As I review my goals for Andrew, both academic and otherwise I am reminded again that we should not do something just because it is on a list. Thankfully in Michigan we are not required to have homeschoolers take standardized testing. Any teacher will tell you that the test is not about learning. One time when I was standing outside Andrew's preschool classroom and I overheard a fifth grade teacher telling her class, "When they say THIS on the test, they don't really mean what they are saying. It is a trick and they are really saying THAT." There is something basically wrong with that statement.
So the next reason kids learn is to generate ideas. Lessons should generate ideas that can be taken to the next level. Charlotte says it better:
The dictionary isn't quite accurate in its definition of an idea. An idea is more than a mental image. It is more like a spiritual seed with living energy--it has power to grow and produce after its own kind. It is the very nature of ideas to grow and propogate. It has the same mysterious properties of plant seeds. If an idea is planted in a child's mind, it will secrete its own food, grow, and bear the fruit of many more similar ideas.
This isn't the best example but Andrew has developed his video game habit into a desire to design new ones! This has taken his creativity, fine motor and artistic abilities to new levels. His game, thus far, has three volumes with 10 levels in each volume. That's thirty pieces of paper with detailed information on how the game should run. I have uploaded three of the more complicated ones here just as an example but Andrew wants me to send them all to HubbaBubba where they have great online, waste your time away, video games.
At first glance I understand that video games ARE a waste of time; especially the ones with no educational value. But we all twaddle a bit of our time away and we all need diversions. If you take your wasted time and turn it into in interest which develops your imagination then I say that is time well spent.
Rest assured we spend plenty of time on the academic subjects but I am reminded by this current creative endeavor that if there is no interest, it may not 'take.' I'll leave you with this quote from the Charlotte Mason summary relating to interest and ideas. My prayer is that God will direct me in finding those few ideas that best fit with Andrew so that I will not twaddle our time away on things that are not necessary for God's future plans for Andrew.
But what does this theory of dominant ideas have to do with education? This: give a child one single valuable idea, and you've done more for his education than if you tried to stuff a barrel full of information into his mind. Any child who grows up with a few dominant ideas in his mind has his own self-education taken care of and his career marked out.
Continuing on from yesterday; one has to consider WHY children learn before you outline WHAT you will teach. As outlined here, reason number one is that children learn so that they can grow. The mind needs to be exercised. Each activity, history, math, writing do not exist on their own. The brain, although it has various parts, we now know must work together to work most efficiently. Brain Gym is all the rage even within schools and while this cross brain training is good, we must look at how various SUBJECTS can tie in together.
On the other hand, specialists are apt to attach too much importance on separate mental 'faculties.' We see books about education that include elaborately planned programs where individual lessons are supposed to develop perspective, or imagination, or judgment. This idea of 'faculties' comes from a false analogy that likens the mind to the body. This concept of the mind as a collection of separate entities is about to become as obsolete as the idea of phrenology, where reading bumps on the head is supposed to provide information about the person. It appears now that the mind is one unified entity that can't be divided, although it can do different things. This kind of contriving to artificially sort and separate knowledge so the child can digest it is unnecessary. A healthy child's mind can direct itself and apply itself to do whatever it needs to in order to assimilate whatever knowledge is presented. Almost any subject that our common sense tells us is good for children will exercise various powers of the mind at the same time, if it's presented the right way.
The above quote is from the CM summary and says exactly that, but I wonder why we drill and (s)kill when providing a more 'natural' learning environment might be a better answer. It is 'interesting' that Andrew has trouble with 34+93; however, if it is presented as "Billy received 34 candies and Brigitte received 93. How many did they get all together?" he can get the answer right away. Most kids cringe at story problems but Andrew loves them- it makes math real! I loved reading online today how a friend is decorating for the Chinese New Year. I just betcha she's working in some learning there! I myself am considering the "Alton Brown" curriculum using his various FoodTV programs!
And just to get back to Biblical roots, this falls nicely in line with 1 Corinthians 12. You can read it in it's entirety here but one excerpt follows:
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
We all help each other out. The same goes with the various subjects. You read when you do math. You may learn a foreign language but unless you use it...it is useless and becomes dead. Science almost always uses math. And I haven't even discussed the arts which can help strengthen every other area. Geometry and art are intertwined. etc.. etc.. Now that I've said all this, I so want to just sit down with Andrew, do our math worksheet, read Ponce DeLeon, have him copy a row of "a's" and be done. I still gravitate to this methodology. But when I venture out of my comfort zone, we are all blessed. Our school is a work in progress
Somewhere in the last few months I lost my mojo. There are specific reasons for this loss of focus, and I will not bore you with those, but my lack of motivation, center of attention, sweet spot, nerve center... (see other synonyms here)...has finally bugged me enough. But no matter, as the Good Book says, God uses everything for good and this is refocusing me. I realized that I have left the roots I found a year or so ago- Charlotte Mason! Well- my primary roots are in the Bible but CM fits that well. I've been going to, and fro.. and taking my eye off the goal. So back we go.
Today I started to re-look at the CM principles and writings. There is so much to read that I picked randomly by topic from this page and found a gem; Lessons as Instruments of Education.
She must ask herself seriously, Why must the children learn at all? What should they learn? How should they learn it? If she takes the time to give serious consideration to these questions, she will then be in a position to direct her children's education. At the same time, she will be surprised to find that three quarters of the time her children have been spending on their lessons has been a waste of time and energy.
I often find myself thinking, we should be studying matter, or bugs, or Abraham Lincoln but why??? When we take the time to think about the WHY then the WHAT and the HOW comes more naturally. I came about this re-focus because I am reading The Organized Homeschooler. It isn't a 'how to' so much as a heart issue book. I am reading a chapter each Sunday and then trying to focus on that the rest of the week. This week was on setting goals- not only for the child / student but also for the parent / teacher. We have been randomly completing our lessons. I have a lesson plan which we follow (more or less) but I don't have a long range dart board set up that includes goals OTHER than academic or development. If you answer the WHY then the curriculum will naturally fall into place...as will all the other activities such as field trips and such. My goal for this week is to outline a general list of goals for Andrew AND for myself.
I have quite a few more 'thoughts' on the information contained in the link above. Instead of putting it all here I am going to try and blog briefly daily this week on how this section of CM ties in with my desires for Andrew's education.
I have had the news on most of the day and will certainly watch all day tomorrow but I wanted to share one of the most promissing thing I noticed about this presidency...and it's historical impact; Andrew has no idea it is historic! And that is a good thing. A year ago when I was pondering studying MLK day I thought...why? Andrew would no more think that someone with a different skin color is 'different / less capable' than he would someone with blue or green eyes! And he is a very visual child. He will shout out things such as...You're fat! and Go back to China (to someone who is Asian) but it is only an observation and not a judgement. So while we were reading a small book about Barack Obama today, Andrew truly thought that African American thought that his dad was from Africa and his mom from American. (I guess I'm a German Englander?? and DH is Scandinavian so what does that make Andrew????)
There are those that say we need to know history so that we don't repeat it....but I think that the fact that Andrew doesn't even KNOW there IS a special histrorical perspective shows promise in itself. So I am sure we will study history in this area at some point- but now we will just get excited about a fresh start.
We started with a new OT for sensory integration. Right off the bat we received a wonderful tip. Andrew needs to fidgit when he works. However hand fidgits often get in the way of school work. She suggested tying a theraband / exercise band to the legs of the chairs and allow his FEET to figit. What do ya know....it really worked!!! It didn't solve ALL our problems and it didnt DO the math for him- but it is a really swell idea! Can't wait to do more with Karen!
