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On Beginnings

It's always hurry,
hurry, rush
when's the last time
you didn't want
to go faster,
need to go quicker?
The internet
is speed,
around the world
and back in
a second.
But!
Who takes the time
to think?
Who waits?
Pause.
Think.
Wait for the
modem to dial,
the
computer to boot
you won't
regret
the moment,
used, not
wasted.
Think.
(c) T. O'Brien, 2004 (age 13)


When you open a book,
it's like being a crook.
You are taking a look
at someone else's life.
So if you want to
escape from your own,
just open a book, and you will.
(c) A. O'Brien, 2004 (age 10)

Homeschooling with Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins

Found this most remarkable exchange in the mystery I was reading and wanted to share it.
Walter Mosley's _Bad Boy Brawly Brown: An Easy Rawlins Novel_. pp.294-296 paper edition. Warner, 2002.

Easy (Ezekiel Porterhouse) Rawlins is, in this novel set in 1964, a 44-year-old black Texan transplanted toLA for many years. He is a janitor at a middle school and a kind of informal private detective for the black community. He lives with his girlfriend of several months and two children, both of whom he informally adopted -- over the course of about eight years in previous novels -- out of horrendous circumstances, when there was no one else to care for them. He did not have much schooling, although not out of choice.

-------(c) Walter Mosley 2002-----------

"I expect you to go to college, Feather. Either you'll become ateacher or a writer, or
something even better than that. Do you hear me?"[speaking to daughter, age 8ish]
"Yes, Daddy," she said.
We were staring at each other.
Jesus [son, 15] was staring at the floor, clenching his fists.
"All right," I said. "That's important because Juice [nickname for Jesus] is going to learn in a different
way. From now on he's going to study being a boatbuilder. He's found his calling in that, and I won't stand in his way. But if he's going to do that, he has to study even harder than if hewas in school. I know all of the curriculum for school and I'm going to make you read out loud to me for forty-five minutes every night. And after you read, then we're gonna spend another forty-five minutes talking about what you read. You hear me?..."
"I'd rather you stay in school," I said, "'Cause you know it ain't gonna be easy goin' through your lessons every day. Some days I might be late. Some days I might miss, and then you'll have to do double duty the next night."
Jesus grinned and I realized that this was what he had always wanted."

"But what will you teach him?" [Easy's girlfriend inquiring, later]
"The Iliad and the Odyssey, Twenty Thousand LEagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island. Anything with a boat and a man in it. That's what I'll teach him first. And then I'll take whatever math he's got to know to make the boat and try to make sure he understands it. Work with what you have, that's what I always did."
-------(c) Walter Mosley 2002-----------



Starting Out: Curriculum, no Curriculum

Do Without? I'm in the "skip curriculum for young ones -- and for the older ones, too" camp. We used "Story Stretchers" a lot when the kids were little, also manipulatives like Cuisenaire rods. My kids are now 10 and 13 and still curriculum-less, except in Hebrew. We've been happy with Behrman House, but there are other options.

It's harder in some ways, to be always trying to figure out "what next?" but it means wasting less money and time, too, I think. (can't say for sure, as we didn't do a controlled experiment on it) It does take guts to be on your own, but especially as the kids are young, it's so much fun to just follow where they're going.

"School" materials?: For those just starting out, exploring curricula for various subjects,the one factor that I think matters in considering a "homeschool" curriculum versus a "school" curriculum is assumed scale: School programs are usually written to engage a roomful of students. Often the program only works or works well if there are enough students to engage in discussion, work cooperatively on programs, or split up the work -- e.g., a geography curriculum might assume different groups in the classroom would explore different continents and then report back to the class, so the whole class learned about all of them; this is difficult (although not impossible) to do if you only have one or two students using the materials.

I recommend a homeschooling parent look closely before buying something intended for school use; many school curricula can be adapted, but some are a LOT of work. Also, scale-wise, there are sometimes money problems with buying school curricula (even if you can find used materials). If you need the student book PLUS a teacher's edition and an answer book and a lab manual and... and... the investment makes sense for a school that will use the materials for many children over several years but makes little or no sense for a parent buying all that for one kid for one year.

Another consideration is teacher- versus student-driven materials. Most school programs, no surprise, assume a teacher. Many homeschoolers expect or aim for their students to learn at least part of the time on their own. If materials are designed for a teacher-intensive presentation, then a classroom oriented work period, plus finally "homework," that can be hard to redesign for a child who will try to do

the work on her or his own.

