This has been my motto for a lot of years, so it was with great pleasure that I ran across this quote from CS Lewis:

“I think this wise; the greatest service we can do to education is to teach fewer subjects. No one has time to do more than a very few things well before he is twenty, and when we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life”

If you are like most of us you could rattle off the definition of the 3 R’s in seconds. An article I read the other day suggested a different set however:

When planning a lesson, Waldorf education considers means to minimize student stress therefore maximizing the learning opportunity. Toward this end, three tools structure the lesson: rhythm, ritual and repetition. These tools are the three R’s of Waldorf planning.

Rhythm, ritual, and repetition. They are good tools to structure our homeschools as well. I have been thinking about how we incorporate those things and how we can do better this year. Rhythm is a good start. Rhythm is inevitable. It is the tempo of our days, weeks, months. We have all some tempo. The question is whether it is encouraging and soothing like a celtic folk hymn or demanding and exacting as a Sousa march running us through our paces.

My husband is a long distance runner. One of the yardsticks used to determine whether you are training properly is whether you can carry a conversation while you jog. If not you are likely pushing too hard. This is analogous to our rhythm at home. If we are still breathing deeply, if we wake up refreshed and go to sleep satisfied, if we can smile at 5pm as readily as at 9am, then we have a good, sustaining rhythm in place. If instead we find ourselves a bit breathless too often it is time to rethink. An occasional sprint is invigorating. A constant mad dash is debilitating.

Ritual comes easily for Christians. The liturgical year guides many of our families. There is the succession of fasting and feasting that returns like clockwork. For all of us there is the familiar changing of the seasons and national holidays. Ritual means most to children when it is predictable. Choosing a few traditions and maintaining them over time is tremendously reassuring. That can be as simple as saying the same prayers each Thanksgiving, making the same flag cake each summer, visiting the cemetery on Memorial Day or in November or making pancakes every Saturday morning. We tend to overestimate how much is needed to make memories.

Ritual also factors into our weekly and daily routines. Having regular pegs to hang our days upon makes for smooth transitions. In our house that means meals happen at roughly the same times daily. The chores proceed in the same general order daily – bedmaking before breakfast, baths after dinner etc. We have our roles to play during meals – who cooks, what prayers are said, how the table is cleared. We know which days are “town” days and which are home days. We know for certain that mom will be resting directly after lunch.

It is the sameness that is memorable. That is what makes it ritual. It comes to be known to the children as “what our family does”. It is also freeing to moms to know that while the internet and print media provide an endless parade of new ideas, it is the old standbys that are treasured most by our families. Consistency beats out novelty any day.

Repetition is doing those same things over and over until they are solidified in our minds. In a culture that feeds on variety, repetition is rarely considered a positive thing. There is no better servant than habit however. Drill is an incredible tool if used in a cheerful manner. We can chant our math facts together, recite prayers and poems til they are memorized, sing the same songs at chore time.

In our eagerness to keep things new and different there is a tendency to downplay the use of repetition. It can be a valuable aid however. “To know how to do something well is to enjoy it,” says Pearl Buck. We know best that which we practice most often. Little by little one goes far. So don’t be afraid of judicious use of those flash cards and drills. They are mental calisthenics that strengthen little minds. They don’t replace discussion and artistic expression but neither can those things replace regular attention to basic skills. We strive for a healthy balance between the two.

The implied R in all this is regularity, not regimentation. As the seasons come and go, as the sun rises and sets, and as baby’s chest rises and falls with each deep breath, so can our homes, our schedules, and our lessons flow smoothly from one to the other with a bit of forethought.

For some more good tips for getting a big picture of your year see Melisa Nielson’s video on the annual at-a-glance planning calendar. This helps to foresee those things which tend to upset our regular patterns and plan accordingly.

I have seen a couple comments that have confused our educational approach a bit. Some assume we are “workbook based”. Some are unclear about what the teacher’s role is in a self-directed learning environment and assume that independent learning renders the teacher’s role obsolete. Some are puzzled about the purpose behind “less is more” and can’t help but think less is, well, less. I will address these questions over the next couple weeks. Since we are (oh so actively!) living this life I have to fit describing it into whatever little snatches I can find. The time to pull it all together isn’t appearing so instead I will likely post snippets for your consideration.

