How I Prepare Unit Studies

In the past few years I've talked to lots of people who are wondering about homeschooling. I'm going to excerpt from an email I wrote to a friend a while ago, telling how I go about preparing Unit Studies. If you are curious, I hope it helps you! But don't be alarmed by how long it is. I was just trying to be thorough!

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Yes. I understand the desire to know, in detail, HOW other people do things! Before we started homeschooling, I asked everyone I knew how they went about their lesson preparation! And it frustrated me how many of them gave vague answers like you mentioned: "Oh, just do what works best for you; you'll figure it out." Or, "Just be guided by the children's passions." I wanted to grab them by the lapels and shout, "But how, EXACTLY, did you know what to do? What if you FORGET to teach some key concept and it RUINS EVERYTHING? Don't you realize that if I homeschool I will be SOLELY AND COMPLETELY AND PERSONALLY responsible for every single thing that my children need to know for the rest of their lives?!?!" 

Ha! So…I totally understand the panic that can bubble up. And in fact, I still feel that same panic sometimes when I look to the future. It's just really hard to visualize how you will best meet the unknown future needs of your unknown future older-kids, people you don't even know yet. So of course it's stressful to think about it!

But, now that we've been at this a few years, I also understand why people were saying "Oh it's simple, just do what works for you!"—because that's true too. It turned out, when I actually did find people who would give me specifics, I often ended up thinking, "well, THAT system sounds unnecessarily complicated." Or "that sounds too simplistic!" Or "if I did that, it would take me months to prepare one lesson!" Or "what's the point of doing that; it's just like regular school!"  So, after all, I DID sort of need to end up finding my own method that worked for me, and so does everyone. There's trial and error involved. I'll try to describe more specifically about what I do, but just be warned that it may not be helpful to everyone—you might say "That doesn't sound simple to ME!" or whatever. :)

The Unit Studies method is great because it has tons of room for flexibility. You can be really methodical about it, like one of my friends who has a four-year science cycle: chemistry, physics, biology, and…something. She's very deliberate about it. Her history is on a cycle like that too (ancient world, Medieval and Renaissance, modern era and civil rights, etc. Can't remember exactly). My style of haphazard units would freak some people out! But for my part, I realized soon after starting this that all the necessary principles are interconnected, and they will come up as needed, even if I just pick more random/focused subjects to study! Without even trying to, we have covered all the subjects that the state covers—just in different order and starting from different units (and, usually, more in-depth). So, for example, we did a unit on Fireworks, which Seb was fascinated with at the time. You have to do chemistry to explain chemical reactions: What makes fire burn? What are compounds? All that stuff. We did the Solar System for Malachi, who loves space. So of course: the earth and the moon, cycles of the moon, gravity. We did an Olympics unit. Also Football. Had to discuss Newton's laws, forces and motion, why big things have more momentum, etc. We did Volcanoes. Composition of the earth, how rocks are formed, continental drift, tectonic plates. Another year we did Natural Disasters, so more review of the volcano stuff, plus weather patterns, clouds, ice and the water cycle, geologic stuff like plate movement and waves, etc. We did Nuclear Energy because my boys BEGGED for it (after we visited the nuclear museum on a trip to New Mexico). I was dreading it because I am definitely not smart enough to understand it (I thought). But I just checked out a million books from juvenile non-fiction (science books for kids are awesome) on nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants, etc. And pretty soon it made sense. And to understand it, you have to talk about the periodic table, atoms, how atoms combine to make molecules, the forces in the universe, movement of electrons, etc. But all that stuff is in the books too. So by "randomly" choosing subjects, I feel fine about the science they are getting. And if they are a bit young for it  (Ky was only 1st grade for Nuclear Power, so I'm sure he didn't get it all) that's fine, they will get another exposure to the same subjects in another unit—as he did when we later did Electricity or Light and Optics, etc. You can also always look up what the public schools in your state are teaching each year, if you need ideas.

