Goals for 2011-2012

New year, new goals.  I've come a long way in my philosophy of education since last year.  I've read a ton, and life experiences have shown me just what is realistic for our young family.  I laugh as I read my goals from last year.  Thinking about what I hoped to accomplish and what we did, I'd have to say we had an incredibly successful year.  Buddy did indeed learn his alphabet last year.  In fact, he's reading full-on books. Button is still learning to talk, but he knows most of the sounds that letters make thanks to his big brother.

However, I now believe that my priorities were wrong last September.  Instead of thinking of my children as whole people created in the image of God, I treated them as a brain that needed to be filled up with knowledge.  I now know this is wrong, and I know it will be a continual struggle for me to treat my children as persons who need my love and care and dedication to bring them up as disciples of Christ.  Learning comes at its own time and in its own place.  Especially in these early years, I need to remember that education is "an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life."  I don't need to create artificial means to teach my children what they need to know at this stage.

“It is not an environment that these want, a set of artificial relations carefully constructed, but an atmosphere which nobody has been at pains to constitute. It is there, about the child, his natural element, precisely as the atmosphere of the earth is about us. It is thrown off, as it were, from persons and things, stirred by events, sweetened by love, ventilated, kept in motion, by the regulated action of common sense. We all know the natural conditions under which a child should live; how he shares household ways with his mother, romps with his father, is teased by his brothers and petted by his sisters; is taught by his tumbles; learns self-denial by the baby’s needs, the delightfulness of furniture by playing at battle and siege with sofa and table; learns veneration for the old by the visits of his great-grandmother; how to live with his equals by the chums he gathers round him; learns intimacy with animals from his dog and cat; delight in the fields where the buttercups grow and greater delight in the blackberry hedges." (Vol. 6, pp. 96, 97)

Consequently, I've gone back to looking more closely at the Charlotte Mason method.  I love the relaxed approach, the focus on children as people, and her commitment to Christ.  I love how she doesn't push children before their appropriate time, but when that time comes, she expects their very best work.  I love the idea of character formation especially in relating to God, with themselves, and with others.  I love the idea of reading living books, and purging our home from twaddle.  I only pray that I can be a mother who looks to God for guidance as I raise these two young persons.

The following sections are things that I want to focus on this year.  I've added a Charlotte Mason quotation for each goal from her Original Homeschooling Series.  The pictures are various photos that we've taken of the boys over the past year.

Nature

“A love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour” (Vol. 1, p. 71).

Button in Spring 2011

This is one area that I want to really focus on this year.  As much as possible, I'd like to try to be outside and provide my children with opportunities to explore and learn in an open environment while enjoying God's creation.  We live in Seattle which has an abundant number of parks and open spaces.  I'm hoping to visit a new park each week with my children and write a review about it.

During our time out-of-doors, I'm hoping to just let the boys explore.  We'll go on nature walks, find big fields to play games in, have outdoor picnics, and read stories together.  Try to see Christ in nature.  Enjoy His beautiful gift.

As we visit new parks, I'm sure that at times we shall find ourselves at parks with playgrounds as well.  These are fine at times, but I'm hoping to make them more of lesser occurrence since I want my children to enjoy natural playgrounds with climbing trees, playing with leaves, and balancing on logs.  Math and science will be obtained through our observances of what is around us.

Devotions

“Believing that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, that the man is established in the Christian faith according as the child has been be well grounded in the Scriptures by their parents, and shall pursue the study with 

instructed, the question of questions for us, is, how to secure that the children shall

intelligence, reverence, and delight” (Vol. 2, p. 100).

Advent 2010

I want to reestablish our "Tea Time" ritual.  Having our daily Bible time immediately following nap/quiet times is extremely refreshing.  One thing I'd like to do differently, though, is to actually read the Bible to the boys instead of a children's version.  I was surprised by how well Buddy understood my reading of Jonah or the story of Noah without any watering down for children's sake.  Even his vocabulary is expanded in this way.  We will also sing hymns at this time.

For Scripture memory, I'd like to get some of the Seeds Family Worship CDs.  Each song is a verse that is relevant for kids.  The boys love all kinds of music, so I think this will be a good way to do memory work before school begins.

We are trying to teach the boys to pray.  The like to pray every night at bedtime.  At this point, we are just feeding to them what to say, but I look forward to a day when they will chose their own prayers and have a relationship with God for themselves.

