Signs and Seasons is having a Christmas Sale

Classical Astronomy is have a Christmas sale on Signs and Seasons. This is a fantastic astronomy course for middle school/high school students. If your kids are ready for a deeper look at the night skies, this book is perfect.

I got a chance to read through the galley copy when I was on vacation and enjoyed every minutes of it. Jay Ryan has done a great job. I plan to review it in the spring, but in the mean time, here is a miniature review I wrote that you will find on the back cover of the book:

Signs & Seasons presents clear explanations in a captivating writing style that is peppered with interesting and little-known facts, as well as activities that make it all very concrete and applicable. I’ve never seen a better explanation of the spatial and geometric relationships of the earth and the heavenlies. This course is perfect for any middle school or above student ready for the next step in understanding astronomy. They are sure to become wiser as they discover the lost skills that served as the foundational learning of the early scientists from Ancient Greece to the Colonial era. I highly recommend this book as a follow-up to my Astronomy course, and one that will take the student further with their studies, giving them a near perfect understanding of the expanse of the heavens and God’s purpose for astronomy.

Also, while you are over there checking out the book, be sure to sign up for Jay's astronomy newsletter. You'll be the first to hear of approaching comets, eclipses and other night sky phenomena.

Steps to Self Learning

Students that have developed a foundation of good character (no, not perfect children, but those that have a conscience about doing the right thing) and have gained personal responsibility for their education, with an eye set on the future, are prime candidates for self learning.

The first step to moving toward self learning is to carefully select curricula that is well suited for self education. This means that the course can be used by the student alone, once they have grasped how it should be done. You see, after your child has learned to read (a teacher is often needed full time for this accomplishment) they are ready to read to learn. Adept readers are ready to begin the process of learning on their own: reading the text, the instructions and doing the work on their own. This process happens gradually as you begin to hand over the reigns of the course work to your child. Of course, your child must understand the importance of self education and that self education is a skill that will enable them to succeed at whatever they endeavor in the future.

Some curricula are dependent on a Teacher's Manual. Generally, those courses were not designed by or for homeschoolers or those who understand how homeschooling works. Homeschool curricula that is specifically designed for homeschoolers will teach to the student with the assumption that the student can read the entire thing on their own to learn the material. However, an older student can incorporate the teacher's manual into the course if it's not too interwoven into the days lesson. When my son completes a math lesson, he shows me the work. I give it a once over to make sure he's on track and then tell him to go check his answers in the TM. That's very easy. Yet,, some courses require the TM to present new material and perform little scenarios and teaching sessions.These are not suited for self education and are difficult for a student to incorporate into the course.

When I am at the homeschool conventions, I look carefully at the curricula to make sure it can be done by the child on their own. Even if I intend to read it to them or do it with them, it is best if the child can still take the reigns during those periods when life gets hairy (I'm sure you know what I mean.) After all, just because Mom gets too busy to focus on science, history or math does not mean the child needs to be. In essence, the curriculum should be easy to use, easy to implement and it should be fairly painless to complete a lesson and move on to the next. Don't you just hate it when you can't finish a lesson because you still have to do something that is too hard for a busy mom to do before you have learned all that needs to be learned in the lesson? Ugh. If it's a project or experiment, that's easy to skip and keep going with the lesson, but if you have to present a little ditty that will be used in the next lesson.... that's tough on a homeschool mom.

When you are first starting the process of self learning, you will gradually ease your children into the material. With my elementary kids, I begin their courses each year fairly involved (I'm so excited about school starting that I have the energy to be fully involved). We discuss how they would transition without me on each lesson. We discuss how the lessons are organized, how the material should be handled and what is expected of them. Then, as the days and weeks progress, I slowly begin to allow more autonomy. I'm still around, checking their progress most of the time, but they begin to do it on their own.

Much is accomplished by reading. I use narration to ensure their retention of the material they have read. If they complain that they don't know what to do or don't understand, I ask for a narration of the text they read. If they don't know...they were not reading attentively and I have them reread it. Usually, this fixes the problem. Sometimes, a lay person's explanation is in order. If I have to re-explain the text too often, it's time to shelf it and find something that works for self learning.

For other work, I check daily until I feel they are ready for less intensive oversight. Within a month, the older elementary students (3rd or 4th grade and up depending on the kid) are almost completely on their own for most of their work.

There are some subjects that need more oversight than others during different phases of a child's academic development. When you are working on a new algorithm, like long division, you may have to sit next to the child every day until the procedure is mastered. When you are teaching new skills and new concepts, you want to oversee the process and make sure there is a level of mastery before you leave the child on their own. Leaving a child on their own too early will result in frustration for the child and a lack of progress, as well overseeing subjects that don't need a lot of oversight.

