A "Thomas Jefferson Education" (sigh). I read the first book. Sounded great. I wanted more. Read the second book "Leadership Principles". Better. Had a bit more direction. Getting the vision. Read the TJed "Home Companion". Ah-ha! This is how to apply it! Re-read "Leadership Principles" (sigh). Ok. I have some work to do.
This is so off the mainstream conveyor belt of education. This paradigm shift from public school mentality to homeschooling has been a journey this last year and a half! It's been tough. It's been great. It's been confusing and frustrating. It's been rewarding and fun. Having a support group has made a HUGE difference in our lives. And now, after 1 1/2 years and counting, I'm more confident. Or am I? I guess I'm still going through this shift.
So, now that I'm a little more homeschool educated for our family lifestyle, I've been revisiting these books. I read them a year ago, but it didn't fly as I had no clue what I was doing. I'd wished there was a handbook for homeschooling, but there's not, because guess what? There's as many ways to homeschool as there are families. So...how to homeschool my family. I'll say "family" because I'm getting a fun education. (For example, we studied the North/South poles and animals that live there, and today at the dentist office I watched Planet Earth dealing with the North/South poles! It was fun for me to see the animals interacting).
So, TJed. I found a great homeschool group in Missouri called Family Mentors Leadership Education (FMLE) http://www.familymentors.blogspot.com/ In talking to one of the initiators of the group, she really opened my eyes to the leadership aspect of this. I also read some essays and ebooks I got from http://www.headgates.org/ in implementing the TJed ideas. I really like this concept.
I've been taking my children to a history/leadership club bi-weekly, child led. They love it! It's been good for our family.
We've also been doing co-op in our local homeschool group, and the kids love that.
When I mentioned to my friend about a TJed coop, she reminded me that they felt that coop is still on the conveyor belt of public school, and they were more on the child led leadership path. Things that make me go, hmmm.
Interesting.
I'm still digesting my new information and trying to see how to incorporate it into our lives, and re-reading the TJed books as guides.
One thing, for sure I'm doing, is re-organizing my home. I thought I had things well, but I'm feeling more the need to separate the family room from the entertainment room and setting up a comfy, family room conducive to learning and having structured time for school, but not structured content that I want my kids to learn. This would encourage reading many books, as well as anything else the children would want to do for school, whether it's building a train track, painting a picture, doing worksheets or having some one on one mommy time. It means restructuring my book cases to be more kid friendly to encourage reading. It also means having an organized art/game closet (boo). This last one is the hardest for me, and hence my stress for the week--knowing I have to organize my art/craft supplies and games.
It's been a crazy week anyway, so a good week to start encouraging child-led learning, which I did today. I gave Rebecca a few hours to read what she wanted and she read science books. Great! And she practiced piano. Another Great! And she's the one who is old enough for me to be really concerned about. Jon and Savannah both read and did piano. Maybe next week when we are more organized and LESS busy we can really start to enjoy this new way of schooling.
The summer is a great time to test it out, before we consider going back to curriculum in the fall. I'm anxious to see how it goes and flows.
This is so off the mainstream conveyor belt of education. This paradigm shift from public school mentality to homeschooling has been a journey this last year and a half! It's been tough. It's been great. It's been confusing and frustrating. It's been rewarding and fun. Having a support group has made a HUGE difference in our lives. And now, after 1 1/2 years and counting, I'm more confident. Or am I? I guess I'm still going through this shift.
So, now that I'm a little more homeschool educated for our family lifestyle, I've been revisiting these books. I read them a year ago, but it didn't fly as I had no clue what I was doing. I'd wished there was a handbook for homeschooling, but there's not, because guess what? There's as many ways to homeschool as there are families. So...how to homeschool my family. I'll say "family" because I'm getting a fun education. (For example, we studied the North/South poles and animals that live there, and today at the dentist office I watched Planet Earth dealing with the North/South poles! It was fun for me to see the animals interacting).
So, TJed. I found a great homeschool group in Missouri called Family Mentors Leadership Education (FMLE) http://www.familymentors.blogspot.com/ In talking to one of the initiators of the group, she really opened my eyes to the leadership aspect of this. I also read some essays and ebooks I got from http://www.headgates.org/ in implementing the TJed ideas. I really like this concept.
I've been taking my children to a history/leadership club bi-weekly, child led. They love it! It's been good for our family.
We've also been doing co-op in our local homeschool group, and the kids love that.
When I mentioned to my friend about a TJed coop, she reminded me that they felt that coop is still on the conveyor belt of public school, and they were more on the child led leadership path. Things that make me go, hmmm.
Interesting.
I'm still digesting my new information and trying to see how to incorporate it into our lives, and re-reading the TJed books as guides.
One thing, for sure I'm doing, is re-organizing my home. I thought I had things well, but I'm feeling more the need to separate the family room from the entertainment room and setting up a comfy, family room conducive to learning and having structured time for school, but not structured content that I want my kids to learn. This would encourage reading many books, as well as anything else the children would want to do for school, whether it's building a train track, painting a picture, doing worksheets or having some one on one mommy time. It means restructuring my book cases to be more kid friendly to encourage reading. It also means having an organized art/game closet (boo). This last one is the hardest for me, and hence my stress for the week--knowing I have to organize my art/craft supplies and games.
It's been a crazy week anyway, so a good week to start encouraging child-led learning, which I did today. I gave Rebecca a few hours to read what she wanted and she read science books. Great! And she practiced piano. Another Great! And she's the one who is old enough for me to be really concerned about. Jon and Savannah both read and did piano. Maybe next week when we are more organized and LESS busy we can really start to enjoy this new way of schooling.
The summer is a great time to test it out, before we consider going back to curriculum in the fall. I'm anxious to see how it goes and flows.
No comments:
Post a Comment