Ideas on Management

These are a few notes I made recently while reading a homeschooling magazine:

On Order:

"If I could only tell you one thing about order, this is what it would be: In everything you do in your home, ask yourself, 'How could I be better prepared for this event?'" (Donna Otto)

I could easily see myself paralyzed into inaction by doing this too literally, but I do think it's a good idea to reflect on the most frustrating situations that came up during the day and try to think about how to manage them proactively.

I have been doing a daily (well, almost daily) examen as Father Hardon recommends. It is very easy to incorporate a few minutes of reflection on the glitches during the day. I am also trying to jot them down on a piece of paper as they happen.

Another variation of this that I read in a management article somewhere was to write a few notes on what you hope to accomplish during the day -- in the morning. Then in the evening, figure out why you weren't able to get to the things that didn't get checked off, and adjust accordingly.

Tips on house management that seemed useful (by Johannah Barham)

• Divide up the chores among the available workers, then divide up those chores into time periods -- like Before and After Breakfast, Before and After Lunch, Before and After Dinner.
• Rotate the jobs twice a year to accommodate changing circumstances and ages of kids.

I already do a regular re-evaluation of the workload but the idea of "pegging" jobs to regular events makes sense to me. Often I find myself busy with a long list of things to do while the kids are bored waiting for me to get done. It's not that they would mind helping me out -- it's just that I can't seem to work and assign at the same time -- too much multi-tasking for me. So it might be nice to have regular lists centred around the various regular events in the day.

Good Stress?

I have been thinking about "good stress". There is such a thing, and what constitutes "good stress" will depend very much on the individual and his reaction. This applies to children as well. Sometimes called "eustress" to distinguish it from "distress", good stress is a taxing of mind, body or spirit that leads to growth and a sense of self-worth and fulfillment.

So in light of that, how do we challenge our children appropriately and guide them to react to stress in a positive way?

The Greek prefix "eu" means well or good. Stress is a Latin word -- the closest Greek equivalent looks like anagke. Some other related words are Tolkien's eucatastrophe (meaning the happy reversal that comes at the end of a redemptive story) and eudaimonia (Aristotle's word for happiness, which connotes something like a good spirit or good fate).

Charlotte Mason talks about the infant kicking his feet for sheer joy; but at the same time, he is developing the very muscles that will later help him crawl and walk and run.

Sports can be a "good stress" depending on the child. I remember when my younger two boys were in T-ball. I saw one child being literally dragged into the field by his mother. He was screaming up a storm. Of course, no one could force him to actually play, and he ended up at the "bench" (really, for these little ones, a blanket spread upon the grass). I was the supervisor of the bench, to keep the bored youngsters from kicking each other and getting into the sort of mischief that little kids get into when they have nothing to do. I looked into this little boy's eyes and saw that he had shut off. His eyes were like the sky -- empty and bright. I felt as if I'd seen a little tiny creature curled up inside his soul, afraid of everything and unable to uncurl. So the exterior was all unresponsive amusement, protecting the stressed spirit inside. He was hard to supervise. I could totally relate to his young mother who probably thought she was teaching him character by forcing him to play, and perhaps indirectly she was helping his character formation by her intense sincerity. But in the moment, this boy was a distressed creature incapable of learning anything.

This, I would say, is not good stress, and I look for the kind of things that will encourage my children to expand, not contract into a miserable psychic ball. I think this differs for everyone. I know that the level of stress that feels like a positive charge to a choleric or sanguine child was enough to push me to the end of my coping devices when I was a small melancholic child.

Sometimes, though, a child needs a bit of exhorting or a nudge of some sort to reach his positive stretching point. This is probably my weakest point as a parent; I get too easily immersed in the anxiety of the child; it reverberates as my own anxiety. I think I probably arrange life too much to suit my own stress tolerance level. So definitely, there is a balance.

Travelling Again

This has been a mileage month. First up to Oregon, then home, then back up north again to pick up my teenage daughter and be at our friends’ birthday party. Now I’m off again to visit my parents up in Alaska.

So that’s why this blog has been so quiet lately….. I hope to do better after I get back.

I put a few pictures here.

October: Hail, Home Fires, and Haircuts

We just got back from travelling and I am travelling up to Alaska tomorrow, so here's a few pics to make up for the lack of posts! Back next week in time for Hallowe'en.

More on Fantasy and Reality

Genevieve at The Good Within compiled a list of links discussing Montessori on "Fantasy and Reality", including the conversation Kim of Starry Sky Ranch and I had a while back. For some reason blogger won't let me access the permalink to the individual post, so I'm quoting her entire post -- for anyone who wants to read more on this topic.

Genevieve's blog post:

Fantasy and reality

This is a subject matter which has been on my mind lately but to which I have yet to come to a conclusion. But I figured I'll link some good articles/opinions on the subject matter.

Kim talks about it here and here.
Willa also mentions it here, here, here and here.
Montessori mom also has something to comment on the subject here, here and here
There is an old conversation on this at 4 real here and here

Age quod Agis -- Logistics in the Homeschool

Father John Hardon SJ has written about the importance of an "agenda" in the Christian life. The etymology of "agenda" is similar to the Latin in an old motto shared by a friend of mine: "Age quod agis" -- "Do what you are doing." In order to accomplish this, Father Hardon recommends planning out one's day in order to make sure that necessary things get done. Part of this task is to make some time to reflect upon the day in an evening examen. Though he was talking about the spiritual life in particular, the ordinary life overlaps and is affected by the spiritual life, so I think his advice applies to our lives as homeschooling moms as well. It is somewhat like St Maximilian Kolbe's motto: "Preparation; Action; Conclusion."

A few years ago I found myself homeschooling two high schoolers, a middle schooler, two elementary graders plus caring for two medically complex little ones. I am not a naturally organized person, but that situation motivated me to develop some logistical strategies quickly. I wanted to share some of them -- few are original; most were adapted from the advice of friends and mentors.

During a high risk pregnancy and with a newborn who needed lots of medical intervention, my first homeschooling priority was to have a way to keep the kids on track even if I had to be away or couldn't do much active teaching or planning.

So I developed a simple checklist for each student. It listed various subjects with simple instructions like: Do the next lesson; read the next chapter and take notes; do the next section of the syllabus; or sometimes, work with Mom. These were streamlined forms of the assignment sheets I'd given them in other years. They were more general and all-purpose so I could print out basically the same checklist every week and minimize preparation time . The kids understood that on "Plan B" days, when I was gone or caring for a sick little one, they could skip the "work with Mom" assignments and just do the ones they could do independently.

We also had a chore checklist on the refrigerator. Every child had their housework and their mealtime chores, and there was a meal rotation so if necessary, someone besides me could take over the cooking. A "Chores" section was included on their school checklist as a reminder for this, and also a "personal hygiene" reminder for the younger ones to remind them to make their bed, brush their teeth, tidy their room and so on.

The children acquired the habit of putting their completed schoolwork in a pile on my worktable along with their filled-in checklistswhen they were finished for the day. That way, I could conveniently check through their work and verify their checklists whenever I had some spare time. Sometimes if necessary I would call them back to go over a serious problem, but most of the time feedback could wait till the next day.

I scheduled times to work with each of the kids individually. It did not happen every day, but most days we could fit in at least a few moments. The elementary school students needed the most teaching time, so they usually worked with me for two or three hours in the morning. Usually I could alternate between them -- working with one to introduce a new concept or task, while the other one read or worked independently or kept the little ones busy.

