‘Life of Fred’ easily allows kids to pass standardized tests, if they really want to!

Whilst the weather is so hot (and we have months of this ahead of us), I can only term ourselves ‘eclectic’ homeschoolers rather than ‘unschoolers’ because I am directing so much of my kids’ learning and so much is being done from books right now. Sigh. This is not how I like it although I have to admit, it does bring my kids’ education more within my comfort zone because learning from books feels so much more tangible than wandering through daily life and chatting about it does, in a very meaningful way of course. When we can, we will wander (and wonder) and we always talk together, but for the moment roaming is very limited. I do not enjoy using noisy shopping malls or noisy indoor playgrounds as quality learning experiences (too much money gets spent unintentionally during mall ‘experiences’ for one thing! And they’re noisy!)

Edward, as all my regular readers will know, is still enjoying ‘Life of Fred’. But to our amazement, Edward and I discovered that not only is ‘Fred’ enjoyable but is also a ‘successful program’ too – when using a conventional educational lens. This is something that I did not expect and never desired anyway. Edward and I found out that Fred has successfully enabled him to pass a UK Year 3 Maths ‘test’ with flying colours. I didn’t intend to test him. I don’t believe in testing – especially teaching to pass a test (I’m not keen on being a teacher at all. I’d much rather be a facilitator/enabler). But the other day, when I had too little to do, cooped up indoors, I was curious what the Year 3 Maths curriculum comprised. I was surprised that it seemed to cover what we’d covered in Fred (up until ‘Goldfish’), apart from division which we’re doing now in ‘Honey’. So, I thought I’d have a look at a free evaluation which provided three term’s worth of test questions. I was looking through them, trying to evaluate for myself, purely out of curiosity, what I thought Edward would know and not know and I called Edward over to have a look at a few questions which I wasn’t sure about. I explained what I was doing and that I was doing it out of pure curiosity. He was intrigued and happy to have a go at some questions for fun. Interestingly, he initially said, ‘I can’t do that/I don’t know’. Sometimes, I gave him a prompt like ‘You do know how to do that. Just think, do you add, subtract, multiply or divide?’ This focused his thinking and he went on to answer the question correctly. His mental arithmetic seems good to me. I was really, really surprised that what he knew correlated so closely with the UK Year 3 curriculum. I was also really, really sad for the hours kids have spent in school doing this stuff, day after day, when we’ve spent so many hours in the park or at the beach and have done relatively speaking, very little Maths. The only difference between Edward and those other Year 3 kids is that they likely will not have enjoyed Maths as much as Edward, yet they’ve achieved the same level of proficiency. It’s true however that they may be better independent test takers, because they’ve had lots of practice, whilst Edward has had zero practice (and will continue not to do any). He doesn’t need to learn how to take tests (and nor should they).

Whenever friends of mine told me they tested their kids every year and they did really well, I thought they must be doing something very different to me. I thought they must be doing some boring program like Saxon or Singapore. I never thought my child would pass a standardized test doing a ‘fun’ Maths program like ‘Fred’! ‘Fred’ hardly looks as if it’s teaching any Maths at all and certainly not in a way that the computational skills would be at your fingertips, because it doesn’t do any Maths ‘drilling’. I didn’t think it would consider any curriculum out there or prepare a kid to pass a Maths test. So I was really surprised that in Maths, I don’t need to worry – if I ever was worried in the first place, which I wasn’t,  just curious – Edward is ‘up to scratch’ with his Maths whilst having a lot of fun learning it! Thank you ‘Fred’!

I was also pleased that when I told Hubby that Edward had passed the Year 3 Maths test that we casually did out of interest, he wasn’t particularly thrilled – he is just happy for us to continue learning in a way that makes the kids (and myself happy). I thought he might also let his conventional side rise up momentarily and be pleased that a conventional test had been ‘passed’ but I think he was even more in control of his conventional-education-neurosis than me – although for him of course there’s less at stake, because he isn’t responsible for the kids education in the way I am. Still, his reaction gave me heart that he’s happy with the more unschooling route we usually take.

I was then curious to find out what the rest of the UK Year 3 curriculum comprised and how we ‘might be doing’ in relation to it. so I found this link 
http://www.ksw.org.uk/hawford/study-at-kings-hawford/curriculum/year-3-curriculum
 which is very comprehensive. My first thought was ‘Poor kids’! The lists and lists of things being done sounds SO dry (and it does sound as if it’s ‘being done to them’ in a very directed way). The list of things being taught seems to allow so little freedom to deviate and be an individual. I practically got cold sweats remembering my school days and how channelled we were for every moment of every day and then I felt really sick thinking of free-spirit, Mr. Independent (the name tag they pinned on Edward, aged 3 at his Canadian nursery school, they could just as well called him ‘Mr. Individual’) Edward suffering through this all year. I was much more conventional than he was and this really freaked me out, so I can’t imagine how well he would have coped – on the surface OK because he always tried so hard to please me at school by ‘doing well’, but underneath, he was (in Year 2) and would have been (in Year 3) dying.

Yet again, though, to my surprise, we’ve covered a lot of the same learning as the rest of the Year 3 curriculum, just very, very differently. We have really enjoyed the ‘History of Britain’ CDs in the car, which has of course covered the Romans and the Celts very well. We’ve also, of course, had a wonderful, educational, trip to Egypt and hopefully will go back again next week. I had no idea either of these periods were part of the Year 3 history curriculum.

Looking at the science curriculum, the ‘Magic School Bus’ DVDs have covered almost everything and we talk about science as it comes in every day life. I don’t know how well he’d test in it but probably not too badly. But again, the point is, the way we learn science is so minimally invasive that there’s hours left over in our day to do all the things he’s passionate about like reading, Lego and action figures (let alone spending time with friends which seems to cover talking about religion a lot! Great – that part of the curriculum is covered right there A LOT better than any school could do it!).

