Smrt Lernins

Captain Science went to sleep around 10:30 last night. Tank held out until 11:00. Babypie stayed awake until a whopping 1:20am.

If that wasn’t enough to get a Smrt Mama off to a slow start, my “smart” clock decided of its own accord that this morning was the right time to “fall back” for Daylight Savings Time. Yes, I know that the Brits are doing it, but our lovely government decided to extend it for the US, and YOU, stupid clock, do reside in the United States.

So here we are, starting the school day an hour late, because I didn’t think to look at another clock to confirm the time and my stupidly tired eyes didn’t notice the computer clock. Is this the perfect start to a new month, a new school week, and a new round of NaBloPoMo or what?

As Halloween fell on a weekend last year, our first year homeschooling, I haven’t ever had to deal with the Halloween Hangover before (my own, not just theirs). I was hoping that after last week’s drag-ass pace, that we’d be leaping forward into a great new energetic week. Alas, Monday is starting in an almost clichéd fashion. I’d kind of like to shoot the whole day down.

Are you and your kids nursing a Halloween Hangover? How do you cope on a homeschooling Monday after a Sunday Halloween?

This is part three in my ongoing series of Building Blocks for Beginners, where I breakdown all the many building systems in a way that only a bored homeschooling mom on summer break can do. If this doesn’t put you at your building system limit, you can read part one (DUPLO and LEGO) and part two (bristle blocks and TRIO). If you have other building systems you’d like to see rates on my uber-scientific scale and put to the rigorous scientific testing of the McLernins Mad Science Laboratory, let me know! We’re always on the lookout for more building toys. Our motto: If you sell, we’ll buy it and build something with it that looks nothing like the example on the box!

Kid K’nex
Ages: 3-7

Kid K’nex, the junior line of the K’nex building system, is a brightly-colored (and I mean brightly colored, lots of neon colors!) system of intersnapping/interlocking brick blocks, wheels, sticks (or “rods”), connectors, and other shapes. The brick blocks are DUPLO-compatible, which means Kid K’nex can extend the life of your DUPLO blocks beyond very early childhood. Most of the pieces are hard plastic, but some are a more flexible plastic, allowing children to build curving shapes. Kid K’nex come in a wide variety of small kits, each with a different them, all usable with each other, which have various vehicle or animal parts. They also have a full line of Sesame Street themed kits. Look for larger sets on Amazon.com or in toy stores, as the website does not show the full line of available products.

Pros: Kid K’nex have a life that lasts far beyond the age recommendations. Tank started playing with the larger Kid K’nex pieces from around age 2 and Captain Science still plays with them frequently at almost 10. Kid K’nex are one of the few toys where the boys will play together peacefully. Most of the pieces are incredibly durable and have held up to 5+ years of regular play. The rods and connectors pack very flat, so you can fit a lot of them into a storage bin. Some sets even come with a hard-sided storage case. The larger pieces are baby-friendly, so even Babypie can “play” Kid K’nex.

Cons: Most of the pieces are sturdy, but a few have not held up well. Certain animal sets come (or came, at least) with flexible foam accent pieces — a lion’s mane with a circus animal/train set, for example. The foam pieces were easily and quickly ripped to shreds. The tiny blue rods are small enough to fit in a baby’s mouth (and possibly to be swallowed) and the next-size-larger short white rods may fit into some babies’ mouths, so these pieces need to be watched carefully around small children. The long, flexible red rods can develop permanent kinks in them after a lot of use. The biggest con, however, is that no matter how many Kid K’nex you have, you will never have enough of them to make sure everyone has enough of whatever piece it is that they want.

Set to buy to get started: Kid K’nex Big Building Tub has a nice assortment of pieces at a low price. The Kid K’nex Education sets are also great.

Ease of use: High
Sturdiness: High
Likelihood of being swallowed/choked on by younger siblings: Low to Moderate (cull small pieces if used near <2s)
Degree of pain when stepped on by a parent: Low
Period of time spent as “favorite toy ever!”: High
Overall Rating: A+

Tinkertoys
Ages: 3+

The aptly subtitled “classic construction set,” Tinkertoys have been around for almost a hundred years and are still going strong, with only minimal redesigns to the the set, which was (according to Wikipedia) based on “the Pythagorean progressive right triangle.” Available in two materials, the new plastic and the classic wood, with few flashy add-ons (you get fins, you get wheels, and you may get a plastic piece or two that looks like part of a rocket ship), Tinkertoys are the ultimate open-ended building system. The sets are comprised primarily of sticks of various lengths, spool-like connectors, and short end-caps to hold everything together.

Pros: Like Kid K’nex, Tinkertoys have an exceptional creative shelf-life. My boys have happily played with the same set of wooden Tinkertoys for years and will play with them for hours at a time. Tank recently received an all-plastic set, which is splinter proof and as easy to use as the wooden pieces. These toys are built tough and have many possibilities for play. They come in a cylindrical bin for easy storage. The classic wooden sets are great for parents who like to minimize plastic toys. The wooden sets are also very affordable for the number of pieces.

