School's Out! Now what?

Last Thursday I said to Beezy, "How would you like this to be the last day of school?" Of course she was all for it, so when we completed lessons I said, "Congratulations on finishing this school year. Thank you for being in my class." I shook her hand, and then she raised both fists in the air and shouted, "Outside forever!"  She had told me recently during a school day that she just wanted to be outside running around. I listened. I realized that even doing lessons on the upstairs balcony, with tree branches at arms' length and in the company of the sights and sounds of the outside world, was not enough to curb the feeling that she was missing out. In fact, I think that looking the little birdies in the eye made it worse. There are kittens across the street to visit, squirrels to chase, and toddlers in the neighborhood that want to play. Monday was running-in-the-sprinkler weather. So glad we were done with school!

So here is what we are up to. Yesterday we went to Farmer Jo Ann's for flowers, finally. Less than two weeks ago it got down to freezing over night! While practicing piano, Beezy told me she wished she had lessons every day. She has "written" her own song, and she loves experimenting with sounds on the electronic keyboard. Tuesday she has dog obedience class with Daisy for her 4-H project. Thursday we are going to the circus as part of her birthday, and we are taking a friend of hers who also has a May birthday. We will visit a science museum in Ft. Wayne with another friend this weekend, and then celebrate my grandma's 85th birthday at my cousin's house. The first week of June is Vacation Bible School, which is always a highlight of Beezy's year. The week after that, the pool will open.

As for summer reading, I had the brilliant idea of having Beezy choose her own picture books from the library, and it is working. She chooses to read them. We will do that every couple of weeks. I say this idea was brilliant because it was so obvious. She always picks out videos for herself, but never books. I had to suggest it, and there was a little resistance, but sometimes children do need a gentle push in the right direction. I'm going to find a little basket for her to keep them in.

Life just continues on, and we savor the unique pleasures and opportunities that each season brings. Hopefully the freedom from school lessons will help me to observe closely the ways in which learning happens in every moment of every day and is not separate from the rest of life. Then when fall comes, the shift into "school time" will be merely an organic segue into the next season, rather than an abrupt change. We will be truly unschooling.

Radical Unschooling

Today I bought Dayna Martin's Radical Unschooling: A Revolution Has Begun.  I found it on half.com for about $10, a much more reasonable price than what was offered on Ebay and Amazon. It wasn't available from my public library system, and my husband is done teaching at the college where he works an hour away, from which library I sometimes borrow materials. I also want to get away from obsessively researching unschooling online. I want to ween from too much computer use, so I bought the book. I have read postings by Dayna online and watched some of her youtube videos, and now I wish to delve more deeply into the subject. While I certainly don't agree entirely with her parenting philosophy, I think she is definitely onto something, and she expresses herself well in writing.

Dayna is like other radical unschoolers who allow their children unlimited media access. I believe in protecting my child's innocence and guarding her spirit against evil, so I simply can't buy into this practice. All potentially educational resources are not created equal!  For example, reading engages the entire mind, while television actually shuts down certain areas of the brain. It may be true that a child can learn from anything. The problem is in the content and other issues that may be detrimental, such as addiction to TV or video games. It's similar with food. Some foods are addictive and harmful to the body, and to me it is irresponsible to give unlimited access to toxic substances to a child.

But putting those concerns aside for the moment, a post at daynamartin.com really intrigued me, which was about unschooling vs. permissive parenting. She says that radical unschoolers are not neglectful parents and are in fact very "hands on" with their children. And she brought up attachment parenting and how she sees unschooling as an extension of this parenting style. From the beginning of Beezy's life, my husband and I practiced attachment parenting, especially as advocated by Dr. William Sears and his wife Martha, who are a pediatrician and nurse, respectively. We wore our baby in slings and other types of carriers, did not believe in the cry-it-out method of sleep training, practiced co-sleeping, fed her real, whole foods (rather than the baby food in packages), and she breastfed into the pre-school years. In fact, I coined the term, organic mothering (yes, this is my original idea!) to define and provide a continuation of attachment parenting principles for when children are older. That was the guiding force in beginning to write this blog in the first place, along with advertising my belly dance classes.

