A fellow Scientist

Xander crying today while watching a ficionalized "docudrama" on Einstein: "mommy they are persecuting him! He's a fellow scientist! They are not being fair". 

First of all love how he already sees himself as a scientist and that Einstein is a peer :) 

This led to a discussion on how scientists like Galileo were often persecuted as they were often ahead of their time. Today instead of executions they pigeonhole scientists to only do what is profitable rather than what is good for society as a whole. It was a very interesting end to the day.

And Xander said "let there be light" ... And there was.

X chose electricity as his second science subject this year (cause one just isn't enough for X). The first is astronomy. We are using Intellego to help us in both subjects. They are very advanced and detailed unit studies so much so the astronomy one is for grades "K-2". We tried the 3-5 one but it went right over his (and my) head. It was speaking about light years and such so we decided to start with the first one that starts with the solar system.

The electricity one happens to be grades 3-5. I highly recommend Intellego. It is amazing to me how detailed, yet interesting and accessible the information is. It blows me away the things he is learning at 10. Lots of information, multimedia, experiments and online games to keep his (and my) attention.

One section has been on electrical circuits. He is studying electrical circuits including the symbolic representations of them (something I remember from grade 11 physics although I could be wrong it was def high school) and then put together an electrical circuit he made himself. I was just as proud as I am sure Edison's mommy was when a light bulb lit up for the first time. To be honest I was so shocked when it actually worked. He worked hard at it. He had some failures and kept at it even though I could see he was getting frustrated. I was so proud of him!

Annoying homeschooling questions

Who is your teacher?

Xander usually says, very proudly, with a big smile, my mommy!
Although I very happy Xander is so proud to say that I see myself more as a coordinator of learning. Although yes I do answer questions. I coordinate his learning from all sources including but not limited to: other homeschooling parents (formally or informally), teachers, dvd classrooms, online education/curriculuum, digital curriculum, dvd and book information and curriculum, museum visits and workshops, and workshops at the homeschooling community centre.

Why is this annoying to me? Well because it represents the very top down notion of learning in schools. Children are not buckets to be filled they are sponges to absorb all that is around them. People can not fathom learning if it doesn't come from a teacher standing at the front of a class. It also brings up notions of validity in whom or what transmits information.

What about socialization?

This can mean many things but usually (I have discovered) it means they are asking does he have any friends. This took me a long time to understand because how can someone be so ignorant?? I went to school my entire childhood and the only friend I ever had (with a couple of brief exceptions of girls who only were at my school for a short time) was someone who didn't even go to my school. A fellow homeschooling mom and I were laughing about this one as we planned our children's bday parties. Both of which were quite large. In Xander's case it was his largest ever and continues to be each year. Xander's friends come from children of mommy's friends, meeting at community events, schooled friends, children met after connecting online through online homeschooling forums, and of course (the largest numbers) other homeschoolers met through various activities in the city.

Although the question usually means; does he have friends, I wanted to take note of how socialization is more than just "having friends", it's about experiencing the world, getting to know people of various ages and learning to interact with them effectively. When I'd walk into the school to pick X up children would usually ignore me or if they had to speak to me they'd say the minimum needed. The first day I walked into the homeschooling community centre a homeschooler walked right up to me, introduced herself, asked me my name (it was my turn to be awkward) and proceeded to ask about whether we homeschooled, how long, and who was my child, how old he was, etc. Not only was this 9 year old a wonderful example to me of the wonderful results of homeschooling but was a fabulous ambassador for the centre and was a wonderful, if not unusual (at the time) introduction to the centre. Homeschoolers, generally, in my experience are more likely to be able to interact as equals with children and adults of various ages. Research has backed this up. Homeschoolers live in the world rather than existing for most of their day in a closely guarded and censored building.

Does he get tested?

I think this comes from a place of feeling like "we had to deal with this so so should he!" which in and of itself makes it invalid in my mind. We had to deal with a lot of things doesn't mean I want my child to experience them. Although many homeschoolers are tested either with standardized tests or through whatever curriculum the family is using it is not as necessary as it is in school. When there is only one child one can observe more what they understand rather than 'testing' in many circumstances whereas when you have 30 children it is much more difficult to get any sense of what any individual child understands without lots of testing.

For us Xander works best with audiovisual means of assessment. He was very traumatized by having everything be about the (several) tests every Friday in school. His math curriculum (whizz.us) has a test at the end of each activity but they are for assessment not judgment and he knows this which helps a lot!

He now can deal with oral assessments and even an occasional written quiz after two years away from school. For this reason, this year I decided, as well as peer pressure from family, to have him do the CAT exams. These tests are the Canadian standardized tests school children do across Canada. After doing them we won't be wasting the time again for a few years. He excelled in everything I expected him to excel in, proving my point that I don't need a test to know what my child knows. Just to explain one result; the grammar score was low because we have never done any formal English grammar. So actually the score is pretty good considering. Here are his results. Keep in mind when he was assessed by an educational psychologist when we began homeschooling (just coincidence he was formally assessed/dx at that same time) he was 2 years behind in everything except the mechanics of English reading (where he was 3 yrs ahead). This after 3 years in school. After 2 years homeschooling at (by age) grade 5.0:

Subject	Percentage Correct	Grade Equivalency	Percentile (compared to those of his grade who have taken the test across Canada)
Spelling	87.5%	7.2	72nd
Vocabulary	95.8%	12.9+	97th
General Math	80%	7.5	85th
Dictation	70.8%	7.6	78th
Language / Reading Comprehension part 1	75%	5.7	62nd
Language / Reading Comprehension part 2	96%	12.9+	99th
Language / writing conventions (grammar)	45.8%	3.2	28th
Computation (math)	50%	5.3	64th

I am very proud! Now I just hope certain family members get the hint.

social stories

Trying to adapt some social stories so that they are not so rigid. These are stories used to help people on the autism spectrum understand and know what to do in social situations. I have never used them because i see them as counter-productive. People on the spectrum tend to  follow "rules" to a tee so any deviation from said story would make the situation even worse than without the training. And of course social situations regularly deviate from a script. That being said as social situations become more complicated for x i have noticed more and more awkwardness.  So here I sit trying to utilize these social situations in ways that will allow for flexibility (or the building of flexibility) but still help him figure out how to respond in these situations.

