a little poem...

So, please, oh please,

We beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away!

And in its place you can install

A lovely bookcase on the wall.

~Roald Dahl~

The entire poem can be found here.  Don't miss it!

Compound Interest

One thing I have discovered over the past five years as I've counseled moms who desire to teach their children through living books is that this type of education is truly a walk of faith.  Our current "education" system tells us that children must be confined to desks seven hours a day shackled by textbooks, worksheets and standardized tests.  If our children are ever to measure up in the "real world" they must be able to jump through arbitrary hoops set up by "experts." 

Many questions torture mothers who sincerely want the best for their children...

How do I know they're learning?

How will they ever get into college?

What do you mean I don't need a math curriculum in the early grades?!?

I don't have to do grammar until they're older??

Don't my high schoolers need to start "real school?"

And on it goes...

Faith.

The truth is, learning through living books is actually the most effective way to educate a child of any age.  You know they're learning because they tell you what they've learned.  Narration is a powerful means of taking ownership of what we know.  We do not truly know anything unless we can explain it to someone else.  Living with the people of the books we read, living in the places in a compelling book all serve to help us build relations with those people and places of the past. 

All subjects can be taught through living books and narration...even math to a large degree.  And colleges actively seek students who are able to think, who have good habits, who are actively engaged in the learning process rather than regurgitators of information.  And these students who have been raised on the feast of "books and things" excel in any walk of life which God leads them.

Faith.

I admit that it's difficult to let go of the public school's scope and sequence.  If my second grader can't recite the 50 states and their capitals we must be behind!  After all, our neighbor's child can do that.  Am I not failing my children if I don't turn them into fact-eating machines?  But we must understand that it takes time to build relationships.  This happens line upon line, precept upon precept.  But in the fullness of time, their little minds, which have feasted on facts clothed in great ideas, are expanded to the greatest heights of knowledge and wisdom.  And it is after these things we are to seek.

Faith.

The beginnings may seem slow.  I liken it to compound interest.  Charlotte Mason calls it magical expansion.  We invest a little and as it grows, it grows on the growth.  But grow it does until, all of a sudden, when you least expect it, your child has grown in widsom and stature and is able to lead others in ways of truth.

Keep the faith...

A Large Room

Charlotte Mason's wisdom found in her writings has been one of the primary forces in our home educating journey for the past 17 years.  The feast we have been encouraged to spread before our children through her teaching has unveiled a world of awe and wonder.  Learning through "books and things" has truly opened our eyes to the glories of God's world.

Charlotte was passionate about life...a full life.  God calls it an abundant life.  Charlotte said, "Life should be all living, and not merely a tedius passing of time; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking - the strain would be too great - but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest."  (Vol. 3, pg. 170)

In our family, much of our learning comes from living books.  Having the blessing of over 15,000 at our fingertips, we can readily pull off a book on any topic of interest.  Taking Charlotte's advice to heart, we are constantly reading books "in liberal supply and variety."  In the end, I want Charlotte's goals for my children...

"The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?"  (Vol. 3, pgs. 170-171)

What I find sad about current American schooling is that we do not value knowledge and wisdom...nor do we value children.  We sit them down at desks all day, fill their minds with drivel, and send them out as "educated." 

"We give him miserable little text-books, mere compendiums of facts, which he is to learn off and say and produce at an examination; or we give him various knowledge in the form of warm diluents, prepared by his teacher with perhaps some grains of living thought to the gallon. And all the time we have books, books teeming with ideas fresh from the minds of thinkers upon every subject to which we can wish to introduce children."  (Vol. 3, pg. 171)

I encourage you to give your children a broad education.  Open the Word of God to them.  Read them wonderful history, science, fairy tales, fiction.  Look at beautiful paintings.  Listen to beautiful music.  Read poetry, Shakespeare.  Learn another language.  Go outside and drink in the beauty of the world as it is waking up from winter slumber.  Live!