Further, there are some courses that mom simply delights to do with her children, like history and science. This is understandable as we are usually learning as much as they are (if not more). That's great. What I normally do for history is assign separate reading books (historical fiction or read alouds) that correspond with the time period. They will read these as outside reading and narrate to me each time they have read. For science, have the oldest child take charge of and do the experiment with the other children.

There are a few courses out there, like Shurley English, which have a great deal of value for a student. Frustratingly, they were designed to be extremely teacher dependent. It just so happens that this is the way Shurley English wrote the program for homeschoolers. They obviously didn't know how homeschooling worked or they would have written it to the student, not to a teacher. Nevertheless, there is curricula like this that we may want to use. So, if you choose to do something that is teacher intensive, think of a way that it can be maximized. For example, I waited an extra year to do Shurley so that I could do two kids at once. I'm teaching to the older student, but the younger is keeping up.Also, I do it later and only once in the elementary years.

Other ways to maximize teacher intensive curricula is to combine lessons for the lecture portion, and allow the course work to be completed over a few days. Also, you can get a class or co-op together and get the added benefit of social time and sharing of the teaching role. There are many ways to make it work with less stress.

There are three exceptions to this progression from learning to read to reading to learn. First, some students are simply not ready for this level of responsibility even after they have learned to read. Some personalities are slower at maturing to the a steady self learner. This student is often extremely bright and inquisitive. They don't trust the normal flow and structure until they are personally convinced of its merits. They tend to need more guidance, direction and oversight because their personality is not as easily molded into the diligent student mode. They tend to question decisions and the benefits of uninteresting academic pursuits. They also have the ability to focus for long periods of time on that which is extremely interesting to them. They may frustrate easily. Further, their mind can wander quite rapidly. This child is the sanctifying child that will grow your patience and character. I know because I have one. This child will be trusted with independence quite a bit later than typical kids. Most of these unique kids are ready to be independent by sixth grade if you don't neglect devotions and training them to be led by the Spirit and not the flesh and you help them understand that their future is dependent upon today.

The second exception to an easy transition into self learning is the learning disabled student. Be assured that students with learning disabilities will become independent learners. They need more time for everything. Focus on the basics, read aloud, get educational videos for them to watch, get a subscription to learningstreams, allow him/her to explore the world and learn outside of the box. Don't force academics before they are ready.

Some students are not LD, but are simply late bloomers. Just because your child is a late bloomer, doesn't mean they are learning disabled, or that you are a bad teacher or they are hard kids to teach. Just wait a year or two or three; they'll catch up. No sense in making them think they are dumb by continuing to introduce information and concepts that their little mind is not ready to digest. Rest assured that they will eventually catch up with their peers. In high school, no one will know who learned to read at four and who learned to read at eleven. Doing algebra in high school, it won't matter that they didn't grasp subtraction until fourth grade. It just won't be important.

I'll post more on scheduling next blog. I hope this was helpful!

Character

After the last blog post, I was asked how we train character in our household. Before I go on with moving your children into Self Learning, I will quickly address this.

The most important thing I have done is beginning our mornings by reading a devotional, the Bible, prayer and discussion. These morning moments are so valuable and can last from ten minutes to and hour and a half, depending on the topic and how deep we go with the subject matter. They are typically about thirty minutes.

We have used a variety of devotionals. When they were very young, we used Leading Little Ones to God (skipping the activities at the end of the lesson and sometimes doing more than one reading). As they grew, it was more difficult to find a devotional that worked for my homeschooled children. Many of the issues encountered in kids devotionals and books were not relevant. So, I opted for adult devotionals that were designed for adults that are young in their faith or perhaps even seekers, such as The Purpose Driven Life. I also chose devotional books designed for teens that were not dumbed down or full of the situational commentary my children may never face, such as A Life God Rewards for Teens.

In addition to these morning moments with mom, where their hearts are being molded by Truth, my husband reads books to the boys at night that are designed to train their character (Usually, that is; most recently he read the Iliad and the Odyssey, but they did discuss character and the lack thereof found in these Greek's lives). Further, we spend a lot of time talking, talking, talking about what is expected of them. On going discussions about character, choosing well, how choices today affect tomorrow are part and parcel of our day. We talk about their future, what they hope to do and what it really takes to get there. We talk a lot.

Of course, when they are super young, we do less talking and more behavior modification through rewards and punishments. As they age, discussions are more and more appropriate. We find it most beneficial to discuss their behavior when they are not misbehaving. This way it is done when they are not feeling emotional and they can rationally think about the way they treat one another or become convicted about doing the right thing before temptation strikes.

