Hard Truth: Our first four months of home/world schooling

Since most of our peers in the US are on winter vacation and marking the halfway point in the school year, let’s take a moment to make a close examination of our homeschooling effort to date.

Part One: Fall Semester Timeline:
In May, just a few weeks before we were set to leave, we had exactly zero idea how we were going to homeschool. We figured we had two months, July and August, in Minnesota to figure it out. Enter the Dustin of Destiny, husband of Lily’s softball coach and teacher at Summit Learning Charter, a mostly-online charter school based outside Portland.

Truly, this was a miracle! Our enrollment with Summit gave us access to innumerable resources including living, breathing teachers and other education professionals. It also meant that because Summit receives our tax dollars that we receive a credit for buying curriculum materials through two catalogs. Lily, being a sixth grader, would have online classes that she didn’t have to do in real time, which was essential given our future timezone hopping. The elementary students, meanwhile, would be mostly paper/pencil unless we wanted to sign up for certain programs online.

I was surprised to find that picking curricula was a lot harder than I expected. Summit provided a guide that helped narrow it down. Really, though, the catalogs have dozens if not hundreds of options for each age/topic. Want to do third grade math? Here are 100+ options. Many are religious in a way that isn’t appealing to us but even excluding those left us with too many choices to consider. Fortunately, Summit’s guide and curriculum adviser saved us.

The next challenge was logistical. By the time we were ordering curriculum it was too late to obtain the materials before the start of our RV trip (late August). We could receive the materials in mid-September but that would be during a time when our location was uncertain. So we had them shipped to our friends in Texas, which meant 4-5 weeks of school without the materials! We compensated for this by buying some materials out of pocket and counting on Lily’s online programs to keep her on pace.

The next challenge was mechanical. The first week of the RV trip involved about five days of long, boring drives to get to Acadia National Park (Maine) from Minnesota. We figured that with easy driving and few diversions we would have a week of easing into school. Ha! Do you remember that that was the week of RV catastrophes? We barely did any school.

The next challenge was technical. Lily’s curriculum, especially, depended on a solid internet connection. We invested in a mobile hotspot but that turned out to be unreliable, even in civilized, populated urban areas. Our phones’ hotspots were a little better but that had other complications, since they’re really not designed for several devices to pull a signal at the same time.

The next challenge was calendrical (a real word): Lily’s online curriculum assumed the student was putting in several hours a day, watching lectures and completing assignments. This isn’t unreasonable but the platforms system for prompting punctuality was. When Lily logged in, the alerts made her feel like a nuclear attack was underway. It told her how many hours she was behind. Starting school led to panic attacks and paralysis. Furthermore, as we were experiencing education, in places such as Boston and Gettysburg, she was trying to keep up with a social studies curriculum that was absurdly irrelevant. This isn’t a slight on the curriculum, which I think would be fine for a typical homeschooling family. It’s just that we were preparing to spend several weeks learning civil rights history in person and we didn’t think Lily should be holed up in the hotel trying to avoid “falling behind” in social studies.

The next challenge was technological: Summit required the three elementary students to complete online testing for the first of three times in the school year. Pedagogically, I was pleased. The tests evaluate the kids’ abilities and this would help us focus our teaching efforts. Because Henry is such a gifted student, I was especially keen to see how the tests would help us refine his education. Internet connection problems notwithstanding, this required our first graders to complete a computer-based test before they really knew how to use a computer! The tests are time bound and adaptive. Each test had about 30 questions that would get harder after correct answers. I liked this when I took the GRE after college but for a 6 year old it was demoralizing. To get a question you can’t comprehend, manipulate a machine without proficiency and then confront a buzzer and “lose” the question is terrible. I’m not sure it’s worth it. I wish there was another way. But we got through, with parents mitigating the computer difficulty.

Now imagine that it’s late September. We’re about halfway through the road trip. We’re eagerly awaiting a box of materials in Texas in a few weeks and we’re realizing that we have to pull the plug on Lily’s online curriculum. One of the funniest episodes is that we use free 2-day Amazon shipping to deliver some new materials for Lily to a Whole Foods store outside Birmingham, Alabama. We order other stuff to arrive in Portland for our return there. Now it’s starting to feel like we are running a supply chain business, worthy of one of those UPS whiteboard commercials from years ago.

