Category Archives: Homeschooling

“Writing” for the Right-Brained Learner

Posted on December 13, 2006 | 6 comments

In my last post, I shared a favorite “writing” resource for my three oldest children, two of whom are strong right-brained learners. This resource approaches “writing” very differently in that it is meant to ignite the desire to create books . . . of all kinds and styles, including those to which a right-brained learner would be attracted. I then shared some samples of my oldest son’s books from his 8-year-old folder.

A few notes about how my oldest son was able to be at that place with “writing”. First of all, he is an artist by nature, and started drawing pictures at 3 years old (not having picked up a writing utensil at all before then). My hubby is also an artist, and he would spend hours each day after work and/or school (whichever stage we were at) drawing with him and sharing his love of drawing and being excited for Eric as he developed his raw talent. So, right there, he had a mentor and inspiration to draw from (haha, pun intended).

At around 4-5 years old, my hubby started telling elaborate bedtime stories that he created, and subsequently, began to record them ala an audio recorder so that the children could listen to those stories again when he was not able to do new ones on some evenings. This inspired the children to tell their own oral stories, again after being mentored and inspired.

We then got this great making books resource and because Eric is an artist, he was attacted to the visual and pictorial types of books, and this mentor resource and inspiration, along with a parent who kept scads and scads of paper available (a whole forest has been destroyed compliments of Eric), he began to compile his drawings into books. So, it wasn’t a one time deal to get him where he got. And even then, others in the world wouldn’t value what he called his “writing” or his “books”, but we did!

Another gift Eric brought to his writing was that he always had a precocious vocabulary. This is why, even though he is a strong right-brained learner, there were some decent words and thoughts included in his early writing. On the other hand, as gifted as he was in speaking, it didn’t show up that prolifically in his early writing, so it shows that “evidence” of the “later writer” in him due to his right-brained learning style.

Another note I will make about his samples I put out, the Toy Story sample, as you may have noticed being significantly better in drawing ability than the others, was because he traced it, and then added the “battle wounds” to the picture. This was another thing he did in the early years to develop his drawing skills . . . he traced! He did this in order to learn from those who were better artists than he, and in so tracing well drawn elements, he was able to begin to freestyle those elements himself. Again, we valued all types of methods to developing skills! That goes further than one might think.

I thought I would also add some more writing samples, this time from Eli, who is my other strong right-brained learner. He didn’t learn to read until 10-11 years old, so you will notice in his books that he had few words. Those he did have often were very slaughtered in spelling. However, what is fun to notice between Eric and Eli with their books is that you can see the slant that Eli brings toward his own right-brained gift: building. He loved Legos, trains, and numbers, and you will see that represented in his drawings.

Eli was very delayed in language and slightly so in fine motor skills. However, because of how obsessed Eric was in drawing 4-5 hours a day minimum, Eli was exposed to that model and inspiration from a young age. Around 5 years old, he wanted to try his hand at drawing. I have a feeling that if he had not had his older brother around, he would have had significant delays in his writing skills, like his subsequent three brothers.

Here are some samples from Eli’s 8 year old folder:

It was about Jack, I believe, his imaginary friend. (Right-brainers have a higher incidence of imaginary friends, and Eli has a handful of them, even today.) You notice how the spelling of Jack is slaughtered. Again, as a right-brainer is skilled at, the perspective in his drawing is remarkable. Also, notice that for Eli, he liked to draw a bunch of little boxes with mini parts to his story line, not unlike Legos that are separate, but put together.There purchase cheap viagra http://amerikabulteni.com/2012/12/05/senatodaki-filibuster-tartismasi-nedir/ are a number of factors which contribute in vascular issues include smoking, alcohol drinking in excess, overweight, lack of exercise etc.

This is another Jack story, but with a train theme. Many of his books have train themes because of his great and deep love for them, beginning around 18 months old and lasting until today. (That is autism for ya!) Also notice his limited verbal descriptions of his characters that he placed on the last page. He actually corrected his The End, which usually was The Edn for several years. Apparantly, this is when he started to notice and correct it.

This is another classic Eli example of his book work. He had many maze-y, puzzle-y type of drawings that depicts his visual-spatial mind. He has always been my instructional reader, preferring the visual diagram and instruction versus the verbal. Notice there are no words although there appears to be visual symbols depicting some code to the puzzle. It may be based on some video games.

Here is a more classic story, all picture with no words, and yet, the pictures depict a thousand words, and a storyline is beginning to emerge in his books. It took him much longer to develop storylines through pictures than his older brother, because language was not an asset for Eli. And yet, notice the perspective yet again (for example, see the two tiny people silhouettes in front of the house in the first picture?). . . his visualizations were quite accurate, even if words failed him!

I wanted to show another sample of another type of child. Eric was my most naturally “smart” and would have been labeled gifted in school with no doubt. However, I’m sure he would have struggled with the classification of “not living up to his potential”, because so many of these valued school skills, such as reading, writing, handwriting, and spelling came later. But, he was very intelligent nonetheless.

Eli would have been labeled disabled and put in special classes if he had attended school. No one would have noticed or given credit for his amazing spatial skills, but we did. Although the valued skills of reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary, English, speaking, etc., came well later for him, they were put in perspective as we focused on the skills that did emerge for Eli. Building, spatial skills, math, music, and a highly sensitive heart were nurtured young, and when the other skills that were delayed began to emerge, these assets of his that had been well developed helped him capitalize more easily in bringing everything together. I have no doubt he would not be the child he is today if he had not been homeschooled, and valued for the perspective and skills that surfaced, and being encouraged by bringing in the resources that he could build on, which included a lot of trains, tracks and Legos as his core homeschooling foundation. It has served him well!

6 Comments

Posted in Autism, Homeschooling, Learning, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners, Writing

Favorite Writing Resource

Posted on December 12, 2006 | 7 comments

One of the most used resources for writing for my three oldest children when they were growing up is called Read! Write! Publish! Making Books in the Classroom”, by Creative Teaching Press.

