I just wrote this email to my sister, and thought it might be interesting to some of you. She is deciding what to do with her oldest daughter, who just turned 5, this fall.
Good to talk to you today! So, I just read this part of my book "Leadership Education: Phases of Learning" by Oliver and Rachel DeMille, and thought you might be interested.
But keep in mind that I'm not trying to convince you to homeschool, nor do I think it is the best option for everyone. As you learn about it, I'm sure you will feel promptings that either you should learn more, and you like what you are reading, or that it's not a good fit for your family. For me, the more I learn about it, the stronger I feel in my heart that it is right for us and I'm super passionate and excited about it. But if you don't feel that, then maybe your path is a different one, and that's ok too. Or maybe you're somewhere in the middle.
I really like how this book and philosophy is based on theories from psychologists that I studied in my master's program (Piaget, Erikson, etc), and that I actually agreed with and who's theories rang true to me (versus Freud, for example). It's not just one guy's view; there is a lot of science and evidence behind this, especially the fact that young kids learn best through play. (Bold added)
"The lessons of the Core Phase (ages 0-8 yrs) are best learned through daily experiences in home life, uncomplicated by the secondary goals of pressured academic achievement. The best efforts of the parents will be in nurturing healthy relationship and modeling an active spiritual and scholarly life. Socializing outside family without the rest of the family should be limited and carefully considered. This is an ideal time for reading and discussion of good books, listening to and discussing good music, watching and discussing good media programs, playing at art or math and building with Legos or Erector sets and other similar activities.One of my favorite homeschooling blogs (Simple Homeschool) did a great job summing this up:"The tools for academic learning are present, as are the tools for cooking or making home repairs, and little children use them more in the context of tagging along or playing at the word of adults. There is no adult skill that children are obligated to master at this stage. The assumption is clearly conveyed that through frequent exposure (as in our reading to them or on our own) and later instruction (mostly be trial-and-error, with a loving mentor to answer questions and help avoid disasters) they will gain that facility as a matter of course.
"Lessons in self-discipline, perseverance and pursuit of excellence are modeled by the parents, and experienced by the young child in mostly physical ways. These might include: household chores, caring for animals and gardens, helping in a family business and cooperating in a daily routine. Little children start to internalize the virtues of excellence and perseverance as they do their part with family duties and in service to others. During Core Phase (0-8 yr olds), children are taught the fundamentals of the family's faith and how to arrive at and recognize truth. Most importantly, during Core Phase the child should be prepared to make choices, heed her conscience and know in her heart when she is being inspired." (Taken from "Leadership Education: Phases of Learning" by Oliver and Rachel DeMille)
And this is also a really good one about what to focus on with under 8 year olds. This kind of stuff has recently changed the way I interact with my kids on a daily basis:To me, homeschooling under 8 especially is really relaxed- you just go about daily life with your kids, but with the perspective that they are learning through it all, so you would make sure to not gloss over the "teaching moments" when they present themselves (answering their questions, digging deeper into what interests them, etc), but relax knowing that through their play (with other kids as well as alone or with siblings) they are learning more than you could teach them from a curriculum or what they would learn in school (at this age).
And besides play, reading! Reading aloud is one of the top ways to help children learn, and that is a really easy one to do at home, and even for free. Go to the library & read aloud frequently. Books are huge at our house. I put them in every room, we get 30-50 at the library every couple weeks, and make it really fun to snuggle up reading together, we read during breakfast, let them look at books alone, "read" to each other, etc.
To home school, you DO have to plan out your routines, chore responsibilities, and come up with a basic daily/weekly schedule, but that is where it gets fun, in my opinion. I get to create whatever kind of life I want for them! The sky is the limit. Let's make Monday our cleaning the house time (together, with music), Tuesday morning our "field trip"(to nature center, museum, aquarium, etc), Wednesday morning our playgroup/playdate, Thursday morning our Music or Art appreciation time, etc. And don't forget memorizing a monthly scripture every morning during breakfast with a scripture story, and listening to conference in Spanish while doing the dishes. :) I just made up this whole schedule doing all the fun things I love and so I'm excited about this right now!
I hope this doesn't sound like I have it all together and I'm the perfect mom- because I'm definitely not! These are just some things that we're doing lately that I'm excited about, but that's not to say every day runs perfectly. Most days don't, but I love having a plan so I don't have to think "What are we going to do next?" constantly. And I know that I'm consciously fitting in all the things I feel are important to expose my kids to (with lots of time to just play and read and build relationships!)
I love the idea that my children came to me for a reason, that I have special talents, skills, abilities, knowledge, that I need to share with them that is vital in helping them uncover their own purpose and mission in this life. Maybe there is a reason that I know Spanish- maybe my kids will need to know it at some point in their lives. What if I never taught it to them?
Henry B. Eyring shared an experience that his dad was so eager to teach him math and chemistry (his profession), but young Henry was never interested. Later as an adult, he was in a position where knowing math would have been extremely useful. He also shared that his father never taught him Spanish (even though he grew up in Mexico) but Henry B. Eyring ended up serving in Spanish speaking countries and regrets not ever asking his father to teach him. He said "It was no accident that I was born into a home with a Spanish-speaking father." (You can read the whole article here: https://www.lds.org/youth/article/real-life-education?lang=eng)
I feel that we, as parents (with the help of Heavenly Father), can do better than schools to prepare our children for the world and for their unique purpose on this earth, as we share ourselves with them, fit into our lives the things that are important to us and let our kids be exposed to them. Versus having some curriculum planning committee and government determine what constitutes an "education." (Have you seen "Building the Machine," the documentary about Common Core: http://www.commoncoremovie.com/?).
To all of you, I highly recommend the book I quoted, "Leadership Education: Phases of Learning" by Oliver & Rachel DeMille (I am not compensated for recommending this book).I know it's really hard to get out of that whole mentality (that there is one way to "get an education") because that's what we've been taught our whole lives, and we actually went through that system ourselves. But getting out of that idea is really liberating!
Hope this is helpful to some of you!
No comments:
Post a Comment