First few weeks

5 yo and 2 yo have been going to their school. 5 yo loves it. She is happy to go and happy to come home. She talks about her projects, about reading, about making chains for skip-counting. She sings songs about Rosh HaShana. She talks about the new friends that she made. Overall, she is a happy child, having the time of her life.

I keep thinking  how school is meant for girls, rewarding and encouraging their behavior patterns of socialization, listening, and group activities.

2 yo is having harder time adjusting to having his nap time messed up. He is excited to go, but he is a mess in the afternoon when I pick him up. I get lots of pictures from the school and he is happy in them, participating in activities, sitting down, paying attention, crafting. Yet I do feel quite a few pangs of regret about sending out a child so young.

The boys are continuing with taekwondo three mornings a week. On Wednesday mornings we participate in the coop classes. Both boys are taking engineering and Minecraft History of Weapons. Unfortunately, these activities eat quite a bit of morning time. By 2 pm I have to leave to pick up the younger ones, so there is a lot of pressure to finish schoolwork before I go
. The baby is hanging out with us. Due to all the shuttling back and forth, she does not end up napping in her crib in the mornings. She is not a good sleeper and she is not easy to put down.

We are all adjusting.

I have finally finished reviewing בשלח with 11 yo. We have started on יתרו and, for once, he is excited to get to the "juicy stuff". I am trying to get out of the way and not kill his enthusiasm with too many Rashis. We have also been going over ספר יונה. So far we covered two פרקים. Please G-d that this year we actually get to finish it. Additionally, we have been slowly making our way through הלכות תשובה. I thought I have learned them all at some point or other, but, as I am reading them over, I am stunned by how much I do not remember. A while ago someone posted Beta Midrash app. I downloaded it and that is the text that we are using. It is nice, since there is an option to have Hebrew and English side-by-side, or just one of the languages. I can also make the font larger, Finally, all the citations are linked to the text. Moreover, 11 yo seems to enjoy the technological aspect of learning, As for me, this is quite a serious preparation. I am shaken by how much I am doing wrong, and 11 yo is getting the message, too. Sometimes I wonder whether this is too much, too soon, Yet I know that we will stop by יום כיפור, somewhere in the third פרק. This year, it is more of a taste than an in-depth study.

For math I checked out Khan Academy, but I was too nervous so I got Math Mammoth. 11 yo finished his first unit which was mostly review. Next unit has to do with equations, and I will need to sit with him, to make sure that he is not lost. So I let him loose on Khan Academy, hoping that he will either get ahead, or will get to review more of the material that he is not solid in.

We are continuing with Rosetta Stone, and I am hoping to read more of the picture Hebrew books with him.

With 9 yo, it has been touch and go. I dropped חומש for now and we are doing a lot of pages from the reading primer. I am hoping to build up his fluency and accuracy. There is still a slight possibility of dyslexia hanging over. It will not be picked up easily, as he reads fluently in English, but in Hebrew we've got problems. 9 yo is still better at reading Rashi script that regular Hebrew and I wonder whether I taught him and pushed him to read too soon.

We have been reading יונה from Artscroll children's edition. There is a lot of explanation and midrash in there, but it gives him welcome breaks between each פסוק. I have not been asking him to translate, just to focus on reading Hebrew text with corresponding English.

For math, 9 yo is going over Math Mammoth. He seemed fine with it until his brother started doing Khan Academy; now he wants to do that instead. He got to play around with it a while back, but he did not want to explore areas which were unfamiliar or difficult.

For science I am planning on using a standard 4th grade textbook with our usual mix of eclectic learning thrown in. We hanged a hummingbird feeder right outside the kitchen window and the kids have been watching the tiny visitors. There were many questions ( most from 5 yo), so i asked 9 yo to make a poster about hummingbirds by doing some research online. He threw a fit: "I am not good at science and you know it!" I understood that he simply did not know where to start. I asked him to bring me 5 index cards and told him that each card will be for a question. He sulked. I asked him whether there was something about hummingbirds that he wanted to know. He said, no. I gave him a few examples and wrote them down, leaving the last index card for him question. He finally admitted that he wanted to know how fast the hummingbird's heart beats. Then he went to Google the info, A minute later he excitedly came back, spewing numbers. Apparently, it beats anywhere between 60 and 1260 beats per minute. We have hummingbirds that live here year-round, but other species spend the winter in our state. Hummingbird eggs are the size of black-eyed peas. Many hummingbirds return to the same feeder year after year, so we have to keep ours up. The baby hummingbirds come potty-trained: they "do their business" over the side of the nest. Parents feed their babies a mixture of nectar and fruit flies, so it is a good thing that we resurrected the compost pile ( to which 9 yo dutifully takes out compost every day). Finally, hummingbirds are pushed out of the nest as soon as they are able to fly. This fact made 9 yo sad. He actually came back to me in the morning and told me again how sad he is for baby hummingbirds. I asked him, why he thinks parents do that. He said, so that they can grow up and be independent and live their own life. Somehow, this thought cheered him up.

So are we, as parents, pushing our kids out of the nest so that they can get a chance to live a life and to fly.

striking gold

We finished Sefer Breshit with 10 yo. 8 yo finished another perek with my husband.

But this is not what my kids are excited about at the moment. When the schoolwork part of the day was finished, when I'm done yelling at 10 yo for misplacing his spelling words (again), when 8 yo has completed his totally unfair math where "they keep tricking me by asking for area and I am much better at finding perimeter", the kids decided to go outside. It is cold here, not as cold as in the northeast, but the temperature is just above freezing. I was trying to get 1 yo to take his nap, and to finish Shabbos cooking, so I strongly encouraged this outing. I was not sure how long they will last outside, so I suggested gloves. They wanted to go digging. I decided that they will find out for themselves what digging in frozen ground feels like.