I got it early in our homeschooling journey (of 15 years!) so I didn’t think it was still purchasable, but I found it here!

Basically, it is a book about making books, and the format is SO easy for the children to do on their own. Each type of book has a two page layout. The first page shows visually how to make the book and if you need to have a “blank formatting page” (found at the back of the book). The second page shows visual samples of how others created diverse books from the foundation. So, all I did was provide a stack of the various blank pages available for the books provided in the back of the book as well as other materials needed such as regular blank paper, tagboard, and other such items.

This is an especially useful tool for the right-brained learner. These children tend to develop traditionally valued writing (words to paper) later, not to mention they often dislike handwriting while young as well. Many of the books to be made in this resource capitalize on the right-brained learner’s assets: visual, three-dimensional, pictorial, creative.

Some of the more popular books for my creative learners to make were: Pop-Up Book (makes sense, since it is three-dimensional!), Video Book (again, makes sense . . . it’s a picture slide show), Flip Book (again, humor mixed with pictures with minimal words), Wheel Book (making a visual with a wheel that turns), etc.

What I think this resource showed my creative learners was that books are fun, and making books are fun . . . the words and writing were secondary for many of these book ideas, so the focus was on expressing their ideas in the way that works for them, and then appreciating that they were “writing books”. There was no “writing phobia” or “dysgraphia” that surfaced because of this approach 🙂

I’m so excited that the resource is still out there . . . I highly recommend it. Of course, if you want the potential benefits of what happened with my diverse children, you would want to use it as a resource they can use anyway they want. 🙂 For instance, here are some of the “books” that I pulled out of my oldest son’s 8-year-old files that I know were “inspired” after using this resource as well as interrelating with various types of books:

Notice that he still wrote certain letters backward, particularly “S” and “J”. He told his story more in his drawing than in the writing. In this “book” (10 pages total), which he had stapled together on plain paper, were simply labels of each picture, although as you go through the pictures, there is a story there. The last page has the declaration, “What a fliat” (flight), so there is also “invented spelling” still.

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This one I was able to give as a complete sample. This is when he was really into penguins. My focus on admiring his work was on the overall representation of a story, not the parts that made each up, such as the continued backward letters, invented spelling, or that there were minimal words, let alone basically labeling or putting phrases versus “complete sentences”. It was all a process, and I was amazed by how the pictures and words combined to create a lot of feeling and plot.

This is a dinosaur activity book. He loved dinosaurs from around 3-4 years old until around this time. In this book, he did a little of everything. He started off with a few pages of labels, then a few pages of traditional activity pages, and then a mini story at the end. It was a total of 14 pages and I took a page sample from each “category.”

He had a couple Lion King story books in this folder, stapled together, about 40 pages each. Again, it was a mix of words and pictures that together created a really awesome storyline. In the samples above, I liked the perspective that one often sees in a right-brained learner’s pictures, with the back of the lions’ heads looking on the scene, as well as a simple outline of the lions’ bodies running down the hill. Cool!

Eric loved Africa for a good season. Here was a “book” compiled on that unperforated computer paper that you could buy in the day where it is “continuous fed and unperforated paper” so that it lies accordian style and you have to tear off the hole-punched side feed. My children used this type of paper a LOT back when. This was about a 70 page compilation and it pretty much consisted of labeling the various animals of Africa. This is how he learned about his continents and countries . . . his fascination with animals and his need to know everything about them, particularly where they lived and why and how.

There were other books in his folder. One type that showed up a lot around 9 years old were “Colorform books”. I guess I had purchased some Colorforms around that time, and he decided to make his own based on his favorite interests. He would draw and color a background scene, and then meticulously draw, color and cut out the “forms” that you would play on the scene. He would then tuck these cut-outs into an envelope, which he labeled, and stuck in the place they belonged within the book pages.

So, what I saw was that once this initial resource showed my children that they could make their own books of all sorts of types and styles and functions and focus, they began to make books of their own creation often inspired by other resources that came into the home. They discovered that even if you couldn’t find a particular resource about their favorite interest, they could create it themselves! For a right-brained learner, I think it’s all about resources that inspire, not resources that dictate.

7 Comments

Posted in Homeschooling, Learning, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners, Writing

My Reading Foundational Beliefs

Posted on December 4, 2006 | 4 comments

Stephanie from Throwing Marshmallows has an excellent post about the ins and outs of learning to read. She starts with a comment from someone else that said thus:

What is your take on unschoolers who don’t teach their children to learn how to read until they’re “ready”? This can mean 8, 9, or 10 from what I have been reading.

Stephanie replies with her first reaction before she really understood the ins and outs of learning to read through her children:

I know that the first time I read about homeschoolers who had kids who were so “late” in reading, I was a bit surprised too. This goes against everything that we commonly hear…reading is the key to learning. Early reading is important.

This is a common sentiment deeply entrenched in our society’s conditioned educational value system. I’m not sure how much is based on fact. For instance, one could say that “it is important to support the path to reading” as important. But, even then, one can look at history, and find slaves and other underprivileged people who desired the skill of reading but were denied. Waiting until they had the opportunity did not prevent them from learning.

So, besides holding up these sentiments to the light of Truth to test its validity in order to determine if the source is worthy enough to hold our children up to its weak premise, I have another theory to share regarding unschooling and late readers. It is my belief that many who come to unschooling do so because they have a child who is a right-brained learner and their strong learning style leads them down to this path that fits their style. Or the parent is a right-brained learner and embraces the concepts unschooling espouses that matches their learning style so beautifully. And, when one researches the right-brained learning style, it would be uncovered that traditionally, right-brainers do not begin to read until between 8-10 years of age. This has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with the timeframe of their particular brain processes. Therefore, I propose that it isn’t unschooling that produces a larger proportion of late readers, but that right-brained learners are attracted to the unschooling environment in which they thrive and they bring with them their natural inclination to later reading than our society values.

