For younger kids: don't stress!!!

by Brea

Ok, so y'all know I'm a Charlotte Mason fan. Teach your children through books, books, and more books. And then read them a book or two. And when you're done, why not find a new great book? (Am I getting a tad repetitive here? Sorry.)

Homeschooling can be expensive!! And there's so many options! I've got a little tip for you, something I've heard from almost every mom of older children I know, and something I'm seeing from my own experience. If you do nothing but character training and reading out loud to your kids before they're six or seven, you'll have given them a vast head start over their peers. Seriously. Your kids can pick up 'the essentials' like reading and writing when they're a little older, and they will be just fine for it! A close friend of mine has a daughter I'm crazy about. 'A' is 14, and she and I love to talk books. She's borrowed some favs from me, and we're not talking teen lit here. Big, heavy, wonderful books. She's an amazing reader, devouring almost anything she can get her hands on. Want to know a secret? She didn't learn to read until after she turned nine. A's mom realized something: if she pushed her daughter to read before she was ready, she could possibly end up making her daughter hate reading. So she waited. She did other things with her. And now A is one of the most well-read 14-year-olds I know.

Let your kids learn from life. Don't start formal school with them until they're in the first grade, and even then, keep it light! There are so many ways your kids can learn from everyday things that happen around them. My oldest, Sam, is almost 6. He's starting to learn about money. Every Friday, we head down to our local Farmers' Market. (Sam's mom over here has a big ole' crush on homegrown veggies and grass-fed beef. Mmmm ...) In the last few months, Sam has become my 'money man.' For the most part, he and his sister Evie (4) pick out the veggies we'll be buying for the week. Sam knows that we start each Friday off with $20 or $25. They're each allowed to buy a treat, which costs a dollar. All prices at the market are rounded the the nearest quarter, and Sam is the one who carries the money and pays for everything. (I use ones and fives, to make it easier on him.) So if we get down to the last $5, and each of them still want to buy a treat, that's $3 left. Evie wants to buy spinach, while Sam wants broccoli. But a bag of spinach is $2.50, and four heads of broccoli cost $3.00. Hmm, dilemma! I let the two of them figure out what to do. Sam won out with the broccoli last time, because he logically pointed out to his sister that our spinach at home is getting big enough to eat, so we didn't need to buy any.

Wait, what just happened here? Let me go into this. Sam is learning math skills. Sam and Evie are learning how to interact with other grown-ups in a real-world setting (and people say homeschoolers aren't socialized!!), and they're learning where our food comes from. They're both learning logic and problem-solving skills (broccoli or spinach? It's a tough life, I tell ya!), and they're learning financial responsibility. All that from a 10 minute visit to the market. Oh, and remember the part about growing spinach at home? We have several gardens. There's my nature, science, and ecology classes for the next several years.

Do you have cheerios at home? What about skittles, raisins, or chocolate chips? A few years ago, I bought a bag of 15-bean soup. It's just a bunch of dried beans. There's our math class. We can learn grouping, patterns, addition, subtraction, and later multiplication and division. And it cost me a whopping $.79. Do your youngsters cook with you? My kids are learning fraction without even knowing it, because I can't ever find my measuring cups, so we have to measure out 1 1/2 cups of flour with the 1/2 cup scoop. Evie can tell you that there's three teaspoons in a tablespoon, and Sam knows that you can't leave sugar when it's cooking or 'it turns stinky and yucky.' (We make lots of candy around Christmas time!)

We've been reading The Chronicles of Narnia, and my kids just eat it up. They know the difference between a broadsword and a rapier, and why a ship would have sails and oars. And battle strategy. And the difference between port and starboard.

