Category Archives: Homeschooling

Eli

Posted on September 5, 2006 | 4 comments

I’m (hopefully) going to write a shorter post today because Eli has been asking me now for a couple of weeks to get a schedule together for him to start some formal learning again. He says he’s bored and enjoys the formal learning rhythm. Eli enjoys predictability; he loves feeding his mind. He enjoys schedules, probably due to his high functioning autism. On the other hand, being that he is 15, I would like to encourage him over the next year to take more responsibility for his own schedules and goal-setting. He didn’t stop his formal learning until mid-June because he wanted to complete some of the books he was working from. That was the longest he ever went before. On the other hand, he is a bit of a home-body and isn’t big on the out-of-doors. He continued with his computer programming and piano on his own over the past couple of months. He also attended three (or four?) youth camps without supports (parents in tow) 🙂 and grew in confidence.

He recently shared with me, “I feel like I’m younger than I’m supposed to be.” (This is typical conversation starters with him, so I know how to tease out what he is feeling or trying to convey.) It seems he has finally noticed that “others seem to know things that I’m supposed to know, but I don’t”. I knew he wasn’t talking about book smarts, because he recognizes in himself, and others notice as well, that this is an asset. He was talking about “street smarts”. This is another on-going request from him over the past few months . . . he wants to learn more social skills, executive skills, and perspective taking. About three months ago, I had some time at a dentist visit or something, waiting for a child, and I jotted down about fifteen “skills” that Eli doesn’t have, but are inhibiting his quality of relationships or ability to be independent. So, I have a starting point . . .

This is a big year for Eli as he has become cognizant of this arena and is eager to understand it and incorporate its tenets into his life, which means it is a big year for me to commit to facilitating his needs for growth in this area. No small task, let me tell you! So any advice for resources would be greatly appreciated, particularly from those with experience with high functioning autism.

Well, I’m off to do the easy part . . . get a schedule for him of his formal learning goals!

Eli with his best friend, Seth:This product is an excellent one which is look here cialis 10 mg prescribed to the ED patients with a common suggestion that use it only when a male is sexually aroused.

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Eli at the computer, where you will find him every day:

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Posted in Autism, Homeschooling, Learning

Seasonal Schedules vs. School Schedules

Posted on September 4, 2006 | 3 comments

This post ended up getting really, really long, so I broke it up into various elements that I will share over the next few days . . .

JoVe from Tricotomania wrote a post called “Contemplations on the School Year.” I would like to share some experiences our family has chosen as well as my own thoughts on some issues she brings up. To begin, JoVe said:

I have been struck recently by how much homeschoolers seem to be tied to the school year. Many of the blogs I read commented on stopping for the summer, or starting up again recently.

Later, she adds:

I suspect that those with more onerous reporting requirements find that the reporting timetable has some influence on the timetable of their activities. That said, I’ve noticed at least a couple of mentions of ‘logging’ activities during the summer that will count towards compulsory hours spent or whatever.

For the first about thirteen years of having children, my older children didn’t understand the impact of “summer vacation”. Oh, they had heard it, because most of their friends have been public or private schooled, but it didn’t impact them in a way that made them take a close look at it. We were strong unschoolers in the early developmental learning stages of my children’s lives, so learning happened all day and all year long without any significant formal learning activities.

During that time for our family, there were natural shifts that occurred when school started for their friends. Instead of playing almost all day long with them, all of a sudden, their friends attended school for much of the day and then homework loomed before play could begin. Instead of seeing this as a problem, my children seemed to take the beginning of school for their friends as a natural time to use for their own creative outlets and alone time (being so many of mine are introverts) instead of having to reject a friend’s invitation to play when my child was interested in refueling alone. I believe “homework” had a negative connotation to my children, because once the school bus dropped off their friends in the neighborhood, my children expected free access to them, but “doing their homework first” was the gulf between them.

As I reflect on our family’s rhythms and activity choices, I feel weather impacts our schedules more than school. For our family, late spring through summer and into early fall provides more opportunities for diverse learning outdoors. The natural science world is alive and fully operating in its glory. It has more pleasant weather opportunities, where we have lived, for active outdoor play whether at playgrounds, street play (since we have usually lived on cul-de-sacs), forest explorations, sporting activities, and zoo visits. Long-distance traveling also is more appealing for the predictable driving conditions, particularly toward those water destinations and camping endeavors. Overall, summer is higher on the list for outdoor learning activities!

On the other hand, winter time is when we all like to do another type of learning that brings us inward . . . physically and mentally. This is the time I found our family doing the family read alouds, personal reading, drawing, building Legos, and generally more focused learning. Simply in regard to the weather, there was less friend interaction, and more alone time. For trips, winter time seems to encourage visits to the museums, libraries, and other indoor facilities. This was also the time to plan the “out-of-season” special excursions.

Our family capitalizes on what each season offers as it pertains to learning. For example, my hubby enjoys science so he gathered the children together for “nature time with dad” in the early fall that was nature walk driven. He created “Science with Mad Dad” in the winter that was experiment driven. Further, sometime between 11-13 years of age, each child and I would collaborate together in creating a more formal, goal-oriented rhythm to their learning. By the time they were 13, each would usually be working on their own from a schedule we created together that would entail a “full workload” of about 3-4 hours of formal goal-based learning. This internal mind work was geared toward winter, so we often start up on these goals in October and end in March. It was at this time that Abbey proclaimed, “Oh, now I know why summer vacation is something my friends looked forward to!” as she anticipated “taking a break” from her full schedule down to a self-determined pared-down version for the summer. Of course, she realized that she was choosing when she was finished with this type of learning based on the “call of the outdoors” beckoning.

That said, I absolutely recorded all of these activities, good weather activities as much or more than the winter activities, on any formal reporting needs we had to accomplish for our state’s homeschooling requirements. I made specific note to myself that most states end the “school year” one day, and the next day is considered the beginning of the next “school year”, and so it could be reflected in our reporting requirements!

Eric and Abbey playing in a creek in the summer:
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Eric and Abbey playing at the museum in the winter:


Eli creating his “worlds” in the winter:


Eli playing a water game with siblings and friends in the summer:


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Posted in Collaborative Learning, Family, Homeschooling, Learning

Strength-Based Learning, Parental Roles, and the Collaborative Learning Stages

Posted on July 29, 2006 | Leave a comment

On my Homeschooling Creatively list, a question was asked about further explaining what I talk about when I discuss our strength-based learning model in our home. Here is the lister’s question:

When you teach to their strengths, does that mean gear your curriculum towards what they are good (ie- lots of time with music if that’s your strength) OR does it mean to adjust your subjects to include their strengths (ie- compose a song on the piano to get the feel of a poem instead of writing an essay about it) OR does it mean both??!!****

This question allowed me to further explain some of MY interactions with my children through the various Collaborative Learning Stages I discussed here before. I would like to go through that a little bit more clearly here on my blog.