We feel strongly that the family should be a safe haven for the children, a place where they feel loved and accepted. It's easy to fall into patterns where a particular child is "always in trouble." Those patterns need to be broken through positive words and a few days (or even weeks) of overlooking issues and sins. This gives the child a chance to climb out of the pit and begin walking on a new path. Children should feel like they can succeed - they can behave well, they can live up to the standards we and they have, they are able and it's not too hard. This is most easily accomplished when the people around us truly believe in us, they think good thoughts about us and are looking at our successes, not focusing on our failures. Just as God delights over us with singing, we should do the same with our children. A stern and unaccepting attitude will not inspire a child. I have a lot more to say about this, but that may have to be another blog post.

Let's see...there are other things we have done to work through character issues. I have a list of resources. I do plan to get my next newsletter out that will cover this very topic - Bible and Character. It's been delayed, but it will be out before Christmas. If you aren't signed up, you can put your email address on the link to the right.

Tomorrow, I'll blog more about moving a child from Dependence to Independent Learning.

Laying the Foundation: Moving Students from Dependence to Independence

The process of moving a child from dependence upon you as a teacher to independence, autonomy and the self sufficiency of self learning is different for every child.

Obviously, children that are not yet reading need a lot of supervision. The same is true when teaching elementary students new concepts. Also, when a student is struggling with a concept, such as long division, the teacher (though she may have moved into the role of coach) will need to stand over the child as they work through the formula until they completely understand the algorithm and can do it on their own.

Yet, the question remains, how do you move into the role of coach and from coach to facilitator, and finally mentor. This is done in a deliberate fashion over several years. There are several keys to promoting independence in your children. I will discuss one of the keys, perhaps the most important one today.

In order to move our children into this next phase of independent learning, we need to spend the better part of their younger years teaching character and instilling a sense of personal responsibility over their lives and future.

Character is key. Many homeschool parents neglect Bible time and character discussions over academics in the early years; this is usually because of fear. They are afraid the child will fall behind their peers and such if they spend an hour on Bible and character each day, or neglect school to train the hearts of their children. They tend to overlook small indicators of poor character in order to move forward academically. They hope they'll grow out of it one day. Sadly, a child that has poor character in elementary school is in great danger of having even worse character (when mom isn't around) in high school.

On the other hand, a child whose heart has been trained is able and often willing to fly ahead of his peers academically when it really counts: in high school. Thus, the early years are extremely important for building the foundation of character. Poor character (lying, cheating, little white lies, small dishonest acts, sneaking, unkindness, rudeness, curtness, anger, laziness, sloppy work habits, rolling of the eyes, incomplete obedience "I forgot" or disobedience) should be considered very serious in the early years.

If these character flaws are considered more important than math and English, your child will be enabled to excel in math and English when they reach a more mature age. Otherwise, school work will always be a struggle for them their whole lives. Poor character training will result in a student that cannot be independent because he or she does not have good habits.

A child should be taught that they must be trusted. They must always, always, always be truthful, especially when mom is not around. If they would sneak an M&M from the bowl when you left the room, you need to work on character. This is usually best trained through reading good books, discussions and pleadings with your child to consider their actions in light of God, Satan, truth, character and the person they hope to be one day.

We explain to our children that the man (or woman) they will be as an adult is decided by them today, day by day, moment by moment, decision by decision. Each time that they choose right over wrong or wrong over right, they are laying down the structure of the man they will be as an adult. We have very serious discussions about this. I tell my little children that if they lie to me today, it could affect their entire lives. If I can't trust them today, I will not trust them to have their own car, to have a job outside the home, to live away at college. They see a big picture of their lives. If they say that they didn't leave the milk out, but they did, and I learn that they did: I can't trust them anymore and many privileges are immediately revoked. This I do for their own good because when they are teenagers, they will think twice about saying their going somewhere when they know they should not. Let your kids know early on how important it is to be trustworthy. You need to trust them completely. We explain that once you lose trust, it is so hard to earn it back. Discussions like these are ongoing in our household. The children understand these things well.

Another important value we pass on to our children is helping them understand that they are ultimately responsible for their education and what they do with the life God has given them. They are responsible to learn; and that it will affect their entire lives if they don't grasp that truth early. No teacher is responsible for a student's education. She can lead them to water....but the student, whether at home or at school, has always been the one that is truly responsible to attend to the material they are given to learn. If they choose to neglect their education today, at nine, ten or eleven years old, they are choosing a hard life for themselves, a hard future. Yes, sometimes people can change their course. Yes, God is merciful. However, it's a much harder road to have to change the course and habits you set for yourself than to lay down good habits and work harder today for an better tomorrow.

