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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: March 23 2007 at 10:33am | IP Logged
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I'm intrigued with the conversation going on over here and thought we could open a new thread to discuss the breakdown, planning, and how-to of an organic style learning (a more seasonal approach to prevent burnout).
Here are quotes for those who did not see it on the other thread:
Helen wrote:
My newest thought in refining my method is coming from
alicegunther wrote:
| This makes a lot of sense. Charlotte Mason had twelve week terms, but I think six week terms might be energizing and and manageable for homeschoolers, perhaps with a week off here and there in between. |
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A 12 week session based on seasons, might be a more realistic and in sync way of looking at the homeschool year. There’s a time for fireplaces and long evenings or open windows and new growth. ...maybe I need to have some closure at the end of a season – even if we still mean to continue something.
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lapazfarm wrote:
| I have been thinking alot about adapting our homeschool to the seasons as well- "to everything there is a season" and all. I think it is a very organic way of learning and living. |
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Cay Gibson
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msclavel
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| Posted: March 23 2007 at 1:27pm | IP Logged
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I have been following that thread with great interest. I think these past few months we naturally fell into this pattern. I should say, I finally let our family flow with this pattern.
During the cold of Advent, we found ourselves indoors, working on reading books and crafts and baking. We decorated for Christmas. We had fun. Then the busyness of the holidays and family hit and we switched gears and were out and and about. Mid-January found us picking up the pace again, only to slow down and just try to get through February.
I won't say I was burned out, but we definitely had to regroup. It almost felt as if we were storing up the energy to get ready to burst into spring.
And boy have we! We seem to have found new energy this week and we want to be outside, every day! There are interesting birds to observe and all kinds of stuff happening at the pond. There is a wee vegetable garden to plan for and now my oldest wants to build a box for the bluebirds.
When I think about we do get these spurts of 4-6 weeks with great energy. What I finally figured out how to do is to direct these spurts, finding that what we love best is following the lead of the Church, letting the saints and the liturgy be our compass. What I have to work on is sustaining some sense of balance and continue some kind of learning in those 1-2 week lulls as we regroup. I'm far from having all this figured out, which is why these threads are immeasurably helpful.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 23 2007 at 1:36pm | IP Logged
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Ok, I'll go first.  (oops! Now I see I am second!)
I was just thinking about how:
This time of year everyone starts talking about doing flower and gardening projects, nature study, etc...
In winter we all feel guilty for not doing enough nature study, but we are all excited about our new bread recipes...
In the fall we are all gung ho about Latin and math and history...
etc.
Our dear Church understands and embraces the concept of moving with the seasons and gives us a beautiful example in the liturgical year, so there must be something to the idea.
So, I think rather than fight these all-too-human tendencies, we could just go with it.
Here are my very early thoughts on what the seasons of homeschooling could look like:
Autumn: we are full of energy after a summer break. Cooler weather gives us a lift. This is the time to tackle subjects like new math concepts, latin or foreign language, and get in some good nature study before the winter hits. Go camping!
Winter: Hibernation time! Excellent time to schedule those living history read-alouds, bake bread like the pioneers, and write stories. Math and Latin are on maintenence mode. Let nature study go unless there is a lovely crisp day or a fresh snow to inspire you to get out.
Christmas: is a natural break where we can celebrate, decorate and enjoy a break from routine, and do crafts to keep little hands busy while cooped up indoors.
Late winter: Didn't do enough science? Well now is the time for geology-study rocks,the soil, and landforms before the leaves come back and cover it all up. Besides, you need to test the soil in preparation for your garden, right? Time to get out the seed catalogs and start planning!
Spring: Time to get out and get your hands dirty! Plant, build, do! After a winmter of sloth it feels good to get moving! Read nature stories on the porch, feed the birds, start an exercise program, build a trebuchet and knock down a castle!
Late spring/summer: Read good literature with a glass of sweet tea or lemonade, do a pond or stream study-any excuse to get wet and cool down! Visit museums and libraries as well as pools and rec centers. take a trip to somewhere new and journal it!
Are you ready for next year yet?
Anyway, just my early thoughts and ramblings! Please tell me what you think!
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Helen
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| Posted: March 23 2007 at 3:55pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Cay,
I'm so glad you started this thread. I've been wondering how to actually implement the idea of seasonal planning.
I think this is most important with the younger set. It probably isn't a major problem to hand a 12 year old a few books and ask him to divide the books for study over the course of a year.
