Piney Woods Homeschool

Many years ago dh and I started observing Advent as a season of preparing for Christmas, much as Lent is a season of preparing for Easter. Every day during Advent and the twelve days of Christmas (spanning the period from Christmas to Epiphany), I read from Watch for the Light, a book of readings by various authors. Yesterday’s reading from Brennan Manning was really long, but one passage particularly struck me: The shipwrecked at the stable are captivated by joy and wonder. They have found the treasure in the field of Bethlehem. The pearl of great price is wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Everything else is cheap, fake, painted fragments of glass. The question for all of us is what we will really aim at next Christmas. If all we are going for is a placid decency, routine prayer, well-behaved worship and comfortable compassion, then we have effectively parted company with the shipwrecked and have no fellowship with the pearl-finder. I wonder, i...

Over the last 40 or 50 years, the evangelical Christian community in America has gradually but steadily formed a separate sub-culture with its own institutions, events, services, and entertainment. I call this the Christian ghetto, a world-within-the-world where you can live your life without ever having a meaningful encounter with people outside your self-selected group. For those of us who homeschool or use a private Christian school, this isn’t just possible, it’s quite likely–about the only way to become more isolated among Christians would be to join a commune. What affect has this had on the vibrancy of the church in America and its impact on the larger culture? In his book Grace-Based Parenting , Tim Kimmel writes, "What’s ironic is that the ‘secularization’ of the non-Christian community has risen proportionately with our withdrawal from it. The more options the Christian community created for itself, the more our general cuture moved toward secular thinkin...

This year I wanted to move forward with Spanish more aggressively, and I wanted a program with a strong audio component.  In fact, since I already had a couple of books with which I was very happy, I really wanted a strictly audio program.  The first one we tried was Pimsleur ; after listening to the free sample lesson I bought the eight-lesson mini-package so we could try it out.  My third grader has been using this set for about five weeks now, on her own.  She does ten minutes of a lesson three nights a week, listening to the CD and speaking when prompted.  The lessons move slowly with lots of repetition and using few verb forms.  The speakers pronounce the words clearly and new words are pronounced one syllable at a time, starting from the final syllable and moving backwards through the word.  I would very much like to have access to a transcript of the lessons so that I could know what words and phrases have been covered without liste...

I have never come up with a name for our homeschool because nothing has ever seemed suitable and the need hasn’t really been pressing.  I have never made an effort toward creating a motto or vision statement or anything like that either.  And I’ve never been good at coming up with a "theme scripture".  Last night, though, as I was deciding on verses for my oldest to work on memorizing, I was out at the SimplyCharlotteMason website and saw Ephesians 2:8-10 listed as a verse to go along with the "I am" portion of Charlotte Mason’s school motto:  "I am, I can, I ought, I will."  Part of that passage, verse 10, is a verse that forms the basis for my training of my children and has for a long time.   (I think I actually originally began using that verse with the kids after finding a reference to it in a book called Parenting with Scripture .) "For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared ...

When my dh and I decided to homeschool, back when our oldest was 2-1/2 or 3 years old, our primary motivation was academics.  We decided we could cover more material better at home than the school could.  This conclusion was prompted by my reading the Little House series of books again and noticing how much more Laura knew than I did, even though I had been a top student through 13 years of public school and four years of college plus a couple more years getting a masters degree, and Laura didn’t even go to school regularly. Now that we’ve been formally homeschooling for three years, I have different reasons for homeschooling.  Primarily it’s about ideas.  As Charlotte Mason says, ideas are the mind’s food.  Ideas, not information, are the critical component of any education.  Each book or other resource we select must contain no ideas that are not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.  Each year, as I read the materials my ch...

