Vibrant African life

So, we have had a week here, close to the equator in a bustling, lively city. It's quite different to anything I've known before - apparently 3 million people live here, and the traffic in certain parts has to be seen to be believed. There is rarely silence, and one can barely hear the ciccadas at night because of the music blaring from all directions. Yet it is Africa, and more importantly, it is where we believe God wants our family to be right now.

Some highlights:

1) Day 1: Boys rush through to the living room and pull back the curtains. 'Mummy, is that the "wings of the dawn"?' - we've been reading Psalm 139 and talking about how God is with us, wherever we are. 'If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me and your right hand will hold me fast'. Psalm 139:9-10

2) Day 1: About half an hour later. Four year old boy with magnifying glass, describing the cockroach he has discovered on the kitchen floor. 'Mummy, it has beautiful wings, with a hint of red and a hint of yellow'. Yes darling, how delightful!

3) Markets. I love the bustle, the noise, the smells, the chaos and the pleasure in a bit of gentle bartering. It's great for the children to see fresh produce and how it is not all 'perfect' in appearance, but is good and delicious. It's easy to see what is in season and the quality (and the prices) make it so very clear.

4) The National Museum. Really quite wonderful - I liked the outdoor part which had lots of different styles of banda (mud-hut) and detail about how they were constructed. There was also a section with old Rolls Royces etc which I presume belonged to some erstwhile dictators. Inside, it was more like a home-school science project, but entertaining nonetheless.

5) Delicious yummy foods that you can buy at the side of the road. In this country, there are more types of banana than any other. And many staples are made from mashed plantain or banana. It's fun to try new things.

6) The 4 year olds have started to keep a journal. We ask them to narrate to us what they have done the day before, and then to draw a picture. It's quite telling how they remember quite different things, and it will be a really good record for them to have

7) Going to church. For me, there is something so beautiful about the way you can walk into a church in a strange land, and immediately be part of a family of believers. In heaven, every tribe and tongue will sing His praises, and sometimes in a foreign land I believe one can catch a glimpse of that.

8) Resourcefulness in inventing new games. We have a patterned rug in our living room, with twelve squares. Each has a picture on it - a boat, or a bush, or butterflies. It's quite 1970s and not altogether beautiful. But the boys make up stories and jump from square to square as they move on to the next part. Lots of the stories involve adventures on the high seas and discoveries of new lands.

9) The delight in discovering new trees, flowers, birds AND INSECTS that are different to those we see in the UK. I'm amazed (but I suppose I should come to expect it as they are bright little boys) at the attention to detail that goes into their process of description and classification. Who needs books when one can go out exploring!

10) Being together as a family. I could have come for a shorter period alone. Perhaps that would have been a more typical way of going about the process (its a site visit for some studies I'm setting up, and exploring collaborations and future opportunities). But we are together, my husband has taken a month of unpaid leave, and the whole family benefits. As I often say, this is one thing we have committed to, and the whole home schooling lifestyle is ideal to maximise such opportunities.

So, a short post and the internet is not great so I won't spend time with cross-references today. I hope and pray that wherever you are, you can maximise the unique opportunities that present themselves to your family this week.

Questioning as you teach

When you are teaching your children, do you ask frequent questions? I know I do! ‘Look at the trees, what colours do you see?’, ‘How many steps are there up to the station?’, ‘Can you tell me what that story was all about? Why was the King hiding?’ etc. Lately I’ve been made to stop and question my own questioning. Is this a good and helpful approach? Or can it paradoxically be harmful? Or is the truth of the matter that both are true, and it all depends on the type of questions asked, their timing and tact, and also a little on the learning style/ personality of the child?