I don't mean to suggest that all "school" curricula are useless. Far from it. For example, I used some math teacher guides that were clearly intended for classroom use (forget what it was called, came from the company that is now Pearson but used to be Cuisenaire/Seymour) when my kids were younger. I thought their concept-driven approach made sense, and I was happy reading them and putting the ideas to use with my kids. But I only could only afford a few of the books within the entire curriculum, because each "unit" was about $20 as I recall, and therewere many units in each year of study.


Unit/Theme books?: There are many "Unit" or "theme" study books -- like the one on Inventions which we are now using, which do a variable job at linking literature with various subjects -- math, science, history, language, art -- around a theme. Some we've found fun and useful; some we've found a waste of the relatively small sum (usually between $6 and $10). You can find them at teacher's stores or in many catalogs, or from the publisher (we use Teacher Created Materials most often, but there are many others).

We've also used, with variable success, books such as Math Through Literature, Science and Literature, and one from the American Association for the Advancement of Science which links science and art. For the younger students there are great books called Story Stretchers to integrate literature with various subjects.


Hebrew "school" materials?: I would just caution those beginning the search to be aware how different "school" and "homeschool" goals and methods can be. And this applies to Judaics/"Hebrew school" materials as well.

Some of the Melton (Conservative) materials, for example, are quite nice Judaically, I think, but -- as it should be for Hebrew school -- there is a major underlying assumption that the material will be discussed in a group, etc. and there are (or used to be, I'm thinking some years back) teachers' guides, student workbooks, student "resource" books, etc. to buy, which seemed overkill for a one teacher/two student situation. On the other hand, I did buy the "curriculum manager" package from Behrman House (nondenominational publisher) and found it quite useful (while the teacher's guides for the same program proved less worthwhile for us). -- Hebrew/Judaic Materials


For the actual education of a K-age child, I'd say the best curriculum is the Jewish calendar, books of Jewish and secular interest of all kinds (library is the best at this age, as they go through too many picture books, which are way too expensive to buy), art supplies, and an open mind.

You might start with holidays (Tu B'shvat in Jan/Feb -- lots of activities available on the web), portion of the week (January is exciting stuff, i.e., Exodus). Between those two prompts and any kid's natural interests, there's a lot to go on, just reading, playing, exploring,... We never used a "curriculum" at an at that age and still mostly don't.

Scheduling/Recording

Getting Started/Recordkeeping: Others more organized than I have answered the recordkeeping question. My only addition is this: better sooner AND later, i.e., once a day is better than once a week for remembering details and once a week better than once a month in that regard, but only by taking some time once in awhile to look at patterns and overall learnings arcs do you see more clearly where you're headed and when you need a course correction.

Also, if there are what look like "gaps," or "nothing" happening or being recorded, give some thought to why: we were at the dentist? everyone was sick? someone lost their shoes and so we couldn't leave the house? we argued all morning about who lost the pencil sharpener? we were discussing whether spiderman has lost all his sense he married Mary Jane? we spent all morning rearranging the spices in alphabetical order? kid had a "usual" fit because I mentioned fractions? we got sidetracked looking for the source of one of the morning prayers and never got "on track"?

I guess I'm just suggesting that the stuff you probably wouldn't tell a school official wanting to know "what you did all day" might well be what is most essential in your family and learning in the long run -- and sometimes contains more learning than you might otherwise notice. Not always easy to record, and not always necessary, but worth jotting down a note or two, especially when -- in honor of your first day, I was tempted to say "if," but decided to be realistic -- things seem difficult or not quite on track, etc.


Hours/Schedules: We try to have "school" hours from about 9 a.m. until 3 ish, with varying amount of "break" time in between. Our schedule changes every year but usually begins with prayer and/or "quiet time" and journaling. Then varying amounts of time on their own and with me.

We have done "lists," which were very popular in their time -- when the kids were in the 8-11 range -- where they were given lists of topics and/or task to complete during the day.

We have done schedules with time slots for different subjects, but these usually shifted too much from day to day, because I hate to interrupt any engagement with studies and so left things drift. Still, when I see that one subject will NEVER be chosen by one or more kids on their own, I set a time for that subject and let the ones to which they gravitate more work out naturally.


Lists: Our "lists" for the day include, with rare exception: prayers, piano, andHebrew. This is based on the idea, with which the children and I agree, that language (including music) must be practiced daily for any progress. In addition, piano and many other musical skills require physical/kinestheic practice or the body knowledge disappears.

My kids -- still only 6 and 9 -- clearly understood the concept and were able to stick with practicing long enough (only a few weeks shows a difference) in order to realize that their lessons just meant more if/when they practiced.

