My Life in Six Words

My blogging friend Jimmie has inspired me to stretch my brain by writing the title to my own memoir using only 6 words. I was leaning towards "you'll miss me when I'm gone" since that's what I tell my husband when he complains about something I've done. I also came up with a few that summed me up really well but were a little too personal to post on a public blog. But I finally settled on a fragment of one of my favorite verses:

YET, THE LORD THINKETH APON ME

"But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me." Psalm 40:17a

What would your six words be?

Childhhood Games

Yesterday I was teaching my daughter a song I had learned as a child. It was actually used in a hand clapping game my sister used to do with her friends while we road on the bus (in the four years I attended private school before my parents began homeschooling). Unfortunately, I was the "pesky" little sister, so she never bothered teaching the hand motions to me.

The song went like this:

Say, say oh playmate

Come out and play with me

And bring your dollies three

We'll climb my apple tree

Slide down my rainbow

Into my cellar door

And we'll be jolly friends

For ever more.

After indulging in this bit of nostalgia, I began thinking about some of the other childhood games I remember but haven't taught to my children, and all the ones I've probably forgotten. I was thinking it would be nice to make some kind of website to record these games. That afternoon, I received this email from the Games for Learning Yahoo Group list:

"I have an idea I'm starting to put into action that I need your help with. I've created a group at YouTube for people to upload videos of step-by-step instructions of children (or grownups) teaching how to do different playground games. Examples would be clapping games, jump rope rhymes/games, Chinese jump rope, traditional or Chinese jacks, hopscotch, playground ball games, cat's cradle/string games, etc. The idea being to create a place to go to learn all these wonderful games from our childhoods and to be able to pass them along to the next generation. I want to see a resurgence of these games! I know they are still out there, but they don't seem as prevalent as they used to be, so I want to change that!"

Talk about providential! I love when God works things out like that, don't you? If you're interested in seeing what is posted or posting some videos of your own, please visit Playpalooza. Let's all renew our childhood memories this summer and help our children create some of their own. 

Using Narration in Your Homeschool

I didn’t set out to be a "Charlotte Mason Homeschooler." I’m not one of those moms who researched all the various methods before choosing the perfect one. In fact, following someone else’s method of teaching goes against what I believe is one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling- education which is tailored to the needs and styles of the learners. But over time I discovered that many of the things which I began doing simply because they worked, were things which Charlotte Mason also used. One of these things was narration.

When I first started homeschooling our large family, it was easier to teach the children as a group whenever possible. Science, geography, and history were, until the older children began to work on their own, done together. Even the toddlers sat in on these lessons. The young ones were often fidgety and it was hard to know whether they were actually listening. In order to make sure they paid attention, I stopped often to ask questions. Thus, my children ended up narrating throughout the lesson. When we finished our reading, I asked one or two of the older children to tell me what we just learned. This gave the little ones a chance to hear the material one more time (they usually listened better to brother or sister) and they often wanted to add their own narrations as well. Having the children do narrations offered them an opportunity for friendly competition, as everyone wanted to be able to mention that one important fact that everyone else forgot.

I think the problem with using the term "narration" is that it takes something that is really very simple and makes it seem more complex. To me narration is nothing more than having a discussion about something you have learned. It is a tool for measuring learning, not a permanent record of that learning. It is a memory shared between two people, not something that must be recorded for all posterity. Most of the time I don’t require a written narration, especially if the child is still learning to read and write. However, when my children are old enough to begin working on their own, they do more written narrations. I still feel it is my duty to respond to these narrations, to guide them with more questions if necessary. That way we can still have that "discussion", even though it is on paper rather than being spoken.

Oral narration is one of the most effective methods of education, and yet one of the simplest. In the past it has been referred to as the Socratic method. In the Church, it is known as catechising. It basically involves asking questions and listening to the answers. When you are reading to your child or speaking to them about something, stop often to ask questions. Ask them to tell you what you have just said. Ask them their opinion of it. Ask them to apply it to their lives.

In his book Rediscovering Catechism, Donald Van Dyken explains it this way:

"To germinate the idea we can imagine ourselves on a ship looking for a submarine. The submarine hides below the surface of the ocean.Our ship is equiped with sonar, and our operator sends out sharp sounds into the dark waters. Those sound waves travel down through the water until they hit something. Sometimes they strike a school of fish, or the bottom, or the sub we are searching for. When those sound waves bounce off the hull of that sub, the sonar device picks up the echo. From that the operator can get a fix on the submarine’s position.