Stephanie goes on to say this:

It seems like many people (educators and the general public alike) think that learning to read is just a matter of being taught. If you “get them early” you can give them a “head start”. But some kids (especially visual-spatial kids) need more time to develop then others. They just are not ready. And no amount of teaching can change that.

Sure you can start teaching them early, but if reading has not “clicked” with them, it really is like throwing those marshmallows. Why push, why make reading something “hard”, why risk having a child start thinking that they are dumb when waiting can bring out the same (or better) result?

This is the hardest conditioned belief to break through. You cannot make a person read before he or she is ready. I believe that with all of my heart and witnessed it in my own family. So many people believe the lie that learning to read is hard. It doesn’t have to be. The process is meant to be joyful. We choose to make it difficult. I’m not saying that there aren’t rare cases out there, but the majority of humanity, if guided on their particular path to reading, can do so seamlessly. We would rather believe we can make it happen to assuage our own fears than trust that with our gentle supports and facilitation and attuned observations will lend itself to the natural unfolding process meant for each person.

Stephanie said this:

I definitely agree that a love of reading and books should be cultivated early. And this is exactly what I did with Jason. He has always had a passion for good books and good stories from a very young age. A fondness for reading and books however does not always translate to early reading.

In the years before he learned to read, Jason learned in all sorts of different manners…I read books all the time, he listened to tons of audio books, he watched lots of videos and tv shows, he played computer/video games, we performed science experiments, we played all sorts of games, we talked (a lot!). Now that he is reading we still do all of the above…reading is just one additional way that he learns. (Don’t get me wrong…reading is very important and makes a lot of things easier…but it still is only one way out of many in which kids learn).

It may or may not be true that a love of books early should be cultivated. Books are a convenient source to information, but certainly not the only source for information. I don’t have any evidence one way or another, nonetheless, it was important TO ME for my family. People have asked me how I managed to not completely freak out when my oldest didn’t read until he was 8-9 years old. It’s exactly because of what Stephanie is saying in these paragraphs . . . he had a meaningful relationship with books in his life.It will then be easy for you to overcome ED permanently. (cialis generika) http://appalachianmagazine.com/2014/02/25/mud-bogging-the-growing-sport-of-rural-america/

It would seem that reading “should have” come easily for my oldest at a young age because of his obvious high intelligence. As Stephanie mentioned, intelligence does not always equate with early skill acquisition with valued subjects. But, his intelligence was exhibited in amazing ways nonetheless. We began our collection of books before children arrived. With our firstborn came the enlarged collection of board books, then picture books, then intellectually engaging visual books like Eyewitness books, Kid’s Discover Magazine, Zoobooks, atlases, Aliki, Magic School Bus, visual experiment books, etc. I was amazed at what Eric could glean from the pictorials in these resources. When he wanted to know more, he asked for assistance. As an available parent, being a non-reader did not infringe upon his acquisition of knowledge. Educational computer software such as Encarta, Geosafari, JumpStart and other such avenues as well as educational videos were favorites. And, above all, lots and lots of discussions and conversations I think is a main staple for a highly intelligent person. Even as a reader now, Eric is what I classify as an “information reader” because he still uses heavily pictorial resources and tends to “blurb read” for the necessary additional information since his main focus continues to be drawing and design.

Stephanie concludes with a great example from her own children’s reading lives:

Now I am also not saying that you should always wait until kids are older…some kids wind up figuring it out for themselves at an earlier date. For other kids it becomes clear that they are ready earlier.

Waiting for a child to be ready also works for kids who are ready on a more “typical” timeframel. Last year when he was 5, Kyle became very interested in learning to read. He is much more of a sequential/typical learner, so I figured that we would give it a shot. After doing some lessons in 100 Easy Lessons it became apparent to me that he really was not ready. He loved the lessons but they were not sticking and I could see that he just was not totally getting it. So I stopped suggesting that we “do reading”. Kyle did not notice or remind me. We continued doing what we normally do…read and talk about reading and letters.

This fall, he again became interested in learning to read so I decided to give 100 Easy Lessons another try. The difference is incredible! He totally gets it. And remembers it. He reminds me to do his reading. It is coming very easily for him.

Now I could have spent this past year slogging through the lessons. But why risk him possibly learning that “reading is hard”? By waiting until he is ready, he is learning that “reading is easy” and reinforcing the belief that “reading is fun”.

This same scenario has played out with each and every one of my children. It’s not about preferring early; it’s not about preferring later. It’s about preferring that each child gets to pursue reading exactly when it is right for him/her and exactly in the way that works for him/her. My first, fourth, and fifth children I was able to predict through attuned observations and accurate personal indications when they were ready to learn to read and how. My second child learned on her own, so I missed that partnership, which is perfectly fine! My third child was similar to how Stephanie made an offering two different times until the third time, it was the right moment with the right process and it clicked for him. Each time I offered something to him that I thought was a good guess on what he needed, it was immediately apparent that he struggled with the ability. So, I dropped it, waited, until I felt it was time to offer again, with something different, or something similar. Again, it was immediately apparent he wasn’t ready. And yet, just as apparent as it had been that he was not ready, when he was, it was equally apparent. He took off.

As Stephanie mentioned, I could have started with my first offering, which was already around 8 years old, and continued plugging away at it. But, what would it accomplish? It would not accomplish him learning to read any faster than he had. I have heard story after story of this scenario of working away at a program for several years before it suddenly “clicked”. And yet, I believe it only “clicks” several years later because it was finally time; not that the program was “miraculous”. Stephanie’s example with her son, Kyle, is one piece of “proof” to that. The year before, the program didn’t work for him at all, and one could have chalked it up to the program, but a year later, she offered it again, and it “clicked”, because he was ready, not because the program changed.

