Learn at Every Turn

Two follow-up notes:

First, Landry has taken up my challenge. He is working at writing up his best arguments for changing my computer game rule. He is struggling with what approach he wants to take. Does he want to argue for a complete abandonment of the rule or simply an amendment? If the latter, what amendment? I am observing his process with interest. I'm not sure he wont abandon his task, but it still seems to be a worthwhile effort.

Second, Landry just informed me that he and his brothers used Legos to build a small cannon that will shoot five Legos (scatter shot) half way across our great room. Okay, I'm not especially delighted that they are building weapons of destruction (mass or not), but I love that they did this of their own volition. This is the sort of creativity that fills the void left whenever the boys are made to put aside electronic devices.

So, Landry, if you are reading this, and I know you are, explain to me how more time with electronic devices will not destroy the wonderful, creative play in which you and your brothers engage when you are not obsessively playing with or talking about your electronic entertainment? How is engaging in more computer time going to encourage you and your brothers to seek out and enjoy the toys, activities, and friends around you in the real world to which you become oblivious once you can play on the computer, iphone, etc.? Therein lies your strongest argument for changing my computer rule.

On my request, I received a copy of Homeschooling Gifted and Advanced Learners from Prufrock Press for review. I only wish I had had this book when I began homeschooling seven years ago.

In a little less than 140 pages, Cindy West manages to address the major issues involved in educating these children who simply need more. Among other topics, West discusses definitions of giftedness, advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling gifted children and of different homeschooling approaches, learning styles, adapting curriculum to a child's strengths and weaknesses, differentiating instruction between more than one gifted child, project-based learning, organization and record keeping, various options for socialization, and planning for college. Throughout the text, West provides toolboxes with resources specific to each topic and an additional 20 pages of resources at the end of the book. In my experience, she provides an good survey of both secular and religious resources. 

Furthermore, the author knows of what she writes. West holds a masters degree in education. Even more compelling, she is a 14-year veteran of homeschooling her own gifted children.

I would definitely recommend this book for novice homeschoolers of gifted children. While I am now familiar with most of the information in this book, it took me years of research to discover most of it. This small book would have made my journey far easier. Furthermore, I think a good argument could be made that this book would be valuable to any novice homeschooler because the sections on learning styles, approaches to curriculum, differentiating curriculum, and socialization are thorough and applicable to all. Finally, even as an experienced homeschooler, I intend to retain this book in my collection in part for the resources listed and in part for the chapter on preparing for college.

I purposely chose not to include the title of this article in my post's title because I'm not sure it is the best title for the original post. However, the content is fantastic.

M J Hayes' post at Life Among the Gifted entitled, School is Irrelevant, is one of the best posts about homeschooling and how to approach it that I have seen in a long time. She articulates my own instincts and goals. I undoubtedly fail, but these are the goals for which I strive when creating my homeschooling environment.

KJ Dell'Antonia at the New York Time's Motherlode blog wrote an interesting post on the benefits of reading books rather that e-books with children. I'm not sure that the issues mentioned surrounding e-books are insurmountable, but I think being aware of them has value.

I'm away from home for a long weekend of reading, writing, and recouping. As a result, I finally have time to read and evaluate an ever-growing list of blog posts and articles in my RSS reader. So, I suspect this is the first in a series of posts addressing the post and articles I deem pertinent and interesting.

The first is Why Education Without Creativity Isn't Enough by Anya Kamenetz which was originally posted at Fast Company. While this article does not directly address homeschooling, it looks at what is working in our educational system and the future of jobs in America. I think those insights are valuable for those of use shaping the curriculum of the next generation of workers.

Lately, I've been having a recurring go around with my oldest son. You see, I made the decision to limit computer games to two hours on Friday and two hours on Saturday.

I realize that many may disagree with my decision to draw an absolute line in the sand on this issue. Truthfully, my parenting inclinations would not typically run along this line. So, you will just have to trust me when I say that every fiber of my maternal instinct feels this is the right decision on this issue for my boys at this point. Interestingly enough, their serious-gamer father supports my decision.

