A Net in Time

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Homeschooling

Four Essentials of Child-Led Learning

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Guess what!   Amanda agreed to guest post for me today.  Isn’t that great?  Welcome her with me to my blog today.  🙂  She’ll be talking about Four Essentials of Child-led learning.   Student led learning has taken us through world war 1 this year.  

“Mommy, what’s this?” Sicily questioned as she pulled out her kids’ meal toy.

“It’s an arctic fox.” I replied.

“Oh! I like him.”

“Would you like to see if we can find a YouTube video about an arctic fox?”

We headed to the tablet to look up videos on the arctic fox to learn a bit more about this little stuffed animal she got.

The video we found was a snippet from a documentary with an arctic fox searching for food. These little guys hop up and nose dive into the snow to catch small prey.

Sicily giggled non-stop while watching the fox catch mice in the snow.

From there we read books, did a few process art creations, and even pretend we were arctic foxes hunting for mice in the snow.

This love of arctic foxes extended into more arctic animals, so we started to study the polar bear, penguins, and orca.We learned about blubber, ice, and how penguins stay dry.

All this learning from a single fast food kids’ meal toy.

That’s the beauty of child-led learning. One small experience can spark months of learning and many different avenues to travel down.

What is Child-Led Learning?

In our house we follow a child-led approach to learning. That means I follow my kiddos interests for topics of study. Then I follow their lead with academic skills as well. I wait until they are 100% motivated and ready to learn each specific skill.

But it wasn’t always so smooth. I had many failures in our quest to learning at home. But through all those failures and over 11 years of teaching experience, I’ve discovered the 4 essentials to child-led learning.

4 Essentials to Child-Led Learning

Child-led learning doesn’t mean you have to give up all control. You are responsible for the 4 essentials.

When you get these 4 essentials to child-led learning correct, your days become peaceful and your child begins to learn quickly.

Child-Led Essential # 1: Encouraging Environment

You’ve probably heard from a Reggio approach to learning that the environment is the third teacher.

Well I’ve always been an overachiever. I strongly believe that your environment is the first teacher.

Your environment is more than just your homeschool room. It’s your whole life style.

Child-led learning is more of a lifestyle than a learning approach.

This also includes the experiences you give your child, and most importantly your everyday experiences. Have your kiddo help you do household chores, including help pay the bills, cook dinner, and fold the laundry.

The environment in which you provide your child and the experiences you give them, is what ultimately decides their unique learning timeline.

You control the environment.  The environment controls what your child learns.

Your child controls WHEN and HOW they learn.

Child-Led Essential #2: Relaxed Routine

Having an environment that supports your child’s interests and the skills you want them to learn isn’t enough.

You need a relaxed routine that gives them plenty of time to explore in the environment you created.

On a typical day, we plan to have 2-3 hours in our homeschool room with no structure except our morning meeting.

During this time, my kiddos explore whatever I’ve place in the environment. There are always open ended toys, learning games for specific skills they are working on, and invitations to play, create, and explore.

I have a table with materials/books from our current theme for them to explore at any moment.

We try to follow the Montessori 3 hour work period. During the first hour, my kiddos explore and choose freely what they want to play/learn.

The second hour, called false fatigue, usually ends up with them dancing, playing music, or chasing each other around in a circle. This is the hardest part, but according to Montessori it’s needed to reach maximum concentration.

 This second hour is sort of like their coffee break. I tend to leave a snack on the table once they hit this time that they can choose to eat if they want. Most of the time, we cut back on a lot of the chaos of this hour because they almost always choose to sit and eat a snack.

About 45 minutes later it starts to get quiet again. The kiddos are entering the third hour where deep concentration happens. Their brains are ready to learn new and more challenging skills.

 This is the time I will invite them to do the works I want them to do. Sometimes I will ask them to join me in an activity whereas other times I will sit down and start working on the activity myself. Most of the time they will join me, but not always. It’s their choice.

Child-Led Essential #3: Simple, Child-Led Activities

Learning doesn’t require a huge storage of materials or complicated activities. I rarely go out and buy new materials. We use what is available around the house or out in nature. Many of our activities are done with rocks and sticks.