We had a tree cut down recently, with a large stump remaining. My husband made a bonfire on top of it this past Sunday, and the kids fed it, and toasted marshmallows. But the stump is still there, and there are old grass clippings and wood shavings all around it. They went digging between the roots, two boys with shovels and one girl, watching and helping. Suddenly, they dash into the house, excited: "We think we found gold!" A large crumbly rock is thrust into my face, with pale yellow veins running through it.

Not from our yard
http://www.zmescience.com/science/geology/theory-earthquake-gold-18032013/

Clap, if you believe in gold mine right in my front yard.

I have learned to stay positive, or non-committal in such situations. They washed the rock off, examined it, and then went Googling to find out how to tell whether they struck gold. I came in the middle of them watching a video telling how to identify gold in quartzite. The rock in the video looked eerily like the rock they found.

Now they want a magnifying glass, to examine those grains and veins closely.

I bet they will not remember much of what we did this morning. I bet they will not remember which exact problems they solved to get area, or which sentence they used for "especially". I bet they will remember the time they struck gold in the front yard.

This is what gives me strength to continue homeschooling. As much as I would like to have a certain balance of academics and tangible achievements, knowing that they have freedom to explore, be passionate, conduct their own research, and draw their own conclusions is more important than my objectives.

first day back to "school"

We took off from doing formal schoolwork over Yom Tov (although 10 yo still managed to review the whole masechet Succah and read a ton of textbooks during that time). I wanted the first day back to be gentle, all the more so since I had a morning dr appointment and I was not sure when we would get back.

making "moshiv haruach" signs

First thing that I wrote down for everyone is to make posters/reminders to add "moshiv haruach" (a special prayer for rain). I spoke a bit about it to 8 yo. The older boys copied the text from their siddurim and I was pleased to see that, for once, 8 yo was fine copying Hebrew and even spent some time decorating his wall hanging. 10 yo went all out, with block letters. I printed out a dot-to-dot umbrella for 4 yo, which contained letters of the alphabet, and a regular umbrella image for 1 yo. For a whole five minutes everyone sat at the table, coloring. I even managed to snap an idyllic picture of how it could be...

Then the boys did mineral testing for my geology class. They described their rocks, tested their hardness and magnetism, checked for reaction with vinegar and finally, smashed them with a hammer to see how they cleave. Finally, they got to try to identify their rocks using guides and Internet. I am not sure how correctly they identified their rocks, but they surely had fun!

testing rocks

checking cleavage/fracture

Tums in vinegar

 4 yo said that she wanted to do her own experiment, so I gave her Tums tablet and told her to drop it into leftover vinegar. She giggled that bubbles appeared and took time shifting it around the container. 1 yo was trying to get in on the action the entire time, snatching rocks and other supplies. It is hard to do any experiments with toddlers around, especially with toddlers who are very interested in grabbing, but not so much in looking. I almost wish he was old enough and patient enough to watch TV, so I could buy some time while he is awake to work with others.

I did some math review with 8 yo. We are in the middle of memorizing multiplication tables, and we are at sixes. We did them before the break, but every time I try to review them, he just totally melts down. I do not have a full plan for how far I am planning to review: only sixes, flashcards for sixes, flashcards for all the tables that he already knows, multiplication worksheets... I am open to getting wherever we get on any given day. Most days, unfortunately, we did not get to even looking on the chart which is prominently hanging on the wall. He just drops to the floor: "I don't know it, I cannot do it!" and that's the end of it. I tried persisting, I tried hanging back, I tried pushing, I tried talking, I tried punishing.

Larry Cohen in "The Opposite of Worry" talks about the edge and how to approach it. My child is over the edge at the mere suggestion, and he is not interested in getting back. He is in free fall, and he does not want to practice calming down techniques. He does not want to be hugged, he does not want to be held. He is not interested in learning how not to end up in free fall.

This is the point where I am finding myself despairing. I do not want medication for this child, but, often, we have no functionality. We are to meet with yet another mental health professional, in hope, yet again, that this whole process will go somewhere. I was told how all Jewish kids have anxiety. I know that I have it, and I see where my other kids have it. It is just not debilitating, same way as someone who likes to wash their hands thoroughly is different from a person suffering from OCD who cannot tolerate hands not washed to some utterly unrealistic standard.

So yesterday, I mentioned those sixes and 8 yo promptly dissolved into a puddle on the floor. I said that he should review them from the chart. 4 yo came with me and we went over that row, with him screaming behind us. Then I told him to go outside and not come back in till he's ready to review them. I offered him his shoes, but he preferred to sit on the door mat, sulking. I went on with my activities.

After 20 minutes, I heard him knocking. (The door is unlocked). I let him in, asking whether he is ready. He said that he does not want to do them. I said, I understand, but are you ready to try? He moseyed on to the chart and reviewed them. Then we reviewed them out loud, together. Then we reviewed them counting backwards. Then I pulled our just flashcards for sixes and we did those. Then, seeing that he really does know them, I said, let's go over the rest of the deck, and when I hit a card that you did not learn yet, you can yell: "I do not know it!" He giggled, but he chose to tell me politely the ones that he did not know.

He knows them all.

He knows all the multiplication tables that we have studied.

Some part of him is not ready to own up to the fact that he knows it all.