That said, lawyering genes run deep in my family. My father was well respected for his abilities by his clients and colleagues, including a former California Supreme Court Justice. I am also a lawyer by profession, although inactive, and I spent my youth honing my skills by debating with him. No topic was off limits, and discussions were a normal part of our daily lives. It was a wonderful experience.

Those same genes showed up early in Landry. I remember very distinctly the day he stood at the refrigerator and explained to me that he was thirsty, milk contained protein, and protein was good for him. Puzzled at first as to what he was doing, it dawned on me that, rather than just ask for yet another glass of milk which I would probably deny, he was arguing to his one-person jury. He was around three years old at the time.

Lately, my beloved son has been making end runs on my computer time rule. I've heard every possible counter proposal in the last couple of weeks. Today, I was taken into my office for a serious discussion about how my rule might be affecting his friendships. (I confirmed with a parent of the child in question that this in fact was not the case.)

Tonight, I received one final salvo. Landry argued for five hours instead of four and implicitly placed the burden of proof on me to explain my choice of four hours. In a moment of exasperation, I came up with a brilliant solution. If Landry could type a cogent, persuasive argument with a serious analysis of his reasons for requesting a fifth hour, his father and I would give his "brief" serious consideration. 

Suffice it to say, Landry dropped the matter this time. However, I will not hesitate use this approach again, nor will I be surprised when we hit an issue of such importance that he does produce the requested writing. Indeed, I will not only be unsurprised, I will be looking forward to it.

I must admit that I am exhausted tonight. We've had a couple of long days of homeschooling. The boys are doing great, but I could use a nap, a cup of coffee that I consume before it's room temperature, and two hours of uninterrupted silence.

So, this will be a very short post.  

In February, Stanford University's Nick Parlante will conduct a free online Computing 101 class. Follow this link to learn more and to sign up. 

Enjoy!

This isn't the post I planned for tonight. But, sometimes, things just need to be said.

Kipp continued with Project Feederwatch and the BirdSleuth curriculum today. Things aren't going perfectly, and I simply do not care.

Kipp put out two feeders a little over a week ago. He designated one feeder for the Project Feederwatch count, and the other just for his added amusement. The Project Feederwatch sock is in the back of the house and is filled with nyger seed. It will attract one kind of bird: goldfinches. The other feeder is a bowl of mixed seeds that sits on the railing of our front deck and will attract a wider variety of birds and the occasional squirrel. (I'm confident of these results because we've used these feeders in these locations on prior occasions.)

Kipp chose the sock as the Project Feederwatch count site because it is typically mobbed by goldfinches. This makes counting fairly easy because Kipp must only identify and count one species. 

After a week, the front feeder is beginning to get some attention by a couple of varieties of birds.  However, no goldfinches have visited the back feeder, so Kipp's counts have been rather uninteresting. (He is recording them, nonetheless.) This is not exactly the exciting scientific pursuit for which I'd hoped. And yet, as I've written, I'm still delighted.

Today, we pulled out the BirdSleuth science curriculum and attacked the first activity. After reading and discussing different types of seeds, feeders and bird beaks, Kipp sorted out and identified the different seeds in our mix and researched which birds eat which seeds. He seemed to genuinely enjoy his task.

While Kipp worked on the activity, I happened to remember that the kit included the children's bird journal and the guide describing the habits of various birds. Now, Kipp is my daydreamer son. Kipp is my son who has wonderful ideas and the ability to easily read above grade level, but would prefer not to pick up a pencil or read anything beyond comic strips, thank you very much. Never in a million years did I think Kipp would give the journal and guide more than a passing glance. And yet, when I looked over, he was busy identifying the birds on our front deck and writing their names in his journal. He then started thumbing through the guide and reading sections aloud to me about goldfinches to figure out why they were not appearing at the feeder. When he was finished, he was actually concerned about where he should store the journal and guide so he could keep them handy. Considering the ability to put anything away is completely lacking in my progeny, I about choked.

