Question: What does Eric do?

    Eric writes in his journal daily.  He occasionally writes stories and poems.  Lately, the main focus of his writing has been his correspondence.  He is active on a few e-mail lists. 

    We do what some would call unit study.  Instead of doing a little bit of everything everyday, Eric seems to prefer to immerse himself in one subject and then he moves on when his interests change. 

    I'm a terrible record keeper; so, to help me, Eric has started giving his Dad and me an oral report of what he did during the week for school. 

    I looked over his notes for the month to be able to answer the question, "What does Eric do?" 

    Many of the things he does, he views as part of everyday living and they don’t make it onto his list.  If they were done in an "institutional school" setting, they would definitely be considered "school work". 

    An example of this is his recent foray into fencing.  When he decided he might like to start taking lessons, he did research on the Internet, using multiple search engines.  He learned of local fencing groups; prices of fencing equipment; fencing history; fencing terminology; and he downloaded the rule book and read it. 

    This research (and the fact that his instructor is from France) has also sparked his interest in learning to speak French.  This lead to his researching the French language.  He learned of French on-line language classes, French distance learning classes, and French software tutorials.  He is still doing research and has not determined the method he wants to use to learn the language. 

    In an "institutional school," he would now be required to write a report, complete with visual aids, and then make an oral presentation to his class.  He would then be graded. 

    Being able to compile and present the facts in an interesting and timely manner are important skills to possess, but once he has proved his ability to do these things, why keep doing them?  This paper trail actually slows down his learning. 

    It is more important, in an "institutional school," to have that tangible evidence of a student's efforts.  Without it, on what could they base the students’ grades?  What could they show the parents and the administration? 

    In an "institutional school," his knowledge would be tested to make sure that he had learned the facts the teacher felt were important.  I doubt that the cost of a beginner’s foil would have been on the test, but it was pertinent information to Eric.  If, for some reason, he did not understand the material and failed the test; he would have been given a low grade and moved on to new material.  I believe one reason for the testing is to grade the student as opposed to finding out where he needed help. 

    I can see why, compared to homeschool, relatively few projects are attempted.  This seems to be the case for books, too.  By the time a student can digest, dissect, discuss, and regurgitate one book; he could have read many more books. 

    So, as you can guess, Eric reads but doesn’t do book reports; unless you count the times I hear hysterical laughter emanating from his room, followed by footsteps running down the hall, and then Eric recounting the humorous passages from the book he is currently reading. 

    He researches but doesn’t do research reports, unless you count him telling his friends or me some of the information that he has discovered. 

    Here is an overview of the things he has been doing this month, October 1998. 

Sports: 
    He plays soccer with his homeschool group. 

Lessons: 
    He takes fencing lessons with a teen/adult class 
    He goes to teen, swing-dance workshops. 

Currently reading: 

• Mark Twain anthology, because it was his award from Duke University’s Talent Identification Program. 
• The third book of J. R. R. Tolken’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, because he loves fantasy. 
• A chapter a day of a science fiction book that his grandmother is writing. 
• The Take Ten Years series, in which each book explores the worldwide events of a decade of the twentieth century.

He has a Saxon Algebra book, which he borrowed from a friend and which he detests because it does too much reviewing.  Sometimes he does a chapter a day to appease me while I look for a better book. 

He has started doing the Middle School Problem of the Week and the Geometry Problem of the Week on the web.  Some of the problems are brain teasers.  We both love puzzles. 

He also reads interesting math websites.

He organized an on-line gaming tournament among his "clan" members. 

• He decided they needed to have a tournament.
• He got permission from the clan leaders, 
• He created a sign-up form.
• He received permission to use someone else’s graphic for the award certificate he created.
• He posted a "tournament last-minute change of information page" on his website.
• He fielded questions like, "If it starts at 4:00 p.m. CST then what time does it begin where I live?" 
• His team came in 3rd out of 24 teams.

    He is constantly updating his website with new poetry, stories, awards, gaming decks and other things.  He is regularly creating, editing, and revising his work. 

    Occasionally, when he can’t decide what to do, he goes to his Internet bookmark file called, "Things you might like".  In that file are interesting web pages that we came across while we were surfing but didn’t have the time to explore.  I also keep a file of good link pages that he can use as a jumping-off point. 

We got a scanner and Eric installed it.  He is going to work through the tutorial that came with the image editing software.  Prior to this he has worked through two image editing tutorials.

We purchased Learn to Speak French software from The Learning Company, and The Princeton Review Math Library from The Learning Company.  It had a good math review CD.  He is now reviewing Algebra 1, before starting Algebra 2.

His busiest day this month was Saturday when he went to a 

• Teen Swing workshop from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. 
• Then to a Teen/Adult Swing Dance Workshop from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. 
• He change into his costume in the van and went to the Halloween Dance at the Children's Museum until 10:30 p.m.  He won 3rd place for best costume.  He chatted with 16-year-old girls, and traded them some of his new swing steps for some of their ballet steps.
• His friend's mom, picked him up and he spent the night at his friend's house. 

This month culminated in the homeschool Halloween Dance, where Eric tried out all his new swing steps, with ten different girls, plus his little sister.  Ask me again about socialization.  Ha.

Engela E. homeschoolkids@geocities.com