Dealing directly with books

We've just finished our first term of year one of our curriculum, Ambleside Online. We school year round, and when the Nuthatch turned 6 in June I decided to start grade one with him instead of waiting until September.

It has been a fascinating term. The biggest adjustment to our learning has been the addition of narration to our schedule. Narration is where a student listens to a passage and then tells back what they heard. For example, if you've just read the first part of Little Red Riding Hood to your child, they might narrate by saying: "Little Red Riding Hood was on her way to her Grandma's when she met a wolf".

Narration is a difficult skill to learn. I've tried it myself with the classics I have been reading, and it is not easy. At the beginning of our 12 week term, I would read a passage and ask the Nuthatch to tell me what he remembered. More often than not, the answer would be 'Umm...nothing...'

So, I started reading smaller sections at a time. We spent a few weeks where I would have him narrate a sentence at a time. Narration takes a long time when you do this. Then the Nuthatch went through a phase where he would repeat back to me, verbatim, the last sentence I read. It was frustrating.

Part of the problem was that the reading selections had many new concepts and vocabulary words for him. To help with this, I would select five words from the passage that I was fairly certain he did not know, and we would talk about them. He wanted to draw pictures for the words, which I thought was a great idea, but soon this vocabulary lesson with the picture drawing was taking longer and longer!

Through all of this I held on to the fact that he would eventually develop the skill to narrate. I did not worry too much about all the content that he was missing when the reading selections went over his head and he could not remember anything. In Charlotte Mason's sixth volume, A Philosophy of Education, she says:

It does not matter much whether he understands this word or that, but that it matters a great deal that he should learn to deal directly with books. page 172

We have had a few bright moments this term. After about 8 weeks of working on narration he said to me, out of the blue: "Hey Mom, when I narrate something we've read, I remember it forever!" And a week or two later he said: "When you're reading to me, I see pictures in my head, and then I can tell you about them" (we were reading out of the Blue Fairy Book at the time). That is all the encouragement I need to keep going.

This week I have given him exams (I can post the exam questions if anyone is interested). They are not the sort of test that is graded, rather I wanted to see if he was remembering anything from what we have been reading. While there is lots of room for improvement, he has made such great progress with the skill of narration that I am quite pleased.

I used our camera to take videos of his answers to the exam questions. I think it will be very enjoyable to come back at the end of the year, or in a few years and watch these.

The video is particularly hilarious because it is so typical of what homeschooling with little ones is like. It is shaky at the beginning because the Bluejay is literally climbing on my head. In the background you can hear the Chickadee squawking "I can't see! I can't see!" as she tries to watch the video from the back of the camera. When he answers the question he is referring to a story that we read one time, two weeks earlier, The Frogs Who Wished For A King, from Aesop's Fables.

This second video is for all of you that have wiggly boys. We had read the story of the Rhino from Kipling's 'Just So Stories' over six weeks ago. I was pleased that he had remembered the general outline of the story. Our narration selections are only read once, so he has not heard this story again since late July.

I am eagerly looking forward to term 2. I can't wait to see how his skill of narration develops as he learns to deal directly with books.

The habit of habits

In the first place, she herself acquires the habit of training her children in a given habit, so that by-and-by it becomes, not only no trouble, but a pleasure to her.

Charlotte Mason, vol 1 pg 136

I have gotten in the habit of thinking about our habits. When I first attempted to start 'habit training' my kids I chose a concrete habit to work on. I forget quite what it was, it might have been the habit of hanging up your coat when you come in the door. It was simple and straightforward, or so I thought.

My first attempts were unsuccessful. Unfortunately, I did not have the key habit in place first, obedience. If my children were not going to do what I asked of them, no other habits would be formed.

I have come to view most of our daily lives through a filter of habit. When the kids are fighting I make mental notes to work on the habit of listening to each other, or the habit of sharing. I celebrate the habits they have worked hard to master. If our day is going smoothly, I know it is because of an underlying structure of habit. If our day is rocky, there is work to be done.

Choosing the most effective habit to attack first is often difficult when there seem to be so many that would help. Red flags jump up everywhere, demanding my attention. Untangling the nest of bad habits is not easy.

Our current habit is to 'treat others the way you would like to be treated'. They immediately translated this statement into 'treat others the way they are treating you'. We still have a ways to go on this concept. I am eagerly anticipating developing the habit of 'not complaining' next.

Our habit of getting outside in nature.

We haven't been habit training for very long, but I see the rewards already. I know that we are on the right path, one habit at a time.