I will continue to update Kipp's progress. However, if these materials continue to enervate him to use his skills to pursue his evident interest, I will have to conclude that this has been a success.

Life in the Peters household has finally returned to normal. Everyone is truly healthy for the first time in a month. We salvaged a couple of days at the end of winter break to have a bit of fun, and we returned to homeschooling this morning.

Before turning to homeschooling, I want to add a personal note. If this isn't of interest, skip down five paragraphs to my initial comments on Project Feederwatch.

This winter break was eye-opening for me. Obviously, we were very sick in ways that suggested all of us were run down and exhausted, probably because last semester was unbelievably stressful. We took on the challenges of homeschooling all three, a new job, a possible move across two states, additional classes and activities, and a new charter. At the same time, my annual physical made abundantly clear that I must give my own well being higher priority, rather than putting homeschooling and work first. Finally, it seems clearer with each passing day that the boys are growing up. While college is still comfortably far away, I want to enjoy more of my time with my boys more.

Those experiences have coalesced into what I hope will be a new approach to homeschooling. Instead of asking myself each night what was not accomplished during the day, I want to ask myself if the boys learned that day, if we made a connection in some way. I want to worry less about whether every "i" is dotted and "t" is crossed or whether we are going to be five minutes late for an event. Rather, I want to focus on helping the boys learn in a meaningful way each day and enjoying watching that process.

I suspect that the outward appearance of our homeschooling will not change terribly much. The boys will still progress through their studies much as they did last semester. However, I think our homeschooling may feel very different. And that could make all of the difference.

As an aside, I am apparently not alone in my thoughts. My friend, Suji, at Funschooling wrote what I consider an excellent post in a similar vein, and I would very much suggest reading it if you have a chance.

Turning our regularly scheduled programing, I did want to update on Kipp's Project Feederwatch progress. In the haze of the last month, we received a wonderful package from BirdSleuth full of interesting goodies, including a Peterson Field Guide for Young Naturalists: Backyard Birds, a kid's bird log, a bird seed sock and a substantial curriculum packet detailing seven investigations.


Kipp has officially started Project Feederwatch. He read how the projects works, set up his online account, decided on his count days, and hung his feeder outside the window of our homeschool room.

Kipp also enjoyed playing an online game to help train a computer to aid bird identification. Today and tomorrow are his first count days. We hope to dive into the the first investigation in the BirdSleuth curriculum this week.

My initial thoughts are that, although we have not accomplished a great deal yet, Kipp seems engaged and interested in this project. I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes us.   

Really, I haven't stopped blogging. The boys' winter break at their new charter did not start until the Friday before Christmas. The school transition left me only days to pull Christmas together. We did have a wonderful Christmas Day, but, within 24 hours, Kipp came down with a fever and stomach flu. Galen joined in at 1:30 this morning. My guess is it will go through our family.

So, hang tight. I have some wonderful posts planned in my notebook.

In the meantime, have a Happy (and Healthy) New Year!!

Since I have to rest, I took time to update my sidebars to accurately reflect the boys' current projects, my homeschooling blog roll, and our current reading material.

Things are a bit quiet here, literally. Over the past week and a half, each of the boys has been felled by a nasty cold virus and fever. Kipp and Landry appear to be solidly on the road to health, but Galen and I were plagued most recently and are still in the midst of the battle. In my case, the virus has robbed me of my voice for the better part of five day, and my gasping rasp has put a serious damper on homeschooling.

On more interesting fronts, I received a reply from the nice people at BirdSleuth, and they have agreed to provide me with a copy of their homeschool curriculum for review as Kipp participates in Project Feederwatch. As soon as we are all up and about, we are very excited to start. I'm hoping to make regular posts on our progress.

Finally, I seem to be on a roll in terms of reviews. Prufrock Press recently published Cindy West's Homeschooling Gifted and Advanced Learners. At my request, Prufrock has also agreed to provide a copy for review. The blurb looks very promising, and I hope to have my review posted in the next couple of weeks. 

For now, however, I'm just looking forward to being able to voice my opinions once again!

