"I Can Read!"

exclaimed Supriya holding the cover of a videotape, "Tom and Jerry blast off to Mars!" She theoretically knows how to read (as in making word sounds etc.), but has not yet decided to read - or more likely, her perceptual system is not yet ready. This could be a sign of the turning point.

Supriya's Robot

I bought Supriya a Lego kit (Robo Platoon Designer Set, #4881) for Aseem's birthday, trying to combine her interests in robots and building with Lego. The kit comes with a nice booklet with assembly instructions for 9 different robots of three levels of difficulty: Quick Build, Experienced Build and Advanced Build. Supriya was very excited when I gave her the set, and she and I proceeded to build a robot of Experienced Build level. It was a lot of fun for both of us.

Last night, as I came back from a chorus gig at 10:15 or so, Supriya rushed downstairs to show me this robot. It is of Advanced Build level, contains 9 pages of instructions and 10 sub-assemblies -- and she built the whole thing without any help from Manisha! Manisha and I are really impressed by her perseverance and her ability to follow all the complicated 3-D instructions.

The robot looks menacing and scary to me, with its monster-sized guns and rocket-launchers. For Supriya, however, it is a good robot who shoots enemies & defends her. "Those antennae are 'air-coolers,' so that the robot will always be able to breathe." It's interesting how we build totally different stories with the same raw material.

This building sort of fits in with all the building she does around the house. She brings in cushions and pillows into the family room and builds a "fort". Any time we get a decent-sized cardboard box she finds creative uses for it (cutting holes in it for windows and using the box as a house, for example). Three-dimensional and visual thinking seem to be a definite forte (how could I resist that!) of hers.

"Now, Discover Your Strengths"

is the title of a book I just bought for my birthday. It's written by Marcus Buckingham of Gallup, Inc. and Donald O. Clifton (named the Father of Strengths Psychology by the American Psychological Association).

There are many quotable quotes from the book which also outline the basic idea of the book:

• "Most organizations are built on two flawed assumptions about people:
  1. Each person can learn to be competent in almost anything.
  2. Each person's greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of greatest weakness."
  
  [On the other hand,] "these are the assumptions that guide the world's best managers:
  1. Each person's talents are unique and enduring.
  2. Each person's greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength."
  
  
• "The real tragedy of life is not that each of us doesn't have enough strengths, it's that we fail to use the ones we have."


• "This is probably what school should be like: a focused hunt for a child's areas of greatest potential."


• And the motto of the book, "capitalize on your strengths and manage around your weaknesses."

Manisha and I completely agree with this philosophy and we plan to use it to guide our homeschooling.

"Winged Migration"

Aseem, Supriya and I just got done watching this documentary about the seasonal migration of birds. Incredible photography! Apparently the soundtrack is great too, but we were too engrossed in the visuals to really pay attention to the music (that should tell you something right there). Apparently it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. We will most likely watch it a couple more times. Highly recommended!

"Putt-Putt Joins the Circus"

I got this game from the library in the afternoon. After we got back from Supriya's gymnastics she had a slice of bread in milk and got to work on the game. She came down around a little over an hour later with a look of satisfaction, having completed the game! The episode reminded me of the time when she did "Putt-Putt Save the Zoo." She was probably four-and-a half, and she spent about 2 hours cracking the game. I remember being extremely impressed by her concentration and the fact that she did this without any help from anybody. In fact the game came without a manual, so there was no chance of me helping her even if I had wanted to.

Manisha and I have made it a conscious decision not to interfere when either of the kids is engrossed in an activity like this. Deep learning happens under these conditions (quite apart from the "meta-learning" about personal autonomy and being in control of your own life), and we want to encourage these kinds of immersion experiences & obsessions. That is how you build your own self.

USA Floor Puzzle

Last week we bought this big floor puzzle of the USA. Supriya (with a little help from Aseem and me) put it together, and then we played an impromptu game. "Where can we go to get a pineapple?" "Let's go listen to some jazz..." etc. I can see all this information getting filed away in her little brain...

Finished at last!

The 500-piece oval puzzle is done at last. Manisha was the main driver of course, but Supriya contributed a lot -- especially in the beginning and towards the end. Her help was invaluable in the misty tree areas on both sides of the cottage where all pieces began to look the same. She has a knack for noticing the subtle differences and finding the right pieces.