Because this is the first stage that focuses primarily on the learning aspect of life, I will begin here in my descriptions:

The Learning Style Discovery Stage (Ages 5-7). Our learning environment for this stage was mainly set up to give value to those objects, topics, and interests that most appealed to each child. I would (1) add fuel to each focus (i.e., if they liked whales, I might find a book, movie, or toy on such), (2) expand the interest (i.e., if they liked whales, I might talk about the oceans each live in), and/or (3) bring in other ideas based on similarities to the child’s focus (i.e., if they liked whales, what about sharks?). If this was not the environment focus at this stage, how else would one discover the preferred learning style? At no time during this stage did I do the other variation that was asked about: using their interest or strength or learning style to ask them to do other subject areas of non-interest. To me, it seemed instinctive that it would interfere with the learning style disclosure process.

The Exploration Stage (Ages 8-10). During this stage, there were additions to and a slight shifting of my interaction style as facilitator. The above focus on their preferred strengths, interests, and topics was still prevalent at about 60% of devoted time.

However, now I would also add (4) open the world to them, as another role and responsibility in my repertoire to cover about 30% of devoted time. I would do this by using the new and good information I gathered from the previous stage about how they like to learn, and find interesting resources in various topics of non-interest that encompassed that preferred learning style. For instance, Eric didn’t show any interest in poetry, so I bought Shel Silverstein feeling that the creativity exhibited in his work as well as the corny and literal line drawings along with the humor and wit would really appeal to him because it fit his learning style . . . I was right. So, this is a form of the integration of learning style into a subject, but because it was bringing in resources and ideas, it wasn’t required. It was simply a form of exposure using their preferred method of learning. This is also the place where I chose books to read aloud that might peak interests in various topics.

For the last 10% of devoted time began my exploration into some (5) knowledge collaboration, by inviting the child to join me for short teaching moments utilizing their preferred learning style methods and processes. In the areas that the children were not exploring on their own, and I felt it would be information that would be important for them to know on a foundational level and I could sense the child would not be happy later in not being provided this information incrementally or conceptually at this time, I used the information gained about learning styles and temperament in laying this foundation. At this stage, the key was SHORT teaching moments laying the FOUNDATION for certain concepts and skills that would be IMPORTANT for that child.

The Collaborative Learning Stage (Ages 11-13). Another shift occurs within the interaction style with the children as concrete and conscious collaboration begins to occur. Everything stays the same as above except number five, knowledge collaboration, shifts in how it is implemented. Instead of invitations to short teaching moments, it changes to meetings to discuss formal goal-based learning.

Conversations begin to occur on a more mindful and conscious level about how the child likes to learn, where he/she thinks his/her education will take him/her, what the child finds important, and what goals and pursuits interest the child for his/her immediate future and later future. I share with the child what I see might be important for them, where I think his/her education can take him/her, and what I think might be good goals and pursuits based on the child’s view of his/her immediate and later futures as well as my bigger view of what possibilities exist. This may actually be the first realization for my children that an education was occurring; whereas, before, they had simply been experiencing the joy of learning.

The collaboration now begins on what formal goals to pursue. Depending on the child, usually we start with one topic or subject or interest that would be important to them, but is not typically pursued by them naturally. This means it usually comes from those subjects that were in the 10% category in the previous stage. As we sit in collaboration I point out why I think a subject might be important for her/him to pursue. Often, they agree and desire to add it to their learning process. Then, together we collaborate on how best they want to pursue the topic through a brainstorming session, bringing in the ways she/he typically like to learn. Over this entire stage, the subjects/topics pursued in this area grow until it is encompassing about 30% of their pursuits. Then, the next stage occurs . . .
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The Gift Focus Stage (Ages 14-16). This is the stage that it all comes together where mindful independent pursuits and collaborative decision-making is all utilized for a cohesive goal-based learning environment.

Because of the shift to mindful decision-making in the areas of non-interest-based areas, the children naturally start becoming more conscious of their areas of strength and interest. What I noticed was another shift from my having to do a lot in numbers 1-3 (add fuel, expand, and link to similarities) in the early stages, to now each child is pursuing these strengths, interests, and topics naturally, willingly, and with self initiation. If they need something, they come to me now. When the collaborative planning meeting occurs, I look to them to show me what and how he/she wants to pursue these areas of strength. This can be non-typical subjects such as drawing, music, animal care, or typical subjects like writing, math, science, or reading. This area continues to encompass 60% of time given.

The 30% timeframe continues the process completed in the last stage by focusing through the collaborative process on those areas that are revealed as being important to the child, but they don’t pursue on their own or have a natural like for it. This might drastically change through the course of this stage based on when the child begins to dramatically focus in a particular gift area. At that time, it became even more important that I be honest with myself and make sure I don’t think certain things that society values as important is what and why I was making certain suggestions. For instance, it became apparent that Abbey was really going to focus on writing and animal care (non professional), so math is not going to be important to her except to the level of taking care of day to day needs, which she had learned by 15, so she desired to drop math. But, vocabulary development might be important to her, but she wasn’t pursuing that on her own. Since Abbey likes to write, I found a resource that has about ten vocabulary words at a time at a level she was ready for, and she chose to take those words and write a short story using those words. This would not work for Eli who dislikes writing, so he learns through mneumonics, which capitalizes on his pictorial image skill and literal humor.

Sometimes, I might suggest something that will be important to them, let’s say they want to go to college, and they need a couple sciences although they won’t be science-driven. I suggest they do a science, but then we brainstorm which one would be most interesting. Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, Entomology, Anatomy and Physiology, etc. Most often, the children aren’t interested in pursuing “typical categories” that schools rely on.

In the last stage, we had phased the 10% category into the 30% category, which is where we are now at above. So, now what about that 10% timeframe? This now encompasses areas that I feel are not important to the child, or what they are doing, but I feel might be good to have a very general exposure to it. This is now using knowledge collaboration to share my wisdom in learning certain subjects to a basic level. For example, history was one of those things for Abbey that she never liked. I shared with her that I think knowing about history to a general level is always good because it shows where your roots stem from and lessons learned. I empathized with her how it just didn’t appeal to her, because it didn’t for me, either. So, we brainstormed ways that it might become appealing. We knew she LOVES books, and historical fiction was always very interesting to her as she went through an American Girl phase and a Dear America phase. So, I found some unit studies with books that I thought she might like and gave it all to her and suggested she read the books and do any of the activities she was interested in. She ended up LOVING history. But, a season was enough in the grand scheme of things.

