Det har vært stille her i bloggen...

Det har vært stille her i bloggen, men veldig travelt i livet!

Maria begynte på skolen i høst. Vi våkner kl. 6:30 hver dag, noe som gjør dagen så mye kortere... Vi må jo til sengs mye tidligere for å få det til. Og da har jeg ikke tid eller krefter å sitte om kvelden og skrive alle innleggene, beklager dette! Men det betyr ikke at vi sluttet å ha det gøy i mellomtiden :). Vi fortsetter med hjemmeskolen for storebroren og er i full gang med siste året på mellomskolen.

Ungdomsskolen er i siktet! Vi er litt usikre på hva vi gjør neste år. Maria har bestemt seg å ta 6. og 7. klasse hjemme, og dette er greit. Men hva skal Daniel gjøre? Han vil også fortsette å studere hjemme neste år, men jeg er litt usikker. Dette er jo ungdomsskole, jeg tenker det må sikkert være mer vanskelig å få til... Men dette tenkte jeg også om mellomskolen, men det har jo gått bra...

Vi søkte Montessoriskolen for ham og nå stoler vi fullstendig på skjebnes valg. :) Om han kommer inn så prøver vi skolen i 8. klasse. Om han ikke kommer inn, da tar vi det med ro og fortsetter hjemmeskolen neste år også.

Dette klarer vi fint uansett. :)

Teknologi og design

For å forstå realfagene praktisk bruker vi teknologi og design på mange måter. Vi bygger ting, besøker spennende utstillinger og tekniske museer, er med på tekniske konkurranser og designertreff.

*** Daniel planla, bygget og testet flere mekaniske roboter ved hjelp av Lego Mindstorm program. Det var mulig å planlegge robotenes bevegelser og kontrollere dem gjennom en datamaskin.

 

En romstasjon er i ferd med å koble seg til en annen modul. 

Her får Daniel hjelp av en utdannet sivilingeniør som driver med robottekniske oppgaver til daglig.

*** Barna laget flere raketter av diverse materialer og noen av disse fikk vi skyte ut til vers. 

*** Mange modeller ble bygget opp.

Det var både vanlige modeller...

... modeller hvor man skulle bruke og lære om elektrisk energi...

... og blant annet en DNA modell. 

*** Barna var med på diverse kjemiske og fysiske forsøk i regi av "Museum av spennende forskning, vitenskap og teknologi".

*** De testet diverse teknologiske produkter som er bare i utvikling. Blant annet prøvde de å kontrollere datamaskinen ved hjelp av hjerneimpulser.

*** Barna besøkte en utstilling hvor det var mulig å se og teste fysiske enheter fra 19. og 20. århundre og lære om utviklingen av fysikk gjennom menneskets historie.

Museets kurator fortalte oss om oppfinnelser som fikk Nobelpris i fysikk.

*** Barna lærte også om hvordan et fly fungerer, prøvde seg i pilotkabinen og lærte om hvordan å håndtere flyet gjennom simulatorer. 

*** Vi fikk se og gjøre mye annet, dette er bare en brøkdel av det vi fikk oppleve. Men her er det bare en liten smakebit: Huset opp ned, et lite museum som virkelig snudde oss alle opp ned :)))

Ellers er det spennende å sjekke ut følgende linker:

- Nasjonalt senter for naturfag i opplæring

- Forskerfabrikken

- Bolig ABC: et nettsted for grunnskolen om arkitektur og design

- Trigger: nettsted for naturfag i ungdomskolen

- Naturfag for grunnskolen

- TV-program Newton på NRK-super

- Norsk teknisk museum

- Regnmakerne - et nettsted om energi for grunnskolen

Mottar flere spennende linker og nettsteder med takk :)))

Religion og etikk

Det har vært en stund siden sist, vi  har vært veldig opptatte med alle prosjektene våre. Men nå kan jeg gi dere et raskt overblikk over det vi har gjort i løpet av denne tiden.

