I have two questions for all of you visiting my blog. I love having this blog for this reason. I can ask you all questions and usually I get some answers and often some really great thoughts.

First Question

Well, you all know, I am sure, from scripture that we aren't to Lord over our husbands. We are, after all, their help meets, their ones walking along sides, their partners. We aren't their mothers. One common frustration (and I'm sure if he were in charge of child training he would be AT LEAST as frustrated with me on this one), is when I'm trying to train the girls on something, but my husband isn't "trained" to do that. And, you know, they watch him and do what he does. An example, lining up shoes and boots instead of just leaving them in front of our front door. So, my question is, in your experience, do you think I can properly train my children when the example is not so perfect, of what I want them to do? Sometimes...my example isn't so perfect either. But, when I'm working at training them, I usually work extra hard at training myself at the same time.

Second Question

This question is particularly for Charlotte Masoners out there. But, whatever you style of homeschooling, if you do any oral work with your children, then this question is for you. Oral narration (and also written narration) is core to a Charlotte Mason education. Natalie (my oldest) has never been the strongest story teller. My step-daughter is a very gifted story teller. With her we just have to work on having her keep it brief. Rachel (middle daughter) is very good at saying whatever is on her mind. She may not think about details. But, as long as you convince her she has to tell you some details, she will easily converse with you too. Natalie, is like me. She is very detail oriented, but pretty shy, at least on cue. So, this year, since she is well able, she's graduated to doing written narrations of what she reads. She does a wonderful job and includes lots of details. Yet, I still have her doing oral narrations. This last week or two, she's just frozen, particularly on our Bible reading. She is SILENT when I have her do narrations. I get frustrated sitting there waiting for her. Fifteen minutes pass, she has tears in her eyes. I think she has performance anxiety. That one cue, I'm asking her to recall something.

So, what do I do? Not make her do oral work? Make it optional and praise her if she does? How do I help her out of "her shell"? What if that's just how God made her? And, I make her frustrated with that portion of herself, the same as I'm frustrated with that part of myself - the part that clams up or clammors for what to say in group situations?

Thanks for any input you all have.

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My Six Year Old

My six year old is outside singing at the top of her lungs "get your energy out!". That is after all what I told her to go outside and do (get her energy out that is).

Natalie

Natalie has been trouble hearing the last few weeks and her ear recently started hurting her, so we went to the doctor this afternoon. Wax in her ears and Swimmers Ear. We got some drops for the Swimmers Ear.

Studies

We went to the zoo yesterday and after our schooling today, we went to the doctor, so things seem hectic. But, so far, so good. The girls are enjoying their studies and doing well. I'm really working with Rachey with reading - she still struggles with basic phonics. I think she's bored with math though. I think I'm just going to print off worksheets from Math U See's worksheet generator - because basic adding/counting is too easy, but lots of words too hard. I'm being flexible with our schedule this year and I'm just counting days - to 180+. The zoo doesn't count. Today was our 7th day.

Tomorrow

We start dance tomorrow. The girls are too excited. Oh, the energy!

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I just keep altering my schedule. I've been reading a lot about Robinson and watching his video on his site, and I am persuaded of a couple of things.

First off (and Charlotte Mason supports this as well), that kids can and should teach themselves. Charlotte says (loosely paraphrased), don't do for a child that which he or she can do for themselves. I'm also convinced that we can expect a lot more out of children than our society expects of them. Particularly, they are much more able to do math and to read and understand reading than society gives them credit for. Robinson says that the schools now are two grade levels behind schools from the 1960's. Additionally he says that those schools were two additional grade levels behind the schools of the 1930's. With all of the "systems" of learning that have been implemented, what has happened?? Charlotte Mason speaks of this a lot - systems of learning get in the way of real learning quite often. Could it be that teaching to the bottom of the class doesn't work? Could it be that giving the child something currently out of his reach, but something to shoot for, something engaging is key to learning?

Secondly, Robinson believes you shouldn't bother teaching science until after the child has mastered Calculus. Under his program a student usually masters calculus sometime between the ages of 14 and 16. He says the science taught in public schools is really just propaganda and that students can't do proper science until they have a strong foundation of algebra and calculus. I absolutely love math, so I'm glad to hear it said that almost all children can reach this level of math - with enough fortitude. Charlotte Mason is definitely strong on science, but not through text books or other systematic methods of learning, but through nature study.

