Journal of a Homeschooling Mom
Dateline: 11/1/00
By Anne Salazar-Dunbar
If anyone truly believes that learning only occurs during
school hours, school months, in a classroom, I would find it
easy to disagree! With the lovely summer weather here in Southern
California, learning just seems to accelerate with the longer
summer days. The children play hard and though I believe a great
deal of learning occurs during play, there also has not been
a dearth of energy when it comes to the actual hard core academics,
either.
  Early on this summer we took a
trip to Tucson,
Arizona. It
was such a lovely journey. We drove through the gorgeous
deserts and were inspired by the vastness and beauty of it.
We were able to see up close the stunning
scenery of the area and learn about its fascinating history.
We can't wait to go back.
In addition, we recently returned from a two-week trek driving
up the entire West Coast of the United States. We saw it all!
From the congested, crowded
freeways of Los Angeles to the awe-inspiring beauty of Orcas Island in the San
Juans of northern Washington. We spent about 60 hours driving,
altogether, on this trip. What an adventure. The kids did great
and I found tapes and books-on-tape to be very helpful in keeping
their spirits up. It turned out their very favorite tapes to
listen to were the good, old Boomerang
tapes.
Boomerang! covers it
all and it's all done by kids. Every one of my children were
riveted, even my 13 year old who had heard them all before! Believe
me, I will be subscribing again for my younger children.
Road trips are an excellent way for all of us to learn about
history, science and geography (the concepts of cities, states
and country become very clear). It also teaches us about math
as we calculate
mileage and gas
usage. When we drive or walk through the redwood
forests, we really absorb the power and beauty of this world.
No book can really convey that. And my children have a love of
travel and a learned
sense of patience about the getting there.
Another wonderful bonus this summer was the returning home
of my son Ben. He had (by his choice) been attending a charter
school for the past four years. But it seemed that the value
vs. the downsides became more obvious and it was time for him
to come home to focus on his learning. He is working independently
with Oak Meadow's online
high school. He seems to enjoy it and because he is driven to
go to UC San Diego, he is
strongly motivated to work hard. It's a great example being set
for his younger siblings. He is also attending a Shakespeare
club with some of his peers, enjoys fencing classes and participating
in our local youth theater.
Betsy (6) and Alex (9) have really gotten excited about their
math studies this summer. Yes,
you heard me right. They ask to do it everyday and enjoy the various ways
that math works and the way they can easily see themselves making
progress. Although I honestly believe math can and should be
learned in the real world by doing real world things, I can't
argue with their desire to work with this wonderful program,
too.
We can already feel autumn in the air. We intend to take nature walks (recording
in our nature
journals), continue our Spanish,
math, reading
(of course!) attending local children's
theater and just have a general grand time in this process
we call learning!
Anne Salazar-Dunbar has been homeschooling her three children
for over ten years. She also has been studying and working with
whole food nutrition for over twenty. For more information on
both topics you can access her website at www.thenaturalife.com
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