I was struck by this week's parsha, Breishit. Adam and Chava ate from the Tree of Knowledge because they wanted instantaneous, magical knowledge of the matters which one normally would acquire through a lot of effort. My son's line is that he just wants to know it already. He wants the tree, and he wants the fruit. Consequences are irrelevant.

pleasant surprises

Today was first day back-to-cop classes for us. I am teaching a class on geology, so I spent quite a bit of time preparing and then some energy on teaching. Both of my boys are in my class (their choice), and then for the second hour 10 yo is taking Civil War and 8 yo is in Poisonous and Venomous Animals. Our coop is located literally on the spot of one of the major Civil War battles. This year there are many commemorative events taking place, and I was sort of regretting that we are living in such a history-rich area, yet not taking advantage of all the opportunities. This class is just perfect for 10 yo: it is for older kids, requires reading and seems to be challenging.

8 yo chose his class with a bit of reservation on my part; he would be the oldest there. However, he seems very excited about it, and he showed me a folder that he made in there. There was writing involved, and cutting and pasting. He also had to google images of animals he thought were poisonous, and he was able to do that on his own before class (with my supervision and encouragement).

4 yo is taking printing class, followed by Little Bodies. I am not concerned about the academic content, just that she gets to play and interact with other kids. "Mommy, we got to color with the wrong end of paintbrush and it was so fun!" 1 yo is in toddler room.

After we finished our classes and I collected the kids, we headed home for lunch. In the past, 1 yo would not last, so we had to hightail it, and quickly. He usually fell asleep on the way home, and then I frantically served lunch. I used to try to squeeze in some schoolwork around the coop classes and before taekwondo, and it did not go smoothly. Today I planned to get very little school done: math and Chumash for 10 yo, and multiplication and typing for 8 yo. We finished 10 yo's schoolwork before the coop. I quizzed 8 yo on his flashcards once before the coop and once after lunch. He finished his typing in the morning. I also asked kids to get started on Rosh HaShana cards. 10 yo picked a card "to you and yours" for one of his friends. I had to explain how that is not so appropriate. 8 yo wrote his without any fuss. Granted, it was those three lines, but this is a nice surprise.

10 yo's mishna teacher was coming, and I was planning to take some time to relax before taekwondo, but 8 yo pulled out electricity kit and asked whether we can do it. I know that this is true learning: he is curious, he wants to do it, and he will learn and retain. As he was opening it up, I saw that he must have pulled it out before. He knew exactly how to set it up, what all the parts are and how they work. I just sat back and watched. My father would have been proud of his free experimentation.

I kept thinking how 8 yo keeps surprising me academically in the past few weeks. He loves Keyboarding Without Tears, and keeps asking to do more and more. He is holding his fingers correctly, even though he did not learn all the letters yet. Considering how till now his modus operandi was to avoid computer unless he was passively watching, I am finding his new confidence very encouraging. He has been typing more.

He also asked me to get him cursive workbook from HWT. Again, I thought that we are done with handwriting practice, since last year it was hard, and I am not positive that cursive is an essential skill to learn any more. Yet he is enjoying it, and his letters are looking great. He is putting in a lot of effort. His printing also improved. Now, this kid qualified for OT at the beginning of the summer, and we have not exactly spent that time working on his handwriting.

So what did he do all summer? He went to camp. He played. He read. He hiked. He built with Legos. Nothing academic, really. Yet somewhere between getting older and more mature, and getting stronger, he is able and willing to do tasks which I would not consider before.

We are meeting with yet another psychologist. This one is strongly favoring medication, and not just for anxiety, but also for ADHD. I have talked to him about side effects of the medicine. My husband researched anxiety, and saw that kids are prescribed SSRIs, which, if the child is depressed, up the risk of suicide. I have looked into ADHD medicine, and found that most parents use it as a last resort. I brought up how I am concerned about long-term effects, and how I am worried about having to get off the medication one day and not having ever developed a focus of his own (I refer you to Leonard Sax for further reading). The response that I received was that I should worry about him now, not down the road. What happens down the road, happens. The funny thing is, as much as I worry about him now, I am not worried about him down the road, I know in my guts that he will turn out fine, find his path, discover his passion, and pursue it. It might not be college, it might not be a neat behind-the-desk profession, but he will be fine. I am not sure that I want to sacrifice the future for the sake of getting compliance now.

In a sense, I am glad that he is not in school, and I get to see and experience all these little pleasant surprises. Their loss, our gain.

education on their own terms

So often I feel that my kids are not learning anything, and so often they remind me, in most unexpected ways, that they are learning...

We were finishing the story of Yosef and Potifar's wife. I asked Shmuli what he thought of Yosef ending up in jail and becoming in charge of prisoners. He said: "I think he got that Scandinavian syndrome. Stockholm syndrome. He now takes his captors' side, and he is even working for them. He is in a good position to tattle on the other prisoners, just like he tattled on his brothers." Hm, what an interesting reading! Yosef must have been trusted by authorities, or he would not be put into position of power. Having juts finished Natan Sharansky's biography, I have an acute sense that only people cooperating with authorities were promoted to easier jobs. I was quite impressed with this analysis.

I ordered caterpillars. They came in a little container without instructions. 10 yo hypothesized that since it is a refill, the assumption is that we have instructions. Previously, when I ordered them, I felt an urge to make a lesson, draw a diagram, fill in a chart, DO SOMETHING! This time, we just sat around the jar, observing them and making sure they are all alive. The baby is very curios about them, so our job has been to make sure that he cannot reach them. The kids immediately noticed the silk that the caterpillars were leaving everywhere. After each one asked me about the silk (and I did not know the answer), I finally googled it. The silk is to attach caterpillars to the leaves in the trees.

