Five things to try in your homeschool this coming year- part 1

It's nearly summer! My summer usually involves a little bit of sunshine, time at the pool, my personal professional development plans and tons of organization for the coming school year. The kid and I sit down towards the end of May or early June and try to imagine what the next year will look like and what direction we want to go. In general, we end up with about 50% of our plans sticking for the year. That seems to be an excellent success rate!

In planning for the new year, we try to think big and look at crazy ideas, not just choose a curriculum and a workbook. Recently, a family at school asked what have been our most successful big ideas and how we've incorporated them into our homeschool schedule. I realized that over four years, these ideas that were "big" in the beginning are now the regular part of our days and weeks.

What are those big ideas and what does it look like?


Part 1- Take learning online
It's no secret that we're big fans of online education and learning. We are living in a time where the whole world is at a student's fingertips. I personally feel that a fear of "screen time" is denying children amazing opportunities. I do understand the reticence of some families, but I promise- your foray into digital learning will be worth it.

For those ready to dabble, try these options:

• CurrClick- Totally free or very low cost, low requirements. Classes range from Lego Clubs and Magic Treehouse Clubs to high school science and math
  
• SuperCharged Science- Not sure you want to take an online class? Sign up for the email promotions and you'll receive several opportunities for free demo classes throughout the year.
  
• Athena's Academy- A fantastic resource for short and long term online courses. Students meet in a virtual classroom and discuss the topics of the course, as well as completing other assignments online. A short term 8 week class is a great way to get your feet wet.

Ready to go all in? Here are our favorites:

• Athena's Academy- Long term classes range from literature, history and science to philosophy and math for younger kids. Athena's specializes in elementary through middle school courses online. Your kids will love it!
  
• Gifted Homeschoolers Forum While we haven't specifically used GHF, it is well recommended among friends. The class topics are engaging, with subjects like "Beyond Percy Jackson" and "Minecraft Math". Your kids are sure to find one that looks exciting
  
• OnlineG3- I can't say enough good things about OnlineG3. We plan our entire school year schedule around the G3 schedule and what looks the best. Next year, the kid is tackling Writing From Sources in the fall and is hoping for a return of Science and Science Fiction Movies in the spring.
  
• Mr. Gelston- In a new partnership with OnlineG3 and Gifted Homeschoolers Forum, Mr. Gelston's One Room Schoolhouse is offering opportunities for older students and teens to study journalism, Algebra and to study data and statistics in a thoroughly interesting and tangible way. 

Each of these opportunities teaches digital literacy, online collaboration, online citizenship and encourages students to see beyond their own computers. As a homeschooling mom, it's extremely rewarding to hear your child having a thoughtful debate with other students all around the world!

Computerized testing in the land of digital natives

Before we left on our long spring break vacation, we had the opportunity to give Smarter Balanced assessments at our school. It was an interesting process watching how the kids and adults deal with the testing, the technology and the testing environment. Being a homeschool charter, it's also an extra challenge to communicate with families that there are mandatory requirements and no opportunity to change the schedule. This is a difficult message for homeschoolers, as 99% of the time we live and breathe by the schedule of our children, not the school. When testing and school requirements sneak up, we have to flip flop everything around and make sure we are present. This is not an easy feat with kids that are used to doing math in their PJs!

Particularly fascinating to me was the huge range of technical skills our kids had going into the test. We were testing 3rd through 8th graders, so each of these kids was born post-iPod. Many of them sat down at their brand new Chromebook and began touching the monitor, trying to get the non-existent touch screen to work. Chromebooks are small and look more like a tablet with a docked keyboard, than a laptop. It was easy to see why they were puzzled!

We saw others frustrated by the lack of a right click on their mice in the Mac computer lab and just a few who were unsure how to use a Mac at all. We had other kids challenged by the use of the trackpad. Overall, the testing went smoothly and we had very few technical issues that couldn't be overcome by a few short clicks or a reboot. It was a successful test of our system, by all accounts.

However, what I noticed more than the success was the underlying annoyance of the students, particularly our 5th graders and up. They found the test to be cumbersome, poorly formatted and generally not user-friendly. They didn't like multiple scrolling windows on one screen with some funky options for highlighting and dropping and dragging. They wanted a searchable help menu or a wiki for commands, not some ridiculously long screen to read. They rolled their eyes, groaned and growled at the test frequently- and this had nothing to do with the content.

In the land of digital natives, students want multiple ways to give input to a computer and expect the tool to adapt to their needs, not the other way around. If they need to drag and drop something, they don't want to do it with a trackpad- they want to reach up and use their fingers. They expect a computer to respond quickly and accurately and are frustrated by slow websites. The older kids, particularly our 7th and 8th graders, expect a fully adaptive test where they don't have to prove repeatedly that they understand a concept. They want to prove it and move on and feel insulted when the test asks them, yet again, to do the same type of problem.

Most of all, I felt like the SBAC test designers forgot to reach out to the kids. In the land of digital natives, you should have children on your beta and QA teams. Let THEM tell you what's broken, what's not user-friendly and what you're expecting to happen in comparison to what actually does. It's time for the generation before me, the ones still running the world, to accept that without the kids, you have no product. They're the digital natives, who grew up with more computing power in their pockets and backpacks than the generation of the Vietnam War could even imagine would be possible at age 10.