Handicrafts

"The Handicrafts best fitted for children under nine seem to me to be chair-caning, carton-work, basket-work, Smyrna ruts, Japanese curtains, carving in cork, samplers on coarse canvas showing a variety of stitches, easy needlework, knitting (big needles and wool), etc. The points to be born in the mind in children's handicrafts are: (a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such as pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not allowed; (d) and that, therefore, the children's work should be kept well within their compass." (Vol. 1, pg 315-316)

Buddy in Fall 2010

I'd like to complete just one fun and useful handicraft a week.  Trying to do multiple crafts a week last year only to throw them away after a couple of days (hours?) just seemed to be a waste of time, energy, and resources.  Some ideas that I have for this fall are these lovely no sew pumpkins and making beautiful bookmarks from the things we collect during our nature times (something like this, but I'll probably use paper and my laminator).  I include baking with mommy as part of this time as well.  (Thank goodness for the wonderful CM Blog Carnival to help me in my endeavor!)  As in our nature study, it's amazing how much science and math can be obtained through baking and handicrafts.

Reading Good Books

“One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough; and if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child’s intellectual life” (Vol. 2, p. 279).

Family photo in late spring 2011

The boys love to read.  I am constantly being brought books to read to them.  I recently purchased My Book House from Ebay, and I am loving it.  It is the perfect children's treasury, and there is no twaddle!  Poems, fables, legends, Bible stories, and fairy tales!  What's not to love?  I've been purging the rest of our children's book collection and trying to get rid of anything that I don't think is perfect for our kids.  It is really hard, but I think we have a more manageable handle on what we read with them.

As for reading lessons, I'm am trying to not go too fast.  Buddy is reading, and he can handle some Dr. Suess (although I have a sneaky suspicion that it's twaddle).  He's really eager to read anything he can after watching the LeapFrog DVDs (Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, and Word Caper).  I also let him play Starfall during some of his quiet times.  At this point, I believe we are varying widely from the Charlotte Mason approach.  However, as we get closer to kindergarten, we will be using the Delightful Reading program by Simply Charlotte Mason.  Buddy is simply not yet ready for formal lessons.


Habit Training

"We are not unwilling to make efforts in the beginning with the assurance that by-and-by things will go smoothly; and this is just what habit is, in an extraordinary degree, pledged to effect. The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children." (Vol. 1, p. 136)

One habit that I want to stress with Buddy this year is the habit of self-control.  I think of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, and I hope that he can learn to distract himself in order to overcome his desires.  Of course, seeing as he's three and a half and his brother is two, we will also be working on the habits of obedience and temper.  I'm hoping to get this book and this one to aid me in my quest.

Music and Art

“We shall inspire our children with those great ideas which shall create a demand, anyway, for great Art” (Vol. 2, p. 262).

First picture study - Fall 2010

Last year, I tried to really regulate what our artist study and composer would be of the month.  This was unnecessary, although I still would like to make sure that we have lovely art in our home and listen to good music.  Currently, we are looking at pictures by Mary Cassatt.  We got some nice books at the library with her work in them.  We also enjoy Mike Venezia's DVDs.  When we are ready for a change, we will find someone else to "study".  Right now, it's more about exposure.

For classical music, we still really enjoy the Classical Kids CDs.  Right now, we are listening to Beethoven Lives Upstairs, and we got the book by the same name although not word-for-word from the CD.  (There also happens to be a DVD for this one, but we didn't get it since I think the book and the CD were enough to keep Buddy's interest.)  We also listen regularly to the classical music station on the radio.

Hymns are a personal favorite of mine.  Since the boys were infants, we have been singing hymns to them as they go to sleep.  The boys love to listen to us sing, and they enjoy it if I print out the hymns for them to hold while we sing them.

We won't be learning any instruments this year, but we talk with Buddy about learning the violin or guitar in the future.  He gets excited about that.

Conclusion

As I look at these goals, I see that unlike last year, there is nothing that I want to see Buddy (or Button) accomplish in the coming months.  Instead, I hope that they grow into amazing young boys who love God and their fellows.  Exposure to the greats is what I'd like to provide for them this coming year: great art, great books, great play, great nature time, and of course, our great God.  Truthfully, it feels out of reach.  I know that our best year will happen if I spend a lot of it on my knees.  I hope that I can be a mom that remembers to pray.