Gifted, Normal, or Handicapped??!!

Like many homeschool moms, I am a part of several online homeschooling groups.  We all share ideas that work and ask for help when things aren't working.  Some advice is great (which I frequently save in my head to use later, whether or not I have had the same problems) and some advice is exactly the opposite of what should be done.  When I have the inclination, I put in my "two cents," but frequently I just read what has been said and keep my comments to myself. 

Sometimes, though, something in a question or comment catches my attention and sticks with me. There is one phrase which I see very often and it is much worse than fingernails on a chalkboard (sorry, that reference is not for the younger generation of moms - fingernails on a white board just don't have the same effect. I mean it is extremely irritating.).  Every time I read this particular phrase, my teeth grit and I feel myself getting irate at a person I don't know and will probably never meet.  In the past two days, I have counted at least 6 times this one group of words has been in posts from moms who are either a few months into their first year homeschooling or those who are seriously considering homeschooling. Sometimes it is part of the question, sometimes this phrase is part of the information building up to the question, but my irritation (and sometimes outright anger) is still there. 

I am referring to a very proud parent talking about their child as one "who was tested by the school and found to be gifted."  They then ask for curriculum recommendations for this special child. 

Now, I have pause to say that every child is special.  I honestly am not discounting that.  Actually, every child was uniquely created for a special purpose by the one and only living God.  That makes every child infinitely valuable.  So please realize I am addressing this post to academic performance, not to the child himself.  Having said that, however, I will continue my rant.

Parents who say their child is "gifted" do not understand the reason why schools give these tests, nor do they understand what these tests entail or why the school gives them.  As a teacher in public schools for 12 years, I gave this test many, many times and saw which students were identified as "gifted," and I also saw how these children compared academically with other children.

The gifted test was given at some point to every child in the district where I worked.  They tried to give it to everyone in (I think) 1st grade, but if a child transferred from another district, or if they changed the test slightly, I had to give the test in another grade. 

The test is simply identifying patterns.  There are not many directions given before the test, basically telling the children to find the best match. I had a child who was in 4th grade and didn't even know all of his alphabet score as "gifted."  I've had children who truly were gifted score within normal range. It is simply a test. That is all.  I would look down the list every year (at least the years we were able to see the list) and it was like someone randomly selected a certain number of students. 

Let me tell you a couple of case studies.  I had one student who was tested "gifted," and he actually performed well on other academic tests. He could read on a 12th grade level in 5th grade. This child had almost straight Cs for grades because he did not apply himself in any way.  He was more interested in playing than in reading. He did his work too quickly to be accurate.  He did not care to "re-do" assignments and used his incredible gift for math to figure out how many he could miss and still get the grade which he felt was acceptable. This very talented boy either dropped out of high school or was expelled permanently in high school (I've forgotten which).  In any case, I do not think he finished.  Another student who scored very poorly on this test and was very low academically in elementary school.  He was unkempt and would rather stare blankly at the wall than attempt any assignment, no matter the academic level.  He worked hard as he got older and graduated with his class, getting himself out of the "special" classes and into "regular" classes with his hard work.  He was joining the military, the last time I spoke to him. 

Based on my experiences, I would say the "gifted and talented" test has no real correlation to academic success at all.  Don't give me Einstein - there should have been some pattern in the results if the test were valid, which there wasn't, so it isn't.  Don't give me the "he is bored" speech, either. I had some fabulous experiments and projects and still had students come to me in the middle of them and say, "I'm bored. Are we done yet?"  Student curiosity is what has been lost, not the fact that there aren't enough pictures in their AP History textbook.  I hate to burst your bubble, parents of "gifted and talented" children, but it was never real in the first place.  The real gifted and talented children use inquiry skills to discover things they are interested in, not just memorize facts which they spew back on a multiple choice annual state test.

So, why give the "gifted and talented" test at all? 

Money, of course.  The school districts get additional funds for every student classified as "gifted." The stated purpose was to get assistance to the gifted children for enrichment purposes, but most of the time the money never made it to any program identified as gifted.  Usually a reading specialist or a teacher in one of the arts classes was given the money and told to get something for the gifted students.  The years teachers were given more money for supplies, we all got things which could be used by the entire class, not just the "gifted" students.  When a gifted program was started, they usually just pulled the students out of the classroom during instruction time to play games, so when the child returned, he either had to figure out for himself how to do the work or the teacher had to teach a special lesson for that person, which is very difficult to find time for.  Most of my students just asked if they were required to go, then added that they preferred to remain in the classroom.

Another reason this phrase of a parent wanting special work for their "gifted" child bothers me is that homeschooling IS a gifted program.  You, as the mom, get to teach your child in an almost ideal teaching situation.  My daughter, who is academically delayed, has highly THRIVED in an environment where she is the only student.  My daughter gets the full attention of the teacher (or half of my attention, when I have another student here).  She can ask anything she does not understand and get immediate feedback.  She gets the opportunity to discuss what she has learned.  If she discovers something she wants to research further, she does it. You can't do that in a classroom of 27 students!  Homeschool IS a gifted program.

Yet, most of these moms who are "crowing" about their child's "giftedness" are also looking for a curriculum that they, as the mom and teacher, do not need to be involved with.  That, I do NOT understand. I ask moms occasionally what their child is studying in Science or Social Studies, and most of the time the mom doesn't know.  THAT, I do not understand. You want to pull your child out of a classroom WITH a full-time teacher (good, bad, or otherwise) and put them in a situation where they have NO assistance with their learning??  You take away any opportunity for your child to share what he is learning, and therefore removing a vital component to the learning process. Really??!! 

I know what schools mean by a "gifted and talented" student.  It means in 1st grade, he could randomly select squares that the test designers said held a pattern.  Even the truly "gifted" student needs a teacher sometimes. The real question to me is: What do these moms mean by a "gifted and talented" child?  I don't think even they know.

What curriculum will help a gifted child?

Any curriculum which encourages self-discovery, discussion of academics, and presentations of revelations found by the student will develop a gifted child. Yes develop them.  These three elements encourage a depth of thinking which most pre-made curriculum cannot provide.  This is why I LOVE the style of education called "A Thomas Jefferson Education," based on a book by that name by Oliver Van de Mille. Their website is:  http://www.tjed.org/ .  I love their website for resources and ideas for the teaching parent. 