From John Holt’s ‘How Children Learn’, he cautions against the use of excessive questioning. He notes that it can betray a lack of confidence in the child to interact with the materials, indeed with the world around them. It presumes that our interpretation and understanding of a situation is superior to theirs, and presumes that it will be of benefit for the child to hear what the adult has to say. Charlotte Mason describes a similar concept. She refers to it as a skill that the parent needs to learn, that of watchful attentiveness without intrusion. 'Masterly inactivity'. By way of example, she describes a mother out in the woods for the day with her children, who allows them to explore, to investigate, to play, to imagine, to discover; this mother does not sit idly by, but is available to answer the questions of the children, perhaps to direct them towards an area of particular interest, and of course to supervise regarding safety (depending on the ages and ability of the children). Reading some of her work, I can see that at times I may have been too keen to make the most of each ‘learning opportunity’ by perhaps detracting from it by my own explanations, rather than giving my children the time and space to discover for themselves. ‘I believe that all children bring with them much capacity which is not recognised by their teachers, chiefly intellectual capacity (always in advance of motor power), which we are apt to down in deluges of explanation, or dissipate in futile labours in which there is no advance’.

I’m currently reading Volume 6 of the Complete Works of Charlotte Mason, entitled, ‘A Philosophy of Education’. This book was written towards the end of her career, and she frequently reflects back to her earlier writings, indicating areas where her views have either changed, or become strengthened. This volume discusses the issues involved in the education of children ‘of school age’ – by which she means, by and large, children aged six or older. NB: It is important that those with younger children (myself included) do not feel that our children are not achieving that perfect attention and recall that she describes with a sense of discouragement of failure, but rather that this is something attainable, and we can put in place the necessary foundations now.

She describes the same issue as John Holt. Breaking it down a little:

1)      Children should be motivated by the hunger for knowledge, the love of increasing understanding of the world around them, rather than simply to jump through a certain hoop or to pass a particular test. The former is expansive, the child grows as a person, retains and can recall the information, but really understands it and can build upon it, whereas in the latter, the child often becomes fatigued, disinterested, does not necessarily understand or appreciate the facts they may have memorised, and has no lasting benefit.

2)      Rather than repetition, attention should be expected first time round. This is a skill (or habit) that can be learnt; previously I felt somewhat discouraged that my children did not display this excellent attention. However, a friend reminded me that mine were much younger. Now, six months later, I am starting to see a real difference as they sit and listen, and are able to recall and describe. Don’t be discouraged. Just maybe make the section of reading a little shorter.

3)      But relating to the above, don’t make it simpler! I love the way Charlotte Mason talks about ‘twaddle’. Holt describes something similar here; why should children prefer simple, contrived stories which are considered ‘suitable for their age?’  She describes primary school aged children (aged under 11 or 12) who were able to really embrace literature which is often now only encountered towards the more senior end of secondary school; classical Greek writings or Shakespeare for example. Why should children not have their minds expanded so that they can grow, imagine, learn, develop? ‘To introduce children to literature is to instal them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being familiar with it from the very first.’

4)      By asking a child to narrate back to you part of the story or the passage, or to describe their walk in the countryside, what you are really doing is teaching the child to interact with the material. They are not regurgitating facts and information, but rather are processing what they have received, integrating it, assimilating it, and then bringing it all together in their narration. This process is what Holt (quotingDawkins extensively) describes as creating their own model. 

5)      I love this comment: ‘Children so taught express themselves in forcible and fluent English and use a copious vocabulary.’ Now I also need to remark, this is not something which is necessarily seen as popular or desirable in today’s world! I remember once, my eldest son (then aged two and a half), said ‘female mallard’ when looking at a picture of a duck in a child’s book. My friend (a paediatrician for whom I have respect both personally and professionally) commented that he’d struggle at school if he spoke like that, and that it would soon be drummed out of him. I do not wish to sound ‘superior’ or elitist in any way, but rather to comment that sometimes children with a rich vocabulary and a different outlook to the majority may be seen as ‘precocious’ or that as parents, we are trying to ‘prove something’. We are not, and to me it is a sad reflection on today’s society and the mainstream education which seems to favour regression towards the mean.

