Standardized testing. It's like, whatever.

It’s testing season. Even though most of my children are homeschooled, they still take the same statewide assessments that all Ohio children take. So the last two months have seen a lot of practicing, reviewing and stressing about filling in tiny little circles.

I have one cracker jack learner who picks up whatever you throw at him without even trying. Completely independent, needs nothing from me as a teacher. That kid could pass the test with one arm tied behind his back, hopping up and down, and blindfolded.

But then I have two beautiful students who are absolutely miserable at math. Two girls who think “who needs to add when you can read. Or write. Or create something from raw materials.” Bless their hearts, they’re just like their Mama, who had a good reason for marrying an accountant. Love you babe.

Anyway. High stakes testing on a subject we dislike. And a Mama who struggles with having a good attitude towards curriculum that teaches differently than she learned, and doesn’t always make sense the first time she reads it.

Yep. Stress.

I know standardized tests are a hot topic. I know curriculum standards are a hot topic. I am one of the quiet few who does think that standard curriculum and evaluations are a good thing.

Even as the parent of a special kid who will never be able to pass standardized tests, I still think my other children should strive for the same mark as every other kid in America.

So no, this isn’t going to turn into one more Common Core bashing post. Because if I don’t like the way the lesson is presented I do have the right, as the teacher, to tell my students to nod and smile politely and then completely throw the entire lesson out the window and do what makes sense. (Which I think I’ve done once or twice).

Why?

Because that’s the beauty of homeschooling for one thing. And for another, we as a family chose not to define ourselves by state tests, or just about any other set of results that assesses the work of our hands.

We work hard. We learn what we can. We put our best work out. But once it’s out of our hands we stop caring.

We are children of God. Not people who can (or can’t) pass tests. We care about improving our character. Not impressing people who live far away. Or close by for that matter.

So on our last day of testing we’ll nod and smile because someone somewhere cares about the list of numbers and statistics our tests produced. And then we’ll go back to developing the things that really matter to us. Character. Creativity. Community.

And we’ll say take that OAA.

9 truths to teach your writers

So we were just talking about how to raise writers. Or more importantly how to not raise writers.

I mentioned in this recent post that while there is joy to be found in well ordered, coherent thoughts; there is also a great deal more joy to be found in breaking all the rules of writing. For my own amusement, I put together a list truths that most writers already embrace, and those of us who teach writing (whether formally or informally) also cling to. So here you go.

There is a difference between writing to make your teachers happy and writing to make yourself happy. And in my case, writing to make Jesus happy.

Learning how to satisfy other people’s requirements is fantastic. But really, most teachers would rather you learn how to be so completely compelled by words that everything else fades into the periphery.

Sometimes you can be so consumed by the need to string words together that you can’t eat. Or sleep. That sometimes you can be so overtaken by the need to organize the thoughts in your brain into happy, coherent sentences that you ignore responsibilities and let people down.

(Not that I’d know, ahem.)

That you will have moments where all you can really see and hear is the words that are flowing over your head like Niagra Falls.

Sometimes you just can’t turn the words off, no matter how hard you try. They grab you by the shirt collar and shake you violently until you admit defeat and sit down with a writing tool.

That true writing is not simply answering questions to satisfy a requirement, but answering them in such a way that you leave the reader’s brain swirling with their own thoughts and questions. Swirling and compelling them to pick up a writing tool and put their own words into somewhat coherent thoughts.

That you don’t need to write a best seller, or have a million blog followers to call yourself a writer.

That teaching others to write isn’t just about telling them to write like their hands are on fire, but also writing that way yourself. And letting your kids read those fiery thoughts that caused you to ignore them for hours.

That the writing topic doesn’t necessarily matter, as long as your brain is enjoying chewing it over, other people will probably enjoy reading it as well.

And that’s what it really is to be a writer.

On raising writers...

So this fall all three of my children have entered into the world of essay writing. You would think I’d be thrilled that their writing skills have developed to the point where they can string lovely words together into happy little sentences that all work together around a coherent theme.

But not so much.

These writing assignments are killing me. 5 paragraphs, each with a topic sentence and supporting details, thesis statements and conclusion paragraphs.

Technically correct and boring as all get out.

Who wants to write like that? More importantly who wants to read such lifeless crap?

Who wants to BS their way through stupid essay questions that don’t ignite passion? What moron wants to pursue topics that don’t allow them the joy of stringing words together into fiery sentences?

Not me. But such is the life of a writer.