It's really not that hard to encourage your child to think. Get rid of the worksheets and have your child come up with both the problems and the answers himself.  Don't give a worksheet of 25 x 73.  Instead, tell your child to make up 10 story problems where he is solving two-digit by two-digit multiplication problems. Then he has to solve the problem. That sounds very simple, but it's really a great test to see if he understands the problems. 

Get a list of questions designed for Blooms Taxonomy.  Let him pick one question to answer out of each "step."  You as the parent thinks he will pick the easiest problems.  You can't. The problems are stepped in depth of thought and understanding. My students learned more from creating a booklet with 6 pages (each page answering one question from Blooms) than they ever got with a pre-designed multiple choice test. If they didn't read (or understand) the material, they couldn't do the work.  It was just that simple. If they read it but didn't really care about it, by the time they finished the 6 questions, they had learned a lot.

Make your child think, research, and discuss academics. Put "Captain Underpants" and "Harry Potter" away (yes, I did say Harry Potter.  More pages doesn't mean the child is becoming a better reader).  Have your child research things in the real world around them or that they are reading about.  Develop curiosity and encourage the child to experiment. Believe it or not, they were designed to explore, and they end up loving studies on actual events and existing objects or creatures.  Take field trips regularly, even going back to the same museum many times in the same year.  Personal experiences are necessary for a well-rounded understanding of a topic.

Then, once your child has learned, let him discuss with someone who has similar experiences or who has researched the same topic.  Mentors in the Thomas Jefferson program cannot just be lazy teachers and pull out a teachers manual.  If a public school teacher had no idea what a child in his class were learning about, he would be fired (okay, not really, but parents would be upset - it's harder than that to fire a unionized teacher).  Why do some homeschool moms think they are exempted from involvement because their child was "tested to be gifted by the school"?  If you aren't letting your child tell you what he learned at least once a day, then he isn't learning it.

A child will be what you expect him to be.  If you expect your child to be successful, he eventually will be.  If you expect your child to struggle, he will.  Forget the labels of "gifted" or "better than the other children" (that phrase HORRIFIES me!! but I also hear it a lot).  Let your child be a child and not worry about being compared to other children. If he is interested in quantum physics in 6th grade, let him study it.  He will probably satisfy his curiosity and spend his junior year in high school studying the dietary habits of earthworms, or some such thing. Help him to learn and develop a depth of thinking which is missing in most school rooms today, as well as a curiosity to learn about the world around him. Even a developmentally-delayed child will become successful if she is given the right encouragement.

Don't tie your child down to be "better than others."  Let him soar in his own space and enjoy the heights and depths that only real education provides.

Best Math Method

My favorite method of doing math is to use the concrete-pictorial-abstract method with every problem. Concrete means they use something they can move around to show the concept. Pictorial means they draw a picture showing the concept. Abstract means they use numbers and symbols to show the concept.

 

When they are first learning a concept (at the beginning of the year), you do all or most of the work in the concrete stage. As they progress, you add the pictorial and abstract stages, doing less with the concrete stage but not eliminating it all together, even after they show they fully understand. This type of learning is not a quick "how many can you finish in 2 minutes" type of learning. I tried to never do more than 10 problems per day, sometimes only doing one to three problems. The children will spend a lot of time on whatever stage they are most comfortable with. In the concrete stage, all they want to do is play with the manipulatives (whatever you are using to demonstrate the concept). When they start to understand the concept better, they will get very detailed in their drawings for the pictorial stage. They want to put whiskers on the cats or make the "x" representing the dogs have a face to match that animal in the concrete stage. That's okay. It means they are progressing in understanding the concept. When they start to feel comfortable in the abstract stage, you still want them to demonstrate the other stages, but you will want to start using story problems rather than just the raw numbers and symbols. If a child understands the basic concept, go on to harder numbers but don't change the overall concept you are working on for the year. Also, don't forget to include learning about money at each stage. That will have to be after they've worked with the concrete items and are starting to feel comfortable with the pictorial or abstract stage. Measurements can also be added, but be careful not to go too fast. If you're teaching the counting concept that year, think about using other objects besides rulers, etc., when you measure. "That couch is 10 of Daddy's shoes long!" Don't introduce fractions of a measurement before you have talked about fractions, for example. It will be very frustrating and your child will probably regress.

As a teacher, I couldn't believe how many 4th and 5th graders did not fully understand counting! Teaching it this way ensures that they know what they are doing it and can use these basic math concepts when they get to harder problems. Let me give you a couple of examples at different ages.

(1) When my daughter first stayed home, she could count but she could not match the numbers with objects (one-to-one correspondence). For the "concrete" step, I gave her a small box and had her fill it with stuffed animals. She lined them up in the living room (this took an excruciatingly long amount of time because she had to explain to each one why he was chosen before the others, but that was okay because she needed to do that). We then took some store-bought number flash cards and put one number next to an animal, in order. Then we went down the line, counting them as we went. I would do things like trade the places for the animals and we would count again to see if the total changed. That was math for the day (it took about 30 - 45 min. to do it). We did this several days using My Little Ponies, Barbies, Noah's Ark animals, etc. so she could get the concept. She would never have gotten tired of playing with her toys, so I had to decide when to change the activity - which was about 2 weeks. (I was bored, but I wanted her to really understand so I had to find a way to be excited about it). At the time, she had a severe fear of writing (thanks to public school), so we had to skip the pictorial and abstract, but if we didn't skip it, the pictorial would have been to draw a circle or an "x" for each animal and write the total number next to it. The abstract step would have been to write tally marks (teaching her to bundle them together) and put "=18", or whatever the total was.

 

(2) Addition was done with the same toys. Concrete: we got 3 plush dogs and 2 plush cats and put them side by side. We counted how many dogs we had, then how many cats and then talked about how many animals there were total. (I picked out the toys we used this time). Since my daughter was still afraid of writing, I did the drawing of the pictures, but I was just very basic. I used circles for dogs and x's for cats. Then I wrote the number 3 under the dogs, the number 2 under the cats. Then I circled them and wrote 5 outside the circle. It would have been better if she had drawn it, but with her fears, I had to take what she was willing to give, so she leaned against my arm and we talked through everything I drew. On the same page, I wrote 3+2=5. We talked about the problem, I had her point to the right animals, the drawings, and the abstract numbers so that I knew she understood the concept. I think 5 was the maximum we did. As she learned how to add, I let her pick the toys we would use. For subtraction, we did the opposite.