The first is from Drew Campbell who wrote The Latin Centered Curriculum. In my opinion the best nuggets from the book are available in this excerpt. He has brought back the famous less is more quote by Pliny the Younger:

multum non multa: not
many things (multa), but much (multum). Today we would say “qual
ity, not quantity.” Formal education should not merely introduce us to
many things—the multa, which can by necessity lead only to superficial
knowledge—but should encourage us to drink deeply at the springs of
our culture.

First about good books:

While truly ‘good books’ are an
excellent and necessary preparation for the Great Books, they are most
profitably read independently or within the family circle, not as part of
formal schooling.

This echoes the Art Robinson, Waldorf, and Charlotte Mason admonitions not to belabor the children’s reading with excessive literary interpretation and ‘extension activities’. Let the literature speak to the children. Realize too, that it will say different things to different people. In other words, it is ok to let the children read independently. It is not sending them off to “do nothing”. It is allowing and encouraging quiet, often intense, intellectual work. Family discussion, which flows naturally in a literature-rich home, will demonstrate comprehension. Occasional narrations will sharpen the summarization skills if used discriminately. We need not micromanage this process.

Second, he lists the advantages enjoyed by families who employ the less-is-more principle:

The advantages of the multum non multa approach are many. Elim
inating busywork—tedious workbooks, redundant curricula, excessive
escape reading—cuts the student’s work time tremendously. The time
savings may be applied to the student’s own interests and to enrichment
subjects such as sports, dance, or cooking. Parents will find that their
preparation time is much reduced as they eliminate redundant subjects
and learn alongside their children. Parents may also enjoy considerable
financial savings on formal curricula, perhaps freeing up funds for music
lessons, building a quality home library, or other family needs.

Homeschoolers are notorious for overspending both time and money. The implication seems to be the more effort and expense that is put forth the better the outcome. This is not necessarily so. In fact imbalance can negatively impact the disposition of the teacher, the home environment, and the ability of the student to focus intently. Moderation in all things is the best policy. Better to err on the side of personal demeanor and careful attention to the learning environment than on an abudance of materials and instruction. As Ruth Beechick says:

Curriculum materials are less important than we tend to think.

My thoughts are summed up in this picture which warms my heart to no end. Kieran I wish you lots more of this in the coming year!

The following questions were posed:

Do you have the fact sheets or mini offices, in page protectors or in file folders for each subject (things to memorize/learn)? How long do you have them there…a week, a month, all year…till they really know them?.

I have them in page protectors right in their binders. I usually reevaluate at the beginning of the new school year to see which things are still relevant and which are not. I don’t keep multiple binders/folders or it defeats the purpose of having a one-stop shop.

I hope to try to use what I have but do the same idea with it… could you just have a check list of books they must do work in/or read for that week?

Some curricula work better for independent study than others (I will address that later – bear with me) but yes, the short answer is that in most cases you can break down the book pages and assign them weekly in the binder. Just see what the total number of pages is in your text and divide by how many weeks you plan to study. Then you have a rough guide of how much must be done each week and can permanently post that in the proper divider. (say that three times fast ; ))

Do you have a sequence of what facts they should know for K-8th? Do you make up these office file things for each grade, each quarter, as you think of things they should learn? I would only be able to do that if I had them premade and ready for the year.

Me too! I do as much as possible ahead of time because who knows how the dice will fall once school starts again. There is no set formula or sequence for what should be memorized/mastered and every educational school of thought will have its own priorities and preferences. Below are some ideas.

Religion:

Bible verses
catechism questions
prayers
books of the Bible

Math:

math facts
money
ordinal/cardinal numbers
shapes
hundred board
units of measure and equivalents (inch, foot, yard, oz, lb, cup, pint, etc)
angles
properties (associative, commutative etc)

Grammar/Language/Lit:

parts of speech
parts of a book
SSQ3R
4 types of sentences
editing checklist
capitalization rules
penmanship chart
fiction/nonfiction
synonym, homonyn, antonym
literary terms (alliteration, foreshadowing etc)
poetry

History:

dates/names, eras
geographical terms (peninsula, bay etc)
ocean, mts
famous speeches (Gettysburg address, Preamble to the Constitution)

Science:

animal and plant classifications
vocabulary
parts of the earth/plants/animals
names of the planets
food groups

Arts:

primary/secondary colors
warm/cool
schools of art/music
names of the instruments
hymns and folk songs

Life Skills:

address
phone number
left/right
how to answer the phone

The list could go on, not that it should go on and on in the actual binders. Remember less is more. Pick a few of the most crucial each year and tackle them in that order. If you have additions please leave a comment with more ideas!