Ett av prosjektene våre handlet om religion. Vi brukte mye tid på de tre store monoteistiske religioner: jødedom, kristendom og islam. Ordet "monoteistisk religion" betyr at jøder, kristne og muslimer tror at det eksisterer bare en Gud. Vi sammenlignet disse religionene, fant felles trekk og lærte særegenskaper. 

Vi lærte også om religioner som er veldig annerledes fra det vi er vant til: hinduisme, sikhisme og buddhisme. Selv om noen av ritualene var veldig annerledes, lærte vi at mennesker søker gud på mange forskjellige måter, de søker veier å nå gud, å utvikle seg, å bli bedre, å være snille mot andre.

-        Vi besøkte diverse kirker: så en ortodoks gudstjeneste, besøkte flere katolske og lutherske menigheter ved diverse sammenhenger, vi deltok til og med i et bryllup i en baptist menighet.

Den Katolske kirke i Nazaret.

-          Vi var på besøk hos bekjente som er muslimer. Vi lærte om ramadan og id og spiste tradisjonell pakistansk mat. Dessverre kunne vi ikke ta bilder der. Dette respekterer vi selvsagt.

-          Ved tidligere besøk til Israel så vi både de store synagogene og stod ved Klagemuren. Vi ble kjent med noen praktiserende jøder også og fikk prøve jødisk mat. Vi så en Israelsk film ”Ushpizin" ("Gjester") om de ortodokse jøder sin feiring av Løvhyttefesten. 

Klagemuren

I Timnapark i Israel så vi Tabernakelet som er beskrevet i Bibelen.

Der så vi også modellen av Paktens ark.

-          Ved påsketiden laget vi Seder, et jødisk Pesach (Påske) måltid og snakket om den jødiske tradisjonen. Vi feirer også kristen Påske og forteller om Jesus og hans død og oppstandelse. Vi ser etter sammenhenger mellom disse to feiringene.

-          I tillegg til dette lærte vi om antikkens filosofi og leste Samtalene ("Lunyu") av Konfuсius. Vi så også en spennende kinesisk film om Konfucius (Kung Tze). 
      

      For å sette en strek under prosjektet besøkte vi utstillingen "Våre hellige rom" på Interkulturelt museum, hvor de fleste store religioner var representert.

-           Resurser:
       - Du og jeg (5.-7. klasse)
       - NRK om filosofi
       - Inn i livet/ Cogito online
       - Vi i verden online
     
     

Why homeschool? part 5

He-he, now I guess I kept you waiting long enough :))) The BIG S! :)))

Freedom of socialization

The notion which makes the majority of people around to frown and to make the picture of our kids chained to a table in a dungeon in their minds: the homeschool kids are deprived of socialization. Well, let us see.

What is socialization in the eyes of everyone? Sitting a whole day in a company of people with whom you have nothing in common but a year of birth. Is this socialization? And you are stuck with these people for 10 years!

You could say: but school recess! That is when the socialization is done. But have you seen kids at a regular European school recently? Seriously, have you? The kids older than 8 are all into their digital gadgets. They are playing, chatting, taking selfies and twitting. They socialize online. Now tell me, why is the location that important then? They can well twit from home, right? 

And the situation at home is a bit different. Yes, our children have friends whom they contact online, but a lot of their socialization is actually face-to-face. They are socializing with kids who might be of very diverse age groups, but have the same passion to music, to sports. Three friends my son has, come from his fencing club, and they are all older, one is in high school. You should see how they support each other at a fencing tournament! How they stand for each other and encourage even if one looses. This is the friendship one can cherish for life. 

His best friend is a musician. And when they are together, guess what, sometimes they play music pieces, nobody makes them, they just love that. This kid is actually one and a half years younger. 

Maria's best friend is also a boy, a neighbor who spends a lot of time at our home playing games and discussing things with her.