"Homeschooling's True Colors"

is the title of an article in Mothering magazine (July-August, 2005 issue) written by Rachel Gathercole. It is subtitled "Investigating the myths and the facts about America's fastest-growing educational movement." A very good article with links to a lot of actual studies (as opposed to anecdotes, myths and theories that tend to dominate most homeschooling-related article as well as discussions), which says, among other things, that homeschoolers tend to be better socialized, are happier, earn better grades and are sought after by college admissions officers. A study cited also "...found that there is "no significant difference" in homeschoolers' achievement according to whether or not a parent is certified to teach." Hey, that confirms all my suspicions!

A great myth-busting article overall. I recommend it heartily to anyone who is interested in knowing more about homeschooling.

Sudoku anyone?

I just got introduced to this game, and I can see why it can be addictive! According to Wikipedia, Sudoku is the number placing game taking the world by storm. The rules of Sudoku are simple. You start with a 9 by 9 grid which comes pre-filled with a few numbers. The challenge is to fill the remainder of the grid with digits from 1 to 9. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. It's surprising how challenging it gets with just one rule. It took me more than 20 minutes to do my first one, and that was rated Easy!

Go to Web Sudoku for "Billions of Free Sudoku Puzzles to Play Online."

More Art from Supriya

Supriya's creations from today's Harmony Hill. The first one is just birds and nests (one nest per bird being the main point of note). The second one has the erupting volcano which sends the birds flying! Apparently she is also getting good at finger-knitting and is ready to start knitting with needles...

More Jigsaw Puzzles

We have been on a jigsaw puzzle spree over the past several weeks. The latest entrant is Aseem who is showing a surprising talent at this. Manisha bought him a 5-pack of 25-piece puzzles (like the one in the picture) and he has zipped through them.

Supriya is very good at this also. We got quite a few puzzles through Freecycle, and she has done the 60- and 100-piece ones. Now we are all getting ambitious. Here's the one we got started on yesterday. First of all it has 500 pieces, which is the biggest I have ever done. Secondly the shape is oval. It took us quite a while just to assemble the frame. Manisha is the most avid puzzler among us, and she is orchestrating the strategy -- first the frame, then gather like pieces to make assemblies, and finally the whole puzzle.

I can see for myself how doing these puzzles can build your visual & perceptual skills. I can see myself getting better, and I am sure the kids' brains are just soaking it all up! I am also really impressed by the attention span that is getting devoted to these. An overactive 6 1/2 year old spending 35 minutes in one place & at 9:45 pm?! I guess this is how genuine talent reveals itself.

In any case, I'd love to read about how doing jigsaw puzzles helps brain development. Send me any info you might have...

Baking a Cake

Aseem, Supriya and Manisha are baking a birthday-cake for me. Last week Manisha baked a pumpkin pie and the kids helped out too. They get a kick out of cracking the eggs and mixing the batter. We have not started doing kitchen-math yet, but baking is going to be a natural entry point...

Learning about Money

Manisha and I are having issues about the way Supriya gets the gimmies every time we visit any store. We have been giving her an allowance (a quarter for each year so now she gets 6 quarters per week), but we have not been keeping track of how much money gets spent and by whom. It's mainly our problem.

The other complicating factor is "The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies," a book both kids enjoy. Brother and Sister keep getting the "galloping greedy gimmies" every time they go to any store, and Grizzly Gramps suggests the solution: each bear gets to decide on a treat (a sweet, a toy or a book) ahead of time and that's it for that day. We like the way the story goes and the solution sort of works for us. But now Supriya has come to believe that she has to get one thing out of every visit to any store -- whether she wants or likes anything at that store or not! That's becoming a problem.

So now we have to rethink out whole strategy about this, and more importantly, stick to it. I guess it's we who are learning about how to teach our kids about money. Well, that's homeschooling for you!

More Cultural Education

I wrote recently about watching "That's Dancing," "Yellow Submarine" and "Looney Tunes." Add to that "Marx Brothers go to Casablanca," a semi-spoof on the original. It's not great, but Supriya & I got a few laughs out of it.

Today we watched a completely misnamed "The Three Stooges: All Time Favorites." It's a bunch of documentaries and one very good pilot shot for ABC. The kids, especially Aseem, love the physical humor of the Stooges and looks like we will be watching a lot of them! It's all a part of essential Americana and an integral part of the kids' (& ours) cultural education.

"That's Dancing"

We have watched this 1 3/4 hour-long videotape (produced by MGM in 1985) twice thus far in 3 days. It starts with shots from the late 18th century when the movie camera was just invented (this "dancing" is more like frolicking & jumping around, described charitably as "more energy than skill" by Gene Kelly the narrator) and ends with Michael Jackson's electric choreography on "Beat it". Other narrators include Sammy Davis, Jr., Ray Bolger (the kids love his number from The Wizard of Oz, which was cut from the movie for some unknown reason!), Mikhail Baryshnikov and Liza Minnelli. Fabulous dancing throughout.

