Summer slide

You’ve heard, no doubt, about summer “learning loss.” Summer slide is the reason every school year begins with review of skills mastered the year before. As a teacher, I don’t fret about so-called learning loss because if a student has truly mastered academic skills, he or she will recall them when book learning begins. For homeschoolers and others, summer presents the perfect opportunity to introduce academic subjects in a fun way. It’s a time for field trips, outdoor exploration and special projects. If your family has the money, you could invest in enrichment classes, but if you’re looking to cut back on spending, as I am, focus on freebies:

1) Check out programs at your local library. Public libraries often offer free reading programs, as well as other activities, in the summer.

2) Investigate volunteer opportunities. Community and cultural organizations often seek free help, and this provides an opportunity for your teen or pre-teen to do some service learning. Examples: a local hospital seeks teens to deliver mail and flowers to patients; an outdoor museum seeks “junior naturalists” to assist with children’s programs; a community theatre seeks help with ushering, putting up posters and creating sets; a local child-care center seeks volunteers to read and play with children.

3) Consider entering projects in your county fair. If you live in a rural area, check out the myriad opportunities to exhibit items at the county fair. Your state university extension service can provide more information. There’s no charge to enter items at our county fair, and for exhibiting, we gain free admission: a $30 savings. The county fair offers children the opportunity to exhibit in a variety of areas (and maybe even to win a ribbon!): from arts and crafts to science projects. We’ve seen some amazing work by youngsters over the years in the areas of quilting, floral arranging, baking, woodworking and more.

4) Focus on health. Summer is a great time to cover subjects in the health curriculum: skin cancer prevention, thunderstorm safety, water safety, bicycle safety, good nutrition, benefits of exercise and more.

5) Attend free concerts. Many communities offer free outdoor concerts in the summer. Check your local newspaper for listings. Allegra and I recently attended a free indoor piano concert and lecture on ragtime, blues and jazz. It was educational and fun.

6) Looking to get rid of unwanted possessions? Stage a yard sale and enlist your children to help. They will learn how to price items, keep an inventory, display merchandise, interact with the public and handle money. For a simple math lesson, teach them how to add up the cost of merchandise and to make change. Promise them a percentage of the profits and let them figure out how much that will be.

7) Get together with other homeschoolers or neighbors to stage a Great American Bake Sale to end hunger in America. Visit http://www.strength.org/. Baking is kitchen chemistry. It also teaches math (proportion and measurement). As with a yard sale, children will learn to interact with the public and to use everyday math skills. But they will also learn to help others in need.

8) Play board games that reinforce academic skills: card games that require math such as cribbage, word games such as Scrabble and history/geography games such as Great States. The whole family can join in the fun of learning.

End-of-year evaluation

At the end of the academic year, the local school district requires homeschoolers to present evidence of what they’ve accomplished during the academic year. Otherwise, there is no oversight: At no other time during the school year does the district request progress reports. For our end-of-year evaluation, we submitted a box containing folders of important work (essays, lab reports, tests, researched papers) from every class, as well as a large art portfolio containing special projects. Allegra took digital pictures of 3-D projects too cumbersome to transport, such as her small-scale models of a Roman aqueduct and a Greek temple. We also provided a separate folder with standardized test results. When I called the school district to ask about procedure for end-of-the-year evaluation, the secretary for the director of teaching and learning instructed us to “drop off” work samples at the office at our convenience. Once we arrived, she called out the director to meet with us. At a glance, the director of teaching and learning determined Allegra had met the district’s educational requirements. But, to her credit, she spent about 30 minutes talking with Allegra about her homeschooling experience. I sensed we submitted too much material when she advised us to bring only “showcase pieces” to next year’s evaluation. I left the evaluation feeling it would be too easy for homeschoolers to neglect their education.

Allegra's take: After my talk with the director of teaching and learning, I, too, felt that I could have presented her with nothing but a poster, an essay, and a test and she would have believed that I had been properly educated. Homeschoolers (or, in this case, half-schoolers or unschoolers) could easily do nothing throughout the year but create those “showcase pieces” and still be approved.

