Learnings from Miss Mason

I have now finished Home Education which is Volume 1 in Charlotte Mason's six volume series, as well as A Charlotte Mason Education and More Charlotte Mason Education both by Catherine Levison. I have truly enjoyed these readings and have learned so much that will enrich our homeschool. I found many of Miss Mason's writings to be as much a parenting manual as a homeschool how-to, challenging my thinking on so many fronts. Following, and not in any particular order, are some of the learnings and quotes I gleaned from my first introduction to Miss Mason's ideals.

One of my favorite quotes was at the start of the preface of Volume 1, " A river can't rise any higher than the source it comes from. In the same way, education can't rise any higher than the foundational thought behind it."

Charlotte Mason's motto for children is, "I am, I can, I ought, I will." and her motto for parents/educators is, "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."

In regards to the family she said, "An individual is no greater than the family he is a part of.."

On the first six years of life she said, "It's good to remember that a mother's first duty should be to provide a secure, quiet early childhood...This is not just good for their bodies; their heart, soul and mind are nourished with exactly what they need when we leave them alone in a stress-free environment among happy influences that give them no reason to rebel and misbehave."

One of the major tenants of a CM education is spending large amounts of time in nature rather than learning from text books. She said, "a child's mind is constantly busy with ideas coming in and out, like a millstone turning and turning that, if it has nothing to grind, will begin to grind up itself. A child should be given work to do to provide something for his mind to grind, but he should be given things rather than abstract symbols, real things from nature in their true habitat - in the meadows and woods and shorelines...It's no good when children get their knowledge of science from books. They get so used to reading about marvels of nature and never seeing it for themselves that nothing interests them...The person who can best appreciate God is the one who is familiar with the natural world He made."

Another central theme for CM is habit training. On this Miss Mason interestingly said, "Education is merely forming the right habits." She stated that, "Habit is ten natures, " meaning, "habit is very strong - not just as strong, but ten times as strong as the nature a child is born with." She encourages tackling one bad habit at a time and training our children diligently in this area to replace each with a good habit. There is an entire section in Volume 1 dedicated to why and how to do this. One more of my favorite quotes on the subject is, "It's up to parents to correct the bent quirks of their child's personality...parents should send their child to face the world with an even, cheerful temper, inclined to make the best of things, to look on the bright side, to assume the best and kindest of the motives of others and not to feel he has a right to special treatment."

A completely new concept for me was Charlotte Mason's opinion regarding covering subject matter one time only. On this she said, "He should be trained right from the start to expect one single reading to be sufficient to narrate from it. That will motivate him to develop the habit of slow, careful reading to absorb information even when he reads silently, because he will read every phrase deliberately to understand its meaning." This was true in reading for all subjects because, "Her opinion is that the mind will put off the effort of attention as long as a second or third chance exists of getting the information." (A Charlotte Mason Education, p. 16)

Narration is another major player in a CM education and is used in all subject areas. Essentially a child is read to and then asked to retell in their own words what they just heard. Miss Mason opined that, "Asking direct questions to drill a child on comprehension is always a mistake. Instead let him narrate and tell you what he has read."

Short and varied lessons are also important aspects in this homeschool method. For the younger child (up to age nine for Charlotte Mason) lessons should be 20 minutes or less. "Teaching him that each subject needs to be done in a specific block of time teaches him that it does matter, and one time isn't as good as another. If he doesn't get his work done the first time in the time allotted, there is no time set aside to do it again. This compels the child to pay attention and get his work done the first time." As for the mother's responsibility in this she says, "It is worth her while to make sure that her children never do a lesson that they don't put their whole heart into." (This happens to be one of my favorite quotes so far; what a noble goal for me as the mother-teacher!) As for varied lessons, Miss Mason says, "She (the mother) should know how to vary the lessons so that the child's mind can rest after each kind of mental activity by doing something totally different."

Living books and whole books are even more buzz words you will hear time and again when researching this schooling method. A living book is the opposite of a text book where simple facts are presented without emotion or story. She suggests that true learning doesn't happen this way. A child doesn't really remember unless they make an emotional connection with a real person and that's what a living book does. A living book should also be, "clothed in literary language." A whole book is reading a book the author wrote, not a snipet or a dumbed down version.

In More Charlotte Mason Education are two more powerful quotes from Miss Mason herself on books and how vital they are. The first is, "the best thought the world possesses is stored in books; we must open books to children, the best books; our own concern is abundant provision and orderly serving." The second is, "We owe it to every child to put him in communication with the great minds that he may get at the great thoughts; with the minds, that is, of those who have left us great works; and the only vital method of education appears to be that children should read worthy books, many worthy books."

