The End of the World As We Know It...

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane...
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs.
...listen to your heart bleed.

Lock him in uniform and book burning...
...this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear!
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...

First official homeschool day tomorrow - the end of the world as we know it - and I feel fine!

Do I Have To Write It ALL BY MYSELF?!

CKW is a very reluctant writer - his brain (and mouth!) goes far too fast for his handwriting.  He produces a tonne of ideas, but has trouble getting them onto the page in paragraph form, and sometimes even into sentences.

We had planned to do the full Moving Beyond The Page (MBtP) 7-9 level this year, but the writing was quickly proving to be more then he could handle.  He was really starting to resist even attempting the process of writing, so I backed off and decided to save the 7-9 level until next year and, instead, we are doing the two language arts heavy concepts of 6-8 level this year: Community and Culture.   However, I have informed him that am not scribing anything for him in MBtP!  We do plenty of outside science and social science studies, and if I find that the amount of writing expected in MBtP for a particular day is quite heavy, then I will scribe for him in other subjects, but I really want him to learn to write on his own.   We are also doing (see links at the side) MCP Phonics C, Spelling Workout B, Easy Grammar 2, BraveWriter - The Wand, and WriteStart Primary C this year, so we are going to keep plugging along, with the goal of having his writing abilities equal to the level required at the 7-9 level of MBtP in time for the 2012-2013 academic year.

So far, he's doing great! Yes, he sometimes does find the MBtP readings to be 'babyish' at this level, but we most often discuss the topics presented in great detail, I always have him choose the second option for activities when they are available, and I try, as often as possible, to add in 'extras' as I find them listed on the MBtP IdeaShare forum.  So far, so good...

Happily, his writing is already improving by leaps and bounds and he continues to read more difficult books on his own and in the more challenging literature unit studies I choose that we discuss verbally.  For these, I went through MBtP, as well as Michael Clay Thompson's literature program and left out any books that they included so we wouldn't end up repeating things later on.  (I hope to add bits and bobs of Michael Clay Thompson's language arts program to our curriculum in the not too distant future, but that put the kibosh to this fall's planned Wind In The Willows pond unit study!)    

Last year, it was recommended to me at school that I should not worry about his handwriting, as he could move onto a keyboard anytime.  Several teaching professionals felt that handwriting was no longer a necessary skill 'in this day and age'.  But I strongly disagree!   As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I have discussed this with rehabilitation ocupational therapists, psychologists and speech therapists, and they have all strongly supported the studies showing that the act of physically writing letters and words helps both children and adults to build and maintain cognitive function.  Benefits include, but are not limited to, reading, writing, spelling, focus, memory, and executive function.  With this in mind, I've made the choice to slow down for a year to allow him to learn to write more easily - one of the best things about homeschooling is we've got lots of time!

"Real Homeschooling"

Today was our first day of 'real homeschooling', according to CKW.  I've scheduled his independent DEAR reading and journal writing for early morning, while I am making breakfast.  Then, after breakfast, we sit down to an hour of language arts, followed by an hour of social science - or thereabouts, we have to leave time for a couple of small snack & dance sessions!  CKW then does a maths lesson via Teaching Textbooks, as well as his Read, Write & Type Keyboarding practice while I rest my brain - oops!  I mean get our dinner ready.  He also uses this time to look at the movies on BrainPop Jr that correlate with what we have been studying that day. 

For the summer, he will be spending afternoons at our local library's reading program on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.  I thought that science might have to wait until September, but CKW loves science so very much, that he's asked if we can consider science as an elective course for the summer, as we have two electives periods scheduled for both Saturdays and Sundays.  Truthfully, these were to make up for any horrible health weekdays where I wasn't up to helping him with his most intensive teaching subjects, but if he wants science on the weekends, then I am all in!  Being a veterinarian, I love the sciences (well, except organic chemistry, but I'm hoping that won't come up for some time yet!), although CKW has made sure to explain to me in very great detail that chemistry, not biology, is his favourite science.  I guess I can deal with that.  Today, being Monday, we had our afternoon free and took advantage of this by starting off our science study with the first two lessons in Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (very basic) and then watching a couple of BrainPop Jr movies about matter and it's different states.

After we finished up and CKW was doing some fancy Lego project while I rested, he came into my room and asked me what 'real homeschooling' was like.  I told him that it was like what we had done today, that today was very much like what our homeschooling days were going to be like.  He ruminated on that for a bit and then came back in to let me know that he was very excited about grade two - apparently he found 'real homeschooling' to be a bit harder then regular school, but so very much more interesting! 

Good day, if I do say so myself...

Kindling

Truthfully, I've been thinking of homeschooling my son since before he started public school!  We live in rural Northern Ontario, Canada and have only one local public school available to our family.  No french public school, no public french immersion, no private schools, etc.  Catholic children have multiple school choices, but for a secular education it's english public school - take it or leave it! 

Unfortunately, because I am a single parent with chronic, disabling health issues, I have been unable to do so while he was quite young and required full time adult attention.  The CKW (Cutest Kid in the World) has attended every-other-day Junior Kindergarten, then Senior Kindergarten and is now finishing up Grade One at our local public school.  I've been volunteering in his classroom once weekly this year, helping the children with their reading, and having my eyes opened to the world of institutionalized learning.  My brother is a corrections officer and he agrees with me - in both our eyes, public school is very similar to jail!

Thankfully I found the Secular Homeschool Community online and have been researching homeschool issues, styles, and curriculum for months now.  I've ordered and received several products from The Critical Thinking Company, have placed an order for curriculum from Moving Beyond The Page and Teaching Textbooks, have purchased and started reading Bernard J Nebel's Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2, have downloaded several elective units from Connect The Thoughts and have started teaching The Story of the World Volume I: Ancient Times From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor by Susan Wise Bauer, using the Mosaic unit studies provided by Bringing Up Learners. 

I've provided links for the curriculum we're using, as well as other educational resources that interest me, and I'll be discussing each element of our curriculum in upcoming posts...  Today, I wanted to get the fire started!