Before purchasing a curriculcum, read our post about how to choose one here. For reasons given in that article, I do not advocate using National Curriculum materials.
On this page I list the main curriculums used by Christian home-educating families in the UK, however they do not all have a Christian ethos (warning given). The totally Christian curriculums all come under the heading of 'Traditional'. You need to make sure that you understand these different types and be happy with the philosophy behind each before buying a curriculum - or the end product may not be what you expected! Please do your home-work and make sure you are happy before you purchase. In my opinion it is best to base your childrens' education around books rather than digital books/use of computer materials if you want the best education for your child, however I recognise that for some parents that may be the best/only way to go. There are several curriculums available and there is no 'one-size-fits-all'. Do your home-work, check them all out: check your budget - how many children to home-school? Do your maths as you don't want to start a curriculum and then find you can't afford it. One of the cheapest is the Robinson Curriculum (see below). We also consider it one of the best; it suited out family perfectly, but you need to find one to suit your family. Another extremely good value, effective, time-tested curriculum for ages 0 to 12 is The Mother's companion (see below). It's best if you can stick with one, as no two ever perfectly fit together, but some people change at age 11/12. Try to avoid the temptation to chop and change as it can prove expensive and more importantly, children thrive best with continuity and consistency. So choose carefully! Of course, you do not need to buy a set curriculum covering all subjects - you could just buy books as and when you need them, from differing sources. We will cover some of these in a later post. See also my our post on educating in the the early years - as you do not need to spend lots of money on a young child, teaching every subject through desk work. Traditional style home-education curriculumsROBINSON CURRICULUM - 5 to 18
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Charlotte Mason
https://www.amblesideonline.org/
Old fashioned, Bible based and many good instructions on the life and needs of the child.
Do bear in mind that Miss Mason was living in a time when the current prevailing educational scene saw 50 upwards small children cram -packed into a small classroom, unable to move around much all day. Miss Mason's ideas were revolutionary against this back-drop, however, she was also a follower of the teachings of Rousseau and Plato whose beliefs that a child was only made evil by external influences was becoming more widely accepted, as evolutionary thinking took root.
Be careful to grasp a true interpretation of her teaching on the subject of child discipline as since we live in a day when evolutionary beliefs about sin underpin all aspects of society, it would be easy to conclude from her writings that all that is needed is to change what we do as parents in order to solve all of a child's problems. Although due consideration of this is essential, it would not necessarily solve all problems.
In addition, obviously, this would not be biblical thinking.
Aids to learning
DREAMING SPIRES HOME LEARNING 12+
This option is like having subject experts come to your own home and teach your children as one of their own, "beaming" to you from the internet into your own lounge. Dr Kat Patrick created the venture for her own children when they were ready for higher and deeper levels of enquiry once they hit secondary school, and she has been growing the subjects on offer year-on-year. The tutorial team members are hand-picked home-educating parents whose expertise and experience motivate and inspire students for any future exams by teaching above and beyond a narrow syllabus (my emphasis). Current options include English, Ancient History, Biology, and Spanish. At their foundation is the Charlotte Mason method and its focus on living books, and using the tools of narration, copywork, and discussion - plus a truly global clientele - Dreaming Spires' courses will open up a whole new world for your secondary student.
You can find more information about the courses as well as their helpful home-educating high school blog at: www.dreamingspireshomelearning.co.uk
-- on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamingspireshomelearning/
-- on Instagram: dreaming_spires_home_learning
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Elementary education is a race between the biological development of a child’s mind and the learning of skills and information required for the optimum use of that mind. Facts and information are important, but even more important are skills that must be developed early in life for optimum mental development. Some such skills, such as mathematics and writing, are also an integral part of the factual information. Other skills are a part of the organization of the school itself and consist of a collection of mental habits and attitudes.
In designing homeschool curricula for our children, we should, therefore, ask ourselves several important questions:Ultimately, no authority can answer these questions. Parents know their child best, and it is their responsibility to answer these questions for their family. Parents should realize, however, the importance of these questions.
- Are the facts we teach fundamental information of primary importance to productive thought?
- Are the study habits and attitudes we teach suitable for the adult that our child will become?
- Are these things acquired in such a way and with sufficient mastery that the child will develop self-confidence in his independent individual abilities?
Dr Robinson
Your choice of curriculum will depend largely on the age of your child/ren. Secondly, it will depend on your educational philosophy. Now, you may not have thought much about a 'philosophy' but I can assure you that you have one even if you don't think you have. It may be based on your own education, or you may know already that you want your children to have a better education than you had yourself. If you have taken them out of mainstream school then there will be a reason why you have done so - you want to do better for your child yourself.
An educational philosphy
Have you ever thought about what you are aiming for in your children when they finish their 'education'. Who should educate - what does the Bible say? What is education concerned with? How is education best achieved? These are all necessary questions that need to be thought about before you embark on what will probably be your most important career - educating your children.
Here is not the place to do an in-depth Bible study of what God has to say about the education of our children, but suffice to say, we should not be unequally yoked with the world when it comes to intimate things - and after marriage, our children are our next major concern and their souls should be of great intimate concern to us.
To help you, I think it would be good to understand the modern educational scene. What determines how and what is taught in schools today and what goes into the text books of non-Christian school books, and sadly into the I/GCSE/A level curriculums as well. Then you will be in a better position to evaluate what you use in your home-school and to work out a course of study for your child/ren.
The History Behind Modern Education
The type of education that you and I received at school is very different to that of 100 or even 150 years earlier. Education today is vastly different to the one we received even. Changes happen all the time, and not all change is bad. Pictures of many tiny children crammed into Victorian classrooms, taught by officious looking teachers, make us thankful for our bright, modern classrooms and freer methods, brought to us as a result of the research into how children learn in previous eras. However, underlying any form of education is a belief as to what and how you would like pupil/s to learn. So here I attempt to very briefly explain the underlying beliefs of the modern education system.
The subjects may all seem the same throughout the ages: Maths, English, History and Geography and languages and so on, but the educational pedagogy has rapidly changed, especially since the first half of the 20th Century. What has changed? It is particularly the idea of child-centered learning introduced by the likes of Sigmund Freud (1856-1923), Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 -1778) and John Dewey (1859 - 1952). Freud's theories about the unconscious shattered parental confidence. Parents were led to believe that the way they handled their children could cripple their personalities for life. John Dewey laid the foundations for the 'child-centered-learning' theories that have been responsible for destroying both American and UK education. He based a lot of his thinking on the work of Jacques Rousseau, who believed that children are innately good and had to be protected from adult influence which could only corrupt them. Dewey carried this thought on and building on Freud's work pushed forward the shift of power from adults to children. Teachers became more and more 'facilitators' rather than teachers - the idea being that children simply needed guiding to learn rather than teaching. 'Keep the child happy' became the mantra, never minding if what the child wanted was good for him/her or not.
This guiding rather than teaching can sound good, and there are times when it can be helpful, but used as it has been, it has led to the shift from parents and teachers handing down values and instruction, to concentrating more on their mental health. Hence schools nowadays are not so much educational establishments, but social ones. Subjects are no longer academic subjects imparting knowledge and truth, but rather centered around the personal lives of the students. This paved the way for new subjects such as Personal and social Health Education (PSHE), sex education and Citizenship education, but it has also impacted how all subjects are taught and what is taught.
It changed subjects like history and geography from being factual subjects to 'social' subjects: opinions rather than facts are now taught in history - in fact, facts are no longer 'facts', but opinions, and truth went out of the window with the facts. Students are now asked for their opinions on history and how they think people in those days 'felt'. Geography became more interested in tracking social issues - birth control and the effects of flooding, and imparting political values and social skills rather than studying the earth. * Of course, the advent of Charles Darwin's (1809-1882) evolutionary theories added fuel to this raging fire as well, changing the sciences and religious instruction completely.
Art has become a vehicle for expressing oneself - rather than a medium for portraying the beauty of God's world - anything now goes and is called 'art'. Music has also been affected: the skill of composers in days gone by to compose music that is in harmony with creation (yes, creation has harmony!) has been replaced by back-beats and dissonance, with its culture of promiscuity, drugs and rebellion. Do what you please, as you please, is the message of modern music - including soft rock. And sadly this is no longer something the 'world' does, as soft rock and rock are in our churches too. Many Christians are ignorant of 'why' and the message rock music carries. The message of bad music will always override the message of the words, however good.
Of course, this is a simplified overview of education over the last 100+ years, but if you have followed me so far, you will hopefully begin to see the general thrust of modern education. Different Governments come and go and each tweaks the curriculum (again and again), but we still have a foundational mindset that children must lead the way - unhampered by adult 'interference'. Self is at the core. Imparting information from teacher to child has gone, which means that truth has gone. The child has become the centre of his/her own learning - as if a young child has sufficient maturity and knowledge to decide what is good for him/her to know. Much modern learning is based around 'problem-solving' and 'investigation', which, although having their place should never form the back-bone of a curriculum as they do. Academic rigour has been sacrificed for rights without responsibilities and the imparting of a politically correct agenda.
What is very sad, is that most of us under the age of 70 are so used to these ideas - after all - it is how we have been taught - that we don't see anything wrong with them.
We are also suffering the end result of this idea now with maths currciulums that frown on rote learning of facts, rather wasting the child's time by expecting young children to 're-invent the wheel' as it were by spending hours finding different methods to compute. It's a bit like expecting children to bake a cake without giving them a recipe. 'Here's the equipment - now bake a cake'. It sounds stupid, but this is what is underpinning methods of teaching in maths currently taught in schools. This is why so many parents can't understand the way their children are being taught maths. Basically - they are not being taught!! There is a place for experimentation and problem-solving, but children should first be taught a method that works, so that they are equipped with an efficient method of calculating/spelling/reading. More able ones will be able to think of alternative methods, but all will be able then to access the basic curriculum.
Things are beginning to look a little better as society is beginning to realise that damage has been caused, but despite the reforms in the GCSE curriculum, I have to say that they are at surface level only at the moment. Child-centred learning is still deeply entrenched in the hearts of teachers and training institutions.
Implications for a Christian home-school
By now, I hope that alarm bells are ringing in your head! Children leading themselves? No facts? No truth? Teachers not able to instruct children to what is right/good? What is the outcome?
- Well - one outcome I would suggest is entertainment style learning - the easiest route (rote is particularly boring after all!). Books that are easy to read, that don't require any thought so that the child can be indoctrinated with all sorts of wrong ideas - look in your local library! A few facts are peppered here and there, but if you could see educational material for ages 5-7 in 1929, and earlier, you would be amazed at what they were teaching young children - beautiful books with beautiful pictures teaching FACTS and things that I don't know NOW! Of course, we also have computers with their fast moving pictures that make learning look like a game: don't be fooled, they can only produce a generation of children who do not know how to learn. Learning takes time, patience, endurance and concentration - and none of these are/can be taught through addictive computer games, however educational they promise to be.
- Another outcome I would suggest is emotional bondage - an education focused around the self makes one very inward looking and this can lead to all manner of mental and emotional problems - as we are seeing today. In addition it leaves you at the mercy of any who may like to take advantage of you. Knowledge (and especially TRUE knowldge from God's Word), is liberating. It helps you to be a thinker and evaluater. In days of old, education was seen as a good thing to lift people out of their current low position in life.
- Another outcome is ill-discipline. If teachers cannot dicipline children for fear of ruining the child's self-image then children are left to themselves, which as scripture tells us, leads to nothing good.
"but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” Proverbs 29:15
- The worst outcome of all is that standards reach rock bottom. When teachers are not able to inspire children towards better things, then they sink to the lowest common denominator.
We must ask what we desire for our own children - mediocrity or something better than the general offering called 'education' that pervades our generation? How does the Lord require us to teach our children?
The Chrisitan Home-school Curriculum
Where does that leave Christian parents wanting a home-school curriculum?
Can we just run with the same text books and take out evolution and other bits we dont like and add in a bit of Bible study? I would suggest from the above that the answer has to be a total rethinking of how and what we teach our children. As we are starting from a different basis, that children are not born innately perfect, then what we build should be completely different and God-honouring.
So we start with a correct foundation: Romans 3 verse 23 says:
'For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God'
We also know that children need instruction and that it is a parent's job to instruct their child:
'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.' Proverbs 22:6
We know that the best way for children to learn is that parents impart knowledge (truth) to their children. Obviously the primary way we will do this is by teaching our children what God's Word says. We will want to have family Bible times where we study God's Word together and pray and sing. We will also endeavour to teach our children to read as soon as we can, so that they can start the habit of reading God's Word daily for themselves. This will help them (and us) understand who God is and how He wants us to live. It will help us all as a family to avoid making a God in our own image - an easy thing to do if we do not know what the Bible actually says.
Then we will want the books we use to teach our children to be based on truth and facts.
We will want:
- a good phonic reading, spelling programme alongside teaching our children to form letters correctly and devlop a fluid style of handwriting, that teaches the child efficiently and as quickly as possible so that further learning in all subjects is facilitated - rather than leaving our child to try and discover how our language works for him/herself so wasting years of valuable time.
- a rigorous maths curriculum that teaches number facts and gives old-fashioned (for reasons given above) drill in basic computations so that our child can quickly progress onto more advanced maths skills to use in every day life.
- to give our children the best quality books to read - you will probably find the best books printed before the child-centred/politically correct ethos really took hold - pre-1950/60.
- to teach our children to love knowledge - Firstly the knowledge of God and secondly of His world; to love to revel in finding out about it - to enjoy using their brains for God's glory.
- to remove anything in our homes that might contradict our ethos: T.V with the 'world's' unhelpful view of life portrayd every time we switch it on. How can the child of any age be expected to discern what is truth by watching the 'world'? Computer games that sap the brain's energy and which feed addictions. These are just a couple of suggestions - each family must think these things through for themselves.
- I would go further and want my child to be able to teach him/her self - not to make it up and choose whether to study or not, oh no - the opposite: we the parents decide what the child must learn, but present it in such a way the child can study it for him/herself so that s/he can learn to grapple with subjects, to think things through for themselves, to learn logic. This teaches children to be accountable, life-long learners, rather than thinking that learning stops when you leave 'school'- or that it is just to pass an exam. They become active rather than passive learners, learning early in life how to engage with their learning.
- to most importantly, teach our children to evaluate everything in life against God's Word.