The Transitional Stage (Ages 17-19). The final shift that we have experienced is into independent adult living and learning. Remember, each of these shifts is seamless . . . they flow right into one another and one style slowly fades and reshapes into another. As one may have noticed up to this point, the 60% devotion timeframe continues throughout to stay focused in the strength-based, individualized gift and talent area of each child. This stage is no different. However, one may find that certain non-preferred areas of learning are getting greater attention and added into this arena if a particular goal has become of more importance, such as entering college.

In the 30% timeframe, encouraging my children, if it doesn’t come naturally, to add work to their schedule is important in the transition to adulthood. At first, this could be paid work through family, but I have experienced that moving toward outside employment to be a good step by 18. Further, this segment should also include some kind of formal learning opportunity outside of the home, such as community college classes, a volunteer opportunity in their field of interest, a serious mentorship or internship, and/or travel.

The last 10% would be filled with such objectives as SAT/ACT tests, application processes, interviewing colleges or people in their field of interest, or any other type of preparatory activity toward adult and independent living.

The shift that occurs in this stage that is different from every one previous is that I sat more as a counselor than a collaborator. At this stage, each child has been more confident about taking the role of self-initiator and goal setter, but still very much need wise counsel from an adult mentor. This may very well be someone trusted outside the family as well. But, scheduling an actual meeting to discuss their life goals and pursuits in a formal manner is crucial. Mindful planning and accountability are still important elements in helping our children transition successfully, is what we discovered so far.

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Posted in Collaborative Learning, Homeschooling, Learning

Organizing . . . William and Joseph

Posted on July 25, 2006 | 1 comment

Several of you bloggers got me thinking of how I could organize differently to best meet the needs of certain children in my family at this time.  William and Joseph are high energy, low attention span boys, but still love to dabble in learning activities that I come up with.  However, whenever I have tried to create “a plan” in the past, because our lifestyle necessitates flexibility with the size and uniqueness of those living within it, “plans” don’t last long.  So, I needed something flexible enough for my schedule, but that goes WITH their exploratory stage, yet accounts for their short attention spans, and still opens the world more up to them.

Combining the inspiration I received from Theresa at Lapaz Farm Home Learning in her post called “Kinderplanning” and Faith at Dumb Ox Academy in her post called “Natural Structure” I’ve come up with something that I think might just be a good fit this year for these two children.  I found a nine cubbie wall unit (in the closet organizer section of Lowe’s), bought two, and put one in the living room (William and Joseph’s) and one in the kitchen (Alex and Adam):

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Although both of these posts I have gained inspiration from are Montessori based thinking, I wanted to apply it to the “categories” that William and Joseph would most be interested in.  What I came up with was:  church, letters, numbers, arts/crafts, science, fine motor, writing, books, sensory play.  A ton of ideas entered my head after scanning over Faith’s great ideas in her post with items I already had around my house.

But, then I ended up over at my unit study collection.  There’s a particular publisher I like and I have quite a few in various levels that have served various purposes over the years.  I had a few in the early childhood level and started looking them over.  The thing with some of these units is that the books can often be out of print.  But, I looked over their activity ideas, and in each book area, I could find new ideas that would fit in each of the categories.  Or, something was mentioned that got my own creative juices flowing with my own idea.  I’m not that interested in following the “themes” outlined in these books, but I’m more interested in using these books to give me new ideas and ways to present various learning opportunities.Achieving a natural appearance following surgical process in males may be unprepared to accept that there is a homeopathic remedy available for almost every condition (yes, there really is a homeopathic medicine is purely the result of the placebo effect. cheap levitra

The way I figure it right now is that the nine cubbies can last me for a week before I rotate out resources.  I also see the children going to the cubbies as they are interested, as well as my inviting them over once or twice a day for an hour or so or however it lasts.

My intent for Adam is slightly different, and yet the same.  He has reached the stage where he is ready for more independence and autonomy and responsibility toward balancing his free exploration, interests, self care, and more formal learning.  The cubbie system will be part of his independence in formal learning and exploration.  I haven’t completely formulated his side yet, nor Alex’s, because I want to take one new thing at a time (a new habit?) in order to see if it can become a part of our lives right now.  I intend to have Adam’s portion ready in about 2-3 weeks, and I’ll post about it then.

I’ll keep you up to date as to how William and Joseph like the new organization, new accessibility, and new interaction over the next few weeks!  Thanks again for the inspiration, blog friends 🙂

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Posted in Beginnings, Collaborative Learning, Homeschooling, Learning

Developmental Learning vs. Educational Models

Posted on July 14, 2006 | 3 comments

I wanted to put together a brief explanation of my stages I shared in my previous post compared to other educational models out there, like a Thomas Jefferson Education or classical education or Montessori, etc. I had been quite amazed when I thought about how much my children’s learning lives had lined up with the Thomas Jefferson Education model of learning phases. But, something didn’t quite “sit right” with me. And then I realized what it was.

When I homeschooled my children, I wasn’t following any “educational protocol” set out by anyone. I was trying to be as organic as possible and keeping myself open to being directed by the needs of each child. If I had been following a theory, it was unschooling. And yet, I had chosen unschooling because it had matched what we had been doing up until that moment of starting our homeschooling lives.

So, unlike unschooling proponents dictate, during the exploration stage of learning (ages 8-10), I found myself drawn to collaborating with my children in a freestyle and flexible kind of way by asking them to join me in some learning activities that I felt they were ready for but not exploring on their own. That might be some math, or grammar, or science experiments, or other foundational skills of knowledge. Primarily, I continued to feed their interests and facilitate access to resources of their initiation.

Then, around 11 years old for each of them, I felt very strongly that each child was letting me know that it was time for more formal activities, and the ability to gain goal setting skills and prioritizing and a mental work ethic, etc. I felt it had to start slow and build year to year. I felt it needed to incorporate all the information we had figured out so far about how each child learns, timeframes associated with their style of learning, temperaments, and a base grounded in their gifts. In this way, together we started a more serious collaboration regarding their learning lives, and incorporating these other skills (prioritizing, goal setting, work ethic, concentration, etc.). It appeared exactly what they were needing and ready for in the natural developmental path of learning.

