Feb. 4, 2007 - Charlotte Mason in the city

Then

We lived on a ranch when we started homeschooling.  We had lakes, ponds, woods, trees, crickets, frogs, and all sorts of other creepy crawlies.  All sorts of wonderful nature to explore everyday whenever we wanted.  I began researching "homeschooling styles" and found the philosophies of Charlotte Mason fascinating.  While we didn't adopt all of her ideas and teachings, if there was a style to describe us that would be it.  We chose a curriculum that has a Charlotte Mason feel to it as well, My Father's World.  School was a fun and happy experience. (ok, not everyday...but overall )

Now

We left my son's dog in the country and moved to an apartment in the city.  We have buildings, concrete, neighbors, and people.  My son uses the following phrases to describe this place: no nature!, trees not big enough to climb, and only fire ants for insects.  School has gone from a short time in the morning doing seatwork and copywork with afternoons full of exploration outside to mornings of tears and shouts over written work and afternoons full of arguments and actual fights with neighbors on the playground.

So here comes the question?  How do you folks that live in the city do it?  I grew up in the city.  I didn't have these struggles, but my boys...they crave the great outdoors. (and the local park isn't cutting it!)  My husband is at a loss as to "how to be a dad in the city?"  We can no longer step out the back door with a gun or fishing pole.  We can no longer gather sticks and limbs to build an enormous fire to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over.  For science a few weeks ago we were studying forests.  We were supposed to gather leaves and do bark rubbings of trees, but wait...there are no trees.  How are we going to gather leaves to identify and make bark rubbings for our notebook?

We are going to try and change things up a bit for school.  I hope that it will brighten a few attitudes around here.  But if anyone has any helpful suggestions...by all means PLEASE!!!!! let me know.

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Comments

Feb. 9, 2007 - A few ideas

Posted by creech7s

I'll admit that we never homeschooled in the city, but being raised and living most of my life in the country I had a hard adjustment when we lived in town, having sidewalks and streets (and the public elementary school!) just across the street from my tiny, tiny yard. One thing we did was grow plants. Anything from flowers to tomatoes and even a couple of cotton plants (yep, they will grow all the way to maturity in a container!). We had our front stoop, window sills and back patio covered in containers! We also switched from big pets to little ones - some fish and a newt in a tank, a guinea pig on the kitchen porch and a bird at one time. My boys also got into things like electronics, computers, chemistry, Civil Air Patrol. Their friends were in Junior Firemen and boy scouts. They learned to play basketball and street hockey in the parking lot across the street. I have to admit we're back out in the country and I love it (except for the drive to go anywhere and the choice of only two grocery stores within 20 minutes of our house!) but look for the things you can do in the city that you can't do in the country. Lemonade from lemons!! Hope this helps!

-Faye

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Feb. 18, 2007 - moving

Posted by berrymorin

When I moved from Maine to California it took me about 2 years to really adjust. Give you and your family time to discover the hidden treasures in your new environment.

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Mar. 4, 2007 - how are ya?

Posted by tess

I haven't seen you around in a while and just wanted to check on you. Are things ok?
Tess

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Mar. 11, 2007 - catching up

Posted by luvmy2mks

that's quite a challenge you're facing! pass on what you learn in this season :-) mary

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Mar. 21, 2007 - Hi

Posted by 2peter318

I happened upon your blog, and was thinking about your entry, since I just wrote one about moving out to the country and missing the convience of the city. I'm not a real outside person, so I haven't gotten in to the swing of "doing school outside", but there's always hope, right? :)
Anyway, back to your issue. There are good things in the city. There are museums, zoos, factories that you can get tours to and see how things are made. I'm only involved in a homeschool playgroup out here, but in the city, there's bigger groups that you could check into to see what "field trips" they do.
Well, I know that's not much, but I hope it helps. Come visit my blog if you want.
JoAnn

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