Our lists used to also include manuscript practice, but the kids have progressed far enough that we don't have to do much handwriting practice outside of regular English and Hebrew writing.


Math/Language Schedule/Drill: My children, who are 11 and 8.5, especially the elder, began to make progress in Hebrew when we all agreed that our eclectic method -- hours of one subject at a stretch and then letting it drop for awhile -- was resulting in much wasted time in re-learning things forgotten because too much time passed between lessons.My older child -- at about 7,8, I think -- realized that she was just spinning her wheels in both math and Hebrew with this approach and agreed to a more disciplined approach on her own. I still get complaints on ocassion, but usually only until I can pry them away from computer or novel or whatever. Once they start, they're content to work.

I know we'd probably be considered far behind an orthodox school, but I do know we made much more progress when we decided to take a less "relaxed" approach and work a bit everyday.

Could [your child] see that it's easier to remember something if you practice it? Are there parallels elsewhere in her life -- music or sports, maybe, where lack of practice means difficult progress? If so, maybe you could agree together to begin with a little bit each day and build up from there. -- see also Hebrew --

Hebrew curriculum and materials

AlephBet, Etc: We never did flashcards at all. Used little magnetic letters. Pointed out letters in siddur. Used a hands on activities book called Ot v Ot, paper activities like making a train with each letter as it's learned for the wall, making a puppit for yod (yeled/yaldah), etc. Also used coloring books. I've used flashcards for memorizing words, or for matching roots to words, plurals to singulars, etc. I would not know how to use flashcardsfor letters. Never did it in English or Hebrew or Spanish. I would not recommend starting to learn any subject with flashcards.

Would recommend searching the [Chevra] archives or looking at what publishers offer. If you don't know any Hebrew either, you can have a great time learning together -- start with a prayer you'd both like to know, something you're likely to hear/see over and over again.


Oral Drill: There are books we've used some called "10-minute Hebrew" (Behrman House) which use funny drills -- like reading in rhythms that are supposed to sound like a workout room or chanting to the tune of "Row, Row, Row your boat." They'remeant for a classroom and show it, but can be adapted and my kids enjoyed them. Also, artwork or puzzles engage the littler one, while the older one is finally at the point where she's genuinely pleased that she can understand more of the words in whatever Torah portion we're reading or in the siddur.


New Siddur (Behrman House): For better or worse, the New Siddur program does not attempt to teach line by line through each prayer. Prayer language is introduced through root words within the prayers and in stories putting the words into modern context. This helps a lot with grammar, because kids pick up how verbs are conjugated and nouns declined as words appear in feminine and masculine, singular and plural -- as in "Ima says a brachah, sits at the table; Abb says a brachah and sits at the table; the children say a brachot..."

Prayers are presented in bits. E.g, Birkat hamazon paragraph one appears in book 1 (after the primer) and paragraph two appears in book 2; if you want your kids to bentch, you need to teach the rest of the prayer separately. And only key phrases and main themes of the prayers are taught anyway. Which, as I said, can be taken as either good or bad, depending upon your needs and style of teaching. However, I dont' think you're likely to run into places where Reform siddurim differ. (No Birkat paragraph about Israel at all, e.g.)...

One more thing before either choosing or not choosing these books. the texts themselves (beyond the primer, which we did not use and so can't comment) don't depend on any particular pronunciation. The workbooks, which provide extra practice, do lay out pronunciation.

Our 10.5 year old and I have been working on Hebrew through the machzor [high holiday prayerbook]. We've been looking at a text that covers the vocabularly and some of the main themes of the key piyyutim [hymns] for the holidays. The book we're using is what is considered the "honors level" (after level three) of prayerbook Hebrew in the Behrman House NEW Siddur Series. We're not even halfway finished with the third level but we're finding it easy enough to get through this fourth book. This was also our daughter's choice for what would be fun and different to do in the summer, while not allowing skills to atrophy. I'm enjoying it, too.

Hebrew Through Prayer (Behrman House): When my older was 8-ish, we used to do "word family trees" -- like root mem lamed kuf with melech, malka, malchut, etc. (suggestion was from the Behrman house siddur-based series [Hebrew Through Prayer] we were using at the time). We had construction paper trees on the wall and added words from siddur or chumash as they came up. Also the series of books we were using stressed root-families.