By today, all of the caterpillars made cocoons. They liquefy, literally, you can see caterpillar suspend itself and then turn shiny and fluid before becoming a hard chrysalis. I was talking to 10 yo how I wondered whether anyone know exactly what is going on inside, as I am not sure whether it is possible to know without killing the butterfly. later I caught him on the computer watching videos explaining what is going on. He told me how X-ray and UV studies were done, and it is a good thing that insects are impervious to UV damage. I recalled how years ago, in my X-ray crystallography days, a paper came out on using X-rays to study the insides of grasshoppers. Since the exoskeleton is so strong, the grasshoppers survived and minute detail of their breathing was studied. (If I was still type A, I would insert a link to the article here, but I am not type A any more).

Maybe, just maybe, they are learning, on their own terms.

on going to school

On Friday, I had a conversation with my sister about kids and she asked me, point-blank, wouldn't 9 yo be better off in school? I said that he does not want to go, but I figured it would be better to ask him directly.

As we were coming back from taekwondo, just the two of us (7 yo exhausted himself throwing a fit over reading a pasuk which took him two minutes to read, but one hour to be anxious about), I said:
"Would you want to go to school, where you would have normal teachers who get a full night of sleep and do not scream at you all the time?"
"No, I do not want to go."
"Even if you end up stuck with a mommy who is going crazy?"
"Yes, I much rather have mommy. School is not bad, but once you have homeschooling, you cannot go back. It is like trading a piece of paper for a lollipop. Would you trade a lollipop back for a piece of paper?"
"But wouldn't there be nice things about school?"
"No, I cannot do well with only half an hour of recess. It is not enough time outside."
"But you have not gone outside the whole day today!"
"Yes, but when I come home, I have a choice of going outside right away."

Then, abruptly switching topics, we found ourselves describing the forces acting on water inside a waterspout. He wanted to know how the water droplets manage to rise up instead of being flung out from spinning. I was just playing along, hoping that whichever explanations were coming to mind were sound. Next thing I know, he is talking about putting a water cannon on top of a highest mountain and shooting water out with such force that it "keeps on missing the ground. I have a science brain, mommy, not math nerdy brain."

I do not know exactly what kind of brain you have, dear child, but it is a thinking brain.

they will surprise you

I was all organized, staying up late, writing up the plan for today.

In the morning, 4 yo decided to do water experiments in the sink.

She filled a few different containers, used a funnel to pour water from one to another, and dumped and measured and poured. She even made vacuum. When I protested about the mess, she calmly informed me that it is just water and it is only in the sink (true). The only inconvenience was walking around her chair and inability to use the sink, although she gleefully accepted any dirty dishes we put in there.

It rained last night, so giant, foot-long earthworms came out. 7 yo and 4 yo went to take a look. I did not have science on my agenda at all, but they were quite happy holding slippery worms, placing them from one area to another. 7 yo asked how he can tell which end is the worm's head, and I showed him the thickened part towards that end. I also said that he can just observe which way the worm is crawling, and that is the head end.

We have a book about worms, high school and college biology includes dissection of worms, but it take a personal close experience with one to actually wonder which end is the head. AT the end. the kids made a new home for the worms, where I hope they crawled happily ever after.

I heard Rebecca Masinter speak last night about homeschooling, and she reminded me how homeschooling is a movie, not a snapshot. She also brought up parsha and Shabbos d'var Torah. Ours have not been going too well, and last week I promised boys that I will write up parsha questions to ask on Shabbos, so they better come prepared. I figured that 9 yo will read Chumash (in English) and 7 yo will either read, ask me to read to him, listen to Rabbi Juravel, read a simple parsha book or refuse to participate. 7 yo did get all nervous about it, but his suggestion was for him to read from Artscroll Chumash and for me to write down a summary of what he reads. He wanted it to be very detailed, so that he would not miss anything. I said that he could just open Chumash and look things up, on Shabbos, but in his mind that would be cheating. Apparently, looking on a prepared sheet is not cheating, but using original material is. Mercifully, the baby took a giant morning nap, so we were able to sit on the couch, snuggling, and work our way through Vayakhel. To tell the truth, I never found Vayakhel to be quite so interesting until I had to slow down to the pace of summarizing. At some point, 7 yo gave me a bear hug and said how he likes doing parsha with me. If I would have chosen to enforce my original plan, we would have missed out on this great bonding and learning opportunity, not to mention that he did it on much higher level than I expected.

That's the devil with being flexible in homeschooling: you plan, they subvert your plans, and you have a choice: take a direction in which the kids are leading their learning, or enforce your original expectation.

the scientific method

I was sent this video:

The scientist in me called to replicate results. So I bought two types of sweet potatoes: conventional and organic. I got the boys to label two jars ( they had to look up in the dictionary how to spell "conventional"), pick out a good-looking potato from each type, stick in a few toothpicks, and pick out a sunny window.

I will post the results.

No, we do not eat organic. Yes, I am open to the possibility. But I need to see proof, with my own two eyes.

Stay tuned...

making a day great

Lately we've been having bad days. Not just a little blech, but, really bad. no good, rotten days. My husband had been on call, the baby insists on being held most of his waking time, the older kids have been cranky and I have been quite moody. Everything was setting me off, and there were many objective things, but I know that a lot of them were more trigger points.

Last night, as I was tucking in 9 yo, I whispered to him that tomorrow will be a great day. He looked at me, and did not believe me. He wanted to know what am I going to do to make it great. I said that I just know it will be great and we left it at that.

