Kindergarten Clarifications

The holidays are over, and with it goes all my excuses for not finding the time to elaborate on what we actually do for Kindergarten.  If you've read the lesson plans, you'll find that they have lots of very interesting titles of activities with no explanation of what they are.  Thankfully...most of the time...they mean something to me, so allow me to clarify!

Wise Guide / SWR = Spell to Write and Read : I use this for both my kids as our phonics/spelling instruction.  If you purchase the Wise Guide book or the SWR kit, you can follow along with the sections and most of the activity titles that I've posted on my guides.  Some of the activities I made up myself or downloaded from www.teacherspayteachers.com.

                                           

       



Handwriting Workbook : I've found that determining proper handwriting is a very personal experience that prevents universal agreement.  I realize that this might be a shock, but I am not a fan of the newly updated instruction on print letter formation called single stroke. I believe that the original instruction on letter formation (a.k.a. the way we were taught to form letters when we were kids) is the best.  I have no fancy reasoning to support this, or any statistics to prove my point, but I just think a general return to the quality of the past is better for us all!  With that said, we use A Reason For Handwriting.  It's basic, cheap and we especially love to color the pictures for each letter!

Rod and Staff Workbook : I think I've mentioned this before, but I have really come to appreciate Rod and Staff for their stripped-down, no-fluff workbooks.  All the new tricks and convoluted processes that you find in modern education (have you taken a good look at common core?!?) do not exist in these workbooks!  It does require extra explanations for some of the pictures and words of obsolete items like a butter-churn or the name Dick.  We use the Grade 1 reading and phonics workbooks only (reading during our reading block and phonics during our handwriting/Wise Guide block).

Math = Saxon : While I usually don't promote the idea of pushing ahead grade levels in the Grammar Stage of the Trivium, Saxon is the exception.  Saxon K is a wonderful book to use with 4 yr. olds, and even Saxon 1 has been a little slow for a second born who's spent the last year joining in with her brother on Saxon 2.  Our lessons correlate with Saxon 1.

History/Reading (and sometimes Handwriting) = Phonics By the Book : This will probably bring the most clarity to the Kindergarten lesson plans!  As I mentioned above, I download a lot of free activities, clip art, and in this case, phonics curriculum from www.teacherspayteachers.com.  This is a wonderful website for homeschooling.  If you haven't been there before, prepare to have your mind blown!  If you type "phonics by the book" in the search bar, you'll find the different units with all the activities to download for free.  Each unit comes with it's own map, but I really only wanted to focus on the reading/phonics activities so I plugged in the activities I liked and dumped the rest.  You can also go to www.thisreadingmama.com to download all the units.  She hasn't completed all the units yet, so after Samuel I've had to create my own "little words", "cut and paste Bible verses", etc. which I will try to upload soon!

 

You'll also notice that the second semester maps will have Monday blanked out.  We've decided to adopt a 4 day school week so the kids can do some activities with the homeschool group in town.  So now our Mondays are full of P.E., music, art and science.  Not a bad trade!

Some Fun Things I've Found

It's not all seriousness around here! We actually have more fun than work, to be honest.  Here are a few of the fun things I've found to supplement our schoolwork.

Christianbook.com has some amazing books and curriculum...almost too many for one person to fully explore.  Among other things, I found these great literature workbooks, "Bringing the Classics to Life", that shorten classics into manageable readers with comprehension questions.  Brody just read The Jungle Book to go along with our study of Medieval India.

Rod and Staff has excellent reading and phonics workbooks and easy readers that use conservative, biblical values.  That is hard to find these days in education!  I rely on these to keep my kindergartener busy while I work with my second grader. (Hand-drawn airplane not included!)

Did you know that you can request books that your local library doesn't carry?  We requested a book called How the Bible Came to Us, and it was sent from a library all the way in Nebraska!  When Scott asked the kids to explain how the Bible came to us, my second grader answered, "From Nebraska!" :)

This pic is a little blurry, but football season has created an inspirational moment in our school day.  Using puzzle pieces from a map of the U.S., my son has drawn the entire country sectioned off into college football divisions.  Not really relevent to our medieval studies, but extra points on our U.S. geography!

A Lesson in Culture Through the World of Richard Scarry

My daughter checked out a Richard Scarry book from the library yesterday, which was a welcomed relief after countless (and mindless) Barbie princess books!  As we began to read through the book I simply had to stop and check the copyright date.  Just as I suspected, it was compiled (or should I say systematically dismembered of any soul or virtue) in 1994.  In order to explain what is clearly a visceral response, allow me to step back and give you some background into our relationship with Richard Scarry.

