School Year Prep: Revisiting the Whys and What-Fors

"We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate." 

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Is it really time already to start gearing up for the school year??? All around the country, kids and their parents are scratching their heads, wondering how the summer has managed to pass so quickly. Wasn't it just a few days ago that we were all celebrating that first week of unstructured fun and sun? Undoubtedly, some parents are breathing a sigh of relief, anxiously anticipating the return to a quieter, more scheduled home life. Others will be trying to make the most of the few weekdays they have left to hang out at the pool, visit the zoo, have picnics in the park, or just laze around the house.

While most homeschoolers are not hitting the stores for new backpacks and lunch boxes, or perusing the mall for "back-to-school clothes," many of us are also in the midst of gearing up for the year ahead. In our own household, it is time for me to put together the lesson schedule for the coming fall and spring semesters; to purchase the books and supplies we'll need; and to thoroughly clean and reorganize our "Discovery Room."

It is also the time when I revisit the list I started several years ago of the objectives that G-P and I hope will guide our girls' education. This is the "big picture" list of the qualities we hope to encourage through educating our kids at home. I thought I would share them here as food for thought and as an invitation for insights from other parents and educators. As you'll quickly see, none of our objectives is unique to our family or even particular to homeschoolers. But revisiting and revising this list each year has been a helpful exercise for me--perhaps more helpful than any of the other myriad preparations I might be making for the months ahead. When I am wrapped up in the day-to-day tasks of studying and working together with the girls, it is all too easy to lose sight of why we are here, doing what we are doing.

Under each of the qualities that make up the list, I have briefly described one or more of the specific ways we try to encourage it.

WHOLE WORLD HOMESCHOOL'S 
GUIDING OBJECTIVES

What qualities do we wish to encourage through homeschooling?

•  A genuine love of learning



Studying Density and Buoyancy 

• Kids love to learn. They especially love to learn when they are pursuing knowledge of topics in which they are sincerely interested, and in ways that feel comfortable to them. We hope our girls will always love learning, and that learning will be a central delight in their lives well beyond "the school years." To try to ensure that our own school is encouraging their innate love of learning, I hold a meeting with the girls before, after, and halfway through each school year. I ask them to share with me what they think worked well and what didn't work so well during the previous weeks and months. I ask for their suggestions on both the content of what we will study next and the activities we will engage in. I write down their responses on a white board or large flip chart so that they can see I am taking them seriously, and then I take these notes and use them in planning upcoming curricula. They get a kick out of knowing that they helped to formulate our lessons, and I get to relish how pleasurable it is to teach when students are excited about learning. 
• A recognition that learning is an everywhere-, anytime-, lifelong task



Learning Math While
Plotting Out the Garden

• Both G-P and I have also tried to demonstrate to the girls that learning is not something that is done solely--or even primarily--in the context of schooling, but that it can happen wherever we are, at any time. That is why we named our school "Whole World Homeschool": we aim to see the whole world as our classroom, our resource center, and our subject of study. Starting up this farm together has given us a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate to the girls the importance of learning for adults as well as children. They have watched us repeatedly seek out new knowledge and acquire new skills, and then enjoy applying that learning to taking better care of our animals, our little piece of land, and ourselves. 
• Active curiosity 
• Kids love to learn because they are incredibly curious. If you've ever watched a little girl stand mesmerized over a pile of dirt, trying to work out the comings and goings of a colony of ants, or watched a little boy's eyes light up as he finally sees the difference in a dragonfly and a damselfly, then you know what I'm talking about. Too often today, education involves taming and inhibiting children's curiosity in favor of instituting order and guaranteeing test results. It is a tragedy, and probably one of the main motivators of many homeschooling parents. One of the ways I try to nurture active curiosity in my own girls is being curious right alongside them--rushing off to the meadow to try to identify the bone Simi found there, or stopping everything to look up the meaning of a word Segi came upon in the chapter book she's reading, and then the playing around with some of the many ways we can use it. I've found that getting to learn fascinating things alongside my kids is one of the most delightful perks of homeschooling. In fact, on most days I am not so much a "teacher" as a facilitator of our collective learning. 
• A sense of wonder and awe