Children in the orchestra are often taking the time to do things together, in addition to playing on rehearsals, which also makes bonds between them. Of course, meeting other homeschoolers is an arena for socialization as well. We have regular meetings, both organized (as museum or other cultural tours, crafts, sports activities and such) and on private basis, when we visit each other and spend time together, both parents and kids.

It was funny to see a mother picking up her son from Daniel’s birthday party in a bowling center. She commented on how surprised she was to see such a diverse group of friends our son had. The kids were between 8 and 18, both boys and girls, while her son’s parties consist usually of only boys from his class. 

Together with our Grandmother.

Another important socialization issue is family bonds. These bonds get weaker through years due to all the different lives the families are leading. This privilege to be at home which I have is a great blessing to all of us. We know each other well; we interact, play, talk and address the important issues when they come up. The children learn to interact with each other in a kind and respectful way.  They don’t need to fight for parents’ love, since they don’t need to divide between themselves the precious one hour of parental attention before bedtime, but can address us and receive help, advice or just a listening ear whenever they need that. We enjoy time together and I hope the kids also will remember this family warmth which they receive, and keep being there for each other through life.

Why homeschool? part 4

Now, the question of freedom does not end with the freedoms I have already mentioned: freedom of being bilingual and freedom of choice of a learning arena. There are quite a few freedoms I will take up in the next several posts. 

Today we will look at the questions of interests and of time.

Freedom for the children to pursue their interests.

Our son, he is 12, is a very musical kid. When he attended school though he never had time to practice and to use time on perfecting his skills. This Fall, after he devoted enough time to clarinet, he won the Super-final's audience prize in Norwegian National Music competition for Youth. The first prize was won by a 21-year old flutist, so we ARE very proud J.

Our youngest is keen on biology. Her interest in experiments, in work with microscope, in learning about cells, plants, animals is really big. She is reading the high school textbook in Biology, and she is only 9.

Our kids’ interest for history led us to petroglyphs in Norway and Kazakhstan for learning about stone age, Egypt's pyramids and Israel for Ancient history, Bergen and Trondheim, Lithuania and Germany for Middle Ages... We are learning a lot through travelling, which brings us to the next freedom, freedom of time.

Children are making their own papyrus in Cairo Museum of papyrus. 

Freedom of time

In Oslo, there is a very strict rule which does not allow school children to take much free from school. Only the death (God forbid) of a relative, can be a reason for children to take free. This same relative’s 75-year old day celebration is out of question. We have always traveled a bit and tried to make kids learn on site. But with the latest development it became impossible to take children to Delfi in Greece to see the first Greek stadium, the “hub of the universe” there, to learn about oracles where they actually were performing their predictions. As one example. (We did take our oldest out of school for this trip when she was in the 5th grade, but did not manage to repeat it with the next child, he was trying school then). 

But when we returned to homeschooling in May we managed to travel to Baikonur launching site in Kazakhstan and see the manned spacecraft being launched into the darkness of night sky!

 May 28th 2013, launching of Soyuz TMA-09 spacecraft, expedition "Volare", with Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, American Karen Nyberg (sounds like she had Norwegian ancestors :)). She is woman no. 50 in space!) and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin (he has 4 missions and 537 days in space in his life!). Their mission was to last 6 months on the International Space Station. 

It is hard to believe, but we SAW THIS LIVE! And no video can describe the feeling in your stomach, when this thunder sound fills every cell of your body! And the stars!! There is no camera which can catch the beauty of the dark night sky and the spaceship thrusting it and slowly turning into just another star up there, only a moving star... This is just such an indescribable beauty! What a blessing that we got to see this once in our lives!

We also visited the Baiconur museum and children climbed into a real landing capsule!

Of course, freedom of time does not necessarily include travelling, not at all.  In some stressful or tiresome moments we can just take free from “school”, sleep in and spend our days... learning differently. For example by reading, watching a documentary, taking a walk in the woods or just sitting on a sofa with a cup of hot chocolate and talking about life. Or visiting an old lady in a nursing home and listen to her stories about the time when she was little... It actually is so that home school is never ending. You almost never can say: now, the school is over, thank you. The kids suddenly realize that learning is something which goes on 24/7! You cannot turn on your brain at 8:30 and turn it off at 3. You learn all the time.

