black homeschooling tips ebook - kamali academy€¦ · when you get started with homeschooling,...

Black Homeschooling Tipsfor

Afrikan-Centered Parents

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By Dr. Samori Camara

43 Black Homeschooling Tips Dr. Samori Camara

© Copyright 2015 Kamali Educational Services LLC www.KamaliAcademy.com

http://www.KamaliAcademy.com

Get on the Same Page

Make sure you and your spouse are on the same page, same paragraph, and same sentence when it comes to homeschooling.

It will be extra hard if one knows the benefits and the other wants the child to have a traditional miseducation.

P. S. If you’re starting a school, especially an Afrikan-centered school, be sure both parents are on board. Anything else is drama!

2© Copyright 2015 Kamali Educational Services LLC www.KamaliAcademy.com

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Write a Mission Statement

Write a mission statement or manifesto for your family. When you get started with homeschooling, life can quickly get in the way of your goals.

The mission statement can keep you focused on your purpose for homeschooling. Sometimes we might get caught in the common core when we know we need an Afrikan core.

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Every Afrikan family should have a mission statement that outlines the values and behaviors to be exhibited by the warrior parents and warrior scholars.


Let Them Catch You

Allow your children to catch you reading a book. Often we want our young warriors to be avid readers, but we don’t find the time to read ourselves.

Remember, our children do a terrible job of doing what we say, but a wonderful job of doing what we do.

P. S. Read something that really interest you and our classics. Ayi Kwei Armah, Amos Wilson, Toni Morrison, Mwalimu Baruti, Joy DeGruy, and others should be on that list.

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Smooth Seas Don’t Make a Skillful Sailor

Afrikan wisdom teaches us that smooth seas don’t make a skillful sailor. Homeschooling will get hard. There will be storms and rough seas. Yet, this is no reason to pack it in and jump ship.

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This is the time to reflect and maybe change some things, but you must keep the goal in mind and stay the course.

As a warrior parent, you can handle anything that comes your way.


Hidden Curriculum

Be mindful of the hidden curriculum we are teaching our young warriors.

How do you speak to them and others? How do you deal with failure or mistakes? What example are you showing when it comes to male and female relationships? Are you content with being an employee? Are you bold or weak? Do you cook often or eat out a lot? Do you complain about darkness or do you light a candle?

Life is the number one classroom. Our young warriors are learning from you everyday. Is it a healthy education or nah?

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Allow them to Cook

Allow the young warriors to cook. It takes some of the load off of you and teaches them a great skill.

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Pick one day a week and let them choose the menu (within reason) and let them lead.

It may be a little stressful in the beginning, but trust that they'll get better. Noliwe is only 2 1/2 and she is at the stove with me. I'm already thinking about starting a restaurant called, Noliwe's Fine Dining. Sounds good, right?

To take it further, link the meals with what you are studying. For example, if you are studying Ethiopia, cook some of the dishes.

Also, highlight the math concepts inherent in the cooking process.


Need a New Bookcase?

Need a new bookcase? Build one with the young warriors.

Teaching your children to handle a hammer and screwdriver can be fun and educational.

As you know, we take more pride in the things we build with our own hands.

Remember, righty tighty, lefty loosey.

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't learn that until I was in college.

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Serve the People

Teach your young warriors to serve the people. Take them with you when you feed the people, clothe the people, and work with the people.

Community service benefits the community and the individual soul. It helps them see and learn things we could never teach.

It develops character, humbleness, and empathy.


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Learn With Your Child

Don’t be afraid to learn with your child. It will teach them that learning never ceases.

My best days at Kamali Academy are when a student becomes interested in a topic and their curiosity affects us all.

We all dive in and learn something new. In doing this, you become more of a partner than a parent in the learning process.

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A Great and Mighty Race

Teach your young warrior that she/he ascends from at a great and mighty people. As such, they must exhibit the hard work and dedication necessary for us to return to our original greatness.

