Kids Explain Homeschooling To School Administrator

I found something else in my old files the other day. It's a copy of a letter to the editor that my daughter, Melissa and her homeschooling friend, Anna, wrote in 1997. It was a response to a school administrator's letter which in turn was responding to an article written by Wendell Berry titled "Homeschooling Offers Hope of Effective Education."

The girls read the school administrator's response and got so irritated they decided to write a letter to the editor together, which did get printed. This was back in 1997. Here's their letter:

Dear Editor,

On February 16th, Wendell Berry wrote an interesting article on homeschooling. We are writing this because we were very disappointed in the letter the school administrator wrote criticizing Mr. Berry's article.

Mr. Thornton declared teachers "experts" on what was best taught to kids. If the teachers are experts, our parents should have learned everything they needed to know and had the capability to remember it.

Our parents know how we learn and what we need or want to learn much better than any teacher could, because they are with us more. So why should our parents send us to school if they have the time to teach us themselves?

Mr. Thornton said that Mr. Berry didn't spend enough time in public school classrooms. When has Mr. Thornton been with a homeschooler in his or her "classroom"? He doesn't even know what most of us do! Most homeschoolers went to public school for a period of time, or at least their parents did, so they have a view from both sides.

The great thing about homeschooling is that it can be tailored to each family's needs.

Sincerely,

Melissa, Age 13
Anna, Age 11

Searching For Nuts

Back in 2002, I wrote an email message on a board where we were talking about nuts and seeds and I said this:

I did some research on nuts. Did you know that if you type "nuts and seeds" into google, you'll get about 21,000 hits?

I wondered how much this search term may have grown over the past 7 years so once again I typed "nuts and seeds" (I include the quotes) into google, but this time I came up with 439,000 hits. That's quite a change, isn't it?

I'm not too surprised though because it's pretty obvious to me that there are a lot more nuts out there.

Which is good because I need the company. :)

A Family Project: Group Stories

Group stories are fun writing projects you can do with your kids. The process is easy. One person starts the story by writing a few sentences, then another person writes a bit, and so on and so on. Each person is free to write as much or as little as they want when it's his or her turn to write. Leave a notebook out on a coffee table for as long as it takes. I think the story I'm about to share took us several weeks to write.

In this example, it's easy to see who was in the news often during the time we wrote this. Also see if you can see the influence of a 10 year old boy who loves action and an 11 year old girl who was quite the animal lover...

PETER'S SURPRISE

Tonight would be the first time Peter Piccolo would conduct a major concert. He wanted everything to be perfect. But he didn't know that the mother mouse and her ten babies were napping comfortably under the bass drum.



Peter knew that some very important ladies were coming. Just then the ladies entered. They included: Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Julia Roberts, Whitney Houston, and Oprah. They took front row seats beside the bass drum. The orchestra started with the bass drum. It didn't wake the mice yet but the second time it did. They crept out and Julia Roberts screamed!

After she screamed, the mice scurried up a trombone opening. No one else saw the mice so they just thought Julia was going crazy.

Peter Piccolo was fuming. Why did she have to go crazy at HIS concert? He finally got everyone settled down, apologized to the crowd for the interruption, turned towards the orchestra and raised his baton. First the strings played. Then there was a blast from the trombone. The 11 mice came flying out. One landed right on Barbara Bush's nose! She put it down on the ground and kicked it and screamed.



The poor little mouse went flying again, bounced off the kettle drum and slid down the front of Whitney Houston's sequined gown. Everyone stared in amazement as she wriggled and twisted around. Then Oprah said, "Oh, she's doing that new funky hip-hop dance. The group MOJO showed it to me on my show last week."

She started following Whitney around and imitating her moves. Hillary and Barbara looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and joined in. Peter Piccolo's name should have been Peter Puzzled. He just stood there and watched dumbfounded. It seemed Oprah was having the time of her life.

And finally the mouse dropped off and crept out of the place. The other 10 went under Oprah's legs. Finally, Peter saw the mice and scooped them up with his music book and let them go out the back door.

When he came back in, the orchestra was on their feet playing wildly and everyone in the audience was dancing in their chairs. After it was all over, the people gave the orchestra a standing ovation. A newspaper critic took Peter's pictures and wrote an article about the whole episode called: "Piccolo's People Perform Perfectly." Peter read it and smiled, thinking, "Thank you, mice."

How To Mute A Trumpet

My daughter played the trumpet for several years and one day she noticed the sound seemed muffled. It sounded like a mute was on the instrument but it wasn't.

