Finding Our Way

Hello again, all. Although I have been absent for a bit, I am back now and wanting to start things off by saying that even though we’re pretty well into the new year, I hope it’s off to a good start for all of you.

One thing I’d like you all to note is that as I share my experiences with you here, I will be speaking of events past and present. I started this blog by talking about how I began the homeschooling journey with, Evie, my oldest child. That was 13 years ago. Now our family is four children strong, with the two younger siblings now having some years of homeschooling under their belts, so to speak. My youngest child is too young to officially begin school, but I plan to homeschool her as well.

Getting back to the early years of homeschooling Evie, when I told the Montessori school staff that I would be homeschooling her for first grade, I was surprised at their reaction. Given their professional training, I expected them to really try to sell me on the idea of putting her in some school, but they actually thought it was wonderful that I’d made such a choice. What I took away from our discussion was that homeschooling can be viewed as something of a natural extension of Montessori education.

In time, I came to see a strong correlation between the two methods in theory. The Montessori method highly emphasizes that every activity a child engages in should have a meaningful purpose. As a direct result of what a child does, they will learn something. The Montessori classroom is set up with materials for the child to explore and manipulate in some way to produce a result. The teacher is a keen observer, taking her cues largely from the child as to what is of most interest to him. The students are also given real-life work to do such as washing dishes, for example. The teacher introduces concepts that will eventually be mastered as a result of the child’s learning what to do with the materials or how to do the work that is assigned. She does not force the concepts on him. In this example, by laying a series of objects out on the floor, the child would be learning what they are, how to handle them, how to lay them out in some kind of order, and how to count them as he lays them out. And by washing dishes, the child is not only performing a basic life skill, but the hand motions used also strengthen the wrists in preparation for handwriting.

All the materials I read and otherwise made use of offered a mind-boggling array of information, but nothing outright told me how to “do” homeschooling. But after really observing Evie--the kinds of activities she gravitated toward, her social interactions, the games and sports she liked, etc.--I decided that while I wanted to maintain a child-led, child-centered philosophy of education, I did not want to recreate a Montessori-style classroom in our home. Although some homeschooling families have an area(s) of their home set up like a classroom, some right down to the ringing of a bell to signify the beginning and end of a class, we needed a relaxed but flexible atmosphere. It had to inspire creativity but be adaptable enough to suit our spontaneous tendencies. No bells or other rigid reminders of when something should begin or end. Rather, we needed to be able to spend, say, extended periods of time concentrating on a certain thing or be ready to pack it all up and take it outside or maybe even on the road. Yes, we were beginning to feel very comfortable with a more fluid structure to our day.

This and similar styles of homeschooling are often referred to as unschooling and there are varying degrees thereof. Some families purchase curriculum, some use very little or none at all. Others have their child(ren) enrolled in an online school while others may combine methods. It really is a matter of observing your child and figuring out their learning style, then crafting an enriching learning environment for them to flourish in. For us, a key element had to be lots of creative freedom. With that as a guiding principle, wherever we found ourselves was a classroom and virtually everything we did provided a learning opportunity.

I recall an occasion when I took Evie on a routine trip to the grocery store. But instead of just zipping through as usual, we took the time to really focus on what was going on in various sections. We were early enough to watch a baker making bread. Evie readily noticed that he was using equipment that was different than what she’d seen me using when I made bread at home. The baker saw us watching and approached us, explaining to Evie that he could leave the loaf whole, the way some customers prefer it, or he could demonstrate how he uses a slicing machine to make it like the bags on the shelves.

Another day, I drove by a building I’d driven by countless times before. It always drew Evie’s attention because there was a huge, rusted, water tower still standing on the property. When she asked yet again what it was, I thought it might be interesting to go inside the building and try to find out. I wasn’t able to get a lot of information out of the person I asked, but what Evie and I were told was that it was used to supply large amounts of water a long time ago before fire hydrants were placed along streets. That gave us a great starting point for further research.

But I think one of the most creative ways I found to facilitate learning was in the way I began to rethink a popular TV show of the 90s that had many parents up in arms. I probably don’t need to even name it for some of you, for who can forget the phenomena of Pokemon?

At that time, "Pokemon," an animated series about animal- and plant-like creatures with mostly element-based powers, was all the rage and it was driving a lot of parents absolutely nuts because their children were becoming obsessed with it. If they weren’t watching the show, they were playing the card game, or wearing some item of clothing with Pokemon characters on it. Pokemon were on cereal boxes, book bags…you get the picture.

Going back to Montessori, I largely agreed with the idea of not encouraging TV viewing (the long and short of that being that particularly during a child’s formative years, they experience periods when their minds are extremely open and receptive to learning, and watching TV does not stimulate much brain activity). On the other hand, I didn’t feel that watching TV was all bad; it depends on the quality and quantity of the programming. Plus, that had always been an issue in our home because my Mom lived with us then and because of Evie’s closeness to her, it was always a challenge to maintain a balance between what I was trying to instill and what was fair to all.

But, now that we were venturing down a path of our own making, I talked it over with my Mom and we decided that there would be a TV time “allowance,” with what we felt was a generous and appropriate selection of programs. "Sesame Street," some shows on "Animal Planet," and "Pokemon" were among those that made the cut.

After learning more about the show and reviewing it, I thought it was okay. But something occurred to me that made me realize the show actually had a very strong educational quality to it. In the series, the human characters would go an adventures and encounter various Pokemon. They would capture then train the Pokemon so the they would evolve into higher, more powerful forms and raise the status of the trainer.

I don’t think I knew a kid who watched the show that didn’t collect Pokemon cards. Whether they did or not, to know the Pokemon was to know all their qualities, which were detailed on some cards. For example, one card describing a flower pokemon reads “A carnivorous Pokemon that traps and eats bugs. It uses its root feet to soak up needed moisture.” In its description of a rock snake pokemon, another card reads “As it grows, the stone portions of its body harden to become similar to a diamond, though colored black.”

So…let’s see. We’re talking principles of evolution and terms and processes such as being carnivorous, absorption, and stones hardening and becoming similar to black diamonds? Any of this sound scientific to you?

For us, the Pokemon craze created a win-win. And the beauty of it was the “work” had already been done: nothing to point out, take notes on, or try to create lessons around. Whether just following the show, playing the games, or trading cards, all this scientific knowledge was coming across in a way that was bright, engaging and sure to be retained. Winning!

I certainly didn’t depend on it as a sole source for science education, but it definitely helped.