Homeschooling dari Kacamata Pelaku

Sudah lama Donna ingin menuliskan tentang homeschoolingnya sendiri. Kenapa? Karena begitu banyak orang mempertanyakan, menggunjingkan, bertanya dari yang serius ingin tahu, sampai yang memojokkan dan tidak memberi kesempatan untuk menjawab sepatah kata pun. Jenis yang terakhir ini tidak ada yang berani bertanya sendiri kepada saya selaku orangtuanya. Hmmmm... maunya apa sih mereka ini, beraninya hanya pada anak kecil. Tapi itulah hidup, kita tidak selalu bertemu orang-orang yang "sehat mental spiritual"nya. Malah dengan demikian "sosialisasi" Donna malah lebih lengkap dari pada teman-teman sekolahnya yang relatif lebih "terproteksi" dan "seragam" lingkungan pergaulannya. Jadi bagi yang masih sinis mempertanyakan tentang sosialisasi dari anak saya ini, kayaknya saya boleh bilang, "Coba buka mata hati pikiran, tanyalah pada diri sendiri, sudah bergaul dengan berapa anak homeschooler sebelumnya sebelum membuat satu kesimpulan?"
Bisa dibaca di sini sharing Donna tentang homeschoolingnya.

Donna's First Time Internship

Last May-June 2018 Donna had an internship in K9 kennel in Ciputat, Tangerang. The kennel own by Pak Tatung and Vet Siti Maisaroh. Although the kennel location is far from our house, we still choose that place because I'm sure Donna can learn many things there.
Here are some photos when Donna was there:

With Vet Siti Maisaroh

Last Year Music Events

Last year there were 3 events Donna joined. First was BimTek Musik, a music workshop by Kemendikbud, 30 Oct-1 Nov 2017, where she represented Banten province. She met students from all around Indonesia, and learnt a lot there about different Indonesia's culture and how to  make a team work with different kinds of abilities. She brought her flute in that event. This is the song her group made : "Kita Harus Bersatu"

The second was her piano competition, a piano classic open competition held by CDE Music School.
And the third was her first rank in flute and piano from her music school, Gloriamus Music School.

The trophies.

August 2017 Flute Concert

Last August was a very busy month. Donna had two flute concerts and one piano seminar. The concert preparation itself took many practicing days because it's not a solo concert. The first one was with Gloriamus Youth Orchestra and the other one was a flute ensemble.  The flute ensemble was a new experience for her, where almost all player were flutist.

The first concert was held on August 9, in TIM (Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta) in collaboration with  Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan (Ministry of Education and Culture affairs):

The second one was held on August 17, on our independence commemoration day.

Playing in trio formation.

Any Cozy Place could be Our Classroom

Donna has been joining a private literature & academic writing class since last month.  So on Wednesdays we always go to Donna's English class in the late morning, having lunch out then directly to her flute class. When Donna is having her English class, Liza also has her "class" as I usually bring a folding desk and some learning materials.

As homeschoolers, any cozy place could be our classroom ^^

Before & after lunch, our table in the restaurant could be Donna's desk

Sweet Memory of Perjalanan #OASEksplorasi Anak-anak Homeschooling

From Charlotte Mason's Formation of Character

Written by Indonesian Charlotte Masoner,  Ellen Kristin, this article reminds me what my kids' paediatrician and psychologist said years ago. That kids should stay close to Nature. Animals and Plants are parts of Nature.

Mother Culture

My HSer friend, Maria wrote this enlighten article about qualified Me Time, Mother Culture. It's not easy to provide Me Time among zillion to-do-list. From preparing balance diet meals for my family,  supporting my kids activities (from training self help etc etc  for my eldest, to piano - trigonometry - flute etc etc for my youngest), to my illustration job deadlines. Plus Jakarta's traffics that really sucks :(
Mother Culture is now written in my to-do-list. Me Time is not a sin. Because unhappy mother could be a "monster".
Here what she wrote. Thanks a lot Maria.