I was interested to note Charlotte Mason’s comments about her teacher training institute: ‘In our Training College, the students are not taught how to stimulate attention, how to keep order, how to give marks, how to punish or even how to reward, how to manage a large class or a small school with children in different classes. All these things come by nature in a school where the teachers know something of the capacities and requirements of children.’ That both challenged and excited me! Education is far more, far greater, than simply achieving control in a class. However, having known several friends train in both primary and secondary education, it seems that a significant proportion of time is invested in what basically amounts to ‘crowd control’. It is assumed that most children will not want to be there, will be easily distracted, will be disobedient and rebellious; and by the point that assumption has been made, I believe things have already gone too far and the child knows that this is the type of behaviour that is expected. Today’s schools seem to be a far cry from the environment of active, stimulated, interactive learners that both Mason and Holt have described.

I find this question of interaction with the learning material, of assimilation, processing, understanding, of integration extremely challenging. I have undertaken training in Higher Education – of university students, and postgraduates; and one of the most taxing questions is just how to achieve the desire for knowledge and understanding rather than simply facts and information. It is difficult! The majority of students I encounter are those who could be considered ‘high achievers’. They have ‘excelled’ throughout much of their formal schooling, and yet how does one judge this ‘excellence’? Is it simply that they have scored highly on the necessary tests and exams? Often that may be so! A student may have done extremely well in objective terms, and yet never have learnt to become a self-motivated lifelong learner. Personally, despite straight As, top marks in two degrees and a PhD, I only think I fully appreciated how to become a self-directed learner mid-way through my PhD when I encountered challenges to which there was not a simple answer, difficulties which my ‘teacher’ (or ‘supervisor’) could not simply answer, problem for which the solutions were not well defined (hence the need for the research I was directing). I am not alone; in fact I would suggest that we often consider self-directed learning, processing of information etc as a postgraduate skill. However, what both Holt and Mason are arguing for, half a century apart from one another, is that this should be the driving principle that children are brought up with, and upon which all subsequent education is built. 

The family that really demonstrated to me this benefit in home education (although it may exist within other methods of education too; just this is not something I have seen) had seven children aged between four and nineteen years of age. The teenagers were astonishing in that they could clearly express and articulate their views, how they had reached those views, the evidence in favour and the arguments against. They were not indoctrinated ‘clones’ of one another, were not dominated by factual recall, but rather had been given the resources and the gentle direction necessary to find their own stance. (This family used Sonlight, a Christian literature based curriculum, which seems to follow many of the principles advocated by Charlotte Mason).

So where does this leave me with regard to questioning? I suppose simply to take greater care. Like Holt, to take a step back and watch what my children are doing and saying, to delight in their fascination in tiny detail, but to give them the time and space to work things out for themselves, or to respond to their questions in a simple, not overly expansive manner. What we already do is look things up in books when we get home (for example birds or flowers). By doing so, I am helping them see where the information can be gained. And I don’t always use ‘children’s’ books, but whichever source seems to describe things clearly, concisely and eloquently.

I’m sure I’ll revisit this area of questioning again before too long. What are your views? Do you question too much? Do you ask basic questions to test your child’s comprehension? Or do you enable them to assimilate information and form a strong foundational model upon which to build?

Short, diverse lessons

I was talking with a friend this week about short lessons. It's funny, because we all have been influenced by the style of education to which we were exposed as children. It sometimes seems wrong to spend just so much time having fun, whilst learning, when you know that so many other children of similar ages are having to spend many hours per day in a classroom or group environment. But the truth is, short lessons are effective, enjoyable and enough! Charlotte Mason was an educationalist who believed that lessons should be kept short and to the point. Not only are they sufficient because you can focus entirely on the child or small group of children that you are home educating, but also, you teach the child the discipline of full concentration and attention, rather than day-dreaming and dawdling.

The blog post I referred to above concludes with the blogger's examples of her short-lessons that take place during the day. My list might look like this:

1) Bible (10 minutes)
2) Singing/ prayer (5 minutes)
3) Reading (20 minutes)
4) Drawing/ painting (20 minutes)
5) Writing letters/ letter forms (5 minutes)
6) A game such as snap or a jigsaw (10-15 minutes)
7) Music (putting on a CD and getting out our box of instruments) (20 minutes)
8) Watering the garden (10 minutes)
9) Baking/ cooking (15 minutes)

And in between these, allowing time to set up/ tidy up and for a short break - free play, with cars/ toys/ looking at picture books/ playing in the garden etc

Then... nature studies in the park - many 1 minute lessons amongst two hours of walking/ playing/ climbing. Physical education - races/climbing/ jumping/ hopping etc - many short lessons whilst out and about. Several afternoons per week we will do some kind of 'field trip' - a National Trust property, a museum or art gallery, maybe the library or even a shopping expedition. All of these bring many of their own lessons too.

