a cocky attitude with his teacher and acts like he knows everything. He is a smart kid and knows he is. We suggested to his teacher that he is bored. She shook her head. I asked, "Can you give him more work or just more challenging work?" Her answer was, "He has plenty to do, after he is done with his work he can get on the computer and we have plenty of books for him to read. And, besides, a TRULY gifted child will never get bored." (Uh ha, doesn’t her degree in teaching include common since... everything in the classroom for him to "do" is at the second grade level!) She went on again about the discipline problems. She then makes a statement that followed me all the way home before it smacked me in the head. "I'm not suggesting that he should be on medication, but we need to get a handle on the discipline issues." WHAT!! If she wasn't suggesting it then why bring it up? This kid picks up on everything at twice the speed of his peers and CAN sit quietly and listen. Her answer to "fixing" all this is that she isn't going to send him to the "gifted" classes if he keeps this up. It was stated in such a way that it too didn't smack me in the head until I got home. This happened Thursday and I'm still fuming over it. She is going to take away the one thing that does truly challenge him, the one thing that he needs to keep him out of trouble. But of coarse, I forgot, he isn't bored.

I talked to Austin on Friday about something completely off the subject of school and HE turned the conversation to school. He told me that it is like he is in first grade again. He just likes to talk and he doesn't want to sit and do "the stuff" that he has already done a million times. Some of it he has done in kindergarten!

So, what does that tell you?
It tells me that he is bored.
He needs to be challenged.
Where’s my fu*#ing degree?

I thought school was the best place for Austin. He requires a more structured environment, or so I thought. Turns out he needs a bit more freedom to move foreword. I have a feeling that if the school keeps this up I'll be homeschooling all of them soon. Who knows? I never thought it would go this far.

I also get a lot of "looks" when I walk into the school building. I didn't think homeschooling would piss people off this much! The general public just can't stand for others to go against the grain can they? It amazes me that statements like, " I can't wait for summer brake to end! My kids are driving me nuts!" are socially acceptable. It's acceptable to send them off to school for 6-8 hours a day then they go to daycare for three more hours then you get home and pop a frozen dinner in the microwave for them to eat WHILE watching TV. But I can't keep my kids home in a family environment, where we live life and learn together. Honestly, which scenario sounds crazy?

Halloween Pictures

I just thought I would check in with everyone, say hello and share some of my homeschooling adventure. Here is my little story. It gave me that warm fuzzy feeling. I now know that we are going to be ok.

The other day, when we were eating dinner, my oldest son asked me why I was no longer breastfeeding the baby. My answer was that she had weaned. He then asked me, "What is weaned?" Before I could answer Jessie (the one I am homeschooling) said, "It means that she isn't breastfeeding anymore, she is eating regular food and a bottle." There was a pause as the whole family looked at her. Then she said, "Whoah, how did I know that? Oh yah, I know, it's 'cause I'm smart now. Mommy is teaching me." I smiled.
I know she isn't smart 'cause I'm teaching her, but she feels smart because she isn't having to live up to the expectatioins of the classroom. I made the right decision, I only wished that I had done it earlier. She isn't covering her paper as she writes, and is sounding out words that she "can't read". She is just trying harder because she isn't feeling embarrased. Walking arround isn't a problem, shifting arround in her chair is ok. I have also found that she HATES repetition. If she has it don't review for a while or she will stare at the picture on the wall, shift arround in her chair, drop her pencil a million times, sing songs about the pictures on the page, ask about something we saw on the shelf at walmart about 3 months ago.... I have found it is ok to let her skip.
We have been going to a play group I guess you would call it, in Floyd(floydvahomeschoolers, yahoo group). Jessie has alot of fun with the other children. And she is learning spanish and to play the recorder.

So over all this had been a very good experience for us. Some days I still think, what have I gotten myself into? But that goes away pretty quickly.

My oldest son, Damion, is totally against me homeschooling him. I make little comments here and there about homeschooling, nothing pushy, just mention how fun it is, just to get his reaction. I guess the thought of staying home with mom "forever" (at his age, 10) is realy scarry. He is the whole reason I started thinking about homeschooling. Oh well, I'm just glad he has finally found a reason to like school. He has friends at school, he has always had a hard time making friends. He is finally comfortable, I don't want to mess that up.

Austin, the 7 year old boy is pretty receptive to the whole idea at this time. He is a joy to "teach". I did alot of warming up for the school year this summer with all the kids. Austin would get so excited about learning something new. He is a little information sponge. But he sees Damion's reaction and is torn between the two sides.

As for Sadie, she enjoys homeschooling. She is pulling herself up and cruzing all over the place. She loves trying new foods and repeating new sounds. Waving and saying bye bye has become her favorite way to interact. She hs just started clapping. Guess who taught her all that?

What I have learned the most is that I love to learn. I want all my children to be as enthusiastic about learning as Sadie is. They were at one time, and I don't want them to loose that thirst. I have learned that there are many ways to homeschool. But most all people agree that the child needs to want to learn, you can't force feed knowledge. Why do the schools not know this? Why did I not know this? I mean I knew it, but I had fallen into the trap of what has always been will always be. "You go to school to learn. SO LEARN DAMMIT!" This year has been very eye opening to me. I get so excited sharing all these new ideas with my husband he has to tell me to calm down (he says that I am very dramatic, I am, that is why he loves me he just doesn't know it).

Another thing that I have been thinking about is homeschooling and the internet. I have read over and over about homeschooling exploding here recently. I think it is because of the internet. I don't know where I would be without the internet. I wouldn't have homeschooled. I have gotten (almost) all my knowledge, ideas, and courage from this bright screan in front of me. Information about homeschooling was harder to find 15 years ago. Now info. is litteraly at your fingertips. Talking to "normal" people about homeschooling you get attitude and smirks. Your made to feel like homeschoolers are like bigfoot. "Shure people SAY it's out there but 'common!" You can now find support, I would not have had any support had I not found homeschooling groups a year ago. I found them on a whim. Discovering other homeschoolers showed me that I am not the only one to feel as I do. My hat goes off to the parents that homeschooled before the internet. Standing ovation. It took big kahunas.

Ginger


Written Sat Sep 23, 2006 TheBestLifeVA Yahoo group