Teach them that they must use their personal skills and talents for the benefit of our global Afrikan community.

They must understand that they are the beautiful ones we’ve been waiting for.


Honor Your Young Warrior

Honor your young warrior. Often we get caught in assignments, papers, and worksheets and fail to remember to give a kind word or put on an event to honor them.

We are all very good at noticing what their weaknesses are and where they need improvement.

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Yet, how often do we point out and nurture their strengths? This is very important.

Select a day to honor each of your warrior scholars. Make it a big deal.

We know you brag about them to friends, but now it time to do it to their faces. Give them their flowers now.

That recognition could take them to the next level.


Spirit of Entrepreneurship

Encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship. Our young warriors must know that their destiny is not simply to work for other people.

Help them start their own business as soon as possible. Even if it doesn’t work out, there will be valuable lessons learned in the process.

Now remember, it’s one thing to teach your children entrepreneurship from books, but a whole thing to teach them by example.

I’ve always said, “I rather Noliwe see me struggling to build a business she can one day inherit than to make money working for someone else and leave my dream deferred.”

If we claim our ancestors were so great, how can we be comfortable with being servants of others? Teach them to be a boss and/or partner with other folks with similar dreams and work ethic.

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Be Flexible

Be flexible with your time. Our young warriors don’t need to do class work from 8am to 4pm.

Remember, you aren’t on anyone else time schedule. Take vacations when you want. Go outside and have fun. The world is our classroom. Do a year round schedule.

Teach one topic intensively for 18 days in a row. It’s on you.

Dr. Amos Wilson says that, “it is the time system alone in the schools that destroy our children.”

Be flexible or suffer the consequences. As Afrikan wisdom teaches us, “the tree that cannot dance will be taught by the wind.”


Kindezi

Allow your older warriors to teach the younger warriors. Not only does it help the older warrior hone their teaching skills, but it also can help them develop a better relationship.

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The younger warrior’s desire to be like the older warrior can accelerate learning.

This is not simply babysitting, but actual teaching. Yet, learning the art of babysitting should be taken very seriously.

Homework: read Kindezi: The Kongo Art of Babysitting by Fu Kiau.


Let the Young Warrior Lead

Let the young warrior lead. Often the curriculum is created by someone who does not know our warrior; does not know their interests or strengths; does not know their purpose.

This can lead to a lack of interest and disconnection. Who could blame them? This is one of the beginnings of intellectual dependency. Here is the remedy.

Ask the young warrior what she wants to learn about. Allow them to be in charge.

Use those ideas to create parts of the curriculum and watch your young warrior blossom.

Remember, Afrikan wisdom teaches that, “if you want to know how fast a child can go, send them where they want to go.”

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Libation and Affirmations

Start the day with libation and affirmations. Giving honor and thanks to our ancestors are important rituals to instill in our young warrior scholars.

It calms and sets the purpose and tone for the day. Our young warriors must be made aware of the fact that they come from greatness everyday. They must know our collective and their personal ancestors so that they may use their energy, wisdom, and guidance to carry our community to a better place.

Have a pledge and recite affirmations daily. For the affirmations make firm our resolve. However, don’t simply them say the words. Study and live the words.

For Kamali Academy’s morning meeting ritual, message me at [email protected]


Learn and Afrikan Language

Learn an Afrikan language as a family. Learning a foreign language gives you insight into the culture and worldview of its speakers.

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mailto:[email protected]


We should have an Afrikan tongue, for speaking european languages forces us in many ways to think like europeans.

Hence the reason why we attempt to liven up and Afrikanize the bastard tongues we speak.

I enjoy learning Twi which is the most popular language in Ghana. At Kamali Academy, we teach the young warrior scholars the basics of Kiswahili. It’s a beautiful thing to hear Afrikan sounds come out of their mouths.

Let’s liberate our tongues as a step towards liberating our minds. I suggest www.abibitumikasa.com and www.memrise.com.


