Everyone Homeschools Blog - Socialization

Public Speaking 101

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 23:02:00 -0400

Oh no, I can't speak in front of a group of people! What will they think of me? Will they laugh at me? Will they like what I say? What do you think of when you hear "public speaking"? Most people become nervous or frightened. In high school, I joined the Debate Team. It was an excellent opportunity for me to hone my debate skills, become comfortable in front of people, both unfriendly and friendly, and just in general learn that most folks don't bite. I have used my skills at various times in my life, everything from making announcements at a party to speaking before legislators at a public hearing and everything in between. As I mentioned in Don't You Want to be a HAM?, we are amateur radio operators. Our daughter is also a Brownie in the Girl Scouts. So, what would any self-respecting Mom do when she realized there was a HAM radio patch for Girl Scouts? You guessed it. I volunteered for US, yes that would be myself, my husband and our daughter, to teach the Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes and Seniors about Ham Radio so they could all earn this patch. Since our daughter got her HAM license she met all the requirements and had already received her patch. The requirements we were teaching are listed at Ham Radio Patch. We decided to divide up the requirements so that each of us would have an opportunity to present. Of course, half of a presentation is being prepared and the other half is staying calm. So, my husband and I helped our daughter prepare her presentation. Her speech was double spaced, listed what she would say, what was on the handout for the girls, and even included a quiz item. As the day approached, she practiced giving her presentation to each of us. Each time we would offer her compliments on things she did well and suggestions to make it even better. Since she was going to be teaching 25 girls, we had a discussion about how she needed to speak clearly, look up at the girls, pause when she asked a question, decide how many girls to call on for an answer and so on. Each time she practiced she improved. On the day of the presentation, we went to lunch and over lunch my husband and I each shared some final ideas. My husband pointed out that it was critical that she speak loudly otherwise the girls would not pay attention if they could not hear her. I encouraged her to smile and have fun. At age 9, our daughter did her first real public speaking gig. She did great! All the girls learned about ham radio, they earned their patch and our daughter got to experience not only teaching others and helping them learn but she experienced speaking in front of a group of people. Because there was no grade tied to the presentation she just focused on doing the best she could rather then worrying about a single person making an arbitrary grade. She read the audience appropriately, engaged them, encouraged them, and had fun. I'm looking forward to her giving more speeches in the future.

Deeds, Documents and Town Hall

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:35:00 -0400

Part of the requirements to adopt from Ukraine is the judge wants to see proof that you have a residency. So, if you rent you need to show proof of a lease and if you own your home they want to see a notarized copy of the deed to your home. Enter another homeschool lesson. My daughter and I set out to our town clerk to obtain several copies of the deed to our home because we are hoping to adopt a sibling pair and need the copies for the dossiers. (And an extra copy should anyone lose a copy of the deed.) I expected that we would walk in to the town clerk's office, request the information, they would pull the book, copy it, notarize it and then we would pay and be done. What a surprise when the clerk told us to go to the vault and look it up ourselves. Huh? The look of dumbfoundedness on my face must have been pretty clear because the clerk then proceeded to explain the steps. I took a deep breath and realized I was going to experience this homeschool lesson first hand, side-by-side with my daughter. So, walked into the vault and found a locked area that contained all of our town's vital statistics, such as the births, deaths and marriages. As we looked in awe at books dated back to the 1800s, I could tell this was going to turn out to be a pretty cool experience. As most parents know, I could have completed the task in a record 10 minutes but realized that this would be a great hands-on learning opportunity for our daughter and quickly determined she needed to perform the task. (Did I mention I had no clue how to do this search?) We located a large book that listed all the home owners in town. Our daughter looked up our last name, first name and street and identified the book that our deed was located in. We then walked around the vault a couple times as we tried to orient ourselves with how the books were arranged. Once we figured out the order, our daughter quickly located the book volume that contained our deed and then found the pages of our deed. Wow! In a short period of time she had found the deed to our home and a new interest was seriously sparked. We proceeded to copy the deed, have it notarized and pay for the copies. Throughout this part of the process, she kept asking if we could go back in the vault. Through several questions she realized that we could go back and search our home's previous owners, see how much they had paid for it and so on. As our daughter asked questions, the clerks could overhear our conversation. Soon one of them offered some information on how to do title searches in the vault and I realized there was a serious field trip opportunity here. I learned that Town Clerk does field trips for the local kids to the vault and explains the clerk's job, the records and other interesting facts. So, what would any self-respecting mom, specifically a homeschool mom, do but realize that we need another field trip to the town clerk's office with some friends. Don't underestimate your local town resources. Children can learn about the history of their town and home. They can learn about economics and inflation as they identify home prices over the years, legal documents as they see how deeds are written and notarized, how to do research and of course, communication by asking for help from the clerks. This unplanned errand turned into a great educational experience.

