Finding a Balance for High Expectations

"Perfection" ~ the very word drains me. It makes me feel like a failure. It stresses me out. I love my Charlotte Mason, but the part about perfect execution causes me to pause.

I recently read Dr. Kevin Leman's Birth Order book. He talked quite a bit about perfectionism and he didn't seem to think it was a healthy thing. He mentioned an example of a child fixing his own bed. The mother walks in and says, "Oh, honey, you did a great job!" while she reaches to straighten out the wrinkles. Leman says this is a No, No. It creates perfectionist children who will grow up to carry that burden.

He also says that you want excellence instead of perfection. From his description I think that means that you do a job well enough for what it is meant for ~ it doesn't have to be perfect. For instance, the notes you take in class don't have to be perfectly formed letters with correct punctuation and sentence structure because they are for your eyes and brain only. But the resume you turn in for a job interview should look and read professional-like.

Charlotte Mason would say never to give a child a job that they can't execute perfectly and that children are capable of more than we think they are. I can see the wisdom of both sides. Maybe these "sides" aren't opposed to each other.

I've heard others use the term "best effort" referring to perfect letters or handiwork. So instead of perfect letters, you would look for a child's best effort. I usually look for correct formation of letters. They are sometimes squiggly or different heights, but I want the kids to be forming their letters the way they were taught. But then I see the near-perfect work that some kids do and wonder if I should be expecting more?

It's a struggle for me. I get stressed out if I feel I must have high perfectionist expectations and that can put a lot of pressure on the kids. I don't want a stressed out home school for us, so I'm trying to find some principles I can handle:

1 - The job should be within the child's ability. My 3 year old cannot form his letters. My 11 year old should be able to form all correctly and do it pretty dang well when required (such as for dictation). Handicrafts should also fall under this principle. (Although you should see some of our projects! They are far from perfect.) When you choose a craft too high for a child's ability, you end up doing a lot of the work. But...... 

2 - Sometimes a job takes practice even if the child is able. I'm not great at drawing. But I've been practicing during Nature Study, and my cicada this week was much better than my cricket last week. 

3 - Work on one or two things at a time. For chores, our kids help with all household duties, but we are concentrating on teaching them how to clean the bathrooms. So their room may be a bit dusty from my lack of supervision, but those bathrooms are sparkling! We'll move onto laundry and rooms and such after bathrooms are conquered. 

4 - Secure the ground under their feet. Show them what you expect out of copy work, crafts, habits, etc. Model it for them. Then watch and instruct as they do it. As they get it down, slowly back away and let them own it. Patience is key. And this instructing time will not last forever. 

5 - We all tend toward laziness, right? Kids will get tired of doing the job the way you taught them and will start cutting corners. Call them back. Make them redo (not you) and keep an eye on them for a while until they are back to doing their best. 

6 - Grace. God gives grace. We parents should give grace. God doesn't expect us to be perfect. He knows we won't be. That's why Jesus is our perfection. Our kids are little humans and will have bad days and get overwhelmed with our high expectations and will just want a break. Grace. Love. Hugs, snuggles, wisdom, and cookies.

On Starting a Mason Education

Many people are overwhelmed when first beginning to homeschool using Charlotte Mason methods. Her ways are so different from our usual educative mindset. At first glance some may think they seem overly easy. But when it comes down to doing it...... It gets puzzling and overwhelming. So many times the advice is for the newbie to start slow with only a few subjects and then add in new pieces as they get a handle on the practiced ones. Pretty good advice.

But that got me thinking: Why is a Mason education so much harder to grasp? With some curriculums you can just sit down and start reading textbooks and answering questions and taking tests. That's not so hard. Our minds grasp this concept. Why is this not so with CM?

The answer is in the change of thought and perspective that Charlotte Mason brings. It doesn't come all at once. We've been implementing CM for 6 years and I'm still grasping some of the concepts. That also shows the living nature of her ideas though. You can begin implementing right away and get a lot of good out of it, but then continue to grow and glean and learn for many years down the road.

It's a little like eating healthy. You know fruit and vegetables are good for you and you really want to begin a healthier meal plan for your family. But it's different from what you're used to. It will take time and effort and experimentation to figure out dishes that are healthy and yummy. Taste buds will need to adjust. Parents will need to lead the way. But in a year you'll be further along than you are now and your family will be grateful for the effort.

Similarly (slightly), a Mason education takes some time to understand. Often the appreciation is already there ~ that's the reason it was chosen as the homeschool method ~ but a deeper appreciation will certainly develop. The concept about education being a lifelong process instead of something to check off a list and forget about will grow. The concept of loving knowledge and wanting more is hard to pass on to kids when we've grown up with the practical view. Allowing kids to thrive at their own pace instead of sticking to imposed grades is hard when you feel outside eyes upon you. Seeing accumulated meaningful knowledge emanate from the child instead of being spit out in list of memorization or written on stacks of papers is joyous for parents but a little nail-biting when portfolio review time comes. There are many more such concepts that are easily written down but hard to shift our thinking on.

