3rd Grade, K12, Teachers, and Learning Coaches

Miss Reezle had an opportunity to meet with the 3rd grade K12 teacher via internet/phone conference today, and for the first time ever, actually expressed an interest in doing math.  I was impressed.  I'm not sure what changed, and I kind of wonder if it is the attention her little brother gets for being brilliant at it, but I'll take it.  Math has been a struggle when it comes time for lessons, and not because she finds it difficult; Reezle simply doesn't like math.  Well, until today.

The conference went well; Reezle enjoyed it, talking about her hobbies (photography and hooping, a girl after my own heart) and excitedly announcing that she was going to send her teacher an e-mail weekly.  Oy.  After reading a few passages and word lists, the teacher asked Reezle if she read a lot.  When Miss Bookworm announced with great enthusiasm that she does, the teacher told her that she'd just been reading a list of 5th grade words.  Reezle grinned proudly from ear to ear.

People are sometimes confused when I mention my children's teachers.  "Aren't you their teacher?" they ask.  Well, yes and no.  They're independent learners, and I do present material to them and explain it in various ways to meet their unique learning styles.  I answer questions when they have them, supplement material that is relevant to our lives and in areas where they need additional enrichment or a better understanding, and basically do the things a teacher does.  K12 calls me a "learning coach".  I don't like the term; I'm not merely standing on the sidelines cheering my kids along.  All parents are teachers.

Each child is assigned a teacher (or teachers, depending on grade) by K12 for their grade level.  This person is the child's primary school contact, does assessments, holds online connect sessions like reading and math groups and other fun and educational events, and helps keep the kiddos on track.  Contact, for us, is minimal, as my children are typically pursuing their own interests and learning well beyond the assigned school day.  We might put in an hour a day of Spanish for attendance, for example, but we're speaking it and going over the words right up until bedtime.  Our learning never really stops, and the kiddos are always walking around with workbooks, notebooks, and pencils in hand.  They love to learn, and my husband and I love to teach them.  It is not uncommon for the kids to be snuggled up in the recliner with Daddy when he gets home, going over binary code or fractions, playing some strategy game like chess or Solitaire, or playing Sudoku puzzles.

Those are a couple of G's illustrations depicting fractions.  And, of course, they read so much and so fast that I can barely keep up with their books!  Not that I'm complaining...

Hooray For August

August is here! For the first two years of my daughter's elementary education, I dreaded this month because it meant there were mere days remaining before I had to put her on a bus five mornings a week and not see her again until evening. I hated that. It didn't feel right. But now August brings excitement and anticipation of all the cool things we'll be learning and doing this school year! The kiddos are literally counting the days until their lessons appear in the OLS (online school) and are looking through their materials eagerly awaiting the day they can start using them.

I love this. I'm so grateful that we have this option, and that our first year of homeschooling was such a success that they look forward with such enthusiasm to this new year and all that it will bring. If homeschooling is in your heart, but you're worried about whether you can do it, I really urge you to look into K12. No, I'm not encouraged to say nice things or compensated for my opinion in any way - I just genuinely love this program and how much flexibility and support there is. Most of all, I love how happy my kiddos are and how they genuinely want to learn.

Let Me Tell You How I Really Feel About Public Schools

The decision to homeschool was one that had been somewhere in the recesses of my mind since the pregnancy test came back positive. In fact, it was something I'd thought about even before that, due to my own experiences with the public education system. I had always considered it a 13-year prison sentence, personally. However, due to sufficient brainwashing, from which I have since deprogrammed myself, I also believed that school could actually be a good thing with the right support and conditions.

Undoubtedly, there will be no shortage of people who can attest to the truth of either side of this argument. After all, I was quite bipolar about it depending on the day. But I have learned a few things, through observation, experience, and real world education. I have come to the decision, which you can applaud or vilify me for, that I was correct in my assessment of public education as a prison sentence. I will share with you why.

In recent years, there seems to have been a precipitous drop in the use of common sense in dealing with problems which plague public schools. Most of the problems don't actually need to be problems in the first place. Take, for example, the news reports of elementary-age children being suspended or even expelled for such innocent behaviors as giving a classmate a kiss on the cheek or drawing a self-portrait including a friend and a water gun. I cannot begin to imagine the confusion and fear these children must have felt over being so severely punished for such innocuous behaviors.

