Archive for July, 2009

McMillin Family Homeschool – Math

Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

Math is one of those subjects that all but the most devout unschoolers tend to require of their children. Like music or dance, it is usually best learned in sequential steps from basic to advanced. But if the child does not want to learn math, what is the relaxed yet anxious parent to do? I have read stories of unschooled youngsters forgoing textbook math until they decide to take SAT tests, then learning everything they need to know in a matter of months instead of years. I have heard of kids digging into math out of necessity to complete some project such as building a chicken coop or starting a home business. For me, I decided that math was too important to leave to chance (what if my child failed the SATs someday and blamed me for not getting into college?)

I thoroughly researched all the available math programs and let my son choose the one he thought would be best. When the manipulative-based book arrived in the mail, all went well for the first day or so, until my son decided that math was confusing and boring. I tried encouraging words and gentle humor, hot cocoa and soothing music, but after 2 weeks he was in a rage over every page. He simply could not learn anything – REFUSED to learn anything in that frame of mind. I talked to him about the importance of math but he was not impressed. I tried another math program. It made no difference to him because he had already decided that he was no good at math. Finally, in desperation, I found books full of math games and hands-on activities. Success! He enjoyed all games – the more physical and imaginative the better. I also did a lot of research on learning styles that year and found ways to teach him math without him even knowing it.

We didn’t crack open a textbook for four more years. By then, he was much more mature and aware that he was behind his peers in math, so he wanted to get caught up with them. Now, at age 17, he still doesn’t like math, but he makes himself do it (not me!) for his own reasons. And yes, he did catch up. He knows he wants to go to college and wants to do well in the SAT tests.  My fears that he would blame me were unjustified because he “owns” his own education.  He knows it is his responsibility, not mine.  I think it was important for me to back off in the younger years because it became his choice, not his duty nor his punishment, to learn math.  Fortunately, the years of just playing with numbers also helped him overcome his fear of textbooks and developed his intuitive understanding of how math works.

My worries over Son #1 were made easier because of Son #2, who seemed to teach himself multiplication at the age of 3. This boy grew up to be a walking calculator and advanced so rapidly through math books that I let him just skip whole sections. He started Algebra at age 10 and soon reached the point where I couldn’t remember how to do any of it – thank goodness he doesn’t mind teaching himself. All I have to do is check his answers.

His ease with math convinced me that it was not my fault Son #1 despaired over math, it was simply a matter of different learning styles and strengths. My job was to be aware of those strengths and help find them the resources they need.  Son #2 creates wish lists on Amazon of what books he would like to read because we can’t find any of them in bookstores or libraries.  He is obsessed with computer programming, game physics and game design.  He recently asked for a college level book on 3D math.  It’s just his thing.

My daughter was a different story altogether from her two older brothers.  She understood math concepts just fine as long as they were presented in word problems or with manipulatives.  But she absolutely struggled with representing those concepts in equations.  She could never remember the difference between “plus” signs and “equal” signs and all the other signs – no matter how many worksheets she did.  It just made her furious.  It was like her oldest brother all over again, but this time I couldn’t leave her alone because we lived in a new state that required testing. 

I found a great book called “Math for Humans” by Mark Wahl that explains how to teach math through the 8 intelligences.  My daughter has strong spatial and interpersonal intelligences, so I made an effort to integrate art and storytelling with her math lessons.  I made paper dolls to represent the plus, minus, multiplication, divide and equal signs (they each wore a hat resembling the appropriate sign).  Every math problem became a story problem with the paper dolls and the cuisinaire rods – she finally relaxed.

As she got older, we could replace the manipulatives with more drawing.  The margins of her Math-U-See book were covered in drawings, diagrams and doodles and it made all the difference for her.  We also used math type story books from the library.  She always remembered characters, faces and names.  The trick was to turn inanimate, abstract math symbols into something she cared about.

I’ll write up my unit study on anthropomorphizing math in a future topic.

McMillin Family Homeschool

Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

The real purpose of this blog is to share mini-biographies of famous homeschoolers, but I thought I should let you know a little bit about myself every now and then.  This is the story of how I got started home schooling.