Cons: Because Tinkertoys are so beloved, pieces have walked off over the years, leaving the original set short on a few pieces. Individual pieces aren’t readily available for sale, however, so to replace necessary components, you’ll need to get at least the smallest Mini Set. Though generally durable, the wooden stick can snap, leaving behind a jagged, splintery edge. The plastic pieces don’t snap easily, but don’t grip quite as well as the wooden pieces. The smallest end caps are a choking hazard for small children, so need to be watched carefully or culled if your bigger kids are playing around the smaller ones.

Set to buy to get started: The wooden Tinkertoy Jumbo Builder Set is the best bet. If you prefer plastic, the more expensive 200 piece plastic construction set is the way to go.

Ease of use: High
Sturdiness: Moderate-High
Likelihood of being swallowed/choked on by younger siblings: Low to Moderate (cull small pieces if used near <2s)
Degree of pain when stepped on by a parent: Low
Period of time spent as “favorite toy ever!”: High
Overall Rating: A

Next Up: Gears!Gears!Gears! and unit blocks

Disclaimer: All curriculum and product reviews here at Smrt Lernins are completely unsolicited and unsponsored. I don’t get money, freebies, or anything else for sharing my opinions about products. I am speaking entirely from personal experience or sharing information publicly available on product websites. If that ever changes, you’ll be the first to know.

This is part two in a series of reviews of pretty much every building system I can think of…and believe me, I can think of a lot of them. Don’t forget to go back and read part one (DUPLO and LEGO).

Bristle Blocks
Ages 18m+

Not a specific brand, but a description of a type of block produced by several manufacturers. These brightly colored plastic blocks are covered with (you guessed it) bristles that allow the blocks to stick together like Velcro. They’re lightweight for their size and come in a fairly limited number of shapes. They’re also sold under the brand name Krinkles.

Pros: Because any piece will stick to any other piece from almost any direction, these blocks are exceptionally easy for children who haven’t yet mastered those fine motor skills. They’re also the elusive “blocks for babies” that people seem to be looking for, with no small or sharp pieces. Even very young children can easily build tall towers with these blocks. A revival in popularity has led to bristle-compatible add-ons, such as people, wheels, and spinners, all of which stick to the bristle blocks. While these aren’t my children’s go-to blocks, they get pulled out with some degree of regularity and have for several years.

Cons: If you have a biter/chewer, you may end up with de-bristled bristle blocks. The little tines are fairly easy for a dedicated (and sharp-toothed) toddler to nip off. Though structures with flat-stacked blocks are nigh indestructible, bristle blocks stacked on their edges tend to fall apart too easily, which can lead to child frustration.

Set to buy to get started: Parents Bristle Blocks Basic (pricey) or Krinkles 50 Piece Set (cheap)

Ease of use: High
Sturdiness: Moderate
Likelihood of being swallowed/choked on by younger siblings: Low
Degree of pain when stepped on by a parent: Surprisingly Low
Period of time spent as “favorite toy ever!”: Moderate
Overall Rating: B

TRIO Building System
Ages 3-5

Plastic cube-shaped bricks that snap together easily. Rather than external pegs (like LEGO and DUPLO), TRIO blocks connect end to end with a slightly recessed top edge in multiple directions with short straight or curved sticks. Some sets include triangular fins/wings, eyeballs on stick stalks, and figurines. There are also several themed sets (DC comics, castle, and police are a few examples).

Pros: These blocks do snap together easily. The directions accompanying each set are simple enough for a child to follow. Tank was able figure out which pieces were needed to assemble the various critters in the Crazy Creatures set. The resulting creatures are very cute. The price is also right — just $10 for a 54-piece set!

Cons: Unfortunately, these pieces snap apart as easily as they snap together. Any pressure on the structure (adding an additional piece on top) can send the whole thing crashing down. Frustration and tantrums follow. Though the blocks go together easily, the sticks don’t snap into the blocks evenly unless you insert them just right, which usually requires an adult. We ended up putting these blocks away after two days of use, because we were tired of Tank’s exasperated hollering.

Set to start with: Crazy Creatures if you just want a sample or TRIO Building Set with Storage if you want a full starter kit.

Ease of use: Moderate
Sturdiness: Low
Likelihood of being swallowed/choked on by younger siblings: Low
Degree of pain when stepped on by a parent: Low-Moderate
Period of time spent as “favorite toy ever!”: Low
Overall Rating: D

Next up: Kid K’nex and that oldie, but goodie, Tinker Toys

Disclaimer: All curriculum and product reviews here at Smrt Lernins are completely unsolicited and unsponsored. I don’t get money, freebies, or anything else for sharing my opinions about products. I am speaking entirely from personal experience or sharing information publicly available on product websites. If that ever changes, you’ll be the first to know.

Now that we have celebrated Tank’s 4th birthday, with all of the gift opening, I think we now own every block-, brick-, or stick-based building system known to man child. The following is the first in a series of reviews of our various building systems for your building system buying pleasure.

DUPLO
Ages: 1 1/2+

DUPLO, or “those giant LEGOS” as we like to call them, are essentially Baby’s First Building system. Sets come in a wide array of prices and sizes. DUPLOS are bright primary colors, have all the standard LEGO shapes writ large, and are also available in multiple themed/character sets, with wheels, figurines, architectural add-ons (windows and doors), and other accessories that can snap to the blocks.