Next time, give the kids half the test questions and spend the other half of the time letting them answer a survey about the test, running a focus group discussion or watching their actual behavior, not their scores. Or better yet, hire a group of 12 year olds to run your entire beta testing. I can promise you'd receive better results about not only the type of questions but the layout and setup of the test!

Contests and competitions- how to "show what you know"

Homeschoolers, particularly academic homeschoolers, are looking for ways to "show what you know" beyond the mom-required assignments. Several parents have asked me how we find authentic ways to demonstrate knowledge and growth without yet another essay, test or worksheet. For us, we use a lot of contests and competitions! My son loves a good contest and will participate in almost anything I can rustle up. My personal favorites are those that are simply contests against yourself- where you're not beating out anyone else, but just improving upon your previous results. The kid though, he likes prizes and will work for even the promise of a prize, certificate or award at the end!

Some of our favorites:

National Mythology Exam:  This will be our third year and as a mythology junky, the kid has a goal of earning every color medal for his wall. This year, he's hoping for silver to go with his previous gold and bronze. I'm working hard to discourage him from throwing a question just to get a silver!

Sikorsky Helicopter Challenge: Part engineering, part design and a whole lot of imagination required- this contest makes kids really think outside the box for a new idea that solves a problem

Doodle For Google: Answer the question in an artistic way and your doodle could win you a place on Google's homepage, as well as a scholarship!

Scholastic Contests: Scholastic always has an interesting contest cooked up- from skyping with authors, to book related treasure hunts and poetry writing contests, there's something for everyone!

Math League: Several weekends a year, math-loving kids gather in school cafeterias around the country to try their hand at challenging math tests. Even independent homeschoolers can participate!

Math Olympiad: School based teams participate in individual and team based math competitions. Tests are five times a year and problems are novel, challenging word problems.

PBS Writers Contest: For young elementary kids in K-3, this writing contest is a fun way to get kids engaged in writing and brave enough to share their stories.

Google Science Fair: Big ideas, bold research and amazing prizes for kids 13-18 that have a true passion for science.

Test- based opportunities are also available from local talent searches. Students take a standardized test to qualify for merit based awards, scholarships and participation in enrichment and academic courses. Hoagies' Gifted maintains an up to date talent search page if you're interested in these types of opportunities.

Other contests and competitions like Geography Bee, Spelling Bee and Poetry Jam may be available in your local area. Some of these are held at a city or county level and independent homeschoolers can enter. If your local competition starts at a traditional public school, it doesn't hurt to call and ask if your child can participate!

Standards-based lesson planning- just say no!

A friend of mine posted recently on Facebook that she was struggling with figuring out how to plan history lessons for her son because the standards were all over the place. She plans on returning him to a more traditional type setting in two years and is afraid that he'll have "holes". So she's been obsessing about what the standards say and how to check that box.

My advice? Dump the standards for lesson planning! I know, as a teacher and school administrator I should be cheering for standards. Standards serve a purpose of keeping schools and teachers on track, ensuring a fair and equal education for all students and bring up the overall level of achievement across school systems. They make it far easier in a mobile society for a kid to move from California to Virginia and then to Massachusetts, hopefully while still staying on track academically.

But as a homeschooler, standards are the last thing I look at when lesson planning, not the first. I'm a strong proponent of interest-based lesson planning. Each summer, we sit down as a family and ask "What do you want to learn this year?" We set goals based on interest with a few mom-required elements woven in as needed. I lesson plan from there, taking into account interest, age, access to materials and whether or not the interest is likely to be long lasting or fleeting.

Every month or two, I check in with the standards of the grade level we're working at in that subject. Are we on track or do I need to tweak an upcoming assignment? Is there a connection I can make in a twenty second conversation to check a box or do I need to dig up some resources and find some relevant materials to cover a topic? If I do need to do that, how can I fit it into the momentum and lessons we already have, rather than throw something random on top?

A simple example of this is the kid's ongoing love of Greek mythology. I can take a standard like this one from Common Core ELA ""CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution." and weave in a study of a particular character like Odysseus or Poseidon. It's a natural fit into something he already enjoys and doesn't require me to sidetrack our studies to check off a box. 

Math is also simple, as it very linear and allows you to simply keep progressing through the standards and making forward progress. However, I often see that families forget the important areas in measurement and geometry because they aren't in the same linear progression. I like to sandwich these topics around something we're already doing in science, or spend a few days before a holiday break doing hands on projects. 

As new science standards and history standards come out for our students, there will be more components to review and check. But by no means, should these standards become the base of your homeschool lesson planning! Standards-based lesson planning is the surefire way to burn yourself out and make your kids lose their love of homeschooling. Even if your intention is for your kids to return to a traditional school environment, don't lose track of why you started this adventure in the first place. No good teacher... or homeschooling parent... sat down with a list of standards and checkboxes and started coming up with worksheets to meet the needs of those checkboxes.