So as we cross this threshold into a brave new world of the realities of the writer’s life, we tip our hats to those who fight hard to suck all the joy out of writing.

And then we acknowledge that there’s more than one way to write a paragraph.

You have the boring way that will get you an A on your assignment. And then the spit and fire way that will make you want to get up and dance. But will probably earn you a C- on your assignment.

We acknowledge that teachers probably won’t appreciate it, but its way more fun to write with snark. With a bit of piss and vinegar. With sentences that. Aren’t. Really. Sentences.

And frankly it’s way more fun to read essays that would probably earn you a C- anyway.

 So there.

3 Creativity boosters for clever kids

As summer stretches out in front of us, I can already hear the whines of boredom coming from my children. Moan, groan and despair. I love those sounds. I view them as opportunities to engage my youngsters creatively, to invite them to see the world a bit differently for a few moments.

Here are some of my favorite creativity booster games for bored kids.

Play “what can you do with a…” this is a fun exercise I do with my own kids when they get the bored zombie look in their eye.  Challenge them to take a paper plate (or toothpicks, or fabric scraps etc) and make something. Anything. As a variation, give them three items, they can be related or random. This game can be played with art supplies, food, recycled items, items from nature etc.

Ready for more ideas to stimulate your kids creative neurons? Check out the rest of the article here...

Guest post- a journey through homeschooling

My dear friend Abby is doing a series on her blog this month about the choices parents face when considering their child's education. Fun topic, right? She asked me to share a few words about our journey through homeschooling and the hard choices we've had to make considering our schooling options for our youngest.

Many of you are familiar with our story, but I'll bet there are a few of you who haven't heard the tale in it's entirety. This is my homeschooling story.

I made the decision to home school my children before I gave birth. Before I was married, even before I had even finished my college degree in education I knew that my days as a mother would be spent pouring over lessons and other educational activities and other equally nerdy pursuits.

Homeschooling as a concept entered my periphery way back in the 90’s, I was in my last days as a college student when a very special family at my church invited me into their lives first as a babysitter, and eventually sort of adopted me like a stray pet.

They were the type that curled up around a wood stove to do their lessons, all quaint and cozy. The first time I participated in one of their school days I was completely and utterly hooked.

My very ideological 20 year old self had to wonder Why on earth would I use my education degree to wrangle two dozen ornery students in shoes that pinched my feet all day when I could curl up with a few sweet children who I could actually discipline when they became uncooperative? And I could do it in my jammies? That’s a no brainer.

Fast forward 14+ years I am now the mother of 4 children, three biological and one adopted as an older child from Russia. I’ve homeschooled three of my children since day one. From the day their little babbles became intelligible words to the day a few weeks ago when my ten year old learned to count in binary, erasing all doubt in my mind that one day he’ll turn out to be as nerdy as his father.   Sounds like a dream right?

What could possibly make me consider challenging status quo? Read the rest of the article here...

More than a toy, teaching and learning with a camera

Yesterday we talked a bit about teaching our kids (and ourselves) how to use a camera to express ourselves a bit better. Today we're going to think about using the camera as a tool for learning.

Enhancing art concepts
There are a great deal of art concepts that transfer into the world of photography: form, line, perspective, mood, detail, etc. Pick a concept and take your kids (or yourself) on a little scavenger hunt. On our last hunt my kids and I thought about lines, curved, strait, vanishing points, broken etc. After we brainstormed as many types of lines as we could think of, and items we could think of that would demonstrate each type of line (park bench, railroad track, power line etc) we made ourselves a little "to find" list before going out on our hunt.

Creative writing opportunities
We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, right? So why not use a little time with the camera as an opportunity to jump start the creative writing process? Why not challenge your kids to write a story and narrate it with photographs? Or "a day in the life of..." Put on your creative cap and think of some fun scenarios that the kids can document with words and images like "the day plastic frogs invaded our house". Your child has a wonderfully creative voice, let him use the camera to help him enhance the story he wants to tell you.

Now what?
With a hard drive full of photos, and a kid who doesn't particularly want to sit down with a pencil and notebook paper on his day off from school, you're not quite sure where to go next, right? I know. If you're a creative soul like me, your kids are probably a bit over fun posters and snazzy scrapbook stickers as well. Fortunately there are a host of ways for your story teller to share his tale. Think about a blog post, instant print book from snapfish, or an online photo album with Flickr or Facebook that they could forward to their friends...

So what are you waiting for? It's time to empower your little story teller to share his voice. Go forth and photograph!

