Ok, we have our vision in mind. Very often what determines whether that vision is realized or not is how cumbersome it is. We plan the work and work the plan. Sounds simple? Only if we planned a reasonable amount of work, a reasonable way to execute it, at reasonable times, and have a reasonable system for tracking that work. Mine is certainly not the one and only way to do this, just one that has worked for a naturally disorganized and often sleepy mom.

First we have an overall framework. Ours is based on the Latin-centered and Robinson type plans mentioned in the last planning post. We choose our favorite materials for the core subjects. Criteria for selection are that they be self-instructional, thorough, delightful, and concise. The children read extensively daily. If you are unsure where to begin, the Robinson booklist is very good. We also like the Real Learning list as well as the Baldwin Project and Read Your Way Through History titles. Sonlight has yet more. (the catalog works fine ; )) They write daily – sometimes narrations/summations of what they have read, sometimes letters, sometimes journaling, sometimes outlines, and sometimes copywork. All good things – unless you require ALL of them daily.

With this rough plan in place we begin to look at how this might play out on a day to day basis. Here is where it gets dicey. One thing Teri Maxwell of MOTH said that has always stuck with me is that what often happens when one makes a daily, detailed schedule is that one realizes there is too much to do in a given day. That too, is valuable knowledge, assuming you don’t decide that while it is unfortunate that you have run out of slots it ALL must stay in the schedule anyway. Honestly, the latter is what most women seem to do. Reality is we can’t do it all, not well anyway. We need to take a hard look at what we are including and be certain we have given ourselves and our children ample time to do it well or else we are encouraging less the the best effort. More on this in the next post.

Most of you know I eschew phone book style manuals in favor of systems that run themselves wherever possible unless you have few, older children and both the desire and the ability to filter their learning through the ‘mom funnel’ daily. We prefer to put age-appropriate materials in their hands and discuss, discuss, discuss as they work through them. Two tools make that happen: a binder and a file crate.

First, we set up a personalized binder with colored pocket dividers for each major subject – math, religion, language, history, science, and the arts. The week’s work is placed in the front pocket of each divider. For consumable books this is as simple as tearing out the pages. For notebook entry type work we fill the pocket with cardstock paper. For reading work or learning station work we have cards with a number of assigned pages or an icon of that learning center on them. When they do that activity they move the card to the back pocket.

We don’t schedule which things must be done which days. There are a number of reasons for this (more on this in the next post). First, few days and weeks are ever completely the same. Even when we do not plan for this to be the case, children have a maddening habit of unpredictably puking, wheezing, breaking things, getting colic, seeing the dentist, being born, you name it. This over and above the regularity of salad dressing spilling in the fridge and toilets backing up and repairmen who can only come at certain times. These things tend to interrupt the best schedules. If your day is too compartmentalized you find yourself regularly disappointed and discouraged when these things happen. And they will. More than you can ever foresee!

If that mythical perfectly pre-planned day is apt to appear so rarely then it is a waste of your energy to put all your planning eggs in that basket. If, instead, you have floating times and materials these things won’t derail your day, at least not most of the time. No one is waiting on you for the next direction. There is no fretting when the time slot for history is shot for the day. Things can flex. They must and not just for your sake but for the children’s. We are educating for a lifetime. That life will no doubt be every bit as complex and imperfect as our own. It is a disservice to lead them to believe that they can only complete a task well under a set of specific circumstances over which they will not likely be able to exercise complete control.

So the need for flexibility the first reason. The second is to help facilitate self-pacing, responsibility, and good time management. It is important for children to take ownership of their learning. You have presumably already been through grade school (or high school) etc. It is they who have the most vested interest in this learning venture. It is their education. While we do our darnedest to guide, support, and encourage, we cannot learn for them. In the real world they will have to manage their time and their activities. This is a good place to start. The binder gives them freedom within limits. They can choose which subjects to do first, whether to do a bit of everything each day or to dive into one subject until it is complete and then move to the next. Those are personal preferences we can accommodate.

