Does Your Kid Sounds Like He’s 30

This summer, my friend Crystal and I took our kids to the free Shakespeare performances in the local park. Prior to each of the two plays (we say 1 play twice and the other 3 times), we read the kids’ the children’s versions of the plays from this book. After, we continued to read several more kids’ version and bits and pieces of the “real thing”. So, they are, at 5 and even the younger one at 3, fairly conversant with the plots of these two plays.

At a recent play date though, Crystal told me, her son incorporated a few lines from Shakespeare into his play with the other 5-year-old. This drew a quizzical; if somewhat pained look from the other Mom and the comment, “Your kid sounds like he’s 30”.
Well yes, and I guess many home schooled and classically schooled kids do, when compared to the average kid. I’ve also been told my DS knows more than many college students and that he must be very bright, to which I nod and smile. But, the truth is, he is not necessarily brighter, it’s just his range of knowledge is different than the average kid’s.

I actually know a fair number of very bright kids, of all ages who can’t find the US on a map. (Actually, I didn’t need to tell you that – you’ve heard about the dismal showing that the US makes in international testing.)

So, let me go out on a limb here. Why do my kid and kids like him know more than many kids of comparable age? Why are there perfectly average kids who can discuss literature and history and science and very bright kids who can only discuss Transformers or Disney princesses or Dora The Explorer… or National Sports teams or video games or, gulp, My Space?

None of these things are necessarily bad (well, OK- maybe some video games) but neither are they “good” in the doses in which kids take them these days. I’m not sure it’s the school system that is to blame for our scary showing in national testing. While educators bemoan our scores and push our kids harder and harder in school at ever younger ages, no one stops to think…hey, maybe it’s not that they don’t learn enough at school, maybe it’s that they don’t learn enough at home. Parents, who want, really want, the best for their kids are caught up in the current culture that revolves around TV and TV inspired toys, books, clothes and home life often revolves around these things.

Home life has changed in the last 25 years. I can’t cite any study here but I have a sneaky suspicion that you might be able to correlate the rise in cable TV homes to the drop in test scores. Add in the distraction of video games and a toy box full of character based toys then…well, what are kids going to talk about? What they see on TV and the games they play with their toys. Take away the TV and away go the characters. Kids then have time to focus on something else…often in addition to sports that’s learning about things that matter.


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Let’s Start at the Very Beginning….Our After Schooling Plan

Though most people consider me an optimist, I have a fairly wide cynical streak. So, as we finish up our first set of after schooling units, I’m cautiously optimistic. Do you detect my nervousness at starting this grand plan? One niggling little part of me expects it to be a crashing failure, one about which friends and family will tease me years down the road:

“Remember the time you decided to ‘after school’ and after two months The Hamster threw the books at you and said he wasn’t going to ‘do that stupid “home schooling stuff” anymore’?

I await the day in fear and pray for it to pass quickly. Until then, we soldier on.

Since I’ve noticed that though I’ve discussed our plans, I haven’t actually discussed our curriculum and schedule in any detail, I thought I’d do that today, in case anyone cares to tag along. (Please contact me if you do; misery afterschooling loves company)

We are doing 8 week units in two subjects, history and science. (We may add in music, art and literature in some sort of structured way in the future.) Eight weeks seems to be about right what with regular school and other activities, including unstructured free time. We’ve just completed out first units in each subject and I’d say we spend about an hour or two a week on each.

Since our approach is unstructured the hour or two means we read some of the books on each topic on and off throughout the week, do some projects and maybe watch a video. Our kids though incorporate the topics into their play time sometimes too but, that’s part of the point.

Since Crystal is a bottom up learner and I am a top down learner, her instinct is to pick one topic and develop a detailed plan for the next eight weeks. Mine is to outline the topics for the next two years first, then work out the detail. We’ve compromised (after a few heated conversations) by selecting on our topics for the next 4 months and writing out a detailed plan for each unit a week or so before. Crystal is better at the detailed plan than I am…but I’m improving.

So far we’ve decided on 3 units in each subject, which will take us 24 weeks to complete or roughly 6 months:

Paleozoic Era
Mesozoic Era
Cenozoic Era

Rocks and Minerals
Weather and Climate
Oceans

Our original plan was to follow the guidelines in The Well Trained Mind but Crystal wanted to start with prehistory, unlike in WTM, which starts right in with early CIVILIZATIONS. So, we’re winging these first 6 months, and then will pick up on the first grade curriculum found in WTM.