Eat Healthy Food

Eat healthy food. At Kamali Academy we have a policy of no meat, no dairy, no sweets because we understand that the food we eat has a powerful effect on our ability to think, learn, and grow.

If we are conscious about the information and music we imbibe, we must be as conscious about what we put into our bodies.

You know the damage the sugar, white flour, artificial colors, and preservatives do to our temples. Right?

Begin your movement toward healthy eating slowly. Afrikan wisdom teaches that we shouldn’t be afraid of moving slowly, we should be afraid of not moving at all.

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http://www.abibitumikasa.com

http://www.memrise.com


Praise Hard Work

Praise hard work and effort instead of innate genius. True, our young warriors are brilliant.

However, praising them for that genius is all good until they get to something that the natural genius didn’t give them. Because we have praised them for being a genius, how do you think they feel when the lesson doesn’t come easy?

Many of our children will back away from challenge because they don’t want to be seen as anything less than a genius in your eyes.

Instead, praise them for their effort. Let them know that they can learn or achieve anything if they put their mind and energy into it. They must know that their intelligence can growth infinitely with hard work.

Yes, they are geniuses, but geniuses work hard at their craft. Remember, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.


Be Curious

Be curious. We must be master learners in our own home. We must constantly learn and study.

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Honestly, I have learned more since I began homeschooling than I learned in all my years in college.

In fact, I find a weird joy in not knowing, but I have an uneasy feeling when I cannot find an answer. My curiosity pushes me to learn more about who we are; it pushes me to learn better techniques to pull the genius out of our warriors; and it pushes me to continue to grow intellectually.

Curiosity is the foundation of wisdom. Question everything and cultivate it in yourself and your young warrior.


I Should…?

Forget other people's shoulds. They don't matter and keep us as servants.

Here are some shoulds I like:

Should not education teach how to love,

...how to be a good person,

...how to live our Culture,

...how to benefit from all the lessons of Afrika,

...how to endure, ...how to fight, ...how to plant and grow,

...how to love the experience of learning, ...how to love ourselves?

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Be a Guide

When we as warrior teachers are sages on stages or standing in front of our students while teaching, are we an impediment to their progress?

Can they see around us? Do they become too dependent?

Maybe we should be guides on the side or coaches. We help motivate and guide, but they’re free to progress at their own speed.


Non-Cognitive Skills

Cultivate the non-cognitive skills. While academic skills are important for success, sometimes the non-cognitive skills of perseverance, mindset, grit, self-confidence, and social skills are more important.

The young warriors can be as smart as anyone, but if they fall apart when times get hard, their skills will be useless.

Warrior Scholars are well-rounded and courageous in every endeavor.

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Patience or Relationship Building

Stop saying you don’t have the patience to teach your own children. Are you saying that you don’t have what it takes to build a great relationship with your warrior?

It is most important that we cultivate a respectful, loving relationship with our children. This element is at the heart of home education.

Think about it, if you don’t have the patience, do you expect that a stranger will have patience with your child?


Teach for Mastery

Teach for mastery. Often within the public fool system, our warriors are given the “opportunity to learn.” Yet, if they don’t learn the concept in the required time, the class moves on and they often remain confused.

This circumstance results in many of our warriors not having foundational knowledge or experiencing many cracks in their foundation.

So that when they attempt to learn other, related concepts, it becomes more and more difficult.

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Ever seen a 9th grader in an Algebra class struggle with the multiplication tables?

We must teach for mastery. Not just 80% correct, but we must not move on from a topic until it is thoroughly understood. 100%.

Homeschooling allows mastery learning in all subjects. But we must understand that we are not on anyone else’s time clock.

The teacher in the public fool system simply cannot give every student the attention they need and deserve in order to achieve mastery. I know. I was once there.


Greet them Kindly

Greet them kindly in the morning. We know that how we start the day has a big impact on the rest of our day. So instead of yelling two rooms over to get them up, try a more peaceful approach.