I first heard about homeschooling sixteen years ago when my oldest child was just a baby. I read an article in a magazine about Rebecca Rupp’s family and was inspired by her story. Her life seemed so cozy – reading great books around the woodstove, painting a paper mache globe at the dining room table, long walks in the woods and plenty of time for meaningful conversations. I thought to myself, “That is the life I want for my kids.” In my typical fashion, I then set about learning everything I could about homeschooling, learning, and child development. I am a book fanatic so it doesn’t take much to trigger a reading/research spree. Even after my oldest reached school age and I officially did not send him to school, I was still researching and deliberating on how exactly to do this homeschool thing. There were so many conflicting opinions! Some experts laid out detailed rigorous curriculum plans; some advised a relaxed child-led approach. There were a number of different theories of child development proposed by teachers such as Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Raymond and Dorothy Moore, and Charlotte Mason. Over the years I tried a number of different methods with my three children. Sometimes I swung like a pendulum from one extreme to the other! With the passing of time and gathering of experience though, I swung less and less. I now have found my center. Everyone’s center will be different. There is no one right answer for every family. The trick is finding what works for you and maintaining the courage and patience to see it through.

I could best describe my philosophy as relaxed and eclectic. My gut instinct told me that we all learn best what we choose to learn. John Holt’s concept of unschooling or child-led learning made sense, but it took a lot of trial and error to find the best way to apply this. When my children were young, it was frustrating for all of us not to have a “plan.” If I were to say, “What do you want to do today?” They would often suggest some sort of craft or building project. I would inevitably be missing some key ingredient of the project and have to either go out and get it or pick something else to do. Or they would tell me they wanted to learn about how chicks grow inside eggs and I didn’t have a single book in the house to explain it (this was before internet!). It worked much better when I started making lists with each child ahead of time to find out what they wanted to learn about and what craft projects or science experiments they wanted to do. This way, they still had ownership of the process and I had time to get things organized. I must admit, I threw in some unit studies along the way (such as Ancient Greece, Vikings, Native American mythology, geology) that were not their idea but were nevertheless enjoyed. Some of my carefully prepared unit studies (castles, pioneers, chemistry) were dropped due to lack of enthusiasm. I had to learn not to take it personally if they weren’t interested in the amazingly cool project I had prepared for them – but who wouldn’t want to build a model of a castle complete with catapults? Timing is everything. If one kid is really absorbed with snakes, the other with logic puzzles, and another with drawing a handbook of “Fairies from Around the World,” then sometimes it’s best to just run with it.

It is so much more efficient to learn about something when you’re ready for it and interested, then to be compelled to learn it based on someone else’s “Scope and Sequence.” However, I do think it’s important for parents to be aware of various lists of books and curriculum topics. The old rule of thumb that you should know the rules before you break them is applicable here. You may read about some great book or a topic of study that never would have occurred to you alone, but your child would love. You could even share the lists with your kids to see if anything catches their eye. Another advantage to knowing the rules is being able to weave appropriate skills into your child’s chosen interests. If you know that most 3rd graders are being taught to capitalize the proper names of states and countries, there is no need to run out and buy a workbook on capitalization. You’ll simply be ready, when the opportunity presents itself to ask the child, “Why do these words on the page start with capital letters?” Don’t answer your own question. They may not know the answer right away, but over time, looking at more books and signs, they may figure it out – and the discovery will be far more valuable and memorable because they learned it themselves. This is of course, very hard for adults to do. It is appealing to dispense answers and instructions to our own captive audience, but so much more effective not to!

 

I’ll talk about what I did for math in a future blog entry . . .

John Muir

Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

“Wildness was ever sounding in our ears, and Nature saw to it that besides school lessons and church lessons some of her own lessons should be learned, perhaps with a view to the time when we should be called to wander in wildness to our heart’s content.” (p. 28)

Having just returned from a family vacation in the Eastern Sierras and Yosemite, I thought it would be appropriate to write about the education of one of my favorite people . . .

John Muir had a rough and tumble boyhood growing up in the strict Calvinist community of Dunbar, Scotland. He and the other boys played soldier like their heroes William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. To be a good fighter was their highest ambition, but the boys also found amusement roaming the seashore and countryside, climbing walls and trees looking for birds’ nests, playing with toy boats, competing in running and wrestling matches, and experimenting with gunpowder and homemade guns.

John started grammar school at the age of 3 but his grandfather had already taught him a few letters. He progressed through a series of readers featuring heroic stories and poems, and remembered the sense of pride he felt in moving up to the next level. But this was not as important as maintaining a reputation for toughness:

“After attaining the manly, belligerent age of five or six years, very few of my schooldays passed without a fist fight, and half a dozen was no uncommon number. When any classmate of our own age questioned our rank and standing as fighters, we always made haste to settle the matter at a quiet place at the Davel Brae. To be a ‘gude fechter’ was our highest ambition, our dearest aim in life in or out of school. To be a good scholar was a secondary consideration, though we tried hard to hold high places in our classes and gloried in being Dux.” (p. 16) (more…)