Back Where We Belong

I have not blogged about homeschool nearly as much as I thought I would. To be honest, I thought I would need it more. I often use writing as a way to process. The wonderful thing I have found about teaching Wes at home is that it comes very naturally. It does not feel like work. I was just reading some of my very first blog posts and I can't believe how far we've come. All of that initial anxiety has vanished as I have watched my son become an enthusiastic and independent student of the world around him.

Now we are in 6th grade and one important thing has changed. When I first started homeschooling, I always thought that we would at least explore going back to public school. I had several reasons for this and one of the bigger ones was being around other kids. Homeschool does feel a little isolating, especially where we live. My nearest, active group of homeschoolers is not in fact very active and most of the members have very young children. So, at the beginning of this year, we went back to public school. I was not perfectly comfortable with the idea, but I felt the need to explore public school one more time.

Our schools start early, so we just finished the first quarter. It was always my plan to take a good hard look at how things were going at this point and decide how to proceed. It was a no brainer to run, not walk, back to homeschool. It would be easy to kick myself for even exploring going back, but that wouldn't serve much purpose. All I can say is that after nine weeks, I'll never worry about whether I'm making the right decision again. Homeschool is simply where Westen learns the best. It's here where he is allowed to explore, create, build, write and problem solve without any distractions. It's where he thrives.

With a renewed passion for this path we are on, I have made one more change. Since I believe Wes will homeschool through 12th grade, I wanted to be a part of an accredited online school. I didn't have to search for the right school, because I've been carrying a particular one around in my back pocket so to speak. It's the place I've always known I would choose when the time was right. Now Wes is enrolled in the Global Village School. For me, the Global Village School is almost too good to be true. Their philosophy and mine are perfectly in tune and I can't wait to get started on their curriculum. This year feels like a new beginning. This time there is nothing but pure joy in the process which is exactly what learning should be!

Parent/Teacher Conference

I titled this post Parent/Teacher Conference because that's what today is at my son's junior high school. Since Wes and I follow the same schedule, we are also enjoying a shorter school day and I joked that I would have long talk with myself this afternoon.

What I really what to talk about today is Mind Mapping. I'm about to climb up on my soapbox so run while you can! When I started this blog as a teachers log, I thought I'd vent more often. As it turns out, I'm far too busy with teaching and my small business to take the time for such self-satisfying rants. However, with today being a short day, I'm going to purge onto this blog one of the aggravations of public school that makes me crazy. It's not one of those things that will make or break a students educational career. Rather, it just one of those little concepts which has been completely removed from its mark. In an effort to actually do something good and appeal to the visual learner, teachers have utterly blown it when it comes to the idea of mind mapping.

So let me start off by giving you Wikipedia's definition: A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing. They even include a diagram:


Wiki gets it, so why don't teachers? How many of you have had something like this come home from school?



These make me crazy!!! This is what the mind map has become and I just can't stand it! Now, rather than allowing the free flow of thoughts and then looking for the connections and organizing them in the way the best suits specific needs, children are forced to fill in more circles. This is not visual learning. This is not free thinking. This is not mind mapping! What's worse is that these diagrams often come with instructions for use. Your story title needs to go in the center and you must have three characters in one circle, a conflict in another, a setting in the third and so on. When my sons have brought these home from school, I have literally fed them the information that I know the teacher wants to see and then we set the sheet aside and start to really talk about the writing assignment.

One of the things I love about homeschooling and that I know I'll miss when Wes goes back to public school, is the opportunity to right these egregious wrongs. This week Wes and I are working on a creative writing project. Wes is writing a fable. The first thing we did was sit down with a flip chart and I had Wes just throw out ideas. I scribbled them down changing colors as new things were introduced. In the end, we had something exactly like this:


From this we were able to easily generate an informal outline of events:


To make this process even more creative and visual, Wes next made a quick story board or drawing of each point on the list. Once he has written the story, we will incorporate these drawings as the illustrations. Our next step will be to begin writing, but Wes will be writing with his thoughts in front of him, organized and visualized, all from his mind.