Our fairly detailed plans (nicely laid out in tables) include objectives, book resources (mostly from our local libraries) and planned field trips and projects. We’ve started “review notes” after each unit too and are keeping a notebook of our adventures as recommended by experienced homeschoolers.

What’s somewhat (actually not really) surprising is how much fun we are all having. The kids are latching on to different topics. The Hamster found rocks fascinating. Crystal kids less so. While her kids were very interested in The Paleozoic era, mine can’t wait to get to Cenozoic. Since we’re “afterschooling” not homeschooling” there’s less pressure on us to ensure they “really know” each topic. And that makes it even more fun for us adults.


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Is Afterschooling Too Much? A Reality Check.

As our oldest children start kindergarten Crystal and I are finishing up our first two afterschooling units this month. At first it seemed to both of us that this might be a wee too much what with the homework EVEN KINDERGARTENERS bring home these days.

After considering the oft quoted maxim, “just give kids time to play after school” it occurred to me to look at The Hamster’s schedule at school…hmm. While he attends a “full day” kindergarten – 8:30 to 2:30, it actually appears that he DOES play… at school.





His schedule:

8:30- 10:00 Academic

10:00-10:30 Recess

10:30-11:30 Academics

11:30- 12:30 Lunch and Recess

12:30 – 1:30 – Class (art/music/science)

1:30-2:00 Recess

2:00 – 2:30 – Class (art/music/science)

So, 2-1/2 hours of academics more or less…not too bad. (Crystal’s son goes to half day kindergarten – with more or less the same amount of academic time – leaving early afternoon for playtime.)

Since my DS is not cooped up in a classroom all day, I feel better about afterschooling. I remind myself about WHY I chose to send him to this school (a bilingual education, a multicultural environment and a not-quite crunchy atmosphere). I remember WHY I chose to afterschool – to fill the gap usually occupied by TV watching and commercial pursuits; to provide a love of learning and to enrich him with a classical education. I remember HOW I plan to afterschool, eschewing worksheets and focusing on reading, projects and field trips.

And I now think about WHEN I want to afterschool. Home by 3:00, I give him time for free play – he misses the abundance of time he had with his toys as a preschooler, (of course much of how he plays reflects the themes we follow in our afterschooling program). Sometime before dinner we read or do a project or science experiment. On weekends we do a field trip, read and maybe do another project. Mornings, after breakfast are reserved for school homework – 15 minutes is all we need at this point!

Afterschooling for us still means substituting interesting learning experiences for TV time- OK, check!

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What to Say About Afterschooling

My friend,Crystal and I have started “afterschooling”. We’re not sure how to tell you why. Actually, we’ve tried to tell folks, “why” and have been met with a variety of responses – none of them exactly what we had hoped to receive. We’re not sure what we hoped to receive but, exasperated eye-rolling, appalled looks and competitive inquiries weren’t it.

Perhaps we expected looks of awe and admiration. Actually, I’m sure that’s what we expected or at least for what we yearned. A bit taken aback, we’ve stopped telling people and have reconsidered our reasons for afterschooling.

It’s always a good idea to rethink your thinking.

What were we thinking? Well, Crystal’s in-laws home school and she would dearly love to do the same. DH doesn’t agree. I too would love to home school but, gotta bring home the bacon, at least some of it.

As is common among somewhat crunchy types and over involved parents, we have been home schooling our batches of preschoolers for several years now. We’re suckers for educational field trips and “how to” books on educating preschoolers. We expose them to literature, history and science and eschew television and electronic “educational” toys. We do projects, make costumes, go to Shakespeare plays and ask docents at local museums to “bring it down” to a 5-year-old level – often to their annoyance.

Now our eldest children will start kindergarten. Rather than stop home schooling, we’ve decided to continue but, use a more structured approach. Noting that our local schools have little time to cover science, history and the arts, we plan to concentrate in these areas. We know we’ll be helping our kids with endless math and reading worksheets…so why go there? Instead, using The Well Trained Mind as a starting point, we’ve put together a simple Science and History based curriculum, that incorporates arts, designed to cover those areas schools may miss.