I would suggest that we need to be especially careful when we start to consider exams for our children. The current exam curriculum is based on the above outlined philosophy and is very narrow and anti-God/truth. I know some parents are lost as to how to educate their teens and are glad to have the direction of an I/GCSE curriculum. However there is plenty of help available. Our next blog post will look at the best curriculums available in the UK - and many of them teach into the teen years to a far higher and better standard than the i/gcse curriculum currently does. See also our post on alternative options to I/GCSE. Why should we have taught our children to a higher standard all these years, for them to just sit the same poor exams at the end - or for that to be the sum total of their education?
Christian parents, we need to wake up: we need to be alert to what is happening. We must seek a different path - a radically different path - not just the same as the world's with the word 'Christian' added on!
I pray that this post will be helpful in enabling you to choose a curriculum that will bring honour and glory to our dear Saviour as we seek to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)
Give children access to a good study environment and the best books in the English language and then get out of their way!
Academic knowledge is in books. Each child must learn to extract and use that knowledge to the greatest extent that his or her abilities permit. This curriculum enables the student to learn these skills with very little teacher help, and it provides the student with 120,000 pages of knowledge from the greatest science, history, literature, economics, reference, and general education books in the English language.'
From the Robinson curriculum website
Overview of the Robinson curriculum
Its beauty and its success can be laid at the door of its simplicity. Simple to implement as you haven't got to spend hours preparing lessons. Simple as it doesn't take all day - a morning's work and you are through studies.
Too simple to be true? Then read on!
What I liked about the Robinson curriculum
- The concept of 'old' books, as I didn't like what I saw in the library. Pre 1950's, books for children (and adults) I knew were not so dumbed down.
- The idea of having a book list up to age 18, on a disc so I could print them out, as I was concerned how I would ever find enough good reading material.
- The idea of not having to spend hours planning. It seemed strange not to have to worry about teaching all the different subjects, and I wondered how that would work in practice, but that all seemed a long way off to me at that time.
- The idea of 'self-teaching'.
- That it was cheap. One set of discs until they were 18, plus Saxon maths once they knew all their flashcards.
- The promise that they would be cleverer than me. Not hard, but I knew I would struggle as they got older and let them down if they had to rely on me.
- The idea of freeing their minds to think by not crowding them with lots of bookwork. Do school, and then the time is their own as it were.
So we started.
No TV - No sugar!!
Dr. Robinson
Is the Robinson Curriculum an easy option?
I soon found that this curriculum was very demanding and expected high things of my children in their few short hours of schooling each day - right from the start. It certainly set the tone for our home-school. Learning was serious business.
Here is an excert, for example, of a page from a book that is for the child who has just started reading for him/herself. In fact it is Number 4 on the Robinson booklist, following 'Nursery Rhymes'. This is high expectations!!!
From the RC website
Maths and the Robinson Currciulum
We did spend ages 5-7 learning flashcards as the RC curriculum suggests, but I did break the rules of nothing else and used Christian Liberty Press work books K and A, which gave them practice at writing numbers and doing sums in books. It was not entertaining, but gave light relief from the drill. These books also helped them overcome tens and units and other basic skills, before they met them again in Saxon 5/4, which was especially helpful for my eldest who had a speech delay, and although progress in 5/4 was slow, I think it definitely helped them cope better.
We spent a long time practically learning tens and units: bundling up sticks into tens, or bricks. for example I'd give them 23 bricks. We'd make as many towers of ten as we could and see how many were left over. 2 lots of ten and 3 left over = 23, until they could see what was happening. I also made extensive use of the times test sheets in 5/4 for number bonds and didn't let them start 5/4 until they could do them in 5 minutes or less. We also did a lot of counting (everywhere) and cooking with weighing and measuring, helping to do DIY with more measuring etc.. in those early years.
This was rigorous maths - but they both managed to learn all the bonds by at least age 7, despite my eldest still struggling to speak at that age!
Once they started Saxon, Mr Robinson said they should do their maths by themselves with little help from me. Maybe that worked for his children but we struggled along. I never gave up on the aim, but reality meant that mostly in their Primary years, I would have to help a bit at least and often a lot! I had to be ready to get the practical bits out to help Son 1 especially, but also Son 2, sometimes, when his turn came to grasp the concepts. They would work by themselves, with me in the room and then we would go through it together to mark and correct. I only really let them have some responsibility for marking in the late teens as I found the temptation to cheat too strong, and it was too easy for me to take a back seat and not check! Very often we were only doing a third of a lesson a day, so progress was slow, especially through book 5/4.
…with some teacher help in learning phonics and understanding arithmetic, the student is ready for self-teaching.
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I used phonics for both reading and spelling. I could never let them just learn spelling from copy work and reading as suggested. I knew they would need a good phonic programme to thoroughly ground them in both reading and spelling. I used my own reading programme which teaches spelling as well. We did use the Peter and Jane Ladybird reading scheme as I had not yet written my own phonic reading books. My first son finished all 12 levels by age 6 and a half and could read way better than he could speak. The second son by age 4 and three quarters. It is not a phonetic scheme, but having ensured they were having a good phonic foundation, we looked at each new word phonetically as we read through. The beauty of this scheme is the constant repetition which builds confidence. Robinson advocates the use of the McGuffey readers for their rich moral and biblical content. I personally had no experience of these when I started Robinson and they didn't fit my way of teaching phonics, but I now see their value for copy work at least.
Reading is the bedrock of all other learning. Reading must become both easy and enjoyable and a phonic system is the only way to achieve both. This curriculum as we have already seen, demands a high level of reading ability.
Reading and the Robinson Curriculum
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Writing - The simplicity of copywork
Handwriting
We also used Getty and Dubay, a structured handwriting programme once I'd got them going. We only did a few books in the series and found they were enough. Alongside all of this, we did copy work and I know that it helped to cement what they had learnt in the programmes, so it was certainly valuable and it actually allowed them time and space to concentrate on the spelling and handwriting before having to compose at the same time.
Writing is a complicated business with a lot to think about all at the same time. Spelling, handwriting, grammar and punctuation as well as composing good writing. Many are destroyed along the way, especially in schools, where they are expected to be writers from the word go and not given the tools to do it well. I am very thankful to Robinson that both of my children LOVE writing!
Copywork was good for both of them despite their different styles of learning and abilities.
We didn't just do copy work: they often wrote letters to friends/relatives instead of copywork some days.
We would also add in a little 'project work' on a Friday. We really enjoyed these days! It gave our copy work/writing a purpose and linked it to other subjects, without 'teaching' these other subjects. So a visit to a wildlife sanctuary was a chance for us to take an animal each, research it, and write about it - either through copy work or own writing. Then we made a book of our work, with photos from our visit. Other times it was a special holiday we had been on, other times we pretended we were a character in the swallows and Amazon books and wrote postcards from our destination, planned camping trips with maps etc... At one time we did Geography based projects. Son 1 explored the effects of HS2 on communities in the UK - asking other Home school families to fill in a questionnaire for him to base his study on. Son 2 did a project on a local river. Again, fun days, with excuses for trips out!
Daily essays
Like most learning, it was often one step forward and then what seemed two back. I was constantly having to say 'What do they need to help them move on?' Which book next to read? How best to approach writing, especially as they came to the essay writing years and I knew I needed help. Now it's 'Should we do GCSE's' and what next, so the questions don't stop, but we press on.
The Robinson Curriculum is a self teaching curriculum. Does this work?
Do you have to follow the Robinson Curriculum exactly to get good results?
We added in music lessons - at one time a whole day per week was spent with a retired deputy head-teacher who was also a choir master. He lovingly taught them to sing hymns and accompanied them on the piano (which he made into CD's for them to hand out) and then they would listen to classical music together. He has now passed away, but he was a very godly influence on them for which we are very thankful. We now only do piano lessons. Grandpa teaches us Greek. Son 2 adds in Apologia Science, Latin and Welsh - both of which he self-teaches.
Do you have to do the Robinson Curriculum six days a week as stated?
We always had realistic amounts of work set for each day and they were expected to do it. In that we were firm. I liked the idea of the reading time being 10 minutes for every school grade and so that has increased year on year. Maths was pretty much 2 hours (with breaks) for Son 1 once he started Saxon at age 7, as he takes a while to process information and had a tendency to day dream (which he has grown out of) and needed lots of breaks. Son 2 rarely takes more than an hour if that.
When they were little, we started work at 9am after morning chores. Dad does 'Bible time' before he goes to work at 7 am.
We would start with maths and work through the flashcards and a page of their maths book. Then we would have a break, before doing literacy. When they were 3-4, this was just working on phonics and handwriting practice. As they started to spell, then the spelling took a few minutes each day, then some days it was copy work, others handwriting and we would finish the morning with reading. One would look at books by themselves quietly, while one read to me and then they would swap. This kept a working atmosphere while I was concentrating on them individually.
Our afternoons were free.
Junior days usually took 9am though 12pm, and then as the reading increased, we have gradually worked up to 5 hours.
Son 1 (17) now works 8am through until 1 for lunch, then piano 1.30 to 2pm. Son 2 (14) works 8 am to 1. Then he is finished.
What about other subjects?
The key is to balance the reading list to reflect different subject areas. If I felt an area was lacking I would slip in a book on that subject. When they reached 13, I did buy them the Apologia Science book 'Exploring Creation with Physical Science' which they read independently for reading and we did spend some days doing experiments and wrote them up for writing that day. Again, like the projects, these were relaxed, fun sessions. Son 2 now does the Apologia Biology course as part of his reading.
What about sports?
Robinson is more than a curriculum. It is a way of life.
However I see now the fruit of the curriculum. They want to work! They don't seek entertainment. They enjoy working!
To that end we encourage them as far as we can in their chosen interests: Son 1 Transport - especially trains; Son 2, birds. We get them a subscription to the best magazines, buy them the best books on the subject and their pleasure time is spent studying, but they think it's play! We never palmed them off to Sunday school either while we stayed in the 'sermon'. They stayed too and were taught to sit quietly and join in singing and Bible reading as soon as they could read. Now they see themselves as part of the church - not just the 'Youth', expecting an entertaining service.
So back to the 'Is it easy?' No! It's self-teaching, but not 'Go get on with it yourself.' It's the parents taking the initiative, quietly encouraging, disciplining where necessary to keep that work ethos through school time. Then organising nice 'school outings' to fun places (not entertaining!) - wildlife walks, train rides to interesting places, friends to visit, us being with them, not casting them off to be entertained while we do the serious stuff.
So far we are very pleased with the results of RC. I didn't see it's full potential when we started out, but now whole heartedly agree with Dr. Robinsons outlook. It is an excellent education. How far it is removed from a State education!
Our Background
A word about circle time
I thought home-educators were weird people!
Resistance to home-educating from family and friends
Is home-education school at home?
Home-schooling is a completely different way of educating
Our home-school was transformed!
I especially liked the idea of Robinson - that of keeing school simple, as I was not a young mother, being nearly 40 when my second son was born, and to be honest I was pretty exhausted most of the time, running around after 2 small, lively boys. I was freed from nightly/weekly planning, endless sourcing of good materials and was free to enjoy my children.
This was REAL teaching!
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Socialisation
Our boys have become each other's best friend. They are totally different in every way, but compared with a lot of school children who hate their siblings, our two will still enjoy spending free time with each other for which I thank the Lord. They (now!) rarely argue but encourage each other, which is lovely. I think school splits families up and makes each child a separate entity. Home-schooling unites a family - they learn together.
So if you don't have much contact with other children, keep praying about it, the Lord will meet your needs. In the meantime, make the most of what you do have - at least, each other and rejoice in it!
I have written this post as I find that often home-educated parents do not know what level of writing can be expected of their young children, or have anything to measure them by. Some parents think erroneously that school standards are high. I do not doubt that there are instances where state school standards are high, but I have to say that they are few and far between. School reforms have improved things a lot, but schools are still driven by a child-centred philosophy.
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Raising parental expectations of young children's writing
However, young children are far more capable of producing good writing than you may think. I would like to encourage you to rethink your child's capabilities, so that you are less likely to limit your child's potential.
Learning to write need not be dull
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Parents need a vision for their children's writing
These things are core to success:
- A set routine
- Daily practice of handwriting - making sure that the short daily exercise is done diligently, paying attention to letter shape and size.
- Daily spelling exercises - which may for some be being taught alongside reading - although for some children they may be already reading fluently and the spelling is coming up behind, as is often the case.
- Daily copywork - a short passage from a well-written book (generally pre 1960's will set the best example of good langauge).
- Most importantly, the child needs to be encouraged to see his/her work as very important - s/he is growing up and learning to write like adults do.
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The background to the writing samples
These children had no prior teaching in handwriting or spelling before starting school. They all attended an inner city state school where a high percentage of the children received free school meals. Some of them were very bright, others not so. Few had much help from home. All were summer born children. They were the product of no more than one year and in most cases less, of teaching and phonic training.
How to learn from the writing samples
These children were composing their own work as well as concentrating on spelling and handwriting as that is what is expected of them in school.
In the home school I advise copy work until spelling and handwriting skills are learnt sufficiently to be done easily, before expecting the child to compose as well. You will see that some of them struggled to compose meaningful sentences.
These children did have access to a 'word book'. They could ask for help with words they couldn't spell. I would write them in their word book for them to copy into their writing.
If you have a child with special needs, particularly coordination problems, then do not expect this level of writing yet, rather aim towards it. Don't excuse them and say they 'can't', rather accept that they will be slower getting there. They may always struggle with the spacing of words and writing letters in proportion to each other, but keep working on these things and help them to get as close as possible to the desired outcome.
Not each of the teaching points would be covered each day, but I would have them in mind to be worked on.
Do notice that at this early stage of writing, my focus is not on WHAT is written, but how. In my opinion, this is where many child-centred methods go wrong. They expect the child to be able to write like a writer, before they have the tools to be able to write. At this stage, children are still coming to terms with handwriting and spelling and cannot be expected to be at a great stage of expressing themselves. With good reading material and practice, this will come without too much effort in the later years.
Samples of children's writing age 5/6
Handwriting: Letters look correctly formed. I would be watching the child as s/he wrote to make sure, as some letters can be written wrongly and yet look right.
The letters sit on the line correctly (they wrote on lines, but it has got washed out by the scanning process). They are more or less proportional to each other.
The child uses capital letters correctly.
Spaces between words are a little large, but regular. I would be wanting to encourage them to make the gap smaller.
Grammar/Punctuation: This child is beginning to understand the concept of a sentence and has made some complete sentences, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop. I would want to move him/her away from starting a sentence with the word 'and', but this would come with greater exposure to good texts and maturity.