Finally it’s the first weekend in October and we’re tied with a cubic foot of text books in Austin. I can still remember spreading everything out on our friends’ dining room table and trying to make sense of it. I quickly discovered that our next challenge would be clerical: while Henry’s and Ali’s materials had been delivered, Cate’s had been inexplicably returned to sender. After a few choice curses and a series of deep breaths, I realized that if the company could ship them quickly, we could get them in about 10 days in Santa Fe, New Mexico. No problem, I was assured, we’ll send them quickly with time to spare.

Here’s the funny thing: we passed through Santa Fe and I forgot that we were supposed to retrieve them. I had a funny feeling I was forgetting something. We visited the friends where I had instructed the materials to be sent. Turns out it wasn’t my fault: the shipping wasn’t expedited and the materials arrived about a week later. Not to worry, our friend shipped them (expedited!) to our home in Portland and they arrived in the last week of October, in time to accompany us abroad. In the meantime, we continued to improvise.

Part Two: Product Reviews

Here's the full spread of our curriculum materials

First Grade (Ali and Cate)

Our first grade books

Math. Singapore Math Level 1. Among Summit’s recommendations, this one stood out. Back in July, sitting at my in-law’s kitchen table late at night in a silent house, I read a bunch of blogs. The consensus is that the Singapore Math curriculum is seminal offering in the “new math” that is being taught in American schools today. It is the hallmark of superior achievement by children in other parts of the world, especially Singapore. Who can argue with that. The “set” we bought includes a teacher’s guide, a textbook and a workbook for each half of the year. (As a principle, I sought curricula that would be incremental, allowing us to discard things when we finished them or receive refills when friends/family met us en route. The alternative, huge textbooks for the entire year, would be too heavy/bulky.) I have to say that I really love these books. I also have to acknowledge that math is an area of strength for me and I’ve always given a lot of thought to how to teach math, on account of my general difficulty learning math the way it was being taught to me. The teacher’s guide gives useful tips and makes it very clear how to deliver the material. It’s easy for me to plan the lessons as well as the flow of the weeks and months. The textbooks are clear and useful. The style (lack of words, nature of imagery) is perfect for the age. Furthermore, after a few months I’m enamored of the method.  Truly, this company (not to be confused with the country) has figured this out. But I also want to suggest that homeschooling makes it hard - in this case and generally - for the student to get enough practice from the material alone. We’ve found it really valuable to use an online platform, IXL, to supplement. Lily used IXL a few years ago in school as a platform for math homework and we’ve really liked it. As a computer “game” it’s easy for the kids to manipulate and the system of rewards is really satisfying. It’s also been easy for us to align the topic we’re learning with the modules in the app. Furthermore, it’s available on a web-based interface as well as an app on their Kindles. It seems to need a small amount of bandwidth so we’ve had few problems connecting, even when the WiFi is relatively weak.

A recent page from our first grade math text

Language Arts. Summit suggested a phonics curriculum called Explode the Code. For first grade, this is a set of eight books, each split into about a dozen lessons. This is one that I bought through the school (one full set of the workbooks for the twins to share plus a set of the accompanying teacher’s guides) but also on my own, somewhat by mistake. I didn’t want to wait until early October (or later, as it turned out for Cate) to start phonics so I used Amazon to buy the first workbook and the first teacher’s guide. This turned out to be perfect for the month of September. I also subscribed for the online accompaniment. At first, we tried to give the girls the online app as the method of teaching but we quickly realized that the app was for practicing something we had taught, not a substitute for it. (In many ways, we discovered quickly how much harder this was going to be that we might have thought or hoped). As we’ve gone on, Elise has really specialized into the role of teaching this class. It helps that her mother taught and now tutors literacy for elementary kids and has a lot of very valuable advice. With her help, we’ve added some games and techniques. What’s really interesting is that, as a function of our daily schedule, we’ve done very little reading with the girls despite their growing phonics abilities. It’s clear, from a few instances, that they are quite prepared and able to read, given the opportunity. This isn’t a surprise. We remember quite clearly that both Henry and Lily went through Kindergarten and the first half of first grade without any signs of reading and then, BOOM, over winter break (of first grade) seemed to disappear into their rooms and into the pages of all the books on their bookshelves. I think what we have at the moment is more of a problem with supply than with demand. Fortunately, that’s easy to fix!