For multiplication and division, I will use what I did when I taught school (my daughter isn't there yet). We would take objects and group them.

(3)   Multiplication is simply repeated addition (3+3+3=9 or 3x3=9). I taught them that the "x" symbol meant "groups of," so 3x3 should be read "three groups of three." Then we used these objects (we used much smaller items in the classroom than stuffed animals because we're dealing with large numbers) to create the problems. 7x8 meant 7 groups of cheerios with 8 in each group. Then we practiced counting by multiples to find out how many of the items we actually had. Pictorial stage was shown by putting an "x" inside a circle for each group, separating the groups and writing the numbers outside each circle, then drawing a large circle around the entire group and putting the total number near that circle. Abstract would be to write a multiplication problem. After they understand this concept very, very well, then you can teach the entirely abstract concept of larger multiplication. Look into Lattice multiplication when you get to this stage. I taught both the traditional method and Lattice Multiplication. Every problem had to be done twice. We only did 10 problems per day, but they knew what they were doing!

(4) Division is taught just the opposite of multiplication. Division is simply repeated subtraction (9-3-3-3=0). You start with the total amount and divide the manipulatives into smaller, equal groups with remainders. Draw the pictures by drawing the total amount and then circling groups out of the whole. In the abstract stage, though, you will want them to write every division problem 3 different ways.
          
54÷6=9

         9
 54√‾₆‾ (sorry, this one didn't come out on Word well)

54/6=9 (should look like a fraction)

Go on to "long" division only after they fully understand the basic concept. I did not teach "short" division to every child because it should only be taught if they fully know what they are doing with long division.

(5) This method can be continued with the higher math skills, as well. In Singapore, they require all three stages (concrete-pictorial-abstract) to be used through the top grade in High School. One vital concept in algebra is to make sure both sides of the equation are equal. Use a balance scale to get this concept across. The pictorial stage is very important, because it's hard to find different weights to show these concepts. You can use different lego blocks sitting on a scale drawn on paper to show the concept

Phonics or Whole Language: Which is Right?

Reading programs boast that they can teach your child to read in a few months.  Professional tutoring businesses guarantee that they can raise your child’s reading ability one to three years.  What is the best way to teach reading?

           

Phonics and Whole Language are the two prominent methods for teaching this basic skill.  The two systems are complete opposite ends of a wide spectrum, yet both have been very successful with children and adults.  Heated debates continue in Teacher’s Lounges and in classrooms all over the world, supporters of each side holding to his preferred method being the best.  It is not new – the debate goes back over 500 years (click here if you’d like more about the history of phonics vs. whole language argument).  The real difference is the person who is learning and the way his brain is wired. 

Phonics is a system where each letter is assigned a sound, and some of them, like vowels and the letter c, are given more than one sound with accompanying rules to explain the difference.  These letter sounds are then added together to create a word.  As the student progresses, he begins to learn more patterns with letter combinations, such as “when two vowels go walking, the first one says its name.”  The problem with learning such rules is that the English language has so many exceptions that it can be confusing to a new reader.  In public schools which support this type of instruction, it is taught from the earliest years, pre-k or Kindergarten, until about third grade. 

Whole Language instruction, on the other hand, takes a very different approach to the same skill.  This method teaches that the reader should look at the entire word and memorize the word.  This begins with a set of high-frequency words, such as the Dolch word list, as well as signs placed near common objects in order for the student to mentally connect the object with its written word.  As the student progresses to more difficult words, they learn word origins and basic spellings and meanings of root words (also called base words).  Latin, Greek, and Old English origins are taught so they can recognize these influences in larger words, which they can break down into chunks of recognized portions and put together to make new meaning.  They memorize affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and use those meanings to add to the understanding of the word.

Which is right?  As you have probably recognized, most reading systems use a combination of the two methods.  This is called an integrated approach to reading, and this is my preferred style of teaching.  You will notice in my other posts about reading instruction that I use the Dolch word list and other whole language methods to teach automaticity with the language, while I supplement phonics instruction to be able to sound out the various sounds and letter combinations.  However, the fact is both styles have been very successful, but the person learning is really the one to determine the best method. 

My daughter, as hard as I’ve worked for my normal, integrated method, learns through the Whole Language method.  When I start breaking a word down into phonics, she panics.  I recently talked to a mother whose son read very early, but he had reached a plateau.  He was diagnosed with a form of dyslexia and could not seem to progress in his ability, which was very frustrating for both of them.  She had tried several phonics courses over the years, and none of them seemed to help.  I suggested she try using more Whole Language.  Use sight words on flash cards (or with technology today, I use PowerPoint). Learn parts of words with their origins, also teaching affixes.  She immediately recognized that when they did those activities, he had done well, so she was very excited to try this approach.

Know your child and help your child learn to read through the method which suits him.  Phonics, Whole Language, and an Integrated Approach all have the potential of teaching your child to read well or confusing them to the point of tears.  Find what is best for him.

Stress: What kind is in my Home?