I suppose it's a good thing, considering the fallout of children having time to actually interact with their peers, that schools are slowly but surely phasing out recess. This is apparently so they have more time to fill the kids' little brain containers with the rote memory tasks that will ensure the best scores on state testing - never mind that this isn't real learning and they'll forget most of it by the following school year. Hey! They scored in a range of excellence, so the schools must be doing something right! Wrong. Children need free time. They need to play. Children are built to play, and it is how they learn. Inadequate play time goes against every natural instinct a child has.

Ah, but then you can just medicate those unruly children, hyped up from a miserable combination of their nutritionally-deficient cafeteria carbohydrate slop load and lack of adequate down time between cram sessions. It's easier to pathologize behavior that can't be easily controlled, rather than admitting it is a natural consequence of essentially messing with nature by forcing children to be the opposite of what they are. Currently, more than 25% of U.S. children are on prescription medication. Ironically, we're drowning publicly-schooled children with war-on-drugs propaganda while simultaneously pumping them full of Ritalin and other psychiatric medications. When I was a kid, parents and teachers were concerned about us being hyped up on too much sugar. Kids today are snorting and selling their Ritalin. All of these unnecessary drugs are turning young children into drug dealers.

And, oh yes, this brings more consequences. Drug sniffing dogs and SWAT teams, metal detectors and random searches. My, what little criminals they must be! Or...not. The FDA acknowledges that some antidepressant medications can cause suicidal behaviors and other brain dysfunction. Could it be that the disastrous things happening to our children and in our schools is being perpetuated by these drugs and not prevented by them? I'm firmly believe it.

Of course, there is also the bullying, the verbally abusive teachers, the school administrators on power trips, the mental programming delivered via advertising piped into the schools, the severe disconnect between children and their families and the lack of opportunities for most parents to be involved, the financially-driven attendance policies that have parents with the constant threat of criminal liability over their heads if Timmy happens to miss more school days than the district thinks he should, and let's not forget the all-important dress code! Wait, you didn't know there was a dress code? Oh yes. It's unwritten, but your kid is expected to know it and comply, and it involves copious amounts of money so he or she can fit in and (hopefully) avoid some of the peer-perpetrated abuse that would result from committing the sin of not wearing whichever brand is deemed "cool" at any particular moment for whatever arbitrary reason.

And finally, the public school system violates my beliefs and principles as an attachment parent. Homeschooling is a natural continuation of what we have been doing as parents from the moment our children entered this world; we guide them, encourage their interests, foster a love of experiential learning (zoo or museum, anyone?) and reading for enjoyment as well as information, share in the experience of learning, provide opportunities for them to interact with children of all ages - not just their identically age-matched peers, and provide them with as much time as they need to play.

Yes, public brick and mortar schools suck. If children come out without psychological damage and with an education that genuinely reflects their actual potential, I call that a miracle. And I know there are teachers who take offense to this, but this is not about you. I'm sure there are also parents who don't care for my assessment and will adamantly protest and say that public education was the best thing that ever happened to their child(ren). You're not the ones I'm talking about. This is about all the other schools and teachers.

Recommended: The War on Kids documentary, available on Netflix

Aimsweb and A Boy With Speech Disorders

At the beginning of the year, my children both participated in an Aimsweb assessment. At the time, I felt it was accurate; it assessed them both as "Well Above Average". They are. No problem.

I'm not one of those parents who demands that my children attain some specific standard, or who believes my children are somehow exceptionally gifted just because they're mine. However, they are academically advanced beyond grade level, and would like for testing to reflect that.

Mid-year, Little G's scores dipped somewhat. He was annoyed with the testing; he remembered he had been assessed using these same measures in the past and he is not one who likes to repeat. Getting him to cooperate was a feat of monumental proportions. So when he had to do it for a third time this spring, he just wasn't having it. Typically, before we sit down for our assessments, I have some time to briefly discuss what we will be doing and why. This time, I was experiencing technical issues with my computer (a Dell N5110, another topic; don't buy a Dell), and I didn't have the time to talk with Little G because I was busy trying to evoke some signs of life from my computer. The test is timed, and he spent the majority of that time shooting me dirty, disgruntled looks and throwing his head back to stare at the ceiling in silent protest. His autism and his enormous ego are sometimes a bit of a challenge.