Our week of unschooling

Aafter a week of unschooling (because i was so sick i didn't have the energy to negotiate) i think i will do it again this week and see how it goes. Shhhh don't tell eric (joke). Last week he did lots of math (but only the math-whizz program he does online) and did well. X watched a lot of magic school bus episodes (he "needed" to watch all of them so lots of youtube searching for the ones not already on his hard drive). He was very excited and spoke of lots of things he learned. He spent a lot of time planning and building wonder woman's hideout/lair for a contest (so cool that he picked wonder woman!). He had to read the instructions and follow them also look up past winners to get a sense of the complexity desired. Also write out plans and discuss ways to make it better. He also wrote/drew (digitally) a lot of comic books. Although i wish there would be more writing on each page, he had some creative and complicated plots (or at least as complicated as any super hero show). And he used the word plot to describe it!! All in all a good week considering he was also a little sick (a cough and cold).

X's bday - part 1

One bad thing about homeschooling is i know all of x's friends' parents quite well. So i'm sitting here as x dictates who he wants at his party and desperately trying to get x to hug and makeup with whoever he has been having little tiffs with recently so i don't have to feel bad when their kids are not invited to his bday.

inventing

A friend and volunteer at work recently moved to Alberta and we were saying we miss her and wishes she could transport herself here for wednesday mornings cause we really miss her then. lol
Anyway I know X has been talking about inventing something to transport someone quickly so he could visit his cousins more often so i said to X we need you to build us one now cause we miss our friend. Continuing (joking) I said if you invent that you never have to do science or math ever again (cause hello he just invented a transporter that's enough science and math for anyone lol) so he turns to me all serious and says if you include no typing you got a deal!!

Socializing... yes again

ok so I get this way too often to let it go. I just thought i'd write about a general snapshot of X's schedule each week in terms of socializing as a way to address the "but is he getting enough time with other kids?" or "is he being socialized?" This is just a snapshot often interrupted by field trips or another friend or family member wanting some X time!

Xander spends more time actually socializing (and with many different children and adults of varying ages) now than when he was in school stuck at a desk with the same 25 kids day in and day out.

He spends two days a week at the homeschooling community centre with 10-20 (on special occasions way beyond that!) other children as well as many adults. one day of the week he goes to another homeschooling family with 3 kids as well as numerous friends who pop in very often (again more adults). One day he has karate and drama both have groups of children he also often times has a playdate with someone in the am that day. One day he spends with his grandparents and his uncle (who gives him the school socializing of being teased sigh). Finally (since life happens on the weekends too) he usually plays DandD with his dad and a group of adults and teens or plays star wars minis with a group of kids and their dads then he has a playdate every sunday with his old school friend.

This notion that socializing exists sitting at a desk or in 15-30 minute increments in between sitting at a desk bugs me!

Making a pie: Therapy

(found this from october... sorry folks but figured should post anyway)

Rolled out dough.
Was brought to tears at touching the dough.
Needed to wash hands constantly. Took 3x as long as it normally would.
But got through it and did it with some help. Great first time! Tasted yummy too!

"Weekly" check in - February 12 2011 (obviously late)

(wanted to post this even though it's not really done and of course old. It shows his progress cause now he is even further along than we thought)

In my life this week…
I was sick this week!! Really bad cold with a high fever.

In our homeschool this week…

What’s working/not working for us…
In 3 days he did 40 math activities in time4learning. He is very determined to finish grade 1 asap! At this rate, depending on how much time it takes to review and how are his remaining scores he should finish grade one including end of year testing by his bday at the end of may. He must review any activity/subject that he gets under 80% (my rule; He doesn't have to be perfect but i don't want him just coasting through like in school. I want him to know it.). Only having discovered this curriculum at the beginning of January he will have done an entire grade in 5 months. So even though he will still be 2 years behind come next September in Math, he he should be completely caught up to his peers by mid year grade 5. Yes i thought about it.

Math... and why we homeschool

(this is an old post but thought i'd finally post it)
I had a moment today, as I do most days, on why we homeschool. Specifically on math... today, why do we homeschool?

When he left school (at the end of grade 2) I quickly learned he was back at a grade 1 level in most aspects of math. I mean he could count and had the concepts, but not the facts, of basic addition and subtraction but could not really apply any knowledge in real life (or even word problems) any other aspects in in grade 1 or grade 2 math were not understood. I feel like the school did so much testing (3-5 tests every friday), and he did ok in them, That he learned to memorize what he needed for the tests one cause they were all timed and two because he wasn't being taught in a way he could understand so if he can't understand he'd memorize to do well enough not to get in any more trouble than he was already in.

[To be fair the word problems is a huge issue for pdd children as i understand it and his teacher did notice he could not do them but did not see any connection to his other issues; mainly cause the school blamed me for the issues they did notice and didn't notice most of them.]