But... How Do You Know?

Every time someone starts asking me questions about homeschooling, there is one question that always - ALWAYS - comes up.  Something to the gist of...

"But how do you know your kids are getting what they are supposed to?"

I was recently in the middle of one of those homeschool conversations, and the person was genuinely interested.  Questions were coming one after the other as they reconciled their own school experience with what I was telling them, but the question eventually came.

"But how do you know?"

I gave my usual about how I'm with them all the time so I know what they do and don't do, their strengths and weaknesses, yada yada blah blah blah, which is all entirely true.  But it wasn't until the car ride home that the real answer came to me.  What I should have replied with is,

"How do YOU know?"

Doctrine and Covenants 88:77-80 states:

77 And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom.

78 Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

79 Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—

80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.

The way I understand this, if I am teaching my children, I will be blessed to understand the things I need to to perform my mission as their mother and as their mentor.  Likewise, in doing my part, I will help them learn what they need to know and understand for their missions as well.

I can't tell my children what their mission is any more than the school can.  But there's a difference - at school they have all these tests of what kids at certain grade levels are "supposed" to know at that point.  At home I may not have all the state tests, but I am with my children daily, I know and love them as individuals, and what the schools say my children need to know isn't important to me.  What is important to me is that I know that each of them has a mission in life to fulfill, and that I have the amazing opportunity to help them prepare and work towards that mission.

When my second son was struggling with math one year, the daily homework was a variety of review problems.  I talked to his teacher about getting practice problems on things they were studying in class so I could help him learn and review it at home, and was surprised at how mystified the teacher was by the idea.  Turns out, the regular daily homework was getting them ready for the end of year test.  Rather than focusing on mastering what they were learning right then, they were worried about preparing the kids for the test.

I know what my children are getting because I can take all the time I want to help them master the things they are learning.

At school, also because of those tests, the teachers teach less and less of the "extras" that don't fit in the realm of those tests.  My children have time to learn any of the extras they like, and they want to, and they do.

How do you know what your children are being taught?

I am in my children's classroom every day. I know what their textbooks teach.  Did you know that because of theophobia, plenty of textbooks teach that the pilgrims came to American because they were mad at the king, or just because they wanted to?  The fact is, they came because they wanted to worship God as they chose, because in England, they couldn't.  It was a religious decision, pure and simple, but in schools, religion isn't allowed.  I can testify about God's hand in history or science or literature or anything anytime I want to.  I can share the testimonies of the Founding Fathers and Christopher Columbus regarding God's hand in their efforts.  I can compare scripture stories and principles to other things we learn.

I'm not sharing this to say our way is better than sending your children to school every day, but so you can think about the same question every homeschooler gets asked.  I believe it is equally important for all parents.

So... how do you know your kids are getting what they are supposed to?

Homeschool Bonus - Lots and Lots of Greats

I went to a meeting last night about a homeschool group Adam will be in next year. Before I go more into what I was going to say about that, first let's go somewhere else.

At this point a few years ago we would have been enjoying the summer, looking towards a new school year. Eventually upon arriving to back to school night, we would meet our children's teachers for the upcoming year and walk away either thinking a teacher would probably work pretty well with our child, really concerned about how things would work out, or somewhere in the middle, just waiting to see, ready to take things as they came.

Adam went to public school through 4th grade, Sammy through 3rd, and Melanie into a month of 1st grade. With all those teachers, I can think of two teachers that I look back and feel really grateful that my kids were able to work with them. Both are women I would love to live on the same street as me, one especially I deeply admire. Sammy had her, and he still gets a boost when we see her once in a while.

Back to the meeting I went to last night. This group will involve a couple of advisors (parents of youth in the group) plus a lot of mentors that will come in to help with different subjects/projects/planning/etc. (mostly parents, but others will be brought in as well as needed). Some of the parents there I had met a few times, others I hadn't at all, but leaving the meeting I was so excited about what great people they all were, and I cannot wait for Adam to be able to associate with them. Not to mention the good he'll get from being around the other great kids involved in the group.

Adam was involved with another group last year (that he'll be in again this coming year), and I was equally impressed with the women that mentors the kids in that group and the positive peer pressure from the other youth there. I was thrilled to drop him off every week, knowing he would hop in my car a couple hours later better from his time there.

I really enjoy being able to homeschool my kids and spending the time together learning that we do. But I feel like these extra opportunities, the wealth of great people and great kids my children are able to associate with, are amazing side bonuses that I can't imagine doing without anymore.

