Besides that, one of the things we are focusing on in our learning this year is the idea of rhythm, or cycles. I am borrowing this concept from some of my reading on the Waldorf philosophy earlier this year. Waldorf places a strong emphasis on celebrating yearly festivals, including birthdays, on the seasons and rhythm in the natural world, and on rhythms during the day. Using this as an over-arching theme works well during this Kindergarten year as it provides us opportunity to go on nature walks, to keep a nature table, to learn about natural science and seasons, to learn about festivals around the world (Humanities) and to incorporate lots of cool crafts. But on top of all that, it gives me an opportunity to help Rain understand what it means to wait 5 minutes, or until Saturday—practical stuff (oh yeah, with a bit of math and reading in there too as he learns to recognize numbers and words).

I wanted a hands-on calendar, kind of like I remember from school where we each got a turn putting up the number for the day. Last winter, I made an advent calendar that didn’t involve daily presents or chocolates and my google image search for magnetic advent calendars yielded up a bunch of different ideas. I decided to adapt one of them to our present use.

Here is the result:

To make this, you’ll need:

• 12 sheets of scrapbook paper in patterns that represent each month
• Letter size magnet sheets (you can get printable magnet sheets in this size at office supply stores like Staples. Maybe you can find something similar at Michael’s or another craft store. It doesn’t need to be printable. It just needs to be big.)
• Letter size clear printable labels
• Rubber cement

Decide on the dimensions you want for each piece. For the months, I used 7cm x 28cm. I was able to fit 3 months per magnet sheet. For the days, I used 4 cm x 4 cm and I was able to fit all 31 days on 1 magnet sheet. Trim the scrapbook paper to these dimensions and carefully rubber cement it on to the magnet sheets. Now, trim the magnets to their final sizes. You can use Word or another computer program with lots of fonts to print the numbers and the names of the months and days on to your clear labels. You might be able to print all of it on just a couple of sheets of labels, depending on the size of font you use and how you space them together. Just make sure you leave a bit of room for trimming them. Trim, peel off the backing and stick them on your magnets to create 12 months, 7 days of the week and 31 dates. Stick them to the fridge.

We also made some extra magnets for marking important dates. We also have plans to make some that show the weather.

Have fun! (It’s not as complicated as it looks).

My sister said this to me recently when we were discussing her 7 years homeschooling her 4 children. One of the things that comes up for parents who have multiple children learning at home is how to keep younger children occupied while you are working with an older child on something.

This dilemma has been on my mind quite a bit, particularly because the younger children I’ll be wrangling will be a toddler and a newborn. I’ve been reading some posts on how to handle wee ones underfoot while learning with older kids but so far I keep coming back to my sister’s advice.

I decided to gather a bunch of kid-friendly projects in one spot. We have this great bank of built-in cupboards at one end of our dining room.

This has a bunch of random stuff stuck in it (even in the visible areas, as you can see). I spent Thursday afternoon re-organizing so that now it looks like this:

Everything in this cupboard is for the kids. The very top shelf has some items the kids will need help with, but the rest, they can pretty much just go for. The beauty of this little cubbie is that we already had almost everything you see there but it was stored all over the house. The only things I bought were some of the art supplies.

The storage boxes are shoe boxes I picked up for free from Payless Shoes after calling them and asking if they’d be willing to set aside boxes that were roughly the same size. They were very accomodating – you can bet I’ll be getting Rain’s new sneakers and Noa’s new rubber boots at Payless after that. Then I covered the ends with scrapbook paper thanks to this idea from Our Big Earth.

Wanna see what we’ve got in there?

The top shelf has a box of lacing cards, painting materials, notebooks, pencil crayons in glass jars, a box of crafting supplies, a box of art supplies. The middle shelf has foam puzzles, a giant floor puzzle, and various kid games including Mighty Mind*, Memory, Uno, Tangrams and more. The bottom shelf has big kid puzzles and a stack of toddler puzzles.

I imagine that the contents of this area will change now and then over the course of the year to keep it fresh and to make space when we get new things. In the mean time, the kids are already thrilled to be able to open the two doors and choose whatever they like to work on. Now if we can just get some kind of handle on a routine for the day, maybe our lives will be as organized as this cupboard.

What tips do you have for keeping younger kids busy while you help an older one with a project? What solo projects can your older kids do while you’re busy nursing a baby or putting a toddler down for a nap? How have you organized your house to make it kid-friendly? I would love more ideas for the year(s) ahead.

*By the way, Mighty Mind is pretty darn great but their website is terrible, which is why the link above takes you to a place to buy the product. It shows an actual picture so you can see what it is. I’m not trying to make you buy it.

We ordered some supplies to support some of Rain’s ideas for his learning plan for the year. We’ve got art supplies for painting and colouring, notebooks for recording Rain’s stories and crafting supplies for learning wet felting and hand sewing little felt creatures. We’ve also got several books to support our theme of looking at the rhythms of the year (inspired by some of our talks with the local Waldorf school). We’ll be focusing on birthdays, festivals and celebrations, on the seasons, on learning how the calendar works (days, weeks, months). The books we’ve ordered include songs, stories, poems and crafts for all these different times of the year.

We’re still working on storage solutions for the new stuff and we recently finished a calendar project that I’ll share with you later in the week. In the mean time, rest assured that we are not regretting our decision to homeschool just because we’ve been feeling the pangs of back-to-school nostalgia.

Crafters and homelearners – do you have any new stuff that’s got you excited to play with your kids?

Yesterday, I ran into a friend whose daughter is the same age as Rain. They went to preschool together for a year and a half, have attended each other’s birthdays and had play dates. I asked my friend how school was going for her daughter. She told me how much her daughter likes getting ready for school in the morning, how she’s asking to ride the bus instead of being picked up, how she loves having a spot to hang her backpack.

I’ve been thinking of these things the last two weeks as I remembered to slow down in the school zones on my way to work, as I watched the kids in the new sneakers and backpacks walking to the front doors of the school two-by-two and smiling, as I noted the adorable rows of bikes on the bike rack.

There’s this little part of me, deep down, that feels like I’m depriving Rain of all those things.

