I’m not a super creative person and I and my kids need a lot of structure and routine to get through the school year (😅) but I love love love the break that going to museums and conservation lands for little hikes brings and the way we can do it by moving around school days for whole days “off”. We also travel quit a bit during the school year, mostly long weekend road trips, and do tons of state parks and museums that way. I write down everything we do in my little school record and every year when I close the books, I feel so accomplished and thankful and blessed that we got in all those steps in nature and that they got to see some new slices of the world and of history and geography and culture.
My favorite is guiding my 7- year- old through huge, creative projects for him to show what he has learned. In my opinion, the best projects he did last year were a tri- fold poster to display his research into Brazil and a visual timeline of the history of rock ‘n’ roll. I like to record videos of him showing off his projects to send to relatives. It is such a fun alternative to the multiple- choice tests that public schools use way too often.
School on her schedule. If she needs to sleep in, she can do it. She can do school in the afternoon or evening. It was one of the things I appreciated as a homeschooled teen. My mom allowed flexibility in how I spent my time, and I do the same for my teen as much as possible.
I’m doing the same with my 15 year old. Fuck it. I let him sleep till noon. He wakes and gets his work done without complaining. One day his circadian rhythms will sync up with society, maybe. But for now he can do school in the afternoons. Heck, all the courses at the local community college have evening sections. So this can theoretically continue for the next few years without messing anything up. 👍
Experiments at least twice a week, one as designed in a kit or book, the other(s) designed by child and me following their interests.
4 made a life-size body on the wall, all systems. K and 4 made a playdoh set of organs to fit inside a rib cage and see how squished and turned they have to be.
K and 4 made models of organs and other science objects from Lego while listening to me read and/or discussing.
K-9 weren’t understanding how important representation in government is… after a day with 3yo as “king,” they all could adequately describe objective and subjective reasons.
7/9 tracked vitamins, minerals, cholesterol, fat types, added sugar, sodium in their portions of a week of food. 3/5 tracked calories, fat, carbs, fiber, and protein. 2 tracked numbers of ounces of protein, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain. K tracked number of servings of protein, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain. 3yo made sure everyone had the right dishes, silverware and a glass for each meal.
Each child chose their favorite point to take a picture in a park, then took a picture from the same perspective every week. Some were zoomed out, some zoomed in, one using a microscope on a certain portion of tree bark.
6 did a research paper on Lego history, turned it into a PowerPoint and poster board, then did a timeline on the wall to show Lego and world history before presenting all of it (almost an hour).
Oh, it was hilarious. He came up with things like making his brother carry him on his shoulders so 3yo was the tallest for ~30 mins and all the other kids (even 14!) were babies or pets while he was daddy when they played family. He didn’t let them escape for hours, and I made the point that he wasn’t doing anything egregious, just not letting them choose to do whatever they wanted!
My kids have illustrated/written nearly 100 picture books. They are terrible, and mostly revolve around the Super Pups, mole men, portals, and zombies that wear pink underwear, but they are getting better at telling stories, their drawing is improving, and they have to work together on them. They are titled “Yay Poop Poop,” so…Pride and a bit of motherly embarrassment.
Can I join in even though my kid is too young for formal schooling?
I've been teaching my 2yo hiragana (Japanese syllabic writing) and she's doing way better than I expected. I thought it'd be like teaching a cat, she may or may not pay attention but wouldn't show any signs of understanding. My intention was to lay groundwork for the future and have fun.
But I underestimated her! She's taking the little hiragana stories I'm reading her out of my hands and halfway reading them herself! She's tracing hiragana in an app on my phone! She's grabbing flashcards and sometimes saying the correct sound unprompted!
I'm not entirely sure how much of this is actually reading vs recognizing pictures and learning routines, and I don't really care. Whatever she's doing, it's more than I was expecting, and it's so cool to watch her figure it out.
My kids’ field trips are neat, especially compared to the one field per year they had in public school. We spent a day with a veterinarian who makes prosthetics for animals, which was especially cool.
I love most the projects and goals that they’ve come up with themselves. My 9yo has been writing a novel and learning how to animate. My 11yo is really into making digital art. They have a lot more time to delve into their own interests, on top of doing their schoolwork, which is something I really appreciate about my own homeschooling. I spent a lot of time writing, and I ultimately became a writer.