Attachment based homeschooling

So yesterday I talked about how I completely revolutionized the way I discipline my difficult child.  Now that I understand my son was acting out on purpose because he's seeking attachment time with me I've decided it's time to stop using attachment time as punishment and start using it to my advantage.

And that my friends includes getting him to do his school work.

I'm calling it attachment based homeschooling, and I'm totally making it up as I go along. The basic idea is to create an atmosphere conducive to bonding and attachment first, with learning as the secondary benefit. Which basically means that we're snuggling on the couch with a blankie and a clip board until further notice.

Again, it works like a charm. With his attachment issues, behavior issues and learning disabilities trying to get him to work at the table was like wrestling with a caged tiger. 2 hours of fighting for 20 minutes worth of work. Not really worth it.

Now that we're working on the premise that learning time is also cuddle time, he's all about it. I'm to a point where I can challenge him accademically instead of just challenging him physically and emotionally.

It's so beautiful to finally be on the same page. (see what I did there - same page? School? I'm so clever I don't know what to do with myself)

Anyway. I can also use the old method of schooling as leverage. More interested in cuddle time than learning? Guess it's time to go back to the kitchen table for some not so cozy learning.

That hard kitchen chair is kind of a rude awakening after the comfy couch. I'd do just about whatever it takes to avoid going back over there myself. He's not as dumb as he looks.

Art class - self portraits with collage

We recently found ourselves with a free afternoon in which to make ourselves some self portraits. In the past we've made self portraits with a graphics program, which was super fun. So when I brought back the idea with old magazine collage, the kids jumped at the idea. Even Max, who didn't really have the slightest idea why we were cutting up perfectly good magazines.

So I started them with realistic looking portraits, trying to get them to match their hair and eye color and such. From there we let loose and made some really wacky ones, complete with fuzzy bunny slippers, yoda heads, and pignoses, just for good measure. Love it. What good is art if you aren't free to express yourself, right?

Drawing class - castle edition

So I recently picked up a drawing book titled "How to Draw Fantasy Castles", thinking it would be good to help the kids work on perspective and introduce some new architectural elements into the castles they already draw ad nauseum.

The book was great at teaching perspective and also gave instructions on how to draw themed castles, which my kids were all over.

After practicing our 3 point perspective and 3D drawing, we tried our hand at themed castles, which the kids then embellished to their little heart's content. Our themed castle collection included one inspired by the landscape in Lord of the Rings, and each child made a castle in the shape of his or her name. 

Winter color palette challenge

It's February and we're a little tired of being less than inspired by the dismal winter color palette outside our windows. But my children need to recognize that every day is a gift, and each day has it's own unique beauty. If you're willing to look for it.
So with that in mind, I set out to create a winter color palette to inspire and challenge my crew to create. I selected these 5 colors based on what I saw outside my window and challenged them to do something with them.

Here's the palette they started with:

And here's the finished product:

 

 Louisa age 8

 

Annie age 8

 

Alex age 9 

Need help picking your own color palette? I found some great ones at Studio Press and Color Hunter. Check it out!

A year of firsts...

They say there's a first time for everything. Which is particularly true if you've spent most of your life with a parent who didn't invest in you, or an orphanage with very limited resources. One of my goals for the next year is to intentionally provide a new experience for little Max every day (if possible). Some experiences are better than others, but all are equally valuable.
It's been a joy to bring out some of my oldhat activities that my kids have done a million times and see a brand new reaction to them. Sorting buttons, stringing beads, rubber stamping, and basic cause and effect science experiments have all been such a delight to bring back. A small part of me mourns over the fact that no one ever handed my child a fist full of pipe cleaners and said "have fun!" but a bigger part of me rejoices that there are still firsts that God saved for me to witness.
One thing that has become rather apparent over the few weeks is that Max has had very few opportunities to create original artwork (as opposed to copying something someone else has made), nor has he had many opportunities to play with simple manipulatives like popsicle sticks. Neither of which are horribly critical, but a problem to be rectified none the less. I'm sort of a dork when it comes to exploratory play and discovering new ways to use old resources.

Art with melted crayon part 2

A while back we had some fun melting crayons over the George Forman grille. I saw recently where someone had melted crayons with a hair dryer. Say it ain't so. We had to try it. For scientific reasons of course.

So we set up another little melting station in the kitchen. After overheating the hair dryer without getting very far with our melting, we settled in with my embossing gun which worked way better anyway.