In many ways, I liked school. I have a lot of fond memories:

• Going back-to-school shopping – we didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but it was one time when we were guaranteed at least a few new things.
• The novelty of riding the school bus
• School supplies – pink pearl erasers, cahiers (french immersion-speak for those ruled notebooks with half page blank to draw a picture), a new plaid pencil case with a zipper, and the Laurentien pencil crayons carefully arranged by colour to create a rainbow on the night before the first day
• Waiting in the line up to use the pencil sharpener on the wall to sharpen all of our pencil crayons
• Getting assigned a desk by alphabetical order and hoping a friend would fall nearby
• Arranging everything neatly in my little desk (until it eventually became a mess of crumpled paper and uneaten peanut butter sandwiches – even today I have good intentions but not the follow through).
• Sitting cross legged on the tapis (carpet – some words are forever in french in my memory) to do calendrier (calendar) – what day is it today? what is the weather like?
• Swinging at recess
• Recess!
• School lunches in a brown bag or my red Tupperware lunch box – with tiny snack size things like juice boxes
• A new back pack
• The first trip to the school library
• Picture day and getting the pictures back

Clearly I was a bit of a nerd, but man, I really loved those things and I still kind of do. It makes me smile to think of Rain experiencing it all and part of me is sad to think that he is missing out. And part of me is sad that I am missing out on living it again vicariously through him.

I have to remember however that Rain isn’t a mini-me. He would rather be building in the garage or digging for worms than sitting at a neat row of desks, and unlike my friend’s daughter, Rain hates getting dressed and ready to go anywhere, let alone to spend 6 hours in the company of 22 peers. I also remind myself some of the ways schools have changed since I was there. I think about the ways I felt let down by my education.

But this week, I find myself wistfully wishing that public school really was the idealized version that exists in my memories.

What did you love about elementary school?

This month’s carnival topic couldn’t be more appropriate for us. Last week was our first official week as homelearners. Of course, as the carnival theme points out, “we’re all home schoolers” and “children, of whatever age, are learning all the time” whether they attend traditional schools or not.

In fact, our daily routine this past week really didn’t differ much from our routine over the summer. The difference now is just that as I’ve officially signed up with a home learning program, I’m responsible. Ack. How nerve wracking!

The program we’ve signed up with is called SelfDesign and it isn’t curriculum based. We can learn any way that we want and follow our kids’ whims and interests. There really are very few constraints and I love that the program recognizes exactly the theme of this month’s carnival: kids are learning all the time, just by going about their daily activities. We are assigned a learning consultant who helps us come up with a learning plan for the year. They encourage you to do mind maps with your kids so they have input into what they want to do over the year. The learning plan becomes the road map that guides us. The more overwhelming part is that we must report weekly to our learning consultant. The report includes a journal and reflection on our weekly activities and we must log a certain number of hours spent in these activities each week.

Initially I felt really worried that we wouldn’t DO enough to account for all these hours. I have ordered some books and art supplies and other project materials that I intend to have in a cupboard to dig into when the little sister is napping. But alas, they haven’t arrived yet. Swimming lessons don’t start until October. We’re still deciding on some other group activities. What were we going to do every day?!

It turned out that the answer to my dilemma wasn’t to rush to the computer and start googling and printing off worksheets for my not even 5 year old, pre-literate little one. The answer was to just start observing our day with fresh eyes (funnily enough our reports are called Observing For Learning).

What did I see?

The first day, Rain was outside in the garage with his dad. He came inside with a board. Onto the board he had screwed some fasteners to hold down some flexible hose. He had attached some plumbing bits to the hose, including a spout and a tap/valve. He showed me his handiwork and then went straight into the bathroom to test if his valve worked. Sure enough, it did. Water poured from the faucet at the bathroom sink, through his hose, past the valve (which he had put in the open position) and straight onto the bathroom floor. Success!! We mopped up the water, and put him in the bathtub with his contraption and he proceeded to play experiment for another 30 minutes. Early science experiment disguised as play.

Later that day, we went for a walk on the beach for an hour. Rain ran about and dug for crabs by following the air holes in the sand at low tide. He identified various types of shells, filled our van with rocks and driftwood and watched some kite surfers playing in the wind. A walk at the beach became both science class and gym class.

And what about the questions I answer all day long? In the last couple of days, I’ve answered questions on why the tide always changes, how to identify an evergreen tree, why someone might lie or steal and whether or not it’s a good thing to do, what is in the center of the earth, and a surprisingly tricky one to answer: what is math?

It’s a little tricky getting the hang of logging our “schooling” hours but it’s not from lack of time spent learning. It’s more a matter of quantifying all these little moments spent in conversation through the day, as we drive, as we grocery shop, as I keep  a little one on the toilet company, as we eat lunch, as we pick up toys, as we tuck them in to bed at night.

I do look forward to the arrival of our supplies and to using them to add a bit more routine to our day but I’m certainly a lot less worried about what we’re doing in the mean time.

How do you observe your kids learning at home? I would also love to hear some of the great questions your little ones ask!

