Changes

I've thought a lot about what to do with this blog now that the kids will be attending public school.  Shut it down?  Stop posting and let it fade away into memory?  Change it?  But really, sending the kids to school won't change much at home.  We'll still be learning together.  So the title is still relevant.  I've simply added a description: "Learning at home, school, and the world."  Because that's what we do here.

Visiting the School

Today we visited the local public school and spoke to the elementary principal. I kept asking questions and expecting him to say something we wouldn't agree with, but that never happened. Instead, it seems that we have a lot of the same philosophies about education that he does, and we've decided as a family that the kids probably would benefit by being there. There are of course a few technicalities we need to deal with to get them enrolled, but unless something really outrageous happens between now and August 17, I think it's a done deal.

There are pros and cons to attending a small, rural school, and most of them were things we anticipated, but maybe not quite to the degree that we're going to face them (both for better and worse).

First is perhaps the one that will effect us the most directly: class size. There are 180 kids between the elementary and middle schools (the buildings are connected). Each grade is divided into two classrooms, with about 15 kids in each. During the course of the year, between 60 and 80 students will probably move out of the district (most of which will return the following year) due to their transient status (the parents are migrant workers, there are complicated custody arrangements, etc.)! That was something I expected to see a little of, but certainly not up to 44%!

With numbers like that, I wasn't at all surprised with the next figure: 65% of the students receive free or reduced-rate lunches. Obviously the district is poor; that's evident by the mis-matched construction of the buildings and the 40-year-old linoleum and fixtures within. But everything appears to be clean and in good repair, so I can recognize and appreciate frugality at work. The school I went to routinely wasted money on prettying the place up in ways that even as a kid I thought were completely unnecessary. It looks like every dime here is being spent on the kids.

Electives are few and far-between. There are only three: art, music, and PE. There are even fewer extracurriculars (baseball and softball are offered in 7^th grade. That's it.), and the principal admitted that field trips are rare and unlikely. This is, of course, a huge disadvantage to other districts, but that's life. And due to the rural nature of the school's location, it's unlikely that many parents would be able to afford to attend any sports or other events anyway—and that's assuming they could find enough participants in the first place. So,all things considered, they're not very practical anyway!

Technological Wasteland

After checking into several options, it has come to our attention that we are completely unable to obtain internet service in our home until the phone company decides to put DSL lines in our neighborhood, or one of the cell companies strengthens their signal or places another tower in the area.  This leaves us in a pretty difficult position in regards to both communicating with our friends and relatives, and continuing to homeschool our children.

I will of course continue to update whenever possible, though it may mean postdating entries (fortunately, Blogger makes that easy and painless).  And we will continue to give our kids the best education we can, even if the technology is sparse, and even if it eventually means we turn to the local public school district (it is small, and the longer we live here, the more wonderful things we hear about it, so this may well be a very good thing).

The point is, things are changing here, and we're still progressing, but it may be a bit harder to see it from a distance.

Public vs Home

While all the sweet little public-schooled children are winning spelling bees, obediently reciting the pledge of allegiance, and meeting standardized testing quotas, many homeschooled children are learning small unit tactics and preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

Just some food for thought.

Woodland Hike

There is one thing we love about where we live currently: the woods at our back.

First Day of Unschool

Today seemed like a good day to begin the 2010-2011 school year, so we did!  It's just one of many reasons homeschooling is so very wonderful. 

The bulk of our school supplies are bought, but I am having difficulties with log-keeping options.  In the past, i have simply purchased a cheap teachers' planner from the dollar bins at Target, but i haven't seen any yet this year!  I have considered a $9 equivalent, but i am very cheap, and that seems a bit much for a notebook with blank squares.  So for now, i am just keeping notes and logging the hours in a regular spiral notebook (cost: $0.15), and blogging about the more interesting aspects here.  At least that's the plan.

So what does the first day of school mean around here?  Quite honestly, it only means that this was the day that Mama bothered to start writing things down again.  The kids never stop learning; they never stop exploring and figuring things out and surprising me.  Our summer was full of stacks of read books, piles of finished sewing, balanced play checkbooks, and workbooks found and secretly filled in.

Ryvre actually took a pretty relaxed approach to the day; he read a book, and that was about all, despite all suggestions to write a book report about it.  Alas, perhaps tomorrow.

Willow filled in a few reading comprehension workbook pages; she's really coming along in her reading, but she still does most of it secretly.  She also began sewing an intricately patterned piece of felt, along the grooves of the pattern. 

Ember started sewing today too; as far as i know, it is her first attempt, and it was not bad!  She also practiced writing, asking me to spell words for her.

It was a rather slow-paced day with each kid logging about three hours of full-on 'school time' but we're getting an early start, so no harm in taking it slow.

Back to Unschool

In Lieu if Back-to-School pics...

i give you...

From-our-backyard Pics!

Because we stay home.

Together.

And we like it that way. 

Deep Thoughts

How can homeschooling limit kids?  As long as parents are responding to their childrens' needs (physically, intellectually, and socially), i don't believe homeschooling does (or can) limit children at all.  The problem i have is with parents who "won't allow" certain things to be learned (ie: darwinism; you can, and should in my opinion, teach other theories too, but i personally feel it's irresponsible to censor it completely from a science curriculum), or use homeschooling as a way to keep kids from experiencing a normal, and healthy childhood (this point is obviously based on personal opinions, and one person's idea of normal and healthy is much different from any others.  i personally think its unhealthy to shelter a child from free interaction with children their own age, while another parent may think that taking their children to church, where there is plenty of adult supervision, is the only way to sheild them from negative peer pressure).  So that statement was totally based on opinion and my own personal standards; i fully admit that. i just think it's "weird" when a mom pulls her four daughters out of public school soley because that school was going to teach her 12-year-old what a period was.  First of all, why doesn't your 12/y/o already know?  And what is so terrible about it that she can't hear?  Honestly, isn't it worse to make such a fuss over it?  NOW she thinks it's something shameful.  Nice. Equally unhealthy is keeping a kid "cooped up" between home and organized religious activites, to the point that when he goes off to college, he hardly knows what to do with all his new-found freedom.  Childhood is all about testing your limits, and the give and take between parents and kids to determine what freedoms and responsibilities the child is ready for.  The teen years are supposed to be a time to prove that you're ready to be independent of your parents, and that you can make it on your own when the time comes.  If you're not allowed that boundary-testing portion of your childhood, how are you supposed to learn it all overnight? Homeschool should be a sunshine-laden journey shared by a family, not an oppresive cloud darkening the path to adulthood.