Priceless Mo

First Day of School!

Way back when Hannah was three or four, we started thinking about the question of schooling. We had many friends at church who were homeschooling and their children didn't seem too weird, so we thought about trying it ourselves. Also, my oldest step-brother was homeschooled through high school and he seemed to be a fully functional adult, so perhaps it could work for some. I wasn't keen on the idea of sending my little ones away for so much of their lives and I figured I'd evaluate our choices on a year-by-year basis. If it was working, we'd continue. If not, we'd change directions and try something else.

I began by talking to mothers who were homeschooling, asking about why they were educating that way and also about the curriculum they were using. It became clear that each family was unique in both their education styles and their reasons for teaching at home. As I attended our state convention, I saw many different types of people there, from hippies in tie dye shirts to Mennonites in long dresses. The choices of curriculum were staggering and it was hard to know what to pick.

So it became clear that I was going to make mistakes and some of the methods and books I tried were not a good fit for us. I realized that I was going to waste money on things that didn't work. But through trial and error (most of that with Hannah!) we slowly discovered the learning style that fit with our lifestyle and personalities.

In looking back on what I read and found helpful as I began this journey, here is what ultimately worked best for us:

Cornerstonecurriculum.com

David Quine is the author of Cornerstone Curriculum. His math program, Making Math Meaningful, was one of the first curriculum choices I made. I loved the early grades of this math program and I felt that he taught me how to teach math (even though I had taken "Teaching Math" classes in college). At one homeschooling conference, I was purchasing the next level of math for Hannah and Mr. Quine spent several minutes talking to Hannah and working through a few math problems with her. He is a gentle, kind, generous man and I have appreciated his ministry very much.

In his book Let Us Highly Resolve, Mr. Quine talks about the importance of imparting a Christian worldview to our children and the significance our faith is to every aspect of our lives. The Quines' views have been heavily influenced by Francis Schaeffer and their writings and methods were quite influential in my early years of schooling. I recommend the book Let Us Highly Resolve to you as you form the foundation of your homeschooling philosophy.

Mr. Quine mentions in his book how a passage from the book they were reading at the time (Heidi) communicated an important truth to them about trusting God. And it reminded me that it has usually been through good literature and through watching real people in ordinary life that I have learned the most, not through a textbook or a workbook or sermon (sorry, Dad!). I realized that using real books ("living books") was the way I wanted to educate.

I have also appreciated Diana Waring and her thoughts on homeschooling. We have her history tapes and they are a hoot.

More books that were helpful in the beginning.

This was one of the most important books for me as I waded through the curriculum options. Cathy Duffy gave a great review of the major curriculum at the time and it was very, very helpful.

If I was starting out, I would (1) talk to a lot of homeschoolers about what is working for them (2) attend a homeschool convention and visit the vender hall to see first hand what is available (3) look through Cathy Duffy's Christian Home Educator's Curriculum Manual to research the books that look interesting.

I would say that my personal educational philosophy includes the views of Charlotte Mason (http://simplycharlottemason.com) and "delight directed learning". I found the article below that talks about what delight directed learning is.

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_delight_dir_lrng_bes.htm

by Barb Shelton

Many homeschooling moms attempting to implement Lifestyle of Learning principles into their homes and lives often find themselves confused, frustrated, and full of questions. One such mom said "I am trying to implement more delight-directed learning with my son, but he seems to get nothing done if I don't give him a schedule to follow."

Early on, I had many "mis-impressions" of not only "delight directed learning" but also of "lifestyle of learning." As moms who have been in the traditional school system all our lives, we are very much in need of a fuller understanding of what "delight-directed" means, not to mention what "education" means! This is part of the "renewing of the mind" that needs to take place in each of us if we are to enjoy God's freedom and fullness in truly educating our children.

First, just to clear up the usual mis-impression, "delight-directed" does not mean "flesh-directed." It simply means that as much of the child's education as possible is built on his/her interests and delights rather than on generic text/workbooks and/or a curriculum company’s scope and sequence.

It does not mean you just let your kids indulge in doing anything and everything that delights them! Godly child training is involved, which includes a disciplined – not haphazard – lifestyle. Surprisingly to many, Marilyn's family usually operates within a flexible routine. It is not rigid or packed with artificial methods of learning. Rather, their home and lives are orderly, and they accomplish much. There is beautiful fruit in their lives, and their home is peaceful. Read Develop a Lifestyle Routine for much more insight and practical help on this.

