Extreme Homeschool Makeover - The Challenge

[Tammyla]

:DLoL...I knew when that popped out of my mouth it would cause trouble, but couldn't help myself. So much for my deep thinking before coffee:001_huh:.

 

I'm no unschooler by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love CM and the philosophy of providing a rich learning environment. In my imaginary unschooling world, my kids would only gravitate to finest pursuits.

 

Love this quote! :lol:

 

Psst...I know many men who would disagree with you! :D

[Tammyla]

My control side, would be very underhanded too. Manipulate, coordinate, steer, guide, drive, push, pull, or occasionally inspire will always be part of my dna.

 

I think you are exactly right, particularly about the underhandedness. Which is why in my alternative world, we get two hours to demand whatever we choose, and then we unschool.

 

I think I would completely lose my ever-loving mind if I couldn't check a few items that I consider to be key off my list at a time I feel is appropriate. I don't think I would fit in too well in the unschooling world.

[Rosie_0801]

How long do we get for pre-schoolers? If I could have a 5 mins block per day to focus on Auslan, and have dd (2 1/2) actually look at one picture book per day instead of jumping off the couch and hightailing out of the room, I'd be delighted!

 

Rosie

[swellmomma]

For my 2 olders I would do 30 minutes math, 30 minutes science, then wrap reading/writing/spelling/history etc into unit studies for 1 hour.

 

For my 6 yr old I would do 30 minutes reading, 20 minutes math, and 10 minutes printing. Once he was reading solidly I would start adding more (actually this is pretty much what we are doing this year)..

 

For my tot schooler, I would have 30 minutes of focused, 1-on-1 time doing colors, shapes, ABC's, counting etc.

 

Otherwise, I would have have:

~an art center with all sorts of mediums,

~ music center with books about composers, file folder games, CD's to listen to.

~Science center with microscope, prepared slides, books, life cycles projects (like the eggs in incubator or caterpillar tent), easy experiment books etc

 

Lots of games (board, file folder, card) to play(actually we do have that). I don't know that I could strew very well but would have cool stuff around and introduce concepts whenever it fit it, such as the other night when I was slicing pumpkin pie for dessert and had the kids doing fractions and conversions. Got through 4 slices served before dd realized they were doing math lol.

 

We don't have cable, but I would put tighter restrictions on the Wii to make sure they devoted the bulk of their day to exploring, creating, learning and not videogaming.

[6packofun]

Well, does assigned reading time count as school time or are we talking about 2 hours of instruction or table time or what?

 

Because we have enough books here to cover K-12 and I could *hope* they'd pick something up out of pure interest OR, more likely, I could tell them to pick it up and read it. LOL

 

So the 2 hours of official school time with me would be:

 

45 minutes of math

15 minutes of grammar and/or writing instruction

30 minutes of writing OR discussion (any subject) OR quiz/test-taking, depending on the day--I'd rotate these

30 minutes of reading aloud in any subject for my younger ones.

[chiguirre]

I'd need about 45 minutes 1 on 1 with each kid for maximum efficiency. When they work at the same time, they start to interrupt the other just to make sure I'll pay attention to them. I'd split the time evenly between math, phonics/spelling/copywork and oral reading. My kids are little sponges for science, geography and history, so I'd just put on videos and strew library books on the topic I'd like them to pick up. Field trips are also a great way to get them excited about something. I'd feel a lot more comfortable having 1 hour each for school. In fact, that's not far off what we do now, although I'd have to ditch our mom-guided read-alouds in favor of strewing.

[Greta Lea]

How about we add to your daily time that if they are 15 or older they do formal school 3 hours.

 

I have a 12yo ds, who is a struggling reader. Here's what he does each day...

 

-Reads his bible using a bible reading plan for kids & practices memory verse

-Teaching Textbooks math: He does 1/2 a lesson a day

-History: Reads, then narrates orally one chapter from SOTW I 3x week

-Science: Really it's more nature study...Currently reads, then orally narrates a section from a CLP Nature Reader.

-Megawords: one page a day

-Easy Grammar (one page a day...switching to Grammar Keys after Christmas).

-Literature: one chapter a day or 1/2 a chapter if it's really long.

-Writing: Dictation on M-Th & Bravewriter's Friday Free Write

 

15yo ds: This is really more like 3 1/2-4 hours a lot of days. It depends on how "into" his writing he is on a certain day (some days he will write for an hour) and also how long a chapter is in his history, science or literature reading.

 

-TT math: does select problems (about 45 minutes)

-Bible: reads from the Student Bible following a bible reading plan in that bible

-History, Science & Literature: reads living books for a total of about 1-1 1/2 hours a day.

