With so many educational choices out there, it's important for us to
Curious children sure can ask a lot of questions. Here's how I manage to
A walk in the woods illustrates why
As homeschoolers, we're fortunate to live in a time where we can find resources to support almost every aspect of educating our children: curricula, classes, books, experts, web sites, computer programs. If we have a question or problem, we can find out how others have handled similar situations. We can benefit from the experience of those who have gone before us. Here are some general tips on choosing good materials:
Explore materials before buying them.
Often, you can review educational materials at the library or an educational bookstore, or borrow them from another homeschooling family.
When you visit the local educational supply store, check things out thoroughly.
Ask yourself what the real value of the educational supply is and how long it can be expected to hold the child's interest. Supplies that have multiple uses are often better than supplies that only do one thing. Ask yourself whether you can duplicate the supply easily yourself or whether you can get something else that you can use in more ways.
Ask yourself whether the material is appropriate for the home environment.
A lot of learning materials are classroom quality, intended to be used by many single-age children over the course of years. Quite often, the child gets the learning value out of the materials in a short period of time (typically about 20 minutes). Many times, you can make or find something else that works just as well. You don't need classroom durability for something that is going to be used by one child for 20 minutes. A flimsier, homemade version can do the job just fine, and you can toss it when you've finished with it.
Consider making materials rather than buying them.
A lot of times, it's more fun (and educational) to make the materials we use than it is to actually use them. If you can get a book that describes the materials and the set-up process, you can often punt.
Buy quality tools instead of the student version.
A lot of educational materials are vastly inferior to good toys and/or tools that you have (or might like to have) around the house. Check into the difference in price and quality between student or school versions of tools and the
Buy real things instead of things designed for the classroom.
"Educational" toys and games can be a lot less fun and educational than ordinary toys and games. Consider buying lego rather than Cuisenaire rods, safety darts or Yahtzee instead of math games, Scrabble or Boggle instead of watered-down educational word games, a real word processor instead of a children's word processor.
Buy open-ended materials instead of special-purpose materials.
I like open-ended tools better than most "educational" stuff: art supplies, musical instruments, sewing supplies, carpentry tools, cooking implements, digging equipment, sports equipment, collections of magnets or lenses, hoses, swimming pools, mud, play dough, pattern blocks.
A book is worth a thousand supplies.
Books like Family Math, Natural Childhood, and Recipes for Art and Craft Supplies contain strategies for adapting classroom materials and projects to the home. In many ways, the home is a richer learning environment than any school. Our homes have more real tools and a wider range of objects than the most well-planned classroom. Classroom supplies often simulate real-life experiences (such as cooking or shopping) that we live all the time.
Be prepared to make mistakes.
We acquired a lot of materials in the first few years of homeschooling that really bombed. I've gotten better at judging what works, what doesn't work, and what would be better simulated with stuff we already have around the house. Don't feel that you have to make the right choice the first time around. If a certain material doesn't work, you can always try something different.
Get what you like.
We all choose where to splurge and where to economize. Different families have different means and different values. If you're lusting after a particular learning supply (and can afford it), by all means indulge yourself. If, however, you somehow think that you need to buy a lot of stuff in order to be a good homeschooling parent, you might want to think again before plunking down the cash. There are lots of folks out there who want to sell us things that they claim are good for our kids. A lot of the stuff they're selling is just plain not worth the price.
Sometimes, I wonder whether this wealth of resources is a double-edged sword. Does the availability of outside answers distract us from the very real situations in our own families? Does the existence of experts lead us to focus outward for answers rather than listening to the wisdom inherent in ourselves and our children? Are we in danger of turning homeschooling into a more sophisticated form of cookie-cutter education?
The plethora of available choices demands that we choose wisely. It's easy, perhaps, to throw a book or computer program at a problem. It's harder to listen to what our children really need, to focus on our own small, still voice within, to sit down with the child and roll a homemade education.
Less can be more. Questions can be more important than answers. Process can be more important than product. How we learn might well be more important than what we learn. The silences between the words can be more important than the words themselves.
Children ask a lot of questions. They want to discover everything about the world in which we live, and who can blame them?
It's great when children ask me a question and I know the answer. It's even better when they ask me a question and I don't know the answer. If I don't know, then we have to look up the answer together, a far more educational experience for parent and child. It's even good when the children ask a question to which we cannot find an answer. There are still lots of unknowns out there.
However, I think that before you answer your child's question, it's good to ask the question "What do you think?" This gives you a clearer idea of where the child's thinking has taken her. You can then answer the question at an appropriate level, with an appropriate amount of information. Asking her what she thinks also encourages her to puzzle it out for herself, a valuable skill in and of itself.
I'm wary of whys in general, and particularly with children's questions. "Why do you want to know?" can sound like you're asking for a justification for their curiosity. Curiosity is something that children ought not to have to justify.
I suggest staying away from "educational" supplies and sticking with real things. Real books, real art supplies, real clay, real cooking gear, real money, real grocery stores, real computers, real compasses, real telescopes, real rocks, real trees, real oceans, real rivers, real gardens, real musical instruments.
We went to get our Yule tree on Sunday. Garry and Alex (16) drove our two cars up the road to the tree farm. The girls (8 and 4) and I put Malcolm (1) in the stroller and walked the 1.5 miles to the tree farm.
On our walk, we saw different types of trees, and ferns, and a few wild rosebushes covered with rose hips. Morganne enjoyed the reflections on the creek, the running water, and the various fallen trees. The girls ran relays up the road. We talked about erosion, and botany. We studied animal footprints in the mud. The girls observed nature, and asked questions, and we pointed out things that we especially liked. We enjoyed every minute of the walk up the road.
At the tree farm, we estimated the height of the trees, and then measured them with a pole. We figured out how much the various trees would cost. Once we had selected a tree, we cut it down in a team effort and carried it back to the car. We watched as the tree shaker shook out the dead needles (no bird or mouse nests this year).
We loaded up, negotiated seats in the various cars, and brought the tree home. We carried it inside and set it in the stand (another group effort), cabling it to the ceiling for good measure. Everyone helped carry ornaments up from the basement, string lights, drape garlands, and hang ornaments.
The entire experience was educational, but that wasn't the point. We had a task to do, we did it together, and we enjoyed doing it. Along the way, we encountered some science, some math, got some exercise, and got to experience the meaning of "a mile and a half."
If you watch children in their natural environment (the family), it's easy to observe how very much they learn in prosaic circumstances, and how very thirsty they are for information and experience of the world around them.
A lot of educational supplies are intended for use in the impoverished environment of the school room. The environment of the family is far richer, in terms of real-world applications and opportunity, a much more varied experience of life.
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