Class Is In Session
So just how does one “Homeschool”?
Well, there are so many manners and methods that are
available to model your own individual “school” after and, yet, everyone is
absolutely individual.
But one thing is for sure – We do it all from “Home” (or at
least homebased) whether that home be in a Rural Country Doublewide; A Suburban
Split-level; An urban Condo High-Rise; or even in an RV traveling across this
great country or leaping the ponds to another.
School from home – wherever home may be found – is a constant action
taking place with your student constantly (well, unless they’re sleeping)
learning.
But HOW does one
homeschool?
I don’t know how others do it. We've designed our homeschool to work best for us.
That’s the awesome thing about Homeschooling – it’s
personalized to the family as well as to the individual within the family unit as well as to the day and to the year!
For the Johnston’s Homeschool aka “Academia Christian
Homeschool” – we have one goal that we aim for in everything we learn:
Simplicity!
There is no “busy” work. There are no pointless “fun” assignments or activities
that keep my child’s learning boxed within a parameter designed by someone
else.
We just do Life. And in Living…we learn.
This family follows the ‘general’ guidelines of Charlotte
Mason but we can be considered Eclectic in that we incorporate just a touch of
Traditional Classical as well as a touch of Mama Johnston too!
There are so many facets to education anyway and over time,
we’ll touch on all points to our own Model of Homeschooling -
But the absolute main point in our method is this:
We choose only the Best books from which to learn.
No Twaddle!
What is
Twaddle?
Twaddle is in its most general definition: worthless,
trivial, foolish, nonsense speech or writing.
…and doesn’t that sound like the bulk of the reading being
done by kids (and adults!) both in school and at leisure these days?
They are simplified, non-challenging bits of foolish reading.
I refer mainly to the Fiction but how about Modern Non-Fiction?
Most Non-Fictions today are Dry books, full of base, boring facts or Busy
(loud) with images that scream in your face for attention overriding the words themselves. Often they are simply written by people who simply make their living from writing in general.…
I abhor most modern books (not all) for children especially
those which are Dumbed Down er, simplified
or marked at “grade” level. Gah!
(How impertinent does one have to be to decide that someone
else’s child should be reading at any particular “level” at all? And then fit basic, non-creative words to fit
that level.)
“There is absolutely no avenue to knowledge but knowledge
itself, and the schools must begin, not by qualifying the mind to deal with
knowledge, but by affording all the best books.” – Charlotte Mason Towards A
Philosophy of Education, Vol. 6.
Charlotte Mason believed that kids did not need to be spoken down to. They did not have to have things "explained" to them, that they were certainly capable of taking in information and deducing on their own.
Self - Learners being presented with the Facts set before them and Self - learning from them:
In the reading of Living Books, You will watch your kids grow
in knowledge and understanding as they read the words of people passionate
about subjects of which they write or in the reading of Literature, The Great Authors of Old splay out their
Words as a Feast on Each page; perseverance, as they are challenged by words
and patterns in writing not common to our lexicon anymore. Wisdom and Discernment as they see the past open up to them and the errors and ways of man repeat themselves through history and can distinguish
right from wrong, good from bad, truth from lies.
By the best books, too, we begin absolutely and foremost with the Bible: Heavy on stories, Poetic in its writing, historical in its context and educational in its substance – it IS our primary schoolbook - we hold everything against the Bible to determine that piece's worth or "truth".
Now, It might not strike you odd that my almost fourteen year old,
Fishing and Hunting and all things Outdoor Loving, Backwards Baseball Cap and
Carhartt Wearing, Firewood splitting, Fort Building, Backwoods-y,
Self-proclaimed Hillbilly Dude's Dude of a Son hates video games but that he would always prefer to read - not OVER all these things but
rather - while doing all these things
and in his time of rest as well - in fact, THAT is his rest.
And everything he reads is of substance.
Not at my insistence (maybe – from time to time – with my
encouragement) ;-) . Right now, he’s
reading – some as part of his lesson work, some as free reading – Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”,
Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” and Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery”…and
he loves them all.
Now I don’t mention this to brag – and I truly pray that it
does not come off that way - but rather to encourage anyone else who might not
realize that if this is the education that you desire for YOUR child, It’s
totally available to you, and while it may take a minute to instill - especially if you're instilling this following a bout of Public School - its effects
will last for a lifetime.
I am beginning
to truly see the fruits of our labors with my youngest. I’ve already seen them in my Oldest.
Anyway, enough of my tome today!
Check out amblesideonline.org for guidance and a thorough “K-12”
Booklist plus all the words of wisdom and the guidance that you need to implement
a truly challenging and educational curriculum for your kiddos.
Check out mainlesson.com for a wonderful array of free online reading or inexpensive
published living books.
Check out heritage-history.net for some excellent Historical
guides as well as free online reading and downloadable e-books as well.
Check out Gutenberg.org for a delightful array of Public
Domain titles that is being added to daily! Lots of goodies for Mom and Dad there too!
Every one of these websites is fired up in this household
every morning and like a smorgasbord of delicious and delightful good things,
we pick and choose from them the books that will delight and teach by the day, by the month, by the year!
And if you have ANY, ANY questions, please send them my
way! I believe so heartily in the
advantages of homeschooling that I desire to see every family who feels the
calling to do it succeed!
Coming next week... Our Curriculum and Book List line-up for the next Five Years!!!
Stay Tuned!
