Posted in Charlotte Mason
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The attempt to read A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason has begun again;) This time I think it is going to stick though, because all of a sudden certain things are making sense like never before. I have always tried to use AmblesideOnline as more than just a book list (mostly because IT IS...), but taking the time to read and dig, well, just takes time. So for many many months, I have been living off of the knowledge of the wiser women on the Ambleside yahoo groups (which has many wise women on it!!). Anyway, because my daughters were being very shy and would not let me leave them at a Day Camp (at a friend's house none the less...her daughter was doing the camp, still couldn't leave...) I sat in my suburban and read for almost 2 hours. It was actually quite nice to have them time to read a whole paragraph all at once. In between phone calls from the boys back at home (homeschooling via phone, a first for me), I was able to just absorb so much info just in the introduction! Miss Mason seems way more candid in this volume (I have only partly read Volume One). But it really sparked a fire in me and now can't wait to just delve into it. She starts off pointing out how the mind, just like the body NEEDS nourishment. But to her, that is not just to use it on a daily basis. Its even more than just doing math actually, that would just be exercising it, which it good to do, but not enough. Here is one quote:
To get to those great thoughts they need to read many many worthy books. She draws the line in saying that the mind can only get it from within and not without. Instead of giving them *ideas* from other authors' wisdom, we (teachers and home school moms alike) use incentives, marks, prizes etc. insead of *knowledge-hunger* (which comes from again, ideas they get from the worthy books and authors), which she says for a child is incentive enough to learn, but we don't give them the chance. She also explains the difference between memorizing and assimilating. I was raised in public schools (many different schools in three different states). I can tell you that memorizing (usually for the test) was how I learned!! I have my kids narrate to me what they just read in their own words, and instead they are ASSIMILATING the information. She says here...
Now I have to say, that I read that yesterday and thought, hmmmm, does this describe my kids? With all that we have been through the past, what?, two years, have I been challenging them enough to live up to this? Do they have (true) knowledge that they can recall months later of something they read so long ago. And then it happened! I have a son in Year One and a son in Year Two. My Y2 son we were very inconsistent with Shakespeare and our Parables of Nature readings, so I decided for the Summer to do those two together with the boys. My Y2 son *hated* Parables of Nature, but after doing Ambleside for a couple years now, I feel like I am able to challenge them with it. Well, today we read Training and Restraining and I read the first line and Nik (Y2) stopped me and said, "OH! I remember this!" And continued to narrate the WHOLE dang thing to me. I read this to him (because I printed out the book and the date is at the bottom) TWO years ago! And he HATED every minute of it! But today, he just unloaded after ONE sentence of the story. (Seth, Y1, was quite impressed by the way!) Do I even need to explain HOW encouraged I was to continue school today (we are schooling through the summer after taking almost the whole fall off because of construction)?? All my guilt of schooling them until 1ish every day during their summer went right out the window, and the encouragement came from Charlotte Mason herself;) I so want my kids to LOVE knowledge, because quite honestly, they were created to love (and NEED) it. I so don't want them memorizing to pass a test! I have already proven where that gets a person!
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