By late morning the two younger ones would usually be done with the subjects that needed my help. Then I would work with the three older ones, who were in middle and high school. Two of them preferred to work mostly independently. So I would meet with them only once or twice a week, usually to discuss a reading or go over a paper. But one of my older ones really benefited from a daily meeting to talk, look over work and give him a head start on the next day's subjects. So I scheduled a time just before lunch for this. My goal was to do most of the intensive coaching in the morning and leave the afternoons for more open-ended discussion, for grading, for planning and for housework. I also scheduled two times when we all met and I taught several at once -- we did Latin this way and we also gathered for a free writing period together just before lunch. Everyone wrote for 20 minutes, even me; even the toddler scribbled in his high chair with crayons or pencils. This turned out to be a nice time in the day to slow down a bit, and it made a huge difference in their attitude towards writing.

I bought a large binder and an accordion file for each child. These were color-coded -- each child had a chosen color for his binder, folders and notebooks so I could pick them out at a glance. The syllabus, checklists and various handouts and study guides went in the binder. The accordion file made it simple to organize loose, completed work by subject. When I had time I would file the loose work more permanently in the binder. My oldest filed and kept track of his own work but I did the record-keeping for the younger ones. I updated these regularly on weekends.

Because we had a lot of medical things going on at the time with the preschool child and baby, our schedule included two lighter academic days per week. On these days, there were no "work with Mom" subjects -- the children only did the things they could do independently. The first grader often had these days off, though I tried to keep a "learning box" with some simple activities he could choose to do on his own. I tried to schedule medical appointments for these two lighter days; also any extra-curricular activities and visits to the library. We also did our major housekeeping on these days, as a team. If they were caught up on their work, they could have some time watching a movie or playing computer games. This gave me a bit of extra time to catch up on enjoying the little ones or catching up on the things that needed catching up on. There was always something!

We tried to keep evenings a bit looser so we could spend time as a family and so the little ones had some open time to be around their parents and siblings. As mentioned by Father Hardon, I would try to spend a few minutes before bedtime noting down the "agenda" for the next day. Every Sunday evening, I would fill out a weekly "at a glance" schedule which went on the refrigerator so the kids and my husband could see what days were taken up by appointments and other commitments.

This system did not always flow perfectly, of course. It was strenuous, and sometimes I couldn't keep up. But it kept us from falling way behind. And as a result my oldest was able to graduate with an excellent GPA, a good SAT score and entrance to a good Catholic college.

Now my two oldest children have graduated. My four school-age kids are not so time-intensive, and the medical situation is much more stable. So my methods of operating don't have to be so rigorous. I still use basically the same system, but I have more time to work with the kids more informally and individually. I can be more of a coach and mentor and less of an administrator. We probably waste a little more time, but the leisure gives us a bit more time to build up family traditions and habits of conversation, and include more games and fun. There are benefits and drawbacks to both types of systems.

From this I have learned that organization looks different in different seasons. Organization is a servant, not a master. Orderliness is a good thing, but it works best when suited to the need of the situation and also to the comfort level of the people using it. That is where Father Hardon's other advice -- discern, and seek the will of God continually -- comes in. Pray and build up the methods that best suit the season your family is in. Age quod agis.

Rule of Six

at St Athanasius Academy
also see this thread
and this one on Unschooling and Goals
FInally, here's one about Unschooling Pillars
Update: and Michele at Family Centered Life added her own version which I really like.

Disability -- link

Interesting disability-advocacy site by a Catholic
HT Amy Wellborn
I think I will be checking in on it again in future as Aidan gets older. Some quotes:

"Many people assume that living with cerebral palsy means that I am endlessly confronted by my body's limitations. Actually, this is not my experience. Having cerebral palsy means living a life in which innovation, improvisation, creativity and lateral thinking are essential. In practical terms, it means knowing which cup fits snugly into the sink drain and doesn't tip over when I pour coffee. It means finding the same challenge and enjoyment in finding my balance on an icy sidewalk that my friends find as they master tai-chi. It means being ever-conscious of the number of drinking straws in my possession in the same way that a smoker is always aware of the remaining number of cigarettes. It means paying attention to breathing and articulation, like a jazz singer crafting a phrase. It means bracing my wrist on the table before I grasp a glass of wine in the same way that Emma braces her left hand when she threads a needle. As far as I know, Emma does not long to be a brain surgeon every time the eye of a needle eludes her thread."

also this:

"In the quest to figure out what equality means, many of us confuse it with symmetry. The commonly accepted definition of "fair" seems to be "a tidy thwack down the middle of everything." It's as if we believe that equality can be mandated, maintained and meted out by an exacting and humourless accountant. We've decided to take a longer view of equity. We know it isn't about treating people the same, ending up with a carefully balanced sheet at the end of each day. It's about quality of life, negotiation, interdependence and long-term relationships.. We're learning that giving means contributing what you can where you can, without obsessing about what you don't have or can't do. We know that what we get back is often unexpected, generous and complementary. It creates a different kind of climate -- life is less structured and more fun. Imagination, flexibility and humour are a bigger part of our lives -- things few of us feel we have enough of."

More and more, as Aidan grows older, I am respecting that his disabilities, while not chosen by him or by me, are part of the deal he has been given and the trick is that it's how you play the hand that counts. As he moves into his 8th year of life, I am so often impressed by his ability to engage in things, his hunger for experience and competence, his sense of playfulness with words.

"So early in the mooorning, before the FIX of day," he sang yesterday, smiling at me and emphasizing the key word to show me it was one of his opposite jokes.
That one took me a while to figure out. You can see the whole song here.
Even when I figured out that the lyrics originally called for "break" he still had to explain it to me. "Break -- broke -- FIX." Okay, Aidan, now I get it!

Back from Oregon, with Books

We got back from our trip last Wednesday but the next day I woke up sick. It only happens about once a year — where I am too sick to get out of bed — but this was one of those times. Kevin went into high gear and picked up Frodo (the Aussie shepherd) from the kennel in town, did some shopping, and made a great meal — grilled seasoned tri-tip, sauteed mushrooms with garlic and rum and basil, and a salad. He had bought cream puffs for dessert. So it was sort of my birthday dinner a week late. He also tidied up the house and put away the sleeping bags. Bless him.

While at Oregon I found a set of little tiny hardcovers — the Original Pooh Treasury series — they are individual Winnie the Pooh stories, told in the original language with the original pictures — unfortunately there is no image available at Amazon. They are perfectly charming and I got 5 of them for 12 cents each. They are just a leetle beyond Paddy’s comfortable listening level but he loves to stack them and look at them and he did listen to them yesterday. But Kieron, 10, found them the most congenial — laughed at the absurd parts and really appreciated the humor. Come to think of it, he’s just the kind of kid who could relate to these stories. For some reason I’ve never actually read Milne to any of my kids — odd because I liked it as a child. But it seemed that by the time they were old enough to listen and appreciate, they were too old to want to hear stories about bears and rabbits. Anyway, these little books may help me cultivate an interest in the Hundred Acre Wood for my three youngest at any rate — I’d hate to have raised 7 children and never introduce them to Milne beyond the Disney cartoons, which aren’t the same thing at all.

I got Brendan his own set of Lord of the Rings paperbacks too…. we wore out the original hardcover volumes we had; then Clare got a paperback set for her birthday a few years back — but now Den has his own.

Clare found some collectible hardcover editions of Father Brown, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte for herself. And Kieron spent his allowance on — strangely enough — a Star Wars math program — in FRENCH. He actually won it yesterday. Has been trying to puzzle out the French on the back of the package.