Instead of complaining about what they didn’t do, start with something great they actually did.

As a warrior parent, our attitude greatly impacts those of our children. They immediately know how you are feeling. “Moms is in one of her moods again,” they say.

If you want them to greet you in a certain way, greet them in that way and watch the day go smoothly.

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Free Recall

Have them do a free recall at the end of the day. They are to sit for ten minutes at the end of the day and write everything they remember from the day’s lessons.

It will be tough. They will complain after two minutes that there is no more to write. Make them stick it out.

Even if you don’t homeschool, have your warriors do it when they get home. Once they are done, have them get out their notes or assignments and find out what they remembered and forgot.

Now, they know the information they need to focus on going forward. This technique staves off forgetting. Try it.


Teach for Mastery

Train their hearts first. In the midst of teaching our warriors to be academically excellent, we forget to invest an equal amount or more time to training their character.

Honesty is the hallmark. Lying is grounds for great consequences.

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We have too many who are intelligent, but can’t be depended on and rarely keep their word.

In short, make sure your young warrior has a moral compass that guides their behavior.


Destinies are Different

Remember, our children’s destinies are different from others.

Whereas as others can safely educate their children to conserve the status quo, we must educate our warriors to dismantle the status quo and bring about deep change for our community.

Their destiny is to be revolutionary as Dr. Amos Wilson would say. This understanding must inform all of our teaching and curriculum decisions.

We cannot teach them to simply be smart by this country’s standards. Our standard is whether or not our educational techniques will help free us from our dependence on our enemy; whether or not our warriors know our way and know that our ancestors are waiting and watching to see what their contributions will be to our liberation.

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Stop Looking for Validation

Stop looking for validation. Often, people write to me about whether or not our curriculum is certified and validated by the state.

I quickly respond that our materials are certified and validated only by the warrior parents across the country who use them.

My next thought is: no other group will validate what we need to do for Our children and community. I couldn’t care less if they think it’s appropriate or inappropriate.

We must act as if we answer to and only answer to our creator, our ancestors, our children, and those unborn. We validate us.

How do we look when looking to our oppressors to okay our rebellion?


Quiz, Review, Retain

Quiz, Review, Retain. Teachers often teach a lesson and expect that the students should just retain the information forever. Some, like me, would simply tell the students to read over their notes and study.

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Yet, science shows that rereading results in fluency, familiarity, and the illusion of knowledge, but not real learning. Real learning happens in the days after the lesson.

Effortful retrieval is the key and consists of periodic self-quizzing and recalling information from our own minds. This type of retrieval identifies our weak areas in a subject unlike rereading.

For example, this could look like: a verbal quiz before the lesson on the new topic, a quiz after the lesson, a verbal quiz a few days after the lesson, a review quiz at the end of a unit, and periodic quizzes that incorporate current and past lessons.

This practice helps to halt the process of forgetting. Imagine you spent your precious time creating a beautiful Afrikan necklace for a friend.

The necklace has many small, colorful beads and is accented with an Ankh that looks like it came straight from the flowing Nile River.

Now, imagine if you don’t put a knot on the end. Imagine all the beads and the beautiful Ankh falling off and hitting the ground. All your work was for nought.

This is the scenario when we learn something, but do not do the necessary retrieval practice. That which was once known, that which was once beautiful, must be pieced back together again as if it was never whole.

Be sure to include self-quizzing and periodic tests in your educational endeavors.

Those are the tools needed to retain your learning and the knots needed to retain your beautiful necklace.




Acorn to Oak Tree

You can’t teach an acorn to be an oak tree. It’s the destiny of the acorn to grow into an oak.

We cannot bribe or coax the young seed. All we can do is provide the right environment and make sure that an animal doesn’t harm the young sprout so that it may reach its potential.

It is the same with our young warriors. They have their destinies and purposes so it is our job to nurture those seeds and allow them the space to grow.