Have you ever heard the saying “Less is More?”

It’s so true when it comes to educating our kiddos. The simplest of activities will be the ones that attract them the most and will have the most learning.

Why?

Because with simple activities and materials, the brain only has one thing to concentrate on.

When you have a bunch of moving parts their brains will most likely focus on the skill you don’t want them to learn.

Take for example, the ever popular preschool activity of tracing letters on a line.

It seems simple, but is it really?

In order for the child to trace on the line, they need to first have the development and strength in their eyes to focus on the lines.

Then they need the hand strength and hand-eye coordination to be able to stay in between the lines.

On top of that, they need good fine motor skills in order to hold the pencil correctly, so they have the pencil control to stand in between the lines.

And last, which is the main goal of this activity…

They need to form the letter correctly.

In order to do this activity perfectly, your child needs to be developmentally ready in all those areas which doesn’t happen until around 5, sometimes even 6, years old.

Keep it simple…

Hand them a blank piece of paper and a pencil.

Their only focus then will be on letter formation.

With enough practice, your child will begin to write smaller and smaller as their muscles develop. There is no need to ever introduce lines until about first or second grade.

Child-Led Essential #4: Trust the Process

This essential to child-led learning is the most important, but the hardest of them all.

You must trust the process, trust yourself, and most importantly trust your child and their unique learning timeline.

Remember…

You control the environment.

Your environment controls what your child learns.

Your child decides when and how they will learn it.

Set up your environment for success by providing materials/books for learning about their interests and the skills they are ready to learn then trust that your child will learn what needs to be learned on their own timeline.

Ready to get started with child-led learning? Click here to download our getting started guide.

To learn more about how we implement child-led learning into our homeschool preschool, click here for our Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Preschool.

About the Author

Amanda is the owner of Learning Through Experiences where she helps beautiful mama’s homeschool their kiddos using a child-led approach without spending a lot of time planning & prepping. She is a former elementary and preschool teacher with over 11 years experience. Amanda has 2 kiddos of her own, Sicily & Kade, who follow this exact child-led approach that she advocates. Amanda is the creator of Learning Through Experiences: A Child-Led Curriculum. In her spare time, she likes to read, garden, and relax in a bubble bath.

Five Tips for Teaching Yourself Art

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I would love for you to welcome my neice to my blog today! WOOT WOOT! 🙂 Nicole writes over at Inkwyrm about book reviews and writing. I think she does a fantastic job at both. Anyways, she’s looking at selling some of her art work (as a gal’s gotta make a living right?) and I thought, how nice it would be if I could support her efforts! To that end…. Here’s Nicole.

Hello everyone! My name is Nicole K., and Annette asked me to be a guest blogger for today’s post to talk a bit about what I do, so here I am!

I am an artist and writer in Alberta, Canada, and I’ve been doing art all my life. Starting around eight, I began to take my art more seriously. Ever since then I’ve been doing it steadily. I currently do a range of art styles, with my background mostly being pencil and leaning toward realism. My usual is style based off of anime and manga, mostly using ink and alcohol-based markers, with a few other mediums thrown in.

Aside from a stint of lessons when in elementary school (a short stint), and the public school art classes, I am an entirely self-taught artist. Every art skill I have because I sought out the information myself, whether it be through people I knew who were better artists than me, looking up tips online, or through stubborn experimentation.

Today I want to talk about that, and give five tips on teaching yourself art.

Tip #1: The internet is your best friend

You can find just about anything on the internet, and art tips and skills are no exception. Using the powers of google and YouTube have saved me MANY times as I’ve struggled through a piece, from looking for references to looking for ways to keep watercolour paper from wrinkling. Not sure about how to use an art supply? Look it up. Want to know how to do a different type of texture? Look it up.

The internet is your best friend, and there’s no shame in using it.