In terms of thinking about what might be ‘lacking’, looking at this UK curriculum, there could certainly be more music in his life, in terms of learning an instrument especially, the rock guitar ideally, but we’ve not been able to find a teacher. The only subject that he would really not test well on, I think, is English which is ironic because Edward is an advanced reader, ‘writes’ (dictates to me) beautifully with superb grammar and vocabulary, and is extremely articulate. I think of him as an English ‘whizz’. But look at how drily the Year 3 UK curriculum teachs English! And what Edward does know is far more ‘real’ and useful and fascinating than drily learning e.g. the parts of speech. Even though I think Edward’s grammar is excellent it really amuses me that he wouldn’t know it because he couldn’t pull apart the sentences he ‘writes’ (dictates to me)  so beautifully. Edward has just finished a 3,000 word story and he’s desperate to get on to the next one. In fact, by now he would have dictated a 10,000+ word story if I’d been a more accommodating typist! But to improve his typing (so that he can eventually have the freedom to type his own stories, with his fingers being able to keep up with his lightening fast brain) and his spelling, I’ve started asking him to copy short paragraphs. I found this idea from Lula B and her excellent blog 
http://www.navigatingbyjoy.com/
 (what an excellent blog name!) and I like it. Edward is not so enthusiastic but I think he would like to type fast because he gets very frustrated waiting on my availability to type up his stories, yet can’t type them himself because his fingers can in no way keep up with his stream of ideas. Hopefully this typed copying exercise will achieve this (whilst sneaking in some improved spelling along the way!) When I ask him to do his ‘copying’, the fact he’s not enthusiastic makes me realize I’m not a true unschooler; I’m not wholly providing a child-led education. However, since I think opportunities are limited for following anyone’s passions in Dubai, especially in the summer, I don’t mind asking him to do things that I think will ultimately help him follow his passions. If he said ‘no’ to any of my requests, that would be a different matter. I accept ‘no’ and don’t push either kids beyond it. But a reluctant ‘OK’ I do work with right now. 

I was surprised that Edward was very excited to find that he’s at the same level as other kids in the UK/in UK curriculum schools here. We talked about what this meant and how I didn’t think it was important but that I was just curious to know what Maths those kids had been taught all year and surprised that ‘Fred’ had got Edward to the same level when ‘Fred’ doesn’t have any goal of preparing kids for standardized tests. But nevertheless, Edward is enthused to outstrip his Year 3 age-mates in Maths. He’s excited to think he’ll soon know more than them by continuing with ‘Fred’ through the summer (which was the plan since the weather keeps us indoors anyway), even though they’re totally imaginary to him; I don’t think we presently know anyone in school in Year 3. Part of child-led learning is accepting this, accepting that Edward either has a competitive streak or would like to feel more secure in himself that he’s ‘ahead’ of his schooled age-fellows. I don’t want to encourage this but I won’t stand in his way either. It’s interesting though because just today he said that the reason he didn’t want to cut his very long hair is because he doesn’t want to look like a ‘school boy’ because he ‘hates school’. I said I missed seeing his face clearly, he has very thick long hair, but said that I totally respected his decision. So on the one hand, he doesn’t want to be associated with schooled kids and on the other he wants to measure himself against them, and ‘beat’ them.

Now for my admission of failure… The eclectic homeschooling hasn’t been going so well for Petra, after going so well. Why? Because I am impatient. I know it and I should manage it better. She was really, really enjoying her ‘Maths Made Easy’ workbooks but my touch was not light enough and for the last few days she’s said she hates maths which broke my heart, especially because it was totally my fault for not keeping things extremely light. She is only 4 after all. Even if I KNOW she knows it, who cares if SHE doesn’t know she knows it. That’s part of learning; being able to access what you do actually know and I should have been less frustrated with her and not kept saying ‘But you know this!’ in an exasperated voice. I feel really bad. So I got a bunch of coloured buttons together and I hope I can turn things around by making the books more fun again (she hides her face if I take out the Maths-U-See manipulatives – oh dear, another wasted purchase?) but hopefully buttons will do the trick! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I am trying to evaluate how to continue homeschooling in the heat and then how to do it optimumly again when the weather cools down. I have decided… well it’s my decision today, but I reserve the right to change it in the near future if sanity or improved knowledge (from better homeschoolers than me probably, who kindly share their wisdom on their blogs) leads me to. This might even happen as soon as tomorrow! Who knows? But that’s OK. I like to flexible in my decision-making. Anyway, my decision today is that I might talk to the kids and say that although I really like for their learning to be entirely child-directed, when we are spending so much time indoors at least, would they please indulge me and help me feel more secure that these cooped up days have been used productively by doing small amounts of book learning? And swimming regularly (even though they protest about this for some strange reason even though it’s the only way to comfortably see the sun and breath fresh/non air-conditioned air!) I will ask my kids to please indulge me, help me feel I have been a ‘good’ homeschooling Mum by doing a bit of something that resembles homeschooling instead of ‘just’ letting them play all day indoors. I think they might feel better about doing book learning on this basis – that it’s not something that I am imposing on them but, when they are feeling reluctant, that it is something they’re choosing to do to help me feel better about something they know is important to all of us – homeschooling and that it is challenging in the climate of this country.

Do you ever do this? Do you ever.ask your kids to learn in a particular way/particular things to help you out in some respect? If it’s done sensitively and for good reasons, do you think this is OK? I know a friend who prepares her kids to some extent to pass their state’s national tests in order to keep her in-laws happy. She feels it’s OK to ask her kids to do this, even if she doesn’t believe in testing, because it’s reasonably painless and considering this, it’s OK for her in-laws to be reassured about her homeschooling the kids. Do you homeschool your kids in a way that doesn’t always suit them, or you, because of someone else’s whims or requirements? How do you feel about that?