HTP vs. New Siddur/Behrman House service: We had very good success with the "New Siddur Program" of Behrman House (switching from "Hebrew Through Prayer," which is lovely and puts prayers in ethical context nicely but doesn't give as much practice in Hebrew as the New Siddur). I started out tentatively, with bits here and there but now, with hindsight, wish I'd bit the bullet in the beginning, because the program comes in one big box for far cheaper than what I paid in dribs and drabs over the years, complete with repeated shipping.

When I was having trouble deciding which way to go, I spoke with a curriculum adviser there who was very knowledgeable and not the least dismissive of a homeschool customer, who obviously represents about 1/100th of the business another customer might.


Modern Hebrew for Young Ones: My kids, especially my 8-yr-old, and I recently started reading Yesh Lanu Lamah, the first in what I think is a series of conversational Hebrew books from Behrman House.

We've used their prayer-centered ones for a few years, but we only began the modern Hebrew in the last few weeks -- at my son's request; it was his idea of "Fun for Summer." We're enjoying them and I think he's picking up some vocabularly and a sense of how to construct sentences. He's also discovered, because of the reading sections after each group of chapters, that he can read without vowels "words you've seen already lots of times."

I had avoided this series -- or any attempt to do modern Hebrew -- thinking we just didn't need one more thing to add to our list of studies. But it's been a good, fun break from our other Hebrew studies and helping him solidfy his skills. Even our 10-yr-old thinks the books are fun, even though they're pitched for a much younger set.

Just thought I'd suggest it -- or the equivalent in some other publisher's series (I don't mean to suggest they're the only publisher worth pursuing, I just use them alot) -- for a painless, even fun, way to pursue

modern Hebrew, even if just for change of pace.


Teaching Torah: My favorite print resource for Torah, which has come in handy for years for kids and adults is the Teaching Torah book from ARE. In my opinion, it's really worth it and provides something to challenge from pre-K to adult .


Melton Materials -- CAUTION: We have also purchased materials from Melton/JTSA, some of which are different enough from other things out there that I was glad to have them. However, if you're on limited budget and trying to avoid shipping, you probably want to be very cautious.

Some of the most unusual materials -- a guide on American Jewish history and a guide on Medieval Jewish poetry, both advertised as "experimental" even after years -- were seriously flawed: For example, the history one had great ideas for discussing parts of US history that most school books skip; on the other hand, I had to find their original source and type out new quotes, because of numerous typos that included skipping over whole lines of text [not in a creative, editorial way -- just lack of proofreading]. The poetry pages included photocopied drafts that were practially illegible.

Some of their non-experimental prayer series materials suffer from similar issues: The materials have more depth of discussion than some, but there are proofreading and other problems that present a substantial amount of extra effort for the user. My guess is that this is less of a hassle for schools who probably make the necessary corrections once and then use the corrected version year after year than it is for a homeschooling parent who ends up feeling s/he might just as well have done the work from scratch...

Some of the useful stuff, as a matter of fact, especially for the younger set, is on their website for free -- JTSA.edu.

Economics

This study offers a comprehensible, readable economics lesson for middle school and up. Basic data and graphs could be understood by younger kids; I've always included economic trade-offs in purchasing choices as part of our "curriculum":

"Happy Independents Day In November [2005] -- Olsson's [independent chain of bookstores in and around Washington, DC] joins other independent businesses around the country in celebrating "America Unchained" on Saturday, November 19th, the weekend before Thanksgiving. There are many well-documented benefits to our communities and to each of us to choosing local, independently owned businesses. We realize it is not always possible to buy what you need locally and so we merely ask you to remember to Think Local FIRST! One such study* concluded that for every $100 spent in their stores, LOCAL BUSINESSES GIVE BACK $68 to their local economy, while for every $100 spent in national chains, only $43 is returned. And, unlike online businesses, local businesses pay sales tax and keep more money in their community. Every time you spend a dollar at local, independent businesses you not only have an impact on the cultural vitality of our community, but you also help build a stronger local economy. By preserving what is unique about our city, we avoid becoming another 'Anywhere USA.'" -- from e-letter sent by Olsson's.

The Andersonville Study arose in response to a dispute over a Borders Books and Music wanting to move in an old, established residential/commercial section of Chicago, and suggesting to developers that they would be "good for the neighborhood," while older, smaller -- but very popular -- music and book stores where already in the area. What happened, it seems, is that the issue was treated as a purely emotional one until local businesses banded together and paid for a study (one lesson for the social studies student: check out who paid) which found that the percent per dollar that was "re-invested" in the local area was HIGHER for chains than for independents -- if you only look at the first four factors usually considered. Once they looked at other factors, such as revenue per square foot -- i.e., controlling for the sheer size of chain stores and restaurants, the picture changed.