Hackschooling Through Summer

It's been a while since my last post, but summer has been progressing beautifully. He likes the Steve & Kate's camp and has been spending a lot of time with the filmmaker in residence helping with camera work during interviews and things. He has also made several animations and learned to sew. Learned. To. Sew. I should say Stitch... but sometimes he hand stitches and sometimes he uses a machine... Mostly he loves Fusbol.

This week he's at a Cub Scout camp and loving it so much he has already declared he wants to go back to this specific one next year. He did not take the swim test but he is determined to be able to pass it next year. (I may not have to bribe him after all!). (We are glad the World Cup is over, because he loved to look at and compare statistics on my phone during the matches. Normally I don't let him use my phone for anything.)

He reads on the way to and from this camp, which is 45-60 minutes away each way. What does he read? Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT and EV3 books. This is, however, a bit of a problem; I want him to read fiction for a change. So Daddy pulled out a box of books that were his when he was 8-ish, and voila! Danny Dunn adventures series, and he was hooked and burned through an entire (albeit not very long) chapter book in an evening.

Tonight before bed he decided he wants to build his own laptop. He demanded paper and a pen and began drawing out the ports on his new laptop with excellent geometric precision from memory! You won't be getting credit for that in 3rd grade! How can I make him go to bed when he's being so brilliant, I wonder?

What can I say, if you just let them at it they never cease to amaze you.

An Active Week - and MATH!

This week F returned (again) to the California Science Center, where he took his grandparents on a tour of the amazing things there that he loves.

We sat together on the couch one evening going through 3rd grade math problems which he does in his head. Three digit subtraction with regrouping and zeroes... "easy." Multiplication and division... "easy."

He learned to add fractions with the same denominator. "Easy." He loves fractions. He also already relates fractions to percentages. I think we'll be moving on soon, though he still operates in the concrete mode a lot, but hey, so do I.

We have been using the World Cup to create word problems. So his father asked him at CPK to think about a problem and then by the time he was done eating he could explain his answer. The question was: if two teams from each group go on to the second round, and the second round has 16 teams, how many teams started in the first place?

First he tried to think it out by trying to determine which operators he would need. He decided it would be multiplication or division. But he didn't know quite how to put the numbers (abstract) in an order that would result in a simple answer. So... he drew a box (concrete) for each group of four teams, filled in two random boxes as the winners of the round robin, counted out how many boxes/groups he needed (8), then counted the total squares (32). So we then launched into the lesson about the other ways to do it - 16x2, 8x4, whatever, he was already mentally able to see how it all worked and was very excited about it. Then he drew the leaderboard showing how the single elimination games would eventually play out.

So then his father asked... if every team plays every other team in its group one time in the round robin, and then it becomes single elimination, how many games does the winning team end up playing? That was easy --3+1+1+1+1. And then... if each game is 90 minutes, and they play 7 games, how many minutes do they have to play? He counted by 90s. BY 90s, people! So naturally we then showed him the abstract for that. He has understood multiplication as a function of addition since early 1st grade, maybe earlier, but now he's starting to put the concrete and the abstracts together. Half a year of 3rd grade math before the check arrived.

And I pointed out that there was a pattern to single elimination - 16 teams to 8 to 4 to 2 to 1 winner. So he said "divide by twos." It's obvious to us adults, but he hasn't even officially learned multiplication yet, much less division....

Then we did some multiplication with "magic zeros" so he can shortcut any multiplication with an even tens like 7 x 90 = (7 x 9) x 10. "Easy."

Is it time for 4th grade yet? It's going to be a challenge to get him to practice these things while hack-schooling, but he's very, very good at applying math to real problems so we'll just sneak it in as much as we can.

Launching Summer Learning!

Summer is off to a great start. We took F and some family friends to Cal Science Center to see the Endeavour and the Pompeii exhibit. F had been reading about Pompeii and he is fascinated by volcanoes and geological disasters, so it was a good thing for him to see. S had been studying ancient history including Greek and Roman history so it was good for him to see as well. Adults really appreciate it, though... endlessly fascinating stuff.

Did you know the Romans had no word for volcano prior to Pompeii?

F earned his Red Belt in Tae Kwon Do, his best belt test ever. So focused and confident - broke both boards and was so proud of himself. I am a proud mom, too. It's my reward for dragging him there week after week.