Celebrating the Wonders of
Our Creek

• We go on nature walks at least once a week, very often through the an ecological preserve on our way to visit the our local library. Despite my adultish tendency to prod the girls to keep moving (Why do we do that to our little ones so much?), we stop often to examine and exclaim over some of the many small wonders that populate our route--the particularly beautiful rock, the newly blooming flower, the bird's nest high in a tree. More often than not, we also spot signs of fairies, and sometimes even glimpses of unicorns, on these walks. More than any biology text, more than any religious scripture, it is my daughters who have taught me that the world is truly a wonder-ful, awe-some place. I hope their education will nourish and expand this perspective in them, not temper or civilize it.
• An ability and willingness to listen well to others and to carefully observe the world around them



Investigating Soil

• This is--perhaps as much as the love of learning--an indispensable key to becoming an effective learner. It involves being able to quieten one' mind, to see beyond one's assumptions, and to open oneself to new realities. One of the ways I've tried to teach this is by occasionally sending the girls out into our yard, or the woods that surround it, to sit for a certain period of time in location of their choosing. While there, they are to do nothing but sit and listen (or, on another day, to look or touch). After the time period is over, they come back and share what they noticed about this place that they have been to so many times before, and then we discuss the importance and rewards of attentiveness.
• A global perspective (knowledge of and respect for other cultures, ethnicities, classes, religions, races, and lifestyles)



Making an Australian Fruit Salad

• As an anthropology professor, I spent a great deal of time teaching global awareness to college students--a more formidable task than I had thought it would be. Many of them had graduated from high school (often with honors) with without learning much at all about the world beyond our nation's boundaries--or even beyond their own state, or subculture, race or class. We want our girls to grow up to be global citizens--to understand that there are many different ways to be human, and to know that they can learn a great deal from people who live very different lives than they do. To this end, during the past school year, we studied a different country each month. During that month, the girls read books about the country, watched educational videos about it, wrote mini-essays about it, learned about the everyday life of a child growing up there, prepared and ate typical dishes, made one or more traditional crafts, and listened to some of the country's music. 
• An awareness of who they are, where they come from, and where they fit in the larger world
• We have also studied Nigeria, Tennessee, and Appalachia--the "homelands" of our girls (that is, where their parents and most of their ancestors were raised). Later on, we will do more in-depth study of the state of North Carolina and the history, geography, and cultures of the United States. 
• A commitment to being good citizens: of their community, their state, their country and their world



Collecting Trash Along Local
Roadways on Earth Day

• The girls and I have integrated into our studies a variety of service projects, including being farmer's helpers at an educational farm in Ohio, delivering meals for Meals on Wheels, participating in environmental clean-up projects, purchasing and packing up school supplies for kids in our town, and writing letters to government officials and CEOs. I hope we will be able to do more of this kind of work together as the girls grow older. (Few volunteer programs allow young children to participate, so that has been a real limiting factor for us so far.)
• An appreciation for "worthwhile work well done," and a recognition that the work they do is important 



Cleaning Out a Barn Stall

• After our girls wake up each morning, dress themselves and make up their beds, they go out to the barn to start their farm chores. Simi (the 6-year-old) is in charge of cleaning out the goat stall and Segi (the 7-year-old) is in charge of the chicken coop. I assist them as needed, and we work together to feed all the animals, evaluate their health, check their waterers, and haul the heavy buckets of muck we've collected into the woods to the compost pile. On a typical day, they will carry out a variety of other chores as well. G-P and I have tried to make it clear that the contributions they make to the workings of the farm--as well as to the workings of our household more generally--are critical, and that we value and appreciate what they do. To see them learn the satisfaction that comes from completing a tough physical task has been just as rewarding for us as watching them successfully complete writing and math assignments. In fact, as Laura Grace Weldon points out in this article, research has shown that children who regularly do chores are more likely to succeed both academically and in adulthood.
• A love for the natural world and an understanding of the importance of caring for that world
• A great deal of our science studies so far have involved investigating the plants, animals, water systems, and habitats right around us. We not only discover fascinating facts about these things, but we also learn how human behavior impacts them. We continually talk about what it means to share the world with other creatures and to care for the earth that supports us all. For the girls, as for most children, all this makes perfect sense. They have not--as we adults have--learned to see themselves as separate from and superior to non-human beings. We hope they will continue to consider themselves citizens of the natural world who are both beholden to and responsible for the well-being of the earth.
• Empathy, kindness, respect, helpfulness, and politeness