When you think about your daily routine, you probably see many different 'lessons' that fall into short time-spans, so natural within the course of your day that you barely consider them lessons at all. That is another joy of home education, that learning becomes a life-long adventure, and doesn't have a clear beginning and end. Most days I try to keep a short note of our day, perhaps a little like the one above. I do this for several reasons:

1) A record for me of what we have done
2) A type of handover - my husband and I both work part-time and home educate part-time, so it is good to know what the other half has done
3) Enough of a record that I can show evidence that I am appropriately educating our children should anybody ever ask
4) For my own reassurance; that we are indeed providing a diverse and stimulating education, and are not neglecting any of the key areas

Take some time and reflect on what you are doing, and I think you will be surprised and encouraged at just how much can be covered in a short period of time when we choose to educate our children at home!

Peter Rabbit

I don't know if I had previously read Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, but these are the type of books which are seen as 'classics' and which groups such as Ambleside online (derived from Charlotte Mason's methodology) consider ideal. Certainly the English is of a far better standard than that encountered in many more modern children's books. For example, 'Peter gave himself up for lost and shed big tears; but his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself.'

But the basic story is of a disobedient rabbit who gets himself into danger, loses his new shoes and coat (for the second time in a fortnight) and ends up quite unwell as a consequence. Old mother rabbit, it would seem, wonders where his clothes went but doesn't seem all that perturbed, and instead gently puts him to bed with camomile tea. The only hint of a punishment is the consequence that Peter cannot enjoy the bread and milk and blackberries for supper that his sisters have.

It just made me wonder... I've come across a few childrens' books lately where disobedience and rebellion are almost encouraged, or if not encouraged, seen as a normal part of childhood. And yet at the same time, with boys aged 4, 3 and 1, I spend much of my day trying to enforce the importance of obedience, especially when one's safety is at risk. The story of Peter Rabbit, much enjoyed by the older boys, seems a direct contradiction of some of the standards I am trying to encourage.

What do other readers think? Am I taking things too seriously? Or should I use the story of an illustration of what should not be done? Should I see it as a teaching opportunity in its own right? Or should I simply let them enjoy the story and raise their own questions and draw their own conclusions? I'd love to know!

Creativity in everyday life

I recently smiled as I read this viewpoint that we should ‘allow children to be bored’ to allow creativity to flourish. I am increasingly convinced that there is too much stimulation for children today, and that they should instead be allowed to let their imaginations wander. Charlotte Mason wrote a lot about this issue, remarkably in the days before ‘modern’ entertainments such as television or computer-based activities. 

Over the past few weeks in particular, I’ve enjoyed watching my boys develop their creative play. One favourite activity at the moment involves climbing up a gnarled tree trunk in a nearby park. Except, few people have realised that this is in fact a pirate ship. We go on adventures across the raging seas, travelling to countries far and wide. Before we leave on our voyages, it is necessary to stock up with provisions, and in true three-year-old-boy manner, they tend to request rice, bread, bananas and lots and lots of sweets! Then, we check all our equipment, and off we go. We need to remember which trees and animals to look for in the country where we land, and we have to use all the snippets of language that we have aquired in various places. It would seem that this particular pirate ship is also capable of time-travel, since we have found ourselves in ancient Rome and ancient Egypt. From time to time, we abandon the pirate ship and head to the Viking long boat on the other side of the park (a fallen tree trunk). Occasionally, a battle takes place between the two vessels, fought with bows and arrows (sticks), and various other primitive weapons. Hours can be spent here, regardless of the weather. But to many passers by, it is simply the remains of a tree, and barely noticed.