So to every one of my friends out there sitting down with a list of standards before you lesson plan, please- just say NO!

Finding Passion

Last weekend, the kid spent three full days at a Magic the Gathering tournament. Three days surrounded by people twice his age, embedded in a world of fantasy, card games and strategy, along with artists, professional players and the smell that a Magic playing friend describes as ConFunk. The kind of smell that only a truly passionate person can tolerate for three days straight.

A friend and colleague of mine said that she was glad he had found a passion and that they were still looking for one within their son. This took me aback a little bit and I spent several days thinking about it. A passion? In a card game? Is that even OK?

I'll be honest, I felt immediately compelled to quash it out of him. Box up the cards that spill into multiple rooms in my house, cut off the supply chain that has allowed this passion to flourish (aka- his dad, who appreciates all things geeky). Surely passion should be reserved for things that actually are productive, bring good to the world or at a very minimum, don't involve spending time with unshowered young adults.

I'm glad I fought those urges though, because the more I thought about my friend's comment, the more I realized that we are lucky. He has a passion. He actually has three of them. If I divvied up the hours in my house based on what he spends time on by choice, I'd see

1) Minecraft
2) Reading for pleasure
3) Fencing
4) Magic the Gathering
5) School work

None of those are likely to make him millions of dollars in a future career, but equally, none are likely to lead him down a path of self destruction and dangerous on-the-edge living. He can spend time in a large group of adults (more than 1800 this weekend!) and engage in contextually, socially appropriate conversation without sticking out like a sore thumb. He's learned to mold himself to fit the group, a useful skill in any future career.

He has good friends who share his passions and will listen to him babble on endlessly about this new mod pack or that new card's strengths. I'm grateful for these friends, because it means less time I have to spend pretending that I'm engaged in a discussion about the virtues of things I really don't have the desire to care about. Any parent out there knows that Minecraft talk will dominate your dinner conversation if you let it!

My friend was right, he has a passion. It might not be my passion, or the one I would have chosen for him, but it's there and it's exciting and energizing for him. I'll step back, encouraging along the way and let it run its course. I think I can, I think I can!

Super Science Day!

Every once and a while, we like to step back from the books (or the computer) and do some hands on fun! Today's project was a spherical layer cake based on a Jupiter Tutorial that was really fun to see. The kid and I wondered if we could pull it off with less experience and far less decorating talent.

First we started with a regular cake mix, rather than a scratch recipe. I bake a lot and it's been my experience that cake mix is generally more consistent and reliable. Since we had a lot of experimenting going on, we decided to control one variable!

We started with a SuperMoist French Vanilla cake mix. The kid did all the work in these steps, including cracking the eggs. A tip we've learned- crack the eggs into a ramekin one at a time. If they get shells in them, it's far easier to fish it out of a single egg than a whole mix.

The next steps are clearly explained in the tutorial above. We started with a very small, tempered glass bowl and a white center. Once that baked (about 15 min) we took it out, cooled it and then nested it in the 2nd layer, a bright orange layer. Same step again, until the red layer you can see here. We found that the top was getting quite brown on the small inner layer, so we covered it all with the red batter to keep it from burning.

The first three layers, all cooked and ready to come out of the bowl. We used Duralex, but you can use Pyrex or any tempered glass as long as you stay below 350 degrees.

EARTH! Well... the Northern Hemisphere anyway! We weren't quite sure it was going to hold together because the layers were a bit cracked as we took them out of the bowl in the last step. There's nothing a little blue frosting can't fix! The kid put on the loosely sculpted continents.

Ta-da! Earth's layers from the inside out. And the cake was delicious!

Wrapping up 2013

They say time flies when you're having fun. Somehow, it's suddenly the end of December and while I'm not sure I'd categorize the fall of 2013 as "fun" it has definitely been busy! Adjusting to a new routine, new work schedule and a new middle schooler attitude has kept both of us on our toes and encouraged me to revisit and revise all of my plans on a weekly basis.

This is also the time of the year that I look over what my son has accomplished, the hits and misses of curriculum and what needs to happen over the spring to be a successful year.

Hits

1) Dumping literature curriculum for The Book Whisperer style homeschooling.
My son has complained about being told what to read, when to read it and doing all sorts of assignments along with it. But as a teacher, how would I know he was reading? How would I prove he understood it? This year, I listened to him and Donalyn Miller and decided to set him free with one small exception. If you want to see the movie, you have to read the book first. Since July, he's finished 26 fiction books, countless non-fiction articles and small books and read more than 4,000 pages. He polished off Ender's Game and Catching Fire in time for the movies. He takes a book with him everywhere, all the time. I probably should have listened to him last year. Donalyn Miller was right. Be brave, let the kids read!

2) Finding ways to make Minecraft into our homeschool lessons.
Minecraft is the pervasive conversation topic, the mode of communication and the entire social foundation of my son's life right now. It's all Minecraft all the time. So I found myself walking the fine line between allowing him to be obsessed and ruining all his fun. It got easier as we balanced when and how Minecraft is learning vs. social. If your kids aren't playing Minecraft, you're really missing out on an amazing learning tool. But that's not to say that it isn't also the most annoying, frustrating and time-sucking hobby! Using Minecraft for lessons in literature, science and history helped me justify the volume of hours he spends playing. The biggest, most successful find however, is the Minecraft Homeschool classes. Now he has his history lessons, quizzes and Minecraft builds all wrapped into one!