Additionally, each binder has a mini-office in page protectors. These are pages of basics to be mastered at a given grade level such as phonograms, math facts, money denominations, writing/editing guidelines and other memory work. The poems and prayers we are working on are included and copies of the term’s art appreciation pics. This provides automatic review each time the binder is opened. It also means that a child can grab his binder and pull up a stool while mom is cooking or curl up on the couch while a baby is nursed and easily go over memory work and drills. It means an older child or Dad can easily tutor. It means you have a portable school desk that travels well to appts and piano lessons. It means guerilla homeschooling at its best.

By the end of the week the completed work is evaluated and filed into the student’s crate. The crate contains hanging files labeled with the same colors as the binder dividers. There are also extra files for each child of notebooking paper, homeschool documents (notification copies, attendence, course of study, lists of books read, etc) and the books they are using as well as a box of pencils and art supplies. The straight line filing keeps it streamlined.

Alannah’s crate is set up just slightly differently. She is enrolled with American School like her brother. The program is self-paced versus scheduled by grade levels so we have one file for each course she must complete for the diploma. She will keep the crate for her whole high school career. If you had a more conventional freshman/sophomore/junior/senior arrangement you could simply add a right hand tab to the first file of the next set of grade level course files. Keep an additional file for tracking extra curricular activities and standardized tests if you do these. We add a file to track her extra reading since we painlessly round out the boxed curriculum that way. This makes for a running transcript, avoiding a last minute scramble.

This system accomplishes a number of our goals. First, everything each child needs is ready to go. No hunting for books or pencils. Second, everyone knows what is expected when the week starts. For some reason this seems to be a HUGE drive for many kids. While they may enjoy project work or whatnot most seem to want to be able to see what the big picture is and make a mental picture of their week. My husband also wanted to have that big picture and to be able to quickly ascertain what each child had done daily without it becoming a major nightly ordeal of dragging out a number of notebooks, workbooks, etc for each child. Finally, it meets another family goal which is easy record keeping. The crates are definitely that! At your fingers is a full inventory of the year’s work to date. Heaven forbid, if mom should suddenly be out of commission, Dad can produce whatever is necessary on a moment’s notice.

Like I said, it is certainly not the only way to do things. It is however, the simplest we have found. After a fairly speedy setup you are good to go and not tied to plan books nor daily/weekly computer record reports. It allows for a rich, yet low-maintenance education. The lion’s share of your time is spent on learning, as it should be, not on logistics.

Next up: Rhythm. What does that really mean and how does that factor into our life?

So says Sonny Scott, not a homeschooler himself, but one who has put forth an opinion about why homeschoolers are so darn annoying to the general population. About homeschoolers he says:

Those families are willing to render unto Caesar the things that Caesar’s be, but they draw the line at their children.

check out the rest here.

School planning is in full force here. It is actually far less planning and more refocusing. We know what our vision is. We know what we love and what we don’t. We know what works. This season is less one of decision and more one of prayerful consideration of what challenges the new year will bring, individually and collectively, and how best to meet them. In upcoming posts I hope to share some particularly thoughtful passages from my reading this summer. They have so helped me see anew that the curriculum is really the least important factor in this equation.

I have revisited a few sites that always help me breathe deeply and embark on the new year with confidence and calm. These in particular are well worth considering:

Drew Campbell’s Advice to Harried Homeschoolers

The Robinson Family’s path to self-education read specifically the section about what the curriculum does not contain and why

Ten Ways to Simplify Homeschool
is a keeper. Print it. Post it prominently. Embroider it. Be mindful of the admonishment to tend to the youngest in your care first. Very often the tendency is to focus on older children who can and should be becoming more and more independent and self-teaching while those who are neither of those things are sent off to do who knows what. Bad policy.