Just re-reading this makes me realize how meager an attempt this post is at even coming close to grasping the true depth of a Charlotte Mason style education. I still want to post it for two reasons: to chronicle my journey down this road and to possible peak interest for someone else who may benefit from reading Miss Mason's works. Tomorrow I am going to make my first attempt at a CM inspired schedule. I expect that we will try many things before we find something to stick with for any length of time.

Happy New Year!

I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas and an exciting start to 2009! I love the New Year!!! If you have followed my blog for any time you've probably figured out that I am Type A personality (no kidding, right?!) so setting goals for a new year is right up my alley. Check lists and to-do's are enough to make me giddy. :) Last year I even posted my 2008 resolutions divided into neat categories: physical, emotional, spiritual and mental.

In the past weeks as I have thought about and prayed for God to direct me in this new year I have had one recurring thought...I am not to set goals for 2009 that read like yet another to-do list. Heaven knows I have enough of those! I've had the sense this year that instead of typical resolutions God has given me a word...heart. I am resolved this year to ask God each day how my heart aligns with His. That's it. Sounds so simple, doesn't it? But for me it will be a huge challenge.

I am a goal-setting, self-motivated, go-getter type of gal and very independent to boot. Living life for an "audience of One" has always been an objective of mine and something I greatly admire in others. Yet for me I too often stumble over my own self-sufficiency to make this a reality in my own life. And throw in the fact that I am a typical female firstborn people-pleaser further complicates the matter.

How's that for putting it out there? I'm currently feeling a little vulnerable being so brutally honest. :) It's so much easier to post the pretty stuff, isn't it?

So what are your goals for 2009?

Classical or Charlotte Mason?

Some of my main goals include raising my boys to be adults:

• who will embrace Truth as revealed in the person of Jesus and trust Him as Savior and Lord of their lives.
  

• who are relevant, engaging culture and their peers for the purpose of wining others to Christ.

• who have the ability to intelligently defend their faith, both in speaking and writing, but do so with great respect.
  

• who are well educated, entrenched in the classics, so they may pursue future endeavors they may feel God calling them to without hindrances from any educational lacking.
  

• who are emotionally healthy, prepared for meaningful and fulfilling relationships with spouse, family and friends.

• who are physically fit yet understand that "for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." - 1 Timothy 4:8

And this is not an exhaustive list. When I was teaching public school I always told my parents on "Meet the Teacher Night" that I wanted their children to excel not only in the "Three R's" but to grow as people during their nine months with me - to be be more emotionally and socially mature. The reality though is that with 20-24 children in my class and six to ten subjects to cover daily, there just wasn't enough time to devote to this noble endeavor. Truly I was stepping outside my job description anyway which was to solely educate their minds.

In contrast, one of the great benefits and blessing of homeschooling is that we are responsible for and able to educate the whole child: mind, body and spirit. When we started our journey to homeschool one of the first books I read was The Well Trained Mind. TWTM resonated so much with many of the things I had in mind for my children and provided the education I wish I had. We eagerly started on our journey using Susan Wise-Bauer's book as our road map.

Yet, I had begun feeling in recent months that while I was happy with much of the education I was providing for Thatcher there were holes - very big holes. We are so busy for so much of the day that while I am challenging his mind the focus on body and spirit is sorely lacking. I know this is not the case in many families pursuing a classical education, but it definitely is for us. The severity of Thatcher's ADHD means that lessons that take a typical child 20 minutes take us two or three times that much time. There is little time each day for anything other than academics.

I began to think about and research our options. I remembered several things I had always read about Charlotte Mason's educational theories, many of which are very intriguing for me. Short lessons, educating the whole child, nature studies and her focus on character development and habit training were things that stuck in my mind - and honestly just about all I knew about a CM education.

I have decided to seriously study up on Miss Mason's theories to decide if we need to change our trajectory in regards to educating my children. I love TWTM but is there a better way to meet our educational (mind) goals without sacrificing meeting the other goals I have for my children, especially now with our formal diagnosis of Asperger's?

I have started reading Volume One of Miss Mason's work in modern English from Ambleside Online. It's free! In the small amount I've already read, I have clearly seen that while TWTM is in line with my head CM aligns more with my heart. I will post my thoughts as I work my way through the series.

Asperger's Resource

I am a researcher by nature. As a mom, I have purchased and read countless books by different authors who all have their own take on how to raise children. Once we decided to homeschool the first thing I did was start learning all I could - books, websites, message boards and anything else I could get in my hands. Our realization of Thatch's ADHD was no different, more books added to our bookshelf and more bookmarks on my computer.

And now Asperger's has entered our life...