Spelling: Notice that common words are spelt correctly; (and, the, to, is, if). The child is spelling cvc/c words confidently (get, drops, eggs, frogs). There is good evidence that they are applying his/her phonic teaching of 'ar' (starts), 'ew' (new), 'ight' (night), powerful 'e' (roses, life,), 'er' (longer). I would imagine I gave them 'animals',' honey', 'leaves' and flowers. Basically I would be looking to see what he/she was able to use correctly, knowing what I had taught the child. That would tell me which phonemes had been internalised, and which needed further work.
To write this ably, this child needed to be a confident speller who knew when she needed help, but s/he didn't need much help.
I would be encouraging this child to read his/her work once completed to check for sense and meaning.
Obviously it shows the child's understanding of the subject so far, and the good teacher would seek to build on this to help the child to come to a correct understanding: e.g. 'The bees eat honey'.
This child joined the class part way though the school year. S/he was making a good job of catching up. S/he was an able child.
Handwriting: Irregularity in size and spacing is very evident. An attempt is being made to make the letters proportional to each other and they are mainly seated correctly in the right position on the line. More work would be done on this in handwriting lessons.
Punctuation: The child obviously has some awareness of full stops and sometimes uses a capital letter correctly at the start of a sentence. More work on sentences would help correct this.
Spelling: This child is obviously taking care with his/her spelling and many words are correct. If they are not correct, you can read them - they are logical errors and acceptable at this age. Look at 'cum' for 'come' and 'miks' for 'mix' and 'pritty' for 'pretty'. I would not overly worry about come as it probably hadn't been taught it in the 'o' saying 'u' family yet and she hadn't used it enough times to learn it as a common word. I would take more note of 'miks' as it indicates a weakness either on the letter 'x', or the 'ck' rules, if not both and I would want to correct that.
A word like pretty I would have ignored at this stage. The spelling is developing nicely and that will come in due course.
I would encourage this child to present their work more neatly as a longer term goal.
Handwriting: Letters well proportioned, clear ascenders and descenders. The words tend to be a little too far spaced out, so I would encourage smaller gaps between them.
Punctuation:
The child has a good grasp of when to use full stops. Sentences are simple, but well phrased. Capital letters are consistently used correctly.
Spelling:
This child is an able child who is applying his/her phonic lessons and has learnt the spellings of several common words. S/he knows when they can't spell a word and has asked for help.
Overall, Phonic work would increase the range of words that could be written (vocabulary). Practice would make sentences more interesting.
Conclusion:
These children ENJOYED writing!
- They had been taught the tools before being expected to write:
- They knew how to form the letters.
- They had a basic understanding of spelling - sufficient to give them a certain freedom when writing.
- They knew they were making progress - this is crucial to success. They were excited by their own success!
Can it be done successfully? The answer is yes and we show you how! We start by showing you how to help your child to make his/her own nature diary and then how to use it.
Although it is easy to buy such things, the making of his/her own nature diary by a child is a worthwhile exercise in diligence and the finished article will be so much more cherished because the child made it him or her self.
It is simple to do and does not need to be long: for young children it is best if each book lasts no longer than a month as younger children like change.
You will need a piece of A4 card for the cover and then 8 pages of good quality cartridge paper of about 170 gsm for the pages. See resources.
Fold each piece in half, including the card. Lay the pages in a pile with the card at the bottom, ensuring that all edges are flush and the folds are together.
Using a sharp needle make three holes evenly spaced down the centre fold, passing through all sheets.
Keeping the pages together, thread the needle with some strong thread and starting with the middle hole (and leaving long end), go down, back to the middle, up, back to the middle, three of four times. On the last time, cut the thread with plenty to spare as you approach the middle for the last time. Tie the two ends together securely. If you have a guillotine you may like to trim the edges of the book to make the pages flush.
Decorate the front covers beautifully - this could be an art lesson in and of itself.
Encourage the child to take great delight in his/her nature diary.
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Keeping the Nature Diary
Keeping a nature diary requires patience and persistency. These are good traits to be developed in young children, however the parent will need to encourage and supply with fresh ideas to be recorded. There is a need here for variety, to keep interest alive.
Each entry should of course record the date.
Sometimes observations will centre around the weather, or clouds, or wind. At other times on plants and others on birds, insects or animals. On other occasions there may be opportunity to study footprints in mud or snow. As each book is completed, it will form a diary of the child’s experiences and adventures in nature.
However, although it is good to make such a diary, and should be encouraged, and most children will happily take up the suggestion, especially when they see the enthusiasm of others, there may be some who do not. Be careful of causing a distaste for the subject by compelling those with no real desire to record in this way to do so.
These diaries will be individual. Even children within the same family may not all record the same aspect of say a nature ramble. One may have been looking up at the sky, while another studied the ground. Allow for individuality.
Entries will not necessarily be works of art at this stage - that is not important. Each entry should have the date, and a simple sentence to say what was found/observed. If desired, a simple sketch/illustration can be added. Obviously the older the child the more they may wish to record. Obviously best work should be encouraged.
Our downloadable - print it yourself 'Nature Diary' notebook for young children (aged 4 to 8) available from TES.
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Nature Explorers
the Christian monthly nature magazine for children aged 4 to 8, all based on a 6 day Creation.
Priced at:
£8 for a PDF version delivered by e-mail
£32 for a high quality print edition delivered to your door.
Please see
www.natureobservations.weebly.com
for further information.
Phillipians 4:8
In an evolutionary age BEAUTY is sadly lacking. Evolutionists cannot explain beauty and therefore they place low emphasis on it and even try and remove it.
We were created beautiful, for a beautiful world, and beauty is what we all long for and yet we no longer know what it looks like. We think beauty is coloured hair and clothes so skimpy they are hardly called clothes. We pride ourselves these days on being free and easy - casual dress, casual language, casual relationships, fast food with no nutritional content, constant music with a beat to try and liven ourselves up out of our dull stupor and dragging ourselves further into the mire the longer we listen to it. We like cartoons to make us laugh and 'easy-reads' which require no thought and a constant barage of noise from the TV/radio to numb our minds. We speak using the barest minimum of words with slang interjected with every other word. Children are fed stories aimed at entertaining rather than aspiring them to greater things. The illustrations in the books we give them are less than beautiful, demeaning the human image. Art itself has become a vehicle of self-expression rather than an appreciation of beauty. We see knowledge as something you acquire in order to pass an exam and no further. We don't expect anything to last, so we rarely value anything - including life which is seen as something that can be easily disposed of if it proves inconvenient to us. We don't stop and think about it anymore, and sadly our churches are joining in in greater numbers: pop music in church, casual dress, lack of reverence, cartoon pictures in children's books and youth work materials. Our children know nothing better than this world stripped of beauty. Such has been the impact of evolutionary thinking on our lives.
Does it matter? I believe it does. I believe that when the Scriptures exhort us to think on 'Whatsoever things are lovely' etc.. it does so for a reason. Our Creator God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows that it is for our greater good to fill our minds with beautiful things. The beauty of the world around us brings honour and glory to Him. Our faith in Him should make us more and more beautiful. Let us flee the things of this world and teach our children to do the same, if they will listen.
This website exists to try and help parents to re-navigate education - to find beautiful resources with which to teach their children and to encourage our children to create beautiful things themselves. To recognise the need for beautiful books, language, art, music; and to aspire them to greater knowledge, not merely to jump a hoop and pass an examination. To aspire them to reach for better than they see around them - not for self-gratification, but to bring honour and glory to God - the creator of all things good.
There are 'beautiful' resources available to us: the Authorised Version being an example of excellent language - simple, with a rhythm that makes it esily memorised and written by scholars who paid great attention to detail, resulting in it becoming the most accurate translation available to us in English; books with God-honouring illustrations by artists who seek to do justice to the beauty of the world around them; music that is written carefully according to the rules of good harmony, without a back beat distorting the tune with its message of rebellion; people taking care with their dress and spoken language; relationships that are not treated lightly - but rather seen as something beautiful; beautiful behaviour which is taught and encouraged; food, lovingly created with lovely ingredients, rather than foods which are no more than a bunch of chemicals mixed together and packaged 'attractively'; good quality, beautifully hand-crafted products that will last for a long time; the acquisition of real knowledge; the sanctity of life.
I aim to help you seek out these better things for your children. To that end, many of the resources will appear 'old-fashioned' as there are few being produced these days. Please do not despise them for this. To find beautiful resources we will need to be discerning and to know what we are looking for. We need to reawaken our sense of beauty, teach it to our children and step forwards together armed with beautiful tools to live and work with.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
Mathew Henry commenting on Ecclesiastes 3:11
Other posts you may like:
However, do not despair. It is not hard to educate a young child aged 4 to 8 at home and it does not need to cost lots of money or even time.
At this age the only real 'school' work that needs to be done is the 3 R's: reading, 'riting and 'rithmatic. Yes, school children must be in school from 9 until 3, but they will not be sitting at a desk for all those hours. In the early years, much of their time will be spent engaging in play. I hasten to add, that much of their time will also be wasted. Early Years settings seek to replicate the home-life - baking/shopping/travelling etc..! This seems bizarre when their main aim is to get the children away from home. Think of the old fashioned 'home-corner', or playing shop, dressing up - all valuable parts of childhood, but which are no less educational for being done at home as part of a child's normal life.
So English and Maths are essential. Other subjects are not essential at this age, as little children learn holistically. That is, all subjects merge into just one - life. They learn best through exploration, reading and playing (inside and out) and plenty of time in a child’s day needs to be given to these latter three.
Although as home-educators we do not need to follow a timetable as such, it is equally true that young children thrive best when there is a consistent routine. If the children know that they will be sitting down to do school work in the the morning, then you can cut the battles in half at least! Try and make sure that some maths and Language work is done every day and that most days it is quality work. Of course there are always going to be those times when unexpected things happen that throw the routine out - but get back to it as soon as possible. Children are usually more alert and receptive in the morning. It is good to do the work, and then have free time. Work then play.
My suggested plan of a day:
9 - 10am English work: reading, writing, spelling
For young children these three will best be taught through a good synthetic, systematic phonic programme. Aim for your child to be the best reader s/he can be as this will form the basis for all future learning.
The main aim of these lessons will be to give your child the tools s/he will need in order to become a good reader and writer. Reading is best taught alongside spelling. Writing is best learnt by separating the skills of handwriting and composition. At this age, composition is best done verbally. Copy work (copying from suitable books/poems etc...) should play a large part.
10 -10.30 a break - play in the garden in summer, a walk round the block in winter - or play indoors if mum is tired or the weather is bad. Some days I used to put some classical music on and let them run and jump to let off some energy. Endeavour to factor in some exercise each day, even in winter as you will all feel better for it and hopefully be healthier. It doesn't have to be at this time, but a regular time helps everybody to know what to expect. Young children thrive on routine.
10.30 - 11.30 Maths work
When the children are very young (4-5) the maths and English may not take so long.
Do be prepared before each days lessons: have the work ready, know what equipment will be needed. Have the children set up the school room if need be after breakfast. Train them to know that after breakfast, they should be ready to come to the table when called to work. There should be no arguments about this. Good training spares a lot of frayed tempers!
For those with a mix of ages: train older children to work as independently as possible. Obviously you will need to listen to them reading and check work, but they should be moving towards being able to get on with an exercise by themselves for a few minutes while you work with a younger child. Train babies from the start to play quietly in the school room - provide quiet toys, such as bricks, puzzles etc...Have them ready so that as one activity flags, you can provide another. Do factor in time to spend with baby - maybe doing a shape sorter or a puzzle together. Move from child to child as needed making sure that all have done what is necessary each day. Again, a routine helps to give structure and order to your 'school' and helps young children feel confident and secure.
11.30 -12.30 On some days art work or project activities, though on some days it may be appropriate to do this in the afternoon. I always planned on one art activity a week at least and I set a regular day for it to ensure that it happened. This should not be seen by the children as 'school' work - this should be general homelife - all of you learning together. All chidlren (except tiny bables) can join in the art work, doing so at his/her own level).
12.30: Lunch
Afternoons Free
Now is the time for free exploration/play, outings or for doing activities together.
Many families like to have a time of family rest at some point when younger ones sleep and older ones read/colour/play quietly. It is good if at the start of the week you can make a plan of what you intend to do when. This means that activities are more likely to happen. Do not feel that you have to wear yourself out taking the children out every day to socialise. I used to try and plan for one major 'out of home' activity a week, then other afternoons being quieter at home. Do not feel guilty if some days the afternoons are free play. The children do not need structure all day and actually it is better for them if they don’t have it as it makes them find their own ‘fun’ and develop self-motivation. Later this may lead to hobbies and interests.
If you have the energy and children are flagging in ideas, sometimes you could play together - set up a shop, or imagine a cardboard box is a boat. Usually that would be enough to set them going for a while.
If a bit of peace and quiet is needed as the children are getting fractious, then a cuddle with mum with a good story often resettles everybody.
Bed Time
A good bed-time routine is esential for an orderly home, which a home-school home needs to be. Aim to have tea at about the same time each day, followed by family prayers and bath, then a bedtime story and individual prayer time before lights out. A regular routine each night helps to settle children to rest, ready for learning the next day. Four year olds need 11.5 hours sleep, five year olds need 11 hours and 6 to 8 year olds need approx. 10-11 hours (source NHS). To find bedtime work backwards from the time you need the child to get up.
Tired children are more likely to be awkward, fretful and make life generally more difficult for everyone in the home.
Other considerations:
Technology is not essential in the early years. Young children do not need access to a computer for learning or for pleasure. They do not need entertaining with a screen - it doesn't engage the brain in the same way that learning from books does, due to its fast moving images. A few carefully chosen DVD's are a resources to be used wisely on occasion, not something that should be a matter of course everyday. Try not to use the TV as a baby sitter regularly, tempting though it is!
You would do well if you can do without a TV in the home. Children will soon find sources of amusement that are better for them. Instead, provide good quality toys: toys that meet the need for construction and role -play (bricks, dolls, garages, trains, Play-Mobil etc..). Avoid violent toys and toys linked with children's TV programmes.
Spend time with your children. Don't let them see project/art work as 'school'. Plan family outings to stimulate discussion, widen horizons and hopefully pave the way for future interests. Excursions are a great opportunity for family bonding and having time to relate with our chidlren away from school time.
Listen to good music - classical music, folk music, hymns. Avoid pop music as it is rebellious by nature - rebellious ultimately agaisnt God, being symoblic of promisuity, drugs and rebellion.
- Keep school simple
- Be organised
- Have good discipline - have rules for the family - keep them simple
- Have a regular routine which includes plenty of fresh air and exercise
- Ensure the whole family has the required amount of sleep (including 8 hours for adults)
- Either don't have a TV, or keep it off for the most part of each day.
