Planning for Next Year

As our school year in "Ye Olde Kitchen Schoolhouse" is coming to a close, I find myself looking forward to this September with great anticipation.

Crazy, I know.

If I had known just how much fun learning could be when I was in school. . . but I digress. I plan to move to a very light schedule for this summer, doing nature study on Mondays and doing a library run on Tuesdays, so the boys can participate in the library's summer reading challenge, but when I think about what I have ahead for the guys to do in the fall, I get really excited. I hope they will be too!

Part of my planning is more than choosing a curriculum or planning some field trips. I really want to delve into Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education and begin to model our learning from her writings. A simple summary of her thoughts, I believe, can be taken from the e-book, Education Is . . . by Sonya Shafer, available as a free download at www.SimplyCharlotteMason.com. In it, Ms. Shafer says, "'Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.' Now, those three words are quite a bit different from the other three words people will commonly give you when taking about education . . .But Charlotte had a much broader scope of all that contributes to a child's education. You see, education is not just What do I need to know to pass the test? Education, according to Webster, involves training by both formal instrucion and supervised practice; it includes all that we do to help our children develop mentally, morally and aesthetically; it entails our persuading our chidren to feel, believe or act in a desired way."

I was first introduced to Miss Mason's ideas on education a couple of years ago when a fellow homeschooler lent me her copy of Real Learning, by Elizabeth Foss. Upon reading that book, all of the research I had done on homeschooling came together. Until then, I had been convinced that I should homeshool. Once I read this book, I had a much better idea of how I wanted to homeschool.

I was prompted to read the e-book, Education Is . . ., once I heard about it on Mrs. Foss's blog, and I decided to take part in the book discussion. This post, long winded as it is, is not about my thoughts on Miss Mason's entire philosopy, but regarding part of Ms. Shafter's book, where she speaks about Education is a discipline.

As I read through this book and some of the other very insightful writings of other ladies taking part in this discussion, I thought about dicipline, and how we seem to be lacking in that around here! Jon and I have been trying to figure out how best to get to the heart of the matter and clear up some dicipline issues that we can't seem to break, and I really felt that with the coming school year, it was imperative that we do.

Ms. Shafer offers five ways to cultivate good habits (and even titles her sixth chapter with those very words!), and I decided last night, pen in hand, to tackle those habits and figure out just how to eradicate them from my child. It didn't take long for me to realize as I was writing that I noticed a trend. Sure enough, when I reached the end of my exuastive list of bad habits that I wanted to chang in my child, I surely could, and should, have titled the page, "Habits I need to change in myself."

Could I have a glass of milk with my humble pie? Thanks.

I looked up at my husband and mentioned this. He just smiled.

This certainly harkens back to the point that Mrs. Foss made in her book: we are educated by our intimacies. What good is it for me to handpick the intimacies that my children are educated by, if they set forth such an example! Now, this of course relates to number five on Ms. Shafer's list on how to cultivate good habits, that is, don't nag. But I realized that I had some serious cleaning up to do on my own part, before I can expect a child to improve his behavior. After looking at the list and praying about it, I decided today that making sure my tone was kind at all times had to be number one. It absoluely pains my heart to hear my children speak in an unkind manner to each other, and when I realize they are repeating my very words in my very tone, its a real blow to the ego.

Who knew reading a book to help me put together school for next year would be such a kick in the tush!

But why shouldn't it be? If education is an atmosphere, I need to create a loving, calm, secure atmosphere at all times, not just when I feel like it. What a powerful witness would that be, to really show my children time and again, that it is good to do the right thing when I don't feel like it. I've discussed that with my son a few times lately, when I've asked him why he didn't do something he was supposed to do. "I didn't want to," was his reply. How often does he see me not doing the things I need to do, because I don't want to do them. Of course, he has free will, and yes, he is young, but I also know that I have much growing to do in the example department, especially if I want him to grow as well. After all, as I recently heard in a parenting talk, kids can smell a hypocrite a mile away. I don't want to be that hypocrite.

And I thought the kids were the ones doing all the learning with this homeschooling business! ;)