Dear friends,
It's the start of a new school year, and while most of us have already chosen our curriculum to use, we are still adjusting as we go along. This article is an excerpt from the chapter "Choosing Your Own Approach to Education" in my book Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade. I've been thinking about it since we are always trying to find the right blend in our home of structured and delight-directed living and learning. What works for you?
Virginia
SYNTHESIZING
YOUR OWN STYLE
Are you boggled after reading about the different
approaches to home schooling? Which is
right? Which is right for your family? If you think about it, what the people who
teach these approaches are trying to describe is how you can most effectively
allocate your family’s time, money, space, attention and decision-making
capabilities to secure the best education for your children. To that extent, each one is valuable. I doubt that any single approach offers
everything you will ever want, and there are so many overlaps that we can’t
even say they are mutually exclusive. I use what I call the Eclectic Approach: attempting to combine
the interest and organization of unit study, the natural methods and love for
beauty of Charlotte Mason, the order and discipline of traditional education,
the freedom and imagination of relaxed home schooling, the scholarship of the classical
approach, and the convenience and fun of computers. I cherish the freedom to pick and choose
from whatever will work with each child.
If you ask me what my philosophy of education is, I would say:
“God is the
Creator of the Universe, the Author of Life, the Prime Moving Force in History,
and the Ultimate Teacher. He has chosen
my husband, children and me to be members of one family, to live and learn
together. In his grace and wisdom, he
has given parents the awesome responsibility to train and educate children so
they can know, worship, and serve him in practical ways all of their
lives. Our children can learn by being
with us, watching us, listening to us, conversing with us, and working with us
as we go about our daily lives. Through
personal relationships, reading, and writing, they can acquire and share
knowledge and skills with others. They
can gain direct experience with the world around them through hands-on
discovery and projects. They can learn
self-discipline as they follow plans that are not all of their own choosing,
but they will also enjoy the satisfaction which comes from individually pursuing their own God-given interests and
talents.”
DUTY AND DELIGHT
Did you notice that last
sentence in my philosophy of education? Here it is again: “They can learn self-discipline as they follow plans that are not all
of their own choosing, but they will also enjoy the satisfaction which comes
from individually pursuing their own God-given interests and talents.”
The dilemma for many home
school moms is: “Do I make my children learn what they need to know, or let
them learn about what excites them?”
The answer is YES... to both!
It’s not an either/or situation. Education needs to be a balance of duty
and delight. I think of duties as those
things that must be done, the fixed expenses or work in our daily routines.
Delights, on the other hand, are the things we naturally want to do, our discretionary activities, our play. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,”
the saying goes, but I must add that “All play and no work makes Jack a useless
boy.” How do we find the optimum
combination between duty and delight?
Realize the value of your work, and take joy in the accomplishment. The ideal is always to love
what we do and do what we love, but it just doesn’t always work that way
naturally. It takes attitude
changes. As we think about the benefits
of what we must do, then we can enjoy
it more. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with
all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you
will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ
you are serving.” He is also our blessed example in this, “who
for the joy set before him, endured the cross...” (Hebrews 12:2) Let us be an example to our
children!
Make your “delights” more productive. Use
them to build relationships, serve other people, learn new skills, and improve
health. Examples of “diligent delights”
for children include cooking with mom, taking a brisk family walk around the
neighborhood, planting flowers, making cards or gifts, or practicing math while
keeping score in a game.
Balance the day to make time for duties and delights. Charlotte Mason always recommended doing the more structured lessons
in the morning, and then leaving the afternoon free for “purposeful” delights
such as pleasure reading, nature walks, art, music, tea time, etc. As I now tell my children: “Get my
assignments done in the morning, and the afternoon is yours for anything at
least halfway educational!” If they
don’t get their morning assignments done, this can eat into their “delight
directed” time.
Accept that learning can be
fun, but it doesn’t always need to be
fun. Yes, our children should have a sense of
adventure and imagination in their studies. However, if they demand that school
always be “a thrill a minute” without any drudge whatsoever, not only will you
burn out trying to be their entertainment director, but they will miss out on
some very crucial knowledge and skills that can only be gained by disciplined work.
In future years, they will not likely have the perseverance necessary to
succeed in higher education, career, and family life. A person who bails out when the going gets
rough will not make a worthy disciple of Jesus Christ. He will be like the barren ground littered
with rocks and thorns instead of good, fruitful soil that multiplies an
abundant crop. (Matthew 13:1-23)
Allow your child to choose some studies, but oversee the results. In the unschooling model of education, the
child chooses what to learn and when to learn it. Yes, it works for some people, depending on
the motivation level of the child. I
think this would be most successful if the child sets a plan for each day,
instead of flitting aimlessly from one thing to the next without really
finishing anything at all. He should
also still be accountable to the parent for progress, especially in weak areas.
Gregg Harris has often taught about delight
directed studies, where the child chooses assignments based on his own
interests. We have done this to a
limited extent in our family, especially in the middle and upper grades. Younger children usually require more direct
input from their parents with this.