This morning, the baby woke up early, before 7. Nevertheless, by the time I brought him out, I saw that 9 yo was dressed and in the middle of davening. I made berry muffins for breakfast that he likes. While they were baking, he finished writing out the mishnayot summary that his mishna rebbi assigned. He did his script practice and math before the other kids even had breakfast. His math was confusing him a bit, but he stuck to it. Then we did chumash. He pleasantly reviewed the pesukim, and even asked me a question or two about the flood. We read new ones, and he did not throw his Rashi avoidance fit. All in all, he was done by 9 am.

In the next hour, he watched a bit of Pokemon and I got to go for a short walk (by myself!) When I got back, the baby was ready to nurse and 7 yo was ready to finish his first perek of Lech Lecha. He kept his word, and we have been doing a pasuk a day lately, with him reading and listening to baal koreh. He has quite a few of them memorized.

9 yo's  mishna rebbi came at 10:15 and they studied till 11. While they were learning, I did HWT with two younger ones. 3 yo is coloring in different shapes and 7 yo practiced copying rhyming words. Then he did his math, a page on even and odd numbers. By 11, he was long done with his work. 9 yo got a homework assignment to record himself reciting and translating mishnayot. He was also told that the next time they have a class, he will get the dimensions to build the smallest kosher succah.

I packed up lunch and told the kids we are heading out either to IKEA ( we lost three glasses a few weeks ago) or to aquarium. 7 yo decided this is ripe time to throw a fit about how he does not want to go to either place. I tried staying calm. I sent the other kids to the car. I tried talking to him about why he does not want to go. Finally, I said that I cannot leave him home alone and he has to come along. Sure enough, as soon as we started driving, eh calmed down and he had a good time there. I just felt getting drained.

At the aquarium, we saw the tropical fish first. Even the baby watched intently. He reminds me s much of his older brother, also very serious and studying things from a distance. I doubt he will be the kid rushing into things. Then we had lunch and I discovered that I left a bag of pretzels at home. 9 yo pointed out that the main is missing. Oh well...

Then we saw the ocean exhibit. They love the tunnel with the moving sidewalk and the fish swimming above. I love the room with a giant observation window. It is dark in there, and just so peaceful. The boys chatted with the docent about the whale sharks and groupers. WE found out that there are black tip sharks and black tip reef sharks, and that groupers stand still when they are waiting to be cleaned by wrasses. Those groupers parked themselves right by the window, so the boys joked that they should bring toothbrushes next time and help.

When we came out from the exhibit, we saw a sign-up table to test a new app for the aquarium. The reward was a behind the scenes peek at the ocean exhibit. I usually say "no" yo such things, but an inside peek was irresistible, so I signed up. It did not take long, and we got to go to the top of the giant tank and see the whale sharks from above. We actually saw the fins menacingly cutting through the water! Moreover, there was another opportunity for questions.

whale shark fin

We finished the aquarium trip with a visit to a cold water exhibit. 3 yo has a special affinity to anemones, and she just had to touch them. Meanwhile, the penguins have a special affinity for boys' kippas: they will follow them along the wall. 7 yo tormented one penguin by swinging his kippa in circles, and the bird craned its head to follow every movement. By the way, an older lady objected, and he stopped, so the village is alive and well.

tracing the ocean currents

driving penguins batty

I tried getting kids to write Shana Tova cards, but we hit a snag, nobody's heart was in it, so we will attempt again tomorrow. When it came time for dinner, they picked out sweet meatballs and gladly broke into stations to assemble them: 3 and 7 yos rolled them, while 9 yo stirred the sauce, the noddles and the string beans. Everyone was ravenous, and enjoyed dinner. To me, it was a relief, so often one kid starts complaining about food, and just get annoyed, that they will not contribute, yet criticize. We tried having a whole dinner conversation in Hebrew, we just break into it spontaneously sometimes. 7 yo used to freak out about it, but seemed better now. I think he was able to follow more. I did not know how to say "meatballs" or "string beans", and after a while, it was silly to keep saying it in English, so I called them "kadurim basar". 9 yo laughed. By the end of dinner, I pulled out dictionary, and, lo and behold, it IS kadurim basar (literal translation). Then the kids were asking for dessert, and I did not know how to say that, either. 7 yo thought for a second and asked for "hanegba" ( to the desert, the construct that he picked up from Lech Lecha). I thought it was pretty clever.

Overall, this was a good day, maybe not great, but it was nowhere near as bad as our days have been. Was it power of suggestion, or we were just due to have a good one, I do not know, but it feels nice to come out






and survey it and feel good about it.

Happy, happy, happy

Today both boys declared to be a great day.

I picked up the kids from their sleepover by 9:30. On the way over, I listened to a shiur about Jewish people receiving the Torah, which was not over by the time I got to my in-laws. I continued from the spot where I stopped once we were driving over to the chiropractor. 3 yo protested quite loudly, I think she could not follow. The boys did not seem too eager to listen, either. Moreover, they did not really want to go to the chiropractor. 

test spin

We got there late, and the kids were not interested in the books I packed up. 9 yo asked if he could lay down on the roller bed, and the other kids wanted to do it, too. Then we went to Hobby Lobby. Originally I was planning on buying plaster of Paris for 9 yo and letting the kids look around and choose whichever crafts and supplies, within a budget. 9 yo did not find plaster of Paris and the kids put a few random crafts in the cart. I got more acrylic paint for me and went looking for watercolors and specialty paper. I figured that since the kids are sketching Pokemon and 9 yo enjoyed blending our cheapo watercolors, they might benefit from slightly higher quality products. While I was looking, the boys stumbled onto a craft aisle with solar panel cars. They both found kits which they liked: 6 in 1 kit for 9 yo and transformer for 7 yo. They themselves decided that they will dump the other crafts from the cart and keep just these. The prices were a bit higher than what I expected, and I probably could have shopped around online and found them cheaper, but I decided just to get them. The age range was also 10 and up and I anticipated having to help them quite a bit.

