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Text of the page (random words):
ed elementary school kids would have at least two hopefully three recesses a day that s what i had growing up and what many schools still do mostly out west it seems based on very scientific anecdotal evidence despite the mountains of research that recess actually raises test scores my kids were stuck with 20 minutes the worst part is at least in 2nd and 3rd grade that recess happened at 2 40 pm the bus arrives at 8 15 am for over 6 hours kids are expected to sit keep their voices down and focus sounds realistic right i can t decide who to feel more sorry for the students or the poor teachers trying to teach kids who just need a break what s even worse is how frequently the school decides to cancel recess did it rain in the past 12 hours no recess does it look like it might rain no recess too hot no recess too chilly no recess some kid in class doesn t have a jacket and it s a little cool outside no recess no siblings allowed i realize that our four child family is an anomaly in a world of families with 1 8 children i still think it s hilarious that we are considered a large family when i grew up thinking four kids was right around average thank you mormon families but it seems that as people have fewer children children are welcomed in fewer places even in places you would expect to see children for example a school i remember my mom bringing my baby sister to my school while she helped in the classroom it was a brief distraction when they would walk in but class quickly resumed as usual my mom was very careful not to let my sister do anything that would interrupt the teaching environment so were all the other moms who did the same thing in all the other classrooms the best part was when they were there during lunch and i got to show off my sister to my friends my little ones are not allowed at school they can t see their older siblings classrooms they can t attend their assemblies they can t even attend their field days or outdoor class parties no fun lunch dates with big brother and sister at school if catherine has a part in a class play aaron and elise can t come watch her not even nursing infants my friend was actually turned away in tears from a nearby school for daring to bring her nursing infant to watch her daughter in a class play find a babysitter is their response and a wet nurse where do i find one of those when i complain about this i get two responses the first is always liability issues i guess i have a hard time understanding how adding my two little ones into a building that is literally full of children could possibly increase liability but second and i feel more honestly they tell me that they want the focus to be on the child at school siblings are a distraction guess what any time i tell my kids that i m coming to school their first question is are you bringing elise they re dying to show off their baby sister to their teachers and friends it makes them feel like a celebrity so tell me again why siblings aren t allowed as a parent this hits hard in two areas the first is my wallet i had to pay for four babysitting sessions during the last weeks of school so i could attend various assemblies and parties that gets expensive fast the second is my sense of community i want to volunteer i want to get to know the faculty i want to feel like we re all one big happy family working together for our children but because i have two little ones at home and don t have the means to pay for constant babysitting i don t i see my kids teachers a handful of times during a year my younger children have no good memories of seeing their siblings fun classrooms or teachers they have no desire to attend this strange place that only lets them get as far as the front desk how do i foster an enthusiasm for something they re forbidden from attending until the first day of kindergarten raise those test scores i hate standardized tests loathe them and this is why a typical student in the united states takes 112 mandated standardized tests between pre kindergarten classes and 12th grade a new council of the great city schools study found by contrast most countries that outperform the united states on international exams test students three times during their school careers emphasis added i could support three tests during their thirteen or so school years i do understand the need for an accurate measurement tool across the line but starting in third grade here kids take one or two standardized tests every year they lose two or more weeks of teaching in order to take these tests and the rest of the school year is spent making sure test scores will be high because so much funding teacher evaluations depends on these scores basically it s all for the test the test is why my kids school swapped to a new reading heavy math curriculum it was developed by the same people who write the tests therefore it must lead to better test scores who cares that these curricula and tests are probably not written with appropriate grade level language i am not opposed to testing i am however opposed to making sure every bit of learning that happens in a classroom revolves around the topics that will appear on the test unnatural learning if i had to pick just one reason for my disaffection with public schooling it would be this there s no room for the individual you re a fourth grader who s already mastered decimals too bad you have to sit through class with everyone else and get in trouble for not paying attention you re a fourth grader who still hasn t mastered those multiplication tables better pick it up quickly we have to keep to the schedule for the year we can t afford to slow down the rest of the class for one student or say you re a sixth grader who finds herself enthralled during a brief introduction to coding during computer class sorry take up that hobby on your own time there is so much that has to be covered how can the classroom accommodate those students who want to delve more deeply into a subject than just the two class periods allotted on the schedule seth is an excellent reader he always has been he loves reading and has great comprehension of what he s read when it came time to separate the kids into reading levels he was placed in the top group which was exactly where he needed to be until he got kicked out not for a lack of reading skills not for poor comprehension because of his writing it should come as no surprise to any elementary school educator that boys struggle with writing the physical act of writing was so hard for seth he was only seven years old it s not that the words weren t there he just couldn t get his hand to form the letters quickly enough and so due to his totally normal level of fine motor skill development he was removed from the highest reading group now instead of being challenged by what he read he was simply floating on by and quite happy about the easier spelling words to be honest i was frustrated was there no way to teach him at an individual level to somehow accommodate his still developing writing while challenging his reading comprehension nope everyone has to fit into a category so they shoved him in where he fit best i saw this again with our frustrating new math curriculum this program was incredibly reading heavy almost every problem involved lengthy story problems as well as the command to explain your answer suddenly kids who had long been in the highest math groups found themselves