Then, a few years later, having built up to a “full schedule” of activities that could take up to about three hours to accomplish, and they were doing so independently, a new stage occurred. Each child took this new knowledge of goal setting, concentrated work ethic, etc., and was translating that into large chunks of time being devoted to an area of interest on their own initiation. A sharp focus has occurred for each of my children during this stage of pursing a gift. Suddenly, we knew where each was heading. Balance became very important during this time, as well as seeking outside resources to assist in building their abilities.
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Only one child has entered the transition stage, and one is entering it now. There is a shift during this time period for my children, naturally.  Truthfully, we’re still trying to figure out how to navigate it correctly. We are trying to understand what our role is in supporting them during this time. What we have figured out so far is that an increase in responsibility is necessary at this time, particularly outside the home. It is equally apparent that we are as needed as ever in helping them navigate their way out into the world, yet stepping back and being counselor more than facilitator.

My development of these stages was not in creating a new “educational model”, but to try to give voice to what I saw as an organic, natural development to the learning process. I was trying to be “undefined” by outside educational models as I raised my children and supported them on their learning paths. Instead, I wanted to provide the necessary resources, support, facilitation, information, guidance, or direction that each stage that presented itself called for.

So, my collaborative learning stages was created as they emerged. I did not try to fit my child(ren) into any existing educational method in order to produce “x”. Does that make sense?

How I view using these learning stages is to be useful in recognizing what role a parent can play during each stage and how the environment can be shaped to support the stage. By the time I figured out something, I found that the stage had changed. It would take a year to figure out what had happened, another year to figure out how to adjust things to support it, and another year that it came altogether, and then, bam, it switched again. So, I was lucky if I had one good, flowing year. I view them like the developmental charts at a pediatrician’s office. It’s good to know what stage is coming up so that you’re not surprised when the stages shift, and maybe you feel a bit prepared in knowing how to gather the appropriate resources to enjoy the new stage sooner.

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Posted in Homeschooling, Learning

Collaborative Learning Stages

Posted on July 13, 2006 | 12 comments

Alright, so I’ve put together my own version of learning stages that I feel represent what I have seen my children walk down in their own way. The reason I decided to come up with my own that is different from “A Thomas Jefferson Education” (TJE) that I shared in my last post is because of a couple of things:

1) TJE appears to be a marriage of a classical education and unschooling. Although I think the stages embrace a lot of the natural stages of learning, I think there also seems to be a bit of an expectation in the later stages particularly that greatness is “expected”. I think greatness evolves. I think there is an overall feeling of helping them through the stages, or preparing them for the next stage, or priming them, if you would. I’m not sure that’s necessary, and I feel strongly that is the classical education side coming through.

2) As I contemplated how closely the stages TJE listed as matching my children’s, and yet, because we pursued each stage more “organically” if you would, I felt enlightened to immediately recognize what these stages might be “labeled”.

3) For most of these nineteen years of raising and homeschooling my children, I went with my own gut instinct in wanting to provide an environment that honors who each child is while sharing my opinions and perspectives along the way. I had always linked myself to unschooling from the start, but in those days, you “felt your way along” mostly alone buoyed up by resources like Growing Without Schooling and Home Education Magazine. When I went on-line a few years ago to hook up with unschoolers, I suddenly realized that “unschooling” as I had always known it had changed somewhat with the ability to “gather together” and start comparing notes. I realized what I had been doing all along was unique to my own “gut instinct”, and slowly over the past few years, I have been putting “voice” to what that is, and this is just another step in the process of doing that, sooooo

4) I thought this was a great venue in which to start sharing! So, I welcome any thoughts, comments, opinions, etc., on my thinking . . .

The Love ‘Em Stage (Ages Birth-1). That’s the best I could come up with for this age group! And, to me, it’s self-explanatory 🙂

The Temperament Stage (Ages 2-4). This is the stage that I was able to tell what type of personality and temperament each of my children have. It is also easier to see the difficult parts of their temperament as well as the easier parts. I have discovered that temperament certainly plays a huge role in learning, but especially in determining the style of relationship that is most conducive to living and learning together.

I spent a lot of time in this stage figuring out what style of communication and interaction works best for this child in developing mutual respect and trust by using emotional collaboration.

The Learning Style Discovery Stage (Ages 5-7). Right on the heels of recognizing and understanding the temperament of my child came the discovery of how they best learn. Because play is their “work” during these ages in our home, it becomes apparent to what resources, tools, and toys they are naturally drawn. It is also the stage that what interests them is more apparent. Both of these combine to help you know a whole lot about what motivates them and gets them excited about learning.

I spent a lot of time in this stage figuring out what style of learning and motivation works best for this child by honoring and giving value to what they were interested in and how they liked to go about learning more.

The Core Phase (roughly ages 0-8). He talks about having no formal instruction during this time. He feels this is the time to learn things like: right and wrong, good and bad, true and false, relationships, family values, family routines and responsibilities, learning accountability, and the value and love of work.

As one can see, the three stages that I created for this age group fits neatly into The Core Phase of the TJE paradigm since what is considered the important focus for this age group is similar to what I feel is important.

The Exploration Stage (Ages 8-10). This is the most fun stage for me as a homeschooling parent. It is the stage that the children did a lot of exploration in many topics of interest. Although each child had a style or interest that would be revisited consistently, they would move off of it easily using it to explore other arenas of potentiality. It is like sampling from the buffet table, but bringing the food back to your preferred table to eat.

I spent a lot of time in this stage figuring out how to open up the world and marry it back to how they best learn by facilitating requests, expanding through resources, and using knowledge collaboration.

The Love of Learning Phase (roughly ages 8-12). He feels this is the time when there is lots of fearless exploration. He feels home should still be the strong base from where they are learning everything and it is our job to bring in lots of opportunities for exploration.

Again, you see how there is a strong similarity . . . in fact, identical at this stage. But, I add more stages in the next section . . .

The Collaborative Learning Stage (Ages 11-13). This has been an important transition stage between a more unschooling collaborative approach (collecting valuable information and honoring it) to a collaborative learning approach (sharing valuable insights about adult living and supporting the process in working toward their unique futures). This is where more formal discussions and frameworks are created in helping each child own and take responsibility for their goal-oriented learning lives.In case the side effects become uncomfortable, the user should visit his doctor for discover these guys now cialis 40 mg medical attention.

I spent a lot of time in this stage helping each child figure out how to structure their learning and create goals by sharing information and insights about their learning style and timeframes by using learning collaboration.

