It truly has been a great start to the whole home school experience. Admittedly it has been hard work and I am yet to achieve a reasonable balance between 'work', 'home school' and my other relationships/commitments. Frankly I have been stretched, a little bit stressed, tired, and generally not on top of things I consider important. I have allowed home school to take priority over the last 2 weeks, which in some sense was expected, but I simply can't continue with that kind of routine - i.e. it's taking too much time. What's made things harder is there has been other extra 'stuff' that has also had to be covered off these last two weeks, which has also involved extra time and commitment. I have a daughter in Year 9 who has needed extra assistance, plus another in Year 11 who had parent-teacher interviews this week and various issues there, so... there's just been a lot happening and I really am looking forward to striking a better balance next week. In terms of home school hours, I suppose JT is at it for about 6 hours a day, of which I have been involved alongside him for about half of those hours. His key subject areas are Maths (we would do about an hour and half a day on Maths), Spelling and reading-writing-comprehension-reporting. As well as these core areas we have also enjoyed going for a surf most days - short, but very enjoyable, and also watching 'Gallipolli'.
JT has been reading a fair bit and then completes a book review on what he reads. Today I asked him for a brief paragraph report on one book. He then spent 2 hours on doing a full on powerpoint presentation on the key themes of the book and more. It was a lot more than what I asked for or expected and it was nice not to ring the bell to make him stop.
Other activities that used to be regarded as 'extra curricular' e.g drums and soccer, are now regarded as part of the whole home school experience which I think is really healthy. His drum practice is much more regular and he is improving heaps.
So, alls good - except I just need to find those routines that are going to make it feasible to work well as well as teach well, because that's just not working how it needs to at the moment. The reward is worth the challenge that the experience provides.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
RESPONSE TO COMMENT
In home schooling my son I hope to invest in my relationship with him as his father. That's probably my number one, 'what do i hope to get out of it'. Prior to home schooling we already spent a reasonable amount of daily time together, but I wanted a season where I was with him for the majority of the time. I went to the funeral of a friend's dad in October last year. All of the sons spoke very highly of their dad. One son spoke of the time his father was retrenched from work and by default ended up being home a lot. For the young son (I think he was about 14 at the time), this created a new found opportunity to spend extended times with his dad for which he was now so grateful for. That stirred me more to think about the legacy of memories and experiences I was giving my son and what opportunity I could create to invest in the relationship in a way that he (and I) will never forget.
But how will I cope if JT loves this approach and doesn't want to go back to conventional school? Good question. I guess the honest answer is 'i don't know'. I'm never one to write off possibilities and I wouldn't like to say that he is going back no matter what in 2008 - I can only say, 'that is the plan'. I do have other commitments beyond home school and I am able to balance those over the course of one year, but not sure if I could do that long term. That would need a fresh call and conviction at the end of the year! Thanks for your questions
But how will I cope if JT loves this approach and doesn't want to go back to conventional school? Good question. I guess the honest answer is 'i don't know'. I'm never one to write off possibilities and I wouldn't like to say that he is going back no matter what in 2008 - I can only say, 'that is the plan'. I do have other commitments beyond home school and I am able to balance those over the course of one year, but not sure if I could do that long term. That would need a fresh call and conviction at the end of the year! Thanks for your questions
A COMMENT
This is a cut and paste of a comment from previous blog (I thought it addressed some good questions and so I will respond]:
You speak of the personal growth of JT, but what is it that you hope to get from it? How is that you hope to grow? What drove you to home school? You mentioned you it will be an exercise in extending your personal discipline, but surely it is deeper than that.What of your relationship with JT? How will this be enriched? How will you be enriched as a father?How will you cope if JT loves this new approach? What if the enrichment you seek for him is something he wishes to develop further? You speak of him possibly wanting to go back to school earlier than you anticipated, but what if it is the other way around? Have you thought of that? [anon]
You speak of the personal growth of JT, but what is it that you hope to get from it? How is that you hope to grow? What drove you to home school? You mentioned you it will be an exercise in extending your personal discipline, but surely it is deeper than that.What of your relationship with JT? How will this be enriched? How will you be enriched as a father?How will you cope if JT loves this new approach? What if the enrichment you seek for him is something he wishes to develop further? You speak of him possibly wanting to go back to school earlier than you anticipated, but what if it is the other way around? Have you thought of that? [anon]
Google Blogs are driving me crazy!