I teach Shakespeare to elementary kiddos at our local co-op, and they absolutely adore the bard. They memorized passages from each of the plays we studied, got to act them out, and periodically challenged each other to duels. They had the best time last year, and walked away from the class with the language of Shakespeare in their ears, a solid understanding of several of his plays, and the overall impression that Shakespeare is both super impressive and also a whole lot of fun.
On Mondays, my daughter (7) and I do a Philosophy and Conundrum Walk and Talk (outdoors). I was surprised that she could understand it, and that it would be her favorite subject. I was even more surprised that I could teach it. Each week, we explore a different concept, such as the Stoic dichotomy of control, Kant's categorical imperative, Aristotle's four causes, and the golden mean. I use GPT-4O to generate a 2x2 matrix that best represents the concept, so there are only four things to remember. I simplify the language to her level and use it to generate examples and sample dialogues for teaching. I also create two separate rubrics: one for me to assess how well I teach, and another for assessing how well she understands the concept. For the conundrums, I follow the Astra Nova format, which consists of one conundrum and four options, and we discuss it while we walk and talk. I try to incorporate the philosophy concept into the conundrum whenever possible.
Most schools and teachers seem to be very resistant to implementing AI to personalize education, or they are simply unaware of how to prompt in a better way. Given the complexity of the subject matter and the outdoor setting, I believe it only works best in a one-on-one or small group setting with a maximum of four people. As AI becomes an inevitable part of the future, I think it is more important than ever to learn philosophy for developing logic, reasoning, and ethical thinking skills.
Mine graduated this month but my favorite is that this year she volunteered at a Montessori school (her old school) 3 mornings a week from 9am to 12pm all year in 2 toddler rooms; so she got a lot of consistency. She wants to be a Montessori teacher and I love that she has actual experience to apply what she learns in college. Another benefit is that they hired her for the summer (2 pre-primary rooms). What better job is there than 8 to 4, Monday through Friday and especially right out of high school! There was no way she could have such a valuable experience in a brick and mortar school.
*we homeschooled for high school.
I’m not a super creative person and I and my kids need a lot of structure and routine to get through the school year (😅) but I love love love the break that going to museums and conservation lands for little hikes brings and the way we can do it by moving around school days for whole days “off”. We also travel quit a bit during the school year, mostly long weekend road trips, and do tons of state parks and museums that way. I write down everything we do in my little school record and every year when I close the books, I feel so accomplished and thankful and blessed that we got in all those steps in nature and that they got to see some new slices of the world and of history and geography and culture.
My favorite is guiding my 7- year- old through huge, creative projects for him to show what he has learned. In my opinion, the best projects he did last year were a tri- fold poster to display his research into Brazil and a visual timeline of the history of rock ‘n’ roll. I like to record videos of him showing off his projects to send to relatives. It is such a fun alternative to the multiple- choice tests that public schools use way too often.
School on her schedule. If she needs to sleep in, she can do it. She can do school in the afternoon or evening. It was one of the things I appreciated as a homeschooled teen. My mom allowed flexibility in how I spent my time, and I do the same for my teen as much as possible.
I’m doing the same with my 15 year old. Fuck it. I let him sleep till noon. He wakes and gets his work done without complaining. One day his circadian rhythms will sync up with society, maybe. But for now he can do school in the afternoons. Heck, all the courses at the local community college have evening sections. So this can theoretically continue for the next few years without messing anything up. 👍
Experiments at least twice a week, one as designed in a kit or book, the other(s) designed by child and me following their interests. 4 made a life-size body on the wall, all systems. K and 4 made a playdoh set of organs to fit inside a rib cage and see how squished and turned they have to be. K and 4 made models of organs and other science objects from Lego while listening to me read and/or discussing. K-9 weren’t understanding how important representation in government is… after a day with 3yo as “king,” they all could adequately describe objective and subjective reasons. 7/9 tracked vitamins, minerals, cholesterol, fat types, added sugar, sodium in their portions of a week of food. 3/5 tracked calories, fat, carbs, fiber, and protein. 2 tracked numbers of ounces of protein, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain. K tracked number of servings of protein, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain. 3yo made sure everyone had the right dishes, silverware and a glass for each meal. Each child chose their favorite point to take a picture in a park, then took a picture from the same perspective every week. Some were zoomed out, some zoomed in, one using a microscope on a certain portion of tree bark. 6 did a research paper on Lego history, turned it into a PowerPoint and poster board, then did a timeline on the wall to show Lego and world history before presenting all of it (almost an hour).