-Rosetta Stone German: about 20 minutes a day

-Easy Grammar (switching to grammar keys after christmas)

-Writing: He LOVES to write stories. Most days that's what he does. I try to give him one academic writing assignment a week.

 

I try to provide materials for whatever they are interested in doing with their free time. My younger son loves to draw, so we have lots of stuff for that. My older son takes Karate 2 nights a week and spends time practicing that at home each day. They both take a homeschool PE and swim class 2 afternoons a week that they LOVE. Also, my 12yo ds is on the swim teach which practices 4 afternoons a week for 1 1/2 hours.

 

They both read for pleasure in the evenings.

 

Edited December 19, 2009 by Greta Lea

[Colleen in NS]

I think strewing sounds very expensive.

 

I'm sure there are cheap ways of doing it, but I don't think my brain is constructed in a way to prefer them.

 

Girl, thrift stores!! :D Do you have them in your area? I used to "strew" all the time with library books and finds from thrift stores - am getting back into it again now. Just today I found two games at thrift stores that my kids begged me to buy - they were only $1.99 Cdn. each. One was general knowledge oriented, the other was more language oriented. I found another one a few weeks ago that was more math/logical thinking oriented - made somewhere in Europe - and it was like a dollar! I also found a 500 piece puzzle today of a Van Gogh painting! A dollar! And a 1000 piece puzzle of pictures of First Ladies (I know it's U.S., but we are dual citizens, and besides, the puzzle itself is very colourful and it's not one of those frustrating ones with huge swaths of one colour - besides, why not find out a bit about the presidents' wives? :D) for a dollar. I also found some geometric shapes templates on the internet (though afterwards I figured out how I could have done them myself, but for me it takes seeing something and saying "duh" before I realize that) that I printed out on coloured cardstock - now our craft table is covered with shapes that the kids have been creating various mosaics out of today and yesterday.

 

I love frugal strewing. :D

 

I focus on the 3 R's and cover the remaining subjects during reading.

 

I'm no unschooler by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love CM and the philosophy of providing a rich learning environment.

 

Tammy, I noticed that the ages of your kids are older than a lot of ours in this thread, and I would love to hear more about how you do things, after reading these comments. For example, your first answer is written in present tense - "focus" - instead of whatever the tense is if you had said, "I *would* focus if I had two hours". So does this mean you actually do condense the 3 Rs for your older kids into compact amounts of time? Can you give us a little peek into your days and weeks with older kids?

 

I am always looking for ways to compact things so we can leave more time in the day for "strewing" :lol: I've improved in the last year or so, but I'm always looking for new ideas and it's so helpful to see how people with older kids might do this, while still covering the necessary academic skills.

[Peela]

I haven't read all the other responses, but what came to me is, with teenagers as I have, if we were going to be unschooling for a large part anyway, I think I would discuss with them what they wanted to do and just help them to structure 2 hours of the day to get the more booky part done, if that was part of their plan. My experience is that, with my kids and apparently many others, if you structure ANY learning, as in, MAKE them sit down and learn stuff you want them to learn, even if for only 2 hours a day....you cant really "unschool" the rest of the time, because you have already kind of betrayed the whole unschooling foundation of the child following their own interests, because they tend to then rebel against the authority, because "school" and "free time" become polarised rather than integrated. Perhaps its often kids who were burned by institutionalised learning at school, but I have often tried to limit our structured time to bare bones, and I find that my particular brand of kids just doesnt unschool very well the rest of the time if there is any forced schooling. In fact, the more structure, the better, around here- the more peaceful. Too much unsctructured time and my kids get quite antsy. However, I have never taken the unschooling thing to its extreme and given it long enough to work- I feel it can work- however I think that you need to let go of outcomes and trust the child's own unfolding.

 

If I was to continue my present style and for some reason only had 2 hours to get our work done, I think I would do half an hour of maths, half an hour of writing, and an hour covering various other things like history, literature and science- all through reading aloud 'living' books.

My kids have got to the point that they dont want me to read aloud in their free time anymore, yet they love me to do it in our school time and I feel our read aloud time, including discussions, is the most productive time of the day, most often.

[Another Lynn]

 

I really think that if you have expectations, or preferences - if you think such and such a book/interest/activity is champagne, and such and such is beer - then I think it's better to be honest and suggest (or in my case demand LOL) that the champagne be consumed, or at least tried and attempted. I think there's a weird cagey underhandedness in really deliberate strewing when in your mind you're strewing champagne, because the kids will figure this out anyway - that you want them to know this, that you value this, that you think this is important. So if greek myths/literature/physics/whatever are what you think constitute important, why not just come out and say it?