So that's one reason families might start out a Charlotte Mason education slowly. It is a paradigm shift not expounded by surrounding academia. Most subjects take practice because they are done so differently. But with good practice, the wisdom behind the method shines through and your family will learn to love to learn again.

It Feeds

Enjoying some river time ~ and it counts as school!

That's one of the things I love most about a Charlotte Mason education. It feeds me. It feeds my children. There are seasons of life that are more stressful than others, and I've found that I increasingly look forward to the schooling part of the day during those times. The poetry, Bible reading, songs, paintings, history and science and biography readings, even mathematics and copy work all provide calm yet meaningful nourishment for my mind. There is always something that takes my mind off of stressful worries of life and gives me good in its place to contemplate. The quality of the chosen books is probably the part that feeds my mind and soul so well. The books are not dry. They are not merely facts drained of life. They aren't read hurriedly so that the child can spend most of his time writing out answers to the questions that are asked at the end of the chapter. They contain ideas that we discuss which engages my brain as well as the child's. They are books I look forward to reading. I'm just finishing up reading Winnie the Pooh to one child, and I'm chomping at the bit to read it again to the next child, even though he's at least 2 years away from being ready for it. I'm excited to do school with the kids. It fills up my soul. It feeds.

Simple Lessons Work

Harrison making a motorcycle out of a computer part.

Do you like to put together little lessons where everything matches a theme and then use them to teach your kids? As pinterest and copious blogs can attest, many moms and teachers do enjoy this, including myself. At least I enjoyed it at first. I put together these exciting lessons for my toddler/preschooler when I was dipping my toe into homeschooling, and as I wrote them up, I just knew my daughter would delight in them! But, alas, she did not appreciate or notice the theme that was presented. It haphazardly taught ideas and skills. And I did A LOT of tedious prep work that was unnecessary to her learning. Many times I would do most of the work on the art projects because she was not interested or capable. The songs I found were silly and she did not want to sing them. (I sang them by myself.) It wasn't all for waste ~ we spent time together, she loved any cooking projects, and the books I found at the library were worthy reading.  I simply came to realize that:

"Such a doctrine as the Herbartian, that the mind is a receptacle, lays the stress of education, the preparation of food in enticing morsels, duly ordered, upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching but little knowledge; the teacher's axiom being 'what a child learns matters less than how he learns it.'" ~ (CM Vol 6, page 112. emphasis mine.)

When we write lessons that make all the connections for the child, he does not have to do his own work of connecting. We throw the information and theme at him and it easily slides right out of his head. The theme can be entertaining, at least parts of it. But it's more like a meal that we've pre-chewed for the child and then give it back to him expecting him to swallow it without doing any of the work of chewing and ruminating himself. That analogy is a little gross (sorry!) and doesn't quite work because the child would at least be getting some nourishment even while not chewing his own food. If a child's mind does not have to work to gain knowledge, he will not easily remember or internalize the ideas.

The teacher was probably at her best in getting by sheer force much out of little: she was, in fact, acting a part and the children were entertained as at a show, cinema or other; but of one thing we may be sure, an utter distaste, a loathing, on the part of the children ever after, not only for 'Robinson Crusoe' but for every one of the subjects lugged in to illustrate his adventures. We read elsewhere of an apple affording a text for a hundred lessons, including the making of a ladder, (in paper), to gather the apples; but, alas, the eating of the worn-out apple is not suggested.  ~ (CM, Vol 6 page 116)

More learning can take place with less prep work from the teacher if we simply allow the apple to be tasted and appreciated. Exam it when needed ~ there is a place for in-depth study of a text or object ~ but always present the ideas themselves and let the child's mind do the actual work of assimilating. The teacher is there to provide worthy ideas, chiefly by way of good books, answer questions (or put the question back to the child and let him think of possible answers), and prompt discussion and further thought.

Teaching Reading: I Happened Upon Some Tricks

Jonathan is in Year 2 for school and is reading a variety of readers for reading practice. His favorites to read are stories like Frog and Toad and Mouse Soup. He also reads a little out of one schoolbook each day, the line he will write for his copywork (as well as the rest of the sentence in which the line is contained), and any math instructions.

Right now in the rotation of main reading selections, he is in the Delightful Reader . He's reading the extra practice sentences which contain word-family words that come from the main words he learned during lesson time the previous two years when he mastered Rain, The Dogs and the Fox, etc. He finds the disjointedness of the practice sentences unsatisfactory since the contents of the sentences are often separate from one another instead of making story. To solve this problem, I began to give him a short background story before he read each sentence, explaining any words along the way that might be unfamiliar to him. So for a sentence like

"Use this to hook the squid." 