At the conclusion of the testing, Little G scored Below Average. I was extremely annoyed, and having difficulty pretending I wasn't. I told the teacher assessing him as much, and said I should probably discuss the results at another time. She was extremely understanding and offered me some phone numbers of some people I could contact regarding my feelings on the matter and what I felt ought to be done differently. After all, I said in protest, they were assessing a child taking 1st grade curriculum as a Kindergartner. He certainly would have been less frustrated and the picture would have been more accurate had they assessed him based on where he was actually working. I realized I was launching into an epic rant once again, which I was trying to avoid since the issues I was facing were not the teacher's fault and she didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of my dissatisfaction. I accepted her offer of the contact info, and I decided to focus on anything other than Aimsweb.

But I couldn't. A few days passed. The teacher (she's awesome, I'm pretty sure I have mentioned this) agreed to allow Little G to take the assessment again on a day when we were not experiencing massive technical issues and he could truly focus. As it turned out, we still had some technical issues (did I mention Dell sucks?) but she came up with ways to work around it. And when all was said and done, Little G scored in the Average to Above Average categories across the board. I felt better. Little G felt better.



But during the testing, something occurred to me. My son is not typical. My son is autistic and has a speech disorder which affects his expressive and receptive communication. Even if he had truly scored in the below average range for letter sounds, would it have been because of a lack of understanding or learning? No! His speech disorder complicates matters extensively, and the fact that he is able to compensate as well as he does is highly impressive. Here I was spending all of my time focused on the fact that this standardized test failed in an epic way at assessing my son's actual abilities and progress, to the point that I forgot an extremely important variable: my son's language disability.

Little G knew his alphabet and numbers 1-10 by his second birthday, despite his inability to speak (ah, the wonders of computers). He is anything but below average. I bristled at the scores on the latest assessment, an assessment of the boy who has been tutoring his similarly gifted sister since he was just a preschooler. How could he be able to correct Reezle's spelling and grammar errors and he is scoring Below Average on Aimsweb!? Actually, for nonsense word reading, he scored Well Above Average; it was only the things directly related to how he processes speech sounds which became an issue. Duh. Sometimes I fail to think. And yet, standard tests fail to really assess his knowledge and ability because they do not take his disability into account.

Standardized tests are just a part of the story.

Second Round of Assessments

When I decided to take on the responsibility of teaching my children and removed them from public school, I was both excited and nervous. I looked forward to being a part of their learning experience, to taking field trips together, and to feeling like a whole family again. During the two years that Reezle was in public school, I felt as if I lived for weekends and strangers were spending more time with my sweet girl than I was. But I was also really nervous. Education is not something I take lightly, and I was (if I'm to be honest here) a bit unsure of myself. There is an overwhelming message in our society that parents are incapable as teachers and barely equipped to assist with homework, and there was a part of me that believed it.

Today, Reezle did her second assessment of the school year. The first was done when she started homeschool to get a baseline. At the time, she scored off the charts, 'well above average', as did Little G. Today, she did it again. According to the teacher who assessed her fluency, Reezle is reading at 158 words per minute (2nd grade average is 89 wpm, 5th grade average is 139 wpm, 6th grade average is 160 wpm, according to this. Wowza.). She started the year already reading 142 words per minute, so I didn't really expect much in the way of gains between September and February. I guess I should have known better, considering how much she loves to read and how many books she's devoured in the past five months. I am so proud of her! I always had exceptional comprehension and vocabulary, but I was and still am a very slow reader.

She also scored perfect on the math assessment, quickly answering all 50 points worth of questions correctly. I wish her confidence in her math skills matched her ability, but it doesn't. I suppose having a 6 year-old human calculator for a brother probably doesn't help. She doesn't seem to realize she's still way ahead for her grade level. She has a very competitive spirit when it comes to academics.

Thus far, I've been keeping her at grade level work because of her extremely low frustration tolerance and the fact that I wanted to transition her into homeschooling comfortably. However, she is working below her ability and I've decided it is time to start challenging her a bit more. While I stand by my decision to keep her in grade 2 math and language arts, we are working through it at a faster pace now. I echo the teacher's sentiments; we don't want her getting bored...it's difficult to get them back after that. Indeed. I was bored at her age, so I stopped paying attention. I didn't need to pay attention. But by the time I realized I did need to listen, I was out of practice and overwhelmed with frustration. It can be a delicate balance for kids.