Dayna has also mentioned other terms to describe unschooling, such as organic learning. If I think of unschooling as a process by which families live in natural ways, with children learning organically through real life experiences, apprenticeships, lessons of their choosing, and via the role modeling of parents and other adults, then I am definitely an unschooler! Even during our formal "lesson time", the materials chosen are enjoyable to my child, and the Charlotte Mason methods that are used are gentle and not textbook bound. We go at our own pace, and the lesson time happens whenever it best fits into our day. Reading, writing, and math are covered, as well as living books on religious, historical, or science-oriented topics for narration. These provide the basic tools for learning about anything. The rest of the state's curriculum requirements can be covered via 4-H projects, piano lessons, and an unschooling lifestyle.

I am excited to read Dayna Martin's book and to get a more intimate picture of her family's lifestyle. While she and her husband are not Catholic homeschoolers, and therefore some of their choices may be in conflict with the Church's teachings on education, they still very obviously care deeply for each other and their children, and their goal is to live life in the fullest, most authentic ways possible, equally for both parents and children. My very favorite unschooling blog right now is called Clean., which is also not about a Christian family, but it is apparent that Rachel, the author, loves her life. I adore her photographs and was inspired to get a nice camera for Mother's Day so I can do something similar here.

We most likely are not going to find others who think and homeschool and parent exactly in the manner we do, so we can take what we like and leave the rest. When I really think about how I teach, there are many avenues to accomplishing education. Any learning being done must be done by the child, and this can happen when the home is a rich environment, when parents role model virtuous ways of living and when they follow their own passions, by the child's own discoveries and experiments, through asking and answering questions, during conversations, and by interactions in the community. And that is certainly not an exhaustive list! Guidance, role modeling, and facilitation are methods of teaching. One of the comments on Dayna's blog by a Christian mother was especially interesting, suggesting that she imagines unschooling to be the closest approximation to how people parented in biblical times.

That seems like enough food for thought for the time being. I will most certainly be reflecting on Dayna Martin's radical unschooling book in posts to come.

Spring Break

At our homeschool we are finally taking a spring break. My mother-in-law made her annual visit from New Mexico this week, but earlier than usual, in order to be here for Beezy's First Communion. Despite not doing any formal schooling activities, we have been very busy, and much learning has been accomplished. Before Grandma arrived, Beezy's religious education class rehearsed for First Communion and practiced a special song the children will sing. It has six verses, so I brought a copy home to show Beezy how to follow the song. They will have the lyrics to read while singing, so we worked on some of the unfamiliar words. She missed last week because of having a tooth pulled, so I am catching her up. She also missed making a name banner for our family's pew for the First Communion Mass. Luckily Grandma is a retired art teacher, and the two of them worked on the banner for hours, and it is gorgeous!

Tomorrow morning there is a 4-H cake decorating workshop, so Beezy and her dad made the butter cream frosting for that. We took Grandma on an excursion yesterday to see some new shops in town, and I found a Hurlbut's Story of the Bible from 1904 with beautiful color and black-and-white illustrations at our flower shop's antique annex. Beezy has played her piano numbers for an upcoming recital for her grandma, so she is keeping up with her practice.

Grandma brought us bundles of sage from her garden. She is enjoying the perennial flowers in our yard, and I was right, the tulips too are fiercely blossoming despite the unseasonably chilly weather. Relationships are what matter most in an unschooling approach to life and learning. Memories gathered and treasured like homegrown herbs lovingly bound with string. Fragrant, simple, and delicious.

Keeping Homeschooling Simple

Now that I am officially Catholic (huzzah!), I am committed to being a Catholic homeschooler. I am currently reading about this subject and the principles of a classical education. I still want to keep the Charlotte Mason method as our base, but since Charlotte was a classical educator herself, I want to understand how I can incorporate the ideas into what we are currently doing. To that end, I am reading, Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum: A Guide to Catholic Home Education by Laura M. Berquist. I want to use as many Catholic resources as possible next year. My concern is that I don't want to feel too much pressure to follow someone else's guidelines. I don't want to be overwhelmed with formality. It seems that when I am very focused on formal schooling, I feel impatient, frustrated, and tense.

