Failing versus Failure

Yesterday we spent a very enjoyable day at the local Christian Home School Track and Field Meet.  It was beautiful: warm and sunny with a nice breeze all through the day.  The kids had a great time, met new people. 

A few things that really impacted me about the day:

~ It was such a privilege to be associated with such a wonderful group of people.  When one of my daughters was discouraged by her inability to win ribbons like her team mates they didn’t pull out iPods and ignore her, they didn’t sluff her off and play without her, they didn’t smile weakly and move on.  These young girls, who had been total strangers at the beginning of the day, crowded around and one after another chirped up sweet words of affirmation and encouragement.

Parents, if you question the impact that you have on your children, please let me affirm that the way that you speak to your children is truly reflected in the way that they speak to others.  I wish I had known the parents of these young girls today in order to be able to congratulate them on their children’s behaviour and maturity.  They were really an encouragement to the both of us.

~ One of the really neat secondary benefits of going to events like this is that we get a chance to feel “normal” – after all we are surrounded by hundreds of other people who are living a homeschooling life like us and we don’t feel like the odd man out, for once. 

~ What a neat boost to be able to see our kid’s skills shine through.  Though I knew that my girls have an incredible set of gifts and that they are valuable beyond measure, I had never noticed before that they had some of these hidden talents.

~ On the other hand it was very humbling to see one of my very confident young women have her inabilities also highlighted in this environment.  As I saw my dear daughter stumbling through the last two hundred metres of a very difficult 800m race I was reminded of a poem I heard read in a recent sermon which really spoke to the amazing success that I recognize in her choice to finish the race despite the fact that everyone had forgotten that she was even still out there.  As the runners lined up for the next race and all eyes were again on the start line I saw her rally her steam and make a showing at the forgotten finish line. 

She arrived later than all the other participants but she won a most amazing prize that many winners didn’t have the chance to grasp in their hands.  She won perseverance, stick-to-it-iveness.  Though my daughter will likely never be a famous track star, she has brought home from this event a more valuable prize: skill, virtue, a tool that she can reuse in many situations in home and at a job, with friends and with family.  My heart is full of joy with the knowledge that she overcame so much and that she learned such a valuable lesson today as she held her side through the frustration and disappointment and made her way over the line. 

This is the great difference between failing and failure.  My beautiful girl may have failed to earn a top finishing position in the race, infact she failed to win any placement ribbons at all but she did not come anywhere near failure.  Despite the fact that her sisters came home with ribbons and metals she was the most successful of my tracksters as she reached beyond her abilities.  She didn't give up.  She did something that she didn’t think that she could, she finished when she didn’t want to do it, she ran to success even when she wanted to quit. 

I am so thankful for this chance for my family to participate in this memorable life and learning experience.  We are all, already, looking forward to track and field day next year!

Blessings,

Cori

A photo finish

Loving this summery weather...

It's so nice to be able to take down the walls of the school and to learn and to love and to live so much out of doors.  Learning is so much easier when you have materials like this and a classroom full of God's creation.  Hope you are enjoying taking in some of the beautiful scenery today.

Blessings,

Cori.

P.S. - If you are still interested in the Newby Workshop then let me know soon.  The July workshop is almost full though there is still lots of room for August...  Also, there is a possibility of a third workshop being offered in Barrie.  I will keep you in the loop as I find out details.

Mother Culture, June 9th at 7:30pm

This coming Thursday, June 9th, marks the last of the Charlotte Mason Support Group meetings of the school year in my home.  Usually by this point in the year most of us in our house are not thinking towards lessons with vigour and enthusiasm.  Instead our enthusiasm is more focussed on things like how many days until we go camping and so on. 

This time, however, I am very excited about one last gathering of precious ladies here in my living room for some "Mother Culture", a time to encourage and build up and learn from one another.  I can't wait to pick your brains on what "Summer's Cool" means to you.  The agenda for the evening includes time to share what kind of experiences we are all looking forward to this summer and how those camps and crafts and sports and so many other things are an extension of the learning time that is more formal in the other seasons.

If you live in the area (of Bradford, Ontario), please feel free to join us even if you haven't had opportunity to do the assigned readings.  The gathering place is my living room. (Email me for my address or directions.)  We meet from 7:30 to 9:30.

The readings for this week are: from A Charlotte Mason Companion: chapters 38 (Picnics Any Time), 39 (Summery Senses), 45 (A New Grading Method), and 46 (Mother Culture), as well as from A Philosophy of Education chapter 9 (The Way of Reason) and pages 224-230, 233-234 (Geography, Physical Development and Handicrafts).

I look forward to meeting with some of you soon.

