Museums and Unschooling

During our trip to Florida, we visited the Children’s Museum of the Treasure Coast.  It is a great museum where kids play in different exhibits much like Explore and More in East Aurora.

There is a really large pirate ship with activities about sailing and exhibits with activities about daily life and occupations.

The concept reminds me quite a bit about the book, The Unschooled Mind.  It proposes that kids would learn better by doing activities in a museum setting under the guidance of experts who run exhibits of sorts.  Kids would complete age appropriate active projects in each area.  As they got older the activities would get more complex, self-directed and lead to apprenticeships in their occupational area of interest.  The idea is that students could perform better by continuously applying what they learn.

As I said before, we are balancing these ideas for unschooling with the Time4Learning curriculum we are using.  We do a little work on our curriculum each day, and when I can manage it we make it out to a local attraction for a field trip.  We also enjoy walking to the places in our neighborhood for our regular activites and errands building skills through daily living and exposure to city life.

Homeschooling: Time to Change Political Parties?

Like most people, I am pretty discouraged by politicians generally.  Most seem pretty clueless about what regular people are going through and only interested in being re-elected.  Currently, I am a registered democrat, not because I am thrilled with them, but because they seem a little more in touch with regular people than republicans.  Not only do most republicans running for office seem bigoted against low income or minority people, I don't believe in their general philosophy that government shouldn't have a role at all.  Clearly the resources of government can, when used properly, bring equality and stability to the wide citizenry in a way that competition alone cannot.  Unfortunately, democrats take it too far by not only having government fund basic services, like education, but operate them.  While cut-throat competition is too far, the inefficiencies of government is not all that desirable either.

Then I read up on Ron Paul's views on homeschooling.  He is proposing tax credits to defray the cost of homeschooling.  It is perfect.  Government funding of education without operating it.  Parents who are the best champions of their students would be in charge without the penalty of a reduced income.  It is a real program of equality.  Low and middle income people wouldn't have to be afraid to give up an income.  While homeschool is more efficient and so it doesn't take as many hours to educate students, taking kids out of public school does mean parents are without free day care making a second income almost impossible.  The credits would fix this.  There would also be more family stability because a parent would be home to be a homemaker removing some of the stress of the over scheduling that often goes on in two income families.

Should I rush out and change parties?  Not sure, I think it was Ron Paul's son that thought civil rights went too far.  Also, most republicans don't want federal involvement in education, but leave it to the states.  Perhaps, I should lean on my state politicians for consideration of tax credits.  Mark Grisanti, my state senator whom I already strongly support, despite being a republican has gone out of his way to support equality by supporting gay marriage and funding for the NFTA (public transportation is a very important way to further equality).  He is the type of Republican that would be well worth changing parties for if it came down to it.  However, voting for Ron Paul would also sent a message to politicians about homeschooling.  If republicans in NYS took it up, they could begin to cut education costs in half since the $5000 that Ron Paul is proposing is half the per student cost in most school districts in WNY.  Time to send our politicians an e-mail!

Homeschooling and Parent Illness

In a recent post, I talked about the advantages of homeschooling when it comes to kids getting sick.  It is pretty intuitive that the flexibility would be an advantage.  But what about when you, the parent, are sick or maybe have a chronic illness?  Most people would assume that you couldn't homeschool, but my experience has been that homeschooling is far better.

From talking to my counterparts with kids in traditional school, despite turning their kids over to professionals thirty plus hours a week, they still face significant work in educating their kids.  There is homework (even in the younger grades) with deadlines, getting them ready for a school bus on a tight morning schedule, being home to wait for the bus (or drive to pick up their kids), calling the teacher about progress reports, meetings with the principal over bullying, etc.  All of these things are stressful, deadline driven activities.