When I went through our current studies in my mind, it did strike me as a bit much. In addition to reading, writing, and math, Beezy has piano lessons, and the homework and practice are time consuming. We are reading the Little House series for history/literature and just finished a novel of Kateri Tekakwitha's life (saints/history/literature/Native American studies). We still have to finish Tree Castle Island (the last in our wetlands ecosystem studies). There is also the Bible, the Rosary, the Catholic book of signs and symbols for children, and now the addition of a 4-H project! Add to that the daily calendar and seasonal/holiday celebrations, going to Mass, and religious education classes. We always participate in anything going on at the library and through Parks and Recreation. And we can't leave out chores and housework, play dates, arts and crafts, and bedtime stories. I could keep going, but I'll stop now, as I'm sure you get the point. Life is full, even when it seems like there isn't that much going on!

Since seven is one of those good, biblical numbers, I have decided to keep the formal homeschooling subjects down to this many. Reading, writing, and math will be done daily, Monday through Friday. Piano about 3 days a week, in addition to the lessons. The Bible/Rosary twice a week. Narration of something on most days, such as a saint novel, science/nature study, or Little House book. And the pet project for 4-H (oh, and Beezy is now the newspaper reporter for her club, so that goes under the 4-H category as well). These are the 7 regular homeschooling "subjects" that will constitute our main focus for the remainder of the school year. The rest of the learning opportunities can fall under the unschooling banner, pursued according to time available and Beezy's interests.

It's so easy for me to get excited about something new, and ambitiously throw myself into a renewed program for life, and then to forget to just live, to just be, along the way. Figure out what is most important to you, and keep it simple, adding additional things gradually, allowing homeschooling to be a "little way", so that it can ultimately become a grand adventure.

Open Source Learning

Yesterday my DAR group met and heard a program about 4-H in our county. The director talked about the opportunities in 4-H for children to learn many life skills, including public speaking, setting and reaching goals, good decision making, and leadership. Older kids have an opportunity to be of service to younger children, being trained in such skills as conflict resolution and sensitivity. And of course children work on projects which follow their interests, such as animals, sewing, cooking, robotics, theater arts, creative writing, and woodworking, among others. Beezy is old enough now to join 4-H, and I will soon be hearing from an advisor! This is one of those resources homeschoolers can point to when people ask about socialization, by which they often really mean socializing. It is also a group that unschoolers in particular can use to support the philosophy of open source and child-led learning.

In the evening I took Beezy and her friend to the McDonald's Play Place. When the girls told me they were ready for something to eat and drink, I gave them their money and pointed to the line! They were both uncertain, having expected me to do the ordering for them. I gave them few instructions beyond, "Stand in line, tell them what you want, give them the money, and get back your change." They both ended up doing this twice, also learning where they needed to stand and wait for their orders. This was a simple but perfect example of a real life learning experience, the practice of responsibility and self-sufficiency. I dare say they enjoyed it! Since I had my DAR meeting, lesson time yesterday was a little short, but the physical activity at the Play Place counts as gym, and the experience ordering one's own food was also educational. Just having a conversation with a friend provides a chance for personal growth and self-expression, politeness, waiting your turn, etc... There were tons of kids at McDonald's, so the girls interacted in a large, mixed age group. At bedtime I read to Beezy, as usual. Learning is certainly not limited to a designated "school time"!

I am finding that all of the things I think are good about the unschooling philosophy--child-led learning and auto-education, pursuing personal interests, respect and gentleness toward children, giving children freedom to be who they are, trusting the natural learning processes, and restraining from overly interfering in the education of children--can all be accomplished without proscribing to unschooling as the particular homeschooling method used. These tenets can be incorporated into a wide range of homeschooling styles and methodology. In the unschooling literature I have read, there seem to be only two camps acknowledged--either unschooling or school-at-home. There are so many other viable choices, and in truth, I see a certain rigidity at both ends of the spectrum. I think that as long as I build my homeschooling on a solid Catholic Christian foundation, the rest will fall into place, for I will be guided by the Holy Spirit, who indwells my husband, my child, and myself. Here is found the true origin of trust.