Around the World in 150 Days

Yes, after a year, I am finally getting back to writing on this page. A lot has happened in the year behind me. We relocated to Europe, my father became terminally ill, we rushed back to the states, my father died, and now I am here. Again. I would almost say I’m back where I started except that everything is so different now; even though the location is the same, the attitude and feelings are not.

So, I look forward to sharing lots of thoughts and ideas again, but with a different heart and a different way to look at the world.

Coming next will be my evaluation of a book, Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin, which was recommended to me by a friend who knows of my obsessive passion for education. (and he still wants to be my friend! LOL)

So, into the future, I’m looking forward to it.

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Zoo Field Trip – learning about more than just animals

WARNING:

Planning and map reading skills in use.

We recently took a trip to the zoo. Squirrel had a zoo map that he had saved from our last trip to the zoo (almost a year ago). As we are preparing to leave he makes a big deal about packing his backpack with the map. This was very important to him. But we didn’t realize how important until we got to the zoo and he pulls out the map and proceeds to inform us of what he wants to see and how to get there.

So, yes… We got to see lots of animals and observe their behavior in a controlled environment and all of the normal zoo stuff. The map reading was an extra bonus. I love unschooling. It’s amazing what they come up with all on their own.

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Unschooling is hard and dangerous work

Sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing.

I love unschooling. But it is very hard sometimes. So often I want to jump in and try to manipulate the learning process. And every time I do that, learning stalls. It is hard to be patient and let my kids learn what they need to learn when they are ready to learn it.

Just recently my husband was talking to me about Pumpkin and how she needed to start working on her multiplication tables. Sure, she is at the age when they start learning it at school. So we picked up some books at the library and proceeded to instruct her. What a Stonewall Jackson she can be.

“I don’t want to.”

“I already read that book.”

“Why can’t I do [insert any other activity] instead?”

Bah. Headache followed frustration.

And really. Was this all necessary? I just recently talked to her Sunday School teacher. She had nothing but glowing praise for Pumpkin. How much better she was at reading than the other kids. How Pumpkin was able to look up Bible verses without any help, unlike the other kids. And how she noticed that Pumpkin went almost instantly from not reading at all to being almost totally independent.

We had the same frustrations with reading a couple of years ago that we are having with math now. We kept trying to MAKE her read. Kept trying to force it because we were afraid that she was somehow BEHIND. But once we left her alone and backed off, suddenly she started asking about reading books in the older kids section of the library. Suddenly she started talking to us about different books that she had read (that we didn’t even know she was reading!) Suddenly she was asking to look up more information on little tidbits that she had read here and there. (Like “Are there any reptiles that don’t lay eggs?”) Suddenly she was an independent reader. All without any headache, any effort, and distress. She became a reader because she wanted to and because she was ready for it.

This, for me, is the hardest part of unschooling. I want to be involved. I want to do something. I’ve got years of pedagogical experience. Come on! I’m important. You can’t learn without a teacher!

… or can you?

“Knowledge is fixed in time, whereas, knowing is continual. Knowledge comes from a sourse, from an accumulation, from a conclusion, while knowing is a movement.”

“The additive process is merely a cultivation of memory which becomes mechanical. Learning is never cumulative; it is a movement of knowing which has no beginning and no end.”

~Bruce Lee, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Learning a new language?

How do you learn a foreign language when you don’t know anyone who knows the language?

We are getting ready for a big move to Europe. One of the biggest obstacles for travel… and homeschooling… is learning a foreign language.

Our family is learning Czech. It’s not the most common language out there. I don’t know anyone that speaks it. There are no local college courses to learn it. (And I am working on a limited budget, so even if there were classes available, cost would be an issue). So what to do. Rosetta Stone is a very popular program available, but the results are iffy and the cost is steep. So I did some searching and found Byki. They have a free express program that you can download right onto your computer for over 70 different languages. And, of course, upgrading to a paid and more indepth program is available.

They use the typical flashcard method. Very effective and very easy. And it incorporates both reading, writing, and listening. (Speaking if you talk to yourself or other family members out loud!) They have an easy to use special character system that allows you to type in the words using the special characters. So no need to invest in a foreign keyboard or rework your computer. And even though the express program is free it is jam packed with words and phrases. And you also have the option to download more free lists from their server. Very cool.

Once the program is downloaded, you can add other users onto the same computer. So me, my husband, and each of the kids can have their own file on one computer. You go through the list practicing the words and phrases. And it saves all the words you’ve learned. Then, when you go back another day, you can start a new list or review an old list. It is very easy to use. And I like that you are learning to read and write the language as well as speak and hear it. Typing in the correct answer can be a bit of a pain sometimes. For example, “I am will be considered wrong if the program recognizes “I’m”. But with just a few clicks of the mouse you can have the computer remember it, as well as excuse a couple of typos or forgotten punctuation.