3) NaNoWriMo
We LOVE November. Love it. I can't say enough about how every student, of any age, should be able to participate wholeheartedly in NaNoWriMo. Take a crazy idea and write a novel, in a month, with no editing or self-critiquing allowed. It's a perfect experiment for perfectionists. It encourages each author to really push into the hard parts of writer's block and work through it. More than 10,000 words written in November and the kid has completed his fourth NaNo novel. Completion means December and January are all about editing and turning that long ramble of creativity into a well-written, creatively woven plot.

4) Other Curriculum Success
A few other successes this year so far:


And the Intellego Unit Study Ancient Civilizations  was also a big hit. I've used Intellego products before and while sometimes the links are broken or redirected, it's definitely worth the inexpensive price to not have to make up your own curriculum. The kid loves the online components and they find fantastic resources to use!

Misses

1) A regular Algebra 1 class

Since the kid is far accelerated beyond his grade level in math, we had high hopes that integrating into a standard high school Algebra class would be a success. I wasn't concerned about the math, but was hoping he'd bond with a teacher and we'd have a path to higher level math without any advocacy on my part. Unfortunately, the class turned out to be moving at a tortuously slow pace, with tons of work and no learning. He finished the semester, having lost one entire point the whole semester and not yet hitting any work he hadn't seen before. Back to the drawing board!

2) Bravewriter's Writer's Jungle

Poetry Tea was awesome! I learned a lot about writing styles and coaching writing while reading Writer's Jungle. But what I didn't learn was how to get a reluctant, dysgraphic, extremely creative writer to somehow take on the challenge of any sort of academic writing. He'd happily write stories (see NaNoWriMo above) but the minute you ask him to analyze, report or discuss, it all goes out the window. I've decided to outsource our writing with a class from Athena's Advanced Academy for spring semester instead.   

3) Too much or not enough scheduling

This is always the balance isn't it? Academic homeschooling is a very narrow line between too much and too little. There were too many days where it was 11am and I couldn't imagine how we had possibly finished our work for the day. In turn, there were too many days where it was 4pm and he still hadn't come close to finishing. In my perfect homeschooling world, we'd have great ideas together and they would magically balance out with the perfect amount of too much and too little. They'd appear on the lesson plan already designed and sketched out in a way that made both of us happy. I'm still researching how to make this magical world actually happen! 

Our favorite month- NaNoWriMo is almost here!

If you mention to most kids that they're going to spend an entire month writing, you'll probably hear groans echoing loudly. But if you tell them they're going to write a novel, with dares, a support group, prizes and if they're very diligent, they'll even get to publish it, you'll get a different look. Maybe one of curiosity, or one of skepticism, but not the groans.

This will be our fourth year doing NaNoWriMo and I encourage (read cajole and harass) all of our friends, homeschooled or not, to give it a try. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is the perfect answer to the early winter homeschool slump. Log on, sign up and take the challenge and get to work!

Here's how it works- adults sign up at http://nanowrimo.org/  and kids sign up at http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ . Adults have an automatic set word goal of 50,000 but the kids get to set their own word goals. A kid's word goal should be based loosely on their grade level and enthusiasm for writing. I've seen kindergartners take on 200 words with pictures on each page and 8th graders take on 30,000 words. It really depends on your child.

If you're lucky like we are or brave enough to take it on your own, start a writing group with your charter homeschool or local friends. Writer's block is always more easily cured when you have tea, cookies and friends to discuss your story. We usually meet the last week in October to sign our no editing pledge, once a week in November and then once the first week in December for prizes and sharing snippets of our stories.

There are important rules about NaNoWriMo and even more important rules when homeschooling with NaNo.

1) NO editing in November. None. Zero. Mom, put down your pen and go write your own novel. There is NO editing, changing, manipulating, addressing spelling or any other sort of critique that you might feel compelled to offer. That's what December is for.

2) Get the words on the page. There are no rules about what to write, how to write it or what it should be about. So avoid the temptation to guide the novel into something you believe more appropriate. If the boy wants a fart cannon, and he's willing to write 10,000 words about it- let it be.

3) You have to write too! Ok, this isn't an official NaNo rule, but it is important for homeschoolers. Don't use your daily writing time on Facebook, to do laundry or check the mail. Writing time is to be protected and everyone writes. Period. You'll gain a new appreciation for how hard it actually is to get those words on the paper! Maybe you'll even want to introduce a fart cannon.

It's not just about academics! The extras...

It's that time of the year again, where I look at the schedule and wonder if I've overdone it. Only to be convinced by the kid, one more time, that we should add yet one more activity. 'Tis the life of a mom of a very extroverted only child!

I always find it amazing when people that know us worry about socialization and whether or not the kid has enough contact with children. They clearly either don't pay attention to the severe lack of "home" in our homeschooling, or aren't paying my gas bill! This year will be no exception, in fact, it may just blow last year out of the water. Between starting the new job (where the kid will often go to work with me) and his wide range of interests, I'd be better off in a little motorhome where we could just haul our home around with us!

