Organize Your Life After the Holidays!

It’s no coincidence that the approach of a new year finds us making resolutions, new goals and priorities. There is just something so motivating about coming out of December–with all the stress behind you…but the mess still with you. You’re still suffering from a sugar high and you know this is the time to move toward health again. The house has taken the back burner to your overbooked calendar and now it begs your attention. You notice that the lack of routine and schedule has your kids a little out of whack and you’re eager to return to normalcy. Perhaps your spiritual food has been displaced with holiday food. Your finances need an overhaul too.

And you’re up for the challenge. So before I go tackle my ginormous to-do list, I thought I’d offer you the same encouragement and tips I’m trying to give myself (some of these came from my husband):

Regarding the house:

• Drink your coffee first (unless you’re trying to give it up, in which case, I have no idea how to encourage you there.)

• Tackle one room or area at a time. THIS is a hard one. You know the routine. You pick up an item from the kitchen and take it where it belongs and alas, that room is a disaster too, so you busily begin cleaning there. Resist the urge. My husband suggested that I take the stray item to the room it belongs and wait to put it up until I get to that room. Another tip is to have a box for stray items and just place them in that as you go through a room.

• Create a place for everything. If you can’t do that, toss it. Resist the urge to pine over each item, painfully imagining how and when you will use it. Once you toss it, you’ll feel much better, and you won’t miss the item. (Tip: Ask yourself, “Do I love it or do I need it?” If you answer “no” to either, it’s history.)

• If you have children, delegate. But be specific, because it is overwhelming to them too. Let the littlest ones be your “go-fers” taking trash and stray objects to their place. Give one a trash bag and make it their job to collect all the trash, or a basket to collect stray items, etc. Let them help you tackle the one room. Make it a race. Set a timer.

• Purge, purge like never before. This is the time to get rid of things you know just take up space. I try to remind myself that as soon as I toss it, I won’t remember it anymore.

• If you homeschool…give yourself a “reorganizing vacation”. Don’t feel the pressure to rush back to school until you’ve gotten everything under control. School time will be far more productive and pleasant if you’ll allow yourself that time. If you still feel pressure, maintain your daily reading and wait on the more stressful subjects.

• Study to get some great crock pot recipes and use it about twice a week.

Regarding your health:

• Last year I wrote, “Easy Health for Busy Moms” and I find it encouraging myself, even as I go back for a refresher. Great information and motivation in there to get your new year off to a good start.

• Change in baby steps. Add an extra glass of water to your diet (maybe switching at meal time).

• Find a good, whole-food multi-vitamin. I like “Alive”. Research on-line and ask around. Getting the proper nutrition is important to having the energy to accomplish all we must do in a day!

• Find some kind of exercise you will do. More than ever, at my “older” age, I’m realizing how important it is to exercise. Rebounding (jumping on a mini-tramp is an excellent, cold-weather exercise.) Not only does exercise do the obvious for your health, but it improves your mood and sense of well-being (by releasing endorphins). Who of us couldn’t use that?

• Just adding fruits, nuts and vegetables to your current diet is a great step. Make a glass of fruit juice or vitamin-enriched drink part of your morning routine.

Regarding your finances:

• Despite how painful it can be, a written budget is really the only way to stay on top of finances. We have found too, that the more variable your income, the more important it is to write out a yearly budget. For us, the bulk of our income comes in the summer. So unless we plan to spread it out over the year, we find ourselves lacking in the winter months. Dave Ramsey has the best resources I know of and I would encourage you to check out The Total Money Makeover–it was a life-changing book for us…truly.

• Actually use your budget Ramsey suggests the practical method of an envelope system. Whatever you have allotted for a certain category (food, clothing, entertainment), spend that and no more.

• Start a change jar. This is a very simple, painless way to save a little extra money for a rainy day. We’ve done this for years–sticking our spare change in a jar, and it adds up in a hurry. Think of something to save for and write it on the jar and get everybody involved!

• Learn to sell on eBay or Amazon. With a little forethought, extra cash throughout the year can be earned by selling items around the house. You could designate a specific savings goal for your eBay selling.

• Read our book, Finding Financial Freedom to see how we paid off $38,000 in consumer debt in five years, making less than $60K any year.