Those who have not yet developed self-discipline need intervention. If your child can stay busy doing what needs
to be done, that’s great! But if he
can’t motivate himself, he’ll need a little pressure from you.
Start a short seatwork time each day.
While
it is not wise to push massive amounts of written work in the early years, it
does not hurt to sit down and write for a little while every day. This could be
just five or ten minutes for a preschooler to practice writing a few lines of
letters. In early elementary they might
have a paragraph of copywork, or a short list of spelling words, in addition to
a math workbook. These focused activities will help to lengthen a short
attention span. Most children can, with
proper discipline, handle at least a brief session of some focused work each
day. It says to the child, “I have
confidence that you can do this!”
Transition into more structured assignments as needed. In the primary grades, you can let children read
just about as much as they want, knowing
they will naturally pick up most of their language arts skills this way.
However, they still need to be willing and able to complete whatever written
assignments you deem necessary for them. This is especially true as they
approach fourth grade, which is when many children can be expected to
concentrate more on structured
materials. Like it or not, you will need some sort
of paper trail for their portfolios, including written language arts samples.
When I determine that a child needs to make the transition to more formal
assignments, I usually find it necessary to plan very specific lessons. I try
to target the subjects which they typically neglect, while letting them
continue autonomously in the areas where they excel. I might buy a small brightly colored
workbook, or assign page numbers in an easy text, or design brief Charlotte
Mason style grammar lessons somehow related to their favorite school subjects. Then we work one-on-one for several
weeks until they are done. Children who
are not accustomed to this will fuss about it for a while. Don’t let this deter you! It takes an adjustment to break into a new
routine, but once they get there, it gets a lot more comfortable for both of
you. You will need to be right by their
side for a while until they can do it themselves. This takes a time commitment on your part,
but it will pay off in the months and years to come!
And, a summary from the very end of the chapter...
1-2-3
Ideas to Remember About
Choosing
Your Approach to Education
u Know your child’s learning
style and personality, as well as your own preconceptions about
education.
v Keep a balance between structured and creative methods. Hold your children accountable
for their work.
w Research different approaches, and be open to changing methods as you go.
My Favorite Christmas Books
Will we ever catch up with the laundry? 
nt a garden.
Get outside and see nature! After all, nature walks are free and easy to do, and observing nature for yourself is one of the best ways to learn about plants and animals. Children get excited about their "specimens" and the fresh air is good for your health. Francis Fenelon in his book Education of a Child says, “A simple walk through the woods or splashing in a stream brings contentment to the soul and appreciation for God’s beauty in a manner that extravagant amusements cannot.”
Start in your own backyard. If you live in an urban or suburban neighborhood, you may not have much “habitat” at first glance. Still, I’ll bet you could find lots of living things in your own backyard: birds, bugs, flowers, lizards, cats, worms... To go farther afield, hike at a trail, park, preserve, lake, river, or mountain. 
Be careful not to upset nature. Please remind your children to refrain from disturbing animal homes. They don’t always know that they shouldn’t remove an egg from a nest, even if they return it right away. This upsets the mama, and she may abandon it! Talk about nature conservation -- how pollution and human expansion affect an ecosystem’s quality of air, water, soil, plants and animal homes. Read about animals which have become extinct. You don’t need to be a “tree hugger” to be a prudent environmentalist! God has called us to stewardship!
Collect and/or identify interesting specimens using a pocket-sized field guide. (Obtain permission from the landowner before you do this!) Look at your “finds” with a magnifying glass or microscope. Do a scavenger hunt. Each person needs to find listed items like an oak leaf, a brown rock, a nut, etc. You don’t need to take the items, just check them off on the list. My friend Michelle suggests buying a plastic divided box in the sports department to store your treasures.
Savor the seasons of nature. Do special activities related to winter (snowmen), spring (flower arranging), summer (beach trip) or autumn (pressing leaves). My uncle in Pennsylvania hosts home school groups for syrup making when the sap starts running in the maple trees. What makes each season special? Flowers have their own annual timetables for sprouting and blooming. Northern trees bud in spring, stay green through the summer, turn brilliant colors in autumn, and are bare in the winter (except for evergreens, of course)!
Take field trips to organized nature study areas. Go to the zoo, petting farm, botanical garden, nature center, science museum or county fair. Out of their natural habitats, you can find specimens organized by category. When you go to the zoo, have your child identify whether an animal is a mammal, bird, insect, amphibian, reptile, etc. What are the characteristics of each group? (Before you go, you can learn about this from books.)
Keep a nature journal. Have your children make drawings or rubbings of what they see, and then label them, also telling where they found the specimen. For language arts, they can also “paint” a word picture to describe a flower or other nature object. A nature journal is also handy for recording changes in the seasons or the weather from day to day or week to week.
There is a wonderful playground with a huge wavy climbing structure, a spinning metal and rope carousel, swings, slides, etc. We actually didn't spend much time on the playground today, so we'll have to go back soon. 
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