Then F spent a long weekend RV camping with his grandparents at the beach. They played a lot of Rummy Cubes which helps develop his social skills and strategic thinking skills. We're just waiting for camp to open next week. I wish I weren't swamped at work so I could make the most of this week with him! Fortunately Dad is mostly home.

Summer Swimming For Dollars

I may not know the first thing about teaching a kid to swim... but I know what I want my son to achieve this summer. (Rubric) It's as simple as not being afraid to go in the shallow end, no more terror when a drop of water gets on his face, and at least the very basic lifesaving skill of treading water. We don't have a pool, so it is more difficult to get through some of these challenges. I'd also like him to be able to do swimming and watercraft activities at Camp Whitsett this year, and these require passing a basic swim test.

If he won't even go into the water, swimming lessons are probably not the way to go. I mean, maybe private lessons would work, but around here these private lessons are so cost inhibitive I'd rather just deal with it myself. There are plenty of group classes, but some require an evaluation before being placed in a class, and at LAVC, for example, they said if he won't even go into the water, I should start with private lessons first. I had hoped seeing other kids go would encourage him, but alas.

So public pools (yuck) and neighbors will have to do. Instead of money I'll be spending patience... which I admit I don't have a lot of, especially when an 8-year-old resists. Vehemently.

Anyway, given how much time we spend around water in the summer, the last thing I need is to worry about him more than necessary. So I'm going to try a little goal-oriented approach to help him along. First, we're going to watch "swim lesson" videos so that he can see what he's expected to do and learn from modeling. He does well with learning by watching video, whereas being dragged out to the

Next, we're going to earn dollars. Yes, I am going to bribe him. This will work better than stickers or points or artificial currency because he wants to spend his money on Pokemon cards. I am not a fan of extrinsic rewards but in this case, given how many years we have failed at learning to swim, it might be worth it, especially since I am forcing this on him instead of it being something he chooses for himself.

The basic skills I want him to master are based on the American Red Cross swim skills chart. I'm going to develop a kind of rubric that lets him fish money out of the bottom of the pool and hopefully makes it fun. As he progresses from going under to floating to treading water to dog paddling to swimming to triathlons to ... kidding! ... he'll earn dollars and get to spend them on water toys, Pokemon cards, or whatever else he wants.

Wish me luck.

Summer Preview - Hacking Third Grade

The summer will provide us with a variety of activities to work our way in to the sub-routine of homeschooling. That essentially means we don't have a routine, which is fine by me... though one might evolve. It also means he can whet his appetite on the things he wants to be learning as well as the things that emerge that I can steer him toward.

F will be at day camp on the days when neither parent is home and we're not out doing other things together. This camp is semi-structured with open activities -- all about choice and not being herded from A to B all day. It has stop-motion animation and filmmaking, chess and sports, outdoor play and all-day dance... I'm sure he'll find something to do and find his niche and he's very excited about it.

Meanwhile I have a membership at the California Science Center, and we have a full summer of camping and cub scout activities, and grandma wants him for some camping and beach activities... there will be a lot less Pokemon and a lot more "real life" going on for all of us!

Hackschooling 101 - Inspiration from Squaw Valley

"Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire" 

~ W.B.Yeats

I have wanted to home-educate my future children since I was a child myself. As I got older, I studied this concept informally but in depth. I met homeschoolers and unschoolers and was always impressed with their maturity, curiosity, and intelligence. When I began studying for my MSEd, I discovered learning theories, application of the science of learning, and more. I learned how to decode the Common Core and how to evaluate learning materials. And more than ever, I wanted to hack education.

When my son was born, I was working full time and finishing up my MBA. I then worked more than full time. There was no way my son would be homeschooled. I found him a fantastic Montessori preschool where he thrived. I worked my tush off to get him into a very well respected public charter school. I can't complain too much about his formal schooling so far, except that it doesn't fit his needs.

Now I work from home (most of the time) so I can refocus on my son and his education. Inspired some years ago by this TEDx Talk from then 13-year-old Logan LaPlante, I decided to call it "hacking" his education. My son will learn both what his peers are expected to know, but in ways that schools can't accommodate, as well as the many things he wants to know, which will keep his light on.

We love science, so we will conduct this grand experiment in hackschooling scientifically. I'll log his activities, progress, and triumphs here. He might contribute some entries as well. Who knows where this journey will take us? One thing I am sure about - it's going to be fun, and maybe at times trying, but we'll emerge stronger, smarter, and maybe with a model for other families to play along.

Enjoy!