         “Everybody's going through a lot of stress these days, no matter how well off you are and how many advantages you have, it's a stressful time in everybody's lives.”   Chris Frantz, drummer for the rock band The Talking Heads, described my life perfectly.  We usually think of stress as being bad, though some people insist that stress can be good.  Truthfully, stress can be divided into two broad categories:  eustress and distress.  How can I help my child have more of the stress that is helpful and less of the kind that is damaging?
           Eustress literally means “good stress.”  We experience this when we have a drive to accomplish something, and it helps us improve or enhance the work that we are doing, such as strength training, mental drills, or other challenging work (both physical and mental).  With eustress, we feel ready and able to conquer the obstacles which block our progress to our goal.  This encourages us to excel in ways we were unable to before and it results in achievements and positive feelings.  This type of stress is fantastic, and should be encouraged in both adults and in children so they will want to strive for success in their goals.
           Conversely, distress is what we call the bad stress.  This results when we are unable to adjust to changing events for an extended period of time.  In these settings, we feel out of control and unable to work toward improving a particular situation.  Experiencing negative stress over a short period of time can be a way to learn difficult lessons, but it’s a different story when the situation continues over time with little or no sign that anything the person does can change the situation.  Distress refers to stress over an extended period of time, and it can result in both physical and mental illness.  Children enduring this type of stress demonstrate it though antisocial behavior and attitudes, including aggressiveness, passivity, or withdrawal from social situations.  As a parent, we need to help our child going through distress to find positive methods of compensating with the situation around them and build steps so that the child knows he can affect (and improve) his circumstances.
           So, which stress is in your home?  If you are like most people, there is some of both.  Eustress shows itself when our family feels empowered to accomplish the work which needs to be done to accomplish individual goals.  Distress is found when we do not see results from our work for an extended period of time, or the results we see are not positive.  If a child misses a birthday party because he has to finish his homework, what he feels is probably negative, but not necessarily distress.  If this happens occasionally, it can act as a learning experience and end up with positive results in producing a good behavior in completing his work before the next social event.  However, if a child always misses every party he is invited to, always needing to do work that does not produce results that are important to him, then this continual negative stress becomes distress and is not good.  It can result in depression or the other antisocial behaviors listed above.
          How can I affect the stress in my home?  Doing activities in which we can see results helps increase our eustress.  Things like housework (ugh!  Yes, I did say that) produce positive results that we can see quickly.  Physical exercise also encourages positive feelings which help us feel as though we are more able to handle the situations in which we find ourselves.  Positive mental activities include challenging games in which a person must use a skill which he knows he either has or can develop with repetition.  As parents, we should find ways to help our children develop skills they need so they can accomplish their goals, turning distress into eustress. 
           Eustress and distress can be used to strengthen or weaken us and our children.  Doing activities which help us feel in control and that give us a feeling of accomplishment should be increased, while activities which make us feel out of control and not able to affect our situation should be limited.  Learning to cope with stress in our lives, while difficult, determines our overall view of life, and as such, is worth the effort to manage.

How do you Homeschool?

            As a homeschooling mother, I frequently find myself explaining to other parents that we do not attend certain other schools in the area – we homeschool.  This usually comes up as the parent is complaining about issues with their schools – teachers losing a child’s paper and then berating the child instead of accepting responsibility, teachers accusing high-ability children of cheating, state tests which cover too much material to study in one semester, 2 – 3 hours of homework nightly for 2^nd graders, bullying by students or teachers – the list goes on and on.  However, when I suggest that the parent “could always homeschool, if public school is a problem,” then I get blank stares.  I’m certainly no genius, so there must be some “trick” to it.  How do you homeschool?

            Looking at our success, even though I have a child who has special needs, I am amazed when I hear parents of children with no health or emotional issues say that they could never homeschool their children.  I have many more problems than they will ever face (thankfully!  I love my daughter, but it is difficult working with a child who needs more than the usual attention), yet I am able to do it.  Even with a child without the difficulties my daughter has, I would recommend starting the way we started – slow.  If your child has ever been in public school, s/he will need time to “de-school” – to get out of the school-mode. 

            When you homeschool, you shouldn’t just carry home what they are doing in public school – your focus should be to teach your child what they need to be able to be a successful adult.  They need to read, write, solve basic problems, and think for themselves.  Researchers are now saying in 10 years the number one career has not even been invented yet.  That means our kids need to know how to adapt and learn new things.  Keep that in mind when you decide the plans for your homeschool.  Flexibility is the key.

            The first two weeks of every public school year starts with the teacher teaching procedures – how life will be in a particular classroom.  In your homeschool, begin with 2 goals - go to the library once a week (later, it can be changed to every other week, but you should plan on going at LEAST 2 times per month) and take a field trip once per week.  The rest of the time, allow your child to direct himself or herself.

            For most children who have been in public school, directing their own actions and interests will be very difficult!  It will not take long before they are coming to you, as though you are the social director on a cruise ship, asking what they can do. “I’m bored,” will probably be a phrase you will hear a lot these first two weeks.  My suggestion is to create a “Job Jar” and fill it up with slips of paper with various chores.  Every time they come to you for suggestions, direct them to the Job Jar (give yourself permission to be a "broken record").  Remember – you are establishing habits that will continue as long as you homeschool.  You DON’T want them to come to you for the rest of their lives every time they are bored!  They will either start to love doing chores (yeah for you!) or they will learn to think for themselves – something they cannot learn in school with 20 – 35 students in every classroom.

            At the library, give your child some guidelines of what to check out and then give them freedom of choice.  For example, my daughter is allowed to check out 5 items, but no more than 2 of them can be videos.  Yes, I allow her to check out videos.  At the beginning, I also checked some videos out, and all of mine were the educational kind that looked interesting as well as educational (including “How to Draw” videos and lots of non-fiction videos designed for children).  She very quickly started checking out these videos for her 2 choices, so I changed and started checking out one entertaining video so she didn’t feel like she had to if she wanted one for fun.  The rest of her items to check out are books.  If there are particular books for school we need, I check those out.  She is freely able to choose the books she likes.  This encourages her to enjoy reading, and it has been one of the best things we have done.  She now loves to read or to have me read to her (I used to read to my students who had no special needs, and I fully support anyone who reads to their children, even as older teens).  Read, write about it (journaling or writing an essay), then discuss it.  Even if that is all we do during the day, I know we have progressed.  When we began to homeschool, she had no interest in books.  Now, she loves them!

            Field trips are vital to any educational program, and the fact that schools are cutting back field trips show how out of touch they are with documented research.  We now have 2 family passes to area attractions – the zoo and a local science museum.  If we cannot go anywhere else during the week, we go to one of these two places.  At the beginning, there were days when I could not get her to sit down (all kids have these days).  On those days, we stopped fighting and took extra field trips. Those who don’t understand how kids learn say that we are just playing on these weeks with extra trips, however, playing IS how children learn, particularly children under the age of 12.  Not only has my daughter learned about our city’s local heritage, but she has also learned about many things from various museums in the area.

            So, what do you do with the rest of your time?  Assign chores (a necessary life-skill), then let them have time to explore their surroundings.  This includes reading, playing with their toys in their rooms, playing outside, riding bicycles, talking to friends, and so on.  Play board games with your children. 