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting. This month our participants have shared how their children learn at home as a natural part of their day. Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• A is for Apple {But right now it’s more fun to pick apples!} — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment has a four-year-old who wisely knows she must forgo the worksheets for now and do things with her mother if she’s going to learn.
• Baby Talks — Amy at Anktangle talks, talks, talks all day long to her preverbal baby, about simple things and complexities. (@anktangle)
• Baby University: Little Man, My Teacher — The ArtsyMama shares how her relaxed and patient “teaching” at home resulted in a confident little one when she returned to work.
• Creating a Sensory Garden — A sensory garden has given Marita at Stuff With Thing and her girls practice in math, science, budgeting, fine motor skills, and more. (@leechbabe)
• Despite the Big Yellow Bus — Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante has surprised many friends by sending her kids off to mainstream schooling — but their learning doesn’t stop there. (@seonaid_lee)
• Down on the Farm — Megan at Purple Dancing Dhalias describes the multitude of skills her children learn by homeschooling on a farm.
• Early Childhood Education — First Do No Harm — Laura at Laura’s Blog provides an incredible list of tips to facilitate learning at home.
• Education Starts At Home — Luschka at Diary of a First Child was happy to realize that learning at home isn’t limited to older children. (@lvano)
• Every Day Is A School Day — Summer at Finding Summer lists the ways her family learns in this poem of a post. (@summerminor)
• hands on — the grumbles at grumbles and grunts read her little one Sherlock Holmes in utero. She’ll continue to make learning fun now that he’s on this side of the womb. (@thegrumbles)
• Have a Happy Heart — Erica at ChildOrganics has days of poop on the couch and oatmeal down the pants when sending her children to school seems like the perfect solution — until she regains her perspective. (@childorganics)
• Home Sweet Home Schooling — Check out CurlyMonkey’s Blog for a photo montage of how her kids are learning anatomy, architecture, and more — all at home. (@curlymonkey_)
• Homeschooling — My Needs? — Do you homeschool for the kids, or do you do it for you? Read some thoughts from Home Grown Families. (@momtosprouts)
• Homeschooling: A Way of Life — Kimberly at Homeschooling in Nova Scotia has children who meet learning with enthusiasm and are becoming self-sufficient at a young age. (@UsborneBooksCB)
• How We Homeschooled — Deb at Living Montessori Now details in retrospect how her two lifelong learners spent their homeschooling years. (@DebChitwood)
• Learning at Home With a Preschooler and Toddler — Need some inspiration? Michelle at The Parent Vortex shares her tips and resources for lifelong learning. (@TheParentVortex)
• Learning at Home: Are We All Homeschoolers? — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings incorporates homeschool ideas even though she plans to send her kids to school. (@sunfrog)
• Learning From Life — Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting doesn’t even have to think about how her daughter learns. She just does it. (@mamapoekie)
• Learning Through Play — What better way to learn at home than through play? Dionna at Code Name: Mama lists the many ways children learn through play, whether they know it or not. (@CodeNameMama)
• Learning With Savoury Pikelets — Deb at Science@Home breaks down how cooking facilitates learning. (@ScienceMum)
• Lessons Learned by Bowling (Yes, Bowling) — What life lessons can you learn from bowling? Ask Jessica from This is Worthwhile. (@tisworthwhile)
• Life is learning, learning is life. — Kristin, guest posting at Janet Fraser — Where birth and feminism intersect, defends the truth that children are hardwired to learn. (@JoyousLearning)
• life learning… — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children found that structured schooling is about teaching, whereas unschooling is about learning, and her family resonated with the latter.
• Live to Learn Together — RealMommy at True Confessions of a Real Mommy knows that children learn in all different styles, so only one-on-one attention can do the trick.
• Natural Parenting and the Working Mom — Jenny from Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares how natural parenting in the Philippines — and learning at home — includes “yayas” (nannies). (@crazydigger)
• Not Back to School: How We Learn at Home — Denise at This Holistic Life has learned to describe what unschooling is, rather than what it isn’t.
• Our Learning Curve — Andrea of Ella-Bean & Co. has a special bookshelf set up where her daughter can explore the world on her own terms.
• School at Our House — Where is learning happening at Kellie at Our Mindful Life’s house? It is pouring all over the floor. It is digging down deep in the earth. It is everywhere!
• Schooling Three Little Piggies — Despite the mess and the chaos, Melissa at White Noise lets her children into the kitchen.
• SuperMom versus The Comic Books of Doom! — Mommy Soup at Cream of Mommy Soup realized that if “getting the kids to read” was the goal, it didn’t matter what the kids read. (@mommysoup)
• The joy of learning at home — Heather at Life, Gluten Free has a daughter who sees magic in the stars and understands the honeybees. (@lifeglutenfree)
• those who can’t teach — Do you need a superiority complex to homeschool? Stefanie at Very, Very Fine wonders.
• Too lazy to unschool? — If unschoolers aren’t lazy, Lauren at Hobo Mama wonders if she’s too lazy to live her dream of free-form education. (@Hobo_Mama)
• Unschooling the School of Me — Rachael at The Variegated Life considers what she’s teaching her son about work as a work-at-home mother — and the extreme work ethic she doesn’t want him to emulate. (@RachaelNevins)
• What We Do All Day — Alison at BluebirdMama discovered that it’s easier than she thought it would be to quantify how her child learns all day. (@childbearing)
• Who taught that kid ‘exoskeleton’? — Nervous about how you will facilitate learning at home? Don’t be – they will absorb things on their own! Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma shares her story. (@kitchenwitch)

Last week I formally committed to a decision about what to do for Kindergarten. Not bad, two weeks before Back-To-School. The decision had been gradually unfolding over the course of the summer and in some ways was precipitated by the news of our pregnancy but it was only last week that I finally signed up for a homelearning program.

Maybe part of me always wanted to make this decision, but I was scared. I’ve been looking forward to a bit of a break. I do feel sheepish saying this but it is true. Aside from a 6 month contract doing part-time work for Environment Canada, I’ve been home with my kids for 4.5 years. In that time, I went back to University to complete my degree, wrote two business plans, participated in a year long self-employment program through Service Canada and BCIT, ran my own business, moved to a new community (and changed houses twice), and helped my husband start his own business for which I now run the office. On top of that, I’ve had about 1 year of decent sleep since Rain was born and 9 months of that was pregnant sleep. I’m tired. I was looking for some time to think about what I want to do, to think about self-care. I’m tired of trying to fit work in during nap times. Kindergarten looked like a realistic time when I could accomplish some of these things.

Not to mention, we all get along better when we occasionally hang out with other people. Sometimes we need to miss each other. It’s good for Rain to do some things without me and for me to be away long enough to remember that he’s just a wild four year old, not someone intent on driving me crazy.

Thankfully, there are enough positive things about homelearning to make me commit to it and to commit to us finding mutual breaks as a means of making homelearning successful too!

So, putting the fears aside, here’s why I’m excited to embark on homelearning:

For a variety of reasons, I don’t think that Rain would really enjoy certain aspects of school as we know it. He would probably surprise me and do better than I imagine, but I think that homeschool is the better choice for him right now. The implementation of Full-Day Kindergarten was the catalyst that made me think long and hard about Rain’s learning style and about how Rain does for long periods of time in large groups. I am confident he will be happier and more excited to learn by facilitating small group social activities and by following his lead and interests when it comes to formal learning.