I just finshed reading Hints on Child Training by Clay Trumbull, the great-grandfather of Elisabeth Elliot.  I wanted to evaluate how closely his recommendations meshed with those of Charlotte Mason.  In many respects, the two authors come from the same perspective.  Both encourage us to respect the personhood of the child, to train rather than break the will, and to value the role of imagination in the child’s life, just to mention a few places where the two are in agreement. However, there are significant areas of disagreement as well.  Trumbull mentions habit formation but never focuses on this key Mason element.  Trumbull also assumes a level of parental control that differs from Mason–he suggests that playmates need to be carefully screened for suitability, where Mason recommends gently training the child to choose suitable playmates for himself so as not to push him toward unsuitable ones merely by forbidding them.  Similarly, Trumbu...

Here are directions to make a tam o’shanter style hat for a baby.  I adapted these from a doll pattern in the Mary Francis Knitting and Crocheting book.  I haven’t proofed this particular form of the instructions, so if you use them and find an error please let me know. Use an F hook and worsted weight yarn. Chain 4. Make a slipstitch into the first chain to form a ring. Make 10 sc in ring. Stitching in the back loop only, make 2 sc in each sc around the ring. (20 sc) Still stitching in the back loop only, make *1 sc in the first sc and 2 sc in the next sc*.  Repeat from * to * around.  (30 sc) Still stitching in the back loop only, make *1 sc in each of the first two sc and 2 sc in the third sc*.   Repeat from * to * around.  (40 sc) Still stitching in the back loop only, make *1 sc in each of the first three sc and 2 sc in the fourth sc*.   Repeat from * to * around.  (50 sc) Still stitching in the back loop only, make...

DD#2 and I have been planning her school year for this coming year, which will begin for her no later than August (just after she turns 6).  Although she would be old enough to officially begin formal school this year, so that we could start AO Year 1 , I think she will benefit from a more gentle and relaxed year of working on skills before starting in on the more difficult work of Year 1. To that end, we’ve planned out a year’s schedule with books that are not on the AO list.  I expect this schedule to be adjusted as we go along and see what works and what doesn’t.  We may end up beginning Year 1 in January, or we may wait until our new school year begins next summer.  Officially she is going to be in first grade this year, but the material we’re using I’m calling Year 0.5. Here is our booklist for this year, keeping in mind that this list reflects where we are and the materials we have around, not necessarily the best list that could possibl...

I have planned to use Ray’s Arithmetic for our math curriculum since I first thought about homeschooling, more than 5 years ago.  Since we started actually using it two years ago, though, I’ve been struggling to figure out how it was intended to be used.  The books don’t have instructions for the teacher, and the teacher guide that comes with the reprints, by Ruth Beechick, did not satisfy me.  I have several posts on this blog where I’ve analyzed Charlotte Mason’s arithmetic recommendations and explained how I’ve adjusted Rays to fit those, but I still didn’t think I was using the material as effectively as I’d like.  (Fortunately, my oldest has natural math ability so she hasn’t been bothered too much by all this.) On the Ray’s Arithmetic Yahoo group I learned some time ago about the Eclectic Manual of Methods , which is a teacher guide for a variety of materials including the McGuffey Readers and Rays Arithmetic.  I found working from a pdf ...

I have planned to use Ray’s Arithmetic for our math curriculum since I first thought about homeschooling, more than 5 years ago.  Since we started actually using it two years ago, though, I’ve been struggling to figure out how it was intended to be used.  The books don’t have instructions for the teacher, and the teacher guide that comes with the reprints, by Ruth Beechick, did not satisfy me.  I have several posts on this blog where I’ve analyzed Charlotte Mason’s arithmetic recommendations and explained how I’ve adjusted Rays to fit those, but I still didn’t think I was using the material as effectively as I’d like.  (Fortunately, my oldest has natural math ability so she hasn’t been bothered too much by all this.) On the Ray’s Arithmetic Yahoo group I learned some time ago about the Eclectic Manual of Methods , which is a teacher guide for a variety of materials including the McGuffey Readers and Rays Arithmetic.  I found working from a pdf co...