A typical spread in the workbook for our first grade phonics curriculum (Explode the Code)

1st and 3rd Grade Handwriting

Handwriting. One of our easiest decisions was to pick a handwriting program. Honestly, I can’t remember if Summit recommended this one or we picked it, possibly arbitrarily. Regardless, we have a daily handwriting book. I like it because we can tear the pages out and put them in recycling. The book is constantly getting smaller and lighter! I also like it because, as advertised, it’s not tedious or busywork. As the weeks tick by, the words they are tracing and writing are getting more interesting. The sentences they copy are interesting and even fun. It’s also a good task to assign to keep one child busy for 10-15 minutes when we need to pay attention elsewhere.

Third Grade (Henry)
Handwriting. Henry is using the same “daily handwriting” book as the twins. I think that at first we hadn’t ordered one for him (who knows why) but after seeing his siblings working on this, it was clear we should. It’s also clear that his handwriting is improving rapidly. I think we were a little frozen by trying to find something specific to his needs as a lefty. We found nothing, which isn’t to say that it doesn’t exist. We got some useful advice about having him rotate the page and that’s helped a lot.

Math. Beast Academy. If I get nothing else out of our charter, this will have been worth it. I don’t know how you discover these things without help. At home, plenty of friends are using Kahn Academy and Kumon and there are more conversations than I can count about how to engage kids, especially boys, in their math work. So when I saw that Beast Academy was described as being the most challenging AND delivered online and on paper as a graphic novel with absurd aliens, I knew I had found our math curriculum for Henry. Even better, it has been successful. The curriculum is divided into four sections, with a textbook (“guide”) and workbook (“practice”) for each. It’s completely clear how to coordinate the two, although I’ve had some difficulty figuring out how to pace the material. The guide is truly a graphic novel. The characters introduce the subject matter in a playful and engaging way. There are different types of presentations, some of which are pretty traditionally didactic (albeit with cartoons) while others are more in the style of games or narrative adventures. I’m amazed at how excited Henry is to read new pages and then to apply what he has learned. I swear, he’d blaze through the entire curriculum if we let him. Once again, this is the new math. It’s third grade and the time when I was cramming multiplication tables into my brain by rote, drilling over and over again (and I still can’t remember what makes 108 most of the time). Here, the skill is assembled through a process that is beguiling and masterful. Sure enough, Henry has reached the point where he can churn out times tables if asked but he clearly understands WHY the answers are what they are and why it’s useful. I’m really impressed. Only after a few months did we let him know that there was an online/app version of this. The online (web) version offers short video lectures in the style established by Kahn Academy as well as computer game versions of his workbook. As I mentioned, the problem is to make sure that he doesn’t get ahead in the online games, which causes a predictable level of frustration! I’m totally sold on this one.

Henry's graphic novel-style textbook.

Language Arts. At Summit’s advice, we signed Henry up for something called OdysseyWare that includes both “language arts” and spelling. I’m really glad we got both applications because both are excellent and useful. As long as we’re not having connectivity problems (and we haven’t really, since finishing the RV trip), we’ve faced no obstacles with our reliance on a web-based application. We’ve gotten good wifi from our accommodation and if the AirBnB’s wifi has been weak, our mobile hotspot has been adequate. OW has units for each topic that are made up of lessons, quizzes, tests and projects. As with Lily’s online curriculum, OW has a prescribed timeline that tells us when we are behind (or ahead) but it mercifully doesn’t have alarm bells and nuclear launch codes that make us feel terrible about our deviation. In fact, we’ve often worked ahead because we’re taking our vacation at times that differ from the standard American school year, which the platform takes as gospel. I’ll take a moment to editorialize that this seems remarkably stupid to me. One of the alternatives to Summit that we considered is Calvert, which seems to be the dominant brand for nomadic homeschools. One of the most attractive features Calvert offered was the ability to customize the academic calendar. No school on Thursdays? The timeline is redistributed. Not starting the day after Labor Day? No problem at all. This would make a difference to us, especially for the members of our family who are very concerned about satisfying the rules or the system (not Henry). One more note about OW and the Language Arts: I’m very grateful that our Summit teacher cautioned us about the “projects” included in the curriculum. These are cumbersome and often a nuisance. Pedagogically they are very smart: I’m really glad that Henry is given assignments that require broader thinking and more open-answered questions amidst an overall reliance on multiple choice. But when he has a writing assignment (currently he’s in a unit on biography), I’d much rather him write about a subject relevant to our experience than to whatever the curriculum architect selected. Fortunately, we have support from Summit and from Dustin of Destiny to exercise our own creativity. But for that, my review OW would be less stellar.