However, those homeschoolers who have been genuinely teaching and learning have to deal with the predjudices of those who have witnessed the Unschooled. Often, officials make assumptions; for example, our director of teaching and learning informed us that we should put emphasis on math and science and blend English/Language Arts with those subjects, when, in fact, we were already doing just that. One look through my math and science folders would have proved this.

The key for evaluations is to strike the right balance. If you specifically present several showcase pieces but also have a few folders on hand to show that you did actually work, your evaluation will be a complete success.

Reading for fun

Allegra writes: My sixth-grade English teacher made reading a strict and laborious affair: we were told to read what was “on the list” (even though this list did not necessarily correspond with the state and national requirements). If we were reading something not listed on this seemingly random collection of works, we were urged to either read it on our own time or not at all.

Reading in and out of school, or homeschool, in this case, shouldn’t have to be like this. When selecting books for the teacher/parent and student to read together, try to find books within the requirements that your child is interested in. For example, if your student likes wilderness adventure stories, choose something by Jack London to read together. If he or she is interested in the medieval world of knights and dames, pick up Howard Pyle’s The Story of King Arthur and His Knights.

For individualized reading (the student reading alone outside of “school”), let the student read what he or she likes. However, you should encourage your child to read a few things from the list provided in state curriculum frameworks.

A note to students: All of the dusty old classics listed in the state requirements may not appeal to you. That’s okay. Your parent/teacher will probably be familiar with some of them, so ask your mom or dad about books you might enjoy.

Outside of the classics, there’s plenty to read. Many contemporary, up-to-date retellings of myths, legends and fairy tales are available. Here are some of my favorites:

· Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine-- This is a retelling of “Cinderella” and is also a winner of the Newbury Medal.
· Fairest by Gail Carson Levine-- A complex and absorbing retelling of “Snow White” by the author of Ella Enchanted.
· The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler-- A quick and fun retelling of the fairy tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”
· The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale-- One of my all-time favorites, this is a retelling of the fairy tale by the same name.
· Rapunzel’s Revenge and Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale-- This pair of graphic novels tells the rewritten tale of Rapunzel and Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
· Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan-- A fast-paced and humorous collection of adventure stories based on Greek and Roman mythology.
· Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman-- This little yarn isn’t strictly a retelling of mythology, but it incorporates many characters and events from Norse legend.
· The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White--This book is an older but entertaining tale of the legendary King Arthur’s life before he was crowned.
· I am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer-- This retelling of Arthurian legend gives the villain’s side of the story.

Helpful sites

The two extremes of the homeschooling spectrum--with fundamentalist Christians on the right and the freewheeling Unschooled on the left--seem to be well represented online. But what if you, like Buddha, choose the Middle Way? It’s like the road not taken, to borrow from Frost.

The Home School Legal Defense Association website (http://www.hslda.org/) is loaded with useful information. A nonprofit advocacy organization established to protect the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children, HSLDA provides information about homeschooling laws, posts the latest homeschooling news and offers advice on how to get started. This is a great place to begin.

For those of you seeking homeschooling help for the upper grades (primarily 9 through 12), check out http://www.brightstorm.com/. Founder and CEO Jeff Marshall is a former math, English and Spanish teacher and a graduate of Brown’s MAT program. A classmate of mine, Jeff is a phenomenally bright, caring, innovative and dynamic teacher. After working for several years in public schools and then in business, Jeff launched Brightstorm in 2008. Through free online videos, Brightstorm offers registered users instruction in a variety of subjects, from algebra to US History. Full courses are available for purchase. Some subjects, like pre-algebra and Grammar Time, are appropriate for middle schoolers. It’s an exciting, accessible e-learning platform.

Middle school reading list

The dental hygienist looked doubtful when my daughter, then 12, informed her that she was studying fairy tales in home school: fairy tales at 12? Absolutely! Anyone who has read Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment (1977) understands the importance of fairy tales to children, especially adolescents. They address subconscious anxieties about growing into adulthood. In fact, fairy tales are listed among the recommended reading selections for grades 5 through 8 in the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.