Yet, sometimes we find ourselves trying to teach an acorn to be oak or worst, trying to teach a maple to be a baobab.


Color Within the Line?

Stop mandating that they color within the lines. You can be successful by following the rules, but the great stepped outside the norm. The great did something different or found a new way.

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We think we are teaching discipline. Instead, we reinforce conformity.

It is my opinion that these small acts of conformity hamper creativity later in life. How often are we faced with a situation and can only conceive of a solution that exist comfortably within the laws or boundaries of the place that caused the problem in the first place?

There is a famous brain teaser that consist of nine dots. Your task is to connect all the dots using only four lines and without lifting your pencil from the page.


Mental Math

Train your young warrior and yourself in mental math.

Being able to do basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) in our minds quickly is underrated.

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The only way to complete the objective is to go out of bounds, outside the box and dots.

Maybe it’s too extreme to say don’t ever color inside the lines. Maybe the only thing that matters is the picture that is before us. Maybe some pictures deserve that conformity; maybe some deserve rebellion.


I love being able to to know my change before the cashier does and easier split up bills when out with friends.

Once you train yourself in the art, percentages, calculating bills, and your general facility with numbers will be second nature.

In traditional Afrikan culture, there were no digital calculators, but you had better come back with the correct change from the market or there was going to be trouble.

Cultivating this skill will help with all the formal math our young warriors will learn. Algebra becomes a lot easier when your basic arithmetic is mental.

Ever saw a 10th grader still calculating on his fingers? Not a good look.


Teach Capitalization

Teach capitalization quickly with 3 rules.

1. Capitalize the word that begins the sentence. 2. Capitalize every proper noun. (A word that has a special name: Kamau

vs. man) 3. Capitalize the personal pronoun “I” when referring to yourself. There it

is.

Too many rules go in one ear and... You know the rest.

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Find Passion

Help your young warrior find their passion. It can be hard for a young person to know what their passions are especially coming from the public fool system where their thoughts are not valued.

To help them, provide them with opportunities to gain experience in many different areas. In traditional Afrikan culture, this would be done through apprenticeships. We should certainly revive that tradition.

In addition, I recently came across an interesting story about a college graduate who did not know his passion. Instead of just taking a job and hoping to be passionate about it, he decided to travel the country and work 52 jobs in one year (1 job per week). Look it up.

It’s an interesting story.

Maybe we can tap into the resources in our community and have our young warrior work or volunteer with a business for a week or more.

This will surely give them a taste of the kinds of work necessary in a chosen field.

Maybe they’ll find their passion. Certainly they’ll find the work they dislike.



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No Separation

Forget the mind/body separation in education. In the European model of education, the system focuses on the rational mind, while the body gets no love.

Just look at how recess time gets smaller and smaller as standardized tests loom near. Look at the 7 hours of immobility students are forced to endure in the public fool system.

Do not recreate this in your home. Studies show that body movement increases brain circulation and learning.

There is a recent trend of corporations retrofitting work desks to standard treadmills to take advantage of this understanding.

Remember, the world is our classroom. Get out to learn and move.


Teach Like Afrikan Dance

Teach multiple ages like an Afrikan dance. When it comes to reading and math, a young warrior should learn the subjects sequentially and on their individual level.

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However, everything else can be taught together with the warrior parent breaking down the dance or subject for the 8th or 1st grade level.

For example, if the 8th grader learns about Malcolm X by reading the autobiography and speeches, the first grader can learn about him as well through a short biography to gain a basic knowledge and color a picture.

Just like in an Afrikan dance class when the dance instructor demonstrates a basic step for the beginners and a more complex step for the advanced group.

P.S. I don’t get on the dance floor, but I be on them drums tho!


Sitting is Optional

When homeschooling elementary age boys, make sitting optional. Boys should not be forced to sit all day to “learn.”

They should be allowed to stand, walk, or crouch under the table while completing their assignments as long as they are not distracting their siblings.