- Observe the Sabbath day - it brings blessing and rest!
To help keep the cost down for you, I provide FREE and low priced resources for KS1 on this website (see side-bar for examples) and on my main website, Lilibette's Resources. My project packs are being added to all the time and provide plenty of 'dip - in' activities to help give your explorations a focus. If you have any questions, please ask!
You may also like to look at the Mothers Companion Curriculum - low priced and all conveniently on a USB stick. All of these are compatible with a classical style curriculum.
The purpose of teaching poetry to young children.
It is important for young children to learn good poetry. There are plenty of poems written for children these days, but few fall into the category of being beautiful. A good poem should sound good, it must bring pleasure in the reciting of it due to the rich language and the rhythm. It need not portray complex ideas, but even poems that appear simple, can be good, though they were probably not simple to write! It is not necessary for a child to understand all of the vocabulary used as long as the general idea can be grasped. Understanding will come later.
Find poems that your child enjoys
Not all children will take delight in all poems - the key is to find good ones you can enjoy together. Read a few and see how the child responds. Which does s/he like best?
Avoid jokey rhymes and ones that use baby language.
As often as you can, let the child hear good poetry read aloud. Read the best you can find. This will help to educate the child's taste, to prefer the better to the worst. For very young children, you can’t go wrong by introducing them to nursery rhymes. Vary the subjects of the poems you choose as well.
Help the child to understand the poem and what the poet is trying to do. Some poems sound brave and strong, others pretty, others jolly and dancing, but in each, the poet has taken great care to select the right word. What is the right word: the longest? the most unusual? No, the one that best says what the poet wants you to understand from it.
Poetry and music
Poetry often goes hand in hand with music. Hymns are after all poems set to music. They have a natural rhythm. Indeed a good hymn book is invaluable in the Christian home-school.
Try saying a nursery rhyme and beating time to it with your finger on the table.
Children will soon join in.
Helping the young child to understanding poetry
Once a child is used to hearing poems/nursery rhymes, then simple discussions can take place:
Do you like this poem? Why/why not? Which word makes you feel...?
Why do you think the poet used this word? Can you think of another word s/he could have used? Can we clap the rhythm of this line?
These types of questions will help the child to learn something of the technique of poetry.
Reciting poetry
Reciting poems, if you can encourage your child to do so has great value. Here we are aiming for clear, distinct pronunciation. Correct speech is one of the things we need to be working on with young children. Early phonic work can go alongside this - especially work concerning the vowels.
Let the child hear the difference between a carefully shaped and pronounced ‘o’ and an unclear one. Good phonics accompanies good speech. Say each vowel carefully and hear the difference between them. There should be a clear difference, but often when we talk there is hardly a difference at all.
Try taking each vowel in turn on various days and putting different consonants before it:
Do do do
Lo lo lo
Repeat each syllable on three pitches, high, middle and low.
Linked to phonic work, say for example:
pat, pet, pit, pot, put
Ban, ben, bin, bon, bun
Make sure each time that the vowel is carefully sounded.
Then there is the practice of words that often trip us up:
‘acts’ where we say ‘ax’, or ‘thinking’ where we say ‘thinkin’.
Pick up on the dropping of ‘t’s’ - a very common practice, but one which helps neither correct speech or spelling.
Encouraging children to write verse
Once children have been exposed to a fair amount of poetry then they may be asked to write short verses of their own. Now there is a danger here that we seem these days to fall into: that of letting children think that they are poets because they can write a rhymed verse. Let us remember that immature, untrained children cannot produce good literature - yet! Yes, encourage and feed the desire, but they are not poets any more than being scientists because they carried out an experiment.
However it is true that the best way to learn is to study those who can and have a go yourself. After all, you cannot learn to be an artist if you never pick up a paintbrush and your first feeble attempts will one day progress into something noteworthy if you keep practising.
To begin with children can work on simple rhyme exercises. You can give a short line and then they must finish it with another that rhymes.
‘I have a little mouse..’ Let the children make another to match it. They are not writing poems, but learning how poems work.
To write another line, they must match the rhyme and the beat.
So: There is a little mouse
That lives inside my house/That runs around my house
as opposed to:
There is a little mouse,
That runs around my bedroom in my house
These are simple steps that can be built upon in later years.
And so to summarise:
Your choice of poetry will depend a lot upon how you have trained your own taste through good reading.
- Teach appreciation by giving the children the best poems you can find. Guide them by pointing out why particular poems are good and giving them a basic understanding of how verse works.
- Give opportunities for recitation - maybe a family concert, or invite some elderly friends from chapel round for tea and biscuits and let the children show what they have been learning. Encourage good vowel sounds and clear speech.
- Let the children have a go at writing verse, but don’t think they are ‘poets’: they are still being trained in the use of language and ideas and expressing them in verse form.
Poetry for Three to five Year olds
Poems should be read to this age group - select poems with direct, colourful rhythms, humour and lively action. Nursery rhymes are excellent at this stage and are quite easy to understand. They give a good foundation in hearing rhyme. They should give room for the imagination to work. Children of this age will happily repeat verses over and over again, and these verses stand up to this repetition. Young children love choruses to join in with. Simple hymn choruses can be learnt too:
Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to him belong
They are weak but He is strong
Yes Jesus loves me......etc... Anna Bartlett Warner
With this age group, many good poems are set to music and this helps. Let the children march to the rhythm of the poem. Whatever you do, do not
adulterate this natural rhythm by listening to renditions set to pop music. Pop music by it rebellious nature has a beat which ’goes against’ the natural rhythm, often being played by a bass guitar. It counteracts the natural rhythm of the melody. This is not a good thing for children to hear and will distort their appreciation of both good poetry and good music.
You do not need many poems at this age - a few that are enjoyed and repeated many times over will be sufficient. The young child will not tire of hearing them.
Poetry for Fives and Sixes
By now children are becoming more curious about the world around them. This works to help the become sensitive to the beauty of poetry as it tells about the things they see and experience. This matching of the poem to the child’s experiences becomes more important as children grow older. Poems about plants and animals are good at this stage. Sometimes, it may help if the child has some experience of the subject of a poem before reading the poem to him/her. For example, read a book about tigers and talk about them, maybe watch them on the computer, before reading poems about them as that way the child will better appreciate the vocabulary used to describe for example the tiger’s movements.
Read the poem often, but do not to attempt to force a child to memorise one. At this age, children will pick things up by memory very quickly if they enjoy something and hear it often enough. We don’t want poetry to become a core and be resented. Some children may enjoy reading a poem out loud in public, but don’t force a child if it doesn’t want to. Read more poetry then you talk about. Make enjoyment the main emphasis rather than dissecting technique. That can come later in life.
Poems are good source of material for copywork at this age. Obviously choose poems your child enjoys and select only as much as the child can cope with copying - maybe just a line, or two, or a verse to begin with.
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Poetry for Sevens and Eights
All that has gone before applies to this age group as well. Do not forget that as children enjoy poetry, they like to sing and dance (natural dancing not gyrating to an unnatural beat which produces unnatural movements). They also like to draw and paint and make things. All of these things can naturally flow out from the reading of poems and the doing of these activities will in turn make poetry more pleasing to them.
These children can write out little poems as copy work, beautifully illustrating them.
Above all, although you will want to have in mind broader aims for your poetry reading, always be led by the children. Work with them, rather than against. Be sensitive to mood and impression which can vary with young children from day to day. You may think it a good moment to enjoy poetry - they may not: but do not fall into the error of assuming that a poor response one day necessary fore-tells a poor response every day!
Written with the help of 'The Practical Infant teacher', edited by P.B. Ballard: 1929
First considerations
Before you begin it does us all well to ask ourselves - 'What kind of books do I envisage my child ultimately reading as an adult?' as you will be paving the way for this whether you have though about it before hand or not. Reading for entertainment? Well - yes - it has its place, however fiction for the Christian can be a real snare (immorality) - so for us this wasn't top of the agenda: 'whatsoever things are pure' (Phil. 4:8) was our motto. We also have to be aware of the illustrations that are in the books we give our children. Are they caricatures of God's perfect creation - degrading humanity and animals? If so we steered away from them- our family motto was always 'whatsoever things are lovely' (Phil. 4:8).
Yes, our lads read plenty of fiction as young children but as they have got older we have steered them towards more serious works, for example:
Reading their Bibles
Biographies (which they do for relaxation)
Reading for study
Reading professional books appertaining to the subjects they enjoy
I don't believe that this has happened by accident but rather because we were led to consider physical books better than 'electronic books' - the highest quality books we could find, and because we followed the Robinson Curriculum, they were required to read for 10 minutes times their school year every day Monday to Friday. This instilled in them a love of reading and a thirst for knowledge.
- teach him/her to read with a good phonic programme,
- then give him/her the best books that you have access to and build up your own library - and expect him/her to read for an alotted time each day - no option!
- Keep screen time to the minium - preferably don't have a TV
- Let your child see you reading - your Bible first and foremost
The need for Phonics
Choosing a Good Phonic Programme
- Systmatic- i.e. it follows a clear progression - not expecting children to read words that they haven't yet learnt the sounds for
- Simple to actually teach - or it will become a core to you and your child will sense that and it will become a core to him/her too!
- Effective - you want to see results - soon - and your child needs to feel that s/he is progressing as this gives the onward motivation
- Be based on actual, physcial books rather than a computer screen. so that the child gets used to associating in depth reading with having a book in his/her hand, rather than entertainment based reading on a screen, with its transient nature
- Affordable
- Minimum preparation needed
Before you start teaching it, you should get an overview of how the programme works and how best to support your child as s/he learns. This is very important - in fact - it is the KEY to helping your child learn to read. Tou must study yourself to understand what is necessary, so that you can tweak the process to help each child succeed. Two children can use the same programme, but the way each learns to read will be unique to him/her. always aim to make the programme fit the child, not the child fit the porgramme.
Also bear in mind that what is suitable for one family/child may not be the best for you and your child - or even for subsequent children. Children all need phonics - but phonics can be presented in a myriad of different ways.
There are many phonic programmes, of all complexities and prices. As my aim in life is to make things as simple as they can be, and as cheaply as possible, I reccomend the follwing two FREE programmes. Both work well.
Phonics Programmes I recommend - cheap, but they work effectively
It is designed to be a no fuss programme - straightforward and no frills, designed to get your child reading and spelling well in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of effort/money/resources.
Free and truly simple, but very effective. Includes free extras like games, supporting worksheets/activities and phonic reading books.
Phonics 4 Free
Programmes I do not recommend
Reading Eggs: this is a programme delivered online. If you want your child to read books (which hold far better/more trust worthy information than is available on line), then teach them via actual books. In addition it uses cartoon illustrations. Be careful of hooking your child onto a diet of entertainment. Use a programme that uses well drawn illustrations, so setting a high standard for your child to emulate.
Rocket Phonics: this programme teaches the phonic code through another code - too unecesarily confusing and protracted. This method ( called Initial Teaching Alphabet) used to be used in schools until it soon became obvious that it was not proving successful.
Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons:
This programme is unnecessarily complicated and labour intensive for the parent, with long complicated instructions. Either of the two above would be far simpler, more effective, much cheaper and help your child to reach higher reading standards.
Finally
Look for progress - however small and encourage it - and don't be a slave to any programme - you must make it fit your child - not make your child fit the programme. Remember these things and soon you will have a reader on your hands! If you need help or advice at any time, please contact me via Lilibette's Resources.
...Yes, there were “ordinary” children's history books and yes, there
were books that told history from a Christian perspective – for adults or for
Americans!
(Mothers' Companion)
History is learning how God has dealt with nations and our nation in particular. History is very important and cannot be left to chance.
...our history is not only part of our culture, it is the road map to our identity. More, it tells us who we are. Ignorance of our national history – national amnesia – exposes us to those who wish to change this country forever. Furthermore, ignorance of the past means we are condemned to repeat it. Nick Seaton July 2004
It would be worth reading the rest of the article quoted above here, as history is a contentious subject. It has been subject to much change in fairly recent years and as this change is subtle in nature, many parents may be ignorant of it. Recent changes in the National curriculum and exams may have gone some way to address the content of the history curriculum, but it still doesn't address the spiritual aspect.
How do we give our children a truly Christian education in history?
I would suggest that it doesn't lie in the giving of numerous worksheets, museum visits and historic craft activites, and least of all in the sitting of a GCSE History exam (though that may have its place in due time). Although these may have their place there needs to be more. Mainly, the answer, I believe, lies in the reading material we give our children. It also lies in the many discussions that are held in Bible time, or around the dinner table as the children mature. We need to be thinking parents, aware of these things for ourselves, and ever seeking to learn. This will give our children a role model. Of course there is always the place for, "Well, I don't know! Let's go look for an answer."
To be honest, I am disappointed with many of the museums we have visited, especially ones that I remembered from my own childhood which I expected to be the same as I remembered them. Most had succumbed to entertainment style teaching, with little real information. Museums used to be places for serious study. It seems that few are interested in serious study these days. Perhaps if you know of a good museum that does have serious material on display you could let me know and I can start a list for the benefit of us all.
So what books should we use?
Aim that your children should see the Bible as their main history textbook. Aim for them to know their Bible history very well. How you do this is up to you, but one thing we learnt early on is that if you want to know what the Bible says, you should read it, using the most reliable version available to you! In the UK this is the KJV, considered by many to be archaic. However its language is actually very simple and clear as well as beautiful and easily memorised. To this end, once our children could read the KJV, we bought them one for their birthday (one started age 4) and from about the age of 8 they were expected to read one chapter every day, 352 days of the year, as part of their school work. If you would like to know why we consider the KJV the best version of the Bible to use, read this article here. This is in addition to family Bible time. As a result they have read their Bibles through several times and have a very good grasp of its history. Do not underestimate young childrens' ability to do this. A young child properly taught to read can read the KJV. It has been proved many times. No, reading the Bible will not save them, but God's Word is imprinted in their minds. Try not to use entertainment to teach children what it says in God's Word, or they will 'grow out of it'. Try to avoid Sunday Schools and youth groups. These may be fine for the children of the unconverted, but are not suited to the children of Christians. Help your children to see the study of God's Word as serious, urgent and relevant. The best way to do this is to have this attitude yourself. Let them see you reading your Bible. Let them hear you talking about it together. Yes, the day to day application of Scripture is vital too, but they also need to know how all the books of the Bible fit together, Genesis to Revelation and all the bits in between. They need to see the relevance of it to TODAY. Let your family become its own little 'Bible School'.
