Mudspark Life Learning

New ebook! Nerd Schooling  by Clea Danaan puts together my experiences as a teacher and homeschooling parent. It's an exploration of learning through what kids are really interested in - Minecraft, graphic novels, roleplay games, and more. Being a nerd means expressing your true self, and we learn best when we do what we are interested and care about. My son, for instance, has been studying Swedish on Duo Lingo, I think mostly because his favorite game developers are Scandinavian. He is watching Gravity Falls and making his own comics characters. He plays Minecraft with friends online. What is he learning? Well besides Swedish, he is learning a lot about the country and the different flags. He learned some about the native Sami people. He is making characters and worlds, developing leadership skills, and learning what makes a good game flow. Want some ideas for incorporating activities like this in your homeschool classroom or regular classroom? Check out Nerd Schooling ! The cov...

Today we worked on regrouping using Math-U-See manipulatives. We used just the 100s, 10s, and unit pieces.  I drew a large grid for spaces for each of the numerals, and used problems in our Brainquest workbook. We added the units together, trading them out for tens if we had more than 10, then placing that ten above the two other rows, just as you would when writing it out. Then we did the same with the tens bars, pulling out groups of ten tens and then placing the new 100 plate above the 100s place of our rows. We then wrote out what we did in the workbook. Subtracting with regrouping was a little different. We took away the number of units in the second row from the units in the top row, and moved the remaining units to the bottom (answer) row. If there weren't enough units in the top row, we converted a tens bar into 10 units cubes and put them in that upper right square. We then subtracted how many we had un the middle right square and put the remaining units cubes in...

My kids are currently 9 and 13, and some of their favorite activities are making playdough, building forts, playing in the mud, and making blanket forts. All sorts of questions and discoveries arise through this sensory play that is often considered more appropriate for much younger children. Like why does Oobleck work the way it does? Why does the ratio of 4:1 make this substance but not that? What is the point of cream of tartar in playdough? Why is this mud grittier than that mud, and why does it smell like this? What makes clay from the ground turn into art class clay or stucco? You get the idea. You don't even have to come up with any sort of lesson plan - in fact, when I get all teachy, they lose interest. They don't listen. Play is important for all ages, even and maybe especially play that you think they are too old to engage in. What will you play today? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For more ideas on natural parenting,  check ou...

We visited the Autism Community Store today. It's just east of Iliff and Quebec. They do a good job of creating a calm, not overwhelming environment despite being jam packed with all manner of resources. My son especially enjoyed the hanging swing and the "sensory cave," a closet-sized space with soft cushions, soothing lights, weighted blankets, and a lava lamp filled with bubbles and (plastic) fish. I perused the book shelves, which includes a lending library as well as titles for sale,  and spent a good long time gathering cards and flyers for local resources to support my hive of homeschooling families. Looks like they make their own weighted blankets, beanbag animals, and weighted vests. We picked out a blue swirly chewelry and a stand for our exercise ball to replace our broken office chair. As I helped my son put his shoes back on before we headed out the door, I giggled at a sign right in front of us: "No shoes, no shirt, no skirt, no problem." He...

How do I choose the right homeschool curriculum?  This is the first thing homeschooling parents ask. They are comparing their ideas of school to their projected ideas about homeschooling, thinking they have to cover EVERYTHING that school "covers" and do it well. Obviously we want our kids to get a good education, whether that means school or homeschool. I remind parents, though, that regular school is about managing 30 kids with divergent needs. Homeschooling is about one kid, or maybe three or seven. These are kids who have grown up with your rules and guidelines. In school teachers spend several WEEKS working on procedures like lining up, turning in homework, and using inside voices before they even get to  actual curriculum. Then their days are divided into blocks of time broken up by recess, trips, assemblies, and those very procedures. Homeschool doesn't have to work like that, and you can get lessons done in much less time, whether you do formal lessons to go...

