Goals, Deadlines, and Planning

I once read that the single biggest problem that college professors see with homeschooled students was their inability to meet deadlines. They tend to honestly believe that the rules can and should be bent for them because they've been schooling in such a flexible environment. As this seldom works in college classrooms or in real life, I think it's a worthy cause to develop some goal-setting, deadline-meeting, planning-ahead skills in homeschooled children.

I've been mulling over this dilemma for some time, coming to very few conclusions. One of the benefits of homeschooling is the flexibility, the ability to drop "school" for the day and go to the orchestra or visit friends. I think this helps homeschooled children become well-rounded individuals, involved and informed in their communities and able to develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with their friends.

A friend of mine introduced me to the idea of setting out a series of goals for homeschooling at the beginning of the month and checking them off as they get done. Her daughter is a little older than Mane, and they have been using this system. It allows them to have some change and variation in their schedule, as not everything needs to be done every single day, but it also creates a system for being sure that the things that get done that need to be done. A valuable side benefit: the child learns to set goals, meet deadlines and plan ahead!

At the beginning of March, Mane and I set out to implement this plan. We're using 2-week time blocks, rather than a whole month, though, since she's new to this process and younger than my friend's daughter. I have to say that I'm absolutely pleased with this plan. Mane can be self-directed within the structure. She's able to take some responsibility for her own planning and schedule. I don't have to cajole her to get things done. I just remind her of what there's left to do and how many days she has remaining. We finished our first 2-week plan on Sunday. On Friday Mane looked at what she still needed to do and made herself a chart for how she was going to get it all done. I sat back and marveled a this skill-building process!

So, what did she/we do?

* 4 chapters in Story of the World
* Completed Math U See Beta!! (Yes, she's done with 2nd grade math!)
* Completed 15 pages of an on-line math curriculum (more on that later).
* Read 2 early reader books from the library
* 2 Hooked on Phonics spelling lessons
* Followed the Iditarod (Mane kept a musher data sheet for Jessie Royer and DeeDee Jonrowe. She filled out times, dates, positions, and number of dogs herself. This included some learning about writing dates and "a.m." and "p.m." times.
* 2 Lego projects following instructions from a booklet
* 10 "real life" math problems
* 2 pages of free writing (corrected for grammar & spelling)

Aside from those things, we also went to the orchestra, visited grandparents, volunteered at the Go Fish concert, did a puzzle with grandma, went to visit friends in Cambridge, had friends come to visit us twice, went to Bible Study, and attended several soccer games (where Mane runs around & plays with friends).

I know it sounds like a lot, but Mane has also had plenty of time to go outside, work on art projects, watch Ponyo, and hang out with her dollies!

I'm feeling great knowing that we're still progressing through some goals. Mane is feeling great knowing what the goals are and having some control over them. Today we wrote up our second set of goals. (Yesterday, true to flexible homeschooling form, we spent the day with the grandparents and drove them to the airport, picked Mango up from school, went to the book store for some books I need for Bible study, and got me a new cell phone!)

Iditarod XXXVIII

The Olympics just finished up, but we still have Olympic fever at our house! So, it's a good thing the 38th annual Iditarod sled dog race begins on Saturday, right on the heels of the 2010 Olympics, and just in time to keep feeding our hunger for great sports action and stories.

This will be our 4th year following the Iditarod, both for fun and for education. Over the years we've been drawn to the stories of the mushers (the individuals who "drive" the sleds), and we have learned much about character, strength, generosity, and endurance. I'll never forget the story of the musher who lost one of her dogs during the race. She was so heartbroken that another musher offered to stay with her and keep pace with her for the rest of the race, just for company, thereby giving up an possible competitive finish for himself. And then there's the Red Lantern - the prize and trophy awarded to the last competitor to finish the race, a tribute to that musher's determination and an acknowledgment that any finish in this race is a prize-worthy accomplishment. I've found that the race and the stories that happen on the trail are so often analogous to the rest of life and faith.

This year we'll be following more that a few mushers. Of course, we'll have to keep tabs on some of our favorites: Martin Buser, DeeDee Jonrowe, Jessie Royer, Aliy Zirkle (in alphabetical order so as not to pick favorites).

We'll also be watching the 7 female rookies this year (Jane Faulkner, Kathleen Frederick, Tamara Rose , Michelle Phillips, Kristy Berington, Celeste Davis, and Colleen Robertia - listed in the order they're listed on the Iditarod website, also so as not to pick favorites). That's SEVEN women who have never run the Iditarod before this year!! I find that pretty amazing.

Finally, we'll be following Sam Deltour of Belgium, who was the first Belgian to finish the Iditarod (2008) AND the first person ever to finish with all 16 sled dogs (also 2008), Wattie McDonald, who is from Mango's country of ancestry, Scotland, and Newton Marshall, who is interesting just by virtue of being from JAMAICA!

That covers 14 of the 71 current entrants! Every year we seem to accumulate a few more names of interest. ;) We look forward to seeing what new projects we can build around the race this year and, of course, to a great party to celebrate the finish!

In the name of keeping up the blog...

I'll post that we started lesson 25 in MUS!! AND I explained multiplication and division to Mane this morning. What fun!