I ask him if he's ever seen a picture of a squid and to describe it for me. Then I might tell him that a father is out in a big boat teaching his teenage son how to catch deepwater fish (I have no idea if squid is a deep water animal or if you can catch it with a hook, but Jonathan will be sure to ask such questions and we can look up really interesting q's later if he wants to). Then I say, "As the father is teaching his son, he gives him these words of instruction....." 

And then Jonathan happily reads the sentence. This does not take as much time as you might think, since the background info can be as silly or involved as I want to make it, and it makes the time enjoyable for both of us. 

Phoebe is doing Kindergarten work this year. She's been an interesting child, she has. She can be fairly hyper, and if she happens to decide she doesn't want to do school that day, she's a tiny bit of struggle to work with. There are several ways we work with her attitude (which I won't get into here), but for reading, I happened upon a way to help her pay attention to the sounds in the word and put them together. She struggles with wanting to look at me to see what I will say or look around and just guess. 

Right now we're working through the section in Delightful Reading with short vowel words, long vowel words, and a few blends. She also sounds out her copywork words before copying them. What I discovered to be helpful was using a pointer (a pencil suffices or we might make a special pretty one so as to be fancy). I have her point to each sound while I say the sound. Then I take the pointer and point to each sound while she says the sound. Then she can take the pointer and slide it across the word to blend the sounds together. I think the action and using an extra device makes her have to look at the word and also gives her hands something to do while looking. 

As teachers and parents, you all realize how tough some problems can be to figure out. Your child is stuck, and you can't find a way to help them get past the issue. Sometimes you happen upon a solution seemingly out of the blue. At these times I thank God. He made our brains to figure out stuff like this, and I think He also cares enough to send us ideas if we need them. No worries. If He takes care of the birds of the air, our teaching issues can be unraveled with His help as well. 

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival Feb 19, 2013

Welcome to the festival of ideas surrounding a Charlotte Mason life! Chapter 4 of Volume 6 was the focus of thought, so you'll read some quotes from that chapter interspersed throughout as well as the wonderful posts shared by like-minded friends. Thank you for reading, commenting and sharing in these ideas that inspire our education and life!

Dollie at Teachers of Good Things shares Teaching High School Literature the Charlotte Mason Way. 

Cynthia at Our Journey Westward shares ideas for Homeschool Service Projects.

Authority is Proper 

"Every king and commander, every mother, elder sister, school prefect, every foreman of works and captain of games, finds that within himself which secures faithful obedience, not for the sake of his merits but because authority is proper to his office. Without this principle, society would cease to cohere."

Blossom at North Laurel Home and School gives her thoughts on Proper Use of Authority including rebellion toward schoolwork.

Obedience Delightful and Reposeful 

"No doubt it is pleasing that children should behave naturally, should get up and wander about, should sit still or frolic as they have a mind to, but they too, must 'learn obedience'; and it is no small element in their happiness and ours that obedience is both delightful and reposeful." 

Bobby Jo at Where the Blacktop Ends shows us how she gets her little ones out in the snow to be nature detectives in Winter Tracks.

Megan at The Winding Ascent gives her thoughts on Government through the Desires: Unhealthy Competition and Other Ruinous Things We Learned on the Playground.

Adults are also Under Rule 

"The higher the authority, the greater distinction in obedience, and children are quick to discriminate between the mere will and pleasure of the arbitrary teacher or parent and the chastened authority of him who is himself under rule." (emphasis mine) 

Tammy at Aught-2B-Home in Carolina shares a needed post on Awe called Feeling Pressed for Time. *This post was on-topic for the last CMBC and was unwittingly overlooked by our friendly blog carnival administrator. (But we love and appreciate our Amy at Fisher Academy!)*

Hungry Minds Absorb 

"Hungry minds sit down to such a diet with the charming greediness of little children; they absorb it, assimilate it and grow thereby in a manner astonishing to those accustomed to the dull profitless ruminating so often practised in schools. When the teacher avoids hortatory methods, his scholars change position when they have a mind to; but their mind is commonly to sit still during a lesson time because they are so intent on their work that they have no desire for small divagations;"

Carol at Journey-and-destination gives us her personal Reading Challenge. You'll enjoy her synopsis of each book she's currently reading.

Lynn at How the Sun Rose shares a delightful way that simple math leads to a beautiful design with Skip Counting Number Wheel. 

I Just Like This View of "Too Much Athletics" :-) 

"...athleticism, on the other hand, if unduly pursued, by no means promotes mental activity." 

Nebby at Letters from Nebby shares her thoughts on Authority and Attention.