Apart from reading the Bible, we started with Little Arthur's History of England which is suitable for very young children (KS1). Once they were ten, we moved onto Christina Eastwood's The Story of God's Dealings with Our Nation, sold by Icthus Resources (Both of these books are included in the Mothers' Companion curriculum, along with a treasure trove of other delights, for just £20 on a flashdrive - ready to print out). As our children got older and had also read things like Our Island Story, they learnt most of their history by reading as accurate as possible historical fiction titles, such as GA Henty, or Ballantyne as well as through conversation (as above). Rather than giving them lots of dates to learn they absorbed the details while enjoying a story. It's amazing how good their history is as a result - far better than mine! They have taken ownership of their learning and the knowledge has stuck, rather than having it imposed upon them.
A time line
A time line on the wall (or make your own!) has been a useful resource as has been good an atlas, as of course history does not exist in isolation - it is very much linked to geography. By teaching in this way we do not compartmentalise subjects, but they are rather seen as they relate to the whole.
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See our History Resources page for a list of helpful resources, compiled by a number of Christian, home-educating families.
Music can be a contentious subject for Christians. Here I will suffice to say that if you currently think pop-music is neutral - either good nor bad, or that it is OK, please read this article or this article. There are many good books on the subject too. Sadly, pop-music pervades our churches - beautiful music with good harmony is seen as 'old-fashioned' and unattractive to the world - it doesn't draw the crowds to our 'worship' service.
All music carries a message. Our boy's elderly Christian music teacher used to say, 'You can't put bad (i.e. pop) music and good (i.e. Christian) words together. The message of the music always wins.' In a nutshell the message of pop/rock-music is sex, drugs and rebellion (do a quick Google search and you will soon see the roots of 'pop-music). Bear that in mind next time you hear some, and ask yourself if it fits with the Gospel and our Lord's exhortment to be seperate from the world - regardless of how many Christian bands you enjoy listening to. Pop music - be it so called Christian with Christian lyrics, or worldly will have their own culture: their own way of dressing and living. We must evaluate our behaviour in all things, including the music we listen to, against the God of the Bible and not follow a god of our own imagination. This is something that as Christians we often do not realise we are doing - but we are just as capable of doing such a thing as a non-Christian when we put our Bibles to one side and do not read what is written in them, but rather follow the crowd. Guard your children's hearts. This is one area that many Christian parents are being decieved about.
Teaching music to ages: 0-5 Making/hearing sounds!
Drums/banging: Babies especially love hitting things. Make use of this. If you have toy drums, then encourage them to hit them in a controlled way, but if you haven't then many things make a lovely sound - empty cake tins hit with a spoon, empty cartons - e.g. cocoa cartons, with card and a tin bottom; turn them upside down and tap them. Try different spoons: wooden/metal/large/small. Hit one carton after another - make music! With older children compare the sounds - higher and lower. Put them in order. Of course, here we are into simple science too. No subject is discrete and young children do not need subjects split up.... everything fits together as a whole. Four/five year olds can try gently tapping glass jars/glasses filled with different amounts of water (under supervision of course!). Can they hear the difference? Can they order them low to high?
Shakers: Find a small, strong cardboard box. Put a small object (like a small rubber ball, clip, milk bottle top) inside it and seal it well. Other boxes can have other items (e.g. lentils/seeds/beans to give a contrast of sound). Now shake them. Shake them as you sing nursery rhymes, shake them as you listen to music. Do not leave young children unattended with such 'instruments'; always take them away when the session has finished.
Four/five year olds can make their own shakers. Disposable plastic cups, filled and taped together are good, or boxes as before. They can be decorated too!
Other sounds:
If you can cut a coconut shell in half, this makes a wonderful 'clip-clop' sound like a horse. Drink the 'water' and use the flesh to cook with.
Keep your 'instruments' in a 'music box' to bring out in a dull moment, or on a rainy day!
There are instruments you can buy, but they are not necessary.
A rain maker is a soothing toy for a baby.
Even the adults liked this one! |
Put kazoos in party bags - young children love them!
(Blow tunes and they make a buzzy trumpet sound). |
Simple Bible choruses can also be introduced.
Listening games;
Place four or five objects that make a sound on the floor in front of you and your child. Ask them to shut their eyes. Pick up an object and make it make its sound. Place it back down. Can your child open his/her eyes and tell you which object you played? (bells, kazoos, tins to hit, boxes to shake)
Teaching music to ages 6-12
If your child wants formal music lessons or not, music education/exposure chouls continue in the home. Here are some excellent, easy to read introductions to the Great Composers. Maybe take one a term and listen to as much music by each composer as you can. Or better still, as you study a period in history, see which composers were alive then. You Tube is often helpful for hearing pieces of music if you don't have any.
If like us you do the Robinson Curriculum, then maybe set apart a short time once a week to listen to music, and use the books as a read aloud, once formal lessons are over for the day.
Above all enjoy your music listening experiences as a family. Singing together is a great activity and can be encouraged from the minute children can speak. Once they can read, hymn singing as part of your family Bible-time helps to familiarise your children with the hymns they will be singing in church as well as introducing them to the great wealth of Christian hymns qavailable to us, which are much richer in doctrine than most of todays 'songs' and which have stood the test of time. Encourage them to sing during the service as well.
www.conquestbooks.co.uk/christian_books.php?menu_page=162
Recommended books for learning to play the Piano
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These Michael Aaron books (below) contain classical pieces or otherwise non-pop pieces. We used them after the third book above.
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These books (below) have been recommended by a home-edding piano teacher:
I'd recommend them for children aged 5-8. Both the piano books and the theory ones are full colour and have lots of stickers for the children to stick in, which younger children seem to really enjoy.
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Recommended theory books for children over the age of 8.
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I consider a systematic phonics programme to be the most effective way of teaching children to spell and read. To find out why, read here.
Phonic readers
I have written these reading books to match my reading and spelling scheme, www.readingmadesimple.weebly.com but they can be used alone with any good phonic scheme.
- I have tried to write little stories that make sense and are about things that young children can relate to, rather than nonsense texts as many early phonic books seem to be.
- The most commonly used sight words, that can't be sounded out are introduced gradually through the scheme. As far as is possible, I have tried to keep other sound-outable common words with their phonic families. For best effect, the readers should be read in order as the phonic sounds and sight words are accumulative from one book to the next.
- Pictures have been kept to the minimum to discourage children from relying on them, rather than looking at the letters in the words.
It is not easy to undertake such a task. I do check the readers often for errors, but if you find I have introduced a sound or word that is not noted and seems out of place, do please feed back to me so that I can correct it. It gets harder as I cover more sounds and words!
Sound it out Phonics for FREE phonic Resources to supplement all phonic schemes - FREE phonic games and worksheets and how to use them effectively.
- Make sure that your child has the necessary phonic skills to read all the words in each little book. The phonic sound and sight word/s introduced are stated at the front of each book.
- Teach any sight words first with flashcards.
- They are all 8 pages long unless otherwise stated and print on two pieces of A4 paper, double sided, into a little booklet.
- Save the pdf. to your computer before trying to print. They will then print on two sheets of A4 paper, set to print on both sides and set to 'booklet
- flip on short edge' (depending on your printer).
- They may not print correctly if you try to print straight from the download screen.
The problem
We live in a world that seeks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week entertainment and it is so easy to get sucked in. When I was a child (we didn't have a T.V. even back then) entertainment was limited to what was on the screen at that time. No pre-recording, or satellite repeats etc... We are all aware of the enormous escalation of the use of technology in all aspects of our lives while we have grown up and now our children are surrounded by it constantly: you can't even buy a pair of children's shoes without the child being presented with a screen with dumbed down pictures on it - so much is thought of children's intelligence! The newspapers (when I read one) seem always to have an article bemoaning the amount of time our children spend glued to screens when there is so much more to learn. Headteachers are sounding warning bells, warning of epidemic mental problems in the young if something is not done about it. In fact, mental problems are already very prevalent so much so that in fact that the mental health service cannot cope, neither can charities such as Childline. Stories are heard of children sitting up into the small hours addicted to social media and how others perceive them, itching for another 'like' and some popularity, along with the scathing comments they have to bear from those who don't like them, in language that you or I would find horrifying. Bottom line: social media is addictive. This fact alone must sound warning bells in our ears. You can find many articles sounding the negatives of the over-use of technology on young people's studies and relationships.
What has gone wrong? The big question facing parents today is can we limit it? Is it fair to maybe put our children at a disadvantage if they do not have access to these things? Won't our children rebel if we deny them the such like?
'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.' 1 John 2:15-17
The answer
As Christians the Bible tells us that slavery to anything that detracts us from Christ is to be avoided at all costs.
'Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.'
1 corinthians 7:23
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
Romans 6:16
So how do we avoid these traps? We examine our usage of technology in the home, the models we are presenting to our children and we do so in the knowledge that bad habits formed are not easily broken. If we want to children to read good books, then we must keep them away from relying on the screen where fast paced action can be enjoyed with no effort. It is generally thought in education now, that as technology makes information so easily acceesible, that we don't need to teach knoweldge, only how to access information. This is erroneous as learning knowledge opens the mind: grappling with maths teaches logic; learning to write teaches us to think about what we want to say and how best to express it. In other words, by grappling with knowledge, we learn to think. By purely learning how to pump a question into a computer, we are not thinking. More dangerous is that we do not learn to think about the answer we get. Is it logical? Is it true? So if we encourage our children to think that technology has all the answers, they will be at the mercy of the world and all it's deceipt.
We need to seriously consider which items of technology we really need and and which are superflous.
There are always going to be some children who rebel - whatever you do and however many good reasons you give for what you do. Let us not use this as an excuse to succumb to the snares of technology. Our children will be more harmed by a needless slavery to it, than they will if we limit its use, with good biblical explanations: and then model that to our children. We can survive without spending hours on social media/constantly surfing the web/ needing 24 hours a day enterntainment. Steer towards putting technology to good use.
How does this work in practice?
Each family will need to prayerfully consider this for themselves. In our home, the main computer is essential whereas i-pads/tablets/ and the like are not necessary. We do not have game-boys, X-boxes or even a television. Our children do not have mobiles that access the internet (and they are late teens who have only recently been allowed to use a standard mobile phone when away from home!) We do not use social media. We have explained why to our children and they understand and accept. They understand that when they are 18, they will be able to choose for themselves. We discuss these things and endeavour to help them to think them through for themselves. We have to share the main computer which limits the time we spend on it. We keep it in the living room, in full view of everyone, which keeps us accountable. We occasionally watch DVD's on the computer. These are a planned events and we all sit together to watch and discuss either during or afterwards. We do not use technology in the bedroom - my husband and I turned our mobiles off and leave them downstairs at night time. These are choices that we have deliberately made and can explain the reasons why to our children. It's not because we are 'old-fashioned' or 'out-of-touch' but rather because we care for our own souls and those of our family members. The rest of the time our children have played (with well chosen toys not linked to films), read, played instruments, dug, planted, built, played sports in the garden/park, entertained friends who visit/or we visit friends together and much more. In a nut shell, they develop skills for life. They THINK and RELATE!
A proper use of technology
In our family, the computer is not for playing on. Instead we foster a work ethos through the constructive use of technology. My husband and I work on the computer, be it family/church/other. Even this needs monitoring in case it takes us over. We have only really let our boys use the computer as their reading and writing skills have allowed. We do little school work on the computer, only research for essays, for which we really prefer books. We discourage the use of Wikipedia for serious study due to it's short-comings, i.e. anyone can change it and so the material on it may not be reliable, although it can be helpful while brainstorming a topic. Once they have written an essay, they are allowed to use the computer to present it well, only after they have edited it and hand-written it well.
Now they are older they keep accounts on spreadsheets, use a publishing programme, write using Word, etc..
Nature Observations and Main Line are the fruits of our boy's 'play-time'. As you can see, magazine writing is far from play! Although not part of their school work, the educational benefits are never ending. From writing, to publishing, to reading and editing, expressing themselves through language, the use of technology, learning accounting, working with others, organising, meeting deadlines - all flowing out of their love and passion for their interests, which after school they have plenty of time to indulge in. We put our humble attempts here to inspire others to greater things! If you are interested in receieving either of these magazines then please enquire.
Just a word:
There is another aspect to technology that is becoming a worrying trend even amongst Christians. It's as if technology waves aside all social conventions. It's seems now to be ok to be rude on social media, or to ignore an e-mail for example, if we don't fancy replying. It's so easy to press a button and talk (or not talk as the case may be) remotely to someone that we forget politeness.
This is not for the Christian. Let us be careful that we do not emulate the world.
And mums - a word just to you (and to myself)...please, don't live with a phone in your pocket - turn the sound off so that you are not tempted to keep looking at it. Children get sooo fed up with mums' whose minds are more on their mobiles than they are on them. Check them once a day (or twice if you have to) and the give your children the concentration they deserve. They are only little once! Social media/mobiles are a time stealer. Once again, let's not be like the world.
'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.'
1 John 2 15-17
For further reading...
History:
If you are aged 50 and below (most of us!) and attended a state primary school, it is possible that your own reading and writing skills are not brilliant - like mine. You would have been taught mainly by a 'look and say' method if you are aged 30 -50. This method helps readers to make a great start, but they 'top out' at a certain level and then think that if they can't read something, it's because they are just not good at reading, rather than blaming the method they were taught by. Below 30, you are lucky if you were taught to read at school at all, as a popular method at that time was called the 'emergent' method, which basically meant to read books to the child and wait for the reading to 'emerge'. Sadly for many children it didn't and many (often middle class) parents started worrying that their child was dyslexic and rushed them to be assessed, only to find there was no problem - the child just hadn't been taught. Some of this generation just think that maybe they weren't clever enough to read. How sad! Most of us don't remember how we were taught that long ago, we are just painfully aware that our own literacy skills are lacking and may just think 'I'm not good at it!'.
The end result, is that often (and I speak from my own experience here - there are exceptions I know), as adults we shy away from more demanding books. I will sometimes pick up a classic puritan book only to be put off by the language. It demands too much concentration to understand it. I bemoan this! I wish it wasn't true. The language in older books is far advanced than the language in a modern book, and somehow that language adds to the depth of meaning. Modern books tend to be by default rather shallow (especially Christian ones), and sadly we can get used to a diet of shallow reading, as can our children. Our Bible reading can become shallow too, if due to our poor reading skills, we go for an easier translation without 'thee's and 'thou's. The Authorised Version is the most accurate Greek to English translation availlable in the English language. In many cases, the newer translations actually give a completely different message to the original Greek in their attempts to make it simpler to understand - they pervert God's Word. This includes the NIV. And yet we think our modern books supercede those of the past! My advice is, only use a modern translation if you know enough Hebrew and Greek to be able to look up the original text and so check the versions accuracy. So much is at stake here: the future of Christianity in this country, the integrity of God's Word and not least our own understanding of God's Word which in turn will impact how we apply it to our lives, which will impact our spiritual health. Added to which, if we cannot correctly interpret God's Word, how can we use to it to evaluate and learn about other subjects, let alone teach our children to do the same?
