Archive for the 'education' Category
In our town, as in others, the results of the annual student achievement tests are reported in the local newspaper. If they are above average, the citizens collectively pat themselves on the back; if they are below average, there is much talk and debate. This year, our school district’s scores were low, and one of the first things that was said was that the curriculum would be revamped district wide.
Huh? I was under the impression that the purpose of education is to teach children to think and to introduce them to a collective body of knowledge. . .not to take tests. Did I miss something?
I realize that with only four students, I have the leisure to evaluate my children’s work on an informal, ongoing basis. When our boys had to take tests to satisfy state homeschool law, the results were much as I predicted. But traditional schools do not have that same leisure, and so must rely on tools such as standardized tests to evaluate their students. But do these tests really show us how much students know? Or do they simply show us how well (or poorly) students perform on tests?
If the latter is the case, and I suspect it is to a certain degree, then is it prudent to revise curriculum based on test scores? Some tests remove questions that “too many” students answer correctly. To me, that speaks to the futility of teaching to the test. There is some need for students to learn test taking skills, as they are used in college admissions, but there is more to education than knowing how to make an educated guess and fill in the correct circle.
Once we have test results in hand, what do we do with them? We all want our children to be exceptional, but when scores are presented as averages, it is a given that a handful of students (or schools) will be above average and a handful will be below average. . .and a large majority will be average. If we consider the meaning of the word, it should not be the end of the world to be “average.” Unless we live in Lake Woebegone, somebody’s children are going to be average.
That would be first days of school, in case you’re wondering. I prefer to concentrate on the “8″ and not think too hard about the number remaining. Today went. . .well, it went. I could just say I put out a library trip as a bribe and we didn’t get to go, but that makes a rather short blog post. I had actually planned to start lessons after Labor Day, but then remembered we have vacation still coming so I figured we should at least do half days this week.
The morning started well enough, although everyone was tired and running slow as we got home from Casper later than planned yesterday. I started Silly Boy on a preschool workbook after talking about how it would be his job to play with Baby Boy and keep him out of trouble. The older four started with catechism: dictation for three of them and copywork for Bouncy Boy. That went fairly smoothly in spite of Twirly Girl writing much slower than her brothers.
Once that was done, Silly Boy and Baby Boy were supposed to play outside so I could read the history lesson aloud. That went well enough except for a minor Twirly meltdown when she didn’t understand the directions for her map. I don’t know how much of the lesson Bouncy Boy really absorbed, but he quietly and neatly colored his picture and map which is pretty impressive for a Bouncy Boy! I decided not to give a written assignment today, other than Drama Boy still needing to finish last year’s timeline.
Our last subject (half day, remember?) was Math. Oh. Dear. Everyone was starting a new lesson so had to take turns watching their dvd (we use Math U See). Boy Genius thought he could skip the dvd and proudly announced he’d figured it out himself; I had to tell him to go back and watch to be sure he figured it out correctly. Bouncy Boy didn’t want to build his problems with the blocks or do the coloring. . .we finally got that resolved although while he knows the math it’s obvious he struggles with writing his numerals. Because of the map meltdown, Twirly Girl was the last one ready for math and had to wait her turn with the dvd player. Meanwhile, true to his name, Drama Boy plunged immediately into his standard “it’s too hard I can’t do it you can’t help me” routine. Larry is out of town today for the circuit pastors’ meeting and unavailable for backup, so I finally had to send Drama Boy to his room to cool off.
Update: during rest time after lunch he says he did his math and it wasn’t so hard after all. <eye roll>
As scribbled by me, on our way to Texas back in May. . .
- Plan 2009-10 school year: Procrastinated until August, but I finally did it.
- —– —–: This is a gift project; progress has been made this summer although not as much as I had hoped. The next step depends on help from someone else, so I’m stuck.
- Maintain gardens: The weeds got the best of me but I did keep my hanging baskets watered and lovely for about 2/3 of the summer.
- Kitchen curtains: DONE! Finally! Yea! Thanks for your help in June, Dad & Mom! The one over the sink only has three “swags” which I think looks better, but I haven’t found my round tuit for altering this one.
- Give away stuff: Girl clothes sent to Elephant’s Child’s Child. Toys and adult clothes (including maternity & nursing <sniff>) taken to local clothing bank, except for the wooden kitchen which is at the thrift shop waiting for a buyer. Baby clothes are still in my sewing room, but one closed bin is better than four overflowing. I’m hoping to find a crisis pregnancy center that can use them.
I also accomplished some things not on the original list–and came to terms with the fact that some things will just have to wait for next summer, such as that new quilt for our bed. For now, I need to focus on that new school year. . .starting bright and (maybe) early tomorrow morning!
If you have boys to teach this year (at home, school, church, or anywhere), I would like to recommend downloading and listening to Teaching Boys & Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day. It is the recording of a presentation given by Andrew Pudewa from the Institute for Excellence in Writing, and is probably the most useful $3 I have spent on teacher training as a homeschooler. If you are a visual learner like me, at the bottom of the download page is a link to a free pdf worksheet to fill in as you listen.