"That illustration introduces us to the teaching concept known as catechizing- sending out questions and listening for the echo, the answer that fixes the depth of knowledge and understanding."

The modern definition of teaching involves very little interaction between the student and the teacher. But as Van Dyken points out "Teaching is not only telling the truth but also making someone know the truth. . . We fall short of fulfilling the role of teacher if our students fail to know what we have presented." And how will we know whether we have failed without that "echo"?

The benefit of narration is that it gives almost instant feedback. There is no need to review months of material after a poor test score. If the student doesn’t understand, the echo will reveal it and more probes can be sent out until he is gently led to understanding. Narration also forces the child to internalize the lesson as he takes the information and puts it into his own words.

Narration doesn’t take a lot of time, and it isn’t complicated. It does, however, require a teacher who is willing to spend time listening to and interacting with her students. But that describes most home educators anyway, doesn’t it?

Will the Real Lilliput Station Please Step Forward?

I met my husband at a very small Bible college in South Carolina. There were seven of us all renting from the same landlord, living in two trailers (one for boys and one for girls) in the middle of nowhere. One of the students (who later became my brother-in-law) named the place "The Ranch." And the name stuck.

After being there for only a year, my (future) husband and I both returned home to prepare for our marriage the following year. Then my parents bought an old farmhouse in the country. My mom's lifelong dream was finally realized! Yet here I was six months from my wedding and once again uprooted. To make matters worse, our new "home" was just a backyard away from the railroad tracks. At nights they would come flying through. The house would shake, and I'd lie there in terror knowing that the only thing between us was the propane tank if one of them happened to leave the track. I did a lot of praying during those six months!

In an effort to make this place feel more like a home, I decided to give it a name. It had worked for The Ranch. Maybe it would work here too? I guess I was feeling a little small at the time. Why else would I have chosen the name "Lilliput Station"? I used that name again when I decided to start a Yahoo Group and a homeschool blog.   

I had no idea at the time that there REALLY was a place called Lilliput Station. Solomon was right, "There is nothing new under the sun." Follow this link to see the pictures.

There’s More to Home Than School

I was sorting through some papers this morning and came across a few quotes I had collected on the topic of "love."

My absolute favorite is an excerpt from a cotton commercial. The woman quoted is telling a short story of her childhood. Every night her mother came in, closed her window, and covered her. When she asked her mother why she did this, her mother replied, "Love is seeing a need and filling it." I think that is a really good definition.

When my daughter Kate was little, she was struggling with a particular punishment I had given her and was doubting my love. I told her this story. Then I asked her if she knew that I waited for her to fall asleep every night so I could cover her before I went to bed. That night, she faked sleep just so she could see if it was true. When I pulled the covers up and bent down to kiss her forehead, she opened her eyes and reached up to hug me. "You DO love me!" she exclaimed.

A second quote comes from Francis Bacon. "A crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk is but a tinkling of cymbals, where there is no love."

And finally, a quote with no source~ "The first duty of love is to listen."

All of these remind me that love is an action. I can tell my children I love them, but it doesn’t mean anything if I don’t demonstrate it. My children don’t just need a teacher, they need someone who will listen to them, and sympathis with them, and sacrifice for them. They need a mother.

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesions 5:2

I am not one of those people who enjoys constantly being surrounded by people, but living in a home with eight (homeschooled so they are with me constantly) children doesn't offer many opportunities for silence or solitude. I have learned to cope with this by tuning out the noise when I am feeling overwhelmed. But this can be a problem when my children come to speak to me and I "hear" them, without really listening. I can't count the times that I have agreed to something without having any idea what I was asked. So, one of my goals for this year is to demonstrate my love to my children by being a better listener, especially outside of the "classroom."

I'd also like to focus on more just for fun projects this year- reading, crafting, day trips. All of these things can be educational, but some of them ought to be done for no reason other than that they provide an opportunity to make happy family memories. So, those are a couple of goals I've come up with to help me refocus on the HOME part of our homeschool.