IF YOU’RE NEW TO HOMESCHOOLING MIDDLE EAST, welcome! If you are interested in reading about our homeschooling adventure, I recommend that you start reading from ‘Day 1’. Why I recommend starting at Day 1 is because this adventure into homeschooling has been a rollercoaster; philosophically and emotionally, which you might learn, seek solace from or even be thoroughly entertained by. It started in Bahrain on 22 February 2012 and continues in Dubai. My kids are Edward aged 8 and Petra aged 4. For you to get the full intellectual and dramatic impact, it’s best to start at the beginning. You might be contemplating home educating and wonder what those early nail-biting days feel like or you might enjoy reading somebody else’s take on an experience we share, or you might be more generally interested in my thoughts and feelings on education and parenting. Whatever the reason you’re reading, I’m really humbled that you’re taking your valuable time to do so and I really hope I can be some kind of hope or inspiration for you. Thank you! 

The fastest way to access ‘Day 1’ is to look for ‘Archives’ on the right hand side of the home page, click on ‘February 2012’ and scroll down to the bottom of the page that opens. If you want a quick first visit, you could type a term e.g. ‘socialization’ or ‘university’, into the ‘Search’ box or of course you could just read my latest posts without doing anything!

AFTERWORD: If you would like to make life easier (who doesn’t?!) scroll down the right hand side of the page and click the ‘Follow’ button. Posts will be delivered to your email inbox until such time you may not want them anymore.

Don’t feel shy! Please always feel free to email me (pjmontford@hotmail.com) or ideally post comments* on any of the days you read, however old they are. Commenting helps others who may well like to have more ideas or suggestions about the topic concerned or you can ask me a question that you think others might also like answers to.

If you’re too busy to comment that day, but enjoyed what you read, please do press the ‘Like’ button at the end of the post. Again, you have to have clicked on the title of the post to get the ‘Like’ button option at the end of the post. Commenting, ‘Liking’ and Following is much appreciated as it encourages more people to read homeschoolinginthemiddleeast! Take care. Have a great day and thank you for visiting.

*How to make a comment – If you are reading posts on the homepage, you will see at the bottom of the post, in tiny grey writing either e.g. ’7 comments’ or ‘Leave a comment’. Click on this to add yours. If you’ve clicked on the title of the post, you can see any comments that have been left already, and space for your own, right at the bottom of the page. Your views are valuable and it’s always good to have debate.

Every job is honourable

Reblogged from Homeschool Sojourn:

Every job is honourable

(The following is brilliant! It's from Jen's unschooling blog.)

I recently saw a thread on someone’s Facebook page about unschoolers’ future prospects.  They wanted reassurance that unschoolers could in fact go on to lead useful, productive lives.  One question read,

“Will they JUST be able to go to a trade school, or will they be able to go to a university?”  (Emphasis is hers)

Read more… 302 more words

The question, 'Can your homeschooled child go to University?' comes up a lot and I like this answer. I gave a similar answer in an article I recently wrote for an Cambridge University alumnae magazine. I will try to post it on my blog sometime. What is important to me is that the kids find what they're passionate about and find a way to make a living following their passion. I love the Martin Luther King quote, "If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelango painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.’”

Un-Wednesday: Valuing Childhood

Reblogged from Hopeful Insights:

My daughter has been asked several times this week what she wants to be when she grows up. She answered honestly, saying she doesn't know and that she changes her mind all the time. Right now she thinks working in fashion sounds fun, perhaps as a personal shopper but who knows if that will be appealing later.

Of course lots of children don't know what career path they might choose but, as with so many other things, as unschoolers we are scrutinized more closely for this.

Read more… 399 more words

I love the quote, "Childhood is not preparation for anything. Childhood just is, and they only get one. It's up to us to protect it" by Lester Laminack, found on Pinterest by 'Hopeful Insights'. I also like what 'Hopeful Insight' is doing with her kids - "Our kids ask a lot from us, whether it be material things, favors or time. But they also know they won’t always get the things they want because other people have needs/wants too and everyone, even the wealthiest people in the world, have limitations of certain resources (counting time, energy and desire as resources) they have to work within. I do think those lessons are valuable for adulthood." Yes they are! And, as she says, very useful for living in the now! One of the things I absolutely adore about the way we homeschool/unschool is the amount of time the kids and I have together which means lots of time to work out how to manage everyone's needs and wants in a way that doesn't leave anyone feeling bad. I think this is a really useful life school and one that just wouldn't be practised often in a school environment or even a 'school at home' environment. It is really challenging, keeping everyone happy and informed about the 'whys' behind the things that have to be done (why I'd like to do certain things) but it's really worth it!

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Why Do we Homeschool?

I get asked the question, “Why do you homeschool?” A LOT. I usually take the easy route and briefly describe how unhappy Edward was at various schools over a four year period until we had an ‘Aha!’ moment and realized that it wasn’t a particular school that was the problem but the entire concept of ‘school’ – traditional schooling anyway, which was all that was on offer in the places we lived. I then go on to say that I found out about this thing called ‘homeschooling’ and thought it sounded great, that it IS great, in fact so great, we decided it would be best for our younger daughter as well and feel lucky that she’s never had to go to school at all. 