First we experimented with the size of our crayon chunks. The big ones made a lot of smoke and took forever to melt. Not so fun. Next we  tried using an old cheese grater to make tiny pieces, which took forever but it was pretty fun to watch those little bitty pieces melt. We finally settled in on medium sized pieces made from larger pieces broken up with a rock. Not sure what was more fun - smashing crayon with a rock, or watching those littler pieces melt.

After we settled on a size we had to experiment with some different melting techniques. Or more appropriately what to do with what we'd melted. Sure you could let it pool on your paper, but what fun is that when you could blow on it with a straw, make it drip down your paper, or just draw and etch in it with a pencil.

So much exploration and experimentation happening. Good stuff.

In general I'd have to say that this method of melting was way safer and kid friendly than the grilling method. It was safe enough for me to hand over the equipment and let the project take it's own course. And we all know self directed projects are way more fun than projects that have to be limited for safety reasons.

Architectural design with food

This is my 9 year old. He's been studying architectural design this week. We found a fantastic book full of design projects for kids his age so I had him create something from the book and plan a presentation. Of course he wanted to share his presentation with you! I  hope you enjoy it :)

We have 2 videos, one "in progress" where he explains his plan and the materials he's using, the other is the finished product and the pro's and con's of his design and materials. Disregard the roaming toddler that makes an appearance in the first one.

ESL in the Home

As I am in the final stages of preparing to bring this little boy home, the finality of teaching ESL sets in. I've been doing a little research on the ESL teaching community and have realized there is absolutely not a single resource for homeschoolers to teach ESL. Big surprise. On the other hand my research has lead me to believe that the home is the best place for my little guy to acquire English as a second language. The resources I've managed to track down are full of rich language activities that give the student the opportunity to learn the language in real time. Like baking cookies and playing board games. Potentially tricky in a classroom, but standard activities in the home. Nice.
So yes, informal language acquisition tasks in the home are limitless, especially when there siblings to partner with. What a relief.
But when I look at the formal language tasks I sort of have to shake my head. Every phonics program on the market banks on the fact that the student is already familiar with the language. Students should already know what aardvarks, avocados and antelope are so it's not a stretch to put them all together in the "A" category.
I'm going to bank on the fact that my son won't know what any of those things are, let alone that they have something in common.
Which means there has to be a lot of vocabulary acquisition before much phonics can be taught.
But my teacher brain revolts. PHONICS! Every student loves phonics! In some twisted way it doesn't feel like I'm teaching him anything if we don't start phonics training from the get go. So for months now I've been trying to find a handful of justifiable phonics activities that don't require any vocabulary. When I figure it out it's going to be worth millions. Because there's a huge market for non-vocabulary based ESL phonics programs for homeschoolers. I know.
Oy.
So until that phonics revelation occurs to me, I'm stuck with vocabulary. I'm sort of making up vocabulary games that I can use to introduce strategic terms that he's going to need right away. Like everyone runs into the kitchen and shouts "kitchen!" then everyone runs to the shower and shouts "shower!"and so forth. I could see my 3 biological kids getting a huge kick out of such silliness.  Perhaps we'll play a rousing game of "find the fork!" as well.

Paperless School

One of the fun things about homeschooling is that you can do wacky things, like paperless school. A full day of coursework without picking up a pencil. Craziness. I know. 
The concept evolved out of necessity a while back when my self directed learners completed all their seat work for the week on day 4, and I wasn't about to let them off the hook for that 5th day.
So what does paperless school look like? It's a fabulous swirl of science experiments, art projects, reading, math games, and a little bit of  Tim and Moby thrown in for good measure
So while they are rejoicing over the fact that they have "no school" today, I'm chuckling about the full day of school that I snuck in while they weren't looking.

A Day in our Lives, the Theatrical Version...

The other day I read an article in a magazine about a typical day-in-the-life of a homeschooling family. While the article was rather thorough and accurate I couldn't help thinking it was on the boring side. A little like my typical day. I decided to write a response to the article in my head. It looked a little like this.
Instead of a blow by blow approach I decided to write it as a play.


The characters:
princess twinkle toes # 1 and #2 - they look a lot alike and could actually be played by the same actress. In fact some days I think they are.
their evil gremlin brother - he has a nasty habit of stealing all the pencils during school time and hiding them under his bed. I think he's trying to communicate something to the audience.
the roaming ankle-biter - this part is played by the neighbor's baby. She's only in acts 1 and 2 of our little drama.
Don't overlook the stars of our little show: The fairest in the land (AKA Mommy) and Daddy, who is played by a badger.
* These titles in no way portray the actual temperament of the members of our family.