I have heard so little of my experience being explored. Like Stephanie with Kyle, for Eli, I waited, and continued to enrich his life mainly with language, in his case. He actually spent very little time with books and did not like to be read aloud to as an obvious weakness of auditory differences interfered. I will also write a post about difference interferences beyond the learning style next. I believe the reason there is so little who follow a similar path as I have is because of the enormous pressures in our society surrounding reading. We truly believe that some people need years of work before they are ready to read, and some only need a little nudge. I have had personal experience with children that “should have” needed a little nudge but actually needed more time, children that did just need a little nudge, and children who would have been given years of “practice” but didn’t need to in our homeschool environment. Instead, each and every one of them simply needed to be given time to reach their personal readiness, and then given the nudge, to find themselves come to reading joyfully.To conclude with Stephanie’s words:

And that, for me, is the best possible outcome…a child who enjoys reading and loves books.

As said in my previous post to this, my personal goal as a person who loves to read was to have all of my children love books. As a person that reading means so much to, one would think I should have been a prime candidate for “reading panic” with her children. I reiterate, it was one of my most important goals of my homeschool adventure! And yet, I instinctively knew that if I wanted to increase my odds of meeting this lofty goal, I would need to do something different than what public schools or society espouse. So far, so good . . . five down, two to go. Find me those odds in any other household, let alone in one as unique as mine!

4 Comments

Posted in Homeschooling, Learning, My Opinions, Reading, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners

Product and Process

Posted on December 2, 2006 | 2 comments

Usually when a title with product and process is involved, there is a “versus” in the middle. Product OR process is what the versus implies. I don’t think that’s how people work, and I know it’s not how I work. There is a product AND a process. There is always a product involved . . . it answers the WHY in what we are doing. Process answers the HOW.

People come to me for support, and inevitably, answers, on my Homeschooling Creatively list. I often steer them toward the process, but I feel that is shortsighted and incomplete on my part, and I want to give voice to my complete experience in order to better support others seeking the same.

I take you back to the beginning of my homeschooling journey. When people ask you why you started homeschooling, that why often answers your first “product” you were interested in pursuing on behalf of your children. I was no different. My oldest son loved to learn, and I wanted that love to continue throughout his learning journey. Fast on the heels of this proclamation came two more “products” I formulated based on my own experience and that of my hubby. Mine was that I wanted each of my children to enjoy reading. I wrote a blog post delineating this idea here. My hubby’s was that we wanted our children to be exactly who they are, supported to pursue anything they desired without society’s conditioned beliefs or expectations, whether emanating through us or society. These were some pretty hefty “products”!

Initially, these were weakly formulated subconscious ideas. Parenting my children before the age of 5 included incorporating a learning environment that was geared toward meeting these criteria. Although poor college students, our home was rich in books. We had already instituted a non-gender-based learning environment in which we enjoyed playing basketball with him in the basement as much as dress up with Mommy’s shoes and hats.

When it came time to register Eric for kindergarten, going through the motions seemed to disconnect us with our goals for our children. It felt robotic and impersonal. Suddenly, the experiences that Eric went through in his half year of preschool previous to registration crystalized. You can read the post I created about these lessons here.

I was at a defining moment in consciously recognizing the “products” I had in mind for my children’s learning lives. I knew public school would not support them. I had to find a resource that would help me consciously and mindfully embrace a lifestyle based on my desired products. I was looking for the process! This is what other parents are looking for from me when they seek out my right-brained learner group or my autism group. Although this next step of establishing the process was so crucial, in my opinion, at getting me where I am today, I cannot neglect to recognize the “products” as my catalyst and driving force.

Homeschooling popped into my head. Ah, this would provide the open forum in which to create the process in meeting our products. I found a woman in our church who was homeschooling and very warm and engaging about sharing her wisdom in helping me get started down the path of home education. In my opinion, she was the perfect mentor, and I didn’t even know it, although felt extremely validated in the moment. I always inwardly strive to meet the standard she created with my role as a mentor, but so often fall short because of my strong opinions 🙂

Anyway, she said I first had to figure out what my style would be. Huh? Styles? She offered a book that shared blurbs about the various methods used by others in the homeschooling circles. She felt confident that I would know the style for me when I saw it. Sure enough, it was the style called unschooling. It closely matched what we had created before age 5. Coincidentally, this mentor was an unschooler. Now, here comes the important element in creating my process that I try to emulate for others.
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Unschooling 15 years ago was rare. Certainly we did not have the ability to pool together because the Internet was non-existent at that time. Homeschoolers had to gather in real life. There were usually one or two unschoolers to be found, if they chose to reveal themselves. Growing Without School (GWS) and Home Education Magazine (HEM) were our support systems. The writings of John Holt were our inspiration. My mentor gave me scads of back issues to both as well as a pile of books on the subject matter. I particularly pored over the letters in GWS and read John Holt’s works as models in forming my own unschooling environment. In those days, there was no one telling us the “do’s and don’ts” of unschooling. I don’t think there was such a thing.

My mentor supported this premise. As I hesitantly got my feet wet, I was constantly calling her, sharing my worries and my concerns about messing up my child or doing things “wrong”. She would ask me to tell her what I was up to that day or week with my child. I would relay what we were doing and she would always say, “Wow, you are doing so great! Just keep going.” She was also there to talk about “going against the grain of society” in order to buoy me up in my new process of working toward achieving my products.

John Holt’s writings and observations gave me inspiration to conduct my own observations with my own children. His questioning society’s conditioned beliefs about learning gave me confidence to pursue my own questions about the process of learning. Because I lived the conditioned experience, as did my hubby in a different way, he and I would have many conversations dissecting what was really important and what was not in our own learning experiences. All of these opportunities for discovery and new ideas meshed beautifully with our original “products” or goals for our children of instilling a love for learning, being an individual valued for one’s own path, and coming to reading joyfully.

None of these resources that were available to me at the time “told me what to do”. Each gave me a foundation of beliefs. John Holt taught me about the power of observation and the courage to question society’s valued learning beliefs. GWS taught me that as parents applied these processes of becoming an observation detective and as we question any of our concerns or worries that stem from conditioned educational values, amazing and profound information through experiences emanate from each child’s own perspective and style. And my mentor taught me that I had the power within myself and through learning at the feet of each of my children to discover our own process.