BUT, I leave out lot of the other reasons why we homeschool; the way for instance that it’s practically a spiritual experience, as is parenting for me in lots of ways. The link I’ve posted from ‘mothering.com’ talks about a lot of the other reasons we homeschool. The authors boil down the reason they homeschool to 3 things – Freedom of Body, Mind and Spirit and what this means in a homeschooling context. We are having some issues at home at the moment balancing one family member’s freedom with another’s but that’s great practice for life! On the one hand we encourage our kids to feel very entitled to free expression and to have their opinions seriously heard and often heeded. But sometimes we find it hard to have our lives so dominated by two such little people even if their desires are perfectly reasonable! Our family life sometimes feels like 4 adults sharing a house together, in the way I used to do as a student and in the early years of my working life. And sometimes that feels hard! I didn’t much love it then and I thought there should be some perks to parenting – like your kids doing what they’re told! But since we don’t believe this is right (well, in some things like manners but not in most others) we have to accept the consequences – constant negotiation and swallowing of adult ego to really be fair and right in our parenting – to allow as much freedom for everyone in our family to fulfil their destinies.

Do you homeschool for somewhat spiritual reasons?

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Summerhill School: The Ideal?

Being, amongst other things, British, I have heard about Summerhill School and wondered if my kids were missing out on an incredible experience by being homeschooled rather than enrolled in a really alternative school like Summerhill. Dubai has nothing that’s remotely comparable, but then nor do many places in the world. I do like the idea of being part of a close knit community of similarly like-minded alternative folks and I like the idea of the kids having so many opportunities open to them at a school like Summerhill. Although, when if it ever came down to it, I don’t think I could part with them to be boarders!

The article is, I’m afraid, below ‘The Guardian’s’ unusual standards and is fairly vacuous but it does give us all some idea about the school. The ‘comments’ section below the article is, as always, very revealing. I like this one from ‘Tony Park’, “I think Wilby has a point when he describes Summerhill’s direct influence on mainstream education as ‘slight’. This is not a valid criticism of Summerhill though; rather it should be seen as criticism of mainstream education”. I agree with that. And the comment section gives a useful website/directory of worldwide democratic schools - 
http://www.eudec.org/
 

I also like another comment by Tony Park, this time talking about the founder, Neill, that, “…he’d rather the school produce a happy street sweeper than a neurotic prime minister. The point is that he is interested in the happiness of the person, rather than other measures of ‘success’. I am sure Neill would have been quite pleased if Summerhill produced a happy prime minister (though – my addition)”. 

‘nataleks’ talks about how positive her/his child’s experience is at the school, gaining skills and a life perspective I would very much like my kids to get from my homeschooling, 

“ I suspect he developed such skills as evaluative, analytical and critical thinking that others struggle to develop even at the university.
I suspect he learned about human rights, and about such global concepts as racism, nationalism and sexism, etc.
I suspect he can smell hypocrisy, manipulation and blackmailing from a mile away.
I suspect his emotional intelligence skills are richer than some people’s who are in their 60s.
I suspect Summerhill kids are able to create their own success formulas by living and learning in the school that is successful even from evolutionary perspective, because it has such features as fixity, change and adaptation.
I suspect Summerhill is not perfect, but it’s real and open.“

Tony Gough says, “I read AS Neill’s book about Summerhill when I was at university, and the ideas put forward totally transformed my own teaching philosophy to the point whereby I don’t consider myself a ‘teacher’, but as an ‘enabler’. My students are allowed to choose what’s important to them. and its actual relevance to what they learn.

I’m an EFL teacher, and the only way forward is to give the student the freedom of choice and the responsibility to dictate what’s truly important to them. Give a child the freedom to learn and they will continue to learn their entire life. Educate the child and they cease being educated at the first available opportunity.” I love that term ‘enabler’, I should try that one on for size I think! I’m always uncomfortable calling myself a homeschool ‘teacher’ especially when we’re in our more ‘unschooling’ mode. 

I love homeschooling, I love having my kids with me all the time but in a parallel universe, I’d love them to attend somewhere like Summerhill.

Homeschooling in Dubai – A Typical Day

It’s starting to hot up in Dubai – high 30s and 40s/over 100F and it’s humid. The evenings are not much better so I am no longer spending time outside apart from a daily half hour swim for the kids to see the sunshine, get some Vitamin D and outdoor exercise! I am dreading the long summer here! It’s hard to keep us all entertained especially when so many friends leave for over 3 months! Getting through the summer will be a lonely slog. So, I’m trying to focus on doing more book-learning homeschooling now that long days in the park and on the beach with friends are over. I actually really enjoy this and the kids are more accepting when the options of what else to do are more limited (and will become even more so in the following weeks as everyone drifts away to more clement climates).

I am trying to do a daily chapter of ‘Life of Fred’ with Edward (but manage probably 5 days a week). He is always happy to do Fred. Sometimes he’ll ask me to just postpone starting for ten minutes whilst he finishes up a Lego or action figures game, which is totally fine with me. Fred is occasionally starting to get quite hard – we tackled the concept and measurement rules of Area, Volume and Perimeter in one lesson – when Fred was evaluating fish tanks!  Then we quickly went on to the shortcut for multiplying by 10, 100, 1000 etc… as well as continuing to learn the rules for doing ‘long’ addition, subtraction and multiplication. Phew! Apart from basically liking the series, because the character Fred is so likeable and the stories so engaging, I think it helps that I try to stick to doing that chapter at around 9am everyday or at least straight after breakfast. A bit of routine/expectation does help gets things done.

Petra continues to pretty happily do her Carol Vorderman’s ‘Maths Made Easy’ series of workbooks. I also bought an English and  Science one to have a look at. I noticed it was sometimes getting missed if Fred took a long time with Edward (on the harder chapters) so I tried doing her Maths whilst I prepared breakfast this morning and it worked quite well. She needs attention but nothing too focused given that it’s not extremely challenging stuff.

