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Learning space picturesHere are some pictures of our "learning space". I am a little late, but I was encouraged to share this after viewing the lovely learning spaces included in the Lovliness Fair. This is a brag on God and my husband, who made this space possible. Our learning space, with a bedroom and bath, are almost the same size as the house we lived in with 9 children--that one was 980 sq ft! But we even had a "learning space" back then--the dining room crammed with books, etc. Now we have 800 sq ft dedicated to the kids and their exploring and learning (besides the rest of the house and the "garden"). This is our main academic area, with slots for the children and a place for our notebooks, which are stacked along the wall on the left and are hard to see from this angle. The window looks out to our backyard, so if the little ones go out to play, I can keep tabs on them. The door on the left opens into the supply closet.  This is part of my supply closet  This is the area that we sit in the morning and have our "discussions". The basket on the windowsil is full of little books for the tiny ones to "read". There is also a small armoir with a television, DVD player and stereo in the opposite corner. The computer desk is in the left corner, at the bottom of the stairs.  This is our main book area downstairs (there are many more bookshelves upstairs on the other two floors as well).  Here is our "toys area". Most of the furniture and books were either given to us, are from garage sales, or were found at the thrift store--so God has been so good to bless us with being in the right place at the right time, so that we could enjoy nice things without a heavy price. Of course, it doesn't look as neat after a morning of idea-sharing and wormie-squirmie little bodies! There are loads of open spaces, which are wonderful in the winter time when it's too cold to play outside. Homeschool evaluationWondering if you are doing enough this year?Take an assessment. Make a list of all of the things your child knows--don't limit yourself to the "schoolish" kinds of things. Whenever possible, take a few minutes to listen in on the neighborhood kids as they play. Are they quoting Shakespeare or figuring out the velocity at which they are hurling rocks or balls? Are they using physics equations to calculate the momentum necessary to make it uphill on their bicycles? If you asked them who Alexis de Tocqueville was, would they know? Can they recite the first 2 chapters of Genesis from memory? Of course not! On the other hand, is your child happy? Is he interested in the world around him? Does he ask you questions, and do you do your best to answer him and encourage him in every way? If so, you pass the test with flying colors! Relax and enjoy. What is education?There are about as many ideas about education as there are people. The scripture says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but are wisdom and education the same? There is such a thing as an “educated fool”, our world is full of such individuals. It is very possible to educate the intellect, to fill a person with facts and knowledge, even to know how to use this knowledge in a physical sense, yet to leave a person bereft of the ability to live a life full of meaning and purpose. What we think of as “school” today cannot hope to do anything but educate the intellect. It is difficult to inculcate values to childrenWhen we take our children home, what is our philosophy of education? What do we hope that our children will come away with? Many of us fall under the spell of the system we have become so accustomed to and will consider ourselves successful only if our children can pass the SAT’s and complete college. But home schooling offers a richness that cannot be measured by standardized tests and financial success. After having my children at home for the last 22 years, I can say confidently that teaching the “3 R’s” doesn’t take a load of time. Children who are immersed in an environment where the adults are readers, writers and interested in learning about the world around them can’t help but learn these things themselves. The ability to read, when giving proper time and maturity, is an easy thing to acquire. Some of my children taught themselves at 7, others at 11. It doesn’t really matter by the time they are 18 when they originally learned to read. What are some other things that we would want our children to take with them? Here is a partial list of some of the more important values I would relay: --the ability to delight in God, listen to His voice, and enjoy Him. --a sense of God’s pleasure in man and enjoyment of what God has created for man to freely enjoy --a sense of putting the needs of others above oneself --an enjoyment of work --discernment as to what is worth learning and what is not --a desire after wisdom --a love of ceaseless, life-long learning The learning of these skills cannot be “quantified” by any test. The only exams will be the living of life itself. Coworkers and employers may benefit slightly from an education like this, but it’s the neighbors, friends, spouses and children that will be the main beneficiaries. Ultimately, only God will be able to keep track of all of the “tests” they will face in life. Hopefully they will be able to see through the lie of commercialism and not forfeit the simple joys of life for the drive to try and buy “happiness” with money. They will value relationships over “things”, with their relationship with God being first. 