Thus, our older children all feel a certain level of responsibility to work diligently whether they are still being taught by me each day or have moved to being coached or are now independent self learners.

I believe that moving to independence is first begun by laying down these foundational mindsets in the home. A child that is honest and obedient and believes he is accountable to himself for his choices and that his choices can very easily affect his future moves much more readily into the role of an independent self learner than a child that has not been empowered with this knowledge.

Self Learners in the Homeschool

As the ideas of self-learning begin to take hold in the homeschool community, I've been asked to share some practical tips on how to move your children into a self learning lifestyle.

Let me begin by saying that I feel the biggest problems we find in government and private schools is that the student is taught to be dependent upon someone else for their education - they are not given autonomy over their work. They never feel responsible for their education because someone else spoon feeds them and checks to make sure that the entire bite was swallowed. If it's not, they are given a grade and labeled. If they do, they are given a grade and labeled. It no longer becomes about knowledge and learning, but rather about who is the best at opening wide and swallowing.

The reason homeschoolers are being courted by ivy league schools and are excelling in college over their peers is because most, through the sovereign hand necessity, have become autodidacts: self learners. Mom hands them the book and the Teacher's Manual and tells them to go learn. They study, do the work, then check to see if it was correct. They have no reason to cheat, for no one is looking at their answers on a daily basis. Chapter tests are all mom oversees and the child is ever mindful that the proof will be in the SAT pudding served up in 11th grade. With this autonomy, the student is empowered and given charge of their lives, their future and their education. They feel good when they do well, not because anyone else thinks they did a good job - no one really knows but themselves. They become self motivated learners, motivated by their personal and private sense of achievement.

Homeschoolers do not need a teacher to stand over them and teach material, telling them what will and will not be on the test (so that they can pick and choose what to store in their shortterm memory). They do not have an authority figure over them, making sure they have done their homework, bringing swift punishment when it's not done.

Homeschoolers in high school do their work because they want to learn - they are self motivated because they know there is no other way. They see the future and know what it takes to get where they want to go - they are not as focused on peers, relationships and popularity. Their world does not revolve around today's interpersonal issues, but rather on reaching the goals they have set for themselves.

Now, all of this does not happen over night. A student doesn't go from being spoon fed their work, with mom checking over every problem and standing over them all day, to an independent self motivated scholar. It happens gradually over a period of years, as mom moves from teacher to coach to facilitator to mentor.

Over the next few days, I will be blogging on how to achieve the desired outcome of producing independent learners.

Tune back in!

Live and Learn Press Review

When people first began making lapbooks to correlate with my books, I harkened back to our lapbooking days. In my mind, they added more work without benefit. However, I am now changing my tune as my daughter has been using the Live and Learn Press Lapbook/Notebooking approach for upper level Apologia and I am seeing immense benefits.

First, what I like about the Live and Learn Lapbook/Notebooks is that the folded books are placed on card stock that is put inside a notebook. So, you actually have a notebook, not a folder. Notebooks are easy to store and they maintain the aesthetics of your bookshelves. I like aesthetically appealing bookshelves - it's one of my idiosyncrasies. Also, the Live and Learn book folds are very clearly explained, making the folding process rather simple and not so time consuming. Further, they are visually appealing.

As I mentioned, I never understood the purpose of lapbooking, except to cut and paste and have fun, fun, fun. However, I can now say that there are actual advantages to this approach. My fourteen year old daughter simply does not like science. She doesn't hate it; she's just a very artsy person that is glad other people are scientists - not her. She's happy for plastic, cell phones and all the wonderful inventions of science - she's just not really that interested in how it's all done. She's a ballerina, you know.

So, when I saw the Live and Learn Press product that went along with the Apologia book my daughter is doing, I realized this was a way to integrate the artistic, visual appeal into the drudgery of upper level science for a non-science kid. We began using it this year. With the making of the books, and recording the information inside the books, my daughter was reinforcing her learning and adding a visual cue to help her remember the information. The real test, however, would be her score on the module tests. Lo and behold, she earned perfect scores (or near perfect) on all three of the tests she has taken to date! I am certain the Live and Learn Press minibooks and notebooking method has really helped.

So, I began to think about how these folding books would help students using my books - the Elementary Apologia series. Instead of making more work without adding benefits, I now believe these folding books are very beneficial. The student will quite enjoy writing their answers to the questions inside the little books they have made; and as their notebook becomes full, reviewing the material is as fun as reading a pop-up book - reinforcing retention!

Thus, I can highly recommend the Live and Learn folders for helping your child succeed in science - both the elementary and upper Apologia courses. I think they are a marvelous invention. I'm thankful that Debbie allowed me to test the product with my own child because it's going to make her high school transcript look much better!