A New Perspective

It's been a while since I posted here.  I thought that changing up our routine would help my frustrations with how things have been going.  Maybe we were just doing too much so we cut back to doing "school" to just two days a week.  Well, we did "school" on Monday of last week with mixed success.  By the time we got to Thursday and Friday, it was so out of our routine, we didn't do it at all.  I just felt like giving up.

Enjoying his egg carton caterpillar

In my absence, I've done a lot of praying, thinking, and reading about my future in homeschooling my children.  Is this something that I'm actually called to do?  Am I just being too ambitious?  Is Buddy too young?  Is my philosophy of education needing to be reworked?

Caterpillar banana snack

One thing I discovered over the last week was the class descriptions for preschool and kindergarten respectively at a local Christian school.  I found that my curriculum resembled the school's kindergarten program more closely than its preschool one.  The preschool program was much more play-based and reading stories instead of planned learning activities and crafts.  I realized that even though Little Buddy seems to pick up on concepts quickly, his emotional and social maturity is lacking for focusing on and feeling ready for doing things on his own.  My method of choice thus far has been having my child learn from what I've put before him instead of allowing him to learn at his own natural pace and in natural experiences.  After all, my son is three.  He shouldn't be in kindergarten until he's almost six.

Caterpillar Number Ordering

I also, quite by accident, stumbled across a Charlotte Mason website called, Ambleside Online.  After reading through some of the relevant pages, I realized (although it shouldn't have come as a shock to me) just how little I've followed Charlotte Mason's philosophy even though I had originally thought that's the route I intended to go.  Yes, we've done a little art study and composer study, but those are just side shows to the core of what CM teaches in the early years.

The big thing we are going to be focusing on in play.  It is amazing how much learning happens especially as the boys play together.  I've found that some of the most precious times I have with my sons is when I sit on the floor and watch them play together or near one another.  So much goes on!  If they are playing with Little People toys, their imaginations run wild.  Sometimes Little Buddy doesn't like how Button plays (i.e. "No, Button, the horse doesn't go there...") which leads us to another teaching moment where Buddy learns that he must share his toys and that other people may like to play differently than he likes to play.  The boys are also completely fascinated by their Wedgits.  Stacking, creating, knocking down, starting over, hiding other toys in their Wedgit creations can keep them entertained for quite a long time.  It also provides ample time to learn to share, to create together, and to respect what other people have created.

Another major thing that CM advocates is spending time outdoors.  Now, it's winter and cold and usually rainy in the Pacific Northwest, but as the days get longer and nicer, we are going to try to get outside more.  CM recommended getting children outside at least 1-1.5 hours in the morning and another 1-1.5 hours in the afternoon!  This can be a difficult task as if it is too cold, my children get sick, but in general, I think it is a good goal to strive for.  I've found that we are all happier if we get our of our little house and have room to move around.

This leads us on quite naturally to nature study.  We are blessed to be within a ten minute drive of numerous parks with trails that make you feel like you are in the middle of the forest somewhere.  In the last week or so, we've gone on half a dozen nature walks, and we've tried to talk about what we see, hear, and touch.  We also just got the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, and I'm looking forward to learning the names of the birds, trees, and everything else we encounter along with Little Buddy.  Ideally, I'd like to do at least one nature walk every other day weather-permitting.

Great books are, of course, very important.  During Button's naptime, I'm hoping to cuddle up with Little Buddy and read to him from some longer books that our one-year old won't be able to sit through.  We've got the complete tales of Beatrix Potter and A.A. Milne's World of Pooh that I'm hoping to go through with him.

Charlotte Mason also put an emphasis on handicrafts.  This is not one of my strong points, but I think it would be good for Little Buddy to be able to keep himself busy while creating something beautiful and useful.  As a preschooler, though, we still need to work on his fine motor control.  I think we'll be bringing out his lacing cards more often (maybe in the car?) and hopefully teach him how to help in the garden this coming spring.

With the lack of "structure" our devotions with the boys have been slack.  I want to bring this back with reading our Jesus Storybook Bible.  We also just started watching Steve Green's Hide 'Em In Your Heart DVD which is helping Little Buddy memorize Scripture without him even knowing it!  We also try to talk about all that God made while we are on our nature walks.  I'd also like to start encouraging more hymns in our home, but I haven't found how to do this quite yet although we do sing hymns to him before he goes to sleep at night.

We will also continue to work on habit training.  The first habit CM advocates is the Habit of Attention.  This is definitely something that Little Buddy needs to work on.  Although he can stay focused on a toy or book for long periods of time and can stay attentive in that way, I've recently discovered that he really isn't listening to me when I say something.  He isn't attentive with his ears.  I'll tell him something then immediately ask him what I just said.  He won't know.  He's starting to catch on though that I'm going to ask him what I just said so hopefully, he'll start paying attention!  He's so much happier when he knows what is going on instead of things being surprises to him because he wasn't listening to me.

Despite the length of this post, I really think this will be a much more relaxed take on our "schooling".  I've feel like I've learned a ton through this process although I feel bad on how much I have experimented with my son.  I want to enjoy his early years with him while he experiences the wonders of learning about the world around him.