Archive for the ‘education’ Category:
Simple Woman’s Daybook for July 7th 2008
Don’t forget to stop by Peggy’s for all the links entered in this week’s Simple Woman’s Daybook.
For Today
Outside my Window… pouring down rain and terribly muggy. Everything feels damp.
I am thinking…there’s no point in trying to do anything with my hair other than piling it on top of my head.
I am thankful for…fan’s and window A/C’s in this very old house.
From the kitchen…the sounds of clean up and the smell of oatmeal.
I am creating…surprises for the conference –can’t share yet.
I am going…with hubby and the kids to see WALL•E today!
I am wearing…my pj’s
I am reading…e-mail at the moment. Not a lot of time for reading right now though I am paging through Clean and Green and still reading Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Craft of Catechesis (great book!)
I am hoping…that the humidity goes down soon.
I am hearing…the sweet chatter of little Maria as she eats her breakfast.
Around the house…a few chores, still painting, still sewing
One of my favorite things…being “caught up” –it doesn’t happen often but when it does it sure is sweet!
A few plans for the rest of the week…sewing, painting, filling orders and maybe a birthday treat. . .
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you…
Subscribe to the comments for this postThe CCC and the Craft of Catechesis
Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Craft of Catechesis
Someone on my sewing list asked about this book. I hadn’t seen it yet but as I am a catechist and a big fan of the CCC, of course I had to get it.
I’m not done with it yet (being right-brained I jumped around the entire book to get a feel for it and then went back to the beginning plus now Tim swiped it from me) but it is fabulous!
This book is, in my opinion, essential to understanding what catechesis is and how it should be implemented.
The forward alone (by Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn) would be worth the whole book –but the rest is good as well.
I like it so much I am going to make it required reading for all our RCIA catechists.
Ever so close!
Alice Gunther’s much anticipated book, Haystack Full of Needles, is now available for pre-order at Hillside Education!
I’m so excited for Alice and cannot wait to read what’s promises to be a truly wonderful home education resource.
From the “Foreword” by Laura Berquist:
“It is a book about charity. It is a book about how to love your fellow homeschoolers, and how to demonstrate that love. It is a book about how to model the virtues of hospitality, kindness and patience for your children. It gives many excellent suggestions on how to find other homeschoolers, but, most importantly, it gives instruction in how to build a community . . .
I homeschooled my own children for 23 years. I loved those days, and I can honestly say we had a very good time. Nonetheless, I wish I had had this book . . .
I love this book and I don’t say that lightly. It is truly wonderful.”
I’m sold! I sure hope I can get my copy autographed. 
If you’d like to meet Alice in person and hear her speak on this very important subject of socialization, join us at the 2008 Family-Centered Learning Conference July 26th in Lancaster, PA. And I promise she’ll autograph your copy too!
Amen to that!
I have been a fan of Fr. George Rutler for years. I absolutely love this quote of his that was forwarded to me today (thanks Julie!):
I’d encourage your youngest one to abandon kindergarten altogether. Almost everything I learned was learned outside the
classroom, and school itself interrupted my education. Moreover, school locks you in with your peers. That is a mistake. One’s social circle should never include one’s equals. From my earliest years I found children uninteresting and always preferred the company of adults. This was an advantage, because I got to know lots of folks who are dead now whom I never would have known if I had waited until I was an adult. - So I have a collective memory - and oral tradition - that goes back to the eighteenth century, having spoken with people who knew people who knew people who knew people who lived then. - The only real university is the universe and a city its microcosm. That is why an expression like “New York University” is foolish. New York City is the university….Instead of school, children should spend some hours each day in hotel lobbies talking to the guests. They should spend time in restaurant kitchens and shops and garages of all kinds, learning from people who actually make the world work….One day spent roaming through a real classical church building would be the equivalent of one academic term in any of our schools, and a little time spent inconspicuously in a police station would be more informative than all the hours wasted on bogus social sciences. Formal lessons would only be required for accuracy in spelling and proficiency in public speaking, for which the public speakers in our culture are not models, and in exchange for performing some menial services a child could learn the violin, harp, and piano from musicians in one of the better cocktail lounges, or from performers in the public subways….So I urge you to keep your child out of kindergarten, because kindergarten will only lead to first grade and then the grim sequence of grade after grade begins and takes its inexorable toll on the mind born fertile but gradually numbed by the pedants who impose on the captive child the flotsam of their own infecundity.
Originally posted by Peter Robinson via The Corner at National Review Online.
Amen to that Father!
Living in the “real” world
I shouldn’t be here. I am working (on planners) and I have miles to go before I sleep (figuratively that is as I will be putting my head to pillow quite soon), but there are just so many thoughts swirling in my head as I check in on all the thought provoking posts and ensuing discussions going on around the blogosphere. I don’t know that I can coherently gather my thoughts enough to write anything worthwhile but I feel compelled to write something so that I can get it out of my head and get back to work.