Pros: Giant blocks fit easily into toddler hands, snap together easily, and come apart with minimal adult help required. The structures they build won’t fall over or fall apart. The pieces are too large to fit easily into small mouths. These blocks will likely survive a nuclear blast.

Cons: DUPLO blocks take up a lot of storage space due to their size and shape(s) and didn’t remain favorites in our house for very long once other building systems were introduced. There’s also something about the noise they make when they clack together in a container that absolutely grates on my nerves.

Set to buy to get started: DUPLO Large Brick Box

Ease of use: High
Sturdiness: High
Likelihood of being swallowed/choked on by younger siblings: Low
Degree of pain when stepped on by a parent: Moderate
Period of time spent as “favorite toy ever!”: Low
Overall Rating: B-

LEGO
Ages: 4+

LEGO is the gold standard of building systems, the one building toy that nearly every child in the world will recognize. Its iconic blocks-with-prongs shape has been often imitated, but I’ve yet to find a product that has improved on that design. It has product tie-ins to nearly every television show and movie, plus multiple original lines, but at the end of the day, it’s the plain old snapping block that has won our hearts.

Pros: A box of LEGOs provides endless possibilities that will entertain my children for, quite literally, hours at a time. They are one of the few toys that both children can play with together in relative peace and quiet (as long as enough LEGOs are available and no one needs to dispute ownership of specific pieces). Ignore all the fancy-pants sets and you have a fantastic open-ended, low tech toy with years of entertainment value. Easy to store, too!

Cons: Tiny plastic blocks and babies/small toddlers don’t mix. I’ve fished many a LEGO from Babypie’s mouth, not to mention out of a/c vents, drains, crevices of furniture, etc. Basic block sets can be difficult to find in stores, which seem to favor the themed building sets and step-by-step “build this one product” sets — BORING! LEGO is occasionally guilty of unnecessary genderizing — were a blue box set (with wheels) and a pink box set (with horsies and house parts) really necessary? Couldn’t one large set have included both?

Set to buy to get started: LEGO Large Brick Box

Ease of use: Low to Moderate (depending on set)
Sturdiness: Moderate to High (depending on set)
Likelihood of being swallowed/choked on by younger siblings: High
Degree of pain when stepped on by a parent: High
Period of time spent as “favorite toy ever!”: High
Overall Rating: A

Next up: TRIO Building System and Bristle Blocks

Disclaimer: All curriculum and product reviews here at Smrt Lernins are completely unsolicited and unsponsored. I don’t get money, freebies, or anything else for sharing my opinions about products. I am speaking entirely from personal experience or sharing information publicly available on product websites. If that ever changes, you’ll be the first to know.

I’m still on our county’s school district mailing list. Just a few minutes ago, I received an email letting me know what will be cut from the budget for the 2010-2011 school year in order to make up the $126.7 million budget shortfall. Please let it be noted that property taxes have not only NOT been increased (our schools here are funded through property tax and SPLOST), but were decreased by approximately 10%.

Instead of additional (or maintained) property tax, our county’s school district budget cuts will include, among other things, increasing classroom size, decreasing the instructional supply allotment, “restructuring” the alternative education program, and cutting the number of teachers (by over 600) and guidance counselors/graduation coaches (by 55).

The email had this to say about classroom size:

Increasing class sizes creates the greatest budget cost-savings – as class sizes increase the district needs fewer teachers. Earlier this month, the Georgia Department of Education waived all restrictions on class size to help school districts across the state contend with the economic crisis. In [our county], where class sizes already were well below the state maximum at every grade level, schools can expect to see classes increase on average by approximately three students. That number is averaged, so some classes may be higher and others lower.

Yup. Our state no longer has ANY class size restrictions. While our county’s schools were under the maximum classroom size, many schools in less economically affluent counties are already at the maximum. Can you imagine what this will do to classroom size in rural schools? Is schools that have mostly low income and/or renting (non property tax paying) families? Schools with high seasonal migrant worker populations (such as in Vidalia onion-growing country)? How large will classrooms become in this “economic crisis?”

As for reducing instructional supply allotment, well, that means the teachers are either going to have to greatly increase the amount of money they spend on classroom supplies (everything from printing paper to crayons to maps and other supplemental materials to Kleenex and hand sanitizer) OR that will be passed along to the parents, whose list of required supplies for each new school year gets longer and longer. The last year Captain Science was in public school, we provided two packs of computer paper, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, tape, folders, tissues, hand sanitizer, soap, and quite a few other sundry items I don’t recall right off the top of my head. These items were all for general, not personal use.

Guidance counselors are often portrayed as being superfluous or even goofy (even if they’re adorably goofy, like Emma on Glee), but for some students, the help of a guidance counselor in high school is how they get into a college or get the scholarship to pay for a college. Some students don’t have access to therapists/counselors outside of school, due to parental unwillingness, lack of insurance, or other reasons. Remove guidance counselors from schools and students may lose that one small place where they can seek help.

Sure, these cuts might make fiscal sense in the short term, but what are the long term ramifications? How well will students learn in classrooms of 25, 30, 35+ students? Who will help these students with college applications or crises? What will classrooms be like when teachers have had their classroom budgets stripped to nothing?