Kevin and I bought ourselves some science fiction books… fun. We shared this interest in common during our university years and before we met, in our high school years, but neither of us do much fiction reading any more so it was fun to go on a fantasy/sci fi marathon while travelling for 12 hours each way. Also, Kevin downloaded a bunch of audio books onto an Ipod so we got to listen to Byzantium history and also Treasure Island en route — also Father Brown mysteries and several episodes of Dragnet and Jack Benny. And thousands of songs from his CD collection…. all the way from Glen Miller to Neil Young to the Clash and Gregorian Chants. Talk about scope and sequence.
Aidan discovered one of the older boys’ old Handwriting without Tears books and has been spending a few minutes every day writing in it by choice. He has an excellent crayon grip. It makes me realize that a little tiny bit of intervention can go a long way. Brendan never really got an easy pen grip because I left him to himself. Though now his grip IS functional and he has nice writing, it didn’t come easily to him till his teen years. I have to ponder on that a bit. I am so non-interventionist sometimes that I am afraid I leave things TOO much to themselves in some ways. For instance, none of them were ever taught by me to tie their shoes. Some figured it out on their own and others learned from siblings, and Brendan still stuffs his laces under the tongues of his shoes. In other ways I probably expect too much, usually in abstract reasoning. Probably basically comes from being rather uncomfortable with practical, sensory things. I need to be aware of that.

Now Aidan and Paddy are playing with the Handwriting Without Tears Magnadoodle (mentioned here in a Learning to Write post at Lilting House — HT The Good Within)

Aidan wants me to make some breakfast so I guess I’d better go.

Progress

Sean

– near the end of book 5 Key to Algebra

– started reading Story of the Church

–read chapter 4 of Our Life in the Church

– continues Latin vocabulary.

– rereading Lord of the Ring trilogy, Outlaws of Ravenhurst and Father Finn books.

Kieron

– on chapter 8 in Saxon 65

– also doing pages from Developmental Math and math games online

– starting to read Bible History

– chapter 4 in Credo I Believe

– continues Latin vocabulary

– read some of Usborne’s Time Travellers

– fun reading — Narnia Chronicles, Redwall, and we finished the LIttle Lame Prince

–he is working on his story — has some artwork on the computer.

They both have gotten into the SET game.

We are going on a trip for the next week and so I’m bringing the math and a couple of other books so they can do some minimal work.

Daily Literature

This is neat — you can sign up to receive daily installments of book at your email address at Daily Lit. I have signed up for “Famous Poems Every Child Should Know.”

Liturgical Year -- The Archangels

I like this post by Faith on the Liturgical Year — and also a bit about blending Waldorf and Catholicism. Now I understand better why the Baldwin Project has so many books about saints.

Here is a good site about the Archangels. They are particularly important to us this time of year.

Hiatus

I'm dealing with some technical difficulties with this blog site. A couple of my posts appear to have disappeared into cyberspace, and some others republish several times so I have to go back and delete the redundant ones; so until the struggles with the technology resolve, I'm going to be mostly posting on my homeschooljournal site.

Hiddenness

Today I read in my devotions a passage by St Vincent de Paul about imitating the hiddenness of Christ:

"Remember always that the Son of God remianed unrecognized. That is our aim, and that is what he asks of us now, for the future, and for always, unless he shows us, by some method of his which we cannot mistake, that he wants something else of us. Pay homeage to the everyday life led by our Lord on earth, to his humility, to his self-surrender, and his practice of the virtues such a life requires. But chiefly pay homage to the limitations our Divine Master set on his own achievements. He did not choose to do all he might have done, and he teaches us to be content to refrain from undertakings which might be within our power, and to fulfill only what charity demands and his will requires."

This seems to apply to me to some of our homeschooling-mom concerns about "doing it all", put into words by Julie and Elizabeth, among others. Do we really have to? There is no obvious practical solution given in St Vincent's words, but there IS a clear counter-pull to the message of constant activity -- we DON'T have to do it all to be faithful. There is growth in silence and hiddeness. Fields bear better crops if there are some seasons of quiet and "plowing under".

A translation of one of John Paul's poems, written as if in Christ's words, seems to me to strike the same note of "hiddenness":

Learn from me, my dear ones, how to hide,
for where I am hidden I abide....
[T]here is a Beauty more real
concealed in the living blood.

A morsel of bread is more real
than the universe,
more full of existence, more full of the Word —
a song overflowing, the sea,
a mist confusing the sundial—
God in exile.

TS Eliot wrote on a similar note:

Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in the darkness and
Against the Word in the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

And finally, John Paul II in his Letter to Families, applies this message to families:

All that a husband and a wife promise to each other--to be "true in good times and in bad, and to love and honour each other all the days of their life"--is possible only when "fairest love" is present. Man today cannot learn this from what modern mass culture has to say. "Fairest love" is learned above all in prayer. Prayer, in fact, always brings with it, to use an expression of Saint Paul, a type of interior hiddenness with Christ in God, "your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col 3:3). Only in this hiddenness do we see the workings of the Holy Spirit, the source of "fairest love". He has poured forth this love not only in the hearts of Mary and Joseph but also in the hearts of all married couples who are open to hearing the word of God and keeping it (cf. Lk 8:15). The future of each family unit depends upon this "fairest love": the mutual love of husband and wife, of parents and children, a love embracing all generations. Love is the true source of the unity and strength of the family.

Friday Summary

I’m going to try to use Fridays to sum up what’s gone on during the week and reflect on where to go from there. Obviously, it won’t be complete; just what comes to mind and what I actually see them do.
Aidan(7 years old)

I found this Learn to Read site at Starfall. It has a nice format — large letters, not too many distractions, using the “word families” principle. He can do the short a ones. The first few times I walked him through the thinking process but now he can do it generally on his own though I stay near him. It is fun for both of us.

ALso, a cute counting game that both he and Paddy like. They like the animals and I like the way it helps the child to count. I know, it’s silly to count on a computer when there are millions of things to count in real life — and we do count quite a bit during the day. But this makes a nice reinforcement.

Lots of books — both he and Paddy. The basket by the bed is working great, but I am going to have to set a day — like Fridays — to hunt for new choices since they know the old ones practically by heart.

No handwriting this week — that’s on the plans, though. We use Handwriting without Tears.
On the Ambleside site there is a Year 0 list of accomplishments for a child age 6 and he isn’t doing too badly by that measure. He doesn’t know any French songs unless Les Miserables or the Phantom of the Opera count, but he knows some Latin prayers?

He had his monthly physical therapy in town yesterday — and a short speech therapy session where they did a simple puzzle, drew a face (with help) and then named or picked out picture cards. The first two exercises are parts-to-whole and that reminds me, we did a puzzle together several times earlier this week.

I can see this will take a long time if I write it out for each child. Moving on to Kieron, who is 10:

We started Saxon 65 this week and are on Lesson 6. It is going very easily for him. Instead of written arithmetic drill we do computer games and sometimes mental math. I also have various worksheets around the house that I pull out if they fit with the lesson. Most of the early lessons in Saxon 65 are about place value, naming values of digits, and then comparison symbols. The plan is to use Saxon three times a week and cover 2 lessons a day, at least until it gets harder. The other days are for drill and hands-on math or games.

We did synonyms and antonyms using Quia. He did a lot of mad libs.

He is on Chapter 3 of Faith and Life 5. He reads the chapter and then I discuss it with him at a separate time. I gave him Usborne Time Traveller– our version appears to be out of print now but this looks equivalent. He has been reading Usborne Book of World History on his own so I guess this is how we are covering history. My tentative plan is to go into Roman history this year — for several reasons, among them the fact that his dad is into it this year, I am learning Latin and trying to teach it to them, and it’s fun.