Home Schooling is easy, it's accessing my blog that is driving me insane!!!!
After creating 'manly home schooler', i then couldn't access, so i created 'manly home schooling' then couldn't access, but lo and behold I could access 'manly home schooler' !!! So, some more cut and paste and I'm away again - I think I've shaken off any would be followers of my blog and so for the few remaining interested people I hope you enjoy! This is my last chance with google blogs, if you don't see a post for a month then it's because I've given up - and am keeping a private journal instead!
After creating 'manly home schooler', i then couldn't access, so i created 'manly home schooling' then couldn't access, but lo and behold I could access 'manly home schooler' !!! So, some more cut and paste and I'm away again - I think I've shaken off any would be followers of my blog and so for the few remaining interested people I hope you enjoy! This is my last chance with google blogs, if you don't see a post for a month then it's because I've given up - and am keeping a private journal instead!
FIRST DAY A SUCCESS, BUT...
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
First Day a Success, but...
...I have a new found respect for people who home school full time, every year, all their kids, wow...
Doing it for a day is easy, even a week or a month, but the 'what are we doing today Dad?' question, reminded me that I wasn't putting JT on a bus to have someone else do the hard work - it was up to me! I hope I can do a good job, and balance it out with everything else. It will really help me with some personal disciplines. But certainly feeling a sense of call to commit to the journey helps attitudionally.
So yeah, Tuesday went well (yesterday was a public holiday). JT learnt heaps about Anzac Day from various sources and even though I told him he could finish up at 3.00, he was still happily working away on stuff till 3.30. That's what I want to see more of - a passion and interest in learning. He wrote this great diary from Gallipoli and put himself in the role of a Turk. Interesting perspective. He likes reading about war so it wasn't hard to interest him in the topic, but I think hearing real life stories about death and sacrifice brought it home in a new way that war is a horrible thing.
He also keeps a log of what he does throughout the day which seems to work well.
The rain has been great, but the sunshine today made it possible to walk the dog together, which I usually do on my own at about 8.00. So that was nice.
By the way, my blog is saying it is 'wed 25th', but it's actually 'thurs 26th' so there is some issue there with international clock. I'll try to fix it.
Monday, April 23, 2007
First Day today!!
Well, this is a good day to stay inside and have school, eh JT?
It's a beautiful full on raining day here in Manly and so plans for surfing for sport will be postponed, not because it's wet, but because of stormwater run off.
I've got a busy work day today, but I spent a bit of time yesterday planning the week and I thought because it's Anzac Day tomorrow, that JT could use part of the day to complete a project on what Anzac Day is all about. I don't think he knows much about it - so my hope is that by the end today he will know what it is, why we commemorate it, as well as being able to tell me a story about one of the old diggers, where he fought, why and what happened. There should be some articles in today's paper to help with that. Then tomorrow (a public holiday) we will go to one of the Anzac services and that will help to bring the experience of 'Anzac' home even more.
And yeah, we'll get a bit of maths and spelling done too. I found a great listing of the 1000 most popular English words which we will work through as 'spelling lists'.
But it's nearly time for our morning devotion - working through Mark's gospel, so I better run, we've got an 8.00a.m. start.
First Day a Success, but...
...I have a new found respect for people who home school full time, every year, all their kids, wow...
Doing it for a day is easy, even a week or a month, but the 'what are we doing today Dad?' question, reminded me that I wasn't putting JT on a bus to have someone else do the hard work - it was up to me! I hope I can do a good job, and balance it out with everything else. It will really help me with some personal disciplines. But certainly feeling a sense of call to commit to the journey helps attitudionally.
So yeah, Tuesday went well (yesterday was a public holiday). JT learnt heaps about Anzac Day from various sources and even though I told him he could finish up at 3.00, he was still happily working away on stuff till 3.30. That's what I want to see more of - a passion and interest in learning. He wrote this great diary from Gallipoli and put himself in the role of a Turk. Interesting perspective. He likes reading about war so it wasn't hard to interest him in the topic, but I think hearing real life stories about death and sacrifice brought it home in a new way that war is a horrible thing.
He also keeps a log of what he does throughout the day which seems to work well.
The rain has been great, but the sunshine today made it possible to walk the dog together, which I usually do on my own at about 8.00. So that was nice.
