Ok, I went to public school, we moved ALOT, so I went to many many pubic schools. I was a straight A student pretty much all the way through, and really thought I was pretty smart. I thought I had a fairly decent education. Lately, I'm not so sure. I see huge voids in things that I just simply never learned. Maybe it was from switching school systems every year or two, and maybe it was the different teachers in the schools themselves. I can remember in 4th grade, the students in one teachers room learned way different things than we learned in my classroom. The other teacher was a very nature/patriotic type person and her lessons completely reflected it, my teacher was going through a messy divorce and many times cried through class telling us to read our texts and answer the questions. I know through the years I did have some great teachers... I had one who taught reading in elementry school, with every single story we did something fun.. we read a story about Chinese New Year and we made pork fried rice, we read a story about chickens and we hatched chicken eggs and raised them for quite a while in the classroom (bet the janitor loved cleaning up after her...lol). But, those stellar teachers were few and far between. I also noticed that because my family was very poor I was often ignored by teachers while students who came from money were doted on and treated like a friend of the teacher instead of a student. Anyway.. I keep getting off track here, I have so much running through my mind, I have been reflecting alot last night and this morning, so please forgive me for being all over the place. See I just did it again..lol. I see huge voids in history.. especially world history, how am I supposed to know if I'm exposing kids to the right things if I don't know much about history myself. I know, I know.. I have books and I will be following them, but I'm just having a moment of wondering how in the heck I could have gone through 14 years of school and had no clue who fought in WWI or who Alexander the Great was??? What do you do when you come across something you should have learned many years ago and had no clue about? Do you let your kids know you are learning right along with them and that you chose to take over the control of their education so that they don't have all the gaps that you have?
Crazymama, I think most of us run across things we either didn't learn in the first place or did so long ago that we don't remember as much of it as we think we should. If you don't want to tell the kids you're learning it for the first time right along with them (okay if you do, okay if you don't), just say something like wow it's been a loooong time since I was in school -- if you're over 21, they'll believe it! kids think everybody over 21 is ancient anyway! LOL What do you do when you come across something you should have learned many years ago and had no clue about? Do you let your kids know you are learning right along with them and that you chose to take over the control of their education so that they don't have all the gaps that you have? Okay if you do, okay if you don't tell them. Just get a really good plan in place, and read, read, read!
I say..... Wow that's an interesting question, lets go look it up and find out together OR sometimes I just plain say I don't know lets look it up. My dd's don't care that I don't know everything, my job is to guide them and in guiding them I also teach them that nobody knows EVERYTHING and if you don't know it this is what you do to find out about it. I think all of us at some point have been where you are now. After 8+ years of homeschooling I still go " huh, am I on track with them?" and then they show/tell me something that proves that we are doing okay. Learn right along with them, they'll never know and if they do thats fine , then they'll know its o.k to not know everything BUT that they have the skills to find the answers they are looking for! You are doing great job with them and you're an awesome mom Sommer!!
I just commented to a friend this weekend that part of what I love about homeschooling is that I get to learn or relearn all this great information that I currently don't have in my brain. I'm currently working on my second college degree and I'm learning stuff with my second-grader that I'm not convinced I ever learned (science, espeically). I never make a big deal out of it when I don't know something. I just say, "I don't know" and we look it up together. I think it's just as important for the boys to know how to find information they don't know (research).
Crazymama, Wow, if I didn't know it I would have thought I had written that post. I didn't always move around, but I did go to 4 different high schools. As for how I did, I did great after I got over my year of rebellion (freshman). In fact, I made almost straight A's. But how much did I retain, not much. In history, I would memorize things for the test and not remember much of it a week after. In fact, my son quickly learned more about WWII than I knew in 1st grade (by watching the history channel and from my father). Math, I did retain the basics and a little more of Algebra, and probably could get back in the flow pretty easy, but I LOVE math (strange-I know). It varies class to class how much I remember. Your post also serves as a reminder that the traditional way of teaching may not be the best way for kids to learn. And making learning exciting can make a lasting impression. Now, I just have to find a way to make learning more fun for my son and me. Anyway, it is a thought provoking post, thanks.
You know, maybe it sound crazy, but my kids now have more friends, than they had at school. And they do real things. Not those stupid school projects “for patents".
I think we all have voids. When I was homeshcooling my oldest I learned something new everyday and I never pretended I had all the answers. I just learned right along with her and if there was something we needed to know that we didn't know well we just googled it.
Crazymama-- I moved a lot too, I have reallly enjoyed learning with my kids the history that I was never taught. We moved at least once a year, one time three times in a year , each schol seemed to teach me the same "explorer's" unit. SO I know a lot about Canadian exploration, but that was pretty much it until I moved back tothe states when we learned World and Us history at HIgh school level.. In Canada I was still in Jr high, 10th grade, when I moved back home to WA. Even with what I had to 'memorize" for tests I did not really get into history till second semester in my senior year! Better teacher? you bet! So as I teach my children I have at times felt dumb, so I read ahead in History books, and Science Forget it! I had no clue because I chose to ignore the facts and just do enough to get me the grade for the most part. Math I got, I loved it and we learned a lot. With homeschooling I have found that there is #1 more history now! ( we have learned more in my life time than there was to learn before that! #2 They update the history books as they find new stuff! #3 We research to find more things out than was possible to do with the Library edition of books back then,. Here is a funny one for you! When I was 8 I had to do a report on Canada because we were moving there and my teacher thought it would be a great country for me to choose because of that fact. I found in my book from the library that Canadians dressed like Eskimos (I know you Canadians are laughing your guts out at this point!) and so I drew my picture that way. I learned at lot of stuff that when we moved there I found out were not true, but they were in the book... I remember the most as a child in school for History from the reports I had to look up the information and got to draw maps and color them , and research the encycopedias and other books to find information to write the reports... I never thought of that! NO wonder Ilike the Notebooking ideas!