Sean, who is 13

He is moving pretty quickly through Key to Algebra book 5, on rational numbers. That’s pretty much it for math, though occasionally he does a few geometry constructions. He whips through the Latin vocabulary. In fact, he impressed me because he finished one of my vocabulary quizzes when I had to do something for Aidan and left it in the middle. He is on chapter 3 of Faith and LIfe 8. He gets his brothers involved in lots of active games and he is involved in the fantasy football league that he and his older brother invented. That’s about it right now.

I’m making almost too much progress on Wheelock’s Latin — up to chapter 20 now, when my goal was 22 chapters by the end of the year. Probably too much time on my hands.

I’m not really mentioning Clare in this summary because she is mostly on her own track with the various subjects. I know she is doing math, Latin, literature, music history, lots of music listening and practicing, and sewing. She just finished sewing a new dress.

John Paul the Great

I seem to do my reading in little clusters. This year I am reading Witness to Hope with my 18 year old son. Reading aloud makes it slow enough going that it feels like we are living along with him.

First of all, there is a whole world of Polish romanticism out there that I never knew about. According to the book, Romanticism in Poland was unique and very Catholic in many ways, and deeply shaped the thinking of the young Karol Wojtyla

I was also interested in the Calvary of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska --- a grouping of 24 chapels nearby the town where Karol grew up, where Poles and others still go on pilgrimage.

A translation of one of John Paul's poems, written as if in Christ's words:

Learn from me, my dear ones, how to hide,
for where I am hidden I abide....
[T]here is a Beauty more real
concealed in the living blood.

A morsel of bread is more real
than the universe,
more full of existence, more full of the Word —
a song overflowing, the sea,
a mist confusing the sundial—
God in exile.


TS Eliot wrote on a similar note:

Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in the darkness and
Against the Word in the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.


John Paul on St Vincent de Paul
Form and Fragement -- scholarly article on Simone Weil
Catholic Tradition

Games

I always feel a twinge of unease when I think about games for learning. Part of it is my Puritan streak — anything that is fun is a bit suspicious, and vice versa — anything that is valuable will be a bit difficult and painful. I know this is off-base, but it hits me when I am least expecting it.
The other part of it is my husband’s philosophical attitude about the value of a game. Ultimately, a game is a liberal pursuit. It should not be FOR something. It ought to be good in itself, though liberal pursuits ought to have indirect benefits for the person involved in them — formative or other benefits. So the object of a good game of tennis is sheerly the good game of tennis, but in the process of wholehearted engagement you also provide yourself with aerobic benefits and improved hand-eye coordination, comradeship with your teammates and opponents, etc. On the opposite notes, you know the dreary Victorian “morally improving” stories for children. Story is used to teach some kind of moral lesson. Thereby, the story and the moral are both damaged and trivialized. It can be the same with an “educational game” or “educational toy”. You end up with something that is neither very educational NOR very fun.

However, recently I have been trying to let go of these reflexive instincts thinking that there may be a real place for games in learning. After all, in Latin, the word “schola” itself originally meant both “leisure, spare time” and “school” and “ludus” meant again, both “game” and “school”. I think the philosophy behind this (being brief and simplistic here) is that education and learning in the liberal sense is about something done out of a surplus, best done in a enjoyable, exploratory spirit rather than out of fear or gritty necessity.

Melissa Wiley has put a list of games on her website as a “curriculum for unschoolers”. If you can get past the word “curriculum” (a word that usually depresses me a bit) there are some valuable resources that move past my concern about mingling “education” and “game”. The ones I know are fun in their own right and also benefit the person who is playing them.

On a rather more trivial level, I have been using the grade level skills games here as a starting point or consolidation for some academic-type skills. The page goes from kindergarten to 8th grade and classifies online games and resources against conventional standards of learning. Some of the games are better constructed than others. I think it is in some ways an advantage that some of the games have design flaws in them. My husband learned a lot of his game design sense from the simplistic games in the quarter arcades (remember those?) and the primitive mainframe type games back in the ancient days before PCs. I think it is harder nowadays for beginner programmers to see the individual elements in a very sophisticated, multi-level game such as the ones published by the big game companies nowadays. What often happens is that the high school or college age novice game designer can only think in terms of grand design and sophistication which he is at that stage incapable of actually implementing.

Since our home is in effect a laboratory for game design (my husband works at home as a freelance game designer and implementer, and includes us all in his thinking and working process) I have been thinking it’s good that my kids get experience working with and critiquing a variety of game types.
My ten year old has been enjoying online mad libs. Here are Wacky Web Tales and he also likes Create Your Own Adventure . He does them for fun. I am thinking that these very simple online games are roughly equivalent to the kinds of word puzzles and paper games that I used to do sometimes as a child. I always thought that they, along with lots of reading and music at home, gave me a good grounding in academics once I got to school. In fact, the thrill I get from memorizing those Latin paradigms now is somewhat the same as the fun I had back then completing a crossword. Not that that was what I was doing it FOR. But it was a side benefit : )

Last Week of September

Someone recommended BBC’s Jeeves and Wooster to me; unfortunately our library only had the fourth season, but we had fun watching it yesterday. It really was pretty hilarious in parts and I think the actors and directors did a good job making the humor of the books show in their visuals. Clare spotted two actors from Sense and Sensibility in J&W — she is getting good at that.

Aidan is developing an amazing (and eclectic) memory. He said these immortal lines the other day: “I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change that image I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food.” His Australian accent is pretty cute, if that’s indeed what it is.

He can also say the whole Ave Maria and Pater Noster just from hearing me and Liam say it all summer.

He can also say, “Dodrio, the triple bird pokemon. The three heads represent joy sorrow and anger. All three heads look pretty angry to me. If we don’t get it untangled it could suffocate. Chansey, prepare the anesthetic.”

This is not the kind of echoing he does when he’s stressed. This, he thinks is a joke and can hardly talk for laughing. With the prayers though, he is appropriate — I heard him saying them in the bath today in the form of a dialogue between two people.

It seems like it is in a line with how he is “reading” books now. He has several that he basically knows by heart so he turns the pages and says what the page says pretty close to verbatim. When he gets to a part he doesn’t know so well he makes up what it might say, and does pretty well. It is encouraging to see his verbal sophistication increasing this way.

Sean has been waking up every morning and asking for his math. He’s making progress through book 5 of Key to Algebra. Kieron did some games to teach synonyms and antonyms, and suffixes and prefixes. Both continue Latina Christiana through vocabulary quizzes on the internet. I am planning to make them some match-up sheets to help with learning verb conjugations and noun declensions.

Time to go BBQ hamburgers. We are having some last summer warmth here, but I don’t think it will last much longer.

