The gentle art of learning

Show me the world!

Benjamin in his Happy Place

Modeling Prom dresses for Macy’s

This fall, all three of our children headed different directions for school.  Our daughter, Amberly, began her sophomore year at a private Christian High School.  Our middle, Jonah, continued homeschooling for seventh grade.  Our youngest, Benjamin, began the year attending fifth grade at our local public elementary school.

This academic year has been a stretch.  Each child was subjected to different methods of learning.  Varied goals and standards were placed upon each one, according to their school’s philosophy of education.  We as a family scrambled to appease the education gods.

Learning has always been something that happened naturally in our home.  We like to explore the world, go places, do things, read stuff, watch stuff, play stuff and yes, learn stuff.  All of our children have embraced the world with delight since they were toddlers.  However, something strange has happened to my children since we conformed to the world’s standards of learning and dove into public and private education.

All of our children have had varied educational experiences.  My favorite, by far, though, has been home schooling.  Let me explain why.

Homeschooling offers a life of freedom of schedule, curriculum, environment, activities, and learning.  It also gave us a sense of family unity and comradery. There was not a sense of pressure or urgency.  Only an anticipation of adventure and learning.  There was no rush to finish a paper or a book or memorize some facts to be ready for the ‘test.’  We didn’t have tests.  Or grades, for that matter.

We approached learning at home in the vein of Charlotte Mason.  We read living books, practiced narration, explored nature and drew in our sketchbooks, listened to beautiful music and attended plays, read poetry and shakespeare, participated in history co-op, spanish class, and various other community-related learning experiences.  We explored a wide variety of topics and studies, enjoying them immensely.  Charlotte Mason described this sort of education as ‘presenting a feast’ before the children, and letting them partake of everything and choose which ones they love best.

living books

Due in part to home schooling, my daughter Amberly got to own a horse and participate in 4H for 5 years.  She read widely and enjoyed babysitting, started a hair clip business and a photography business, began a modeling career, and is getting straight A’s in her private Christian High School.  Sadly, her comment to me has been that being in a school environment that controls what you must read and learn and study and regurgitate has taken away her love of learning.

My son Jonah is learning guitar, practicing daily.  He mows the lawn for his dad.  He cooks and bakes.  He does projects around the house, like sanding, painting, and mending furniture.  He reupholstered our barstools, helped install hardwood floors, and is touching up our kitchen cabinets.  He has a job as a junior umpire for little league.  He is great with little kids and babies and he is super social.  He still loves learning.

Our youngest son, Benjamin, has struggled to learn to read and write.  Because he was having such a hard time, we decided to send him back to public school in 4th grade. It was clear that there was something amiss.  After a year of slow but significant growth, we completed testing that uncovered a learning disability.  Benjamin’s dyslexia hindered him in many ways in the classroom.  He was slow to complete his work, and often times frustrated that his hands were not writing what his brain was telling him to write!  There is a disconnect between what he wanted to say, and his ability to say it in writing.  However, the deeper problem that Benjamin faced was the atmosphere in the public school classroom.

Benjamin got progressively more and more stressed out as the year moved on.  He was discouraged by low grades in spelling, writing, math and comprehension.  It’s no fun to get a 2/10 on a test.  With Benjamin’s good-natured personality, he took these things in stride, but recently, enough was enough.  He was tired of sitting at his desk.  Tired of being compared to other fifth graders.  Tired of common core.  Tired of having his teacher ‘teach to the test.’  Tired of the same thing week in and week out.  Tired.  And Bored.  And Sick.  And Stressed.  And Done.

Benjamin came home with a fever on Monday.  He had a bad headache.  We still don’t know the reason he has sores on his hands and his knees are aching.  But we do know that Benjamin had enough of the public school classroom.  He needs some open air.  He needs to sleep in.  He needs play, rest, exploration, interest-based-learning.  He needs living books, and trips to the zoo.  He needs to slow down again, and bake some cookies and make a craft.  He needs to de-school, then un-school, then home-school again.

There is something to Charlotte Mason’s “gentle art of learning,” and I am hoping that Ben can rediscover it’s magic this spring.

For more information on a Charlotte Mason education, see https://simplycharlottemason.com/