7 Habits of Highly Effective New School YearsMaureen over at Trinity Prep School:http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/TRINITYPREPSCHOOL/186215/ (please forgive my ineptness--this is supposed to be a cute little button) has asked me to share 7 habits that can lend to an effective school year, so I'm not going to bother with what I really started out like, so many years ago--you would either laugh or cry, I think I did both. These are the principles I wish I started out with, the ones that I have since practiced that have aided me most. I hope they can bless you. 1). Practice listening. First, listen to God. We are all known to make many plans and then ask God to bless them. But if you want effectiveness, it is best to listen to God's plans, and they will automatically be blessed! Of course, this means time in prayer, the Bible, and the practice of obedience in both the tiny and big things of life. There is not adequate time here to discuss this fully, but I hope you get the general idea. This follows hand in hand with listening to your child. Forget the notions of what you or the school or your mother-in-law thinks your child should be or do, take some time to listen to what he wants to be about. Although we as parents know better than to allow a child to eat candy for every meal just because he wishes to, it is equally wrong to take a fine artist and attempt to make him into a star football player, or vice-versa. If you take the time to listen when you think he is just babbling, and you have a million other things to do, you will gain a window into his little soul. 2). Educate yourself. This is one of the truest, most basic habits that will carry you and your children the furthest. Home education is not just for the children, it is for the whole home. At the beginning I educated myself as to the "why's" of homeschooling, but not so much about what education is and isn't. One of the best and easiest reads for this very thing is "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook", by Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore, but it is not by far the only one. There are more books to read than there is space to type. The books that explain how you can teach in comparison to the public school system will only add more pressure and confusion, and can even lead to burnout and failure. Home education has been around since the beginning of mankind, while the public school method has only been practiced in the United States for the past 150 years or so, and has been proven to be a dismal failure. 3). Don't push. Both for yourself and for your children, this principle will serve you well. Although the school system may only have a certain number of days or hours, you have your children 24/7, so you don't have to follow by the school schedule. There are times when daily consistency will bring you the greatest results and peace, and there are times when sticking with a strict schedule will ruin the natural love of learning that is inherent in the whole family. Taking breaks for some summer fun, a winter vacation, the birth of a new baby, home organization, or just "educational overload", should not make you feel overwhelmed. All sorts of learning goes on, even in these times. This is where habit no. 1 comes in handy, so that you know when it would be wise to take a break, and when it would be wiser to persevere. 4). Don't bring school home. This may be one of the most difficult habits to put into place. After all, we tend to follow the patterns we know, and most of us can only imagine the structure of learning that we experienced ourselves. It does not matter if you actually have a chalkboard and school desks, or you sit around the dining room table, it is your own attitude and thinking that determines just how much of "schoolism" is allowed in your home. Here are some words that have been purged from my learning vocabulary: "grade-level"--1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. (each child has a unique, God-given time table--instead I keep a checklist of learning milestones, and encourage him accordingly) "grade"--such as A, B, C, etc. (only necessary if a child is learning things that make no sense to him--if he is interested, he will always do his best work) "test" (if he is already performing to the best of his ability, and I am witnessing his progress daily, why should I need to evaluate him?) 5). Don't expect too much too soon. You may have seen too many of those magazine covers with all of the perfect children, or perhaps you heard about the homeschoolers in Harvard and Yale, and you are certain that your child will automatically become a genius and begin writing in Latin on the second day, all at the age of 4. I was almost this bad, and then God gave me a child that simply would not cooperate with my plans for educational stardom! A child's first efforts are clumsy and awkward, and this is how it should be. A very wise person once told me that my child already wanted to please me, so why would I want to assume that she was not putting forth her best effort? If you are brining your children home from public or even private school, give them time to "decompress". They need time to think of learning in differently, that it is more than wearisome toil, but an exciting adventure. Remember, no matter how much you are itching to try out those expensive workbooks and different methods, your child's maturity, health, and ability are supposed to be the drivers. 