I am excited that the process means I get to learn with him. I am really looking forward to the things I will learn both along side Rain and in my role as facilitator.  This is an adventure we are embarking on as a family and we will all grow and learn through it. Through this process I have the opportunity to learn more about parenting, marine life, learning philosophies, wet felting, math, our family relationship, discipline and more. Basically, I get to learn everything Rain is learning PLUS I get to learn through the experience itself. How awesome is that?!

I am looking forward to exploring the varied ways there are to learn including mentor relationships, classes, hands on, or more formal learning like reading or doing worksheets. I hope to encourage a love of learning by focusing on child-led learning, exploration and play. I want Rain to know learning doesn’t just happen within the hours of 9:00 am and 3:00 pm and within the walls of a school.

We have the opportunity to meet a lot of new people through this endeavour. There is an active homelearning community here and they have already met to plan specific activities for home learners to do together during school hours. This includes dinosaur museum tours, Ukrainian dancing, swimming lessons, hockey, a bowling league, skating lessons, art classes and more. There is also a vibrant online community as part of the program we are working with and of course, we are looking forward to getting to know our learning consultant as well.

They say home is where the heart is and I believe that’s true. Our home is more than just shelter. We have made decisions in our family that have prioritized our home life. We don’t just come here for dinner and sleep and spend the rest of our lives either in the car commuting or at work and school. I made a choice not to go back to work after my babies were born. Aaron made a choice to work for himself so he had more control over his hours. We birthed our children at home, primarily because it’s shown to be safe, but also because there was something that felt intrinsically right about welcoming our children into the world and into their home at the same time. Likewise, the decision to homeschool, while made with our heads also feels right in our hearts. I’d like to share with you a quote from John Holt from his book, Teach Your Own that speaks to this:

I have used the words “homeschooling” to describe the process by which children grow and learn in the world without going, or going very much, to schools, because those words are familiar and quickly understood. But in one very important sense they are misleading. What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children’s growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools but that it isn’t a school at all. It is not an artificial place, set up to make “learning” happen and in which nothing except “learning” ever happens. It is a natural, organic, central, fundamental human institution, one might easily and rightly say the foundation of all other institutions. We can imagine and indeed we have had human societies without schools, without factories, without libraries, museums, hospitals, roads, legislatures, courts, or any of the institutions which seem so indispensable and permanent a part of modern life. We might someday even choose, or be obliged, to live once again without some or all of these. But we cannot even imagine a society without homes, even if these should be no more than tents, or mud huts, or holes in the ground. What I am trying to say, in short, is that our chief educational problem is not to find a way to make homes more like schools. If anything, it is to make schools less like schools.

Further to this idea that the home is the central part of our family structure is the idea that young children need their parents. I know that it’s not always possible for families to make the decisions that I am making. I certainly don’t fault anyone for the decisions they make. Children are resilient and I don’t mean in any way to say that sending your kids to school is bad. For my family though, I feel that we have things to gain from prolonging our time together. In fact, according to Hold Onto Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté all kids need their parents. At this point, I’m happy that I’m able to be home with my kids to strengthen our attachment. I’m hoping that I’ll reap the benefits in their teen years.

Otherwise, there are some logistical reasons I think this could be great for our family. I’m looking forward to NOT having to pack up all the kids in the car twice a day to go to school and then again for any extra-curricular activities. I’m happy to have control over our schedule and how busy we will be. I’m looking forward to creating a better family routine and imposing at least a bit of structure on our days BEFORE the arrival of the new baby. And lastly, I’m thankful that the decision to homeschool means that I will have no choice but to prioritize mama breaks and self-care.

I’m planning to write about our experience over the coming months and I hope you’ll join us as it unfolds. I look forward to following your varied Kindergarten adventures too. We will all learn from each other.

How are you feeling as Back-To-School draws near?

Homeschooling certainly isn’t what it used to be. As I child of 11 or so, I knew one girl who was homeschooled. It was for religious reasons and it seemed strange to me. I think we often envision homeschoolers as shunning society in general, studying by light of an oil lamp in a cabin far from any possibility of the negative aspect of socialization. When people mention homeschooling, one of the first responses is often related to the child’s need to play with peers. That and “I couldn’t do it – my kids drive me crazy!”

Let’s begin by saying that homeschool has evolved far beyond that stereotype. For one thing, mainstream culture seems much more accepting of homeschooling, perhaps not as an option for themselves but at least as an option for those who choose it. The Canadian magazine Today’s Parent actually had a feature article on homeschooling in their May 2010 issue. Secondly, it’s much more widespread than it used to be. The article above puts the number of Canadian homeschoolers at 80,000 and at 2 million in the US. Perhaps this is why the average person no longer regards homeschooling families as freaks – many people know at least one family who is homeschooling and realises that they have legitimate reasons for doing so and also, that their kids are thriving.

Beyond that, what does homeschooling look like these days?

In BC, provided you follow some kind of educational plan, you can school your child at home in any way you choose. That might mean registering at the local school but teaching at home and having access to resources at the school (if your local school is open to working this way). As the Today’s Parent article points out, there is financial incentive for schools to work together with homeschooling families because the government provides funds to the school to cover homeschool students registered there.

Alternatively, you could register your child in a distance education program where the child will follow a specific curriculum but complete it at home. In the past this was done via correspondence with workbooks and texts received through the mail. Technology has revitalized this system but it remains essentially the same. However, there are increased opportunities for interacting with virtual classmates and teachers with the advent of chat rooms, message boards and Skype. There are multiple programs that fall into this category of learning including those that follow very closely the public school curriculum and those that use unit based learning for instance which might involve learning science, math, English and history all through the lens of a particular theme. These programs may also be religion based if that is important to you. In these programs you are responsible to follow the curriculum as set out by the program you have registered with which includes meeting deadlines, completing tests and reports (if there are any) on time etc.

You can also register your child as an independent learner and then you can choose how you want to teach. On this side of things, you then have the option of registering in a program that supports independent learning or going it completely on your own. From what I understand, if you choose the latter option, you are then responsible to report to the ministry about your educational goals and progress.