They even have a “stale items” list that helps you to stay fresh on words that you don’t use very often. I’ve been really impressed with how easy and effective it is to use. I haven’t purchased the upgraded version as I am still working through the free lists. But I can’t believe how much WOW there is on just the free version.

So if your home schooler is keen to learn a new language, or if you are getting ready to do some traveling, I highly recommond Byki. Even the youngest kids (4 and 5) have been using it.

Old Dogs, New Math – book review and give away

Old Dogs, New Math: homework help for puzzled parents

Many thanks to The Experiment Publishing for sending me this book to review and offering to give a book away to one lucky reader!

Now onto the juicy bits…

I was a bit worried at first, but very curious. Math is NOT my strong point. And, following the principles of unschooling, I pretty much let my kids try to figure out a lot of stuff on their own after pointing them in the right direction. Plus, my husband is a whiz at math. So I manage to avoid a lot of painful questions by directing them to their father. But there are times when they ask me questions and I try to answer. They don’t know that I am struggling, but it is awkward and frustrating for me.

I was pleased to discover that this book was VERY easy to read. I mean, it was like reading a joke book or a choose-your-own-adventure book. Really easy. I was surprised. They made my difficulties seem rather brainless with simple explanations and examples. There are even little puzzles and games.

And what’s really fun for educational geeks like me… they explain how things used to be taught, how they are taught now, why teaching methods have changed, and why those changes make it difficult for parents to help their kids.

They also have test questions with real life kid answers and point out facts that help you discover how the kid got the answer (Nothing trickier for the parent than trying to figure out how and why the answer the kid came up with the wrong answer!)

My teenager even started reading it. He didn’t get very far because I kept hiding the book from him. (Oops) But he keeps bugging me for it. So that’s a pretty good sign too.

It is broken down into nice little sections:

Preparation – this is mostly for the parents covering such painful topics as “how do I overcome my own fear of math?” to “why do they do it differently these days?” as well as everyday tools that can be used for math education and an approximate grade/age guideline for math education in schools.

Arithmetic–And How It Has Changed – this goes into basic mathematics. There are nice simple to understand explanations, examples, and pictures, and even games to play.

Beyond Arithmetic – now we start getting into fractions and decimals and a little bit of geometry.

Questions and Answers – this not only has the answers to the puzzles that they give you throughout the book, but it also covers questions your kids will encounter throughout their schooling along with the answers (with or without a calculator). The best thing is they explain HOW to get the correct answer (and if there is more than one way to come to the correct answer they show that too).

And finally – of course there is a glossary and index and stuff.

Now, the big test. My daughter asks me the question “How old where you when I was 3?” So I pull out this handy little book and launch into an explanation of number lines and stuff. Not sure how much it helped her, but I sure felt a lot more confident.

Sure Math and fun didn’t seem to go together for me either. But let’s face it, math is a reality of school life. And we all want to help our kids to succeed. How can we help them if we don’t know how to play? This book makes that math nightmare less scary and much more fun.

And now for the give away!

The Experiment has agreed to send out a book to one of my readers. So how do you get one?

1. Mention this contest in your blog/tweet/Facebook status/forum. (Please don’t spam forums and groups. Only post on a forum or group if it is allowed and you are a regular member.)
2. Leave a comment on this post with a valid email address and a link to your posting. Please use a valid email address so I can contact you if you win.
3. Comments must be received by Sunday December 12, 2010 at midnight CST. Anyone who comments more than 3 times forfeits their chances. The winner will be selected by random drawing and announced on Thursday December 16, 2010.

The Sun – science study made easy thanks to the internet

We started the day by reading a little book we aquired years ago. It’s just a small little pamphlet from NASA, but they enjoy reading it. On the last page we were referred to the NASA website (http://stp.gsfc.nasa.gov) and they wanted to check it out. And away we went.

We started by looking at some of the pictures of the sun, stars, and the galaxy. We stumbled across some pictures of a new group of stars being born. “What! Stars are born? How does that happen?”

So we start digging some more…

Pulling up handy google search we type in “how are stars born” and we get a list of university websites and research pages and so on. “No mom, type in video after it so we can find some movies about stars.” Oh, okay. And we find more info. Some of them are videos of professors discussing stars and astronomy.

Good stuff, but the kids were not really that interested in a dry lecture – even though it was a topic they wanted to study. So we kept digging and found a few handy resources.