Your state Department of Education likely provides a list of recommended reading according to grade level. Begin with your child’s interests before consulting the list. Last summer, Allegra expressed an interest in reading Edgar Allan Poe, Greek mythology, Homer’s Odyssey and the legend of King Arthur. These selections formed the basis of our 2010-2011 reading list, which includes many literary works suggested by the state curriculum frameworks:

Poetry:
A survey including the works of Anne Bradstreet, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Phillis Wheatley, John Greenleaf Whittier

Short stories:
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” “The Story of the Bad Little Boy” and “A Fable” by Mark Twain
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
“Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving

Plays:
“Electra” by Sophocles
Attended productions of “Once upon a Mattress” (comedic retelling of the “Princess and the Pea”) and “A Christmas Carol”

Other works:
Selected Grimm’s fairy tales and contemporary fairy-tale retellings:
“Cinderella” and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
“Snow White” and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
“The Goose Girl” and The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
“Maid Maleen” and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
“The Princess and the Pea” by Hans Christian Andersen
Aesop’s fables
Greek, Roman and Norse myths; compared Greek myths to contemporary Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
Homer’s Odyssey (Padraic Colum version)
Native American mythology: The Children of the Morning Light by Manitonquat (Wampanoag legends)
Fairy tales from around the world
Selections from Genesis
St. George and the Dragon
Beowulf
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Freebies

In ordering some books for the next academic year, I noticed a “Free Ideas & Activities” tab on the Carson-Dellosa Publishing website (www.carsondellosa.com). By clicking on the tab, I found some fun materials, mostly for children at the elementary level, no subscription necessary. Colorful packets for Earth Day and for National Poetry Month (both April events) caught my attention as being suitable for middle schoolers.

--Laurie

One-room schoolhouse

You might say I have it easy, teaching just one child. And I probably do. However, I think it would be valuable to have other children in the home “classroom” for exchange of ideas. It is entirely possible to teach children of various ages at home by using the one-room schoolhouse approach. Early primary grades (1 through 3) can be grouped, as can later primary (4 through 6) and middle school (7 through 8 or even 9). The last grade in each group can easily be moved up to the next group. Age-related grades are arbitrary, in my view, and not particularly useful. In reality, children learn at different rates. For example, an 8-year-old might be able to read at a fifth-grade level but lag behind his peers in math. On the other hand, just because a student can read at a very early age does not indicate genius. Albert Einstein struggled with language development in his early years. Obviously, his mind was on other things! Developmental levels are far more important and should be respected. You’ll easily find online, at bookstores and at your local library inexpensive educational materials for kindergarten through grade 8. Finding materials for grades 9 through 12 is more challenging.

'She blinded me with science'

The fun of science lies in the experiments. At the middle school level, science should be about doing. Students need to learn the basics of scientific method, including how to write a lab report. The thought of replicating a science laboratory in the home can be daunting, but rest assured, many experiments at this level can be done easily within the home without specialized equipment.

In accordance with curriculum guidelines, we study concepts in physical science, life science, earth and space science, ecology and technology; then we test these concepts in the “laboratory”: the kitchen/dining area. We’re using the Spectrum Science series by Frank Schaffer Publications. It’s interesting to read, with brief articles on contemporary science topics, but it doesn’t excel at explaining science concepts. The series is aligned to national standards, so you know you’ll be covering curriculum requirements, but you’ll likely find yourself searching for supplementary material. Also by Frank Schaffer Publications, Science up to the Standards by Pam Walker and Elaine Wood offers experiments grouped according to branch of science, but some of the experiments call for specialized lab equipment, like a triple-beam scale. Walker and Wood’s 50 Terrific Science Experiments provides even more inexpensive experiments, easy to do at home without special equipment, but the activities are not grouped by branch of science.

Where can you find supplementary material? Reputable resources include your local library or bookstore and PBS, Discovery and National Geographic online.


Allegra's take: I don’t particularly like Spectrum Science. I find the “read the selection and answer the questions” format boring.

Science up to the Standards and 50 Terrific Science Experiments are much more engaging than the main text. They offer many experiments, though some of the instructions seem flawed: even when we followed the directions to the letter, some experiments were unsuccessful.

Other hands-on activities for science include field trips to locations of interest in the area. I especially enjoyed a trip to a state park to look for evidence of glacial activity.