As the subtitle indicates, it covers much more than teaching boys! The first part of the presentation does deal with documented differences in brain function between boys and girls, drawing from Leonard Sax’s book Why Gender Matters (in my current reading pile; review later if I find it helpful). For a girly girl raising 5 sons, this part was full of “aha!” moments. The bulk of the presentation, however, deals with motivating reluctant children to learn and making the subject matter relevant. . .ideas that seemed obvious when I heard them but that certainly hadn’t crossed my mind before.
For most of the years that we’ve homeschooled, the kids have kept their books and supplies in their backpacks while I have kept community items on a shelf or in a basket. Last year we tried using those grid cubes to store everything in the living room (aka school room). Life was much easier when no one had the excuse to return to the room for their math book! However, the cubes were not strong enough to hold all those books long term. I have been looking off and on for some sort of cabinet or something, but time and money ran out so I removed the scrapbooks from the living room bookshelf (as opposed to the built in shelves downstairs) and went to work.
The top shelf is supplies: Math U See Blocks, yogurt containers of pens, pencils, scissors, glue, gel pens. Currently the second shelf is language plus logic and preschool; the third shelf has history binders and books plus a magazine box full of looseleaf paper; and the bottom shelf has math on the left and science on the right. There may be some minor rearranging once school starts; I have a couple last minute books on order and some of the items (such as workbooks) may be kept in backpacks again.
My back to school to-do list is getting shorter! Tuesday I filled out the form for the school district put the last few books on Twirly Girl’s reading list. Yesterday I printed up maps and timelines for history, although they still need collating. Maybe later today I can work out an updated weekly schedule. I’ve also been preparing extra meals for the freezer for those days when teaching leaves me little time or energy for cooking.
We won’t begin our new home school year until after Labor Day, but have been using some of the lazy days of late summer to work through Mona Brookes’ Drawing With Children. I’ve had the book and supplies for an embarrassing amount of time and finally ran out of excuses. 
For the most part we have enjoyed the lessons and are currently working on identifying the different elements of shape (dot, circle, straight line, curved line, angled line) as we follow directions. Today’s exercise was not from the book, but having 4 boys in the class I figured we should at least try drawing a simple car!
Boy Genius, Drama Boy, and Twirly Girl are all pretty pleased with their pictures, and enjoyed adding details such as a traffic light, buildings, and so forth.
Yes, I drew a car too–it is much easier to show than tell the little boys “draw a curved line over each wheel.” Silly Boy says his is the Larry-Mobile; somewhere to your lower right he drew in Larry-Boy and the Fib. Bouncy Boy was not having a good morning even though I think his car turned out well enough.
Admitting we homeschool tends to bring out a variety of reactions from others, but one of the most unusual I have heard came from our former neighbor. “But what about P.E.? You can’t homeschool P.E.!” To her credit, this was soon after we moved in, so she had not yet had the chance to observe our boys zipping up and down the sidewalk on their bikes, climbing anything in their way, and in general being models of perpetual motion. (We could wonder what she thought by the time we moved out four years later, but this is a post about P.E. and not ill mannered neighbors. Enough said.)
I respect that her ideas of P.E. are probably limited to her own public school experience, as both student and mother. What she is missing is that physical education need not be limited to laps around a cinder track or team sports like kickball or tests on the rules of football. After all, who of us has much use for that sort of education after the tassels are turned? True, some of you may run for pleasure, some of you may be teaching the next generation to play kickball, some of you may enjoy watching football; but some of you may be like me and do none of the above.
My goal for our children’s physical education is to help them find pursuits that they can enjoy for the rest of their life, whether that be bicycling, swimming, martial arts, or golf. They certainly might find opportunities for adult team sports (such as softball), but those seasons are too short to be their only physical outlet. I also want to teach them the value of an active lifestyle, such as walking to the post office instead of driving, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or heading to the park instead of turning on the television.
What about the non-physical aspects of P.E., such as teamwork and cooperation? These can be taught in many other situations, most of which occur daily in any family with two or more children. The student-teacher ratio of a homeschool family makes it easy to turn that playground squabble into a lesson on playing by the rules or taking turns. These are the kinds of lessons that will be far more useful for our children ”in the real world” than being able to serve a tennis ball or knowing what it means to be offsides in soccer.
Bouncy Boy’s reading lesson took a little longer this morning. . .because after each bit that I taught him, he had to turn around and teach the same to Silly Boy.
We’ve been working on poetry lately. Today, after I wrote out their assignments, Boy Genius and Twirly Girl grabbed the A. A. Milne books and ran off to her room to practice their poems for each other. . .tonight, each will recite a poem for our dinner guests.
Drama Boy is being obnoxious again (sleeping through breakfast will do that to a growing boy) and had to be assigned laps around the block. . .but he chose to take Baby Boy along to enjoy the sunshine.