Regarding your spiritual life:

• Make a sermon part of your day. Or at least, every few days. With the convenience of Sermon Audio and similar sites, getting spiritually fed has never been easier. A few of my favorites: Voddie Baucham, John Piper, David Platt, Paul Washer, Ravi Zacharias, Alistair Begg, Joe Morecraft, Mark Driscoll…to name a few.

• Make Bible reading a priority. Even if you don’t get up early enough for quiet time, gathering the children around to read a portion of Scripture daily is not only a great spiritual benefit, but it paves the groundwork for habits in their own lives for years to come.

• Memorize Scripture as a family easily by playing By Heart Scripture Songs throughout your day.

Other random tips:

• Commit to reading a spiritually-challenging book once a month.

• Make a list of character traits you would like to improve, and begin praying, being deliberate and working toward those. (For me, cultivating a gentle spirit is at the top of my list.)

• Engage your children in more thoughtful discussion. Remind yourself that discussion is a primary means of education–and it can happen anywhere!

• Determine to be a blessing to your husband. So often this gets overlooked. But it should be a priority!!!! A family where the husband and wife are a team, where they cultivate friendship–that’s a family that will thrive. Just a sincere word of gratitude can go a long way toward being a “crown” to your husband.  Make him laugh, smile at him and just focus on being pleasant. You are the one person given to him to be his cheerleader. Encourage his strengths, and do not focus on his weaknesses. (It helps me, when I tend to want to dwell on his weaknesses, to redirect my thoughts to my own weaknesses. Wow. Changes perspective quickly.)

• Add laughter. This has been on my mind a lot lately. Life can really squelch out the fun if we let it. Adding a bit of laughter can change the quality of everyone’s life! Find something to laugh about…make jokes with each other, smile at your children’s antics. Nothing is so important that it has to squash our joy!

Praying the Lord would bless our homes this year as we endeavor to make them places where people thrive in the joy and comfort of our Father.

Homeschooling With Charlotte Mason: Part 7–Daily Plans

“The mother is qualified,” says Pestalozzi, “and qualified by the Creator Himself, to become the principal agent in the development of her child; … and what is demanded of her is––a thinking love ….Maternal love is the first agent in education.”

We are waking up to our duties and in proportion as mothers become more highly educated and efficient, they will doubtless feel the more strongly that the education of their children during the first six years of life is an undertaking hardly to be entrusted to any hands but their own. And they will take it up as their profession––that is, with the diligence, regularity, and punctuality which men bestow on their professional labours.”

I have found that many, many homeschooling moms want one thing:  “Just tell me what to do!“  I’ve heard new homeschooling moms tell of their frustration because a veteran mom wouldn’t give her a detailed plan to follow.

I understand both sides.  If you are one of those new homeschooling moms, it can be downright scary to suddenly find yourself solely responsible for the education of your children.  Especially with so many people waiting to see how you do   It’s natural to want a fool-proof plan!

But those who have homeschooled for a while know the danger in submitting a one-size-fits-all prescription.  Homeschooling is not the same as a school program where everything does look similar, and all the students are squeezed into one mold.  But we consider this an advantage and we want you to capitalize on that freedom too, not “hindering” you by offering a plan that may work for us but stifle you!

Still, we all really do need to have a guideline, at best, and sometimes it’s helpful to see another schedule or see how someone else fits a certain style into a workable daily plan.

If you would like to try to implement the Charlotte Mason method, you may consider looking at the following general guideline, but be sure to make it work with your family, your style and your time demands.  Don’t forget…this is your freedom and there are many, many ways to properly educate a child!

Note: We aim to center most of our reading around a certain time period and study that time period for a while.  Finding a good history book in a narrative form is a great place to start in pulling together your daily plan.  You can also coordinate your artist and composer studies within that historical period.

Sample daily plan for the Charlotte Mason method:

Monday-Thursday:

Breakfast-30 minutes

Morning reading (gauge time to fit your ages…we let little ones color/play blocks, and older ones draw during this time):

• Bible
• Book #1 read aloud–Could be a selected history book or missionary biography (this is what we are using for geography), or any other read aloud.
• Poetry reading (some find it helpful to read from an anthology, but poetry could be gleaned from any source)

Morning Chores-1 hour

Having a simple chart for each child to check off helps alleviate repeating and thinking about who needs to do what.  Revisit chore responsibilities every few months if needed.