In addition to his core academics, the kid has four hours a week of fencing lessons in a town 20 minutes away each direction. He has his regular elective classes at our charter school, which include musical theater, guitar and Spanish, as well as Math Olympiad and Lego Robotics and of course, Minecraft Club. He's recently begged for improvisational comedy classes, which are on the weekend. Add in his fencing tournaments that are always out of town and our local homeschooling group activities and that motorhome is sounding even better. Did I mention that he's also asking to raise a guide dog puppy? The motorhome needs a little potty spot that is mobile as well.

When I look at the list above, I think I must be completely insane. I've seen him at home this summer when there's little required and I've realized all the activity makes him buzz with happiness. It's not about avoiding boredom, or parental pushing, or even about keeping him out of my hair. He likes to be a "do-er" not a "think-er". He craves that constant motion from activity to activity and it drives him to be more productive and happier in the long run. I'm coming to terms with the idea that this is our reality until he can drive himself. Yet another reason we are a two-Prius family!

We are quite lucky to be able to homeschool because if you tacked on middle school homework and projects, he'd never be able to do even half of it. I'm still not sure how I am going to do it all, but at least I know that my son will be a happy, well-rounded and creative guy who isn't afraid to try new experiences.

Now, off to make a list of crockpot recipes so we can eat something over the next year!

Limiting screentime?

I've already opened the door talking about Minecraft; might as well dive headlong into screentime! Many people have asked me how we control screentime in our house and what my limits are.

Before we get to our current computer policy, it's only fair to give a little back story. Computers have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. While many of my generation grew up in a computer-free household, my father worked in computer programming and systems engineering. My brother and I grew up playing Kings Quest and Police Quest, learning to program Basic and playing Pong on our Atari. We had internet early on where you dialed up the phone next to your ear first, then listened for the squeal and connected it to the modem. We were early adopters. 

The kid has had his own computer since before he was two. After attempting to finish a work project related to University of California accreditation, while the kid was banging on my keyboard and demanding time to play Little People Airport, it was time to relent. With the typical attention span of a toddler, he self-limited to around 30 minutes at a time before he'd go do something else. Around three and a half though, all bets were off as he discovered a variety of JumpStart games that were more engaging and you also had to feed your pet! And so began the begging for just a few more minutes so his pet doggy wouldn't die during dinner. 

So how do we contend with screentime issues? It's complicated. My husband is a gamer and between us, we have nine working computers for three people. Not all nine are currently up and running, but they're all in working order, just hanging out waiting to be scavenged for parts. We have three computers on three desks, all in one room and we often play games together (or in the same room on our own games).  I prefer short and light games that require no commitment, while the boys prefer complex story lines, strategy or excellent graphics. 

Now that we've been homeschooling two years and we're heading into the third, it's apparent that the kid's preferred learning style is "anything on the computer." He'd much rather do Khan Academy than a printed worksheet, even if the problems are the same. He takes several online classes and spends countless hours each week learning on the computer. Is that screentime? Is it school? Where is the line between whether a TV show is enjoyment or learning when he'd choose something like Mythbusters for either?

The simplest answer is that we don't limit screentime. I stopped counting because it was too complex to figure out what qualified and what didn't. When you have a solid negotiator for a kid, he can argue his way out of anything including whether or not his Minecraft Hunger Games time qualifies as learning. Once we started homeschooling, the clear line blurred from entertainment to edutainment to education and it was simply easier to forget about the line altogether.

That doesn't mean he spends 16 hours a day on the computer. There are plenty of days (especially in the summer) where I just say "Enough!" That line depends on my mood, his mood and whether or not we have anything else to do. He'll work on a Lego project, hang out with friends, go swimming, read a book or work on a DIY project instead. As a competitive fencer, the kid spends between 4-6 hours a week at the fencing academy. He's well-rounded, creative and thoughtful. I'm not worried.

To be fair, our screen limits also heavily depends on whether or not he got off the computer without drama the day before when I said "Enough!" I have threatened to password protect his computer after he was getting up at 5am to play Minecraft and watch dreadfully lame videos of other people playing Minecraft. But a hard and fast two hour rule? Well... since I don't have any intention of following that myself, there's really no point!

You're not using Minecraft?? You're missing out!

If you have a child somewhere between ages 6 and 18, you have likely heard of Minecraft. Sometimes referred to as "Mind crack", it is the newest, and one of the longer lasting crazes among video gamers. Parents everywhere are devising strategies to deny, avoid, repel or distract their children from Minecraft.

Confession time. I love Minecraft. I don't play it and I don't enjoy it personally, but I love the social magic it has brought to my son's life and the educational value behind it! I'm here to convince you that if you're not using Minecraft in your homeschooling, you're really missing out on a huge educational opportunity!

10 Reasons Why You Need Minecraft

1) Spatial processing
First of all, there is the logic, spatial processing and hand-eye coordination that is required to simply play Minecraft. If you think of Minecraft as virtual Lego blocks, you can start to imagine the possibilities. Now add in realistic gravity in some settings, design elements and patterning and the infinite ways you can assemble blocks and you can start to see attraction.