In some really fun news, the teacher introduced us to a cool educational website this afternoon called Reading Eggs (it's so much more than it sounds like!) that the kids can hardly wait to start using! There are even books they can read on all kinds of topics, and Reezle is anxious to dig into the history ones.

We're now more than halfway through the school year, and I love this more all the time. The kids love it, too, and there is no doubt whatsoever that we will continue with the K12 curriculum for the coming school year. If anyone reading is considering homeschooling, or looking at different curriculum options, I encourage you to look into K12. It is absolutely wonderful!

Common Questions People Ask About Homeschooling

Some of the most common questions I am asked as a homeschooling parent are: What does your day look like? Do you teach for as many hours as they teach in regular schools? Isn't it difficult? Do your kids respect you as teacher, or do they think they can get away with stuff because you're mom? Do they have recess? What do you do for gym class? How do you teach two grades at the same time? Do your kids still get up early? Do they 'go to school' in their pajamas? Well, I've finally put together a post to answer these questions!

Do you teach for as many hours as they [the teachers] teach in regular [public, bricks and mortar] schools?

No. And yes. Are my children sitting with pencil to paper for 6 hours per day in a highly-structured manner? No. But if I tried to quantify the hours they spend learning, it would add up to more than the typical school day. Because I am the one teaching them, I can slip relevant information into just about every aspect of their daily routines, and I often do. Baking is science and math. There is history all around us. Health is a part of our lives every day. And my children and I love to hula hoop, so we get lots of physical activity that way and count it toward our physical education hours. My husband and I will discuss what they have learned and delve deeper into history lessons or do flash card contests in the evenings or on weekends. I find a lot of great resources on YouTube (travel videos are a fun way to learn more about geography and world landscapes, for example). The whole world is a classroom without limits! Learning at home is a much different style of learning, and affords us a lot of flexibility. For us, flexibility means enrichment opportunities more than location or time.

Isn't it difficult?

It really isn't! I was a little nervous (okay, completely terrified) going into this adventure. However, I did a couple of years worth of researching various curriculum options and I feel extremely good about choosing K12. The curriculum is excellent and the support is very good. There is very little I don't love about K12.

In terms of keeping the kids focused, I really don't have a problem there. They love to learn, and I have been "teaching" my son since he was a baby because he has autism and a speech disorder. This is no different for him than teaching him sign language or doing his speech homework. There is a lot of reading in the K12 curriculum as well, and I have read to my children since before they were even born. It is a very good fit for us. My daughter did have a rough few days one week, but that's about it. I think it was more that she wasn't feeling well than anything else. As long as you already have rules and discipline, and you discuss with your child the responsibilities of learning at home, homeschooling should not be difficult - especially with a supportive structure like K12 has.

Do your kids respect you as teacher, or do they think they can get away with stuff because you're mom?

My children respect me as mom already, and all parents are teachers whether they homeschool or not. I always find myself telling other parents this, because it's so true; you are your child's first and most important teacher. The only things I ask that differ at all during learning hours are raising a hand during discussions (which my daughter does whether we're learning or not - and it's kind of funny), and there is a no electronics rule (except, of course, the computer).

Do they have recess?

Yes, they do! Indoors or outdoors, depending on the weather. Sometimes we go for a walk, sometimes they play a board game, and sometimes they combine recess and physical education and do some hooping or bike riding.

What do you do for gym class?

Lots of things! We do many of the things children would do in a bricks and mortar school, and a lot more. I try to involve my children in community sports when possible, we ride bikes, we hula hoop, they do sit-ups, squat jumps, jumping jacks, balloon chases, run races, do hopscotch challenges, play catch, jump rope, and much more. The possibilities are endless!

How do you teach two grades at the same time?

It's very easy. I work with one child while the other works independently. Also, since my son is in Kindergarten, but doing 1st and 2nd grade work, much of what I am teaching works well for both grades. This makes it much easier for me, but I think we would do just fine even with a much greater grade level difference. It's all about time management and finding a groove that works for you. It takes a few weeks when you're just starting out to find that groove, but things go surprisingly well once you do.

Do your kids still get up early?

Usually, but now I don't have to worry about a rough morning if they have a cute holiday movie on TV until 10PM! My daughter used to catch the bus shortly after 8AM. She used to wake up at 7AM to be ready, and now she wakes up closer to 8:30AM. However, we're usually starting our school day around the same time the public schools are because their transportation time is our breakfast time.