The sheer number of possibilities can actually be very overwhelming. Luckily, homeschooling was demystified for me 7 years ago when we began living with my sister the first year she started homeschooling her 4 children. I’ve had a chance to see up close how it works and I have an excellent person to ask for help and advice. Nevertheless, I should also say that one of the reasons I’m currently considering it as an option is because we’ve found a program that would potentially work for our family.

There are many programs available but I’m going to discuss Self-Design today because it is the program that I know the most about and seems the most appealing for our family. It works like this: the child is registered as an independent learner through Self-Design. Self-Design provides us with a learning consultant (LC) who helps us plan for the year and set goals. We are then responsible to submit weekly reports to our LC regarding how we are working towards these goals. There is also a vibrant online community for children to discuss and interact with peers and for parents to find support and ask for help.

The cool part for me is the fact that we have the flexibility to follow our children’s interests and learning styles and teach in a way that works for our family (even using unschooling if we choose) and yet, we are still accountable to someone. I think that last bit is part of what makes homeschooling daunting to families who consider it: that fear that we’ll fall off track, won’t know what to do, will lose motivation. The learning consultant seems like a wonderful solution to those kinds of worries.

For other families, the idea of trying to follow a specific curriculum could also be overwhelming or off-putting. Depending on the reasons for choosing to homeschool, it could feel counterproductive to try to implement a very rigid curriculum and parents might wonder if they possess the control and structure to make that work at home. My attraction to homeschooling is partly to get away from the formulaic and rigid nature of school curriculums so I am very interested in the flexibility that seems available through the Self-Design program.

Furthermore, by registering with a program in BC, we are also eligible to receive a portion of the funds the ministry normally sets aside for each child to attend school. These funds can be used to purchase supplies, curriculum, books, art materials, musical instruments or even athletic equipment like bikes. They can also be used to pay for classes or lessons like swimming, painting, violin, robotics, theatre etc. This means that homeschooling doesn’t have to be a completely daunting prospect financially. Despite the decreased income involved, at least there is financial help to make various types of learning more accessible.

Another important aspect of the decision for me is having local interaction with other homeschooling families. We are lucky to live in an area with a very active homeschool community. This means we can organize field trips, outings, picnics and play dates with other kids. This means we have access to a supportive community of people who know what we’re experiencing. In the wider community, it might mean having access to programs planned specifically for homeschool groups during regular school hours like swimming lessons, gym time at the community centre or a special painting class. It might mean being able to take advantage of group rates for museum or gallery tours and it provides children with a place to play and interact with other children of various ages.

Which brings me back to the socialization argument. Depending on where you live, choosing not to send your children to school doesn’t automatically mean that they will have no chance to be with other children. Some of the homeschooling families that I’ve met through my sister have very busy schedules rife with peer interaction.

I would however, like to make two important points about socialization. Firstly, one of the benefits of socialization through homeschool groups is that the children get used to playing with children of various ages rather than being segregated by grade as regular school kids are (with the exception of Montessori). This means that they learn how to be leaders and followers, they experience being the oldest and the youngest depending on the activity and they get the chance to occasionally teach and learn from each other. This more accurately reflects the real world that they will enter after the school years and in my opinion (and experience) results in really sweet, friendly kids who don’t get as easily caught up in ageist hierarchies (I’m bigger/older/stronger than you so I can do this/make the decisions/have the power and you can’t) when playing.

Secondly, I’ve been reading Hold Onto Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté and to be honest, I agree with them that socialization does not happen from peers. Adults teach children how to behave in the world, what is acceptable and what isn’t. Adults teach about sharing, truth-telling, communication, etc. Children do not learn these from each other. Yes, they need the opportunity to practice these skills and I do get a kick out of watching my son begin to make friends but I can create those opportunities for him without sending him to school for six hours a day. In fact, Neufeld and Maté argue that relationships with adults are actually more important and instrumental for children than are peer relationships. That said, I really don’t find the socialization argument against homeschool to have much merit or weight in my decision. Perhaps it’s actually a benefit of homeschooling – avoiding the negative aspects of peer socialization and attachment?

Let’s talk more about the benefits of homeschool and some of the reasons I’m considering it in my next installment of Kindergarten Considerations.

There are so many amazing things about outdoor play: the opportunity to blend play with exercise and fresh air, the ability to create unique and imaginative play spaces with fewer restrictions than you might have indoors, the possibilities for open-ended play because there are fewer toys outdoors.  One of my favourite things about outdoor play is the way that being in nature inspires learning.

From the time he could walk, Rain loved bugs. This is probably where his outdoor education began as we started turning over rocks in the back yard to find pill bugs, snails, banana slugs, ants, ladybugs and spiders. He learned their names and where they were most likely to be found. He has an observation jar (clean peanut butter jar with holes in the lid and the labels removed) where he keeps the specimens he catches so he can watch them. We do enforce one observation jar rule that all critters be released at bedtime each day so they don’t starve or miss their mothers too much.

From there he started learning plant identification. Daddy is an arborist so we tend to notice and talk about trees quite a bit. By the time Rain was two and a half, he knew how to spot a weeping willow, a mountain ash (rowan tree) and a Japanese maple. Some great books to incorporate when learning about trees and shrubs are the Flower Fairies series by Cicely Mary Barker. We have the Flower Fairies of the Autumn book which has lovely illustrations and poems for Oak tree, Rowan tree, Dogwood, Blackberry, Rosehips and more. He would point and call out the names of trees he noticed when we drove around town. There are many tree related learning activities you can use to continue the conversation after you move indoors or as you explore the forest. You can:

• Talk about the shapes of leaves. Gather a whole bunch of different ones and paint them and use them to make prints on paper.
• Discuss the difference between conifers and deciduous. A fun story to listen to at the same time is The Evergreens by Odds Bodkin (find it at your local library on CD).
• Compare the size of a seed to the size of a mature tree. Talk about the different types of tree seeds/flowers there are: samaras, catkins, cones, acorns or other nuts like horse chestnuts etc. (Oh and by the way, they aren’t called pine cones if they’ve fallen from a hemlock or a cedar tree. My husband has pointed this out to me more times than I care to admit.) You can also compare the size of cones from different evergreen trees.
• Identify the shapes of different trees. Are they triangular, oval shaped, bell shaped, globe shaped?
• Talk about the life cycle of plants over the seasons – this is particularly obvious for trees in fall and spring of course.