Another time issue is being able to finish what you have started. How many projects lay unfinished at school. How many books are read only partly. How many ideas never come to life. Well, we do have time to finish our projects. Maria for her brother’s birthday has made a hand-written magazine with songs, poems, illustrations, and tales in it. She made an elaborated hand-made dragon game for the whole family. The fact that they are allowed to spend as much time as they need in order to finish their work motivate them a lot.

Another time issue is of course the activities. Our kids were to attend a sport activity and an art one during each semester. That was our plan. The problem is that these activities tend to accumulate and the old activities are not easy to drop. Nevertheless through the years our three kids learnt to swim, to fence, they tried basketball, football, gymnastics, athletics, they go skiing and skating, but not organized. They also were into painting, ceramics, dance, ballet, drama, choir, music of different kinds. (Please keep in mind that this list does not mean that each child tried each activity. No, for example, football and basketball were our oldest daughter's sports, while choir is something only Maria does). Now they stick to fencing (Daniel), science course (Maria), music lessons (both), choir (Maria) and orchestra (both) as their main activities. 

I hope you are not tired of reading because I am going to talk about the big S, socialization, next time. 

Keep posted :)))

Why homeschool? part 3

 Freedom is the wonderful WHY of our education

So, we became free from our current problems. But there were several other freedoms which we did not think of as the reasons to leave school for, but which became the blessings we enjoy.

Freedom of bilingualism

Every bilingual family with children at school knows that without a complimentary education it is almost impossible to maintain the child’s mother tongue.  Norway is a multilingual and multicultural country, while many schools in Norway are happily unaware of that, in spite of a great number of multilingual children in each classroom. School are often operating in a very monolingual way. “This is Norway and here we speak Norwegian”. My children heard this several times. Language of instruction is of course Norwegian, but even during the recess my kids (a brother and a sister!!) were forced to speak Norwegian, without as much as code-switching. Every time they tried to hold a conversation in their mother tongue they were addressed by the school authorities and made clear that it was necessary to switch to Norwegian. The reasons were many, but the conclusion my children made for themselves was clear: speaking Russian, and thus being one, is not valuable. Russians should become Norwegian.  And so should Pakistani. And Turks. And Frenchmen. Maybe one could give an exception to Americans. They speak a language the teachers understand! (As a side note: of course, language is not the only thing which makes a Russian Russian, but it is a cultural marker and a great part of one’s identity.)

Here we should actually address the notions of power, of cultural capital, of transnational knowledge and trans-local affiliation that the children have, which teachers who are ethnically local and monocultural are not aware of, they close their eyes on differences and look at the school children as a homogenous group. They might give some recognition to the kids with different skin color, but the white kids should OF COURSE be, react, and think the way Norwegians do. Which it is not the case. My children ARE bilingual and bicultural. They are Norwegians in many ways. But they ALSO are Russians. 

Therefore homeschooling is befreeing in language and culture terms, when a child is free to read, watch movies, listen to the songs he/ she likes, speak and write both in his/ her mother tongue AND the majority language, or code-switch, as she/ he feels fit for the language situation. Children chose the language they use according the learning arena they are in, which is in its turn, also chosen freely.

Freedom to choose a learning arena

Learning arena should not necessarily be a classroom and books. Such an arena can be actually any institution which is functioning in town. Unfortunately, the public institutions as libraries and museums in Norway have not recognized yet the growing need to address homeschooling families. Nevertheless together with other homeschooling families we have been to guide tours in many of Oslo museums, parks, Philharmonic hall etc, providing our children both joint learning and socialization. 

 

We made field trips to the University Biology Department, to a laboratory studying mildew and fungus, to an entomology department where we learned about different insects, their life and development. We visited a painter at his workshop, we saw how violins are being made - and used as a learning arena many, many other locations and businesses. 