But with younger children who need a lot of hand holding, to divide up a few books over the course of the year might lead the teacher/mom might to become nothing but a bottle neck.
(Not all children are the same. So this might not be an issue for others.)
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Essy
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I LOVE this! We're just starting out here, but it sounds exactly like the type of thing I had in mind when I was first drawn to homeschooling. I have a sort of a 'homeschooling with grace' approach, in where I try to allow God's grace to lead us in our studies. What better way to do this, then to turn to His Creation for guidance?
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Mary G
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But this is the GREAT benefit to learning in the home -- it's organic becuase that's what happens! I think as we (my house) moves away from focusing only on the "school year" or "school day", we can begin to allow learning all the time or none of the time. For instance, today we spent the day rearranging and reorganizing the living room and books etc. We purged and dusted and cleaned and talked and the kids played outside and we probably didn't do any formal learning, but we sure learned stuff....and we've gone through most of our books so now we (read that, "I"  ) will remember what we have and USE them!
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Becky Parker
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I was thinking about this sort of thing today. All winter long we were into our routine of lunch, play, story time or silent reading (depending on the age of the kids), quiet time. Well, to day it went lunch, play, play, play! I just couldn't bring myself to call them in because we finally had a warm sunny day here in Michigan. BUT, my ds wasn't just playing, he was catching snakes (sorry Molly!). And he wasn't just catching them, he was measuring them and keeping a chart. He was even marking their heads in order to "track" them. He is going to write a summary of his study of these "wonderful creatures" and he was sharing all this really great time with his little siblings. I started to feel guilty about no story time, and then realized that this is nature study, and I didn't even get it started. (Frankly, I sat in my rocker that faces the back porch with my feet up and just enjoyed watching them have such a great time - definitely a spirit lifting moment! Plus I didn't have to get too close to the snakes!)
I'm really going to look at next year, while I'm in the planning mood and "use" the seasons to my benefit a little more than I have in the past. I'll be using the MODG syllabi but I still think it's doable, even if it means my ds takes his history reading outside in the nicer weather. What a much needed boost today has been!
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margot helene
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Becky Parker wrote:
definitely a spirit lifting moment! Plus I didn't have to get too close to the snakes!)
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What a great activity for your son - you couldn't have planned a better one!
Margot
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lapazfarm
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Becky, your son sounds like a born naturalist!
The other benefit to this approach I think would be that we do fewer subjects at a time, thus enabling us to focus more intensely on each one. Sort of the "block scheduling" approach.
When I think about it, for me to split my attention between eight different subjects all year long makes less sense than focusing on 3 or 4 or a time for part of the year each, then moving on to others.
I've already told my ds that when he finishes the revolutionary war period next week, we will be ending our history studies for the year, rather than going ahead with the civil war as planned. We will also put off his Around the World Notebook until next year. This will allow us to spend less time on the computer, and more time on his science and nature studies while the weather is ideal for it.
My daughter's Montessori shelves have sat virtually untouched since the weather turned. Why fight it? I'll set up a sand and water table and a stack of books to read-aloud on the porch. She can come inside for 15 minutes of math and 15 of reading and her CGS lessons. Or maybe we will just count bugs and clouds and write pink words in chalk on the sidewalk.
I appreciate so much having this forum to sort out these ideas and find support and encouragement.
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Kristie 4
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This is such a great topic.
I too am so drawn to the whole concept of 'seasons'- I actually just read a great quote on 'seasons' to my husband at dinner from our prayer book.
Even just thinking about this right now gives me peace.
And hey, we are still at least a foot under in snow (just snowed yesterday, then rained, then snowed again etc.!), so as we embrace spring after a long winter, it would be wonderful to also shift the focus. Mom's ready for this (just brought out the nature notebooks today!)
Kristie
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Helen
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(I'm double posting - but I can delete an entry if you would like.)
Here's a seasonal learning plan.
I think it would be interesting to discuss how the top category of subjects could be taught seasonally: Math, Latin, music practice, copywork, and reading practice.