By the way, my blog is saying it is 'wed 25th', but it's actually 'thurs 26th' so there is some issue there with international clock. I'll try to fix it.
Monday, April 23, 2007
First Day today!!
Well, this is a good day to stay inside and have school, eh JT?
It's a beautiful full on raining day here in Manly and so plans for surfing for sport will be postponed, not because it's wet, but because of stormwater run off.
I've got a busy work day today, but I spent a bit of time yesterday planning the week and I thought because it's Anzac Day tomorrow, that JT could use part of the day to complete a project on what Anzac Day is all about. I don't think he knows much about it - so my hope is that by the end today he will know what it is, why we commemorate it, as well as being able to tell me a story about one of the old diggers, where he fought, why and what happened. There should be some articles in today's paper to help with that. Then tomorrow (a public holiday) we will go to one of the Anzac services and that will help to bring the experience of 'Anzac' home even more.
And yeah, we'll get a bit of maths and spelling done too. I found a great listing of the 1000 most popular English words which we will work through as 'spelling lists'.
But it's nearly time for our morning devotion - working through Mark's gospel, so I better run, we've got an 8.00a.m. start.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Curriculum Plan + Great Software
I came across this great piece of software (21 day trial) called MindManager that has loads of applications really, but in a situation where teaching ideas are 'coming to me' it allows me to build the curriculum planned for JT in a dynamic way. As ideas come I throw them onto the page, give subjects a relationship to each other (thus, integration across all subjects) and change things around as I choose. It also works as a collapsable tree. I can zoom in on specific areas and break it down to really detailed lesson plans and learning objectives or a I can view it as a high level snapshot. It's great and suits the 'plan as I go' approach that I am taking.
Here's where things are up to so far. This pic doesn't show the details of any specific area:
This is a zoom in on one area:
Here's where things are up to so far. This pic doesn't show the details of any specific area:
This is a zoom in on one area:
Friday, April 6, 2007
The Decision
In February this year I made the decision to start home schooling my son, JT, who is eleven and in year 5 at a local christian school. I will homeschool him between April and November, which will be for three school terms. He will then go back to school in 2008.
The decision to home school my son was one I have thought seriously about for a couple of years and towards the end of last year I felt that the time was right to plan to home school in 2007. I have hopes for how it will go but I expect it to be a journey of both challenges and surprises and so I thought that creating a blog would be a helpful way for me to reflect on the process and also be a way for others close to me and JT to check in to see how it's all going. Perhaps there are others interested in home schooling and education in general who might find it interesting.
Why am I doing this?
Well, I'm NOT doing it because I feel the 'system' has failed JT. It's true, that JT has often said he doesn't like school, but funnily enough he hasn't said that much this year and was actually enjoying school this term. (It's a fantastic school and JT is popular in his class). However, I do think there is a lot to be said for alternative models of education and learning and I came to a place where I felt I needed to give it a shot. The worst that could happen is that the whole experiment fails and JT begs me to put him back in school. I'd rather that, than be sitting around in 5 or 6 years time thinking, 'why didn't I follow that nudge?'
My background (before becoming a church pastor) is as an educator and I have a passion for teaching. I love teaching 'new' things to people. I don't think I would have made a great long term school teacher, but teaching short courses or helping people learn one on one is something I really like. There are loads of successful home schoolers that don't have formal teaching training - but for the record, I have a degree in primary/infants education and also a masters in adult education. What I noticed in doing both those degrees is that the childhood education course taught me how to teach kids in classrooms, whereas the adult education majored on the importance of 'experience' and 'reflection' in education. My belief is that it is not just adults who learn richly in an experience based context, but it is children as well. So I'm thankful for what I was able to learn doing the Masters and so in home schooling I expect to draw on that philosophical base, more than perhaps the 'classroom' model.
I am also a Christian and committed to the example of Jesus. I see in the ministry of Jesus an emphasis on developing disciples through relationship and experience. As a church leader I want to see this take place in the lives of others, but ESPECIALLY I want my own children to grow as disciples. I figured that having some focused time out of the school environment will allow JT to be 'discipled' in aspects of life and faith. As a Christian parent (married to a lovely wife I might add), I also want to take seriously my responsibility to impart to my own kids. The early verses of Deuteronomy 6 have challenged me on this over the years.