2) No fear or criticism
Have a perfectionist? Minecraft is perfect for building because if it doesn't work out you just take it down and put it right back up again. Many kids we know have attempted grandiose replica builds that they'd never attempt with Lego due to fear of failure, time and the pure cost of bricks. One 4th grader we know personally, is currently working on replicating the entire California mission trail, including building the missions that are accurate from aerial views. He would never attempt such a long endeavor outside of his computer, for fear that others might critique it or that he wouldn't finish. My own son is currently working on the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

3) Logic and computer code disguised as fun
I listened to an adorable 3rd grader tell me all about how to build a watermelon slicer the other day. He had spent several hours working on his redstone repeaters to get them lined up properly and in the right order. As he was explaining it to me, his mom was visually irritated that he had "wasted" so much time. I congratulated him on figuring out the code to make the slicer work. I explained to him that what he had really been doing was working on logic processing- the steps required, in the exact order, to make the computer do what he wanted. I gave him a high five for being a computer coder. Mom was stunned- she had never thought about it from that perspective.

4) Determination and perseverance 
Kids that tend to be quitters need to find a passion. If that passion to "get it right" is fed by building something in Minecraft, or setting up a server etc, it provides a valuable lesson in perseverance that can transfer into other areas with gentle parenting.

5) Research and internet skills
What's a wiki? What's the Minecraft wiki? How do you figure out how to build something that seems too confusing? Where can you find appropriate YouTube videos? What's the server op command to turn off rainfall? These are all questions that we've covered at home as part of our Minecraft lessons. Don't ask me, I don't know but I'll teach you how to find it!

6) Internet safety
As our world becomes increasingly internet based, our kids need instruction in how to survive and thrive in a world where your friends may be people you met online and have never even seen in real life. How much information is too much? What is "personal" and what isn't? We've spent countless hours talking about internet safety and internet etiquette so that my son can play multiplayer servers with players around the world. These skills are as important as learning how to type and will be the base of his future interactions for decades.

7) Social interaction
As homeschoolers, this is hugely important to us. It's simply not possible for my son to spend as much time with other kids as he may like, because we don't have 30 kids in our house every day. But with Minecraft, we DO. He can play and chat online with friends in our area or far away, stay in touch with camp friends and more. He has Minecraft parties at our house where we will invite five or six people over to play a specific Minecraft game, like Capture the Flag. A room full of boys and girls, all laughing and talking up a storm, while running through a virtual world is a perfect way to spend a hot summer afternoon! Minecraft extends beyond the game as well, and has given him social capital and a way to enter conversations of complete strangers, just based on their discussion or a comment on his t-shirt.

7) What's a LAN?
Beyond basic computer logic within the game, Minecraft is the perfect foray into how computers work, how the internet works and what all these crazy acronyms mean. When my son wanted his own server, rather than just getting it for him, we told him to figure it out. He now has cloud space in Texas that he manages, runs the upgrades of both Minecraft and Java, notifies his players of upcoming changes and rules and has learned numerous operator commands to make his server do what he wants.

8) High interest, high quality school projects
"Hey kid, today we're writing a report on setting in the book you just read," is sure to elicit grumping, whining and complaining. "Hey kid, today you're recreating the setting from the book you just read, doing a screencast walk-thru and explaining the importance of several locations, all in Minecraft!" Suddenly, your entire school day just changed from lame and boring to you being the coolest mom ever! At the same time, you will likely get higher level analysis, better understanding of the topic and more commitment to the project. We use Minecraft whenever, however possible. With "mods", you can experiment with physics, gravity, black holes, farming and agriculture supply and so much more. If you have no idea how, ask your kid "How would you like to do this in Minecraft? Tell me what you'd do!" Watch the eyes sparkle!

9) Inspiration
It's amazing to me to see what so many kids have dreamed up in Minecraft. From a girl I know who built a disco club complete with music and strobe lights, to another that built an entire amusement park with roller coasters, water slides and shops to buy snacks, the ideas are endless. I've seen my son, who never draws for fun, sketch out something when he's away from the computer, so he can put it into action when he gets back to his desk. Experimentation and design is easy in Minecraft and it's low-risk and low cost. I've met several kids that have gone on to study topics outside of the game because they saw something built in Minecraft and wanted to know more. One teen we know has built a working nuclear power plant in his Tekkit Minecraft mod. He spent hours researching nuclear cooling strategies outside of the game, so he could get his plant as realistic and as safe as possible, because it will blow up if it's wrong!

10) Because you can
Why not? Isn't this the best part of homeschooling? You can do it because you simply can! No school internet access policies, rules for use of bandwidth or judgement. Just because you can! I've yet to find a topic that my son couldn't incorporate into Minecraft in some way!

Ok, now I know I've convinced you! So go grab your own license and start imagining the possibilities- https://minecraft.net/

"Funny work sticks better to my brain"

Over the weekend, I was thinking about the Savvy Homeschool Moms blog hop about humor in homeschooling. I was trying to figure out how to write about our sense of humor and how the kid and I make it through the day, when as usual, I got the better lesson from the kid than he did from me!