When Rain was 3.5 years old we moved to a new house where we had a yard that was big enough to plant a veggie garden. This created many new opportunities for outdoor learning as he helped us plant seeds. He learned that they need warmth and water to grow, that when they first sprout there are usually only two leaves and that sometimes the sprout is still wearing the seed case like a hat. (A great book that talks about seeds in called A Seed is Sleepy).  He learned about transplanting bedding plants. He learned that plants have roots (he now always draws flowers with a root ball underneath). He learned that we can grow our own food that is delicious and nutritious.

This spring was our first spring in our new house and we’ve had the privilege of watching mystery plants poke tender green shoots out of the earth and over the following weeks identify them by their leaves or flowers as they blossomed. Rain has been delighted to learn more plant names and to discover the distinguishing characteristics of each new flower that has emerged in our abundant flower beds.

Rain’s other recent interest is identifying birds. We got him a bird id book for Christmas and it has been fun for all of us to spot new birds when we are out and about. The pocket-size book we purchased has colour photographs and space to write in the location where we saw a particular bird. This makes forest walks and camping into a bit of a game or scavenger hunt and we look forward to finding a new bird each time. We’ve also made the effort to put up a bird feeder and fill it with seed so we can attract birds in our own yard. The sister book to A Seed is Sleepy, An Egg is Quiet could also be a good read when you are focusing on birds.

What kind of bird is this?

However, as parents who spent our childhoods in prairies, it is quite marvellous to us to be raising little Westcoasters.  Our absolute favourite outdoor learning activity is going tide pooling because it means we are all learning together rather than being in the roles of teacher and student. At certain times of the year, there are extremely low tides in our area that expose reefs covered in star fish, sun fish, octopi, a multitude of types of seaweeds, hermit crabs, rock crabs, spider crabs, moon snails and more. At low tide, parts of the reef remain partially underwater. We expect to get wet as we clamber over the slimy jagged rocks, poking in shallow pools and discovering a world that is normally hidden to us. We bring a bucket and Rain catches crabs to his heart’s content and weeps hot tears when he can’t bring them home.

Family exploring the reef

Look at all the seaweed varieties.

Content despite barnacle-scraped knees

Leather star fish

Moon snail

The children are particularly good at having low ewww factors – they will pick up and handle anything – and a willingness to look in every nook and cranny to make a new discovery, like a small octopus waiting in a cave for the high water to return. Sometimes we find ourselves surrounded by bald eagles taking advantage of the low tide to find themselves lunch. I can’t wait to get a book for identifying coastal life in our area in time for this summer’s low tides. This is particularly juicy outdoor fun: it involves sun, sand, beach, puddles, boots, buckets, mud, amazing creatures and learning opportunities for young and old. You can’t get much better than that.

No matter where you live, you can find occasions to learn and make discoveries just by playing outside. It doesn’t take much to get started: a book from the library or a quick google search for an unknown plant in your backyard. As long as you’re outside and looking around with wonder, you’ll see things to share with your kids. I remember learning about trees in elementary school as I sat at my desk. How amazing for our little ones to be able to incorporate a love of learning and the respect and wonder of nature just by getting outdoors.

What are your favourite ways to incorporate play and learning outdoors in your area?

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This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting. This month’s participants have shared their stories and tips for playing outside with kids. Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Garden Treats — Asha at Mom Costume has once again been bitten by the gardening bug — and this time her baby’s tagging along for some fresh air and dirt exploration. (@titbagsandsnoot)
• Outdoor Free Roam — Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting follows her daughter’s lead whenever they go outside. (@mamapoekie)
• Summer fun in Austin with a toddler — Jessica at This Is Worthwhile is brainstorming ways to beat the heat in Texas. (@tisworthwhile)
• summer fun… — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children is looking forward to spending the summer outside with her children the way she used to spend summers with her mother.
• Outdoor Fun for Pre-Walkers — Maman A Droit has figured out ways to let her pre-walker enjoy the outdoors. (@MamanADroit)
• Summer Homeschool Fun at Camp Review — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now discusses how Camp Review motivated and captivated her homeschooling family. (@DebChitwood)
• Digging, Tree Climbing and Puddle Jumping — Laura at Laura’s Blog bemoans the loss of her girls’ climbing tree but knows they’ll find something else just as naturally tempting.
• The Sweet Smells of Summer — Erin at A Beatnik’s Beat on Life is looking forward to the many smells of summer she and her daughters enjoy and identify. (@babybeatnik)
• June Carnival of Natural Parenting: Outdoor Fun — Sybil at Musings of a Milk Maker is a confirmed couch potato who can’t help but be inspired by the outdoor opportunities Seattle offers her family. (@sybilryan)
• Take a Hike — Michelle at The Parent Vortex connects with her family and the Earth on frequent hikes in their Pacific wilderness. (@TheParentVortex)
• Following Paul — Julie at Simple Life gives her kids unstructured time to dig in the dirt and pick mulberries. (@homemakerjulie)
• Instilling a Love of the Outdoors in Your Baby/Toddler — Tessasdad at Stay At Home Dad in Lansing offers a photo book of tips for helping your little ones enjoy the outdoors. (@tessasdad)
• Camping, baby! — Jen at Grow With Graces has easy tips for tent camping with a little one. (@growwithgraces)
• Think Outside the Easel for Summertime Fun — Acacia at Be Present Mama finds several ways to bring art fun to the outdoors.
• Outdoor Learning in our Urban Environment — Andrea at Ella-Bean & Co. has found ways to get grass between her daughter’s toes, even in the city.
• Outdoor Education — Alison at BluebirdMama offers parents tips and resources for making each outdoor excursion a learning experience. (@childbearing)
• Turning Inside Out — Christie of Childhood 101 finds kids get a kick out of taking indoor toys outside. (@Childhood101)
• Watching Peas Sprout — Deb at Science@home combines fun with purpose in this educational outdoor activity. (@ScienceMum)
• How To Create a Pirate Treasure Hunt & Other Easy Outdoor Pirate Activities (June Carnival of Natural Parenting) — Dionna at Code Name: Mama has pirate-themed play ideas for ye scurvy landlubbers. (@CodeNameMama)
• What We Do — Luschka at Diary of a First Child has managed to expose her 8-month-old to a wide variety of outdoor fun, even with the notoriously dreary UK weather. (@diaryfirstchild)
• Summer Fun — Darcel at The Mahogany Way finds her family’s visits to the beach refreshing in so many ways. (@MahoganyWayMama)
• Playing outside without a backyard — Sheryl at Little Snowflakes doesn’t let the lack of a backyard stop her family from enjoying the outdoors. There are plenty of things to do outside of your yard! (@sheryljesin)
• Having Fun Outdoors, Playset Free — Guavalicious at They Are So Cute When They Are Sleeping has resisted a backyard playset in favor of the regular backyard. (@guavalicious)
• Moon Gazing with your Toddler — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries is keeping her toddler up at night, but it’s for a good reason: to share the wonders of the night sky! (@babydust)
• the great outdoors — The grumbles at grumbles and grunts wonders whether her urban child can experience the same free-range childhood she enjoyed. (@thegrumbles)
• Let’s Take It Outside! — NavelgazingBajan at Navelgazing is looking for ideas: how can she spend time with her pre-walker outside this summer? (@BlkWmnDoBF)
• A home by the sea: June Carnival of Natural Parenting: Outdoor fun — Lauren at Hobo Mama is living her dream of a home near the beach, and taking full advantage of it. (@Hobo_Mama)
• An Outside Girl — Zoey at Good Goog moved her family to (almost) the middle of nowhere so that her outdoor-loving girl could have more grass and less concrete. (@zoeyspeak)
• Neighborhood Nature — Kelly at Kelly Naturally has learned to connect with the nature she has instead of mourning the nature she misses. (@kellynaturally)
• Building Lovely Memories of Swimming, Spiders and Gravestones — Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch and her family are simply outdoorsy people. (@kitchenwitch)
• “Buh-Bye” Season — Danielle at born.in.japan must leave laundry behind and follow her son’s call to the outdoors. (@borninjp)
• Backyard Camping — Becoming Mamas took her family camping very close to home! (@becomingmamas)
• The Color of Dreams — Seeking Mother at Woman Seeking Mother makes gardening magical by teaching her son that each flower is a faery. (@seekingmother)