And we should not forget online learning. Khan academy, Russian online school, a plethora of videos about history, science, natural science, or almost any subject one could think of.  All of it is there!

Why homeschool? part 2

As stated in part 1, homeschooling was a choice made as a solution to a current problem. Today I will describe what the problem was and how this solution helped us. (A little note: all the information below is written with my children's consent).

My son had a language deficiency and up to the age of 4 he could say around three words: "Mama", "Papa" and "tractor". Luckily all three sound the same in both Russian and Norwegian so he managed well.  He attended a day-care where after a year of struggle he was diagnosed with “non-specific language impairment”.  Despite the fact that he made a progress, the specialist wanted absolutely for him to start school during the year he turned 6. The additional problem was that he was born in October, so he would actually start at 5. After long discussions he was allowed to stay an extra year without school. During that year I saw how much a child could develop just in one year when provided proper attention. Still he did not reach the level of language development that would be enough to follow verbal instructions. The teachers didn’t realize the need he had, even though we made them aware of his problem. They just became upset when he did not follow their instructions. Several times they addressed him for disobedience when he just did not perceive the instruction. He was in despair. He did all he could to please the teachers and the kids, but they were not accepting his efforts because they thought of him as a disobedient stubborn kid. In addition, because of these special features he was bullied. His jacket was thrown in the garbage, milk poured into his bag, his art was destroyed and he was excluded during the recess. The teachers were only saying “of course, we are working on the issue, this is a bullying free school”, but did not succeed. Finally, my son turned from a happy child into a withdrawn sullen boy who once told me that he didn't want to live anymore. At the age of 9!! Can you imagine my despair???

At the same time my youngest grew up totally differently. She learned easily and fast. She memorized poems just after I read them a couple times. She learned reading when she was hardly three just sitting on the opposite side of the table watching how I taught her two years older brother. I actually was unaware of that she learned to read until one day I saw her with a book UPSIDE DOWN sounding it out. I had to help her with some letters which we didn’t cover with Daniel yet, and she started to read. By the age of 5 she was reading thick chapter books. She was also willing to write and count and was reading her brother’s school books, just out of interest. She could not wait to start school! She expected a world of knowledge unfold in front of her, the educational heaven in a way. Instead she was forced to form the letters for hours and to stay on 1+1 types of Math problems. When I asked her teacher if Maria could get some more challenging tasks, I received an answer: no, then other kids will be upset that she receives a special treatment. In addition, of course, to be a smart girl loving math is a social suicide, even in a primary school. Maria started to have strong pains in her stomach as well as headaches. We went to all the doctors, made ultrasound of all the organs in her stomach, took plenty of blood tests, tried to put her on a diet without milk or bread, in case she had an allergy. She was twice admitted into a hospital but doctors could not find anything wrong.

So, in such an unfortunate state we came to January, exactly 3 years ago. We were very upset and saw no hope or light in the future. A friend suggested homeschooling as an option. At first I was skeptical, but looked it up on internet – and voila, there was a homeschool association in Norway. I took a contact and we decided to come to their meeting on Sunday. We loved what we saw. Normal kids, playing together without even a shadow of disrespect. They did not seem to be unsocialized while they were not pushy in their communication. We enjoyed also talking to parents and received all the information on how to start home schooling.

On Monday I wrote a letter to the principle and we started our home school!

The ones who knows Daniel can see that he is again a happy positive boy with a lot of ideas. He is eager to learn and with years his language problems are getting better. And Maria- her pains gradually disappeared. They receive the educational challenge they need and get the attention in every way.

 to be continued...

Why homeschool? part 1

Tusen takk til alle som arrangerte konferansen om hjemmeundervisning i helgen, og til alle som kom. Konferansen var veldig lærerk og nyttig. Vi fikk høre både fra akademikere, de som ser på hjemmeundervining gjennom sine akademsike briller, og fra de som er på basis nivå, de som underviser barna sine hjemme.