We were working on a student-led conference, where he would sit down with his dad and go over his favorite pieces of work from our year. He wrote up a little paragraph about each piece of work and then described it to his dad, talking about what he had learned, liked about the assignment and what he would do differently next time. 

The lesson came to me when he was talking about a grammar sheet about dangling modifiers. The kid said "I realized that I learn better when something is really funny. It sticks to my brain better." Who would have ever thought that dangling modifiers would be funny? Well thanks to a Scholastic ebook, we have learned that it's funny but not grammatically correct, to write "Badly leaking, Grandpa fixed the pipes." It leaves images of grandpa leaking all over the kitchen. You know what makes boys laugh with guaranteed consistency? Pee jokes.

The kid is right, of course. We learn more when something is funny because we feel relaxed and it creates a memory! Though we did this grammar worksheet in the early fall, he still remembered it and asked specifically for it when we were going through his work from the year. It's the same funny approach to grammar that "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" uses or Brian Cleary uses in his grammar and parts of speech books. 

I thought it was really fantastic that the kid realized this about himself without any prompting from me. It's also a good reminder for me to seek out humorous curriculum that will make us laugh along the way, so it can stick better to our brains. As the end of 5th grade wraps up, I'm realizing that if we will survive 6th grade, we're going to need a LOT of humorous curriculum to combat the teen attitude that slowly leaking into our daily activities. If we can figure out a way to laugh through it, perhaps we'll both come out the other end without any dangling modifiers and just a solid pile of funny memories together. 

Free time

Spending nearly twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with someone is trying of the patience of both parties. Most moms are so excited, though a bit sad and nervous, when their little one finally reaches kindergarten age. YES! Maybe time to shower without interruption, savor a grocery store trip with one less child or read an entire magazine alone. That time is precious and well-deserved for any mom or dad! 

This time is also often the first thing that moms, in particular, ask me about in regards to homeschooling. They will comment like “Oh I could never do that, I value my alone time” or “It must be so hard to be together all that time every day!” I completely understand that perspective and the three years my son was in public school were marvelously filled with free time, career and hobbies. However, as I was spending more and more time at his school, meeting with teachers and administration seeking appropriate academic environments for him, it became clear that my hobby had become advocacy. This wasn’t my intention, nor a hobby I would have chosen on my own. It was just the nature of the situation and what was required for him to get the quality of education he deserved. As my career and free time was dwindling rapidly, it seemed to make more sense to use those advocacy hours on schooling him myself.

Do I miss free time? Absolutely. I had the luxury of working part-time, which both fed my brain and kept me from getting bored. It also gave me time to have lunch with friends, work on projects around the house and to run errands alone. I was able to accomplish so much in those few days off of work that our weekends were free for family time and we rarely had chores that got in the way. 

Now, wrapping up year two of homeschooling and looking at year three, I realize the kid and I have hit a beautiful rhythm. Assuming he is on task, we can accomplish his schoolwork by 2pm on just about any day. That leaves us several hours of free time each afternoon. I’ve encouraged him to come up with independent projects so that I can use the time to read, make a grocery list, write or pay bills free of interruption. Sure, the independent projects often veer into playing Minecraft with friends online, but they just as often result in reading, working on a digital art project or building a massive Lego creation.

My friends also deserve a big high five and a hug for being so understanding. We try to have lunch together at least once a month, even with my perma-shadow in tow. He’s no fool- he knows that if he cooperates and reads a book at another table patiently, he’ll get the bigger half of the cookie. He also fully understands that a happy mom, means a happy teacher and that all leads to a better school day.Speaking of free time, our rhythm also means I get to spend more time baking. The kid has a strange sense of humor and requested this dairy-free "cheese" cake for his birthday party. His dairy-allergic friends appreciated his funny joke. 

Summer- Live it up!

I've gotten a lot of questions from readers, friends and family about how we handle summer in an Academic Homeschooling family. I can promise, our summer is just as summer-y as traditional school families, with a few twists!

Summers of my childhood are filled with memories of playing in the empty fields, making dandelion launchers, breaking my parents' garage door by trying to ride on it. My brother and I rode our bikes to the local Dairy Queen for ice cream on special occasions and generally wandered the neighborhood with all the other kids. 

Summer in my neighborhood isn't like that anymore. Most of our friends have full-time jobs and their kids are in daycare all summer, all day. Families try to take their vacations before school starts up again. I cannot remember the last time I saw a kid riding a bike down the street in my neighborhood. It's just not like that where we live.

So that leaves an interesting conundrum for our family. Summer is time to discover interests, passions, take on projects and lounge by the pool for hours. We wholeheartedly support this as a family! We indulge a few summer wishes like "I want to spend an entire day playing Minecraft without leaving the computer." We also travel, go camping with friends, take the long hot days to start a new project like building a 3,000 piece Lego shop or playing cup bowling on our long tile hallway.

