Curriculum Updates and More Fleur-de-Lis Reflections

I have made a few changes to my 2015--2016 Vintage Catholic Home Education curriculum, which you can view in the previous post, and have reflected more upon my fleur-de-lis vision.

The only book in my current curriculum resources list that I don't own is Laura M. Berquist's Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum. I have checked this one out from the library before, and I did so again yesterday. What I had forgotten was that the book is subtitled, A Guide to Catholic Home Education. This is important, because a classical curriculum isn't necessarily Catholic. It's great that this method can be applied to any worldview, but the Catholic homeschooler can really benefit from a classical approach that is tailored to our Faith.

In the forward to Berquist's book, Donna Steichen gives a brief history of how the Catholic home education movement began. She writes that "in the past thirty years that culture in which most Catholics lived and which seemed to them to be simply the unchangeable given of life has collapsed in a vast secularizing implosion." I counted back 30 years from the book's publication, and Steichen is obviously referring to the confusion following Vatican II. She goes on to say that parents who had intended to pass on the Catholic culture in which they had been formed found themselves opposed by "an emerging managerial class within the Church, apparently devoted to accomodation and surrender". Strong words. I have heard these sentiments echoed by home educators who have discovered that many Catholic schools have been secularized and the Faith watered down in religious education programs.

Steichen offers Berquist's classical curriculum as an excellent alternative for those who "may have been overwhelmed by the flood of paper that a correspondence curriculum entails or may want a more flexible approach for their children." Berquist gives some recommendations for background reading before you begin to design your own curriculum, including For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. Coincidentally, I have this book and had recently begun to re-read it. It happens to be a guide to Charlotte Mason, so I assume that Berquist acknowledges the overlap between these two methods. I have listed For the Children's Sake in my resources as a replacement for A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola. I still highly recommend Andreola's book for the homeschooling newbie, but I will most likely not be going back to it, as I have already read it thoroughly.

The other change I made to the resource list was to remove Modern Montessori at Home II (Spietz). I checked this one out from the library also, and after browsing through it decided that it wasn't what I was looking for. I have deeply internalized the philosophy and method of Maria Montessori through my classroom experiences and the intense teacher training I received, so I don't regularly consult her original works or my resource manuals anymore. Also, my Montessori experience was concentrated toward a younger age group than my child is now in, so the only Montessori material I still use is the Moveable Alphabet. This year it was instrumental for phonics training, and next year we will be using it along with the Making Words book that you can find in the Language Arts subject area. The "three period lesson" is also still useful, such as for memorizing the names of the continents.

For additional inspiration in translating Montessori principles in my home today, I added Lori Pickert's Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring the Self-Directed Learner to my list. I already own this book and just need to finish reading it! The emphasis is similar to Montessori in regard to preparing the home environment and offering the child ample opportunity for pursuing his personal interests, choosing his own work, and having the freedom to move around.

In the student books and materials portion of my curriculum write-up, I added two books to the Health subject area. I had sent my curriculum to my teacher friend who does our portfolio evaluations, and she mentioned puberty. Puberty! How could I have overlooked this? Here is a good reason for choosing the option to have an evaluation by a certified teacher over standard testing. Especially when the teacher personally knows your child, she can really make a difference in giving you feedback and suggestions. A member of one of my Facebook groups recommended an American Girl book, The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book. I got this on Ebay and was alerted to a companion, The Feelings Book, which I ordered as well. There are also journals available.

So I think I am done now with my curriculum plans, although things always change, and as I said in the last post, many specific book titles have not been included, as the school asks to keep the outline brief, and we always leave windows open to follow rabbit trails and interests as they develop. After all, a huge benefit of designing your own curriculum is that you are not a slave to any particular curriculum!