Lastly, Robinson urges parents to do extensive amounts of math, followed by reading and writing, with the reading being primarily high quality classic literature. Pretty much with Robinson you would do two hours of self-taught math, followed by two hours of reading, followed by two hours of writing. He has had tremendous success with this (in terms of college readiness) both with his own children and with many others who have decided to follow his program. The problem, to me, with Robinson, is that it is very narrow. There are other topics I want to cover with my children. And, while I want my children to learn to be primarily self-taught, I also see the value of having a teacher direct you - especially with certain subjects - like geography, spelling, art, music. Robinson argues that you can't do it all, and that when you try to do it all you end up not being very good at any one thing. That is an argument that I need to keep in mind! I am queen of distractibility and sometimes I make my life quite misterable by spreading myself too thing. Yet, I think there is a balance. I can choose a liberal education, such as Charlotte Mason promoted, and I limit some of my activities, so I and my kids don't go batty! One such subject is science. I am tortured about this, since I have already bought the text, but I think that I am going to go with a nature study gentle style of science, like Charlotte Mason suggests. This takes one subject off my plate and affords time for nature walks. I'm also extending child-taught math time and reading time in my schedule, encouraging my eight year old to teach herself and giving me a break from hands-on time.

So, here is my new daily schedule I am hoping ot follow. The booklists will be the same, except for the science text.

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I was adding some map references to my sidebar today (mainly for my own reference). In the past, I've had the hardest time finding good map resources. I know lots of pre-packaged curriculums come with good resources, but since I'm not going that route, I needed to find some good resources. Here are some good ones, if you are in need of these too.

I think it is neat to do geography with whatever studies you are doing. Geography is just like a time line, but instead of giving your subject a place in time, it gives them a place on our globe, and puts what the kids study in reference. Geography doesn't need to be anything fancy. Just find on the map where it is, mark it, draw a picture if you like, color in if you like. And, if the process is simple, kids just love maps.

Here are some resources:

Resources To Buy

• Knowledge Quest MapsExcellent Historical Maps - tied in with history
• Evan-Moor World Reference Maps & Forms (includes U.S. but not individual states)
• Evan-Moor Maps of the USA
• Instructional Fair Blank Map Outlines - United States and the World

Free Online Geography Resources

• Owl & Mouse (Including Free Large Wall Maps)
• Free Outline Maps Of The Fifty States
• Free Outline Maps
• National Atlas
• MSN Encarta Atlas

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I've been teaching for three days so far this year. I had to shorten my day down a bit since we frequently run overtime or are interupted. Plus, one just gets a feeling for how much schooling is appropriate for ones children after trying it out. Anyhow, here is my revised schedule and I'll include some books we hope to work through this year. We'll see how much we get through.

Our plan is following a four year rotation like classical, but with short, literary based lessons like Charlotte Mason. (My kids are studying together!) I've been struggling with how to do this for two years and it's finally coming together. This time period is 1600-1850. And we are studying history through literature of this time period and trying to study artists from this period, also authors and poets of this period.

Texts

Saxon Math

Abeka Seatwork 1

God's Design For Heaven & Earth

God's Design For Our Weather & Water

God's Design For Our Universe

NOTE: I had to get the new version of God's Design For Heaven & Earth, and I have to tell you that it is a lot more "textbookish" than the original. As stated in a later post, I've been re-thinking the use of an actual science text in favor of going with straight nature study.

