Our Curriculum
We have recently started our autumn quarter around here, and I thought it would be an interesting little historical tidbit for me to list the resources we are using for school this quarter. Monk, if he was in public school, would be in 6th or 7th grade, and cole would be in 2nd or 3rd grade. On a typical day, we read together as a family for about an hour or two. Cole has gymnastics once a week, and goes to an after school arts program on some days of the week. Monk, for now, does not have any outside activities, except for the mother's helper work he does for a couple of people. I'm hoping to get him back into fencing in the near future, and he's going to be participating in a multimedia class in about a month or so. The rest of their time is spent playing (mostly video games, although they have wild bursts of playing with legos or blocks, and sometimes coley invents elaborate games using yu-gi-oh and pokemon cards), reading, and doing chores and "homework" assignments that I plan on a quarterly, monthly, and weekly basis. Most of our morning reading sessions include a non-fiction book, usually from our history focus, and a fiction book that we alternate choosing. Right now, we're reading Monk's choice, which is the last book in the Pendragon series (which I HATE! But I have dutifully read them all!) I get to choose the next book, and I'm thinking it might be Watership Down, but it might be fun to read the Odyssey or the Iliad, since we are reading about Ancient Greece for social studies. I don't think those will be as fun for me to read, though...unless I REALLY get into it and research pronunciation and whatnot in advance, but wth? It's not like I get paid for this crap! hahaha. I don't think the appreciation they would have would be a good return on investment for the time I would spend preparing, is all I'm saying. At any rate, both boys do math exercises every day. Monk is studying some algebraic concepts and cole is working on multiplication, division, and just general 3rd grade type math. Both of them use Singapore Math curriculum, and I just let them do exercises and figure things out on their own until they get stuck and need my help. At which point, Monk usually throws his arms up every five seconds and tells me I'm EXPLAINING IT ALL WRONG. And that he DOESN'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING I AM SAYING AT ALL! Which is pretty much what *I* always wished I could say out loud to my math teachers, but instead I just internalized it and struggled for hours with it by myself, occasionally resorting to book throwingness, but never getting any grades lower than A's or B's, because I was a perfectionist, just like Monk. Cole's a little easier to coach, but it's tougher to get him to do the work. And, while I do embrace the concepts of unschooling, in practice it's just not feasible for me. I have an elder son who insists upon rules and structure, and a younger son who is too erratic to make these kinds of decisions for the entire household... ...on a side note, I often think about a lot of child-led families I know...and my aspirations to be fully child-led in my household. I, for myself, found that it didn't work. First of all, when I got divorced, it cut way down on the leisure of choice and the choice of leisure, you know? I'm a busy person working a full-time job and trying to maintain and juggle the schedule and needs of 3 people and a dog while maintaining a modicum of sanity. It became apparent to me very early on in this phase of my life that I just don't have the time and constitution to acquiesce to the demanded desires of both of my children any time they are delivered to me, in addition to the more subtle but still equally demanding demands of the various other people who have or think they have or in any way exert or attempt to exert control over my life. So, no. This is a socialist household, to some extent, in that we each are required to give to the level of our ability, and we each are in return given to the level of our need, but it is also a dictatorship because, hey, you know what I've figured out? Being the oldest person living here means I have the most experience, and GENERALLY SPEAKING (although not always) I am better equipped to make decisions that will lend to the general well-being to all of us in a fairly predictable manner. End of sidenote. Both boys also do grammar and vocabulary every day...on alternating days, generally. With Cole, I am much more explicit with what he's expected to do on any given day, so I assign lessons from each book on alternating days. With Monk, I am trying to get him to do his own planning, so I give him the lump sum of what he needs to get done throughout the week, and I kind of let him plan when/how he's going to do it. At this point, I still need to stay on him and make him verbalize his plan throughout the week, which I HATE doing. I hate riding peoples' asses. It's my least favorite part of parenting or job-having...but Monk, especially, seems to really DEMAND that almost. He tests me a lot to make sure I am paying attention to what he thinks he is getting away with. Hahaha. Cole's Vocab and Grammar books are kind of just generic workbooks for his level I bought on Amazon.com. They aren't anything special. Monk's doing SAT vocabulary, and I'm having him read and work on the activities from Painless Grammar . It seems like it's not only a great grammar resource, but also a great book about writing and communicating clearly and concisely. About once