Open thread

homeschool discount?!?! whaaaaa?!?! tell me more!

lolol butcher knife

that is wonderful about the school; it really sounds like a great program.

definitely search for “clay” because i know leisa made some suggestions about working with smaller amounts and keeping it cool/moist.

my ideas:

clay tools — i have some beautiful wooden rollers that i love that make different patterns in the clay; we also have sets of plastic tools for cutting, carving, poking holes, etc.

flat clay — leisa used to give the kids sheets of rolled-out clay to kind of draw/carve pictures into .. it is like a whole other way to utilize clay.

slip — we believe in showing kids how to use slip and attach pieces. there is a certain american school of thought like “just let them figure it out on their own — don’t interfere.” and i do think it’s good to let them explore with any new material for awhile on their own. but after studying reggio for awhile, we really came to believe that teaching children techniques for using materials allowed them to more successfully accomplish what they wanted to do.

to bake or not to bake — we had a pit kiln and fired pieces that way; if you don’t have a kiln you can always appeal to a local university or school or pottery place to fire things for you. (i have no idea whether you have access to a kiln!) but over time we really came to realize that the most important thing was the kids’ access to and opportunity to use the clay regularly — to work in three dimensions, and to be able to form with their hands — and not so much to have finished, fired pieces. we would save finished works, let them air dry, label them, etc. — so clay was an important part of project work. but we didn’t necessarily need to fire and keep everything, if you kwim.

i’m excited for you!! :^D)

(and .. homeschool discount?! need more info...)

kelly, thank you so much! :^) i love being one of your happy things!

so glad to hear about your mom — what a relief.

yay for reading about reggio! :^D)

lol re: camping — your husband can thank us later! (camping is fun!)

susana, i agree — sharing happy things is putting me in a very good mood.

aw, selling the stroller .. that is a milestone! one of the reasons i had to sell a kayak is because my 12yo is now an inch taller than me. things just keep changing!

thank you so much for your kind words about the blog!! you guys are making me feel great. :^)

those are very good things, mary. :^)

peggy, thank you so much – i’m so glad you’re finding helpful things here — and thank you for sharing your story!

you have all the elements in place, and you feel good about the approach. i would say the only problem is the pace ... your daughter is obviously feeling a little (or a lot!) overwhelmed.

i think you are on the right track when you wonder about shorter/smaller/more focused. i wouldn’t worry *so* much about focus .. but i would concentrate on making every part of the process short, small, simple. write down *one* question. make the trip to the library to look up the answer the most fun trip ever. write down another question. call grandpa and see if he knows the answer! look it up on the internet and see if the answer is the same!

have art materials available but don’t do focused work every day. allow big swaths of “white space”.

http://www.whiteoakschool.com/camp-creek-blog/2009/1/13/white-space.html?SSScrollPosition=0

down the road, your goal is to have her managing and directing her own learning, investigating topics of deep interest, and creating representations of her learning.

your goal *now* is to introduce her to the idea of project learning — without putting a name to it.

i would say, lower your expectations, relax, dip into each area lightly and pleasantly, and put your focus on having great days together. do much less and enjoy it much more. over time, these early experiences will add up to a lot — *and* she will realize how enjoyable it all is, so her attitude will blossom naturally.

btw, i *still* step into this trap ... my 9yo has been doing projects since he was 3 and just last week when i over-enthusiastically jumped on something he was doing, he said, “moooooooooom, don’t start turning it into a really big deal!” ;^)

it’s still saturday — you’re not late! :^)

i have really enjoyed hearing about everyone’s lovely saturday .. i hope the storms stay off tomorrow, then i will be able to share a morning of sketching and a picnic lunch. :^)

the quote made me think about the people who find themselves searching for happiness in their adult lives, reading books like this —

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400077427/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=U...

— and not understanding what happened.

in my opinion, we don’t put nearly enough emphasis on helping people discover the path to truth happiness. there’s a bit too much focus on job + money + belongings, imho.

and i agree wholeheartedly with the quote — people who are busy *doing* things, busy doing things they care about, don’t have time to worry about their happiness. they are digging into life.

i agree with you re: being happy when they are busy .. and isn’t it funny that when we talk about adults being busy we usually mean something negative — they are overworked, overscheduled, and stressed out. not the kind of busy of a child immersed in play or important work like digging a mud pit.

being fully engaged — experiencing the “flow” — that’s the ticket. and i really think we give our children a gift when they see us truly engaged, instead of just busily rushing about, fretting.

beautiful thoughts, barbara — thank you!

thank you, stef. lol re: shower and toilet. we may have a camper van, and it may even have a teeny tiny stove and sink, but we don’t have either of those things!

cordelia, i would *love* to do a laura ingalls wilder road trip — i wish i had suggested it when the boys were a bit younger, i think they would have gone for it! it may just be me .. or me and my sister and mom. ;^)

lol tall tent — one you can stand up in? re: thermarest, we gave up and moved to cots. i mean, if you’re going to car camp, you may as well go the whole 9 yards. and the air mattresses that some people use are just too time-consuming (and noisy) for me. the cots fold out in 2 seconds and they are so comfortable. and you’re up off the ground! even when the tent floor gets dirty and wet (and doesn’t it always?), you’re high and dry.

hi christina :^)

> When do you know it's time to end a project? And how do you generally
> go about doing it?

i think you just develop a sense of when you’re starting to feel done. projects can slow down toward the beginning and the middle, and you can give them a tap and get them going again. but when you start to feel a lot of exploration has been done and avenues explored and representations produced, and interest has faded, you may be done.

lol re: anti-climactic. :^) there doesn’t have to be (in my opinion) a big “the project is over!” event. for me, one big goal is that the child learns enough to teach someone else — so we look for opportunities to do that. creating books, blogs, setting up displays in the community (e.g., at the library), showing things to friends and family ... there are lots of ways to do this.

we often just quietly move into a between-projects time and wait for new ideas to percolate. my sons usually consider something they’ve studied to still be a strong interest — if they see a tv show about it or a new book at the library, they will be drawn to it. their projects are continuing interests. two years later, one of them will find a new material and say, “i need this for my project!” lol

sometimes adults (some teachers i’ve worked with) almost want to kill the project because the kids keep talking about it forever! and the teachers are ready to move on, or don’t want to move backward. and the work has petered out, but the kids are still insisting they want to keep on. :^)

in one of the other open threads we talked about a mom who was wondering how to clean away the old project from the bulletin board, and we talked about suggesting those things could be put into a book, journal, or portfolio. it’s nice to have something like this at the very end when you can reflect together on everything that was learned, talk about it, and maybe transcribe some of what your child says to be put away along with their work. that’s a nice mellow form of closure.

remember that a really clean-cut beginning, middle, and end is more of an artificial, usually teacher-imposed structure. instead of thinking messy and indistinct, just think of your overlapping projects are authentic and organic! ;^)