Assembling their cars

When we got home, the boys went straight to their kits. I had to make a phone call ( ironically, to a veteran unschooling friend, since I am quaking in my boots here!), so the kids were left to their own devices. Well, they did get stuck and needed help, but they followed the directions and progressed quite far in their assembly. Overall, they worked on these models from 1:30 till 5, when it was dinner, and then for another hour till bedtime. We all just had fun with them, and, to tell the truth, this is what I wish I could spend my time doing. 

Waiting for the sun to come out

During dinner, I got a call that another homeschooling family will be joining us for Shabbos. This casually brought up the topic of Shavuos, more related to food than to Judaism, yet, we digressed into why we eat milchig and 9 yo remembered about Moshe adding a day and postponing Shavuos. Then he quoted a line that he heard from a shiur this morning... basically, he was listening! I added a few more ideas that I heard before I picked them up. 7 yo piped in that he wants clay to make Har Sinai. We also discussed what exactly the Jews heard while on Har Sinai and why we count up instead of down.

It is funny, since I was complaining to my friend how Torah learning does not happen spontaneously here, unlike secular subjects.

What's wrong with this picture?

This is from a nice and standard science book. Can you find the mistake?

Rock garden part 2

Good things come to those who wait. I just wish inorganic substances crystallized like this!

Rock garden

Yesterday we went grocery shopping. Our list included ammonia and bluing. Till yesterday, I had no idea what is bluing, where to find it, and how to use it. Apparently, it is used to "brighten whites", and it is found in the laundry sections of grocery stores. The bottle is, appropriately, blue.

These supplies were requested by 8 yo to grow rock crystal gardens. He took out a book from the library about crystals about a month ago and now finally got around  to it.

When we finished our schoolwork yesterday, we set up the basic solution:

• 3 tablespoons of salt
• 3 tablespoons of water
• 3 tablespoons of bluing

Mix them together, then carefully and slowly add one tablespoon of ammonia.

The resulting solution was more than enough for our three gardens.

1. A few different rocks and pieces of charcoal.

2. Crumpled and shredded paper towels

3. Crumpled aluminum foil and a few toothpicks on top.

Spoon the solution on top, mixing gently. They suggest not pouring it on.

Rock garden, before the solution

rock with the solution

While we saw some crystals form right away, the real beauties awaited us in the morning. I just wish my proteins from grad school crystallized like that!

What's going on:

These are salt crystals. Water is needed to dissolve the salt. Bluing contains powdered fragments which seed the crystals and let them form. These fragments attach to the materials (coal, rocks, paper, etc) and provide scaffolding. Ammonia helps water evaporate faster, so that crystals can grow quicker.

The best part was that this experiment came out of kids' desires, so they were eager to check on it and show it off to my husband.

white crystals

more crystals

As another aside to my science coverage worries, we visited Goodwill this past Friday and walked out with two textbooks. One was World History and another was 4th grade science. 8 yo grabbed onto the science one and browsed it the whole Shabbos. There was a vocabulary preview at the beginning of a unit. I conducted my own experiment and asked him if he knew any of the words. He said that he knew all of them. I asked him about the meaning of mimicry. He immediately gave me the example of a milk snake and coral snake. Same went for the next section, about plant parts. He knew all the words except for one, and did not mind looking through the chapter to find it. I breathed a sigh of relief. Even without formal schooling and memorization, he surely knew the concepts and the vocabulary.

science "curriculum"

During most recent orthodox homeschoolers online chat, someone asked about resources for teaching science and a lively discussion ensued. I sat back, listening and feeling bad: I am not doing any curriculum with the kids. I do not have a textbook, or agenda, or even a loose schedule or units.  I do not schedule science in, like I do math and Hebrew and Story of the World. I have some ideas floating around in my head, but none of them came to fruition. Is science missing from my children's education?

The past couple weeks have proved otherwise. First of all, we have a large collection of Magic School Bus books, which boys read and reread at will. Then there are other science books hanging around the house, from an old textbook, to my occasional science reading. Then there is library, and boys pick out whatever interests them. 8 yo is still working his way through the dinosaur section. Then there are documentaries, both on Netflix and through the library. The latest one that the kids are enjoying is called SciQ. It is made by Smithsonian, and they cannot stop talking about it.

Then there are dinnertime discussions. One night this week 8 yo started the conversation by informing us about lizards which reproduce by cloning, without a male. We discussed advantages and disadvantages of this: no need for males, ability to colonize an island with just one lizard. Then we discussed disadvantages: passing on genetic defects without variety and reducing the odds of survival. My husband asked if a genetic disease could be an advantage, and brought in an example of sickle cell anemia and malaria. In order to have this kind of discussion, my kids knew what are red blood cells, what are their functions and what they normally look like. 8 yo also knew that malaria is spread by mosquito bites. 6 yo wanted to know how many  red blood cells are there in an average person. I found myself marveling  when I taught middle schoolers, I could not take the knowledge of basic facts for granted, and here are my kids, without formal curriculum, who are able to hold and comprehend this level of conversation.