Cori

P.S. Don't forget to share the information about the "Newby Workshops" with your friends and family.  They are already starting to fill up as my living room isn't that large so email me soon so that you won't be disappointed.

Summer’s Cool

Another repost for those of you who have been asking what summer learning looks like at our home...

Summer school can mean many different things in many different homes.  For most homeschooling moms summer school means taking time during the summer months to prepare for next year’s lessons.  For many kids summer school conjures up ideas of tedious lessons in stuffy classrooms.

I realized recently that I usually promise my kids lessons through the summer to which they groan and beg for a break.  Then we proceed with what I think is a very educational summer and they smile slyly at me on Labour Day weekend and think about how I forgot all the summer school.

Yes, I do spend time planning for the coming year.  I must confess too that I always struggle with being realistic with my planning – balancing the amount of time that we have with all of the fun and educational things that I hope to do.  But summer is also our leveling ground: the time when we can “catch up” on some of those fun things that we didn’t set aside the time for during the year.

If you have spent any time in my living room you probably know that we enjoy Charlotte Mason’s approach to education and while I am not on a crusade to convert you to our way of schooling, summer is a good time to dabble in the “gentle art of learning”.

If we can realized that education is more than the simple acquisition of knowledge and memorization of facts then we will all agree that there is much to be learned in the times when a textbook is not present.  We have learned so much by taking the time to help a younger sibling, working together in the garden, or making a collection of amazing shells during a beach day.  If we appreciate that our children need to learn to live virtuously just as much as (or more than) they need to learn to read and write then the summer is a wonderful time to do some schooling without needing to worry about lesson plans and schedules.  If we can take the time to inspire a learner to love their own little patch of garden then later in the fall when they open their textbooks again and start to learn about the life cycle of a plant they will have a friend in the garden that will make the learning so much more exciting for them.

So while the Dean family will soon stop spending a couple of hours every morning at the dining room table doing math drills and copying out Greek words, we will still be hard at work all summer long (just don’t tell the kids!)

Enjoy your summer!

Newby Workshops

Dear Friends,


Just a quick post to let you know that I have <finally> set a couple of dates for this year's Newby Workshops!  They will be held on Thursday, July 21st and Tuesday, August 9th from 7:30 to 9:30 pm in my home in Bradford.

If you are new to the homeschool world or are considering this crazy lifestyle, please feel welcome to visit in my home on one of these dates!  This is a workshop that I have presented at homeschooling conferences but that I love to be able to share in my home even more as we will have a limited size (only 15 spaces available - sign up soon!) and will have two hours rather than one.  There will be a big pot of tea and my daughters are likely to come up with some yummy treats to share. 

Though we will try to look over some of the most common questions and concerns that new homeschoolers have in a sturctured way, there will be lots of time to discuss those questions that are foremost on your mind about this way of educating.  My plan is more for an open forum than for a lecture. 

Some of the things that we will discuss:

Yikes!  Can I do this?!?
Where can I go for support?
What are the legal implications?
Do I have to contact my local school board?
What about curriculum?
What is a "normal" homeschooling day like?
What about socialization!?!

Expect some yummy hand outs too!    

Please share this invitation with friends and family who are new to homeschooling or who are considering it.  You are also welcome to forward this information to your church group or homeschool group.  I look forward to meeting many of you in my living room this summer!

Blessings,

Cori

What is Normal?

Dear Friends,

Often times I have friends (old and new) come to me with questions about homeschooling.  Some of you are new to homeschooling, so are thinking about it (or thinking how strange it is), some have been schooling at home for a while but want insight on how others are doing.  From time to time I will post my answers to these common and (and sometimes uncommon) questions that I have grappled with.

My answers are not the end all and be all.  I hope to dabble them with the truth but the only truth that I can guarantee is from the scripture itself.  Everything else is just my musings on what happens in our cozy little spot Under the Maple Tree.

Recently a friend wrote, “Hey Cori, would you be able to give me a run down of your average day.  I am interested in the practical aspects of how Charlotte Mason’s philosophy gets put into practice?” 

Ha ha ha!  What is a "normal" day!?!  I have been asking myself that a lot lately in light of our crazy renovations!

I hesitate to share our current schedule - as it is so different now that I am eight years into this career and am schooling three girls in three different grades and tending to a demanding toddler - but present day is what you will get.  It is a very different day than when we first started to homeschool and there was just one very young student and a toddler. 

Also I can tell you what I plan for most days to look like but there really doesn’t seem to be a “normal” day for us.  There is always a hitch, a headache, spilled milk, an attitude that needs to be addressed, an unexpected visitor.  Lately it has been renovations that have thrown us off.  And really, if I am rightly looking at education the day does need to bend around these things.  It is just as important that I teach my kids to clean up their messes, to love their sisters, to overcome attitudes, to work hard despite the excuses.