(A huge range of topics are covered here – history, geography, drama, music, English, foreign languages, probably others also...)

This morning, we were in a playing field even closer to home. You would be amazed (although perhaps if you have been educating your children for longer than me, you may be quite familiar with these kinds of thing) at just how many activities can spring from the painted lines on a football pitch, the goal posts, a Frisbee and a football. Counting games, jumping games, acrobatics, ‘challenges’ and races, I could go on. Again, easily several hours can be spent here, without any particular equipment to hand.

(And the topics covered would include physical education, arithmetic and strategic thinking, just for starters).

I feel as though I have had less time to write on this blog lately, partly because the boys are keeping me so busy, and partly through another relocation and several interesting new projects at work. But I hope I can encourage you that a good, broad education can be provided without huge expenditure and large amounts of equipment. There IS an investment needed, but it is an investment of time, of patience, of thinking creatively, and of seizing the opportunities that present themselves every day. The children benefit greatly, and as a parent, I see a whole different side to life, a freshness and creativity. Yes, there are tricky times, and I sometimes feel tired to the bone. But every day is an adventure, for which I am greatly thankful!

Habit is Ten Natures

Again, Charlotte Mason has brought some encouragement to my slightly weary soul. Lately, I have written a bit about competing worldviews which force themselves upon us, and make me question whether it really is worthwhile. Is it REALLY worthwhile to sacrifice much in order to provide your children with the holistic and rounded education that you believe to be right and best? Is it worth personal cost and sacrifice? Is it really a good use of time to spend many days repeating the same simple activities, the same routines and patterns, having similar conversations and praying the same prayers? Really?

Well, according to Charlotte Mason as she discourses on how ‘Habit is Ten Natures’, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’, and with almost every word I found myself in agreement, reminded of some of the most fundamental reasons for choosing to home educate our family. She starts by discussing some of her initial frustrations as she embarked on her teaching career, realising that many basic characteristics of individuals are not easy to change. She saw a conflict between the teaching she heard at church about the need for personal habit and discipline (perhaps no longer popular teaching in many churches!) and that which she experienced in her professional life. She began to recognise that fundamental habits are formed easily, formed young, and without focussed and diligent effort to change bad habits and replace these with something better, some of the best educational intentions in the world will come to nothing. She describes how all human beings are made with similar fundamental desires and weaknesses – again, something which might be unpopular teaching in the world today. She then illustrates habit to be like the rails that the ‘train’ of a child’s future will ride along; she elegantly describes how diligent attention to detail in the small matters of habit in a young child will set him up for a better start in life than to ignore these details, expending a lot of wasted effort in trying to build upon a shaky foundation. ‘For just as it is on the whole easier for the locomotive to pursue its way on the rails than to take a disastrous run off them, so it is easier for the child to follow lines of habit carefully laid down than to run off these lines at his peril. It follows that this business of laying down lines towards the unexplored country of the child’s future is a very serious and responsible one for the parent’.

As previously in her writings, I am amazed at just how practical and relevant her advice is today. She speaks of how even Christian parents will allow their children to ‘grow free as the wild bramble, putting forth unchecked whatever is in him, thorn, coarse flower, insipid fruit – trusting, they will tell you, that the grace of God will prune and dig and prop the wayward branches lying prone’. She speaks of how we teach habit whether by intention or neglect; that much of a child’s behaviour is influenced by behaviours that they witness in those with whom they spend time, whether that be their peers, those charged with looking after them, other family members, siblings etc. She moves on to demonstrate how much of thinking is shaped by habit – that in any one day, the majority of our actions, thoughts and words will be the product of habit which has formed in us whilst young. 

She then moves on to give some practical examples (such as a boy who would not close a door when entering a room, and strategies that could be put into place to help him replace this with the better habit of automatically closing the door), and to discuss some of the currently understood physiology by which habits become easier with time. These examples are not trivial, but rather reminded me just how important diligence and attention to detail in the small, day-to-day occurrencesis; it is at this point that the world around me will tell me I am crazy and wasting my time, but the clear voice of reason comforted me as I read Charlotte Mason’s writings. 