A while back, I posted that I felt we were going through a period of changes. It appears that we have completed that period for the time being. I'll try to summarize briefly since they may not be very interesting to some readers.

In our personal lives, Jerry accepted an offer for a new job about a month ago. It is a virtual position, so he is still working from home, and the outward appearance of our lives has not changed much. However, he is enjoying his new colleagues and his new work, and I'm delighted that he is finding some job satisfaction.

On the homeschooling front, we have been accepted into a new charter. As I mentioned before, Jerry and I became concerned that the boys didn't have enough opportunities to be active in our local community and to form friendships closer to home. While exploring various groups, our friends nudged us to investigate their charter school. We finally did and discovered a world of opportunities that we felt we could not let the boys miss. The charter is impacted, however. So, I completed my paperwork with the idea that we were getting in line for next fall. On Tuesday, however, we received a call saying that the new charter had found space for all three boys, and they will start their next week.

Finally, Jerry received notice yesterday afternoon that he passed his CISSP certification. For those not familiar, passing the examination is the first step to receiving his certification as a computer security expert. The exam itself is six straight hours of insanely complex questions covering every aspect of security, including building design, software and hardware, personnel, law and more. He must still undergo a background check, but passing the exam, on his first try and without benefit of a review course, is an accomplishment by itself.

So, those are the changes that have been occurring behind the scenes of Learn at Every Turn over the last six weeks or so.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled homeschool talk..

I think I've mentioned probably all too often how I would like to encourage the boys to pursue projects that interest them as part of their education. I'm not as concerned about Galen at this point because he is still very young, although if he shows a particular interest in a certain subject, I do try to pursue that with him. And Landry has found two projects currently. First, he has started a very small business of fixing computers. He has been sufficiently successful to purchase his own Kindle. Second, he has taken over Moxie Mail from me.

This leaves Kipp. His first choice and mine would involve robotics. However, I haven't been able to find an outlet in our area, and his father, the robotics expert, is busier now that he has a new job. At the same time, Kipp has always had an interest in wild birds. We keep a bird identification poster by our windows, and he identified the birds on our deck for years.

Working from that lead, we signed up for Project Feederwatch once more. For those unaware of this project, people of all ages set up feeders for wild birds and keep counts of the different type of birds that arrive over a several month period. That data is then given to Cornell University to aid in a real research project. We've tried it in the past, but didn't make a great deal of progress because I think the boys were too young. This time, it will be Kipp's project to set up and maintain the feeder, collect the data and record it on Cornell's website. Furthermore, I believe they have expanded the program for homeschoolers. Project Feederwatch offers a free curriculum for homeschoolers. They also offers a more in-depth curriculum by BirdSleuth for sale.

I know at least one reader is hoping that I will review both the free curriculum and Bird Sleuth's curriculum. To that end, I've downloaded the free curriculum and requested a copy of BirdSleuth's curriculum for review, but have yet to hear from BirdSleuth directly. I'll update when I do. We did, however, receive our packet from Project Feedwatch today. I'm hoping Kipp will get the project up and running in the next week or so.

 And that's the latest news!

Having had a full week off, this week is quickly aligning itself to be mildly overwhelming. So, I'm settling for a quick post now and hoping I get time for more later.

I love the idea of community service. It is very important to me to raise children who are grateful for what they have and feel compelled to make this world a better place. (Apparently, it also doesn't hurt college applications as this article from MIT makes clear, but that really isn't on my radar at this point.)

For that reason, I love the Volunteer Family website. This website permits me to search by zipcode to find volunteer activities in my community.

Enjoy!

This week, I came across a Nova episode entitled Secrets of the Parthenon. We haven't watched it yet, although you can view the program through my link. This episode focuses on the architectural and engineering aspects of this monument.

So, if anyone out there is studying ancient history with kids who like math and engineering, this might be the ticket to making it come alive for them.

Enjoy!

Update: This show was definitely worth watching and made a great way to make ancient history relevant and interesting to mathematical and scientific minds.

