A Lesson on Scapegoating

Yesterday was a great natural learning day. Liam was watching the miniseries Holocaust (with Meryl Streep and Michael Moriarity). He then came over to me asking about how something like the Holocaust could happen. We then had a discussion on the role of scapegoating. I explained to him how scapegoating is used throughout history to maintain or achieve power. I used the current example of how many Americans are scapegoating illegal immigrants. For that matter, some are scapegoating all immigrants/foreigners.
I also discussed the role of economics when it comes to war. For example, my father kept asking himself what does Afghanistan have that we want? He knew very well that the Taliban and Al-Qaida were just the perfect excuse to invade, but what did America want? Then, he said he read about the oil pipeline in Afghanistan and he got it instantly. I told my son this anecdote in a hope to really help him absorb the lesson "follow the money." I kept repeating, and even wrote on the chalkboard, "scapegoating" and "economics."
We then went into a conversation about how Iraq and Saddam Hussein were blamed for 9/11 when they had nothing to with it. Again, we see scapegoating (they are Muslims, from the Middle East, etc.), and we see economics...OIL.
Later in the day, he read a chapter on feudalism in the Middle Ages. This portion of the day was not part of his self-directed learning, but rather what I assigned for him to complete.

Civil War Websites

Civil War Websites
civilwar.org
http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/index.htm

"Deadliest Warriors" on Spike TV

"Deadliest Warriors" on Spike TV
Crazy Horse vs Pancho Villa
Napoleon Bonaparte vs George Washington
US Army Rangers vs North Korean Special Ops
Joan of Arc vs William the Conqueror
Hannibal vs Genghis Khan - Liam saw this episode as unfair as Khan was hundreds of years later and had more advanced weaponry.
French Foreign Legions vs Gurkas
Ming Warriors vs Musketeers
Saddam Hussein vs Pol Pot
Spartans vs Ninjas
Persian Immortals vs The Celts
US Navy Seals vs Israeli Commandos

   Liam noticed the bias of the show and that the American, when an American is featured, always seems to win.  The show pits two historical figures against each other in battle.  Through a study of weapons of the time, injuries caused by said weapons, and knowledge of each historical person or group, a panel of experts determines who would have won.  The adversaries are pitted against each other in a computer simulation five thousand times.
  I am sure many people would object to the war nature of this series.  I belong to a congregation that helps young adults fill out Conscientious Objector forms and believes in non-military solutions.  Why then, would I not object to my son watching a program featuring confrontation and battles?  Well, my answer is that because my children have been raised in a family and congregation that teaches non-violence, they can easily watch programs that have violence in them and feel no need to absorb that violence into their soul.  They can easily distinguish that this is a simulation and it is NOT REAL.  I'm not trying to suggest that all other children raised in mainstream households cannot distinguish between real and fantasy. I am suggesting that since no glorification of violence of ANY kind is around my kids, then what they see on the screen remains on the screen. 

Legoland in Florida 4/26/2012

Seneca Makes a Birdhouse 4/19/2012

4/9/2012

When I arrived home from work yesterday, Yasmeen and Liam came out to greet my car. They told me that they played charades together and played the board game Stratego.  I am so thrilled when my kids find my ways to entertain themselves without using a computer or a tv.  They did still have computer and tv time, but I appreciate the non-media moments.
   Tonight, all three kids and I played Stratego.  Liam decided to watch documentaries on The Battle of Thermopylae, The Battle of Marathon, and another documentary on weaponry of the Dark Ages.  He has already covered Greek History, but homeschooling allows him the advantage of being able to re-visit a subject matter as it speaks to his heart.  After all, we re-watch our favorite movies and re-read our favorite books, why not re-study a fascinating subject?
   Seneca was given a new puzzle for Easter. As Agnostics, we skip the religious part of Easter.  The puzzle is very flimsy and made her very frustrated when it kept breaking apart.  I hope she will work on it again soon. Lesson to mom, don't buy the cheap puzzles.
 

Eden Farm 3/30/2012

Seneca at Manatee Historical Park

Homeschool Planning

  Planning is definitely what drives me the most crazy when it comes to homeschooling. The planning in and of itself isn't the problem.  The problem is implementing that plan.  I work a somewhat scattered schedule.  So, official homeschool lesson time comes in these bursts.  Liam does have independent work to do while I am at work.  I have roommates, so Liam is not home alone, but legally he could be.
  I will say that doing some unschooling during these times does work very well.  Liam's assigned work is actually quite minimal.  The rest of the time, he is free to pursue his own interests.  The more technical stuff, like grammar and math, are held off until he and I can be together for quiet learning time.  The problem is, our time together is so scattered that I don't feel like we are really gripping and feeling the lesson.  I know that I need to re-arrange my schedule at work and I will probably do so soon, but I have part time hours as it is and I don't want to jeopardize that.
  I guess this scattered way of doing things isn't SO bad.  He has learned the importance of working independently.  We do take a lot of little excursions.  Time for friends and socializing is given as much importance as lesson time.
  Our homeschool just needs a little finessing.  On the other hand, a positive about not having a set schedule is that all of my kids have always been able to handle anything out of the norm/routine very well.  For example, nobody gets agitated if we have a flat tire or just little unexpected things happen. My kids tend to be very :go with the flow" type.  Not always, but most of the time.