Jeg snakket på søndag om hvorfor vi valgte å ha hjemmeundervisning. Hovedpunktene av foredraget leser dere videre. 

Why do we educate our children at home?

I. Introduction: stating the main reason.

The question why some parents choose to educate their children at home is raised very often. Many believe that homeschoolers are unhappy restrained kids chained to a table and kept in a dungeon. Of course, this picture is anything but true :). 

I myself was never keen on homeschooling and ironically was educated as a SCHOOL teacher, first in Russia, then in Norway, with a Master's degree in multicultural education. Moreover, my oldest daughter went through school and is finishing her last year of public high school this semester. 

So I chose homeschooling first as a solution to a current problem which arose at school my children attended, and only later developed a strong conviction that this is the best choice for our children. 

I myself worked at both private and public schools and can testify that no matter how hard you try it is just not possible for a teacher to meet and address every child's need in a classroom setting. You have a diverse group of kids, with different talents, interests, starting points, level of language development and hormonal change. To treat a classroom as a homogeneous group is dangerous, but is is exactly what happens because teachers simply don't have enough time to reach each child and someone always will remain a mystery. 

On the other hand, even though they will never admit it, teachers don't LOVE my children the way I do. And their goal thus, being very attractive, differs nevertheless from my goal as a parent. School aims at educating and socializing  my children, giving them opportunity to grow up into good citizens. While my goal is to help them to become happy, free, well-functioning adults who are well equipped for life. The notion of LOVE is never mentioned in academic research. Parental involvement, test results and success are. That is why it is so important for homeschoolers with experience to voice their side of the story so that the academics will be able to legitimize the notion of love and include it into their research studies.

So, in a nutshell, we educate our children with hope to help them grow as happy free individuals well equipped for life.

to be continued...

September i et nøtteskall

I tillegg til alle aktivitetene vi nevnte tidligere, har vi gjort mye annet i september i år.

*** Vi fikk skolebøkene fra tilsynskolen vår, laget arbeidsplaner, årsplaner, månedsplaner, ukeplaner osv.

***

*** Daniel og hans venn traff den legendariske pianisten Vladimir Ashkenazi, en av de beste pianister som lever i dag. En fantastisk opplevelse!

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*** Vi studerte diverse temaer, blant annet begynte vi å studere Munk og hans arbeid og dermed besøkte vi Munkmuseet.

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*** Vi studerte planteliv i Botanisk hage.

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*** Maria prøver å få en målerlarve til å bli en sommerfugl. Larven bor i et glass og spiser alt av det grønne den får. Den har gått gjennom flere hudskift og nå venter vi at den kommer inn i en puppe for å forvandle seg til å bli en sommerfugl etterhvert gjennom metamorfose.

***

'

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*** Vi var på "Lørdans" i Operaens foajé hvor vi fikk presentert smakbiter av den nye balletten "I Fokines verden".

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*** Vi var på Kinesisk akrobatisk forestilling som passet perfekt inn i vår historieundervisning, siden vi studerte Kina.

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*** Vi studerte også India og så en film om Ramayana, indisk epos, hvor vi ble kjent med både indiske folkehelter, folkemusikk og guder.

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*** Vi heiet på Oslo Maraton.

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*** Daniel og Anna spilte en konsert i regi av bydelsdagene i bydelen vår.

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*** Maria begynte å fekte (i tillegg til alle andre aktiviteter hun går på ...).

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*** Daniel var på Martin Frösts konsert.

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*** En pianostemmer kom og stemte pianoet vårt, og vi fikk se hvordan dette gjøres.

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*** Mamma var en av to foredragsholdere på en seminar om hjemmeundervisning.

***

*** Daniel var også med på en fektestevne i Upsala i Sverige. Han ble nr. 5, noe som er ganske greit i og med at han har fektet bare i 2,5 år.

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*** I tillegg var vi i Stockholm og besøkte Teknisk Museum der. Spennende!

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*** Så reiste vi til St. Petersburg, Russland. Dette forteller vi om neste gang :)