Connecting Kids through Birds: Bird Migration

I've mentioned before that we are participating in a pilot program through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology this year. The program is called Connecting Kids through Birds and involves Wiki pages and reporting the actions we take as we go through the program. I'm not entirely sure what the plan is for this curriculum once the pilot is complete. This year is actually the second year of the pilot involving more educators than the first effort. We are all over the country and there is a coordinator local to each region who helps with interaction with the Lab of O.

I decided to try it out and see if a homeschooler could join the group. Success! Now I'm reviewing the curriculum from the eyes of a homeschooler. I think it is a great program and we'll see how it becomes available to the public in the future. Currently, some of you may be familiar with programs like BirdSleuth. Since there is a connection with other classrooms piece to this, I'm not sure how that will look for availability for homeschoolers. I'll be sure to let you know the final result.

In the meantime, we've been doing lessons in the categories of migration, conservation, science collaboration, and citizen science.

We played a little game showing why birds migrate- for resources!

J6 reads to us about the robin- afterward we talked about why a robin migrates. His food source goes dormant for the winter- of course.

We've really enjoyed the video links we've been given to view as part of our lessons. The other day we did a lesson on shared habitats and how we can conserve bird habitats. Next up is some bird watching and we'll be planting some bird friendly sunflowers and taking a field trip. Once the we finish the lessons, I will turn in my evaluation and we get some new binoculars and a new field guide. We're pretty excited for both!

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Owning the Passion

Welcome to 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion at Blog, She Wrote! Thank you for joining me. Please take a moment to subscribe, so you don't miss out- you can follow, subscribe by email or RSS feed (just look to the right!) and follow Blog, She Wrote on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I'd love it if you'd stay connected and visit again!

The final topic in this 10 Days Series is Owning the Passion. During the 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion, we have looked at:

• An Overview
• Identifying the Passion
• The Next Step and a Word on Outsourcing
• Pouring into the Passion at Home
• Leaving Behind Conventions
• Adventure Boxes
• Who do You Know?
• Look for Opportunities
• Incorporating the Passion into Your Homeschool

Once you've identified a passion and you've been pouring into it as a parent, the final step it to make sure your child own the passion at some point. As parents, we will help to get things started and we can create opportunities and makes sure our children meet them. But, as our children grow and mature, we want them to be owners of their own experiences.  

After all, if we have to be the ones always taking the initiative in a particular area, we need to begin questioning whether or not the child really holds a passion for that interest. The goal is to hand off the administration and details to our children once they are in high school. In middle school, we want to see them take some of the lead and show us their continued interest. As a former middle school teacher, I know well that part of our job at that age from 11-13 or so is also teaching responsibility. And it takes effort and patience!

For example, you may recall that last Friday E13 and I took the falconry exam together. In the days leading up to the exam, he needed some reminders of what his priority needed to be. Whether it be enjoying screen time or finding anything else to do besides study, I reminded him that it was time to get serious and prepare for the exam and that a lot of people were supporting this effort and it did not appear that he was preparing well for it. I wondered out loud with him what he would do if I passed and he did not. Sometimes we'll have to help our children really think about what they are aspiring to and if it's worth it.

That is not to say that they won't change their mind or head in a new direction. Always keep in mind that whatever your children are after doesn't have to be what you have in mind for them! As we began the pursuit of falconry, we were clear with E13 that he had choices about what he would be "all in" for as a teen. What he didn't have a choice about is the choice to do nothing! We let him know that his time would be full of more than building with legos and playing screen time during his free time. Teens need something they are "all in" for so if falconry wasn't it that was fine with us...but it would be something. E13 is extremely focused on things he wants to pursue, but his interest can ebb and wane. It will be easy to tell when he's done with something. The strong fire to go after something will dull to barely a flicker. However, the flicker can be temporary and it's expected even with something he loves. So, our job is to shepherd that tendency and try to teach diligence and consistency in his effort.

R11 is younger, but with her it's a matter of continuing to provide more materials, finances, and time to her passion regularly. As long as we see her growing in this area and as long as she remains passionate about what she wants to pursue, we can support her in that growth. Being of a different personality, she already takes a lot of initiative in her projects and learning. With her, it's more the mentoring of producing a quality project and that although she loves the creative process, consumers of her work will want a well made item as well. It's all about shaping the passion and moving into a different role.

Our job is to be facilitators of our children's passions- giving them ample time and opportunity to experience and explore what they love. As our children get older, we continue to facilitate at some level but we become more of a mentor at that point helping to shape the interest and to help our children realize their potential within a given passion. Hopefully realizing the potential will mean post graduate education and a vocation. If it's not the primary avenue our children choose for themselves, it will be a life long interest continuing to influence them. 

I hope this series has been helpful to you. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Leave a comment and let me know how you are pouring into your child's passion!

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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Incorporating the Passion into Your Homeschool

Welcome to 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion at Blog, She Wrote! Thank you for joining me. Please take a moment to subscribe, so you don't miss out- you can follow, subscribe by email or RSS feed (just look to the right!) and follow Blog, She Wrote on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I'd love it if you'd stay connected and visit again!

Today's topic is using your homeschool to pour into your child's passion. This is probably the easiest thing to do when it comes to pouring into a child's passion. I think the hardest thing will be giving yourself permission to give your student ample time to do so. 

What are some ways to incorporate the pursuit of a passion within your homeschool?

Difficult Subjects- When you have a subject that is a challenge for your student, look for ways to involve their interest in the process.  I always look for ways to include sewing in R11's math. She responds to it well and the more authentic the better! Right now she's in 6th grade doing some work with diving decimals. She doesn't like it- imagine that! But this week, after having more practice the conventional way, I set about creating some sewing math for her. She has to measure fabric and convert the fractional measurement to decimals and then I give her an assignment that asks her to do something with that quantity- so that she'll divide! I'm not talking about sewing word problems. That's not authentic enough...she's smart enough to know it's just a word problem on her favorite topic. Instead, I've been asking her to measure and work with the numbers. After that, she gets to make the creation from the piece of fabric she's been using and sometimes I've put some fun parameters on that. 

R11 tries out her new serger and does some decimal math at the same time.

Unit Studies- of course! We are a unit study family, but if you aren't it's a great way to focus on all the aspects of a particular topic in a way that connects the subject to all disciplines. There are many sources for commercial unit studies, but often writing your own is the way to go. One of my favorite inspiring resources for this is Valerie Bendt's Unit Studies Made Easy (also available in digital download now). You can incorporate the Adventure Box here too and let your child explore the possibilities. I9 has been really interested in space and flight this year and has expressed interest in learning more about flight. This year he's helped to build a model Wright Flyer and a model rocket which we've been launching this spring whenever we have good weather. His last unit of the school year will likely be the Amanda Bennett Unit Study on Flight. Unit studies are a great way to insert some charge into a slow moment in the school year. Take advantage of them!

Books- saturate your print environment with books on the topic and of related areas. You always want to have on hand the books and other print materials that will give your child more information. If it's a hands-on endeavor, then have the how-to books right there for them to pick up and try. R11 often reads her sewing books, gets them from the library, and reads blogs that give her instructions on new things to try. She is given the freedom to investigate and try out new projects which has helped her to learn new techniques and to practice them. 

Time for Passion Pursuit- in addition to providing materials for them, children need to be given the time to explore the opportunities they have in front of them. Without time in their day, it's difficult to achieve much success. Once our school work is finished for the day, I allow time for them to play and investigate and just generally spend time with the thing that they love- the thing that drives them. For my youngest, it will be anything science related. As I write this, he's making circuits and trying to design his own using his Snap Circuits. Or you'll find him looking at things under our digital microscope. You might find my kids reading on their favorite topic or working on that new doll dress. This is a truly Charlotte Mason style activity in our home, but lots of time is given over to working on what they love (outside of video games!).

R11 spends time trying on the dress she will help to refashion for the Civil War Ball this year.

High School Plan- make sure your high school plans include plenty of time for the pursuit of a passion. If you follow along and provide opportunities and mentors for your child's interests, the hope is that out of those efforts a desire for a vocation will form. High school is the time to focus on those and see what comes of it. So many young people leave for university without knowing their goal, helping our students to discover their passion will help in this process and give them a strong vision for their future. High school is the perfect time to follow the passion in the form of volunteer work, part time work, internships, online coursework, day-long seminars, etc. This is where keeping an eye out for opportunities is important. In the fall, we are planning for E13 to attend a falconry meet here in NY to see other falconers and experience more of the sport. That's just one more chance to see the passion in action. 

Newly trapped male red tail on a trapping expedition last fall.

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to allow the time for your students to really dive into an interest and develop it. Don't be afraid to let go of some of the convention in your homeschool to allow this to happen. It will reap great benefits far beyond those you can plan for in your homeschool.

Equally as important, particularly as they get older, is that they own the passion. It doesn't work well if you as the parent is the one with all the excitement, though you may be the one to get things started. At a certain point, the student must own it for themselves and that's just what I'll be talking about in our last 10 Days post in this series, tomorrow.

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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Look for Opportunities

Welcome to 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion at Blog, She Wrote! Thank you for joining me. Please take a moment to subscribe, so you don't miss out- you can follow, subscribe by email or RSS feed (just look to the right!) and follow Blog, She Wrote on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I'd love it if you'd stay connected and visit again!

Today's post is all about finding opportunities for your children to encourage them in their passion. These can be ongoing activities or simply one time field trips, but the idea is to seek out ways for your children to experience different aspects of their interest. Some of your ideas may even introduce you to a person who can be a mentor either right away or sometime in the future.

Online experiences- The internet is full of opportunities for you to share with your children. From YouTube videos to online classes, to online clubs (through CurrClick) to formal online coursework, it is likely you can find something for your kids to enjoy. CurrClick has a lot of online classes but also free clubs like LEGO and American Girl that meet each month. 

One of my favorites is Craftsy- an online craft class website. Some of our favorite designers have classes there and we have enjoyed some refashioning and Christmas projects. We have other classes in the wings since they have sales all the time- knitting, crocheting, sewing techniques among other things are available. The great thing about Craftsy is that you can access the class anytime. You can contact the teacher with questions and they really do get back to you. Plus, access is unlimited so it never expires. The classes are broken down into segments of about 15- 20 minutes and it's fun to watch and learn. They are very reasonably priced and often have half off sales which I jump at. Our latest acquisition is a textured sewing class which will add a lot of variety to R11's projects. Considering the cost of sewing classes locally, this is a steal and it allows her to learn any time she wants. Best of all, I don't have to drive anywhere with three boys in tow! 

We made this poinsettia brooch at the December Sewing Camp- I let the girls watch the segment and they got started. Great fun!

Local colleges and universities- take advantage of opportunities offered by your local colleges and universities. This may be a resource you have not tapped into yet or maybe you think there isn't much going on, but I encourage you to reach out and see what's there. We live in the shadow of several colleges and one Ivy League university all of which have programming for the outlying communities. One of them offers a lending library of science activities for homeschoolers and teachers. There are annual events like Insectapalooza- a big day put on by the entomology department in the fall. Each spring the Veterinary School at Cornell has an open house full of all kinds of things to see and career information for kids interested in animals.

Last year I discovered the fashion shows put on by local universities and through an announcement from 4H we attended the one at Syracuse University. An alumni email forwarded to me by a friend led us to a reception followed by the show at Cornell. We had a fabulous evening talking with faculty of the dept and parents of graduating seniors and then enjoyed the show which included men's fashions. We are going to this year's show in a few days. Based on various connections, I think the admission faculty at Cornell are awaiting R11's portfolio to cross their desks in a few years!

Want some time on a microscope? Give them a call. You'd be surprised at what they are willing to offer in the way of tours and interviews. Remember that university faculty ultimately rely on the general public to experience their research in some way. Outreach connections are in the charter of many grants the researchers hold. Reach out and see what can happen.

Organizations and Clubs- Lots of us are involved with scouts or the equivalent. We are a 4H family. We've tried out clubs, but we operate best as independents. Either way I love 4H because it's unifying. I don't have to take the boys in one direction and our daughter in another. We can participate as a family. 4H offers us the chance to exhibit work in the local and state fair. The kids have made public presentations at various level of competition. This year E13 did an excellent presentation on the Art of Falconry which will he will be doing again at the county and state fair this summer. Right now he serves on the county's Fair Board and he's excited about helping to get ready for the fair. I've been attending with him and he's learning a lot for sure. Whatever you choose to be part of, make sure it aligns with your family's purpose and values.

There are plenty of opportunities for our children if we know where to look and how to ask! Keep your eyes open for announcements and emails about various things going on in your community. You never know if one will ignite or fan the flame of a passion. 

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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Who Do You Know?

Welcome to 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion at Blog, She Wrote! Thank you for joining me. Please take a moment to subscribe, so you don't miss out- you can follow, subscribe by email or RSS feed (just look to the right!) and follow Blog, She Wrote on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I'd love it if you'd stay connected and visit again!

Today's topic is Who Do You Know who can help you engage your children and help to mentor them in their area of interest? When our children are young, it is most likely you as a parent or another family member who will recognize and help to further a particular interest. As they get older, you may find other people who can contribute their time and expertise. 

I'm not just talking about people you hire for lessons, but community members who have a niche in the area of your child's curiosity. Great places to find mentors might be at church or through a friend or even another homeschooling family. Perhaps there is someone you or your spouse work with who can lend a hand. Identify people you know or know of who can be an encourager. It doesn't have to be on a regular basis. If someone you know loves entomology and you have a nature kid crazy about bugs, how about arranging some time for your child to visit the bug collection and hear all about it and maybe get tips on how to start his own? Obviously, we need to be discerning about who we seek out, but it's easy to set up a time and have the whole family along. 

Both of our older kids have an adult mentor in their area of interest. As you know, E13 is working on his falconry license. There are some criteria that go along it- you must have a small game hunting license- which requires the hunter safety course. You must pass the falconry exam - we attempted that on Friday and will find out soon if we pass. The hawk house (mews) needs to be built and inspected and you must purchase all the necessary equipment to handle the raptor safely. Lastly, you must be apprenticed to a master falconer for two years (and be 18) before you can become a general falconer. Master falconer is achieved after that. So...one requirement of the license is to find that mentor! Last year at the village library we had a chance to meet up again with an associate director of a local nature center. He was speaking on bird migration at an evening library program. We had seen him another time at the center where we were attending a preschool amphibian program. He talked with E13 (who was along at the time and younger) about the birds that could be seen at the feeder. When E13 could name them all and they chatted with each other about them- he was trying to identify one last bird and the man said well that's a wood pecker. E13 replied, "I know it's a woodpecker. I'm trying to decide if it's a downy or a hairy woodpecker!" After that Mr. H knew E13 was serious about birds and guaranteed him he'd see a hawk on the hike. Sure enough, he pulled out his hawk for us to see (that is the picture I use often of the hawk on the fist). So, that night at the library last year, I encouraged E to ask Mr. H if he would apprentice him to be a falconer and Mr. H gave a hearty yes! We've attended bird trappings and he has helped E13 out with his 4H presentations. Once we apply for our licenses in the fall (we must build a mews and of course wait for E to turn 14 in September!), we'll be seeing a lot more of Mr. H. 