Mind Mapping should never ever be about filling in circles with specific information. Maybe such diagrams can find a use somewhere, but don't call them mind maps! The mind is a beautiful, chaotic and independent treasure that needs to be set free for real creativity to flow.

Welcome to the 4th Grade!

The first day of 4th grade is almost here! We start Monday to be exact. Today is meet the teacher day at our little homeschool. Of course Westen and I have already met, but I have a lot of new things to show him. The classroom is all set up and waiting. Today we'll take a tour of the class and talk a little about our schedule and some of the things we'll be covering this year in school.


If you just happened upon this blog, this is my teacher's log. I keep a record of what me and my 9 year old son are up to. I also do my best to honestly share our experience. For us homeschooling is temporary. We started in the middle of the year last year and will do all of 4th grade at home. The plan is to go back into public school for 5th grade. For that reason and because it's just kind of our style, we keep our school time pretty structured. It would be hard to integrate back in if we were loose and wild with the schedule. I also stick to the curriculum of the school district we attend. Sometimes we do more than it suggests, but we cover everything!

In my picture are my little motivators for good behavior. My philosophy is that if there is a lot of whining and complaining, we do more and not less. It's amazing how many kids think they can whine their way out of things. That's where my shoe box of worksheets comes in. On the top it says, "You must not have enough to do so let's review!" I find it a very effective motivator to give a little extra task when the behavior isn't up to snuff. Of course Wes knows this about me, so all I usually have to do is hint at the consequence and he gets right back to work.

Lest you think me a cruel teacher/mom, I believe more than anything in positive reinforcement. Wes gets to hear all day how bright and talented he is and he truly is! This year I've designed a "Passport to Half Day Town". As a reward for his good efforts, he'll get a half day off school after he collects 100 stickers.

That's all for now. I'll be back with our schedule, some of the resources I'm using this year and what we'll be doing in the first few weeks of school.

My Philosophy

When I first decided that I would make this leap into homeschooling, I started searching on line. One of my concerns for Wes is that he not feel isolated. I thought it would be good to find a local group of like minded people with whom to connect. All I really want is a couple of families that we could meet at the park on occasion. This should be a simple enough task and there are groups in my area. I'm a little farther away from my local groups being in the SE Valley of Phoenix, but that's not what stopped me. As I was reading the profiles of the different homeschool groups, I just didn't feel like any were a good fit. I'm already leaving public school, I don't want to jump into another organization unless it seems just right.

So what is my philosophy? The truth is, I think it's still forming. I'm not choosing to teach Wes independently because of religeous beliefs. If I had to define myself in that regard I would use words like liberal and free thinker. I don't associate with one religion in particular because I like to maintain a broader view. I love history and science and culture and I think this vast world has much to offer an open mind. My reasons may be a little political since government funding and programs have played a major roll in the way schools operate and address the education of their students. After all, I have an older son who sits around bored while teachers review for the standardized test; time in which he could be learning. I have a younger son who is forced to display his understanding only in the format given by the same test despite the fact that is doesn't speak to his dominant learning style. So yes, I guess politics have played a part in my decision making. But what is my philosophy and how will I teach my son?

Right now I plan to give our learning time some structure. I think that the two of us will work better together that way. I will also be sure to cover the same material as the general third grade curriculum although not only that material and in our own way. I guess I really am a planner because I have developed a loose weekly outline for covering all of the subjects. I don't want to have a rigid structure. If we are in the middle of a science experiment and I get a cool follow up idea, I may abandon the rest of my plan for that day. I want to embrace the flexibility that comes with the territoy.

I think curriculum and daily planning are the most overwhelming decisions you make when starting out. I looked around for independent blogs like what I'm starting here with Indie Teach. I wanted to see what other parents were doing. I found many blogs that shared resources and general ideas, but I guess I was looking more for the daily ins and outs of teaching. It would be even more satisfying to find other parents who share a similar focus. I'm still looking, but for now, "If you can't find it, create it!" That may just be my new philosophy!