She cautions against parents who say things like, ‘He’ll grow out of it’, or ‘She’s only two, give her a chance’. Instead she points out the importance of getting good habits into play from the youngest infancy. She describes how even a child aged two should be taught to tidy up after themselves, and to see this component as essential to the play itself. It makes sense. Without wishing to sound smug, I have been delighted at how our three year old boys ask us at the end of a meal, ‘How may I help?’ and take great pride in carefully carrying things out to the kitchen. We insist on tidying up after one activity before commencing another, and I know other parents have considered us extreme for this. But why should it be such a difficulty? Yet if it is not expected of the child, if the parent leaves tidying up until the end of the day when the child is in bed, then does this not also set up a habit, but this time one of laziness and an expectation to be waited upon? All these are things that have crossed my mind, but it was refreshing for me to hear them clearly stated!

I read this chapter during a train journey on a busy morning at the start of a busy week. It was a God-given voice of reason, of encouragement, of common sense and prioritisation and I hope my synopsis of what I read also brings you encouragement!

Charlotte Mason: Some Preliminary Considerations

As I’ve mentioned several times, I am posting short updates on my discoveries from reading the original work of Charlotte Mason. Her first volume, entitled Home Education, starts with a chapter discussing ‘Some Preliminary Considerations’. Here, she lays the foundation for much of what follows, and as with everything I have read so far, does so with a clarity and wisdom which is still highly relevant today. 

She first talks about the differences between what she terms a ‘method’ and a ‘system’.  A system is in some ways easier – a legalistic list of prescribed tasks which themselves become more important than the end which they seek to accomplish. However, the method is all-encompassing, and seems to address the pattern outlined in Deuteronomy Chapter 6 where parents are encouraged to talk with their children at many opportunities throughout a day of normal life, and use these opportunities to give glory to God. (Some of our major reasons for choosing to home educate). ‘The parent will...make use of every circumstance of the child’s life almost without intention on his own part, so easy and spontaneous is a method of education based upon Natural Law. Does the child eat or drink, does he come, or go, or play – all the time he is being educated, though he is as little aware of it as he is of the act of breathing’. On the one hand, it is a gentle and spontaneous method, but on the other hand, does not necessarily appeal to ‘the sluggishness of human nature, to which any definite scheme is more agreeable than the constant watchfulness, the unforeseen action, called for when the whole of a child’s existence is to be used as the means of his education’. 

Much of Charlotte’s preliminary considerations as to the foundation for her method of education rest on the words of Christ Himself regarding the importance of, and the correct attitude towards children. ‘Take heed that ye OFFEND not – DESPISE not – HINDER not – one of these little ones’... She then unpacks just what it means to offend, despise or hinder a child, and this makes for very interesting reading. ‘We offend them when we do by them that which we ought not to have done; we despise them when we leave undone those things which, for their sakes, we ought to have done’. I was particularly interested as she unpacked what it might mean to despise a child. ‘To have a low opinion of, to undervalue.’ ‘If the mother did not undervalue her child, would she leave him to the society of an ignorant nursemaid during the early years when his whole nature is, like the photographer’s sensitive plate, receiving momentary indelible impressions?’ ‘Many a child leaves the nursery with his moral sense blunted, and with an alienation from his heavenly Father which may last his lifetime.’ 

‘The most fatal way of despising the child falls under the third educational law of the Gospels; it is to overlook and make light of his natural relationship with Almighty God’. She discusses some of the things which have challenged me greatly, regarding how even the youngest of infants can clearly have a relationship with God that is not fully understood by their elders.

Her preliminary considerations convey some of the most fundamental truths regarding education – all knowledge and understanding relate to the God who created the world, everything within it, all knowledge and intelligence, every gift that education seeks to develop. These are things seldom discussed in modern education, especially not that which is found in the mainstream sector. One could argue that such schools and methods entirely miss the most important point of all. Charlotte Mason started with the right foundation, building upon it as with gold, silver and other precious stones. I believe the Lord will prove her work to be that which brings Him lasting honour.