“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.” –
Mark Twain
In times like these, more and more parents are teaching their children at home whether it is an online tutorial through their public school or jumping in and taking it all on as a parent/teacher. Many parents never thought it was on their radar, like this mom with her ‘less is more‘ approach. More about that later.
I speak from experience – I have 7 children of my own and I taught 2 step children for a few years. 30 years total.
I know, right?
Before you think for a second that I was amazing, a super mom (I do have the cape) or a brilliant disciplinarian, I’ll confess – I blew it most times. Ask my kids. I was also under some stress, but that’s another blog post. With that said, I must admit that they grew up with a love for learning and are bright, hard working adults.
So where do you start? Do not try to recreate school at home. Instead, create a home where learning never stops. It’s not 180 days a year, 5 days a week with fall and spring breaks. It sunrise to sunset, 365 days a year. It’s finding out how light a fire for learning. It’s paint brushes, cookie sheets, music lessons, sewing baskets, scouts, soccer practice and garden tools. It is also math problems, spelling lists and learning a foreign language. There are co-op groups for subjects you are not comfortable teaching and online classes galore. If I could do it again, they would be more involved in civic duties.
Then, there is history. For me, it’s one of the most important. It’s the foundation of learning. When you teach history you can incorporate other subjects, spelling, writing, reading, math, foreign language. And we all know, history does repeat itself and we must learn its lessons.
“I don’t like history!” is the sentiment of most children and even adults. As a child, I was one of them….until 7th grade. One teacher in San Antonio, Texas changed my mind. I wish I knew his name, I would like to thank him. Why do most people despise history? In one word…..TEXTBOOKS!
That particular year in 7th grade, the teacher told us, “This year will be different.” He told us to put the textbooks under our desks and there they would stay. The class cheered, for we thought we were off the hook. Instead, this teacher sat on the edge of his desk, with a very large Texas map behind him and a long stick in one hand. As he pointed to the map, he told STORIES of REAL PEOPLE. History was ALIVE. We were captivated. We loved his class. We all passed with A’s. More importantly, we remembered.
To this day, and it’s been many, many years since 7th grade, I can still tell you names of Indian tribes, I remember the Sabine River, I know the topography. I “Remember the Alamo” and our field trips to places like San Jose Mission. I can almost ‘smell the air’.
But that was 7th grade. It was murderous in High School and I hated it. I passed but I didn’t enjoy it. I was forced to read about ‘segments’ of time, paragraphs about people and worse, to memorize a bunch of dates and places that didn’t seem to go together. It didn’t stick.
As I became an adult, I realized I didn’t really ‘hate’ history, I hated the way it was taught. I loved travel and learning about places and people.
In the mid 1980’s, I began homeschooling my children. I read books like “For the Children’s Sake” I read books by Charlotte Mason, who taught children in England in the 1800’s and coined the phrase, ‘Living Books’.
What is a ‘Living Book’? In short, why would anyone have a child read a paragraph about Betsy Ross or Frederick Douglas, when you can read a biography of their life adventures?? Read a chapter on the Revolutionary War or read scores of books about great men and women of the era? Then, we found that we could take it a step further….study history chronologically, take four years to do it and repeat the process, while giving children more information on a higher level the next time around. All the while, watch movies, eat food, learning about the culture, religion, government and dress of that era.
The beauty of this type of education – it solves the problem I often hear when a family has multiple children. How do you teach history, science and reading to 4 different children in different grades? The answer is, you study the same time period and give books to each child on their grade level. While studying Ancient Egypt, my second and seventh grader were both reading about deserts, Pharaohs, Moses and archeology, but on their level. We could learn together!
It wasn’t until I moved to Virginia is 2003 that I had the pleasure of traveling the state. Visiting places like Williamsburg for instance and ‘watching’ men portray Patrick Henry or Thomas Jefferson opened up another level of education for us. It brought us back in time as they talked to us in first person. My children were able to spend the morning and have breakfast with “George Washington”. We climbed fortresses in Yorktown. We watched the ships sail in on the beach in Norfolk during a celebration of the landing at Jamestown. As the children grew, and we visited Fredericksburg, Lexington, Appomattox, Gettysburg, and Harpers Ferry… the Civil War was ALIVE in my children’s hearts. You know they are learning something when the 3 of them argue in the backseat because they are sure each is right about the day that General Hood died!
Studying history teaches us to learn from our mistakes….or it should! Why did Rome fall, how could the citizens of Germany follow Hitler? If we study Greece and Rome, we have a clearer understanding how civilizations fall. Why did the states of our country go to war against each other? Why would Robert E. Lee leave the country he served to fight with the state is loved? What makes a young man like Richard Kirkland climb over a wall into a battlefield to help the enemy, why did Desmond Doss join the Army during WWII and refuse to carry a weapon?……we can go on and on. Whether a person did great deeds or whether they were wicked, what can we learn from them? What was their character like….virtues vs vices. How do I want to live my life? How does any of this line up with my moral character?
My adult children still write stories, keep blogs, read books and I know from talking with them that they love history.
Studying history should cause us to want to know about our current condition. History steps on the heels of the present. By learning about others mistakes, hopefully we won’t repeat those mistakes. Â It makes our children want to keep up with the news, go to political rallies, take interest in our current events, vote….and hopefully be a part of bringing about the changes we need in society on all levels. If the study of history dies, our future dies with it.
Less is More –
• Don’t feel that you have to keep up with grade appropriate lessons. Stay with it until the material is mastered.
• Find something your child is interested in and run with it
• Methods are taught to teachers and some of those methods are not necessary with 1 child. You aren’t teaching a class of 25.
• Use times in the kitchen or garden as teachable moments. There are scores of times education isn’t about paper and pen. It counts
• Read aloud. Often, no matter their age. Enjoy a novel together – whether you teach your kids at home or not. It’s a good habit to start. “The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man that can not read them.” – Mark Twain
And if all else fails. There is this –
~ Jezebel aka Super Mom