Backyard blackjack (umm...math practice)

Nuthatch was telling me about an episode where Bugs Bunny was playing cards and kept saying "Hit me!" when a little lightbulb went off in my foggy mind. Blackjack! Think of the adding practice! (think of the gambling)

So, here we are, in the backyard (I'm trying to squeeze in as much outdoor time as I can) practicing adding numbers to 21. The addictive nature of this game has us practicing for quite awhile (think of the gambling). Of course there wasn't any betting involved, yet there was a nagging voice at the corners of my conscience.

The jury is still out as to whether today is a good mom day for finding a clever way to practice our math, or a bad mom day for teaching a 6 year old how to gamble.

Our daily routine

Here is how our days usually unfold. We follow the clock in a very general way, so that one thing happens after another at around the same time. However, I don't have math scheduled from 9:00 - 9:10 because it would never happen at that time, and then I would be off the schedule and that would bother me.

Also, our routine is constantly being tweaked as I work out the kinks and as things change in our household. We follow our school routine Monday thru Saturday. I have discovered that unscheduled days leads to everyone fighting. The kids have a lot of free time in the day, but it is broken up with scheduled activities.

Nuthatch has just started grade one, he turns 6 next month. BlueJay is almost 4, he does not have any formal program. Chickadee is 20 months. She naps for 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon.

________________________

8 am breakfast

9 am School, Part 1
Nuthatch (narration, math, Nuthatch reads to me, penmanship) about 10 minutes each. This takes anywhere from 1/2 hour to an hour, depending on the number of interruptions by the other two kids and how long the narration takes.

BlueJay - computer time
Chickadee - hopefully she plays independently

10 am morning snack

10 - 12 o'clock outing
My kids are all small, and if we don't get out of the house on a daily basis, they all start going bonkers by the end of the day (mom included). This time is for exercise, socialization, and nature study. We go to the zoo, the museum, the park, play groups, and hiking in conservation areas. If school is finished early we bring our morning snack with us.

12 noon Lunch

1 pm Chickadee has her afternoon nap
Nuthatch and BlueJay have School Part 2 - Reading stories (Bible, poetry, science books, and books of their choosing)

Quiet time for Nuthatch and Bluejay (1/2 hour in separate rooms)

Afternoon snack

Afternoon activity (art, science experiment, nature notebook, cooking something) pick one
We try to do this while Chickadee is still sleeping.

Free play in the backyard, Nuthatch gets 1/2 hour of computer time if he remembers :)

5 pm Dinner
after dinner Nuthatch and Bluejay get 5 minute piano lessons each

8 pm bedtime
The kids each get to pick a story and I pick one as well.

This works for us right now. My most recent tweak was to move narration from the afternoon stories slot to the morning lessons. Narration is hard work and Nuthatch needs to be fresh so he can focus and remember what he has heard. There are a few things that consistently get lost in our routine that I need to turn into a habit. The piano lessons are often forgotten after dinner. I keep forgetting afternoon snack and I end up wondering why my kids are so grouchy before dinner.

I can see some changes to our routine coming in the future. The BlueJay turns 4 years old in September and I will want to start a tiny academic program for him in the fall. Also, in the middle of the summer I might want to try and get out earlier for our outings to avoid the heat.

One of the best things about homeschooling is that our schedule can be very flexible. If it isn't working it can change quickly and easily.

A year of progress, 5 minutes at a time

We have been homeschooling for a little over a year now. It has been an amazing journey. One of the things I have liked the most is being able to see the steady progress the Nuthatch has made. One of the most remarkable areas of improvement has been his handwriting.

Writing has been a difficult task for him. I didn't worry too much about it, they say printing skills often take longer to develop in boys than in girls. Also, as this was his Kindergarten year, I kept my expectations low. We have just worked away at it, for 5 minutes a day. I didn't want him to do any more than that, I knew it would only make both of us frustrated.

Here are photos of his work, one picture per month. I apologize about the quality of the photos, they're a little dark.

I was having trouble convincing him to write at all.

He agrees to trace a few uppercase letters and try a couple on his own. He turns 5 years old.

He tries to write simple words several times.

I read about the technique of copywork and tried having him write from his easy readers. It was too hard for him and he was very frustrated.

I'm still stubbornly trying the copywork, despite the fact that it isn't working well. He hates writing.

I back off and we start tracing individual letters. I find the Handwriting without Tears website.

More tracing. Lots of stickers for positive reinforcement.

We start working on correct letter formation. I discovered Charlotte Mason and her focus on forming one perfect letter per day.

I learn about Charlotte Mason's idea of erasing poorly formed letters. He writes a few letters each day.

Now he is able to write a word somewhat perfectly.