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Very cool, but this video didn’t have any explanations.

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That’s better. And How Stuff Works also queued up more videos that were related or in a series. After this group, we watched a whole series on “Savage Sun”.

New Math – Fun with Cards

I’m reading Old Dogs, New Math by Rob Eastaway and Mike Askew. It inspired me to try out some ideas with the kids to encourage math learning. So, today we spent some time playing cards.

First we played “13”. A solitary card game my mother taught me when I was a wee young lass. You start out by making a pyramid with the cards. Seven rows, with the top and bottom rows face-up, starting with one card in the first row and ending with seven cards in the bottom row. All cards are face value numbers, with the Jack for 11, Queen for 12, and King for 13. The objective is to clear the cards by matching up pairs to equal 13.

Even the five year old was counting and subtracting, trying to figure out which cards he would need to equal 13. The eight year old quickly figured out the 6+7 ALWAYS equals 13. And they all had fun.

After lunch we played “21” (which is really just Black Jack without the gambling debt). I’m sure most of you know the rules, but just in case – you start out with two cards (for older kids, one face-down, and the second face-up). And you hit (for more cards) or hold to try to get as close to 21 without going over, or “bust”. As you can see, the five-year old was all about the counting.

And we got to incorporate the number line into the whole fun as we tried to figure out what cards we would need to get close to 21 without going over. There was also the added bonus of aces being used for 1 or 11 added to the math fun.

Stay tuned for more on this interesting book. The teenager is reading it right now to see what all the fuss is about and I will be writing a review in the next few weeks. The publisher has also agreed to send a copy of this book to one of my lucky readers so stay tuned for more math fun. (Is that an oxymoron or can math really be that interesting?)

*Thanks to The Experiment Publishing for sending me a copy of Old Dogs, New Math to review.

John Stossel talks (again) about Education – Reform and Bureaucracy

Meet a teacher’s union rep, a principal (administrator), a superintendent (administrator), and an online school administrator and they’ll tell you everything that they are doing right for schools.

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Hulu – Stossel: Thu, Sep 16, 2010 – Watch the f…, posted with vodpod

Testing our way to the top.

Pay close attention and you will see that they ALL believe that the only way to gauge success is through standardized test score results. Sure, standardized tests are one way to analyze achievement and measure success. But is it the only way? Tests are easy to administer. They are cheap (compared to one on one analysis of each individual student). And they can be measured and graphed and compared. But is passing a test success? Is squeezing every child into one narrow desired outcome practical, successful, or desirable?

How do you define success?

So, is educational success passing grades, good test scores?  What about higher rates of college enrollment? I’m not so sure. These numbers can also be misleading. Maybe employment rates? Hmmn… Maybe it should be average salaries? Well, that doesn’t explain everything either. There are a lot of perfectly content people living on modest salaries as well as a corresponding group of extremely wealthy people living in misery.

Let me tell a short personal story. My brother graduated 3rd in our class (he was 1st, but he began to methodically lower his grade our senior year when he discovered that 1st and 2nd ranks would have to give a speech at graduation. The valedictorian and salutatorian where thrilled that they finally “beat” him.) So, what did these good grades get him? Well, he scored top scores on the ACT, got into a major league university, and had a nervous breakdown. Now he’s working at Burger King, living with our parents, and on psych meds for depression and schizophrenia. Sounds like a success story? But he did so well in school.

The first step to revolutionizing education is to clearly define success.

Apparently, focusing on test scores is not working.  We are still stuck with the same system. This is a bit of a quandary. If we can’t all agree on what is meant by success, how can we improve education? When running a race, there is obviously a winner and a loser. Somebody crosses the finish line first. But this assumes that the 2nd place runner didn’t gain anything by racing. And it also assumes that everybody is running the same race and has the same goals.

Is it wise to try to guarantee results?

In an earlier post I talked about equality of opportunity versus equality of results. In something as beautifully fluctuating as life, we can’t guarantee the outcome of education. There are too many variables, too many individual choices. All we can do is provide resources, learn to accept the consequences of our choices, and be ready to adapt and learn throughout our lives.

In a previous Stossel episode comparing libertarians to conservatives, John Stossel quotes Milton Friedman,

“As has often been acknowledged by conservative writers, one of the fundamental traits of the conservative attitude is a fear of change, a timid distrust of the new as such, while the [libertarian*] position is based on courage and confidence, on a preparedness to let change run its course even if we cannot predict where it will lead.”

He seems to have forgotten the libertarian view of life when talking about educational reform. We cannot guarantee success through standardized education. But we CAN be ready for change in our life and create success wherever our choices lead us.