The Gift Focus Stage (Ages 14-16). This is the stage that suddenly the child knows what he/she wants and loves to do and begins to pursue it passionately. This is the focus that will be pursued without reservation and for long periods of time independently. The child will encounter the need to know how to balance the pursuit of their gift along with other responsibilities and learning opportunities.

I spent a lot of time in this stage helping each child figure out how to prioritize their gift and balance their goals and responsibilities by having discussions and sharing experiences about living by principles and remembering the purpose of life.

The Scholar Phase (roughly ages 12-16). He feels this is when the person is starting to really get a feel for what he/she loves and starts to pursue learning heavily, on his/her own initiative. They can’t get enough of it. He encourages more outside the home mentors and opportunities at this stage.

I feel that all the previous stages combine to produce the stage of being able to discover and focus on the gift to which you will excel. If there was not an environment that valued and honored exactly who you are, and helped you flourish in the style and timeframe that works with who you are, and provided a setting that allowed free exploration of all that is available, how would you know what unique gifts and talents that were given specifically to you to bless your life and the world in which you live? If you do not have an environment that shares information and skills on how to organize and focus your thoughts, and a support system to create and develop short- and long-term goals, and experience balancing a full life, how do you fulfill your hopes and dreams? I feel a specific stage needed to be mentioned about how one transitions from the unschooled approach to a more collaborative approach, for my model, versus entering a type of “overachiever mentality” that I sense from the classical education approach. I agree, though, that this stage in particular would be the time to move to more outside mentors wherever possible to enhance the child’s opportunities to develop their gift(s) and personal guidelines.

The Transitional Stage (Ages 17-19). This is the stage that the child moves from a home and dependency based lifestyle to a community and independent based lifestyle. Some will move seamlessly into this stage, while others will be hesitant, and yet others will be outright resistant. This stage can encompass such things as consistent work, volunteer opportunities, college preparatory pursuits, entrepreneurial steps, and/or travel options. It is time for a full adult schedule, whatever and wherever it ends up.

I spent a lot of time in this stage helping each child figure out how to enter an adult lifestyle of their choosing and embrace a full schedule by sharing experience and insights regarding any acqusition process and modeling a mindful lifestyle through peer collaboration.

The Depth Phase (roughly ages 16-22). He doesn’t talk about this one in this handout, but says it is the time when they “take on a serious mentor to prepare them for the Mission Phase.” It is also a time when they go into more depth in the fields of his/her choice.

This is also where I parted a bit from TJE because for my children, an actual and real transitional time occurred at this time. Now, I can see how the Depth Phase could be reached through a classical approach mentality, which I equate with an overachiever paradigm. I just don’t believe in that approach as it encourages the “do as I should” mentality where one is not being true to self and one’s true “organic” stage. I think it is expected to have “transitional” time periods in one’s life, particularly around the teen years and the adult years. To allow a person that space to work through that time period in an honest and self-aware process I hope can allow for a more mindfully lived life that leads to greater joy and contentment. I could be wrong, of course!

I do veer off the unschooling paradigm, though, I think, around the teen years, at that first transitional timeframe where an introduction of goals and structure occurs. I do not believe everything to be a “natural” process, but that we are all here to support and learn from each other as we figure out our place in the world. However, I continue the idea that the child “owns and directs his learning life” through a collaborative model of interaction between child and adult mentor. I see the collaboration model occurring right from the start, and each stage builds upon each other and strengthens the bond of mutual trust and respect that was established at the beginning.

I will agree with the last stage . . .

The Mission Phase (beyond this). He doesn’t focus on this in the handout, but simply says that it is the time “where we each set out and accomplish our unique missions in life.”

Time will tell after this point, as I have yet to experience it with my children . . .

To summarize, I believe our homeschooling lives progressed from an unschooling paradigm to a natural stage of being ready for a more structured/goal-oriented setting achieved through a collaborative paradigm with adult mentor. I feel it represents a more “organic” paradigm of “natural stages” of learning versus an “overachiever” paradigm I feel is associated with the classical educational approach.  I feel it represents a more interconnected paradigm of mentor based collaboration of learning versus an “island onto themselves” paradigm I feel is sometimes associated with the unschooling approach.

It’s interesting so far how much each of my children have followed the age representations fairly accurately, and yet, it can look SO different between the children. This is even basically true for my more disabled children! There may be a bit of a rearrangement of the first few stages for my children who had intensive interventions in the early years. The discovery of their learning style came much sooner, but by the exploration stage, it comes back into alignment.

Anyway, I’m interested in any and all feedback. And, I hope it was understandable 😉

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Posted in Homeschooling, Learning

A Thomas Jefferson Education: Principles and Stages

Posted on July 11, 2006 | 8 comments
Over a year ago, I was able to hear Oliver DeMille, president of George Wythe College, speak about his “leadership education” idea. It seems to be an education system that marries a classical education with unschooling. There was a lot of good stuff about it. There were some definite things I didn’t like about his perspective, as well. I thought his book, “A Thomas Jefferson Education,” was weak. However, the ideas that were outlined in the paper that his wife, Rachel, authored, “A Thomas Jefferson Education in Our Home”, had some wonderful ideas in it (I have NO idea why they were not in the book, frankly!)

Anyway, one idea the DeMille’s talk about are “The Seven Principles of Quality Education”:

Classics, not Textbooks.
Mentors, not Professors.
Inspire, not Require.
Structure Time, not Content.
Quality, not Conformity.
Simplicity, not Complexity.
YOU, not them.

Most of these I do, but there were a couple that got me thinking . . .

Then, they presented the “stages” of learning:

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The Core Phase (roughly ages 0-8). He talks about having no formal instruction during this time. He feels this is the time to learn things like: right and wrong, good and bad, true and false, relationships, family values, family routines and responsibilities, learning accountability, and the value and love of work.

The Love of Learning Phase (roughly ages 8-12). He feels this is the time when there is lots of fearless exploration. He feels home should still be the strong base from where they are learning everything and it is our job to bring in lots of opportunities for exploration.

The Scholar Phase (roughly ages 12-16). He feels this is when the person is starting to really get a feel for what he/she loves and starts to pursue learning heavily, on his/her own initiative. They can’t get enough of it. He encourages more outside the home mentors and opportunities at this stage.

The Depth Phase (roughly ages 16-22). He doesn’t talk about this one in this handout, but says it is the time when they “take on a serious mentor to prepare them for the Mission Phase.” It is also a time when they go into more depth in the fields of his/her choice.