Seasonal Learning to prevent Homeschool Burnout
Especially for young children
Based on the ideas of Charlotte Mason
Rules
1. No dividing of books or text books over the course of a school year.
2. The goal of this type of Homeschooling is habit formation vs material covered.
3. Daily Latin, Math, music practice, copywork, reading practice, prayers.
10-15 minute maximium
4. No Drill and Kill (thanks Elizabeth)
5. Intersperse lessons with recourse to real life, real books, real people; daily and without pressure.
6. No stray lessons given on interesting topics.
Easier seasonal topics
Science, history, literature, poetry, art music
Charlotte Mason ideas:
• Variety with wide sampling (I think variety needs to be interpreted from the early 1900’s. They just didn’t have the access to the quantity of books that we have today. Interpretation of this rule in order to avoid burnout would include FEW.We have so much at our fingertips:Less is more.)
• Simple materials: a few, excellent books
• Do not arbitrarily include or exclude a subject
• Best book chosen even if read over the course of several years
• One reading for attention
• Oral narrations only. (Written for those children who can easily write on their own.)
Closure to a Season
1. Not the date of Spring or Fall
2. The feeling of change is in the air. (Basically we will know the time of year, but we are not beholden to the time – more or less 12 weeks.)
3. Take a week off during change over to evaluate:
Education is an atmosphere, a discipline and a life:
a. Were habits practiced and formed?
b. How’s the prayer routine?
c. What needs adjustment?
d. Assess new stresses or changes in family life.
e. Did I fall into the homeschool temptation? “Since I homeschool I can do X.Y, Z and ABCDEFGH….” (cut back on unnecessary activities and studies.)
f. Am I tired after this season? Take another week off and have generous contact with real life:Outside activities, field trips, visit with family, vacation, and read one good book, uninterrupted for recharge.
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Helen
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| Posted: March 24 2007 at 8:28am | IP Logged
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I hope to enjoy a little outside time today and I think I'll be away from the computer.
Maybe "seasonal math" can tap into the CM idea of "atmosphere." If one continues with the same book/mterials perhaps by changing the room or time of day the studies take place might help to avoid the yearly rut.
On the other hand, a teacher doesn't want to tamper too much with routines which are set in place and running smoothly.
When I look back on my math year, I realize that I was seasonally teaching math. (I feel much more accomplished now than I did two days ago.  ) We began the "school year" with Right Start Math. We worked through the lesson plans until January - about 14? weeks. Then took a little break and picked up our ABeka work books for about 8-10 weeks. Now, everyone is ready for a change. I don't think this is the prevailing educational thought - especially in Math - to change text books. But, I think this is frequently the de facto case with homeschooling.
Certain materials work better with certain children and even at different times.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 24 2007 at 3:30pm | IP Logged
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Helen wrote:
Rules
6. No stray lessons given on interesting topics.
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I don't get this one. Can you elaborate?
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Tina P.
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Helen wrote:
Rules
1. No dividing of books or text books over the course of a school year. |
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I'm not sure I understand this bit.
Helen wrote:
| 2. The goal of this type of Homeschooling is habit formation vs material covered. |
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I'm just now reassessing when we go to mass during the week and how much stress it places on my husband. My eldest wants to go to mass every day (or as near as possible). How can I deny him that? Yet we have little ones who can get quite chaotic. *I* am of a mind to keep going as often as possible to train them in the habits of behavior at mass. My husband will be bald if he goes with us as much as the kids make him pull his hair out. However, when we go to mass at night, he feels obligated to go with us. We're going to have to go to mass in the morning. It takes time, and not a little pain, to readjust your habits. I can't wait to waken the kids at 6:00, especially the oldest (our night owl)  who so wants to go to daily mass, so that we can have devotional time before we go so that the rest of our day runs smoothly. Waking up and directly starting devotions is a habit we formed years ago and I don't want to stop it.
One of the habits I want my children to form is to set the clothes out for the next day before they go to bed. That will help when it comes to going to mass in the morning.
Helen wrote:
| 5. Intersperse lessons with recourse to real life, real books, real people; daily and without pressure. |
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And exactly how do you force down an unwilling speller's throat that he must, must, MUST practice spelling words every day including Saturday, if only for 10 minutes a day, without pressure? In my experience, particularly with this child, the more frequently he is in contact with the words at hand, the better chance he has to spell well. He wants to succeed without the price of practice.
Helen wrote:
| 6. No stray lessons given on interesting topics. |
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Is this what we call Rabbit Trails? I don't know whether I understand this rule, either.
Helen wrote:
Variety with Wide Sampling ~ Interpretation of this rule in order to avoid burnout would include FEW.We have so much at our fingertips:Less is more.)
• Simple materials: a few, excellent books |
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Guilty as charged. Our home library often exceeds the children's section of libraries we visit.