Online Timer

Click on the title for the link. I thought it might be useful for me and my kids since time seems to zip by fast when we are on the computer.

real expectations for real learning

To Study or Not to Study
excellent post from Julie at Bravewriter
She writes:

"I offer the following list as a set of realistic, humble expectations for home education:

• Reading
• Handwriting
• Math facts
• Reading aloud
• Tea times
• Music lessons
• Fostering curiosity
• Personalized learning goals coordinated with a child’s vision of her future
• Facility with the library (and affection for it!)
• Home arts (cooking, repairs, sewing, cleaning, knitting, yard work, crafts)
• Extended, uninterrupted play
• Narrating (talking about interests, questions, ideas, experiences in a one-on-one setting)
• Mastering areas of interest using as much time as needed (no set end-point for a topic or subject)
• Tackling a subject at a personalized pace
• Computer literacy
• Awareness of current events
• Conversations with parents that both nurture and challenge
• Socialization (learning to relate to siblings and parents with respect, working out problems patiently and with parental support)
• Lots of free time (to use any way the child wants)
• Nature observation (both through a window and in outings)
• Trips to cool places
• Running a business
• Time to discover what one wants to learn
• Learning from mom and dad what they know
• Use of television and movies for learning
• Depth involvement in sports or the arts without competing schoolwork
• All subjects open for learning (no stigmatized subjects)
• Vast variety of learning models which can be attempted and discarded or adopted
• Close family relationships
• Hands-on learning (no need for canned workbooks for things like counting money, for instance)"

I just love this! I could probably add or change a few of my own but that's another nice benefit of homeschooling..... individual missions and interests. HT: Cindy at It's about the Journey

It reminds me a bit of Faith's Top Ten Resources that Make Unschooling Work
and here is another one by Cindy at Apple Stars

Fantasy and Imagination

This is from MOntessori Today and it seems to round out the quote from Natural Structure in my last post:

"One of the greatest new powers to appear in the second plane is the children's capacity for imagination. Because adults tend to confuse the young child's propensity to fantasize with the powers of imagination, it is important to clarify the differences. Montessori does not regard the credulity and fantasizing of children under six years old as evidence of their intellectual powers of imagination. Very young children readily believe that animals can speak in human voices or that inanimate objects can move and think, for example. When children reach the second plane they become keenly interested in whether these ideas of theirs are true or not. Earlier they could not distinguish whether what they were being told was so. Now they have their own reasoning powers. They ask themselves if what they believe is true and test their conclusion again discernible facts.

Montessori maintains that imagination is a development of higher consciousness and is dependent upon a prior ability to distinguish fact from fantasy. This capacity to discern reality first makes is possible to discover the interrelatedness of facts, thought, memories, wishes, and so forth. The formation of imagination is rooted in sensorial experiences. It is the ability to picture material objects or real experiences in their absence, to see in the mind what we no longer see, to hear what we no longer hear. We take these images and make new mental creations from them. However, in order to do this we need to have had previous experience of these images.

Newton saw the apple fall and Einstein the trains approach and then fade in the distance, and each through these experiences used his imagination to discover new aspects of the universe and its manipulation through technology. Montessori wrote, "Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength, use it to create....obstacles abound in the world but human beings' mental lives (including their powers of reason and imagination) give them the strength to surmount them."

Becuase a rich sensorial experience is a necessary foundation of a fully developed imagination, Montessori believed that in general, a concentration on reality vs fantasy is more useful to the very young child. However, it is incorrect to assume that MOntessori saw no role for fantasy in the child's life. For older children she believed that fairy tales, myths, fables, and other uses of fantasy should play a key role in morel undersatnding and exploration of feelings and emotions. Her grandson relates that she told him such stories when he was younger than the age at which she suggested them for other children. It is probable that it was the adult's tendency to overemphasize fantasy in the young child's life that led Montessori to minimize it to such a degree in her lectures and writing.

Montessori spoke eloquently of the role of imagination in human in human history and proprosed that it be the major avenue for introducing the children at the second plane to their further education. In 1948, she said,

"Human consciousness comes into the world as a flaming ball of imagination. Everything invented by human beings, physical or mental, is the fruit of someone's imagination. In the study of history and geography we are helpless without imagination, and when we propose to introduce the universe to the child, what but the imagination can be of use to us? I consider it a crime to present such subjects as may be noble and creative aids to the imaginative faculty in such a manner as to deny its use, and on the other hand to require children to memorize that which they have not been able to visualize..... The secreat of good teaching is to regard the children's intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim therefore is not merely to make the children undersatnd, and still less to force them to memorize, but so to touch their imagination as to enthuse them to their inmost core. We do not want complacent pupils but eager ones; we seek to sow life in children rather than theories, to help them in their growth, mental and emotional as well as phphysical."

Play and Work

Just a bit more on Montessori -- I fear I am beating the subject to death, but I am not trying to be controversial. It is something I am really working to understand. The personal context here is my two youngsters and their imaginative life.

Reading in Natural Structure, I find

".... Dr. Montessori never said that a child should never play. She said a child prefers work to play most of the time when appropriate work is offered in an appropriate environment. Play, in the sense of recreation, is necessary for the human person. But here we have already run into our problem. If we were to ask you if jumping rope... was work or play, you would probably say 'play'. Since these activities build physical strength and graceful movement, and therefore have a developmental goal, they are work. Work is an activity which directly helps a child to achieve his next developmental step physically, mentally, or spiritually. It is an activity which is based in reality...."

"Play, on the other hand, is something that does not help the child to reach any developmental goal. Play is an activity based in fantasy (or make-believe). If a child (to borrow from Dr. Montessori's example) sets a 'table' with leaves for 'plate,', acorns for 'cups' and proceeds to have a 'banquet' with stuffed animal 'guests' he has not gained strength physically, mentally, or spiritually. Although this child may have spent hours conducting this (fantasy) banquet, he has done no work. It is make-believe. In fact, this type of fantasy play not only does not help a child to master reality, it can hinder him from doing so, setting him back so that he will have to work harder to focus on reality afterward. It could rightfully be called 'spiritual junk food.'"

An article I read recently called Pascal's Philosophy of Diversion talks about the characteristics of play in children:

At this juncture it should be pointed out that play, particularly play demonstrated by children, is to a certain extent distinct from diversion as applied in a Pascalian sense. In defining play as applied to children, Fergus Hughes states that play must have five essential characteristics. First, “play is intrinsically motivated. It is an end in itself, done only for the sheer satisfaction of doing it.” Second, play “must be freely chosen by the participants.” Third, “it must be pleasurable.” Fourth, “it is nonliteral. That is, it involves a certain element of make-believe, a distortion of reality to accommodate the interests of the player.” Fifth, Hughes states that “play is actively engaged in by the player. The child must be involved, physically, psychologically, or both, rather than passive or indifferent to what is going on.”

More on Motivation and Montessori

Update on my earlier post which mentioned Montessori:

Kim at Starry Sky Ranch wrote a post on Use of Fantasy and Imagination in Montessori Kids. It gets below the "convention" I was talking about to the principles behind the idea. This is very useful. She also sent this link: Normalization and Deviations which is the clearest description I have read yet about normalization (I was googling this term for quite a while last year and couldn't get a handle on exactly what the term meant).

If I am understanding correctly the gist of the articles I read, fantasy is considered a deviation (also known as a "defense") caused by circumstances which marginalize the child.... make his work and mental development rather irrelevant to the life going on around him. So some of the things we consider "normal" like whining and disobedience and fantasy play and watching TV, are actually aberrations. This is not to be blamed on the child or punished; things like this would further marginalize and alienate the child (or so I understand it). Rather, it is looked on rather like I might look upon something like Aidan's original fear of food.... something that we need to address, but in a whole environment which helps him kick into gear his own natural healthy desire for independent nourishment.

This reminds me a bit of some of what Jean Liedloff writes about in the Continuum Concept. Except that she believes that engagement in a working home life is the solution, rather than a prepared environment for children.

I guess this got a bit far from freedom and responsibility in some ways. In other ways, perhaps it goes further into the heart of the whole thing.

Kim says:

Duboyvoy makes a clear distinction between fantasy and imagination as well, a distinction which is critical to the argument and is often blurred among adults today. Imagination is properly defined as Willa did when she says that "..investing of objects with imaginary significance is a rudimentary use of symbolism which is a wonderful human capacity". Dubovoy and other Montessorians would likely concur, though they would tend to believe that this capacity is best developed by ample reality based experiences in the first plane (ages 0-6). This is in line with Sayer's and other classical educators who consider the early years to be a time of concrete learning followed by the abilty to grasp more abstract thought.

The way I understand Montessori thought, the "ample reality based experiences" Kim describes include a strong element of volition -- of choice and self-direction. From the article Kim sent to me, Montessori said:

The first characteristic of the process of normalization is love of work. Love of work includes the ability to choose work freely and to find serenity and joy in work.

I have noticed how important volition is in fostering motivation, many times. I have sometimes wondered if what Montessori calls normalization is anything like what Mihaly Csikszentmihaly has called "Flow".

"How to live life as a work of art, rather than as a chaotic response to external events..."

Why then is it that most people find it "too difficult" to organize themselves towards more satisfying activities, but rather pursue apathetic ones like watching TV?

There is a clear need to overcome the initial resistance to do other than apathetic activities (those that don't need initiating by the person).

Still no conclusions -- but one more note -- Aquinas says that "the human mind takes ideas from the signs that our senses perceive. It then uses these to produce knowledge in itself. For signs are not the immediate cause of knowledge, but the mind moving from principles to conclusions". I think that this is one statement of the classical ideas of early development that Kim mentioned. An early focus on "signs" would build up a lot of ability to build on these concrete experiences later on in life, and also a sense of mastery and confidence and order.

Hmm, lots to think about.

Fire continues near Thomas Aquinas College

Here is the update.

Today may prove to be one of the most challenging days of the Day Fire as the predicted Santa Ana winds begin accelerating over the Ventura County area. Fire officials worked feverishly through the night in preparation.

Please keep the TAC students and faculty in prayer. My son tells me an evacuation is planned if it turns out to be necessary.

Aquinas "On the Teacher"

I finally found Aquinas' De Magistro online. I have been wanting to read it for several years but must have been googling wrong. A quote -- it is long, but there is so much in it:

Therefore, just as someone can be healed in two ways -- first by the action of nature only, second by the collaboration of nature and medicine -- so also there are two ways of acquiring knowledge. First, when the mind moves by its own natural power to an understanding of things previously unknown to it. This is called discovery (inventio). Second, when the mind is helped by an outside power of reason. This is called teaching (disciplina).

Now in those things that come about by nature and art, art works in the same way and uses the same sorts of tools as nature. For just as nature uses warmth to heal someone suffering from a cold, so also does a doctor. This is why art is said to imitate nature. Similarly, in the acquisition of knowledge, the teacher leads the student to the knowledge of things the student previously did not know in the same way that someone leads himself to discover what he previously did not know.

The process of discovery begins with applying common self-evident principles to particular subject matters, and then proceeding to some particular conclusions, and then from these moving on to other conclusions. In light of this, one is said to teach another, when he makes clear through certain signs the path (discursum) of reasoning he himself took. Thus the teacher's presentations are like tools that the natural reason of the student uses to come to an understanding of things previously unknown to him.

Therefore, just as the doctor is said to cause health in the sick man with nature working, so also one is said to cause knowledge in another by the activity of the power of reasoning in that person, and this is called teaching. In this way one person is said to teach another and to be his teacher. Thus the Philosopher says that a demonstration is a syllogism causing knowledge.

Now if someone proposes to another certain ideas that are not self-evident or if he does not manifest how they follow from self-evident principles, then he does not cause knowledge in that person, but rather opinion or belief. For those ideas that follow necessarily from the first self evident principles have to be true, and those that are contrary to them have to be false. But to all other ideas he can give his assent or not.

Week of September 17-23

I’ve started Kieron on Saxon 65. Almost every kid in this family has gone through at least part of Saxon 65, and that’s usually about all we can manage of Saxon. Before the age of 10, Saxon seems too much and too scattered for them, and after the age of 10, it just seems scattered. This may well have something to do with my family’s learning style and not reflect on Saxon’s approach at all. But around that age it is a good consolidation, review and also trouble-shooter -I can see whatever gaps there might be for the middle school years. I like Saxon 65 but it’s the only one of the Saxon series we’ve really gotten our money’s worth on.
Last year Kieron got where he could do all the multiplication facts in a bit over 3 minutes. This year he appears to have forgotten them. Computer drills don’t seem very useful for him in practicing arithmetic facts. They are better for a nice motivational introduction to concepts. Place Value Pirates helped with place value and Power Football helped with decimals. I am afraid I will still have to sit down with him and just go through drill sheets until he is back up to speed. It is some consolation that Liam, also, was slow on the math facts in 5th grade, and yet has been quite a good math scholar in high school and college.

Sean has finished book 4 of Key to ALgebra and is starting Book 5. So far no real hitches at all with this and furthermore, I’m pleased to see he remembers fractions and decimals pretty well.

Brendan read Shadow of His Wings and is now reading the Concentration Can, where Jerome LeJeune testified in a court case. In Witness to Hope, we are up to the partition of Poland between Russia and Germany, and it is very interesting to have this Eastern Euopean close-up on WWII. Karol Wojtyla is presently working in the factories and attending clandestine classes at the Jagiellonian University, where almost 200 professors were ambushed and deported to concentration camps where most of them died. They called it “cultural decapitation” — targeting out religious and academics, realizing that ideas were the big threat to totalitarianism.

Clare is still spending a lot of time on her music — listening, reading and practicing.

In this next week I want to organize some kind of reading plan for Sean and Kieron. The main motive is to have a way to introduce IDEAS.

Neil Postman writes:

Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think …

As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.I am not a purist about no-video games, no-TV etc. But I do admit feeling uncomfortable when the kids seem TOO much disassociated from any of the real, permanent, enduring things. Or to be honest, that isn’t the main issue — the issue is that I don’t want to fail them and the culture by not imparting my beliefs about what is important. One of my big regrets about having gone through 16 plus years of school was that I had to listen to so many points of view that were not my parents’… so much time on things that don’t really make a difference in my life now.

Aidan is trying to read a little! He was carrying his 100 Easy Lessons around and brought it to me and sounded out two words I hadn’t gone over with him yet.

Paddy has learned pretty much all his letters and numbers through the Quia Alphabet Match and through playing the Math Dojo game. I have to tell him what the answer is but he has to find the number and type it in. He does Math Baseball and Power Football the same way.

Learning Latin in Later Life #2

This part is about what I am doing now -- it is working for me so I thought I'd share it -- the first part is here:

First of all, I read the Dowling Method which recommended memorizing all the forms or paradigms. Simply, here's what you do -- write each paradigm 200 times until it's not only learned, but overlearned. He says this may take as much as six months to completely master, but at the rate I am going, it won't take that long. THEN start right in reading actual Latin texts. He recommends Lingua Latina but I'm going to try to get by without it and just do the "living literature" approach.

As a result of his advice, I got out the appendices to my Wheelock's and simply started at the beginning and worked through. There's also a lot of handouts of the forms at Saint Louis University. Another option might be Henle's Grammar. Dale Grote has some helps for Wheelock's online with practice sheets for the forms and so on.

After doing this memorization work for the past two weeks, I have made a lot of progress. Dowling recommends bringing your notebook to the waiting room, grocery line, wherever you have a spare moment. I've been reciting them while making dinner or doing dishes or keeping an eye on my little ones outside. So even a mom of seven can find a few moments here and there. The five declensions were review. I finally managed to get the demonstrative pronouns down cold. Now I'm working on verbs -- the different conjugations; right now I'm in the indicative active. It is surprisingly fun.

At the same time I am doing vocabulary quizzes at Quia. Here is the Wheelock's index for Quia and here is one for Latina Christiana 1 and 2. (My children are using this one and it is a good prelim for Henle's if you would rather use Henle for Latin than Wheelock's). If you do several of them every day it gives you a good general exposure-level familiarity with the vocab. I try to do them in the morning with my coffee. Better than a shower for waking you up.

However, I find that's not enough for a retrieval-level vocabulary. So once I've done some of those, I move to the Wheelock Latin Exercises here. These are harder and there are both vocabulary and grammar exercises -- even translations, but I haven't been doing those.

Several times a week, I read a section from Lhomond's Epitome Historiae Sacrae. I do this at bedtime as a sort of combination devotional and Latin exercise. These are Old Testament stories written with Latin on one side and English on the other. Particularly if you have known the Bible stories forever, they are not hard to read. I read the Latin, copy it out, glance over at the English for some help with the difficult constructions and unfamiliar vocabulary, and then do my best to translate. I make notes of the problem areas. Sometimes I try to put my English translation back into Latin, OR retell the story in my best Latin. This is HARD, and similar to what Benjamin Franklin did in English to teach himself how to write eloquently. It's also what's recommended in this GRASP handout and in the progymnasmata (also see this excellent article on the Ignatian method of teaching composition). Sometimes I try to use the basic sentences to compose my own sentences. Whatever I have energy for that day.

My goal is to be able to read Aquinas in the original Latin by next year. Why not shoot for the stars? They say his Latin is pretty clear and readable though. On the way, besides the Epitomes, there are some other elementary Latin tales at the SLU site, and there is a Latin Reader at Gutenberg . And CS Lewis gave some suggestions to Dorothy Sayers about Latin readings.

I have collected some links on the value of Latin -- no particular order here:

• Why Latin?
• Pope John on Latin
• Benefits
• Classical Curriculum in general
• Memoria Press articles
  
• QA with Tracy Simmons
• Drew Campbell
• Value of Classics Major
• Teaching Latin
• Popes and Church on Latin
• Documents on Restoring Latin Use
• Dorothy Sayers
• Pope Benedict urges faithful to learn Latin prayers (HT: Catholicanalysis)

There are a lot of Latin resources for Catholics here, including some prayers.
Here is Twelve Latin Chants every Catholic Should Know.

Learning Latin in Later Life #1

Can you teach Latin without knowing much of it yourself? Can you learn Latin in later life?

I thought I would share my experience on that for what it is worth.

I had a semester of Latin in middle school, and about 3 weeks of it in college in my freshman year (I dropped out of the class because it was way more work than I had expected, and I was already having troubles with time management). So basically, I knew a few verb forms and some vocabulary and that was about it.

Every year from the time my oldest son was in about 4th grade (that was when we first enrolled in Kolbe Academy) I would try to teach Latin. First, we used Latin is Fun. That was the only Latin book I knew about back then, because Kolbe used it. It is a rather nice, appealing book but I found it difficult to teach from without knowing much Latin. (I think now Kolbe uses the New Missal Latin but I don't have those books so I don't know what they are like)

Later on, I tried Canon Press's Latin Primers. That was even more difficult for me to teach from; the kids did not retain much, and honestly, it was boring for me to teach this way. Whereas Latin is Fun uses the inductive approach -- immersing the kids right away in vocabulary and introducing grammar as it is used -- Canon Press uses a pretty strict deductive approach -- memorizing verb and noun forms by chanting, and vocabulary lists. This approach seems to floor my kids and myself with boredom, while the inductive approach seems to confuse us thoroughly. Consequently, we would do Latin for a few weeks and then drop it when other things took priority. Even Latina Christiana, which seems to work well for lots of people, seems to work better for us when we depart from strictly using the book and instead, just work on the vocabulary a bit at a time using memory games).

When my older kids were in 8th, 9th and 11th grade I found Henle First Year Latin. Wow! Finally, a book that approached Latin carefully, methodically but not purely by "rote drill". It is definitely a high school level book but can be modified for a middle schooler or an adult. I haven't had much success using it with any child much younger than that. I taught it all year and we made it through the first two units. I really like the teaching method for its analysis and explanation. I don't think it is quite as fun as some of the more inductive approaches but it respects the learner's mind and that is important to me. So what I have been doing recently with younger children is approach Latin very gently, for a few minutes a day, using Latina Christiana as a basic spine. The goal then is familiarity and a positive attitude, and the translation and composition work can come in middle school when the child is a bit more focused.

In the second year, I let Henle drop because of a new baby and a special needs youngster who were both having significant medical issues. My oldest, then in his senior year, continued on through Henle on his own and made it basically through the first book. He is now in college where they use Wheelock's. Henle was a good way into Wheelock's, which is solid and thorough and interesting, but can be a bit patchwork and rapid-paced and overwhelming if you haven't done Latin much in the past. My daughter, who is a junior in high school and aspires to continue Latin in college, is using Henle's now. If you go to the link above, it provides some links to some Henle support resources -- there is a yahoo group and online classes.

I tried to go through Wheelock's using the self-study group but got stuck at the demonstrative pronouns. My brain went on overload. That was a couple of years ago. My next post is going to be about recent history: how I picked up Latin again recently and what I'm doing. I am a homeschooling mom in my early forties and have 7 children -- 6 still at home. Even though I neglect my housework shamefully in order to blog and continue my self-education for the sake of my kids, you can realistically suppose I do NOT have a whole lot of serene, focused time to educate myself. Plus, I've always had some ADD traits, and peri-menopause and multi-parity have not helped with that. So what I am saying is that ANYONE can learn Latin, you don't have to be a genius or a person with loads of time and energy. But I think it helps if you really like the language (I DO -- I just love Latin, I love the way it sounds, the way it expresses things, the way it's woven into our Western civilization; I loved it as a young Protestant and I love it as a middle-aged Catholic now) and feel that learning it is a worthwhile use of your time (ditto).

I do think that right now, but I didn't think so when I had a sick child with a g-tube who had to be fed in increments of two ounces every hour (otherwise he would throw up everything he had eaten, and more). Or when I had an infant and was trying to relactate because the doctors had put him on formula, and he wasn't tolerating it, so he was crying constantly and having lots of gas. During times like that, or the semester I was working hard trying to help my oldest son get his transcripts and test scores and financial aid applications ready for college entrance, I definitely did not feel that Latin was tops on my priority list. But now I do think it's manageable and makes a nice fill-in to the spots in my day that used to be filled by medications or doctor's appointments or vigils at the hospital. At this point, even if I did have to spend hours at the hospital, I think the Latin would be a nice resource to fill in the hours. But back in those days, it would have stressed me. So there's a lot of imponderables there. But the bottom line is, I don't think it would be easy to learn Latin under a lot of stress.

Motivation #2: Freedom and Responsibility

I'm reading a book called Montessori Today by Paula Polk Lillard. I recommend it if you are, like me, a conceptual rather than sensory-oriented thinker and get bogged down by descriptions of classrooms and materials. This book is much more about the general ideas behind the method. The stages or "sensitive periods" of learning, which always sounded so strange and discouraging to me, now make a lot more sense.

She talks about how Montessori environments strive to foster motivation through responsible freedoms. In other words, freedom does not mean "anything goes". It means setting things up so that children can use freedom rightly.

This is something I've been thinking about. The problem, for me, is that a lot of limits are somewhat accidental, in the sense that they are not really related to reality (what a phrase!).

Let's say it is maintained in a Montessori classroom that a child may not use the blocks for pretend play (right now my 3 year old is sitting on my lap involved in an elaborate game where the main characters are poker chips).

What is the "reality" of this restriction? In my admittedly limited understanding of Montessori, this is a convention. The Montessori teacher presumably wants the child to concern himself with the objects as they exist in space, not as they might be invested with imaginary significance. But in fact, this investing of objects with imaginary significance is a rudimentary use of symbolism which is a wonderful human capacity.

Here is where my skeptical side kicks in and I wonder if how the fictitious Montessori teacher wants the child to think of the objects, is really the best way to think about them.

As a parent, I might make a rule that children ought to brush their teeth. The goal is cleanliness, preservation of dental health and a habit of hygiene. Brushing teeth is a means to these ends, I suppose. There is no ritualistic significance to the act of brushing teeth, in itself.

So many things seem like this. One of the major themes of the Radical Unschooling site seems to be a philosophical attempt to get beyond the arbitrariness of many conventions to the truth that resides behind it. It is a good endeavour, I believe. Because often the things we take for granted as immanent are in fact contingent and matters of convention.

No conclusions here, just some processing.

What Education is About

Two good posts I've been thinking about:
Education and the Industrial Model
Leisure, the Basis of Schooling

and another one:
On the Nightstand
HT Hobbits8

Books we are reading

Clare just read The Importance of Being Earnest. She and some friends are planning to stage it. She wants me to read it, too. Update: DONE!
My reading:

John Paul the Great by Peggy Noonan. Just finished while on vacation. Very good book.
Montessori Today

continuing Idea of a University by John Henry Newman.

Lhomond’s Epitome Historiae Sacrae — I try to read and translate one section per day.

At my mother in law’s cabin there are piles of old comics from the 60’s and 70’s. Kieron and Sean spent hours reading these — Supermans, et al. Cultural literacy!
A basket has become a fixture next to my bed and I keep Aidan and Paddy’s books in it. This works great because they naturally browse through and ask me to read regularly. I can change the books in there every so often and add new ones. Funny how often these very simple things can make a big difference.

I’m not sure what Brendan has been reading. Most of the time he is working on his football league statistics.

Monday We Went Northeast

The day after returning from seeing oldest ds at his college, we went to visit my mother in law at her mountain cabin by the lake. We just got back yesterday. The kids had a fun time and we managed to keep going with math. Sean finished book 4 of Key to Algebra. Clare is finishing chapter 3 of Jacob’s Algebra. I gave Kieron some pages of an old Developmental Math workbook, which he rather enjoyed since it was sort of basic and visually oriented. I got to work more on my Latin and am making lots of progress.
I seem to have plateau’d in my weight loss though. Sigh. On the other hand, I am doing much better with my eating habits so I guess there is that compensation. And I haven’t gained anything back. I put some of the college visit pictures here.

Sunday We Went South

We got up early yesterday and drove south to see Liam at his campus. Kevin needed to talk about work stuff with him (Liam is computer programming for him this year) and we wanted to see him. We had a good day. Left at 6 am and didn’t get home till after 11 pm. The little ones are back to normal because they slept all the way home, but I’m a bit worn out still. I can’t describe exactly what we did right now because my 13yo is waiting to use the computer.

I have been teaching myself Latin and it is going well. I got stuck a year ago on chapter 10 of Wheelock’s, but now am coasting again.

Math Myths

JoVE at Tricotomania writes about Math

“Basically, there is a firm belief in the school system that you can’t move on until you have mastered everything in the current curriculum because it builds. Mighton started a charity called JUMP which provides tutorial support for remedial students. He has had remarkable success and has learned some very interesting things about how to teach mathematics. Quite apart from the usefulness or otherwise of long division, Mighton suggests that a complete mastery of one topic is not required to move on to something harder. In fact, he argues that tackling and mastering a ‘harder’ skill (albeit with problems limited by the level of mastery of the former one) might act as a powerful motivator to go back and learn those ‘precursor’ skills.”
(HT: Ron at Atypical Homeschool)

This is a very interesting thought. Once I had a book about teaching math written by someone in Singapore. One teaching strategy that was mentioned was that teachers would show the children a complex problem at the beginning of the lesson and then model how to solve it. The children then got to see how a “math mind” worked without the immediate pressure of having to solve similar problems themselves. I suppose it is comparable to reading aloud to a child long before expecting the child to read himself; or like a dad working in his wood shop and the little boy watching before he tries it out.

Anyway, back to JoVE’s post, I had always wondered if math was REALLY quite as sequential as everybody said it was — especially since I have skipped around a math text quite a bit with my younger scholars with no apparent ill effects.

Progress Report on Pre-Literacy

It is interesting to watch Aidan and Paddy in the early stages of literacy.

Paddy is extremely quick and facile. After several years with Aidan, who attains milestones with difficulty and perseverance and often by indirect “compensation” routes, Paddy reminds me all over how easily things normally “click” with the preschool child.

Paddy loves to do Alphabet Quia because he feels like his older brothers doing math drill and Latin. He used to watch them when he was a toddler and shout: “Crowns! Stars!” He is proud to be able to do it himself, now. Yesterday I watched him do several runs of matching lower case and upper case, and was surprised how many he already knows. I was also surprised by how easily he can look at a square field of individual letters and pick out the ones he needs. This is an important readiness skill and Aidan is not able to do it, yet, even though he knows the upper/lower case letters better than Paddy does.
He is advancing into the “early chapter book”. By this I mean books like Frog and Toad and Little Bear, meant for primary graders just building fluency. But what this means to a 3yo pre-reader is that he can sustain his interest through a loosely connected series of “quiet” stories without a whole lot of color or rhyme or patterning. Not that color, rhyme and patterning are bad. They are invaluable for the small child and he still enjoys those, too. (There is a book called Cushla and Her Books which discusses the different stages of book awareness from the perspective of a grandmother who was a reading specialist and also the grandmother of a disabled child. )

Paddy discovered the table of contents of these books and he thinks of them like a computer “menu screen” of options. He points to the list and asks “Which one is this?” and then selects the one that sounds most interesting.

He acts out stories, as I mentioned before.

Aidan’s approach is a bit different. Books have been a vital road into verbalization for him. It started with a DK early dictionary, with photos of various things. He carried this around and browsed through it until it fell into tatters and I had to replace it. This gave us a basis for talking about all sorts of things.

He has always been extraordinarly hard on his books. Think Velveteen Rabbit here. His books become friends and in the process get rubbed, hugged, adventured and slept with. He usually gets especially attracted to one page which inspires much intensity which often came out in a sort of pre-verbal poetry. “Trees! Trees!”

Laughter and love are always closely related here. When he hears a phrase that attracts him, he wants to hear it again and again until he can recite it. Usually it is something that strikes him as funny, whether or not it IS funny.

In his earlier years I heard this called “perseveration” which I guess is a word used to describe a mentally disabled child’s tendency to fix on something and get into a sort of loop. But Aidan is not in a loop when he does this. It’s a spiral; just a more intense, repetitive spiral. If he gets fixated on a word or a phrase it almost always heralds a real advance in his vocal abilities.

When he was at the pre-verbal stage, browsing over a picture and hearing the name over and over set the stage for an explosion of vocabulary. Then it was simple songs and repeated conversations. He would want me to repeat the same conversational loop over and over. I found that this gave him the patterns in his brain that eventually led him to increase his Mean Length of Utterance. In other words, he got the patterns set by listening over and over to the same thing, then repeating the same thing (I was thinking echolalia, but if it was that, it was not a random form), and then he could fit new words into the existing patterns.

His most recent advance is to hear the simple board book over and over and then “read” the whole thing. Paddy does not do this, not yet. But Paddy will ask questions about the text, “meta-comprehension” and Aidan does not yet do this. Aidan approaches things as artifacts. For this reason he could label letters and numbers way, way, before he was actually ready to count or read.