This post should probably be in the Resources section of the HEM website, but, I don’t have behind-the-scenes access to that part of the blog, so it’ll go here. Perhaps a ping could pong over here.

On military homeschooling discussion lists, there is often the question of how to go about learning a foreign language, often German since that’s where many servicemembers are stationed. When we lived in Germany, one technique I used, after we had acquired a reasonable stock of words* in our minds, was to listen to audio recordings of familiar English-language stories that have been translated into German.

[* The beginner materials that I found most friendly for collecting that "reasonable stock of words" were The Learnables immersion lessons. The audio lessons are all in the foreign language being taught, with the lesson 'explanations' being cartoon drawings of whatever each story is about. In this way, there is no need to translate words. The acquisition process is similar to how we each learned our mother tongue: demonstration, listening and repetition.]

When I started looking for books to supplement our Learnables lessons, I got a library card from the library near the town where we lived. One audio book that I remember checking out was Pippi Langstrumpf – Pippi Longstocking. But checking out books from libraries in other countries is not so easily done from the U.S. where most American homeschoolers live. To get around that problem, I now use the German Amazon site to buy books and (now) CD recordings. As a very noble gesture to make sure audio CDs will play on CD players made in another country (DVDs have region codes to keep them from being played universally), I ordered Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen (Philosopher’s Stone).

Well [she says archly, with a twinkle in her eye]. The order arrived, and yes, German audio CDs play on American CD players, so this blog post ‘is a go.’

To make ordering easier for anyone interested, it is helpful to have an American Amazon site open in another browser window to aid understanding what you’re looking at (the various buttons are in the same places on both sites). Another effective help, is to use Babel Fish to translate instructions on the pages. The German Amazon site will accept payments from American credit cards.

Other audio books besides the Harry Potter series (which is long enough to give an effective course in listening to German) are Alice im Wunderland (Alice in Wonderland), Wilbur und Charlotte (Charlotte’s Web), Der Zauberer von Oz (The Wizard of Oz), and Pu der Br (Winnie the Pooh). The very adventurous can try the German translation of Tolkien’s, Das Silmarillion.

For regular reading, the above books are available as dead tree books. Additional titles available are books by Beverly Cleary, Mary Osborne Pope, Louis Sachar (Holes – Lcher), and Der Herr der Ringe (The Lord of the Rings). For checking to see if your favorite book (!) (!!) (!!!) (??) has been translated (or not, since I don’t think Johanna Spyri wrote in English), use the author’s name for the search.

Amazon has branched out not only into British and German, but French as well.

Harry is available in French, as are Alice (book), The Brothers Grimm with “le Petit Chaperon Rouge” (Little Red Riding Hood — book), Baum’s Le Magicien d’Oz (The Wizard of Oz), Barrie’s Peter Pan, and Louisa May Alcott’s Les quatre filles du docteur March (Little Women).

Tintin’s a gimme, because the cartoons were originally written in French.

Oddly enough, the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder popped up on the French Amazon site in both French and German. Interesting. (oh, the ways to fritter away a day on a computer — which, finding any audio story-CDs in French does quite well)

Unfortunately, I don’t yet see a version of Amazon in Spanish. The best I managed was Libros en espaol with kids books being listed at Infantil y juvenil. (and heeeere’s Harry!)

Picking up a foreign language is much easier when you’re working with familiar material. The sense of the story doesn’t have to be extracted from foreign words along with the meaning of each of those foreign words. There’s no sense making a difficult process even harder than it has to be. Grammar can be introduced after the language is ‘in the head’ if the learner wants to continue mastering the language.

Anyone notice babies diagramming sentences?

When I was first investigating homeschooling, I read A.S. Neill’s Summerhill and Free At Last, a book about the Sudbury Valley School.  Military communities usually don’t sponsor these types of school, so that avenue was out of the question, plus I liked being with my kids.  Still, the concepts modeled by the these ‘voluntary schools’ were useful in working out our own version of ‘how to homeschool.’

• Voices from the New American Schoolhouse

Hat tip to Kristi.

Virginia unschoolers, the Benfante family, made the news.

• NewsChannel 3, Hamton Roads, Virginia, 13 May 2006, Unschooling: Child Directed Learning With No Books, No Schedules, No Curriculum

  Barbara Benfante unschools her three boys in their Chesapeake home. “I think that they’re allowed to learn naturally, the way that kids were meant to learn. As an interest is sparked, they pursue that interest, they learn that they love it and they remember it.”

Click on the “Site Features” button for the video.

Mary Griffith is a long-time homeschool author.  Her books are, The Unschooling Handbook, The Homeschooling Handbook, and an out-of-print public relations booklet that was a gem.  In addition to her books, she now has a blog.

• Viral Learning:  Reflections on the Homeschooling Life

hat tip to Henry Cate at Why Homeschool

In reading the following article about unschooling, I wonder what the point is.  Is it to describe unschooling?  Is it to compare unschooling to homeschooling?  Is it to compare homeschooling to public schooling?  Is it to compare the opinions of experts to those of ordinary moms?  What, exactly, is the point?