I have only known about Waldorf schools for a few years. The concept gradually seeped into my consciousness and I can’t remember what I first heard about it or from whom. We were living in Vancouver. Aaron came home from work one day and told me that a client had been explaining Waldorf to him and that it sounded really interesting. I had heard of the school before then but that was the most I knew of it for a long time. From there, I learned little bits here and everywhere. I’ve learned the most about Waldorf education in the last four months. Before then it was just this nebulous alternative school.

There is a new initiative in our area to start a Waldorf school. There have been previous attempts over the years that have petered out. This particular initiative looks poised to happen. The intent is to open the doors in Sept 2010 with Kindergarten and grade 1, and to add a grade each year. There may be as few as 10 kids enrolled in the first year. I have mixed feelings about this but I will come back to that.

First, some background on Waldorf schools for those of you who know little about it. Sometimes called Steiner Schools, the concept for the school is based on the thoughts of Rudolf Steiner. Steiner was a philosopher who was asked to develop the curriculum for children of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory workers in Stuttgart and this is where Waldorf schools come from.

In a nutshell, the Waldorf philosophy believes that the child should be approached on their own level which in the early years is primarily through play and imagination. Especially in the early years, the belief is that children learn best through imitation so the teacher plays the role of guide and model. There is a lot of emphasis on the natural world, on yearly celebrations, on community. Children write and draw to create their own textbooks. Many of the learning concepts are taught through the use of stories and over the years, children cover folk & fairy tales, fables, Greek myths, and more. In addition to regular academic studies, Waldorf schools also teach art, hand crafts (like knitting), gardening, music (every child learns to play an instrument), foreign language, a kind of dance/creative movement called Eurythmy. They have outdoor play time and also circle time with stories and songs. Contrary to the Montessori method which is very individually driven, Waldorf schools structure the day around often coming together as a group. You can learn more about the philosophy here or here.

Waldorf schools, like Montessori schools, vary greatly in their implementation because they are run independently. It’s not like a franchise restaurant where your burger will be the same in Medicine Hat as in Chicago. As such, I’m sure there are good schools and not so good. One of the criticisms I have heard of various Waldorf schools is that they can seem rather cultish. I am not sure if that is a reference to the emphasis on natural rhythms which might feel too close to paganism for some families’ comfort or if it is due to a perception of over-adherence to the teachings of a single individual.

The focus on the fairy stories, arts and natural world rhythms strikes some families as being too out there, hippie, airy-fairy or pagan. I’m not overly worried about any of those but I certainly see how some mainstream, conservative families may feel that they wouldn’t fit in the larger community of the school even if they are interested in the education for their children. At the risk of totally putting my foot in my mouth, my impression so far is that Waldorf school appeals to a certain type of family and in that sense may alienate others.

There also seems to be a mistaken impression that Waldorf schools don’t stress academics enough. That doesn’t actually bother me very much, especially during the younger years, but I also think that this varies from school to school. The schools I’ve looked into do meet the requirements of BC’s Ministry of Education in terms of teaching all the academic subjects. Waldorf philosophy does delay the instruction of reading until after age 7 and I’m sure some parents would find that idea quite distressing, though I actually find it refreshing.

I love the holistic approach of Waldorf education and I’m inspired to see that they find it equally important to teach music, art, gardening, working with one’s hands. Traditional schools seem to consider these as extra-curricular activities which means that families spend their evenings and weekends driving  to multiple activities in the name of producing well-rounded individuals but at the expense of unstructured family time and resulting in children who are over-scheduled. Why not have instruction for the whole child during regular school hours so that the rest of the time the child can play, rest or spend time with his/her family and community?

The one worry I do have is about the elevation of Rudolf Steiner to near sainthood. One of my concerns both for Montessori and Waldorf education is that they are based so heavily on the ideas of a single individual whose ideas about child development are 80-100 years old. There have been considerable advances in the studies of psychology and child development in that time. Jean Piaget was also a famous and highly influential child development theorist from the time and his work has made an incredible impact on the study of child development, and yet, even so, his work has lately been criticized for things like underestimating the capabilities of children. In my mind it is foolish to think that Steiner or Montessori or Piaget had the whole story and to blindly follow a curriculum without question.