After R11 was inspired by her grandmother to begin machine sewing, another mentor stepped in for her (we live over 300 miles away from sewing grandmothers). Mrs. R has been a fast friend for R11 having had four daughters of her own. She goes to our church. She loves R's company and being of the same creative mold, they always have a great time. Right now they are working on something together. I'll give you a glimpse of R's Civil War Ball gown. We got together to design the gown which was to be refashioned from an old bridesmaid turned prom gown. We looked at a few vintage sewing sources and decided on a tiered skirt which I read had been all the rage back in the 1850s. We took apart a few dresses and R11 was tasked with the underskirt - attaching a ribbon and making a new seam on a crinoline and liner taken from yet another dress. Meanwhile, Mrs. R has been working on the dress pieces. This picture is from the second fitting and we are due for another this week. I won't give away anymore gown secrets today, but we'll show some more progress soon. The ball is on May 12th.

Our younger boys spend a great deal of time with us building models, looking into microscopes, and lately...Dan and I9 have been doing model rockets together. J6 is happiest when you pour into his passion of science. I mold a lot of his schooling around experiments and discoveries. 

So, I encourage you to find others who can contribute some time to your kids and their journey. Who do you know? Who do you know who knows someone else? Tomorrow I'll be writing about finding opportunities for your kids to experience what they love. Hopefully, that will give you more ideas on finding an occasional mentor.


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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Adventure Boxes

Welcome to 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion at Blog, She Wrote! Thank you for joining me. Please take a moment to subscribe, so you don't miss out- you can follow, subscribe by email or RSS feed (just look to the right!) and follow Blog, She Wrote on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I'd love it if you'd stay connected and visit again!



Today's post is a partial repost of my article on Adventure Boxes which I've mentioned here at Blog, She Wrote on occasion and at Heart of the Matter. Most of the nuts and bolts and how to put one together is the same, but I'm going to put a new spin on using the Adventure Box to explore and develop a child's passion. It's timely that I chose this post for today because I'm going to be speaking to a MOPS group Tuesday morning about Adventure Boxes (I had not connected the two dates in planning this series) and if you live in NY, I'll be speaking on Adventure Boxes at the state LEAH Convention in Rochester, NY on June 2nd. Maybe I'll see you there!

Some of you may have heard of Adventure Boxes. Years ago, an online friend introduced me to them and I was struck with the simplicity of the idea and the anticipation she exuded to share these adventures with her children. I began to think about how we could try out Adventure Boxes in our homeschool. Originally, Adventure Boxes were implemented with summer break in mind, but as time wore on, I realized that we could live the adventure any time throughout the year- not just on summer breaks. Now I know a lot of homeschoolers school year round (here in NY we take advantage of the short season of good weather by taking time off), but adventures are easily adapted to the year round schedule. You can choose an exploration to enjoy during some of the breaks during your year round school schedule.

An Adventure Box is a collection of fun items- crafts, stickers, books of all kinds, and games, etc having to do with a particular theme. What does your child long to know more about? What does he play with all the time? We've done various themes including: pirates, frontier/Little House, explorers, nature, birding, princesses, Redwall, animals, superheroes, to name a few. For more tips, read below!

Benefits:

• Great for accommodating the interests of your individual children. Indulge them in what they want to hear more about!
• Fun way to practice skills during the summer- anything from reading to writing to building or problem solving
• Easy to adjust to your family and lifestyle- one mom I know is doing marine biology with her high schooler, easy to implement whether you work or are at home all day, etc
• Kids like the structure of having adventure time each day (I'm referring to summer time here). You can structure it any way you like all at the same time or whenever they want to sit and do.
• Cuts down on the “I’m Bored!” complaints
• Allows you to connect with your kids throughout the summer and/or during breaks
• Allows you and your kids to be creative
• Works with all ages from high schoolers down to toddlers and babies
• If you’d rather do a together adventure you can do that too (family adventure)

How Do I Do It?

• Start conferencing with your kids about what they’d like for an adventure. You can always pick for them, but in general there is more success when you bring them to the table to let them be involved.
• Choose items for the adventure box theme- could be coloring books/pages, craft kits, stickers, books, games, fiction story, reference books, movie, journal for them to write in, general craft materials, etc. Start collecting them now. Keep in mind any skills that need attention and choose accordingly.
• Decide how you will keep the adventure box materials. Box? File Box? Shelf? Make sure it’s easy to access for each child.
• Decide when you will embark on your adventures each day. Will you do it all at the same time together? Little ones in the morning and older ones during nap time in the afternoon?
• How independent do you want it to be? I suggest a combination of activities to encourage independence, but then it still allows you to be engaged with your child. One idea another homeschooler shared with me is the idea of giving the kids tickets for summer time. Each child can only turn in two tickets per day and never two days in a row for any one child. In the morning we’d do our own thing (I’d do my work and interests and the kids can play) in the afternoon I’d be available from 1 to 4 to help the kids on their adventures.
• How many items go into the box? You can choose to put a few in at a time or put it all in there so the child can explore. You can mark the items that require help from mom so they can see how they need to spread things out according to the tickets or however you decide to set it up. I hold some things back as surprises along the way. For items too large you can put in a coupon instead. They can bring you the coupon to get the item (a game, map, etc.)