• AZCentral.com, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona, (reprinted from the Chicago Tribune), 10 March 2006, ‘Unschooling’ lets children pursue their own interests

That headline gives the impression that the article will be about unschooling and how families pursue their children’s education in this fashion.  I hoped for more of an HEM article.   But, in the common style of ‘mainstream’ articles about homeschooling, more than that is brought into play in the usual ‘tennis match’ style of reporting:  pro, con, pro, con, pro, con.  This article has neutrality in it, but that leads only to my feeling of ’what’s the point?’ 

Other school articles at the same site have more focus, such as the one on school lunches. No comparisons are made to lunchbox lunches, or going home for lunch, yet those topics are in the realm of ‘lunch.’ 

An article on test scores of public school students doesn’t include the test scores of private school students or homeschoolers. 

An article on ‘queen bees,’ girls who bully, doesn’t include homeschooling as one of the “How parents can help” tips.

So why are the following inclusions part of an article about unschooling?

• According to the U.S. Department of Education, about 1.1 million children were being home-schooled in 2003, the most recent year for which statistics are available. That is up from 850,000 in 1999 and represents a 29 percent increase. 
• (lunch article equivalent: what’s the percentage of children bringing lunches from home?)

 

• Education experts estimate that about 10 percent of the home-schooled population is “unschooled,” meaning that there may be as many as 110,000 young people being educated in this way. 
• (test score article equivalent:  what’s the percentage breakdown of how many children in the test score gap’s article target population read for pleasure compared to homeschooled kids in the same area?)

 

• Not everyone is convinced that unschooling is a great idea. 
• (bullying article equivalent:  and how many are convinced that a system that produces ‘queen bees’ is a great idea?)

It’s nice that newspapers think unschooling is a topic worthy of consideration, and I’m glad to see familar names as counterweights to all those “education experts,” but it would be nice if reporters didn’t try to muster a defense of public schooling in most of the articles.

If it’s a ‘how to’ article, write that.  If not, at least balance the sides.

First it was the notification by Daryl that the Anderson Cooper program on CNN would be doing a segment on unschooling last Friday, so I stayed up past my bedtime to watch.  It wasn’t aired.  Daryl’s not to blame, though, as the dateline on the report is, indeed, last Friday.  At last notice, the air date is tonight, Monday, 10pm eastern. 

An interesting part of the article is that John Holt got a mention.

• CNN.com, 27 January 2006, No school, no books, no teacher’s dirty looks

  The term "unschooling" was first coined in 1977 by John Holt, an education reformer, the founder of Holt Associates and author of the book, "Teach Your Own."

  Holt felt traditional home-schooling didn’t go far enough, He believed parents should not duplicate schools in their homes. He favored an education more freewheeling in nature, one that depends on the child for direction

Next, regarding unschooling (and we’ll see if other news outlets pick up the thread), it’s a newspaper article on unschooling. 

For the most part the article is positive, but it is littered with little learned landmines about the fears of critics, about how Kentucky homeschoolers don’t have to take state-mandated tests, or about how they don’t have to learn specific skills by specific ‘dates,’ by which I assume the reporter means that unschooled children are allowed to learn at their own pace.

One such gaffe is easily batted away.

• Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, 30 January 2006, Interests guide learning in home-schooling system

  Making up a gap in college

  Some unschoolers find they must take remedial coursework in college.

Unschoolers find they must take remedial coursework?  Why the surprise?  So do many other freshmen. 

According to an online PowerPoint presentation, titled, "Beyond the Rhetoric of Adequate Preparation: A Spotlight on Remedial College Course Work," the first remedial college course was established in 1849 at the University of Wisconsin.  No, I didn’t mis-type 1949.  1849.  I guess that puts paid to that irritating email in which the recipient is beaten about the synapses and neurons for not knowing information on a test from 1895. 

But back to the PowerPoint presentation, which has a salient quotation:  "The percentage of entering post-secondary students needing remedial courses has not changed since 1983."  To give encouragement to those, like myself, who are in need of some remediation, I will attempt a calculation, in full view of the audience.  Nineteen-eighty-three was 23 years ago.  I’m guessing few of those students were homeschooled, much less unschooled.

That any student requires a remedial course is not news.

In any case, unschooling is poking its nose out of the homeschooling closet.  Keep an eye out for more reports.

Hat tip to Tammy for the link.

The Dallas Observer has a feature-length story on an unschooling family.  The featured person is Quinn Eaker, son of Barb Lundgren and Steve Eaker.

• Dallas Observer, Dallas, Texas, Wild Child

The article is long, gutsy, and thought-provoking (or scandalous, depending on your viewpoint).  My favorite line echoed my own admission to my kids:

• Lundgren agreed [to use a curriculum], telling Quinn if he wanted help, she’d sit down with him 10 hours a day, but she wasn’t going to force him to study or do homework. It was all up to him.