The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives

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!