While I think our county has a good public education system (in comparison to other public education), I am increasingly grateful that we removed our children from it. Thank goodness for the option to homeschool in these tough economic times!

Care asks, “What do you think regarding using the library for materials? Is it worth going out and buying your own copy of all materials? Will the library (be likely to) have core texts and you can just use all their books? Is a blend a reasonable and feasible option?”

Many homeschoolers rely on public libraries for part or all of their materials. Public libraries can provide a perfectly valid way of cutting monetary cost while homeschooling. Depending on the size of your library system, the speed at which books can be ordered from other locations in the system, and your ability/willingness to travel frequently to the library to order, check out, and/or renew books (some systems allow online ordering and renewal), the library may be a useful part of your homeschool year…or it might be more trouble than it’s worth.

Adrienne Furness even wrote a book for librarians whose libraries see a high volume of homeschoolers, Helping Homeschoolers in the Library. Adrienne also has a website called Homeschooling and Libraries with great resources for both homeschoolers using the library and librarians assisting homeschoolers. Denise G. Masters also has some suggestions for ways library systems can become more accommodating to homeschoolers. If your library system doesn’t currently have any of these systems or protocols in place, find out if there’s someone you can speak with to start implementing some of these changes.

If your budget is significantly constrained, you have free and easy access to a great public library system, and your homeschooling philosophies/methods don’t call for a lot of consumable materials, the library may be just the ticket for you. My personal experiences have not made me into a huge library-for-homeschool enthusiast, however. I’m of the opinion that buying your own copies of materials is almost always worth it. Libraries aren’t my first choice for homeschool materials for many reasons, such as:

1. Time is money, especially with multiple children. Using the library as a source for all or most of your homeschool materials can greatly decrease the monetary cost of homeschooling, but the trade off is a potentially huge increase in the time cost of homeschooling. Every minute spent driving to and from the library is a minute that can’t be spent elsewhere. Every minute spent trying to locate the books on a library shelf (sometimes being thwarted when the book isn’t actually there) is a minute that isn’t going to actually reading the books in question. Can this time be well spent on these endeavors? Well, sure, if you can carefully plan your week around your library time. As each of my children begins homeschooling, however, I suspect our time is going to become an increasingly valuable resource, one that I can’t see spending on a lot of library back-’n-forth. I can order books online at night, during snack/lunch time, or when the kids are at outside lessons or playdates,  which makes that the more time-efficient one.

2. Library books are not meant to be consumable. If you’d like to keep checking books out from that system, you can’t mark in/on, tear pages from, or in other way “consume” a library book. Yes, I’m looking at you, Tank.  I enjoy making notes in my books. I like to be able to dog ear a page if I need to. While I discourage margin doodling (Captain Science is a notorious doodler), I want my children to be able to take a note, underline a word or passage, or work through a problem on the page if they need to. We do have some books, like Life of Fred, that I don’t allow marking-up, but most of our curricula is of the consumable variety — meant to be written in. The benefit of a writable/markable curriculum is that it cuts down on the number of binder and folder filled with looseleaf paper, which, incidentally, never actually stays in those darn binders.

3. You’re really not supposed to photocopy that copyrighted material. While I’m not the Queen of all Ethics (I’m sure some of the software on my computer isn’t entirely on the up-and-up), I do feel that one should purchase consumable materials for home use, rather than photocopy the pages that aren’t expressly marked “for reproduction” and use the photocopies. When you do that, you’re reducing the number of sales for that particular publisher/writer, and guess what? If they don’t have enough sales, there won’t be another volume or companion book or edition of that material!

4. My library doesn’t have it. “It” being pretty much anything that I want to use for homeschooling. Sure, I could rearrange my academic plans based on what’s in the library (or available free online), but that seriously limits what materials we can cover. While my public library system has multiple copies of The Well-Trained Mind (various editions) to help a homeschooler get started, it doesn’t have a single book in the Life of Fred series, anything by Michael Clay Thompson, or any of the beautifully-illustrated DK Publishing history books. I can find supplemental books there, but nothing that makes a thorough enough curriculum for my gifted child, who really does need the challenge and creativity of the curricula we have chosen. We went through quite a few options to find what worked for us and not a one of those options was available in our public library system.

5. It only saves you money if you don’t rack up fees. We…um…yeah, kind of misplace library books sometimes. We have a kinda-sorta system on making sure those books don’t get lost, but someone always snags one from the “library books go here” spot and carries it off, then it doesn’t get turned in with the other, or somebody forgets the date the books are due, or somebody assumes somebody else renewed those books whilst s/he was at the library last time, and before you know it, we’ve got $20 in fees on all of our library cards and have to start checking things out under pseudonyms (which takes us right back to that ethics thing, people).  We already do this with our pleasure reading books to the extent that it’s usually cheaper for me to just buy the damn book outright.

