flynn011

Since re-reading Michael Gurian's book  The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life , I've been thinking about my provision for my sons in a whole new light.   My 3-year-old is still supposedly in non-school mode -- a bit of Montessori practical life here, a bit of reading or writing there, and a lot of playing cars with his 5-year-old sister. My 7-year-old, however, has had a mixed bag over the past year of success and stress, and it's for him that I need to make some changes Here's what definitely worked : having a daily checklist for him to tick off his accomplishments; getting a chance to work on the computer once he had finished his work for the day; map skills (by both  Carson-Dellosa and School Specialty Publishing ); the new handwriting program called  Write from the Start ; playing active games before we started school such as "The Giant Says" (ie, Simon Says but with a gobbling-up bit when you do it wrong); and ...

Mouths full of food, cups of tea at our side, children playing bubbles outside or finishing up their radio plays for the day's topic, our last co-op of the year was typical of our two-weekly meetings. Various discussions followed about our plans next year, about who might join our group, about the topics we could cover. And then this bizarre but funny conversation started. It went something like this: Mum 1: I've got so much time now that I've been cross with my husband and stopped ironing his shirts. Mum 2: I don't own anything that I iron. Mum 3: I think we should all save the planet and just stop ironing altogether.  In fact, I want to design t-shirts that say: "Go Green: Stop Ironing!" Mum 2: Why do we iron anyway? Mum 3: I think it all started with posh people -- they could afford to have servants who ironed for them, and then everyone else wanted flat clothes, too -- to look posh. Mum 1: I think there are some parts of the world where you really have to ...

Recently, my 7-year-old son was asked to participate in a survey of Sunday school provision at our church.  I was intrigued by some of his answers, and thought they could offer insight into homeschooling as well. His first point was that the crafts at Sunday school were too easy and sometimes the subject matter lacked challenge.  (I suspect these are the times when his behaviour deteriorates, and he gets silly or distracting.) One solution may be to make sure he knows why  he's asked to do this craft or talk about that subject.  According to a Schools Improvement Officer in an article appearing on-line at  Teaching Expertise , a boy won't engage with something if he doesn't see the sense or purpose in doing it.  That's why it's important for him to "talk through and share ideas before he puts pen to paper", so he's got a good grasp of what he's aiming for and why. I realise that I've accidentally gone through this process with my son in somethi...

To my mind, there’s nothing better than staying home to learn and to live.  We spend our 2 1/2 hours every morning in our school room, not always getting through "the plan", but always focussing on something that’s interesting and stimulating. The picture to the right, for example, was taken on a day we had been learning about whales in the Apologia Science text, called "Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures on the 5th Day."  The photo shows how long a blue whale actually is, tracing back to our starting point where the sidewalk ends in the distance. One welcomed addition this year is our opening routine.  We do stretches called "yes, no, maybe", starting with our heads (yes and no are self-explanatory, but maybe is tilting your head side-to-side to point each ear toward your shoulder).   Then we have adapted an idea called Five Rhythm Dance to a music appreciation segment.  Using something like "Bolero", we start off with slow, ...

I'm not talking sodium nitrate and colouring and collagen casings here -- I'm talking a fun game that you can play with your children that's especially useful if someone is upset or grumpy or out of sorts. First, I'll admit that this game wasn't my idea. I got it from a book called "The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun" by Carol Stock Kranowitz. An "out-of-sync" child has many guises: over-hyper, total couch potato, extra-clumsy. All these symptoms and several in between could be indications of Sensory Integration Disorder, where a child's brain doesn't quite register senses properly. I still haven't decided if my 7-year-old has a form of this -- he definitely requires over-stimulation to feel right, such as going to bed with a flashlight shining in his eyes and never being able to find his "inside voice". I've decided, however, that the label of SID isn't as important as Kranowitz's suggestions for tackling it, whic...

If you’re new to homeschooling, then sooner or later you’re going to want to explore the whole issue of different methods to try. Here’s a short explanation of the main methods in a nutshell. First, there’s the school-at-home option.  This is where you try to imitate the kind of schooling you probably grew up with: desk work, worksheets, workbooks, perhaps computer-based lessons, schedules, grades.  Some people try to cobble together a version of this with different curricula, while others might opt to purchase a comprehensive curriculum such as Sonlight or the Bob Jones University Press materials.  Pros: it’s all done for you.  Cons: it’s expensive, and sometimes, it’s difficult to pinpoint the right level for your child. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the un-schooling method.  Perhaps it would be better labelled as the child-led method since un-schooling smacks of doing nothing.  Most educators and parents come to realise that children are natur...

If you’ve got a boy, then chances are that you are worried about his reading attainment.  Maybe it’s just a gut feeling, if you homeschool, or it’s there in black and white every time you receive a school report or have a parents’ evening. You aren’t imagining things – boys often read less well than girls. The statistics are sobering: the average boy reads 1-1/2 years behind the average girl; he reads less than 30 minutes a day; he’s likely to be 7-percentage points behind the average girl in reading assessment at the end of primary-school age. Then there are the scare stories – men with poor literacy struggle with lasting relationships later in life; 43% live alone; 22% still live with their parents; only 50% are satisfied with their lives, while those with good literacy rank at 78%. Something must be done, right? (You don't want your son living at home with you when he's grown, do you?) Here are some quick tips for improving your son’s reading ability. First, don’t panic....