I'm not writing this to brag on my children, although I'm certainly not above that. :) I'm writing this as an encouragement. It can be really overwhelming when you start looking at curriculum, and what to buy, and when to start, and  what homeschooling method to follow. And then we start looking at the world, and what and when public schools do things. Remember that each child is different, and that's a great thing about homeschooling!! It's much easier for kids to catch up on something they're a little behind on, as opposed to trying to get them to like something that's been forced on them too early. God gave your children to you, not to me, or your mother, or your neighbor, or your friends at church. You. You are better qualified to teach them, for that reason alone, than any other person in the world.

So if you're a little stressed right now, take a deep breath. Now one more. And one more. Get up and go on a walk with your young'ens. Talk about some flowers. Look at the clouds. Why did God make bees? What do they do? Why do round things roll better than things with flat sides? Read this post and the wonderful comments, then take a trip to the library and find Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and some of the other great books. Spend 15 minutes reading, then snuggle for 10 minutes and talk about what you just read. Congratulations, you just did school for the day!! You really can do this!

Moms with older kids, what did y'all do when yours were little? Can you offer any advice?

Comments

[Elizabeth]

Thank you SO MUCH for this encouraging post! I plan to follow the Charlotte Mason philosophy with my girls, but at times I panic and look at "curriculums" for my 4.5 yo. I know it's because she's my first, so I'm focused on her. I really do think that just reading and teaching her through every day life is the way to go right now, but sometimes I need a more experienced mom to reassure me! :)

Today we went to an animal farm day and the farmer's market... I hope she learned something other than they give out lots of samples of free strawberries there! :)

[Mrs. Fussypants]

Wonderful Brea! You are such a great part of this site. Thank you a million times!

[Katie]

Incredibly awesome post!!

[Katie]

(Ooops! I entered that comment before I was done...) hehe!

I was just going to add that I am astonished, yes ASTONISHED, that more people don't want to homeschool their children and do things like this with them!!

[Sharon]

My 16 year old son and 13 year old daughter have never spent a day in school. They are well educated and well socialized. So much of your post is right on the mark. My kids have wonderful relationships with adults, rather than the adversarial relationships kids develop in school. They know how to interact with children of all ages, rather than just the same age. And, they know *how* to talk to strangers, rather than "Don't ever talk to strangers!".

There are so many better ways to learn rather than sitting at a desk for 6 hours. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't do anything different.

[Jenn]

What an awesome post! My daughter is only 18 months but I get stressed thinking about homeschooling, even though I know it's what we want to do. Especially after seeing this:

www.expelledthemovie.com !! Can you believe it?

[jill]

I qualify for having older kids, middle kids and little kids since I have eight children ages almost 23 down to almost 3. I can say "amen" to everything you've written about encouraging your kids to be readers but I have to add something...it can be quite discouraging/dismaying/embarrassing/disconcerting (can you tell that MOM loves words lol!) when your children get older and older and still aren't reading! It will test your "faith" in what you say you believe in (that is, that what you are "doing" with your children will eventually produce an educated well-read child). I have had several children who haven't read "fluently" until age 12. Both became amazingly enthusiastic readers but it sure took a long time! My current 12 year old is still struggling while his ten year old brother reads on a college level! Even after all these years of knowing that what we do in our home produces a love of the written word (ie. we read aloud daily from babyhood, they see me read all the time, we visit the library lots and lots, we give books as gifts to the children, we teach them phonics/site words and anything that will work with that particular child...etc.) it still can be a struggle to hang in there without caving to both internal and external pressure to get "help". I am so very very glad that my children had the freedom to learn at their own pace without being put in the "special" classes and that they knew that even though they weren't reading yet they were still smart and capable and mom believed that they were going to be just fine.

And nothing is more delightful than sharing favorite books with your grown children! My teens come home chortling over their latest "deals" at the used library sale and all my children have their own libraries of books.

Jill

[Kristin]

My husband and I have just made the decision to home school in the last few months. I was home schooled, so I shouldn't have this much anxiety, but I do (I have no idea how my mother worked a part-time job, and home schooled 5 of us)! This article has helped a lot in calming my fears. I just want my kids to succeed, and it can get overwhelming!