Questions and CONVINCE ME!

It is enough.  It is okay to wait, to give them time to be children and to mature.  Think about it this way – you CAN teach a baby or toddler to read.  I’ve seen it done.  It’s a whole lot of work and their understanding lags far behind their ability to sight read words.  OR you can wait until a child is 5 or 6.  It is still a lot of work.  But easier than teaching a toddler to read.  OR you can wait until a child is ready (whatever age that may be, and it will vary) and they will learn to read in a short time with consistent practice.  Why?  Because they are developmentally ready.  I have had kids all over the place in learning to read (and I’m working with child #5 of 9 currently).  This example is even more true for abstract concepts like grammar!  Yes, a child can memorize the definition of a verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, etc.  But they are just parroting back to you what they memorized, there is not a deep understanding.  So why waste your time and theirs?  Traditional grammar curricula teaches the same basic concepts over and over and over for 10-12 grades, adding a tiny bit new each year, but mostly reviewing the same basics.  Why not wait until a child is old enough to study grammar and grasp it well?  Imagine how much easier a 10 or 14 year old would grasp concepts.  You wouldn’t need to repeat the same topics year after year after year (after year…).  It works!

For science – it’s okay to let your child explore topics they are interested in!  If that is space, or robots, or chemical reactions then go for it.  But kids are concrete.  Nature is hands on, see-able, touch-able.  It is concrete! So it is a wonderful place to start and there is so much to study and explore in nature that you could easily stick with that for years and not run out of new things to learn about.  I happen to study other science topics too with my kids that are 8 and under – like their bodies, and building things!  Most of my kids love nature study and hands on concrete things like studying the human body and building things.  A few have asked on occasion for more science and I’ve obliged those children.

Math is the boogey man for so many of us!  Will rushing and pushing through the curriculum that is working help him UNDERSTAND and grasp the concepts well, to master them?  No.  And really, you want him to truly master these basics because everything else is easier and faster when you don’t need to use your fingers to figure out basic addition, subtraction, etc.  So give him time to go at his pace.  If you really want to finish one lesson in a day consider breaking it up into two sessions – that is okay to do if he’ll let you sit him down for math twice a day.  But my guess is he won’t be thrilled with that idea.  😉  Consider not taking a break from math during the summer – but keep half length lessons going and over a few years time he’ll actually end up ahead.  I started my oldest over at the very beginning with math in 3rd grade.  We went back to kindergarten/1st grade concepts after taking 6 months of a complete break from all math.  We just kept plugging along during all seasons at math and she ‘caught up’ without stressing about hurrying through over the course of a few years.  She’s a 9th grader now doing Algebra 1 just fine.  Math isn’t her best subject, she doesn’t love it, but she can do it without tears and feels a sense of accomplishment when she ‘does hard things’.

((HUGS)) It is such a jump of the beaten path at first to slow down to your child’s pace.  But it is so worth it!

More and more I’m thinking that just sitting down with a book to read together, narrating it and discussing it are enough. But then, I worry that he’ll miss out on all these critical thinking skills like comprehension, inference, analyzing, discerning etc…

Narration covers all of that and more. If your son cannot narrate the material and he is listening/paying attention, then he probably is not comprehending it. However, if he can tell you a few things about the reading, whether or not the character made good choices and why or why not, how he would’ve handled  the situation, – I would say that he IS covering all those critical thinking areas.  There are some many ways to get a narration and all of them will build those skills.

My CM discussion group recently discussed narration and one of the ladies shared five questions that she uses to help get those skills going that she got from the Teaching From Rest website/book/Reading Aloud Revival. They included:

1. How is X like Y?

2. How is X different from Y?

3. What other story does this remind you of?

4. What do you think about what he did? Should he have done that?

5. Who was the most _______ in the story?  (Scary, brave, etc.)

6. What would you have done in his place?

Don’t moralize in these discussions – instead narrate with him and you will enjoy these conversations and learn to “deep-down” trust the methods.

Some reading has been suggested, but have you ever read the book For The Children’s Sake? The author’s name escapes me at the moment. That was the book that convinced me! I had been a public school teacher for seven years. When expecting our first child, we made the decision to homeschool. Based on my experiences, I knew what I did NOT want to do, but I really had no idea that there was another way other than the school-at-home approach. I started researching and came across brief explanations of CM philosophy/methods, but when I found For The Children’s Sake at a public library lightbulbs went off. I knew this was IT! 🙂

I also recommend Charlotte Mason’s 6th volume-A Philosophy of Education. Karen Glass (a long time CM homeschooler) has modernized it and made it more accessible to modern day readers. Its called Mind to Mind.

Charlotte’s books are available to read free online through Amblesideonline.