The Mission Phase (beyond this). He doesn’t focus on this in the handout, but simply says that it is the time “where we each set out and accomplish our unique missions in life.”

When I contemplated my own children’s learning path, I recognized how similar it was to these stages they had delineated. As I continued to think about it, I came up with my own list of “stages.” I’ll explain why when I share them with you next, but I wanted to first share the source of “inspiration” from which they came.

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Posted in Homeschooling, Learning

Top Ten Resources

Posted on July 10, 2006 | 5 comments

Faith over at Dumb Ox Academy listed her top ten resources that make unschooling work for her family. After feeling overwhelmed by the extensive lists of homeschooling resources and goals that were being shared in the blog world, it was very centering to read Faith’s list and remind myself that we, too, have our “extensive resources” that we draw from on a regular basis, although it looks differently than many. So, in order to cognizantly remind myself, I decided to think about my own list of top ten resources that makes an unschooling foundation work for our family.

At first, after looking over Faith’s list, I thought I was going to end up repeating most of hers! So much of what she wrote is very important in our lives, such as conversations, read aloud time, movies and videos, and inspiration from each other’s interests/hobbies. But, as I started thinking it over, more things came to my mind and I decided to share these different resources instead, although some of what Faith wrote as her top ten are right up there in our lives as well. So, in no particular order:

1. Books and magazines. Great fantasy series like Redwall and The Borrowers. Great historial series like The American Girls and Dear America. Eyewitness books. The Classics. Great children’s read alouds like A Cricket in Times Square and Watership Down. Atlases. Poetry like A Light in the Attic and Hailstones and Halibut Bones. Great pictorial books like Children Like Me and Come With Me To Africa. Collection books like D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths and Uncle Wiggily’s Story Book. Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard. Kid’s Discover and Zoobooks. National Geographic World and Boys’ Life. Nintendo Power and Guide Books. And on and on and on . . .

2. Zoos and museums. Well, being a large family, it’s SOO worth getting memberships at such things as zoos, science centers, and museums. Because we lived our first 15 years as corporate gypsies living in five states, we were able to enjoy these types of offerings in each region, being willing to travel up to two hours one way wherever we were.

3. Our backyard and neighborhood. Our best science programs have existed in our own backyard. Over at Salamander Creek Habitat in her post called Life Beneath the Surface reminds us of the great surprises and wildlife at our disposal. So many of my children noticed the intricate workings occurring within the insect world in our backyard. Many questions were asked, books read, information gathered and applied, and a strong appreciation for nature garnered. In fact, Eric never had a formal science program ever, and at age 14, I decided to have him take the science part of the CAT test that is required in our state, and he scored in the 99th percentile. In addition, the neighborhood has often been a good source for social interactions, citizenship and physical education as they have learned to ride bikes, rollerblade, or skip rope.

4. The Computer, Internet, and computer games. Oregon and Amazon Trails. SimLife and SimTown. Jumpstart and Math Blaster. GeoSafari and GeoHistory. America Rock. 3-D Body and 3-D Dinosaur. Living Books and Living Letters. Blue’s Clues ABC and Disney Toddler. Lego Studio and Lego Loco. Rollercoaster Tycoon and John Deere American Farmer. Star Wars Galaxies and WarCraft. Canon Creative and PictureIt. IMing and MySpace. Homestar Runner and Legendary Frog. Installation videos and arcade games. Google “spelling program”. Creative CD covers and homemade cards. Computer programming and 3-D graphics. And on and on and on . . .

5. Our community and local homeschool group activities. There have been different seasons for these types of things. I was much more involved in local homeschooling activities in the early years than I am now. We did things such as park days, classes, group learning opportunities, swim and gym, and youth events. We more get involved in the community offerings through our groups these days. We have attended things such as gymnastics, skating, 4-H, and theater shows.The plant’s ability to increase sexual desire and you could try this out buy generic cialis performance are not FDA-approved.

6. The Video Camera. Having and giving access to the video camera to my children at a very young age produced a lot of creative expressions besides the valued form of writing. Home movies through the lens of a child is so much more raw and real than anything we adults tend to focus on. Several of the children created their own “shows” (“Happy Time with Abbey”, “Spunus and Indiana Jones”, etc.) that capture the depth of their personality at that moment that I treasure like gold. Entertaining storylines, developed characters, and amazing behind-the-scenes workmanship emanated from the many movies that were created by various children utilizing neighborhood friends, our pet managerie, and family members.

7. Collections. Star Wars figures. Littlest Pet Shops. The Complete Works of Curious George. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures. Legos. Thomas the Tank Engine trains. Ceiling Fans. Power Ranger figures. Sonic the Hedgehog Comic Books. Pokemon cards. Children’s Dictionaries. John Deere tractors. Technics. Eyewitness videos.

8. Drawing. It appears that Eric set the stage for all the other children to enjoy the benefits of learning and understanding through drawing. Eric started drawing pictures at 3.5 years old and escalated his time commitment from there drawing hours a day resulting in a natural gift. Abbey later joined him in order to develop their relationship and she is a prime example of “learned drawing skills” through constant exposure and desire. Because his older siblings shared their inner stories and other interests through drawing, Eli gravitated toward using the drawing medium to share his inner world with his siblings. Although Alex didn’t take to drawing as well due to his struggle with autism, he enjoys having his older siblings draw comics for him incorporating his favorite topics of ceiling fans, the cats, and garages. William and Joseph now enjoy a similar relationship with their much older siblings through drawing requests of their favorite topics, particularly during church services. They both have a desire to develop their own abilities. Overall, drawing has been a strong medium to express each person’s inner stories (writing) and explore their interests.

9. Video Games. Sonic the Hedgehog to comic book making. Legend of Zelda to writing a novel. The Lion King to movie making. Mario Brothers to ColorForm creation. All role-playing games to public speaking. Pokemon to character development. Math. Historical research of cultures, weaponry, and apparel. Writing. Computer programming. 3-D graphics. Problem solving. And on and on and on . . .

10. Alone Time. Most of my children inherited their father’s introverted personality and enjoy their solitude. Although we have a large family, living in a home that will accommodate the need to find one’s own space was important to us. Being alone is when my children develop their talents and gifts as they devote energy and focus to projects. Being alone is when concepts “perculate” and become clear as they use their preferred medium of exploration to play around with ideas such as building a pyramid out of Legos or creating machines out of the same. Being alone is when the children re-energize themselves in order to be able to enthusiastically engage in outside learning opportunities and interesting social options. Being alone is where each person thinks and ponders and imagines and creates, and amazing products emerge from those quiet moments.