6. I’m a book junkie. For those homeschoolers among us who are book junkies, it’s not enough to just read the book. We have to own the book. A big fat bookshelf is ever so much more satisfying than a big fat wallet, don’t you think? I love the smell of books, the feel of books, the lovely weight and size of a trade paperback (as opposed to library-bound hardbacks or thumbed-apart cheap paperbacks).  Books are my dear friends and my precious treasures, but a loaner book from a library can never be more than a passing acquaintance or another man’s rhubarb. I get something of a high from opening a FedEx/UPS box with a new book inside. I derive great pleasure from my shelf of curricula (and even have great dreams of one day arranging it all by topic, like Patchfire’s shelves).

7. Friends make great lending libraries. Patchfire has loaned or gifted me with a great deal of curricula. I, in turn, am prepared to pass along the stuff that didn’t work for us (or is just too young for us) to other homeschoolers.  Patchfire loaned me all of her Greek/Roman materials, and when I give it back to her, it will be accompanied by all the Greek/Roman materials I purchased. Reciprocity amongst a homeschooling community can be one way to cut costs without completely giving up that library. In this way, any book has the potential to help many families. Plus, it makes for a great excuse to get together with other homeschoolers. We’re planning a “Curriculattes” meeting for homeschooling parents to drink coffee and show off or swap curricula. Free or cheap stuff AND a night out? You can’t tell me that isn’t better than a library.

8. Libraries want you to be quiet. Tank, people. I have Tank. I really don’t think I need to explain it any better than that, do I?

9. Sometimes I get a bad case of the gonnas. As in, I’m really gonna make it out to the library this time…if I get around to it. I procrastinate. I put things off.  I drag my feet.  I know this about myself. If I rely on sources outside my home as my primary educational tools, my poor kids are going to be making do with crackers and magazines some weeks, because as much as I think I’m gonna make it to the library each and every week, I know it’s not actually gonna happen. I was also gonna do a lot of art projects and a ton of field trips this year, but without careful pre-planning, that didn’t happen, either. If I were to use the library with great frequency, I’d have to stick very rigidly to that color-coded schedule! I could do it if I had to, but I’d have to overcome a whole passel of gonnas to get there.

10. Have I mentioned I have three kids? I know, I know. Plenty of moms with way more kids than I have pile them into their white conversion van once a week and trot them meekly and quietly into the library to make excellent use of the facilities and resources. I am not those moms, however. Coordinating Captain Science’s need for certain books with Tank’s hands-on curiosity with Babypie’s “you’ve set me down and now I’m going to run off” isn’t my idea of a great time. It’s enough of a pain when we go for pleasure reading.  If I’m trying to locate specific books on the shelves for Captain S., it’s harder to corral Babypie, and Tank is piling up picture books on the reading table, and…ACK! Smrt Mama starts approaching a Smrt Meltdown of her own. Daddyman is usually the one who ends up taking Captain Science (and sometimes Tank) to the library for free reading books, and that works just fine for us.

The long (very long) and short of it is that we haven’t had the need or inclination to rely primarily on the library for our curricula, but that certainly doesn’t mean it couldn’t work for you or anyone else. Learn what your public library system has available to you and develop a schedule and system that allows for regular visits and timely returns of materials…and when you do, please let me know!

That’s what the [Smrt] Homeschooler thinks about using the library. What do you think? How do you and your family use the library as a part of homeschooling?

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com

PhD in Parenting has been writing about homeschooling lately. She currently lives in Germany, where homeschooling is illegal and children are under legal compulsion to attend public school. Today, she wrote a post about different schooling methods and how she views them through the lens of the “right and duty to learn.”

On the whole, I found her opinions on homeschooling to be quite positive, but I take issue with some of the concerns she mentions in her post:

At the same time, there are things that concern me about home education:

• I worry that parents who homeschool for ideological reasons may be shielding their children from the realities of the world (other belief systems, other cultures) and their selves (sexuality, gender issues, personal expression), which I believe is dangerous for the individual and for society.
• I worry that a small minority of parents who homeschool for ideological reasons may be doing so specifically to pass on discriminatory and hateful viewpoints to their children.
• I worry that parents who take their children out of school out of frustration with the school system (generally or for their specific child) may feel forced into home educating their children when really the school system should be changing and adapting to address those concerns.
• I worry that children who grow up under the guidance of the most gentle, patient, loving and inspiring parents without being exposed to teachers who are strict, ineffective, jerks, play favourites, or use coercive methods may not learn how to deal with those types of people before entering the workforce and may be at a disadvantage (although to be fair, a lot of today’s schooled youth aren’t dealing with them themselves anyway – they are getting mommy and daddy to do it for them).

You all know how I feel about the “school as a place to learn to toughen up for the ‘real world’” stance, so I’ll just link to my comment I left on the PhD in Parenting blog and leave it at that.

What about her other concerns, like the idea that parents who homeschool may be doing so to instill hateful or dangerous ideologies in their children? How harmful is “immersing [our] children in [our] beliefs and shielding them from others?” Are parents really more or less likely to attempt to instill their ideologies in their children based on where their child schools? Are homeschooled children more likely to be racist, bigoted, etc. than their institutionally-schooled counterparts? To what extent should the State or the collective get to choose the ideologies to which your child should be exposed?

And what about her assertion that “in most cases [parents choose to homeschool because] there are perfectly reasonable and factual things taught as part of the school curriculum that the parents do not want their children to learn (evolution, birth control, homosexuality, other religious beliefs)?” Was this a motivating factor for you? For the homeschoolers you know? To what extent? Was it because the curricula covered topics you felt were inaccurate or inappropriate? Was it because the curricula were too religious or not religious enough?

