Some Thoughts on Parenting

I've run across some thought-provoking quotes in my reading over the last week that I feel compelled to share. I hope they will inspire you as much as they have me.

From "For the Children's Sake" by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay:

"...the Christian world view, properly applied, produces an atmosphere in which the child is accepted just as he is. He does not have to prove himself, pass a test, or show particular talent. He is valuable and unique. He is loved by God, valued and respected by Him.
His mind is not looked down upon; he flourishes in the invigorating atmosphere of sharing truly worthwhile interests with people who like him as a person. His own ideas and choices count. There is an atmosphere of hope and sure expectations. We respect the child's ability to achieve a proper task or skill; there is not the atmosphere of fear or failure. There is an atmosphere of friendship, creativity, and the security produced when human conduct is contained within the boundaries of God's law for us.
This moral atmosphere is not judgmental. The atmosphere is one where parent/child and teacher/pupil are all under the same authority. It is a realistic situation. There is not an atmosphere tense with unreal or perfectionist standards. They can face up to failure and realize that tomorrow will be a new day.
The atmosphere is stimulating because there is a common bond, too, in the area of enjoying knowledge. The atmosphere produced in home or school is a positive one when the adult is eagerly alive to the vital interest in book, subject, activity, or what have you."

We are so far from this ideal situation, but I pray that we can increasingly achieve bits and pieces of it as time goes by. I hope that when my kids are adults and look back on their childhood and home/school environment, that they will be warmed with memories of comfort, love, and acceptance. And going along with these thoughts is a quote that reminds me how to achieve this goal.

"If you treat a man as he is, he will stay as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become the bigger and better man."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I need to treat my children like the beautiful, responsible, honest, compassionate, and loving people that they "ought to be and could be," always giving them the benefit of the doubt, granting them mercy, treating them tenderly, correcting them lovingly. What lofty goals! But with God's help, I pray we will keep striving to attain them!

Already reflecting and looking ahead

I wrote an email to another homeschooling friend today and I thought that parts of it would make a good blog post, especially since I've been MIA here on my blog lately!

I've been poring over homeschool catalogs this week. I'm excited about getting started on "real" work with Elyse next year, her first grade year. If we continue with the Well-Trained Mind classical method, she'll be starting in earnest on the historical period of 5000BC-400AD and most everything (reading, history, copywork, etc.) will revolve around that time period. So, lots of mummies, pyramids, and Old Testament stuff. But, of course, I have to look at EVERY curriculum catalog I have, get overwhelmed, find a bunch of stuff that looks cool but that we don't really need, and doubt our choice of curriculum about 30 times before finally settling on the very first thing that we had chosen.

One of the alternate curricula that I really like is My Father's World (MFW). It's attractive to me because it incorporates the classical method along with the Charlotte Mason (a "gentle" education) and international mission/biblical focus. I really like the setup and the fact that everything is already planned out for you, but I have a couple of concerns.

1. Elyse is doing a lot of 1st grade work this year and I think the first grade curriculum would be a little redundant for her. But I worry about starting her on the second grade curriculum (Adventures).
2. If I started her on Adventures, then I worry that for third grade, the next year of curriculum might be too advanced.
3. I wonder how it would work as she and the other kids got older. I've tried to go through the years and see how it would work out but I can't see how I could teach Elyse and Aidan with the same curriculum year (especially if she starts in Adventures where she probably needs to be, but Aidan would be using the target curriculum for his year, as he seems to be more on target for his age). Which means that I would be teaching two different years of curriculum for three more years.
4. I worry that as nice as it seems, I might get antsy with the pre-packaged type of curriculum, where I couldn't change things as we went along if needed, and since I like to pick and choose from different curricula.

Anyway, I'm sure I will stick with the Well-Trained Mind (classical) method that we're planning on, but once it comes time to choose curriculum in the spring for the next year, it seems that I'm not immune to the same doubts and concerns and second-guessing that many homeschoolers go through every year. After all, we all want what's best for our children, and there are so many great options out there!

As for the extra curricular activities, I think I'm going to splurge and order the Rosetta Stone French for Elyse (and Josh and I ;)). I don't expect her to be speaking French anytime soon :), but I have studied (and love) French, and Josh would like to study it some too, so we might incorporate that for fun.

I bought the "Drawing with Children" book for this year, but I failed miserably at ever getting anything going. I think it was daunting for me since there aren't specific "lessons" laid out. Throughout the year, we just did holiday crafts and other art projects as the impulse hit us. So for next year, I'm thinking about using something that is more structured and hopefully, that will help me to actually implement a regular art time.

And for music? Once again, due to a lack of purpose and structure, piano lessons never really got off the ground. I'm hoping to do better next year. I have the "Little Mozart" book, but am trying to decide if I need to do something else? There's an excellent piano teacher at our church that we might look into. OR I found a book called "The Violin Book." I have a violin and maybe Elyse and I could learn together??? I'm just beginning to think about the extra stuff.

As you can tell, I still have a LOT of questions, but that's why I start planning so early! :)

Any of you homeschoolers out there have any advice? I sure wish I lived closer to other homeschooling moms so that we could have an art day or something like that. There's a group in a town near us, but they don't do co-op classes. Elyse did get involved in a homeschool girl scout troop, which has been interesting, but not very active. She is still taking ballet, which she loves.

Lessons from this year? One thing I learned very quickly was that I initially planned too much. But I just kept whittling things down to where we're now only working 1 1/2-2 hours a day on the basics. She and Aidan like to play a lot too, which I think is super-important for their ages!!

Here is our current (semi) schedule:
M-F: Phonics (One lesson from Phonics Pathways)
Reading (alternate readers)
Singapore Math (One lesson a day and working on math facts)
Handwriting (A Reason for Handwriting)

M, W, F: Spelling (We began Spelling Workout A this semester)

T, Th: Explode the Code (Elyse LOVES this.)