Tag Archives: home education

Old Books, New Books, Living Books

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You are ready to begin your Charlotte Mason Home School journey and there’s so much to learn! One of the big ideas to stump many people is living books. Are all living books old? Are all old books living books? How can I tell a living book from one that is not a living book. What the heck is twaddle? Are all new books twaddle? Where do I find these elusive Living Books?

You aren’t alone in your confusion. We all pretty much have to go through this learning process, and figuring it our for our selves, because what is good for one person may not fit for the next person, so the definition of Living Books is as individual as your family. An example that stands out is my daughter being annoyed while going through a Roman history book where everything was about a battle and boooooring. It was absolutely dead to her. For my son, a book with heroes in battle is the ultimate living book, so he liked that part. While all living books have some things in common, not all books grab the imagination of all people, so we have to find what fits our home, and our kids and ourselves.

Defining Terms

Living books are books written in a conversational, narrative manner, that appeals to the reader in a friendly or even confidential way. The language used is accessible and understandable, but not dumbed down. The ideas or story are presented clearly, so that you can picture the events or facts in your mind in a memorable way. Other words that describe Living books could be wholesome, engaging, healthy and edifying. Living books encourage the reader to learn more or about the story or topic and to think and have opinions and emotions about the issues and events that have been presented.

Sometimes its easier to describe what something isn’t rather than what it is. Living books are not dull, dry or boring. Living books generally do not blatantly preach a specific point of view, but can often show an argument in favor of a specific point of view so well that the reader does become engaged with the point of view of the author. Living books do not encourage or glorify vice, disrespect or unhealthy thinking or life choices.

A Word About Non Fiction Books

Usborn or Eyewitness DK type books with great photos and short factual text blurbs can be fascinating to browse through, but as they are not written in narrative form, they are not generally considered Living books. If your children are used to many of their books being in this style of books, they may well have a big adjustment to living books because its a whole different style of writing and requires more thinking and understanding. These photo heavy books can be valuable learning experiences because of the amazing photography or charts/drawings, and information presentation, but they not living books.

Twaddle

The Oxford dictionary define twaddle as

“trivial or foolish speech or writing; nonsense”

So twaddle in our usage is any nonsensical book that doesn’t spark joy, Some people think Dr. Seuss wrote twaddle, other people think Dr. Seuss wrote living books because of the rhyming, humor and engaging although simple stories. Some people think that Captain Underpants books are twaddle because they are not uplifting. Other people think the silliness and humor make them living books. As parents and stewards of our children, its up to us to decide where we draw the line.

Where to Get Started

There are many places to look to get you started on living books. Newbery and Caldecott award winning books are often wonderful living books. The website https://www.livingbookslibrary.com/ has a lot of good suggestions as well. Your local librarian often will have book suggestions by age or reading level and can help you find what you are looking for. Finally the Book Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt is a wonderful place to find more living books for your family.

Get Started Now!

So my best suggestion for you is to get started now! Don’t wait to find the perfect book but just get a couple that look good from Amazon or the library and see what you and your kiddos think, and go from there. Its much easier to steer a moving ship than to steer one that is standing still. 😀

I would love to hear how this process is going for you. Let me know in the comments!

Beginning Narration Challenges

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Narration is a complicated skill, requiring memory, organization, prioritizing, and many more skills. Doing oral narration takes away the stress of having to do the physical writing from a young child, so they can concentrate on composing their thoughts into a coherent message and is an important precursor to more advanced writing and composition in later school years. Unfortunately, sometimes the process gets off to a rough start and it can be hard as a parent to know what to do to help. Having done this a few times, I have some suggestions for getting started.

Short Passages

Use shorter passages for narrations. Aesop’s Fables are great for this, but even these may be too long for some kids, so just read one sentence at a time and ask, “what was that about?” and see if they can do it with very short segments and then slowly, slowly work up from there.

What is your favorite_______?

Instead of asking “tell me everything you remember about tree frogs” try “what is your favorite thing that we read about tree frogs?”. The first one is such a large ask that is can be overwhelming for them to try to organize the information to tell you about it. If “tell me your favorite” gets him talking, follow up with “what else do you remember?” and since they are already talking its easier to keep going. Slowly work up to them telling more information.