My own paid work takes up about 50 hours a week but it also provides a lot of flexibility. I often work from home and so from a logistic point of view I will be near to JT through the process. There will be times where I will be able to take him with me into various work contexts. These will be times for JT to either observe and reflect on whatever it is I am doing, or he will simply bring some work along with him to do. To be honest, I don't know how the balance between work and 'teaching' is going to go - but I am committed, in so far as is possible, to the principle of 'integration' rather than 'compartmentalisation'. There are simply not enough hours in the week to 'add this on' to what I already do. It will have to become 'part of' what I do. As well as my work and family, I have interests in music and soccer coaching. It will be interesting to see how the whole timing thing works out. If necessary I will drop back to 4 days paid work a week.
This post is becoming way too long for a blog - so I better wrap up by saying that I hope that through home schooling my son to extend him in areas where he is strong, solidify areas where he is weak, and introduce him to areas of learning that he wouldn't get at school. Above all, I want to give him a love of learning, and an experience that will provide a strong foundation to every aspect of his later development - spiritually, relationally and academically.
The decision to home school my son was one I have thought seriously about for a couple of years and towards the end of last year I felt that the time was right to plan to home school in 2007. I have hopes for how it will go but I expect it to be a journey of both challenges and surprises and so I thought that creating a blog would be a helpful way for me to reflect on the process and also be a way for others close to me and JT to check in to see how it's all going. Perhaps there are others interested in home schooling and education in general who might find it interesting.
Why am I doing this?
Well, I'm NOT doing it because I feel the 'system' has failed JT. It's true, that JT has often said he doesn't like school, but funnily enough he hasn't said that much this year and was actually enjoying school this term. (It's a fantastic school and JT is popular in his class). However, I do think there is a lot to be said for alternative models of education and learning and I came to a place where I felt I needed to give it a shot. The worst that could happen is that the whole experiment fails and JT begs me to put him back in school. I'd rather that, than be sitting around in 5 or 6 years time thinking, 'why didn't I follow that nudge?'
My background (before becoming a church pastor) is as an educator and I have a passion for teaching. I love teaching 'new' things to people. I don't think I would have made a great long term school teacher, but teaching short courses or helping people learn one on one is something I really like. There are loads of successful home schoolers that don't have formal teaching training - but for the record, I have a degree in primary/infants education and also a masters in adult education. What I noticed in doing both those degrees is that the childhood education course taught me how to teach kids in classrooms, whereas the adult education majored on the importance of 'experience' and 'reflection' in education. My belief is that it is not just adults who learn richly in an experience based context, but it is children as well. So I'm thankful for what I was able to learn doing the Masters and so in home schooling I expect to draw on that philosophical base, more than perhaps the 'classroom' model.
I am also a Christian and committed to the example of Jesus. I see in the ministry of Jesus an emphasis on developing disciples through relationship and experience. As a church leader I want to see this take place in the lives of others, but ESPECIALLY I want my own children to grow as disciples. I figured that having some focused time out of the school environment will allow JT to be 'discipled' in aspects of life and faith. As a Christian parent (married to a lovely wife I might add), I also want to take seriously my responsibility to impart to my own kids. The early verses of Deuteronomy 6 have challenged me on this over the years.
My own paid work takes up about 50 hours a week but it also provides a lot of flexibility. I often work from home and so from a logistic point of view I will be near to JT through the process. There will be times where I will be able to take him with me into various work contexts. These will be times for JT to either observe and reflect on whatever it is I am doing, or he will simply bring some work along with him to do. To be honest, I don't know how the balance between work and 'teaching' is going to go - but I am committed, in so far as is possible, to the principle of 'integration' rather than 'compartmentalisation'. There are simply not enough hours in the week to 'add this on' to what I already do. It will have to become 'part of' what I do. As well as my work and family, I have interests in music and soccer coaching. It will be interesting to see how the whole timing thing works out. If necessary I will drop back to 4 days paid work a week.
This post is becoming way too long for a blog - so I better wrap up by saying that I hope that through home schooling my son to extend him in areas where he is strong, solidify areas where he is weak, and introduce him to areas of learning that he wouldn't get at school. Above all, I want to give him a love of learning, and an experience that will provide a strong foundation to every aspect of his later development - spiritually, relationally and academically.
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