For literacy, in addition to all the books I read the kids (Petra is mad about the ‘Magic Tree House’ series so that covers all sorts of history and geography too! And both kids love the ‘Junie B. Jones’ books) I’ve started dipping into ‘Five in a Row’ Volume 1. ‘Five in a Row’ is basically a series of unit studies, included in the one book ‘Five in a Row’, based on fiction books you’d probably already like to read your kids. I had only one of the reading books, the library only two but I’ve managed to borrow 5, so we’ll only be able to do a portion of the program unless I decide to order the books. But I think it’s still a worthwhile program to do. The kids don’t like it too much because they’re used to ‘just enjoying’ a story which does involve discussions and questions but not in this guided way which is therefore more structured and more, of course, parent-led not child-led. But I think it’s an interesting thing to have a go with gently in addition to all the reading I usually do with them.

Petra’s learning to read has also taken a more structured turn. She’s known her letter sounds for about 3 years now, has been able to sound out small words for ages and knows some ‘sight’ words so I’ve been thinking her reading will take off for a long time now! But she doesn’t seem that bothered to teach herself/want me to teach her more than I have been (which is very little in order not to put her off learning to read). Yet, she adores books. Lately, I have noticed that she’s noticing and, I think, caring a bit more that she can’t read.  Although she’s more frustrated that we don’t understand what she writes for us; although we can recognize all her letters, she’s writes well, her inability to spell and put spaces between her words (of course, she’s not quite 5 yet) means we can’t understand what she’s written a lot of the time. So, I decided to try ‘Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons’ which a friend kindly gave me and recently finished with her 6 year old son. It is dry. We did 4 lessons today because I can skip past learning the letter sounds. But hopefully I can make it fun enough, or she’s she progress and want to learn to read enough, that it will work and she’ll be off, being the independent reader that I think she’ll adore being. Of course, I will NEVER stop reading to the kids, I love it too, but I think she’ll really enjoy having the world of stories opening up to her whenever she likes.

In terms of writing, Edward dictates a few paragraphs of an ongoing story to me. We enjoy this and hopefully he might notice how words are spelled as I type them. He usually sits next to me (previously he ran around the room as he dictated). I have a ‘Spelling Made Magic’ book that is meant to teach spelling in a more fun, kinesthetic way, so I’ll look into trying it. I really want to avoid rote learning but as he gets older and wants to write the odd greeting card or something, I find it hard not to be shocked about his spelling, hoping that he’d miraculously learn to spell through the independent reading he does, which is quite a lot and pretty ‘advanced’. And I also worry about handwriting on the odd occasions he needs to handwrite something, but again don’t want to introduce some dry program.

For history, we’ve given up ‘History of the World’ for the time being because we are focusing on these other areas and we were looking specifically at Ancient Egypt for a while because of our March Luxor trip (and will do so again for a highly anticipated June trip to Cairo to see the pyramids and King Tut’s treasures in the national museum!) But we listening to a ‘History of Britain’ CD in the car which is very well done (although it does have a traditional focus on battles and monarchs).

Science just seems to come up naturally from time to time. Edward suddenly asked how you make electricity and so we had a chat. I found something in a book on our shelves (very satisfying to have a book collection that can answer that sort of question, even  if it’s never quite perfect!) and we looked up on Youtube making a bulb light up by peddling a bicycle (which really wowed Edward) and from three different kinds of little wind-powered objects (a vertical and horizontal windmill and a fluttering device).

Our local DVD shop is sadly closing down, so I grabbed (hopefully) a few usual bargains – documentaries that I don’t think are geared towards kids but might be useful after I’ve vetted them first – including some BBC ones s about the Trojan War and Alexander the Great and a series called ‘The Ascent of Man’ that I’ve heard a lot about but know little.

With regards to our ‘library’, DVD and workbook selection I do have to remind myself that the information from these things doesn’t magically transfer into our minds. I have to READ the books to the kids (find a way to interest Edward to read them himself), WATCH the DVDs, DO the workbooks etc… And until I do, there’s NO POINT BUYING ANYMORE which is something I find hard to resist sometimes because if it’s on my bookshelf, it feels to me as if it’s then in our heads! I find it very hard when I’m on the bookdepository website or at a bookshop (second hand is sometimes even worse than ‘new’ because of prices) and I think we really could do with xyz when we already have so much we actually just need to USE! I hope Hubby isn’t reading this, as he sees yet another book purchase on it!

IF YOU’RE NEW TO HOMESCHOOLING MIDDLE EAST, welcome! If you are interested in reading about our homeschooling adventure, I recommend that you start reading from ‘Day 1’. Why I recommend starting at Day 1 is because this adventure into homeschooling has been a rollercoaster; philosophically and emotionally, which you might learn, seek solace from or even be thoroughly entertained by. It started in Bahrain on 22 February 2012 and continues in Dubai. My kids are Edward aged 8 and Petra aged 4. For you to get the full intellectual and dramatic impact, it’s best to start at the beginning. You might be contemplating home educating and wonder what those early nail-biting days feel like or you might enjoy reading somebody else’s take on an experience we share, or you might be more generally interested in my thoughts and feelings on education and parenting. Whatever the reason you’re reading, I’m really humbled that you’re taking your valuable time to do so and I really hope I can be some kind of hope or inspiration for you. Thank you! 

The fastest way to access ‘Day 1’ is to look for ‘Archives’ on the right hand side of the home page, click on ‘February 2012’ and scroll down to the bottom of the page that opens. If you want a quick first visit, you could type a term e.g. ‘socialization’ or ‘university’, into the ‘Search’ box or of course you could just read my latest posts without doing anything!

AFTERWORD: If you would like to make life easier (who doesn’t?!) scroll down the right hand side of the page and click the ‘Follow’ button. Posts will be delivered to your email inbox until such time you may not want them anymore.