Many Relations, Large Room 

"...but [children] come into the world with many relations waiting to be established; relations with places far and near, with the wide universe, with the past of history, with the the social economics of the present, with the earth they live on and all its delightful progeny of beast and bird, plant and tree; with the sweet human affinities they entered into at birth; with their own country and other countries, and, above all, with that most sublime of human relationships––their relation to God."  

Jessica at Under the Willow Oak gives a bit of simple but important advice: Begin As You Mean To Go On.

Celeste at Joyous Lessons shares beautiful pictures of her families nature time with Valentines and Vacation.

Generous Curriculum 

"With such a programme before his pupils only the uninstructed teacher will put undue emphasis upon and give undue time to arithmetic and handicrafts, singing, acting, or any of the hundred specifics which are passed off as education in its entirety." 

Brandy at Afterthoughts shares An Antidote for Theological Naïveté which gives much to ponder concerning where our theology comes from.

God is Our Ultimate Authority 

"The conditions are,––the teacher, or other head may not be arbitrary but must act so evidently as one under authority that the children, quick to discern, see that he too must do the things he ought; and therefore that regulations are not made for his convenience. (I am assuming that everyone entrusted with the bringing up of children recognises the supreme Authority to Whom we are subject; without this recognition I do not see how it is possible to establish the nice relation which should exist between teacher and taught.) The other condition is that children should have a fine sense of the freedom which comes of knowledge which they are allowed to appropriate as they choose, freely given with little intervention from the teacher. They do choose and are happy in their work, so there is little opportunity for coercion or for deadening, hortatory talk." 

Dewey's Treehouse gives us Illegal Moves: "If we are in a position of authority and expect obedience from those under us, while still recognizing that this position is not ours because of our personal superiority, then we'll treat those under us, even children, especially children, with the respect due to them as persons." (You'll love the cartoons!)

Angela at Joyous Lessons gives us good advice about Reading for Older Children: "Give them solid lessons in reading, build habits as regards books, and you will have a child who loves to learn, regardless of what life throws their way."

Help Establish Attention by Not Repeating 

"To this end the subject matter should not be repeated. We ourselves do not attend to the matters in our daily paper which we know we shall meet with again in a weekly review, nor to that if there is a monthly review in prospect; these repeated aids result in our being persons of wandering attention and feeble memory. To allow repetition of a lesson is to shift the responsibility for it from the shoulders of the pupil to those of the teacher who says, in effect,––"I'll see that you know it," so his pupils make no effort of attention. Thus the same stale stuff is repeated again and again and the children get bored and restive, ready for pranks by way of a change." 

Barb at Harmony Fine Arts at Home gives a helpful tutorial on using Google Art Project Part 2 Museum View.

Children Truly Can Understand 

"We depreciate children in another way. We are convinced that they cannot understand a literary vocabulary so we explain and paraphrase to our own heart's content but not to theirs. Educated mothers know that their children can read anything and do not offer explanations unless they are asked for them..." 

Silvia at Silvia Cachia shares her view of Problems and Solutions: "When I see my life as a set of problems to which I have yet to find the right solution for it to be perfect, I not only leave God out of it, but I also decline my authorship (submitted to Him), or my responsibility, and I go to others for advice."

Amy at Fisher Academy International shares her Nature Study Monday.... Rocks! and Thoughts on Authority and Docility.

Self Education Regarding Museums and Such (See page 77 to read more of this story)

"It will be noticed that the child is educating herself; her friends merely take her to see the things she knows about and she tells what she has read, a quite different matter from the act of pouring information down the throats of the unhappy children who are taken to visit our national treasure houses." 

Tammy shares her unique perspective on getting kids to find solutions for themselves at Aught 2-B-Home in Carolina with When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemon Batteries!

Good Education Gives Many Interests 

"But many of our young men and women go about more seriously maimed than these. They are devoid of intellectual interests, history and poetry are without charm for them, the scientific work of the day is only slightly interesting, their 'job' and the social amenities they can secure are all that their life has for them. The maimed existence in which a man goes on from day to day without either nourishing or using his intellect, is causing anxiety to those interested in education, who know that after religion it is our chief concern, is, indeed, the necessary handmaid of religion." 

Michelle at The Holistic Homeschooler gives thoughts on habit training at 4 Habits to Teach Your Child.

Laura at Windy Hill Home School shares her son's experience with school this year with AO Year 2, Term 2 Review.



The next Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival will be:
March 5 
on the Sacredness of Personality (Ch5)
at Living CM in California
Submit posts to: charlottemasonblogs at gmail dot com.