He writes one word a day.

I think it's time to move on to the next step, when I figure out what that is. He will be 6 years old next month.

As I scroll through the photos I can hardly believe that the last four photos were from the same kid. I showed Nuthatch his work from a year ago. He couldn't believe that was the way he used to write. It was a great moment. Looking back, I can see not only his growth as a student, but also mine as a teacher. We have learned how to work together to find that magic spot where he is challenged but the work is not too difficult.

Treasure hunting for books

I spend a lot of time hunting for and evaluating resources to use for our homeschooling. The curriculum that I have chosen uses many older books that have been reprinted or the text is available online. You can purchase most of these books on Amazon for ten to fifteen dollars. I started ordering a book here and there for when the Nuthatch starts grade one. Then I read a suggestion that you can often find these books at used bookstores.

I have long had very romantic notions of used bookstores. I didn't shop in them much, mostly because I always used the library or I never knew what I was looking for. When I was young I dreamed that I would meet my future husband in a bookstore as we perused the shelves side by side, looking for the same classic novel. It would be a rainy fall evening and we would go to a little coffeeshop afterwards and talk until they closed.

In reality, I met my future husband in a student house at university, where I kept flooding his basement room with the washing machine. He is a computer guy, and the water would pool underneath his computer workstation where the web of cables, cords and wires connected all of his devices together. It was true love.

Anyways, back to the books. I finally had a good reason to search the used bookstores, so at Christmas time we headed downtown together with my list. My very patient husband waited, bored to tears, while I looked through their entire children's section (it is still true love, 15 years later). I found a few good items, especially a lovely hardcover copy of 'Make Way for Ducklings' by Robert McCloskey. The books were still $10 a book, although now they were hardcovers instead of paperbacks.

My searching was yielding good results, however my greatest discovery came quite by surprise to me. I had been decluttering my house of the toys and outgrown clothes. I boxed and bagged the stuff and drove to Goodwill to drop it off. On a whim, I decided to go inside the store and look around.

I suspect that the store I go to is not like most of the other Goodwill stores. They have all of the stuff in large shallow blue bins that are on wheels. There are bins of clothes, bins of toys, bins of household items and bins of...books! I started rummaging around to see what I could find.

I'm not sure what I picked up that day, but I knew I was on to a good thing. On my next trip to drop off stuff I went in again, and this time found a very nice hardcover copy of 'Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare'. I was so excited, what were the chances that I would find this book here? I snatched it up quickly, certain there were others on the prowl for the jewel I had just found. I took it up to the cashier, not sure what this find would cost me. Fifty cents! I could not believe it. I had found a goldmine.

Now I was addicted. I was also spring cleaning and conveniently finding more items to go to Goodwill so I could look for more books. On my next trip I found the complete set of Winston Churchill's 'A History of the English Speaking Peoples' and a 6 volume set of his memoirs of WWII (for myself, not for the Nuthatch). There was also another copy of 'Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare' which I picked up for a friend. My bill came to five dollars.

I wondered who was dropping off these great books at Goodwill. I would read the names written on the inside covers and picture an older gentleman or lady who had passed away, and their children had taken all of their beloved books to Goodwill, not appreciating what they were worth. Not from a monetary perspective, but from the richness of the language and ideas that were inside, the words of good writers.

They are in good hands now, on the shelves of our small but steadily growing library. I will need more space for these books soon. Perhaps I should clean out my closet and make a trip to Goodwill.

The Price of Professional Development

There is an old phrase called 'Mother Culture' used by homeschoolers who follow a Charlotte Mason approach to education. I ran a google search on the Ambleside Online site and was surprised to find that Charlotte Mason herself did not use the term, it appeared only in a parent's review article.

Is there not some need for "mother culture"? ...Then she can listen to her children, and perhaps do a little thinking--not about frocks and foods, but about characters, and how to deal with them; or she can take a book, and "grow" that way.

From a Parent's Review article, 1892-93

The term irks me somewhat. It conjures up meanings in my mind that are completely contrary to what is intended by the phrase. Each time I hear the term 'mother culture' I cannot help but think of the 'mommy eating bonbons and watching soap operas' stereotype, the mommy wars between the stay at home and working mothers, the mommies carting their children to preschool dance classes and infant swim lessons. I think of what the concept of 'mother' is in our current culture. Instead, 'Mother culture' is actually meant to convey the idea that mothers should take some time out of 'mothering' to read books, go for walks, explore their own interests.

So, when I hear the term 'mother culture' I mentally substitute 'professional development', which might not accurately represent the concept either. As a teacher, whether it is of my own children or of other people's children, I am a professional. It took awhile to get out of the 'I'm just a housewife' mind set, but it was very helpful once I did.