Tip #2: IT’S OK TO COPY

Speaking of the internet, references are one of the BEST things you could ever use. I’ve heard from people time and again ‘I’m not an artist, I can only copy’, but I say NO to that. Where copying someone’s art and calling it your own is one of the worst things an artist can do, it’s perfectly fine to copy a piece for practice. During my high school years, where I developed most of my current style, all my time was spent copying other people’s work. It’s how I learned proportion, expressions, body language, linework, and SO MANY other things that I apply to every piece I do now.

Don’t know what something looks like? Find a reference online and draw it. Then draw it again from a different reference. The more you copy, the more you understand what you’re drawing, and the better you can do when trying to draw it from memory.

Tip #3: Mistakes are OK

Make mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, it means you aren’t learning. Mess up, see what went wrong, and use that knowledge for future improvement. Try new things, and don’t be afraid of messing it up. That’s what sketchbooks and scrap papers are for.

Tip #4: Learn to take advice

Understanding that there is always something that can be improved upon is a huge part of learning. You don’t have to follow every piece of advice you get, and you don’t have to listen to every criticism you get. Be willing to listen if somebody points out an issue with your art. Having a critical eye for your own work can be hard when it’s a picture you’re really proud of. Remember that most people who give honest advice aren’t out to get you, they just want to give you a hand and help you improve.

Again, you don’t have to follow all advice you get, and some advice won’t be good, but hear them out anyway. You never know what you might learn.

Tip #5: NEVER tell yourself that you will never be good enough or have no ability.

A couple years ago, I taught an art class at a kid’s summer camp that my church held, and this was the first thing I told my students.

There are few things I hate hearing more than “I’ll never be that good”, or “I’ll never be able to do it”, or “my art sucks and I hate it.”

Guess what? ALL ARTISTS HAVE FELT THAT WAY BEFORE.

Your favourite artist? They’ve felt that. The most successful artists? They’ve felt that.

ALL OF THEM HAVE FELT LIKE THEY CAN’T DO IT.

But you know what they did? They refused to give up. They looked at their art, and instead of saying “I’ll never be able to do it”, they said “I can’t do it yet, but someday I will”.

DON’T. GIVE. UP.

Getting down on your art does nothing. We all have good days and bad days for art, but what matters is getting past the bad days and pushing onward, moving forward even when it’s hard. If you have to, leave a piece for a while and come back with fresh eyes. Relax. Art is supposed to be fun, so have fun with it and stay positive. We’re all in this together.

In Closing

If you are trying to teach yourself art I hope these five tips gave you ideas or a hand up. If you like what you’ve read and seen here, you can find me on my instagram where I post most of my art (@inkwyrm), my facebook page Inkwyrm Art, or check out my own blog Inkwyrm, where I post book reviews and talk about writing.

Thanks Annette for having me as a guest! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Me adding this information.  My neice is selling Commission pieces of art.  She’s not selling stuff she’s already done (it’s too dear to her heart) BUT if you have something you’d like her to do (like dragons! or your favourite game character or whatever).. give her a shout via her facebook account  or her Instagram (above) and she’ll be happy to work with you.

The pricing is $50 for an original and custom 5×7 piece, of any character you like. This includes drawings of yourself or loved ones. Larger pictures and more characters are available at a higher price. 

Spiritual Education In Homeschooling

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For families that are faith based homeschoolers a question that often arises is how does one fit in a spiritual component to their homeschooling.  The question arises What is Spiritual Education?  How does one approach it?

Is it part of the homeschool day, as in, is it subject that is completed once a day just like math, science, art etc.  OR is a more generic part of the day NOT considered a subject in the curriculum.   The question then begged is, how do you as the parent teacher help your children understand the difference?

Spiritual Education in Homeschooling, two main methods

I admittedly am not sure of the answer but want to take the time to explore it.  Personally I’ve done it both ways, where it’s one or the other.   Currently I’m doing a mix of both. 

Faith in every Subject

Spiritual education can be woven into every single subject that is taught.  That’s a given in a faith-based homeschool due to the fact that as believers we understand that God is in all and through all and manifests himself throughout the entirety of the world.   He does.   So when we teach art we understand that God is the first artist and shows himself through the things he has created.  The more we understand how God put things together, the more we understand how much he cares for this world. All the details he holds in place show us his omnipotence.   But does weaving faith facts into lessons teach our children how to have a daily devotional time?  Does it teach them facts about the bible which they should understand?