Adventure Boxes are a great way to keep things moving during any school break.  But I challenge you to think of how you can incorporate some of these adventures throughout our school year- not only when your kids are on break, but as part of their schooling! Adventure Boxes are the perfect way to pour into a passion in a short term fashion. You can replenish the items as your child explores the topic. They are a creative way to give your child some independence as they discover more about what they love. They are especially revealing with younger kids because it gives you the chance to see what they love. For older kids, it's a fun way to get them to dive further into their passion or to uncover new information while still heading to a goal or learning a new skill.

How can you plan to use an Adventure Box to to ignite or further fan the flame of a passion?


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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Leaving Behind Conventions

Welcome to 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion at Blog, She Wrote! Thank you for joining me. Please take a moment to subscribe, so you don't miss out- you can follow, subscribe by email or RSS feed (just look to the right!) and follow Blog, She Wrote on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I'd love it if you'd stay connected and visit again!

Today's post is a repost from a Heart of the Matter article I wrote on Leaving Behind Conventions. I think it's appropriate for this series because much of what I think of when it comes to our homeschool and pouring into our children's passions is beyond the conventional. By the time most of you read this, E13 (our oldest) and I will be taking the NY State Falconry Exam in preparation for getting a falconer's license (at 10am EDT on April 20th!). Falconry is the passion we are pouring into for our oldest son. I'm going to share about his passion with another topic next week. But certainly, training birds to hunt is not conventional!  (E13 wants me to point out that falconry is not a modern convention, but it was very popular before and during the middle ages.) If you are regular reader, then you know we are selling our home. As we look for a new one, one of the criterion items is adequate space for the raptor mews. 


This post pertains to all aspects of our homeschools. Not just the academic portions. I encourage you as you read it (and I hope that you will keep going) to consider your own homeschool. Are you allowing your children's hearts to sing as you teach them valuable skills? Are they free to imagine and dream? Or do you feel hemmed in by convention? The key to engaging your kids to go for their "beyond dreams" is to leave room for being unconventional. 
 

The other day it was such an unusually warm day that while we were out for a walk in the afternoon; we turned toward the school and decided to enjoy the playground. When we arrived, there was an afterschool program there which was called together to return to the school building shortly after we got there. What followed was almost 10 minutes of the teacher coaxing the students to put their coats on and wait in an orderly fashion to go inside. “Whatever your parents sent you in is what you need to be wearing,” was the teacher’s direction.  This initiated comments from the kids about whether their parents had actually been home to send them to school. If they had it, they had to wear it.  So, despite it being nearly 60 degrees outside, there were students dressed in snow bibbers and winter coats. Finally, the teacher was satisfied and they followed her back into the school.

This scenario brought a flood of things to my mind as I reflected on my days as a public school teacher and on our homeschool. It reminded me that scenes like this are carried out all day long in a school building. Well behaved kids waiting on not-so-well behaved kids to get themselves together so the group can move on. It seemed absurd to me that the teacher felt the need to adhere to convention regarding outdoor gear so stringently. Yet, I do understand the teacher’s perspective. In order to make sure all the requirements are met, all the students must comply.

It was this thinking that led us to take our son out of school seven years ago half way through first grade.  Though he was reading fluently, he had to fill out every phonics activity. Instead of meeting him where he was skill wise, he had to stick within the convention of what was happening in that building at that grade level at that time. There was no room for stepping outside that convention. What was that about? I can only think it was about making sure that all students could meet the standard. It didn’t matter that he was well beyond the use for phonics. It was a benchmark that needed to be met by everyone. 

But before we point our fingers at the traditional classroom and its “assembly line education”, let’s take a good look at our homeschools. It turns out, we can be vulnerable to the same weakness. We have the option to choose curriculum, but what does that choice look like? Does it look like traditional school content which takes place in a home? Does it allow for flexibility? Do you find yourself constantly struggling with a particular child based on the work he is required to do? 

When I was a classroom teacher teaching upwards of 170 students a day in a science classroom, I had to stick with convention. Teacher directed labs and well orchestrated movement around the classroom with neat data collection sheets and experimental procedures were necessary. They allowed for safety with 37 kids dissecting frogs and it enabled me to measure easily where each child was based on how they performed within the parameters I set. Teaching that many children a day many times meant sacrificing the notion that the student could design something himself. It was too hard to individualize instruction.

However, I think we run the same risk with our kids at home. Just take my daughter for instance. She is an out-of-the-box thinker. She hates convention. She follows her own rules. When I give an assignment, I have to be careful to evaluate her work with specific criteria, but HOW she gets there isn’t always an issue. She may choose to go about something so differently from the way I would. But is it wrong to go about things differently? One way may be more efficient and if you’ve asked for the most efficient way, then by all means the child did not hit the target, but many times that isn’t our goal. Our goal is simply did the child complete the task and is it correct? Not, did they do it my way, but did they do it well? There is a huge distinction there.