The wisest woman I ever knew--the best wife, the best mother, the best mistress, the best friend--told me once, when I asked her how, with her weak health and many calls upon her time, she managed to read so much, "I always keep three books going--a stiff book, a moderately easy book, and a novel, and I always take up the one I feel fit for.

from the same article

Last summer I picked up a copy of a book called 'The Well-Educated Mind'. It is a reading guide to the great books of classic literature for adults. I started at the beginning of her list with Don Quixote. It took me almost 4 months to finish that book. I soon saw the wisdom in having several books on the go.

I'm now working my way through Jane Eyre (I skipped a few books in between). It is challenging to find time in the day to read the classics. I had grabbed a moment on the weekend when the boys were visiting their grandparents. The house was calm and quiet, except for the Chickadee, who would appear halfway through each paragraph with her loud and demanding requests, "Want cereal!", "Diaper!", "Outside!", "Stroller!", "Want cereal!". I finally relented by handing her a mostly empty container of Rice Krispies.

I returned to my novel, snuggled a little deeper into the couch, and managed to read a good section of the book, uninterrupted at last. Every now and then I would sneak a glance at the Chickadee. She was contentedly shovelling Rice Krispie dust into her mouth, most of which was making a sizeable mess on the carpet. Her little arm would reach down into the depths of the container as she tried to extract every last bit of crunchy goodness.

When she had finished, most of my living room carpet was covered with a fine layer of Rice Krispie powder. However, I did find out whether or not Jane married Mr. Rochester in the end.

My secret reason for homeschooling

There are lots of reasons people choose to homeschool their children. I'm not going to go into all of them, you can take a peek here if you're interested. My secret reason did not make the top ten. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, it's not a particularly honorable sentiment, it won't make a great slogan or lead a movement. I homeschool my children because I'm too lazy to take them to school.

The Nuthatch did go to school for 6 months. We enrolled him in Junior Kindergarten when he was four years old. Here is his 'First Day of School' photo.

The Chickadee had just been born when he started school. At first it wasn't too hard. The weather was warm, the Chickadee was happy to sleep in her car seat on the ride to and from school.

The drive to school only took about two minutes. It's a ten minute walk to get there, but with the 2 year old Bluejay in tow it easily turned into a 20 minute walk (40 minutes round trip). At some point the Chickadee would wake up and decide she was hungry. We did walk a few times but in my sleep deprived fog it was soon ruled out as an option.

Then, it was winter. Fall jackets became winter snowsuits and boots. The clock was always ticking as I tried to convince a toddler and a 4 year old to eat breakfast and get dressed quickly. (The only thing a toddler does quickly is make a large mess when you aren't looking.) By the time I had corralled everyone into their car seats and made the round trip to school at least 20 minutes had passed. We would go back home for the rest of the morning and repeat the whole scenario at lunch time.

Then the Chickadee was not a newborn anymore. She needed to nap in her crib. I would take the groggy baby out of her crib in the morning to drive the Nuthatch to school, and then she would be awake for the morning, and right about when I needed to pick him up again, she would be down for a nap. Never wake a sleeping baby, anyone?

The 2 1/2 hour 'break' that I got in the morning while the Nuthatch was at school was spent caring for an infant and entertaining the Bluejay because his playmate was not at home.

It seemed like a lot of work, and I wasn't convinced of the great benefits he was receiving at school. Did I mention that I am a former public school teacher? Granted, I taught grade 7, but I knew that a lot of the time spent at school was taken up with snack time, recess, a visit to the library, listening to a story, doing a craft and so on. I can't imagine how much time was spent trying to get the attention of a bunch of four year olds. I had trouble getting the attention of one 4 year old. I could do all that at home with a lot less effort. My laziness was getting the better of me.

So, at March Break of the Nuthatch's first year of school, we brought him home. He's been home for a year now. I no longer have to rush everyone to get ready for school. My time spent as Mrs. Chauffeur is now time spent as Mrs. Teacher. Our lessons take under an hour (this year he would be in Senior Kindergarten). The Nuthatch and Bluejay have lots of time to play together.

...mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them.

Charlotte Mason, Home Education p. 44

Sometimes when I mention that I homeschool I hear the comment "How do you do it?", or "I could never do that!" implying the monumental effort I must be undertaking to educate my children. I just smile and shrug and think to myself of the monumental effort it took to take my child to school. "Sending him to school was too much work" doesn't seem like quite the right answer. They work wonders taking their children to school, and I work a different kind of wonder at home.