Secular Charlotte Mason

Hi Gina,

So, after floundering through the month of January barely keeping my head above water with homeschooling and life, I have been thinking.  Yesterday Tom was home sick from church with a nasty cough and I was feeling particularly frustrated with how homeschooling was going with my eldest, Dale 10yog.  So I started a list:  What I want out of my homeschool.  Here's what I came up with:

Joy of Learning

Art Projects/Art History NOT CRAFTS

Nature Journal

Science

Practical Crafts: Sewing, cross stitch, embroidery, scrapbooking

Girl Scout Badges

Cooking

Whole Body: Exercise, Yoga

Music: Piano

Whole Books

Poetry

Love of Language

Geography

Math

Field Trips

After I got it all on paper I realized why I've been feeling so stressed and freaked out about where school is going!  It's because I've been headed the wrong direction!  I've been much too in the 'scholarly/WTM' camp -- I've been focusing on 'academics' rather than 'learning'.  Does that make sense?  So I stayed at the computer and started a new schedule, putting in time for listening to books on tape while she does her cross stitch and setting aside a whole afternoon for science with her dad.  I felt better.  I think this will be more 'loose' and 'whole person' than what we were trying to do before and that will be good. 

It was also nice to get it on paper and realize that I am *trying* to do a lot of things with her and to also realize that fitting them all in around lessons and life isn't an easy task.  I felt much less overwhelmed after seeing it all laid out. 

So today was our first day on the new schedule.  Not perfect, (Tom was still sick, which always throws the best laid plans out of whack) but I felt more grounded in what we (I) am trying to do for her education. 

There ya go, hope my ramblings serve some purpose other than to practice my typing. 

Krystal

"I've been focusing on 'academics' rather than 'learning'. Does that make sense?"

Krystal,

That totally makes sense to me. I had that aha moment last year but have struggled with getting as CM as my girls need. Part of why I've sent them to school for a term is so that I can deWTM myself (which is also why I stopped going to Classical Ed.) and read more CM for the upper grades. I do know what I need to be doing with KodyGirl but I am still too WTM for Tide. Think I will borrow your list idea!

You know, as I was reading your list I started thinking, "how CM of you" lol. I think D will shine no matter which way you opt to go but I think you all will actually enjoy CM more. I think it's more family oriented somehow (must be all those read alouds lol). My kids also seem to prefer that my role be more their partner in learning than their teacher (I think CM actually used the word ally rather than partner--love the ally concept). 

Let us all know how it is going as you progress more towards CM. 

Sounds great Krystal. 

I haven't felt very creative in January and we've haven't done any art or handcrafts yet for 2010.  We are doing fine with academics, I think.  I just need to get more creative. 

I thought this was very interesting. I am quoting from Essential Homeschooling by Sherri Linsenbach:

"Some studies have shown that people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they  see and hear, 70% of what they say and 90% of what they say and do." 

This is good because CM style narrations would get us to 70%.  According to this, those creative projects that go along with our studies might be more essential for remembering what we are learning than I realized.

Cori,

When I was in college for teaching (I have a dual degree in special ed. and elem. ed.) several of my methods classrooms had those stats posted on the wall to remind us to include more projects and group learning and less worksheets in our lesson planning.

Bloom's Taxonomy is another handy reference/rule of thumb for figuring out how to ask quality questions during our children's learning. I'm currently working on a page about Bloom's Taxonomy which should  be up this month or next. 

It's nice to know that is the current thought and not just another random study.   I'd like to see that book sometime.