What do you do when you come across something you should have learned many years ago and had no clue about? Do you let your kids know you are learning right along with them and that you chose to take over the control of their education so that they don't have all the gaps that you have? So I forgot to answer your questions ehe, WhenI get to a spot I should have known, or not I metnione that WE are learnning it together and explain what I did up there about how much has beenfound otu about since we went to school.. even you youngns! haha And Ihave taught myself right along with them to research to find out what I missed out on and find new things to study. I dont let myself get stuck there but we enjoy the learning together as part of the home school esprience!
I find that I learn something new on a daily basis. Sometimes it is a matter of refreshing my memory and other times I am learning something completely new.
hehe.. can you tell I really needed to think out loud and usually that means it comes from my fingers? Thanks for all the awesome responses. I definately let the kids know that I don't know everything.. some days I'm sure Garrett wonders if I know anything at all other than google and the dictionary..lol I definately feel it's way more important for the kids to learn how to find the info they want or need.. so I do focus on that... example "Hey mom, how do you spell elephant?" "I'm not sure Garrett, why don't you look in the dictionary and try to figure it out." The whole time I knew the answer.... but sometime I really don't know and do send him looking either alone or with my help.
When people ask about homeschooling I just say. "You wouldn't believe the things I learned in 6th grade last year! This year I am double enrolled in 4th and 7th." One of these days I will get my multiplication facts DOWN. sigh. Maybe I should have more kids. I stayed in the same school system the entire 12 years....and I think All we ever got for history was the Pilgrims through WWII, skipping WWI...why, I do not know. I only knew about Archduke Ferdinand from Jepardy! We are not the only country with focus problems...there is a LOT of history out there after all. I was struck, when I lived in Japan that none of the post WWII kids, (well, at the time I was 20ish...20 years ago) anyway none of the Japanese kids my age had a clue why the Koreans didn't like them. They acted like it was some odd prejudice....ummmm murder and occupation sound familiar? NO? oh. I have said it before, and I will probably bore ya'll with it again...I homeschooled myself in my 20's at the library. That was where I learned most of my "basics" Not in my large impersonal public high school.
When I was at a garage sale years and years ago...before my oldest was kindy age, I met a women who homeschooled and didn't even have a high school diploma or GED. At the time when I started talking to her I thought she was crazy and how sad that her kids were going to be disadvantaged, BUT as she started talking I realized that it really didn't matter what HER education was because she was learing right along with her kids. AND she was going to get her GED the following week. I think it really doesn't matter if you have gaps in your education...I mean seriously...who doesn't?
My wife and I don't know a word of Spanish, for example, but a friend a few miles away gave free lessons to small groups of homeschoolers. Again, we're not so good at art, but a neighbor down the street agreed to give art lessons once a week. For topics that we never learned growing up, such as American history, it became a great learning exercise for us. For other topics, though, that we knew really well, our children learned far more than their peers in PS. I'd be surprised if many homeschooling parents know all the material their children are learning. For starters, several things have changed in the world since we went to school, and priorities are different today. That's just par for the course.
Steve... sadly, some of us have to go it alone. We live in a very small area, homeschooling is very "strange" here, and honestly unless they are a Dr at our huge hospital and have come here from some other area of the country most here have very little of an education. Those who have a strong knowledge in this or that are usually too busy because they have to either put in all their hours at the hospital or they have to travel out of the area daily for work. My hubby used to drive up to 4 hours each way every day for a job in his field.. now he does crappy factory work making 1/4 of the pay so that he can have more time with us as a family... he used to sometimes have to be gone for weeks at a time on a moments notice and didn't feel that was fair to a family.
It's funny - because now with 2 kids in PS and the 2 homeschooled I can see where they would be lacking if my 2 hser's were IN PS. Spelling seems to go to the sidelines in PS. My friend from high school and I were actually discussing this last Friday. Did I feel we got a good education in high school? Looking back - I think we did OK. It wasn't perfect - but it worked and got us to the next step. The sad part is I honestly don't remember 1/2 the stuff that we "learned" and I LOVE to learn! Oh - and I didn't move at all..... I was in the same house from 2-18 so I was with the same kids and the same school. I followed behind my brother (who wasn't a great student) so I had to "prove" myself. I do not remember learning about Egypt...... I do remember Spanish class and I can figure some of that out (I took Spanish 1-5 in high school and 1 1/2 years in college and I still can't speak it - but I can usually read it) BUT - with my love of learning I am finding that homeschooling can be so COOL!!! My kids all laugh at me because I get excited about silly stuff.....my 10th grader in PS is learning Greek Mythology and I love that (she doesn't).....but most of this stuff I learned when I was older than high school.
I am wondering if the lack of retention isn't due to the amount of STUFF they want everyone to learn in a given year. Personally, I think that if kids can learn the basics and really get them down pat, then that would be more successful than just sort of learning the more intricate things just to forget half of that and half of the basics. But really where would the line be drawn for the basics. I think that is the trouble with schools. They can't cater to everyone's learning ability. But I find it interesting that we have a lot of "scholarly" people who don't have common sense.
I agree with this. In fact, I am reading a book right now that discusses how schools focus too much on making sure kids know a little of everything, and in turn, they don't know a lot about anything.
Im not feeling a lack of my schooling. I remember studying everything my dd is, but I will admit Ive forgotten alot of it since 4th grade! I went to school in a very small town, my DH's class had like 20 graduates (1997) and mine had 60 or so (1999). Ok, so half his class ended up in a continuation school, but 40 is still super small. We got alot of attention from teachers who knew us extremely well and did alot of hands on with us. Of course now with all the focus on 'testing' and not really actually learning, things have changed alot!