What can be done?
You have a wonderful opportunity to make sure your child reads to the best of his/her ability.
- Teach your child to read using a synthetic, systmatic phonic programme. This is very important, to get the foundation right. Method matters.
- Supply your child with the best quality literature (both fiction and non-fiction) appropriate to your child's age/reading ability. As a general rule avoid books written after 1950 - they are too dumbed down and politically correct. They do not teach children to think and do not encourage them to rise above a very low level.
- Read to them from such books well into their teens. Delight in these texts together.
- Avoid entertainment both inside and outisde of the home. Fast moving pictures flickering accross screens makes learning seem effortless: it isnt, it's hard work. Teach your child to be able to concentrate by presenting them with books. There is place for a little light relief with audio books (especially on long journeys) though the best audio book is you reading it to them! Films of books often spoil them as they present you with a ready made picture which is always far removed from the one you had in your mind and often more violent/sinister (especially more modern versions), whereas when you read you can imagine your own scenes.
- Avoid gimmicky toys - toys linked to films/series especially violent ones (watch out for boy's toys especially)
- Avoid the use of the computer. Once the children were older and wanted to write up pieces of writing, we taught them to use the word processor and since then other 'work' related programmes, like spreadsheets and publishing programmes. We rarely used the computer for school work, especially not research as internet information is very often unreliable - you need to be an expert in a subject to know if it is reliable or not.
- Let your children have access to their own plentiful supply of books - have a family library - invest in good shelves, you will need them! Be a book reading family, rather than a telly watching/screen watching family.
- Once children are teens, pure fiction should be gradually replaced by Christian biographies or historical fiction as many adult fiction titles encourage lust and other unhelpful attitudes. They can become addictive: in adition, many (like Jane Austen) give a biased picture of the era in which they were written, often portraying Christians in an unhelpful light.
I have sought the views of several Christian home-educating families and combine them in this post. I hope you find it helpful.
It's a question we would have been well to have considered before setting out on the road of bravely educating our children ourselves (or even having children), but usually such questions get lost amongst the other things that occupy our thoughts at that time... curriculums, explaining to others what we are doing and trying to justify our actions along with just coping with having young children around. That was certainly our case!
Many parents will be happy if their offspring produce them a nice set of good exam results and may-be that could be used to measure the success of a child's education. There are obvious flaws in this of course. Not all will produce good results. Does that mean the child is a failure? Many will try and tell us of course 'No it doesn't,' and they are right, but for the child whose education has been heading up to these exams all along, reality may be otherwise and I think the number of calls to 'Childline' and the like, when results come out gives testimony to this.
There is another question which is 'Do these results actually reflect a 'good' education'? The answer to this will depend upon your confidence in the body that set the knowledge to be learnt to pass the exam. Few consider this question, but Christian parents would do well to think about it.
However I presume that as home-educators and Christian ones at that, we have not just thought of education in mere academic terms. I think to be fair most of us do want our children to succeed as best they can, but we realise that education is more than just pure academic success. There is the mind, the body and the soul to be considered. And yet, when many around us are telling of their child's academic success it is sometimes extremely difficult to persuade ourselves that it is not the only thing that matters, especially when our child may not have gained high grades, or we may even have chosen not to major on exams at all, for whatever reason.
So what should be our end goal?
Obviously, as Christians we desire for our children to learn God's will for their lives and to live in obedience to Him. God's Word will be central to all that we teach and all t hings will be evaluated against god's Word. As parents we need to be 'people of the Book'.
After that, I have no definitive answer, just a few thoughts to help you consider this question for yourself, whatever the age of your children.
I'd like to start by asking you to imagine what sort of a person you would like your son/daughter to be when they become and adult.
I came up with this list - you may think of other things:
Godly men and women. Hard workers. Truthful employees. Loyal to company and friends. Upright in all their dealings. Faithful to their spouses. Men equipped to be Heads of their families and Ladies to be 'helpmeets'. Committed people: committed to their families, to their churches (where applicable) and to their place of employment. Caring, compassionate people. Serving people. Useful members of their communities. Men and Women who can think for themselves and can evaluate all through the lens of God's word. And so on.
So how do we achieve our end goal?
First off, we need to work from the bottom up. We need to make Scripture our bottom line for understanding anything. Scripture needs to underpin the reasons why we do/say anything in our homes - as after all, our school is 24 hours a day, seven days a week and even if you send your children to school, your home sets the tone. I think sometimes we are prone to forget this and think that it is only in our family Bible-times, or school time that we must consider our reasons for doing things, but it applies to the whole way we live life before our children, from the things we enjoy, to our attiutudes and everything in between. Of course this does apply very much to our curriculum too as we must learn, ourselves first in many cases, how every subject must be built upon God's Word. The Bible will lay the foundation for our understanding of everything we teach and want our pupil's to learn. Even maths calls for a clear understanding that 2 + 2 only equals 4 ALWAYS because of the unchanging nature of the God who set out the laws by which the universe is governed. Academic work is not a separate compartment where we can tack Christianity on to a “secular” model – there is no such thing as “secular” in a way the whole of the universe belongs to God and is under his sovereign control. This is not possible for us fallen creatures to do perfectly, of course, we are constantly trying to work from own fallen presuppositions and to tack on the “Christian perspective” – if necessary by adapting it (although we don't notice we are doing this!) to what we think ought to be right. We can still keep checking ourselves though and prayerfully ask to be directed back to seeing the whole world through the lens of Scripture.
Obviously, ultimately we pray that our children will accept the offer of salvation and come to know the Lord Jesus Christ personally. This is not something we can make happen, however we can bring them up in the 'nurture and admonition of the Lord' (Ephesians 6:4) and that must certainly be our main objective.
Along with this will be instruction in righteousness. We can't make our children righteous but we can train them in Christian virtues such as honesty, truthfulness, modesty, humility, perseverance, gentleness, respect for those in authority over them, pure, moral etc.. These are considered old fashioned nowadays but are so desperately lacking in our society. Obviously our children will follow our example and we must be careful to live godly lives before them as well as teach them these truths. These are lifelong things to learn which can't be learnt in a few hours cramming for an exam! All children learn something of them, and their opposites, whether it is directly taught or otherwise, but Christian parents will look to deliberately train their children in these things and look for evidence of them in their children's lives.
We can train our children to work hard and enjoy learning. This is in stark contrast to the education of most, which trains them to a life of entertainment and ease. Unfortunately this has overspilled into our churches where few are now prepared to take on any responsibility, wanting instead plentiful children's entertaining activities and worship that makes them 'feel good'. We will want to potray learning as a life-long adventure, rather than a childish thing that our children will leave behind when they leave school.
We can raise them to be happy in themselves and confident. In contrast to many youngsters these days who judge their value by how many 'likes' they have on social media, our children will judge their worth by healthier standards - preferably God's standards. We do this by grounding them in good biblical teaching so that they understand the way the world works, and how they fit into it, and then by taking a vested interest in them, not just during school time but out of it as well, right into adulthood. See my post on socialising children. Contentment is also a good thing - though this is something we need lots of practice to acquire! Let us seek to model it to our children.
They will understand that rights come with responsibilities. Again this is in contrast to the world where many youngsters think they have rights with no responsibilties. Let us seek to train our children to embrace responsibilites as opportunites to serve, within the family to begin with.
They will have learnt that all behaviour has consequences. How our flesh recoils from having to live with the consequences of our wrong behaviour, and yet how many these days (including sadly ourselves) will try and justify their actions and claim their right to behave in such a way. Let us not be parents who protect our children while young from the due reward of their wrong behaviour and thereby do great damage to the health of their souls.
We will seek to educate our children in running a household, organising, supervising, working with others (teamwork), leading (where applicable), manage a budget, and so on. We will teach daughters to be submissive wives and our lads to be godly husbands - through imitation and teaching.
We will want to guard against anything that might take our children away from the Lord. Sunday sports activities comes to mind, but this could include things like the entertainment provided in the home (including the type of toys)/social media/out-of-home activites etc... Any activity that consumes large amounts of our/our children's time and consumes our passions can easily take the place of God in our lives. We need to watch and be vigilant and be ready to re-address the balance when needed as be sure, these things will come - often! Watch out too, for activities that take your child out of the house, away from your instruction. We will want to be parents who evaluate all things as to their spiritual worth to us as individuals and also to our family, measured by God's Word - not just do them because 'that's what everyone else is doing'. Not even if that's what everyone else in your church is doing!
What will our children not necessarily be?
They may not necessarily be rich or clever. Be careful, as many secretly if not overtly these days want their children to be 'top'. The world's pressure is for our children to 'succeed' and it is so easy to succumb, though it often doesn't really know what it is looking for or why. We need to be different. I was challenged recently by reading the questions: 'Would you be upset if your child became a minister (or minsiter's wife), on a low income? Or even if s/he gave up all to become a missionary?' Good questions to ask as they reveal our heart motives for our children.
Can we do this?
Ok, I have painted a perfect picture! It will not be this easy and the end result will not be perfect. This too, we must grasp, as it is easy to fall prey to thinking that 'our-way' (whether home-educating or sending to school) will produce the perfect result. It won't. There is no such thing and this knowledge will help keep us from judging Christians who do differently to us (which is easy to do in self-defence when we feel pressurised). However, let us get it into our heads and hearts that as Christians we have a different end goal to the world. Let us not be ashamed of our endeavours. We may not be 'successful' whatever that means, however the Lord sees our hearts and knows our intentions. Let them be to do all for His glory.
How do we begin?
Obviously, we start with obedience to God's Word. Then alongside our OBEDIENCE in bringing up our children we need TRUST. We must be careful not to take on ourselves more than the Lord has required.
We must remember that ultimately it is God's work in our children. We do not have responsibility for producing the end product, however we are called to be faithful to our Lord and bring our children up in the 'nurture and admonition of the Lord' (Ephesians 6:4). The end product could be good character or poor. As we look to the Lord in ALL things and faithfully bring up our children according to HIS word then we can have peace even in difficult times - not just when we see these goals becoming a reality, either educational or spiritual. We must aim for obedience, which will of course be imperfect, and learn to trust. Whatever the outcome, or the opinion of others (and they will have one!) we can be joyful in seeing the Lord's plan unfold for our family. Of course, we must always mourn over sin and were a child to rebel we would be pleading the Lord to turn his/her heart to Him in salvation.
When we have prayerfully done our best we must leave it with our gracious heavenly Father. If we have trusted Him, then The Lord will overrule our mistakes and use even them to His praise and glory.
It's a tall order - let us not grow faint-hearted! May we ever encourage each other!
May I reccomend a book to you?
'Not Without Tears' is a biography of Mrs Favell Lee Mortimer, who was home-educated, and later in life became a pioneer of Bible teaching for the very young with publications such as 'Peep of Day' and 'Line Upon Line' which you can find still in print today.
This is an amazing story of her life, sharing how an ordinary mother, possibly with an unconverted husband, sought to home-educate her children. The book highlights the mother's frailties, her (well intentioned) 'mistakes', children who want the pleasures of the world and find life at home restricting, lack of good teaching at church, and through all these things, shows how the Lord so graciously worked in Favell, from a young age, long before she sought the Lord for herself, and prepared her to do a great work for Him.
It gave me great hope and encouragement.
The book has been written by Chris Eastwood, who has home-educated her three grown children and who will be familiar to many as the author of 'God's dealing with our Nation' volumes 1 and 2 and the supplier of the Mothers Companion.
Click on the picture to view.
Just £5 for a fun filled educational Spring! Over 60 pages bursting with nature study and craft ideas that you can do without expensive outings or equipment/materials. Read more information. |
You will need:
1 sheet A4 green paper
1 sheet A4 yellow paper
1 sheet A4 orange paper
Pritt stick (or other glue)
scissors
What to do:
Start by making the leaves. Nothing here needs to be accurate.
Fold the piece of green paper in half.
Keeping it long ways, fold it again, approximately into thirds.
Now either draw leaves on one side, or just cut spikes, coming down at least two thirds of the way, but not to the bottom. Cut the spikes through all three layers at a time.
Now gently fold the bottom of the paper in half again, loosely. You can secure it with a small elastic band to hold it together. This will make the spikes 'flop' like real daffodil leaves.
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Grandmas would love a bunch I'm sure!
Curriculums
One area in which many families struggle is in being tempted to keep changing curriculums. You know how it goes: you buy a curriculum that looks great and to start with all goes well. But a few months down the road, your child starts to complain that they are bored, or they start to struggle and doubts about the curriculum suiting your child come into your mind. This is followed by Googling more curriculums and possibly being tempted to ditch the one you are using for a new one (at great expense) only for the cycle to possibly start all over again a few months later! Okay, maybe not this drastic always, but you know the feeling I am sure; we wouldn't be human if we didn't!
So how do we overcome this problem?
Presuming you have already bought a curriculum...
Number one is not to look to your child and their fickle up and down feelings. Children often 'play the game' and if they can get you to interrupt schooling by doubting the curriculum, rather than them, they will! Most reputable currciulums will work: however the art of home-schooling is to make them work in your family. There is no one-size-fits-all. This does take trial and errror. You have to first sit down and try and work out what the problem is. Here are some possible things to consider:
Too much book work at too young an age, overwhelming the child? Solution, cut down to the basics, reading, writing and arithmetic and do the other subjects in unit blocks only as you have time.
Maths going too fast for your child so they keep getting errors and are getting despondent? Slow down the pace. Go back and re-cover the areas they are struggling with. Don't let a curriculum enforce a time frame as your child is unique and will learn at their own pace.
Always make the curriculum fit the child and not the other way round!
If you have not yet bought a curriculum, then be sure to do yourhomework thoroughly. You are looking for one that will provide an excellent, godly education, within a price bracket you can consistently afford. Aim to choose one to take all your children to at least the end of KS2, if not to 18. It is not good to keep chopping and changing and few can afford to but a lot of books that turn out to be unnecessary. If money is tight, look for one that does not use write-in workbooks as you will have to buy new ones for each child. The Robinson Curriculum truly is brilliant in both academic ways and money wise, and if you can't afford that, read about the principle as it really works and is so freeing of not just money, but time and energy on behalf of the parents too.