What is the recurrent theme here? Teach the tools of learning. Teach them well. Those are language subjects – math, language, and faith. With a firm foundation in those areas there is nothing a person cannot learn in any other area. Our family adds music to those three, considering that another language we wish them to speak fluently. If you work on those areas diligently you cannot fail.

Another bit of advice we have found invaluable over the years is to not waste time and energy on curricula that is not written directly to the student – assuming you have an independent reader, of course. At that point the addition of a middle man (you) just adds more steps to your day and their work and clutters up the learning. To that end, we are considering Teaching Textbooks for math and adding the DVDs to the Memoria Press latin series. We dropped cumbersome history and science programs in favor of high quality topic books and activity programs like TOPS which the student can complete independently.

We plan to read and write extensively across the curriculum, however we do not invest significantly in guides intended to flesh out reading. Charlotte Mason and Waldorf schools shunned these in favor of letting meaning unfold naturally. Our job is simply to connect the children with the classics and trust that they will work the magic that they have for generations.

Part of each day is devoted to the arts. The children practice piano. We take time to paint and draw and craft.

Part of each day is spent outdoors. When I lived in Europe a mother there told me they believed people ought to be outside for 2 hrs daily. If you watch the clock you would be surprised how challenging that can be in our day! It is well worth making the effort however.

The teacher’s role will figure in most significantly in the morning. We were greatly impressed by the Dominion Family blog before it shut down. Their family spent a bit of time after breakfast each day reading poetry, memorizing scripture, listening to classical music, learning songs, and studying great art. Anything that needed drilling mom drilled as a group right then. (think: states/capitals, latin vocabulary, math facts etc) Afterwards they would each move on to their respective studies. Using this simple system they managed to accomplish a great deal in each area. No special ‘programs’ just consistent, repeated exposure.

So what does mom do with aaaaaall that free time. (insert peals of laughter) I plan to work most extensively with the non-readers on down. Children’s needs are front loaded in nature. Initially they need constant care and attention. They need help learning to meet their basic needs, learning to settle into healthy rhythms, learning to be kind and orderly. That takes a lot of time. Effort in these areas pays dividends later however. You set the stage for competency and excellence. Lapses now cost dearly later. We know this too.

There are those home management binder lists to follow through on daily and weekly. More time.

There is a husband in the picture as well, a marriage to tend. That too often gets lost in the shuffle of teaching, taxiing, feeding, and fellowshipping. Without this part of the picture however, there is no rest of the picture. A priority must be putting marriage first. Again, the focus is on the foundation.

Don’t turn your pyramid upside down. Summer is time to take stock. What are your areas of concern? How does the house look? What is the tone? (relaxed? rushed? cluttered?) What steps can be taken now to lighten the load and help the year progress more smoothly? Who needs extra help and in what areas? How much time is allocated for your husband? Is that time from the best of your day or the last of it? I realize none of those questions appear to relate directly to academics but they each one do. In fact, in the end these are the things that impact our ability to thrive.

Next post – logistics

“If you ask a boy to read about the life cycle of a tadpole metamorphosing into a frog, but that boy has never touched a frog, never had the experience of jumping around in a stream in his bare feet chasing after a tadpole, he may not see the point.” – Boys Adrift

Hopefully this applies to toads and girls as well. In reverse anyway : )

I have had the pleasure of reading these past several weeks now – really diving into books. They are much more portable than this machine. The down side is that it takes me far longer these days to get through a volume than it once did. Our daily rhythm is steady and the long unspoken-for spans of time I thought I once had have long since been filled with chores, errands, potty training, and the like. Spaces that aren’t filled with those are usually snagged for showers and naps and a stolen phone call here and there. For that reason I figured I would just share snippets of what has particularly resonated with me lately.