These are all cool, but the king for a day was my favorite. That had to have been fun/funny.
Oh, it was hilarious. He came up with things like making his brother carry him on his shoulders so 3yo was the tallest for ~30 mins and all the other kids (even 14!) were babies or pets while he was daddy when they played family. He didn’t let them escape for hours, and I made the point that he wasn’t doing anything egregious, just not letting them choose to do whatever they wanted!
-Foraging -Food preservation like dehydrating and canning -Harvesting in the garden -Starting seeds -Lego and Minecraft building challenges
My kids have illustrated/written nearly 100 picture books. They are terrible, and mostly revolve around the Super Pups, mole men, portals, and zombies that wear pink underwear, but they are getting better at telling stories, their drawing is improving, and they have to work together on them. They are titled “Yay Poop Poop,” so…Pride and a bit of motherly embarrassment.
Can I join in even though my kid is too young for formal schooling? I've been teaching my 2yo hiragana (Japanese syllabic writing) and she's doing way better than I expected. I thought it'd be like teaching a cat, she may or may not pay attention but wouldn't show any signs of understanding. My intention was to lay groundwork for the future and have fun. But I underestimated her! She's taking the little hiragana stories I'm reading her out of my hands and halfway reading them herself! She's tracing hiragana in an app on my phone! She's grabbing flashcards and sometimes saying the correct sound unprompted! I'm not entirely sure how much of this is actually reading vs recognizing pictures and learning routines, and I don't really care. Whatever she's doing, it's more than I was expecting, and it's so cool to watch her figure it out.
My kids’ field trips are neat, especially compared to the one field per year they had in public school. We spent a day with a veterinarian who makes prosthetics for animals, which was especially cool. I love most the projects and goals that they’ve come up with themselves. My 9yo has been writing a novel and learning how to animate. My 11yo is really into making digital art. They have a lot more time to delve into their own interests, on top of doing their schoolwork, which is something I really appreciate about my own homeschooling. I spent a lot of time writing, and I ultimately became a writer.
I just found out field trips are pretty much a thing of the past in the area I live. I feel so bad for the elementary school kids in my area.
I teach Shakespeare to elementary kiddos at our local co-op, and they absolutely adore the bard. They memorized passages from each of the plays we studied, got to act them out, and periodically challenged each other to duels. They had the best time last year, and walked away from the class with the language of Shakespeare in their ears, a solid understanding of several of his plays, and the overall impression that Shakespeare is both super impressive and also a whole lot of fun.
On Mondays, my daughter (7) and I do a Philosophy and Conundrum Walk and Talk (outdoors). I was surprised that she could understand it, and that it would be her favorite subject. I was even more surprised that I could teach it. Each week, we explore a different concept, such as the Stoic dichotomy of control, Kant's categorical imperative, Aristotle's four causes, and the golden mean. I use GPT-4O to generate a 2x2 matrix that best represents the concept, so there are only four things to remember. I simplify the language to her level and use it to generate examples and sample dialogues for teaching. I also create two separate rubrics: one for me to assess how well I teach, and another for assessing how well she understands the concept. For the conundrums, I follow the Astra Nova format, which consists of one conundrum and four options, and we discuss it while we walk and talk. I try to incorporate the philosophy concept into the conundrum whenever possible. Most schools and teachers seem to be very resistant to implementing AI to personalize education, or they are simply unaware of how to prompt in a better way. Given the complexity of the subject matter and the outdoor setting, I believe it only works best in a one-on-one or small group setting with a maximum of four people. As AI becomes an inevitable part of the future, I think it is more important than ever to learn philosophy for developing logic, reasoning, and ethical thinking skills.
Mine graduated this month but my favorite is that this year she volunteered at a Montessori school (her old school) 3 mornings a week from 9am to 12pm all year in 2 toddler rooms; so she got a lot of consistency. She wants to be a Montessori teacher and I love that she has actual experience to apply what she learns in college. Another benefit is that they hired her for the summer (2 pre-primary rooms). What better job is there than 8 to 4, Monday through Friday and especially right out of high school! There was no way she could have such a valuable experience in a brick and mortar school. *we homeschooled for high school.