Some notes on what we're covering and why

Thanks for the emails, those who have sent them! I'm glad people seem to be enjoying this format so much. Some of the questions and comments that have been sent my way have inspired me to write up a little (or a big, knowing my tendency to wordiness) something about what material we're covering, why, how, etc.

Right now, at the preschool level, we're following a decidedly low-key learning strategy. At four years old, my child is so full of wonder and curiosity about her world that it would, it seems to me, take enormous effort NOT to follow her lead into a myriad of daily learning experiences. I'm inclined to believe that all neurotypical preschoolers are this way, though I recognize that my expertise is limited to my child. Even today, during lunch, we explored spiders in great detail as a result of Isabel's undying desire to know. Her simple observation of a spider outside our dining room window led to a series of questions: How does a spider spin a web? What is the web made of? What does the web do? Does the spider have a house or nest? How many legs does a spider have? What do spiders eat? How do they catch their food? Do spiders have teeth?

To resist the questions of a precocious four-year-old would require greater effort - and would surely be a lot more dull - than to simply answer what I can and for the rest say, How about we look that up on the computer? or, I think there's a section on spiders in your Berenstain Bears science book - want to go see? It is not a difficult thing to sit with children on the floor as they "play" their toy pianos and say, "Hey, do want to learn what a scale is?" Or to respond to the restless child waiting for lunch, "Sure, come help me make the sandwiches. While we're doing that, do you want to know what peanut butter is made of?" All of these relatively small efforts, just part of daily life, are learning. Even though I didn't begin self-identifying as a homeschooler until this last year (when people out and about started asking Isabel if she goes to school), our homeschooling work began years ago, when we'd spend an hour looking at and talking about lions at the zoo, or researching the water cycle when she asked where rain comes from.

This is how the great majority of our learning happens. The subject matter we pursue, presently, is driven by Isabel's interests. If her curiosity about spiders persists at all past today's lunchtime discussion, next week we will most likely study arachnids, possibly in conjunction with insects. This week's work on mammals was driven by Isabel's questions regarding two topics - Do all animals feed babies from their breasts (as Aidan is fed)?, and an overwhelming desire to learn everything she possibly could about her new hamster (aptly named Tracy Turnblad - who knew a hamster could be so loud?).

I do enforce a short duration of desk work each day - currently I aim for 20 - 30 minutes. This is primarily because the number one goal of our schooling, right now, is to get Isabel reading fluently. She is developmentally ready for it and wants to learn. Reading is, above all else, The Most Important Thing. Children (and adults) who cannot read fluently cannot succeed to their potential - not in any other subject, not in college, not in careers. In my opinion, of course. Not only does an inability to read well rob them of the truly wonderful pastime of reading, of thinking, of being part of The Great Conversation that engages minds and hearts from the duration of modern history through today, it also steals their ability to DO. To do what? Well, to do whatever. Whatever one might want or dream to do. Anything, everything, nothing. It doesn't matter what. What matters is that an inability to read puts an end to the question before it can even be asked.

Reading is where it's at. And that is what our desk work focuses on. In addition to using deskwork to achieve reading fluency (and I should mention here that nothing - not even the ever-important reading - is pushed in this house prior to full developmental readiness), the minimum 20 daily minutes of desk time we log now is part of a gradual introduction to the 60-90 minutes of desk time that will be necessary to cover the material in a specific curriculum come grade 1.

Because of her own aptitudes, interests and abilities, we also work on handwriting and basic numeracy as time allows and Isabel desires. Once phonics basics are more firmly in place and don't need to be as much of a daily focus, handwriting will become a higher priority and will be part of daily schoolwork. Around that same time, maths will also become a daily activity.

When Isabel turns 6 - approximately grade 1 - we will begin filing legal paperwork and reporting to the state. This is also the age at which we will begin a more structured, formalized curriculum.

The educational philosophy that resonates most with me, and that I plan to use with my children, is the classical approach dictated by the trivium. The trivium is a three-stage approach to education that covers material following a chronological, historical timeline of four years. These four years are repeated three times throughout the child's academic career. In short, the same material will be covered, in varying degrees of detail and complexity, three times between first and twelfth grades. Grages 1-4 focus on learning and memorizing (when necessary) information, grades 5-8 emphasize learing to recognize patterns, relationships and the overall framework within which all knowledge resides, and grades 9-12 involve learning to critically analyze information, develop informed opinions and express oneself clearly and with originality, feeling and beauty (referring to communication style). This is a Christian website - and I would not categorize us as Christian homeschoolers (though we are Christian, and are homeschoolers) - but has a nice summary of what the trivium is.

Even though Isabel is not yet 6, I still consider her to be part of the Grammar stage, as outlined in the trivium. This means that our current approach to educating her is to simply provide her with information - as much information as she wants, on whatever she wants to know, without requiring her to process, analyze or compare. Processing, analyzing and comparing will come later in her education, at a time when she is more developmentally prepared for them. Right now, she is simply learning. And no, she may not retain everything she learns now. She very likely won't remember that egg-laying mammals are called monotremes. But she will cover this information at least twice more (actually, in this case, three times more, since we haven't even embarked on a structured curriculum yet) in her schooling. Even if she doesn't remember, exposure to this information, introduction to the concepts that animals are organized into classifications and those classifications have names, will serve as the foundation upon which she will build greater, more detailed knowledge regarding biology and the animal kingdom.

I enjoy talking about why and how we homeschool, so please don't hesitate to ask questions by email or via the comments interface here on the weblog. :)