I'm not sure why this post never published, but I just found the draft on my dashboard. So, I'm publishing it late.
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File this post under: "If you give things time and space, they come out better than you could plan." Truth be told, that is slowly becoming the dominant theme of my life, despite my control-freak tendencies. That is the fodder for a post on another blog, however.

One of the aspects I most admire about homeschooling is that it gives children the chance to pursue their own interests in depth. To that end, I've been trying to leave space for the boys to develop their own interests. Well, my hopes are finally coming to fruition.

A couple of month's ago, I came up with the idea of creating a blog based on the postcards we receive from Postcrossing. To that end, I created Moxie Mail, named after our cat who receives the postcards. Last week, Landry decided to take over Moxie Mail from me. He sent his first five postcards out. He will scan and post the cards we receive. He is already monitoring the blog through Piwik. When he's ready, I will teach him how to read css and html so he can redesign the blog the way he wants. There is also talk of creating some world mapping widgets with his Dad in time.

As I see it, Landry is writing, learning about the world, and discovering new aspects of computing. And he's delighted by it. Score!

Now, I'm curious to see what projects will capture Kipp and Galen's interest.

I haven't had a chance to lay my hands on this book yet, but I've decided to post simply because it looks too promising not to mention. If you get a chance, you might want to peruse A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum. 

Here is an article on NPR about it.

I'm off to see if I can get a copy from my editors for review!

This is my review of Corin Barsily Goodwin and Mika Gustafson's Making the Choice: When Typical School Doesn't Fit Your Atypical Child, which is re-posted from the San Francisco Book Review.

As the school year begins, many parents are sending their children to school for the first time, hoping those children will thrive in their new environment. Some, however, will come to discover that they are the parents of gifted children, who may also have secondary learning issues, for whom the traditional educational system does not provide a good fit. For those parents suddenly seeking alternatives, Making the Choice will prove invaluable.

In this small but informative book, Corin Barsily Goodwin and Mika Gustafson address definitions of giftedness, the role and types of testing, what it means to be twice exceptional and/or asynchronous, different approaches to gifted education and why they might not work, red flags for which parents should watch, different types of homeschooling, transitioning from a school environment, college prospects, and socialization among other topics. They also provide an appendix containing additional resources. Finally, these authors know of what they write. Goodwin is the homeschooling mother of  two children who founded of the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum, while Gustavson is a homeschooling mother and a marriage and family therapist specializing in helping gifted children thrive.

For parents of gifted children whose needs are unmet by their schools, Making the Choice will provide a welcome wealth of answers.

 

"Everybody is a genius. But if you are going to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid."

Albert Einstein

Thanks to Piwik and Feedburner, I know this blog has a nice following. And I'd like each one of you to know that I appreciate you. It means something to me that you want to read my writing.

I am less certain why you subscribe to my blog. Is it for resources? Or references to interesting articles? Or my (less than) brilliant commentary on homeschooling life? :) My best guess is that it is most likely my resource references. So, I'm always a little uncomfortable with getting too touchy-feely here. (Feel free to clarify by commenting. I'd be curious to know so I could pitch the blog to be more useful.)

So, I will try to make this a brief comment. It seems that we are going through a time of change here. We continue to work diligently toward a move to Seattle, never knowing what day the right job offer may come in, and what that move will look like. (Picture moving nine cats including a feral one, a burro, a hot-headed thoroughbred, and two goats two states away. If they don't get tranquilizers, I will need them. Nuf' said.) That alone lends a prolonged sense of uncertainty to everything. And homeschooling three seems to have raised the bar here as well.

It is more than that, however. I am also revisiting many questions right now. How do I want to homeschool the boys? What do I really want for them to get from this experience? What tone do I want to create in our home? What homeschooling methods best attain those goals? Does a charter still fit into that picture? How will these choices impact the boys' future if they want to attend a university? (It's a bit early for that last question, but it's still on the horizon.)

Maybe it's just my current mindset, but I found Kate Fridkis' article on Salon.com to be particularly refreshing, surprising and thought provoking. You might pause and rethink your homeschooling once you've read her perceptions of college after homeschooling.