6). Host daily, directed discussion. Believe it or not, this is where our best learning happens. After our morning clean-up, we all gather for some Bible and other reading and discussion. Sometimes I have found an interesting bit of news that we all will comment upon, or it may be a movie we recently viewed, or a book that someone is reading. We often start off in one direction, and end up at a completely different destination, sometimes in a room filled with open encyclopedias, atlases, history books, etc. With younger children, this is a good time to answer those important questions they have, such as why the sun seems so small, or why Daddy has to go to work, etc. 7). Don't commit to too many outside activities. One of the most priceless gifts of homeschooling is that of "unhurriedness". It is a blessing to be able to get up in the morning and not be frantically putting together breakfast, trendy attire, and homework. At home, it is what best suits your family that dictates how you will order your day, not someone else's schedule. Since you have the freedom to choose, it is unwise to allow a crowded schedule to interrupt your family life. While there are times when outside activities can be a blessed addition to one's home education, it is too easy to overload. Children need spans when nothing is "planned" so they can ride their scooters, catch bugs, plunk around on the piano, and even "twiddle away the time". Too many activities can eat away at the few hours they do have. It is sad, but I have witnessed that a lot of busy-itis begins and is encouraged by the very homeschool groups that we rely on for encouragement and affirmation. The question of "socialization" is often at the back of such pressures as well, which is where habit no. 2 comes in, educating oneself as to what true socialization means. I originally began typing and wondering how I would come up with 7 habits, now I find that 7 is too few--I guess those are ideas for future posts! God's blessing on you as you embark on this new year. Sherry Math without tearsDo you have to do math everyday? I have a teacher friend that almost had a cow when I said this, but I don't believe that, at least in elementary math, you have to have math daily. Sometimes we go without math for months, and then sometimes all we'll do is math for weeks. How does this work? Well, elementary math isn't that hard to teach, for one thing. I know that it can seem a great, daunting task, especially when we remember back to our own schooling experience. Most industrialized nations don't take the 7 or so years we do to teach the basics, they take 3 at the most. What is elementary math? It goes something like this: Numbers--counting, recognition and writing, including skip-counting Basic 1-digit adding and subtracting 2-3 digit adding and subtracting, with and without "regrouping" Simple multiplication and division Complex multiplication and division Fractions--adding, subracting, dividing, simplifying decimals Also, statistics, probability, reading graphs, money, measuring, time, and word problems (or the basic application of math that happens naturally in the lives of intelligent, active people who are not stuck in a sterile classroom with no windows all day). If you don't push this stuff on children who are barely capable of understanding it, you won't have to spend too much time on each concept. It's when we push children who don't have the mental or emotional maturity that we end up feeling like all of us are math wipe-outs. If you don't believe me, ask someone who does math tutoring for adults as a volunteer. If a person is ready, the basics don't take that much time. When I reach a point of great resistance, I put it away for a while. When we take it up again, the kids are the ones who usually ask for it, and then they are primed to pay attention, of their own accord. Of course, there are those "teachable moments" that we all have to be open to, when some concept we tried to all but hammer into the mind of our child just "clicks"--like when they are doubling a cookie recipe, buying cloth for a dress they are sewing, or saving for an easel and oil painting set. After the elementary stuff, algebra isn't too far off. There are so many good programs out there, but I just used a .25 copy of Holt Algebra that I purchased at a half-off thrift store sale. It's funny, but all of the cobwebs I had in my head when I took it at the age of 13 just disappeared when I was teaching it to my kids--I must have been at the right "emotional and mental maturity"--finally! We took about 6 months to do both Algebra 1 and 2, and this with my kids who were 12, 14 and 15 when they started. But does it work? I have grown children who keep their checkbooks, pay their bills, and make change quite well. Not only this, but they also enjoy math, just for fun! They think up problems and try and solve them, one uses his skills to figure out complex physics equations for programming he does in his leisure time. It does work, as long as you maintain an attitude yourself that it is worthwhile and fun to learn, and that may be the hardest part. If you are having trouble, try reading a book titled "Mathematics: Is God Silent?" (see sidebar). This will open your eyes, as it did ours, to the wonderful ways God has revealed Himself in the mathematical structure of the physical world around us. You will never be able to look at an equation the same again. Also, even though you may not have had a great experience with math as a student in school, teaching it to your children may open your eyes to all the enjoyment you missed. When a person is in a classroom, the teacher moves ahead, no matter whether you have grasped a concept or not. At home, you can take as little or as much time as you need. It is amazing, but as you teach you find that you understand more than you ever thought you did, and you actually begin enjoying it, because you feel you can finally do it well. Instead of crying, math should leave you smiling! More on college...Here's a link to another perspective:www.thehomeschoolmom.com/teacherslounge/articles/secular.php |
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