Books
Do not feel that you have to buy all your books brand new. Charity shops are fantastic if you have any near you - the secret is to go regularly. Some days you see nothing and others you find treasures. Look through 'for sale' lists on for example the Deut6v7 e-mail list. Many sell unwanted curriculums through these lists too. Do utilise your local library. The books on the shelf may not attract you (especially fiction), but they may be able to get other titles ordered in for you and its free for children.
Paper
Paper is expensive and the home-school will need a plentiful supply. Utilise cheap stationary outlets like 'The Works' and Aldi and Lidl when they are offering such things. Never buy paper from a supermarket as you will pay more for the convenience of buying it alongside your shopping.
Help yourself by saving enevlopes to reuse that come through the door - amazon book envelopes can be reused, as can white envelopes - just stick a label over the printed address. If not, keep them as paper for shopping lists, jottings, drawings etc... The same goes for white paper that comes through only printed on one side. Keep it in a pile for easy access. If you do printer work that goes wrong, keep the 'wrong' ones as you can use the back of the sheet. Keep card from inside shirt packets. Large cereal boxes can be cut up - the large panels of cards are great for models. I'm sure you do many of these things already.
Clothing
Most of our children have far too many clothes. Have you noticed, they have 'favourites' and tend to only wear the same few over and over again? Work out how many they actaully need, and then only replace as they grow out of them and/or the season changes. Once again, charity shops are brilliant, if you keep your eye on them regularly. I am surprised at how often I get brand new items from them, many good quality at a fraction of the price of buying new - even teens trousers. Buy carefully though and don't be afraid to return items if they don't fit. Do the same for yourself and you might find you free up a lot of space in your wardrobe as well as a few pennies!
Extra curricula lessons/activities
These are great, if you can afford them. But your child will not be damaged if you can't! There are many free physical activities to engage in, like cycling, scooting, walking and swimming in the sea. It is cheaper to teach your child to swim yourself than send them to lessons. Besides if you actually watch them in lessons, a lot of time is spent standing on the side awaiting their turn. What is better is to do things together as a family as much as possible, bonding that all too important parent-child relationship, which beleive it or not, even in home-scholing families with mum around all day, can suffer from lack of input. It is too easy to assign 'school' time to the children, and then take our minds off them while we deal with other household matters and be 'too busy' to listen, do things together and build bonds.
Some basic art material will make art and craft easy. Find a big box to store it in and put it in an easily accessible place. A cheap plastic table cloth is better than newspaper to cover the table. Make it as easy to whip it out as you can or you will put it off and art will be a rare experience for your child, which would be a shame. If your kitchen has a carpet, then put a tablecloth under the table as well for the lesson.
Get used to saving yoghurt pots, boxes, toilet/kitchen roll middles, scraps of papper etc... to cut down on price. A junk box in the early years is great for firing imaginations!
Age 3-5:
Children need opportunities to become familiar with the tools - learning to paint with a brush and the co-ordination to dip in paint, paint, then rinse in water; handling pens/pencils/scissors/glue. This takes time to learn and it can be messy! An apron with long sleeves is invaluable - cut up one of dad's old shirts. Then there is the great exploration of colour and colour mixing as they get a little more profficient. The pictures they create will not necessarily be recognisable, but unless it really has been a bad day, celebrate their efforts and pin them up. Most young children go through a stage of painting the whole page one colour. Sometimes I would cut a shape of something that colour out of their picture (or let them tell me what it is). So for example a page of brown - if they couldn't say what it was, I might say 'Shall we make it into a bear?' and with their permission cut out a bear shape from the painting.
Give this age a range of experiences:
Colouring with pencil, pen, crayon, chalks, oil pastels. Tinies will find chubby crayons easiest.
Painting with ready-mix paint with fat and thin brushes. Sometimes its fine to suggest a subject for a pinting/drawing, but at this age they will not usually be short of ideas.
Printing is also good for this age group - potato printing, or cut up an old sponge, or use ends of loo rolls or boxes - be imaginative.
Cutting and sticking with scraps of fabric/paper/card/coloured paper shapes - collage pictures, making greetings cards, mobiles, models etc.... Save oddments as you come across them in a collage box.
3D modelling: junk modelling, play dough (make your own), plasticine.
If you go with the seasons, you will have plenty of stimulus. See our Art 'posts' for some ideas,
At this age children are becoming more in control of their tools and materials. More adventurous projects can be undertaken. The before activities can continue plus:
sketching can be started - those wonderful nature sketch books. A little often is a good policy. Make the most of the seasons.
More precise painting - maybe on a given theme or related to a project. Start to introduce different techniques, like different size brushes for different effects. Mixing colours can come into its own now. Some young children begin to show a real eye for detail - encourage it even if not. Still lifes - a bowl of fruit, or vase of flowers, or something brought in from a walk can act as stimulus.
I would often do the same as the children and work alongside them. It gave them ideas as they saw me paint - a role model to aspire to. Don't worry - you don't have to be a Piccasso. It's actually very relaxing! They will think your work is wonderful. Be sure to tell them it's come with years of practice!
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Ages 8 Plus
If they show artisitc tendencies as they grow older, then good drawing/sketching/painting/othercrafts books can be purchased to guide them. Adult books are fine, but do beware of nudity. For our children as neither showed any great artistic talent, we just went on enjoying painting etc... until it gradually faded out with other interests. They did pass through a phase of painting by numbers as they were bought several such packs. Strangely, my eldest took a liking to drawing map diagrams and the younger to drawing birds. What I like is that neither of them speak as I hear many school children do saying 'Oh, I'm no good at art - I gave it up when it came to GCSE'. What a shame, to be denied the pleasures of engaging in artistic pursuits because you are 'not good enough' to do GCSE art. I hope these children rediscover art as they mature. Meantime, ours continue to enjoy it in their own way.
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'It's still raining', says one.
'Look at the massive puddles!' says another.
Why is it children love water, and MUD?
The thought of taking them out, and having wet coats and muddy boots to cope with on return fills you with dread.... know the scenario?
It can be all too frequent an occurrence for us home-schooling mums. We seem to feel the 'tiredness' of home-educating when the weather is bad and the days are short. Somehow in summer it's a lot easier - as if the sun gives us energy.
I know I used to hive off to an indoor play area once a week... I could sit and have an (indulgent) hot chocolate, while they crawled endlessly. However the pay-off was frequent bad colds and flu! It seemed to be a breeding place for germs and after we stopped going we never had so many colds again.
So today I want to encourage you to look beyond your fatigue. To embrace winter, and the rain and the mud, for actually, it's good for you (the exercise that is!)!
How can I say that?
Well exercise does us all good, as does fresh air. Dare I say it, but you may even feel less tired on return. Now wouldn't that be a reason to go out if no other came to mind. Which of us doesn't wish to have more energy?
Plus the fact that exercise helps us to feel less stressed. Nothing worse than sitting inside stressing and fretting - trying to get the children to be quiet, because you don't want to take them out. Better to be out giving ourselves some benefit too!
Throw in the added benefit of exercise helping to keep colds at bay... now which of us enjoys having a house full of snivelling, coughing people?
Then what about the benefits of everyone sleeping better for having had a 'blow through'?
It can be very educational (see below).
It can banish feelings of isolation.
Last but not least, it burns calories...ok, we'll say no more!
When you start to add it all up, there are lots of reasons to get out.
The only thing I can't guarantee is that the children will be calmer when they return, but they might be! The baby may well have a nap and give you a wee break!
So lets think how we can make this a regular occurrence, with the least hassle.
A little organisation comes into play here.
First make sure every one has the right clothes. I love Muddy Puddles waterproofs and have used them since the boys were toddlers until they grew out of them. They are so well made, truly waterproof and could be handed down. A pair of wellingtons for everyone is good too, plus waterproof gloves if you can ..Lidl have good priced ones, keep your eyes open for them.
Where shall we go?
A hot chocolate on return is a great treat (we only treated ourselves on Friday).
So come on... what's stopping you? Let's get out there!
P.s. Yesterday we got saturated crossing Rye Harbour Nature Reserve on a bird watching expedition with our son. My husband and I wondered if were mad, with the wind and rain lashing in our faces. But it was worth it. We (us parents) saw many different kinds of birds and learnt much from our son and a group of fellow birdwatchers who joined us in the hide and we went home feeling great! The best reward was seeing a Kingfisher, which conveniently flew towards us and perched nearby as we crossed a river. It was my first ever sighting!
Home-educating on a budget is not a separate compartment from how we use money in our families generally. Our spending philosophy underpins every part of our lives. What do I mean?
I meet some families who consider themselves hard up. But when I get to spend time with them, I see practices that could be changed which would free up more money. Often money is almost literally being thrown away through unnecessary purchases. Ok, granted, some of these families are not Christian, but it makes me re-examine my lifestyle, to see that I am not unwittingly doing the same. I find there is always room for improvement.
At the root chore are our characters. Some find it easier to be frugal, others harder. If you don't know which one you are, spend time thinking about it, as it matters. The frugal ones are very careful about everything they spend. Could they get the same quality elsewhere but cheaper? They do price comparisons to get the best deal. They consider carefully whether an item is really needed, or if it is a whim buy, to satisfy a feeling, rather than a real need. They have an ethos of make and do, and recycle, rather than having to have everything brand new and up to date with the latest fashion, be it in furniture or clothing. They do not feel that their children will be deprived if they do not receive expensive presents etc...
As Christians we are not called to be mean with money, but rather to be good stewards of it remembering that it is not ours just to spend as we please. How are we doing? I would suggest we all need to think this through periodically.
So just for this week, have a really hard look at your spending habits. Maybe even write down everything you buy and how much it cost in the week. Then check that everything on the list was really necessary. Then have a little think. How many clothes have you bought (even if from a charity shop) that have hardly ever been worn? How much money do you spend on take-aways, or convenience food, like little boxes of raisins or water? How much electricity is wasted with lights left on all over the house, or chargers not turned off? The list could go on!
Some set a budget for groceries. We don't but I tend to find that my shopping bill tends to be roughly the same each week, with exceptions for when people come to stay, or birthdays etc... We hardly ever eat out. Others on a smaller income may find it necessary to have such a budget restriction. However there is often room for improvement.
Of course, good accounting is essential. You don't need an accounting qualification, but a basic means of checking what is coming in, against what is going out and making sure the books balance. It is so easy to live on credit, but I believe it is not for the Christian to do so. Never spend what you haven't got is a good principal. Live within your means is another. I have heard others say that relying upon hand-outs from the government is not a good idea either, we should strive to be financially self-sufficient.
So, before I look at any other things you can do practically, think over these big things: your character, your lifestyle, your view of money and your general spending tendencies as they currently stand.
Next time we will look at some simple thrifty measures you can take right now in your home to help you spend less on home-education.
Cut them out, preferably from card. There is no need to draw the detail, just the outline.
Draw around the templates on an A3 piece of paper (preferably sugar paper or something firm) . You can choose just some or all the shapes. You can choose how you arrange them - random, or in a pattern.
Having drawn them, with a pencil, lightly draw divisions around the shapes so that each shape is in its own section. These sections do not have to be rigid - let them flow around the shapes, but each should tesselate with the one next to it so there are no blank pieces of paper. See the picture above.
With paint, first colour the shapes, then use a contrasting autumnal colour to block the spaces around them. I chose to use shades of yellow/green, but anything is possible.
Once the paint is dry, use a black felt tip pen to draw around the autumn shapes, and to draw on the details (see the templates).
Hang your pictures on the wall to brighten winter!
Have you seen?
ART
Leaf prints were another of our 'annual' rites of autumn. The boys loved it so much we did it until they quite old. Something about going out to find those lovely autumnal smelling leaves, picking the best specimens from as many different kinds of trees as we could, bringing them home, spreading the table with newspaper and getting out the paint.
The technique is simple. Start by mixing some ready mix paint - red, brown, yellow, orange, in different shades - or if your children are older they can enjoy mixing their own shades. Get some nice thick brushes. Have some paper ready. A3 size is great, and some small pieces of newspaper. Then paint the back of the leaf (the rough side). As you do this, look at the leaves with your children: name the stalk, the veins. Talk about their purpose to carry goodness and nutrients through the plant, like our veins carry blood around our body. Feel the smooth side and turn it over and feel the veins sticking out. It's this side you will apply paint to. Having painted the leaf, place the painted side onto your paper and place a piece of newspaper on top. Press down on the newspaper firmly all over the leaf. Take off the newspaper and then gently and carefully lift of the leaf being careful not to drag it and smudge it. repeat this using different leaves and different colours. display your work.
Collage work - making pictures of trees from different materials is fun too if you can. Collect old bits of paper, fabric, packaging and have some strong PVA glue to use. It's best to stick onto card as it is stiffer.
ENGLISH
Having been out to pick your leaves and waded through piles of crispy, fresh smelling leaves, you have the perfect setting to do some descriptive writing.
Write the word 'Autumn' in the middle of a piece of paper or white board. Then together brainstorm words associated with autumn. Words like: chilly, crunchy leaves, red, brown, orange, piles of leaves, leaves falling off trees, damp, spiders - I sure your children can think of many better than these!
I like to read the children autumn poems and find some words and phrases from the poems to add to our list. This helps extend their vocabulary and gives them a model to aspire to.
I used to love reading my classes this one and we would learn to recite it from memory: Note the metaphor, 'the sunshine spread a carpet'. Can they think of metaphors, similes of their own?
October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
Author: George Cooper
Encourage your child to use these words to write about Autumn. It doesn't have to be a long piece of writing. It might be a poem, though I always find poetry writing doesn't suit all children and If I sense it isn't appropriate I don't push it. I always emphasise quality over quantity. Having written it, then edit with your child and then let them write it our neatly, or even type it our on the computer. Display their writing alongside the leaf prints. It right cheers the home!
READING AND NATURE STUDY
A good trip to the library should furnish you with plenty of material for studying autumn. best of all, aim to turn your house into your own good library, filled with good quality books. There is so much to learn from the biology of trees and plants and what happens to them in autumn - why do trees lose their leaves? Why do the plants die back? Then there are animals: studying squirrels - why do they bury their nuts? and spiders - why are they so obvious in autumn? Can children learn to identify trees by their leaves/fruit? Do they know that not all fruit is edible? What is the purpose of fruit?
From here can spring more writing, and lots of reading - but don't make everything into a 'lesson' - let it just be natural finding out. You don't need to do a worksheet on everything. Just feed in questions and encourage them to find answers by going to look for them, with them.
Useful Resources from this site:
For a general science book that covers weather and seasons I reccomend Apologia:
Nature Explorers
the Christian monthly nature magazine for children aged 4 to 8, all based on a 6 day Creation.
