Today I want to write about homeschooling because it makes me happy. We change all the time. I am constantly finding better was to do things, better books to use, better websites and magazines to read. Sometimes it comes from my homeschooling friends, they share about what works for them. Sometimes I just stumble upon a new "thing" as I browse catalogs and blogs. In the beginning I couldn't wait until I was a few years out in our hs journey and I would have everything nailed down. In the future I saw well planned days, me and the kids flawlessly gliding through each day filled with all kinds of curriculum and learning. Here we are four years out and I have realized something important. Because of how my brain works, I will never be satisfied to use the same workbook with each kid every other year. I have discovered what works for us and it's not a curriculum, it's a philosophy. It's the Charlotte Mason method. This woman was a teacher that believed in treating children as individuals, among other things. Before she died, she wrote a series of books on her philosophy, her reasons, her experiments, and everything she discovered about children. (It's called Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooing Series if you are interested in reading it)
I have read this collection of books as well as most other published books on this philosophy. If there was a Charlotte Mason class, you had better believe I would have paid to go to that too!
Since learning about what I wanted for our family I have tried to piece together the perfect curriculum that Miss Mason would have approved of. And it doesn't exist. What's great for one child is too intense or too boring for another. There is one way for my family to hs, but within that way, there are multiple choices.
I am one of those people that can't follow a strict schedule or guide. If I write our week out ahead of time, I know we are sure to deviate and follow rabbit trails at some point. I write it out anyway because it's important to have a guide, but we leave lots of room for life to happen. I was with a friend last night and I was letting her know that I could help with certain thing she needed help with. She asked me "what about your schooling?" It was easy for me to say with confidence that I have found the kids are happier, and therefore learn more, when we leave room for life. We school in a very natural way and blend learning into our day(most days) that we are always ahead. That tends to be common with homeschoolers.
CM is big on schedules so I have what works for us, I have what I call a general 4-part schedule. I divide the day into 4 periods of time between breakfast and dinner. Each part has a general time frame, but I am not strict about it. We also take one day off each week. Most weeks it's Wednesday, but if it needs to be another day we switch it. Also, we are only as relaxed as we are because first we created good habits. And as the kids go through growth spurts there are constantly new habits and character traits that need to be "taught" for lack of a better word.
Again, it fits very nicely into the CM method of learning. If we are on a roll and want to plow through several months of school in only one month, that fits. If we take time off to be a part of life, that fits too.
While I am well versed in the Charlotte Mason ways of schooling, I am no further along in finding that "one way" for our family to do things. One book is great for Thing 1, but Thing 2 doesn't get the appeal. We do spiral workbooks for Thing 2 and Thing 1 prefers the mastery approach to math. The cool thing is, it all fits. And that's the beauty of it all. I can use one way, a narrow way in today's world, and have room to move around within that way. Because I have an understanding of the philosophy I am free to move around within in.
So, here I am four years into the journey. My kids have no idea what a public school day is like. They have been with me from birth. And I haven't screwed them up. I also haven't found the one magic curriculum that works for us. One year it's Heart of Dakota and the next I am a Sonlight girl. We have also done KONOS successfully and plan on using My Father's World for 4th/2nd/K grades. We will do it as a family. Thing 1 has soared with one Language arts book and Thing 2 is having success with another. And my hope is that Thing 3 will require a completely different book than the first 2 all together (because I hate going through the same curriculum twice.)
I like that we know where we are going. And I like that I have the freedom to pick and choose what we do within the style of learning. Most of life is kind of like that.
Thanks for reading... I needed to write today and I wanted it to be light. If you are not a homeschooler than this was probably so boring to you that you did not even finish. Feel free to comment and let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas, especially if you are a CM family too.
Love,
Jakie
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