The Genius Academy

There was a very interesting Private Members Bill debated by the Commons today.  The full transcript is in Hansard, but here are a few of the gems:

"People unfamiliar with the ethos behind home education might question the defensiveness of some who home educate: “Why not let the Government in if there is nothing to hide?” Of course, that refrain has seen many other freedoms cast aside over the past decade or so. Independence to pursue the choice that is right for a particular child at the speed at which that child wishes to learn is the cornerstone of home education. Home educators opted out of the system by and large because they lacked confidence in the idea of a very strict and regulated state system. That is something that has been apparent for quite some time—20 or 30 years. I am talking about the rise of the national curriculum and ever more testing, which are, understandably, concerns."

"The Government have a right only to ensure that the education that the state, predominantly via local government, provides is of good quality, and the authorities can intervene only when people are seen to be breaking the law. It is for the same reason that police do not routinely visit people’s homes to check for stolen property. Therefore, there is an overwhelming case that home educators should be allowed to get on with their lives without undue state interference."

"With regard to the other aspirations in the Every Child Matters agenda, home educators contend that they are far more likely to fulfil the Government’s objectives than the state system. Home education is personalised, child led and free from some of the detrimental effects of curriculum constraints, constant testing and standardisation. Home-schooled children can learn autonomously, often spend more time on physical activity and can learn in an environment free from bullying and peer pressure. Many studies have shown that, regardless of socio-economic background, home-educated children consistently outperform school-educated children."

"We older people, partly because of our maturer intellect, partly because of our defective education, get most of our knowledge through the medium of words. We set the child to learn in the same way, and find him dull and slow. Why? Because it is only with a few words in common use that he associates a definite meaning; all the rest are no more to him than the vocables of a foreign tongue. But set him face to face with a thing, and he is twenty times as quick as you are in knowledge about it; knowledge of things flies to the mind of a child as steel filings to magnet."

Volume 1 page 68.

I am joining in with Laura at Wasted Textbooks again this week to read through Charlotte Mason's books and what she says makes a lot of sense.  This week's reading takes us through the "Out of Door Life for the Children".  Laura and Daisy are ahead of me as ever and so eloquently explored and commented on Charlotte's work that I don't feel that I have much to add.  Hop over to Laura's blog for a real treat!

There is nothing more dull than sitting in front of books all day every day and looking out of the window at the world, just sat there waiting to explore.  Not that books don't need to be read ( I love books!), but just that they do not replace real hands on learning.  This passage reminds me that we can sometimes focus too much on bookwork and don't get out into the countryside around and about us to explore as much as we might.  We have no excuse as well!  We have so much countryside right on our doorstep and the children are out and about a lot.

The rest of the passage concentrates on what the children should know about trees and living creatures and concentrates on self discovery with encouragement from the mother (remember when this was written!).  Not much of this is new to me and certainly the concern she shows for the fact that children should be outdoors and experiencing nature is one shared by psychologists now.  One of the best books on the subject ,that I read a while ago and could do with re-reading, is "Last Child in the Woods".

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

Richard Louv

perching in a tree or nestling in heather, but muscular development comes of more active ways, and an hour or two should be spent in vigorous play; and last, and truly least, a lesson or two must be got in."Charlotte Mason

Modern Education!!!  Oh dear, my cackle can be heard in this house on many an occasion!!  So where does this leave us?  Reading this has been a timely reminder of what I have known for a long time;  that we need to make time for more nature discovery.  The weather is good at the moment and we can get out.  I am sure we are already out more than a lot of families.  We make time to go to the local nature reserves and walk out most days.  The children already spend a number of hours outside each day even when it is raining, but I am determined to be a bit more organised about our outings.  So often we spend so long deciding where to go that we lose a good chunk of time before we even get out.

This week I am armed with a detailed list of all the local nature reserves and what we can try to see at each.  Then when we can schedule in time to be out and about and we can head out and make the most of the outside classroom!  Scheduling sounds a bit artificial but if I don't schedule in time for things I want to achieve, they never happen!!

Nature's Playground

Thanks to Isobel's new found passion for stamp collecting and a very kind gift of some WHSmith vouchers, the kids have the stamp collecting bug!  Yesterday afternoon, as lunch was finished, they settled down to swap stamps and work out where they fitted in their albums.  I think a lot of my knowledge of Geography comes from a childhood passion for stamp collecting.  A huge amount of it popped back into my head as the children asked me where stamps should be placed in the albums.  This is good for someone who can't remember why she has climbed the stairs, the minute she gets to the top!!

The kids had all their geography books out, but they don't help with all the older names.  They had to delve into Encyclopedias and other reference books as well.  I watched as they shared the knowledge they had gained and helped each other along.  For instance, as you start collecting, you might make a page for Germany.  Then one of the children would realise that there are two different types of stamps for Germany.  You come across the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and a discussion develops about what happened.   We talk about the war and the division of the country;  that there was a physical wall in Berlin and that Germany was reunified in October 1990.

Now I had all sorts of activities planned for them to do, but I just left them too it and got on with the housework.  I love that about homeschooling.  We can just be so flexible and go with the flow! (and I occasionally get housework done!)