Often, we as homeschoolers, are plagued with the shadows of our own educational experiences. How often do you second guess yourself because you feel like maybe you should be doing “more” with your kids? Or maybe you are chased by well-meaning “others” who remind you constantly about conventional means of education

Our homeschools do not need to look like everyone else’s. They need to be our own and not held in by convention. In fact, whenever I have the opportunity to speak with others about our decision to homeschool, I always tell them that homeschooling is tough sometimes. It may mean family members are upset or you get a lot of criticism from any number of sources. However, having my kids miss out on all the extraordinary (and the ordinary) experiences that come with being educated at home is not worth it- simply for the sake of convention. 

So, I want to challenge you. In what way is your homeschool conventional? In what ways is it unconventional? Does the “conventional” get in the way of you discovering your kids and their abilities? Their strengths? Their weaknesses? Why do you do school the way you do? Do you desire to change anything but feel like maybe you shouldn’t for some reason? Is it a good reason? Or is it simply convention? 

Feel free to leave convention behind as you dig into something extraordinary to follow a child's passion!

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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

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10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Pouring into the Passion at Home

Welcome to 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion at Blog, She Wrote! Thank you for joining me. Please take a moment to subscribe, so you don't miss out- you can follow, subscribe by email or RSS feed (just look to the right!) and follow Blog, She Wrote on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I'd love it if you'd stay connected and visit again!

How often are you home each week? Do you have plenty of time to be at home or are you running to co-op classes, lessons, and various other activity oriented obligations? By my own observation over the last seven years, our best homeschool days happen when we are home. Wow. That screams the obvious, doesn’t it? Yet, I believe the real success occurs when we have many uninterrupted days at home and that is much more difficult to achieve. To be able to relax and discover with our children, we need to have time on our side. We have to slow down. Regular, frequent days of being home, with no outside agenda, allows us the freedom to explore more in our school and in our kids' passions. We aren’t constantly in a “battle” to hit the 3Rs before we leave for dance class or baseball practice.

Aside from all the time it takes to drive from one activity to the next for four children, it costs money too! I'm always amazed at how much it does cost for one small session of activity. It's one of the reasons we started to look at how we could nurture an interest at home. Another reason is that it seems almost impossible to dabble these days. My kids might like to try something out and enjoy it, but not necessarily want to keep going semester after semester. But in order to explore more, you had to buy in to more. Ballet was great the first year, but then my daughter wanted to take jazz. But this studio (and others) would not allow jazz without also taking ballet. Yeah...I get it. I was a dancer and a competitive gymnast my whole young and young adult life. Your dancing skills improve when you learn ballet technique well and you use it as a base for other dance, etc. But here's the reality. She wanted to take jazz and try that out. She had no plans for a career in dance. She wasn't invested. She wanted to dabble. It seems that kids today must be all in for something or not at all. I ran into this frequently and I even spoke at length with the dance studio owner about it. She absolutely admitted that I was right- there was no room for the casual experience anymore. Not just soccer once or twice a week, to be competitive and like his peers, he must have at least three nights a week. It's a racket is what it is! Whatever happened to being a kid and trying things out? Anyway, this notion was so pervasive in the youth culture as our oldest kids were starting out with activities, we knew we had to take a step back and be creative about how we would give our kids experiences.

That is not to say we don't have our kids in outside activities, but they are carefully chosen and we guard our time and our wallets! Sometimes an outside activity is great for a short season and gives us ideas on how to work with our kids at home.

During the remainder of the 10 Days Series, I'll be sharing about children's passions and how we pour into them. Our two oldest are 13 and just about 12 and they have passions they are pursuing with great interest. I'll be sharing about our younger boys as well to give you an idea about how we are developing some passions early on with our kids. 

First stop is our daughter's passion for sewing and all things creative. From Sewing School at a local shop to Sewing Camp in our home: After we discovered how much she loves to sew, we were introduced to a sewing cooperative nearby and one of the teacher's is a church friend of ours- newly retired and anxious to teach sewing. R11 took classes there for about a year and a half off and on, but the classes continued to rise in price and after a while, it made more sense to try sewing at home where we could step up the instruction at a lower cost. Finally, last summer, I decided to try a Sewing Camp one week at our home with some of her closest friends and their moms. It was a huge hit! And we've been meeting once a month all during the school year.

Sewing Camp was born and it has been great fun for all of us for only the cost of materials. It does require planning and hosting the monthly gatherings, but it's worth every moment. In addition to getting some friends together, we provide her with plenty of fabric, notions, doodads and blogs to try things out on her own. We also put together a little studio (in her postage stamp sized bedroom) for her birthday one year and it's her space for creating. About a year later she received her own sewing machine. And just recently, through the blessing of an online friend, she has added a serger! We pick it up today as a matter of fact!

