Big Changes - letting go of MY plans

It's 2012 and we live in Guatemala, so we're surrounded by it. People from around the globe are coming to the land of the Maya to await the fulfillment of the prophecy. Some expect the end of times, others interpret the end of the calendar as the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one full of energetic change.

If I had to choose, I'd go with the second option. I quite like the idea of everyone waking up on the 22nd of December, enlightened and uplifted. Maybe we'll suddenly be able to fly, or see through the matrix, or turn deserts into fertile land through the power of manifestation, end hunger and war forever, fart rainbows, and live happily ever after!

Okay. Maybe not. Maybe it will all go on as usual.

Here, at our house, things have definitely undergone major change over the last week.

I'm cutting our schedule down to the absolute basics. 

Last year was a dreamy homeschool honeymoon of a year. It was cozy, led by curiosity, full of cool projects, very improvised, and relatively easy for Lu. Last year, he was able to do at least 60% of the work by himself. He was confident and proud of himself. He was shining. But this year - 4th grade - is not as easy. He needs me in asking distance most of the time, and he needs me sitting right next to him for a good chunk of that. And maybe that was our problem. Maybe it was too much too close proximity, too many hours a day. 

On the one hand, we were getting so much done. We got through everything twice as fast because we were working together, side by side, and Lu's mind can't wander when all my attention is on him.  If we hadn't been arguing so much about everything, we probably could have finished everything in six months. But that, obviously, isn't the point. And somehow, I lost the plot.

Being right next to each other for most of the day was leading to things like me getting overly annoyed with Lu's fidgeting, Lu trying to push me over the edge, me yelling, Lu yelling, yucky feelings of a day gone down the toilet, and so much frustration for both of us.

 

But even so, I was excited every day to have another go. Another chance. A fresh start. Today would be perfect. But it wasn't. Quite the contrary. Each day was getting worse. I was keeping track of how long we could manage before getting into an argument. An hour. Half an hour. Fifteen minutes. Five minutes. And when we got down to five minutes, I finally accepted that it just wasn't working.

So, for now, I'm letting go of my very elaborate plan for 4th grade and just figuring things out day to day. Lu is doing his language arts worksheets and math reviews by himself, turns them into me, I check, and give them back to him to correct. No conversations about it. No constantly correcting his posture and handwriting. No complaining about his fidgeting. Because I'm not watching him while he works.

We're still having read-alouds together.

This story - The Dragon Who Liked to Spit Fire - was one of my favorites as a child. My mom recently brought it in a box with a bunch of other books from my childhood. It's so fun to read them again, and even better having them read to me by my son now.

We're doing more household stuff like cooking,

This is Lu's latest culinary invention - Cheesy Eggs a la Oregano

chopping garlic and talking about Star Wars 

simultaneously (almost),

and helping out with other household chores.

There's more time for outdoors work too. Here Lu is practicing his machete skills and cutting down the brush on an undeveloped part of our yard. Where we live, boys will start learning how to use a machete at age 6.

And of course, there's more time for the workshop,

one of Lu's favorite places.

He's typing a lot on a kids' forum - which he's loving-, and occasionally writing on his blog. He's doing a bit of spelling and grammar each day. Some math practice, and a bit of independent science reading and writing. He always has a chapter book on the go, and there's no arguing about that because he truly loves his books. He's reading Robin Hood in Spanish now. And that's about it. We've gone from 6 hours a day, on average, of actual schoolwork time, to about 2 and a half hours.

So, I have very little involvement in our current homeschool setup besides answering the occasional question and checking work. For now, that seems to be what we need. And even though it's hard to let go of what I had planned, I know that a loving and peaceful home environment is more important than whether or not we cover Ancient Greece or Multiplying Decimals or European Geography this year. And that might sound obvious, but when you're still new at this, and you've worked so hard to structure your year, and you've been trying to prove that you can, and things don't go as you expected - it can be tough to let go.

A Boy Homeschooling His Mom

We've been doing a bit-o-dis and a bit-o-dat...

Spiral timeline for History
as a final wrap-up of our Prehistoric Humans - Neolithic Revolution unit

In Math, we're learning about
Measurements and Conversion, Geometry, and Divisibility.

We recently started on some basic geometry with MEP Year 4. I've been suffering terribly with it, and came to the realization that I am stuck at the exact same point at which I got stuck the first time around - 4th grade, right after long division. I remember struggling to get my head around long division, and I finally did, but as soon as I had... fractions and geometry jumped out from behind the bushes and knocked me out. That traumatizing blow left me with a life-long math phobia. A math problem might not even be that difficult, but if I don't understand it at first glance, that's it, I freak.

Fortunately, I finally discovered that MEP has an interactive site where I can get all the answers (duh). So I'm feeling much better now :)

Last week we finished one of our 4th grade math resources
and started this new one,
which has us on divisibility in the second lesson???
I was told it was for fourth grade,even though I can't find where it says so on the site... hmm...
We'll see how it goes, but we like it so far.