The other opportunity that we use summer for is exploring independence. The kid has attended a sleep-away camp the past two summers and will tackle two camps this summer. He goes completely unplugged, off into the hands of international college students and a well-established camp philosophy to learn how to kayak, slingshot, build log forts, sing silly songs and play poker in the cabin on a rainy day. It's about life experience too- learning to trust others, be brave and resilient. This year, he will also have a video game design sleep-away camp on a college campus. It will be a completely different experience for him, to have one single goal and project to accomplish in one week. 

Summer is the perfect time for Academic Homeschoolers to take advantage of enrichment camps, day experiences and filling your child's emotional and social buckets full of adventures. The kid will have a half-day camp week at the local SPCA learning how to take care of animals and prepare them for adoption. In a completely opposite direction, he'll also have a full-day camp week in 3D printing and CAD design. He'll also have six weeks of plain boring summer. We like to mix it up around here! 

I encourage you to consider spending some of your homeschool budget on a high quality camp, whether it's day or overnight. The opportunity to explore something completely outside of your home, your realm of knowledge and your family's focus will develop a new sense of exploration and adventure in your child. Sure, as a mom it's completely panic-inducing to drop your kid off in the mountains and not hear from them for a week. But the stories, the smiles and the skills he comes home with will be worth every single near heart-attack moment. 

For camps near you try the American Camp Association, your local park and recreation or Google your major metropolitan area and "day camp".  

Choosing Curriculum for the New Year

Researching curriculum, reviewing curriculum, and reading curriculum are three of my most favorite parts of homeschooling. Then comes the worst part, the most difficult challenge of all- actually choosing the curriculum. It feels like torture to let go of something I've spent so much time exploring! But late spring means that it's time to put in the curriculum order for the new year and time to begin breaking up with curriculum I've come to love.

We homeschool through a public charter school in California. There are many different deviations of this model, some of which give parents a fixed dollar amount to spend in selected vendors. Our model is a physical charter that holds classes and purchases curriculum for the families to check out each year. We have access to more than 70 classes, a typical school administration, a library and traditional school activities like Science Fair. There are definite pros and cons to this model. In our case, my son's expensive fencing lessons would be paid for by the school in a different model, because they count as PE. In our model, we pay out of pocket.

Our charter offers a huge variety of curriculum for the classical homeschooler but can be somewhat limited for Academic Homeschoolers. Because it is a K-8 charter school, the curriculum library does not contain anything beyond 8th grade. For most kids, this wouldn't be a problem. However, for us, we often find we have to purchase our own materials to cover the kid's academic needs. 

The kid is a sixth grader on paper this year, though his academic needs are pretty varied. So far, this is our plan for the 2013-2014 school year. It may change, depending on progress in the next few months! For those interested in purchasing curriculum, I have included links where available.

Literature/English

Wordly Wise Book 7

The Writer's Jungle

Free reading- with the school's 40 Book Challenge

Mathematics

Art of Problem Solving- Algebra 1 (We recommend buying from Horrible Ray)

Descartes Cove and Khan Academy as supplemental

Science

Intellego Units in Evolution and also Plate Techtonics/Geology

Our monthly hands-on science club will continue

Social Studies/History

Intellego Units in Ancient Civilizations (covering China and India)

Story of Science- Aristotle Leads the Way

Student Quest Guide (the accompanying workbook)

Electives-

We're still tossing this around. Perhaps blacksmithing with a local co-op, or some improv acting classes. We'll be adding in a musical instrument this year but which instrument is still a family debate!  The kid will also continue dabbling in coding with Code Academy and working on digital art using Anime Design Studio. 

Signing up for another year

The interesting situation of Academic Homeschooling means that we have natural breaks in our school life where we contemplate "Should the kid go back to school?" In our area, most schools are K-5, 6-8 and 9-12, though we do have a few 6-12 schools.  Since on paper, my son is finishing up 5th grade, it was logical to have the discussion of whether or not he should go back to traditional school in 6th grade.

While I think every homeschooler has these moments, wondering if it's time to send the kids back to the brick and mortar building, it seems to come up more in families that are not homeschooling against a system. We have friends that have always homeschooled and always will, up until the day that Junior moves out for college/trade school or marriage. Our other friends that fell into homeschooling due to medical reasons, academic reasons, military reasons or a host of other situations, wrestle with this every single year. Is this the year? What about next year?

We live in a district with a high proportion of charter schools that have lottery-based admissions. The most likely entry point is 6th grade. By default, most people who are looking to make a change- either from homeschooling to school or from school to school, have to make it in the winter of 5th grade. It's a huge decision because whatever you choose feels like it locks kids in for the rest of high school. It's painstakingly difficult to look at your 10 year old and try to determine what kind of person he will be in seven years and which high school is the best option.

After all the thinking, the pros and cons lists and the debates and discussions, we decided to forget about it for a year. My son is happy, sleeping well, as access to a huge amount of experiences, curriculum and life discoveries that he wouldn't have sitting in a classroom 8 hours a day with two more hours of homework. As I've said before, my irregular pentagon doesn't fit nicely in a square box anyway. I'm confident that the time will come when going to traditional school is a no-brainer and doesn't cause us to feel so tortured by the decision.

In the meantime, why would we want to give this up?