Don’t feel shy! Please always feel free to email me (pjmontford@hotmail.com) or ideally post comments* on any of the days you read, however old they are. Commenting helps others who may well like to have more ideas or suggestions about the topic concerned or you can ask me a question that you think others might also like answers to.

If you’re too busy to comment that day, but enjoyed what you read, please do press the ‘Like’ button at the end of the post. Again, you have to have clicked on the title of the post to get the ‘Like’ button option at the end of the post. Commenting, ‘Liking’ and Following is much appreciated as it encourages more people to read homeschoolinginthemiddleeast! Take care. Have a great day and thank you for visiting.

*How to make a comment – If you are reading posts on the homepage, you will see at the bottom of the post, in tiny grey writing either e.g. ’7 comments’ or ‘Leave a comment’. Click on this to add yours. If you’ve clicked on the title of the post, you can see any comments that have been left already, and space for your own, right at the bottom of the page. Your views are valuable and it’s always good to have debate.

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Incredible Unschooling Science Link

This is a great link for unschooling science – in fact for anyone wanting to show their kids the wonder of gravity (or the lack of it) and the enthusiasm of astronauts. I loved how keen this guy was to show what happens in space when you wring out a wet cloth. My kids LOVED this and asked to be show the video clip again and again. A proud moment for Canadians everywhere to think this was going on above everyone on earth’s heads! 

I wish I could credit the person who’s blog or Facebook page I read and saw this link but I’ve had the page sitting open on my PC for nearly 2 weeks before I eventually got around to showing it to the kids and I can’t remember now where I found it. I do apologise.

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“Things I wish I had known when I started homeschooling all those years ago”

I titled this post ”Things I wish I had known when I started homeschooling all those years ago”. This is obviously not a quote from me since I’ve only been homeschooling for just over a year whilst the mumma who wrote the post I’ve linked to has been homeschooling for years – I’m not sure how many but she’s been a mother for 22 years apparently (also a lot more than my 8 years!)

I am writing this post whilst I wait for my Coursera Wesleyan University ‘The Ancient Greeks’ course to download, lecture by lecture. I haven’t been able to finish the course in the time allotted so I’m having to download the lectures I’ve missed to be watched, well, soon I hope and not just shelved (or rather just left to languish on my laptop)! I was about halfway through the course, so it would be a shame not to finish it. I didn’t start it in time so I can’t get a certificate, but I’m no more believer in certificates for myself as a badge of learning than I do for my kids, so I’m not shedding any tears.

I particularly like the following points in ‘Busy Homeschool Mum’s’ post:

Point 4 – “Character training always comes before curriculum”. I am BIG on this. I don’t even follow a curriculum but even if I did, I would put helping the kids develop character traits before everything. Again today I was complimented on how well behaved they are and how Edward is “like a little man”, the way he goes up to people, looks them in the eye, shakes their hand and introduces himself. Petra, at age 4, is starting to follow his lead. How nice for big brother to set such a great example. The complimenter went on to say that it was so great for him to have such amazing interpersonal skills and that they will stand him in such great stead when he’s older (I think they already do). I agreed that interpersonal skills were very important and that they are so hard to teach as people get older whilst technical skills etc.. were much more easily so. I feel blessed to have such an outgoing, confident child and that Hubby and I have encouraged him to follow this natural inclination of his. 

I realized that contributing to developing the best in the kids’ characters is more important to me than anything when I was in a schools supply store the other day (the first time I’ve ever been in one, at once an exciting and overwhelming experience that made me on the one hand run for the hills with feelings of teaching inadequacy whilst also wanting to buy up the whole store!) I was thumbing through their huge selection of wall posters which, as you can imagine, ‘teach’ all sorts of amazing facts on a huge array of subjects. But what did I come out with? One on ‘Responsibility/ Character Counts!’ and one on ‘Roman Numerals’ (which my son is really interested in learning and which I could do with brushing up on!) I mean – do I REALLY need a poster that reminds my kids that ‘Character Counts’ when this is something I do try to impress on them in many little ways every day? Well, I couldn’t bear to leave without it (lucky it was on sale!) and I was sorely tempted to buy several others of its ilk. The experience reminded me that if this is important to me, not to let curriculum or other ‘school at home’ type learning get in the way of enjoying these learning experiences with my children and thinking up new ways for my kids to practice important ‘character traits’ or whatever the better phrase is that I can’t think of just now!!

As a unschooler, I am also a big fan of point number 9, “I’m homeschooling, not trying to do “school at home”. There really is a difference.” Even for those following a curriculum, I strongly agree that you don’t need to make homeschooling anything like home. There is always time for your kids to get up in a much more leisurely manner and eat a healthy, homecooked breakfast. There is always time for a short break when the need arises. There is always time to tweak the schedule to fit in valuable family visits or other special events. The list goes on!

I like Point 13, “It really does go by as fast as “they” say so now is a good time to think about what I want the homeschool years to accomplish. In other words, what kind of children do I want to raise?” I do think about this a lot but I could do with thinking about it, especially now that I’ve homeschooled for just over a year and have more of a handle on it, exactly what this means on a daily basis in terms of what I need to introduce to the kids in terms of e.g. critical thinking opportunities.

I also like the reminder to be the person you want your kids to see. You need to model for them. This is more powerful than what you say. I also do think about this regularly but I can of course improve!

I hope ‘The Busy Homeschool Mom’s’ post was as inspiring for you as it was for me; very important reminders.

 

 

 

 

 

“Anything worth doing is worth doing badly” and that includes homeschooling (you’ll see what I mean!)