Contemplative Practice

• One of our favorite activities during the 2011-2012 school year was Angel Bear Yoga. It is a yoga program written especially for kids. The girls and I practiced it at least a couple of times a week, and sometimes more. Each of our yoga sessions would focus on fostering an important character trait such as thoughtfulness, truthfulness, or compassion. We discussed the traits together, sharing how we understood them and thinking about ways we could practice them in our everyday lives. Then we did yoga poses that resembled the forms of animals and plants whose characteristics reflect those traits. 
• An understanding of the importance and power of cooperation



Pulling Together

• Learning in our school is not a competitive task. The girls are encouraged to work together to learn, and they seem to enjoy doing so. In fact, they often cheer one another on during a particularly challenging task. Of course, I cannot prevent siblings from sometimes feeling competitive with one another, and it does happen. But it helps a great deal that I do not give grades or dole out rewards for individual work. I hope the girls will come to agree that gaining knowledge and improving one's skills (i.e., learning) are their own rewards. And much more satisfying in the long run than grades, stickers, or candy!  
• An ability to communicate effectively and express themselves creatively



The Playwrights Acting

• When the girls are practicing their writing skills, more often than not, they are writing about a topic, or writing with a purpose, that they themselves have chosen. The "assignment" may be a mini-essay about their favorite dessert animal, or a letter to a relative or a friend--whatever the case, they are genuinely trying to communicate something. This not only increases their motivation to do their work well (they certainly do better on such assignments than on filling in the blanks of worksheets); it also gives us a chance to discuss their interests and ideas.
• I encourage the girls to express themselves and communicate their thoughts and feelings in many other ways as well: through painting, coloring, and drawing; through dancing, music-making, and drama; through crafting; through building (with clay, with stones, or with wood, hammers, and nails); through poetry composition; and so forth.
• Patience and perseverance



Learning Patience (and Mechanics!)
 from a Neighbor

• Since patience and perseverance are central both to effective learning and to contented living, teaching them to my girls are part of what I try to do every day. I thus encourage--and generally require--them to finish the tasks they start, even the most difficult and frustrating ones. Of course, like so many of the other traits listed here, these two are perhaps best taught by example. Unfortunately, as my girls know all too well, patience is not my greatest strength. (Actually, I never realized what an impatient person I was until having children!) Thus, central to my attempts to nurture patience in them is struggling to model patience myself. This has been one of my biggest challenges as a homeschooling parent.
• Self-acceptance
• Our girls look different than most of the kids around them. And they often act differently, too. We hope that the education they get at home will encourage them to love and accept themselves for who they are, no matter where they end up on the scale of normal to eccentric. We hope our studies of human diversity will help us here.
• Courage
• We also hope their education will foster in them the courage to follow their hearts, and to do what is right when they are faced with life's challenges and dilemmas, matter how difficult or unpopular their actions might be. To that end, we regularly read about the lives of courageous women and men: Amelia Earhart, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ang San Suu Kyi, Wilma Mankiller, Mahatma Gandhi, Wangari Maathai, and others. We have also read together many fictional books featuring courageous girls and boys: The Railway Children, Caddie Woodlawn, The Little Princess, The Conch Bearer, The Birchbark House series, and The White Giraffe series.

As you may have noticed, there is not anything in the above paragraphs about learning to recite the multiplication tables or memorizing the names of all the U.S. Presidents or state capitals. Yes, we will work on many specific skills and facts in the course of our studies together, but G-P and I believe that that sort of learning is not nearly as important as acquiring the characteristics I have listed above. As Einstein pointed out, and my Grandpa so loved to paraphrase, "An education is what you've got left after you forget everything you learned." We don't mind much if our girls can't recall at some point that 8 x 8 = 64, or that they can't remember the name of the twenty-first President. What is important, we believe, is to help them acquire the tools they'll need to live well and responsibly in our world, and to effectively pursue the dreams of their hearts. If we can do that for them, then their schooling will have been a success.

Now where are those lesson plans I'd started? . . .