Freely Educate

How Do You Encourage Creativity?

I finished a few chores this morning, then moseyed into the kitchen to find this lovely sight:

Coincidentally, right before I walked in on the kids and their spontaneous paint session, I listened to an inspiring talk given by Sir Ken Robinson (a speaker & educator) in which he said, 

"Creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."

Wow.  That requires some rethinking, doesn't it?  But after the past few years of mulling over what education means to me, I agree with him.  It's good to keep sagging bookshelves around, but it's equally good to leave out paints, paper, scissors and gluesticks for the children to use freely.

Mr. Robinson (Sir Ken, is it?) says, "We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it...or rather, we are educated out of it.  Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not.  Because the thing they were good at in school wasn't valued."

Our little gal (5) noticed me taking photos and without looking up from her paints, said, "I'm going to be an artist." 

That door, I hope, will always look as open to her as the doors to mathmetician and aeronautical engineer as a result of a fulleducation: one in which creativity is as important as literacy.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on creativity and its importance to the children in your life.  How do you encourage creativity?

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Teaching What I Love

A homeschooling mom who successfully graduated her beautiful children says stop stressing over the "shoulds" and the things we think are important just because school systems say they're important.  Instead, teach our children what we love and what we know, because God totally knew what that child needs when he gave her to that mama with those talents and those dreams. 

I'm enjoying the thought of how much fun we could have, if we followed that.  Why, we'd sew, we'd bake, we'd raise chickens, and we'd photograph at the beach together! 

What beautiful days we would have, and such sweet memories, if we took time to do things like these instead of spending our days in frustration over textbooks.  Since books are important, too, I'll teach her to love them as I do by sharing only the highest quality books with her.  Instead of writing in workbooks, we'll write freehand in pretty spiral notebooks, our subjects coming from our full days and our topics about the things we love.  We'll study art in the field up the hill, and physical education will come from long walks along the Bay and kayaking trips upriver. 

And above all other busyness, we'll preserve lots and lots of time together and with our little family.  Because if I teach her what I love, I'll teach her to know herself, since she is one of the things I love the most.

p.s. Yes, that's our 13 year old ballerina there at a local Gulf Coast beach.  I know.  She doesn't look 13.  But she is.  Please spread that news to the 16 year old boys along the Gulf Coast.

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A note to you:  On Sundays, now and then, I write a bit about how our family homeschools our children.  Freely Educate is for all educators from all over the world and from varied backgrounds.  I love that! This is just how we homeschool... now I'd love to hear how you educate children in the comments below. 

Thank you.

Thank you, so many of you, for filling out the survey  I posted yesterday morning (you can still fill it out if you missed it).  You're giving me something to think about, and for that, I thank you. 

A few people mentioned that they don't want Freely Educate to stop focusing on free finds.  That won't happen.  Freely Educate will always be focused on "proving that a high quality education can indeed be 100% free."  Because it can. We're proving it.

 

We - Tim & I -  have been looking at options, turning ideas over, wondering about this and that.  So we thought we'd ask you what you think, too.  We definitely want to hear your opinions, for  FreelyEducate.com would be nothing but cyber clutter if you didn't visit. 

Do you know the story of how this blog began?  It was quite by accident.  Someone helped us out after Hurricane Ivan came roaring through our area in 2004, so when Hurricane Katrina hit our geographic neighbors in 2005, it was time to pay-it-forward.  Our family responded in a couple of ways, one of which was to create an email loop for those who want to give away their extra educational items to someone, anyone, anywhere, who needed it.   The email group grew to over 3,000 subscribers, but postage costs rose, the economy tanked, and the offers became less frequent.  Eventually, I was posting offers that I found online and from companies, but members weren't posting items anymore.  Since I'm a longtime blogger, I moved the email list to a blog format in 2008.  You're here. 

Since this blog came about by accident, we're quite surprised by its success, and thankful - so thankful - for you and your support.

p.s. The words came from putting the FreelyEducate.com address into Wordle.  Try it with any site address or with any words you choose.  It's pretty fun!