I am reading a book called ‘End the Struggle and Dance with Life: How to Build Yourself Up When the World Gets You Down’ by Susan Jeffers. I read this book years ago, but a friend of mine looked at my bookshelf for the first time this weekend and of all the books there, mentioned it. I felt that this was because I was meant to read it again. And I think it is great timing because I am finding living a bit counter-culture and having kids that are a bit different a bit wearing at the moment. Constantly swimming against Society’s current is very tiring, even if you know you are going in the right direction, the direction that leads to the truth, whilst they might well not be (or at least some could find happiness by changing direction and coming to swim with you!) 

Despite this book having nothing obviously to do with homeschooling, a few things jumped out at me that seemed very relevant to the homeschooling journey. Jeffers previously wrote a bestseller called ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’. In her next book, the one I’m reading ‘End the Struggle’, she titles a chapter, ‘Feel the Fear and DON’T do it anyway’. The fear she’s talking about is the fear of ‘not being enough’ which often results in workaholism; the fact that if we keep busy, keep doing, keep striving towards external goals, we don’t have to face gnawing doubts about whether we’re good enough (whether in our careers, as a wife, as a parent, as a friend, daughter etc…) She says, “To add insult to injury, despite all the hard work we do, we never feel ‘finished’. There is always something more that ‘needs’ to be done. Even when we are way ahead of schedule, we have the gnawing sense we are lagging behind or that we are missing opportunities that we should be creating or that we are not contacting people we should be contacting. Talk about stress!” 

I feel that stress as a homeschooling Mum and I’d never considered it a kind of workaholism or perfectionism! I thought that I HAD to live with that kind of stress – I thought it was my job to be constantly worrying about whether my kids are doing OK (as per some kind of imaginary schedule/measurements). And my measures are pretty relaxed. I bet a lot of homeschoolers have kids who are well ahead of their national averages, or wherever else they want to measure their kids against, and still stress they’re doing a good enough job (I would like to argue whether this is a worthwhile thing to stress about, but I can’t talk if I share the stress, even if it’s comparing them to a different measure!) One of my daily worries is whether I’m not giving my kids enough opportunities or the right opportunities, whether in terms of classes or mentors. I am not a Mum who signs their kids up for a lot of classes. I think it’s important for my kids to stay at home learning how to manage their own time or spending time with friends, yet every class advertisement or schedule leads me to agonize about whether I’m right to pass up whatever skill or experience is being offered. I worry that this might be the kids’ ‘thing’ that I’m denying them. For instance, there’s a graffiti class that’s being offered (A graffiti class? That almost seems an oxymoron!) but I think it’s just for adults. Do I harangue them to get Edward included, even though it’s two 4 hour sessions (which I would have thought might be a bit long for an 8 year old)? Even if they accept him, do I sign him up for it even though he might find it stressful doing a class that’s geared towards (probably young) adults and for two long stretches? If I leave it, would Edward be missing out on a ‘chance of a lifetime’ because I really think this could be his ‘thing’ and he hates conventional classes that treat kids as kids! I mean – how often will graffiti classes be offered, in Dubai?! Was it ‘meant to be’ that I found out about it or it is a test of my resolve not to over schedule him to pass it up? 

Jeffers says ‘Feel the fear and say no anyway’ because she says ‘…our motivation for doing most of the tasks brought before us has less to do with the tasks than it has to do with making ourselves feel  more important or more secure or more wanted. Ouch!’ I agree, ‘Ouch!’ I think this is an important yardstick. When I consider these classes, are they just to make me feel more secure? I have to be careful but I think it’s a strong possibility. I was looking at a ‘Storytime’ class for my 4 year old. In the blurb it talks about the importance of reading, the importance of being read to. And I was seriously thinking of signing her up for this class? My house is packed with books! I read to her constantly throughout the day! Does she REALLY need to go to a ‘Storytime’ class?? I was thinking she might find it fun. Why?? I’m sure she’d much rather cuddle up and have a story with me, of her choice, than some stranger in a coffee shop! But my homeschooling insecurity was gnawing at me – that perhaps someone else could do a better job than me, perhaps she could meet more kids her age.

Fortunately, the idea of signing my kids up for a class to make me feel more important or wanted is anathema. But if you’re accelerating your kids academically or signing them up to lots of classes perhaps you want to check this isn’t your reason – that you want your kids to be a very impressive performing pony – ‘My kid is doing 2 digit multiplications at age 7’ or ‘My kid is a black belt in Karate AND is on the swim team AND is top of his cooking class. Here, I’ll let him show you…’ because that would NOT be a good reason to homeschool (let alone school) the way you do. So I will try to face my insecurities regarding these classes, feel the fear and say ‘no’ faster than I do. I usually do end up saying ‘no’. As I said, I don’t sign my kids up for many classes, but I agonize about it. I must try and say ‘no’ faster and head off my fear of not doing a good enough homeschooling job because living like this is very tiring which ultimately has a negative impact on me as a homeschooler because for sure, homeschoolers need lots of energy!

Jeffers (as I see it) has another golden nugget for homeschoolers. “If you are not enjoying yourself, you are wasting your time!” Wow! That goes right against the childhood ‘Protestant work ethic’ I was brought up with; the feeling that if you WERE enjoying something there must be something wrong with it. If you are enjoying what you’re doing, it must be either worthless or even wrong. If you are sitting down reading a good book, you are being lazy. It’s time to get up and get busy, busy, busy. I was brought up to do the opposite of what Jeffers advocates. I was brought up to feel, “There is always something more than ‘needs’ to be done.” But if you don’t just take time to enjoy life, to evaluate it, you keep running on a treadmill, dragging your kids behind you, to an always- future destination called ‘Success’. Life before you know it will be over and you won’t have even had time to enjoy your children. I agree with Jeffers, you can have a wonderfully productive life – that you enjoy. Measuring how much you enjoy something IS a worthwhile measure for whether you should do it or not. There are various ways I can homeschool, but finding one I enjoy, as well as that the kids enjoy of course, IS a way of choosing the right one for us. So far, taking the unschooling route, has been wonderfully enjoyable. But I’ve also found doing more ‘book learning’ and even ‘worksheets’ as the weather has got hotter has been fun too and maybe that’s as good a measure of whether it’s the right approach for us as any – that the kids are learning and we’re enjoying it. 