Seat Work

In our home, this means the three older ones do math, English, copy work and silent reading.  Right now this silent reading covers science, and the two below my oldest are reading from Christian Liberty Press’ Nature Readers.  (They will narrate after lunch.)  The 6-year-old practices writing letters (general writing book) and reads aloud to me from her readers (CLP readers)

Little ones can color, be read to, play, etc. during this time.

Lunch

Sometimes I read to them from a poem or another selected book during lunch; sometimes I just try to keep the peanut butter out of hair

Naps/Reading/Narration

Any seat work not finished gets done during this time, along with narration from science readers.

Book #2 read aloud–I usually choose a book for this time that is a bit more advanced since the little ones are napping.

Silent reading.  This book is one each reading child has picked, with my help, to read on his own.

(Also my blogging time if time permits.)

Play time/projects.

This time may include one of the girls making bread for supper or helping the oldest with a sewing project. I try to encourage something productive. Legos count as productive. And on a rainy day, productive might be an educational video

Afternoon pick up before supper.

Friday

Nature Study

Picture Study

Composer Study

“Composer study” is not planned in; we simply listen to different composer, randomly throughout the week.  But it is helpful on Friday to discuss a selected composer, his background, his era and geographical details.

This is a guide to us.  It doesn’t mean we follow it strictly.  From my personal experience, if we feel the need to strictly follow anything, it squelches spontaneous learning opportunities which are sometimes the best ones.  If we get “off track” while studying one thing to study another, I don’t think of it as “off track” at all.

It helped me to construct our daily plan by writing down a list of everything I wanted to get done, and then find a place to fit it in.  We change our schedule fairly often, as well, adjusting to family changes.

I will officially end the CM series here.  But we’ve only scratched the surface!!!  I would urge you to get your hands on the “Charlotte Mason Original Homeschool Series” (I think you can find the entire manuscript on line) and dig in.  She has a wealth of information about all things parenting and children and I have found it an invaluable resource!

Homeschooling with Charlotte Mason: Part 4–Writing, Spelling and Grammar

Later in the series, I plan to include a more detailed explanation about how to implement the Charlotte Mason method in a typical school day, but it’s important to get a full “big picture” of her methods before you put together a plan. One of the benefits is that this method of instruction doesn’t have rigid parameters (which intimidates some and frees others ) and allows each family to tailor it to their lifestyle.

Part 2 discussed the importance of “living books” in the CM homeschool, and the next cornerstone is the practice of copy work, narration and dictation. These exercises have proven excellent tools in teaching spelling, grammar, punctuation and composition. It can, for all practical purposes, replace a standard grammar, spelling and writing curriculum.

Copy work.

“The purpose of copywork is to get into the child’s visual (and motor) memory the look and feel of a sentence that is correctly composed, and properly spelled, spaced, and punctuated.” (The Well Trained Mind)

Copy work was a common practice for centuries. Even Hebrew kings were required to make hand-written copies of the Scriptures. It’s important to understand the dynamics and benefits of copy work–it’s not just busy work!

“By and large, the greatest writers in the English language developed their writing skills through copywork and narration. Neither Shakespeare nor Jane Austen ever enrolled in a creative writing course; Dickens never studied journalism; Robert Louis Stevenson did not take classes in How to Write for Children (or for anyone else, for that matter)! Living before the invention of photocopy machines and computers, anything they wanted to keep a written record of, had to be copied down by hand: so copywork was a normal part of everyday life. Our children obviously live in a different age, but if we hope for them to become great writers, we can do no better than provide them with the same kind of training as these, and other, writers of the past.” (From Wonder to Wisdom)

Copy work is very easy to implement…students can copy from a selected passage in a book, from a poem or from Scripture. The main goal of copy work is to make sure he copies exactly what is written–perfectly. The quality is more important than the quantity, but the amount copied can be steadily increased as the child progresses.  Obviously, the quality of the passage he copies is important as well.

Narration.

Narration is simply the “telling back” of what the child has read. Narration has important implications in teaching the child to retain information, develop his thoughts, and learn to articulate those thoughts.

Narration should not be critiqued too much, especially at first. The child should feel free to share what he learned from his reading, even if it doesn’t seem like much or what you would have gathered from it. Asking questions is the best way to draw out more information. If the child doesn’t read yet, he can still narrate from selections you have read aloud.