I don’t think so.  It does teach them the relevancy of God to every subject and area of life, but it doesn’t actually teach them to dive deep into God’s word and to think meditatively about spiritual things.

Meditative Study

The way to really understand a subject is to take the time to read and think about what you are learning.  So as you do math you learn that 1 + 1 = 2 and then can bear that out with practical application.  To understand Shakespeare you read his works, consider the time period that he lived in, figure out what the words he used actually mean, and therefore are able to understand his works. The same goes for understanding God.  You actually need to stop, read his word, consider the history and time period, consider what you already know about him, and really think about the verses that you are reading.  What do they tell you about God, what do they tell you about people (including yourself).  It’s important to learn these skills early so they translate into continuing these skills as adult. 

Curriculum or Outside of Curriculum

The challenge I find is this.  Having a devotional time as part of your homeschooling day, means it won’t be forgotten.  Do your math, your science, have your devotions, do your English.  It’s just part of your learning time.  You know it will get done. But here’s a risk involved: your children will see this only as a subject to be completed, not a life skill to develop.

BUT if you separate out your devotional time what do you do on those really busy days when it’s hard to fit everything in?  Then you risk your devotional time being forgotten, or laid aside, in the busyness of life.  The risk you run is teaching your children that sometimes all the running around we do is more important than learning more about God and his will for our lives.   How does one counter that?  

Combination?

This is why I see combining the two methods as win-win.   Your child (as a subject) learns the books of the bible, or learns memory verses, or works through a Sunday School lesson. A regular study time that teaches without necessarily the meditative aspect of a personal devotional time. 

And then at a separate time (like at a meal or first thing in the morning) you can have a family devotional time, or take 30 minutes after (or before) you start your homeschooling day to have a personal time of reading God’s word and talking about it.  To that end, in our day, we do a couple of things.  First as I go through the book of John I talk with my lad about what I’m learning and get his insights as well. I’ll read verses to him and say “Hey, this is what I’m thinking and learning.  What are your thoughts?”  

At supper (almost every night) we are working through the book Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds.   We are doing this with our international student which gives us a lots of reasons to stop and just talk as we want him to understand what we are learning too.  We take turns reading scripture and then applying that to what we have learned.  Sometimes we are so amazed.

What Others Do:

I know from talking with other moms that they  have their own routine.  Perhaps they will start their day with 20 minutes of quiet bible reading, or a morning circle time, and as part of their bedtime routine. We each, through trial and error, find our own way.  It’s important to do so though.  God gives us life and care.  His son died for us.  It’s the very least we can do to take time to know him, our heavenly Father, just a wee bit more eh?  

Jack the Police Dog

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Today my son and I joined other members of the HOPE group to see a police dog demonstration.  We got to meet Jack and his Handler Jackie.    She is the smallest dog handler and has the largest dog in this area.  She talked with us about the work that Jack does with her, his training, his likes and dislikes and demonstrated some of his skills.

Police Dog Jack

Jack spends most of his time during general duties – going on patrol, clearing houses, looking for people, and other such normal activities for a police dog.  He has also been trained in drugs and one other thing… bombs I think.  My memory isn’t completely clear.

Came from Czechoslovakia  when one year old $10,000.  They work with European breeders because they need the pedigree of solid working dogs with good noses. 

His handler did all the training with him.  Jack works for his toy (a ball with a rope on it).   His ball is his “good job” marker.   They are trained using positive reinforcement only.  She trained Jack in London and returns there twice a month to maintain training.   

police dog and handler

Carries a gun, pepper spray and a tazer.  Tazers come with an inbuilt confetti that is marked with the number of the tazer.  So forensics can always tell which tazer was used.

The students (and some of the moms) asked good questions that ranged from size of Jack (75-90 lbs), to ammunition needed (carry two clips with 14 bullets), to items they need to carry.  The fun of trying to keep with a dog who can clear a 10 foot fence.   Jack is currently the largest dog in the London, St. Thomas, St. Mary’s and Stratford area.   He is a black German Shepherd.  