I just finished reading Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. I highly recommend it to everyone, but especially teachers and homeschooling parents and teens. Most of the book discusses how US history high school textbooks focus on white ethnocentric nationalism and heroism rather than teaching real, balanced history (not even close) and why they do so. It also gives a more complete picture of Columbus, Thanksgiving, slavery, Civil Rights, and the Vietnam and Iraq wars. He discusses how to make history more engaging by igniting curiosity and asking questions of young scholars. In the Afterward, Loewen present five questions students should ask when facing a source, be it a textbook, museum exhibit, or other source (pages 360-361, second edition). While these directly address history, I think they could be used similarly for any source. Students then learn to discern and think for themselves. I will paraphrase them here. 1)...

Want to give your kids a world class education without spending any money? Here are my suggestions for a well-rounded home-based education that requires little or no money. Assume that all books are obtained through the library (learn how to use your local library's inter-library loan system). Also see what your local public school system has to offer homeschoolers; my kids participate in a once-a-week enrichment program that provides us with free curriculum. Museums often offer discounts to homeschooling families and groups, and they also offer free days. Trade lessons with friends: maybe you can offer child care or help remodeling a kitchen or canned tomatoes in trade for music lessons or mentoring. Visit thrift stores regularly and look through the education, books, and nic-nack sections - I've found science kits, books, unused anatomy coloring books, a decent globe, pencils, and book shelves for almost nothing at our local thrift stores. Book swaps are another great place t...

You have no doubt read that kids these days spend too much time on screens, and too little time outdoors. Articles and books arguing the evils of screen time quote studies linking screen time to obesity and diabetes as well as depression and lack of vitamin D (which can lead to cancer). Then there are the equally compelling articles and blogs that posit that playing computer games is actually really good for our children. They learn hand-eye coordination, three-dimensional design, problem solving, and even social skills. They are exposed to math concepts, story arcs, and consequences.  Which perspective is to be believed? I think it's both. Kids benefit greatly from screen time, and they need to also spend lots of quality time in nature.  I suspect that the problems of screen time arise not from the computer or TV itself, but from circumstances outside the screen bubble, like poor nutrition and lack of attention from caregivers. I also sens...

Supermom? I recently read an article in a parenting magazine about how parents today spend too much time directly attending to our kids and trying to be super-parents, and it's wearing us out. How in the past, parents could send their kids out to play and not see them until dinner time. And I got this flash of understanding as to why so many parents can't understand why in the world I would choose to homeschool. Why they often feel slightly threatened by my homeschooling. They think that by homeschooling I am spending even MORE focused attention on my kids, and they are already tapped out with the homework-driving-to-practice-school-drop-off-plus-quality-time rigamarole. How do I possibly do that plus teach them and be with them ALL DAY LONG???  I don't. Learning Through Living What people don't realize is that homeschool is not business-as-mainstream-usual plus being their teacher all day. The moms (and dads) who try that approach burn out pretty much...

Here are a few books to get you thinking about creative and eclectic homeschooling. “This is a beautifully written, honest, introspective, soul-revealing, and soul-stirring account of one family’s choice to live close to nature and to allow their children to learn naturally, without school, in a self-directed manner.  The book’s biggest message, I think, is that we do have choices; we can chart our own lives, we don't have to follow the crowd if we don’t want to.”—Peter Gray, Research Professor at Boston College and author of Free to Learn ___________________________ The essence of John Holt’s insight into learning and small children is captured in Learning All The Time. This delightful book by the influential author of How Children Fail and How Children Learn shows how children learn to read, write, and count in their everyday life at home and how adults can respect and encourage this wonderful process. For human beings, he reminds us, learning is as n...

"Scientific studies conducted by Dr. Leonard Sagan, a medical epidemiologist, ... show that social class, education, life skills, and cohesiveness of family and community are key factors in determining life expectancy. Of all these factors, however, education has shown to be the most important. ... Hope, self-esteem, and education are the most important factors in creating daily health , no matter what our background or the state of our health in the past." Christiane Northrup, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom  p 27 (emphasis in original) Since homeschoolers tend to get a really good education, grow up feeling confident in their skin, and are often a part of a dynamic, diverse, and tight community, by homeschooling, you are benefiting your children's health and life expectancy. On self-esteem: "In addition, several studies have been done to measure homeschoolers’ 'self-concept,' which is the key objective indicator for establishing a child’s se...