Sometimes it’s helpful to show a child what you want in a narration. Simply read a selection and then say, “I’m going to narrate for you.”

Dictation.

Dictation is practiced once the child has a good grasp of writing through copy work. Dictation is writing down a selection that is read out loud. One important part of dictation is that you correct mistakes quickly, as they are made. If words are allowed to be misspelled, he could have a hard time breaking those spelling habits.

Dictation is best utilized by taking a selection, having the student read it through a few times, discussing any problem areas of grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc., and then proceeding with the dictation. When you read the selection, you should make natural breaks where there is punctuation, but not tell where the punctuation goes.

After the selection is copied, you just talk about any problem areas, perhaps having them dictate the words again the correct way. Any words misspelled could be copied several times with the correct spelling.

When we first learned of the Charlotte Mason method, we began just by implementing copywork. I’ve now learned more about the depth and richness of these practices, and would encourage you to try them for yourself. It actually takes some faith to believe in what appears to be such a simple exercise, but that faith will take on flesh after a while!

Homeschooling: Charlotte Mason–Part 3: The Schedule is Your Servant

One of the most frequent frustrations I hear among homeschooling moms is that they feel pressured  by time constraints. They haven’t completed the day’s lesson in the time they should so they have the option of being “behind” or making everyone finish, regardless of the emotional costs.

I would challenge moms feeling this pressure to first ask themselves a few questions:

• Who is setting your pace?

If the answer is “the curriculum guide”, remember that no curricula can fit your family’s needs exactly, and because you are the only one who knows your children’s individual needs, you reserve the right to override the guide. (Oooh…I like the sound of that–chant it in a sing/songy kind of way and let it become your mantra )There are advantages to “school in a box” but you must remember that no child is really “in a box” and tailor it accordingly. Let them be who they are in terms of speed and learning ability. This is precisely why the classroom model is weak….it is tailored to “the average child” and there is really no such thing. One of the very big advantages of homeschooling is so we DON’T have to usher the kids through an academic maze in the same time everyone else does it. Utilize your freedom!

• Who defines “being behind”?

A question related to the first, let’s do a little de-programming.  Because most of us went through the system, we think in terms of grade levels, school years, and chunks of time.  In school, if we didn’t finish a certain subject in a given time period, we were “behind” because it was necessary to keep everyone at the same pace.  Not superior, mind you, just necessary.

Time frames and schedules are good and necessary for all of us.  But they shouldn’t rule us.  Education and the learning process doesn’t have parameters.  We can learn in the evening just as well as in the morning if need be.  We can learn about the Civil War in the fourth grade or the tenth, and we’re none the worse for it.  What we didn’t do today, we can do tomorrow and it’s OK!

• What are your goals?

Do we simply want to check off an assignment, finish a book or complete “a grade”?  Or do we want our children to learn, to retain the natural curiosity that causes them to see everything around them as a “classroom”? I know when I was in school, it was really just about jumping through the hoops to get a grade to complete the year to be able to graduate.  And if we’re honest, did we really retain the majority of the information we were given?

I want my schedule, my lessons, my textbooks to be servants, not slaves.  It may take a constant reminder of our purpose in homeschooling, but we owe it to our children to attempt to inspire in them a love for learning, not a contempt of “school” where it’s all about getting done.

Practically speaking…

Some moms need more structure than others, for sure.  And I am a strong believer in structure.  I am going to throw out for you how we handle schedules just for your consideration.  Again, every family is different and I think it’s so important to make your homeschool work for you and not try to emulate someone else.

We simply start in the front of a book, whether it’s a text book or a reading book, and we do what I feel is a reasonable amount each day for each child.  If we have to miss a certain subject for a certain day, we just pick up where we left off.  We don’t try to double up.  We school year-round, so technically speaking, we can afford to miss quite a few days of our text book work.  We don’t really even keep up with “grades” simply because I don’t see how it serves a real purpose as it does in a school setting.  I asses which grade level each child is on and purchase materials accordingly.  One may be ready for 4th grade math but still need 3rd grade English.  They may be reading 6th grade level books, so it would be more of a burden to try to keep up with grades.  (And I keep asking myself, “why” do we need to be in a certain grade?)

This alleviates any stress from feeling “behind”, and truthfully, we probably cover more than is standard in a year simply because of the dynamics of the year-round schedule and being able to do more with fewer children.