He has had 6 apprehensions in his life.  An apprehension is when a dog bites a suspect to hold them.   They are trained to bite and hold rather than to bite and reposition.  This training minimizes damage to the suspect. 

She helped us understand why a police dog can clear a house quicker than a person can.  Having a powerful nose lets them know if a person is hiding in a room even if a door is shut and locked.   Means the officer doesn’t have to wait for a key to gain entrance nor do they have to search every cubby, closet or even the ceiling. 

His handler was pleased to show us some of Jack’s skills.  He SO loves his ball and watched it eagerly be tossed away and did everything he was supposed to before he finally was able to keep it.  He ran through his exercise twice showing off different skills I only caught the first part on camera. 

His handler ended up being called back to duty, but before she headed off, we were shown a secret from the police car.  She has a button on her suit that can remotely open the back door of the vehicle.  Jack is trained to burst out in full protection mode.   Unfortunately Jack got the protection sleeve off his handler before I got the camera out and snapping a pic.  

emergency releaseWe learned that Jack lives with his person 24/7.  At night he has an outdoor kennel that keeps him comfortable.  The police vehicle is equipped with Jack in mind, with a temperature controlled environment and everything.

It was a great demonstration and I’m glad we went. 

Unschool without unschooling

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The other day I had a conversation with a fellow homeschooler.  She wanted to talk to me because I’ve been schooling a while and she is fairly new.   She’s been confused by a few things and just needed to talk. Over the course of our conversation we got on the topic of unschooling and what did I as a Christian think about it?  

unschool without unschooling

Defining Unschoooling.

It’s always hard you know?   To answer a question when understanding between two people might not be clear.  How I defined unschooling is this: Letting a child choose what they want to learn about without using any curriculum.   A child learns at their own pace without anyone actually teaching the child, just providing the resources for a child to teach themselves. 

After we were on the same page I told her that as a Christian I didn’t believe in unschooling as a method of learning, but that said I believed that we could use the idea of unschooling in our daily lives.  Raised eyebrows at this statement so I went on to explain myself.

For instance, your curriculum calls for you to study about sharks but your child has a love of alpacas… so study alpacas.  You don’t need to study sharks.   Or you are supposed to look into the history of the civil war, but your child has become fascinated by the Metis rebellion…study the Metis rebellion.   You don’t have to do what the curriculum asks you to do.   You don’t.  

The world won’t stop.  The curriculum company won’t call you on your choices.  Your child won’t forget how to learn.  Other homeschool moms (or dads) won’t yell at you and if they do.. WHY?  Nothing horrible will happen.  You don’t need to worry about gaps in education, what you need to worry about it instilling a love of learning.

Questions to ask:

You need to ask: Is your child learning and growing?  Are they enjoying their studies?  Are they retaining the information that alpacas take care of their young, they are mammals, with a backbone who are a domesticated vicuna from South America?  Do they know that sharks are fish, and fish are animals.. just like alpacas are?  Have they learned the history can be told from different points of view?   That both sides have a story to tell?   Do they know that learning your history helps you understand what is happening today?

It doesn’t matter what you use to teach,.  You need talk to your children, see their delights and curiousities.  Nurture that.  Working with your child’s interests isn’t foregoing what is good and right in educating your children.  You can use what they love in order to help them learn, to intentionally train them up.  Isn’t that what we are about?

Record Keeping Worries

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Did you know that I have a boy in grade 8?   I KNOW… it’s been an amazing journey that we’ve been on for the past 8-9 years, learning and growing together.  As he gets closer to grade nine (gasp) I start to wonder about keeping grades and records and have to admit.. I haven’t a clue.  Beyond making tests and marking them, just how does one keep grades?

How does one mark a project?  How does one judge if a student has passed a keyboarding class?  I don’t know! 

I’ve been doing some research (not much at this point to be honest) I still don’t know much.. so why am I even writing this post eh?  To share my lack of knowledge?

Well not really.

Record keeping worries, text over open books

Reassurance

I just want to talk to moms (or dads) out there who are in the same boat that I am in.   My goal is to ease hearts as mine have been.