Grammar. Fix It Grammar. This is another lucky recommendation from the folks at Summit. Fix It Grammar (FIG) is a terrific invention that is wonderfully suitable to homeschooling. First, we have a student workbook and a teacher’s companion book. There is one lesson per week broken into four days of effort. The first day is for the student and teacher to review a new grammatical concept. Then there are four days worth of sentences and the assignment is to correct each one by applying that week’s lesson plus the lessons from previous weeks. After a few weeks of getting used to this, Henry typically does an entire week in one day. He’ll do it in two if the rest of his work is onerous or we have less time for school. Week after week, the sentences are all part of a story, very much the kind of story that a student in elementary school would enjoy reading. This one would not be out of place in 1,001 Arabian Nights. The characters and plot and characters are engaging and he’s eager to find out what happens next. I’d like to point out that we didn’t crack open the teaching companion until about week 14 when the concepts began to challenge our creaky memory of textbook grammar. I also have to confess that my beliefs about things such as commas are apparently outdated (or possibly wrong from the start). I do like thinking that my Uber-grammarian grandmother would like this very much.

Science. At Summit’s recommendation, we got a “daily science” book from the same company that produced the handwriting workbook. We haven’t used it much, mostly because of two reasons: first, we’re getting plenty of science in our travels because so many destinations are natural wonders (and Henry is naturally drawn to scientific phenomena); second, we can’t imagine spending more time on school. I’ll write about this more later but the relative return on investing more time on third grade science just isn’t there.

Sixth Grade (Lily)

Lily's curriculum.

Math. Singapore/Dimensions Math. Deep Breath. This seemed like one of the hardest decisions. First, because we were switching from Summit’s online middle school after about a month, we had to figure out how to transition. Also, it’s likely the subject of greatest consequence for how Lily transitions into her regular school when we return for seventh grade. We decided to go with Singapore for the same reason (reputation) that we chose it for our first graders. Among the Singapore options, we chose Dimensions, which is their new/innovative platform. We are quite worried about matching up to the common core-focused “new math” taught at her school. I found myself flipping back and forth between several digital documents, especially those available through our home school district. Once we received the materials (at the Whole Foods in Birmingham), we faced an interesting challenge. We looked at the table of contents, at what she had done in her first month through Summit, and through our most reliable source covering what her peers in Portland were doing. I should mention that Dimensions provides a teacher’s guide, a textbook and a workbook. The workbook is truly supplemental and the first thing we’re likely to jettison. The Teacher’s guide is essential because, as much as math is my forte, teaching this format is definitely not. Numerous times last year Lily asked us for help on homework and Elise or I (and sometimes Elise and I) worked it out as we had been taught, which usually required 15-20 steps. Lily would look at us, aghast, and show us how she could solve it in 3-5 steps. Horrifying! For the first few weeks, we skimmed each section of chapters on topics that were already familiar. Lily breezed through the homework at the back of each section and chapter until we reached the chapter that had new material. Gradually, we’ve inched are way back to being nearly on pace. Here’s the funny part: my main concern was completing the first half of the curriculum before we left South America for Australia. Each half of the curriculum (teacher’s guide, textbook, workbook) is about six inches of full sized paper and several pounds. I really wanted to ditch that weight before the big flight! (We succeeded!)

In sum, I’m really happy with this curriculum. Of course it’s not cartoonish in the way that the first grade Singapore math is. But I’m really pleased with how the subject matter is introduced with this “new math” emphasis on reasoning and intuition. As I write, we’ve begun the second book and the focus on algebra and it’s astonishing how easily Lily is picking this up.