But, we have ulterior motives, at least I do! That’s what’s hard to explain.

You see, our kids don’t watch TV, an occasional video, bits and pieces of shows at friend’s houses, but no TV. We don’t buy Barbies, or action figures, or game boys or character based toys. We have no kiddie software or electronic learning toys.

It’s not that our kids have nothing to do. Our houses are overrun with wooden toys, Legos, Playmobil figures, fabric dolls, art supplies and books…lots of them. Instead of collecting Pokemon cards and learning the intricacies of adult designed characters, our kids collect rocks and learn about the differences between them. Instead of watching TV, they listen to audio books. Instead of playing with dolls and action figures with well developed “background stories’ they use generic figures or bits of rock or wood to represent people and create their own.

We let our kids be kids. They play sports and play games. They have lots of unstructured time but, absent the spell of commercial TV and toys, they develop passions outside that realm.

Let me explain, or try to. To some extent we, like many parents believe that some “benign neglect’ is good for kids. Let them be bored from time to time. Let them make up their own games. For kids exposed to television, game boys and commercials, that often results in adults we DON’T EVEN KNOW encouraging our children to “get interested in” characters created specifically to sell a toy, a game or an electronic device. So, that's the type of games they make-up or don't make up actually - reenact is probably a better word. These unknown toy marketers direct too many children's play these days with detailed story lines and inflexible characters. Who are these guys?

Wait, actually, I DO know who these guys are. they used to be me! I worked in the children’s products industries. I was young single and well, “unaware”. I saw sex and violence from an adults’ viewpoint, honed after years of slooowly being exposed to it in a much less violence, sex and media driven world. I wasn't a parent. I had no knowledge of child development. I attended seminars on how to sell to children, not how to best meet their needsand encourage growth.

Most toy, television and game marketers are like I was. I’m not anymore. I wouldn’t want the old me directing my child’s play. So I do it myself – afterschooling.

Does this sound incoherent? Am I rationalizing? Perhaps. Maybe I just want to educate my own child. Maybe I just enjoy teaching him so much, I don’t want to stop. Maybe so.

Well, so be it. I’ll keep schooling him while realizing that he’ll have “school” to contend with too. I’ll be challenged to make it fun. For me that means, no worksheets, no lectures, just “unschooling” … to a structured curriculum. Hopefully this will fill the void usually filled by commercial interests. Maybe it will resemble my childhood but in a bit more thoughtful way.

Maybe it won’t; we’ll see.

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What to do instead of TV - Afterschooling

Dope that I am, I only recently discovered that I what I will start doing in the fall is called, “after schooling” hile I have been reluctant to call the teaching I do with my preschooler, “home schooling”, something about the idea of formal school for the under 5 set bothers me, I WILL be “schooling” him at home while he attends kindergarten, starting in the fall.

With my powerful observation skills, I managed to notice that many, if not most parents do some “afterschooling’ themselves. This appears to include helping with homework, completing complicated projects and driving carpool to Kumon, Sylvan and Score. My friend Crystal and I have a bit of a different idea.

While, yes, we may find ourselves doing any or all of the above mentioned things but, our idea is to fill in the gaps in a mainstream education. In other words, we plan to address those areas that schools don’t – or at least don’t in adequate depth. Most everyone agrees those areas include, art and music. We also think good literature, science and history may make the list.

And when exactly do we plan to insert yet more academic learning into our poor little, overworked kiddies brains? Why, when other children are watching TV, playing with licensed characters, punching buttons on their gameboys and reading Junie B. novels.

We don’t plan to cut out sports or even an occasional video. We plan to let them play, let them read and let them create. To that end, we’ve created a curriculum, with small objectives and lots of field trips, fun books to read, projects and experiments.

This month we’re starting with rocks and pre-history. We’ve rounded up books, borrowed a “teaching trunk” from our local Natural History Museum and found a “science experiment kit” focused on our topics. One an hour or so a week each family reads books, does projects or experiments, or just talks about our topic. Once a week or so we get together and do a field trip or bigger experiment or project.

Obviously, we’re just starting so we’ll see how it goes. But, since “nature abhors a vacuum” we need something to fill the space usually filled by mainstream pursuits.

It works for me …I hope!

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