I was talking to the highschool guidance counsellor two weeks ago and asked her how they handle it when a student comes in when records haven’t been kept well.  “Oh, we just figure it out”.  To my quizzical look, she continued “We had a student come into grade 10 just this past week, no records for anything up til this point.   We talked with her, figured out where she was at and we have the ability to just plug the details in.   We can adjust as we see how she does at grade level as well”.

You know what that did?  WOW.. it eased my heart.   To know that I don’t have to panic if I don’t have it all figured out by next September.  And honestly WHY should I panic?  Having or not having grades for grade nine is not the end of the world.  Colleges/universities aren’t going to hold it against him?

Support is Available

I also know this… there is a HUGE support community out there for homeschoolers.  On-line or in person.  

In-person, some of my options are:

  • One of the curriculum supply places will be doing a “going into highschool seminar” in a few weeks so I can take advantage of that.
  • I can go to a spring homeschooling conference and someone there will be doing a highschool workshop.  (at least there has always been one every other conference).
  • Talk to those who have gone on before
  • Talk to the library about resources they might have on hand

On-line I can

  • Research how to do it via the world wide web
  • Talk to the local homeschooling community
  • Go to forums and ask questions
  • Talk to people connected with the Homeschool Review Crew
  • Talk to individuals I’ve gotten to know in the homeschool community like Kym, Lori, and Carol.  
  • Reach out on social media.

Please do share, I really do want to know what my options are.  Even to learn HOW to grade.  My lad is good at letting me know what he does know, but that doesn’t always tell me what he remembers long term you know?  I can see how he puts his research skills together, but I can’t always judge how well he sees the bigger picture. 

Your turn

How about you? What ways can you learn about grades and record keeping for YOUR highschool student?   What have you learned works for keeping good records of your students’ activities?  Share, help me out eh?   You are part of my community!

This post has been linked with the Homeschool Review Crew Round up.  You can find it here. 

keeping records

World War 1: Pre-War Alliances

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Do you recall that we are learning about the World wars this year? Last time we learned about the assassination of ArchDuke Ferdinand. Over the past week the lad has been studying up the Pre-War alliances.

pre war alliances of world war 1

The lad read from these books.

The great war pre-war alliances
The story of the first world war for children.
The war to end all wars.
The First world war.
First World War.
Canada in World War One.
Roots of the conflict.

Maps

We discovered this map of the Pre-war alliances. We thought about creating our own small one but the lad wants to add flags to the large map that he is working on. This is his brief run down on what he wants to do.

idea for map

This is the progress he has made this week.

map progress for world war 1The lad took the time to explain what some of the countries are.

Videos:

We watched some videos, in particular these from The Great War

There are three parts, I’m not linking them all here.  🙂  but it’s a fascinating series so you really should check them out.   We found videos 2 and 3 ran together. 

Vocabulary Learned:

Nationalism: an extreme form of patriotism, especially marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries

Militarism: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.

Imperialism: a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Anti-Semitism: hostility to or prejudice against Jews.

Taking it further:

We had a science class this week.  We did electrolysis (taking the hydrogen out of water).   The lads were fascinated and found it a lot of fun.  The lad has been busy expanding his knowledge of this process since then.

I was talking with the lad today about how the war was like electrolysis.  You had countries that naturally were drawn together and yet you can change one thing and they are forced apart.   You should have seen the startlement in his eyes and his understanding deepened.  Neat way to connect dots I thought.

Research?

Normally after a week of research the lad works on a research project to further his knowledge, but this week he said all the questions he had got answered by the different books he read or by the videos we watched.  He was able to narrate why the different countries had the alliances they did.  For instance Britain made one with Belgium because Belgium was a way to protect a piece of their lad. He compared this with the Canadian sale of Alaska to the USA because the USA wanted to protect a point of entry.  People liked Russia because of it’s sheer size. And some of the other countries liked each other because of proximity or what they could gain etc.   It’s always good to listen to a lad explain his understanding.  We’ve decided we’re going to have him start writing a report of everything he is learning so we can track it better.