For us, I like starting with an overall unit (to give the subject relevance—so I've found that "Nuclear Energy" is a more interesting starting point than "the structure of atoms," though both teach the same underlying principles. But I have also done more broad units like "Rocks and Minerals" or "Water." Even with those, though, I try to work in some culture and history throughout the unit, like, "worldwide myths featuring water" or "how minerals are used in modern technology" or "how wave pools and water parks work" or whatever). I choose our units based on 

1. Kid interest (e.g. Architecture for Seb, penguins for Daisy)

2. My interest (e.g. Shakespeare, the Nervous system)

3. I feel vaguely like it should be learned at some point (e.g. Rocks and minerals)

4. I remember I learned it in school, or I know it's in the state standards (e.g. Solar system)

5. Current event (e.g. Babies and reproduction)

6. Local opportunity/field trip/ exhibit (e.g. Chocolate, when there was a chocolate exhibit at the natural history museum)

Remember I've only been at this for four years, but so far I've been trying to pick one human body system per year, one big history unit or war, and maybe a country to study in-depth each year too. And then a roughly equal balance of science and history for the rest (though often, science and history overlap, like when you learn the history of how the science was discovered, or what scientific advancements made certain parts of history possible, like WWI and the machine gun). Sometimes around the kids' birthdays I let them pick a unit (Abe was into Magic a couple years ago, so we did a unit on Illusion and talked about optical illusions, chemistry "magic tricks," some history of theater illusions, make-up, special effects, sound engineering effects in movies, etc).  The rest is just picked by me, and I get ideas all over the place (as listed above, or I can always browse state education websites or grade-level specific websites for further ideas). 

I may be giving you way too much information. I'm just trying so hard not to give you that "you'll figure it out" answer! I'm trying to give you actual details. Hopefully it's not making you feel more overwhelmed. But honestly, it's just because it takes forever to type it out. For our units, the process is basically:

1. Make an outline of units for the year, on a calendar, guessing how many weeks each unit needs, approximately (can be changed later).
2. Browse county library website in juvenile Non-Fiction by subject. (Using related words also. So like when we started a Light and Optics unit, I looked up "light" which had several pages to go through. Picked the books that were moderate-length so they'd be simpler, and looked interesting. That gave me more ideas of subjects to look up, like fiberoptics. Lasers. Electric light. Thomas Edison. Light and dark. Shadows. The sun. Energy. Telescopes. Lenses. Reflection. Refraction. Looked up all those and picked the most interesting books.) Put them on hold. You can do 20 books per card and I sometimes use all our cards :)
3. Get books, take them home, page through them briefly. Discard ones that are boring or too repetitive. Some repetition is good, though. Start to figure out subdivisions for units and see if I need any more books (like do I need something on atomic structure? If there is not a good book on lasers, do I need to look up on the internet, "how lasers work?" "Lasers for kids"?)
4. Look at calendar and plan out days. I need a day each for the subjects of reflection, refraction, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, rainbows, colors, shadows, at least. Some are longer days; those can't go on piano lesson/choir days. I better start with a couple days review on the electromagnetic spectrum and how electrons orbit the atom, even though we learned that in our electricity unit. Any field trips? Look for free days that can fit those in.
5. What books go with each day? Put on spreadsheet.
6. Activities. Don't need something every day, but there are plenty. Browse Pinterest, blogs, websites. Look up "light unit for kids." "Light activities for kids" "Color activities for 4th grade." "Kindergarten study about colors" Etc. Put activities on spreadsheet. Some are simple, like coloring something. Others are more complex: make your own periscope. Make supply list if necessary. Does this craft sound FUN and SIMPLE and CHEAP? If not, find something else. Other supplies needed, like a microscope, I might have already, or I might consider ordering if I think we'll use it a lot. We need a prism for this unit. Maybe a laser pointer? Lenses—see if we have some old ones from old glasses or sunglasses. Do I know anyone that can help us with this? My brother was an astronomy major; email him for ideas. My neighbor is a chemist; maybe he has a magnifying glass we can borrow? What about my uncle who worked for Boeing? Maybe he can explain how airplanes use radar and light scanners. I wonder if Sam can get us into the BYU planetarium. The guy in the office next to Sam's is a theater lighting guy, maybe he can show us how theater lighting works for a field trip? Check websites for museum exhibits coming up. Email the Salt Lake astronomy club. Etc etc etc. I shamelessly use everyone I know as a resource, or email people I find online. We have found some awesome opportunities that way.
7. Unit is planned. Will take 5 weeks. Now I don't really need to do anything except check my spreadsheet every night, make sure I have supplies or I read up on specifics (what is radar, again?) online to make sure I can explain it. Plenty of "radar for dummies"-type resources online. Also lots of good videos on YouTube, Netflix, PBS.org, etc. 
8. A few weeks later, repeat process for next unit.

