Update: Our Story

Our Story: Update

October 2002

Carschooling

You know, I’ve always fancied coining a popular social phrase. I think I may have hit upon a winner this time…“CARSCHOOLING.”

We are carschooling. Goodness knows we’re not home enough to call it homeschooling anymore. On the road every day but Monday, we travel to and from college classes, dance classes, music lessons, jousting lessons, vaulting lessons, acting jobs, theater and ballet rehearsals, and my job at a local performing arts school, where I work part time. I’m grateful for a job that allows me to bring my kids with me. My bosses think they are great and the kids find all sorts of ways to contribute there, like Antony re-designing and managing their website.

College Classes

But, life sure looks different than it did when I last wrote about our activities, two years ago. Then, we were wrestling with the matter of Octavian taking college classes. Remember all that college-related angst I wrote about in “Our Story”? Now a seasoned concurrent student at the College of William and Mary, Octavian has been taking classes there since spring semester 2001. He maintains an A average and plans to accrue enough credits to skip his freshman year when he goes full-time. He has reconciled himself with the fact that the educational paradigm employed by most institutions (even great colleges like William and Mary) is antithetical to the way that he learned most of what he knows. Regurgitating a collection of facts in order to achieve good grades is a means to an end. And that’s ok.

Performing Arts

As for son number two, Antony stands out as our surprise child. Just one year ago he began taking theatre and voice classes at Eastern Virginia School for the Performing Arts. Sounds like an extracurricular sort of thing, right? Wrong if you have as much moxie as this kid does! He won the plum role of Prince Chululongkorn in a community theatre production of The King and I and wowed the critics, including one from New York. He has blossomed into a consummate performer adept at both dance and theatre. Antony is taking theatre, voice, ballet, jazz, and tap lessons. When he is cast in a production, he is in rehearsal at least one day out of the weekend, too. Actor’s Central, an acting agency in a nearby city agreed to represent him as he seeks professional work. (Note* Click on photo to see larger view in flash.)

Dancing, Vaulting, and Japanese

Miss Scarlet, our little one (now not so little at the ripe old age of 10), began taking ballet lessons last September. She zoomed from ballet I to ballet III/IV in one year and this December marks her second performance in The Nutcracker with a local community performing arts organization. She also takes tap, theatre, and voice at the same performing arts school as her brothers. The friends she made in ballet class included two Japanese girls. Scarlet had always planned to learn an Asian language, and befriending these delightful nine year-olds settled it for her. It was Japanese or bust. She now attends the local Japanese International School on Saturday mornings, the classes running in sync with the Japanese school year, beginning in April and ending in March with only a one- month break in August. She is learning Hiragana and Katakana. Her teacher says her handwriting is improving (hmmm, pretty impressive considering Hiragana has 46 characters and Katakana has 51, roughly).

Not content to simply take something normal like ballet, Scarlet began taking vaulting lessons in the fall of 2001. Vaulting is gymnastics on horseback. An excellent preparation for serious equestrian training, vaulting teaches balance like no other horseback riding method.

But, all of the above only accounts for about four days of driving each week. (Note* Click on photo to see larger view in flash.)

Mentorship

Isn’t it every unschooler’s dream to find a mentor? Like a modern Aristotle, the mentor provides the protégé with intellectual stimulation, motivation, encouragement, and friendship. I always hoped my kids would enjoy just such a relationship someday and believed that homeschooling would provide the ideal social circumstances for such relationships to grow.

The boys began a mentorship/tutorial relationship with Major Mike Parodi in January of 2002, learning all the “hands-on” skills they ever hoped to master. Major Parodi is a historical/linguistics/martial arts expert and devotes three to four hours a week on Sundays (after we scream home from the early service at church) with the boys, teaching them such varied subjects and skills as:

Japanese (speaking, reading, and writing, both Hiragana and Katakana)
Construction of period authentic Japanese armor (using historically accurate technique)
Kendo (Samurai sword fighting)
Extensive study of Medieval Japanese history (Major Parodi requires Octavian to write reports and often invites Japanese instructors to teach or demonstrate or converse in Japanese)
“Squire Training” (a program that trains the young man in all disciplines required of a Medieval squire as he aspired to become a knight)
Mastery of various military fighting techniques: Archery, Kenjitsu (Samurai sword techniques), Grappling, Kendo, and Karate
Training in Equestrian disciplines (vaulting, Western style riding, tack, grooming, care of horse) as a precursor to Jousting and Mounted Archery
Tilting at Rings
Bushido (Samurai warrior philosophy)
Japanese cultural traditions (traditional meals, etiquette, and dress)

My role as educational facilitator has changed. I find that the children still need me to stay focused on what they are learning, as before. But, instead of their learning being as bibliocentric, it is a dynamic ever-changing variety of tutorials, mentorships, and instruction. I can see their dreams and aspirations growing every day, and for now, carschooling is okay with me.

Home | Top of Page