We looked down the horn and we saw something brown deep inside. We had no idea what it could be. We poked, prodded and shook the trumpet trying to see if we could get whatever it was out of there.

We couldn't really see down the horn very well, but there had to be an object lodged in there; it just did not sound right at all when she played. I even brought out the vacuum cleaner to see if the suction could release whatever it was but that did not work either.

Finally, by using a hanger, we loosened the object and it rolled out and bounced on the floor.

It was the little buckeye her uncle gave her. Lucky, for us, wasn't it? I mean, you know, if it was a black cat, we'd probably never have been lucky enough to get it out of there.

Homeschooling Fun With Limericks

Limericks are quite fun to write
The form can be tough though, you’re right
You have something to say;
Perfect in every way
But the last line won’t fit without a fight

Writing limericks with kids is a kick
You never know what words they will pick
They like to be foul
They like making me growl
So they use words that'll make me feel sick

I found these below in my files
Hidden amongst all the piles
Of stuff that I dids
With both of my kids
The fun we had lasted for miles.

*****
Circa 1994...

There once was a robot named Keith
who simply needed some beef.
He went to the store,
to buy him some more,
and completely rotted his teeth.
(By Keith and his Grandma)



We went on a ride with my bike.
I had to carry my counselor, Mike
He was really quite fat,
And so was his cat.
So I made them both ride on a trike.
(By Melissa and her Grandma)



There once was a dinosaur map
That was always so hard to unwrap.
When the triceratops tried,
He just sat there and cried.
'Cause his horns punched a hole in the flap.
(By Melissa, Keith and Mom)








There once was a girl who loved soccer
We all thought she was off of her rocker.
Melissa was her name,
and she played every game,
But she always left her shorts in her locker.
(By Melissa, Keith and Mom)

Homeschooling In 1992

Look what I found. This is an excerpt of a plan I wrote back in 1992, when were were starting our second year of homeschooling. Check out the creative name of our "school" considering my kids' names are Melissa and Keith. :)

I created this document to sort of set up a framework of plans for the year....

HOMESCHOOL 1992-1993

PHILOSOPHY

MK Elementary believes in integrated, interactive, hands-on learning. We believe children learn best by doing and by participating fully in their education.

The unit study approach will be the basic method used in teaching. We will integrate as many subjects as possible into the study of the topic chosen. The teacher and students will work together to determine the topic choices. We believe that by permitting the students to assist the teacher in making goal and topic decisions, their education becomes more meaningful and conforms with the student's interests and abilities.

Where integration is not possible, some traditional methods and materials will be used in each subject if necessary, especially in math and language arts. These methods are spelled out more clearly in the following outline.

The rest of the document is an outline categorized by subject areas.

When I read this I realize how much our philosophy changed over the years as we gained more experience and became more comfortable with the freedom. We loosened up bit by bit as the years passed and found a comfort level that worked for our family.

The Perfect Homeschooling Curriculum

How do you find the perfect homeschooling curriculum for your family? Perhaps this little experience I had back when my kids were young will help you answer this question...


I was deep into one of the many books I’ve read about learning and education when Keith tugged on my shirt and asked, “Mom, are nuts also seeds?”

“Yes,” I answered quickly, trying to get back to my book.

“Well, where do walnuts come from?”

“From a walnut tree of course,” I replied, not lifting my head from the page.

“Oh, so my friend Aaron could grow another tree if he planted them.”

I looked up. “What?” He was still there. “Oh, well, yeah. Did you finish your workbook pages yet?” I wanted to get back to my reading. What the heck was he asking these questions for anyway? We already did a unit study on plants last year. Did he forget everything?

He finally went off to do something else and I dove back to my reading about what the experts say my kids need to know and when they need to know it.

But then Melissa tapped me on the shoulder, “Mom what’s convex mean?” I quickly explained it to her and she stuck her belly out and said, “Oh, so now my belly is convex!”

We all laughed. Then Keith stomped around with his gut out and his arms out to his side saying, “Sumo wrestlers are really convex, aren’t they?” More laughter and the next thing I know we are in a fun discussion full of interesting twists and turns.

When I had a chance to go back to my books, an idea hit me quicker than a Sumo wrestler can clear out a buffet: I was looking for my answers in the wrong place!

I finally realized no matter how much I read about what a child needs to know or research the best age to study a particular subject, these authors didn’t know my kids and what questions and thoughts could come up on any given day. The books were good resources but I tended to get too bogged down when reading them.

What my kids need to know are the answers to their questions. All I need to do is treat my kids as unique individuals and follow their lead, answer their questions and help them learn what they are curious about.

After all my searching, I finally found the experts.