Getting to know your children is also of prime importance in approaching "delight-directed learning," which entails seeing them with new eyes. These "delights" we are talking about are not just toward things – like Legos or dolls or bikes or birds or computers or... whatever. We need to look at our children more closely, beneath the surface, and begin to understand what makes them tick. To do this, we may need new "eyes" and new understanding. What is it about whatever they naturally gravitate toward doing that is really motivating them? What is truly the inner delight of their life? The answers will give you clues as to what God created them for; not just to be a parent and procreate, which can certainly be part of their God-ordained purpose, but there’s more!...

What unique "thing" did God breathe into your child that He wants to bring to life, perhaps unearth from beneath that pile of curriculum, and develop for His purpose – part of His reason for creating them and placing him on earth!? God has "works that He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." What are those unique "works" He prepared for your child? For you? As you begin to understand this more fully – and walk in it yourself as you enter a deeper relationship with God – you will begin seeing everything differently! And it will naturally overflow to your children! New delights in all of you will begin to blossom! New purpose! New interests! Let God take you by the hand and open a whole new world to you and your family. But you have to begin with letting go of the "old."

(I highlighted the part that I felt was important)

Specifically, curriculum that we enjoyed during the early years:

This book is missing its cover because it was so well used. It worked wonderfully for three out of four children.

With Abby, she needed vision therapy to help with reading. For her, this book would be called "Teach Your Child To Read in 25 Easy Lessons, and Then With Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth Thereafter".

We used lots of Usborne books for history and science. They are colorful and interesting. The ones above are for older elementary school (except for Farmyard Tales, which is for young children as a read aloud). I'm sure I purchased these at the vendor hall at the homeschool convention, but I'm sure you could find these in many places as they are a large secular company.

These Usborne science books could be used even with kindergarten.

Various books that we have picked up because of interest. We used these for reading practice as well.

For math, we used Making Math Meaningful for Hannah through the sixth grade. In the past several years, however, we have used the Math-U-See program and all my children have loved it. I have used it with Hope from the beginning and I highly recommend it.

http://www.mathusee.com/

For writing, we have gotten those "learning to write" pads of paper (with the red lines down the center of the lines to help in letter formation) and the child would copy letters, words, etc. that I wrote on the line above. Later, we moved on to easy dictation which taught spelling and punctuation.

I have written about many of our favorite books under the heading of "school" in the sidebar, if you want to see some of the books we enjoy. We have spent A LOT of time reading good books and I would say that has been the foundation of our English program since day 1.

When my children were young, I was focused on the curriculum and whether or not I was teaching all the subjects correctly. As time has gone by, however, although we all love learning and it has become intertwined with how we live the rest of our life, my desire to give my children a good education has lessened in significance and my desire to see their character develop and our family relationships strengthen has grown. A good education has been a nice side effect of home education, but I pray that the life lessons and character formation will be the largest benefit. I pray that their education will help them to become exactly who God has planned for them to be and that they will be able to accomplish the tasks that God has ordained for them to do since before the beginning of time.

http://www.rainbowresource.com

Rainbow Resource- if they don't have it, it probably doesn't exist! (Except for Math-U-See).

Our schoolbooks arrived earlier than I had expected. I order the bulk of our things from The Rainbow Resource Center which offers free shipping for orders over a certain amount. They ship using the slowest turtles in the fleet, however, so imagine my shock when FOUR days after I placed my order, a box arrived on my doorstep!

And here I was hoping it would come before August.

Hope has all she needs to get started. Her math, from Math-U-See, is coming in a later shipment. But since she has several chapters left in her previous math book, she'll finish that first. She is already reading Up a Road Slowly because how can you resist a new book?

I have written out each child's tentative weekly schedule in their plan books.

Looking forward to studying Economics with Jacob using the college lectures from The Teaching Company's Great Courses series. We have used several of these courses over the years and have found most of them to be exceptional. And finding them at the library is wonderful since they can get a little pricey.

Jacob will be doing Marine Biology since Abby will be in Chemistry this year. Jacob is going through two science texts a year, so I'm having to scramble to keep up with him. If only he was so passionate about writing...

Coming up later today, a post about homeschooling in the early years, because my brother asks such complicated questions in such small emails (ahem).