I stopped working several years ago due to pain and signficant fatigue which I recently found out is fibromyalgia, an illness that is not life threatening but life changing.  I need to live at a careful pace to feel well and keep up with daily activities.  I rest ten to twelve hours a day and have a careful exercise routine of swimming and stretching.  Even with these careful measures, I still have quite a few bad feeling days.  Getting up on a strict schedule (the stiffness in the morning can make things hard) or having to help with homework in the evening with waning energy would be very difficult.  It would be unfair for T & C to do poorly on a homework assignment because of how I am feeling.

With homeschooling, we can go at our own pace.  On a good feeling day, we do a field trip or go to a homeschool group.  On a bad day, they can stick exclusively to their online Time4Learning and free play (puzzles, library books, board games, blocks, dolls) at home which requires virtually no work on my part.  Most days are in between where (in addition to their online lessons) we go out for an hour or two to the playground or library and some local neighborhood errands before my energy starts to fall again.  On balance, I probably don't spend any more time than my traditional school parent counterparts, with far better educational results and very little stress.  The flexibility also makes it possible for Dad to pitch in when needed since he can be with T & C whenever he isn't at work.

I hope this helps people understand more of the advantages of homeschooling.

Urban Homesteading: Rat Bait Station

Fortunately, the rats didn't get into the house while we were gone.  We kept filling in the one area where they seemed to come in and I think it worked.  However, the little bit of snow made it easy to see the tracks all over the yard.  The small TomCat brand bait stations didn't attract them so far this winter; so I went to two home stores (on my best bus route) to see about getting the industrial bait stations that the exterminators use.  The nice staff person at the Valu explained to me that since the new law banning the sale of separate poison and bait went into effect, that they no longer carry them and that is why I would have trouble finding them.  I explained that if they sold the large ones with the poison already in it, that I would buy it, but obviously they are nowhere to be found.  The HomeDepot staff tried to get me to fall for buying plain rat poison and leaving it out.  This wouldn't work because it could hurt other animals (not too concerned since pets are supposed to be on leashes) and it would not last in the rain or snow.  So, I decided that we would make a station to contain our spring traps:

The idea is that it is enough of a box to shelter the trap set up and the lid can come off to remove the snap traps.  Since it doesn't appear that reasonable products are available for outdoor rat trapping, I feel entitled to give this a whirl.  In the past I paid for very good, but expensive exterminating (when they got in the basement - not the living space, thank God).  Now, trying to handle it on our own, there are no appropriate products available for purchase.  I am not clear if this is concerned appropriate, but we are trying it.  Let me know your thoughts and I will keep you posted on if it works.

We're Back!

For obvious reasons, I didn't tell you that we have been away for more than a week.  Everything came together at the last minute and we went to Florida to see the grandparents (not the set in the board game post).

The kids were great in the car!  They practiced reading signs and by the end of the way down, T and C realized that food and gas signs on the interstate are always blue and that the exit ones are green.  I am a little embarassed though that I was so exhausted from the little bit of driving I helped with, that I didn't do most of the techniques I read about in Carschooling, even though it is a really great book.  I felt silly reading it because we don't own a car and need to rent one to leave town, but it is a great read regardless.  It really does have have great ideas for covering all subjects on many types of car rides, from long trips to commuting.

I also thought that it would be fun to check out the homeschooling laws in Florida.  Before I looked, I assumed that they would be less stringent than New York.  Was I wrong!  While I didn't see anything about quarterly reports, Florida requires a specific type of log and under certain homeschool options the need for a certified teacher to adminster tests.  It seems a little more stringent to me.  Of course, I only read the summary by HSLDA.  Still, it made me thing that New York may not be the most difficult state for homeschooling.  More on our trip in future posts!

Homeschooling When the Kids Are Sick

My daughter got a rash on her face, temporary and not serious.  It reminded me, however, that neither of them has been too sick this winter.  They each had the same long but very mild cold and the same six hour stomach virus, but that is it so far.  This could change of course before winter is over. 

When I think back to my own childhood, unless I had a fever or threw up, I went to school.  It is a good thing that I did too because when I had chicken pox and was out for several days, it was horrible trying to catch up.  It seemed so unfair to just finish being sick and then go back to school and have to do double the work.  It is a wonder we didn't get sick repeatedly from being worn out.

