Harmony Homeschool

Join Harmony Homeschool at our new location in Oak Hill for creative, collaborative and hands-on learning. Sign up for classes à la carte or join us for the whole day. These classes are open to school-age children who are comfortable in a structured group setting.

Session One: January 9 to February 27 (8 weeks)

Snap, Fizzle, Pop: The Scientific Process Comes Alive

We will dive into goopy, fizzy and surprising science experiments while making use of the Scientific Process and getting comfortable with science vocabulary. In each class we’ll come up with hypotheses, test them out, analyze our results and make connections, all while having fun and getting messy.

Wednesdays 9:30 to 11:30               

$160/8-week session

Writing Workshop and Bookmaking

We will explore the craft of writing in an interest-led workshop and learn how to make artisan books with various types of bindings. In addition, we’ll try our hand at making paper and experiment with different ways of illustrating our books, including with photos, collage and other mediums. Creative spelling is fine, but students must be able to write on their own.

Wednesdays 12:30 to 2:30

$160/8-week session

Full day: $300 per 8-week session. Full-day students (9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.) will have lunch and recess from 11:30 to 12:30.

And there’s even something for the little ones…

Preschool Art Class

We will take on the world of visual art in this wide-ranging, tactile class for preschoolers. Students will use paint, pastels, papier mâché and more to drip, splatter and swirl their own unique masterpiece, with a new technique introduced each week. The emphasis is on fun and creativity, not the end result, although some of the artwork will certainly be of a quality to be displayed!

Thursdays 9:30 to 12:00 (3 to 5 years old)

8-week session from Jan 10 to Feb 27: $160

Harmony Homeschool is located near the intersection of 290 and Circle Drive in Southwest Austin. For the exact address or to sign up, email Piaf at piafazul@gmail.com.

Q: How long do you spend planning for homeschooling?

A: As little as possible.

This question came up recently amongst a group of homeschooling moms.  The answer, of course, will vary greatly, depending on each person’s personality, curriculum, philosophy of homeschooling, etc.   I don’t want to downplay the importance of being prepared, because sometimes it really is the key to success, but equally important is making sure you don’t burn out.

The attrition rate for homeschooling is pretty high (according to my unscientific observations over the last 8 years).  Many, many parents begin enthusiastically down the DIY road with their preschoolers, only to find themselves exhausted by kindergarten, or even earlier.  Start slow, and gradually add in if your goal is long-term homeschooling.  This goes double for you if you have a young baby at home, or are moving, or have other major challenges in your life right now.

Also, although planning for the whole year sounds tempting (and a very efficient use of time), it often backfires when you have to keep replanning as things take more or less time than you anticipated, or your daughter develops a passion for pigs and doesn’t want to delve into a unit on goats.  You lose the beauty of homeschooling if you’re trying to stick to a schedule that you planned out 5 months ago.  The whole point is that when your child becomes obsessed with electric circuits, you can weave that into your learning plan.  Or even ditch your plan entirely for an intensive on electricity.

As part of our spatial geometry unit at Harmony, we made geodesic domes this week using dowels and masking tape. I’ve seen them made with only rolled-up tubes of newspaper, but as much as the DIY-er in me wanted to see how they’d look with just paper and tape, eventually I had to break down and head to the hardware store for some dowels.

Making them required teamwork and leadership skills.  One group devised a rotating job system so everyone would have a turn at each task (cutting tape, stabilizing joints, and taping), while another group assigned the person most adept with the tape to handle that job while the others stabilized and directed.

Securing the joints was tricky, even with copious amounts of tape, leading to my favorite quote of the day, “This is hard, but it’s so fun!” (The spontaneous cheer that rose up when we completed the last dome was definitely my second favorite quote.)

Once they were made, no one could resist crawling into them,although they were just barely big enough for multiple kids.  Later, at free time, they served as cages, forts and tents. “Applied learning” at its best!

Here is the Winter Solstice story that I tell every year.  It was created by my mother and I’ve tweaked it along the way.  Enjoy!

The First Winter Solstice

Long, long ago, when the sun and the moon were children, they had only one toy to play with.  It was the earth.  Because they both wanted it, they decided to take turns.

When it was the sun’s turn, the people and creatures on earth felt warm, the crops grew tall and it was day.

When it was the moon’s turn, it grew quiet and dark on earth and the people and creatures rested.

One day, the moon decided she didn’t want to give the earth back to the sun because she was having so much fun, so she kept it for a few minutes longer before giving it back to the sun.  The next night, she kept it for a few minutes longer than the last time.

This continued until the nights were much longer than the days.  The sun wanted his whole turn back, but he was very shy and not sure what he should do.

On earth, the people began to grow worried.  It was getting colder and there wasn’t enough sun for the crops to grow.  Looking up at the cold night sky, they were scared, afraid that the night might just keep getting longer and longer until there was no day left at all.

The people decided to make a giant bonfire to call the sun back to the earth.  The youngest children gathered twigs and leaves, the older kids carried large branches, and the strongest men and women hoisted giant logs onto their shoulders.

They piled all these things into a big pile and began the blaze.  It burned bright and hot, just like the sun.

Looking down on earth, the sun saw the fire and knew immediately that the people and creatures were missing him.  The next morning, he took his turn back a few minutes earlier.

On earth, the people rejoiced, for they knew that the warmth and the light were returning.

Can you feel it?  The nights are getting longer.  (Colder, not so much.) Soon it will be the longest night of the year.  In my home, we talk a lot about the balance between darkness and light around the winter solstice.  These festive lanterns are one way to bring a little light into the darkest time of the year.

Mosaic Lantern Tutorial

materials: smooth glass jars (mine were recycled salsa jars), glue, paintbrushes, colored tissue paper ripped or cut into little pieces, tea lights

1. Dilute the glue with water in a 1:1 ratio and mix.

2. Paint one side of the jar with glue.  Place overlapping pieces of tissue paper over the wet areas.  Spread a layer of the glue mixture on top of the tissue paper.  (Keeping the paper smooth while doing the second layer of glue will be the trickiest part for younger kids.)

3. Repeat until the entire jar is covered.

4. Once the glue is dry, put your candle into the jar and light it.  Now is a good time for a round of seasonal songs.  May I suggest This Little Light of Mine?

We started Writing Workshop at Harmony this month.  It was glorious for me to see the somewhat dubious expressions of the kids on the first day transformed into eager requests to share their writing with the group!  One of the tenets of Writing Workshop is to just get your ideas on paper.  When you’re working with young children, this means invented spelling.

For many children, every few words is punctuated with How do you spell ____________? After I had said Put down your best guess about ten million twenty times, the kids began to write on their own.  A hushed feeling of concentration descended on the group.  Invented spelling gives children the freedom to truly experience writing as a form of communication and as an artistic expression.

Yes, but how will the kids ever learn how to spell correctly, you ask? Well, when I’m looking for a spelling list for my daughter, I just pull out her 4-page story on kittens and pull out the most frequently missed words –no curriculum needed.  And instead of writing because five times on a worksheet, she just corrects it the five times it appears in her story.

And if you needed yet another reason to love invented spelling and Writing Workshop, the kids produce surprising, touching, and hilarious stories for your reading pleasure!

How do you encourage your children to write?