Grammar. Fix It Grammar. Ditto everything I said above regarding FIG with Henry. I’m doubly grateful to Summit for recommending this curriculum because it’s clear that Lily’s understanding of grammar is quite behind where it “should” be, which doesn’t surprise anybody over (40?) who is sad that nobody seems to know how to write properly, much less diagram a sentence. Elise and I laugh that if we didn’t have the teacher’s guide we wouldn’t be able to answer most of Lily’s questions. Now, Lily didn’t get her FIG until we left the US so right now she’s on about Week 6 even though our school year is entering week 17. Catching up, if we actually need to do that, is going to be tough because it’s really hard to do more than day 1 on the first day and the content is getting so thick that expecting Lily to do more than 1 day, certainly more than 2 in a given lesson, is pretty tough. We might consider it on days when the rest of her assignments are light but that’s rare. Further, I think there’s two good reasons (re: rationalizations) not to rush: any of this grammar she learns seems likely to set her above the expectations of our public school; second, it’s not a bad subject to work on beyond the traditional end of the school year in June.

A typical page from Lily's grammar book.

Language Arts. DIY. Perhaps this is our weakest link. Lily is probably reading less, a lot less, than she ever has. Last year, when she was captain of her reading club team, she had read twenty novels by this time of year and was onto some of them for a second or third time. This year I think she has read maybe 5. I think the team dynamic (positive peer pressure) was a great source for that. I’ve had some ideas about getting her into a virtual book club but nothing has really clicked. Summit recommended something called Ready Readers, which is an extension of a program for Teaching the Classics. RR offers probing discussion questions about a handful of classic novels. The first one we’ve read is Treasure Island, which I read to Henry and Lily at bedtime until they grew impatient and Lily read the last few chapters (out loud). Our expectations for her writing have also been haphazard. We’ve made a few attempts are having the kids write daily but they almost always evaporate. Argentina was a terrible place to form any habit that involved the night because dinner was so late and the kids were so tired by the end of it. The mornings were also hard because we focused on the other subjects and didn’t make (or leave) time for writing. We’ve worked on two essay projects so far this year. The first was a reflection essay on our civil rights education in Alabama. The second was about Argentina after our time there in November. It’s fair to say that I’ve intervened too much in her writing (the voice is certainly not hers and hers alone) but the second assignment gave us a really good opportunity to practice editing and revising. My intention is for her next essay to be a traditional book report on Treasure Island, utilizing the questions provided by the Ready Readers program. I’m not sure where to go from there. It’s the only subject where we don’t have a traditional curriculum.

Handwriting. Like Henry with Math, Lily loves practicing her daily cursive so much that she’s probably finish the book in a sitting if we let her skip enough meals (and sleep). The artist in her loves the craft and the perfectionist loves the discipline. Before this flight departed I showed her calligraphy and calligraphy pens and now I have a really good idea of what I can get her for Christmas (in three days). Lily has taken her mother’s and her father’s love of stationary stores and multiplied them together.


D. Other

• This process would be a lot more fun if we were not living out of suitcases. We have a school suitcase that started out weighing about 40 pounds. We had neither the volume nor the weight allowance to bring much more than we did. In addition to the books I’ve described above, each student has a composition notebook. Henry’s and Lily’s are traditional (lined pages, wide ruled) while Ali’s and Cate’s are hybrid: about one-third of each page is blank and the lines are the type you use for learning handwriting (blue and red lines of varying heights to guide tall and short letter writing). 
• One of our prized possessions is a dry erase board, about 10x14” or as large as we could fit in the suitcase. We are carrying about 25 pencils with us, collecting and losing them as we go. We have two manual sharpeners that are good for these pencils as well as colored/art pencils that have also come along. We also have a small pouch with pens and dry erase markers. 
• We have a small tub of miscellaneous supplies: scissors, tape, several erasers, etc. I really wish we had some rubber bands!
• We have one small tub with counting rods (I have known them since childhood as “cuisinaire rods” and you may know them as colorful wood rods for lengths 1-10 and about a centimeter on a side. They’ve been incredibly useful for doing addition and subtraction, which is taught today with the concept of “number bonds,” especially when it came to do adding and subtracting beyond 10.
• The one “manipulative” we bought to help with math is a set of counting blocks. I don’t what to call these exactly but they give me a deep visceral memory of kindergarten or first grade. I remember tubs of brightly colored objects that were a soft or rubberized plastic. There were bears (most of which were missing their ears but featured tooth marks) and then there were these cubes. They are stacking/interlocking and also colorful as well as “soft” inasmuch as plastic can be. Our pack contains ten stacks of different colors, with ten each. These have also been terrific to practicing addition and subtraction. I’d like to think we could do without them but really it would just be a substitution for something else: popsicle sticks, sugar packets, paper clips, who knows what. It brings me endless pleasure, though, because these colorful blocks seem to inspire the kids to form patterns and other creations.
• Things we had in the RV that I miss: we had this poster-sized calendar that Elise got laminated, which allowed us to decorate with dry or wet erase markers. We used it to give the kids an overview of each week, including their schoolwork and our itinerary. It was a terrific reference that I miss a lot. We also had the ability to carry an inventory of blank paper. Our kids love to draw and scribble. Just this week they learned some new way to make silly drawings by putting a z-fold in the paper almost like a pop-up book. We buy books and pads of blank paper that fit in their backpacks but I often wish we could just have a ream of paper sitting on a table nearby. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that during the upcoming weeks when we are in an apartment for longer periods of time.