That is the best part about homeschooling.  When the kids are sick, they can take a day off or do a shorter day.  With the little ones, maybe it is a day for cuddle schooling, anything that can be done curled up on the couch with Mom (or Dad).  When we cuddle school, we read books and watch Spanish DVDs.  I didn't make up the term "cuddle school"; I have heard the phrase from many homeschool moms.

Dressing for the Weather

It is another warm, yet rainy, day in Buffalo.  It takes me back to a dinner party many years ago in the winter when a gentleman mentioned that the weather didn't concern him because he got in his car in his garage and drove to the office and got out in a covered garage.  What if you are an urban homeschooler reliant on walking and public transportation?

The right outerwear takes priority over cute outfits, first of all.  Second of all, it is great fun for kids to look out the window check the outside temperature on the computer and learn to select the right coat or footwear for the weather.  Preschoolers can even practice dressing themselves for different scenarios.  As a city dweller in Buffalo, the right outwear saves us the very large expense of a car.  Paying attention to the forcast on weather maps can even help with geography.  I myself learned the placement of states in the US by watching the the Weather Channel as a kid.

Outcomes for Urban Unschoolers

I very much like this blog post (and blog):

City Kids Homeschooling

See it and my response by clicking on the link above.

Defensive Testing

It seems that homeschoolers are often homeschooling because they don't like that schools seem to "teach to the test" or think that tests are not a good measurement of how well a child is educated.  What about testing as a defensive measure?  In New York State, standardized tests must be given every other year starting in 4th grade, but not all states require them.  When T finished kindergarten before he turned 5 I thought that there would be many people, maybe at the school district, but more likely naysaying extended family members or acquaintances who would question whether he really learned what he was supposed to learn by that age without going to school.  I decided to take a chance on it and give him the California Achievement Test for kindergarten thinking that, by the standards of those who believe in conventional school, it would prove that he really did well enough in kindergarten to proceed.  Fortunately, he scored 60 percentile or above on everything.  While I don't believe that standardized tests are a great measure of acheivement, it feels like one more piece of evidence that we are on the right track.  What do you think about defensive standarized testing?

Thermostats and Why Our Schools Are Failing Us

First of all, in the effort of full disclosure, I keep my house at a lower temperature to save energy and money.  I set my thermostat at 63 during the day, wear several layers and even let it go lower at night.  It seems to work.  Despite my older home with little insulation, my gas bills are pretty low.  This year's more mild temperatures helped too, but during the most recent cold snap when lows got into the single digits, I observed some scary behavior which I will get to shortly.

When I was in college, I had several roomates, not all or most, but several that reacted to temperature.  If they were cold, they put the heat on 80 degrees they as soon as they were hot, they put on the A/C down to 68, back and forth.  I knew that thermostats set a floor and no matter your preference you generally picked a temp and stuck with it.  68 degrees indoors is 68 degrees indoors whether it is 30 degrees outside or 5.  It was clear that despite graduating high school and getting into college that they were still clueless about how a thermostat actually worked.

Recently, some people I know (adults in their 30s), also high school graduates, were complaining that when it got really cold that they couldn't turn their heat up.  It was 68 degrees in the apartment and they were desperate to get 74 or 76 during the cold snap.  Because of the older house their apartment was in and the older furnace combined with already being about 60 degrees difference from the outside, the temperature struggled to get up that high.  While they are entitled to whatever temperature they want in their home, it is still quite puzzling as to why 68 degrees was fine for them when it was 25 degrees outside, but not when it was 5 degrees.  It just doesn't make sense.  Rather than logic, there was a knee jerk reaction that more cold outside had to mean more heat inside.  What kind of a country are we in that this cluelessness about basic home features is so widespread?  It is especially horrifying with climate change and energy costs being such hot issues.  Kids go to school full-time and don't know this.  This is why homeschooling is so important.  While book smarts are very important, so much time should be spent on it that there is no time for basic common sense day to day living skills?  Really?  Time for us to wake up.