         Conversation and experiences are the most important things you can build in these early days – and later on, too!  Computer time is good as long as it is an educational activity and time is limited.  The brain needs to make connections, but those connections are limited if the format is digital.  You want to allow your child to explore topics that he or she is interested in and to learn to do things he or she finds valuable to learn, and you will find yourself buying “toys” that are more educational, and your kids will find themselves looking forward to playing with those more than others.   This will encourage your child to love learning.

            Finally, keep lessons short.  If your child’s attention span is wandering, take a break.  Even better, look at what your child is supposed to learn and find another method to learn it.  Pencil-and-paper work should only be done after a child has learned a particular skill, not at the beginning.  Check on the internet or in books at the library for other methods to teach a particular skill.  Let your child help you look – they need to see you learning as an adult, too!  Even the most distractable kid can focus if they know they only have to do it for a short period of time, so pay attention and stop if they are mentally done.

            Go to the library, go on field trips, and discuss everything you do. This is the basic formula for a successful homeschool that will help your child become a productive, self-assured adult.  Stress does not mean a child is learning, but success does.  Remember, you CAN teach your child, if you only decide you want to!

Homeschooling a Child with Special Needs

            Having a child with special needs has been a very eye-opening experience, to say the least.  Deciding to homeschool her, however, has been a learning experience for both of us, and I think I have learned more than she has!  The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it can be done, and in spite of the challenges, it is one of the best decisions we have made for our daughter!

            Sometimes when people ask me what is “wrong” with my daughter, I want to just say one thing – CP, ADHD, etc., and be done in one quick word or phrase.  The fact is, though, Babygirl has many issues that she is facing, and there are different times when doctors are addressing different issues.  Her Cerebral Palsy is mild, and now we are not doing much to address it.  Her severe ADHD is an on-going problem, as she basically cannot function if she does not have her medication.  (NOTE:  I was a public school teacher for 12 years – I know ADHD and its effect on kids.  Hers is definitely severe, at the very least).  Babygirl’s ADHD specialist referred her for an IQ test.  I used to pride myself on being able to guess (within about 5 points) what a child’s IQ score would be – Babygirl was 20 points below my lowest guess, barely keeping her in the classification of “MMR” (mildly mentally handicapped).  Her scoliosis is our latest problem.  There may also be an issue with her eye muscles, but that is still being evaluated…Hmmm.. I think that’s all the issues I can remember now.

            With so many health issues, I sometimes feel guilty that there are days (or weeks sometimes) when we have so many doctor’s visits, or visits to specialists or other groups for therapy, that we can barely do any school work!  While the orthopedist has been watching her spine for 2 years, between February – August of this year, the curve of her spine went from 13% (near normal) to almost 20%!  At 22%, he wanted to discuss putting her in a back brace!  In an attempt to avoid the back brace and, possibly later, surgery, we are going to a certified reflexologist for the “Raindrop” treatment once per week and a chiropractor three days per week.  Neither is proven to help, but I feel like we’re doing more than wait until it’s time for a back brace, and it has helped some with her because after 4 months, her spine's curve has not gotten worse.  Plus the monthly, every-other-month, and annual doctor visits to several other doctors.  Plus a therapeutic horseback riding center she visits twice per month.  Plus a produce coop which I run of my house that takes up one day every 2 weeks of my time, not necessarily hers.  (Though she is limited on how much work she will do independently, so I can’t just assign her work while I’m busy).  When did we ever have time for school???!!

            With all these appointments and interruptions in our days, would she be better off in public school, since we don’t spend all day, 5 days per week doing pencil and paper work?  This question has bothered me some, but when I take the time to consider the alternatives, the answer is always “Absolutely NOT!”   If she were in public school, then either I would have to take her out of school for the doctor visits, which would upset the teacher and cause both the teacher and my daughter to do extra work, or Babygirl would not get to go to the doctor & chiropractor visits as often, so she would not get the treatments she needs.  Since I view these medical visits as necessary, cancelling the appointments would not be an option, so she would still be missing a lot of instruction.  Besides, Babygirl does not learn from paper-and-pencil work, anyway.  Homeschooling gives us the flexibility to go to doctor’s appointments and do activities that allow my daughter to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as help her learn life-skills which she will need beyond “book learning.”

            So once I figured out that traditional school-work does not help my daughter, in fact it only causes her frustration, I had to look for other ways to “do school.”  I want her to read daily, do some type of math daily, and when possible, write.  Once these things are done, I can feel confident that we have “done school” for the day.  Even with my daughter’s disabilities which make understanding difficult, I have found that discussion is very helpful for her.  Everything we do, I plan on spending 2 – 3 times the original activities’ length of time in discussion.   For example, if it takes us 5 minutes to read a book, we plan on discussing the book for at least 15 minutes (sometimes more, sometimes less – that’s just an average time).  If we are practicing addition facts, I will plan about 5 – 10 minutes of work, and about 5 – 10 minutes of “guided practice” before the assignment and 20 minutes afterward to discuss anything which she had problems with, whether it is writing the numbers, moving the objects to count, or memorizing the facts.   Science and social studies come from either the books we read or experiences from local sites.  Writing assignments vary from handwriting practice to journaling to organizing her thoughts using the 4-square technique.

            Do I try to keep up with public schools?  No.  I make a loose guide at the beginning of the year, assigning a topic to study every month for each subject, but I do NOT make any attempt to “keep up” with what public schools are doing.  If Babygirl were in public school again, she would be in a separate class which would not teach what other classes were learning, anyway.  My goal is to teach her what she needs to learn for life.  That includes reading, an understanding of basic math, and writing skills.  She needs to know what is happening currently, as well as the history of this area where we live.  We see how our surroundings work (science), and read books and do experiments to find out what she does not already know.  All of it involves a great deal of discussion, frequently in the car or the waiting room of a doctor’s office.  If she is interested in a topic, I will find a helpful site on the internet and create a link for her so she can explore it on her own (who knows how many times she watched the video of a platypus swimming!!  But other kids are amazed how she can tell you all about this bizarre creature).  Because of our success, many people don’t immediately know that she has any special needs, which makes me very happy.

