6 Comments:

 Holly said...

Excellent questions and very relevant for homeschooling Moms! I have been working on these things in my own life lately - like an educational reformation! So I will share my latest thoughts.

First off, for me, I dedicate the morning to the children basically - in whatever capacity they need me. So I am 'available'. But I work directly with my two youngest (ages 6 & 7.5) while my oldest children are independant (grades 5, 7 & 9).

Something Maria Montessori said struck me strongly this year - the notion of will formation including 'freedom within limits". That if we want our children to make good, healthy and holy decisions, then we have to LET them make good decisions, and not try to control everything! I applied this to my homeschool in this way:

I set out what I consider is 'essential' work for my children - ie content and skills. I write up a basic plan for a two week period and give this to them. It includes, readings, page numbers, biographies, chapters, etc.

But then I give them freedom within limits: and this happens in two ways:
1. I let them determine HOW to learn it. So, I don't assign written questions answered, nor even what type of hands-on activities to do- I simply show them required content and HOW they commit this to memory or to intellectual scrutiny is up to them.

So, if they choose to do a slow read and think, this is fine. If they choose to do a project, fine. If they choose to answer the questions on paper, fine. My only involvement at this time in assessment or evaluation comes at the end of a two week period when I test or interview or hear presentations. All other marking/checking is informal while glancing over a shoulder during the morning. As for Math, I usually only mark chapter tests now.

2. I also allow them to choose their own schedule, and they know I am available in the morning for tutoring if necessary.

We have a general rule of no computer or tv until after supper. They have their set chore times and times we go out to visit or whatever. And then they are free to do their school work at any other time in the available time frames - be it morning, evening, afternoon, or weekend.

My only qualitification is that, should they not complete their work or have at least a 75% retention level, they will re-do the work missed, as well as forfeit computer and tv privledges for the next two weeks until they learn how to manage their time better.

NOW! Unless some think I have abandoned my kids!!! Hear me out.

My time is spent coaching them in how to make good decisions, and how to plan their time. I help 'advise' them about which subjects they might want to choose first. I also point out where they could be doing something more efficiently. In other words, I am present as a life coach to help them learn to manage their time, and apply themselves, while they assume direct responsibility for their learning.

Secondly, I am available at all times as a tutor. What always surprises me is the little amount of time my children seem to come for help - and so the goal of independant learning becomes a reality.

As for checking and marking work - I usually only do final copy or tests or reports - I save this for a Friday/Saturday every two weeks, when I also make up their next two weeks work.

Old Catholic texts and teaching manuals used to talk about the need for children to become truly independant in their learning and accountable for their work. So, I figure the skill of learning independantly & time management are probably some of the best gifts I can give to my children - as opposed to the school model I tried to follow in my early homeschooling days where Mummy had to spout information all the time and define all the activities etc etc...

Secondly, in relation to this, Maria Montessori pointed out that there is a necessary moderate balance between the teacher/parent who controls and the one who abandons. I see excessive control in education to mean teacher directed/assigned/monitored everything. I see abandonment as the radical form of unschooling. But where I see balance would be in blending the best of both extremes, and here, Mummy needs to ask herself two main questions:

1. What is "essential" that "I" must do, and only I CAN do, in homeschooling?
(For me, this is determining essential curriculum content, and helping them learn how to learn)

2. In what ways can my children do for themselves what they can and ought to do for themselves?
(For me, this is allowing the children to find their own ways to work with the material - by choosing how to learn and when to learn.)

Does this help at all?

11:21 AM  

 Anonymous said...

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I set out what I consider is 'essential' work for my children - ie content and skills. I write up a basic plan for a two week period and give this to them. It includes, readings, page numbers, biographies, chapters, etc.

But then I give them freedom within limits: and this happens in two ways:
1. I let them determine HOW to learn it. So, I don't assign written questions answered, nor even what type of hands-on activities to do- I simply show them required content and HOW they commit this to memory or to intellectual scrutiny is up to them.

2. In what ways can my children do for themselves what they can and ought to do for themselves?
(For me, this is allowing the children to find their own ways to work with the material - by choosing how to learn and when to learn.)

Holly,

Can you expand on the above? It sounds intriguing and wonderful for a large family. But I don't really understand it. What do you mean they determine how to learn things? And required content? I have read some Montessori for little ones where you just have the materials available but how does this work for older children?

5:52 PM  

 Holly said...

OK - let's see if I can explain more clearly. I will have to be brief as there is too much to explain fully here.

First - content. I figure I know more than my children! :-) And I figure there is a lot they don't know, but that they need to know. And I figure this is the basis of intellectual "content" in an education. And I consider it my job, not the children's , to determine this.

So - I had to ask myself - what do I consider necessary knowledge (for the church has always stressed the need of a general broad intellectual formation)?

So, since education is all about the formation of persons, I figured then that knowledge had to relate to the various parts of their person AS WELL AS to the world they were to enter and the skills they needed.

For me - in relation to 'academics' only , this involves then-
-spiritual truths (to care for their spirits)
-physical knowledge (about health and nutrition etc to care for their bodies)
-cultural knowledge - a study of history, with the main focus on 'persons' and 'ideas' and how these help us to live as holy persons, as opposed to a chronology or time line of political events
-mathematical skills & their practical application
-communication skills - being able to read/interpret writings of others, and write to communicate ideas.
-basic intro to scientific data

These are the main schemes of what I consider essential content. And I get pretty specific in my curriculum about what is 'necessary' then to seriously know and alternately, what a child can be 'exposed' to and not require mastery or even memory recall.