About socialization

For most students, especially in the upper grades, school’s biggest attraction is the opportunity to socialize. Socialization remains a concern of parents who homeschool because homeschooling can be isolating. The saturated social interaction provided by schools doesn’t necessarily equate to positive interaction, however: witness schools’ increased attention to bullying--cyberbullying, in particular. Most parents would probably be willing to trade quantity for quality when it comes to their children’s social interactions.

Town/city recreation departments, the YMCA, 4-H groups and religious/cultural institutions often provide positive educational and social opportunities for children. To ensure that Allegra socializes with others her age, we enroll her in enrichment classes outside the home. On Wednesdays, she swims with her peers at the YMCA (physical education). She dances on Thursdays (physical education and arts). On Fridays, she takes an art class (fine art) at the local Conservatory. Last fall, she also participated in a youth theater class (language arts/performing arts). These classes serve two purposes: 1) they meet curriculum requirements and 2) they provide an opportunity to connect with other age-group peers.

Allegra's take: These enrichment programs cannot compare to the day-to-day socialization provided in a traditional school environment. On the more positive side, however, the enrichment programs are fun, and I thoroughly enjoy them. We also get much more done in them than we ever did in the public school classes.

Math is money

To borrow from Food Network celebrity Guy Fieri, math is money, as you'll discover when you calculate simple interest:

Interest = principal x rate x time or I = prt

If you haven’t already done so, now is a great time to open a savings account for your child. Use this to highlight studies of calculating interest. Compare interest accrued by keeping money in a regular savings account versus a certificate of deposit. As a result of this exercise, Allegra decided to move money from her passbook savings into a 48-month CD. The difference in interest earned at the end of four years is about $100 at current rates.

This is also a good time to explain how credit cards and loans work. You might develop some exercises demonstrating how much more something costs when interest is factored in. The 100+ Series Standards-Based Math book for grades 7-8 by Harold Torrance offers great exercises in calculating interest, along with other exercises related to national math content standards.
Our main math text is School Specialty Publishing’s Spectrum Math. This text offers brief explanations of mathematical concepts and provides problems for students to solve. Unit tests and answer keys are included. For a more in-depth explanation of math concepts and for historical background on, say, algebra or the Pythagorean theorem, consult Torrance’s 100+ Series Standards-Based Math. These texts will get you through middle school math.

I also love Sue O’Connell’s Math the Write Way, which asks students to verbalize math concepts. O’Connell provides fun exercises requiring students to think, talk and write about math: explaining how they arrive at their answers, justifying their thinking and describing math terms and processes. Good for any student, this approach is especially beneficial to students who believe they are stronger in Language Arts than in math.

Another great book is Creative Problem Solving: Multiple Strategies for the Same Answer by Cindy Barden. As a student, I often arrived at a solution via a different route than the teacher. Unfortunately, most of my teachers seemed to think only one way existed for arriving at a mathematical answer. Consequently, I hated math, even though my ability placed me in the top math classes. And now, déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say, my daughter began experiencing the same problem in public school. I chalk this up to teachers who don't fully grasp math concepts but who are adept at following formulae and problem-solving strategies outlined in teaching manuals. Fortunately, at our homeschool have the added benefit of tapping into the amazing mathematical abilities of my husband, the engineer, who can see every side of a problem. He enjoys Creative Problem Solving. With fun puzzles and brain teasers, this book demonstrates that while there may be only one answer to a problem, there are multiple ways to find it.

Allegra's take: I find our main math text, Spectrum Math, to be rather dull. Its lessons are almost invariably made up of bare-bones equations and conversions, with the occasional page of word problems thrown in. It usually provides only one formula for finding the answer.

I much prefer Creative Problem Solving: Multiple Strategies for the Same Answer. It has fun activities, often presented in “math story” format, that allow students to explore different strategies and find their own personal strengths. The brainteasers offer an entertaining challenge.

Math the Write Way is well thought out and gives a good opportunity to blend subjects. It is very challenging and really makes you think, a quality that most mainstream math texts lack.

Sun studies

Allegra writes: Last week, during the public school spring break, I attended a four-day science workshop on solar energy. This supplemented our home studies in Science & Technology and provided a much-needed break from in-home school.