Civil War Re-Enactment at Fort DeSoto in St. Petersburg, Fl

Math Art and Strawberry Picking

I took Liam and his friend to a Math Art day offered by the education majors at USF in Sarasota.  The idea was to get kids interested in math by letting them have fun it.  The other side of it was it was done to help show teachers in training fun ways to engage kids in math.  The event was advertized as being for 5th and 6th graders.
  As we were leaving the house, Liam was complaining about going. "I don't math and I don't like art. What makes you think I'm going to like this thing?"  Yet, wise Mama had already invited one of Liam's friends to go with us. So, I told him we had to go pick up his friend as he was waiting for us.  This way, Liam couldn't back out of it.
     Shortly after arriving and beginning the projects, both boys were enthusiastically going from table to table. I should clarify here that Liam's friend was excited to be going the whole time.  By the end of it, Liam said it was a lot of fun.
     At one of the tables, I was speaking to the young lady who was running that activity, and she said that she was interested in homeschooling her kids whenever she has them.  I know that many people in the education field oppose homeschooling. (And yes, I know that many former teachers do homeschool.) In fact, the reason I found about the event was through a local homeschool group.
   After the Math Art day, I picked up my daughters and we all went to pick strawberries at Eden Farms in Bradenton.  We had found out about Eden Farms through another homeschooling group.  There was no group event there that day, just us going as a family.  Our day ended at a local park after the strawberry farm.  Liam's friend took home some strawberries as did my kids.  I was going to make jam the next day only to discover that everyone had eaten all of the strawberries. :)  Oh well, we picked them to eat them.  Add to that they are organic and I am told, delicious!  Personally,  I don't like strawberries.
     I'm glad that my oldest daughter, 8th grade, was able to come with us to the strawberry farm.  She is not being homeschooled this year, hence "public school" in my blog address. I try to find events and things to do on Saturdays, so that we can include her in many of our homeschool "adventures."

Thoughts on Curriculum As An Unschooling Resource

   I'm not really hard core anything when it comes to education.  I recognize that what's good for one child isn't necessarily what's right for another one. Add to that, I believe in mixing it up a bit for the same kid sometimes.
   I understand that the ideal of unschooling is to let a child follow his or her own natural curiosity to the result of learning.  I do believe that this does allow a child - and an adult - to not only surface learn, to really inhale and take a topic to heart.
   Last year, my then seventh grade daughter unschooled herself in all things Tudor Era England.  And I do mean all things, not just Henry plus six.  She went into details on the extended Tudor family.  Another great example, I believe, of unschooling success.
  However,  my daughter's unschooled time was also supplemented by resources from a Waldorf publisher's site. http://www.steinerbooks.org/ Some of her Tudor Era interests were even covered in the history book The Age of Discovery by Charles Kovacs.
   This brings me to the title of this post.  I see that for many alternative homeschoolers the word curriculum has a bad rap.  Curriculum is often seen as "school in a can," to use Gregory and Martine Millman's expression.  A curriculum can also be a wonderful resource to a child pursuing his or her own interests.  Many curricula offer excellent project ideas. Perhaps while following a curriculum, a child may develop a real love for the topic being presented and then step outside of the curriculum to further explore the topic - unschooling at its best!  Maybe while learning about one topic, the child may become interested in a "brother-topic" that is introduced during the course of the study.  Many curricula also offer suggestions for further reading which an unschooled child may greatly appreciate.

