Monday, January 19, 2015

Why I Don't Use The Story of the World

When I first started homeschooling, I feel enormous pressure to use The Story of The World by Susan Wise Bauer as our history curriculum.  Vast numbers of homeschoolers used it, both secular and Christian.  It seemed so solid and impressive. 

I bought a copy of Volume I and began reading it to 6-year-old Bee.  He liked some of the stories but disliked it overall.  He has an aversion to what he deems "educational books."  He likes many nonfiction books, and many books that were written in order to "educate" children, but something about The Story of the World got on his nerves.  Honestly, I had trouble retaining a lot of what I read to him myself.  We never finished reading it. 

Still, I couldn't shake the idea that we should be reading it and that we should be doing the activity book.  My children deserved the opportunity of mummifying a chicken while we studied ancient Egypt.  This idea that we should be doing a book that none of us wanted to do for history actually got in the way of us doing more history and enjoying more history. 

Bee did get history that year, mainly because his father let him watch the documentary America: The Story of US.  He was mesmerized by it, and he watched it (all 12 hours) several times.  I don't recommend this for a first grader necessarily; I thought it was a little too violent, probably better for middle school or at least upper elementary.  I'm also not sure it's the best historical documentary ever made and has some misinformation regarding whale oil on the Hubble telescope.  However, I think Bee learned more US History that year from that documentary than I possibly learned in my entire elementary education. 

I continued to regret not continuing The Story of the World, and over the years it has come up frequently in conversations with other homeschoolers.  It seems  that people either love it or hate it.  Many parents seem to use it successfully and swear by it.  Other parents hate it.  One person (a grandparent who assisted in homeschooling his grandchildren) suggested it would be cruel of him to loan me the audio CD's of the series, as he and his grandchildren had disliked the books so much, both the print and the audio versions. 

I put way too much thought into the big decision of whether I should try the books again.  I performed an obscene number of Internet searches to read what other homeschool parents had to say.  I liked the idea of giving my children such a broad view of history, but it seemed too broad to me.  I think that to do The Story of the World successfully, you really need to base your homeschool around history, and that is not something I felt I had the passion to do.  I also think that the history of the entire world is too massive and global for my brain, even on a 4-year cycle. 

Some children become highly interested in smaller histories, like the Civil War or ancient Egypt or Greece.  I would prefer to let my child go in depth on one of those topics if they so chose.  Taking a year to study art and/or music history is another option.  Focusing on the history of war or weapons or just technology might be another option that might appeal to a child or family. 

I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Bauer speak a year ago at the VaHomeschoolers conference.  I enjoyed her keynote session so much that I skipped two other sessions I was signed up for that day in order to hear hers instead.  I found her to be brilliant, insightful, inspiring, and, to my surprise, very real and funny.  If you ever get the chance to hear her speak, I highly recommend that you take advantage of it. 

I now consider myself to be a huge fan of Dr. Bauer, but I have given up the idea of using her books and now feel free to find our own way.  For first grader Bug, our "social studies" this year has consisted of map activities, Little Passports, and we are now snuggling up in the afternoons to read the "If You Lived..." series.  For fifth grader Bee, in addition to field trips he has taken and books he has read on his own, he has really enjoyed John Green's Crash Course videos on Youtube over the past months.  This semester, we are also doing a study of bias in history, by reading selections from two very biased and contrasting books.  I have bought Bee graphic novels and interactive novels on historical topics, and he happily devours them.  

It works for us.  The boys are learning, and we are enjoying it.  I feel good about what they are learning. 

I think Dr. Bauer is amazing, and I think every homeschooler should at least check out one of her history books from the library, to see if it would be a good fit.  If not, it is really okay; there are plenty of other great options out there for learning history. 

Friday, January 9, 2015

Prioritize one subject at a time

When I first started homeschooling, Bee and I made great progress in math.  He's good at it, he seemed to like it pretty well, and I liked explaining it.  So, we would always progress in math.  Eventually, it seemed like we might not be making a lot of progress in other areas. 

I spent a lot of time making up schedules and checklists, but what has really helped is to pick the thing we most need to work on and make sure it gets done close to every school day.  We still work in other areas, but this helps to make big strides in a very needed area.  The first thing (after math, of course) that I did this with was All About Spelling.  We started that when Bee was in 3rd grade, and we started with Level 1, so we had quite a bit of catching up to do.  We went through the steps very fast, but we really needed to do it every day for a while. 

Last year, I really wanted to prioritize writing, so I made sure he emailed with his writing tutor as many days as we could.  We've done science this way, as well as Spanish.  We've also gone back to math at times.  Right now, it's All About Spelling since with our big interstate move, it didn't get unpacked for a while. 

The priority may be different for each child, or it may be the same.  I'm emphasizing AAS with Bug as well right now.  With a younger child, however, I typically don't feel a big rush on anything.  

The main thing to remember is that any program or book that is going to be prioritized is that it has to be something that the child likes well enough.  If the child hates it, everyone is going to be miserable. 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Learning from Mistakes

When Bee, my oldest, was in the 2nd or 3rd grade, I bought a book called Word Ladders for grades 2-3.  You start with one word and then follow clues, changing one or two letters to make new words. 
 I thought they looked like fun word puzzles that would help Bee remember how to spell words and learn about the relationship between words.  So, I would print a page and have him do it, although I would offer help and encouragement as needed, and he would complain about how much he hated them.  

When we switched to All About Spelling as our spelling curriculum, I decided that was enough, and since he didn't like the Word Ladders, I would drop them.  

Now, Bug is in 1st grade.  I thought he might like the Word Ladders, so I bought him the one for grades 1-2.  However, I took a completely different approach with him.  At the end of our All About Spelling lesson, I said, "Now we're going to do a fun puzzle together!"  He did the puzzle, but I did the writing as dictated.  Bug LOVES them, and Bee asked me to get him the one for his level.  So, I am getting him the one for grades 4-6. 

When I first started homeschooling, I frequently couldn't "see the forest for the trees."  Bug and I might have had a lot of fun and learned through those Word Ladders, if I had simply offered to be his scribe.  But instead I insisted that he do it the way I would have done it in school, sitting with a pencil. 

I remember why I did this.  I was having a lot of trouble getting him to practice writing letters and numbers, so I was trying to squeeze every opportunity for him to practice.  In retrospect, it would have been better to do a little bit of handwriting practice each day, but not let his reluctance to write (which probably had something to do with his ADHD) interfere with other learning activities. 

When his new book comes, we will do them together, unless he asks to do them on his own.  These days, forming letters and numbers isn't such a big deal, and his handwriting is very legible.  He would still prefer to use a keyboard rather than write, but it isn't an obstacle. 

I don't want to beat myself up over my mistakes, since that is futile, but I did want to share what I have learned.  Poor oldest children; they teach us so much.