One of the ideas that has come up in the info sessions we’ve attended so far is that Waldorf schools seek to encourage children to be free thinkers. My hope is that free thinking in the parents is also encouraged. I tend to approach most matters from a critical thinking vantage point and my ideas end up being a mixed bag, taking a little of this, a little of that. I don’t think I embrace Waldorf 100%, and I know I don’t even embrace Montessori 60% but I love ideas from both and would probably enjoy a school that also employed my a little of this, a little of that approach. Unfortunately, I haven’t found that school yet so I’m working with the options I’ve got.

The Waldorf school initiative here has exciting possibilities for becoming actively involved from the early days and really having a chance to shape the future of the program if a family is willing to do so. The community is small but open and friendly. However, there are some risks involved with such a young venture. As of yet, they don’t have a space which I think could hamper their attempts to get interested families to enroll. It isn’t easy to put pen to paper and commit the hefty fee when you haven’t had a chance to at least look around a classroom, or for that matter, know where you’ll be driving every day. Other drawbacks include a lack of teaching staff and established programs like music teachers, foreign language instruction, a library and so on. Of course, there is also the considerable risk that after a few years the school will falter and there will no longer be a school or a teacher when your child is in 3rd or 4th grade.

I’m personally willing to trust that those issues will work out because it isn’t really worth sitting out on opportunities over worries about what might happen in the future. Besides, I’ve known for a long time that we would probably change up our schooling plans as necessary along the way. Maybe by then we’ll be living elsewhere? Or roadschooling our way around North America? Speaking of which, our next installment of Kindergarten Considerations addresses what is becoming my secret passion: homeschooling. Stay Tuned.

Photo credit: Toronto Waldorf School

Amber from Strocel.com recently pointed out that it’s going to be impossible to find a perfect school and I know she is right. I am aware in some deep recess of my brain that I can’t be too picky. I have to be realistic. I think we all choose the best option for us, for our circumstances. The director of Rain’s preschool has also reminded me (rightly) that no matter what school we choose, it’s going to come down to the teacher whether or not it’s a good fit for him. With that said, let me warn you that in the next few posts I will be picking apart all of our options. Which isn’t to say that I won’t choose one of them in the end.

I should add my little disclaimer here that my comments about particular schooling philosophies represent my impression based on preliminary research and reflect our own family educational goals. My comments are not intended to suggest that a particular philosophy may not be the right choice for your family.

Montessori

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we were attending an info session for the local publicly run Montessori program. I went to the evening with an open mind and felt excited about checking it out. I only knew the bare minimum about Montessori. I knew that it had been around for about 100 years, that it was started in Italy by Maria Montessori and that it’s generally regarded as a very good alternative schooling program.  I also knew that the children are allowed to roam freely around the room and choose materials to work with as they like. So far so good.

The first thing they did at the info session was show us this video to introduce us to the basics of Montessori education.

The learning materials and environment are intriguing and beautiful. I was encouraged by some aspects of the philosophy: the emphasis on self-directed learning and the addition of non-academic units like practical life. The staff, teachers and our local society seem sincere, dedicated and earnest.

But the reality of the program here didn’t mesh with the fairy tale in the above video. The school, a former middle school, was large and imposing. The room on the second floor, though filled with Montessori materials was utilitarian with only two windows at one end of the room, located above a 3 foot counter. I tried to imagine my son trying to see out the windows or walking to his classroom, through wide corridors and up long flights of stairs. It didn’t feel very accessible to a five year old.

In and of themselves those issues could be dealt with. It would only take a few weeks for Rain to get used to the immensity of the place. I feel more bothered by the lack of accessible windows really. But I also think back to when I would pick up my niece from Kindergarten. Everything in that whole wing of her school was kid size: tiny toilets, tiny water fountains, coat hooks at knee level, bright windows. Taylour’s kindergarten reminded me of my own and I wonder how is it that school has changed so much in the last 10 years that we no longer try to approach the child on their level?

Moving on though. My impression of the space quickly bled into my impression of the philosophy. Keep in mind that I was there in the evening so I wasn’t able to observe children in the classroom, but to me, the program felt cold. Though the video talks about how much fun the children have while they are learning, we also heard repeatedly that the children would not be playing with the materials; they would be working. This word work came up many times over the course of the evening. The program seems structured around solitary work. Sure, it’s great that the kids can work at their own pace and there is an admirable dedication to kids problem-solving. I loved looking at all the Montessori materials but I didn’t see very much opportunity to be creative, to play, to use imagination or to be artistic. For instance, the children’s books on the book shelf were about math.

What’s more is that my impression upon listening was that this devotion to letting kids work at their own pace seemed to hold a subtext of hope that your child would outpace his/her peers. I felt it like a passive aggressive form of pressure. This feeling even persisted a week later when I read an article on a local community news site that was intended to raise awareness of the program and presumably, encourage parents to consider it. The article, Is Montessori Right For Your Family, contained a rather long list of things to ask yourself to determine if your family was a good match for Montessori. It felt very much as though it was more about if we were right for them than the other way around. The whole tone of the piece seemed to subtly discourage families from considering Montessori education, and seemed to suggest that Montessori was only for certain people. In fact, at the time I read the article I was still actively considering signing Rain up for Montessori and that article certainly did make me question if we should. I wonder how many other families decided against the program upon reading it?

I know that Montessori programs around the world vary greatly in their implementation and I’m sure there are fabulous schools and not so fabulous. I’m not sure where our local school fits in that continuum. The images I’ve seen online of Montessori classrooms certainly don’t seem as cold as the ones I visited. Overall, the philosophy seems like a rich learning experience and a wonderful alternative to mainstream public schools. I love seeing multiple options available to families but in the end, I don’t think Montessori is right for us. At least not right now. At this point, I’m not ready to put my 4.5 year old in a program that seems to put so much emphasis on work and academics. In a couple of years maybe it will be perfect for us.

How about you? What’s your take on Montessori? Has your family enjoyed Montessori education? (I realise that Montessori is very well regarded and that most families love it. I’m happy to hear about your experience, positive or negative).