When we go on a hike, 2 yo spends some time talking about the roots we step over, the big and small trees we see, the leaves underfoot, why is it winter, and the birds around us. Just this Friday, as we were waiting for the boys to loop around the lake, we opened up a seed pod which was just lying by our feet and looked at the small seeds inside. I have no idea which tree it came from, but it did not matter much. I stressed that each seed can grow into a big tree, and that prompted my daughter to open more pods and to count how many seeds were inside.

But what about scientific method? Experiments?

the set-up

Last night was the last night of Chanukah. As we were setting up candles and oil after Shabbos, 8 yo wondered about olive oil burning the longest and the best. I said that he could test it out and that's what he did this morning. We used three clean yortzait candle holders. He squirted 30 ml of water into each one, and then topped each with 20 ml of the different oils we had in the house: canola, corn and olive. Then he floated a wick in each, lit them up, and made a chart to see what happens. In the process of setting up this impromptu experiment, I told him how we want to have only other thing different ( a variable), while everything else has to be exactly the same (control). He figured out on his own that he needs to label the glasses, to know which oil is in which. He also proposed a hypothesis (thank you, Dinosaur Train) that canola will burn the shortest.

The results: olive oil burned out the fastest, after 6 hours, followed by corn an hour later, and canola, in another half an hour. 8 yo's conclusion: we should light with canola. An argument about the original menorah and the traditional use of olive oil fell on deaf ears. Afterwards, I speculated to my husband that they did not have good oil blends then, and maybe canola is today's olive...

the results

Science comes easily to me. I can probably come up with experiments all the time. The reason I don't is because those experiments would be answering the questions which were not asked yet. If a concept does not bother my kids, how much interest would an experiment hold? Moreover, why should I invest my time and energy and be pressuring my kids to do something which is not interesting right now?

There is a time and a place for everything. Since the time for science is "all the time", the questions and conversations about it happen all the time. There are no tests, no grades, no standards. But there is also no pressure.

I just wish I could say the same about Judaics...

awesome Friday

You know those days when you look back and say: this is so enjoyable and I am getting so much satisfaction? Well, today was one of those.

edible aquifer

It did not start exactly on the right foot: 2 yo and 8 yo were duking it out for my lap space on the couch and I do not enjoy mediating fights while it is still dark outside. 8 yo asked for pancakes for breakfast, and I asked him to set the table in return.

Everyone davened, and then I presented the schedule for the day. It was not met with great enthusiasm. 6 yo complained that I did not include Lama or any reading time. 8 yo complained that I did not include Rosetta Stone. I thought I am going easy on everyone since it is the first early Friday. However, 6 yo zoomed through his work and was done by 10 am. In that time he did math, handwriting, spelling and Lashon HaTorah. We still had parsha to do, so I told him to find a parsha reader and go read quietly in his room while 8 yo catches up. The older one was done by 11 am. He did review in math, script, spelling and Lashon HaTorah.

giddy up!

Then we moved on to parsha. Since 8 yo is learning Chayei Sorah in depth, I was quite familiar with the part that we covered so far: Eliezer meeting Rivkah. I was not sure what to do about the rest: cover it in depth? Skip it, so it is new and fresh? Cover it lightly? I decided to focus on a few highlights and keep the rest for more in-depth study. Then we acted out the story by the well. 8 yo wanted to be Eliezer. 6 yo wanted to be a camel, and so did 2 yo. I got to be Rivkah. The boys found saddles and harness for the camels, jewelry for Eliezer to give to Rivkah, a bucket for the well and a gallon jug. They asked me what a nose ring is, and I googled it to show them. We also discussed how much a camel can drink. They filled up the gallon jug with water and tried carrying it around on their shoulders, but nobody lasted too long. I am thankful for indoor plumbing, these kids would make lousy water carriers!

this camel is resting

WE acted out the story till they got to Betuel's house. The boys remarked on how much fun they had, and I made a mental note to do this more often.

Anachronistic prayer of Eliezer

Then we had lunch and for dessert, we made edible aquifers, to show how a well works. I got this idea from this blog. We talked a bit about wells before and we tried making one with clay/soil, sand and rocks, but I saw that the idea was not sticking. We used dyed seltzer for water, ice cubes for the aquifer, ice cream for impermeable layer and cookie crumbs for the soil. The straws were the wells. When 6 yo asked: so the well has to reach the aquifer to get water, I knew that he finally got the concept.

2 yo helped me make the lemon bars, there is chicken soup simmering on the stove, the kids are washed and we are set for Shabbos. I did most of my cooking yesterday, so not scrambling at the last minute adds to today's calmness.

Shabbat Shalom to all!

Mrs. Lot

I attended a homeschooling webinar this past week and one of the questions was about the science curriculum. Now, those still trigger a small wave of panic in the pit of my stomach: science curriculum? we do not have one! I am brimming with ideas: nature walks, nature journals, leaf categorization, phases of the moon, using light sources to show equinox and eclipses, plant life, the human body... The problem is, I think my kids would much rather read some of their science books, watch a documentary, dig in the dirt and take a picture of a woodpecker on our neighbor's house than do a formal study of anything. 

I attended a homeschooling webinar this past week and one of the questions was about the science curriculum. Now, those still trigger a small wave of panic in the pit of my stomach: science curriculum? we do not have one! I am brimming with ideas: nature walks, nature journals, leaf categorization, phases of the moon, using light sources to show equinox and eclipses, plant life, the human body... The problem is, I think my kids would much rather read some of their science books, watch a documentary, dig in the dirt and take a picture of a woodpecker on our neighbor's house than do a formal study of anything. 

In honor of this week's parsha, Vayeira, I decided to make Mrs. Lot.