There are two main conversations I am following. One started at Lissa’s blog last week when she posted about “patience, a good kind and a bad kind, and their relationship to happiness and learning, especially unschooling“. It was timely for me and has sparked some very thought provoking discussion. Lissa dove deeper still today when she asked if knowledge was relative and more conversation has followed. It’s such an interesting question because fleshed out you can see where in the right context everything can have value. The weave of connections can be so intricate that we just don’t always see it right away. It can take years even and something we didn’t see as valuable at the time can prove to be quite valuable down the road. And since we can’t know what those connections will be we need to be omnivores (as Willa so aptly termed it) devouring everything all the while realizing that it’s not about either/or but both/and (go read the comments over there and you’ll understand better).
Lissa wrote: “I am often hit with waves of feeling that EVERYTHING is interesting, I want to read everything, learn everything, make and do many many different kinds of things. It’s exhilarating, and I see that same eagerness to ‘find out everything about everything’ in my children. One enthusiasm leads to another, and I really do see ‘way leading on to way’ every time.” <sigh> THAT I understand! I get overwhelmed sometimes with all the ideas and excitement that swirl through my mind. I see this in my children too and yet I am sad to admit that I all too often attempt to reign it in - maybe because I know what messes such excitement can lead too. For shame! Who cares about messes when children are enthusiastic about learning?! I’m working on it. Working on just being more flexible, saying yes more, smiling more, singing more (which seems to annoy the older ones for some reason). My new model for being sweet and happy is Giselle. Have you seen that movie yet? I’m positively enchanted by it. Truly though what a lovely example of the infectiousness of sweetness and kindness.
But I digress (see how easily distracted I am?). . . Willa’s wisdom and insight has me nodding my head especially this quote she posted: “It appears that many parents of toddlers, in their anxiety to be neither negligent nor disrespectful, have gone overboard in what may seem to be the other direction. Like the thankless martyrs of the in-arms stage, they have become centered upon their children instead of being occupied by adult activities that the children can watch, follow, imitate, and assist in as is their natural tendency. In other words, because a toddler wants to learn what his people do, he expects to be able to center his attention on an adult who is centered on her own business. An adult who stops whatever she is doing and tries to ascertain what her child wants her to do is short-circuiting this expectation. Just as significantly, she appears to the tot not to know how to behave, to be lacking in confidence and, even more alarmingly, looking for guidance from him, a two or three year old who is relying on her to be calm, competent, and sure of herself.”
Yes! Oh I love that. No need to be so. . .contrived. Let them be, go about your life, make it family centered and they will learn - they will!
I bet I know what some of you are thinking. Maybe that oh yes all this sounds lovely but what about reality? What about the fact that people sin and life can be difficult and full of pain and disappointment? Actually I had someone ask me something very similar to that recently in regards to homeschooling. “Don’t you think your children need to experience the real world?” Indeed I do! But what IS the real word? Is sitting in a classroom with people the same age as you and reading from a textbook the “real” world? It’s actually the only time in your life you will likely experience that phenomena. The real world is right here every day. In the family and out in the world (which I would propose my children get to experience more of because they aren’t sitting in a classroom all day). It’s the day in day out reality of how a family works and lives and loves. ALL the time, not just after school but all day every day. It doesn’t get a whole lot more real than that. It’s interacting with people of various ages from their siblings to the UPS man (he saw one of my kids elsewhere in town and knew where he lived!) to the elderly neighbor whose porch might need swept, to the cashiers at the grocery store and the cashiers at the quick mart down the block (we drink a lot of milk, they see my kids often!) to the librarian who knows their faces well. It’s the impromptu visits from a grandparent or Aunt (like the one who stopped by today) and the impromptu jaunts to the park where you’re surprised to see friends from church. And that’s just in one day! Tell me, please, how that isn’t the real world and sitting is a classroom is? Right.
But let’s go back to that idea that the world is full of sin and pain. It’s true after all and yet Scripture tells us that we must grow in love, establish ourselves in knowledge, think on whatsoever is true and beautiful and good, because those are the things that strengthen us for the days to come. That’s real life and it’s beautiful. It really is - warts and all.
I could go on but alas it is VERY late and my pillow is calling my name . . .OK not really but it’s a charming image isn’t it?
Oh wait, the second conversation that has me interested? I think it will have to wait until another time. It’s pretty fresh so we’ll see where it goes. I’ll give you direction but I don’t time to comment on it. Basically Jennifer nailed it when she wrote this post about community and how the Internet has evolved into the local water well for so many - yours truly included. And Margaret, my dear sweet Minnesota friend, echoed it here and left me smiling since she’s one of those friends I met over the internet who has become a true friend indeed.