We have been watching lots of musicals over the years and know many of the performers & songs. Supriya is into watching older musicals & documentaries about them (such as the series put out by MGM called "That's Entertainment"), and she is a budding encyclopedia of musicals and songs! So we watch videotapes of this kind for pure enjoyment as well as for the historical/educational value.

Yellow Submarine

Just got done watching Yellow Submarine, the one and only animated feature film made by the Beatles. It's a visual treat full of surrealistic and colorful art, and has several of their songs (I'd have liked more). I am directing "Yellow Submarine" (the song) for All Together Now, our homeschooling family chorus, and I got the DVD from Netflix as part of our education. Manisha and Supriya enjoyed the movie too. (The funny things is Supriya keeps on pronouncing it as "suMBarine," as she has for the last 3 years!)

Lots of puns too: "Look, there is a school of whales.""But they look too old to be in school. A university, maybe?""Ah, University of Wales, then! They look like dropouts..."

Another one: "Why did you pull that lever?" "I can't help it, I'm a born Liver-pooler." I can just hear the groans!

Moore Foundation

I came across this link through another blog. Here's an excerpt from the Moore Formula page:

"...don't subject your children to formal, scheduled study before age 8 to 10 or 12, whether they can read or not. To any who differ, as their evidence let them read Better Late Than Early (BLTE) or School Can Wait (SCW). In addition to our basic research at Stanford and the University of Colorado Medical School, we analyzed over 8000 studies of children's senses, brain, cognition, socialization, etc., and are certain that no replicable evidence exists for rushing children into formal study at home or school before 8 or 10."[bold in original]

Supriya, at 6 1/2, is not ready to start reading. To me it looks like her perceptual apparatus (eyes, brain etc.) is not developed enough for reading to become a habit. She certainly has come a long way over the last year, and that gives me confidence that she will start reading when she is physically ready and motivated.

Now to read those two referenced articles...

On Math

I have two adult friends who keep insisting that they are "bad at math," all the while going on very competently about their lives (including managing household budgeting & accounting etc.). They seem to think that math is a world of symbols that exists all by itself in the ether. They had bad experiences with math in school, which convinced them that they are bad at math.

So what exactly is this thing called math? Math (at least at school level) is a system of symbols or a language representing reality. It is like a map or a linguistic representation of real life. It follows that once a person has a good handle on quantities in real life, basic math -- i.e. the symbolic representation of stuff you do in real life with those quantities, such as baking -- should follow. What people seem to mean by math is manipulating abstract numbers. Manisha and I are convinced that it is folly to rush to abstraction too early. Here's the main problem: once you move to abstract numbers, the child loses the ability to do reality-checks. For example, Supriya can see that if you have 5 apples and get 5 more, you will have 10 apples. She can do this addition using her fingers & double-check her math visually. This does not hold true if she were to add 47 and 62. That comes later. It makes sense to move to abstraction only after the concrete foundation is set.

John Holt characteristically cuts to the chase,

"...when little children first meet numbers, they should always meet them as adjectives, not nouns. It should not at first be "three" or "seven," all by itself, but always "two coins" or "three matches" or "four spoons" or whatever it might be. There is time enough later, probably much later, for children to intuit the notion that the noun "five" is that quantity that all groups of five objects have in common." (Learning All the Time)

Right now Supriya is learning how to manipulate numbers in her head and, most importantly, develop trust in her own ability to do it consistently. We play with numbers off and on, and it's clear that she can connect with numbers smaller than about 25 or 30. They represent real quantities to her, as opposed to a number like 79, which seems much more abstract and foreign and intimidating. As she stays with the process, she will become confident about her mental model of numbers and then be able to treat all numbers as abstract expressions of quantities. I will tread gently until then...

"Endless Summer"

is the title of an article by Sarah Karnasiewicz on Salon.com (Oct. 3, 2005). The blurb is: "Unschooling is a radical branch of home-schooling where kids control what and when they learn -- free of teachers, schedules and tests. Unschoolers say it's intellectually empowering. Critics call it irresponsible."

The tone of the article is positive. As the homeschooling movement grows, the coverage in the media is becoming more nuanced, differentiating among various styles & philosophies instead of painting us all with one broad brush. It's all for the good as I see it.