The last point I want to share from Jeffers’s book is “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly”. Jeffers is apparently quoting Linda Weltner’s motto. I love this. I take this to mean that anything worth doing is worth having a go at, without fear of making a fool of yourself or even fearing failure. JUST DO IT! There are so many wannabe homeschoolers out there, even wannabe unschoolers. If you think homeschooling or unschooling MIGHT be worth doing, just have a go, even if it doesn’t turn out quite the way you’d envisioned it. I’m sure it will always be worth having a go. I haven’t met a single person who’s regretted homeschooling, even if they only did it for a while. Maybe your homeschooling/unschooling adventure will start off ‘badly’ but I’m sure it will end up great, even if you don’t decide to do it forever. Maybe it will look to others that you’re doing it badly but actually, in your heart, you know that although it looks disorganized (books lie around everywhere or the kids get up later than you’d hoped or you miss some ‘school’ days to take interesting trips) everyone’s having fun and learning (including you!) and this is the measure of success. I’m sure you will end up doing something worth doing AND doing it well especially if you do it with love in your heart, with the best of intentions and listening to the voice of your ‘Higher’ not ‘Lower’ Self! Jeffers says, “And, remember, if someone points out your “ineptness” in any given endeavor, simply say, “I’m doing good enough”, and then go on to have the best time you ever had! ENJOY! ENJOY! ENJOY!”

IF YOU’RE NEW TO HOMESCHOOLING MIDDLE EAST, welcome! If you are interested in reading about our homeschooling adventure, I recommend that you start reading from ‘Day 1’. Why I recommend starting at Day 1 is because this adventure into homeschooling has been a rollercoaster; philosophically and emotionally, which you might learn, seek solace from or even be thoroughly entertained by. It started in Bahrain on 22 February 2012 and continues in Dubai. My kids are Edward aged 8 and Petra aged 4. For you to get the full intellectual and dramatic impact, it’s best to start at the beginning. You might be contemplating home educating and wonder what those early nail-biting days feel like or you might enjoy reading somebody else’s take on an experience we share, or you might be more generally interested in my thoughts and feelings on education and parenting. Whatever the reason you’re reading, I’m really humbled that you’re taking your valuable time to do so and I really hope I can be some kind of hope or inspiration for you. Thank you! 

The fastest way to access ‘Day 1’ is to look for ‘Archives’ on the right hand side of the home page, click on ‘February 2012’ and scroll down to the bottom of the page that opens. If you want a quick first visit, you could type a term e.g. ‘socialization’ or ‘university’, into the ‘Search’ box or of course you could just read my latest posts without doing anything!

AFTERWORD: If you would like to make life easier (who doesn’t?!) scroll down the right hand side of the page and click the ‘Follow’ button. Posts will be delivered to your email inbox until such time you may not want them anymore.

Don’t feel shy! Please always feel free to email me (pjmontford@hotmail.com) or ideally post comments* on any of the days you read, however old they are. Commenting helps others who may well like to have more ideas or suggestions about the topic concerned or you can ask me a question that you think others might also like answers to.

If you’re too busy to comment that day, but enjoyed what you read, please do press the ‘Like’ button at the end of the post. Again, you have to have clicked on the title of the post to get the ‘Like’ button option at the end of the post. Commenting, ‘Liking’ and Following is much appreciated as it encourages more people to read homeschoolinginthemiddleeast! Take care. Have a great day and thank you for visiting.

*How to make a comment – If you are reading posts on the homepage, you will see at the bottom of the post, in tiny grey writing either e.g. ’7 comments’ or ‘Leave a comment’. Click on this to add yours. If you’ve clicked on the title of the post, you can see any comments that have been left already, and space for your own, right at the bottom of the page. Your views are valuable and it’s always good to have debate.

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Sol Khan hopes his ‘system’ will enable teachers’ “…own humanity to come out in the lesson plan.”

I have heard of the Khan Academy website - 
https://www.khanacademy.org/
 When I first started homeschooling I was steered towards it as a nice resource. I checked it out and was put off by the look of the site and the fact it only seemed to tackle older age groups.

However, I came across this little video (approx. 5 mins) of Sol Khan talking about his website and I think I’ll check it out again. Having logged on to be able to put the address in this post, the front page at least looks more appealing.

During this short clip (it shows another of him at TED which might make interesting watching although it might have been from a while ago and things may evolve rapidly on the site), he makes an interesting point that education doesn’t have to be an either/or choice of play-based learning vs. more traditional learning (where detractors point out that with play-based learning kids are unlikely to come across/learn algebra all by themselves, although of course one could argue whether this is a huge drawback of play-based  learning). He says you can put a bit more of the ‘play’ into traditional learning and indeed more discussion, peer-to-peer learning and other interesting aspects of learning. The comment I liked best was that he hopes Khan Academy, his approach, will enable teachers’ “…own humanity to come out in lesson plans.” When I hit the books with the kids, which I am doing to a greater extent now the weather is getting much hotter, I could do with a bit more humanity! I could definitely make things more fun. I could always do with finding ways to help educate without books altogether (although as a fan of less screen-time, using the PC as a resource has to be limited for my family). So, I think I will check out the Khan Academy videos/approach and see if they could be helpful to us. If I find it hugely successful, I’ll write an updated post.