More Wee-books (reviews)

I had the opportunity to look at two more Wee-books from The Old Schoolhouse, but I'll make a general comment before talking about each of them. As I said in a previous post, I think the Wee-books can be a good idea (and a bargain) if you know what you're looking for, or if you don't mind gambling $1.95 for something that might or might not be helpful. (Some of the Wee-books have a sample to look at, but because they're so short that's hard to do for most of them.)

Just looking at the Wee-books available, I recognize articles I've read in the magazine: life experiences by Gena Suarez, columns by Ruth Beechick, an article about homeschool conventions. There are inspirational articles, interviews, descriptions of different homeschool approaches, and detailed how-to's on home-type topics; so it's pretty hard to generalize about whether or not these individual articles or Wee-books would be useful to you, or whether you'd be better off just getting a subscription to the magazine. If you already like the Old Schoolhouse style, or want to get a sense of what it's like, or just can't get enough of one of their regular writers, then you're probably in the right place.

The two articles/Wee-books I downloaded are Play What You mean: Creative Ways to Teach Communication Skills, by JoJo Tabares, and Building Strong Arithmetic Thinking, by Dr. Ruth Beechick. JoJoTabares is the creator of FootInMouthMan, and if that sounds familiar, it might be because today's Homeschool Freebie is a FootInMouthMan sampler. Her article points out that most oral communication curriculum (past the level of Dr. Beechick's preschool classic Language and Thinking For Young Children) focuses on formal speech and debate--neither of which are exactly what she's talking about, and neither of which are easy sells for grade-school children.

So what is she talking about? Effective and confident oral communication in various situations; teaching children to "express themselves well." I know children who are natural talkers, who fearlessly blurt out answers during the Children's Minute at church, who don't clam up on the phone with Grandma, and who love to show everybody what they're making for the homeschool project fair and talk about what they're reading. I know others who have trouble getting their eyes off their shoes when anybody asks them a question. So I don't know that all the suggested activities would be necessary for every child; but if you have one who tends toward the taciturn, it might be worthwhile working them into your whole-life homeschool curriculum.

That said, I don't know whether I'd want to pay $1.95 to read about playing Telephone; that, to me, is on the same level as paying to get a playdough recipe or to be told that I can find good deals at a yard sale. But I suppose some people don't know about that, or have forgotten. I like the general suggestions better, such as (for older children or teens) discussing what happens if you go shopping in nice clothes and smile at people, vs. how you are treated if you dress poorly and speak sullenly.

All in all, it's a good reminder that not everything homeschoolers do falls under a tight schedule of Readin', Ritin', and 'Rithmetic, and not everything can be taught with a worksheet.

Or should be, at least according to Dr. Ruth Beechick. In Building Strong Arithmetic Thinking, she urges us to "get rid of any textbooks or workbooks you have for kindergarten and first grade. And second grade, too, if you're brave." In spite of having used her "Three R's" arithmetic for three children, I'm not sure I totally follow her opening arguments about abstract ideas here. I do agree that emphasizing math notation for young children is about as useless as teaching music by starting with key signatures and drawing the treble clef. Homeschoolers should be free to do things differently from the norm, including math; yet in many cases there are expectations that our kids will have certain numeracy skills by a certain age--even if it's just Grandpa reminding you how he spent his math lessons learning times tables. And that can make it difficult to stay relaxed about math skills (specifically, arithmetic). To her credit, Dr. Beechick agrees that primary-age children can and should develop skills in counting money and practical measurement (feet, cups, gallons, or whatever system your country uses), and my young yard-salers would agree with that. She emphasizes number rather than numerals, and includes a checklist of concepts that represent "a good normal level to reach by third grade." (I assume that means the end of third grade, but my second grader already has most of these down solid.) She doesn't mention hundred charts in this article, but I do know that she recommends them as a good non-paper-and-pencil way to get familiar with numbers...and it seems that most children would need to be doing something more arithmetical than counting forks by the time they're seven or eight.

So the point of this nine-page article, which with TOS's advertising and homeschool info and other stuff somehow ends up being a nineteen-page PDF file (how's that for math magic) is--like the point of Play What You Mean--that homeschooling can sometimes feel like worlds away from public schooling--and that's all right. If it takes a two-dollar Wee-book to convince you of that (and to keep you from panicking over possibly purchasing the wrong first-grade math curriculum), then it's money well spent.

Related posts:

Yay for Cuisenaire Rods
Crayons' Grade Two: Math
The Primary Math Cupboard
And What Do You Do With It?