The Gentle Art of Learning

Yesterday was a classic CM day for us. It started out somewhat different and I was worried we wouldn't get an entire school day in. My dd7 spent the night at a friend's house because the public schools had parent/teacher conferences the next day. I meant to pick her up early but due to a Dr's appt I didn't get her until after 10. Usually this means the day is shot for us. But yesterday was different. I decided that it was simply too beautiful to pass up the park on the way home so I told the kids that if they did their nature study at the park then we could play when it was done. We've had over 4 weeks of rain straight here already this Fall and we're tired of not seeing the sunshine and God's beautiful world! So the kids all jumped at the chance to play outside. We ended up running into two other close friends who'd decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather as well so it turned out perfect.

My instructions for this 1 mile walk that we went on were to find pieces of nature that we don't see in our backyard. That's it. The kids were finding things left and right. They had so much fun and we even carried a few samples home to investigate further. They had a ball! The best part was that my ds5 wanted to go on the nature walk INSTEAD of playing on the huge playground. My SON wanted this! I was amazed. This nature study is truly turning into something special in our home!

We got home and went about the rest of the day as normal with lunch, chores, and naps. When the naps were over we opened up all of the windows in the school room and the kitchen and dd2 and ds5 played outside all afternoon. I told dd7 to start with drawing a picture of her nature walk. She drew a beautiful illustration of the items that we saw and I followed that activity by asking her to write about it. Now, she loves writing. She's written many children's books and poems already. Writing is a gift that she has. Yet usually when I ask her to write things for school she just makes a list. She did that again today. So I sat down with her and explained what a paragraph is and how we need sentences to make a paragraph. We turned her list into about 5 different sentences and she wrote them out on a scratch sheet of paper. We then corrected her spelling and punctuation before she wrote her final draft for her nature journal.

I realized while she was doing this that even though we were still working on science we actually had covered grammar, punctuation, spelling, and copywork all in that one activity! We didn't need to have seperate activities for each thing. I was amazed that after she completed the assignment we needed only to finish math and we were done with school for the day. She so enjoyed sitting in the kitchen with me, windows open and the cool Autum air blowing in, watching her brother and sister play outside while completing a story of her own making. Now THAT has to be what Charlotte Mason describes as the "gentle art of learning". Just because we didn't use a specific curriculum for language arts and spelling doesn't mean that she didn't learn just as much. I know for a fact that she learned much more! Now, off to teach another day! God bless!

How to fit it in!

The school year is just beginning. We're in week 4. Well, actually we're almost done with week 4. Is anyone else finding it hard to fit it all in? I've been hearing this so much recently and it makes me feel a little better knowing that I'm not the only one. So what do we do about it? How do we find more time?

For me, I have to realize that my goals are still being met even when I don't have time for everything. There is SO MUCH GOOD and wonderful material that I'd love to teach my children. I find more everyday.

Through prayer I pick out what I feel God is leading me too on the major subjects. He led me to a wonderful Bible story book, Egermeier's Bible Story Book. We begin each day reading a story from the book and my dd7 draws a picture to go along with the story. We started this last year and she has a beautiful portfolio of her drawings over the past year that I know I will treasure always! This is how I test what she's learned from each story. It's amazing to see what she decides to draw. She'll find the little things in the story sometimes and draw about those. Or other times she'll draw one big picture about the main theme.

We also make sure each morning to go over our Bible verses and Key Passages from the Bible that we're learning for Bible buddies. Bible buddies is the class that comes before Bible Drill in our church and the children have a list of verses and Key passages to learn each year. Once we're done learning those I'll add more to our morning routine.

For me, those are the major, most important things to get done each day. Teaching my children about the Lord and bringing them up in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord" is my #1 goal. All else will come as a blessing from God for doing those things.

Now I'm not saying that that's all we do! Not by any means. What I'm saying is that that is my PRIORITY! Language Arts, Math, Science, and History, Handwriting, and Copywork always follow...but if there is a day that I can't get one of those done then I know I can make it up.

We really love doing art, picture study, and our AO readings in our home. To me, these are some of the things that set us apart from a regular school. What are you doing in your homeschool that sets you apart? What is something that you do with your children that they wouldn't get if they were in a public school? Focus on these positive aspects of your school. No, we don't get to our picture study or art everyday or even every week (which is what I have it planned for). But it's there and we love it when we can do it. It's o.k. It's o.k. to not fit it all in.

Keep going, don't give up, and most importantly pray! Pray that God will give you a peace about what to teach and what's o.k. to save for later. There will always be more that we'd like to teach our children than time in the day to get it accomplished. Focus on doing what you can do with all of the energy and love that it requires. Remember, quality-not quantity!

I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for all of us this year!

Jill