Do your kids 'go to school' in their pajamas?

Not always, but sometimes! And sometimes upside down in pajamas!


They both like to start the day in pajamas, for the most part. Unless we have something fun planned, in which case they want to get dressed up before I even have breakfast started.

Do you have questions? Feel free to ask! If there's one thing I love to talk about, it's definitely homeschooling!

What I Believe (and don't) About Homeschooling

I don't believe that public schools are terrible places, or that the children in them are doomed to lives of misery and bullying. And I don't believe that all or even most homeschooling families are religious freaks, social outcasts, or unsocialized weirdos. Are there some? Well, sure. But it is unfair to judge all homeschooling families based on stereotypes about a few sensationalized situations we hear about in the news or through the grapevine. There are religious freaks, social outcasts, and unsocialized weirdos in schools, too!

I do not believe that public school offers children the socialization they "need". The socialization which children receive at school is largely comprised of things we'd prefer they were not exposed to. And by 'we', I mean most parents, not just homeschoolers. Until the 1840s, compulsory education did not exist in the United States; education was something done in the home and society functioned just fine. In fact, people were quite displeased with the idea of compulsory education! But I don't believe that children should be shielded completely from the outside world; that's just nuts. However, some bits of knowledge can wait.

I do not believe that homeschooling is always the better option. In fact, I think public school is sometimes the better option. Each family needs to assess their individual needs and values and make decisions that are best for their situation.

I do believe that learning about diversity and other cultures is important. I do not believe that public schools, at least where we reside, teach children anything about diversity and other cultures. College will probably be the first place they truly experience this. The most important thing now is to teach tolerance and acceptance of differences. And that will quite likely not be learned in any public school. In fact, I've witnessed quite the opposite.

I do not believe that bullying is some rite of passage that all children must go through, or that children need to go to public school to "learn how to deal with it". Bullying is not a harmless childhood experience, nor is it something that is a critical or healthy part of their development; bullying leads to poor self-esteem, academic failure, drop outs, a lifetime of trust issues, and even suicide. Though a lot of schools talk a good talk about bullying prevention and zero tolerance of such behavior, I've found that lip service is far too frequently as far as it goes. More often than not, schools fail to protect children who are targeted and fail to discipline children who are the perpetrators of bullying. It seems that children are viewed as almost inhuman by schools, with comments such as, "Oh, it's just kid stuff." If adults were subjected to the same treatment by their peers, it would be called stalking, harassment, or abuse, and criminal charges and restraining orders would be ways of dealing with the perpetrators. But when this happens to children, who are far less capable of dealing with these things emotionally and are still developing their sense of who they are in this world, the consequences can be utterly devastating for the victim and schools often dismiss it as child's play.

There are no bullies walking our hallways.

I do believe that all parents are teachers, from the moment their babies come into this world. I also believe that compulsory education and the sheeple mentality it drills into all of us has most parents convinced that they are completely unfit to be teachers. "I couldn't do it," is the most common thing people say to me when I tell them I am homeschooling my children. My response is always, "You absolutely could." It saddens me that parents, who are their children's first and most important teachers, do not see themselves as such. Homeschooling is not a new invention or some wild idea, but a natural continuation of a process already well underway since a child was born. Parents don't have to become teachers to homeschool their children, they already are teachers.

You're A Grand Old Flag

Monday was rough. Truth be told, so was Friday. I didn't really want to blog about it, but I guess that is life; we all have bad days. I might as well be honest about it and tell it like it is. Not every day is filled with unicorns and glitter. Friday and Monday were filled with bad attitudes, temper tantrums, time-outs...and it wasn't just the kids. There was also very little work done, which made me quite thankful that we are so far ahead.

The difference between homeschooling and when my daughter was in public school is that now I take it very personally when things don't go so well, or when we all just seem to have major attitude problems all on the same day. I fear failing. This is new territory for me, and my confidence can take a hit pretty easily at this point.

Fortunately, today was better. No, today was great. It was the perfect antidote to a lousy few days, and I'm feeling confident once more as my smiling children - who worked diligently all morning and got heaps of work done - are sitting on the floor with crayons busily working on some Halloween coloring pages I found online. Since Little G finished his Math workbook last week and completed all of the remaining Kindergarten Phonics as of today, I have been finding and printing first grade Math and Language Arts worksheets for him. He devours them, especially the themed ones. I've found a surprising amount of fun Halloween Math worksheets.