These steps can take me a couple of weeks, working on free evenings or on Saturdays/ Sundays, but it isn't really that overwhelming; it's not like I'm doing lesson prep all the time. And once a unit is mostly outlined, like I said, I'm not working on it every night or anything.

It's seriously so simple, and it's really fun (for me). But if it's not fun for you, you can order pre-made curriculum online! You can get a whole science curriculum for the year, and then just add to it or customize it—spending more time on the subjects your kids like best. Or find individual units on something your kids like. Or join a co-op, or sign up for an online course, or free videos, or just simplify it way down and use lesson plans on the Utah education website. There are so many ways to do it! So don't let knowing MY specifics freak you out! :)

You could do it! You'd be great. Nothing to be afraid of. Some figuring out and adjustments, sure, but you're doing that in parenting all the time. This is no different.

Flying by

We started school again a few weeks ago, after a nice summer break. I've got our units for the year planned out. First off, we're doing a unit on Aviation and Aeronautics! The boys (and because of that, the girls) have been so enamored with airplanes lately. I  think it started when Seb got to fly to Burbank with Sam last year, and everyone started making paper and wood planes like madmen, and then when we were able to fly to Montreal in July it just fueled the fire. Though my own interest in planes has never been high, I finally decided there was no use fighting it. If you can't beat them, join them! And of course, as usual, I've found myself getting really interested in spite of myself!

It's been lovely so far. (Here's the pinterest page I'm working from.) I'll update this blog with all the details at the end of the unit (and retroactively date my posts), as usual. (That will probably be at the beginning of October.)

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of seven wet people, one of whom has just stubbed his toe.

See you soon!

You Could Totally Do This (or, Why I am Not a Saint)

Well, this summer will make two years of homeschooling---right now is just about exactly two years of thinking about homeschooling---and that means I'm an expert now, right? Time to write a Homeschooling Manifesto! Ha ha. But actually, I get asked about homeschooling a lot, and after exchanging emails with one friend about it, I thought it might be worth reprinting here a slightly edited version of what I said to her. This is, really, what I wish I could say to everyone who asks me about homeschooling—but, as everyone does not have three free hours in which to listen to me blathering on and on, I must be content with publishing it here. :)

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So, I am concerned and have been thinking about your email. I hate to hear you say you felt like a horrible mom reading about homeschooling—because that's the very opposite of what I was trying to say!! Argh! It's so hard to express things right. I think about this a lot, because it's so common to have people say something like, "Oh, you homeschool? You are such a saint!" or "You must be so patient; I could never do that; I can barely stand having my kids home for the summer"—or similar statements. And it bothers me—not bothers me in that I'm annoyed, but bothers me in that it makes me think, "That's not correct." I will try to put into words why that is.

First of all, it's NOT that I am putting my own progression on hold and only thinking of my kids, being a saintlike and selfless person. I keep realizing more and more how life is just a series of trade-offs. It really is. You just CAN'T do everything you want to do—at least I can’t—so I am constantly shifting around and re-evaluating, trying to keep balance in my life and trying to make sure I’m at least covering the most important things—which keep changing constantly—and I constantly feel like there is SOMETHING I’m really neglecting and should be doing. Once I start doing better on one thing, I promptly neglect something else! But the great epiphany I had was that these things are CHOICES. Like, I could feel frustrated all the time and mad that I can’t do what I want to do—or I can take control and make sure that most (not all, obviously) of the things I am doing ARE what I want to do—or at least they fit in with what I want to do.

