Sunday, March 30, 2008

Scaling back the schooling

Three months into this experiment, I'm realizing how comfortable we've gotten doing this. I only get stressed out when I think about what we're going to do for 1st grade. But that's a topic for another evening.

What I want to write about tonight is how, when we started out, I was so nervous and unsure about what teaching L meant that I created an elaborate schedule with many different courses and a strict curriculum. I was terrified of leaving anything out. We were doing science and history and art and math and phonics and literature and handwriting and piano and soccer...oy.

The evolution of our homeschooling (which is still unfolding) has led us to a much less structured place. I still try to come up with plan of action every week, but instead of filling in every slot with the pages or activities we should get through, I've started writing up goals for the week. Then as we accomplish them, I keep track of what we actually did. Anything we didn't get to gets transfered to the following week's goal list. And we've stopped trying to do everything. Now, instead of busy schedules with different classes every day, we do a couple of pages of math & phonics every single week day. She reads to me every day. We memorize a poem every week. This is what I'm focusing on. Reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic.

As for the rest, it's really ad hoc. I carry around a volume of the Great Books Read-Aloud series so that if we get stuck on the subway or have some time to kill I have something to read to her. I'll offer to read some Story of The World to her, or do a science experiment if we're home, and if we do it that's great, but if we don't, I don't sweat it. We take various short term classes: she's going to be taking one on exploring physics through the building of simple machines, also an art class and one on designing doll dresses using geometric shapes. We try to go to piano and soccer classes each week. As often as we can we go to the Metropolitan Museum and take an audio tour (I convinced her to do the Near Eastern collection last week to check out the Babylonian stuff, but she wants to go back to the Egyptian wing this week. Drats!).

This leaves us with more time to arrange play dates and just play things by ear. I'm not chasing a syllabus any more. And it feels great.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Code of The Family

As I was saying before, we've been studying Babylonia and the Sumerians. L found the Code of Hammurabi particularly interesting. So we sat down, and with L dictating & myself as the scribe, we came up with the following Code of The Family, or Life's Rules as L Sees it:

1. No shoes in the house.
2. You always have to try something before saying yuck.
3. If you have a Green Card, it’s means good, if you have a Yellow card it means warning, if you have an Orange Card it means time out, and if you have a Red Card it means no books.
4. No sticking fingers in birdy’s cage
5. Don’t touch computer screens
6. You have to go to bed at 8 o’clock.
7. You can only watch videos once in the morning and once at night.
8. You have to treat T nicely. And T has to treat me nicely.
9. No hitting allowed. If you hit, you get an Orange Card.
10. You have to respect people’s words. If you don’t, you’ll get a Yellow Card.
11. You have to listen to Mommy and Daddy.
12. If you make a big mess in the night, you have to clean it up in the morning or it will get thrown away. So beware.
13. You have to use your fork and spoon and you have to eat most of your food or you won’t get dessert.
14. After dinner you have to clear your place.
15. You always have to say thank you and please.
16. You always have to stay with a grown-up when you go outside.
17. You always have to ask before touching a doggy.
18. You always have to look both ways before crossing a street.
19. You always have to stop at the end of the sidewalk.
20. No drawing on the carpet or furniture.
21. You have to be nice to the webkinz and all of my other dolls.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Car Accident

I hadn't updated the blog in a while because we were busy for a couple of weeks and I kept thinking I'd get to it. But then we got into a terrible car crash last week that really derailed us. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, though our friend's minivan, which D was driving, was totalled and he broke his hand. I was in the front passenger seat and got my ribs badly bruised by the force of my body hitting the seat belt. The kids were scared silly but fine, and another friend who didn't believe in wearing seatbelts in the back seat, went flying but survived by some miracle with just a cut on the nose and some bruises.

The entire right front side of it (where I was sitting) was completely smashed in where we ran into an power line pole.

For the first week, we had daily help from our amazing babysitter. This week, I was on my own as we tried to get back into real life again. So far, every day it seems that another part of my body discovers a new hurt and instead of feeling better, it's just been getting worse. But I've been told that the first week is the worst part and it should start easing off soon. It better, because I'm well on the way to pill-popping junkie land.

Through this, we haven't gotten much work done, obviously. We were going through the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is fabulous. Gory, violent, full of passion. A real page turner.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Hammurabi and the Epic of Gilgamesh

I'm trying to distract L from the Egyptians by moving on to great old Hammurabi and the other Mesopotamians in The Story of The World. Sargon the Great of the Sumerians didn't do it. No shrivelled up dead bodies. The Ancient Jews didn't either. (Though she really loves the Children's Illustrated Jewish Bible -- all mention of smiting and "knowing" removed, which trims it down considerably) Hammurabi's Code, with its talk of cutting off hands and putting to death might just spark her rather gruesomely inclined interest, though.

So in this vein, I've been searching for some material on Babylonia, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. I found an interesting site on creation myths called the Big Myth. It has myths on the beginning of the world from various cultures around the world, narrated with some animation. Them Babylonians were a fierce bunch. They're all about wars and conflict and monsters. The Louvre website also has a pretty amazing display on the Code of Hammurabi.

Have I mentioned how great the New York Public Library system is? The website is incredible: I just requested five books on the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Babylonians. Should be enough blood and gore in that to keep L happy for a couple of weeks.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

More Egypt at the Horus Cafe


Okay, I am now officially OVER Ancient Egypt already. But L's interest just isn't flagging. We spent a couple of hours in the library at Tompkins Square Park doing work, and I gave her some time at the end to pick out any books she wanted to borrow. Off she runs to the librarian, and after some whispered consultation, they disappear to some corner. A few minutes later, she's back with an arm full of more books on pyramids, mummies and pharoahs. I don't get it. They are all full of pretty much the same information -- dead kings, natron salt, canopic jars, drag the brain out through the nose and throw it away, yadda yadda yadda. She can't get enough! After the study session, we went to the Horus Cafe (get it? Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis?), and drank some mint tea and ate a grilled swiss cheese sandwich. Don't know how authentic that part of the experience was, but what the hell. She loved it.

The new Singapore Math is a huge improvement. She stills needs to be coerced and bribed to do math, but at least she's not rolling her eyes and heaving great sighs of disgust. We are now doing Number Bonds, which is the precursor to Addition.