When I asked what the one book was that all moms starting on this journey needed to read first, I got this answer time and again: The Complete Guide to Asperger's by Tony Attwood.


I thought I would share here just in case you ever have a child with Asperger's cross your path - friend, family member, a child in church or any other way.

A New Path

A year ago, in December of 2007, we received a referral from our pediatrician to have Thatcher evaluated by a Developmental Pediatrician at Texas Children's Hospital here in Houston. We sent in the paperwork and waited...and waited...and waited. After eleven months the day of our appointment arrived this past Tuesday.

We have always known he had severe ADHD and lots of what his therapists called "Spectrum Disorder tendencies." Spectum Disorder is the umbrella under which a few things fall: Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Asperger's and Autism are a few of the more common.

He has always had unnatural fixations on things starting with lights and then his hands when he was less than a year old. As he got older his fixations changed from keys to automatic doors and then to cars. As a two year old he could tell you the name of every single car on the road. "Mom, that's a Ford F150. Oh, there's a Lincoln Navigator and a GMC Yukon XL." Lot of kids have interests but it is the level to which they dominate a child's life that make them stand out for some kids. Thatch talked about cars from the moment he woke up until the time he fell asleep at night.

Thatcher also received speech therapy from the age of eighteen months to three because he only used language to label things, never to get his needs met or communicate wants. He never once said, "I'm hungry (or thirsty or hot or angry or sad...). In speech therapy terms it is called pragmatic use of language - using language for different purposes. He would simply tell you what something was whether it be a giraffe, chair, car, house or whatever. His vocabulary was full of nouns but no verbs!

His non-verbal skills were almost non-existent when he was younger. We could not get him to use sign language no matter how much we tried. He also never pointed nor would he take you to show you what he wanted. It was like he wasn't even aware he had needs/wants. He would just go along with whatever toys/food I set in front of him. This was true up until the age of four! Very different from his brothers who expressed desires from twelve months on.

He was also very delayed in other areas, always meeting all developmental milestones but months to years later than his peers. He had low muscle tone, refused to self-feed until the age of 18 months (even with a dietician working with him weekly) and would refuse all foods unless they were brown and crunchy. I could go on and on but I am sure I've bored you stiff by now.

All these were pieces to a puzzle but we just didn't have the big picture to put them all together yet. Our hope was that this appointment might do this for us. We would have a yes or a no in regard to whether or not his "quirks" (and we all have them!) were enough to label him with something on the autism spectrum. I went into the appointment really hoping the doctor would say something along the line of, "Yep, lots of spectrum disorder stuff but not enough to warrant a label. He'll outgrow most of this with time." That's not what we got.

Instead we heard, "Your son has Asperger's Syndrome." I even pushed back a little saying that this diagnosis can be somewhat subjective and my concerns about this being over-diagnosed as it is the "hot" label right now. She replied that we could take Thatcher to ten doctors and she was confident that all ten would have the same diagnosis. After all I've learned in the past five days, I now agree. Honestly, I have known for some time in my heart the reality that this diagnosis was coming, but it's still incredibly hard to hear.

So where do we go from here? If you asked me on Tuesday I would have said that I was filled with a strange mixture of relief (that I am not a horrible mother who couldn't control or fix her son) and great sadness, too. It was weird, to say the least, to have such contrasting emotions exist simultaneously. Today I would have to say that the dominant emotion is thankfulness. I am thankful that now at least we know what path we are on so that we may learn how to best help/support/teach our precious son. I wish I had been doing more all along to educate myself these past few years when we had suspicions but am ready for what lay ahead. Ask me tomorrow and you may get a different answer though. This is quite an emotional roller coaster for sure.

Here's to a new journey, a new path and helping our son be all that God created him to be.

Merry Christmas!

Here is the Christmas card we are sending out this year (with a few modifications for anonymity's sake!). In the past we had friends who were professionals do all this for us...this year we did it by ourselves - or to be more fair, dh did it all by himself as he spent the better part of yesterday retouching photos, designing our card and ordering! Thank you dh!!!

May your days be merry and bright...
from Smooth Stones Academy!

Look what flew over my house yesterday!

One of the perks of living less than five miles NASA's Johnson Space Center is that sometimes you get the chance to experience some really neat things! I got a call from dh yesterday around 12:30 in the afternoon; he told us to hurry into the backyard. Not three minutes later look what we saw.....

NASA was transporting Endeavour from its last landing spot in the California desert back to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It stopped here at JSC and before finishing the flight to KSC they flew the shuttle throughout the area to give everyone a good look. On one of its circles it flew directly over my backyard! It was extra-special considering that the shuttle program ends in 2010. There won't be many opportunities to see anything like this again!