The first is from Leonard Sax’ Boys Adrift. It was recommended on a local homeschool list and has proven to be every bit as thought-provoking as promised. I still have lots to get through but his research and anecdotes have rung true from page one. The purpose of the book was the growing phenomenon of failure to launch in young men today. He points to a virtual epidemic of apathy and prolonged adolescence which seems to cross cultural and demographic lines. The book articulates several reasons for this: changes in education, video games, adhd meds, and endocrine disrupters.

His discussion about changes in American schools echo much of what I have read elsewhere. First he addresses research that shows vast differences in growth rates of different areas of boys’ and girls’ brains. These differences indicate that what is appropriate developmentally for one gender at one age is not necessarily so for the other.

I was most intrigued however by his analysis of education in America versus in other areas of the world. Education in our country tends to be very didactic. We cram with facts. Data is revered. There is far less emphasis here on experiential knowledge than in other countries. Our poor ranking on international tests (number #25) suggest that this focus on head knowledge has had a counter-productive effect on long term learning outcomes.

Listen to his discussion about knowing:

In English the verb to know can have two very different meanings reflecting two different kinds of knowledge:

I know Sarah.
I know pediatrics.

My knowledge of my daughter Sarah is very different from my knowledge of pediatrics. My knowledge of Sarah is experiential. I know that Sarah likes to be rocked side to side but not front to back. (he gives more examples)

Most European languages use two different words for these two kinds of knowledge. In German knowledge about a person or place you have actually experienced is Kenntnis, from kennen “to know by experience”; knowledge learned from books is Wissenschaft, from wissen, “to know about something”.
There is a fundamental belief running through all European pedagogy that both Wissenschaft and Kenntnis are valuable and that the two ways of knowing must be balanced.

He goes on to describe accompanying a Swiss third grade class high up into the mountains. Children were blindfolded and led to a tree to try to learn as much about it as possible without sight. “To see without the eyes,” the teacher explained. Then they were led away several paces and the blindfold removed. They then had to find their tree. He was skeptical of the value of this exercise until she blindfolded him and made him do the same. He found it “an unexpected and exhilarating experience.”

He shares decades of research that show the necessity of multisensory learning in developing young brains and goes so far as to say that

“a curriculum that emphasizes Wissenschaft at the expense of Kenntnis may produce a syndrome analogous to the neglected child.” (such as has been observed in studies of children raised in sterile orphanages)

This is relevant to our country because we have a generation or two now of children who have been largely raised indoors. As he says,

“You can easily find high school students in America who can tell you about the importance of the environment, the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle and so on, but they have never spent a night outdoors. they have plenty of Wissenschaft but not a trace of Kenntnis.”

Amen.

This seems to be the one recurrent theme in my school planning in recent years. My concern is less about facts and data and more about relationships. Formation versus information, Laura Berquist would say. I would say it is not an either/or proposition. Ideally you want them to form relationships with ideas. They can read and write until they are blue but unless the information is personally meaningful to them it is not likely to be planted very deeply. Or worse, they may swell with data and never realize how little they truly understand about it.

For the coming school year we are focusing once again on doing a few things well. Our emphasis is on learning to learn in a meaningful manner. That takes time. It takes courage on the teacher’s part to trust that slow beginnings make for a solid foundation, that giving a child the time and space to connect with ideas will lead to true knowledge in all senses of the word.

We tend to give lip service to the idea of lighting fires versus filling buckets. Then we turn around and start the faucets. I would encourage you to consider your plans for this year in that same light. Are you spending lots of time thinking about what data you plan to impart? How? When? Where? Maybe that time would be better spent this summer observing the child, arranging the environment, and setting peaceful rhythms that will all contribute to more meaningful learning in the long run. Your wallet will thank you too The materials will always be there. What is most beneficial is a keen eye, a prayerful heart, and a responsive attitude. Anyone can pass on wissenschaft. It takes a real giving of self, a release of control, and a good amount of faith to help balance that with kenntnis.

Speaking of which, I hear the sprinkler. A warm day beckons. I am going to join several dripping wet little people. : )