Thank you Kitty and Sherrylyn, thank you Renae, Salena, and Kathy, and thank you Mary and Tonya and all the other great moms, dads, and kids my children will get to work with this coming year! (I was going to link to some of them, but I don't want to make you all jealous.) Thank you for being the kind of women that make me wish I could trade places with my children and learn from you instead. I don't doubt that my children will remember them and the lessons they teach for years and years to come.

Life of Fred Math Review - Day 1

About a week ago I heard about Life of Fred, a math book series, for the first time. After laughing (ha, laughing!) my way through some of the sample pages, I showed it to Adam and Sammy. They laughed as well and wanted me to go through more of it ("Sorry kids, they don't put the whole book online because they want you to actually buy it"), so I bought it. Another bonus to the fun content, they are not expensive!

It arrived today. "Hey look kids, Life of Fred came!" I set it down and promptly forgot about it.

I was gone for a few hours this evening, and when I got home I went in to tell Adam good night. He said something I thought I would never hear from him. "I read seven chapters of that math book." Picked myself up off the floor. "Did you do any of the math?" "Yes."

For a day 1 review, I would have to say I like it.

Another Homeschool Blessing

I've been thinking for a while that it's time to potty train Erin, but sheesh, it's quite a committment. Last week I told the other little girls that I would pull out the potty on Monday and get her started. Didn't make it out till two nights ago while Erin and Carolyn were in the bath. Seeing this fun new toy, Erin decided she was done pretty quick, so Carolyn kept on swimming and Erin sat and sat and sat. Lo and behold, success!

I thought about it again yesterday morning, but since we were going to the park I didn't say anything about panties. Later that afternoon Melanie took it upon herself to panty Erin up and took her to the bathroom several times. Both successes and failures, but so it goes.

Melanie loves to be the little mother, and she's been playing that role a lot with potty training.

Lifelong Learning

Jamie checked out "The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them" from the library a couple weeks ago. He finished it pretty quickly and passed it off to me. I was flipping through it the other night, reading about some of the books I recognized, when I happened upon one by Da Chen writing about "The Count of Monte Cristo." In it he talks about growing up in China and not being allowed to read anything that wasn't written by Mao. When a book happened into the village it was torn apart and shared around so everyone could hand copy it. I won't go more into that, but he talks about how with no books around, storytellers were revered. At the end of the day everyone would gather round the village storyteller and listen to his stories, doing whatever they could to keep him going. Da Chen became the storyteller for his generation, all climbing a big tree together where he would share stories he had heard from the village storyteller. He said that when he ran out of stories, people stopped coming to listen to him.

I didn't think much about that until today while I was cleaning out a closet and listening to a recent talk by Robert D. Hales on "The Journey of Lifelong Learning" (sorry, can't link straight to it but you can search for it here.) I don't know exactly what it was that bridged lifelong learning to Da Chen the storyteller, but I had an 'ah ha' moment. Of course learning makes anyone a better person, but for a person to be able to inspire those around them and continue to be inspiring, it is necessary to continue to become better and to share what you learn.

This is a huge concept in the homeschool philosophy we try to follow known as Thomas Jefferson Education or Leadership Education (more info about that here). I'll post about a fun way that lifelong learning works into what we do soon.

Like Magic

It amazes me what kids will respond to. The kids have been introduced to Mozart's "The Magic Flute" a bit because I LOVE the Queen of the Night's big aria (here's another during a clip from "Amadeus", and another really great one). Jamie and I went to see the Magic Flute the summer after we were married and I don't think I breathed through the entire song. I recorded if off a CD sometime and have played it here and there. I said something about it to them the other day and during the conversation I decided I should see if I could get a copy of the opera from the library. I thought the copy I put on hold was in English and put it on this morning just to run while we went about other things. It's in German. I was a bit disappointed since it would be harder for the kids to follow it, but as I type, the 156 minutes are just about done and Adam and Melanie watched just about the whole thing with Sammy, Carolyn, and I joining them here and there. I've put two books on hold for our next library trip so they can get the story of it all. It's got me thinking of other 'greatness' I should expose them to.

Speaking of magic, those beans I mentioned last post are still holding their magic. Today I taught Melanie about fractions using them and some measuring cups. She thought the whole thing was pretty amazing. Carolyn helped, but she was still a bit young for the concept. They've been out two other times today besides that, one time with Carolyn and Sammy sorting them.