So far, our math resources have only given us a small taste of fractions, so we've been doing some extra fractions on CoolMath. I love how clear and straightforward the lessons are. Lu thinks the games aren't that great, but he does enjoy the lessons.

In Science, we're learning about Taxonomy with
Mr. Q Life Science (his free book)

and, the Scientific Method - another dragon slain -

which I had originally planned to include this year, then chickened out and pushed to next year, knowing that at some point we have to do it. But Lu has been asking for it, wanting to do more experiments, which I'd been resisting because I did want to make sure to cover the Scientific Method before doing more experiments (conveniently), but I couldn't face actually sitting down and grasping it. Something about the variables and the constants and the control groups make my head spin.

I'd been dreading tackling the Scientific Method, but at the end of the day, it wasn't all that bad. Seven steps to help organize an experiment. That's not so hard. So why did the idea of it have me breaking into cold sweats?

We decided to try a very simple experiment for our first time following the 7 Steps. Lu formed the hypothesis that a rubber-band would travel 5 times the distance that it is pulled back before being let go.

We learned how to calculate averages. We discovered flaws in our procedure. Lu's hypothesis was squashed to a pulp. I was bored out of my mind measuring the distances of the 25 throws that Lu decided were necessary for the experiment. BUT, at the end of the activity, he said that it had "opened his mind about experiments". He thought you could only test things that had already been proven or discovered. He didn't realize that he could make up his own experiments. So, that was pretty awesome, and definitely worth the two+ hours invested. He also again expressed his great interest in science. He makes sure to remind me of this from time to time, with a very serious tone - "Mama, I really like science. I mean really, really." This kid is making me stretch my thinking cap to places I never knew I could reach. The description of this blog should read: A Boy Homeschooling his Mom.

What Grade Are We In?

I recently learned that, by U.S. standards (we're in Central America), my son should have been in 2nd grade. He had already done 3 months of third grade in a Waldorf school when we started homeschooling last April, so we mostly kept working at a 3rd. grade level.

At the school, where he did K-2 and started 3rd, classes were mostly taught in Spanish. He was reading English at a low 2nd grade level and writing at a 1st grade level, basically sounding out the words and writing them as he would in Spanish - a language that is, for the most part, written as it sounds.

So, I decided to stick to 3rd grade Math, Science and Spanish - but look for 2nd grade curriculum for English. Then I realized that he was more at a 4th grade level in Math. His English progressed so quickly that we're flying through the 2nd grade stuff. And, to top it all off, a teacher recently told me that I was pushing middle school content on him in our Unit Studies. Apparently, learning so much detail about the Solar System is "too much" for an eight year old - even though he loves it.

So, what grade are we in?
1st grade phonics
2nd grade grammar
3rd grade science
3rd and 4th grade math
5th grade geography
6th grade unit studies

I still haven't done the Can he read 120 words per minute test to figure out where he is in his reading, and I'm not going to.

That's the great thing about it.
We work at his level on each subject.

I'm recording everything we do in case we ever need to "show our work". Now that I know that if we were in the U.S. my son would be just now starting the 3rd grade, I think we'll stick to that on our records. We'll have done 18 months of "3rd grade" and that's just fine by me. After all, the "standard" stuff only takes up a fraction of our learning time, which is ALL THE TIME!

He's ready for things that most kids don't get until high school, if ever, unless they have really cool parents. He's ready to talk about real-world issues. I hate the idea that kids should live in fantasy la-la land bubble until they're a certain age. We talk about anything and everything that comes up: sexuality, war, third-world politics, corruption, racism, climate change, poverty and the global economy. We analyze music and movies that are not "age appropriate", and he gets them.

This post is more of a reminder to myself (and you, if you need it), when I get caught up in what we're "supposed" to be doing - grades and standards - to stay clear on why we homeschool:
freedom
creativity
curiosity
critical thinking
and
finding passion

Thanks to M and J in a Nutshell and Through the Wardrobe for being sources of inspiration, especially when I need to remember that I want to do this creatively and outside of the lines. I'm getting there, slowly but surely!

Leaving the Room

Today we finished Scott Foresman Free Grammar & Writing Unit 1.

It was a struggle, as English is my son's second language, but we did it!

I'm not afraid to admit that I like workbooks, especially for grammar. That my son learn to write decently is essential to me.

Freak Outs - Long Division vs. Everything Else

Learning History objectively with my son is definitely one of my main goals. We've only been homeschooling for three months, and I'm just starting to figure out how to make a schedule that works for us.

I know there are families out there managing to cover all the "important" subjects in two or three hours a day, but we're barely managing to squeeze everything in - even though we're putting in as much as five hours a day just on Language Arts, Science and Math. I really want to have a History focus, but don't want to sacrifice any of the conventional basics.