            Babygirl has blossomed in ways she never would have if she had been allowed to stay in public school.  I have nothing against her teachers – they were doing the best that they could.  However, I am her Mom, and I am the one who understands her better than any of the school teachers.  I am looking at the whole person, not just academics.  Keeping her at home doesn’t mean that I am the only one to meet her needs – it just means I need to coordinate her getting services she needs.  I am able to make connections with specialists, as well as explore the latest research on her health issues so that I can help her grow to be the most productive person she can be as an adult.  She can learn her limits as well as her strengths, and that gives her a much better chance at future happiness than she would ever have being stuck in a classroom all day, being reminded that she is different from other kids.  If you are not homeschooling your child with special needs, I encourage you to check into it.  It can be frustrating, but the rewards are innumerable for both you and your child!

Protests and Ignorance

            Even though I have pretty strong political views, I try very hard not to mention them in my blog.  The purpose for this blog is to provide helpful smidgeons of advice when I stumble across them, and politics does not usually fit into that category (there’s nothing little in that topic!).  However, I have recently been bothered by something in the news which I feel that I need to bring up in the blog, as it deals with education about politics (or the lack thereof).   I apologize in advance for this lengthy post, but I could not rightly cut any of it and I felt it was necessary to post.

            The Occupy Wall Street protests have been in the news a lot recently.  Along with you, I have heard commentators and news reporters all try to analyze who is in charge of this seemingly mismatched mob which has encamped itself around what is considered the center of business in the United States, with occasional bands sprouting up across the nation. The biggest question seems to actually be two questions:  Who are they? and What do they want? As basic as these two questions are, they have not been easy to answer.

            I heard a very interesting radio program recently which helped shed some light on this “movement” for me, and I want to share a little of what I learned with you.  I do not normally listen to Dave Ramsey (I should, I know I should, which is why I get his e-mail updates and why I am “friends” with his program on Facebook, but I just normally don’t take the time to listen).  However, when his October 19 program advertised that it was about the “OWS” (as he called the Occupy Wall Street Protesters), I decided to listen.  I have heard other radio hosts take callers from this group, but I like how Dave talks to callers he does not agree with, and I knew he would not agree with this group.  I listened to the entire 3 hours (going to bed at 12:30 am – a great feat since I normally wake up with my husband at 5:00am). What I heard really opened my eyes.

            Dave had only planned on using one of his three hours for these calls, and he began by saying he only wanted to hear from those who support the OWS protesters.  Each person who called, he asked what they supported about the movement.  Caller after caller listed their grievances – some Dave agreed with (i.e., against the bank bail outs) and some that were so far out there that I wondered how Dave could keep a straight face (like the guy who said plastics were poisoning the world).  Caller after caller was certain that the reason everyone was protesting was because of their own “pet” complaint, yet, caller after caller, Dave explained to them that their call was not one of the reasons listed on the OWS official website (I think two calls could actually have been loosely connected with these official reasons for the protest).  They were there for one reason, and they were certain that their own protest was a valid purpose for the movement.  Dave struggled through the first hour to enlighten them that the movement was NOT there to support their claims.       

            Each protestor knew why he was there, but every caller had no idea why the protest had been organized.  Ignorance, it seemed, was the only common thread between the calls.  Ignorance, the lack of knowledge – not necessarily a lack of intelligence (though a few calls fit into that category, as well). 

            Some people called saying that they were against Wall Street.  Dave asked them if they realized that Wall Street was simply a street in New York City.  Many callers had not made that connection. On Wall Street, as Dave explained, was a building called the New York Stock Exchange, a place where investors exchange stocks.  He called it the flea market for stocks.  That’s all they do, and it’s only a limited number of businesses that participate in that.  None of the callers were against honest businesses, and they all lost some of their steam as Dave talked to them.  Also, Dave pointed out to several of them that what they were upset about was not on the list of 15 items which the website listed, so they were adding their energies to a movement that was not supporting them. 

            Other callers said they were against the Bush tax cuts, yet when Dave asked them what that meant, none of these people could explain.  Again, ignorance of their main issue ruled these particular calls.  Dave asked if they knew that putting $2,000 aside for their child’s college education tax free was one of the tax cuts, and asked why that was a problem.  None of them knew that. So, Dave would ask them exactly WHICH tax cut they were against, and none had an answer. One caller replied, “Well, I’m not against that. I’m just against the phrase, ‘Bush Tax Cuts.’”  Once again, ignorance ruled these calls.

            Some claimed to be against the inequality of wealth, though when Dave pointed out that 8 out of 10 millionaires had started out in either poor or middle class families and had worked their tail off to make their money, listing specific examples by name, none of these callers wanted to take their hard earned money.  Dave did point out that this would be stealing.  Everyone who called in to complain about the lack of jobs actually HAD a job themselves, they were just grieved that people out there “somewhere” didn’t have a job.  Ignorance of business and the way money works were the common thread in these types of calls.

            In the middle of his second hour, a Twitter message went out from the OWS “leadership” saying that Dave was only taking the “stupid” callers, which he immediately addressed on-air, challenging anyone to call.  They were not turning away supporters of this protest if they could halfway put two sentences together and if they had a phone that had signal strong enough to be understood.  Toward the end of this second hour, a man called in who called himself a “Trainer” for the OWS protesters.  Dave asked what he taught these people, and the guy simply said that he taught them whatever he felt they needed to know.  Some things were about life as a protester, while other things he said he taught was about life in general, but he could not even name one item he taught.  His own personal protest, his reason for joining this group he was training, was also not even on the official list.

            So why were these people there?  No one, not even those who were standing on Wall Street, seemed to know.  Then came the last caller of hour three – one of the original founders of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  His call, in my opinion, was the most enlightening.  After hearing three hours of supporters of this movement, which was not actually moving anywhere, hearing one of the “founders” helped bring the entire protest into perspective, but it only helped after hearing all the other callers.

            This man who said he was one of the originators of protest was in his early thirties, like most of the callers (most of whom were born in the 80’s).  He was thrilled that the movement had gotten as big as it was.   Dave asked him why the callers for the past three hours, many of whom had actually stood on the street to protest, all had different reasons for being there and not even the trainer knew the “demands” made on the official website.  The young man reiterated that he was very excited that what had started as a small group of people had now extended across the United States.  He said it didn’t matter that they were there for different reasons – he was just glad that they had a venue to express themselves.  The leader of the movement had NO INTENTION OF LEADING THIS GROUP!! 

