Mudspark Life Learning

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've been homeschooling using an eclectic approach for six years now (longer if you "count" preschool years), and I recently began tutoring schooled kids in reading. I find the way these brick-and-mortar-schooled students relate to reading to be heart breaking. Our country's acountability movement - where teachers' abilities are based on their students' growth measured by averages and generalities - is harming our children. They see themselves as stupid failures. Their parents, caught in the net of standardization, cause more harm by saying things in front of them like, "I don't know what happened. I think he's just lazy." The problem in schools isn't teachers' abilites. It isn't lazy children. It isn't too little or too much government control. The problem is that we have lost sight of what learning is really about. Imagine a scene where a mom comes to pick her daughter up from soccer practice. The coach hands Mom a piece o...

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...

Today we made lavender wands . We picked lavender from the front yard, peeled off the leaves and wove them with purple thread. My daughter struggles some with fine motor skills, and is a perfectionist, so this resulted in a huge blow up (on her part - I've been able to grow a lot of patience by identifying that a lot of her traits are very Aspie). After she calmed down, I sat with her on the couch and we wove hers together. I talked out loud about the tricky parts: "Ooh, here's the part we keep getting confused on because the flowers poke through." I wanted to model that it is hard while also helping her through it. Success! We got a wand and we moved through the "I'm bad at everything!" bit. Then she asked me what a lavender wand is used for. A friend of hers is getting interested in magic. I had explained that I would teach them magic if they are interested, but that magic and energy work are real and not something to just stumble around in, conjurin...

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...

I had a dream last night, inspired by my reading of Deschooling Our Lives (ed Matt Hern) and my attending a Town Hall meeting last night at which education came up a lot, where I told someone (a school board member? middle school principle?) how I would redesign our schools. Schools would meet for four hours a day (a flexible four hours? just mornings? afternoons?). Then instead of putting more money into schools, we invest in libraries, rec centers, museums, and professional partnerships like local attorneys, food pantries, hospitals, and municipal centers. Kids - say grades 4 through 12 - would choose what service projects or other interests they would pursue for the rest of the day. This could be anything from a sport to serving at a food pantry to studying Russian literature at a local library. It would be totally up to the student. Guidance counselors, teachers, and parents would help provide resources and direction based on the student's interests and goals. This would re...

My eldest spends a whole lotta time on the computer. It's either Animal Jam, Netflix - the same few shows - or sometimes Poptropica (she's almost 8). I worry. I fear I'm letting her brain rot. I fear she doesn't know how to self motivate, that I let her watch shows too early (she loved her Caillou and Baby Einstein shows). And simultaneously, I'm a big believer in unschooling, or letting my kids choose their path of learning. She likes My Little Pony, Powerpuff Girls, and Horseland. She used to be really really into Rugrats and All Grown Up. Occasionally, she'll check out something else recommended by the Netflix algorithms, like Ruby Gloom. Sometimes she'll watch some other fluff, like Maco Mermaids. When she's into a show, she watches it over and over, and I know there are important wheels turning as she watches these shows. But still I worry. Not about the content, as some parents might, just about the seeming inability to do anything else. Yes, s...

We participated in the Denver Botanic Gardens homeschool day last week, themed "nature and art." The stations were fun, including playing with clay after comparing clay soil to sand, dying yarn and squishing plant matter to "paint" paper, looking for patterns in plants and fruits, building Andy Goldsworthy inspired sculptures, and planting seeds. But I think some of the biggest learning happened just by observing. There were so many bees, and the kids (ages 2-8) were fascinated with the different kinds we saw (we learned later that there are 946 documented bee species in Colorado). We noticed what flowers they were drawn to, and which ones didn't have any bees on them. We watched water skippers, saw huge cabbages that had been chomped by something, smelled roses, and wandered through the tropical green house. One of the volunteers commented on how he wished he'd had activities like this when he was a kid, and implied that he wished more kids could do stuf...

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.