Often she will see a tutorial she wants to try- this one was taking a dress shirt and making a long shirt with a belt. But first, you had to make the shirt more narrow and reset the sleeve.

Not bad for a first time! Projects like these rarely happen if you are too busy to let it happen.

February's Sewing Camp project was a reverse applique heart tshirt.

Much harder than it looks says Rll! Cutting out the heart on the top layer without knicking the bottom one was tough!

Boy has this post gotten too long! I'll share more about how we provide for sewing at home another day. For now think about your child's passion. How can you inspire them to learn and grow with it at home? 

• What resources can you provide?
• What time can you set aside?
• What encouragement can you give? 

Yesterday I talked briefly about fiercely protecting our time. It is a key factor when pouring into your child's passion. Fiercely protecting our time allows us to be more adventurous and it provides the time for us to invest in our children. Fiercely protecting that time allows us to go beyond the ordinary on a regular basis. It allows our children to play more and relax. We aren’t always in the car and on the go. Fiercely protecting our time means finding out what our kids are really passionate about and finding ways to feed that passion at home and as a part of their school day- not necessarily adding another “activity” to the many places we have to go. Or maybe it means cutting out the fat- the extras about which our children are not so passionate. Fiercely protecting our time sometimes means making unpopular choices. It means that sometimes the whispers from all the good things we could do get louder even as we try to silence them!

And in turn, this leaves us more time at home to explore the extraordinary. Enjoy the journey with your children. Passionately.

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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: The Next Step and a Word on Outsourcing

Welcome to 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion at Blog, She Wrote! Thank you for joining me. Please take a moment to subscribe, so you don't miss out- you can follow, subscribe by email or RSS feed (just look to the right!) and follow Blog, She Wrote on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I'd love it if you'd stay connected and visit again!

Now that you've identified something your child is passionate about, it's time to start thinking about how you will invest your resources, whether it be time, materials, or funds, into the passion. I'm sure a lot of things have crossed your mind depending on the passion- how much time will it take? How much will it cost us? I don't have a lot of extra to pay for related activities. Or maybe you are simply thinking you don't know how to go about it or what resources there are for your child's interest.

The first thing to do is relax! Then start thinking out-of-the-box.Whether it's a new interest that you want to explore or a long time interest that you want to expand, the first thing I look to do is to see how I can provide more opportunities at home. My motto is: Always try the basics at home and see how the interest grows. From there you can decide how you want to increase exposure and experiences. This is a great way to identify a passion as well- without it costing a lot of money.

I'd like to throw in a word of caution here and it's one I'll be talking more about during this series starting tomorrow. Be guarded about outsourcing (external classes, lessons, and group meetings, etc) the filling of a child's passion. There will be times when this is appropriate, but it's important to remember that outsourcing  instruction and experience can cost time and money.

Part of the goal we have as we pour into our children's passions is to invest in their individual interests without overextending the family, which includes the time spent on an activity. We must fiercely protect the time we want to devote to our children's passions.

Rather than sharing how we do this all at once today, I'm going to break it down into a few posts during the series. For today, I'd like to encourage you to leave behind the notion that the best way to fuel a passion is to outsource the mentoring for it- in whatever form that might be for you. Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about Pouring into the Passion at Home- how to find ways to invest in your child's interest without leaving home. In other words, the details and practical ideas on how to do that! 

So, start thinking on how you might increase exposure and interest to your kids' interest if you had to stay home and do it. Then come back tomorrow and I'll give you some tools for your mama toolbox and share how we have done it here. Feel free to comment with ideas you already have!

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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Identifying the Passion

My guess is that many of us would love to pour into a child's passion, but where do you start? The first thing I want to encourage you to do is to identify your child's passion. From there, we can explore ways to invest in that passion. So, how do you know what your child is passionate about? Essentially, it boils down to spending time with your children and being very observant about who they are and how they interact with the world around them. 

If your children are older, you likely have a good idea of what they enjoy. That doesn't mean you've identified a clear interest or orientation to one particular thing. If they are old enough, you can always ask!

Younger children may still be developing their passion, but it will show up. Observe your children and see if something stands out. I highly recommend the book, How Am I Smart: A Parent's Guide to Multiple Intelligences by Kathy Koch. Based on the research of Howard Gardener on Multiple Intelligences (takes me back to my days in graduate school), Dr. Kathy breaks the theory down and helps parents see their children in a whole new light. You'll learn about the 8 types of intelligence and how your child behaves based on the various kinds of smart (and you'll see glimpses of yourself as well!). The author really helps parents (and kids) understand who they are. For us as homeschoolers, knowing about the different types of smart is an essential tool in knowing the best way to educate our children- this goes beyond the three familiar learning styles and makes it much easier to see strengths and things to work on. You'll also learn how smarts can be awakened and can go dormant as a result of our experiences. 

I'll add here that Dr. Kathy comes from a faith based view and gives parents encouragement on parenting the children we have, not the ones we wish we had! This one statement helps to fuel our own passion in raising our children to be who God ordained them to be! And out of this is born our desire to pour into them based on who they are. I want to help our children to be good stewards of the talents He has given them. So, be an observer of your children and remember that negative behavior (in all of us) is usually the result of an unfocused strength. I'll let you all think about that one!