A Plethora of Pots

Once the clay creations were formed, we set them up on a high shelf in our kitchen. They are pretty breakable before they get fired. We took 3 or 4 weeks to use up all our clay and let it dry. Then we packed our pottery into a box with extra padding around each piece and drove about 25 minutes to Wild Ginger Studios. The studio itself is a neat place in a small town. The lady who owns it enthusiastically answers any questions we have. The kids and I browse the displayed pieces for sale while we wait to speak to her. She charged $5 for each firing. The one downside to this handicraft was all the driving. We had to drop off pottery, pick it up the next week to paint, drop off pieces for another firing, and go back the next week to pick up the finished pieces. It's a pretty drive, but tank fill-ups can get a little high.

One thing I wish I had researched or gotten help on was the painting. The studio owner gave advice on technique, but color matching and patterns were mainly guesswork. Especially since the glaze colors in the jar are not what you will see once it gets fired in the kiln. My kids didn't see any problems and painted happily away. But I want more direction for myself next time.

We paid $27.55 for 5 bottles of glaze and the owner threw in 2 more for free. She told us to do a quick once over with glaze, and then go over the piece again with a careful coat. The bottom of each piece must be kept free of glaze.  If you get some on the bottom, you can wipe it off.

We spent $82.55 plus gas money on this handicraft. We own the tools, glazes, and instruction book now, and the experience of figuring it out ourselves has been a lot of fun. The cost for classes for all 4 of us would have been around $450 plus gas money, as I mentioned previously, and we would have been tied down to someone else's schedule. So I'm quite delighted with this family handicraft experiment.  We look forward to continuing pottery with the new school year.

Go to A Search of Pottery

Go to Handling Clay

A Plethora of Pots

Handling Clay

Pottery has to be the most calming yet fulfilling handicraft I've dealt with.  We worked with clay once a week, completing one project at each sit-down session.  I first made a phone call to our local studio (Wild Ginger Studios) to ask questions about firing and handling finished clay.  I hadn't realized our clay would need to be fired in a kiln and not in our oven.  But the studio does outside firings and the owner gave great advice about how to make and transport our pieces.

The kids loved the squishing and molding.  Jonathan (7) and Phoebe (5) needed more help shaping their pieces.  Some of their pieces turned out better than their mother's though!  You have to work fast and keep clay covered with plastic or the clay will dry out (a few squirts from the water bottle returns moisture).  We learned three techniques: pinch pot, coil pot, and slab pots.  It felt so professional to use the tools.  Elizabeth had a special artsy outfit she would wear for each session. 

There is a definite mess to clean up at the end!  

                                    

But the clay wipes up easily.  The tools get washed and everything put back into a box.  The whole process makes me happy; I may have discovered a new fulfilling interest.  Maybe it takes me back to my childhood days of playing in the mud.  At any rate, this has been a pleasant experience for the whole family.  We plan to continue the projects in the kit with the upcoming school year.  I'm on the search for more clay nearby (shipping about doubles the price).   Painting and firing our pots come next.  

Go to A Search for Pottery

Handling Clay

Go to A Plethora of Pots

A Search for Pottery

Handicrafts are a fun party of a Charlotte Mason education.  I love needlework, wood and paper crafts, painting....  But children need help learning a useful skill, and teaching three school-aged kids separate crafts was getting to be too much.  So I went on a quest for a handicraft we could do together as a family.  

Pottery was on the forefront of my mind.  It's earthy and rustic and kids love playing with clay.  The price for classes for all of us was too steep (about $450, although I thought about asking if they could do a family class for less).  I'm definitely interested in wheel work for myself at some point.  The kids aren't old enough for that yet (I believe she said they needed to be 13 or older).  But I did find a place in Texas that sells pottery kits with clay and tools included: Heritage Ministries' Homesteading Crafts.  The kit cost $30 with enough clay for one person to do 9 projects.  Shipping came out to $30 also, but I was willing to pay $60 for this kit.

I figured we'd use less clay by making smaller projects and just make it through a few to see how we liked it.  If we wanted to continue, I could purchase more clay.  After a little confusion with the company (which a manager cleared up with a phone call), I found that shipping was only $15 and the other $15 was refunded to my credit card.  So total cost for this pottery kit was $45.

The tools are real and sharp ~ definitely for older kids with parental supervision.  My 5, 7, and 10 year olds handled them fine with my direction.  We only did pottery when the baby was napping.  There are a couple of other supplies we needed to gather: water bottle, plastic, rolling pin, etc.  And our dining table handled fine as a work surface.

So our search for a family handicraft that all (including Mom) would enjoy was successful.  More on creating our pots in the next two posts.

A Search for Pottery

Go to Handling Clay

Go to A Plethora of Pots

They Won't Remember Everything

Doing The Thinker

I love the generous curriculum idea put forth by Charlotte Mason. Many subjects which widen their horizons are being covered by my children. It can be an overwhelming educational principle, however, when you're teaching multiple grades or trying to meticulously cover every subject.