Criticisms and Praises for Unschooling

      Confession time. I'm not a huge fan of the unschooling goddesses - namely Sandra Dodd and Dayna Martin.  I'm sure that they're good people and very well-meaning.  I do prefer them and their ideas to most mainstream parenting ideas.  However, I don't quite click with them on their radical unschooling philosophies.
     I was not impressed with Sandra Dodd's daughter when I saw her on a youtube video.  In the video, Holly Dobbs states that she has no plans to go to college.  She says, "I'm not interested in college......I've never been to school.  I'm not that interested in going to school. College is school." What a sad statement!  I've never done it, so therefore, I'll never try to do it.  Imagine if everyone in this world felt this way.  This seems to me to be the antithesis of what unschooling should be about.  Isn't unschooling about discovering new things and trying new things?  Isn't the whole point of unschooling to help a person to love learning.  There is so much to learn in a college classroom.  Why dismiss it without even trying it?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pLqYn1OYdU
   Now to my critique of Dayna Martin.  Many of you may have seen piece that was done on the Martin family on Nightline.  Dayna has since said that the piece was edited to fit ABC's agenda.  While I agree that that may be, I still take issue with one of her remarks.  When asked, "Doesn't a child need to know who George Washingon, and FDR, and JFK were?" Dayna Martin responds, "I don't know.  Do you think they do?  Do you think that's necessary?"   Ahem, Mrs. Martin, YES I DO!  I don't want my children to be idiots. I'm often amazed at how idiotic most mainstreamers are - even the college educated ones.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuhfhRLwTB0
   So, obviously I'm not a total unschooler.  I do believe that kids do need to learn and to know certain facts and certain skills.  I also believe that there are many ways  for a person to acquire these facts and skills.  One valid method is through self directed learning, or unschooling if you will.  Right now, my twelve year old son is being unschooled in the Civil War.  My mother took him to Gettysburg this past Fall.  Since then, he has become fascinated by the Civil War.  We went to a Civil War Re-enactment recently and he was thrilled with that.  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4541451443353029226#editor/target=post;postID=642644591855641  I have bought him books, movies, and documentaries on the Civil War.  He is practicing his writing skills by journaling what he has learned and writing essays on the Civil War.  This interest  in the Civil War did not come from any curriculum.  I believe that this is unschooling at its best.
     However, he also has been working from a Waldorf curriculum as well.  The topics for this year (Grade 6) were Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome.  We used our own resources for Egypt.  Waldorf educator Charles Kovacs's books were used for Greece and Rome.  The books are appropriately titled Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.    We have also been using A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling Grade 6 by Melisa Nielsen of A Little Garden Flower () to guide us through the year.  I'm allowing Liam to break from the curriculum for now while he pursues his Civil War studies, but I do like having these resources.  http://www.waldorfjourney.typepad.com/

Unschooled Day at Lewis Park January 2012

Homeschooled Liam being Unschooled. Civil War trip 2011

                                         Below: Liam at Burnside Bridge Antietam Battlefield, MD

                                       Below: Liam at the 73rd Pennsylvania Monument. His ancestor was a member of this regiment.

Below: Liam at Eisenhower Farm

Below: Liam and Mom-Mom at Harper's Ferry where John Brown was captured

Below: Liam at PA monument Gettysburg Battlefield

Tuesday November 8, 2011Stopped at Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor’s Center. Saw a short film on Battle of Gettysburg Saw the cyclorama painting of the Battle of Gettysburg Became a member of The Friends of Gettysburg Took a preliminary ride around the battlefield Stopped at the Virginia State Monument; on top of the monument is a statue of Robert E. Lee on his horse, Traveler.  The lower part of the monument features statues of Virginia soldiers.  Looked across the field toward the Northern side and tried to imagine the southern troops as they marched across that field while being bombarded by cannon shots.

Stopped at Pennsulvania State Monument.  It is the largest state Monument at Gettysburg.  On the monument are listed the names of all the Soldiers from Pennsylvania who fought at Gettysburg. Listed by regiment. Saw great-great-great grandfather’s name A. Dierenbach listed in the 73^rd Regiment.  There was not enough space for his first name, Andrew

Wednesday November 9, 2011 Went to Harpers Ferry, WVA, a small town on a hillside overlooking where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet.  Three states meet here:  Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia  Saw Fire House where John Brown was captured.  The U.S. troops were led by Colonel Robert E. Lee.  Serving with him was JEB Stuart.

Visited John Brown Museum and Wax Museum

Toured Antietam Battlefield.  Antietam was the scene of the bloodiest day in American History.  23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing.  Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, risked her life to help the wounded On the battlefield.

Thursday November 10 Took a free bus ride around the Battlefield. Saw the Gettysburg Diorama, a scale model version of the entire three day Battle.  It is the largest military diorama in the U.S.

Friday November 11   R&R

Saturday November 12 R&R

Sunday November 13 Visited the Eisenhower Farm.  This was the first home that Eisenhower owned.  It is a National Historic Site.  He used it as a getaway during his Presidency and used it as a meeting place for world leaders because of its peaceful setting.

Monday November 14 Today we had a personal battlefield tour by a licensed battlefield guide, John Fuss.  The tour was like being part of a documentary.