reflections on the change

Now that Jacob has been in school for several weeks, I can reflect a bit on the decision and the effect it seems to have had so far.

The main reason we decided to make a change was the feeling that it would relieve some pressure in our home environment. It is hard for me to judge yet how much it has actually done that. For one thing, I never formally started the school year with Jacob, although we had started a few of the books for fun or to practice. So I don't know how difficult or easy it might have been to go through the first grade school work with him.

Beyond that, though, I no longer have to deal with the fighting between Jacob and Ethan during the day. That is one variable that is no longer there. Yet, I now notice that Ethan throws quite a lot of fits all by himself. It's funny how that became more apparent once Jacob was gone to school all day, whereas before I attributed most of the chaos to the two boys' interaction rather than to one person's tantrums. I am able to focus more individually on Ethan with his fit-throwing and try to guide him out of this pattern/phase without distraction or complication from Jacob, so I think that is probably easier. Jacob took longer than the average child to grow out of fit-throwing, too. I remember reading that tantrums should rarely or never happen by such-and-such age, when Jacob was already past that age and thinking, "Oh no!" Now I know that he was just slow to outgrow it, as is Ethan apparently. I hope that doesn't reflect on our parenting, but maybe is just some genetic variable out of my control?

As far as how it compares educationally, I see advantages to our home program and advantages to the school program. Our history, geography, and science were fantastic compared to the school's program, which is mostly nonexistent because of the focus on reading and math. Which is okay - we are still reading our science and history books at home, although in an impromptu, not scheduled fashion. It's too bad all the kids can't get the history and science he is getting, because it's just great, but then again, that is his area of interest. Some of them might be bored to death by it. Maybe many of the parents do read science and history books to their children at home if there is an interest.

The reading/language arts program is not necessarily more comprehensive than our home program, but it is much more intensive. They spend so much time on it! Our goals or strategies for home schooling were to do guided reading with him for 10-30 minutes a day (working up to more time as he got more fluent), doing a few language arts exercises and dictation exercises that might take 15-30 minutes a day, and a phonics workbook that might take 10-15 minutes each day. In school they spend 90-120 minutes on reading and language arts each day!

I guess this is okay. It is hard for me to swallow at first, because I came into the homeschooling movement on the coat tails of Raymond and Dorothy Moore, via James Dobson's book Bringing Up Boys. Raymond Moore worked for the US Department of Education in the late 70's and did a huge study (published as Better Late than Early and later as School Can Wait) on the ideal age for beginning formal education, concluding that it was not until 8-10 years of age that children were really developmentally ready for formal, sit-down-in-a-classroom education. These findings especially applied to boys, who were more likely to be developmentally immature. So, the desire to avoid hours spent at a desk trying to learn to read and write before the child was developmentally ready to focus on the task was part of the reason we had tried to home school in the first place. Putting him in an environment where he is in fact focusing on learning to read and write for 1.5-2 hours a day is the biggest switch for me. I sort of feel like I have betrayed the belief that I had come to hold about that. But thankfully, early formal education doesn't seem to be hurting Jacob. (yet?) Obviously, each child is unique in their development and personality traits and that determines how they'll respond to a classroom at this age. I have a hard time thinking it is necessary to force him or any child to read at a certain level at this age, but as long as he is not hating the time spent on it, I figure that is okay. Right? However, if there is anything that could make me want to go back to home schooling, him struggling with the demands of sitting still and practicing reading and writing for two hours a day would be it. I do not want him to grow to hate school and learning because of those pressures or because of a feeling that he is "failing" early on in these areas - when I know he is perfectly intelligent enough to someday be a fantastic reader but may simply have a short attention span at this age. So, I will keep a close eye on that. But so far, so good. I have actually been quite impressed to see how his reading abilities have grown over the last few weeks. Maybe I would have seen those same gains with our home education program, too; I can't know for sure now.

Apparently the language arts consists of small group guided reading and centers. I think the guided reading is comparable to guided reading we would have done at home and includes similar activities that we would have done for language arts and dictation. (I am able to view his reading textbooks online with a login the teacher gave us.) The main difference, as far as I can tell, which accounts for all the extra time, is the centers. One of the centers is computer games, one is a listening center (i.e. books with audio to read along), and the others seem to be phonics games and the like. Good activities, surely, but like I said, I just wouldn't have "forced" him to spend that much time on reading and language arts at this age, unless he was interested and seemed to want that much instruction and practice. But as long as he doesn't complain and still seems to like school... It can't hurt, right? I seem to need to reassure myself of this...

As for math, I have no problem with what they have been doing, although it is amusing to me to see him bring home papers on tally marks and "one greater than," when he knows how to multiply and counts easily by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, etc. (Sorry, I'm bragging a little bit :-) The kid can't get enough of math. But he seems to still think his math at school is fun, and somehow is not bored by an hour lesson on concepts he mastered last year, so I guess that is okay. It's good for a person to feel he is really good in an area and not to have to worry about it. We can continue to make a game of multiplication flash cards at home. Maybe they will pick up the pace as the year progresses.

All I have heard about PE is them marching and playing some sort of game involving bouncing a ball over a line. All I have heard about Music is them doing the hokie pokie and one or two little songs he has sung for us. I sincerely hope there is more to these "special" classes than what I hear, or else the taxpayers are really wasting their money. I assume there is much more direction and purpose that I am simply not hearing from my selective-memory six-year-old. :-) I am continuing our own music education and PE programs with him - i.e. piano lessons with Calana and sports at the YMCA. He is loving football right now, and if it isn't cute to see a bunch of six-year-olds hike the ball and run a play! Next is basketball, then soccer, then t-ball and swimming lessons again. Gotta love the Y. (Of course I won't make him enroll in any of these sports, it's just that so far he has been eager to try them.)

He loves computer lab, as I knew he would, and I wonder why it didn't occur to me that the time he spent playing educational computer games at home was legitimate "school" time? Heck, he could have done that almost all day (if I let him). He loved the keyboarding program and wants us to buy the program for home, and now he has been working on a Reader Rabbit program, too - I'm not sure if that is in computer lab or in his classroom during centers. He is amazed by the Library, for they have the entire collection of Magic School Bus books to check out.

Of course, best of all, there are friends. He informs me almost each day where he stands with friends - so and so is now his best friend, so and so is also a friend now, so and so is almost a friend, or close to becoming one. I am glad to see him excited to see other little boys and girls. I am surprised he does not discriminate yet - he is just as interested in the little girls being his friends as the little boys. One little girl is named "Cimmaren" - and I wonder if she is really named "Cinammon." But he insists it is Cimmaren.

So, in conclusion, I think it is working out. It gives me a break from the fighting, he is growing in his reading ability and making some friends, and he says he likes it. I have a few doubts I struggle with still about the amount of time he is made to practice reading and language arts each day, but as long as he doesn't seem to mind, we will stick with it. He could be watching Science Channel and playing during the extra hours at home, instead... But this is okay.