And finally, what about her statement that she “believe[s] more strongly in the child’s right to an education than [she] do[es] in the parent’s right to raise their children any way they want?”  Is a child’s right to a specific set of academic knowledge greater than your rights as a parent to pass on your morality, ethics, culture, or ideology? If you’re an unschooler or (I am warming to this term) “life learner,” do you think the child’s right to an education is more or less important than his freedom to make his own decisions, even if those choices are towards the less academic?

I know my answers to these questions. I’ve read some of the exceptionally thoughtful comments to her blog (like Kelly and Kim @ Beautiful Wreck’s). Now, I’d like to hear yours.

Homeschooling has its many obvious upsides: customized curriculum, flexibility of schedule, ability for students to advance at their own pace. I have also discovered many benefits I hadn’t expected, however. These are some of the benefits that have revealed themselves over time.

1. Fewer lice scares. What public/private school student hasn’t brought home at least one “We have lice going around! Oh no!” note at least once during their school years? This isn’t much of an issue w/ the homeschooled student. Sure, they could pick something up at co-op, but where are those kids going to get it? With smaller groups (and, admittedly, the hippie homeschool tendency to wash hair a little less frequency) in a carefully controlled setting, lice isn’t going to be spreading through the homeschool community like wildfire.

2. No (social pressure-laden) fundraisers. I know that some co-ops or homeschool groups do fundraisers, but not like public/private schools do fundraisers. Fundraisers are serious business in public and private schools. Wrapping paper, candy, cookie dough, frozen pizzas, flower bulbs: the list goes on and on. Note after guilt-inducing note letting you know all the prizes your child will be missing by your failure to adequately pressure your friends, neighbors, and relatives into buying multiple items from your little darling. You don’t want your baby to be the only one who didn’t get the key chain and teddy bear, right?

3. Ever-ready errand boy/girl. There’s something to be said for having a child in the house who is big enough to respond to, “Go grab the whatever-it-is-I-need from the car.” Sure, this isn’t something you, as a homeschool parent, should abuse, but it’s nice to not constantly be running up and down the stairs all the time. Besides, it’s lots of extra physical activity for your child. Mark it down as P.E. and you don’t even have to feel guilty.

4. Also, ever-ready manual labor. The kids are home during the time of day that I’m doing chores or running errands, which means I’ve got extra sets of hands when it’s necessary. Sure, doing the grocery shopping may have been easier with just the baby, but that meant balancing both baby and bags of groceries to get into the house. Homeschooled kids are there to help you carry in those bags! If you haven’t figured it out yet, household chores are also a great way to break up the monotony of the school day and to drive home the valuable lesson of the careers to which one may aspire without finishing a decent education. In other words, kids who pitch a fit over doing math or writing can scrub a bathroom or rake a yard to get the full experience of why we pushy parents think learning is so important.

5. Fewer birthday party invitations. If you don’t realize what a blessing this is, you have never had a child in public school. The obligatory birthday invitations mean hundreds of dollars spent on impersonal gifts for children your child doesn’t even play with outside of school or risking the possible social ostracism that comes from failing to appear at all the right parties. The other upside of this is that you are equally freed from the obligation of inviting 19 near-strangers into your home or rented bounce house facility once a year. The controlled social sphere of homeschooling means smaller, more intimate parties. Be happy about that.

6. You do not, in fact, gotta catch ‘em all. A controlled social sphere also means your child’s exposure to the “kid crack” phenomena of Pokemon, Bakugan, Yu-gi-oh, and all other collectible card games is significantly more limited. Few parents really want to get their kids started on these games (Which the kids don’t even know how to play. It’s just about the having), but they’re aware that knowledge of games like these (and ownership of the cards/toys) is like currency in a public school, and they don’t want their kids to be the socially impoverished ones, begging for little Pikachu scraps off the elementary lunch table. As long as you keep them off of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, homeschooled children don’t have the same exposure to these games, and aren’t as likely to get caught up on the frenzied need to have them. Homeschooling, I choose you!

7. Minivan Expectations. No one will make “oh, you poor, unhip thing” faces over your choice to drive a minivan. Everyone knows that homeschoolers drive minivans, even if they only have one or two kids. Homeschoolers are not expected to drive SUVs, Camrys, or muscle cars. If anything, there might be some confusion as to why your van is a mini and not a conversion.

8. Floods. Not the natural disaster, but the pants length. By the end of the season, pants are hanging a few inches above the shoes and shirts are cutting off a few inches above the wrist. In a public or private school setting, this means either replacing the garments for the few remaining weeks of cold weather or dealing with the disapproving looks and comments directed at your slightly bedraggled-looking offspring. When you’re homeschooling, no one cares if your kid is wearing floods. Being slightly ill-dressed is part of the social expectations for homeschoolers, so you’re disappointed nobody by meeting those expectations and rising above expectations if your kid is wearing pants that fit come March. It’s win-win.