Elizabeth (grade 5) does up to 20 subjects a day. Jonathan (2nd) can do up to 14 a day, and Phoebe (K) does 7-10. Some of these are family do-togethers, and Elizabeth and Jonathan do some on their own also. While we are normally able to finish our work before kids get out of public school, I often feel doubtful that we're covering each subject well enough. How can you cover so many areas and remember it all?

While reading Volume 3 of Charlotte Mason's series, I found some comfort to salve this worry. (Check out pages 162-163 if you want to read it yourself.) Charlotte was talking about the need for a wide curriculum and how we shouldn't limit a child's access to certain subjects intending a predetermined pathway for him. For instance, we think he should not waste time on Latin since it won't be of use to him in the commercial pursuits we imagine for him. From there though we read how only "a few notions" will catch hold of a child; but when they do catch hold, they can work more wonders than years of grind. There's no need to limit the variety of knowledge relationships your child can pursue. And it is not expected that every bit of information or fragment of experience will light your child's mind on fire with connection and light-bulbyness. *Whew* It does take a load off.

Teachers offer access to the wide range of knowledge and experiences and then step back allowing the child to connect to the material. The teacher does not need to fret if the child does not make the connections she would make. She needs not fret if all 20 subjects from the day do not set the child off in a delightful narration. There was likely at least one solid connection established that day. One notion that made the child pause and reflect for a moment before continuing his reading or translating Latin. We serve up the best that we can, trust good habits, keep a wise eye, and set them off to pursue a life of learning.

At the end of Volume 3 similar words of comfort are written:

The average child studies with 'delight.' We do not say he will remember all he knows, but, to use a phrase of Jane Austens, he will have had his imagination warmed in many regions of knowledge.

I Want to Homeschool; Now What? Schedule

"The effort of decision, we have seen, is the greatest effort of life; not the doing of the thing, but the making up of one's mind as to which thing to do first." 
 ~ Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, p. 119)

Make Your Schedule

You've made your curriculum choice based on your method, and now you are ready to order your day.  There are about as may ways to schedule a school day as there are persons in the world.  Some people are very relaxed and just choose that morning the books to read for the day or simply pick up where they left off in math.  Some make a list of what they want to accomplish that week and mark it off as they get it done.  Some people schedule every day of their week.  And I've heard tell of those who schedule the very hours and minutes of the day.  There are also curricula that make a schedule for you and homeschool scheduling/organizing apps that you might find useful.  This will be another area of research for you because there are to be found excellent tips and tricks and plans for every personality.

Knowing that my personality will not work for everyone's way of scheduling, I'll share the procedure I've settled on for planning our school year.  It takes a bit of work on the front end (around June/July for us).  I started the different documents to satisfy our state requirements, but I kind of like having all the info printed out, so I'd probably make them anyway.   They help my brain figure out what it's thinking.

Curriculum Guide ~ First I create a guide for each child.  It includes every subject we will cover that year and what books or materials we'll use to cover them.  I won't have a totally completed guide until the end of the year because I add in memorization, handicrafts and various things that are decided on as the year progresses.  A lot of it is copied and pasted from the Ambleside Online site since they are our main curriculum.  I also spend time researching any new add-ons/changes such as musical instrument or handicrafts.  So this part can take several weeks to complete.  I'll share sample screen shots of documents for our Year 2 child, Jonathan.

Book List ~ Next I list all the books we'll use for each child.  Lots of copy and paste and rearrange here, but it doesn't take a ton of time.

Schedule ~ I've done many different versions of schedules, but I really like what I'm doing now.  Each child has a term's schedule made up (a term for us is 12 weeks).  Every subject/book gets a separate row.  Each week gets a certain number of circles next to each subject/book.  Math gets 5 circles since we'll do math every day; Latin gets 3 circles since we do it 3 times a week, etc.  I count up the circles for the week and divide by 5, and we check off the circles as we complete them each day.  So I make 3 schedules per child per year (but I only make the term as it comes up; I don't make all three terms at once since I like to evaluate how things are going and tweak things for the upcoming term).  This can take several hours to do, but I used to make a new schedule every week, so this way is much better!

Can you tell this is one of my favorite parts about homeschooling? ......the planning, research and scheduling.  If any of this is helpful, feel free to use it.  You definitely don't have to do all of this documentation ~ it is simply the way I've processed our school year.  But do find a way of organizing your homeschool that works for you.  

Go to Method
Go to Curriculum
Schedule

I Want to Homeschool; Now What? Method

"I thought we'd have a little supper and talk some philosophy."   