So in other words, I'm searching (along with everyone else) for this balance between what I feel I “should” do—based on the gospel and on the culture and what everyone around me is doing—and what I “want” to do—also based on the gospel and my own personality and what is fun and what matters to me.  Some of the “shoulds” and some of the “wants” are unimportant, some of each are also important——but those change based on who I am and who my family is and where we are in our lives, etc.  And that’s why no one should look at me, as someone who homeschools, and think I am doing “more” than they are—because I’m NOT—I’m just doing different things. I can’t speak for all homeschoolers when I say this, because I know some people really do it because they feel they “should.” They feel it is the best thing for their kids, so they are willing to sacrifice their preferences which would be to NOT homeschool. But for me, it’s not that. I admit I started thinking about it because of some spiritual experiences and promptings that I had, over the course of 6 months or so. And at that point it really wasn’t my preference, I felt like I would rather not, but I was willing to do it if that’s what God had in mind for our family at this time. But then I gradually realized that “homeschooling” had a big component of “arranging my family and my day the way _I_ want it to be arranged” and that was really attractive to me. So I decided we’d just dive in and go for it, try it out for a year and then go back if we didn’t like it, and the amazing thing I discovered is that I PREFER it this way. Again, it’s NOT because I’m selfless and martyrish. It’s because it works with who I am and with what I like and with who our family is. Sure, there are times when I feel like I am sacrificing my own needs or my own time, but EVERY mom does that. The thing that separates me from where I was when we were in public school is not that I’m “more patient” or “more selfless” now—but that I feel like now, I am using my time and my talents in a way that is fulfilling and fun and exciting to me—rather than trying to fit in all the things I “should” do around someone else’s priorities or schedule. And for me that tradeoff is totally, TOTALLY worth it, in fact it makes all the “sacrifice” of homeschool NOT a sacrifice.

I feel like I’m still not making total sense, so let me try to give specifics.

Okay, here is a list off the top of my head of some of the things I wish I could do or think I should be doing.

• Cooking great nutritious meals, not eating out often, trying out new recipes to keep things interesting
• Keeping the house clean
• Teaching the kids to clean and work
• Spending one on one time with kids—interviews, dates
• Helping the kids get along with each other so they will love each other when they’re grown up
• Playing with the little ones in an educational way, reading to them etc—helping their brains develop
• Helping the kids become good musicians—piano, singing, an instrument?
• Keeping the kids physically fit—sports, exercise
• Keeping myself physically fit, running, lifting weights
• Practicing and performing the piano
• Composing or arranging music
• Writing—poetry, or essays, or anything
• Being a good friend to my current friends—remembering birthdays, getting together occasionally
• Making new friends—both me and the kids
• Having people over for dinner or having fun with other couples
• Working on my marriage and devoting time to Sam, dates, etc
• Decorating and making the house look cute
• Saving money, being frugal, looking for sales and finding “good deals," balancing checkbook, saving for the future
• Staying informed and involved in the community
• Looking and dressing cute myself—cute hairstyles, makeup, not “letting myself go” :)
• Keeping the kids clean—baths, haircuts, new clothes and shoes, mending and fixing old clothes, sorting them, keeping the old ones in boxes to hand down
• Teaching the kids about the gospel, preparing for missions, "the home is the new MTC”
• Family Home Evening
• Free time—unscheduled— “time to be a kid” for the kids so they don’t miss out on the boredom and freedom of childhood
• Reading great books as a family
• Reading good books myself
• Family scripture study
• Watching BYU football and basketball
• Watching movies I like with Sam
• Missionary work/sharing the gospel
• Personal scripture and gospel study
• Thinking about and taking care of my mom, and Sam’s parents
• Keeping in touch with my brothers and their families
• Going to plays and concerts, enriching myself culturally
• Learning new things so I show my kids that learning should be a lifelong process
• Going to the temple, often
• Fulfilling and magnifying my calling
• Helping Sam magnify HIS calling
• Truly listening when the kids talk to me
• Broadening our minds through travel and having new experiences, getting out of our comfort zone
• Visiting teaching, being a good neighbor, compassionate service
• Having more meaningful prayers—couple prayer and personal and family—not letting it get repetitious
• Working in the yard, weeding, planting flowers, making it look nice
• Fixing stuff that breaks around the house—I mean, calling the repairman to GET it fixed, or buying the part or painting over the hole or whatever
• Supporting ward activities and RS activities, primary, passing off scout requirements and hauling everyone to pack meeting etc.
• Keeping up with doctor’s and dentist appointments for the kids and me
• Creating and keeping holiday traditions, birthdays, etc.
• Enjoying the outdoors and the beautiful world around us, riding bikes, hiking, campfires etc.
• Down time and sleep—relaxing, allowing time to recharge and recover

So, you have a list like that too, as does everyone, obviously. And we CAN’T do it all at once. And I just wrote things I actually WANT to do and think are important—I didn’t even include things I feel vaguely like I ought to do (family history, volunteering, donating blood, sewing Halloween costumes etc). It sounds cliche and I know you know this, but it was a big realization for me that EVERY TIME I do something, I am also choosing NOT to do something else! That’s just how it is. And you’re probably thinking, like I did, “How could anyone ever take their huge list like that——and then ADD HOMESCHOOLING to it??! that would be crazy."