When my son was about 18 months old, his favorite book in the whole wide world was what he called "The Oh Bow Oh Wow Book"...more commonly known as Richard Scarry's Silly Stories (1978).  The stories were so clever and full of interesting phrases.  For what they lacked in educational content (unless you consider instructing hobos not to eat soap educational), they made up for in imaginative and relational stimulation.  Will Brambles the warthog make a good first impression on Hilda the hippo by combing his hair and showing her his favorite ball of string?  How hospitable of Mama Bear to bake a cake for the three hobos that came into her house through the window!  Will Baron Von Crow and Dingo Dog ever learn that their competition is at the expense of those around them as well as their own safety?  When will everyone learn that Mr. Fix-it Fox only makes matters worse?!  There was never an instruction of colors or numbers, nor any direct, academic instruction on anything.  They were silly stories written to stimulate imagination...the primary type of educational content that young children need.

He wrote several other books that are among our favorites of all time.  Cars and Trucks and Things That Go has very little plot other than following the pig family through various (ridiculous) settings and trying to spot Goldbug along with hundreds of other unique cars/driving scenarios.  What Do People Do All Day was a great educational look at different jobs and where things come from.  Much like "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" they take interesting subject matter and fill it with clever vocabulary and silly, imaginary fluff to stimulate childhood thought.

So flash forward 30+ years to our latest library find.  Same topics, same pictures, but page after page of stripped down, soulless content.  I took some pics comparing the differences...take out your magnifying lense and see if you can catch them...

Here is the original story from the late 1960's (notice the story developed through clever imagination...
It was under his hat the whole time! I wonder if my postman sits on a rocking chair on his truck?)

Here's the stripped down, "just the facts" version of today...VERY informational!

"This is an ambulance"...uh, ok. Next page please!

"Abby saw her mommy arriving in the ambulance...she must be in a hurry to see her."...

same information delivered very differently.

These are just 2 examples of the many differences I found.  Now, in the grand scheme of of life, is this a major issue?  Of course not!  But much like an ice berg, this is just the trivial little part that is visible.  Underneath, lies a massive obstruction that seeks to impede imaginative and inter relational thought from the formative years of human development.  In other words, let's focus on colors, numbers and ABC's at the expense of imagination and relational character development so that our youth will grow up allowing others ("the intellectuals") to dictate proper thinking and relating for them.   Remember, this book was compiled in 1994, so we're 20 years down the road already.  Do you see anything in modern, childhood development (books, T.V. shows, schooling) to prove me wrong?

P.S.  We are still HUGE fans of Richard Scarry!!  Just make sure you check the copyright date! :)

Words to School By

I read this devotional today and it really encouraged me as I'm beginning to panic with our start date looming!  I often get caught up in the academic whirlwind around me, and forget what I'm really trying to accomplish with my kids.  This was a nice reminder!

"Today people are known by what they do, not who they are...There is no doubt that if you brag on your children because of what they do, you ensure that you will be known by your vocation rather than who you are."                       
 -Walt Henrichsen, Warnings for a People Not Listening to God (Day 218)

Post Modern Education and Why I Homeschool My Kids

    There are many reasons I never put in/pulled my kid out of school.  Safety, peer influences, genetic inability to sit at a desk for long amounts of time... they all make the list, but the main reason I chose to keep them home has to do with the educational shift in our post modern culture.  It came on us fairly quickly and subtlety, but spend 5 minutes watching a children's television program, or add up how many hours a week your child spends doing schoolwork and it's obvious things have dramatically changed from when we were kids.  In order to fully understand the repercussions of this shift, we must understand the purpose of education, the times in which we live, and how the two overlap.

Education at its core is the process by which an immature human being gradually becomes a recipient of and participant in the world around him through the cultivation of preferred skills, knowledge and values. *  The determination of these skills, knowledge and values are based on assumptions about the nature of the universe, human beings, and "good"...also known as philosophy.  (One last point before you doze off, I promise!)  There are 4 main areas of philosophy that directly affect education: metaphysics (the study of nature and ultimate reality), epistemology (the theory of knowledge/knowing), axiology (ethical and aesthetic "good"), and logic (rules and patterns of correct thinking). *

Ok...so why am I forcing you into a coma by telling you this?  Because the answers to questions like...Is reality spiritual or natural? (Metaphysics)...What is truth and who gets to define it? (Epistemology)...Is "good/right" rooted in the universe itself or relative depending on particular situations? (Axiology)...Are there rules that correctly frame our propositions and arguments? (Logic)...determine the purpose and function of education.  As believers in a post-modern world, we know that our answers to these questions differ greatly from the rest of society, but how and why?