Simply Grammar

Usborne Book of Art

History Through the Ages Timeline Figure Set

Literature

Johnny Tremain

George the Drummer Boy (American Revolution)

Amos Fortune, Free Man

Meet Thomas Jefferson

Martha Washington: America’s First First Lady

Eric Liddell

Robert Fulton, Boy Craftsman

Calico Captive

They’re Off! Story of Pony Express

Sam the Minuteman

American Revolution

Rembrandt

Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West

Trial & Triumph – Church History – pp. 167-225 (Ch. 27-36)

George Washington Carver

Parables from Nature – pp. 41+ (26 out of 29 chapters still left to read)

Fifty Famous Stories (most stories 500-1600, a few stories 1600-1850 – first published 1896) – pp. 54 +

Teddy's Button – free online – by Amy Le Feuvre

The Life Of Washington

Pagoo

Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia

Pocahontas: Young Peacemaker

The Boy in the Alamo

Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution

George Washington's World

Madeleine Takes Command

Peter The Great

Mary Cassat (Getting To Know The World's Greatest Artists)

Francisco Goya (Getting To Know The World's Greatest Artists)

Phoebe The Spy

Vincent's Colors

Online Literature

Henty Books

English Fairy Tales

King Of The Golden River

Forest & Frontiers

At the Back of the North Wind

The Bears Of Blue River

Our Island Story

Paul Revere's Ride

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This is what happens to your timeline (that you just made) when you have a toddler. And, no, I cannot just use it the way it is.... And, no, I do not just let her grab the permanent marker...she is VERY good at getting into drawers, up on counters, in pen cups to find the permanent markers. I would have to keep all pens on top of the refrigerator. Oh, well... she is cute...

We got started with school starting yesterday. It is going well. It's so nice to have activities for the kids today, they are a lot more well behaved that way. So, even if school is more work for me, I'm not sure I come out too far behind. We worked on a map of where Gladys Aylward, missionary to China, traveled today. My kids are fascinated with maps, so they were thrilled. I've always wanted to do more map study, but was frustrated with the sources I could find. I found two this year that look to be good...Knowledge Quest Blackline Maps and Evan-Moor World Reference Maps.

I'm sure I'll tweak my schedule, so I'll keep you posted on how this year goes. Right now, no surprise, it looks like I need to tweak it slightly downward. But, the kids love having a schedule and switching activities and keeping lessons short. The only downside, I see to keeping lessons short, is when they are liking what they are doing. Sometimes something you've scheduled twenty minutes for takes an hour and really it is unhelpful to their love of learning to hurry them along.

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Does it ever seem to you as if God has woken you up to do something in the middle of the night. Sometimes that thing is pray, but sometimes it might be something like put your school schedule together. It was all clear in my mind in the middle of the night. Here it is. This may change...as we see how it works, but I'm excited to have a working schedule.

School Schedule

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Natalie made up her own math worksheet today. Also, notice the baby climbing in the background. She nearly gives her Daddy a heart attack when she does things like that.

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You moms always have great ideas. My two favorite from below are the timer idea and the visual barrier idea. Natalie is perfectly able to do the worksheets quickly, but is just in a bad habit of day dreaming. I'm also glad I'm not the only one.

Can anyone tell me why my daughter, who is perfectly good at math, takes like an hour or an hour and a half doing her daily math worksheets - that if I were to verbally ask her the questions of - she would be done in like 20 minutes or less?? She has no problem with the concepts, gets most every answer right, and whatever the math curriculum it is the same. We have conversations about the longer it takes you to do your work, the less time we have for fun stuff...but...

Maybe I should do it orally...lots of Charlotte Mason people do it this way - but 1) it's a break from me having to figure out what the next thing she needs to do is or from reading to her, and 2) well, shouldn't she learn to stay on task?

Also, math is the most challenging, but this comes up with every unsupervised activity.

I hear often enough about people's frustrations with the area of staying on task, but are any of you on the other side? How have you taught your children to stay on task?

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AAAAAAHH! I can't believe I did that. I left out Y. OK, so much for eXact. But, really I'm usually very eXact. eXact enough to be bothered by myself doing that! Y - yearning (as in yearning for my home) - that's my word!

The Homeschool Memoirs @ The Homeschool Post is doing the ABCs of homeschooling this week and I am participating.

The ABCs Of Me & My Homeschooling Style

Analytical (big time)
Believing
Curious
Doubtful
Enthusiastic
Free
Grateful
Happy
Intense
Joyful
Kind
Laughing
Mom
Nature
Outdoors
Pleaser
Quizical
Respect
Serious
Thinker
Unworthy
Violin
Wonder
eXact
Zest (meaning flavor or interest)

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