As a final note, I'd like to make a suggestion to the homeschooling newbies and to those who are transitioning from a boxed curriculum package or other methods. I truly believe that you could get an excellent start on the journey using only Andreola's A Charlotte Mason Companion, Pickert's Project-Based Homeschooling, and We and Our Children: How to Make a Catholic Home by Mary Reed Newland. In fact, I think you could easily get all the way through the primary and elementary years using nothing but these references and The 4Real Learning Booklist by Elizabeth Foss at http://charlottemason.tripod.com/4real_learning_booklist.htm. How's that for a simplified fleur-de-lis?

So, if you feel led to homeschooling but are worried that you won't know how to do it effectively, I have given you the solution! For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, says our Lord.

The Many Paths of Relaxed Homeschooling

 What steps must I take to reach the cat?

Have you ever had the experience of reading an article about homeschooling, seeing a post on Facebook, or talking to another homeschooling mother and feeling like you don't quite measure up? And then maybe you have the impulse to suddenly overhaul everything you do in order to be as awesome as someone else seems to be? There is that fine line between being inspired and feeling inferior.

I remember reading a blog post once that implored home educating mothers to be real on their blogs, to give a more balanced view of what homeschooling is really like, not just the Pollyanna version. I didn't quite agree with this. As a blogger, I want to be encouraging and inspiring. Who wants to see pictures of the messes and bad days?

But now I get it. For example, I received an invitation in my inbox yesterday from Lori Pickert for a master class on project-based homeschooling. I have Lori's book. I think project-based homeschooling is a great idea, and oh dear, I had forgotten all about it! I had the sudden urge to entirely redo Beezy's arts and crafts area and then remembered that I was simply not up to it physically, and I'd have to wait. I was thinking that I'd better finish reading Lori's book and make sure everything in my home is perfectly arranged to optimize the doing of self-directed projects!

But let's hit the pause button and reflect on this for a moment. Beezy has an ongoing self-directed project of writing daily in her diary, sometimes several times a day. She regularly creates drawing projects and likes to invent potions, mixing together various lotions, perfumes, shampoos, etc..., which can yield interesting chemical reactions. Recently she redesigned her desk area in her bedroom. A couple of days ago she assembled a few of her Monster High dolls and created a store where they were buying and selling things. And of course when Beezy gets together with a friend, the projects do not cease unless the girls are sleeping. Do we really need a master class?

In Lori's blog post she made the point that children learn by doing. She said that if you walk into a classroom and you see children copying notes from the chalkboard, what they are actually learning to do is to copy notes. Reminders such as this keep us on our toes as home educators. We must leave enough space to allow children to learn how to learn, to think critically, and to create in organic ways. There is a place for formal lessons, but we need to be careful not to spoon feed. And even in those formal lessons, nothing should be wasted or done just to check off a box.

Beezy loves to do work pages. They might seem like busy work to me, but she intuitively knows that they facilitate her learning in a way that she needs. She also knows when her mind is not being fed. She announced one day that she hates math because it's boring and too easy. Too easy! So I realized that she doesn't have to do a thousand math problems when she learns a new concept. We can skip what isn't necessary in the workbook and move on.

Thinking in terms of relaxed home learning, that restful schole that I wrote about recently, reminds me that homeschooling takes on a unique form in every home. And those pictures of perfect homeschoolers on Facebook? I have been in some of those homes, and I know better. Those perfect moments are about as brief as the time it takes to snap the photo. The beauty is in the reality of life.

Once you get your system rolling, through trial and error and experience, your family will find its natural rhythm. You'll roll with the changes as you observe your children, and you will provide them with exactly what they need. In trying to meet Beezy's desire to make potions, I checked out a gigantic book of such recipes from the library and was promptly overwhelmed by all of the ingredients I would need to find. Where the heck would borax be in Wal-Mart? I sent the book back and kept thinking about how to do chemistry at home. Then it hit me. I went on Ebay and found a kit with all of the stuff already included for 16 edible experiments, for only $13 with free shipping. Huzzah!

It's good to read blogs and books and to share ideas with other homeschoolers. Just don't get caught in the comparison trap. Don't imagine that what you are doing isn't already wonderful. Because I assure you, it's the bees knees!