"In concentrating exclusively on teaching the child how to read, we have forgotten to teach him to want to read…

somehow we lost sight of the teaching precept: 

What you make a child love and desire is more important than what you make him learn."

 

~ Jim Trelease in the Read-Aloud Handbook

 

What do you think?

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I can only teach to my class what I know.

 And the wonderful thing about it is that I could teach everybody in this room everything I know, and yet

I will still know everything I know.

So it isn't a matter of giving it away, it's a matter of sharing it.

 

~ Leo Buscaglia in the late 1970's or early 1980's in Living, Loving & Learning , pgs.9, 10

 

Any thoughts on that?  Share them in the comments.

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How to Teach Your Child to Love Reading

(our 13yo gal in a favorite reading spot)

Our four children have such different personalities, but all four are avid readers. A friend, who has five children who do not enjoy reading, asked me how we taught our children to love reading.  The question surprised me, as we didn't do it on purpose.  I had never wondered about it. After thinking it over, these might be the reasons why our children love to read:

• I love to read.  They have seen mama with reading material in her hands every day, all of their lives.  There's no such thing as "no time to read," as all you need are a couple of minutes to read a paragraph.  Paragaph upon paragraph, a book is read.  In our house, Daddy doesn't read much, so don't worry if you're the only adult reader in the house.
• We read aloud to them.  Not every day.  I wish we did read to them daily; it's one of my goals, and has been one of my goals for a decade or so, but we do read aloud fairly often.  When we read, it is always with inflection, sometimes with a tear (Horton makes me cry), sometimes with the deepest of belly laughs (Calvin & Hobbes), and sometimes with respect.
• We only read quality books and magazines.  When I was first introduced to the concept of "living books," I became paralyzed by what was a good book and what wasn't considered a good book.  Don't do that.  You'll stop reading books, frustrated by the choices.  Just go with what you think is a good, entertaining book.  Do you have a childhood favorite?  Start there. Introduce it to your child.  Books are timeless.  Our children loved Dick & Jane, for example, which are such old and non-techie books!  They are good examples of a book series that someone else may not think is "good quality," as they are quite simple. It doesn't matter if a book is on someone else's list of favorites.  It can still be on ours.  
• We don't make a big deal about it.  We don't assign a certain number of pages (unless it's a book that needs to be read a certain pace, like a history book).  During school hours, for reading or literature time, I often say, "Read 30 minutes today, from a book of your choice."  Reading can be done anywhere:  on the bed, in the rocking chair, or in the yard (see photo above of our then-12yo daughter).  Also, if a book isn't preferred, and isn't needed for a certain reason (such as a history book), it can be shelved.  Sometimes, we just don't like a book.  That's okay, as long as he or she doesn't dislike every book.

If I had a reluctant reader, this is what I'd do:

I would read aloud from an interesting book, stop mid-chapter in the middle of an exciting scene, or at a point in the story where one must know what happens next.  I'd then silently place a bookmark, close the book, and set it down in a highly-trafficked spot.  Likely, your child will not stay silent, but will beg you to read more.  Say, "Oh, I have something of my own to read.  You go ahead and finish this one."  If he wants to share the experience with you, let him read aloud to you. 

Last year, I wanted our 14yo to read Watership Down, but he grew too bored of it too quickly.  I didn't want this book shelved, as I hoped for the discussion and deep thinking that would follow.  I read aloud from Watership Down for about a week's worth of school days.  By then we were well into the story, figuratively on the edge of a cliff, so that our son had to know what happened next.  I bookmarked the book, set it on the table, and said, "You go ahead and finish this, if you like. I've read it already."  He immediately picked up the book and read it through.