Living Books vs Twaddles

I'm not a Charlotte Masoner Homeschooler, but I agree with her for some of her ways, especially about Good Books for children (Living Books, for CMer) instead of twaddle ones. Although, honestly I can't make my home library sterile from those twaddles and try my best to provide as many living books as possible. But, at least Donna used to read living books that shapes her taste in choosing books to read.
What is twaddle books? They are dumbed down and watered down literature.
Here is a good article about it written by Ellen Kristin, a CMer from Indonesia:
"Sastra Disney vs Versi Aslinya"

"Persembahan dan Doa untuk Indonesia" Concert

Last Saturday, Donna had an annual concert provided by her music school for the best three students in each level and department. This concert was a bit different than the preceding years and contributed for the unity of Indonesia. The concert itself was divided into two sessions, Piano department and Vocal, Instrument Strings, Woodwind & Brasswind departments.

What she gets from her piano

"Padamu Negeri" played by the teachers and students of Gloriamus Music School

What she gets from Piano & Flute departments, 1st rank for piano and 2nd rank for flute.

Donna's Fourteenth Statement of Accomplishment from Online Course

This time she finished the course so fast, two weeks before the deadline (Dec 11, 2016) for the subject was her favourite : Ancient Egypt.

Donna's Thirteenth Statement of Accomplishment from Online Course

Donna's thirteenth statement of accomplishment from Coursera: Arch of Titus: Rome and the Menorah from Yeshiva University

Books for My 8th Grader

Here are the books we will use in grade 8:

They are Math 2 (New Syllabus Mathematics 7th edition) from Shinglee, Cambridge Global English 8 and Geog.2 from Oxford.
Oh... and Science Check Point 8. I forgot to photo it. In the last academic year she used Science Check Point 9, and she said that the chemistry part was too hard for her, but the biology part was too easy and she had no problem with the physics part. So we decided to go back to her level, book 8.
For other activities, she has Flute class and Piano class (with 2 different teachers), German language class and Gymnastics.
I think those books are enough for her basic,  so that she has more time to do other things and deepen her interests.

And in this semester, Donna joins a homeschooler community's scout, Pramuka Oase. They are planning to have a big trip called Eksplorasi (Exploration) on this November or December, to make a research about a local food. They are divided into two groups, Kunyit/Turmeric for a longer and farther trip, and Jahe/Ginger for a shorter and closer area trip. No parents are allowed to company their kids in both trips. They meet every two weeks on Wednesday. It is a very good activity for her, though the meeting location is far enough from our house.
Here are some members of Eksplorasi:

Every week they have a different challenge to solve and some task for it. Some must be done individually and some are in group task. Here's Donna's report about them under the "Eksplorasi" tag.

Education Should Be a Journey, Not a Race

This is what my friend Aar Sumardiono wrote about Donna and her online course learning:

http://rumahinspirasi.com/dona-usia-12-tahun-lulus-12-mata-kuliah-online/

Hopefully this article will inspire more parents, especially Homeschoolers, about how internet change the way our kids learn and the unlimited possibilities we have for learning process. I love homeschooling because  it is customised to every single child.

Donna's 9th - 12th Statement of Accomplishment from Online Courses

I don't realise that I've been away from this blog so long :( So many things to do, so little time.
Here are Donna's 9th - 12th statement of accomplishment, all from Coursera:

6/1/2016 "Introduction to Philosophy" by The University of Edinburgh

August 2016 “The Holocaust - An Introduction (I): Nazi Germany: Ideology, The Jews and the World” Tel Aviv University & Yad Vashem 

August 2016 “The Holocaust - An Introduction (II): The Final Solution” Tel Aviv University & Yad Vashem

August 2016 “Palaeontology: Early Vertebrate Evolution” University of Alberta

For the last course, about the early vertebrate evolution, she worked hard for her knowledge level in Biology subject was not high enough to understand the course. She asked me some from the course that she didn't understand, doing Google search and read an IGCSE Cambridge book of Biology. And finally she can finish it very well!
Feeling grateful for all of her accomplishment :)

Donna's Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Statement of Accomplishment from Online Courses

The sixth was "Introduction into Classical Music" by  Yale University through Coursera on March 16, 2015. I forgot to capture the statement :( because that time Coursera change their regulation of student's accomplishment.  So I only can capture it from Donna's accomplishment like this:

Introduction to Classical Music is on the bottom of the list.








The seventh was " Christmas Carol" (Charles Dickens) by Berkeley BookX Club through edX on Dec 29, 2015 :

And the last is "Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming" by The University of Edinburgh & Universidad ORT Uruguay on May 25, 2016 through Coursera:

Yes, this is the only thing she can get to show her accomplishment, for she's just 12 yo and she can't join the one with statement of accomplishment certificate (by The Coursera's new regulation).

