Homeschooling Explanation

I've had a few friends ask me recently what curriculum we've decided to use for Carver. I thought the answer might be interesting to several people (including grandparents), so I'm going to go ahead and put my answer up for the whole internet to read, with the caveat that I have been homeschooling for 3/4 of 1 year, and am by no means an expert at this. I'm sure Carver will look back on his homeschooling experience, like many firstborns do in many areas, and feel like he was the guinea pig. That's ok--he'll be more flexible that way, right?

That being said, we have decided to go with no set curriculum. I know there are many out there, and there are several that I know are good, including the one that my mother chose, Calvert. But I have never been in love with the idea of doing that. It seems much more interesting to use various textbooks and ideas and methods from several different places, and combine them into a system that both the kids and I will love. (I know, I know, I've been doing this for 3/4 of a year, and am aware that I'm overly optimistic :) There are, however, two theories of homeschooling that I'm trying to combine, so I will tell you a little about them.

The first is the Charlotte Mason philosophy of schooling children. To my shame, I have not read any of her actual writings (it's on my to-do list for this summer), but have several excellent books summarizing what she said in more modern language (she was writing at the turn of the 20th century). If you're interested, the ones I have read and like are A Charlotte Mason Education, More Charlotte Mason Education, and A Charlotte Mason Companion. The basic idea behind her philosophy is that education needs to be hands-on and enjoyable, otherwise children will learn to hate learning. So, for science, if you're studying plants, go and plant a seed and watch what happens. As you do this, your children will naturally ask questions, which you can then go look up in a refrence book or textbook. Go for a hike and look at the different kinds of leaves on trees. Have you kids take rubbings to remember what they look like. Don't ask them to memorize the shapes and names of the different leaves, but as they draw, look, and ask questions, they will give that leaf a permanent place in their memory. And the memory will stick, because it was interesting for him. The same goes for books. Have your elementary student read an interesting biography of George Washington (at his level, of course), and as he reads, he'll ask questions about the War for Independece, the Declaration, the Constitution, and what it meant to be a revolutionary soldier. He'll remember the answers because he's fascinated by the story. Charlotte Mason refers to these types of books as living books--fun for the child to read, and memorable because they weren't boring. I can attest that this is totally working for me. I've been reading many books on American History the past few years, and they're fascinating. They're well-written by authors who are interested in the subject matter, and now I'm interested in the subject matter. It sure made our trip to Boson fun!

The Charlotte Mason philosophy includes much, much, more, but you'll have to read the book for that!

The other philosophy that I'm tapping for our homeschooling is that of Classical Christian Education. There are also many books on this subject (with very long titles), including several by Susan Wise Bauer and Harvey Bluedorn and family. For some fun websites, go check out triviumpursuit.com and veritaspress.com. I believe Doug Wilson has written on this as well, but I have not read his writings. The basic idea here is that children have three distinct periods of learning as they go through their years of education. I won't discuss all of them, but the first period, called the grammar stage, is what's applicable to my children right now. At Carver and Ellie's ages, they are capable of memorizing insane amounts of stuff, and this ability will decrease as they get older. I can take advantage of that and give them mountains and mountains of knowledge that they can then tap into at a later period in their life. Seriously, how many of you can say, "Oh yeah, I remember the books of the Bible--I learned it back in 2nd grade?" So, this year, we've been memorizing Bible verses and chapters, and also a children's catechism. Next year, David and I mapped out some ideas, which include beginning multiplication tables, books of the Bible, states in the Union, more Bible chapters, and more. Just as with Charlotte Mason, there is a bunch more I could say, but time constrains me.

So, we're trying to mesh these ideas. This does involve buying some textbooks, but they're generally ones that people have recommended to me as being excellent. We've used Alpha-Phonics for reading this year, Miquon Math (which I love!!!), and a geography book called Legends and Leagues. Those are just a bit of the different things we've used, and I'm sure I could talk much, much longer about the different things that we've done, good and bad, but I would like to quit with one final note.

This post does not touch at all on the reasons we decided to homeschool this year, but homeschooling is not necessarily a permanent decision for us, especially for Carver. It will depend on what kind of public and private schools are available to us as Carver gets bigger. I strongly believe that he is going to need to learn accountability to authority outside Mom and Dad, and that will probably involve outside schooling, at least at the High School level. It may be public school (David got a great HS education in San Clemente), private school, or simply enrolling him in community college classes or letting him go wherever Dad is a professor and sitting in on classes there. We'll see. But, all that to say, the plan is flexible!