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Posted in Homeschooling, Learning

Homeschooling Meme

Posted on July 9, 2006 | 3 comments

Susan at Imperfect Genius started a homeschooling meme that I thought I would get in on . . .

1) What country/region/state do you live in?

North Carolina, for the past six years.

2) How long have you been homeschooling? Just getting started, old pro or somewhere in between?

Hhhmmm, “old pro” implies that you know what you’re doing, and I can’t say that. In fact, one of the joys, to me, of homeschooling is that because it is so individual, or that’s how we do things, and every individual goes through different stages, nothing is ever stagnant. It’s always evolving with the individual, so our homeschooling is always evolving. And, just when I think I figured out what one child needs for one stage, he/she changes. Drat!

But, in the traditional sense of things, I officially put on the cloak of homeschooler in 1992. However, when I came to homeschooling, I was searching for a way to continue what had been working for us since our first child’s birth, so I would say we’ve been living the lifestyle of a homeschooler since 1987.

3) Write a little something about your family. Ages? Stages?

Eric is 19 and is at the transitioning stage. He enjoys everything Japanese, manga, video/computer games, designing costumes (which he’s thinking about majoring in), and drawing.

Abbey is 17 and has achieved the gift-focus stage and is entering her transitioning stage. She enjoys writing (she says it’s now like breathing . . . if she doesn’t write, she’ll die . . . although it sounds high drama, which is not like her at all, it is more poetic, which is more her genre), her animals (all 12 of them), and computer creativity (designing CD covers, her website, or making digital movies).

Eli is 15 and is solidly in the gift-focus stage. He loves computer programming, computer games, math (yes, he does this for fun!), and piano. He used to spend hours building with Legos and Technics, robotics and stop-gap action movies, but has evolved.

Adam is 13 and is bordering between the collaborative learning stage and the gift-focus stage. It should be interesting this next year. He loves to watch movies, play video games, play computer arcade games, and reading.

Alex is 11 and has entered the collaborative learning stage. He has just been learning how to assemble ceiling fans himself that he buys from his earned money as his interest in ceiling fans continues, enjoys watching installation videos for garage doors and openers, watching movies, and his interest in reading has taken off with his enjoyment of Junie B. Jones, which is definitely his humor style.

William is 7 and is bordering on leaving the learning style discovery stage and going into the exploration stage. He loves bugs, swords, action figures (particularly The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars), and always creating costumes for and being in “character”.

Joseph is 5 and has finally left the temperament stage and is into the learning style discovery stage. He is a HUGE Daddy’s boy and will work outside with dad all day if daddy will be with him. He loves John Deere, tractors, construction vehicles and gardening tools. Yesterday, Daddy finally just let him mow the grass with the push mower because he was so determined. He did great!

4) Share some good homeschooling advice you’ve run across.

When your children ask you for help, don’t turn it into a lesson.

5) Tell us something you’re passionate about (besides your family and homeschooling, those are givens!).

Although this has to do with both, I truly am passionate about learning styles. It is absolutely fascinating to me. If the “stages” I talked about above intrigue you, I intend to write about it soon. It’s my own version of what I noticed my children’s natural learning paths encompassed, if you want to put it to “stages”.

Reading is something I’ve always enjoyed, but am very careful doing so because I will not do anything else, including being with my family 🙂 From time to time, I will also pick up some stitching such as knitting, crocheting, cross stitch . . . not sewing . . . don’t know how.

6) If you could take the ultimate field trip, where would you go and why?

A chocolate factory . . . with free samples! LOL!

7) What is a resource you can’t do without?

All of our books, without question.There are several natural ways to click this (buy viagra) stop aging by improving lifestyle, following anti-aging diet and taking anti-aging supplements.

The computer!

Now that we have a nice scanner/copier/printer . . . gotta love it!

8) How do you homeschool? Classical, Charlotte Mason, Waldorf, Unschooling, Eclectic?

We most identify with unschooling, but I would self describe our learning lives as collaborative learning and strength-based learning.

9) Share a website or two that you visit often – can be your favorite blogger or a curriculum supplier, just any sites you really like.

I wish I could get a lot more stuff at Different Roads to Learning.

I like Love to Learn.

10) Tell us about one of your favorite projects/activities/trips you’ve had in the past few months.

It was more than a few months ago, but the family vacation to Disney World we literally organized in 24 hours back in February was absolutely priceless for family togetherness. As the children were getting older and our lives were filling a bit more up with stress, we chose to go into the trip with absolutely no expectations and came away with renewed unity and bonding. Wonderful memories for everyone! Can’t beat that!

11) What is a current/previous homeschooling challenge you’ve faced?

I lost the person who was helping me help William learn because of her personal family needs and he really needs to have someone commit to using his learning method to learn to identify his alphabet starting this summer which takes a lot of time and commitment. Basically, I’m going to try to implement better time management skills in my own life, and to start using a flexible schedule for myself again, in order that I might be able to accomplish this myself. Well, let’s put it this way, I HAVE to make this work!

12) Share an accomplishment, something about you or your children. Come on, brag about it!

There are always personal victories for each of my children from Adam being able to independently make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to Alex buying and assembling his own ceiling fan to Eli being asked to play piano for a regional conference (so others are hearing about his talents and requesting him) to Abbey being selected to play her ocarina for a talent show (through a selection process) and also placing second for her poem she submitted to Joseph coming home from church today not having been kicked out of his class, again, for his hyperactivity differences.

13) What are you looking forward to over the coming year?

Instead of “stealing time” here and there, I’ve carved out specific time each day for me to devote a segment of my energy toward an on-line business which combines with my desire to “give back” both to society and my family.

14) Name three things you like doing in the summer with your family.

Doing family things together outside near dusk and into the dark hours.

Riding bikes.

Swimming.

15) Have a favorite homeschooling quote? Share it here.

The Animal School, the version as shared by Stephanie at Throwing Marshmallows.

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Posted in Family, Homeschooling

Handwriting

Posted on July 5, 2006 | 2 comments

I don’t know why I don’t take a lot of interest in making sure my children learn to print and write in cursive. Maybe if I saw that you needed to use it a lot in life, I would think differently. I mean, not even my conditioning created it in me. I still have specific memories in school absolutely LOVING handwriting time. The perfectionist in me meeting in harmony with my strong left-brained tendencies found me reveling in precisely created symbolic representation on paper, and glowing from the consistent recognition received from the teacher as she strolled up and down the aisles of student desks.

