The Bibliovore's Wife

In this series of Homeschooling Rationales posts, I want to explore homeschooling philosophies, especially my own, framed in a system of conscious thought about why  I'm doing what I'm doing. In doing so, I hope to encourage your thought processes if you're currently or potentially home educating your child(ren). While for many students and teachers January is technically the middle of the school year, there's no reason that your school year (or planning for it) has to start in August. Let's look briefly at the calendar for a different take on planning out an educational year! When to Start Planning Home Education Short answer: ideally, before you're all the way through home educating. For me, I've found the best benefit from flexible plans that plan a semester or year at the outset in terms of large goals, but don't break down individual tasks into weekly or daily tasks until the weekend leading into that week. That way, I have a better handle on my ene...

As most (hopefully all!) of you, my dear readers, know, it takes a lot to run a household! Although I did not take a formal home economics class (and wish they were universal again for others' sake), my home education, based on a Charlotte Mason (CM) approach, included a healthy dose of household tasks. I want to reflect this week on the intersection of "chores" and "education." Charlotte Mason's Orientation Toward Chores Charlotte believed that all of life could contribute to one's education. I'm not sure how she would have named "chores" per se--the term for me (having received a CM-style education) connotes a chore chart, with stickers given for complete performance of a day's chores, followed by a token reward after a certain number of stickers. How, then, would she have conceptualized children completing the necessary tasks for maintaining a household alongside or independently of their parents? Habit Training and Motivation A CM-c...

In Book Reflections, I'll reflect on selections from last year's book-completed list (see The Renaissance Biologist post). Given that last week's post  introduced the juxtaposition of Charlotte Mason education and one's daily family routines, I wanted to reflect this week on a book that was helpful for me in that regard, A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola (1990s). For most reflections, including this one, I will follow the general sequence of  Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Charlotte Mason's Writings Charlotte was a somewhat prolific educational writer. Her magnum opus, reprinted recently by the Andreolas, is a 6-volume, 2400-page Original Homeschooling Series . What topics (volume names) does this cover? Home Education Parents and teachers can learn how to educate children up to...

To start the year off well, I'd like to do a more thoughtful take on the concept of a resolution. If you're like me (or like most people), you've tried your share of resolutions and perhaps would like a more balanced approach. That, I think, is in routines. I'll do another post about weekly routines, and several more examining specific aspects of specific routines. Basics of Daily Routines Any good article you can find about "routines" will differentiate them from "schedules." I'll do the same. For the purposes of this and future posts, "routine" refers to a relatively set sequence of events that repeats at certain intervals, while "schedule" refers to a time-bound sequence of events. The main difference between the two is the increased flexibility of the routine versus the schedule--in the former case, the next thing occurs when the previous thing is done, whenever that is; in the latter case, the next thing occurs when the c...