So, okay, I started homeschooling because I felt it was something God maybe wanted our family to try, and because it intrigued me . . . I thought it might be fun, after talking to friends about it. But I did worry so much, "What about my own time? do I just have to give that up? what if I resent my kids or have a nervous breakdown because of it?” I know those are real issues for a lot of people. But I thought I would never know unless we tried.

And what I discovered, to my great amazement, was that I had been thinking of it all wrong. For us, and let me emphasize FOR US—it would be different for every family, and I know our experience is not universal, and in fact this might not even be true FOR US at a different time in our lives—but FOR US, RIGHT NOW: homeschooling has allowed me to get to MORE of that list than I EVER have been able to before. I am busy, yes, and maybe I’m busier than I’ve ever been—but it doesn’t feel burdening and I don’t RESENT it the way I resented busy-ness before. Because I always felt this nagging feeling, "we should be having more gospel study, more family time, more quality parent-child time, etc etc etc——and if I was a BETTER MOM then I would be DOING all those things!  If I was more on top of things, we would get up at 5 a.m. to do scripture study, we would have family councils on Sunday, I would go have nightly talks with the kids as I tucked them in every night." I felt like it was so daunting and I just had no TIME for all those things, because the kids left the house at 8:30, got home at 3:30, homework-dinner-bed, and there was nothing left, and I was so TIRED and I resented every extra school project and every PTA meeting and School Carnival and so forth. But I also knew I could have found the time for doing more, if I’d gotten up earlier or been more efficient or more organized—but I just didn’t. I kept knowing I should but I just didn’t.

So suddenly when my time became MY OWN and MY FAMILY’S, I was able to find ways to fit more in, and it was actually stuff I WANTED to fit in. Piano lessons can be during the school day instead of after it. Helping the little kids get along and have things to do is everyone’s job, not just mine. If something feels really out of balance we have the freedom to correct it. Learning and living aren’t separate tasks. We are learning and reading and spending time together as PART of our school day instead of trying to fit that in AROUND it. Half of the stuff I felt like I “needed to be doing” just gets done naturally when our family is learning together and working together all day long!  I don’t have to add it in separately. I don’t feel like, if I miss the goodnight kiss and talk, that I’m a failure because I haven’t even seen my kids that day, or if I end up getting mad or yelling at the kids, that we only had negative interactions that day, or if we miss FHE I missed my one chance in the week to discuss the gospel. It gives me more margin for error! For me, that’s huge, because I am less stressed and that makes me a better mom! It doesn’t stress me out to read books and plan lessons for our homeschool. I love it!! It’s what I like to do anyway! I do get stressed out about it, of course, but not in the same way, because I’m the one making the decisions. We don’t do stupid projects I think are a waste of time. :) And it’s also this way for me to connect with the kids that I not only didn’t have TIME for before, but I didn’t WANT to do it. I’m not naturally a sit-and-play-legos type of mom, or a let’s-get-out-the-craft-box, or a take-the-kids-to-the-Monte-Bean-museum-in-the-afternoon type of mom. And I think a lot of people (YOU seem to be) are so much better at that than I am, and it’s not that I couldn’t have TRIED to become better at it, but I just didn’t do well even when I tried. I would rather sit and read my own book, or do my own project, and so I felt like I was not giving MYSELF to my kids as much as I would have liked to. But if we’re doing a craft project for school? or a field trip? then it has a purpose to me and I enjoy it SO much more, and I get enthusiastic and have FUN doing it. Again, not that I couldn’t have done that without homeschooling, but I DIDN’T do it. But enthusiasm for learning is one thing I do have, and I have always had, so when I get to share that with my kids, MY way, I really feel like ALL of us benefit. 