My little lady is pretty easily entertained.  She has become so used to playing whilst I work with the older children.  She is also very good at making a really big mess which can take a very long time to sort out.  She is a bright little cookie and she wants to be learning all the time.  So in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, I have packed a basket with activities that she can pick and choose from.  The idea is that she can self select as she wants to and each activity has some educational value.  Armed with a stack of ziploc bags and the laminator, off I go!

Through the Laminator

She needed a bit of help with this:-)

Some items to begin with!

The idea here is that she can start with a few items and then go off and select some more.  The collecting took her a while and she really enjoyed it!  She did need me to keep a sidewards watch on her as she tried to sink a couple of items that would not have recovered!!

Testing them out!

At the end it can all go back in the bag for her to play with as she wants.  I am building up quite a good little supply of activities.  Some require assistance and need sibling help, but she can sort most of them out on her own.

Wow what a book!  I somewhat rashly decided to read along with Laura at Wasted Textbooks even though I wasn't sure if I would have time this week to read anything at all.  After a week of play rehearsals and a ridiculous number of other things I settled down to enjoy this book.  So here I am handing on my homework late as usual :-)

There was so much to digest in this volume alone that I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the books.  If they are all like this one then I am in for a treat! 

I have never considered myself to be a Charlotte Mason educator.  I have used a lot of her methods without really realising that they came from her and the more I read, the more I like!  Not to say that some of it isn't a bit weird.  The books are old fashioned in the extreme, but the language is rich and the section we read this week was full to the brim with good advice.  I couldn't go through it all so I have just picked out one very small part.

"System––the observing of rules until the habit of doing certain things, of behaving in certain ways, is confirmed, and, therefore, the art is acquired––is so successful in achieving precise results, that it is no wonder there should be endless attempts to straiten the whole field of education to the limits of a system.

If a human being were a machine, education could do no more for him than to set him in action in prescribed ways, and the work of the educator would be simply to adopt a good working system or set of systems.

But the educator has to deal with a self-acting, self-developing being, and his business is to guide, and assist in, the production of the latent good in that being, the dissipation of the latent evil, the preparation of the child to take his place in the world at his best, with every capacity for good that is in him developed into a power.

Though system is a highly useful as an instrument of education, a 'system of education' is mischievous, as producing only mechanical action instead of the vital growth and movement of a living being."

All four of my children are different from each other.  As adults they will be able to decide how they spend their lives.  They will definitely choose different careers. Very different careers I am sure.  They have such different skills and their strengths and weaknesses are so different.  The deserve a rich and varied education that is tailored to play to their strengths and build on their weaknesses.

This hit home here as I do tend towards the schooly.  We educate according to the child, but we do use a system.  I think it has taken me a lot of de-schooling to get this far.  It is so hard to hear what school children are doing sometimes.  They do so much and I panic.  It is hard to let go of what I think I should be doing and trust what I know we need to be doing.  I want my children to be free thinking individuals who are well prepared for life.  How I do that?  I hope to find out!

Check out Wasted Textbooks for lots more rich and exciting Charlotte Mason goodness!!

There were three children who, one morning, heard on the jungle drums that the village Post Office was selling footballs for £3.  Now they had burst their football and started excitedly emptying piggy banks to find the £3.  Boy 2 hasn't saved any money and so has to borrow from Boy 1 and they set out on bikes for the shop.  The Girl has her £1 at the ready.

Now The Girl doesn't trust the jungle drums and takes extra money.  The jungle drums have been wrong before!!  (always!).  When they arrive at the shop, the ball is in fact £5 and The Girl pays the extra.

Now they need to share the cost of the ball evenly.  Who owes who what??

This of course does not happen in real life - just in maths text books :-)

"Critical thinking has been described as nonlinear, open-ended, and complex thinking; it allows for multiple responses, unspecified answers, various perspectives and interpretations, and recognition of order among chaos. Often regarded as equivalent to higher-level thinking, critical thinking requires individuals to engage in more complex processes, frequently connected with the upper domains of Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy (table 1): analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This kind of thinking assists individuals in their quest for greater understanding and responsible, independent inquiry."

From this website.  I have been trying to develop a critical thinking program for the children and have ended up getting embroiled in all sorts of philosophy.  My brain hurts and I am no nearer to finding what it is I need. 

We will start on our games and see where we go from there!  One step at a time and we will see where it leads....

“The illiterate of the future will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”
Alvin Toffler

Does anyone out in the bloggy-sphere do any creative thinking exercises?  I am trying to get the children to think differently about problems.  Now they are pretty good at thinking and creating and they certainly ask plenty of questions so maybe I am wasting my time or worrying unnecessarily, but I think they need to practice a bit.  A very kind neighbour gave us this book which has some fantastic games with it.  Does anyone have any other ideas? 

Edward de Bono's Mind Pack

Edward de Bono

From his website:

"The behaviour of self-organising information systems like the human brain demands new ideas and new possibilities. Otherwise we are locked into old patterns. We are also locked into selective perception which forces us to see things only through the old patterns.

Two thousand years ago China was far ahead of the rest of the world in science and technology. This rapid progress came to an end when scholars started to believe that you could move from “certainty” to “certainty”. As a result they never understood the importance of “possibility” and “hypothesis”. Progress came to a dead end. Today we are in a similar situation with the belief that analysis of information is enough."

Discuss.......:-)