 

It seemed to me that the people for whom unschooling really worked as a life and learning philosophy really had NO outcome expectations. They were truly open to all sorts of things and really would not say that champagne is better than beer or v.v. They strew too but they're not very wedded to the outcome - they really are ok with the child passing over that strewn item.

 

I was not ok with that at all.

 

There are certain things that had to be done & had to be learned & I wasn't prepared to have a kid just shrug & say 'well that doesn't interest me' and walk by...and so I just said 'DO IT because I said so and until you've read all these homeschooling and education philosophy books and can come up with a good argument about why you shouldn't, until that time, you're doing it MY WAY.' :lol:

 

 

This is a really good thread. I'm enjoying reading all the ideas.

 

:iagree:

 

My other problem is that I have already established a bad habit in myself (and my children have copied) that I only do what I have to do (especially in regard to housework!). My children have copied this lazy, minimalist approach. Now if I began to approach my tasks with enthusiasm and joy I think it would go a long way. But honestly, if I don't write it down, it doesn't get done.

 

I also wanted to offer this idea from Daisy back in October as a way of both encouraging and requiring some independent exploration. I'd like to take a day to do this every now and then: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135639

 

I could see my kids having a great time with the freedom given here, but still understanding that it wasn't optional.

[crl]

Thanks for that post from Daisy. That's a great idea for a few days over long school breaks such as Christmas and summer.

[HomesteadMommy]

I loved reading this thread!

 

All of my little ones are under 10. What I would do is break the hour up into 20 min blocks.

 

20 min Math

20 min FIAR (this way it would cover all subjects each week)

20 min writing/grammar/phonics alternating days. Dd7 reads very well so wouldn't need the phonics. She could do writing while I helped dd5.

[kimmyandgracie]

This is a great idea! I have had so much fun reading these posts and I may actually try this in our homeschool.

 

I only have one dd6 that I am teaching right now, so I would divide the hour up like this:

15 min math

15 min WWE (I would incorporate spelling and grammar into this)

5 minutes reading practice with McGuffey Readers

25 minutes memory work

 

For the unschooling part I would use Daisy's list idea and then set up centers all through our house. Then I would make myself available to participate in her learning as much as possible. Throughout the day, I would write her activities in a journal to have a record of what she did for school that day. Also, I would do lots of field trips and nature walks. I would try to inspire her to pursue learning by modeling the educational life for her by making my own learning pursuits more visible to her, as well.

[Osaubi]

Super fun!

 

dd4 would get no formal schooling, but as it is now she demands to do school stuff. She is very self motivated.

 

I had my ds 7 picked out at the first page and then I saw some good ideas.

10 grammer

10 spelling

20 min BYFIAR

20 reading (he won't read other wise)

 

I didn't put math b/c I honestly think we could unschool that subject at least for now. My ds loves, math games, puzzles, and logic. He has asked that we do the HSS Sir Cumference series and often asks to do more than one math lesson at at time.

[Mermaid Mama]

My ds is the type of child that is going to need a strong foundation in logic for his adult years. :D

 

You sound like my best friend!

She does logic stuff from Critical Thinking.

After many years and much attention to this on her part, we are seeing the difference. It is wonderful.

[Mermaid Mama]

Hehe... my favorite vacations are when dh takes ds camping and they leave me behind. :D

 

I'm fascinated by the concept of unschooling. One of my favorite bloggers (Doc of Doc's Sunrise Rants) is an unschooler and she has a pile of kids doing great in university. I'm wretched at it, though, so I'm looking forward to reading the collective wisdom here. I really wish I could do more unschooling.

 

I love her blog! I have had a few friends read her unschooling article so they can see where I am coming from in my somewhat relaxed approach. She is a resource I use often!!

[Mermaid Mama]

 

If you only have champagne around, no one will look for beer.

 

Beg to differ here.

*I* will be looking for the beer!

 

Champagne doesn't sit well with me unless it's in OJ at a Sunday morning brunch.

[FawnsFunnyFarm]

I think in the time alloted, I would only focus on reading. Teaching the littles to read, reading aloud, etc.

 

Math happens in everyday life, once you are grown (unless you are an English teacher) you no longer need to know what a noun, verb, adverb or any other part of speech is.. and by reading plenty you eventually learn how the English language works without having to know the titles of it all, science is all around us, and history is all around us also.

 

If you know how to read you can do anything.