It surprised me when I learned about eight years ago that there was a new diagnosis of “dysgraphia” associated with handwriting (and “dyscalculia” associated with difficulty with math . . . what will they think of next?). Those of you with children in this situation may feel I don’t understand. Well, I would say I have one child who took to handwriting easily and has great “penmanship” today. Every one of my boys . . . six of them . . . have been anywhere from “delayed” to what they would term “dysgraphia”. I put these in quotes because I’m not sure how I feel about it. I don’t know how I feel because since I didn’t really focus on handwriting, and I’m still not sure how it affects the big picture, I’m just not sure if it’s useful to have a label put on a person for the quality or quantity of their handwriting skills. And, isn’t it interesting that every one of my boys don’t take to handwriting? Is there a boy thing here? I don’t remember too many boys growing up that had good handwriting.

Eric, my oldest at 19 today, never did take to coloring when he was a boy. Is that a precursor to writing? He also never “dabbled” with a pencil or pen, making little marks in “practice” to real writing. He first picked up a pen at 3.5 years old and drew a picture. It goes right along his path, in retrospect, to how he learns in a right-brained fashion: observe first, then do . . . the first time. From that early drawing, he only increased his picture making talents . . . but no words. When I read aloud to him, he was looking at the pictures, not the words. To re-enact the stories, it was through pictures, not words. Eventually, he started putting words to his pictures, comic book style, around 7-8 years old. He always asked how to spell words, and I always simply spelled it for him . . . no “lessons”. He’s a great speller today, unlike many right-brained, visual-spatial learners. One possible reason was that early question/answer time period of spelling everything for him as he asked before he wrote. It seems that visual-spatial learners have a fantastic visualization skill, almost photographic, which makes them struggle to “delete” information, or “redo” anything that was incorrect. Thus, invented spelling often is not a useful tool for them long-term. It was pure luck that I read in a John Holt book to simply spell words, or read words, when asked, without the lesson. It happened to work out in this instance for Eric’s benefit.

I did notice, though, that he was reversing a lot of letters. I remember reading another idea in a John Holt book about letter reversals possibly being misconstrued. I took that original doubt and applied it to the idea that Eric loved to draw. When you draw a horse, it can be facing one way or the other, so why not letters? So, one day, I nonchalantly asked Eric why he drew his letter “E” the way he had it at that moment, reversed. He stopped, thought about it, and then slowly asked, “Why?” I replied, “Because most people make their “E” this way,” and I wrote an “E” in the correct direction. Eric asked again, “Why?” Good question! Why? Hhhmmm. It came to me as, “Well, maybe it’s because if everyone writes their letters in the same direction, then it will be easier to read quickly.” Hey, sounded good! He thought so, too, and so he began to write most of his letters in the “correct” direction. I had continued the former conversation by verifying his reasoning for reversing letters: “Is it because you can draw animals or people anyway you want, so you thought letters were the same?” “Yeah.”

He continued to reverse his “s” and “J” until 9 to 10 years old. In this way, it could be that it had been formed in his memory that way and he just didn’t ever come to the realization that it would be important to correct it. That is, until a situation occurred with his friend who lived next door. Eric was waiting for him to come out and play, but his friend had to finish his homework first. Eric naively stated that he could help him finish more quickly if he did some of the work for him. His friend declined the invitation, and when Eric pressed as to why, he said, “Because you still reverse your “s” and “J”.” Eric said that was the catalyst that helped him become cognizant enough to stop those last two reversals.

Before we move forward from here, because I didn’t “teach” him printing, Eric figured it out by himself. So did Abbey. Both of them print from the bottom up, instead of from the top down. When people watch them write, it can freak them out! And you should see Abbey write her name in cursive . . . that is even freakier! And she’s the one with fantastic printing ability. She just got her driver’s license where you have to sign your name, which she did. However, she had her full name printed on the driver’s license, thus, she had to sign her full name as well. She mumbled to herself, “I don’t know how to write Abigale in cursive . . . oh, well, I’ll figure it out.” And she did just that, and it looked fine. Interestingly, she had a season where she wanted to figure out how to read cursive writing, and I think she can do so haltingly. Yet, she has created entire new alphabets for her fantasy writing and can read and write it fluently!Diabetes can damage them that appalachianmagazine.com levitra samples may ultimately lead to total baldness in men.

Anyway, I discovered that when I asked Eric to write something for me, he would slop it on the page. When he was writing something for himself, it was quite legible, sometimes even neat. At 11 years old, his two friends were coming over to stay with us for two weeks after having moved from the area, and Eric wanted to make another movie with them. In order to save time, he handwrote a 100 page script that I felt was quite legible. Through his teen years, most of his writing tends to be in creating lists. These lists mostly comprise of categorizations within his role playing game arena that constitutes pages and pages of information.

In his early teen years, he wanted to become more proficient at the keyboard, so he worked with the Mavis Beacon typing program until he reached a fluidity that pleased him. He uses this skill for his IMing, MySpace, e-mails, and other on-line venues. His sister has yet to decide to conquer this skill, but probably surpasses his speed with her hunt and peck method, and she is a budding author, spending hours on the computer typing her book! So far, how each child uses or does not use handwriting skills has not hindered their progress in life. Eric did take two computer programming classes at the local community college without negative effect. Time will tell . . .

Of the six boys, Eric has the best ability in the handwriting department, and as shown, it wasn’t an early or straight path to where he is. Alex, Adam, and William have more serious issues due to the low muscle tone and motor planning elements that often accompanies autism and developmental disabilities. And yet, their handwriting path continues on a path that will eventually lead them to a sufficient ability for their lives when coupled with the alternative writing sources such as keyboarding, audio, and video.

To summarize, I guess I just don’t see the point, as I mentioned before, of labeling handwriting differences. To me, it joins the masses that focus on a weakness-based education and a problem-based paradigm. I lean toward a strength-based lens. This is not to say that I don’t recognize that my children’s path to handwriting isn’t different than their schooled peers’ path of expected academic achievement, or that it might even be a “weak area” for them. But, when our energy and focus and lens is on their strengths: oral story-telling, character development, plot intricacies, descriptions, visualizations, producing/directing, to name some of Eric’s . . . not only does handwriting pale in comparison, but it eventually became a means to an end . . . writing out that script, adding commentary to the comic strip, detailed lists . . . it improved with maturity, time, and personalized need interspersed with equally valued alternative expressions through video, audio, and computers.

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