P.S. Melanie told me tonight that the worst part about "The Magic Flute" is that it isn't ours. :)

64 Books

The Hall Family has been on a book hunt. With a mission to expand our home classics library, we scanned the book shelves at three DI's the past couple of days, and now are 64 books richer. When you consider that many cost only $.50 and $.75, it's not a horrible investment, though there were the $1.00, $1.50, and $2.00 books in there, plus a few other 'treasures' the kids found during the expedition.

It's exciting to have so much greatness at our fingertips.

Jamie found a set of four books called "Out of the Best Books." I guess they were written to be used in Relief Society groups back in the 1960's to study literature together, but there are poems, short stories, and excepts with a discussion section after each. As it states in the preface to the first volume, "the best way to study literature is to read it... Literature is vivid and exciting and provocative--but only when we have read it." And so, we read! After looking through them I'm excited to read and use them with our homeschooling, and at only $1 each!

Here are some of my favorite quotes on reading.

First Day of School, Our Style

Hooray! The first day of school!

The kids and I took a hike up Ensign Peak today. Unfortunately Jamie had to head to Wyoming for a few days and we missed him being with us, but we still made it up the hill and enjoyed the hike. I've got more object lessons from this one hike than I'll be able to use up for quite a while. One biggie I didn't even think of till we got home, "in the world, but not of the world."


While we were up there we talked about vision, mission, and goals.

We talked about the vision the men had that originally climbed there to lay out a city, and how we need to have the same kind of vision in our own lives. We talked about having a vision for our family, and looking down at the temple we talked about how we want to all be there together as a family someday.


We talked about how each of us have a mission, and that everything we do and everything we learn helps us to get closer to learning what our mission is and makes us better to accomplish it (D&C 88:77-80).


We talked about how we had the goal to make it to the top of the mountain, and even though it got hard, and sometimes people even got scared (Sammy thought he saw a snake), we helped each other, pushed on, and MADE IT. Goals can feel the same way - hard, sometimes scary, but if we keep at them we'll be all the better for it. Over the next few days we'll be laying out some of our goals for this year.


We talked about some 'schoolish' things too through it all, like erosion and wildlife (on the way down the trail Melanie said, "It's sure nice they put all this nature here!" I let her know the nature was there before the people, LOL!) and of course Utah history. We're looking to visit the capitol and council hall sometime soon.

When we got back down the hill we decided to go to the Pioneer Museum and saw a lot of great things there as well. The kids really liked seeing tangible objects that belonged to people and prophets they've learned about, including the wagon Brigham Young rode into the Salt Lake valley on. Melanie made me take a picture of the two-headed lamb, but I am so not posting that here.

Just the beginning of a great year.

April is National Poetry Month

I learned about poetry month from Farm School a few days ago, so I'm keeping my eyes open for poetry to share with the kids. Yesterday during our morning devotional I read the kids this poem that I found in one of our library books.

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

--William Carlos Williams

They had me read it three or four times, they thought it was so funny. The simplicity tickled them, and they enjoyed the wording, especially "and so cold."

We also read Oliphaunt (at the bottom of that link) by J. R. R. Tolkien and The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

The Farm School post lists a bunch of poetry sites and talks about the poem "Keep A Poem in Your Pocket." Periwinkles and Pines has a cute poetry post on clouds, including a few other poetry links.

Book Review - Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes

I learned about this wonderful story while reading this book (thanks Lara for posting about it). I'm so happy our library had a copy!

"The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes" (written in 1939) is about a little country bunny who wants to be one of the five Easter Bunnies someday. Low and behold, she ends up with 21 children, which means a lot to take care of. She realizes that she can't do it all alone and be the Easter Bunny, so she teaches her children how to help around the home so she could fulfill her dream. When her chance comes, originally she is told she can't because of all her responsibilities at home, but she explains all the things her children can take care of on their own, and she is given a chance. Of course she is wonderful at it, and she returns home to find the house entirely in order.

It is one of the most beautiful and enchanting stories I've read, and it is definitely one that will be joining our home bookshelf before long. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a lesson to me, that I need to allow my children more opportunities to grow and learn by teaching them how to help take care of our home. The kids loved the story as well, and after reading it together it was an easy sell to get them to sign up for things they would like to be assigned to do here at home.

I thought it was quite interesting that a review on the book cover calls it a feminist book, and another says she "managed to realize her ambition in spite of her twenty-one children." I don't see it that way at all! She embraced her role as a mother, teaching and training her children to be self-sufficient while she fulfilled her dream one night a year. She became the Easter Bunny because of her children, not in spite of them.

Run out and find this one. It's a keeper!

* Here is more from Lara and Talk about Tuesday. *