A Youth's Address Book

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 13:55:00 -0400

What does an address book look like to you? If you are like pretty much anyone on earth you will say it includes lines, name, address, email, and home, cell and work phone numbers. The question is how realistic is that for a young child? Think about it. If your child can not read, how helpful will an adult address book be? When our daughter was about three she liked to draw pictures to mail to friends and family. She enjoyed doing this because she quickly learned that she would often get mail back from whomever she sent letters to. One challenge was that she did not know how to spell everyone's name. So, I came up with a photo address book. My husband and daughter created the photo address book. They took pictures we had of everyone and cut out their face. Then we put their name under their picture. (Digital pictures are very easy to use.) Each page had about 15 to 20 pictures on them. Afterwards, we put the pages in a 3-ring binder This worked very well and gave her independence. She enjoyed pulling out her photo address book, creating her picture and addressing it to the appropriate party. This photo address book would also work if you wanted to include the person's address below, particularly when they are learning to write and address envelopes. The only thing that limits your ability to homeschool is your imagination. With some modification, which is often easier to implement in your home than in a school, many things can be easily presented. Children like copying their parents. What is more adult than their own address book?

"But, do your kids get to SOCIALIZE?"

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 13:05:00 -0400

Alright, if you have ever homeschooled officially a day in your life, you WILL get asked this question. So, how do you answer it? "Of course not, our children have never met, talked or played with anyone else in the world in their entire life." Can't you just see the person looking at you with piercing eyes and their mouth gaping open? When we first began homeschooling, I always felt like I had to explain what we did. After all, we were new and weren't really looking for confrontation. So, in the early years, I used the "Let me explain" position about socialization. With this position I would dutifully explain how many opportunities our daughter had between religious, Girl Scout, neighborhood, friendships and homeschool support groups to socialize. As I would rattle them off, they would get quiet and politely say, "That's nice." That used to infuriate me because I had just spent my time giving a great explanation. because it appeared they cared. I quickly learned they did not really care; they just felt uncomfortable with us homeschooling. Often they wanted to throw out that problem as the justification to why they did not homeschool. As the years progressed and I became more confident my approach changed. Through many readings about socialization I came across what I will dub the "What is socialization?" position. Unfortunately, I can't remember the author. In this position, my conversation with someone posing this question usually went something like this. Clerk: "But aren't you worried about your daughter getting socialization?" Lisa: "Well, that's an interesting question, how do you define socialization?" Clerk: Dumbfounded expression Lisa: "I mean, do you define socialization as getting together with other kids of her same age or do you mean interacting and socializing with people of all ages?" Clerk: Still a dumbfounded expression Lisa: "Well, if you mean does get time together with kids her same age, then the answer is yes she gets to socialize with them. For me though, I don't define socialization as getting together with kids her same age. To me socialization is learning how to interact with folks of all ages. After all, last I checked you don't work only with 32 year-olds. Right?" Clerk: "No, I work with all ages." Lisa: "Well, of course. No one is society works or lives with people all the same age. They are all different ages and we still consider that socializing. So, what is the purpose for socialization?" Clerk: "For them to learn from the other kids." Lisa: "What are they supposed to learn from the other kids? The other kids can't teach the subjects they don't know to my daughter who also doesn't know them. I mean honestly what can a 5 year-old teach another 5 year-old, how to have a tantrum when they don't get what they want?" Clerk: Dumbfounded expression Lisa: "So, the answer to your initial question if you are using my definition is actually yes. My daughter interacts with just children of her age and she also interacts with people of all ages. From those older than her she learns something and from those younger than her she teaches them something and learns too. And she does this in a real environment not one artificially created." Clerk: "Oh" Recently, I heard a presentation by a father talking about socialization. In this "Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll" socialization position, their answer was no, their children did not socialize. When the person looked surprised the father pointed out that their child missed the opportunity to socialize with kids doing drugs, alcohol and having sex with many partners. Then the father pointed out that they were fine that their kids did not socialize like that. The truth is that no matter how you answer most likely the person asking doesn't care. In some cases they ask out of curiosity because there is the myth that homeschooled kids don't get to socialize. On rare occasions the person asking is considering homeschooling and is trying to make a decision. More often then not, the person asking has probably thought about homeschooling at some point, never got all the answers, discounted homeschooling because they were unsure and decided to throw out the homeschooling option with the question. As for me, I'm thinking about taking the position, "Of course not, our children have never met, talked or played with anyone else in the world in their entire life!" After all, why spend my time trying to open a closed mind.