Provide a Roadmap

Another thing you can do is give the child a road map for what you are reading. Before you start go over any words he may no know, places or names to remember, etc.Use a white board or a piece of paper towrite them down to help your child remember.

Evaluate for Problems

Lastly, if things aren’t improving over time consider an evaluation with an audiologist for auditory processing challenges, especially if he tends to have long pauses before answering in general, or if he needs directions more than once or can’t do two step directions. Consider educational testing to look for other learning challenges as well.

Grace in the Process

Narration is a very complicated skill, sometimes it takes a while for them to start picking it up, but with enough exposure and little roadmap and some gentle prompts it should start happening soon! Let me know your questions or experiences in the comments!

Home school Moms, It’s Time to Kick Your Inferiority Complex

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Great article by Annie Holmquist, home education graduate and education researcher, about how home ed parents are doing better than they think they are, on the Epoch Times

https://www.theepochtimes.com/bright/homeschool-moms-its-time-to-kick-your-inferiority-complex-5591097?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy

An Easy Start to Your Home School Year

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So you have decided to take the plunge– you are going to start homeschooling your kids. You’ve read everything you can get your hands on, you’ve bought all the cute and fun supplies, you’ve told your extended family and tried to calm their concerns, you agonized over curriculum and deciding if your 5 year old should start now or next year…

And now you think you are ready. Before you take that first big step (or really any time after you have already started) I would like to share the very best home education advice I ever got. It’s saved my bacon more times than I can count, and I dearly wish I could remember who originally said it.

“Start out slow, and then ease up”

OK, take a breath and let it out slowly…….. and then read it again.

“Start out slow, and then ease up”

For many home educators this is one of the hardest things… there is so much intensity about wanting to do it right and for many people that means doing it all.- if you are willing to put in the time to home educate your kids its a fair bet that you are pretty passionate about the results. And then our anxiety wants us to do it ALL THE TIME.

But doing it all, and doing it all right, and doing it all the time is not actually an attainable goal. If that’s what you are trying to do it will be overwhelming and really hard on the kids, and then they end up hating school. Ask me how I know? I did exactly this and had to learn a new way.

So I invite you to try a different way. If you have a little one just starting school, a few minutes a day is really all that is needed, One of my kiddos was very bouncy and ADHD and literally had an attention span that lasted 2 minutes when we started formal lessons at 6yo. We slowly expanded that to a more age appropriate level over the next few years but we did all the behavioral things to help, plenty of exercise, honored the child’s need to physically move, and slowly stretched it out, slowly adding subjects over weeks and months, and spreading them throughout the day.

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If you have older kids and the school year is just starting, you don’t have to jump into every book on the first day. Some of our best years have started with a first day of school tea party, where we reviewed what we are doing for the school year i.e. “this year we are studying the Greeks, and will study life science and learn to use a microscope and write even better than we did last year” and then read some poems and then just let them look at the new books, do an easy assignment or two and then we went to the park.

The next day when we started we just did a couple subjects and every few days added some new subjects/activities until we were at full capacity. After a few days off we would start slowly again, although building back up faster if we had only been off a short time. Slow and gentle takes the bite out of having to get back to work!

Here are some more ideas for an easy start to your home schooling year:

10 ways to start easy this homeschool year

Self Education

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Self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child’s nature. ~ Charlotte Mason

Problem Solving, Einstein’s Way

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We cannot solve our problems using the same thinking we used when we created them ~ Albert Einstein

Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options.

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If you are new to home schooling, or even if you’ve been doing this for a while, understanding the language used around home schooling choices can be pretty confusing. Today we are going to untangle some of these ideas and see how they fit together, so you can have the type of home education experience that fits your family and your goals! First lets define some terms.

Educational Philosophy

An educational philosophy is like a compass. It describes your goal and how to get there. Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Classical Education, Waldorf, Unit Studies, Eclectic, and Unschooling are some of the philosophies of education that are popular among home educators.

https://simplycharlottemason.com/what-is-the-charlotte-mason-method/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://amshq.org/About-Montessori: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/homeschooling-styles/waldorf-homeschooling/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://campfirecurriculums.com/unitstudy/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/unschooling/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://fearlesshomeschool.com/eclectic-homeschooling/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options.

Educational Methods

Educational methods are like the map that will guide your way from where you start, to where you want to be educationally. Textbooks, narrations, worksheets, note-booking, game based learning, and delayed formal lessons are examples of methods used in home education.

https://thecurriculumstore.com/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://www.homeschooldiner.com/guide/workbooks_worktexts.html: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://juiceboxhomeschool.com/notebooking-in-homeschool/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://themulberryjournal.com/activities/mathematics/ultimate-guide-gameschooling: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://www.prairiedusttrail.com/delayed-academics.html: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options.

Curriculum Choices

Here’s where it gets fun! Once you know what your goals are for educating your family (philosophy), and you have an idea how you would like to move toward those goals,(methods) its time to get to the nuts and bolts, the daily application through curriculum. Curriculum is the vehicle that will move you from your starting point to your goals.

Choosing a curriculum is very important because if you choose the wrong one it won’t take you where you want it to go– your compass and map will be pointing the wrong direction and you will likely end up in Riverside when you wanted to go to San Diego (true story)!

Here are some of my favorite curriculum shops:

https://simplycharlottemason.com/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://timberdoodle.com/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://www.bfbooks.com/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options. https://www.commonsensepress.com/: Educational Philosophy, Educational Methods, Curriculum Choices, and Finding a Path for Your Family Amid All the Options.

Putting in a Good Words for Eclectic Home Schooling and Adjusting As you Go

Some families choose to educate their children using a variety of methods and goals drawn from various educational philosophies. This can be a wonderful option! With any of these options its hard to go too far wrong as long as you are thinking through your choices and evaluating how its going as you move along, and are willing to adjust as needed. Just remember your curriculum vehicle has a steering wheel, you can change direction as needed.

Weeding Out Imposters

To find a curriculum that aligns with your educational philosophy you will need to do a little critical thinking. If a curriculum says it is “Montessori Inspired” that does not necessarily mean it aligns with Montessori philosophy, but maybe it just borrows some Montessori methods, which may be OK, or not. Look a little deeper before you buy. You can choose if it fits for your family or not.

You will need to look through the table of contents and the assignments to see if it aligns with your own ideas of how you want to spend your educational time. Is the math curriculum a spiral or master based format? It can make a difference so its good to know before you buy.

Final Word

When I started home educating my kids 30 something years ago, my philosophy of education was so, so different than it is now. I wanted to re-create a classroom experience for my kids, mostly because that’s all I knew. They had little 5yo size desks and pencil sharpeners, and a schedule and behavior charts and I wanted them to master right away all the material I taught.

Since then I have realized that my real goals aren’t test scores or college admission, but rather being able to think critically about a variety of subjects, being able to solve real life problems in practical ways, having a moral and spiritual foundation that helps them deal with real life problems small and large, and having strong character and perseverance when facing challenges, and to know Jesus as the loving caring Friend and King that I know, among other things.

Give yourself room to learn and grow. I’ve learned at least as much as my kids on this home schooling journey. As your understanding changes, so will your choices. Enjoy the Journey!

What questions do you have about philosophies, methods or curriculum choices? Ask in the comments!

It’s all in the Atmosphere!!!!

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“When the atmosphere encourages learning, the learning is inevitable.” –Elizabeth Foss

“Education is an atmosphere—that is, the child breathes the atmosphere emanating from his parents; that of the ideas which rule their own lives” (Charlotte Mason in Parents and Children, p. 247).

#MotivationMonday

What’s your goal, anyway?

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“The question is not, — how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education — but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”
― Charlotte Mason, School Education: Developing A Curriculum

For years now I’ve had this quote on a note card hanging over my desk or tucked into a book as a reminder to myself every day of why I am spending all this time and effort to educate my kids myself instead of sending them off to school somewhere. I want them to not just have knowledge, but to know how to get more knowledge about any subject they want. I want them to have ideas, and really think and be able to connect their ideas and to find joy and excitement in their ideas. I want their lives to be full, so their education needs to be full as well. ❤ #MotivationMonday

How Does Home Education Measure Up?

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Homeschooled: How American Homeschoolers Measure Up     Source: TopMastersInEducation.com