Most of the course she did them well by herself, except the last one. It's an uneasy course for her and her father helped her a lot in explaining and assisting her.

Third Term Review for Donna : Reducing the Books

We feel that the books Donna chose to use in this academic year were a bit too many. The books themselves are good. However, she needs more time to read other good books and deepen her interest (philosophy, flute, piano etc). So she decided to remove two of them from her list. They are:

  

         and

For Geography she still has Geog 1 and for Science she has Science Checkpoint.

Philosophy

Donna showed her interest in Philosophy a few years ago, when she was about 8 or 9 years old. I didn't pay much attention to it,  for I thought it was only her curiosity of something new. Philosophy is a strange thing for my husband and I.
And  several days ago she joined one of the Coursera's course : "Introduction to Philosophy"
A friend of mine asked her, why does she like Philosophy.
And this is what my 12 years old girl says:
They "asks" us to observe and give attention to the things that are usually aren't observed well by other people, confusing, ignored, and usually unpaid attention by the people now. It teaches us to understand our world in a new view, other than the one that usually other people don't.

Discipline and Self Control

This is one of 20 Charlotte Mason's principles in education. I'm not a Charlotte Masoner, but somehow, I agree with this principle. Well, not only this one, but many of them.

"We train a child to have a good habits and self-control." 

For Donna, this means that she has to control herself in using her cellphone. So, we have an agreement. If she couldn't control her time in using her gadget, she could use her cellphone only once a week (on Saturdays). The better self-control,  the more days she could use her cellphone (2 days in a week, then 3 days a week and so on).  If her habit back to uncontrolled, she will back to once a week again.

So far this way help her much. However, without her cellphone, she still can use her desk computer to learn , connect to the world and have fun. The special thing about this desk computer compare to her cellphone is, that this tool stay in a specific place, so it won't be anytime anywhere stay besides her. 

And of course as her parents, my husband and I show a good example for her. We show her that a cellphone is only a tool that help us, so we are not under cellphone addiction.

First Semester Review for Donna

We almost finish our first semester for the end of the year is nigh. From all of things we've done in our 'school year' I try to make a simple summary:
- Donna's schedule is as full as when she was a student in a school, but the quality of her life rises higher. She is healthier and happier.
- Some of her subjects were a bit left behind, not on schedule (especially Math). But for me that's ok as long as the reason was the time taken for learning (almost all by herself) compare to the 'spoon-fed' version that she got from her old school. And I know that her understanding becomes much much better now. But for the other reason, distraction, she still has to learn how to manage her time better.
- Donna is an independent learner. She starts with the text book by herself, no one stands in front of her teaching the subject. For Math subject, she examine her understanding by doing some exercise from the work book. The work book comes with key-answer and she can check her answers by herself. And if she found some differences from the answer key she'd come to me or her father to ask. Some caused by her careless counting, some caused by her lack of understanding (and weak math foundation during her old school), and some from the answer key itself (human error).
For other work books that come without any key-answer, she used the internet sources and her parents as 'key-answer'.
- German language class that starts at the last week of last October so far so good, supported by  Duolingo as a daily practice apps.
- For Music: her piano achievement is the same as last year (ABRSM certificate, Gloriamus  Music School 1st winner for midyear internal competition, 1st rank for Gloriamus Music School grade 4 practical exam), and her Flute is just start so there's no special achievement.
- Online Course: She's taking 3 online courses right now, 2 new ones ( "Think Again: How to Reason and Argue" from Coursera and "A Christmas Carol by Dickens BerkeleyX Book Club" from edX) and the other one is the old one Dino 101 Dinosaur Paleobiology from Coursera. She's been taking this course three times or four maybe for she like it :D
- Time management:
She's just got her cellular phone a few months ago. We made an oral agreement, inspired by this post by Rumah Inspirasi. At first she was addicted to an online game and then unstoppable chat with some friends. Those activities really time consuming. I don't want to take her cellphone away as our final agreement for the consequence. I prefer if she then manage her time and catch up all of her left behind subjects. This ability in time management and self control is really important in her future life, she has to master it.  It's not proven yet. It's just a start.
Not only by her cellphone, sometimes distraction also comes from her "extended break time" (reading a page or two only for a couple of minutes became all of the pages of the book), or internet searching that "carried her away".

Time management is the biggest issue for her now. We all have to work hard to solve it without changing our homeschool style into "school at home". It's not what we want.