The Homeschool Chronicles: Projects & Progress
Hullo! Deep in my mind beneath piles of quilts, there is an ocean of philosophy, on which tiny fabric crumbs float like messages in a bottle. That ocean is churning with soooo many ideas on what it means to learn, and then beyond that, how to teach. It's a place I like to be. Wanna join me today?
The last time I reported on the state of our homeschool was clear back in early November. If you're following the chronicles closely, you may want to reread {Work in Progress} to refresh you memory. Today I'm jumping off from my intro there to the concept of Project-Based Homeschooling.
In our homeschool we do language arts constantly, but math and history/science are entertained via the block system. So, a month of math is followed by a month of history/science (more on our schedule here). This block system is so refreshing! When we're doing math it feels oh-so-productive. Learning is concrete, progressive, demonstrative. When we switch to history/science learning becomes relational, reflective, interest-led. Both feel good. And I want to emphasize the word "feel". This good-feeling motivates us all. And, no, we don't have trouble retaining math between times. If we did - if she couldn't carry over concepts from month to month - I'd wonder what she's truly, really learned.
As before, I'm going to touch on one aspect of our homeschool for each month.
November/December
In October (a math block month) I devoured Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners by Lori Pickert. As a result, in November I invited the children to choose a "project" for our November/December block (when we want to study history/science). They would pinpoint an area of interest and then I would encourage, enable and keep them on-task in pursuing that interest. In my post last November, I compared this project-based learning to sewing:
This is what I do as a sewist. I get a vision of something I want to make, and I go find out when, where, why and how. Then I try it, try again and hopefully succeed in making something I'm proud of. I own the project. And, in fact, this same trajectory is vital to many, many jobs.
Project-based homeschooling is setting aside time to mentor your children in discovering and implementing this trajectory. The goal is to teach them how to learn (the what being somewhat beside the point). You hope they learn to: set goals, develop questions, find solutions, pinpoint materials needed, break big projects down into small segments, persevere, keep up momentum, finish and, finally, evaluate their work. Ideally they don't just learn about something, they produce something creative to share with others.
To get them started, I put a list of topics I thought Aria and Liam were interested in on our chalkboard at the end of October. Naturally, they asked about the list, erased some things and added new ones. Aria's final list: cats, cooking, China, Great Britain, inventors, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Liam's final list: drawing, scary rides, skateboarding, 4-wheelers, motorcycles. When November began the following week, they'd spent some time pondering their avowed "interests". Aria (2nd grade) chose Great Britain and Liam (kindergarten) chose motorcycles. There was a palpable sense of excitement and awe surrounding this process. They were giddy with power, hehe.
first significant Internet use
I followed Lori's detailed suggestions for beginning a child-led project. They brainstormed lists of questions for their topic. Aria's included, "How many names does Great Britain have and what are they?" as well as "Famous buildings?" and "What do people do? How do they talk?". Then I asked Aria to think about how she could find these answers. Right away, she wanted to search online. Oh the rush of internet access! I taught her how to Google. She discovered in practice that general search terms are useless and how to narrow down her query for real results. After making some progress online, she chose to request books from the library. I taught her how to search and request books and music via the online library catalog.
About 2 weeks into her project, Aria had learned so many practical skills. I felt really close to the children, absolutely certain that I was loving them by enabling them to have this experience. But, she seemed to be losing steam with her library books, so I offered the option of an online unit study by Amanda Bennet on the United Kingdom.
It was at this time that Liam's project was coming to a natural end. He had answered his questions and learned how to draw a motorcycle. I had read to him his library choices a few times... The unit study was an absolute delight for all three of us. It's very visual, with tons of online videos that make learning come alive. Liam was drawn right into his sister's project, which was a win-win from my perspective. Together it felt like we were visiting these places. We could almost smell the food, and we could certainly hear their voices. The unit weaves in science, biographies, cultural interests and language arts, creating super-interesting experience.
making Christmas gifts
This took us right into December, until Christmas and our Disney trip interrupted us. We have one week of the unit study left which will take us to Ireland. I'm looking forward to returning to the study at the end of February, when I get back from QuiltCon.
January/February
After Disney, it was time to switch gears to math. And I have to repeat.... it felt goooood. The return to structure and measurable outcomes is refreshing after time spent on interest-led learning. Aria and I cracked open our brand new Singapore Math 2B resources, tentatively embarking on a new curriculum in hopes of a more challenging, interesting experience than Math-U-See. (If you recall, we finished the Math-U-See second grade book over the course of 2 months earlier in the school year.)
Aria's Birthday treasures - a new book and FABRIC!
Singapore Math is a rigorous math program originating with the country of Singapore, whose students enjoy high scores on international tests. The curriculum teaches math thinking, not just math doing. Over the course of 5 weeks (Jan through early Feb) we have covered about half of the 2B program (which is a 1/4 of the total year program). It's fantastic! The course teaches children to go beyond computing on page to mastering mental math. We've learned to add and subtract 2 and 3 digit numbers mentally, which is actually a useful skill, learned the easier times tables and completed a money unit, which included the skill of how to count back change like a cashier.
a creative project from Sewing School
Aria's ability to mentally juggle numbers is growing by leaps and bounds. Her accuracy is amazingly improved as well (with Math-U-See she made a lot of careless mistakes even though she understood concepts). Here's a little story that illustrates:
One morning I needed to count out 78 beans for Liam's math experience, but I also needed to check Aria's math worksheets. I asked Aria to count the beans, suggesting "You might want to count by 2's". Looking up from my work, she had these funny groups of beans on the table. "Aria, what are you doing?" She replied quickly, "Well, I'm making 6 groups of 8 and then I'll just need 3 groups of 10." Momentary confusion and then, "But you don't know your 6 or 8 times tables!" Aria, "Yes, but 3 x 8 is 24, so twice as much makes 48." Homeschool - it's working.
I was worried that I'd be burdened by having to teach math instead of relying on videos to teach her as with Math-U-See. But, actually, I am totally enjoying digesting the flexible thinking of this program and sharing it with Aria. Quite frankly, it is interesting enough to interest me. We'll definitely continue with Singapore Math in the forseeable future.
making for her "baby" Susan (and hats for everyone this year)
And that brings us up to the present, my friends!
Of course there's always more I could share, but this is probably a long-enough foray on these seas for most folks. If you have any questions about our homeschooling, even the big hairy ones, feel free to share those here or by email. I'm glad to share my limited perspective, and others might jump in too.
Happy Tuesday!