The Well DRAINED Mind...

[Thrice Blessed]

Do this! Do that! Check this item off the list and move on to that one! Make the child sit at the table until ALL of those math problems are finished! Make him read this because it is the next thing in the book! We do not have time for the art project today, because Math, Phonics, Grammar, Spelling, and the like took too long!

What a horrible task master we have been under!

How did I get here? What is going on? Is this what want out of homeschooling? I am so tired. Frankly, I am fed up with this. Where are the leisurely nature walks? Where is the laughter? Where is the love of learning? Is my purpose in homeschooling just to get the work finished?

You can probably tell that I am that I need to make some changes in the way I home school my kids. I have been feeling burned out lately, and it seems like the joy of homeschooling is escaping all of us. To answer the questions I posed above, I will need to give a little background information.

I strongly prefer the classical model of education, so I am loosely following the course of study outlined in The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. Now, I knew we could not follow EVERY suggestion made in the book, but still I wanted to sort of stick to the outline, studying Ancient History and Life Science in year one, Middle Ages and Earth/Space in year two, then moving on to early modern History and Chemistry in year three, and finally finishing up with late modern History and Physical Science in Year four. Then I planned to switch to a five-year plan, using the Mystery of History series, and spreading the science out a little more to cover it in more depth. It sounded like such a wonderful plan!

Unfortunately, my two youngest kids did not master reading in preschool like Susan Wise did back in the early 1970’s when her mom Jessie was teaching her. No, my kids actually spent their preschool years doing preschool stuff… playing outside, picking flowers, running in the sprinkler, learning colors, shapes, numbers and letters, playing with play dough and doing puzzles. Even if I had wanted to teach them to read, my son’s speech was so delayed that it would not have been possible. So he started Kindergarten actually needing to do Kindergarten level work! Therefore, we had to spend a good portion of our day covering phonics and reading; this is something the schedule in the Well Trained Mind does not take into account, just as it does not take into account that your family actually has to do more than JUST homeschool. There is laundry to be done, meals to cooked, and dishes to be washed. There is church to attend and co-op classes to plan. In my home there is a High School student who needs teaching too, and there is a part time job to work at on top of all of it.

So here we were, fully half of our day being taken up just trying to master reading and math. Then we would find ourselves squeezing in History and Science when we could. It did not bother me much, and we were having fun. We did something for History each day, sometimes it was reading followed by a narration, and other times it was a History related art project, or map work, or even a cooking activity. The first year worked out pretty good, except that half way through the year we had to pick up the pace to finish our History book before summer, so we skipped extra activities on many lessons. Then the second year started, now in addition to teaching my son, my youngest daughter was ready to start Kindergarten. We moved along enjoying ourselves for the most part. Then about a month ago, I sat down and looked at where we were in our History book. We were so far behind! If we did not pick up the pace we would NEVER finish in time for summer break, in fact, we would be lucky to finish before October! So we doubled our efforts, we would read, do our narration, and then do our map work in the same day. The only “projects” we did was the coloring pages, never the more fun activities. We stopped reading the additional books on the chapter topics. We even gave up taking a couple of days here and there to review the history memory cards, and instead just pushed ahead to the next lesson.

Science was rushed along in a similar way, reading the lessons, doing the experiments, and leaving it at that. No notebook pages, no extra activities, nothing that was not absolutely necessary in order to be able to say we “did” the lesson.

We pushed along like this, and each day I felt less and less joy in what I was doing, and each day my frustration level increased. I did not blog about homeschool much during this time. Instead, I just posted photos and blogged about things like Easter egg hunts. I was so exhausted after DOING homeschool each day that I did not want to think about it afterward, let alone blog about it!

Then, last weekend I woke up, as if out of a bad dream, and came to my senses. I looked at my children, and realized that they were as burnt out as I was. They were not having any fun, and they were not remembering much of what we were rushing so much to do. I asked myself, “Why is it so important to finish Middle Ages History this year?” Did I honestly think that my child would be asked when applying for college, “Why did it take you five years to finish the Story of World series instead of four?” Who was I trying to impress? Who decided that the grammar stage of the Trivium should last exactly four years? Who decided that learning should take place from the first week of September and stop the second week of June? From where did I get this arbitrary schedule? Would it not make more sense to take longer to cover the material, but to have my kids enjoy it and retain what they learned?