And of course, I still am neglecting tons of stuff on that list above, but what we are doing is more in line with my priorities and my inclinations, so everything goes smoother. I know there are people that will think my kids are missing out on stuff, but they’re ALWAYS missing out on something, whether they’re in public school or not. By not being at public school they’re missing out on fun class programs, and having other adults that love them, and good friendships, and potentially being good influences on others around them, and teachers who are smarter and better than me in various ways, and who knows what else, and I’m missing out on stuff too. And we had to weigh that when we were making the decision. But they are gaining closeness with their siblings, and life skills and habits that the artificial setting of a classroom with 30 kids all their same age will never give them, and hands-on knowledge, and subjects and skills no school would teach, and immersion in gospel topics, and a love of learning. And maybe that sounds like I think the latter outweighs the former, and I DO think so, but only for us, you know? For other families, the benefits and costs might be totally different. Or other families might be able to fit in more stuff in addition to public school than we were ever able to. And it’s really worth a lot to me to be able to determine what _I_ think is the most valuable way to spend our time learning, rather than being at the mercy of what the teacher or the school or the government thinks is the most valuable thing for my kids to know. In some ways, maybe that is MORE selfish. Or some people might hate it. For me it is freeing, though, and gives me great peace.

And there are still plenty of external things our family has to plan around—church, scouts, choir, homeschool groups, extended family stuff, sports, etc. So it’s not like I get to TOTALLY dictate how to fill our days. :) But I have a lot more control than I used to, and it’s really made me so much happier. To the point that, again, I don’t feel like I’m “giving up” anything even though I read less, I practice the piano less, I shower less :), I write less than I used to. The benefits FAR outweigh the costs. And I do have faith that I’ll have time for more of those things in a different time of life—my patriarchal blessing says, what I can’t do simultaneously, I can do sequentially. That comforts me. Also I feel like I have been blessed to (often—not always) have a lot more energy and drive so that I can often accomplish more in a shorter time than I used to. I don’t know why exactly, but when I am keeping my mind engaged and active in working on school stuff, other parts of my “creative self” seem to come to life as well, even more than they did when I had “more free time.” Interesting.

And again, I want to make it clear that I realize there are lots of benefits the other way (i.e., in NOT homeschooling) as well. I have been reminded by several people of what we will be losing by doing homeschool. I have worried about neglecting the younger kids and cheating them of their time alone with me, about depriving the school kids of the chance to learn from other teachers better than me, about making them socially awkward, about them missing opportunities like spelling bees and talent shows and dance programs, etc etc etc.  And to all of those things, I just had to accept it: “Yep. They will miss that. Yes, that is true, they won’t get that.” It’s true. Malachi didn’t get the chance to go off to kindergarten in his cute little backpack all independent and proud of himself and sweet like kindergartners are. And I regret the loss of those things, but I think you just have to face the fact that you can’t EVER fit in everything you wish for. Homeschool vs. Public School is not a choice between “doing something totally fail-proof that I know will be great for my kid in every way” vs “doing some crazy thing where who KNOWS what the consequences will be!”  And it’s ALSO not a choice between “doing the minimum for my kid” vs “being a selfless parent who gives up everything enjoyable for the good of my children.” You know? I just think you have to accept that there are tradeoffs in everything, and try to inform yourself about what those tradeoffs might be instead of pretending they don’t exist. That is my main regret about the years previous to our doing homeschool. I didn’t ever even think about the tradeoffs at all; I just did the default. And I didn’t think about what other options there might be, and I didn’t try enough to figure out how to be proactive in shaping our family life into what _I_ felt it should be. I let other people and other activities dictate that more than I should, so I regret that. And really, that’s something I need to be constantly working on with ALL the choices I make in life, not just schooling—should I spend my morning, while the kids are at school, exercising or practicing or reading or going to the temple? If I do one of those what will I be NOT doing? And is it worth it?

Anyway, it was really liberating for me to say, “I have never been good at sitting on the floor playing with the baby anyway. So, she’ll get hauled around hither and yon with us while we have our field trips, and she’ll scream in her crib while I help the older kids with a math problem, and THAT’S A CHOICE I’M MAKING because I think it’s the best of the available options.” Or “Any weird habits or social awkwardness my kids develop will now be blamed on me and/or homeschool, and THAT’S A CHOICE I’M MAKING because I think it’s the best of the available options.” Or “The bickering and fighting between the kids will sometimes seem almost unbearable, but dealing with it is A CHOICE I’M MAKING because I also get all the good parts of having them around.”  You know what I mean? We’re just doing the best we can with the options we have right now, and as time goes on we’ll re-evaluate and make sure we are still doing the best thing we can for the situation we’re in.  And you’re doing the same with your kids—you may not love driving them back and forth, or having to squeeze everything in between the end of school and bedtime, or whatever, but it’s worth it to you because of the opportunities and the growth and the tradeoffs that public school provides to them and you. And if it ever STOPS being worth it then you’ll do something different, because you’re smart that way. :)

