HOMESCHOOLING - an experiment

discipline..

2009-07-08T04:41:00.000-07:00

we are standing at a very start of our homeschooling journey...even before i started officially teaching my son, the major issue raised by many of people, was teaching "DISCIPLINE" to the kid. it happens to stand at no.1 in our indian context !!

i tried to define it, but couldn't arrive at a unanimous definition. found so many variants. it differed person to person. prominant aspects were - listening to parents, learning good manners, hard work....etc.etc.

raising a child is as complex as it appears to be simple !!
Discipline is about behaviour and developing a certain behaviour takes time to evolve or change.

you tell them generalised rules, they will be the most confused lot !! unless you specifically mention what you expect out of them, they wont understand. so i understood my lesson - ONE SHOULD NOT GET DISAPPOINTED/UPSET WITH FEW ASPECTS OF CHILD'S BEHAVIOUR ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU SEE THEM FOR FIRST FEW TIMES !!

only that you need to tell them what is the right way of doing it.

another lesson i learnt on the way "PREACHERS SHOULD FOLLOW THE SET RULES THEMSELVES FIRST"
kids are all the time watching and observing you. what you do, they are going to enact the same at certain point of time.

yeah but at the same time, excess of discipline is going to ruin the child !! he might become too obedient (read spoon-fed), or rebellient due to so many restrictions. so prioratising the behavioural patterns you expect is a must...so it definitely is not a smooth walk...but a rope walk !!

that boy...

2009-07-08T04:32:00.000-07:00

yesterday i happened to see a kid, hardly 7-8 years old, who was crossing the street. that too he was carrying a baby, presumably his younger sibling, not even a year old. at first, i got scared. then i realised he was smart enough to check on both the sides for vehicles before crossing. i was amused and thought of his parents immediately. i saw around and placed the parents, who were sitting across the road. they looked like a couple, working on a road side construction site.

i wonder who taught this boy of illiterate couple, to cross the road so confidently and systematically. and look at us, we are afraid to send our kids alone even in neighbourhood garden...and we call us literate/educated or whatever !!!

random thoughts

2009-06-09T00:40:00.000-07:00

Till the time i had actually entered this homeschooling idea, it was looking so alien to me. And now with a few days research and meeting various people, it sounds so familiar and friendly.

One thing i've prominently noticed is majority of the parents are more or less not happy with something or the other, with the school their kids are attending to. May it be the infrastructure, the way teachers handle students, the way teachers teach or conduct various activities, exposure availed to the students, sports, extra curriculars...so many more things !! but maybe becasue schooling is the most common means to educate your children, they are not thinking about any other options. or maybe they do think but dont have time, gutts, or patience to do it themselves.
But i've noticed recently, it is in the news, written about on blogs, published in various media. Homeschooling is surely picking up in india instead of being a word of taboo. in western countries it was practised since ages. But Indians are yet not very familiar or comfortable with the idea.
As against to this very thought, i've myself found and met quite a few homeschooling parents very much here in mumbai. Meeting up with them and discussing my doubts proved to be helpful to formulate our own answers to the common doubts we had. I now feel better equiped to take it on and face the world.

everyone i met opinioned, i still have time to let hte idea percolate deep inside and to well equip myself as my kid is just 2 years old not. i still have time in hand. It feels nice when you know you are not late :) There is so much you can do.
here I go !!!

2009-05-20T23:44:00.001-07:00

While casually browsing through the internet i came across an idea of keeping good records of the homeschooling child's homeschooled years. Which would be important keeping so that if you ever decide to put your child back in school, everything will be in order.

anybody on how it can be done?

MY VERSION OF PRESCHOOL CURRICULUM

2009-05-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

I was wondering if there is any listing of what each child is required to learn in each grade.

Then i searched The Internet and formulated my own curriculum for preschool.

Any suggestions are welcome !

A TYPICAL COURSE OF STUDY : PRESCHOOL :

It goes as follows :

- academic subjects

- each academic subject is further divided into the topics to be covered through the particular course.