Priced at:
£8 for a PDF version delivered by e-mail
£30 for a high quality print edition delivered to your door.
Please see
www.natureobservations.weebly.com
for further information.
Well let's look deeper into the subject. Let's look at two words: socialisation and socialising? Let's start by defining what we mean.
Dictionary.com defines socialisation as 'a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position.'
Socialising is the action of behaving in a friendly or sociable manner. (Collinsdictionary.com)
So we see that both have to do with being 'sociable', that is, knowing how to behave in the company of others. To do this the child needs to learn the accepted codes of behaviour for the place in which they live. Such codes differ between countries and races. However, the process of 'socialisation' goes a step further and includes the acquiring of a personal identity. According to Wikipeadia, "socialization is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained"
How do we socialise our children? Well, learning to be sociable and socialise certainly does not need lots of children the same age as our own, or we would have put them in school. Learning the norms, values, behaviour and social skills should be learnt first and foremost in the home and with contact with close family. When we meet with other people, our children will put into practice what they have learnt at home. Therefore, although it is not good for us or our children to be isolated we don't necessarily needs lots of other youngsters to help our children socialise. They simply need to be meeting other people, of whatever age. Yes, I agree, it is wonderful if they can have a close friend, but this is not always supplied. When the children are young and time goes more slowly, then look around and see who you can invite to your home. We had several elderly ladies in our chapel at that time and they loved to come round and spend time with the young children. The children benefitted as it was someone else to practice hospitality on, with the added bonus of a listening ear, someone to show their latest achievement to, or their latest creation, someone to spoil with fresh baked cakes. It did us all good.
These were excellent opportunites for us, the parents, to see how the children coped with visitors. We would rehearse before they came how they could behave, things they could say. After the visit we 'debriefed': what could we have done better? How could we have dealt with that awkward situation better? Sometimes we would note that one child needed more work in a particular area, so we would work on it before the next visitor came.
So we would to aim towards our children having many 'social skills' sorted by the time they are early teens, although they will probably still need a little encouragment sometimes! Children/teens do not need a bunch of other youngsters to teach them these things. If anything they are likely to learn unsociable ways if we are not very careful who they spend time with. Youngsters left alone, with no sense of purpose are easy prey to temptations to do wrong. Dare I say that I consider even church youth groups to be a danger.
What do we want for our children? Yes, we would like them to have friends, but they don't need to be constantly socialising and teenagers don't need any more than they did when they were young, and sometimes friends are still not provided. However what is more important is that they do need socialisation. This of course is the big area, where we differ greatly from the world. It is of course one of the main reasons we have not sent them to school. We want to be in control of our children's socialisation. We want to instill in them our values and Christian ways of behaving, but I feel that we are in danger of giving all we have gained so far in our children away, if in the teen years we put emphasis on socialising over and above being socialised.
All children need a sense of identity. They will get it at any cost. Too often we see children abandoning the values they have been taught at home once they get into the wider world, as they seek an identity in it. Somehow I would like to suggest, we need to help them get an identity before they leave us, while we still have the priviledge of guiding them. One word of warning as we start to explore this more: watch out for quiet children who may seem compliant and mature. Very often they get the idea they are not worth anything because they don't have lots of friends. Don't presume they are ok. Children without a sense of identity, who are not comfortable with themselves, who do not have a sense of purpose, often go astray. Some take on/have undesirable habits, others may become very withdrawn, even depressed and anxious - just look around and the number of young folk with mental illness. I believe that many undesirable outcomes come from a lack of identity. Broken homes with no-one to really take an interest in the youngster and guide them - no role models, or parents too busy with their own occupations to notice their teens. And you know, sadly, it can happen in the home-school too. We can let go of the reigns too early, or not understand what we are aiming for and miss the mark. It's never easy rasing children, none of us do it perfectly, but we must continue to study - study what we are doing and study our children to see how well we are doing.
So, a sense of identity is the one thing all children and especially teens do need. This becomes more important at this stage of development. These days, teens are left in education for many years (at least now until 18) creating a sense of protracted childhood, at the time in their lives when they are seeking a greater sense of identity which comes with a sense of purpose. This is very frustrating to the teen and too often, these teens turn to entertainment and aimless socialising to help them through what can become boring, unproductive years - with nothing to do other than study for exams. Teens have great potential! They are entering their most creative years. They feel the urge to be a man/woman, to have a purpose in life. They need something to aspire to. Left to their own devices, teens will find their sense of identity, usually imitating those they spend time with. It is easy for us to think that the thought of going to college or university is enough, as after all, isn't that the way it was for us? However many of us bear the scars of a lack of identity when we were young. So what can we do?
The dangers of socialising
The Maxwell's advice was to make your home the most fun and stimulating place to be. Spend time with your children - right up into adulthood. Make it clear to them that you think that their interests/thoughts etc... are important.
So how can we help our children/young people develop a sense of identity and hence a sense of purpose? Here are some things to consider:
How does your teen spend their free time?
My husband and I were greatly helped by another book by the Maxwells about Preparing Sons to Provide for a Single Income Family. It encouraged us to seek purposeful activities for our sons particularly (but it could easily apply to daughters too if you have them) from an early age. Over and above the normal chores, things like, teaching them to change light bulbs, mending things alongside you as they go wrong (looking it up in a book or on You Tube together if you are not very practical like us!). They encouraged us to think about what our sons could do at each stage, to include them in our tasks, not just leave them to their own entertainment. Of course there was time for that too, but this 'drawing them in' helps them to feel as if they are doing more responsible tasks and 'growing up', as well as preparing them for future life and being able to save money if they can do things themselves rather than pay for help.
Consider your children's interests.
This will take time and effort on your part. It may be a whole lot easier to leave them in their room with a screen, but souls are precious and easily lost. Take care to make the effort to take an interest in your child/young person and what better way then to encourage their interests and feed their passions. Do things with them and if you can't then take as active an interest as you can. I am talking here about serious interests, not just football. There is a place for watching sport together, but your child needs a healthy, educational interest in something. For us it's birds and trains, for others woodwork, art, farming, photography, animals, making things, sewing, musical instruments ... the list goes on. Our teen's magazines have come out of their interests. They started with a simple website each, and it and their ideas grew! They have become mini experts in their subjects. I hear of others converting garages into wood workshops and selling at craft fairs, others writing books and getting them published. With a little bit of help, encouragement and steering it's amazing what they can do. Think big!
As your young person grows and matures, hopefully your years of good training will be bearing fruit and you will be able to train them to take increasing amounts of responsibility. This sense of resposibility gives them a sense of purpose. It is indeed good to see them maturing and thinking issues through for themselves, especially when they take heed of God's Word.
Above all, seek to model a godly life to your children. They will learn much from it. Check your own social habits! Pray about your teens future with them, expecting God to lead and open doors. We have been amazed how many times this has happened, from friendships to opportunities for learning. All have been provided AT THE RIGHT TIME, which no amount of worrying before hand could have influenced!
Our boys both currently volunteer, one for the RSPB and the other for a Heritage Railway. They have a great sense of achievement at doing these 'adult' activities. Some of their new friends are three times their age, but they are happy - they have a sense of importance and identity and they have like-minded folk to chat to about their favourite subjects. Friends don't have to be the same age.
So to close: steer your chidlren away from entertainment and be careful how sh/he spends their free time and who with. Nurture his/her interests, guide them encourage them and above all, guard their hearts and KEEP them, as they are still very impressionable. Make your home as warm, inviting and as stimulating as you can.
In this way, even families with limited possibilities for 'socialising' need not fear failure, and those with only one child or introverted teens (by this I mean those who draw energy from being more alone, as opposed to extroverts who are energised by being with others) can 'socialise' them... i.e. help to give them an identitiy and a sense of purpose.
I hope these thoughts are an encouragement to some.
Find out more about socialisation with
Mended Teacups. |
What many do not realise, is that dyslexia is on a 'spectrum' like autism, and although not known to be directly linked, they share many things in common. It comes in various 'strengths'; some have it very badly, others only very mildly. Those with mild dyslexia might only notice a tendency to get things in a muddle, but it doesn't interfere with every day life in a debilitating way. Others on the other hand are severely hampered by it as it interferes with their ability to read, write and compute as well as their day to day functioning. It can be difficult to identify as children can mask their symptoms: It rarely becomes very obvious until they are older by which time they have learnt some strategies, either helpful or unhelpful, to cope.
See this interesting article here.
Let's look at some of the symptoms of dyslexia. Many people think of it as being primarily a reading and writing problem but it goes much beyond this.
Basically, it is a problem with organising information (processing) - so the dyslexic child will have trouble learning 'orders' of things: days of the week, months of the year, time, times-tables, the alphabet etc.... This may reflect itself in poor personal organisation. In school, they will find it hard to follow the order of the lesson and the effort involved will tire them out quickly. Therefore they will be more inclined to drift and daydream and will be easily distracted. Others may use work avoidance tactics - fussing about equipment rather than getting down to work. Others may become the class 'clown' or draw attention to themselves through bad behaviour.
At home and in class they may have difficulty processing oral/written language including having trouble following instructions.
They may have trouble saying long words, or forget words.
So already we have a long list of things that cause a problem, before we start to think about their written work and reading.
The British Dyslexia Association tell the following areas of weakness that might manifest themselves in a dyslexic child:
Reading.
- makes poor reading progress, especially using look and say methods;
- finds its difficulty to blend letters together;
- has difficulty in establishing syllable division or knowing the beginnings and endings of words;
- pronunciation of words unusual;
- no expression in reading comprehension poor;
- is hesitant and laboured in reading, especially when reading aloud;
- misses out words when reading, or adds extra words;
- fails to recognise familiar words;
- loses the point of a story being read or written;
- has difficulty in picking out the most important points from a passage.
Written Work.
- has a poor standard of written work compared with oral ability
- produces messy work with many crossings out and words tried several times, eg wippe, wype, wiep, wipe;
- is persistently confused by letters which look similar, particularly b/d, p/g, p/q, n/u, m/w;
- has poor handwriting with many ‘reversals’ and badly formed letters;
- spells a word several different ways in one piece of writing;
- makes anagrams of words, eg tired for tried, breaded for bearded;
- produces badly set-out written work, doesn’t stay close to the margin
- has poor pencil grip;
- produces phonetic and bizarre spelling: not age/ability appropriate;
- uses unusual sequencing of letters or words.
What can be done about it?
If it is very severe, you may wish to have your child assessed so that you know the scope of the problem and can maybe get extra help for them should they need it at some stage in the future. This can be expensive, and most will not assess too early as many of the symptoms are things young children have difficulty with anyway - 8+ is usual in the state education system.
But don't despair: If you suspect your child has any difficulty - even if you don't know what it is, it worth looking at the following three areas as soon as possible, to give them the best chance of gaining the necessary skills in life.
Diet:
Some people do see changes with their child by following the GAPS diet, but I would recommend starting as early as you can. Don't think it will automatically make them into a good reader! It doesn't work that way. The diet helps to clear the brain, so that more normal pathways can be established and so that learning becomes easier. Note I said easier, not easy, as no learning is easy. It always requires effort on the part of the learner. As with all children with special needs, an intensive programme of education is beneficial if they are to make good headway in all areas. It requires attention in all areas of life, not just food.
Exercise:
Alongside the change in diet must come exercise - especially exercise that helps to develop co-ordination as it is these exercises that help to establish correct brain pathways which help reading and spelling etc.. as young babies start to move, their movements appear random, but they are building up, step by step. For one reason or another, some children miss out some of these steps - very often those that are later diagnosed as being autistic/dyspraxic/dyslexic. They may not crawl, but bottom shuffle. Crawling is very important for developing eye-hand co-ordination, so by missing it out they do not develop the necessary brain connections needed later on. Do lots of crawling - join a soft play area and go as often as you can. All the crawling though tunnels is fantastic. Get them crawling like a tiger round the house while listening to some music. Riding a bike and swimming, for older children. Spinning, jumping on a trampoline. All of these things help to stimulate the parts of the brain that might not have had proper stimulation either in the womb or during the early years.
As it is summer you can provide extra fun in your own back garden: build an assault course in the garden - be imaginative: hoops to crawl through, tables to crawl under, a cane balanced on two bricks to make a hurdle to jump over. Time them and make it into a fun race.
Routines must be established. Find ways of helping your child to keep track of time - daily schedule charts using pictures for the very young; Talk to them about the routine. Use ordering words: before, after, while, soon, shortly, next, What do we do after breakfast? That's right - we clean our teeth. What do we do after dinner? We clear the table. What must we do before we eat? Wash our hands. Establish a bedtime routine.
These things will help your child enormously. Many children without problems have trouble coping without a routine, let alone those who do struggle. These things will ideally be kept up throughout their childhood.
They will need more intensive teaching.
A good reading/spelling programme is essential. The good news is that with such a programme, problems with reading/writing/spelling may largely be overcome. It needs to be a phonic based programme that is intensive and systematic. It needs to be multi sensory - using the ears, eyes, mouth/tongue and touch/movement and It needs to be started as soon as possible - ideally in nursery school years. I will look at a such a system in a future post.
Teaching any child with special needs is hard work and requires a great deal of patience. Do not just say 'I haven't got what it takes, I'd better put them in school' without a lot of prayerful thought and consideration. There are some good, private dyslexia schools, but generally not mainstream, which is where they are most likely to be placed unless their symptoms are very extreme, or you can afford otherwise. At home you can give them one-to one. You can really get to know them. You will need to learn to study your child. Do not just dismiss all their foibles as being 'naughty' or 'awkward' - however embarrassing they may seem. There is probably a good reason for them. Hunt it out! If you do decide that school is the best option, then work closely with the school for maximum advantage.
Disclaimer: I am a teacher, not a doctor. A member of the medical profession should be consulted about all matters relating to your health. This information is for advice only.
A reading Programme suitable for dyslexics of all ages.
Welcome!
After studying for an Early Years Specialism degree (B.Ed. Hons), and teaching in mainstream education, I home-educated my own children, after my husband and I were persuaded of the need to take responsibility for bringing up our children 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' (Ephesians 6:4)
Our children are now grown and I help home-educating parents teach reading and writing, especially to those with special needs. Please contact me if you think I might be able to help you.
In addition I help my son to write the Nature Observations magazines and helping Chris Eastwood with her FREE Christian Home Education daily lessons.
This costs the purchaser nothing extra.
In this way I can continue to provide free resources.
Thank you for your support.
Here's one I heartlily reccomend for ages 10 +.
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