I like to
pause at New Year and reflect on the year gone by and pray over the year ahead.
I don’t see this as ‘new year resolutions’ because I believe that if there is something
that needs to change in your life, then God will convict you all year round,
and change should not wait for a calendar date. But I see it more as a time of
personal reflection. This year, we’ve seen some real changes in the boys and
some of these might mean a change in how we approach their education. We plan
to keep the basic structure of our day the same, but specifically:
1) Reading:
I always
thought we would leave reading until a little later. Indeed when considering
home education in the first place, we were encouraged by some of the
Scandinavian countries where formal education does not start until about the
age of seven. We noted that the evidence in favour of a later formal start was
more marked for boys. We have appreciated the wisdom of Charlotte Mason, who again
suggests that formal structures are best left until the child is about six
years old. However, our eldest, currently aged four, is just so hungry to be
able to read. He spends long periods intently ‘reading’ books to himself, and
is constantly asking for stories to be read. Over the past six months, he has
enjoyed stories with few or no illustrations (such as Swallows and Amazons) and
I can just see how being able to read will unlock a whole new world for him. I
was able to read from about four, and remember reading books like The Hobbit
and Lord of the Rings when I was six or seven; reading was a great part of my
childhood, and I can’t really imagine not having had this available. So,
steadily, we are teaching him to read. Our second son, six months younger has a
different sort of enthusiasm. He loves to ‘read’ the Bible, and points to words
and recites the passages of scripture he has memorised. He ‘teaches’ the
toddler how to read. He too is increasingly hungry to have this door opened.
We aren’t
using a particular method, but I keep my eyes and ears open with regard to what
other friends are doing with their children. Instead, we are just reading out
loud often, and with some books, starting to encourage them to recognised words
and sound them out.
2) Writing
Similarly,
I didn’t think too much about writing at this stage, but the boys have asked to
learn to make the shapes of letters. Interestingly, they are more or less equal
in reading and writing, whereas I often thought that reading would naturally
come first. Even more interesting to me is that the younger, more impulsive boy
is better at focussing and writing beautifully neat letters, whereas the older
one who can sit and look at books for hours at a time seems to tire quickly. It
just goes to show how each child is a unique individual, another huge advantage
of home education being that we can move at the appropriate pace for each.
We intend
to base our ‘writing curriculum’ around letter writing, so have started the new
year with our Thank You letters for Christmas gifts. We have many friends and
relatives, and there is often a reason to send a card or a note. It seems much
more real to have a purpose for writing, rather than just making nonsensical
sentences. John Holt speaks much about this kind of thing, and again for us it
is a huge benefit of home education.
3) Numeracy
The boys
have mastered basic counting, and gradually we are introducing concepts of
addition and subtraction. Often this is to do with following a recipe (I have
six eggs. If I use four for the pancakes, have I enough left to make the
cake?), or shopping. Sometimes it has to do with chasing pigeons. We are
starting to write numbers down, and have some flash cards with numbers on and
some games of snap where the written number has to match the number of objects
on another card. We are not doing much more than this at present.
4) Swimming
We’ve struggled
with this. Where we live, the public pools insist on a 1:1 parent: child ratio
when children are less than four, and so we were never able to go. Now we have
two four year olds who have not had much experience in the water. However, they
should start swimming lessons in two days time. More comments on this may well
follow!
5) Spanish
Whilst
living in a different city in the spring we enrolled the boys in a Spanish class. They seem to have retained all that they learned, and we are looking for
a Spanish speaking student who would like to spend an hour once a week playing
with the boys and just talking to them in Spanish. Its been our intention for a
while, but we haven’t managed to get anything organised yet...
6) Science
They are
such little investigators. Everywhere they look for ‘evidence’ and love to do experiments.
Our favourite is the one where you take the liquor from cooking red cabbage and
then use it as a pH indicator. They love to turn over rocks and look at the
insects underneath, and they recently have acquired magnifying glasses which
they take to the park to look at leaves, bark, insects and other things of
interest. I love the way they don’t see this as work, but an extension of their
natural curiosity. We try to build the science into day-to-day life, making the
most of opportunities that present themselves. So many principles are best
learnt in this way, such as some of the basics of physics and mechanics. Once
more, this is an area where home education is absolutely ideal
7) History
We try to
find out the history of places that we visit. One of the reasons we home
educate is because we are on the move quite a lot, with both long and short
trips around the country and overseas with work. So we read up on places, visit
places of specific interest, try and understand the different perspectives from
which history was recorded. We built them a castle out of cardboard boxes for
Christmas, and they love to play at kings, knights and soldiers. It is a
natural extension of their games to get books from the library discussing a
byegone era, and we look forward to visiting some castles soon.
8) Music
Over the
past few months both the four year olds have really started to sing. I’ve
commented elsewhere about their ‘new songs’ of praise, but they also are
learning more well known songs and hymns at an astonishing rate, and showing
appreciation for different ranges and harmonies (one of the boys is more of a
tenor, the other an alto). Even the toddler (twenty one months) tries to sing
the Hallelujia Chorus, and is enjoying the choruses with actions. We recently
bought a piano (having sold our old one in Africa), and we’ve had some great
times around the piano in the evenings. We have a box of instruments –
triangles, tambourines, xylophones, recorders – and an African drum, and
although it sounds quite cacophonous at times, they seem to be learning more
about rhythm. We do not plan to formalise their instruction yet, but instead
continue to get them familiar with music, rhythm, harmony and to enjoy the
range of music they can create. I brought my saxophone out (haven’t played much
since the children were born) and the second son can make a fantastic noise
from it.
We’ve got a
bit involved with a Christian home education group about 15 miles from here,
and will join them for events from time to time. Closer to home, there are four
or five like minded families and we try to meet every couple of weeks, although
there have been several babies born lately that has made this a little
challenging. Now the boys are getting older, we see the benefits of regular
time with friends. We need to spend a bit more time considering our goals as a
group – what do we intend to do together, is it just for free play or should we
do some group activities that are more difficult for a single family (some
messy crafts, certain team games etc). But its a start, and its encouraging to
not feel alone!
10) Life
The only
real difference is that we try and sit the older boys at the table for 30-60
minutes every day for writing/ painting/ drawing and to increase their concentration.
But other than that, we enjoy the flexibility, the long walks outside, the
field trips to libraries, museums, art galleries, on the ferry, train rides,
bus trips, going hiking when both parents are free, adventures in the kitchen,
craft, and plenty of time for imagination to develop.
I haven’t
set specific goals for this year, partly because I don’t want to feel a
pressure (or perhaps more pertinently, I do not want to transfer my own
feelings of pressure/ desire for achievement onto my children). It would be
wonderful if the older two could read, write and swim at a basic level by the
end of the year. But more than anything, we want to celebrate each day, and embrace
the God-given opportunities to learn about the world He has created and where
we fit within that world. And I pray that God gives us the energy, grace,
strength and wisdom to discharge our parenting responsibilities in a way that
brings Him honour.
Happy New
Year!
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