SO—I have been very long-winded and I’m still not sure I have been very clear. But that’s the reason I don’t like hearing “you’re a saint!” or “I could never do that!” even though it’s very flattering and I’m sure people mean it nicely! :) I’m just a person like you—bungling along, failing at a million things, impatient with the kids, messy house, wishing I looked cuter, trying to keep the spiritual perspective in the day-to-day. I have been LUCKY enough to have a chance at some control over the structure of my kids’  education and our family’s life, for awhile (it won’t last forever) and I’ve chosen to take that chance because I like the benefits of it and I’m willing to pay the costs of it. And you COULD do it if you wanted to, and you would be great at it, but your NOT wanting to does not make you inferior or bad at parenting. That would be silly for you to think, because you are AWESOME and I’m always wishing I could be more like you as a mother.

Love,
Marilyn

End-of-year Review Game

I can't believe this school year is over already! It's been such a great year and I'm so happy we got to spend it learning together. We had a celebration for our last day of school, after our solar system unit ended. This game we played is the more formal version of what the children ask to play all the time, i.e. "Questions from a unit." It's no more exciting than it sounds, but they love being asked questions, for some reason. (I think my children are quite easily pleased.) :) We do it in the car, or while we're cleaning up the kitchen after meals. And I'm usually pretty amazed at what they can remember.

This game ended up being really long, so we stretched it over two days. I wrote about six questions from every unit we did this year; two worth one point, two worth two points, and two worth three points. They could choose which unit and which point value they wanted to answer, and then if they got it right they kept the card with the points on it. There were prizes at the end (king-sized candy bars; very exciting)---Abe won, but he only beat Sebby by 7 points.

I didn't expect that the children would be able to answer all these questions, and honestly I didn't really care if they could or not. This game was purely for fun. But they did great. I kept the point cards for the questions nobody could answer, and I think I only kept 6 or 7 cards total.

Malachi, thinking hard

Excited

Concentrating

These are the questions I used for the game.
https://www.box.com/s/kpgg4nr0lmy88fo60bi1

Current Planning Method

I am far from experienced at planning curricula, but I did have some experience teaching preschool at BYU, and I have drawn on the ways I plan for other areas of my life to decide on my current methods. I expect this will change over time as I find better ways to do things, but for now, I thought this might be helpful for someone (maybe just myself, later) as a detailed explanation of one way to approach planning.

1. Decide what units we want to do; block them in roughly on a calendar. Decide how many weeks each unit should take up. Plan in holidays/breaks, if applicable.
For the summer, I took inspiration from whatever we had going on at the time---the Primary elections, Pioneer Day, the Fourth of July, etc.---but I imagine that the inspiration for what we will do will vary as we go along, based on things like what grades everyone is in and if we're drawing from state standards or something similar. [Our state standards are found here. I am not particularly concerned with presenting all of these in order or by grade level, but having them for reference is useful.] We may spend some time doing whole term themes (American History, for example, or Mesopotamia, or Biomes) sometimes too, and basing our smaller units around those "spines." Anyway, for summer I tried to tie things in to what we would already want to be doing, so field trips etc. were easier. Sometimes an activity we wanted to do anyway helped inspire a unit (e.g. touring the Governor's Mansion or hiking in the canyon).

2. Get on the library website and do subject searches related to the upcoming units (I do a couple units at a time if I can.) I try a bunch of different searches (e.g., for the Water unit, I tried "waterfalls," "irrigation," "floods," "rain," "hydropower," and so forth. Browsing the catalog alphabetically by subject usually yields a bunch of search terms I hadn't considered yet.) in case they give me an idea for which direction to take the unit in.

3. Save books that look promising to a list, and request (i.e. put on hold) the ones for the unit immediately upcoming. I use Abe's and Seb's library cards too, since we can only request 10 books per card. We can check out 30 per card, so that gives us potentially 90 books at a time---we had almost that many (including our fun/free reading books) for the water unit!

4. Pick up the books from the library and look through them, deciding which ones to keep. Request more from the list if necessary.