Babies are each unique creatures and we can never know all that is going on with them. I’m no baby expert, but I’ve had four and none of mine were the easy, happy, eat-for-ten-minutes-and-sleep-for-three-hours kind of baby. I had one preemie with nursing issues, one high-needs, and two colicky (and the colic lasted for months). Lots of things can go on with a baby unbeknownst to Mom, and the baby cries and Mom doesn’t know why. It is never wrong to comfort a crying baby, but it is also ok to put a crying baby down in a safe place when you need a few minutes to yourself.  Slings are a great way to soothe babies and still permit yourself some freedom. (I particularly like the Maya Wrap , myself.) There are lots of things you just cannot know with a baby. You cannot truly know what the baby is feeling physically or emotionally. If you are nursing, you cannot really know how much the baby is getting to eat with each feeding (unless you are weighing the baby with a goo...

Conservative Christians and homeschoolers who follow politics at all are becoming more and more agitated about various bills under consideration and various policies being implemented at all levels of government here in America, but especially at the federal level.  Scary emails are forwarded letting us know that this or that change marks the end of our freedoms. I refuse to be alarmed by these bills and policies.  They are but symptoms of a larger problem, and that larger problem has been around and growing for a long time, but is still ignored by almost everyone.  Until that problem is addressed, we may alleviate a particular symptom for a time but the cancer still grows below the surface. Somehow, over the last couple of decades, our political class has slowly but surely become completely corrupt.  Votes are for sale, openly and in almost every case.  This applies to both political parties, by the way.  This corruption is the root of the ...

If you are wondering how to respond to panhandlers, check out this article at Dollar Stretcher with suggestions for making "Friendship Bags".  The bags are filled with practical items.  Keep some bags in the car and hand them out when someone asks you for a handout.

This post should not be construed as providing medical advice or any advice whatsoever.  My only intention is to share my own experiences so that others might find some hope in their own situation. I have had two colicky babies and two others with sensitive stomachs that caused severe spitting up.  Different people define colic differently, but more or less it’s a situation where a young baby cries incessantly for several hours a day, day after day after day.  Most babies outgrow colic within the first few months.  In fact, some definitions limit colic to situations where the crying stops after three months. The best help for colic that I found came from another mom, but the best official help I found came from Dr. Sears.  He has lots of great resources on a page called "Coping with Colic."    He calls colic "the hurting baby" so that it is less easy to dismiss. Just because colic generally goes away on its own does not mean it should ...

We are still using Ray’s Arithmetic as our math text, having just finished Term 2 of Ambleside ‘s Year 2 with my newly 8 yodd.  We have completed addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and I am extremely pleased with dd’s understanding of the math processes involved.  She still needs drill to have fluency with the math facts, but we will continue to drill using Peggy Kaye’s Games for Math and our math wrap-ups as well as practicing with real-life situations whenever possible. This year we have added a weekly lesson from Edward Zaccaro’s Primary Grade Challenge Math .  This excellent, living math book introduces concepts like fractions and decimals and percents that we otherwise wouldn’t reach for years, and it also adds an element of intellectual stimulation that arithmetic lacks. One thing I would still like to do is to study the Manual of Methods that went with the original Ray’s Arithmetic (which differs substantially from the Parent-Te...

If you are planning to do a kindergarten year with a five-year-old, I hope you’ll study up first on CM’s recommendations so you can plan a wonderful K year that meets your goals in a CM-friendly way.  I don’t say this because I think there’s some rule that says we all must follow CM’s recommendations but because I have always found her recommendations to be wise and useful, and I am sure that these (related to the years before formal school begins at age 6 or later) are also wise and useful and so are worth keeping in mind. If you want to study up, I’d recommend starting with these two links: A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six–For Five-Year-Olds or Six-Year-Olds? This is my attempt to catalogue what CM says in Volume 1 about children under six.  The first part focuses on the List of Attainments, but read all the way through.  One important part: "Charlotte Mason did not intend for children under the age of six to be free to pl...