As a homeschooling mom, I think a lot about education and how kids learn and what's important to learn and what's the best way to ensure that kids learn and many, many other things. Oddly enough, I never thought that I would ever be a homeschooling mom. It was not something that I wanted to do AT ALL. But life happened, things changed, Eli had boys kissing her in kindergarten while the teachers looked on and smiled....and here we are three years later.
When we first decided to homeschooling, I asked advice from a few of my veteran homeschooling friends. They sent really long emails that were very helpful. My friend Mrs.Green, with whom I used to sing "Love shack, baby, love shack" very loudly on the way back to college from somewhere, recommended a book to me.."100 Top picks for Homeschool Curriculum". This book started out by having you identify your educational priorities and style preferences. It made me think a lot.
Turns out my biggest priority is to instill a love of learning in my kids. I want them to enjoy learning. As for style preferences, I felt drawn to Charlotte Mason and still do. I love the idea of whole books. I love the emphasis on art and music and nature. I find however that following a strict CM curriculum is pretty intense with three kids. I'm not an intense person. I'm a bit spontaneous and like to have the freedom to play fake school all day or walk on the beach on a rainy day if the whimsy strikes us . So we have settled into a sort of relaxed/book focused education.
Even though I love what we do and how we do it, there are times when I freak out. Usually it's during a conversation with someone about the advanced classes they are taking in order to graduate early so they can start college at 12 and have a Phd by 14 and start working in their $500,000 a year salary job. I come away from these conversations feeling very inadequate and have to fight the temptation to require of my children eight hours of research paper writing the next day. Then I argue with myself for the next few days and ask questions of myself. What's really important in life? Is having a well paying job the goal? Do I even remember half of the things I learned in college? Do you have to go to college to be "successful"? Who writes in cursive anymore anyway?
I would love to hear from you. How do your kids learn? How do you learn? What does school look like for you and your family? What are your educational priorities and why??
Hey, Teresa! (Wait, is it Teresa or Theresa? Now I'm not sure...) I've been homeschooling our three from the beginning, and my oldest is 16 now, so it's been awhile. The way school looks over here shifts and changes with time and need. When my oldest, Zach, was little (k-2nd) I used Sonlight, because I loved that literature-based approach. Then I started adding more kids to the mix, and to be honest I got kinda burned out on reading aloud, so I switched to a textbook approach. I've been doing that ever since. I do change up the way the information is delivered, though. Sometimes we use regular textbooks, sometimes they're on DVD-rom, sometimes we use entire classes on DVD/instant streaming, and sometimes we still use "living" books.
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Oh my goodness! I didn't even *know* you had a blog, Tree. I just happened to see this on FB tonight (when I should really be in bed, but I just finished making the menu for the youth retreat this weekend). Lo and behold, I'm *in* the blog.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo...Charlotte Mason *can* be pretty involved. We've tried a few different things, but we've switched back to Sonlight this year. We don't do every little thing in there though. The main reason we switched back is because I already owned Core 1 for Lydia, and someone loaned me Core 6 for Emma & Jeffrey.
It sounds like you've found a great balance. If you're all learning and loving life (for the most part anyway), you've got to be doing a lot of things right. = )
"Love Shack"...how embarrassing.... ; )
I guess my only goals in homeschooling Hannah is to keep her up to speed with the education standards for her age. Kids want to learn it's just finding the best way for each individual kid that can be rough and frustrating at times. She has such a bright mind and I don't want to waste it while she is young just because I know she might have more fun playing and watching TV all day.
ReplyDeleteEventually I do want to teach Hannah cursive just because when she gets older and applies for jobs or has to hand write an important paper I want her to have the best possible and most professional hand writing at her disposal should she need or choose to use it. I need to equip her regardless of my personal preferences and let her decide what she will use.
~Heather~
I got comments!!! It's so much fun. Thanks for taking the time to do it.
ReplyDeleteWow, Sue 16 years. That's a long time. You must be very good at it by now! I think that we will be like you and as the kids get older change the way we do things. I like the way you do fun projects with your kids. That puppet show sounds awesome!
We are loosely doing Sonlight this year too Jenny. Actually Candace is the one who told me we should try it because she knows we love to read. Oh, by the way, we have a retreat this weekend too!
Heather, I agree kids really want to learn and if their happy doing it that's great. I'm not sure we should worry so much about standards for ages though. Kids are very different and have different bents and talents and interests. To expect them all to develop and learn at the same rate doesn't make much sense to me. Our desire to keep them all on the same level can sap the fun out of learning for some of them and make learning something to avoid. It sounds like Hannah loves it all though and is doing great!
I commented on some of your older posts too, Tree. It's nice catching up! I've got a blog too, though I only post a few times per month. It's better than nothin', I s'pose. = )
ReplyDeleteI never saw those comments.....but I am just now learning about all of this computer blog stuff. So maybe I just missed it. It is fun to catch up, and I've been reading your blog lately too. We should figure out how to do a camp visitation or something, and you guys spend time here then we'll spend time there.
ReplyDeleteSounds great. We'll come there some January. How 'bout that? = )
ReplyDeleteWe're going to Bethesda this weekend for their Missions Conference. The last time I saw you was over there, I think. I wish you guys were going to be there, but it'll sure be nice to see the Molinas. (They use Sonlight too!)
The Molinas are awesome. We had a lot of fun with them the last time we made the church rounds together. Their kids are huge now.And yes, that was the last time we got to hang out. As I recall someone was puking. Was it one of yours or one of mine??
ReplyDeleteHmmmm... I don't think it was one of mine.
ReplyDeleteHi Tree. My kids are each entirely different in nearly every way they approach things. Creating that love for learning is soooo helpful. What caught me was the story about the child graduating early and getting that high paying job. We used to get a letter every Christmas from a family we hardly knew and it went on and on about all of their achievements. It always cracked me up and made me wonder why we can’t just be ordinary families. You know, ‘my son is struggling through history class this year’ and ‘my daughter gets in trouble at least once a week for talking too much during class’ … but they love school. Thanks for blogging, I don’t get on-line to read blogs too often and have been catching up on yours. It’s always a treat.
ReplyDeleteHey Tracy! It's so good to hear from you. I went and looked at your blog. Your kids are huge!! Time flies by so fast.....when was the last time we saw you all?? I can't remember. Is it your daughter that gets in trouble for talking?? I used to get a big capitol U for UNSATISFACTORY in the controls talking category every time a report card came out!
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