Mane started the day watching a Reading Rainbow episode about music and orchestras as a follow-up to us going to the orchestra last week.

She finished the second word group in the 100 words books, and she read me the book that comes at the end of that section. I still worry about her reading, but it seems that she's learning.

We're still using StartWrite for handwriting. Mane has practiced letter a, b, c, d, and e, and she's learned to join those various letters together into words. We're learning italic cursive. I'm learning, too, since I learned traditional cursive to begin with.

Then we read Storm Run by Libby Riddles. She's the first woman who ever won the Iditarod, and the book is about her life and, particularly, about the time she won the Iditarod.

Last week we finished spelling Iditarod in character qualities/vocabulary words:

I = Innovation
D = Diligenace
I = Integrity
T = Teamwork
A = Attitude
R = Respect
O = Optimism
D = Determination

We'll be transitioning out of Iditarod this week and picking up Story of the World again. And we've been doing some short Spanish lessons. Finally.

The Iditarod, Cancer & Cells

We've continued to follow the Iditarod race, keep stats on the 4 mushers we're following, and learn the character qualities that spell Iditarod:

I = Innovation
D = Diligence
I = Integrity
T = Teamwork
A = Attitude
R = Respect

Along with that, we've been talking about DeeDee Jonrowe's fight against cancer and Heather Siirtola's mother, who is also fighting cancer. This led to a discussion of cells, cell growth, and what keeps cells healthy. Mane already knows a fair amount about cells from talking and looking at books with Mango. Right now, as I type, she's drawing pictures of different types of cells in her school notebook. I'm amazed at where our interests take us as we follow the Iditarod each year.

The Last Great Race

We at Peregrin House have been following The Last Great Race: The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska. This is our 3rd year following, and, as usual, there are so many directions we could go with our homeschooling days, using the Iditarod as a jumping off point. This year we're working on character traits (and the associated vocabulary words) of people who enter the race and of the people who ran the first race to Nome carrying the serum that would save the townspeople from diphtheria. We're following Zuma's Paw Prints: Official Canine Reporter for the Iditarod. Zuma has an article for a character trait for each letter of the word Iditarod. So far we've gone over the first 2 letters.

I = Innovation
D = Diligence

Mane is learning the words and hearing stories from the Iditarod about each of the traits. She's also made pages in her notebook for each of the mushers we're following in the race (all women, by the way):

Jessie Royer,
DeeDee Jonrowe,
Melissa Owens, and
Heather Siirtola.

This our third year following Jessie Royer and our second year following Melissa Owens. Melissa Owens is only 19 years old. Her first Iditarod was last year. I have informally followed DeeDee Jonrowe both years. So, I decided to keep a stat sheet on her this year, and that means that Mane is following, too. And Mane wanted to follow a 3rd musher just for fun. So, she chose Heather Siirtola. Heather is running the race this year in dedication to her mother, who has been fighting cancer for the last 18 years.

We've been talking lots about how this race, particularly, is not so much about racing and winning. It's about endurance, perseverance, dedication, planning, and just plain fun.

Routine

Finally...FINALLY, we have a minimalist routine around here. We've been needing one for a long time, and I'm finally figuring out how to make it happen. It isn't rocket science, people, but I need some organization. It isn't because Mane isn't learning anything. It's that I feel scattered and have a hard time planning if there's no routine. I've resisted routine up to this point, but now that it's here, it's helping.

So, right away after breakfast we get dressed and do a half hour of some kind of reading work. Then there's math, with some cool new blocks. And then we read from Story of the World or some book associated with whatever we're covering in Story of the World. In the afternoon I read aloud to Mane in the sunroom, and I'm working on adding one more session of reading work on the days when we have time.

And, by the way, reading is HAPPENING. I mean, it's still slow, but I'm definitely seeing progress. Mane is reading some of the Berenstain Bears early readers now, which are a huge step up from the Bob Books.

We haven't rowed any books for the last month, and I'm planning to add that back into the afternoons. History seemed to take the place of rowing for a while because, in doing history, we've also covered a fair amount of science, geography, social studies, etc... I'm not sure what book we'll be rowing next, but I think it won't be until after the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. During the race, we'll be reading books and doing activities related to the race somehow while following some mushers and watching the video clips.

Today I sat at a coffee shop with Mane and the math blocks and we practiced some subtraction. Then we went over counting by 2's again and talked about odd and even numbers. I had her practice adding doubles in her head. And I had her practice counting backwards from various starting points. I'm starting to see how her brain works on these things, and about all I can say is that she's a lot different from me, and I'm learning a whole lot, too.

While driving in the car we had a long talk about what credit cards are and how they work. Last week, while in the car, we ended up talking about how it works to pay interest on things. Mango has been helping Mane count money, too. So, I guess we're having some little economics lessons on the side.

Tonight Mane played math bingo with me, and then she hung out in the living room listening to Little House in the Big Woods on i-tunes. She's now got quite a collection of her own books and stories on i-tunes. It keeps her entertained for hours when she's allowed to select her own stuff.

And, yes, I'm still working on getting some more Spanish and art into the routine. I don't know why homeschoolers ever claim to have more time than anyone else. ;)