Archive for September, 2011

Minimalist Homeschooling

Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

As my kids grow up, I’ve been getting the urge to unfeather my nest. We seem to be moving into a new phase of life, and a lot of the old stuff seems unnecessary. Maybe it never was necessary. But I’m taking a hard look at where I want to be and how I want to live these days.

Minimalism has been a growing trend, especially as so many books and blogs have been written about “doing more with less.” I’ve always been curious about this, in the past reading such books as Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin, The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs, “The 4 Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss, and of course “Walden” by Thoreau.  Simplicity definitely seemed like something to aspire to, but I was so busy with life as usual that I didn’t follow through with it (excuses, excuses).

Recently I’ve stumbled upon a blogger named Ev Bogue who got me thinking about it again. He’s conveniently been writing about things that I’ve been trying to figure out – like how to use technology to help me simplify. I feel like the old way of doing things and buying things is rapidly becoming obsolete.  Going digital has the potential to eliminate so much clutter, although it could potentially add clutter if we’re not careful.

For instance, why do I have a giant box of old VHS tapes? Because I was saving them to someday convert to DVD (although I don’t have a machine to do that). But why would I want to have a bunch of DVDs around when it is possible to store movies on a giant hard drive? Or stream from the Internet?

The same goes for all of our music CDs. I didn’t like buying music from iTunes because they make it so hard to sync music between our families’ computers and iPods, so we bought CDs instead. But then came Pandora, Spotify, and other music streaming websites. Why buy a disk to store and dust, or a handcuffed music file, when I could just pay a monthly fee to listen to an enormous library of music anytime and anywhere?

I also want to try digital scrapbooking instead of paper scrapping. I want to ditch my hefty paper planner in favor of planning/calendar software. I want to stop buying newspapers and magazines, and read them online instead.  And books . . . good grief. I love my books dearly, but we must have a thousand pounds of books – and that’s just nonfiction reference. That doesn’t even count the fiction and other books we’ve borrowed from the library over the years. Wouldn’t it be great to get a lot of that on a Kindle? Or borrow ebooks from the library?

Technology has changed everything, including homeschooling. If I were starting homeschool all over again, I would buy much LESS stuff.  Looking at my groaning bookshelves now, I wonder, “Why did I buy this?” It seemed like a good idea at the time . . . But now I would (and will) rely on the Internet for so much more. I’ll tell you how in future posts.

Do you have any clever ways to use technology in your homeschool or life? I’d love to hear about them – just leave a comment below or email me. Thanks!

Capture Your Homeschooling in Photos

Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

We all tend to take photos of our kids at holidays or on vacation. Scrapbookers and social media devotees take many more. But how many of you are taking pictures of your homeschooling routine? It’s OK to take a few traditional shots of the kids sitting at the table with a textbook, but that gets boring fast. Homeschooling is not school-at-home; it’s a way of life. Taking pictures is s-o-o-o important. Even if you don’t use any curriculum per se, you are busy doing things all day. And you won’t remember what you did. Trust me on this.

YOU WON’T REMEMBER. But journaling and taking pictures will help bring it all back. Looking back at the end of the year, you will be amazed at what you did. Put it all together in a scrapbook and you will have a visual memory for a lifetime.

Here are ten photos you should take for each of your kids:

  • Favorite reading spots.  Do your kids like to read outside on a blanket? In a tree? In front of the woodstove? Catch them in their favorite spot (preferably when they are not looking).
  • Bedroom in all its messy glory. Children’s bedrooms change over time in very personal ways that reflect passing interests. What toys are scattered about? What posters are on the walls? Take new pictures every year.
  • Picture of bookshelf.  For the same reasons that bedrooms express personality, a child’s bookshelf or shelves will show what he or she is interested in. Plus, taking pictures of those books, knick-knacks, photos, and other treasures is a great way to hang on to those things without actually hanging on to them.
  • Child’s portrait next to a stack of curriculum or library books – not just any books of course, but books he or she is actually using. This can be very cute if you try different poses and angles. Get creative!
  • Something your child does NOT like. In this case, it would be math.
  • Let your child take some pictures of “homeschooling” to see what he or she comes up with.
  • Science experiments or projects – these can be difficult to explain in words, but pictures with captions look great in a learning log.
  • Art projects – take pictures of the process as well as the end product. Zoom in your child’s expression when they are in the “zone” and don’t know you are looking at them.
  • Other people – coaches, music teachers, homeschool group, friends, neighbors, church members. Our worlds are full of wonderful people that we don’t think to take pictures of.
  • Have someone take pictures of you reading to them, playing games, exploring, crafting, etc. Don’t be shy. Someday you will want to remember these times, and your kids will want to see you in the picture too (and laugh at your goofy clothes and hairstyle).

    • Ten Examples of Personal Self-Education Plans

    Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

    Our job as homeschoolers isn’t just to help our kids learn – we have to set the example too. Kids who grow up in households that value learning are much more likely to value learning themselves, and for a lifetime. We have to teach them that there is no such thing as graduation. We humans are way too smart for our own good, so we need constant reminders of how much we don’t know to stay in balance. Plus, how are we going to solve the world’s problems without pushing ourselves to get better?

    There is something to be said for free-range learning, picking and choosing the next book, website, documentary or course as it catches our interest, leading to serendipitous discoveries. But serious self-education calls for a bit of serious planning. Instead of picking books willy-nilly from the library, make your own learning plan, just like you would for your kids.

    This is something I’m working on for myself. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ll be using my other blog to write about what I learn as I pursue my own studies. But I don’t have it all figured out yet. I would love to add a forum to this site where readers can post their own or their kids’ learning plans. There are lots of websites with lists of resources for self-education. Try lifehacker and selfmadescholar for starters. But I had a harder time finding examples of personal learning plans.

    To give you an idea of the diversity, here’s a list of 10 personal learning plans I found:

    1. Well Trained Mind Forum
    2. Gary Schroeder’s plan for a self-made MBA
    3. A plan to teach yourself film directing
    4. A homeschooling mom’s plan
    5. Another homeschooling mom’s plan
    6. A book lover’s plan
    7. A science lover’s plan
    8. Autodidact 101
    9. Teach yourself graphic design plan 
    10. Self-University

    I’m actually surprised I didn’t find more. There were lots of helpful lists of suggested resources, and many book lover sites where people posted the books they want to read, but not many individual plans, as in “Here’s what I’m going to learn . . .” Maybe I didn’t look in the right places.

    So, if you have a learning plan, send me an email at JamieMcMillin@legendarylearningnow.com and I’ll post it here. As soon as I have mine sketched out, I’ll post it here too.

    Terminator Mom

    Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

    I’ve been thinking a lot about the goal of this blog. What is my message? How does this fit in with the work I am meant to do?

    Here are some of the things I am passionate about:

    1. Self-education and self-improvement
    2. Sustainability
    3. Freedom
    4. Creativity
    5. Preparation for a world transition

    I think the world is in for some major changes due to population growth, resource scarcity, energy scarcity, economic collapse, and climate change (whatever the cause may be, things are changing). Being the sort of person that likes to plan ahead, I feel compelled to plan ahead for this transition and to help other people prepare too.

    However, I really don’t yet have the skills or experience to help anyone else! All I can do is raise awareness and point people to the same resources/experts I am turning to. But I do have experience with self-education, self-improvement and creativity. These are the very skills that all of us will need, now and in the future.

    Sometimes I think I’m like the mom Sarah Connor in Terminator, who raised a son destined to lead the human resistance against machines. I have this feeling that I am also raising my children to survive and perhaps lead the way in the troubles ahead. We may not have cyborgs to fight off, but there will be plenty of challenges. There will be major changes in our food, water, and energy supplies, and people typically don’t like those sorts of abrupt changes. Hopefully it will happen gradually enough that people can adjust. But I’m fairly certain that my children and grandchildren will have a much different way of life than I did. My job is to teach them how to make the most of it.