Our “average” day then might have many of these elements:

7:00-7:30 Get up (I don’t let the kids get up before 7 as they disrupt other tired people; They do need to be up by 7:30 as there is much to do in the day and there isn’t time for dawdling – though sometimes lately I am known to be the dawdler) 

7:30-8:00 Personal chores.  (make bed, tidy room, get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth) See Working Together.

8:00-8:30 Breakfast

*8:30-9:30 Corporate chores (things like watering the plants, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, etc.) Also see Working Together.

*9:30-12:00 Table time (our table time includes things like language arts, math, nature notebook, copywork and spelling, etc.)

*12:00-1:00 Couch time (this is our time for Bible reading and other readings like geography, history and science, literature and poetry) Realistically, we get to this component one to three times per week.

  

* I used to be pretty set on this schedule but lately have mixed up these three main elements of our days according to our needs.  i.e. – If we haven’t had couch time for a couple of days then that might come right after breakfast or if we have an appointment early in the day then we might skip to language arts at the table first.

1:00-2:00 Lunch (The girls are starting to take turns at preparing a meal or two on their own – or with my help – each week!)

2:00-3:00 Quiet time (This is non-negotiable.  If I want to give my kids my best everyday I need to get some down time.  Remember most people spend 8-10 hours away from their whole family everyday, an hour of downtime is not a rejection of our kids and their needs.  Besides it helps the kids to be able to learn to quietly entertain themselves, to enjoy quiet reading time, to keep out of trouble without eyes constantly on them.  It also gives them time to pursue some of those passions that life is sometimes too noisy and busy for: painting, crocheting, creating, building)

3:00-6:00 Play time (mostly outdoors), time for mommy to do some work, finish my chores, read, prepare dinner, etc.

6:00-7:00 Dinner and clean up

7:00-8:00 Play, get ready for bed, baths, etc.

8:00 Little girls to bed

8:30 – 9:00 Oldest daughter to bed….

Sleep and then start again.

I hope that gives you a bit of an insight into our “Charlotte Masonish” day.  You will notice that I didn't just stop at the academic learning time as I really do think that times like chores, outdoor play and quiet time are an integral part of our learning time.

Blessings,

Cori

Living an Organic Life

It's been an intense few weeks in the Dean house.  This past week has really been the climax.  This spring has given me the chance to enjoy conferences and sales, time in the garden, visits with friends old and new and lots of busy family moments but this past week we topped it all off with a major home renovation.  As such we have been up early, up late and going full speed the whole time.  As we have been pulling apart and making a mess and then slowly rebuilding, I have been carefully looking over the things that we have been adding to our home, so many items from places scattered over the globe and here they are united in my home to serve as a new kitchen.  I have often wondered who has paid the price for my cheap Ikea kitchen.  Was is workers?  The environment?  I wish we could be more natural in our selections but alas much of life is like this. 

Don't we all want to eat organic everything, be fit, spend lots of time in the sun breathing in fresh air but instead we clutter our days up, overspend on so many things, cut corners and find ourselves often "a day late and a dollar short" often being torn in many different directions, trying to make things work. 

All of this reflection that I have been doing while helping to swing the hammer here and there has been more about life than food.  We, the Dean family, want to live a more organic life.  I'm not talking about buying all natural foods and cotton socks that never saw pesticides but living a life that is more natural.  We want to love to spend time with our kids because that is the way that family should be.  We want to enjoy doing things together: working and playing and everything in between.  We want to live to love and to love to learn and to learn to live.  I don't want to separate my life into compartments: the learning box, the living box, the play box, the hard working box.  I want it all to fall together in one mucky natural mess.

And so when people say, "You did a kitchen renovation with your kids around!"  I can say, "Yes, we even did school for the whole week too."  That's because, though we did do much of the usual reading, writing and 'rithmetic, we also measured and sorted and read instructions and worked together to create and build and accomplish.  We visited benevolent friends who offered us a meal when we were not likely to do well at creating one ourselves.  We learned to be gracious and thankful and to use our manners!  It's been a pretty busy learning, working, playing time and a time that will furnish us with many memories to keep as souvenirs of this excellent family adventure.

Finally this evening I found some space to sit, I found my tea stash, I found my living room which had been buried by the chaos.  I am looking forward to tomorrow's birthday party for the baby of the house.  Though we aren't eating pesticide free broccoli I am enjoying my organic life and hope that you will enjoy some naturally mucky moments too.

Loving the greenery.

Cori