One more hint…

Lots of things are taught in text books because a child in a classroom doesn’t have another option for learning them.  Learning how to tell time, for example, doesn’t require worksheets.  It makes much more sense to a child to learn it in a real setting.  All three of my oldest children learned to tell time by asking me about the clock when they wanted to know the time.  I don’t ever remember even announcing, “OK, today we’re going to learn to tell time”. The same with counting money, liquid measurements, and many others similar concepts.  Even with reading, it was simply a matter of teaching letters, sounds, then “sounding out” the letters together.  I have never even used a phonics curriculum to teach any of my children to read and they all read very well.

Sometimes just looking at things more practically can free us up from those pre-conceived ideas about how things must be done.  And believing…believing that God has already done an amazing thing inside those little brains, and that you are well-equipped to lead them to the answers they need at the right time!

Homeschooling With Charlotte Mason: Part 1

A wonderfully enthusiastic, Charlotte Mason lover/homeschool mom came and spoke at our home last week.  It was a great time of refreshing and inspiration!  I’ve always loved the CM method, but we’ve never followed it thoroughly and implemented the rich, encompassing educational philosophy.  (Thank you, Lisa!)

It’s just too good not to share, so I thought I’d do a series on the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling.  I would encourage you, whatever type of homeschooler you are, to consider implementing at least some of the basic concepts Mason taught. From the most structured to the most relaxed, any homeschool can benefit from her wisdom.  (And perhaps Charlotte’s method may be just the thing you need for the confidence to BEGIN homeschooling.)

Charlotte Mason, the British educator of  the late 19th century, taught from a three-pronged philosophy: 

Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.

“By “Atmosphere,” Charlotte meant the surroundings in which the child grows up. A child absorbs a lot from his home environment. Charlotte believed that atmosphere makes up one-third of a child’s education.

By “Discipline,” Charlotte meant the discipline of good habits — and specifically habits of character. Cultivating good habits in your child’s life make up another third of his education.

The other third of education, “Life,” applies to academics. Charlotte believed that we should give children living thoughts and ideas, not just dry facts. So all of her methods for teaching the various school subjects are built around that concept.”

~Simply Charlotte Mason

So many of us want a detailed “just tell me what to do” plan.  And probably most homeschooling methods can be put into detail, but it’s crucial that we first understand the philosophy behind the education we wish to implement.

To flesh out the CM philosophy just a bit more:

“Charlotte emphasized treating each child as a person, not as a container into which you dump information. She believed that all children should receive a broad education, which she likened to spreading a feast of great ideas before them. Charlotte encouraged parents to have an active role in teaching and training their children in academics, fine arts, faith, citizenship, and habits of character….

And I love her foundational approach to parenting…this would have been her advice to a homeschooling parent asking “how can I prepare my young children for school?”

“Charlotte Mason outlined two chief duties for parents.

1. “To form in his child right habits of thinking and behaving is a parent’s chief duty” (Vol. 2, p. 228).  Molding and shaping your child’s character with good habits is your first priority. If your day is too crowded to allow you time to stop and deal with bad habits, it’s too crowded.
2. “To nourish a child daily with loving, right, and noble ideas we believe to be the parent’s next duty” (Vol. 2, p.   228).  Feed your child’s mind with good and right ideas every day. Remember that a child soaks up a lot from his surroundings. So make sure everything you give him is wholesome and nourishing, including the atmosphere in which he grows. Feed his mind on what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, excellent, virtuous, praise-worthy.”

~Simply Charlotte Mason

We could talk about these few fundamental concepts all day, couldn’t we?

As I take a sweeping glance across the culture at our young people, I see blaring evidence of children who have not been nurtured, who have not been treated like valuable, growing individuals, who have not had parents daily building habits of character, who have not been given wholesome atmospheres full of “living thoughts and ideas”.  Charlotte Mason resurrects the idea for us that children are worth investing our lives in.

“If”: A Poem Worth Learning

In my estimation, this is one of the most brilliantly written poems of all time.  Every word counts, and it encapsulates, without saying, the essence of a person under the control of the spirit of God (and then some!)  We are memorizing it as a family and I thought you might like to ponder it with your children as well.

(It reads more smoothly if you will pause most at the punctuation, not the end of the lines.)

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!