List of things
I am making a list of things I don’t like to do that maybe could count as homeschool projects:
Making beds.
Dusting the floor boards.
Cooking Spaghetti 0’s.
Cleaning out my car.
Calling my dad to say hi.
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penelope@penelopetrunk.com
I follow Rebecca Lindamood’s blog because she has THE BEST recipes (and sense of humor) but she is also a homeschooler of 5 boys in rural New York. She seems open to questions from the public on cooking and canning so maybe she’d be open to giving guidance re: your homeschooling adventure.
http://www.foodiewithfamily.com and @foodiewithfam
Sacha, Thank You! I just book marked the food page, it all looks amazing.
Throw in “Balancing the checkbook” and you have a nice, well-rounded Life Skills curriculum.
Interesting to-do list and makes me think of the following idea – Why not make one list of all things to do and assign them various labels such as fun, not fun, must do (with priorities), etc. and then sort or filter accordingly as necessary?
I’m curious…do each of your sons make their own lists too?
This is an interesting question. Because we live on a farm, and the boys are surrounded by adults doing chores every morning. So the boys make their own list of chores, and it’s no small list.
But I would like the boys to think beyond chores. In the city, it’s hard to get kids to do chores. On the farm, it’s hard to show kids you can make lists of things that do not have direct, physical results.
You know that site: Stuff White People Like? (It’s a very funny site.) Sometimes I think I should make a list of Stuff City People Like. One thing city people like is list of intangibles.
Penelope
Have you been to Rick Ackerly’s blog or read his book: The Genius in Children? I discovered him from Sir Ken Robinson’s tweet (http://twitter.com/#!/SirKenRobinson/status/106836401106063360) and find his perspectives refreshing. Too many good posts at http://rickackerly.com/ to pick one for you; I’ve been sharing to see what others think.
“The great thing about children is that they like being busy. Since parents like being lazy, it makes sense for the children to do the work.” — Tom Hodgkinson, The Idle Parent: Why Laid-Back Parents Raise Happier and Healthier kids
This is so true. My nine year old, without my ever suggesting or asking him, has taken over window washing, scrubbing toilets, and the morning chores with our dog. Occasionally, he would fix me a meal or a drink too. Kids do want to feel powerful and useful!
You, or your kids, or anyone else should not be eating Spagetti-O’s. Bad, bad food.
Maybe I’m not “creative” enough, but I have a hard time really, truly, seeing how these could count as schooling projects, if you are really serious about teaching those kids things. These are things you would do in your spare time, that, yeah, could have elements you might learn random things from or springboard off of, but it sounds like you’re trying to justify your “to-do” list as teaching your kids. It seems like you’re short-changing them and the “public schools suck and I can do so much better” sounds like hubris to me.