As much as I just LOVE to re-create the wheel, I decided to dig around my old word files and look for my old goals. (Reminds me I need to do another backup... what treasures our PCs can hold!)
I found the notes I made while reading the Elijah article-- about charting my course. This was way back when when my big tall boys were just 4 and 7. Wow.
Elijah Company used to have these articles for free in thier product catalog. I think they sell them now, or maybe you can get them in their new book. Anyway, it was a wonderful guide for me at the time.
This particular Elijah Co. article prompted me to really think about things... what I really believed. It was bascially a 'freewriting' exercise to questions prompted by th Elijah Co articles. Very interesting to read it now. I remember writing it, too. I sat down and just let all my real thoughts come to the surface. A very worthwhile exercise.
God Bless,
Cindy
1 -13- 97
Charting a Course for Home Educating
NOTES ON FAMILY EMPHASIS:
Majors beliefs to impart to kids:
Christian worldview- social issues: abortion, life values. Current events, history. Catholic history, heritage. Social action, leaders understand past and present to effect changes.
Protect children from negative influences until are of an age to make decisions, be critical thinkers and better handle peer pressure. Importance of family as primary relationship, then extend to outside world. Be open and giving to others, but find main support within the family.
Homeschooling is not just teaching certain subjects at home. It is a LIFESTYLE of living together, learning all of life skills of which the academic is a portion. We are not farming our children out for the bulk of the day to hope they get the academic training they need, while getting no time for the other life skills to be taught.
Strong family unit makes strong church and nation, society and world.
Institutional education not the best method, particularly for younger children (ALA Dumbing us Down) Provide means to grow and learn (both personal skills as well as academic skills) in a non-institutional environment. How would John and I be different (in our relationships, educational goals and work) if we had had family schooling instead of institutional? Institution had to wait, wait, wait, be bored and dumb ourselves down to everyone else and the slow pace of a classroom. Would we be more creative, confident, longer attention spans, less concerned with peer pressure, etc.?
NOTES ON TEACHING APPROCHES:
TRADITIONAL: Do not like for the most part. Sj usually balked at the workbooks (at least after the novelty wore off. I liked to be able the see the progress we made, but found when I started early out Hsing I was trying to recreate an institutional env at home and the workbooks were a big part. He hated it. I kept thinking he had to sit down and do these because if he ever went back to school, he would have to do it like the rest of the kids. When I read D us D ( Nov 97) it changed my mind on that. I don’t know if I could ever have the boys sit in an institutional env again.
We had more arguments about getting the work done ( and I always seemed focused on output).
Good part: Much less effort in required in planning and measuring progress. You don’t have to worry about if you are “doing” enough or feel guilty about not doing something.
Question: Do kids need a discipline of doing schoolwork to build up that character quality?
CLASSICAL:
I like the idea of learning the Trivuim (3 stages based on age level) Memorizing, abstract thought, persuasiveness. Based on Latin, Greek and great thinkers. Not much curr available. Perhaps weave it into our curr?
Ideas: Latin studies. Literature on great thinkers in history. Look for critical thinking books?
UNIT STUDIES:
Really like concept of unit studies. See big picture, unstructured, lead by child’s interest. Did KONOS at start of HS. Biggest problem: I would plan, prepare (gather materials and books) for this unit study and he wouldn’t want to do it. So tried letting him lead, that worked sometimes, but then I came more of a slave to him and at what point does a child need to be lead, and have to develop discipline follow a teacher. (I don’t want a self centered spoiled child- my uneasiness with UN schooling).
I felt like I was running myself ragged trying to get all the pieces ready to present to my child. (Reminds me of when I used to prepare reports to the bigwigs at work). Not a good feeling or resulting working relationship.
What is the balance between child-led, and teacher directed activities. If you don’t prepare before hand, how can you do anything when you are ready? If you just let things happen, is your environment rich enough to have things to spark interest? Is the secret enriching your home env and then just hanging out? Make the following: mud puddles, forts, building materials, sewing centers, art centers, workshop, books laying everywhere. Then as ideas come up, jot them down and together make of list of material to collect? Hummm.. How to do this without running Mom ragged. I have enough to do and clean up. The worst is to do it all and then they don’t want to do what you’ve prepared. AAHHRG!
As Chris Davis (Elijah) said, it is a lifestyle and they should live in it- problem is, many people have lifestyles that are too sterile. I think that is how it is here. And I have too much to do to create a “rich env”. Maybe I should just start living one.
I really like unit studies. Need to think about and research this more. Discipline is still an issue. Do you MAKE your child do it? What’s the balance between child-led and no discipline? I WANT ANSWERS! NOW!
LIVING BOOKS, LIFE EXPERIENCES (CHARLOTTE MASON) APPROACH:
I really like her concepts: wonderful literature, bringing kids into real life instead of artifical env. I read her book, problem is really applying this and making it into real life. Little curr avail.
UNSCHOOLING:
I think kids and all people learn the most when they want to ( I know I do) and pursue the areas of their real interest. That’s unschooling. Make a rich env and let them go. But what if you live in a not very rich env. Does the child become self centered?
Do they have any discipline?
Doesn’t teach any formal academics until needed. Interesting. Think about that.
Reading this was a lot like reading an old journal. Reminds of this week when a cyber friend shared a post I had made on the 4real list.... and I was exploring the same issue I had just brought up again.
At any rate, I was very surprised. This has been a real journey for me all these years. Lots of reading, sharing, thinking, praying. It is rather amazing that what I wrote almost 10 years ago is pretty much where I am today.
I think of all the twists and turns I have taken. How I really tried to do a Classical education ala STAA. How I loved Cm, but ended up giving up much of the schedules and techniqes.
Maybe much of what this journey is about is just finding our authentic selves. And helping the dc find theirs.
Another good cyber friend recently told me that she saw me trying to talk myself into unschooling and maybe my natural bent was not there.
I saw that in the last bit on my goals of 1997.
But I have talked myself into a lot of it over the past 3 years. I think because it is authentic. And I have realized that it is not sans disipline, but actually a catylist toward it.
More later,
God Bless,
Cindy
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