            Why is this a problem? Why not just allow these people to express themselves?  As Dave told this young man and other callers, if you have a legitimate protest, come up with a solution and start your own protest, but THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME WAY TO RESOLVE THE ISSUES, and the way things stand right now, there is no way for this to happen in the OWS protest.  Each person is there for a different reason.  Dave told this young man that they need to communicate with those who are protesting, so they know why they are there and when it’s time to go home.  So far, almost a week after the show broadcast, this has not yet happened.

            Another problem is that, with this “movement” not having a leadership or any organization, there is room for other, well-organized groups to step in and take control.  This is already happening.  Communist and Marxist organizations have started setting up platforms, talking to those who are protesting in various cities across the US.  Labor Unions have tried organizing the people in these crowds.  All have had a small amount of success, though with everyone there for a different reason, none of these groups have control over the protest.  Criminals have already found that there is no leader and rapes, muggings, and general unlawful activity are ruling many of these protests.  Yet, we still have people blindly, ignorantly getting angry at the local law enforcement who are trying to keep the peace during these unorganized protests. 

            Ignorance is ruling the protests.  There is a website, for anyone interested in finding it, that lists fifteen specific reasons for the protest, though very few have actually bothered to look this up.  For others, the ignorance is about the actual issues that they claim to be protesting.  Still other people seem to be ignorant of the fact that they have a legitimate protest that they should start on their own, organized protest. 

            Simply protesting to say you are mad is not a true protest.  There is no way to resolve the fact that someone is mad.  A peaceable protest is one of the great rights we have in this country, however, an unruly mob has no place in a civilized society. 

            We need to educate ourselves about the facts. Don’t just blindly join a group if you do not know why they are there.  If you have an issue you want to protest, you need to clearly communicate that issue and protest it in a lawful manner.  "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" was written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, attributing it to Voltaire.  People have a right to protest, even the guy who believed plastics are poisoning the world, but they need to do it in a peaceable manner with some method of resolving (or dissolving) the protest in mind.

How Deep is Your Ditch?

              Ditches are long narrow passages made in the ground by digging.  People dig ditches for various reasons, at varying depths and varying purposes.  Someone once compared the educational system to men digging a ditch.  How deep is your ditch?

              If you think about it, ditches have different lengths and depths, depending on their proposed purpose.  Some ditches are for laying pipeline, necessary for water or sewage.  These have to be dug at a certain depth so that they avoid problems with weather, but not so deep that the diggers have to dig through rock and other obstacles that are unnecessary for the purpose.  Some ditches are short but deep, like a trench used by soldiers on a battlefield or a trap used to catch animals.  Other ditches are designed for directing run-off water, and the depth of those depends on the amount of water expected at any one time.  The purpose of the ditch decides the depth and length which it will be dug.

              So how does this compare with education? The depth of a person’s education shows how much that person understands a particular skill.  The length of that education shows how many individual skills in one particular subject that person learns.  If someone spends a great deal of time and energy understanding a particular topic, then we can say that person has a deep understanding.  If that same person knows many things about a special subject, then we can say that person has a long “ditch.”  People only have a limited amount of time in school, whether homeschool, public school, or private school, so how “deep” and how “long” should a person’s educational “ditch” be? 

              This person who compared today’s schools to a ditch (sorry, I cannot remember who it was) said that if America’s Educational System were a ditch, it would be 2 inches deep and 2 miles long. Wow!  That is a really long ditch!  There are many purposes which could be satisfied by a ditch that long! But, only 2 inches deep?  Really?  What use is that to anyone?  Good question.  And that’s where you should be examining your own educational program.

              How deep are you teaching the students in your life?  Whether you teach one child or thirty, teaching them a lot of things on a checklist with no depth to each item is not really valuable, is it?  Just like a 2-inch deep ditch, there is no purpose for it.  Instead of teaching a little of a lot of things, teach a few things with a lot of understanding.  Like a person digging a deep ditch, you may spend a lot of time in the same place, doing the same thing, but you will end up with a product that can be of value later, once this “ditch” is finished. 

              What does a “deep understanding” look like?  Let’s take something many teachers teach a lot of but frequently don’t teach with depth – addition.  Typically, children will learn to count their numbers, then they will learn how to use either a number line or their fingers to add single digits.  From there, they go on to double digit addition, and then harder problems.  (Yes, I am skipping subtraction skills, which are usually taught with addition, but subtraction is not my focus right now).  Many children fully understand that when you have five apples and your friend brings you 2 apples, then you will end up with 7 apples.  However, most math programs may only have one or two questions that are written that way.  Usually, the child sees 5+2=___.  What does that mean?  Some children see it as the same type of problem, but other children do not.  Are these children behind?  NO!  These children are exactly where they should be developmentally – they understand things concretely but not abstractly (see my other article “Not Just a Little Adult” to understand more about concrete and abstract). 

              If a child is given a problem of 5+2=____, the teacher should use the concrete, pictorial, abstract method for this problem.  First, for the concrete part, the teacher should get 5 items and 2 related items (these could be 5 red grapes and 2 green grapes, 5 stuffed animal dogs and 2 stuffed animal cats, 5 red cars and 2 brown cars, or whatever you have available).  Have the child take them out and put them in 2 separate piles, then push them together and count the entire group.  Write the answer.  Then get another set of 5 items & 2 items, so they can see that you can apply this type of problem to many things, not just what you took out. Do this 2 – 3 times.  Then, go to the pictorial method.  Have your child draw 5 circles in one box, then 2 circles in another box.  Have them put the plus sign between the boxes and put an equals symbol after them.  In a box after the equal symbol, have your child draw 7 circles, crossing off one circle from each of the other boxes as they put them in the equal box.  Then count what is in the box and write the numeral 7.  Do this again, only this time, cross off the squares (or whatever you have them draw) and count aloud. This time they do not need to draw them in a box on the other side of the equal sign – only write the answer in numeral form.  Finally, after a couple of different problems, have the child write “5+2=____.”  Then they can answer this problem.