9. Never again be perceived as idle. While a stay-at-home-mom may be perceived (incorrectly and unjustly) as “not working” or “doing nothing all day” or “getting to stay home and play with the kids all day,” a homeschooling stay-at-home-mom is perceived as undertaking a momentous and time-intensive task, one that most parents of public/private schooled children believe they could never, themselves, manage. Fewer people will make assumptions about your availability (“Well, you don’t do anything all day, so you can do this favor for me!”). Lackadaisical housekeeping will be viewed, not as a sign of laziness, but as a natural byproduct of the tremendous effort expended planning lessons, directing learning, and grading and filing papers. Don’t disavow anyone of that belief; You’ll ruin it for the rest of us.

10. An excuse for weirdness. When your child does something unusual, socially awkward, or just plain bizarre in public, you can easily soothe observers’ distressed looks with a slightly dismissive hand wave and an, “Oh, don’t worry. They’re homeschooled.” This also works pretty well to explain weirdness in homeschooling parents. A woman muttering to herself in the aisles of Borders book store is creepy. A homeschooler muttering to herself in the aisles of Borders book store is just planning for next semester.

When the current course of home education isn’t at its peak, homeschoolers sometimes fall back on the dangerous logical fallacy of “homeschooling is better than public schooling, therefor any amount of homeschooling is better than public schooling” when attempting to justify or rationalize any lapse in their intended output. You may recognize the related mantras: “A homeschooled child learns more before lunch than a public schooled child does all day” and “The worst day homeschooling is better than the best day in public school.”

In other words, as long as they can convince themselves that a day spent playing Club Penguin or watching videos on YouTube surpasses the quality and quantity of education in the average public school day, they don’t have to feel guilty about having let their children play Club Penguin or watch videos on YouTube all day. At least the kids aren’t in public school!

I absolutely agree that, overall, the quality and quantity of education received in the average public school is greatly exceeded by the quality and quantity of education received during the same period of time spent homeschooling. That doesn’t mean there is something inherently superior about homeschooling, though. Very little is brought to the table by location alone (academically speaking — mentally/emotionally/socially, being at home has an important impact). Done right, your child is receiving significantly more education than in a public school. Done wrong, your child might be receiving significantly less education than in a public school. Homeschooling parents seem to want to make it about location, but they’re missing the point — a great big fat point. It’s not the fact that you’re schooling at home, but that you’re putting in time, effort, individual attention, creativity, and love. Location is one of the less significant factors in education, coming far behind materials, methodology, and investment in the child’s success.

It’s not fair or accurate to selectively compare homeschooling and public schooling day by day, and certainly not hour by hour or minute by minute. To say “a day of homeschooling is superior to a day of public school” is disingenuous. Which day? Which homeschool? Sure, a public schooled child isn’t learning much on CRCT day, on class party day, on school assembly day. A homeschooled child isn’t learning much on mom’s pneumonia day, on “first I have to run all these errands” day, or on YouTube watching day, either. None of these days would be a fair day to choose for comparison as an adequate example of education, yet I’ve seen many examples of homeschoolers use class parties or school assemblies as examples of how public schools don’t educate, but just waste time. As a former public school room mom, I can assure you that our school system allowed for exactly two class parties a year and they had assemblies once per grading period.

We have had days when we accomplish more work and cover more materials than my son covered in a week in public school. We’ve also had weeks where we struggle to cover the amount of material that they covered in a day of public schooling. It fluctuates. No, every day of homeschooling is not going to cover more material in greater depth, simply by virtue of being homeschooling. Location doesn’t make the materials better — they have to actually be better materials. Location doesn’t make you roll out of bed in the morning and teach — that’s your own motivation. Location doesn’t cause ideal lesson plans to spring up or those lesson plans to be adhered to — you, the parent, have to make sure that happens. That video you watch at home has no more or less inherent academic value than the video watched at school unless you make it relevant, make it part of something bigger. If you plunk your kid on his butt in front of a video without finding a way to engage him in the materials or contextualize them, he’s not learning any more than he would being plunked on his butt in front of a television in public school. Location doesn’t equal education.

Public schools do have certain academic standards to uphold. Yes, many schools are failing, but most schools at least attempt to educate the children attending them. Are these standards as rigorous as my personal standards? Not by a long shot. Do I think kids are sitting there being taught nothing? No, I do not. Public school classrooms cover a wide range of materials. They even cover some of it well. It’s possible to have a sound, thorough education from public school, though a lot of that depends on student commitment, parental involvement, and the quality of the individual school(s) and teacher(s). A good public school teacher will engage the students, find ways to make information accessible, and will impart a love of learning. Dismissing public education out of hand simply because it’s not at home is just as bad as dismissing homeschooling out of hand because it is at home. Location doesn’t equal education. Déjà vu!

Not every homeschooler is done by lunch. Not every homeschooler is learning in a half day what public school kids are learning all day. Don’t make it about day-for-day, hour-for-hour. Don’t make it about there vs. here. Look at the big picture. An hour of half-assed homeschooling isn’t better, academically, than an hour of public schooling with a competent, engaged teacher. Stop telling yourself that to make yourself feel better. Public schools have some really good days, days that are doing to be better than your worst days, and that’s ok. You’ll have good days that are way better than their best days, because you can give your child the personal attention to make a good day great. You, as the parent-teacher, not homeschooling as a concept. You don’t have to tear public schooling down to make yourself feel better about an off day. You don’t have to blow smoke up your own denim jumper. If you’re making an effort 75% of the time and teach your children with love and a vision for the future success, you don’t have to excuse your worst day by trying to compare it to public school. Not only is it not accurate (Really, have you ever had kids in public school? It’s certainly less than ideal, but it’s not exactly day care, and some of them are doing a good job), but it’s not necessary.