There was a time when our society used education to answer those questions with a biblical worldview, but post-modern society no longer views the world as the means to an objectively good end.  Instead, our goal has become the transformation of the here-and-now into a peaceful, tolerant utopia.  Citizens of this utopia do not need morals to restrain their evil nature, but simply need information to combat ignorance.  Thus the transformation of education around the worldview of a 20th century philosopher named John Dewey, who viewed a hybrid pragmatic/progressive approach as the only way to achieve societal utopia.  In a nutshell, truth can no longer originate from an authority independent of human experience, and it is no longer the unchanging, absolute path to "good".  Truth is now derived from human experience (pragmatism), and it must progress/change along with those experiences in order to improve and perfect our human environment (progressivism).  This redefinition of truth shifted education from a "restricted view" (less time in school - more time learning morals at home) to a "broad view" of education, which is framed by the following:

1.     Morals and values presuppose that truth is absolute, and when people don’t agree on what those absolutes should be, conflict arises.  Therefore, the best way to prevent conflict and produce utopia is to remove the absolutes altogether and replace them with academic content.

2.     Because of the emphasis of academics over morals, formal education (a.k.a. school) is responsible for all learner experiences as only schools/teachers are “qualified” to instruct learners.  Parents cannot objectively direct students to experience and progress their own environment without imposing their own "experiences/environments" (morals and values) on the learner.

3.     These "external limitations" of the home stifle progress and growth of the learner by creating conflict and inequality (imposing morals rather than letting experience dictate right/wrong).     

4.     Liberation of the learner to "problem-solve" conflicts with solely academic tools will result in peace, equality, and environmental perfection for all.

5.     An increase of time at school (or at home doing academic schoolwork) acquiring as many academic tools as early as possible should replace the informal time spent at home where "external limitations" lurk around every parent/child interaction.*

   This is not a doomsday prediction.  This is post-modern education at its finest...today!!  This is why you believe you are not qualified to teach your own children.  This is why your child will never survive kindergarten if he doesn't attend preschool everyday from the time he's 3.  This is why your kindergartener will come home with at least an hour of homework every night after spending hours at a time sitting at a desk in school all day.  This is why you can only find children's shows that teach academic content or environmental morals like recycling and celebrating differences.  Gone are the days when we taught our kids courage under persecution, standing up for what is right even if it's hard, putting others before yourself and treating them with respect and kindness even when they don't return the favor rather than celebrating how wonderfully different we all are.  This is why our babies are walking into schools with guns...and this is why my babies, at least for now, will not step foot in one.

*The content preceding the asterisks come from the book Philosophical and Ideological Perspectives on Education by Gerald Gutek.  If you are at all interested in a non-biased look at the development of education throughout history, and you enjoy reading dull textbooks for fun like me, I would highly recommend this book!

What the Heck Is Doulos Academy?!?

Welcome to my new world of homeschooling!  As you can see, I moved on from the realm of preschool and I've ventured into the Grammar Stage of the Trivium.  For all you non-classical folks, I intend to add a link to the right with a brief explanation of my approach to classical education that also includes an explanation of the Trivium.

But what the heck is Doulos Academy and what does is have to do with my homeschooling?  Well, I like to imagine that my time spent educating my kids is an actual school, and every school needs a name!  Doulos is the Greek word for "bond-servant" which is so much more than just a loyal slave.  It is an attitude and act of complete surrender of your will to becoming the will of your master.  As the verse above explains, we were doulos of sin before Christ died and gave us the freedom to become doulos of Him.  And that is really what I am trying to accomplish by homeschooling my kids.  I don't share the post-modern agenda of education that stresses hours and hours of academic instruction for the acquisition of as much academic content as possible while their brains are young and malleable.  I want my kids to gain knowledge that they can apply in order to become a doulos.  As Walt Henrichsen once wrote:

“Knowledge has no intrinsic worth, but rather must be used in pursuit of truth.  Knowledge may be a part of truth, but is worthless apart from truth.  If not careful, the quest for knowledge can be a guise of idolatry, producing arrogance rather than humility.  When you make knowledge an end in itself, it is destructive of truth.  Truth always has as its goal application.”

So welcome to Doulos Academy where you will find a list of all the books we use along with all my weekly lesson plans attached (eventually) to the right.  And if you still don't quite understand the point of Doulos Academy, allow me to flesh out its inception more thoroughly in my next post.