Here's our latest history scenario. Tell me what you think. We're in early exploration of America (I told you all we started over!  ). I've read aloud Beorn the Proud and am currently reading Rolf and the Viking Bow. I pulled out 4 books from our home library, Prehistoric America, The Vikings, Christopher Columbus (all Landmarks), and He Went With Christopher Columbus. We have tons of books especially on Columbus, but I just chose these three. My kids (12, 11, and mature 9) were supposed to read those in a couple of weeks. I asked them to read 3 of the 4 (choosing one or the other of the Columbus books). They're balking reading the second ones. So ... I'm considering reading the He Went With one to all of them at once on the back porch. That really drags away my time cleaning, mothering, and teaching the littler ones, but it gives the kids more time to dream, imagine, do projects, and be kids. Am I asking them to read too much by giving them two or three weeks to read books and do Viking projects without pushing on in history? Is reading aloud the right thing to do? Or should I separate the Viking time and the Christopher Columbus time? Am I trying to fill a bucket? I could read the Charlotte Mason books thousands of times and not understand habit formation/bucket filling when pertaining to some subjects. What habit do you need to encourage for history? You have to admit, there are certain quantities of knowledge that colleges expect a student to have ... ?
Helen wrote:
a. Were habits practiced and formed?
b. How’s the prayer routine?
c. What needs adjustment?
d. Assess new stresses or changes in family life. |
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I, like many of you, have had a child or an illness every year or two. My youngest is 18 months now (by which time I usually have another in tow). Maybe that's why I'm experiencing this euphoria in homeschooling this year. Never thought that babies might be why I'm so frustrated with teaching (not that this idea will make me stop wanting to *have* those precious babies!). 
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Helen
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| Posted: March 24 2007 at 4:17pm | IP Logged
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Theresa and Tina,
I wasn't sure how to edit down this post from the burnout thread.
So, my whole post is really geared atavoiding burnout through seasonal learning.
I've been reading vol 6 of Charlotte Mason and she says
No stray lessons given on an interesting topic. In the recent book discussion thread, this was discussed. I guess I included it in this post as another way of implementing CM ideas to help homeschool through the long run. Here's the book thread , Lissa explains the idea. (I hope this is the right thread.)
This idea may not be germaine to the seasonal learning idea.
Tina, the dividing the book by the year is another way to avoid burnout in the seasonal plan. Generally, school people look at a text or reading material and say,
This book has 300 pages, I want to cover it in 10 months, I need to cover 30 pages a month. Then make plans around that.
My institutional school education and training, my few years as a high school teacher and my avid list making tendencies are up in a furor over the idea of not dividing a school book. But, I believe this is a concrete way of seasonalizing the school year as opposed to adopting the traditional school year. IN the seasonal plan, I'll choose one book and say, time to read. period. (Different focus?)
Again, these things are only suggested if one needs some adjustment to their school year. It's not for those who fall into the category of:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Thank you for helping me think things through!
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Helen
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Tina P. wrote:
Helen wrote:
| 5. Intersperse lessons with recourse to real life, real books, real people; daily and without pressure. |
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And exactly how do you force down an unwilling speller's throat that he must, must, MUST practice spelling words every day including Saturday, if only for 10 minutes a day, without pressure? In my experience, particularly with this child, the more frequently he is in contact with the words at hand, the better chance he has to spell well. He wants to succeed without the price of practice.
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I'm sorry, "daily" to me means 4 days a week for drill type subjects except for music lesson practice which seems to need 5 - 6 days.
I'm not sure about no pressure. In Vol 6 of CM, she speaks of children having a willing attitude towards the lessons at hand because the lessons are full of living ideas.
Helen wrote:
Variety with Wide Sampling ~ Interpretation of this rule in order to avoid burnout would include FEW.We have so much at our fingertips:Less is more.)
• Simple materials: a few, excellent books |
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Tina P. wrote:
Guilty as charged. Our home library often exceeds the children's section of libraries we visit.
Here's our latest history scenario. Tell me what you think. We're in early exploration of America (I told you all we started over! ). I've read aloud Beorn the Proud and am currently reading Rolf and the Viking Bow. |
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Again from vol 6, CM talks about the children reading one, two, or three thousand pages a year. At first I was astounded at this number. Then I began to mentally calculate how many pages our books on tape, audible books, read alouds, and personal reading. I think we must reach one thousand pages in a matter of a month and certainly in three months.
She talks about an atmosphere in which children are crying over their lessons as an atmosphere with too much oxygen. I understood this to mean, too many ideas.