I have found myself often deflecting parents who come to me asking if something is “right” or “does this fit”? It’s because the process is so unique to the individual and family involved. It’s because no two children are alike, even when they share the same learning style or difficulty. I try to share like those parents from GWS did with me . . . how my power of observation and resisting conditioned thinking revealed the amazing process of each child I am partnering with. I want to support the foundations to the process, and encourage parents as they discover their own place with their own child. I want to share my own observations and experiences as an example of what can be learned using these foundations. I want to give courage through these examples that it really works.

One thing I may change is to share that I have products that I was striving for, and the examples from our process is toward meeting that end. If a person has another product in mind, our process may not make sense. Also, I’m thankful I had the latitude in figuring out our own process. It’s not a checklist that can be checked off. It’s about trying something and realizing it’s not working out, and going back to why (the product) we’re doing what we’re doing, and readjusting ourselves back to the correct how (the process) to get us there. The pendulum will swing back and forth for a while, until we find the right place for us and our children. This is what my Collaborative Learning Process was trying to reveal: the foundational process that is helping us reach our goals for our children’s learning lives.

It’s much tougher to explain and talk about our process than it would be to simply give some formula for a product 🙂 As I mentioned in a previous post, I can share my foundation, but each person has to build upon it for their own child and family. But, I think the process is so important, even if it seems elusive sometimes to put to words. As an example, I will try to share our process for the goal of each child enjoying reading next . . .

2 Comments

Posted in Beginnings, Collaborative Learning, Homeschooling, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners

Notebooking Unschool Style

Posted on December 1, 2006 | 5 comments

Willa, at Every Waking Hour, brought up notebooking in her post Snow and Settling In. She said:

I would like to start them on a bit of very relaxed notebooking — after reading Cindy Rushton’s book and looking through my closet with the older kids’ notebooks and other bits of memorabilia. We never did it in a big way, and in fact I would have said at one time that we DIDN’T notebook at all but I see that I do it constantly and have since I was about 11 or 12, and my older kids started even earlier — especially Clare. I have notebooks and little books of hers going back to when she was about four. Then we got so busy that I just never took the time to do that kind of thing with Kieron and Sean. Plus I think I read too many things that made notebooking sound schooly and structured — it put me off the idea. But the way we used to do it was just collect little bits and pieces of things and sometimes, make them into a book. We had a book about snails and one about a beach trip we took, with narrations from all the kids (even Sean who was about two then), and many little Lord of the Ring booklets.

So many bloggers talk about these notebooks. So many bloggers talk about a lot of diverse projects, and I often feel like I’m not doing my part for my children. So, when Willa was describing getting the notebooks going again, just the way she described it, made me think of my children’s notebooks. Only, I had never heard of the term “notebooking” as an actual activity. I assume it is taken from one of the homeschooling styles . . . classical? Charlotte Mason? Waldorf?

Anyway, every year I buy a huge stack of one theme notebooks and let the children take however many they want, when they want, to do as they want. My oldest, starting sometime around 8-9 years old, seems to always have a notebook of some sort to record all of his ideas, or sketch pictures, or make his lists. At almost 20, he still has his notebooks. I always share one of the front covers of one of his notebooks at my workshop about right-brained learners as an indication about how much is going on in their heads at any given time. It was entitled, “My book of things I need to write down but don’t want to get lost”.

Abbey always used hers to write short stories and poems. Eventually, again around 8-9 years old, she began to keep an official journal. It started off as descriptions of her day to day activities, including what she ate for breakfast. As she got older, it changed to the addition of recording her dreams. She has a very active imagination that apparently comes alive in the night. She and Eric would spend hours sharing their dreams with each other in vivid detail. They often became fodder for stories. Still later, she added spiritual moments and thoughts, her deepest emotions and ideas, as well as her feelings as she grew.

Eli used his notebooks to doodle in, particularly drawing three dimensional shapes, logos, and mathematical patterns. He would also explore various math concepts such as doubling a number until it was 20 digits or so, graphing in algebra, or writing numbers as high as he felt like going. Lately, he might draw train track layout plans, rollercoaster designs, or other such engineering type stuff.

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For a good couple of years, I carried around a five-subject notebook to record any and all ideas I might have for schedules, autism intervention ideas, homeschooling needs and/or ideas, lists, responsibilities, housecleaning and chore ideas, menu and cooking ideas, and whatever else I needed to try to organize in order to keep our home and lives running smoothly. I didn’t record it in any order, but would randomly find a blank page and start jotting down. That is so not like me, but it was literally used as a scratch paper to sort out any of my floating ideas, or to assuage my need to feel like I had a “plan”, even if I never put it into action.

So, that is our idea of notebooking. It is personal to each person. Almost two years ago, I did buy one of those fold and learn type of activity books that you put together on a topic using file folders folded up into a book form. It was on bats because I thought Alex might like it. It still hasn’t been compiled and used. As I hear others talk about these types of projects like notebooking, I can sure feel inadequate. The way our rhythm exists in our home, I just don’t know how I would even introduce such a thing. So instead, I guess I will be content to encourage each child to come to their own “notebooking” by making the notebooks available and see what emerges.

5 Comments

Posted in Homeschooling

Individualization and Collaborative Learning

Posted on November 28, 2006 | 3 comments

Willa, at Every Waking Hour, talked recently about my Collaborative Learning and Unschooling. She made some great points that I would like to expound on.

. . . perhaps the collaborative learning component has something to do with the visual-spatial RB learner’s needs. The reason I’m wondering is that both Cindy and Stephanie mention that a collaborative form of unschooling has been the best suited for their family and children. Stephanie’s description of how she gives the children some structured things to do, but they consent to it though they have not suggested it themselves, is a description of how things have gone best in our household too.