In the early years of Kamali Academy, we had a young brotha who could not sit still. Every time I looked around, he was up walking or sitting on the floor with his book open.

It took me awhile to get out of my European mind and allow him to do his thing, in the chair, on the chair, or hanging from the chair. That concession proved valuable to his education. P.S. This goes for girls too.

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Find Passion

Quantity trumps Quality. Our children will improve if we give ample time and opportunity to practice, make mistakes, and grow.

Imagine if we grew an apple tree for the sole purpose of it delivering one, great, perfect apple. That would be absurd. It's the same when we give our young warriors one large paper to do at the end of the year or one standardized test for all the marbles.

I read a story recently that illustrates the point. A ceramics teacher announced on the first day of class that he was dividing the class into two groups. One would be made up of the left side of the classroom and they would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced. The right side would be graded solely on the quality.

On the final day of class he would bring scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A," forty pounds a "B," and so on. Those being graded on "quality," needed to produce only one--perfect--pot to get an "A."

A curious thing happened at grading time. The works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. While "quality" group thought long and hard about the perfect piece and still failed to produce great work, the "quantity" group was busy working on piece after piece and learning from their mistakes. Hence, great work emerged.

Don't focus on one pot. Allow them many pots to work on and watch the growth.



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Don’t Cut the Person to Fit the Cloth

Afrikan wisdom teaches that we “don’t cut the person to fit the cloth.”

Just as we wouldn’t cut off hands, pieces of toes, and arms to fit someone into a particular garment that is too small, we must not cut away our young warrior’s interest and culture to fit into a particular curriculum that has always been too small for our spirit, our mind, and our destiny.

Instead, let us tailor the curriculum that adorns the minds of our seeds to their exact specifications. To do less will continue to make our children uncomfortable in and alienated from the educational process. They will not look and they will not walk like Afrikan warrior scholars are supposed to.

Find the best Afrikan fabric and dress the young warriors royally.


Keys to Mental Cages

Give them the key to the mental cage of "I can't..." When challenged to grow in some way, we often hear our young warriors say, "I can't." If we allow them to stay there, this mental cage will stifle many of the great achievements or experiences they could have in life.

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Over the years, I have experimented with various keys to unlock this cage. I've said, "Can't died before you were born," or "What chu mean, you can't? Yes, you can!," but the key that most often unlocked this pervasive lock was the phrase, "You're an Afri-CAN not an Afri-Can't." I know. Lame right?

I don't know where I first hear it, but it works.

The highlight was when I heard a 4 year-old say it to a 6 year-old classmate when he said he couldn't do something. That warmed my heart.

There are many more mental cages that confine the minds of our warriors. Be sure to give them the keys to break out. What are some of the mental cages you have noticed?


No Sacrifices. Just Decisions.

Stop making sacrifices and make decisions. Many warrior parents who contemplate or have decided to homeschool complain about the many things they’d have to sacrifice to make it happen.

Yet, the reality is not that you have to sacrifice anything. You must simply decide that the things that keep you from your goal of homeschooling has to go. The Latin root of decide is to cut.

For example, you want to read more? You don’t sacrifice anything. You decide to stop watching so much TV or browsing the book of face.

For homeschooling, Both parents working outside the home? You decide to change that. Too many expenses? You decide to starve some of the european inspired values we’ve imbibed.

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Sacrifices are for whiners. Decisions are for warrior parents.

We don’t sacrifice to give our children an education for liberation, we decide to take them out of the hands of our enemies and find joy in that purposeful and revolutionary decision.


43 Black Homeschooling Tips


For Afrikan-Centered Parents

Make Sure You’re On Our List at KamaliAcademy.com

For More Training visit: TheWarriorTeacher.com


http://KamaliAcademy.com

http://TheWarriorTeacher.com

black homeschooling tips ebook - kamali academy€¦ · when you get started with homeschooling,...

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