The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week...

I have not been feeling well which means not much of anything has gotten done. 

In our homeschool this week...

Since I haven’t been feeling well…we didn’t get much school done either.  My kids got all their online class work done but everything they do with me didn’t get much attention.

My favorite thing this week was...

My fourth grader had to do a presentation about the sun for her co-op class.  She’s never done a presentation before and required lots of help.  I was resting and when I finally dragged myself into the schoolroom to give her a hand, there where my older two daughters helping her find interesting facts about the sun and printing out pictures for her display board.  Love it!

What's working/not working for us...

It’s not working that I’m not feeling well.  :P  Besides that I have been happy with this school year so far and our curriculum.  I THINK I’ve finally given up my perfectionistic attitudes about homeschooling and have learned to ride the ups and downs of each day.  After 14 some years of homeschooling, I find that it is a constant “falling off the horse” and getting back on again.  It doesn’t look like the cover of the Teaching Home….and if you know what the Teaching Home is then you have been around for quite a while.  :)  But it’s all of God’s grace…and sometimes I think that, no one is more familiar with God’s grace on a daily, hourly, minute by minute basis, than a homeschooling mom.

  

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I have tried to follow the Classical Method of educating my children in our homeschool.  It is a lofty goal and I fall far short.  As I study Classical Education, I find that there are different understandings of it in the homeschool community.  I see two camps.  The first I call the Nouveau Classical Educators or what I also like to call the "drill them and kill them" crowd.  Then there are those that seek to find the ancient definition of Classical Education which focuses on literature, dialogue, and the training of the appetites.  This is the camp that I try to align myself with.  The more I understand what true Classical Education is the more I see that Charlotte Mason was a true Classical Educator. 

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

“Christian Classical Education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty by means of the seven liberal arts and the four sciences so that, in Christ, the student is enabled to better know, glorify, and enjoy God.” Andrew Kern of CiRCE Institute