Thou hast set my feet in a large room; should be the glad cry of every intelligent soul.

Boys to Men

I have boys.  I have boys who are all boy.  They thrive on running, jumping, fishing, playing in the creek and bad jokes.  They enjoy Vivaldi, playing the violin and Monet.  And they love books.

As a mom, I have become increasingly alarmed at the challenges boys face in today's culture.  While the females in our society become more militantly antagonistic toward males (and ironically more masculine in the process) our boys are being beaten down and feminized.  In a culture turned upside down, what can we do to raise up strong men for the glory of God?

At the end of David's life, he gave his son, Solomon, this charge:  "Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man.  Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn."  (I Kings 2:2-3). Oh, to have fathers like this today.

How can we train our sons to be strong and show themselves men?  Theodore Roosevelt spoke of the vigorous life.  Lots of time in the great outdoors, hard work and time spent with Godly men can be instrumental in developing the strong character that will be necessary to reclaim this culture for Christ.  Unfortunately, many boys no longer have access to these.   Thankfully books can stand in the gap when Godly role models are needed.

Boys should be immersed in biographies of great heroes from the past.  Davy Crockett, Patrick Henry, and Alvin York are examples of great courage.  George Muller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and D.L. Moody were men of great faith.  What boy is not encouraged after reading Ralph Moody's road to manhood by overcoming many obstacles in Little Britches?  Knights in shining armor, Richard Halliburton's adventures around the world, pioneers leaving everything they know for a better life all serve to inspire them to do great things.  Authors like Stephen Meader, Merritt Parmelee Allen and Jim Kjelgaard give boys the character-building excitement they crave.

Boys should have villains to fight.  Introduce them to Hitler, Marx, Stalin.  They must be equipped to stand in the world they will inherit.

School for boys should be real and relevant.  Endless reams of worksheets starve a boy's soul.  A friend who also has boys was bemoaning the fact that, although she was drawn to Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education, she thought it was much better suited to girls.  I replied, "Are you kidding??  Of all the educators throughout history, Charlotte is the only one I've found who had those boys' number!  Short lessons, on-the-edge-of-your-seat books, and kick 'em outside!"

Boys must have time to discover ways to solve real problems and accomplish real goals.  God has placed in each of them gifts to be used for His glory.  Biographies about scientists, inventors, mathematicians, artists, musicians, doctors, astronauts, missionaries, etc. encourage boys to step out and take dominion.  This is what our world needs.  Are we equipping them for the task?

Put a book in a boy's hand and watch what he will become.

Reading Re-Visited ~ A Challenge

A couple of weeks ago, my friends and librarians of Living Books Library in Abingdon, VA, and I came together for a three-hour seminar entitled Reading Re-Visited:  A Re-Evaluation of the Use of Books in the Modern Homeschool.  Liz, Emily and I feel a burden to spread the message that reading is in trouble and, consequently, our culture is in trouble.  Liz recently wrote an article on her blog summarizing the seminar and offering a challenge to anyone who senses the same need to make a difference through the written word.  I invite you over to her blog and encourage you to take her up on her challenge. 

Living Books Library

Another Golden Age?

Some interesting and encouraging conversations have been happening in my library lately.  Usually they begin with a child asking if I have a book on some obscure topic, often an animal, scientific concept or some little known event in history they have uncovered but can only find a few factoids about.  After an extensive search, I conclude that I do not.  Why don't they write one?  

Most often I'm met with a giggle but a few times I've gotten a wide-eyed curious response.  Really?  Could one of these well-read, articulate children be the next Robert McClung, Lois Lenski, Kate Seredy or Arthur Ransome?  My answer is YES!

Children brought up on living books are uniquely equipped to be writers of living books.  If you read biographies of the authors we love you will often find that they were surrounded by books, parents who loved to read and to read to their children.  These budding authors grew up with stories inside them waiting to be told.  Lists of dry facts were appalling to them.  Clothing these facts in story made the facts come alive, drew the reader in and helped the reader build relationships with the subject.