I don’t think the collaborative learning process is especially a right-brained rhythm. In fact, I feel it reflects human learning rhythms of childhood. Now, I will definitely credit my strong right-brained learning firstborn son for my ability to “discover” the process that unfolded from his learning journey because he is so set in how he learns that he would be heard or we would all suffer the consequences! Once he taught me that there is a process that can be trusted, it was easier for me to offer that to each of my subsequent children, no matter their learning style. What each child shared was how individual it would look as it built upon the foundation of the learning process.

I spent all last year pretty much radically unschooling. It was a leap of faith and trust for me, and it was difficult. It taught me a lot. When I write on this blog about math books and handwriting practice, and well, “assignments”, it makes me feel a bit uneasy, because it isn’t “pure” unschooling. But I am seeing that the kids respond to it. So I like that word “collaborative”. Other unschooling friends of mine have used metaphors like “dancing”. I think sometimes of how I used to bounce Aidan on the mini-trampoline. He had sensory integration dysfunction and the bouncing really changed his mood, sometimes; it helped him organize. He did not ask for the bouncing, because he could not talk or even gesture for what he wanted — part of the source of his frustration was that lack of communication ability! but he responded to it, and it helped him.

I actually wrote a long post about radical unschooling, and decided not to publish it. But, it helped me get some thoughts out. And you touched on it here. I wonder if it is human nature to become “extreme” in order to push past our present conditioned thinking into new ideas? In other words, the basis of radical unschooling is a good thing because it can be a catalyst to push us far enough out of our comfort zone to “wake us up” to new thinking and ideas. However, the extreme practice itself doesn’t necessarily follow reason, thus, eventually one modifies it to fit their real lives, or as one practices it fully, there is a “cultish” view on “pure living”.

That said, as I adopted “unschooling” as an educational representation of my beliefs on how we live our lives, I viewed it as a foundational belief. My firstborn child showed me how that looked in practice. My putting together words to the Collaborative Learning Process was another step to sharing what the journey emerged as through my children’s lives. My definition of unschooling, and what my collaborative learning process offers, is an understanding that there are some foundational beliefs about learning, and then each family and individual builds on top of that. The foundation, therefore, is similar, but the house looks very different!

Some of the foundational points to me are that children have worth and are fully capable of being active participants in their learning journey. Another foundation is that each person learns in their own way and has unique gifts within them as well as shortcomings. Another foundation for me would be that we are all here to help each other grow into who we are meant to be. Another would be that there are stages of learning that help us in our discovery process, whether for self or for others, and we can capitalize on these moments.

I could see where it could be overdone — become a trap rather than a helpful support. In the past, I too often worked my way into a structured trap. My kids would respond to a small amount of regular academics. So I’d pile on more and more incrementally, trying to get to where I sub-consciously thought we “should” be. Of course, they would then get overloaded.

I notice a sort of joyful peace with my kids when the work they are doing is not too much, not too little, and “just right” in kind (you can tell I’ve been reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears to Paddy recently). Obviously this is not happening all the time every day. For one thing, I make mistakes — break the rhythm of the dance, step on someone’s toe, lose my concentration. But the challenge of that dance– of doing my part in that collaboration — is very invigorating.

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I believe learning comes in all shapes and sizes. Personally, as a person who liked school and did well in it, as did my hubby, when we chose an unschooling perspective, we had no intention of “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”. As a left-brained learner myself, I absolutely loved workbooks and overall learning from books. To this day, if I want to learn something, I prefer to find a book versus seek someone out. My hubby being a whole-brainer, he easily soaked up lectures, didn’t need texts, and intuited abstract information from being exposed to concepts. To this day, he loves to listen to others talk as well as giving self tours with historical and architectural locations. In other words, we recognized that learning happens in books, through people, through experiences, self-guided, through formal avenues, through experiences, with activity-based materials, with lectures, in homes, in communities, in other words, in all facets! What we wanted to change in our learning environment was that each way of learning would be equally valued.

Discovering ones learning style is one component to joyful growth. It shouldn’t limit, but simply create opportunity to give value to diverse ways of learning. My oldest is highly visual and enjoys creative outlets, but loves a good lecture. My daughter equates writing with breathing, but regularly finds herself in nature and studying it. My builder son understands the visual-spatial concept of connecting things together through math and music, and yet curls up with a good book these days. One preference doesn’t negate the benefit of others. I don’t think it’s all or nothing. I truly believe it’s about individual balance and rhythm.

My collaborative learning process is a foundation. It shows how to recognize in order to trust that a learning process exists and what a person can gain from each. It shares that each individual brings their own gifts and purpose to their lives and this world and it is meant to be excavated, grow, flourish and bless. It reveals how the insights, experience, and knowledge of mentors, adults, and parents can be integrated to enhance, lift, and strengthen the young or less experienced. In essence, collaboration opens the door to all the good that is available in assisting us in our individual, unique learning journey.

Although there is a foundation, each house built upon it is glorious onto itself. We are all unique creations of a loving Heavenly Father, built upon His rock. Let us guide our children’s learning lives by principle, not rules. Self before system; self above system!

3 Comments

Posted in Collaborative Learning, Homeschooling, Learning, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners

Life Without School Post: Answering the Question, “How Do You Homeschool?”

Posted on October 8, 2006 | 6 comments

My post is up at Life Without School called, Answering the Question, “How Do You Homeschool?” At a community meeting, I ended up in a conversation with a woman who was interesting in learning information about seriously considering homeschooling her daughter, and the article is about that conversation, the things I shared, and the things I find hard to help othersSudden power outage would mean these machines coming to a halt and the entire levitra generika Recommended store production line going for a toss. understand in such conversations.

Sorry I haven’t been on for a while to update a post on my own blog here. Life has become so busy, particularly as we have taken a couple of family trips. I’ll try to get back into the swing of things here soon. I’m trying to catch up on my e-mail lists as well.

6 Comments

Posted in Homeschooling, My Opinions

Internal Readiness vs. External Readiness: New Beginnings

Posted on September 14, 2006 | 1 comment

This is the “final chapter” on my thoughts on the post that JoVe from Tricotomania wrote called “Contemplations on the School Year.”

