The question of school
Apr 6, 2003 Homeschooling
My mom asked how Brett and I were going to handle Noah’s education next year since I’ll be working more. It’s not the time spent “teaching” that worries me, it’s the prep time. I keep scheduling the same four hour block. You know, “When Brett gets home from work, I’ll get on the computer.” “When Brett gets home from work, I’ll go running.” “When Brett gets home from work, I’ll plan for homeschooling.” etc. etc. At some point, I realized that I couldn’t do three or four things at once and I better start making some more realiastic plans.
I’m going to have to work in the evenings. There done. Scheduled. Now I have to fit the rest of my life in.
Well, I’ll run when I can. Wednesdays, maybe, during our weekly playdate and once a weekend. I can give up one hour in an evening to it, too. There, it’s scheduled. Next?
Homeschool prep. Sheesh. That’s a toughie. Hmmm. Aha! Curriculum! Yes, that’s it! In theory I’m against curriculum. In theory I’m all about unschooling. Now back to practical reality, I’m in the market for a curriculum. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Brett, homeschool, Homeschooling, my mom, Noah, unschool, unschooling
Noah’s first report card
Feb 19, 2003 Homeschooling
Noah got his report card from religious school today. I didn’t even know they had report cards there; if I had I would have drilled him on the 10 commandments (kidding). This is what they said:
Noah is doing a great job in kindergarten. He actively participates in Circle Time discussions and shows genuine interest for the subject matter. He is well-liked by his classmates and very respectful of the teachers. Noah is very helpful with cleaning up after art projects and at the end of the session. His good-natured personality and kindness make him a great student to work with. Super first semester, Noah!
They checked “Very Good” for: Demonstrates understanding of the subject matter; Is active in class discussions; Completes class projects; Exhibits good behavior and a positive attitude; and Participates in class activities. He got “Outstandings” for: Follows Directions; Is respectful of and interacts well with classmates; Is respectful of teachers and the synagogue.
What does all that mean? Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Noah
Board games
Feb 18, 2003 Homeschooling
With the exception of Clue Jr, which I bought with my employee discount when I worked at a toy store one Christmas, we’ve gotten all of our board games at yard and church sales. You can never have too many board games although storage was a problem before we trash-picked the short, fat dresser that’s in our family room.
Noah says (right now, I just asked him) that his favorite board games are Trouble, Sorry, Math Race, and Scrabble Jr. He’s also enjoying backgammon and learning chess. And he plays a mean game of Uno. Life has gotten to be much more fun as Noah’s grown out of Candyland and into every other game; I really don’t like playing Candyland.
Games are not only entertaining, they also soothe the worried soul of this unschooling mother who is still in the process of deschooling.
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Tags: Noah, unschool, unschooling
What we did yesterday
Feb 3, 2003 Homeschooling
The art museum is having a show of Aminah Robinson’s art work. It’s really beautiful. They had all of these activities going on there yesterday for family day. They had cloth paintings, storytelling (with our favorite storyteller, Lynn Ford), lots of music and other art activities. My personal favorite was the The American Jazz Experience presentation.
Noah and I get overwhelmed pretty quickly and he thought it was more fun in hindsight. I ended up with a headache and so next time I think we’ll skip out a little earlier.
We’re using the Aminah Robinson show as our homeschooling jump-off for the month. I need something to inspire ideas for me and this is loose enough for me to get excited without feeling in constrained. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Erica, homeschool, Homeschooling, Music, Noah
Math with Noah
Dec 18, 2002 Homeschooling
Noah: Well first we take some buttons and then you don’t tell anybody
what number you’re thinking of. And then take a calculator and I type
down the words on the card and then I see what number it is you’re
thinking of! And that’s the end of the story.
Dawn: Noah and I were playing his board game Math Race and then I went and got some notecards and we decided to solve the mystery of 10. I got out our buttons and I lined up 10 white buttons. Then above that I lined up 1 blue button and 9 red buttons. And on and on. Noah got out his calculator and did the sums and then counted the buttons to make sure he was right. We used the notecards to write down the sums. 7 + 3 = 10 and then 3 + 7 = 10 all through all of the combinations.
He thought that was pretty fun so we also solved the mystery of a couple of other numbers. Then Noah had a new idea. He wanted me to think of a number and then put down a sum in buttons. So if the number was, say, 9 I might put down 7 yellow buttons and 2 green ones. Then he used his calculator to figure it out and I always pretended he was wrong and then he counted the buttons to prove it to me. Because Noah is all about pretending, we decided that this was for the championship of the world and he was a Pokemon (which one changed with each sum) and I was Jessie of Team Rocket (aka “the bad guy”). He thought this was so great that we played a little with Daddy that night.
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Tags: Noah