Sometimes I'm asked what recommendations I would give to children who desire to write.  My simple answer is to read.  But beyond that, I suggest that children read with a purpose.  Notice how an author like McClung teaches many facts through the story of Ruby Throat, for example.  Perhaps make a list while reading of all the facts.  It is amazing what can be learned through story.

Secondly, narrate.  This is simply telling back what has been read.  Read a portion, a short one at first, then tell it back with as much detail as possible.  When this becomes easier, try written narrations.  

Oddly enough, nature study is a wonderful tool for training good writers.  Nature study (or picture study, or observing anything closely enough to notice detail) can open our eyes to things we never saw before.  Close observation to detail and recording it through sketching or writing in a notebook causes us to notice deeply and think deeply.

Finding a topic of interest for which no interesting living books can be found is the perfect time to try writing one.  If you have been reading and narrating from the best living book authors, noticing the descriptive details they include as well as observing nature and the details God included, you can then use those techniques to transform the list of facts you have into a story to bring them to life.

The years between about 1900-1970 were special years in the life of books.  A plethora of exceptional living books were being written for children.  Michelle Miller, author of Truthquest History, calls this time the golden age of children's literature.  Since this time,  though there are more books for children being published now than ever before, there are few of them worthy of being called living.  Perhaps this will change in the years to come.  Perhaps God is preparing the children in my library and others like it to usher in another golden age.

Do you have other advice for encouraging and equipping the next generation of writers?  Please share.

Vacation reads

Because we farm, we rarely get a vacation treat.  It usually only happens when the cows are dry which we strive to make happen in the winter.  Lord willing, we will be basking on the beach very soon.  In January??

So what do you do when you go to the beach in January?  READ, of course!  Here is a portion of my stash to keep me occupied.

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry - Berry is a newly-discovered author for me.  I've had his books on my shelves for awile but have not taken the time to get to know his writings.  My loss.  Hannah Coulter is a wonderful fiction story which takes place in Berry's well-known town of Port William in rural Kentucky.  Full of wisdom, strength and gratitude, Hannah Coulter is fast becoming one of my favorite heroines.

The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry - Berry is a proific writer of, not only fiction, but poetry and agrarian essays.  This volume is the latter.  From the back cover, Berry looks at why agriculture is becomming culturally irrelevant, and at what cost.  What are the forces of social disintegration, and how might they be reversed?  How might men and women live together in ways that are to the benefit of both?  How does the corporate takeover of social institutions and economic practices contribute to the destruction of human and natural environments?  Through his staunch support of local economies, his defense of farming communities, and his call for family integrity, Berry emerges as the champion of responsibilities and priorities that serve the health, vitality and happiness of the whole community of creation.

Of Other Worlds by C.S. Lewis - This is in preparation for an upcoming mid-winter reading conference I'm speaking at in February.  Very thought-provoking, especially the chapter entitled "On Three Ways of Writing for Children."  Other chapters include topics discussing fairy tales, science fiction, etc.

Towards a Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason - This is in part as preparation for our next meeing and, in part, the wisdom contained there.

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit - I can't forget my children.  This is our current read-aloud.

Happy Jack by Thornton Burgess - We love Burgess!  These are short, delightful reads for us.  Perfect for a vacation.

In addition, I'm taking my iPad along to fill in with other essays and articles on reading and the culture as time allows.  

Lest you think I've forgotten, my Bible will also be tucked in.  I'm trying to read the Word through in a year for 2013.  I haven't done that in awhile and do not want to get a week behind!

We will spend time playing in the sand, as well as a favorite toss-the-shell game (and hope the seagulls don't steal our shells again!)  We'll talk and laugh and relax!  We're praying for a special time of refreshement.  Praying times of refreshing for all of you as well.  And if the Lord wills it, I will be back in a week or two.