In her post, JoVe considers how the impact of the school schedule can possibly migrate to the way we look at progression and grade classification with this comment:

I suspect that this calendar pressure also affects our ability to lose a dependence on grade level and progression expectations, too.

Interestingly, it has not affected me to the level I thought it would or could. With my focus being on learning development, I didn’t see a place for “grade levels” with my children during the pre-goal oriented years. And even then, because of the leaning toward “delayed academics”, I still saw no logical place for “grade levels”. All of my children through the teen years still get stumped with the question of grade levels by first, pausing with a long, drawn-out “aaaahhhh”, and quickly conclude with “we homeschool” as if that should put an end to the mix-up.

In fact, this JUST happened yesterday at the vet office. The vet asked my 17 year old daughter what grade she’s in, and she simply is still at a loss to answer that question, so replied as per above. I think the vet was confused as he stated, “Don’t you have a general idea where you are?” They just don’t get that we don’t think in those terms. She then looked at me and concluded, “I think I’m considered a senior.” And yet, that “status” just doesn’t encapsulate our way of looking at the learning time table of our child. She knows that; I know that; others just won’t get that, I think. *I* concluded by saying, “She’s pretty much done all that school would typically require of her. She spends her time writing a novel these days.” The vet, who was quite pleasant really and not judgmental, was impressed with that type of initiation.

As for the beginning of the “school year” in September being a time for progression expectations, I do find myself “assessing” if anyone needs changes to their learning lives in a more broad context. On the other hand, I feel I have a pattern to this “assessing” every three months or so. But, I do feel a “new beginnings” atsmosphere in the air for which I allow myself to be a part. The operative word, hopefully, is “allow myself”. As my daughter and I shopped the “back to school” specials, we confided in each other that we love this special time set aside to renew your giddyness over all the new learning condiments that we so enjoy using day to day.

To end my dissertation on school schedules . . . LOL . . . I share my thoughts on JoVe’s lamentation:

I have found myself somewhat annoyed that there is an expectation that I (and others) will be around on September 5 to attend a picnic.

Work schedules are much more a factor for our family than school schedules. Obviously, there is periodic overlap between the two. There is also a natural shift in our family rhythms between summer activities and winter activities. Depending on where we live and the climate that we experience, that can be September, or into October. Here in North Carolina, we’re planning a week beach trip mid-September with a homeschooling family we adore. For our large family, individual rhythms shift and change throughout the year. “New beginnings” for each child happens at diverse times within each year. I do believe in and embrace new beginnings, but it doesn’t usually coincide with the first day of school. I see the picnic as an offer for new beginnings within a group. Sometimes I’m ready and interested in that offer, and sometimes I’m not, and sometimes I join in a little later.

I can totally see JoVe’s point about SO many in society live and breathe by the school schedule, and many homeschoolers continue that rhythm. By sharing some of our experiences, it has been interesting to discover how our family has focused our cycles around the weather patterns and our personal family heartbeat that doesn’t include the school schedule. I believe it is one reason we enjoy certain family connections in our home.
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Abbey at an “8th grade” vet camp offered by Michigan State University. It was a competitive application process in which one of three applicants were accepted. At the time, Abbey had been seriously contemplating becoming a vet, and this was her opportunity to try it out, which just so happened to coincide with this “8th grade” offer:

Abbey goofing off at vet camp:

Abbey and her group dissecting a chicken to determine its cause of death:

1 Comment

Posted in Beginnings, Homeschooling, Learning, My Opinions

Happy Birthday, Adam

Posted on September 12, 2006 | 4 comments

Today is my sweet Adam’s birthday. Many would find our use of “sweet” an anomoly, since he frightens most people with his intense personality (because of how autism affects him). But, when you get to know him by loving him and learning with him, you fall in love. (A young lady from our church just discovered that this summer as she worked with him while on university break. She adores him now.) Anyway, he’s 14. My unique son had a unique birthday.

It started off as a normal day. We were able to go two days in a row now with “working”, as we call it . . . where he will do some activities with me, some academic, some language, some pleasure, etc. For instance, the agenda today was clean room, math (one of his favorite subjects), switching attention (mixing between asking what’s an opposite, what’s another word for, and what rhymes with with one word . . . so, a language activity), spelling (another favorite subject), read aloud (a short story Sleeping Beauty today . . . Disney being a huge favorite of his as well), scriptures (he has learned to “mark” them simply by underlining them with various colored pencils), piano (still at 5 finger playing, but he loves music), and riding his bike (which he just learned to do . . . he went down to the stop sign today).

Afterward, we drove to Wal-mart so he could pick out a birthday present. He wanted a video game. He chose “The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King” . . . that latter part seems to be important to include . . . for Game Boy Advance. While there, as a spur of the moment decision since we were passing through the birthday party aisle, I asked Adam if he wanted some birthday blowers and balloons. He excitedly pointed to the mylar balloons and asked for one of those . . . an Elmo one. I happily agreed, and grabbed some of the blowers and blow up balloons as well.

Upon arriving home, Abbey helped set him up with GBA and his new game, while Eric was finishing up baking Adam’s birthday cake: chocolate/chocolate. Alex then announced he wanted to spend his earned money on Papa John’s cheese sticks . . . his favorite food, as is Adam’s, and wanted to buy a whole one just for Adam for his birthday. Usually, when it’s pizza night, I get a cheese stick and the two of them split it. Alex kept it a secret and upon returning from picking it up with his sister, went upstairs to “surprise Adam” with his birthday present for him. Adam was indeed surprised, especially to be getting a whole one to himself. You could tell from his face and eyes that he was appreciative of his brother’s generosity.

