The Curriculum

Several of my neighbors (whose children attend public school) have asked me over the past few days how I plan to maneuver within the framework of state standards and mandatory English curriculum.  Strong doubt abounding, I show you how…

We began by first locating the CA state standards at:  http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/index.asp.  After downloading the PDF file for each subject, I read the requirements specific to Yakecen’s grade level.  I then downloaded an Excel curriculum planner to simplify documentation of Yakecen's activities, available free at http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/articles/092698.htm, accessible from the “A to Z, Home’s Cool” website. 

With the standards established, I grabbed a fat green marker and a blank piece of paper.  I scribbled out a list of the required topics to learn, and added in several of my own (e.g. using Google Earth to trace our family's various migration paths, learning Nahuatl, and community volunteer work).  Then, I let Yakecen rank each topic according to his likes, and asked him to start thinking up science projects for chemistry.  I also let him add topics he didn’t see listed (he penned in learning to type fast, soccer, marital arts, and developing a family website).

I input these broad topics into my pre-formatted Excel worksheet, coming up with a final list of areas:

Volunteerism
Life Skills
Writing
Reading
Math
Science
Language
Social Science
P.E./Health
Fine Arts

Yakecen approved, and I showed “the plan” to the family and neighbors, who all pitched in creative ideas on how to fill our days.  Game playing and time spent outdoors proved critical to everyone. 

We asked our neighbor, Tio Angél, to instruct Yakecen for an hour each week in speaking Nahuatl and learning the important religious, political, and artistic leaders of the Aztec culture prior to the arrival of the Spanish.  We negotiated a price for the lessons too: a bag of organic chile, tomato, apio, and indigenous flowers each week, collected from our family garden.

Yakecen also requested to learn string instruments (I’m thinking he meant guitar) but since I don’t know anyone local to teach guitar, and I’ve long forgotten, Yakecen will start with violin lessons from our good friend, Auntie Sara.  I’m swapping song and craft-time en español for her 3-year old daughter, who is a good playmate with my son Perfecto, and Angél’s 4-year old daughter.

Finally, we collectively agreed that we’d start the year off with a set of 3-week projects, intermixing English writing, art journaling, and Spanish speaking with a project each in multiplication review, geography/family roots, and chemistry fun.  I planned out just one week – Yakecen’s interest and research online and at the library will help us plan weeks 2 and 3. 

And that’s how we raise state “standards” to our ideas of what a well-rounded bilingual education should be.  Yakecen has got the upper hand in planning day-to-day activities, but within a 3-week framework designed by him and our extended family.

Intent

As I embark upon a deeper, stronger relationship with this beautiful and innately intelligent young man who is my first-born son, Yakecen, I will post descriptions with pictures of our projects and lessons for other homeschoolers to explore. We welcome people from all nations to join us as we travel across worlds of chemistry, Nahuatl, fractions, nature journaling, charcoal art-ing, geography, creative writing and more. We are a bilingual family, speaking English with the outside world, and maintaining Spanish in the home. As a result, some posts are written entirely in English, otros en español.

A forewarning. Yes, you absolutely might leave this site offended by what you read, because I also offer forthright reviews of many educational websites and materials that concern the cultures and traditions of Latin@s, Chican@s and Hispanics. No apologies will be granted. As an outgrowth of the racism, ignorance, and at times intentional mis- and dis-information contained in these materials (available online both free and for a fee), I will mercilessly wade into the uncomfortable spaces that exist between these texts, websites, and real life to talk about the gender, race, and class implications that underlie the kinds of stories and histories we seek to impart to our children, regardless of our intent to do so deliberately or unknowingly. As an archaeologist, feminist and gender scholar, I am aware these conversations can make some people uncomfortable. If this is you, I challenge you to sit with this knot in your stomach…perhaps one day you’ll return to our blog, perhaps not.

Finally, because my own online search has turned up so few blogs and websites created specifically for and by parents of Latin@, Chican@, or Hispanic identity, I aim to provide a space of sharing for others like me, who for whatever personal or academic reasons, choose to homeschool. This is a place for our family to be ourselves - and we encourage others to join us - to celebrate (or discover as the case may be) the phenomenal ancestry of our Aztec, Maya, indigenous, Xicana, and American roots.

The education of Yakecen serves a larger purpose: Of passing on to him a sense of knowing where we come from, who we are today, and seeing the fullest potential for who we may become tomorrow. My husband and I believe that through our daily activities and one-to-one education, this centering experience will settle into the spirit of Yakecen, as well as my other children, and will continue to strengthen our community. It is in the moment that our children know their unique history, and intimately understand our – their - struggles in prehistory and in the modern world, that they learn to embrace humanity and build for themselves a future only they can imagine and invent.

I extend credit and thanks to our teachers: Daddy Perfecto, “Gramma” Maria, Great-grandmother Eglantina, brother Perfecto, sister Itzumi, Tio Angél, Auntie Susie, Auntie Sara, Tio Ron, "Grampy" Ron, and our many community friends from around the block and around the globe.