Simply Mother

I know I said I would write post describing what our days look like, but browsing through my archives, I found I’ve already done exactly that:

*** What It’s Like ***

That post was back in March, when Sarah was still what they call a Kindergartner, but that peaceful, free-flowing atmosphere I described is still very much how our days go.

I believe in a very natural, child-led style of learning*, but I also seek to bring as much of this world’s goodness into our lives as I can.

*At least in the younger years. I’m not entirely opposed to instituting a more formal, structured academic program at some point (definitely not before age 8), but it will absolutely be the child’s choice, and she will always play a key role in determining the various aspects of her study. If kids feel like they’re “just” learning something because someone else is making them, it’s doubtful they’ll get anything valuable out of it, and very probable they will get something damaging. (See my experience.)

So what do we do?

We have fun! We live life! We learn constantly, all day long.

I try to provide a rich environment with lots of manipulatives and tools for exploration, the kids follow their interests, and I facilitate as needed. Our days flow very naturally and practically every moment is spent in valuable discovery.

The girls play a lot of imaginative games together, usually based loosely off our latest books.

My six-year-old usually spends several hours a day reading. (I’m pretty sure she’s read more classics than I have. I have a hard time keeping up, anyway.)

I make sure to sit down with my three-year-old and a big stack of books (she usually initiates this) a couple of times a day. Other times she is my little side-kick, following me around, talking endlessly and sometimes helping as I go about doing household chores or making meals.

I’ve gone back and forth about trying to schedule a block of time for “learning”-type activities, where I am completely open and available to them in the craft/school room, but it always ends up seeming so silly because I see practically everything they do as a valuable learning experience.

So if I’ve declared 9 to 11 “learning time” and, come 9 o’clock, they are both still happily engaged in their spontaneous after-breakfast game of “Save Camelot,” it just feels really weird to announce that it’s time to start learning.

What has worked better for me is, once I have finished my morning chores, I just start doing something that interests me — usually reading — with full intent on being interrupted. (And we all know how long it takes for a mom to sit down with a good book before that happens!)

This generally provides plenty of opportunity for focused, unrushed mom-time with each child, but if we ever do get too busy, remember, my kids are built-in equilibrium detectors and we restore balance promptly!

Schedule

We have a flexible but predictable schedule as far as getting ready in the morning and making sure rooms are neat (at least by six-year-old-standards!), meal times, family scripture study right after dinner (which they look forward to as much as any other story time), and then bedtime routine, as well as certain things we do on specific days of the week, which goes something like this:

• Sunday: Church, then maybe invite someone over for dinner or visit grandparents
• Monday: Laundry and Deep Cleaning (at this point, this is mostly for me, but they often help)
• Tuesday: Library** and Soccer
• Wednesday: Playgroup at the park
• Thursday: Hang out at home or get together with friends
• Friday: Meet with our homeschool group for fun classes, park lunch, and field trips (we’re going to a dairy this week!)
• Saturday: Grocery shopping

**I’m trying to switch this to every other week so we’re home more because I love the flow of our “down time” — when we don’t have to be anywhere and life just flows. It is so joyful.

We Know Our Way Around the Library

We bring home piles upon piles of library books each week.

I find lists of good children’s classics and put them on hold, or ask the children’s librarian for suggestions.

We also love to browse through the juvenile nonfiction section — I’m usually looking for something specific and my three-year-old often hits upon some awesome finds as she just sort of randomly grabs colorful books off the shelves while I’m there. (This is how we ended up with several kid-oriented books about the Revolutionary War and the American flag this week.)

Often my kids will ask me to get books on a particular topic that struck their curiosity somehow — Trees, birds, the moon, stars, how flowers grow, Pocahantos, poetry, Hans Christian Anderson, Greek Mythology, original fairy tales, farm animals … Just a few I can recall from the last few weeks. They then browse through them at their leisure.

Story-telling and Writing

Sometimes one of the girls will want to dictate a story while I type it as fast as I can. (But I’m never fast enough.) Sarah has one in her journal*** she’s been working on for months, using all the characters from Winnie the Pooh. (Which she’s never seen and I think we might have one book about it, but anyway.)

Every so often she brings it to me and rattles off another chapter. It’s really interesting to watch her progression as she reads more and more and gets accustomed to how the language works. She doesn’t know punctuation yet, but I’m sure it will come pretty naturally to her when it does because she already pauses at all the right times, as in this little gem from her book:

Owl, hearing this, said, “Oh no! Not me!”

She obviously didn’t say “comma” after “owl” and “this” but it was very definitely in her voice. It is really quite a joy to listen to her.

***The journal I have to actually write out, which takes me much longer, but this started as an exercise for me — I wanted to practice my own handwriting, which is dreadfully messy. We are writing this story in the back, but the main part of the journal is a fun idea I got from a friend. Each night (that we remember!) we write only four lines about our day. It keeps it short (therefore we’re more likely to do it, and it’s easier to look back through), and it’s fun to see what the most pertinent things were about their days.

She hasn’t done a whole lot of writing herself yet, except for the occasional card or what-have-you. I’m really not concerned, but I’m wondering if it will happen as naturally as reading did, or if she will eventually have to practice in a drill-like fashion? I suppose she did practice reading though, it was just done all on her own and with no nudging required, she just wanted to do it, so it didn’t feel like drill. I’m thinking she’ll get to that point with writing too.

Real Life Numbers

Again, here I am unconcerned with memorization of facts at this point, and more interested in my kids becoming familiar with number concepts in everyday life, and not coming to dread math as hard or boring, or — like many adults — come to think of it as some crazy phenomenon far beyond their capacities to understand.

I really love listening to how she thinks about numbers; I feel I can literally watch her mind work when she is trying to figure something out.

Some of my very first posts on this blog recorded how this type of curiosity is explored, and just today we had an in-depth discussion about numbers revolving around money and Polly Pockets. (Details in a future post.)

Abandon Your Fears

I wrote about how I never thought I would even consider homeschooling, and it was because I thought I lacked the patience, the organization, and the knowledge to be able to give my kids the superb education I wanted for them.

This is for anyone who likes many things about homeschooling but is on the fence — or, like me, not quite ready to even get on the fence and peer over to the other side — because of the same concerns:

You can totally do it.

And if you are unconvinced, just get a hold of any John Holt book, and then sit down and observe your kids for awhile, and you will be assured that:

1. Your kids are ____ enough to learn what they need to learn.
2. You are ____ enough to provide your kids with everything they need.

Fill in the blanks with whatever your fears are dictating, it doesn’t matter. It is only our schooled background that makes us believe “real” learning can only take place in a classroom-type environment, or that it needs the assistance of charts, stickers, and a super-chirpy teacher. It is also from our schooling that we’ve come to believe kids don’t naturally want to learn.

They do.

Actually, wait, not exactly.

It’s Like Breathing

Kids don’t necessarily naturally want to learn. They simply naturally learn. See the difference?

It’s true, some kids (many kids) (my kids!) sometimes get very unexcited the moment an adult comes bounding out with some fun! interesting! thing she wants to teach them.

That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m saying, kids learn, people learn, no matter what they’re doing, no matter where you put them, they just do; it’s how they are made.

Perhaps Holt said it best himself: “Birds fly. Fish swim. Man thinks and learns.”

 — 

If you have even the smallest desire to homeschool — even if you just want to keep your kids home with you a little longer than the state-mandated five years — you can do it.

And as long as they are in a family that values learning, that cares about the world and actively pursues knowledge, they will be fine, and undoubtedly catch right up to whatever their peers are doing should you decide to send them to school some day.

Filed in: family • home education • just life | October 21, 2009