Protocol? There was no protocol. Mrs. Lot turned into a pillar of salt, so we were supposed to get a pillar of salt, somehow. I started by filling a pot with a small amount of water. Then I asked boys to add some salt to it and to stir it up. I told them that salt is dissolving and soon we will not see it any more. I explained that salt is made out of sodium and chloride, holding hands, but when it hit s water, they let go and snuggle up with the water molecules instead. I also told them that we cannot add salt indefinitely, eventually, there will not be enough water for sodium and chloride to snuggle up to, so they will choose to hold hands and that will make the solution saturated. The boys took turns adding salt and mixing. I got them to taste it and they declared it to be positively salty. 

Then I asked them: how can we get the salt out? 8 yo said that we could vaporize all the water. I asked them to take a skewer, wrap a piece of yarn around it and tie it. Then I showed them some coarse and fine salt, next to each other. I asked them to compare ( and taste). I explained that coarse salt has larger crystals. I also said that I hope that by dipping the string into coarse salt, we will encourage the growth of larger crystals.

The start things along, I put the pot on the stove. Immediately, 6 yo asked how long it will take. I said, a few minutes till the water starts boiling. They stood there, watching it and counting the seconds. A watched pot does boil! Then we dipped in the string on the skewer. Two things happened: the crystals dissolved and the string started moving around in the boiling bubbles. At this point, it was getting close to Shabbos, and I was not going to let Mrs. Lot take over my stove, so the experiment got moved to the top of the dryer.

This is Mrs. Lot, gently evaporating on the stove

8 yo asked about the white dots on the side of the pot. I asked for his opinion and he correctly guessed that it is salt. I stressed that only water molecules can evaporate, so those are the droplets of salty water, where the water evaporated and the salt was left behind.

Mrs Lot is currently taking up residence on top of the dryer that is running a load of clothes. I am chuckling, remembering my grad school days. I specialized in X-ray crystallography, but, before one can shoot crystals, one has to grow them. Some liked to grow undisturbed, like rock candy, while some liked to be agitated. I hope that the gentle dryer vibrations are encouraging crystal growth.

We do not need science curriculum, not yet. I need to be able to catch my kids when they are interested in science and give them a certain amount of information, on their level, with a hands-on activity of some kind. Overall, the goal is to make science something accessible and enjoyable.

oil and water do not mix

It's been Tishrei. There have been holidays up to wazoo. There has not been a lot of formal learning going on. Ok, there has not been any formal learning, nothing which produces nice neat worksheets, completed pages, checks, grades, nothing assessable with a multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank standard test. And next week my sister is getting married, in New York, so there won't be any formal schooling taking place till we come back, in the middle of the following week.

A part of me is panicking. That's the part which wants to be able to have something to show for our homeschooling: those pages covered, material taught, worksheets completed. A wiser part of me is saying that there is still tons of learning going on, of the more permanent kind. It is not easily quantifiable and assessable, but it is still there.

For example, our lunch today. We had to run a bunch of errands: fix the car's headlight, get haircuts for all the kids, buy groceries for Shabbos and snacks for the road. As a result we finally got home for lunch by 1:30. The boys asked for pizza bagels and were snacking on veggies dipped in ranch dressing while waiting for them to bake. 8 yo, dreamily: "I wonder what happens when you pour oil into the cup first, and then pour water on top." The teacher in me: "So what do you think happens?" 8 yo:" The water is denser, so it will be on top of oil."

The teacher in me thought of the mistakes in this reasoning. The teacher in me thought of the oil droplets floating on top of the chicken soup. The teacher in me thought that by the point a child reaches 8, he SHOULD know what happens when you mix oil and water. Luckily, the wiser side of me took over.

"Do you think it matters what gets poured in first: oil or water? Why?"
6 yo chimed in that he thinks that oil will float on water because water is heavier. 8 yo maintained that if oil gets poured in first, it gets pushed down by denser water. By that point, we had to try it out. 8 yo was actually surprised that oil floated on top. He was also surprised that it formed bubbles. I asked what happens when you mix juice with water (something we routinely do). There he knew that it stays mixed. I introduced terms "hydrophilic" and "hydrophobic". 8 yo was able to take them apart and figure out their meaning. I explained how oil molecules are afraid of water and try to stick together, looking for each other and holding hands.

The boys added more water to the cup, till the oil layer separated into droplets. Then they stuck their fingers through the oil layer. Then they cleaned up the mess.

Ok, nothing great and amazing here. No scientific breakthroughs, no charts, graphs, not even a short entry in a science notebook. But the difference is, the question came from within, the experiment was designed to answer the question, and 8 yo peacefully acknowledged that his younger brother was right all along. I think that the answer is more likely to linger in his mind this way.

How many times, when I taught science to middle schoolers, I was waiting for them to ask a question and then to come up with an answer! But their minds were more often on the interrupted game of kickball, or the  assigned reading of the day, than on what I wanted them to do. It is impossible to run a classroom like this, waiting for kids to formulate their own burning questions and then figure out how to get answers. Yet, somehow, by the time one reaches graduate school, one is expected to do just that: here is what we know, figure out how to ask what has not been asked yet, and then figure out how to answer that and to prove it. In short, we are doing a lousy job of producing true thinkers.

This is a graphic of the High School report card of John Gurdon, this year's recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Obviously, his teacher did not think much about his abilities. Obviously, this guy did not fit into a neat little box. Obviously this "out-of-box" thinking is what led to his Nobel Prize.

Now, I am not expecting my kids to win Nobel Prizes, but I expect them to think and work beyond what is traditionally expected. The more I think about it, the more I realize that unschooling is a fertile ground, waiting to be mined for gems, beckoning to be explored.