Daddy recently brought home some miniature flags, which the kids had lots of fun waving as we sang some history-related songs from our curriculum. I've heard You're A Grand Old Flag about 40 times today, but it's all good. They marched around waving their flags and dancing, laughing, being silly.

It was such a contrast to the past few days, like a switch was thrown. The only thing I can figure is that maybe the bright sunshine affects their moods as much as if affects my own.

I talked to my grandma for a little while last night, which almost always means I feel better about life. When I told her about some of the struggles of the previous days, she said, "That's why I think I couldn't have done it. Parents don't have the same authority. No, maybe that's the wrong word. Kids will test parents in ways they won't test teachers. With teachers, there is the unfamiliar, the unknown." And she's right. Well, about the testing part. I believe my grandma can and could do just about anything, and homeschooling is no exception. But yes, and I have even said to Reezle, "Would you be acting like this with Mrs. J?" The answer is invariably "no". And there you have it. But it's simply a different set of challenges than we would face in a bricks and mortar school. And frankly, I'm cool with these challenges. With the bricks and mortar school? Yeah, not so much.

Teacher, Mama

This morning, I shared the names of the virtual academy teachers with R and Little G. Little G looked upset and said, "I thought you were going to be my teacher." I explained that I would, but these other teachers were experienced and knowledgable, and they would help us stay on track. He brightened right back up. My sweet R chimed in right after.

R: That's the best part about homeschool. You are our teacher!

G: You're mama and teacher!

R: Yep! I'm gonna call you Mrs. Mama.

Heh. Aww.

We Are All Teachers

When I began familiarizing myself with the Kindergarten curriculum, I actually found it somewhat funny that index cards for sight words are recommended. Sight words? For real? My son and I would spend hours each week on the local school district's 500 sight words page, mostly for the purpose of helping him with his speech. He could already read the words easily at age (early) 4, but the added benefit was that he learned to correctly spell them all and now writes very detailed lists, requests, and descriptions of his feelings (when his emotions overwhelm him too much to speak, a common difficulty with his speech disorder).

Many people are surprised when I tell them how early my children were reading, but I truly believe that almost all children are capable of much more than we give them credit for. For example, when my son was diagnosed with autism and an expressive-receptive speech disorder at age 2, crying and meltdowns were the norm. I didn't throw him in ABA therapy hoping someone could train him to handle his outbursts better; I examined why he was so tantrum-prone. I realized that he knew exactly what he wanted, but the words were not making it from his brain to his mouth. Words were flipped around, mixed up, and incomplete. He was frustrated, and understandably so!

Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately, as it turned out - our county was minus a speech therapist at the time through Early Intervention. Through the University of Google (ha!) I did some research about my son's speech disorder and found that sign language could be helpful. I went to the local library and started requesting all the Signing Time DVDs I could get my hands on, and bought a few that were not available through the inter-library lending program. And, as a family, we learned sign language. I was amazed at my children's capacity to pick up and retain this new language. Even more profound was the marked absence of the daily meltdown marathon; it turns out my son has a great capacity for language, just not the spoken form. With the tools to communicate, he was so happy and could then focus on other things.

It occurred to me that they could probably learn just about anything, and well. I also realized something else; parents are their children's first teachers. We doubt ourselves. We believe that schools will teach them all they need to know, and that our duties pretty much end when they walk into the school building for their first day of Kindergarten. Even those who don't think they believe that still sort of do. Because I didn't think I believed it, but I did. Confused yet?

The realization came to me when I was contemplating the necessity of backpacks for homeschooled children and the study space we would use. I had a very 'inside the box' concept of education. I would turn the kitchen table into a desk for the academic portion of our day, and backpacks would not be necessary. Or, would they? We could take our books to the park and read for a change of pace. And for that matter, why does the kitchen table have to double as a desk? Wouldn't it be much more comfortable to relax on the couch with Why Frogs Are Wet? Ah, yes. I had great ideas, but still very conventional ideas about learning. That is evolving, now.

It isn't amazing that my children were reading books at early 4. They are bright children, yes, but I think somewhere along the line parents stopped believing they were a part of their children's learning experience. Sure, we know we are the ones who teach values and the importance of chores and making good choices in life, but we are so much more! Much more than many of us give ourselves credit for. We should all challenge our traditional views of how children learn, and our role in their education.