              That seems like an awful lot of work to solve one problem!  It would take FOREVER to have the child do an entire worksheet full of those addition problems, especially when it is so much easier to teach them to count on a number line or their fingers.  If this was your thought, then you are in the habit of digging 2 inch, 2 mile ditches.  Yes, it would take too much time to do an entire worksheet full of these problems (doing 3 concrete examples, 2 – 3 pictorial examples, and 1 abstract notation for each problem), so don’t! Only do 3 – 5 problems like this or possibly only one problem if the child becomes very frustrated.  However, where only a few students understand what they are doing when they count by number lines and fingers (an abstract concept), almost EVERY student would understand what they are doing with the depth method (which begins concretely).  THAT is your goal, isn’t it?  To make sure they understand what you are doing.  As a 4^th & 5^th grade teacher, it was very frustrating to find students (very intelligent students, by the way) who did not really understand what they were doing when they were adding.  Since multiplication is simply repeated addition, it meant even less understanding of the multiplication tables.  These students were on a downhill slide of education which is harder to stop the longer they are allowed to continue.  If they don’t know what they are doing when they are multiplying (just writing down something they memorized), then how can they understand Algebra?  Geometry?  Trig?  If they can understand the basics, then the “harder” work will be much more readily understood.

              Math is not the only subject this is true for.  If children have a chance to play with water, then they can be ready to understand the three forms of matter (solid, liquid, gas).  If they take field trips to a nearby lake or cave or mountain, they are more able to understand landforms and varying bodies of water.  Education should be useful, not just philosophical.

              How deep is your student’s ditch?  Spend time in the same place, doing the same thing over and over.  When you feel they understand one part very well, go to the next step (instead of 5+2, learn 7+6).  Just like when you dig deeply in one place it makes it easier to dig deeper in the next step, when your student deeply understands one thing, the next step is much more easily understood, and probably won’t take so much time.  Dig ditches that will be the foundation for a valuable education – your student deserves it!

Teaching the Classics

              As I put in my last post, I love what I am reading in the book A Thomas Jefferson Education.  It is almost exactly a compilation of all of my smaller theories and putting it together in a way that is supported by research, facts, and experience.  In short, it is a method to Teach Diamonds – meaning to focus instruction on what is truly important and chip off the “junk” that doesn’t really deserve our time and energy in learning.  So, according to this book, what does it mean to teach the classics?

              I am still reading, so I still don’t have all the answers yet.  One thing that professional educators do that I do not see many homeschooling parents doing is to continue to develop your skills.  Teachers in every state have a specific required number of hours that they have to spend developing their professional skills.  I don’t see as many homeschooling moms out there reading books or going to seminars or taking classes to learn how to teach skills to their children.  As a result, many homeschooling moms continually question their abilities to teach their children effectively, though what they are doing continues to show that it is much more effective than today’s public school’s methods.  Just imagine how much MORE EFFECTIVE homeschooling would be if each homeschooling parent would commit himself/herself to take one class or read one book on how to educate every quarter.  There would be no stopping them!  Even if the book or class shows them methods that don’t work (or that don’t work for their family/situation), that knowledge is valuable.  And yet, so many homeschooling parents do very little to try to find more information on how to improve their skills.  My reading A Thomas Jefferson Education is one of my numerous efforts to keep my educating skills sharp, so I can be the most effective teacher as I can be for my daughter.

               Now back to the topic – Teaching the Classics. 

              As I explained in my last post about this topic, titled “Read,Write, Discuss,” this book suggests that education used to occur from a mentor to a student, not from a teacher to a general class which changed annually.  This mentor and student would spend years together.  The mentor would show the student how to accomplish specific skills, but would also have the student read “The Classics,” and then discuss what the student is reading to make sure he understands what is read and help develop the concepts taught in the books further.  Reading the classics, writing notes about what is read, as well as recreating what the authors of these classics are writing about, and then discussing them with the mentor is basically the method used by these types of mentors.  In my article today, I want to specifically list authors that Van DeMille says is valuable.  I don’t want to give you this information in place of reading this marvelous book, but to tease you into reading it.   It is also a reference guide for ME when my daughter gets old enough to read these texts (and a “suggested reading list” for me to read BEFORE she gets there!).

              To simplify matters, I will just list the suggestions Oliver Van DeMille makes for each topic of study.  Remember, as the student reads a book, the parent/teacher should be reading it at the same time.  If it is truly a classic, having stood the test of time, it is worth reading over and over again!  Also, most of what I will list is authors who wrote classics – many of them have many books for you to read.

Literary Classics:  The Bible, Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen

History Classics:  Plutarch, Gibbon, Toynbee, Durant, Declaration of Independence,

Math Focuses:  There are 13 skills which Van DeMille says a student will learn from the math classics: seek and recognize patterns, explore the relationship between things, see similarities and distinctions, analyze logically but with a deep sense that there is a right answer and a set ideal worth detecting, compare and contrast, see things in black and white, see infinite shades of grey and therefore avoid jumping to conclusions, seek evidence for conclusions and check opinion with first-hand research, put his own pen to paper before accepting what society tells him, seek for absolutes, and remain open to surprising new information which makes past conclusions limited though perhaps still accurate

Math Classics: Archimedes, Descartes, Newton, Sophie Germain, Einstein, Euclid, Newton

Science Classics:  Copernicus, Galileo, Agassiz, Einstein, Darwin (even if you disagree with an author, find out about them!  You might find that you know them better than those who say they support them, and they may not even be saying what you have heard they say!)

Foreign Languages: Read classic literature that you have already read (see Literary Classics) in the language you want to learn.  Read the Bible or Shakespeare in the other foreign language, with English side-by-side with the new language.  Also, have 2 dictionaries – a translation dictionary and a dictionary fully in the other language.

“The Arts” Classics:  Study the Masters of that medium (Music, Art, Sculpture, etc.).  Read biographies, as well as study the medium the master used. 

Business Classics:  Peter Drucker, Edward Demming, Stephen Covey

Government Classics:  Locke, Madison, Tocqueville

Psychology Classics:  William James, Freud, Skinner

Biology Classics:  Hippocrates, Agassiz, Darwin

               Looking at this list, I wonder if we will be able to “cover” all of this the 6 years my daughter will be in middle and high school.  The answer is, we probably won’t be able to cover it all.  We will focus on her interests, while throwing in topics that I feel are important (like how to live a Christian life).  The fact is, education should not end after 12^th grade.  Van DeMille says that even if you only study one field, but you know it extremely well, you will have a better rounded education than most students who go through what he calls “conveyer belt” style of schools that most students – in most cultures, not just America – get today.

              Focus your education, and teach the true diamonds!