Historic Summer Lessons at the Estate

[1936 Home Schooling in PA: Carl Mydens: Library of Congress]

With political upheaval happening all over America, our religious heritage must be taught repeatedly to the next generation.  Starting today, and during the entire month of July, I will be reading and teaching my last Home Schooled Student from Marilyn Boyer's Book, For You They Signed.  I bought this a few years ago, at a great discount from the Boyers, when I had money. It is an incredible investment.

Last Independence day, John (15) and I read The Declaration of Independence (1776) and studied all the signatures (in the beginning of Marilyn's Book).  We also read about the life of one of the signers.  It was thrilling, sad, and convicting.  This year, we will spend the month reading the entire book. This will become a tradition in our family - to remember, and to apply it to our  lives.

In this culture of endless entertainment - video games, computers, cell phones and movies, it is often hard to get students to sit still, to reflect, to concentrate and to think.  It is essential that we provide a routine of quiet study time, even if there are distractions happening all around us.  To be quiet and read despite the culture around us, is one of the greatest needs of our time.  We Home Schooling Mothers have to find a way to make it happen.

To Teach children to focus, we can play games of mental math drills, spelling drills and Bible trivia.  Many years ago, I had a group of children I was tutoring.  I also had an adjoining room full of preschoolers who were loudly playing.  The students sat in a row and had to listen to my random questions and answer as quickly as possible.  One of the children (around age 12) kept laughing and was distracted by the noise of the other children. We had fun, but I kept encouraging him and practicing with him, how to "tune out" the noise, and focus on the drills.   It was a wonderfully, productive afternoon.  We must teach our children to tune out the distractions around us, so they can learn and study essential truths.

John and I will spend a little time in the late morning, reading Marilyn's book.  We will find time in the twilight hours, and we will find time in the parlour, sitting in our antique chairs while supper is cooking. We will find the time and the concentration  to read the entire book and to reflect on the amazing Christian History of our nation.  I am sure we will be talking about it with guests and family members. It will spread, and it will infect us with courage and bravery to live God's way, even if no one else in this Country seems to.

Blessings
Mrs. White




For More information about Marilyn's book, visit her store: "For You They Signed"


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The Homeschool Letters

My youngest student is a teenage soon-to-be man.    I have been working with him all his life, and he has made tremendous progress. This student is my only one out of five, who was learning disabled, and wasn't able to learn to read well until he was 10 years old.  It just didn't click for him until then.  Day after day, year after year, from the time he was 5, I worked with him.  Now, all these years later, he reads the KJV Bible fluently.  But we still have such a long way to go.  The difficulty is understanding our relationship.  I am his Mother. He is growing up and will be a man.  He doesn't always want to do things my way.  He sometimes senses that I am "nagging" him in our little school at home.  I must adjust.

I realized that we need to communicate in a different way.  We need a way that will work, or his education with me will not progress.    The way I have discovered is through letters.

For a student to learn, he must have time to think.  He must have time to seek out his education.  He must have time and quiet to evaluate and analyze.  He must study and solve.  How can this happen knowing his mother is hovering nearby waiting to "help?"  This is why I have backed away.  I will let him stumble and struggle while he learns the skill of learning for himself, rather than learning for me.

On each weekday morning, I have a set of letters waiting for him.  These are formal letters, with dates and indented paragraphs, and a proper signature.  The letters are instructions for the day, where to find the books he needs, and a little chart to show him a specific lesson I would have showed him in person.  He will use these letters to guide him through his homeschool day.  He will also take notes and write me back, telling me what he learned, and telling me what he needs help with.

He will also see the chalkboard, with problems and puzzles to solve.  They will appear "mysteriously" on the board because I will write them when no one is around to see me.  This adds intrigue and adventure to his learning. 

Each night, I will read his letters to me and check his books.  I will then write back, explaining problems he had trouble with, and giving him the new day's directions. 

As he learns to work all day long, without a hovering mother, he will begin to grow and think more independently.  He will acquire mighty skills he needs in order to be a man.  He will become less dependent on me.  He will also rise in wisdom and knowledge because there is a sense of intrigue in these letters and secret chalkboard puzzles, which will create in him a thirst for learning. 

These Homeschool Letters are my key to finishing the last few years of his education.  I am stepping back, while he is stepping up.   This is the last phase of my mothering of a child.


Blessings
Mrs. White



For Home-keeping Inspiration, order my book - For The Love of Christian Homemaking. 


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Homeschooling at the Library

When home got too difficult, distracting and unfriendly- to- quiet for my youngest homeschooler (15), I packed up his books and took him to the library.   Every morning, we got dressed up and took his books to the large, elegant library in town.  We went upstairs in the antique building with all its stately furniture, and sat in a large room, for 2 hours, and did his studies.  It was inspiring!

It seemed like we were in Boston, sitting in one of the rooms at Harvard College. (Okay, I have a vivid imagination!)  But the environment of that library inspired us to want to learn. . . To want to be quiet and to really study.   While my teenager worked on his books, his math and his writing, I crocheted or read from John Wesley's journals.  I sat across the table from my student and was available at any moment to help him.  But we mostly worked quietly and independently because that is how the best of learning takes place - when one is thinking and analyzing on one's own.

At times we would take breaks. I would look at the archives of historic books in the vaults, or take in the old artwork on the walls.  My student would walk through the different rooms and see what kinds of books were available. Then we would get back to our quiet little world of learning.

This daily excursion went on for months.  All too soon, the season changed and many new patrons were arriving to use computers. The tables and desks in every room were crowded with people needing wifi, and that took away the beauty and the silence of the inspired world of old fashioned learning.  So we stopped going.

I am remembering this today because, once again, my home has become crowded with noise, distractions and a great many people. The environment has become unfriendly to education.  So I must find a way to turn my own stately old home into a library of sorts. I will work on enticing the family to want to sit and learn in any of the rooms. I must pull out exciting literature, decorate the walls with art that makes one think, and try my very best to compete with the allurement of video games, computers and television. Somehow, I will make my home into a pleasant type of library that is far more interesting than the distractions that go on here.  And once I set my mind to do this, the happiness it brings me will be infectious!  All the children will think learning is pleasant, and that studying is delightful.  Even if it is only for 2 hours each day. 

Blessings
Mrs. White

Never Forget This - Education Must Not Be Rushed.

The Comfort of Home - The Light in the Window.

No Chores For Me - Mother's Cleaning Recovery.





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