Part Three: Analysis

Homeschooling is HARD. It’s hard to prepare any given lesson. It’s hard to prepare a lesson plan for four students for a week. It’s hard to craft a school day so that each student is working on a task that allows the two teachers to cover the four students. (I don’t know how one teacher handles a classroom of 30 students, as they do in our home school; or, I know what a teacher must do with thirty students and I prefer not to think about it.) It’s especially hard when one of the students has a problem that requires a break from the lesson, thus complicating the planned flow of the school day.

Lately, probably because of the circumstances of our travel, the number one conflict is between me and Henry. The problem illustrates the difficulty of being both parent and teacher. I’ve considered getting a costume (a necktie and wig, perhaps) so emphasize the change in roles. It is my believe that I have to impose a different kind of discipline as a teacher than I do as a parent. Henry often doesn’t want to work on something because it’s frustrating. The most difficult behavior is that he can be so sure of his (incorrect) answer and is unwilling to accept a critique. I like when this happens with room for argument but not when he asserts the definition of a word that is not even close.

My flaw as a teacher is generally impatience. I’m so worried about keeping the lesson or the school day on track that I’m irritated (to say the least) by the diversion/digression of his obstinance. Knowing this, it seems that he will throw a fit knowing that I’m more likely to excuse him from his work to keep the other students on task than to give him the attention he wants. The grave mistake I make in these situations is that I lose my temper. Clearly, in a “real” school his behavior might get him sent to the office or possibly home for the day but the way I handle it would get me fired and quickly.

What makes this really lousy is the way it can affect the rest of the day. Once slighted, Henry can go into a dark place for hours. Once angry, I can go into a dark place for hours. Once terrified (by my temper), the other kids can go into a dark place for hours. Once exhausted (by covering for my error), Elise can be exhausted for, well, it’s going to take a long time to figure out when Elise will recover from this aspect of our trip.

I think the most important thing for us to fix in the “second half” is the commitment to free writing. Somehow - and I truly don’t know how or when - we need to create time and space for the kids to sit and write. Clearly, it doesn’t matter about what. They’re so obviously excited about writing whenever we sit down to write postcards. They are getting lots of practice with their handwriting and other assignments, such as FIG for Lily and Henry. But I know it’s a priority to write. Furthermore, I think it will be so valuable to have them record their experience of this trip in their own words. I’d think Lily would do this on her own. I’m hoping that a Christmas gift of a journal will inspire her to invest in this. But really I don’t know.

In conclusion (whew, nothing like a long, transcontinental flight to give room for writing!), the next month is going to be interesting. Instead of taking two or three weeks off for Christmas, we expect to get some serious school work in while we’re in Perth (10 days) and Melbourne (14 days). The two weeks after that will be driving and camping around the southern Island of New Zealand and we’ve discussed limiting or eliminating school during that time in order to focus on the natural wonders and experience of that place. We also have a few weeks in late February and early March when a combination of jet lag and sightseeing will limit our schooling.

If you’ve read this far, congratulations. Gold star student!