My kids have never gone to regular school. My daughter spent three miserable days in a preschool till I said "Enough" and never went back. That's it. She's nine now, and her brother is five. Mostly we unschool. But I still find myself needing to shift my thinking away from the schooling mentality. I am getting my teaching license, but through an alternative program so I can teach for a homeschool enrichment program that my kids attend weekly and is offered through the public schools. As most homeschooling moms, I have looked at the local schools' websites to see where my kids might just fit in. I feel that professionally and as a member of society I always have one foot in the schooling door. However, any time I think about teaching full-time in a regular school, or enrolling my kids in school, I quickly come to the same conclusion: Nope. I am fully committed to homeschooling. I love the freedom my kids have to become themselves. I love that more than half of th...

We started the day in good spirits. While I took care of some housekeeping the kids began some simple workbook exercises. My son completed his kindergarten pages quickly, easily, and with good cheer. My daughter, who had nine math problems to complete, ended up curled in a tight ball, grunting and screaming at me. Half way through I asked her to go do some jump rope and come back when she was ready to work with me. Then I needed a break. Then I pulled the classic if-you-don't-work-with-me-you-have-to-go-to-school line. I've said it before. But this time, I meant it. I am totally fed up with her melt downs and I am ready to have someone else deal with her. In school she would struggle with anxiety, but she would never behave this way with a teacher. I said - and she heard me - that this was her last chance. I am tired of fighting her about math, writing, goal-setting, and every other little bit. While most of our homeschooling is life learning, reading books, and playing...

My nearly-five-year-old son is really, really into Pokemon. He's the kind of learner who goes deeply into something for a long time. When he was a baby, he loved bears. And bugs. As a toddler he discovered trains, and we learned a lot about Thomas' world and real trains. Then it was super heroes, and the world of good and bad, helping people, and team work. His latest obsession is Pokemon. As an eclectic homeschooling mom, I am fascinated to discover what he learns about the world through Pokemon. Lots of online sources will tell you how Pokemon the card game teaches statistics and algebra, but my son is just learning to read, so that level of the Pocket Monster world is not part of ours yet. But by engaging with and encouraging his interest, I see myriad layers of learning going on. Math Pokemon creatures are often combinations of real life creatures, like Bulbasaur, who is a cartoon dinosaur with a bulb on his back. As he evolves, the bulb sprouts into a bud and then an...

What a gorgeous, simple, and life-affirming book! Highly recommended. A Gardener's Alphabet by Mary Azarian (Houghton Mifflin, 2000) This would be a great companion to any gardening unit, or an inspiration for wood block printing and learning the read or learning letters.

You know what really irks me? Healers like my acupuncturist and chiropractor telling me that I just need to put my kids in school already. I get that parents who send their kids to school just don't understand what my life is like. I get they think it's a little crazy. But they do not need to tell me every single time I go get a treatment that I need to change this part of my life. It's not helpful. I'm working on the courage to say to them next time it comes up: "I'm not going to send my kids to school, so it's not really helpful to keep telling me to do so." That is all.

In my search for balance and inspiration in my homeschooling life, as well as my own personal journey that blends mystical Christianity, Paganism, and sustainable living, I have begun to identify what I think children need to learn today. While certainly schools and other formal learning communities could take this curriculum on, it may be more suited to homeschool families because it's about understanding the insufficiencies of our modern relationship with spirit and the heart, and about changing those to create a vibrant and healthy world inside and out. It's about being flexible, individually designed, and responsive to the world. Traditional learning skills, such as reading, writing, and math are learned through the following five areas, rather than as separate "subjects." As our society grows ever more diverse and we tap into a global force through the internet, environmental stewardship, and the global market, children and adults need to know how to think in an ...

So today my kids have learned (or at least encountered, no one really knows what a person has "learned," though you can be sure we are all learning all the time): How to clean mud off the floor. That while you may not care about the broken sword, you care about the person. Take a moment to  imagine what that other person feels like before saying you're sorry so that your being sorry is genuine and expresses some compassion. Egg whites don't whip when you get a little yolk in them. That some email accounts block certain kinds of emails and you have to contact Help to get your account going. That cookbooks can be wrong, recipes can be adapted, and then you learn from the finished product. But it still tastes good. It generally makes more work for yourself when you do things quickly and hyperactively. That imbalanced washing machines make great percussion instruments. It's harder to roller skate while holding dolls.