              "I don't know a philosophy."  ~ Lonesome Dove

Choose Your Method

Growing up, there was only one curriculum to homeschool with that my mom was aware of, and it was in the textbook genre.  Fast forward 15 or so years and I assumed that same curriculum was my only choice for my children.  My world was simple.  Then I discovered the internet and all its research capabilities, and I immediately didn't have a clue what I was going to do for homeschooling.  I felt the textbook method was a little boring and wanted a more interesting path.  I dabbled with unit studies for the preschool years and did a year of eclecticism (what does that mean?!!).  This was a bit better than worksheets and fill-in-the-blanks, but I still wasn't satisfied.  One day I came upon a website that laid out several methods for homeschooling.  An epiphany!  I didn't realize there were more than two! Reading summaries of these different methods and seeing right away which one seemed to most fit our family was a breath of fresh air to my info-drowning mind.

A method of homeschooling is kind of its philosophy of education.  It's the thoughts behind what you do.  It answers the why questions.  ("Why do we do it this way?")  There are only a handful of educational methods that I'm aware of (and I'm not an expert, by any means).  Most of us probably have very distinct thoughts on our preferred method and don't even realize it.  We may recognize what we don't like, but have no guidance as to what we believe is good.  Some of us just use a curriculum peers are using without thinking about it.  

Choosing the right fit is important because school should be an extension of your life.  If you love sitting on the couch reading with your kids, choosing a self-paced curriculum where your child sits at the table with little input from you will shrivel your spirit.  Curriculum comes out of someone's thought process.  So before you choose curriculum, choose your method.

So what methods are out there from which to choose?  Some that I've heard of are Textbook or Traditional Method, Waldorf, Eclectic, Unschooling, Literature, Classical, and Charlotte Mason.  There are many sites that provide brief summaries describing each method, but a few that I found simple to use were:

Simply Charlotte Mason  

Successful Homeschooling

eHow 

A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling  

Be aware that any person who wrote these summaries will have a personal bias (as we all do) and may not represent all the methods adequately.  But by reading several sites, you should get a basic idea of the methods.  Read the summaries, see what clicks with you, and then do more research on your top two or three choices.  

I right away recognized that the Charlotte Mason method was the fit for our family.  I had never heard of her before, but I felt at home with her ideas.  From there I read all I could about Charlotte Mason homeschooling and was able to narrow down my curriculum choices.  Which brings you to the next step:  Choose Your Curriculum.

Method
Go to Curriculum
Go to Schedule

Teaching Reading: Conclusion

Since I've spent so much time telling about Phoebe's reading progress, I thought I'd report on my older two also.

Elizabeth is heading into 5th grade.  We don't do reading instruction anymore, but I do have her read out loud to me from different school books or the Bible each day.  There are a number of hard words that she mispronounces because so much of her reading is done silently to herself.  So I'm able to help her with correct pronunciation.  (And many times I have to look up a word to figure it out myself!)  She's able to practice clear, distinct reading also when reading aloud.

Jonathan finished Delightful Reading last year; so this first grade year has been about lots of reading practice.  He read "The Primer" by Harriette Treadwell (free to read online).  He is working his way through the extra sentences in the "Delightful Reader" ( we didn't do all the extra sentences last year).  And he is reading "Frog and Toad Together."  I alternate readers at the end of each chapter.  He also reads his copywork each day; he's working through "Hymns in Prose" right now.  And my plan is to use the "Hymns in Prose" reader with him next year.  It has great uplifting content with challenging words.

Jonathan is really catching on to the various phonics rules as he reads.  He simply picks up on them as I explain the way a certain sound works.  His personality doesn't like any exceptions or rules that don't make sense to him.  (Why does kn say n?  Why couldn't they just put an n?!)  I know he'll enjoy etymology when he gets older ~ I was thrilled to have an etymology course in high school because it explained so much about the history of words.

All the kids are progressing in reading.  Not all at the same rate.  And it sometimes feels slow to me.  But they learn a little each day and it all builds up to make a nice visible foundation when we look back on the year.

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

Teaching Reading to Our Third: Part 4

I thought it might be helpful to break it down a little more if you are interested in using these simple plans.  You'll work on the sentence exercises for several weeks, so the sounds and words are not all to be learned in one day.  These are not broken down into daily lessons, but rather into sentence "chunks".  I'll give the sounds and words focused on for each of the 6 sentences from the previous post:

For the first sentence: Pam is tan.

1. Learn and/or review sounds p, a, m, i, s, t, and n. 

2. Learn and/or review words am, Sam, Pam, spam, is, an, man, pan, span, and tan.

3. Make old (if practice is needed) or new words using alphabet letters.

4. Show the word card and let your child copy it into word notebook.

5. Do a word or sound activity.

6. Once words are well-known, make a sentence with word cards.

For the second sentence: Tim spit in a pit.