To get you started with great books, here are some of our family favorites:  

from our 9th grader (15yo):

The Hobbit

the Redwall Series

from our 7th grader (just turned 13yo):

A Hopeful Heart

Janette Oake's books

Corrie  Belle Hollister series

from our 5th grader (10yo):

Enclyopedia Brown series

Happy Hollisters series

from our 2nd grader (7yo):

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (as a read-aloud)

Guess How Much I Love You

As we each have our likes & dislikes, preferences & personalities, our favorites may not work well for you and your children.  So let's get more opinions!

What are your family's favorite books?  Let us know, in the "comments" section, below.

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How To Homeschool for FREE (how we do it)

Although FreelyEducate.com is for all educators, I'm focusing today on homeschoolers, by telling you what free resources we personally use in our home.  I hope this will give you a picture of how you can use the free educational finds in your little school.

Our children are in grades 9th, 7th, 5th, and 2nd.

Ambleside Online is the place I go for history and reading/literature book suggestions.  I don't follow the Ambleside levels, though, because it makes me crazy when I try to teach 4 different levels at once.  So we study just one level each year, together.  If I can't find a suggested book free online (to read off my Kindle, which, by the way, is only $139 now with no extra fees - I justified it at the initial price of $350, ouch!), or if I can't find the book at the library, I look for an alternative that's free, either by searching online for a good book or by looking at a different Ambleside level. 

For Math, we use Khan Academy, which is an online program.  In the past, I printed off the math drill sheets at Donna Young's site, since the kids need to work on speed. 

For Science, the children may watch a good quality TV program and experiment with all sorts of kits and supplies and gadgets (rocketry, electronics, chemistry by baking, etc.).  Science is a natural around here -- we're curious, experimenting folk.  We supplement our experimenting with a few sites like Katz on nutrition,  Stossel's free DVDs, and this elements chart.  Also, our 9th grader is in the Civil Air Patrol where there is an emphasis on aeronautical science.

The 9th grader and 7th grader are using this  Grammar program this year.

The children also need some Current Events.  I like Izzit for that.

For Art, the kids have the freedom of using any supplies they like when they like.  We keep art supplies readily at hand.  We completed every video from illustrator Jan Brett.  And this year, to give them some information on drawing basics, we're using Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes (not free - it's a book).   Our 2nd and 5th graders also take a free art class at the local library.

For writing, we do a lot of copywork (copying high quality literature from their literature or history books and often the Bible).  Dictation is once a week (I read a passage; they write it down.  We then go over it together, discussing spelling and punctuation).  I find that it's best to learn spelling from words you're already using or reading, instead of from spelling lists, so the above methods (copywork, dictation) work well for us, but a year ago our then-5th grader was having a hard time because she was so-very-phonetic, that after reviewing All About Spelling, I started using it for her (here's a post on why).  I had our 8th grader "teach" it to her (90% of what you teach, you retain, so I've heard).  It's made a difference, so our younger children are using the All About Spelling program, too, but honestly, I think reading great books and writing daily makes the biggest difference  of all.

For typing, the older children prefer Peter's Online Typing Course, while the younger ones enjoy the loud and colorful Dance Mat Typing.

For language learning, we are using Tell Me More (which is not free at all, but if you want it, here's an offer from them: Save Up to 25% off and Free Shipping on Select Language Learning Software).  When we want to interact with native speakers, or simply to learn even more, we go to the free language learning site,  Live Mocha.

Our little gal, 2nd grade, is moving along at her own pace with the free reading program at Progressive Phonics.  She spent preschool and kindergarten at Starfall.  She is going to use the free ebook that we recently highlighted for Penmanship this year.

Whew!  Obviously, we don't do all of this in one day! I didn't even mention practical skills, P.E., geography, economics....but I think this list is overwhelming as it is, with the many links for you to visit.  I hope it gives you an idea, though, of how to use the free resources found at FreelyEducate.com. If you'd like me to expand on this post, or post it in a loose schedule form, let me know.

We're on the look out for the highest quality, 100% free, educational finds for ourselves, as much as we're trying to find them for you.

~ Lori Seaborg

(photo by me, of our little gal learning at the computer)

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