Candlemas

One of our favorite holidays is Groundhog Day. Did you know that it’s about halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox? So the sun is growing stronger (hence we have the tradition of looking for our shadows). It’s also the day in the Catholic church when they bless the candles for the coming year.

So this is the day that we’ve chosen to make our own candles.

Every year we gather the wax that drips from burning candles or candles whose wicks are gone. Anything usable we sort by color. Then we melt it all and make new candles from old. Some years we dip candles, if we’re ambitious. This past year we used small milk cartons and cardboard juice cans as molds to make pillar candles. We bought our candle wicking at Paper, Scissors, Stone.

Happy Candlemas 2010! I hope you make some beautiful candles.

What is Science Education?

My cousin Tim noted recently that my blog doesn’t say much about science.Is this is a weak area in our homeschool, he wondered? (It is true that many homeschooling parents are nervous about science, at least in the upper grades.) Anyway, it got me thinking about what really constitutes science education. If I know what my goals are, it’s much easier to decide if I am achieving them!

My goals in science education are to give my kids the tools to learn about their world. I want them to be familiar with the scientific method—both as a way to make their own discoveries and as a way to evaluate others’ work. I want to give my children at least an overview of many areas of science so that they know enough to choose what they enjoy most. But mainly, I want to leave my children with a sense of wonder and reverence for all of God’s creation—so that they want to keep learning.

I don’t think that textbooks do that very well. I had a K-8 series of science texts when I first started homeschooling. Each grade level skimmed over the same set of units without ever really digging deep enough to “get into it.” That wasn’t very appealing.

Instead, my kids and I spend many hours outside—in the yard, in the vegetable garden, in the forest, by the river. We explore, we paint or draw, we collect. We have a small “nature shelf” at our house where we put our seasonal discoveries of rocks or acorns or flowers. (N has taken charge of this shelf and reorganizes it at least monthly.) My children know, from experience, about different kinds of rocks and where they’re found. They can identify most of the flowers and trees of the Pacific Northwest and all of the plants in our yard and garden. They’ve visited dozens of National and State Parks.

My children have pets—a dog, Guinea pigs, rabbits, and turtles at last count. The kids provide (and pay for) all of the care for these animals, and the kids also read and research just what constitutes the best care so they can make wise decisions. They become experts!

Each child in our family has a nature journal. Nothing is assigned in this notebook, but it is a place where we can draw pictures of an interesting caterpillar, take notes on the habits of a bird, write poetry about flowers, or philosophize about the seasons.

When we do have formal science classes, I like to read LIVING BOOKS, or books that are interesting in their own rights and not just “educational.” For instance, we liked The Microbe Hunters when we studied bacteria and Phineas Gage—A Gruesome but True Story… when we were learning about the brain. When we do use textbooks, it’s after hands-on experience (whole to parts). There are lots of places to get science “stuff,” but one of my favorites is Tobin’s Lab.

Of course any family—homeschooled or not—could do “real life” science this way, but I have the advantage of TIME. We can learn about science WHEN the science learning is relevant. Our science fits right in with our gnomes and fairies, because our science learning aims to instill wonder.

No, Tim, I don’t think we are weak in science. Over time, we do cover all the state learning objectives. But we definitely don’t do it the way they do in public school.

The Math Gnomes are Coming!

In Waldorf education, it is traditional to introduce most things—including the mathematical operations--with stories. I’ve heard of fairies, ponies, squirrels, or almost anything else for math. We decided to use gnomes, and D helped me to make them out of felt and wooden bodies I purchased from A Child’s Dream Come True (http://achildsdream.com/index.htm). This is a very fun store, with reasonable prices.
Here is a photo of our gnomes. Besides the four operations, there is also King Equals and his treasurer Alpha. (The gnomes spend their time collecting jewels which they take to Alpha.) Not included in this picture is Omega ("Meg"), who is Alpha's wife. D and N thought that all of the math gnomes needed spouses.
Stay tuned for the further adventures of D and the math gnomes....