Many of the ideas I posted here were more of avoiding homeschool burnout and culling from CM to school more in a CM style.
I'm sorry if I was confusing. I wasn't sure which place to post.
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Willa
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Thanks for that nice outline, Helen.
The way you lay things out always sounds so Ignatian to me.
I wanted to mention Leonie's idea, which made its mark on my homeschooling -- she said once that when she had a new idea or came up with a new conviction about how to do homeschooling, rather than switch mid-gear or add things on to an already sagging schedule, she would make a note of it for a "next term" list. Then she could plan for how to fit it in rather than just add on or change things in mid-course. This idea seems to fit in with the idea of seasons and of avoiding burnout and frustration.
Also, I wrote a post for CCM a loonnggg time ago -- I put it on my blog --
here
Part of what I wrote way back then was about seasons so I'm adding in on here:
(5) Thinking in terms of "seasons": we find that fall is a more structured academics season; winter is the time for reading aloud, music, conversation over cocoa, projects, etc; spring is our nature study season, and summer is when we maintain academic skills, go on field trips and rabbit trails into hobbies and learning projects of interest, and experiment with the way we do things in preparation for next year. It's not a radical disconnect, but a transition from one focus to another, and provides variety with consistency.
I also think in terms of seasons in a broader sense -- the early years are the time for quiet, steady but vital development --concrete experience, foundation in literacy and numeracy, and foundation character qualities; the middle years are the time for exercising logic, comparing family views with the world's views, trying a variety of new skills; the older years of childhood (highschool) are a time for
refining skills and worldviews, learning to work in an adult world and deal with more adult temptations and situations while still under a parent's guidance.
Obviously these also are transitions with much overlap, not rigid stages.
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Willa
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Helen
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WJFR wrote:
Thanks for that nice outline, Helen.
The way you lay things out always sounds so Ignatian to me. |
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Thanks Willa, I was a little embarrassed by airing so much of my thought process. But, if it sounds Ignatian, I'm really THRILLED!
wjfr wrote:
Also, I wrote a post for CCM a loonnggg time ago -- I put it on my blog --
here |
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I printed your post. It's perfect for me right now.
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Tina P.
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WJFR wrote:
| -- she said once that when she had a new idea or came up with a new conviction about how to do homeschooling, rather than switch mid-gear or add things on to an already sagging schedule, she would make a note of it for a "next term" list. |
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I guess that because pretty much everything we were doing was stalemating (maybe our whole FAMILY was experiencing burnout of a sort for the past several YEARS and we didn't even know it!)and because the changes we made followed on the heels of Christmas break, I felt that our mid-year shift was justified. Our change *was* radical. But it was at a point in the year when we had stopped typical school and had *Advent* and then *Christmas season* school. The difference was enough that we could implement a whole new year. It's working beyond what I'd imagined. I just have to figure out how to incorporate writing into the whole mix. 
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: March 24 2007 at 10:21pm | IP Logged
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Helen wrote:
WJFR wrote:
Thanks for that nice outline, Helen.
The way you lay things out always sounds so Ignatian to me. |
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Thanks Willa, I was a little embarrassed by airing so much of my thought process. But, if it sounds Ignatian, I'm really THRILLED!
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Guess what I did last night? I took out the Ignatian schedule we follow while on retreat and meditated on it. I wouldn't have thought of sharing that here except when I saw this.
It might sound a little weird but whenever I feel our days are running off-balanced and need some formation, I always ask how do religious orders run their day? and start digging around for various religious schedules. Then I adapt them to our day and our needs. I've looked at the Carmelite schedule, the Benedictine schedule, and others.
Here's the Ignatian Retreat Schedule (pretty much the only religious schedule I'm familiar with in real life):
7:00 AM Rise
7:40 AM Morning prayer
7:45 AM Breakfast
8:40 AM Rosary
9:00 AM Conference (a 30-minute talk and reflection are given at each conference session then we are left to walk, think, write, meditate, pray, read Scripture, etc.)
11:00 AM Conference
12:10 PM Angelus
12:15 PM Dinner, Rest
2:45 PM Rise
3:00 PM Conference
4:15 PM Stations of the Cross
5:15 PM Eucharistic Celebration (followed by Angelus)
6:00 PM Supper
7:30 PM Conference (followed by Night Prayers & Confessions)
Retire at will.
__________________
Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Organic/Seasonal Learning
