Foundational Phases Lecture Notes

Part 1


The phases of learning are not a conveyer belt!
Core Phase: Foundational phase.  Influences everything in the other phases. You never leave it behind.  It will determine whether you have a successful scholar phase.
Love of Learning and Scholar phase depend upon and are always influenced by Core Phase.


Lessons of Core Phase: 
Play - Unscripted, Unstructured
Work - 
Good (Right vs. Wrong) -
Love (Relationships) - Learning how things are connected in the world, and their place in it.


Getting a great education is really about being able choosing the right.


Ghandi's Seven Social Sins

• Wealth without Work
• Pleasure without Conscience
• Science without Humanity
• Knowledge without Character
• Politics without Principle
• Commerce without Morality
• Worship without Sacrifice

Lessons of Love of Learning

• I can learn!

vs. Hate of Learning

• I have to be forced to learn
• Learning is stressful
• Learning is so complicated that I can only learn with trained professionals walking me through it.
• I don't know anything unless someone certifies that I do.
• I'm probably wrong about the stuff I think I know.
• I have to master this now or I'll be behind for the rest of my life.
• Things I'm interested in are not important
• Learning is one thing.  What I feel and experience is another.
• When I am a mom/dad I will worry/beat myself up about what I am not doing and wonder if I should be doing what I'm doing.
• When I am a mom/dad I will say I know something is the right thing and then constantly second guess my decisions.

Hate of Learning 2.0

• I'm really great because I know how to read (do math, get good grades, etc.)
• _____ is dumb because he can't read.
• I'm cooler than ______ because I'm reading before him.
• We work hard on reading because mom/dad want to prove they are good parents.
• The most important thing I learn right now is skills.
• The faster I grow up the better.
• Once I am a mom/dad, I won't have to study anymore.
• I really need to fit in
• I really need to stand out.

Lessons of Scholar Phase

• Gaining a sense of mission
• Have a vision of who you want to become
• Develop Scholar Skills
• Develop abilities (character)

Part 2

What phase am I in?

To find out, ask yourself:  What do you do in your freetime?

For Children: 

Core Phase: PlayingLove of Learning: Collecting things, building things, reading, etc.

It's okay to bounce back and forth.  It's not clear cut or a conveyer belt!

For Adults:

Core: 

• Burn candle at both ends
• Spend my free time being distracted (facebook???)
• Life is chaotic, important relationships are strained.

Personal Core - I should be spending time in my core book every day.

Family Core - We should be spending time in our core book together every day.  Is there a lot of fighting/bickering/tension?  Need to take care of that.

Home Core  - Need systems to help the home run efficiently.

Love of Learning

• Have fun with friends
• Go on field trips
• Hobbies, Closet full of unfinished projects
• Try to read a ton of books you checked out from the library on a million topics

It's easy to get addicted to this phase or get stuck here.  Some LoL phase activities are better than others.

Sometimes you just need the freedom to enjoy a good  LoL phase

But you might be distracting yourself from some core issues.

Scholar Phase

• Study
• Apply yourself to careful practice

Part 3

TJed is based on naturally occurring developmental phases.   (Erikson, Piaget, Vygotski, Dewey)

Erikson's Phases of Development

To consider:

• How well did you learn the appropriate lessons of each of Erikson's Phases?
• How will these lessons contribute to a scholar phase?
• Are my children learning these lessons?

Here's a great article that outlines the stages in more detail.

Challenge:

1. Ponder the Core Phase Inventory questions and journal your thoughts to do an inventory of the condition of your core. 
2. What are your core values? Can you summarize what your core book teaches? Let's all give this one a try. Write it down.
3. Make a plan or set a goal to live closer to your core values.
4. Spend time daily in your core book. This is the most important challenge. Everything else is icing on the cake.

Who I Want to Become

When I think of who I aspire to become, I begin by thinking about all the people that I admire and trust.  My mother, my father, My grandparents.  Then I think of all the noble and great men and women from the scriptures and history as well as men and women today who are leading in large and small ways.  I am inspired by their stories and find so much to emulate.

Then I begin to think of all the people for whom I need to be noble, great, and worthy of admiration and trust.  These give purpose and form to my aspirations.

For my children:  I want to become a wise mother who chooses her battles and senses when enough is enough.  Better yet, I want to be the kind of mother who teaches through example and inspiration, rather than compulsion and fear.  I hope that they will never doubt that I love them.  I want them to know I am imperfect because I tell them that I'm sorry when I make a mistake.

For my husband:  I want to be his friend and confidant--a devoted companion and help-meet.  I want him feel my love because I show him love unselfishly--in ways he understands.  I want to be humble and helpful, fun and spontaneous--someone he truly enjoys being with.

For my family:  I want to become a sister and daughter who reaches out to share life.  I want to promote loyalty, unity, and love within my family bonds.  I want to become a historian of our family culture and tradition.  I want to become a strong link in the chain.

For my friends:  I want to be the kind of friend who gives rather than receives.  I want to keep confidences and inspire trust.  I want become a listener rather than a speaker.

For my country:  I want to become a defender of freedom, mainly by how I raise my children in our home.  I want to become a patriot, willing to pay the last measure of devotion that I might give the gift of freedom to my children, grandchildren, and beyond.

For my Heavenly Father:  I want to become a valiant disciple of Christ, one upon whom He can depend to follow and obey his word.  I want Him to feel my love because of the way I live.  I want to become a servant for Him.

For myself:  I want to become educated--truly educated.  I want to become enlightened.  I want to become peaceful, even in the face of deep adversity.  I want to become strong, even in the midst of deep waters.  I want to become sensitive to the gentlest promptings of the spirit.  I want to reason and intuit equally well.  I want to become what God intended me to be.

Who knows what that is--what God intended me to be?  But I have to assume that He expects greatness of me.  I am His child.  He has promised me everything He has.  So ultimately, that is what I hope to become--everything He is.

Transformation Lecture Notes

TJED revolves around answering the following question:
What does God want me to do with my life and what do I need to learn (who do I need to become) to do that?

Lay the Foundation
You not them - set the example for your children.  Study every day, even if 15 minutes every day.
Study in your Core Book every day
Build a relationship of trust with your student (child)

Writing

• Take Notes - TJED Bookmark, Pad of Paper, Write in the book
• Freewrite (Journaling) - Let your thoughts flow on the page.  Do this every time you finish a book.

Who do I want to become?

How do you learn a new truth?
Usually, the learning of truths follows a failure.  This is difficult for a society that avoids failure at all costs.  Also, many times there will be other people who don't want you to accept new truths.  They want you to stay with them on the path of mediocrity.

Cycle of Transformation:

1. Learn a new truth
2. Accept it (Or reject it which leads to the path of mediocrity)
3. Hard Work to apply it to your life (or give up and return to mediocrity)
4. Reward
5. Growth
6. Which leads to the learning of new truths!!!

Challenge for September:

• Committed study time every day
• Core Book
• Writing
• Write a personal essay about who you want to become. (And comment on all the other essays that were written).  Due end of the month.

Andrea Rice: Personal Experience led to realization that "I have to be the expert for my own children."

Essays

Transformation

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.