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violingirl
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| Posted: Sept 18 2010 at 1:05am | IP Logged
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We started Kindergarten officially this summer. After much discussion between me and my husband, I think we have a mix that is working for all of us.
DH wants us to have structure that he can see, so I am making plans for each day, but they are not the kind of plans that *must* be done on time. I fill in our hours and what we actually do each day in our records, and if it's different than our original plans it doesn't matter. Mostly we're reading a lot, doing a bit of phonics and math and hanging out outside.
So my question is: What do you do with rabbit trails? Do you plan time for them or do you just push back plans if something else comes up? Like I said, none of our plans are so set that we would be missing out if we didn't complete them, but I did tell my husband that we were learning about the continents over this year. We obviously won't finish that up if we spend 2 months reading and watching everything we can find about blue whales (like we have recently!) So I'm trying to find a more balanced way to still do the work DH and I agree that we want our son to learn this year, but also be able to pursue our son's interest in outside topics.
So what do you do with rabbit trails?
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Erin
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Willa
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| Posted: Sept 18 2010 at 12:38pm | IP Logged
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I am homeschooling my 7 year old using a structured curriculum (K12). Even with a fair amount of content to master, I find that there is much, much time in the day to pursue rabbit trails.
What are your specific objectives for continents?
Usually, the most expected of a kindergartener is basic familiarity with the names, shapes and locations of the major oceans and continents, and something about each of them. This only takes about 5 minutes of a map game per day for maybe 2 weeks, and then possibly a review every week or two to make sure it enters the long term memory.
A study of blue whales could work just fine with this objective since you could research their range and so on.
One classic objective for kindergarten is learning how to learn -- basic research skills, pursuing a subject in depth. If you look at kindergarten lesson plans online you will see that many, many of them are "theme-based" and include what is basically "planned rabbit trails". Your homeschool is doing what most kindergartens would WANT to do but can't because of the number of kids, etc.
Usually most kindergarten curriculums include some familiarity with habitats, animal classification etc and blue whales fit squarely in with those concepts. I would imagine you are actually probably covering 3rd grade or higher skills in your informal rabbit trail.
I guess I am saying that it is pretty easy to have both/and (structured objectives AND plenty of time for rabbit trails). Kindergarten objectives are usually very simple and fundamental. You can do a lot of them informally (verbal quizzes in the car; matching games with cards see Meredith's Geography post -- that kind of thing).
Basically, I think that formal academic objectives can fit pretty easily with rabbit trails but if you had to only choose one, at the kindergarten level the rabbit trails are more suited towards building a lifelong learner who is prepared to excel academically in the later years. Most kindergarten teachers would agree with that, I think.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Sept 18 2010 at 12:52pm | IP Logged
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I agree with Willa.
Sure, covering the basics is important, and a little structured time each day will easily ensure that happens.
But the rabbit trails--that's about your son owning his education. And that's a lesson far more important than any memorization of facts.
If you can work some of your plans around his rabbit trails, that is great (have him move a little blue whale around the map as you say "Blue whale wants to swim to Africa," then "Now blue whale wants to visit North America" etc)especially if you can do it through games, as Willa suggests. But even if you can't--even if his rabbit trails have nothing at all to do with your plans--they are still a vital part of his education. They will be where he learns that learning is not only his job, but also his joy and delight.
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Theresa
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ekbell
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| Posted: Sept 18 2010 at 3:57pm | IP Logged
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My normal approach with children that young is to have any planned lessons be very brief leaving plenty of time for their particular interests but also having plenty additional material around in case the child is interested.
So if I was teaching my son about the continents, I'd plan very short lessons using a core book and globe (I like the Hugg-a-planet for that age because it's sturdy and cuddly). I'd also have some additional books available from the library for each continent for him to choose from at read-aloud time if he wanted.
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violingirl
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| Posted: Sept 18 2010 at 6:35pm | IP Logged
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Theresa, you hit on exactly how I feel. Part of the reason we are home educating is so that our kids have the opportunity to really own their education, and if it were solely up to me I wouldn't have any plans outside of a bit of work with numbers and learning to read and we would just follow his interests for other topics for this year and maybe the next 2. But my husband is a "need to see" person and it helps him to know I have plans written that cover all the typical Kindergarten objectives.
My goals for the continent study is to use it a framework to learn some of the things you mentioned, Willa: habitats, some of the animals, and a bit about the people. So for Africa one of our books was A is for Africa and after we read it we talked about the parts that caught his interest. He drew some pictures about what he learned and we added those to his notebook.
I'm planning 1 month for each continent, and I have about 12 days of "planned" material, meaning we have a chapter of a longer book or a picture book to read, and then we illustrate because he *loves* to illustrate. We sometimes have a bigger craft or art project, but mostly we read and talk. I left days empty each month partly to account for mornings eaten up by necessary appointments, and partly so we'd have a bit of room for other things, but then this very long Blue Whale thing came up. I suppose I'm just looking for a bit of reassurance that this is "okay", whatever that means! 
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Erin
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: Sept 20 2010 at 6:22am | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
| But the rabbit trails--that's about your son owning his education. |
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I'm writing this is my planner. What a beautiful way to put it. I know that I often get so bogged down with all the basics and I forget what I learned when homeschooling my first ds, that it's his ownership of that education that really makes the difference!
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Time to pursue rabbit trails?