This program innovatively blended science, art and humanities to create a very well-rounded experience. We discussed how the sun was formed and its importance to Earth, the mythology of the sun, and how we can use the sun in ways other than just collecting its energy through solar panels. We supplemented all of this with hands-on activities, including building and using a solar oven, making “photographs” with shadow-capture paper, and building a spectrograph that reveals the spectrum of colors when pointed at white light.

Workshops such as these can count as both science and art studies. If you take advantage of public school breaks by attending educational programs, you can make homeschooling easier and more meaningful, and maybe even shorten the school year.

Vacations

Christ Church, Oxford, UK

The ability to travel outside of school-vacation weeks is one of the benefits of homeschooling. Take advantage of off-peak travel deals, if you can. Then, during school holidays, consider enrolling your child in one of the many enrichment programs offered by local museums, libraries and other organizations. This week, for example, Allegra is attending a solar-energy workshop for middle-school students, while I am catching up on household chores (and enjoying long coffee breaks). In February, Allegra attended a marine science program. These programs not only enhance your child’s education, but also offer a much-needed change of pace for you and your child.

Allegra's take: We all need a break and a change of scenery once in a while, and vacations and enrichment programs are the perfect way to do it. The programs can also give a chance to see other students your age and end the isolation brought on by homeschooling.

Assessment: How is my child progressing?

Every homeschool parent wonders if his or her child is “keeping up” with peers in formal school settings. How do you know if your child is learning what society expects of children at a particular grade level? Many of the educational materials mentioned in previous posts are based on national standards and include tests with answer keys. These will provide you with some measure of your child’s progress. However, the only way to know how your child is stacking up against other students in your state is by administering the state’s standardized test. By law, homeschoolers cannot take these tests during regular test administration because the exams are supposed to serve as a measure of a public school’s performance, not the child’s performance. But, let’s face it, if the child fares well on the state’s standardized test, he or she has obviously mastered what needs to be learned for the grade level. In Massachusetts, copies of the previous year’s tests, along with answer keys, are available on the state Department of Education website. The state even provides copies of actual student-written test essays and shows how they were scored.

Allegra's take: Taking the standardized tests put my mind at ease when I was worrying that I wasn’t keeping up with those in public school. Taking the tests provided in books aligned to standards was handy too.

Learning styles

Visual, auditory, hands-on? What kind of learner is your child?

The types of educational materials you choose and the way in which you coach your child through the learning process will depend on his or her learning style. Is your child a visual (seeing), auditory (hearing) or tactile (touching) learner--or a combination? Ask your child to take a fun test to find out. For ’tweens and teens, I like the downloadable version at http://www.learnmoreindiana.org/. You’ll find it by clicking the “Need to Know” tab and then “Learning Styles.”

Most people are not auditory learners, yet many teachers in secondary education stand in front of the class and lecture, or do “chalk and talk.” With this approach, at least half the class is likely to tune out. Elementary classrooms are generally more successful because they are kinetic. Elementary teachers are adept at accommodating shorter attention spans.

Allegra's take: The “chalk and talk” approach is quite popular in middle schools. While attending public school last year, I would often drift off daydreaming as the teacher stood up and talked. Eventually, I learned to take notes and follow along in the textbook, as I am a visual/tactile learner.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to discover and use your own personal learning style. The quiz linked to earlier in this article was easy and fun, and helped me learn how to better absorb material both while homeschooling and in public schools. I highly recommend the test to all middle and high school students.

Finding materials

You can homeschool inexpensively, but probably not “absolutely free,” as some websites claim. The question arises: Do you want to spend most of your time searching for free stuff, or do you want to homeschool your child efficiently and effectively?

My goal has been to find basic, inexpensive teaching materials that adhere to national educational standards. I have found them online at School Specialty Publishing, which is now part of Carson-Dellosa. I supplement these materials with books from the local public library, online materials from reputable sources, inexpensive books and activity kits from Dover Publications, educational television programs and field trips. Dover is a great resource for inexpensive paperback classics--handy for highlighting and writing in the margins. Oriental Trading offers inexpensive visual aids (bulletin board displays) for teaching parts of speech and basic math and science concepts.

Allegra writes: You don’t need to buy hefty, official-looking textbooks to have an excellent homeschooling experience. All of the resources mentioned above are effective and, yes, even fun! We also keep an eye out for articles related to our studies in newspapers and magazines to keep things up to date.