It’s not the location that makes homeschooling better. It’s you. You are invested in your child. You want your child to learn. You want her to love what she’s learning. You want him to engage with his curriculum. You make education happen. Keep your eyes on the big picture and the important part you play in it. It’ll keep you motivated through those weeks when “a homeschooled day watching science videos on YouTube is better than a public school day of science labs” seems like a really nice lie to tell yourself.

Today’s “Ask a [Smrt] Homeschooler” is less of a question, and more of a request.

Marci writes, “I want you to do a post on how you possibly think your child will be able to handle hard situations if they aren’t exposed to them in public school at a very young age. You know the whole comment about, ‘they’re going to have to deal with moronic/mean/belittling…people someday so they might as well learn now.’”

I will start out by saying that I have never met an adult who is a better person due to belittling as a child. Cruelty doesn’t produce character. Suffering through meanness doesn’t make a stronger, better person. Bullying doesn’t create well-rounded individuals who are able to deal with day-to-day challenges. Removing a child from a damaging (mentally, physically, or emotionally) situation isn’t teaching him to “run away from his problems.”

The premise that bullying in some way “toughens up” children, helps them develop “thicker skin” or become “less sensitive,” or teaches them about the “real world,” is faulty and dangerous. Imagine trying to apply those same ideas to adults. Should an adult accept physical or verbal assault in order to develop a thicker skin? Should adults accept sexual harassment in order to become less sensitive? Should an adult accept discrimination or racism simply because it’s “part of the real world?”

Of course not. Adults are not expected to accept these kinds of behaviors, because they are unacceptable. The only situations under which most adults are willing to accept assault and harassment is when the adults feel powerless — fear of losing a job, fear of retaliation, fear of being called a liar. Why should my goal as a parent be to create situations where my children feel powerless? Treating bullying as a character-building experience for a child makes no more sense than treating domestic violence as a character-building experience for an adult. Domestic violence isn’t stopped by teaching the woman to make quips, hit back, or focus on her many positive traits to help her stand up to her abuser, because to do otherwise would be “running away from her problems.” It’s not stopped by telling the victim that it’s “just words” or that she needs to “toughen up.” It’s stopped by getting out and staying out. Why do so many parents fall into the trap of thinking that bullying, which is just another form of abuse, doesn’t merit the same solution?

As an adult, if someone calls me names, swears at me, physically threatens me, or just downright annoys me, I have the freedom to get up and walk away. I am not obligated to accept mistreatment. I am not obligated to accept abuse. I am not obligated to tolerate idiocy. Walking away from an unpleasant or intolerable situation may involve making a sacrifice, but I have the power to do that. Unless I am bound physically (such as through incarceration) or legally (as with military enlistment), I always have the option to weigh the costs and benefits of tolerating or rejecting any given set of circumstances. I can choose my place of employment, my recreational activities, and my social group (which is very rarely based solely on age). A child in a public school setting, however, has no choice over his classroom “peers,” his schedule, or even his presence there. How are the social lessons learned under those circumstances analogous with the social lessons I will need as an adult? Short answer: They really aren’t.

Yes, there will be times when my children will have to smile and nod at idiots, brush off an insult without reacting, or even deal with a bully. They won’t be learning the skills necessary to do that within the contrived, age-segregated “social setting” of the classroom. They’ll be exposed to a much wider age range (though homeschool co-ops and the many other social activities in which we participate), where they will have the model of older children and have to be the model to younger children. They will also witness their parents dealing with frustrating situations politely and tactfully, even if we grumble about them later. Sometimes, they’ll see us ignore harsh words from someone who isn’t worth the effort we’d have to make to respond. We’ll talk about why we choose to engage and why we don’t. We’ll explain that sometimes you fight and sometimes you walk away.

How will our children learn how to deal with tough or unfair situations that deserve a fight? When we are dealt with unjustly, they’ll see us modeling appropriate anger and indignation (one real world example: I was asked by a security guard at a water park to stop breastfeeding my infant), appropriate immediate responses (ex: I didn’t bless out the security guard, but instead clearly and politely recited that state laws protecting my right to nurse my child there, and then spoke with the manager), and appropriate longer-term responses (ex: I worked w/ the manager on implementing training for employees about breastfeeding laws and including pro-breastfeeding language on the water park’s website).

I can’t think of a single situation in my life where having been bullied or forced to deal with idiots in a manufactured setting has been of any great benefit. I have tapped the tools I learned from my parents, Girl Scouting, my Model United Nations team and other wonderful sources on many occasions to great success, but not once have I thought, “Gee, I’m so glad I was belittled by my peers!” I’m pretty sure my kids can manage without that particular brand of education, too.

And that’s what the [Smrt] Homeschooler has to say about that.

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com