(see also: Baseball as Curriculum Update 1999 )
Our children, Neal 10, and Nicholas 6 have never been to school. We are definitely on the "unschooling" or largely unstructured end of the continuum of homeschooling styles. Most of the time we feel quite omfortable and positive about this, although there are always those periods of doubt when we, as parents, say to ourselves "Maybe we should be doing something."
Its during these periods of doubt that I find it a useful exercise to take a look at what the family has been doing a lot of and what, if anything, could be learned from whatever has been consuming our time and energy.
Our family spends a great deal of time on baseball. From March until the end of October we watch baseball, play baseball, read about baseball and talk baseball. A lot.
So...what have we been learning? Well, there's math for a start. Neal wanted to figure out his little league batting average when he was 7. This involves basic addition, multiplication, and division. That summer we figured out a favorite player's career average. Neal didn't necessarily think of this in terms of the mathematics involved,however the same basic method worked to determine the average rainfall in Vancouver during July of that year (1993 - don't ask).
Little Nicholas has been keeping track of the count since he was four, and could always tell us how many strikes/balls remain in an at bat. This requires mental subtraction. We didn't teach him, but he has no trouble with it. When he asked how to subtract we just told him to do whatever he does to figure out how many strikes are remaining. The skills are transferable.
There is some potential to work some Geography in here as well. We have an old road atlas which is great for charting our favorite team's road trips. My kids can find the cities that house all the major league stadiums. Granted, we could use some more Canadian teams in the Majors, but the boys are familiar with maps and how to read them.
We talk about the climatic differences in different parts of Canada and the U.S. with relation to how such things might affect baseball and what kind of stadium would be best or why the commentator calls Chicago the "Windy City" and so on.
When we watch games on T.V. the commentators often fill in the slow spots with bits of History and trivia about the home town and everything has a way of leading into something else and so its possible to get from a Red Sox game to a discussion about the Boston Tea Party quite naturally.
Some of our best discussions about racism and its roots have been kicked off by a mention of the Negro leagues and segregation in Baseball. We watched the Ken Burns PBS series last fall, and seeing and hearing Black ball players talking about the segregation and racism put a topic which had been theoretical up until that point, into a context that they could relate to, because they care so much about the sport and its heroes.
Then there are the questions about what is really happening to the ball when it is hit. Why do certain pitches behave the way they do. There's a lot of stuff about spin and trajectory and velocity and bernouli effect and Newton's laws here. Mom has been learning physics along with the kids.
Baseball is full of geometry. The diamond is really a perfect square, each side measuring 90 ft. So, how do you figure out how far you have to be able to throw to make the play from 3rd to 1st? Go ask Pythagoras.
Neal likes to make model stadiums and prefers to make them to scale. He has learned how to measure angles and to use the calculator to determine the correct ratios etc.
Neal also writes a lot of stories, and often includes some kind of baseball situation either as a main theme or peripherally. This all counts, folks. Really.
The baseball strike in 94 led to many truly incredible conversations about labor relations, collective bargaining, business contracts, marketing, free-agency and whether it has ruined the game, franchises, fluctuations in the economy etc. There really was a lot of stuff covered here in some detail and the kids asked really intelligent questions. These things made sense to the kids because they were being discussed in a context which meant something to them. But we were just talking baseball....
I could continue along these lines, but I'm sure you get the idea.
I think its not so much what people do, as keeping what we do in perspective. We have to learn to value the things that we are not used to viewing as "educational" and see the legitimacy in anything that our kids pursue with any passion.
If there is passion involved in any activity, there can't help but be learning as well.
BASEBALL AS CURRICULUM UPDATE: June 1999
It's been six years since I first wrote about how our children's passion for baseball has unwittingly led to all kinds of learning, and 4 years since I last updated that article. I thought maybe it was time to bring things up to date. Both boys (now 10 and 14) are still playing and learning with baseball. Neal is now umpiring. He has attended clinics run by the Umpiring Association of BC and as aquired his level one card. He was unclear on the reason for one of the rule changes in this year's little league rule book and quite on his own wrote to the president of little league Canada, expressing his concern. He received a formal letter back explaining the reason for the rule change. He figured he might as well go right to the source instead of listening to conjecture.
Neal has had to keep a log of all the games he umped this season, recording which field the game was played at, which division, whether he umped home plate or the bases, and have this log signed by the home team coach after each game. He would only be paid for games properly recorded.
Between games at a recent Pacific Coast League (Triple A) double-header at Nat Bailey Stadium, Neal introduced himself to the three game umpires. He explained that he was a Little League umpire and would like to talk to them. They invited him into their dressing room and answered his questions about umpiring as a profession. They gave him a couple of game balls and autographed his rule book. Job research? Networking practice?
Both boys continue to be interested in baseball fields and have collected books and web sites on the architecture, history and lore of Major and Minor League baseball stadia. They still build ever more elaborate and detailed models of Ball parks. Neal has become the local expert on field maintenance. After years of voluntarily lining and raking the fields for our local Little League, this year's president recognized that Neal has been waiting for years for somebody to let him be in charge, and gave him a key to the equipment kiosk. (This is a duty usually assigned to an adult member of the LL board of directors.)
At the beginning of the season he cleaned the sheds and took inventory of what was there and made a list of what he felt was needed to maintain the fields. He organized work parties of coaches and parents to get the fields in shape. He checks the fields weekly and fills in any holes, etc., lays down a good lining on the T-ball and pee-wee diamonds for the parent volunteers to follow as they line the fields each game, checks the rakes, base plugs etc. and replaces anything lost or broken. He has to keep receipts and records. He took the initiative to make diagrams with the correct dimensions as per the Little League Canada Official Rule book and after laminating them, taped them to the top of the liners, so people would know exactly how big the batter's boxes should be, etc.
He has also decided to make a volunteer evaluation/reference form which he will have the chief umpire and League president fill out at the end of the season so that he will have records for his homeschool portfolio.
Nicholas is pitching and playing in the majors this year. He keeps personal stats on both his hitting and pitching. He used the computer to make a form on which to record his games. Baseball trivia and situation quizzes have replaced bedtime stories. Nicholas is also playing on the post-season all-star team which means very complicated schedules for daily practices and tournament games. He transfers the schedules to a calendar and has to arrange his social life around this schedule (no small feat!) He is responsible for keeping his uniform clean and ready, and making sure his equipment bag is organized before each practice and game. He is responsible for making sure that he has enough of a snack to last him until the end of the game, an adequate supply of fresh water, etc. This is quite a lot of responsibility, but he understands that I have enough to do just trying to get my chauffeuring schedule organized.
Again, the motivation for all of this is the love of all things baseball. However, they have probably learned more about employment, community service, personal planning, scheduling, record keeping, document design, correspondence, organizational skills and leadership through their pursuit of this passion than we could have written into any curriculum. The learning game goes into extra innings.
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page created Feb.24/97 updated July 8, 1999