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*Friedman uses the term liberal, meaning the European usage of liberal which is the American usage of libertarian. It can become confusing with the American established definition of liberal being so different from the European, that I just went ahead and edited that single word.

11 TED talks for Parents listed on Christian Colleges and Universities Website

I was just directed to an interesting little site. It is a listing and resource for online higher education at a group of religious schools. The list is predominantly Christian, but I think they are trying to be as comprehensive as possible. So this is definitely a site that almost anyone could look into.

And their blog is fascinating. Articles of lists. What a neat concept. And that’s where I found the 11 TED talks for parents. Carl Honore and the “Slow Movement”; Gever Tulley and the Tinkering School; Ken Robinson and an educational revolution (I reviewed this video here on P&E); Laura Trice and the power of “Thank you”; Adora Svitak and what parents can learn from their kids; Kiran Bir Sethi and believing that “I can”; Cameron Herold and allowing entrepreneurship and experimenting in our kids’ lives; John Wooden and the true meaning of success; Stuart Brown and the importance of playing; Liz Coleman and exploring different interests and hobbies instead of focusing on one. It’s a jam-packed list!

The joy of learning you’re going to become a parent is usually followed by a panicked question: “Wait, how do I do this?” The parenting advice business is a big one, with thousands and thousands of available titles for parents to choose from; so many, in fact, that it can tough to know where to start. If you’re a young parent or an old hand looking for fresh advice, these talks from the TED conference might be able to help. They focus on parenting, relationships, and the best way to form and execute the kind of big-picture plans that are vital for parental success.

Read the rest of the article and watch the videos here…

Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose on the Right Network

I just finished watching Free to Choose, Milton Friedman’s classic award-winning PBS television episode that was the first of what was supposed to be a 10 part series. Milton Friedman was a Nobel Prize winning economist and a staunch advocate of liberty, democracy, and truly free markets. The Right Network is airing Free to Choose and it is available on the inline. Yahoo for us crazy people without television.

The Right Network is a new television network that just started in September. They have a whole lineup of libertarian minded shows. I’m not sure which cable and satelite companies have picked them up as I don’t watch television. I do all my viewing right off the internet. But I’m pretty interested in seeing how this network plays out.

The fundamental idea behind Free to Choose is distinguishing between the difference between equality of OPPORTUNITY and equality of RESULTS. Understanding the vital difference between philosophies and direction is crucial.

Equality of results is a pipe dream.

If you are more concerned with equality of RESULTS, then you want to make sure that everybody ends up in the same place. You want and expect everyone to have the same kind of living standard, the same kind of grades on transcripts, the same kind of homes, the same kind of lives.

Did anyone see that episode of Fairly Odd Parents where Timmy wished that everyone was the same. This is how unrealistic the concept of “equality of results” is. It is just not possible to guarantee that everyone will have the same outcomes. Nor would it be practical or advisable.
The concept of “Success for all” is not new. In fact, Success for all was the classroom management program used at one of the schools where I taught. And don’t forget “Failure is Not an Option” that was the battle cry of the Hope Foundation. Or what about “No Child Left Behind”? These bizarre philosophies set impossible expectations and mandates for everyone without clearly defining or understanding that success is different for everyone, and failure is an excellent tool for learning.

Equality of Opportunity means everyone can have their own brand of success

On the other hand, if you see the importance of equality through OPPORTUNITY, you have a whole different world open up before your eyes. This is equality in a very real, practical, and possible sense. If you want to sell brownies, you don’t have to jump through ten-thousand hoops of bureaucratic red tape to get the necessary licenses, certificates, building permits and God knows what else, on top of paying out fees to every governmental agency that wants to get involved in your business. You can just start making brownies and sell them to people who want them.

And it’s not just brownies, almost anything that you could possibly imagine has some kind of regulation or restriction making it difficult for the average Joe to do anything. Sure, the rich bureaucrat or mega-corp owner can afford to have other people jump through those pesky hoops. But how is this equal? The socialistic method would be to take the resources away from the wealthy and give them to the poor. But this doesn’t work either. People just want to have a chance to do something that they love doing, without being hammered down by the system.

And the same in schools. Why do we expect cookie cutter children. They are wondrous in their differences. Each child growing up into a unique individual who can produce and contribute in their own way. But we use punishment, peer pressure, and pharmaceuticals to stamp out individuality in favor of conformity, obedience and easy management.

So what is the answer?

There is no one answer. Take a risk and go for a more individualized education for your children. Even if it means plunging into the unknown. Even if it means not knowing what to expect. Why cater to a broken and failing system just because you are familiar with it, just because you know what the typical outcome is.