It’s just so true. We need community. We crave it, in fact we were made for it. Friendship and camaraderie are a basic human need. . .
And there I go again while the time ticks away. OK I’m outta here.
Goodnight, or rather –oh dear– good morning!
P.S. Please forgive any typos. My eyes are too tired to see them tonight –I’ll fix them tomorrow, er, later today!
Why we homeschool
It’s Good Friday. I am unfortunately sick with some stomach thing so I am spending some time on my blog trying to forget about my aching stomach.
I read a blog post today from Holly, a former high school teacher turned unschooling mom. It’s long but if you have the time, read it - it’s worth it. You might find it shocking and some may think it’s over the top. I don’t, I think she’s right on. For what it’s worth, I am not anti-schools but I do think we need to look at this issue clearly and admit there are some serious problems with our current system. Truly there is something very wrong when as she writes: “The very structure of our society depends on maintaining a social hierarchy drawn very much along racial and socioeconomic lines. School is one of the first places in which we draw those lines.”
Both Tim and I went through the public school system and frankly I feel like I learned very little and in some very real ways I feel like the system was not good for me. I don’t blame my parents. School was what you did and you trusted it was going to educate your children. Sometimes it did and sometimes it didn’t and I’m not going to totally blame the schools either because it’s become a pretty complicated system and I think a lot of the people in that system see the difficulties but don’t know how to fix them. There are some really good teachers out there - I’ve had a few. But a good year with a good teacher doesn’t carry you through the next however many years with not so good teachers –and I had many more of the not so good than the good.
My oldest three children went to school before we homeschooled. They were in 1st, 4th and 5th grades when we decided it wasn’t working. They too had a few good teachers. I can think of exactly two and both were religious sisters. Sister Julia Ann and Sister Linda. Both were truly great teachers who knew how to reach a child’s heart and let them to learn. They were teachers who never tolerated unkindness among students and who respected the dignity of each and every child. They were rare gems and I thank God they were there when my children needed them.
That being said I haven’t always been the best teacher either. I can be impatient and lazy, demanding and domineering. But I’m working on those things and I trust that since God gave these children me for their mother He must have a plan there for their best interest and certainly mine since so often it is they who are teaching me things. My oldest son Timothy (22) likes to say that he was my guinea pig and I guess that’s true. I was really young when I became a mom (barely 18) and pretty much clueless about a lot of things. But grace abounds and I am ever so thankful for that.
Other than “family-centered” I don’t really have a word to describe how we home educate our children. We mix it up and use various elements from various philosophies and methods. We use a variety of classical ideas, Charlotte Mason methods, and unschooling principles but . . . none of those really capture the essence of it. I guess it’s best to say we are eclectic and once again go back to family-centered. I honestly think that every family has to find what works for them. The questions I ask are “What will inspire their creativity?”, “What will spark their curiosity?” and “What will drive them to ask questions and find answers?”. I think those things are vitally important and I just don’t think the current school system can help my children reach these things. Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum it happens in the real world, in real time, interacting with real things and real people. It doesn’t happen because we think it should, or when we think it should or even necessarily the way we think it should. For those of us who have been educated in the system it can be hard to let go of our ideas of education but we may have to if we are really going to let our children learn. I know there are a lot of parents who have children in school that stay involved and work hard to make up for the lack. My hat is off to them because I was a parent with kids in school and I know how hard that can be, especially because a lot of the time you end up feeling like you are fighting against a system that doesn’t recognize your primacy as parent of that child.
None of this is easy. Being a parent is not easy and homeschooling isn’t easy and I don’t think sending your kids to school is easy either but since easy isn’t the measure that really doesn’t matter. There is no Easy Button in real life. Look at a crucifix and there you will see your model. Servanthood, laying down our lives that’s what we are called to, and it’s totally different from what the world says. Jesus is our example. He was Lord but came to serve not to be served. If I can remember this in my role with my children things go much better. I am here to facilitate their learning, serve them in their needs etc. I don’t have all the answers, I am seeker like so many others but I am trying to constantly be open to helping my children discover who they are and become the person God created them to be.
A blessed and holy Good Friday to you and yours.
Perfect timing!
I just posted about the conference and now I see that Hillside Education has just announced Alice Gunther’s new book!
Alice Gunther is the featured speaker at this year’s Family-Centered Learning Conference.
Haystack Full of Needles,
A Catholic Home Educator’s Guide to Socialization
by Alice Gunther
This is the book we’ve all been waiting for. The book that explains why “Socialization is not the weakness of home education—it is its strength and joy.”
Its release is set for the Spring and I can hardly wait!
Kudos Alice!