5. Sort the "keep" books into groups that will form sub-units. There is usually a kind of order that emerges naturally as I read them; they fall into different areas of focus. For example, from the books I picked for the flower unit, there seemed to be mostly:

• books on flower classification/names,
• books on the structure and parts of flowers,
• books on how seeds and fruits and reproduction work;
• books on how we use flowers.

So I planned the different days of the unit around these topics.

6. Figure out specific topics to cover as part of each "sub-unit" (not sure if that's the most useful term, but it's all I can come up with right now). As I'm planning and reading through the library books, I usually get a better idea of which topics actually are most relevant and necessary. I may decide to add "prep days" where we lay the groundwork for what we want to learn the next day. For example, with our fireworks unit, it was clear that we needed to review chemical reactions and basic molecular structure (things like how combustion occurs, what CO2 and H2O mean, etc) before we could really get into how and why a firework explodes. So we spent some days doing that first. Or maybe these "groundwork" ideas might come later--like when we talked about dams. The simpler books just described how the turbines turned a generator, which "converted the energy into electricity." But that explanation didn't satisfy the older boys, who wanted to know HOW it worked. So we spent a day on just electricity, talking about ionization and electrons and currents, so they could have a clearer idea of why the magnets and the copper wire in a generator could produce an electric current. The little kids get some of this, but it's fine if they don't understand all of it, as we will come at it from other directions again and again as time goes on (well, and that's true for the older ones too, of course)! Anyway, if I need some more books at this point, I can look for them at the library, or search for further information online.

7. Discover/brainstorm which subjects this unit could include. Once I have different sub-units, I look in the books, or online, for activities or hands-on work that could go with each aspect of the unit. I have a spreadsheet where I brainstorm (often with Sam) different things we could do, and put those ideas into columns for science, literature, history, art, music, physical education, religion, psychology, and so forth. Like this:

(sorry for the horrible picture quality; this computer doesn't read Numbers files, so I have to scan them in instead)

I brainstorm and then narrow down later---and I don't worry about covering all those things in each unit, but it helps me see at a glance if we are covering a good range of subjects (and sometimes gives me ideas for ways to come at a subject from a different angle). We try to do a variety of activities, so we're keeping a good balance between drawing/writing (coloring maps, labeling worksheets, etc), making crafts, larger-scale movement and games, listening or singing to music, watching videos like The Happy Scientist, going on Field Trips, etc. There are so many angles to approach from, and the children seem to like them all. I like this integrated approach---for these family study units, anyway; when studying just Math or Spelling it is less applicable---much better than saying, "Today we will learn about chemical symbols" unrelated to any real-world application. That's not to say I won't ever use that approach, but I know for me, even memorization or "building-block"-type learning comes more easily when it's linked to, or jump-started by, more practical, real-life topics.

Side note: I have read a lot about "learning styles;" the idea that you should find out if your child is a visual learner or a kinesthetic learner or whatever, and then teach accordingly. I agree it can be helpful to notice which things tend to catch your child's interest best, but I also feel strongly that all learning styles can benefit everyone! Sam and I are both convinced that the "right brain/left brain" dichotomy (as expressed in people identifying as one or the other) is greatly exaggerated--or at least, that the "divide" can be overcome with practice. Though I like to gain information through reading (is that the verbal style?), I always find that if I can reinforce that knowledge visually or from some other direction, I will know it even more deeply. I think it's good for the children to do work in all sorts of styles so they will be comfortable with all of them. (Not that this is a controversial or new idea; I know most educators draw from different learning methods.)

8. Put activities and topics into the Unit Schedule and rearrange as needed. Once I have lots of good ideas (and I try not to spend forever combing the Internet for ideas--there is so much information available!--so at some point, I have to stop getting inspiration and just let the ideas come together in my own way!), I put them into my planning spreadsheet---the Unit Schedule/Lesson Plans I usually post here. I look at the calendar and make sure our busier days have fewer activities, etc., while still trying to arrange the lessons in a logical progression. Sam's lessons are usually on Thursdays (he works from home Thursdays) and are fairly short (he is supposed to be home working, after all!). I listen to those lessons too and I LOVE them! Maybe I will learn to be a better artist someday if we keep this up. :)  Friday is a good field trip day, but some field trips work better on other days, so we just move things around however we need to, and of course if we do field trips on Saturdays we can all go, including Sam, so that's a great benefit.