    So, that is my message. I want to reach out to all the Terminator moms and dads out there and spread the word. It’s time to get ready. Each of us has unique strengths and skills to apply to the problems at hand. We must encourage our children’s unique strengths and skills, too. Who knows what they might be or how they might serve humanity in the future? This is no time to worry about standardized curriculum or pleasing bureaucrats – we have a world to save!

    I’ll keep beating the drum of self-education in this blog, but because I am also in the process of educating myself about our coming transition, I will post thoughts about that in my other blog: www.jamiemcmillin.com

    Next topic: What are you learning?

    Homeschool Plans for 12th Grade

    Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

    The only child I’m homeschooling at the moment is my second son Aengus. He is in 12th grade this year and getting together his college applications so we have a lot to do.

    Here’s what we have planned so far:

    He’s taking Spanish II and Physics for dual credit this semester at our local community college (not sure yet what he will be taking next semester)

    AP Calculus at home – probably using Thinkwell’s online course but we’re still reviewing

    English/Language Arts at home  – Aengus will select a list of “living books” to read, plus “Reading Like a Writer” by Francine Prose; and he’ll go through assignments from Julie Bogart’s “Help for High School” Brave Writer program.

    Computer Science at home – this takes up the most time because Aengus has been feverishly programming a new homeschooling recordkeeping/planning application for Mac (for more info see: http://www.ollyhomeschool.com). He has been programming with Windows languages for years but only started learning Mac about a year ago.

    We still need to work out something for social studies/history so he’ll have enough appropriate credits for college applications. Aengus isn’t really interested in another general American or World History course. He’s more interested in specific subjects that may or may not relate to one another, so we’ll have to be creative. Here’s what we are thinking:

    • Fall Semester: Understanding events in the Middle East (this would take several lifetimes to learn, so we can only cover a tiny bit):  “Innocents Abroad” by Mark Twain, “Islam – A Short History” by Karen Armstrong, “The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East” by Sandy Tolan; and maybe “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power” by Daniel Yergan.
    • Spring Semester: History mixed with science: “The Human Web: A Bird’s Eye view of World History” by Robert McNeill and William McNeill and “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson

    On the side, Aengus and his brother are learning how to do online video tutorials. They want to make a series of how to build/reproduce ancient architecture in the Minecraft game. This will involve a certain amount of research into the landscape and architecture of ancient Greece, Babylon, Egypt and other places. With any luck, they’ll become rich and famous YouTube stars!

    Aengus also takes regular drumming lessons and is looking for a band to play with (in all his free time!).

    If anyone has suggestions for our history/social studies books – I’d love to hear them!

    The Power of Beginnings

    Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

    If there was just one habit to help you accomplish more with your time, it’s this . . . decide ahead of time what you want to accomplish. I don’t mean a lengthy to-do list. I mean a prioritized short list. In the morning, ask yourself what the number one most important thing to do today is, then do it. The same habit applies for smaller time intervals. If you have 20 minutes before leaving for dance class, think of what you want to accomplish in that 20 minutes. If you are about to make an important phone call, think of what you want to accomplish before dialing.

    “Begin each day as if it were on purpose.” – Mary Ann Radmacher

    Stephen Covey calls this habit, “Begin with the end in mind.” Of course you have LOTS of stuff to do, especially with homeschooling on top of housework, and kids to derail your plans. That happens. But your to-do list MUST get one item smaller every day and you must decide in advance what that one most important item will be. If you have time for more – great!

    Do be realistic though. Your number one item for the day can’t be “repaint the house” unless you really can repaint the house in one day. Maybe that can be your number one goal for the week (or month); then break the big job into smaller daily jobs.

    It’s also OK to decide that the number one thing you want to accomplish for the day is a nap, or a hot bath, or a date with your husband. If that is your priority, you can make it happen.

    This is the power of beginnings. Time is a pitiless master, but you don’t have to surrender to it. Just take a minute to point yourself in the right direction, and keep going.