1. Learn and/or review sounds s, i, t, p, m, n, and long a.
2. Learn and/or review words it, spit, pit, sit, Tim, in, sin, tin, pin, spin, and a.
3. Make old (if practice is needed) or new words using alphabet letters.
4. Show the word card and let your child copy it into word notebook.

5. Do a word or sound activity.

6. Once words are well-known, make a sentence with word cards.

For the third sentence: Sam is a man.

1. Learn and/or review sounds s, a, m, i, long a, and n.

2. Learn and/ or review words sap, map, nap, tap, apt, and imp. (These words aren't used in any of the sentences, and since the child has learned all words related to Sam, is, a, man, this is a good place to learn these words.)

3. Make old (if practice is needed) or new words using alphabet letters.

4. Show the word card and let your child copy it into word notebook.

5. Do a word or sound activity.

6. Once words are well-known, make a sentence with word cards.

For the fourth sentence: Sit on the mat.

1. Learn and/or review sounds s, i, t, n, a, m, and introduce short o.

2. Learn and/or review words on, at, pat, sat, mat, spat.

3. Make old (if practice is needed) or new words using alphabet letters.

4. Show the word card and let your child copy it into word notebook.

5. Do a word or sound activity.

6. Once words are well-known, make a sentence with word cards.

For the fifth sentence: An ant sat in a pan.

1. Learn and/or review sounds a, n, t, s, i, and p.

2. Learn and/or review the word ant and at and an words if needed.

3. Make old (if practice is needed) or new words using alphabet letters.

4. Show the word card and let your child copy it into word notebook.

5. Do a word or sound activity.

6. Once words are well-known, make a sentence with word cards.

For the sixth sentence: Tim sips tea.

1. Learn and/or review sounds t, i, m, s, p and introduce ea as having a long e sound.

2. Learn and/or review words sip, tip, tea, sips.

3. Make old (if practice is needed) or new words using alphabet letters.

4. Show the word card and let your child copy it into word notebook.

5. Do a word or sound activity.

6. Once words are well-known, make a sentence with word cards.

                               Our Third

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Conclusion

Teaching Reading to Our Third: Part 3

Now that we have some simple word-building under our belt, I plan to add several steps: writing words in her word notebook, sound/word activities, and, once she is very familiar with some words, sentence-making.

I've selected 20 words from the list in the previous post and written them on cards. After Phoebe makes a word with letters, I show her the card and she copies the word into her word notebook. The Delightful Reading kit includes a word notebook, but any blank notebook will do.

Activities can include reading a word card while jumping up or down stairs with each word. I have her go back a step if she gets the word wrong; we go through the small pile of words over again until she gets to the bottom of the stairs. You can read a word aloud and let your child find the word among a couple of other word cards. You can hide the familiar letters around the room and let your child find them to put them together to make words. Are there other activities your child enjoys during pre-reading lessons? I'd love to hear more ideas to keep my active girl on task. The movement really does help her concentrate.

Once she is very familiar with a few chosen words, I'll have her pick up the words I tell her and lay them in a row so that she may then read a sentence.

The sentences I chose are:

~ Pam is tan.

~ Tim spit in a pit.

~ Sam is a man.

~ Sit on a mat.

~ An ant sat in a pan.

~ Tim sips tea.

(A couple new words are added to help make cogent sentences.)

So a day's lesson might look like:

1. Review sounds from chalk board.

2. Review words from previous lesson using word notebook or word cards.

3. Make old (if practice is needed) or new words using alphabet letters.

4. Show the word card and let your child copy it into word notebook.

5. Do a word or sound activity.

6. Once words are well-known, make a sentence with word cards.

This will be great practice for continued word-building with Delightful Reading next year. And then we'll be heading into "real" reading lessons!

Next post will show lessons broken down even more.

See Part 1,  Part 2,  Part 4, and Conclusion

Teaching Reading to Our Third: Part 2

I worked out ahead and made simple plans to help Phoebe word-build as we finish up the school year. I chose two vowels (using only their short sound), five consonants and one blend: a i n p t m s sp.

We go over these sounds at the beginning of every lesson. She says the sound or gives a word that starts with the sound.

For variety we alternate using our wooden alphabet letters and the ones provided in Delightful Reading. I keep them in their own little bag so I don't have to search for them every time we sit down for a lesson.

We take these 7 letters and put them together to make words ~ as many combinations as we can make. Phoebe needs lots of help with this part so far. It's helpful if she blends an ending first (like -at) and then adds a letter to the beginning ( s -at). Combinations include:

(it sit spit pit in sin tin pin spin Tim is tip sip sap map nap tap an man pan span tan am Sam Pam spam at pat sat mat spat ant apt imp)

Phoebe is able to to handle making 2-4 words a lesson. We work on the same words several lessons in a row until they are very familiar to her.

The next post will continue sharing word-building plans.


See Part 1, Part 3,  Part 4, and Conclusion