A New Name For Notebooking

We've been "notebooking" almost as long as we've been homeschooling, yet it was only a couple of years ago that I realized it had a name. But I've got to be honest with you: I really don't like the name. While "notebooking" is technically a good description for what we do, it's only a good description if you already know what you are doing. You can't just walk up to someone and say "Yes, we use notebooking in our home education" without expecting a few questions. Which is why I've been trying to find something better. I haven't come up with anything stellar, but I think that the term "journaling" might be pretty good. After all, education happens during the daily adventures of life (some that happen naturally and some that are created by the "teacher") and a journal is a great place to write about adventures!

If something exciting happens, you naturally want to share it with someone else. And learning is a very exciting thing. Writing a short summary of things that have been read, stories that have been listened to, or field trips and activities that have been experienced is a great way to "review" learning and make sure those memories don't get lost. It's also makes it easier to share those memories with others. Maps and illustrations can also be drawn or copied and pasted into your journal. "Lapbooking" can be time and money intensive, but an occasional mini-book is a great addition to an educational journal and adds an interactive element to it. Photographs and small keepsakes from projects and field trips are also nice additions to a journal. Hands-on activities are a great way to make learning personal to your child and like other important events, they should be well documented. Just like any other journal, the contents of an educational journal will vary according to the personality of the writer- your creativity is the only limit.

So, there you have it: Educational Journaling. You heard it here first! ;o)

A Mother's Education

Even though homeschooling has become somewhat "normal" these days, it still receives more than a normal share of attention. Questions about legality and socialization have been replaced with questions about ability. "How will you teach them when they get to highschool?" "You must be really smart. I don't think I'm smart enough to teach my children." "You must have a lot of patience." I hear these comments often and they make me smile. In the eyes of the world, I may look like SUPER WOMAN, but I'm really quite ordinary.

It doesn't take a high IQ or a college degree to home educate. In fact, my own mother never went any farther than high school. She didn't know how to do chemistry and algebra was never her strong point. But if she wanted to learn something, she knew how to look it up. My mother was a researcher; and in the days before Google, she was the one to go to when you needed an answer. That is the true secret of home education: parents who love learning passing that love on to their children.

When people look at home education, they mostly focus on the children. Of course, the children are important and I believe that children do benefit from home education. But I think the education the mothers receive is just as beneficial. I'm not simply taking about academics, although there is that aspect. It amazes me how much I learn along with my children; and because I am learning too, it doesn't matter whether I "know it all." I am simply a facilitator, not a teacher. But I am learning other lessons as well.

I am learning to be patient. No, I wouldn't consider myself a patient person, but I hope I'm improving. Trust me, listening while a child sounds out the words of Green Eggs and Ham requires a LOT of patience. (Come on! I could say it from memory!) Explaining how to carry in addition for the seventeenth time (and knowing there are four others who still need to learn this concept) takes a lot of patience. And forcing yourself to ignore how long it took your five year old to fold the towels into that crooked heap (it would be so much easier to do it myself!) takes a lot of patience and continual self reminders these are important life skills he needs to learn. Throw in a three year old who suddenly developed a stutter and "Oh, Lord, did I REALLY ask you to help me learn patience!????" Yes, I am learning to be patient.

I am learning humility. People haven't just started telling me I'm smart since I started homeschooling my children. I was a very precocious child, so I've been hearing it most of my life. But trying to teach children, especially when they are your own children, has a way of taking you down a notch or twelve. I love writing, It should be easy for me to teach writing.  I had a second grade teacher (pre-homeschooling) who taught me to love writing and she made it seem so easy. But my children hate to write and I can't seem to change their minds. The one subject that should be the easiest for me is my greatest failure. I also learn humility when that fun project I planned becomes the worst idea Mama's ever had. I'm also humbled by the total lack of control I have over the lives of my children, by the reflection of my sins in their own lives, and by the realization of just how much my sins hurt them. I know I would probably see this even if I didn't homeschool, but being their primary role model certainly makes it harder to place the blame somewhere else.

I am learning to pray. I pray for patience. "Oh, Lord, did I REALLY ask you to help me learn patience!????" I pray for forgiveness. I pray for wisdom in how to train and shape these lives into lives that would glorify Him. I pray for the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of myself and my children, without whom we can do nothing. Oh, did I mention patience? Home education is a process that continually drives me to my knees, and what better thing to do on you knees than pray?

So, can you teach your children? Are you smart enough? Probably not. Are you patient enough? I doubt it. But if you love your children and have a desire to learn, those really are two very good reasons why you should. You never know what you will learn.