I realized that my thinking was all out of line. I had read that the last volume of Story of the World was not good for kids who were younger than 4th grade level, so I had even started making plans of other ways to cover history the 4th year. It did not occur to me that maybe I should just take more time on the first three volumes and then begin again with Ancient History in the Mystery of History series.

Therefore, I decided last weekend that I would stop this nonsense, stop being dictated to by some schedule invented by someone else in an entirely different situation than my own, and start doing what works for us.

We are still following a classical model, we LIKE that. The difference is that now we are not trying to push forward and keep to some silly schedule of when to finish with each step of that model. Instead, we are just doing what comes next. We are relaxing and enjoying our extra projects again. We are reading literature about each time period in History, just like we used to. We are doing our art projects.

We are also revamping our approach to science. Instead of boring lesson response sheets where all the kid does is answer questions, we are going to slow down on the interesting space units and slowly assemble a lap book, read library books, and try to visit our local observatory. We joined Enchanted Learning ( http://www.enchantedlearning.com ) so that we would have access to lots of neat printable graphics and minibooks to put in our lapbooks.

I don’t know when we will finish the Middle ages study… we might finish it this summer, or we may finish it in November… but we WILL enjoy it!

I have many other thoughts swimming around in my brain, but I was intending to write a blog post, not a book, so I will stop now, and maybe write more some other time.

[merchi]

Wow! You ladies are an inspiration to me! My teens are using SOS, which for me is quite nice because it so hands-off on the parents end and leaves me free to do with my littles.
We're on vacation this week, and you all know my oldest-youngest is just 5 and not technically a kinder yet, though we've started anyhow...we're taking a nice break this week, and just hanging out with friends. One of which bought my kiddos the CandyLand DVD game...way fun! Of course this morning I awoke with visions of how to turn it into RainforestLand LOL...I'm sure you all do that too!
I thought...the characters can be turned into rainforest animals, the candy into food that comes from the rainforest (or fauna that grows there) and the gingerbread cookie rewards can be chocolate bars! I think it's brilliant! My kiddos were less enthused. I'm thinking this can be done with any learning theme, right?

Anyhow...back to my preK-er who is doing K...this means that next year we will be officially starting, and I was looking into the different methods laid out here...I'm leaning towards Charlotte Mason, and we're slowing incorporating a bit of it into this year so it won't seem overwhelming next fall.
SO...any one out there doing CM, willing to mentor me? Give me tips, suggestions, support? Can anyone tell me a bit about how their CM homeschool works? I've tried to read some online, but I get a bit overwhelmed...I think it's that perfectionist coming out in me...trying to write the "perfect" schedule to get it all in...I haven't started and already I feel like "ThriceBlessed" above.

I like what Val said above about doing different methods almost like the wind blows, or the mood strikes....I'm paraphrasing...I'm sure she doesn't change that often...but I'm sure you all understand that. I think I could do that...but the perfectionist in me would probably not allow it. *Ü*

I'm sure there is no "perfect" curriculum or "perfect" method...only what is "perfect" for your family...I get it...still, I'm curious what others do. I read a wonderful blog yesterday, from "Choosing Joy" about the homeschool movement and how it has changed...it was very inspiring, and I think something we could all need on occasion!

Blessings to all of you my friends!
*Ü*
merchi

[Val Ellen]

Wonderful post! I have totally been there! Burn out is hard. I gotta tell you, I have hit it several times. But what gets me through is the idea that children are always learning. If all they do is draw a picture of the Okavango delta from watching Planet Earth for a morning... whatever. They are learning... moving forward. And me right along with them, becoming more creative, more understanding, and more patient with the process of learning itself.