Within a short time, we called Adam down to sing happy birthday and have him blow out his candles. This is an important event, as Adam wouldn’t understand that he was a different age without being able to count the candles on the cake, and have the birthday song sung to him. It’s his prompt that he has to change the age in which he responds to the question, “How old are you?” He grins from ear to ear when he gets sung the happy birthday song and is privileged to blow out the candles of his own cake. He eagerly took a slice of cake up to his hideaway (his bedroom, along with the cheese sticks and GBA).

This was a good birthday, indeed, Adam-style.

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Anna helping Adam learn to wash his own face and hands, then brush his teeth, but Adam periodically having fun spraying the water everywhere instead:

4 Comments

Posted in Autism, Family, Homeschooling

Family Rhythms vs. School Rhythms: Travel and Community Activities

Posted on September 7, 2006 | 2 comments

This is a continuation of my thoughts on the post that JoVe from Tricotomania wrote called “Contemplations on the School Year.”

In regard to the wonderful opportunity homeschooling provides in travel year-round, JoVe wrote:

First of all, let me say that one of the positive benefits of homeschooling for me is the ability to do things (particularly travel) outside of the usual school vacation times. This has financial benefits and also means that attractions are less crowded.

As I mentioned earlier, our family also takes advantage of “out-of-season” travel, also known as within the operational school schedules. But, there’s a difference in my mind because it rarely has occurred to me to think about our travel plans in conjunction to the school schedule! Why should it? As JoVe mentioned, I’m a homeschooler, so the school schedule doesn’t mean anything to me in planning travel experiences. The primary motivating factors for our family in looking into travel opportunities is the inspiration or drive of a particular family member’s desire to experience a particular event or activity as well as timing in regard to our own family rhythms. The secondary factors that are considered are weather conditions and expectations, prices (which obviously are effected by the school schedule), and expected crowds (again, effected by the school schedule). Therefore, it has been just as prevalent for our family to take trips during typical travel times such as summer or holidays as it is during regularly scheduled school days. We travel year-round in synchronization to our own family rhythms.

JoVe continues with some thoughts about local and community activities offered in relation to the school schedule:

So one thing influencing homeschoolers’ calendars is the fact that we might want our children to partake in some group activities with other children and these are often geared to schooled children and thus available in relation to the scholastic calendar.

This would also extend to activities during the school year. The recreation centre organizes their swimming lessons on a timetable that fits with school terms and summer holidays so even the homeschooling groups get scheduled in those terms.

I’m not sure I have felt these effects as greatly as JoVe is implying. I have found, particularly in the last 5-7 years, that most activities are now offered to homeschoolers during school hours, and at wonderfully advantageous lower prices. Admittedly, I absolutely love this aspect about homeschooling and group activities in the community because I get to drive in regular, low-key, day traffic, save a few dollars, and wait out the activity in a usually laid-back environment with periodic great conversation opportunities with like-minds. These activities can be from gymnastics to YMCA gym-and-swims to park and recreation sponsored sports to 4-H groups to the typical field trip to anywhere.

I have found the main problem arises when a child is interested in entering a more competitive atmosphere, such as when my son, Eli, wanted to join the competitive boys’ gymnastic’s team. I found myself stuck with the school schedule-driven timeframes, and the traffic, prices, and mainstream waiting room experience that goes with it. What that time period gave me was simply the realization of how nice the “slow life” really is.

On the other hand, in some fields, entering the competitive field doesn’t have to mean you end up in the “hustle and bustle world” of school schedule timing. When Eli took high quality piano lessons, we were able to find qualified instructors that gave us our preferred times during the day. This was also true for English horse riding lessons for Abbey, although the competitions were on the weekends and summer, though that may have been based more on work schedules since there were as many adults at these events as young people.

JoVe goes on to comment about the pacing of the events offerered:

Has anyone thought of a different format? Perhaps the intensive 1 week day-camp format? Has this been tried and shown to not work for one reason or another? Or are we following the scholastic calendar and once a week scheduling out of habits so deeply ingrained we hardly perceive them?

Again, my first instinct is that I am not attracted to once a week scheduling out of habit or conditioning, but because it would be more in line with respecting our family’s internal rhythms. In order to bring one child to an activity, let’s say based on an interest, that met every day for a week, for a 2-4 hour block, would require extensive rearrangement of my schedule, let alone everyone else’s in the home. Then, try to dupicate that for several children, I wonder if there would be any semblance of rhythm to the family? The family and home are important elements to our homeschool lifestyle.

On the other hand, week-long overnight camps for my older children are something we look for at least on an every year basis. I believe a week-long day activity 2-3 times a year per child would be likely an advantageous immersion experience into a beloved topic. My oldest son, at 10, attended a week-long day camp for drawing, and he absolutely LOVED it. But, to do something like that every week would interfere with what homeschooling stands for in our life. So, let’s say it might be beneficial once a month, but then, it comes down to a binge sort of experience, which might have it’s appeal. On the other hand, take those five days, spread them over the month, back to the once a month system, and you have a consistent diet, which has another sort of appeal.

I guess what I’m saying on this one is that I don’t see it being representative of a school schedule, but one of a rhythmic sort of feel. Further, I don’t see what would hold a homeschooler back to creating week-long “day camps” based on various interests. As homeschoolers, it’s long been a mentality of “create what you want” and “if you create it, they will come”. I remember my first year of homeschooling, my oldest was extensively into dinosaurs. He had accomplished so much independent learning that I could sense that he would enjoy sharing this passion with someone else. So, I organized a “unit study” type of situation, invited a young lady that was equally enthralled with the topic, and met and learned together every day for several hours or more for one or two weeks, I can’t remember. It never occurred to me not to put something together for him in this vein.
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If you’re talking about other facilities and organizations offering these types of week-long camp experiences, I would think it would be a matter of discussing it’s viability with them and asking them to give it a try. For instance, our local science center often offers week-long camps in the summer, but only weekly classes for homeschoolers during the school year. But, I’ll bet they would consider offering a week-long camp during the school schedule if it was broached by the local homeschoolers.

Abbey with horse, Radar, and coach, Christy. Weekly riding lessons on Fridays at noon: