Homeschooling On The Weekend

I always have to remind myself when I become discouraged about homeschooling. I don't do these neat projects with my kids. We don't dress up as revolutionary war heroes or pretend to be Thomas Edison. Sometimes we'll color in and label a map about a book we've been reading, but we don't study everything about that place. We don't make flags to document our travels. We do no cooking representing the Ancient Roman civilization. We don't make circuit boards or do lots of hands on science experimenting.

But, my kids love learning. They love writing stories. They love Math. They love learning new vocabulary. They love telling me about the weather. They love finding out that mice are born naked and are mammals just like us and that they nurse their young. They love playing their violin or playing around on the piano. They love playing with blocks and putting the blocks in patterns. They love keeping score on board games. They love art. They love learning about nature by being out there with it or on the farm. My kids love being read to. They love to read the Bible. They love to memorize poems.

AND...it doesn't stop just because it's the weekend. When we have down time. My kids might ask for a video. But, if I say no, or when the video is done, they show a love of learning and keep writing, doing math, asking me about how things work, asking me how to spell such and such and what does this word mean.

My kids are great kids, despite all of my shortcomings. And homeschooling works. I need to remember that.

Habit Training

Charlotte Mason recommends working on one habit at a time, then just keeping watch, which she says is easy, over the habits you have already formed. She says (very loosely paraphrased of course) a mother would do better to work at only a handful or two worth of habits in her children in the course of their childhood, than to be scattered and try and work on everything all the time.

I hope I can work on two habits in myself at a time, because I already really desire to work on the habit of fitness. I didn't get completely in my groove yet. But I did two major walks last week (and it was a crazy week with my husband patching a good deal of the siding on our house).

The other habit I want to work on is gentleness. When I correct I tend to scold. I catch myself sometimes. But, I don't catch myself every time. My parents really didn't correct at all. My dad did sometimes. If he did he scolded. My sister was a type of authority figure in my childhood, and she scolded constantly, as you can imagine (when children are left mainly to themselves). But, I spent summers with my Grandparents down in Texas for many the summer. Good memories. My Grandparents really loved me with a real sacrificial love. And, my Grandmother would correct me. And, I love her for that. She did so because she cared. Yet, she scolded. A gentle answer turns away wrath. My oldest has a tendency to talk back to me (I didn't....that's not important because...) and then I have to correct her for this. She is very sweet, actually. She doesn't "talk back" as you see many children in the world "talk back"...she isn't sassy. Yet, nonetheless, she argues with my correction. And, I have to consistently correct her for that. Yet, I've also set her up to argue with me...by scolding I am incurring her wrath.

I Peter 3:4 says

"Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."

Titus 2:4,5 says

"Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

Perhaps, I, as a woman, have been especially given instructions like these because of the special role I play in raising and training my children. I pray that God will help me change the habit of scolding and continue to keep this habit up as time goes by.

Questions And Answers

Questions

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.

 

Answers

Hi!

Question 1:

Yes, I believe that you can train your daughters when your example isn't perfect. My dh doesn't do things the same as me either. Things that I think are important as far as habits, he doesn't, so we're in the same boat, but I try to teach my girls good habits regardless. I read that it takes about 21 days to form a habit and even longer to break one. We don't line up our shoes, but I have a huge container that I got at Walmart at Christmas and we just throw our shoes in there. When it's full, mainly of the girls' shoes, they are told to come get them and take them to their rooms. If you want to train your daughters to line the shoes up, then every single time they forget have them come and line them up immediately. Soon, they will just do it on their own.

Question 2:

We do CM, but I don't ask for either narration. We have more discussions instead. I'll ask what can you tell me about a certain animal that we are reading about and we go from there. I guess that would be considered a narration. Have you thought about doing a narration cube? It usually has things on it like: tell me your favorite part of the story, favorite character, etc. You could have her roll the dice and whatever it lands on, is what she tells back. I have also thought about doing this with my girls. If she still has trouble, then I would have her do the written narrations. It sounds like she is doing wonderful with those anyway. Those are usually the hardest of all. I wouldn't press her to tears though. I think if you make it fun with the cube, then she might not freeze up so much. It could be that she just isn't sure how to form her thoughts so fast to tell you. When she can write them down, she has time to think about what she wants to say.

Hope this helps,

Penny


 

On number one. Of course, everybody has this issue. (Both moms and dads…) So this is how I deal with it. I tell my husband (NOT in front of the kids) that we are working to develop such and such habit in the kids. He always thinks it's a good idea, even if it's not his habit. (If he looks at me and says I wouldn't waste my time, I drop that one.) Then after that we all hold each other accountable while we're working on a habit, so the kids end up making the best police. They really love to point out where mom or dad slipped up. I don't point out when my husband slips up on the habit we're working on, I leave that job for the kids.

Question 2. My oldest doesn't like to narrate either. So if she freezes, I give her some crutches to get her going. For example: What was the name of the main character? What did he/she do that was good/bad? Why? If it's Bible, there is usually some characteristic either negative or positive being displayed in the story, so I ask her what it is, if she has that characteristic. I just start out with a narrow question and then start broadening them. Usually it gets her going. Not always, but usually.

Beauty & The Beast Narration & Hummingbirds

Beauty And The Beast Narration



I remember reading Beauty And The Beast as a child, and being sorely disappointed when the popular Beauty And The Beast movie came out. The two stories are nothing alike. My girls and I read the original Beauty and the Beast yesterday and they loved it. I had them read two pages each and I read the rest.



The reading of the original is pretty challenging, but they were so curious about the story that I think they really enjoyed it. I would stop them periodically in the reading and ask them what a phrase or a word meant.



Another thing that happened spontaneously with the reading that the girls (the 6 and 9 year old) really seemed to enjoy, was an acting exercise. I asked the girls what a word meant (an emotion) and asked them to act it out. The girls acted shy and silly, but I could tell they enjoyed it. I was asked by the nine year old if we could do this every day. I knew I stumbled upon some effective learning tool. Later, I had them draw their own Beauty And The Beast characters.



Broccoli & Hummingbirds



We have been having quite the cold snap. We planted Broccoli starts a couple of weeks back, knowing they are supposed to be cold weather tolerant, as long as there wasn't a deep freeze. Then, for most of a week, we had snow. You can see my picture below of snow on March 29. We live a little higher than town at 600 feet, but usually we are free and clear of any such weather by this time of year. Last night we had a deep freeze, I'm afraid, as it dipped to 24 degrees F. I hope the Broccoli survived.



The Hummingbirds seemed extra hungry because of the cold, as well. We hadn't hung up our feeders yet this year and usually hang them up before now. This morning, a cute little hummingbird flew up to my window and looked inside. He seemed to be looking all over. Then he flew to the other side of the house and looked in our front door. I figured I better get the feeders up. And, right away he made his way to the feeders.



Here is a pic: