Hello again! Today I want to share a bit more about my homeschooling philosophy. and how it came about. Like many new homeschoolers, I started out with a "box curriculum", meaning I chose a curriculum provider, ordered a kit that included all subjects and we were set to go, or at least I thought we were. Then all the fun was sucked right out of our days. It was all about getting the workbooks done. There was no excitement, no curiosity, no desire to learn, just move through the workbooks, 3 or so pages per day, 1 for each subject. It just felt wrong. There were often tears of frustration from both mom and son. I knew this couldn't be how God intended learning to take place.
I providentially stumbled across a new book about homeschooling. I scraped up enough pennies to purchase a used copy on ebay and eagerly anticipated its arrival. The title was A Charlotte Mason Companion (by Karen Andreola) and it did not disappoint! This book opened up a whole new world to me. The ideas espoused there in sounded too good to be true! Learn with real, living, interesting books rather than dry textbooks? Study nature for science? Go on nature walks, learn handicrafts, explore your neighborhood, then your city for beginning geography? It all sounded so wonderful! So common sense! So holistic and practical!
So I immediately ditched the workbooks (except for math) and headed to the library. Arms loaded down with books we walked next door to the city park and began to learn together. I was amazed at the difference! We were learning to appreciate nature, reading wonderful books, and enjoying learning together at last! It was like a dream come true for this mama and I never looked back. True learning was finally taking place and our curiosity was being awakened from it's dull and dreary sleep.
Through the years I read many more books on homeschooling. Soon, all the ideas that resonated with me began to meld into my own style of homeschooling, gleaned from those who had gone before and from personal experience. My methods are Charlotte Mason inspired with a heavy dose of Ruth Beechick thrown in for good measure. Above all, the methods were tweaked and added to and subtracted from until they fit real life for me and for my family. If anything seemed overly complicated, we ditched it. I believe God created us to want to learn and that it will come to children naturally if we cultivate that desire.
It's kind of like planting a garden. We don't have rigid expectations for how each plant will grow and thrive. We study that particular plant. We learn about it's needs and perfect growing conditions and we seek to provide those things so that it can blossom and produce fruit. Likewise, we should become students of children in general, and our children in particular so that we might help them to blossom into all God created them to be.
I am a conservative Christian who enjoys and cultivates a simple life. These parts of me have been a big part of molding my homeschool philosophy into what it is today. My goal has never been to raise geniuses nor for my children to get into elite colleges. I simply wanted to teach them to love God, to love learning about His world, and to be prepared and willing to follow His leading in their lives. If my goals resonate with you, I hope you'll comment below and share your thoughts and questions.
In my next post I'll share a bit more about how this philosophy played out in our day to day life throughout the years.
God bless and take care!
Melanie
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