kicked out had their math skills suddenly faltered hardly but math wasn t all that mattered anymore now it was also reading shouldn t there be some way to do both to let them keep leaping ahead with their understanding of math while simultaneously working to build their reading comprehension yes absolutely yes but it wasn t happening anywhere that i could see the teachers could barely keep up with the new curriculum as it was much less work on individual adaptation i fully believe that the future of education is individual i m hoping for a world without grade levels just levels of proficiency my 9 year old could be at a 5th grade math level an 8th grade reading level and a 2nd grade writing and drawing level curse those fine motor skills he could blast through decimals in two days but take a month to master simplifying fractions if he suddenly discovered a burning desire to learn everything he can about wwii he could take the time to study and read without falling behind in something i feel like this is a more natural learning method think of how you learn new things as an adult some things come quickly and naturally others you struggle with and have to take extra time and effort to master this would be me with anything involving dance and sometimes a topic or activity catches your attention and you spend six months reading everything you can find about life under communist regimes ask me how i know i would have been extremely irritated if after a few weeks of reading someone took my books away and said sorry we have to move on to the next subject but that s what happens every day in the classroom to kids their learning is dictated by the clock and the calendar not by interest or understanding now that i ve given all my reasons why we decided not to continue with public school this year let me give you my reasons why we re excited to homeschool more time for fun during the public school year i rarely had time to take my kids to the library evenings were full of other activities as were weekends we d sneak in occasionally on an early out day or a random holiday but those were infrequent occurrences yes they had library time at school but my kindergartner was limited to one book a week when we go to the public library she often checks out 15 20 books or every single book on snakes the library owns one book isn t cutting it for her one field trip a year wasn t cutting it either it kills me to see my kids come home with worksheets about firemen when they could be visiting a fire station or filling out another packet of questions instead of visiting a museum yes i know there s a cost involved but maybe money might be better spent on field trips instead of purchasing brand new math curriculum every three years just a thought we try to go on field trips every week we ve been to a local estuary center to a cave to the library several times we currently have around 75 books checked out our future plans include visiting the zoo attending a reptile show visiting a local farm and going to see a presentation on native american dance and that s just through november more time for work during the school year i felt like most of my interactions with my children were to hurry them along time to get up you need to eat quickly run up and brush your hair after school was no better do you have any homework have you practiced piano are your chores done it was rush before school and constant pestering after now my kids do their chores in the morning before we start school or during a break in our school day there s more time to teach them how to do complicated chores like helping make breakfast or cleaning the bathroom i fully believe that these types of skills are just as necessary as the standard academic skills but i rarely had time to teach them properly now it s just part of our school day more learning one of my favorite parts of homeschooling is the fact that learning opportunities are literally everywhere where did that fruit at the store originally come from why is the sidewalk in front of our house cracking what is labor day celebrating see a billboard for a strange cool interesting thing while you re driving pull on over obviously these are not things that only homeschoolers notice but we have the benefit of time time to explore things in depth time outside a classroom to notice things and take adventures when they re offered i m also working hard this year on giving my children opportunities for self guided or delight directed learning this is really hard for me since i love checklists and planning but my kids need it seth has time to focus on his coding lessons or read book after book after book after book on greek mythology catherine can chase the butterflies in the yard and study the slugs under the drainpipe we still cover our core subjects every day but that time to explore and learn what they want to learn makes school more wonderful for all of us more choices when i sent seth off to school i had no say in what topics he would learn that year that was all dictated at a county or state level and could not be individualized during elementary school homeschool on the other hand is almost infinitely customizable seth wanted to learn about coding so i found him a fantastic online course on minecraft modding he also wants to buy a snake so we did research about costs and care and put together a proposal for his dad which is currently under review catherine is slightly obsessed with bugs and snakes so we ve watched many many documentaries together she s also very creative and has been given free range with art supplies both kids are also learning spanish which isn t usually taught until middle or high school here we also lucked out and found a great co op that meets twice a week my kids will have classes in all the core subjects with the exception of math which is left to the families but they ll also have art classes pe classes geography classes spanish classes literature classes home ec classes music classes and seth s favorite a class on how to build things it s going to be an awesome year more purpose when my kids were at school i obviously had a lot more free time even with the little two at home i was able to make long lists of projects i wanted done i painted most of the house i made scrapbooks i organized things i cleaned things i felt like i was accomplishing a lot but then i d realize that i hadn t read to aaron all day or that he d been playing on the ipad for hours while i caught up on our family blog or that i hadn t taken elise to play outside in two days my projects had become my purpose my kids were just things that i had to distract so i could get projects done that was not how i wanted to parent the idea of homeschooling again had been hanging out in the back of my mind ever since we stopped but now it was louder i knew that homeschooling would force my hand my children wouldn t interfere with my projects they would be my projects i would have to spend my time teaching them planning for them paying close attention to their interests and frustrations that was the kind of parent i wanted to be homeschooling is as much for me as it is for my kids it allows us to spend more time together it gives my little two time to play with and learn from my big two and my big two time to guide and teach the little two it gives me back the time i felt i was quickly losing with my oldest as he got more independent and more involved in activities outside the home every morning we read a chapter or two aloud from a ...