1. COLOURS AND SHAPES

1.1 Recognising and identifying primary colours

1.2 Recognising sleeping lines, standing lines and slanting lines

1.3 Recognising rectangles and circles

1.4 Making a match of shapes and relevant objects based on shape

1.5 Copying a shape

2. LISENING AND SEQUENCING

2.1 To follow simple directions

2.2 To listen to a short story

2.3 To listen carefully and analyse

2.4 To recognise common sounds

2.5 To repeat a sequence of sounds

2.6 To repeat orally given numbers / phonics

2.7 To retell simple stories in sequence

3. MOTOR SKILLS

3.1 To be able to run

3.2 To be able to walk a straigth line

3.3 To be able to jump

3.4 To be able to hop

3.5 To be able to alternate feet walking down the stairs

3.6 To be able to march

3.7 To be able to stand on one foot upto 5 seconds

3.8 To be able to walk backwards

3.9 To be able to throw a ball

3.10 To be able to paste objects

3.11 To be able to clap hands

3.12 To be able to match simple objects

3.13 To be able to button a garment

3.14 To be able to build with blocks

3.15 To be able to complete simple puzzles

3.16 To be able to draw and colour (simple scribble)

3.17 To be able to zip-unzip a zipper

3.18 To be able to control a pencil or a crayon

3.19 To be able to cut with a sizzors with care

4. NUMBERS

4.1 Counts orally through 10

4.2 Counts objects in one to one correspondence

4.3 Counts numbers on fingures

4.4 Understands empty and full

4.5 Understands more and less

5. POSITIONS AND DIRECTIONS

Understands -

5.1 up and down

5.2 in and out

5.3 front and back

5.4 over/on and under

5.5 top, bottom and middle

5.6 besides and next to

5.7 hot and cold

5.8 fast and slow

6. READING READINESS

6.1 Remember images/objects from given picture

6.2 Has been read through regularly

6.3 looks at books and magazines and pretends to read it

6.4 recognises common nursery rhymes or kids songs

6.5 Identifies body parts

6.6 To identify the objects that have functional use

6.7 To identify common farm and wild animals

6.8 Tell you own first name and last name

6.9 To express self verbally

6.10 To identify other kids by their names
6.11 To be able to tell meanings of simple words

6.12 forms short sentenses

6.13 To be able to answer questions about a short story

6.14 Looks at pictures and tells a story

7. SIZE

7.1 Understands big and small

7.2 Understands long and short

7.3 Matches shapes or objects based on size

8. SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

8.1 Can be away from parents or primary care for 2-3 hrs without being upset

8.2 Takes care of toilet needs independently

8.3 Cares for own belongings

8.4 Knows how o use a handkerchief or a tissue

8.5 Brushes his own teeth daily

8.6 Knows parents' names

8.7 Knows house address

8.8 Knows house phone number

8.9 Enters into casual conversation with others

8.10 Carries a plate of food carefully

8.11 Plays with other children and shares his toys

8.12 Recognises authority

8.13 Meets visitors without shyness

8.14 Able to work/play independently

8.15 Helps family with chores

9. TIME

9.1 Understands Day and Night

9.2 Knows Self age and birthday

These are rough notes for my own purpose. They are not meant to be followed as bible.

050509

2009-05-19T00:45:00.000-07:00

We have almost decided to homeschool Amal by now. The idea itself is very exciting and inspiring.

Online research has begun on my side. I feel, to keep Amal updated, i need to know what is happening around in regular schools in terms of education.

I'm very much sure that the whole process is going to be equally enligthening and enjoyable for amal as well as me. I've yet not figured out how minal (amal's baba) is going to fit in, in this exercise. But it gives me strength even knowing that he is equally "FOR" the idea of homeschooling.

People around, keep asking questions about homeschooling and tell us how amal might grow up into an intorvert or a shy boy. so first job is to find out or rather formulate an answer that justifies our decision and still is not bias. Whether or not others accept/welcome the homeschooling idea, our answer should be ready and clear in our own minds. I cant just say that i never enjoyed school so I thought of not putting amal in school !

There is a lot of material available on the internet for homeschooling parents and kids. Also there are many people around the globe who are doing the job on their own. Its pleasure and fun to introduce your kid to the whole world of knowledge all by yourself. Its such a joyful xperience to relearn things along with your child.

Managing and organising this material available in abundance is crucial. I've to yet fin out a system for doing the same. But writing about t is the least that can be done offhand. So i start my notes here for AMAL.

Here are few mentionable books :

1. How Children Fail BY JOHN HOLT
2. How Children Learn BY JOHN HOLT
3. The underachieving School BY JOHN HOLT
4. What do i do Monday BY JOHN HOLT
5. Freedom and Beyond BY JOHN HOLT
6. Escape from Childhood BY JOHN HOLT
7. Instead of Education BY JOHN HOLT
8. Never too Late BY JOHN HOLT
9. Teach your Own BY JOHN HOLT
10. Learning All the Time BY JOHN HOLT
11. A Life Worth Living BY JOHN HOLT
12. Magazine : Growing without Schooling BY JOHN HOLT
13. The Lives of Children BY GEORGE DENNISON
14. Reading BY FRANK SMITH
15. Patterns in Mathematics BY LAIDLAW BROTHERS
16. The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart BY JAN HUNT
17. In Their Own Way BY THOMAS ARMSTRONG
18. Social Implications of Schooling BY DR AVIJIT PATHAK
19. Kids have all the write stuff BY SHARON A EDWARDS & ROBERT W MALOY

In India we see a strong family bonding and world wide it is believed that a child begins his first years of education from home. because they say and believe, what parents and grand-parents can teach, none else can !!!

- sonal modak

home schooling..open schooling...non-schooling....

2009-05-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

Finally the time has arrived to take a decision. I know its not so easy to take such a decision for someone else who is completely dependent on you. The success or failure of any idea will be evident only after it starts showing up the results...
After getting married having kid was a very obvious option. Eventually it happened and amal arrived in our lives. I'd thought a lot about having kids, and how i would raise them, how would i help them grow up with sensible rational approach. who grow up into a sensitive, inelligent and integrated persona. How i would love them to see growing in nature, playing in nature and learning from nature.
Personally i never enjoyed my schooling days, except for the extra curricular activities, which offered me to stay out of class often. And that was an incentive to finish it without failing. To pass the exams was never so difficult with the minimum required efforts put in.
There, this idea came to me, to home-school / non-school or put my child in an open school. Before amal's arrival the thought did not sound so difficult as i was looking at it as a third party or an outsider i guess. But now as amal has already turned 2 years and the obvious next step would be of putting him in some school pops up. All the thoughts gushing at the same time, positive / negative all together, am rendered totally confused. Not able to clearly see the situation.
So many people around have to say so many different things on the topic..they are not going to take decision on my behalf but they are there to put forth all the possibilities pleasant as well as non-so-pleasant ones. Its good in a way..but on my side it calls for a lot more courage and in depth knowledge...
My research has begun...friends, internet, various groups, discussions...its going to take time.If you have anything to say, please feel free to respond. If you know someone dealing the issue in similar ways please let me know. If you can help me out in getting resources in or around mumbai it would be welcome.
- Sonal modak