Secular Charlotte Mason

I realize that Lee Binz is not secular, but at least this month, she seems to be writing about many of the issues I usually end up addressing when mentoring other homeschoolers. This article sums up nicely my take on the DISADVANTAGES of having a teaching degree. I firmly believe that the key to great homeschooling is great PARENTING, not great teaching. Whenever I have academic issues with my kids it is almost always because of some parenting issue, not homeschooling or teaching issues. Most people do not realize that homeschooling your own kids is NOTHING like teaching other people's kids in a classroom!   (I've done both and there is a huge difference.) 

javascript:mox(); Read this brief article if you worry about whether you are qualified to teach your own kids. 

I no longer do learning centers as my kids are getting older but this blog has some nice pictures of learning centers for your  inspiration:  http://dontneednoeducation.blogspot.com/2010/03/learning-centers.html . If you have any pictures of learning centers that you would like to share send them in and I will post them for you. 

We used learning centers even before we started homeschooling. When my kids were in that explorative preschooler stage we had centers all around the house. Our centers included "creation station" an art/craft oriented center, science, math, geography (much like the one in the picture only we also had blank map posters), "post office" for writing exploration, a listening center for audio books (English & Spanish) we even had a games center that featured our educational games. I rarely had all these centers going at the same time. Instead I would rotate them depending on what we were studying and/or what the kids were interested in. The post office and creation station often centered around seasonal stuff. Postcards in the summer, Christmas cards in Dec., Valentine's cards in Feb., etc. Esp. in summer the science and creation station centers included nature based items. 

Why learning centers you may ask? Well, for us there were three main reasons. 1. It was easy for me to do since I had a lot of experience making them via student teaching, 2. my kids had worthwhile activities to do even if I had a multi-day migraine (much better than just watching tv all day every day) and 3. one of my kids required a huge amount of daily stimulation at that age. Learning centers were such a success at our house that when my youngest was preschool age my elder daughter created her own learning centers to "do preschool" with the youngest. I think it was one of the best years of their sisterhood and my youngest learned just as much as she would have at a formal preschool only this one was free and I didn't have to teach it! And, yes, I have used learning centers in our homeschooling life; esp. for math and science exploration. 

I could recommend books for creating your own learning centers but you really don't need them. Here is the thought process I used when creating ours.

1. Decide on your subject, theme or topic. Is is just a general science exploration center or will it be focused on a specific topic such as oceanography?

2. Decide where the center will be and what "furniture" you will need for it. Will you need a row of bins, a file size box, a wall for visual aides, or just a table? 

3. Decide how many children you want ant the learning center at one time as that will affect how much space you will need for the center (yes, even with just your own family this is important to determine ahead of time). Audio centers tend to be for individuals where-as a game center would require at least two children. Most of our centers were for 1-2 children at a time since we were cramped for space. 

4. Decide what materials you will need and begin gathering those. How much you need will be determined by your goals and the space you have set aside for the center. I always start with what I already own or can borrow and then add in materials that I had to buy. Your theme will determine what you need. Most science centers will need to include items such as magnifying glasses of various sorts (we really like jeweler's loops, which I may have spelled wrong), rulers in both standard and metric for measuring, a scale if you have one, and so on. I would often include one of our pets as part of our science center. I remember having our Betta fish in the center during our oceanography unit and our frog during the life cycles unit. I would also keep related videos and books there and the kids could take those out of the center to watch or read them. 

5. Explain very clearly to your children exactly how you want them to use and clean up the centers. I use to keep a little sign at each center stating how many kids were allowed at one time, how long they should spend at the center (either a maximum or minimum amount, whichever is appropriate). Also, explain that the items in the centers stay in the centers and don't belong all over the house (at first this can be hard for little ones but they'll catch on quickly). 

6. If you think you will use the center again store it in one of those office file boxes, clearly marked, as they are easy to stack in a closet when not in use (I have to admit this is an idea I got from my kids' preschool). 

I really like this blog, Jimmie's Collage.  While she is not secular she has a lot of great ideas that anyone can use in their homeschool.  In her latest post she talks about having flexibility with homeschool curriculum and how she goes about changing it.  She also gives summaries year by year in the 2nd link.  ~ Cori

http://jimmiescollage.com/2010/04/flexibility-in-homeschool-curriculum/

http://www.squidoo.com/jimmies-curriculum