The plot:
The characters wake
They grumble over their responsibilities. The grown ups, not the kids - they play.
A tornado strikes the entire house, actually I think it's a hurricane. Whatever it is, it has 6 legs and a toddler.
The fairest in the land calls FEMA to come clean up the mess. They're no help. So she enlists the townspeople instead. They're just as helpful. So she does what any sane queen would do, she hides in the tower with a case of chocolate bars until her badger, I mean husband, comes home.
Curtains close! Everyone takes a bow.


See I told you that was more fun.
And sadly just as accurate.

Dragon Slayers

For a recent family movie night I picked up How To Train Your Dragon from our local library. Even though the girls poo-poo'd the idea of this particular movie I was determined to watch it together as a family. They were going to watch it, and by golly they were going to like it, even if it killed them. Well if you've seen it, you know that it only takes about 30 seconds for the plot to become completely engrossing. Which they did, of course, become completely engrossed. To the point that we had to watch it 3 times before we had to take it back to the library.
The beauty behind this movie however, was not the engaging plot line or the dynamic animating. To my kids it was more than a way to kill time. It inspired them. We had several mornings of brainstorming dragon names, which lead to the creation of our own dragon guidebooks. Sometimes when my kids get on a kick like this we'll scour the internet and the public library looking for good resources related to the hot topic at hand. This time we didn't, but that doesn't mean we won't the next time the dragon buzz hits our house...

Here are some of my favorites from their guidebook. Alex was the artist, the girls collaborated on the names and color schemes for each dragon.

(The "Arrow Head")

(The "Troll Master" - complete with little villagers bombarding it with cannonballs)

(The "Tree Creeper")

Summer Adventures - Ludwig Mill

For Father's Day we teamed up with some friends from church and headed down to Ludwig Mill to take a ride on the canal boat. Since it was Father's Day, the dads got to ride free. Bonus.
I've been down to the mill plenty of times and walked along the little tow path next to the canal more times than I can count, but I don't really recall ever riding on the boat. So this was sort of a new experience for me as well.
They had some live actors on hand to explain the ins and outs of what we were experiencing and explain a little of the local history related to the canal boats.

The kids totally gobbled up the entire experience.
And so did the adults.

A good time was had by all.
Until a thunderstorm came and rained on our parades. I'm sure Judy's still chuckling about the little umbrella incident. The one where my daughter tried to explain how to use the umbrella, and I very snippily explained I didn't need any help and grabbed it away from her. Then had a split second where I didn't know how to use that umbrella. Yup that's the one. I don't want to talk about it.

Summer adventures - The Henry Ford Museum

Last week our dear friend Cathy invited us to go with her to the Henry Ford Museum , up near Detroit. It was the perfect little field trip for my kids. In addition to the cool cars and inventions they had on display, the museum also had a handful of fun interactive exhibits that my children soaked up.

First up, building a Model T. Not a cheap toy model, a real live Model T with real car parts. This thing was big enough for my kids to climb on (which you can bet they did). The kids were handed some nuts and bolts, and a wrench before they received a little bit of training on how to perform their task. Together they put on a running board sturdy enough for them to stand on.

(Alex receiving some instruction on how to tighten his screw)

After they helped build the real Model T, they had a chance to work on an assembly line creating toy Model T's. Alex rocked the motors, Annie installed the seating. Sadly, my brother was not so proficient at putting on the wheels.

(Annie with a finished Model T, fresh off the assembly line)

Percy Jackson - the new Harry Potter

Perhaps you've eard of him? He's Alex's new best friend...

Alex and I were recently introduced to the Percy Jackson series. Percy, the son of Poseidon, is an unlikely superhero who in his series Percy Jackson and the Olympians takes on the likes of Ares (the war god) and Medusa, he also challenges no good mythological creatures like Cerberus, Cyclops and a host of others. While I personally find the story line of to be slightly reminiscent of the Harry Potter series, they are equally well written, and a joy to read.
Besides, who doesn't love discussing Greek mythology with their 8 year old?
When Alex finished his first book The Lightning Thief I had him design his own project based on the book. Alex decided to make a book illustrating Mt. Olympus as it is described at one point in the book. Some of the illustrations he could draw based on what was described, others needed a little bit of research. (What exactly does a hippodrome look like?)

So move over Harry Potter... a more educational, less scary, Percy Jackson is here to stay.