We have four children ranging from 13 to 6 and they have distinct interests and abilities. I'll be sharing about our children and their passions in this series along with what we've done to fan the flame and really develop a skill and talent.

Some questions to ask yourself as you seek to identify the passion:

• What is your child interested in?
• What is she good at?
• What does your child do in his spare time?
• What would he spend his money on if he had some?
• What does he like to talk about?
• Ask her! (this works well if they are older kids)

Sometimes it won't be you who discovers a hidden talent in your children. While I always knew that my 11 (almost 12) year old daughter is extremely kinesthetic, I did not know how much she would love sewing. Yet, it only took one week at her grandparent's house and a sewing project with Grandma (Hi, Grandma!) to awaken a love for the sewing machine at 8 years old! If you are a new reader, then you are in for a treat on how we pour into our daughter's passion for sewing.

In summary, one of the best things we can do for our kids is to learn what makes their heart sing and to pursue that with our time and resources- rather than every little thing that comes along.  

Tomorrow I'll be discussing the issue of outsourcing the resources for filling the passion vs lower cost venues- advantages and disadvantages and how to think creatively about pouring into the passion in a low cost manner.

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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

 

10 Days of Pouring into Your Child's Passion: Overview

Have you ever really thought about what makes your child's heart sing? I bet if you thought about it, you could name the thing that would do it. For each of your kids. Isn't it delightful when you can capture it easily enough and share it with your child? 

One of the things I think is important as a parent is to engage our children often enough that we really know what they are passionate about. How do you know? How do you find out? Does it require expensive lessons and lots of venues for trying out lots of things? No, I don’t really think so. I think the resource it requires the most of is our time as parents. When we invest time in our children, it’s easy to figure out what brings them joy. 

My contribution to the 10 Days series this spring is how to Pour into Your Child's Passion. This is a topic near and dear to my heart here at Blog, She Wrote and I hope as I share you will find inspiration for your homeschool.

Some of the topics I will address over the next 10 Days are:

• Identifying the Passion
• Outsourcing and Cost
• Pouring into the Passion at Home
• Leaving Behind Convention
• Using Adventure Boxes to Fuel the Passion
• Who Can Help?
• Look for Opportunities
• Pouring into the Passion within your Homeschool
• Owning the Passion

Although, this topic may sound similar to capitalizing on curiosity in a delight directed schooling sort of way, my focus will be on pouring into a passion at a time and in such a way as to carry our children long into their teen years and to help them to center in on a vocation and/or long term interest. 

I will address ways to ignite the passion and help to sustain it as part of the homeschooling for your children. My desire is to stir your imagination so you can begin to think of ways to encourage your children and to equip them with the skills, knowledge, and experience to pursue their passion.

I hope you'll return tomorrow for a daily dose of Pouring into Your Child's Passion!



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The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

.............................................

Artist Study March- van Gogh

I've really been enjoying the book Literature for Lively Lessons since I acquired it from Paperback Swap sometime last year. I love the list of famous birthdays which include authors and illustrators among others. I used it to put together some craft kits for R11 and I've found useful for choosing some artist study themes.

You may or may not remember that we have a year round pencil shaped evergreen tree in our dining room and I like to change it out for the seasons. Although, with the house on the market, I really thought it was time to make sure folks knew it was not a Christmas tree we'd been too lazy to take down. Or...that I really like the tree and it totally makes that corner of the room. And if all else fails, hopefully their imagination will remind them it won't be there when they move in! So, I decided it was the perfect place to share art prints and biographical information about our artist of the month!

I used some van Gogh prints on stickers to make cards for the tree.

Along with the prints and fact cards, I decided a project to go along with the artist would be fabulous! We've been doing this toward the end of the month that the artist is feature and we talked about the prints and the artist while doing the project. It was a great follow up to some purposeful placement learning!

Two family favorites!

We did this one years ago and I thought it would be fun to revisit it.

Plenty of information to go round as the kids worked and I read and shared.

van Gogh liked to work with a thick paint call impasto. He used to apply paint to his paintings by using a knife and scraping it on. To make our impasto, we put craft glue in with the paint. There are recipes to make it with a thickening powder like cornstarch or flour as well and I'd like to try that next time. The book pictured above, Discovering Great Artists, is a great resource for trying out various techniques of famous artists. We also like Storybook Art which focuses on children's book illustrators.

Making impasto

We started with drawings...

The answer to your question is no. Coffee filters do NOT work for this task. Don't try this at home.

Love our BioColor paints from Discount School Supply- it's time to restock a few colors.

The thick paint lets you put texture in your painting. R11 really liked playing with the texture.

Lots of colorful results!

J6 really liked the swirls.

Once the paintings were dry, which took half the day outside in the breezy spring air, I put them in the art gallery frames in the dining room. They sure are bright and cheerful!

Our current artist of the month is Garth Williams- the beloved children's book illustrator. His work is very fun on our tree and he led a really interesting life! Stay tuned for our report on his project (which is yet to occur).