Sounds like you could use a Charolette Mason week. lol... I mix up my methods as I need to to make it work for my family. I mix philosophies as I need them. You can learn from doing anything... garden with them. Then just happen to bring up the measurements of your raised bed garden. Hand them a ruler, or tape measure and have them graph the things they decide to measure when they choose to come back inside (if they make a mud pie in the middle, you can consider it PE). Draw nature in the morning, and then write a little blip about it in the afternoon. Older kids can make up a poem.

It's all about balance. Sometimes Charolette Mason works, sometimes I need a bit of WTM, sometimes I take an unschooling approach and we do nothing but draw for three days, sometimes we are neck deep in Explode the Code and "Dick and Jane Come and See", sometimes we are 100% hands on Montessori, sometimes we are Waldorf... But whenever I set "WE MUST GET THIS DONE" rules for my kids, that is the first thing that gets broken... along with it, my will to teach them (at least well. lol!).

It sounds like you are well on your way to a new age of learning with your kids, and you will be so much happier for it! WTM is so tempting and seemingly simple... but not all people are set up to learn like that (my daughter is not set up that way at all, my son... sometimes)... perhaps you need a week of unschooling, or a book like "Pocket full of Pinecones" Karen Andreola which talks about nature study through literature (but sweetly through the nicest story). Perhaps you just flat out need to take a week off.

Whatever works for you! {{{hugs}}}

Best of luck!

Val

[Jimmie]

Wow! What an incredible journey in your HS philosophy.

Your title "Well Drained Mind" caught my attention and your vivid descriptions kept me reading. I love how you said that your Ker was doing K work! Such a DUH moment, right? The inclination to push our children to achieve and accomplish more and more is ever present. We must resist that! Taking it slow and steady -- deeper understanding versus shallow overviews-- is more important to me. We travel a lot, and that's a huge challenge for HS. But I try to take all the opportunities we are given as a chance to grow and learn. I refuse to be a "slave" to the curriculum. As long as we're learning, then it's okay. Stagnation is not okay. But moving forward at our own pace is good.
Thanks for this great post!

Jimmie

[Brenda B]

I couldn't agree more... so true. A little over 2 years ago, I got so frustrated that I actually sold EVERY last bit of my 'set curriculum units'. Mostly aBeka. I had spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I look back now and realize it was really stupid to sell it all because I could have used bits and pieces here and there and made it work great. BUT, I had just got so burned out, I didn't care, and sold it all. I wanted to start all over completely fresh, and not follow such a tight schedule. Well, at that point it got worse. Because then I realized I myself didn't know enough (education) to do it on my own without a a curriculum laid out. It was terrible. My children fell behind. And, like you, some of them had no phonics foundation. But, you know what? Just this year I found it. The way that I was suppose to do everything to make it work. And, it's like you said above, it is not the same for everyone. It is what works for YOU and your CHILDREN. You don't have to impress anyone else, impress your children, they are the ones that need it. Since my realization, my children have been learning at a VERY fast rate. In just a few months, two of my children went up one full grade level. My son didn't want to read, he got bored easily. Now, he is sooooo interested in everything! He just picks up the dictionary, encyclopedias, magazines, etc. and gets so absorbed with it. Just as a boy his age SHOULD be. I also signed up membership with enchantedlearning. That is one of the best sites. I also have membership with abcteach, homeschoollearning, schoolexpress, and espworksheets. I use them all but my favorites are enchantedlearning and abcteach. And, now with lapbooks in my curriculum, the kids are so happy all the time to do schoolwork!!! I have been using a more 'Unit Study' approach, and it's so much easier and 'sticks' in their heads. Thanks for your very encouraging blog post :-)

[mommy to 3 duckies]

I know EXACTLY how you were feeling. Sometimes the strees of "THE LIST" just sucks the life out of you-at least it can for me. I think we all feel that way from time to time. There is alot of pressure to keep up and get it all done. Sadly much of the pressure comes from within. It does help to get it out on paper--or blogging :)-- when my brain gets too overloaded. I am glad you are feeling relieved. A happy mama makes for a happy homeschool.