For example: South America: I think the saints of South America are important to be familar with, as well as a recognition of the countries and capitals, as well as a general intro to the native population, Spanish conquest, subsequent difficulties and modern governmental types found there - and I put this usually in Grade 6. This is the emphasis and huge chunks of text is skipped because it is not necessary knowledge and no one ever remembers all the extras anyway.

Now while my children can read about the rest of the historical/geographical/cultural knowledge to be learned here, I don't test or care about whether they know the 18 amazing uses of a coconut, altho I may hear all about it at the supper table. It is on points like these that textbooks and I differ in our emphasis! :-)

So , I have a set curriculum covering these important areas that all my children follow and it is sequential, for the most part. And I have chosen my texts/books/videos/resources and I know what parts of each text/book/video/resource I want them to 'know'. And I have this on my computer and I write this up for them every two weeks.

Ex: A Grade Nine History lesson for a week or two might be:

History of the Church text pp122-135
Our Heritage Text pp144-170
Novels: Edmund Campion
St Thomas More
Mary Queen of Scots
Red Hugh
Video : A Man for all Seasons


Part Two - HOW they learn...

SO much of the various 'philosophies' of homeschooling --- from classical to unschooling to accelerated to dictation to textbook Q&A to unit study to hands-on-activities --- are not really and truly 'philosophies' at all, but 'methodologies' . Methods are WAYS for children to learn, not philosophies which discuss the meaning of life.

Any classroom teacher knows there are tons of ways for a child to learn something. And teachers also know that it is never a good thing to use the same method two times in a row if you want the children to avoid boredom.

So methods, or HOW a child learns, can be open to great change from day to day and from child to child. And there are many ways for a child to learn-

They can
-read and ponder it slowly and then come and talk to you
-read and answer written questions
-develop a project and presentation on it
-develop a report or pretend tv show or make a model
-they cann illustrate it all on a poster or make a mini-book or diorama
-they can jot down notes as they read
-they can sing it, chant it, draw it all in sand...
(The list is endless, really, and it helps to have a list of ideas posted on a wall)

ALL of these things are HOWS to learn - and usually classroom teachers spend most of their time telling kids HOW they are going to learn something. It can seem the better the teacher, the more creative she is in HOW she gets her kids to learn!

But Maria Montessori's idea about freedom within limits - in giving the child the right and ability to CHOOSE anything that is good - and to give them the chance to PRACTICE making good decisions - is so easily applied here to methodology.

Just as her younger child methodology has trays and the children choose which trays to pick, and in what order, I figured my children could choose which subjects to study when in the course of a week -

They get the chance to practice responsibility and independance - the chance to use their reason and assess how much time they have for a.b.or c - the chance to learn in a non-threatening way how problematic it is when you goofed around last week and this week you gotta know your stuff!

So you can see, that this methodology of freedom within limits, in itself, is a moral formation of the will. Yes - that elusive "but-how-do-I-form-my-child's-character" question we all share, but think applies only to formal discipline techniques! Montessori's method here IS moral formation - in practice.

Oh! Excuse my excitement! :-) Now, back to the rest!

They also get to choose HOW - which only contributes to a truly beautiful sense of freedom - no more Mummy telling them what to do ALL the time - now they are free to apply to their work exactly the amount of time they believe they NEED to learn it - and to do it in a way that suits them personally - which removes now the "conformity-vs-individuality" split we can see between a child's intellectual interests and learning strengths on one hand, and the need for a uniform standard knowledge base and set curriculum on the other.

So while my older child likes to take notes when reading her history, my younger daughter likes to do creative projects like make teepees for her Natives unit and design posters and illustrate. But, my middle son just wants to read it slowly and then, he figures he has other things he'd like to do more than posters and heads off to the basement to do what he really wants to do - carve wood into something.

After the week or two weeks, I meet with them. For some subjects on some weeks I might give a test on paper. Other weeks and in other or the same subjects, I might just do an oral interview. Other times we just discuss. And if something was important for them to be exposed to, but not essential knowledge in my opinion, they might get asked to tell us about it at the supper table and that suffices. But in two weeks on another topic I consider more important, they might have a literal exam! :-)

Anyway - this all helps the children use and plan their own time, and work with the material in ways they choose, specific to their own unique personality and preferences, as well as gives them options for other uses of their time. The end result in relation to academics , and specifically here, knowledge, is actually better than I have seen when I planned the methods and set the times, and my kids are all much happier.

Does this help make it clearer? If not, please continue to ask until it becomes so. I enjoy the chance to talk about it! :-)

7:36 PM  

 Anonymous said...

What if the children just don't do their schoolwork?

2:04 PM  

 Holly said...

Well, I think you can 'modify' this freedom to still help keep their freedom - for yes, complete freedom in choice requires maturity, and you do want a progression of freedom in order to train.

So, why not assign the 'time' for school - say morning - and then permit them to 'choose' which subjects they will do first, second, third, etc... Is this not true freedom within limits - the limit of the time frame, but still enabling them to make their own decisions?

Then our job remains, as moms and teachers, to assist , encourage and make suggestions to help them in choosing well; in pointing out how their whims got the better of them today; of how to get the yuckiest thing done first as a rule; of how to alternate quiet work with more physical work to provide balance... and we thus train our children 'within' the academic setting 'how' to use their wills to choose good.

3:21 PM  

 Holly said...

Perhaps you could modify their 'freedom' - you set the time for them to do their work, and they can choose which subject to tackle first, second, etc... That would still provide personal choice and a good exercise of the will. As they become proficient in choosing well, slowly move them on toward a more mature and responsible independance.

12:21 AM  

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