Un-segregated

One term that I dislike greatly is "segregation". I have been pleased over and over (and over again yesterday) for the lack of it in our life thus far. In my meager opinion, our society promotes it way too much (usually in age or gender), and we lose the benefits of non-segregation (the main being the older teaching the younger, thus gaining confidence themselves and understanding the concepts better themselves).

Yesterday I went to my first homeschool moms meeting, which was to discuss what our group is going to do this year. This was my first meeting, so I only knew 2/4 of the moms there, and even them, not very well. But, we went, hoping to learn and be more involved with our local homeschooling group. They meet 2 times a month, and work on various projects of community outreach, science, history, character traits, etc.

While us 5 moms were discussing what we plan to do this year (well, I more listened as I didn't know what they have done in the past, nor what the goals of the other parents are), I was again encouraged by the children. There were 19 kids there (between the ages of 6 months up to 17 years) in a 1400 sq. ft. house and they all got along fine and there was not one squabble or child left out. The girls were playing in the bedroom the whole time (the two teenagers in their own room) and the boys were outside exploring. They also mingled with each other over the fooseball and pool tables while on their way here and there. In my experience, this does not happen with "schooled" kids. Whenever my kids play with "schooled" kids, someone gets left out and someone isn't wanted. Whether it be the sister with all boys, or the baby, it seems to be present. Not yesterday. The girls actually came and got baby sister from their mom so that they could pass her around and "play" with her.

There was no fighting in the whole afternoon, and those kids that didn't know anyone were introduced, and the hosts made the guests (my kids, as well as others) feel welcome. There was no whining, pouting or any other such behavior which usually comes with mass groups of kids together. Now, I'm not saying that this doesn't happen elsewhere, but I guess it just reinforces how when parents take the time to teach their kids proper etiquette and train them accordingly...you notice the difference right away. With these kids, you could tell that all their parents take the time each day to love, teach, and guide them in a way that will benefit them their whole life through.

More Charlotte Mason

In further thought about the Charlotte Mason style, I am going to head more in that direction. Although it has always intrigued me, I found it too vague for a new home schooler. Too much left on my shoulders. But, I like the results much better than ordinary text book/work book learning. That is boring (what we've been doing), whereas Charlotte Mason style is interesting. Kids don't even know they are learning, they are just enjoying doing. Below is one mom's criteria for her kindergartner. It not only looks more our speed for our lifestyle, but is actually doable. Lots of "education" these days is just ticking skills off a checklist. I don't want that. I want skills that will actually be useful in their life ahead, as well as their life right now. To me, Charlotte Mason does that.

Year 0 expectations (kindergarten)

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundaries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

(this mom is from Canada, thus the French influence. I'd likely work on Spanish, as it would be more useful where we live)

I am also not one of those super-creative crafty moms (or teachers), so this gives me a way of opening the world through worthwhile projects rather than time filling use-less crafts. Using objects from nature to learn more about them, going to places where life is different and learning there as well.

I do also want to clarify. We are NOT just doing public/private school at home. What we do, should not even be compared to what those children are learning. My children won't have grade levels, won't have the same type of evaluations, nor am I dealing with discipline issues all day like a real teacher does (one teacher friend of mine says last year she spent her time doing 90% organizing, discipline, solving kids problems, and only 10% actual teaching). We also have a 1:1 teacher to student ratio, so we will be able to move along alot faster if we wish or alot slower if we're struggling with an item. So, that means my child may be grade 4 in spelling, grade 1 in math, grade 2 in reading and so on. They will not be in one specific grade level at all times. We also don't need to fill 6 hours a day before we're able to send the children home, so 'busy-work' is also not going to be present in our home school. We will mostly be learning by living.

Charlotte Mason style

I have a book called "A Charlotte Mason Companion" by Karen Andreola, which I have been endeavoring to read for the past year or so. It's a wealth of information on the Charlotte Mason style of learning, and because it takes focus to read, I usually end up reading something "lighter". But, at the reminding of a friend who is doing a book study on it, I've picked it up again. If you don't know who Charlotte Mason is, you can find out more on the website Ambleside (http://www.amblesideonline.org/). She is a brilliant 19th century educator from England that had a whole new approach to teaching children. She started her own schools, and had amazing results. Sadly, most schools today are totally ignorant of her observations of children, and thus don't benefit from her expertise.

There are many different quotes I'd like to share, but I'll just give you the ones I read today. The author is speaking in terms of getting children interested in learning and how you go about that. She said that if testing is the only reason for learning something, it will be learned and soon forgotten. But, if a relationship is formed in the learning process, the student will remember the information indefinitely. To quote, "Charlotte urges us to establish a relationship with Knowledge. A relationship with Knowledge is like a friendship. When you are introduced to someone, you are courteous and friendly, but you don't have a meaningful relationship. To have one often requires patience and perseverance. Unfortunately, many lessons - are only introductory. "It's nice to meet you" we say, nodding to Knowledge. But we need to go about after the introductions are made and work toward establishing a relationship if we are really going to "know". Firsthand experience is best, but if that is not available nor convenient, then books are the next best thing. "Our children may not be able to hold a conversation with a deep sea diver, a geologist, or a person from ancient times, but they can come to know any of these people through the books they have written. A single author does a wonderful job of helping form relations. How do I develop the art of standing aside to let my children develop relations with things, be they paintings, bees, bears or biographies? Through the use of narration and real books, observation and experience.
"My eldest daughter, Sophia, is too young to have experienced World War II (firsthand knowledge), but recently she has gotten to know someone who did - Corrie ten Boom. Corrie shared her experiences with Sophia in her book, The Hiding Place. Our history textbook may make its introductions, its outlines, its overviews, to a time in history. But it can never do what Corrie can do (and what all real books do): help form a relation."

The other quote from the same page is: "Charlotte said, "let them learn from first-hand sources of information - really good books, the best going, on the subject they are engaged upon. Let them get at the books themselves, and do not let them be flooded with (diluted talk from) the lips of their teacher. The teacher's business is to indicate, stimulate, direct and constrain to the acquirement of knowledge. The less the parents and teachers 'talk-in' and expound their rations of knowledge and thought to the children they are educating, the better for the children...Children must be allowed to ruminate (chew over, as in a cow chewing cud), must be left alone with their own thoughts."

I'd love to write more about this way of learning, but will leave it there today. Kids woke up, and we must get on with our day!

Month 1

Well, I had intended to write more each month, but it appears that month 1 has disappeared, and I haven't written at all. But, there's been not too much exciting to report, which I suppose is a good thing. The kids are enjoying school time each day, and learning is taking place. They seem to learn the most from the white board in the dining room, where they can review whatever I have up there (Bible memory verse, addition memorization, new words to learn, etc) while they are eating.

I am however, going to do less book work. In my reading about homeschooling, children under 8 should not do more than 20 minutes per day of "close work", as their eyes cannot handle more than that. I've noticed that Luke has been squinting and blinking alot lately, so am thinking we need to keep on the learning, but do so in a more distant/verbal/hands on manner. This happened before when he used his Doodle Pad too much and then I noticed the same thing. After laying off for a while (actually I had to ban it!), his eyes were fine again. We really only do 10-15 minutes of "book work", but obviously that is too much for his eyes right now. The boys do alot of playing cars & trains, which also is close up, so persuading them to do more active activities will have to be in the agenda.













So, that's all I can think of for now. We try to do our school time first thing in the morning (even before breakfast), when concentration is at it's best. The focus dwindles as the day progresses, so I've already noticed what works and doesn't work. Sometimes we work on stuff in the afternoon if the morning stuff took longer than anticipated, but that is rare. We also have been watching some Discovery science videos that are fascinating, as well as another trip to the zoo to see what we could learn about there.

First Day

Today was our first day of actual "school". We started off with an early wakeup call for L, but J was the first one up. Thankfully little sister decided to sleep a bit later, so I could have a few minutes to sort my thoughts without her distractions (digging, climbing, whining...the like). We lost our reading book to start things off (it had been lost for about a week, and I have been keeping my eye open for it). We are using the Sonlight curriculum for learning to read, as my cousin kindly gave me her old one. It's a first grade curriculum, and the other material is too advanced for L, so we're just using the reading and Bible out of it.

We then proceeded to math, which is addition at this point. We found a Spider-Man learning coloring book at the Dollar Store the other day, so L wanted to use that. We also have a variety of other things which I hope to use, as math gets rather boring, and lots of drills are necessary for memorization.

After that we did a few minutes of penmanship, since L is rather sloppy at his writing. I've never taught him proper pencil placement, so doing that improved the quality greatly. We then practiced his Bible verse a few times (with little brother J helping) and called it a day. Later in the day I found the missing reading book under a rug I was vacuuming under, so we did our reading lesson then.