a month or so, I have each of them read a "book report book," and do some sort of report on it. This is always hit or miss with them, and to be honest, at least with Coley, he usually tells me all about the books he is reading. So if the learning objective of a book report is for the teacher to know that a kid is comprehending what he's reading...I already feel very confident of that with Cole. And pretty much anyone who knows Monk knows he comprehends things VERY well, so I'm not terribly worried about him (but don't tell him I said that, because I still think it's important for him to work and stretch on occasion to communicate his understanding in written words. I'm sure the same will be true of Cole as he gets older and more able to understand beyond the story itself. Speaking of which, I did try something with Monk this quarter that failed. I have this really great resource called Rethinking Mathematics. There's this great organization called Rethinking Schools that puts out all sorts of books and curriculum to help teachers bring issues of social justice into the classroom. I think Monk likes to think he's very well-evolved, but he has a ways to go, you know? So there are activities like teaching the concept of percentages and rations by doing an analysis of "driving while brown" and researching the percentage of black and brown people who are pulled over vs. the percentage of whites. I tried to assign this to Monk and he just got pissed off at me...and that was the second activity from that book that I tried to assign to him with similar results, so I'm thinking it's either he's not ready for that kind of analytical learning, or it's just not interesting for him to learn that way. He's never really been fond of roundabout methods of instruction. He's not an "activity" or "crafty" kid, and he never was one. I remember I had to quit trying to use Waldorf methods on him because he was unable to disconnect his brain, and he HATED modeling wax, crayons, and pretty much all of the crafts I tried to do. So, it's at least consistent, if disheartening that I can't forward my liberal agenda by forcing him to use my hippie curriculum. Don't judge! I'm just trying to counterbalance the pervasive right wing religious homeschoolers that are so prevalent! I'll probably try an activity from that curriculum again every quarter until we find something that speaks to him. We *were* doing Living Math for awhile, but I found it a bit disjointed for me. I'd love to just get a compiled book list from that curriculum and work it into our daily reading. I started to do that awhile ago, but never followed through. Living Math is basically a curriculum (I think it was even designed by a homeschooler) that emphasizes the history and philosophy of mathematics. It's a pretty neat curriculum, and I think I might have to go back and get resources from it to incorporate into our reading. For Science, Cole has started the "Diversity" unit of a Singapore Science curriculum called My Pals Are Here. Monk is reading the first book in the Story of Science series by Joy Hakim, and we're using a workbook developed by Johns Hopkins University. I love this science series, especially since we live in Texas, where they are still freaking arguing whether evolution belongs in the public school curriculum. At the beginning of the second lesson "Birthing a Universe" and "telling it like they though it was: Myths of creation" the author has chosen to juxtapose two quotes: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." -Genesis, and "Some foolish men declare that a Creator made the world...Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning and end." - The Mahabharata. So, yeah...it's a cool series. We're on the first book, now. I'm actually also looking forward to reading her A History of US books, which are sort of like kid's versions of A People's History from what I gather. Although I think Zinn has also released a version of A People's History geared towards younger folks. I think Monk might be ready to read the regular version himself, but I don't want to foist it on him and make him hate it. Hmmmm...what else what else? Oh! I keep trying to get us started on the Monart method of teaching art, as I'm reading Drawing With Children...but it's difficult for me to plan for an hour of absolutely peaceful time like the method demands. I think it is something I am just going to have to work towards. I'm also wanting the three of us to learn Spanish together, probably using a combination of Rosetta Stone and some conversational Spanish classes with a co-worker of mine. I also have Monk making menu plans and grocery lists, and am intending to make him create a food cost spreadsheet so he can budget for our meals. This is slow going, because I don't have the patience to wait for him to find the meals, and he's uninspired to do this...AND it's one of my favorite chores, so I'm all too happy to take the menu planning off of his hands. :) I want to put up a badminton net in the backyard so we can all play badminton together as a PE unit. Other than that, we go on walks together. Cole and I, particularly, enjoy going on long walks while Monk is babysitting. Cole likes sketching and taking photos of things. I like hearing him babble on and on. Both boys are learning how to use technology tools. They both have email accounts, and Cole is just now learning how to chat. He exercised his new knowledge by hitting me up on gtalk the other day while I was working. This was our conversation:
