On Memory Work: Homeschooling by Subject
Homeschooling Outside the Box
The phrase “memory work” is one that can carry baggage for people. The act of memorizing something may bring to mind a collection of facts you memorized as a child that you now deem useless such as the planets or the names of the bones in the body. You may think of learning scripture verses in exchange for candy or cramming gobs of information into your head the night before an exam. You may think of your phone number or address and yes, memory work can include these things, but the heart of memory work is a very different thing than mind-numbing memorization.
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Replay: Poetry & Teatime with Julie Bogart
Homeschooling Outside the Box
I am not doing interviews right now, but I want to bring you some great talks from past seasons. Enjoy! Do you consider poetry to be a staple of your homeschool? Oftentimes when the subject of poetry comes up with other parents, even the most enthusiastic homeschoolers will admit that they shy away from this subject. When I press to understand why that is, the answer is usually that they themselves are not excited about poetry – they consider it either intimidating or boring or have had such a bad experience with poetry that they loathe it entirely. Join me today as I talk with Julie Bogart...
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On Poetry: Homeschooling by Subject
Homeschooling Outside the Box
Do you consider poetry to be a staple of your homeschool? Of your life? Oftentimes when the subject of poetry comes up with other parents, even the most enthusiastic homeschoolers will admit that they shy away from this subject. When I press to understand why that is, the answer is usually that they themselves are not excited about poetry. They consider it either intimidating or boring or they have had such a bad experience with poetry that they loathe it entirely. But poetry matters.
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On Folk Songs: Homeschooling by Subject
Homeschooling Outside the Box
This is going to sound familiar; a lot of what I had to say about applies to folk songs, as well. Of course, there is a sacredness that goes along with hymns that you don’t find in folk songs but that doesn’t mean we should skip them. Folk songs pass culture from one generation to the next and help us learn about certain time periods, people, and places. They’re also a pretty trustworthy source of entertainment for your kids. Like I said , singing has been a part of humanity for all of time and it’s only recently that we’ve consigned it to the “experts” and you really only hear...
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On Hymn Study: Homeschooling by Subject
Homeschooling Outside the Box
Over the next few months I’m going to break down each subject and look at how we study it and what our favorite resources are. Our family adheres to To truly understand how to teach each subject, check out Hymn study is one of those easy to neglect subjects. We write it off as unnecessary because we feel it’s either archaic or something that belongs in church (that is if your church still sing hymns. I hope you’re blessed to be at a church that does). But I encourage you to do hymn study with your kids. Singing has been a part of humanity for all of time and it’s only recently that...
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On Planning Your School Year: The (Almost) Back to School Episode
Homeschooling Outside the Box
I’m big on when it comes to but at some point we need to stop thinking and discussing and actually do the thing. This is the nuts and bolts of it all. How do we actually homeschool? What is the super practical application of the beautiful Charlotte Mason Philosophy? If your child is under 6, get all thoughts of curriculum shopping out of your head and commit to these three things instead: Read great books, Go outside, Work on habits. (). That said, sometimes we are so excited about homeschooling, we just want to take it out on someone (i.e. your oldest child). If that’s you, ;) If...
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Replay: The Importance of Humor with Betsy Jenkins from Homeschooling with the Classics
Homeschooling Outside the Box
I am not doing interviews right now, but I want to bring you some great talks from past seasons. Enjoy! Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart. It requires endurance and initiative. It requires sacrifice and diligence. But it also requires something you might not realize…a sense of humor. We homeschool moms can be so serious; the stakes are high! We’re going against the grain! What if we mess up…this is our kids we’re talking about, after all?! But, but, but…we were never meant to completely reinvent the wheel, and one of the best things we can do for ourselves, our...
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On the High School Years: The Beginning of the End
Homeschooling Outside the Box
If you’re just at the beginning of the high school years, it may feel like the end is still far off but I warn you, the ball sure does start rolling quickly once it starts. The end is nigh, my friend. You’ve been working yourself out of a job and when you make it to the high school years, and you should begin to feel that change. It sounds somber to call it “the end,” but remember it’s just the end of a chapter and not the whole book. You’re still your teen’s parent, after all ;). As I said in , the high school years are a different animal in many ways, the lens often focused on...
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Replay: The Value of Teaching Through Stories with Jim Weiss
Homeschooling Outside the Box
I am not doing interviews right now, but I want to bring you some great talks from past seasons. Enjoy! Stories have been a part of human history from the very beginning and have been used as a powerful teaching tool throughout the centuries. Teaching through stories is a wonderful way to approach lessons in your homeschool, as well. Jim Weiss is a household name among many homeschoolers. He made his mark by doing this very thing – teaching through stories. His seamless delivery and enchanting ability to tell a great tale allows him to weave important character development and historical...
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Replay: Seeing Autism in a New Light with Bryn Hogan, Executive Director of the Autism Treatment Center of America®
Homeschooling Outside the Box
While I am not able to do interviews right now, I want to bring you some great talks from past seasons. Join me for the replay of a fantastic interview with Bryn Hogan. Are you ready to see autism in a new light? So often the conversation about autism is surrounded by a list of limitations. And let's face it, living the daily grind as a parent of a child on the spectrum sometimes really highlights those limitations. Join us today as Bryn Hogan, Executive Director of the Autism Treatment Center of America® talks about how the program came to be and what makes it is so radically different (in...
info_outlinePrinciple 16 & 17: The Way of the Will
We may offer to children two guides to moral and intellectual self-management which we may call ‘the Way of the Will’ and ‘the Way of Reason.’
The Way of the Will: Children should be taught (a) to distinguish between ‘I want’ and ‘I will.’ (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts away from that which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjust of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort that we may ‘will’ again with added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated, as tending to stultify and stereotype character. It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development., and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.)
Reference: Volume 6, Chapter 8
“The great things of life, life itself, are not easy of definition,” Charlotte begins and true, we must ponder, ‘what is the will?’ As it concerns us here, her definition of its function is sufficient: “Its function is to choose, to decide, and there seems to be no doubt that the greater becomes the effort of decision the weaker grows the general will.”