We also hung a white board up in the dining room, to help recall whatever we happen to be learning. This week it has the -at words, which is lesson 1 in the reading book. Also the Bible verse. We also made a days-of-the-week train to hang on the wall, so they can keep better track of what day it is. L also wanted to read out of his "science question and answer" book from Grandma, so we did that as well as a variety of other books. The one from Grandma has provided much information, as well as many more questions as it just skims the surface on many different topics. We then look up more in the encyclopedias (or YouTube) for more information.

Although I have my goals set out in advance for what I want to teach this year, I'm just recording day by day what we actually do. Hopefully this will prove sufficient, to see whether we're staying on track or not. I don't want something too set in stone so that we can't budge, as I don't see any sense in spending time on things the kids already know, and we may need more time for areas of interest or areas where they're weak. Little brother wants to be right in on the action, so he's has his own learning colouring books that he's been using too. The kids uncle and aunt gave them a kid sized table for Christmas, so the boys thought that would be great for doing their work. They sat there happily for the duration (maybe 1/2 hour). Then it was breakfast, chores and playing for the rest of the day~

So, first day: success!

For the Love of Reading

One of my favorite things to do with our kids is to read to them. We read pretty much every morning before breakfast while we're waking up. We read in the afternoon if we get a chance while baby is sleeping. We read again at bedtime with Daddy. We read a variety of books, from baby board books for little girl (first, until she loses interest). Then we move onto little kid easy books (for J, who is 3) like Little Golden Books. We then read more chapter type books, which lately have been the original Winnie the Pooh books. I don't play well with my kids (maybe because they always want me to zoom cars or chug trains around and to me that is extremely mundane), so reading is my way of opening their world. I do enjoy playing Legos or Lincoln Logs with them, or Hide and Go Seek and such games, but just sitting there on the floor playing gets me more thinking of what I should be doing instead of staying tuned into the toys at hand "what should I make for supper?" "I should get the kitchen counter cleaned off before supper" "0h, this carpet needs vacuuming"...

So, reading seems the best solution, in my opinion, to spending time with my kids, encouraging creative thought, as well as the cuddle time they get when they are sitting on my lap or beside me. Our TV is almost out of a job, since we rarely even can find time to turn it on. But, I am thankful to have it, since we do need it now and then to keep the kids occupied if there is a sick baby, or am sick myself, or for a special treat. I find that the more my kids watch it though, the more disobedient they become. Somehow they think that they own the world, if they've been given TV time.

Our society has lost it's love for the English language, the proper use of it, so that we can't even read or comprehend at adult level (thus the problem even understanding much of the Bible, which is extremely sad). So, let's do our kids a favor, and focus on bringing up the language standard (instead of dumbing down the books), in the cheapest and easiest way possible- by reading daily to our kids. Keep on reading to them even once they learn to read on their own. Read books that stimulate their thoughts, develop their imaginations, develop character by learning what other children did in difficult situations (trusted in God), and improve their comprehension (by reading books that are above their reading level), not just silly time wasting books that really don't teach anything.

Another article I recently read said that we should follow the Biblical standard when choosing books to read to our children (and ourselves). (Philippians 4:8) Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. I do believe there is much healthy fiction that teaches character, strength, trust in God, etc., so focusing our book choices on those things would be beneficial in so many ways, rather than goofy books that don't teach much at all, and then make reading the Bible boring to children (thus all the goofy Bible stories these days, trying to hold the kids interest). The Bible stories in themselves are amazing, there is no need to "spice them up" by adding cartoon characters or dramatic additions!

This is one of my favorite blogs overall, but this is a wonderful article stating the importance of reading to our children, in so many ways. Check out this article. Awesome!

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2010/06/read-aloud-the-best-education.html

The Ingredients of a Sound Cirriculum

The latest book I'm reading is called Home Style Teaching by Raymond and Dorothy Moore. It has lots of gems in it to quote, but I'll just put the one that I read today. This book is focused on teachers in schools, as well as parents at home, and sums up what things are most important in teaching children in various settings. To quote from the curriculum chapter: (I will italicize what I think is most important)

"A common mistake made by some educators is to think of the curriculum only in terms of the basic skills, liberal arts and sciences, and similar so-called academic studies. But this would be like trying to bake a loaf of well-risen bread without yeast. Perhaps the most important ingredients of our curriculum should be those factors that make up sound character- integrity, dependability, industry, initiative, order and concern for others more than self. Of what use is a student brilliant in sciences or a genius in mathematics if he has not learned to practice the Golden Rule? ....

"Dr. Florence Stratemeyer of Columbia University, at the time considered the nation's leading curriculum authority, once said:
"The education that consists in the training of memory only and which tends to discourage self direction and independent thought has a moral bearing which is too little appreciated. The student tends to look to his peers instead of to sound behavioral standards. As this student sacrifices the power to reason and to judge for himself, he becomes incapable of discriminating between truth and error, and falls easy prey to deception. It is a fact widely ignored, though never without danger, that error rarely appears for what it really is."

"It is crucial in the development of the curriculum that both the teacher and the student have some idea why each is doing what he is doing. There must be some absolutes, lest the teacher or student be like waves which are driven and tossed by the wind. Most of us are easily led to follow tradition and customs. We adults, too, have become afflicted with the social cancer of peer dependency."

"For curriculum goes far beyond the 3 R's, ABC's and normal requirements for health and safety; it must center on the character education of the child. When this takes place, all the conventional items follow...Books are less important than practical and manual work, and service to others in the home, community and nation. No curriculum builds self-worth without this balance, nor does it bring fulfillment so complete."

Old Time Stuff

The other day I was looking for an empty photo album to put some new pictures in, and came across my old report cards from school. I looked through all 12 grades, and found that the same things held true for all my classes pretty much. Entirely mediocre grades, (60-70% averages) and comments like "Rachel would do better if she would apply herself" "Rachel needs to focus more, she could do much better" or "Rachel's lack of neatness makes her grades lower, if she took more time, she could do much better". I wondered how much of that is just my personality, since I'm a 'lick and a promise' kind of gal, and how much was just plain disinterest in school in general. Or how much was distraction from the other kids acting up in class? Or how much was my attitude "why try? I'm never going to get to the top, no matter what I do?"

The one exception was 4th grade. I did awesome. My marks were in the 85-90% range (excelling in math especially, which was my weak point in every other grade) and the comments were glowing all through. I couldn't put a finger on what it might have been, so I called my Mom, to see if she could recall. She didn't hesitate, she said, "You had Mrs. White for a teacher. That's why. Mrs. White found the good in every child, and brought it out. You weren't a number, she treated you like you were her own child." Even in our small little school where I graduated with 1/2 of the 34 kids I started 1st grade with, it was important. The funny thing is, I remember a lot from 4th grade, more than the others. I remember learning the solar system, and about the ocean ecosystem, I remember her reading to us every lunch hour (books like "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe).

My mom also told me that she (Mom) disliked taking us to the awards nights, because it was always the same kids that won them every year, and so many of the other kids didn't get recognized for anything because they didn't get good grades. And how little grades have to do with the success of a person. I know that the lack of good grades did damage many a kids confidence though. I never felt worth anything in school until 8th grade when I learned to ski. I remember getting an inner confidence (along with my best friend Angela) while we taught ourselves to ski. The exhilaration of no one keeping track, no one making fun of our mistakes, and challenging ourselves highly beyond our skill levels allowed (picture two 14 year old girls flying down the hills out of control on skis!). But, we were fearless and we became excellent skiers because of it.

I guess what I took out of the whole deal was how important it is that kids feel important. One book I recently read said, "make sure every child has a success every day, even if you have to arrange to make it happen." How wonderful is that for a child. How much we all rely on verbal reassurance and praise (so much more so than material). As I'm typing here, my dear husband just thanked me for supporting him in his newest endeavor (taking a motorcycle safety course so that he can pursue getting a motorcycle). He told me how my support encouraged him to do it, and he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't. I feel the same way about the cake decorating course that I took last month. I felt so good going, when I knew he was cheering me on. How much more is it important for our children to feel they are worth our time (not just the 'smart' kids, or the 'athletic' kids as I recall happening so much in my school days) I guess that is why I believe it's much easier to get to know a child's strengths and weakness' if the teacher/student ratio is as low as possible. Because most often, children don't even know themselves, unless someone points it out.

Home Grown Kids

This book is the first I read, before we had ever intended to home school. It was given to me in a stack of books, and was very thorough, to show parents (in a very practical sense) how to raise up "Home Grown Kids" (as they call them). It lists nutrition, sleep habits, what chores kids can do at each age level, etc. Although the book is 25 years old, most of the information is still very valid.

Although this book is not focused on homeschooling, it's main focus is more parenting. How to encourage your children to learn, to explore, to mature in healthy ways. I've lent this book out many times, and it's currently lent out, so I can't give any actual quotes. The Moore's are the parents in the whole home education movement, and were educators in the public system for years before deciding to venture off in an uncharted direction (at that time). I'm currently reading another of their books, so will review it when I get done.

http://www.home-grown-kids.com/

Very much worth any parents time to read, to realize where our focus' should be, and how to encourage whole family involvement in training up Godly men and women. Not to be influenced by the "ways of the world", but more concerned about what God thinks of our lives.

Starting Point

I decided on the name of this blog, to sum up what our goal is in teaching our children at home. It is taken from Ephesians 6:4 which states that parents should "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

To define:
NUR'TURE, n.

1. That which nourishes; food; diet.

2. That which promotes growth; education; instruction.

NUR'TURE, v.t.

1. To feed; to nourish.

2. To educate; to bring or train up.

ADMONI'TION, n. Gentle reproof; counseling against a fault; instruction in duties; caution; direction.
Titus 3: 1,2 states: "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men."

It is our prayer that our children would be raised up to be Godly men and women, and that despite our failures and shortcomings, God's will would be done, and His name glorified. The purpose of this blog is many fold. The reasons I can think of right now are:
-to keep a journal of our successes and failures
-to keep track of progress (to look back on for future children)
-home base for information we learn along the way (articles of interest, quotes and advice from veteran homeschoolers, book reviews)
-to encourage others who may be on this same journey
-to educate those who may not know much about home education (why we do it, how we do it, where we do it, etc)

To start with, I want to list the reasons we have chosen this path. It started with one petty reason, and has now grown to quite a list. So, here goes:

-I didn't want them to ride the bus for hours each day (and I don't care to drive my kids to and from school either!) I had spent 3 hours each day, starting at 7:30 and getting home at 5:00, on the bus for 11 years of my school days. In my final year, they changed the route, so we had only 20 minutes. That time on the bus was wasted time each day in which I learned very little beneficial information. It was mostly an unsupervised free-for-all of 12 grades up to no good. So that was what started the quest. The other reasons have come later, once we started looking into the option.
-I like my kids. I like them around. I don't want them with someone else all day. They make me happy. I like being their mom. I was almost 30 when I had my first baby. I had many years of "me" time. I don't need that anymore. I want my kids with me for as long as I can. A home schooled child gets 4 more years of time with their parents. My kids brighten my day, so why would I want to send them off?
-"More is caught than taught". We've all heard the saying. So who would their influences be in school? Likely the 20+ other untrained kids, rather than the 1 teacher. I don't want to have to undo what their peers teach them. Kids become who they spend the most time with. We want that to be Greg and I (and other good examples of our choosing).
-I was a lost-in-the-shuffle kid. Not smart enough for recognition, not dumb enough for recognition, not good in anything visible for recognition. I don't recall ever (in my school years) feeling special or standing out for anything. I know my kids (along with the majority of kids) would end up in this category too. I want them to shine in their God given talents.
-In a class of 25, an average child gets 7 minutes of individual attention from the teacher per day. I can provide much more than that at home. You just can't beat the "teacher to kid" ratio.
-Studies also show that 89% of public schooled kids will renounce their faith by their freshman year of college. Why? Because peer influence is much more important than parental influence because of time spent. For no other reason than time spent. I don't care to take that risk.
-Kids get to learn at their own pace. No one-size-fits-all education. If they know a concept, move on. If they don't, we can work on it longer.
-I love field trips. I hope we can go on them weekly, at least monthly. And off season vacations? Yes. Count me in.
-I want the challenge of relearning what I've forgotten, and seeing those light bulbs come on in their head when a concept is grasped. I love being the one who my kids look up to (and their dad) to learn new things. It's so gratifying for us, to be learning along with them.
-I am impressed with pretty much every home schooled kid I've met. They are the most self-confident, knowledge seeking, polite, etc. kids you will find. That is not to say that those kids can't be found elsewhere, but I've been really impressed with what I've seen.
-The final reason: We think it is the best option for educating our children at this point after researching all our options.

I'll probably think of more things later, but there's a start. I hope to update on here weekly, but will have to see what ends up unfolding. For kindergarten, we won't be too intense, but it'll be good to start get going on a routine, and seeing where we end up. At this point, I have no idea what to expect, but am excited to find out!! I know this will be challenging, in many ways, but I firmly believe that the rewards will be worth it in the end.