In Our Zeal

"Nowhere with us are two out of twelve, much less sixteen out of twenty-four, school hours devoted to religious instruction   Psalm, hymn, and catechism have departed; the Bible lesson is pared down to a shred; and in our zeal, we do not see that we have deprived the people of the classics, the metaphysics, the ethics--as well as the religion--peculiarly their own.  Instead, we have put into their hands--"Readers"--scraps of science, of history, of geography--saw-dust, that cannot take root downwards and bear fruit upwards in human soil.

Charlotte Mason in Formation of Character, p. 148

Like religion, education is nothing or it is everything. . .

"Like religion, education is nothing or it is everything--a consuming fire in the bones.  How is it that we do not see, through the hurry of eating and drinking, getting and having, that our prime business here is to raise up a generation better than ourselves?"

Charlotte Mason in Formation of Character, p. 145-146

Family Work Article

Recently on the TJed MUSE Yahoo Group, a link was posted to the following article entitled "Family Work" by Kathleen Bahr and Cheri Loveless. It was amazing inspiring to read, and gave me a whole new perspective and excitement for the work in our home that I have previously seen as drudgery. I want to keep it here as notes to refer back to. And hopefully, if I ever have readers, they will read it too.

In addition, I read some sage advice from Andrea Rice of Abigail Adams Academy on the same Yahoo Group today. I needed to hear this, because I have fallen into a huge rut of high expectations, low output, and constant harping, nagging, and yelling to get work done. Not a recipe for happy family work time, eh?

This is what she wrote:

I have found that routines have to be based on what looks good in reality, not what looks good on paper. :) A routine should help you get done what needs to be done, but shouldn't be a slave master. I would keep working and trying different things until I got what worked for my family. But here are a few things that I find make our routine run smoother.

1- make sure I do what I'm supposed to. Setting a good example goes a long way. I used to harp on my kids about keeping their rooms cleaned, wondered why they never did it and how to teach them to do it. Guess what-- I never cleaned my own room. I'm not saying my kids keep their rooms spick'nspan now, but I find that when I consistently set an example, they do much better.

2- nagging doesn't work. Work beside them if they are having a hard time, especially very little ones. Donna Goff has written many very wonderful posts on this topic, also see Headgates for some pointers that may help.

3- be realistic for your family. I used to try to get ALL our work done in the morning, but then it seemed our mornings were eaten up by work. So now we break up the work throughout the day. And with so many little ones, my home is not going to be dirt/dust/clutter free. I'm happy if its functional. I also found if we don't have breakfast until the morning chores, they get done a lot faster.

4- every day is a new day. Yesterday you may have fallen off the wagon, but that doesn't mean today can't be great. Everyday doesn't have to be perfect. In the ingredients, Rachel DeMille says one day in ten is success!

5- do everything with gratitude. My attitude is the key to how our day goes at our house. Being grateful for everything, even the littlest things, even the not so wonderful things, helps me keep it all in perspective.

How Children Fail

I've been reading John Holt's "How Children Fail" and have had a few epiphanies in the course of my reading. The book was recommended by a fellow TJed mom as a good precursor to "How Children Learn," which I'll be studying in my Abigail Adams Academy "Classic Mom's" Class. I know that I'll need to keep a sort of notebook or commonplace book for all my notes and writing, so I figured I would house it in blog form instead of hard copy.

First of all, as I begin the journey of a Thomas Jefferson Education with my children, I find myself gravitating over and over again to the conveyer belt. Today I decided we were going to "do school" as I had seen it done by another TJed mom. Obviously whatever I did I was doing it wrong, because J and A were just about as resistant and contrary as they ever have been. Even a reading lesson J asked for last night ended abruptly as he announced that it was boring and he wanted to stop. I have to keep telling myself that he is still in core phase. I just don't know how to "do" core phase. Yet. I've read all the books but implementation is a stickery place for me.

What I often find happening when I try to implement something new is that I begin to feel a tight, stressed feeling in my gut. I feel angry, impatient, forceful. The day feels like a failure. I know it is--not because my children have failed. I have failed. I have failed to keep myself in a place of faith and calm. The kids can feel that and they resist it. They feel the unspoken requirements pressing in on them and they push back.

I have to develop a strategy for when I do that. I need to just stop and read a book instead for the rest of the time. Reconnect and relax.

Holt notes that fear is one of the greatest impediments to learning. Stress shuts down a child's brain. I see that in J. The moment he feels stress he freaks out, whines, runs away from the situation. Reading in particular stresses him out. I can imagine he'll be a late reader. I just have to have faith that it'll happen on his own time table. Reconnect and Relax. We'll get there.