Quote from Forum Archives on January 3, 2006, 4:03 pm

Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

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The Hope Chest Home School News

with Virginia Knowles

January 3, 2006

Issue #8:16

Duty and Delight

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Dear Hope Chest friends,

 

Oh my, is it 2006 already?  How time has flown since our first daughter, Mary, started kindergarten in our home school in 1992!   By the time January rolled around that school year, we had just had our fourth baby, and I would read to them all cuddled (squished is more like it) on the couch.  That's how I found myself again this morning -- reading a pile of picture books and great literature to four, then five, small children on the couch -- when Mary walked by and commented on how cozy we looked.   So I guess we are still living the memories we have from the start.  You know, there is nothing I would rather be than a home school mom, because there is certainly no more interesting job.  I get to listen to a fifth grader give a lengthy (and excited) oral narration of British history, a teenager playing Mozart and Chopin on the piano, a first grader reading easy books, a four year old counting the number of rhea eggs in the nest on a page in our picture book, a two year old exclaiming over the orange he found in the back yard, a sweet baby cooing -- and so much more!  OK, so I've gotten to hear some name calling and grumbling, too.  We're working on that.

 

We began our new semester yesterday, and it's refreshing to get back into some semblance of a routine again.  We put in a good solid morning of math, geography, history and literature, and even got out for a walk / bike ride around the block after lunch before coming back inside to read some more.  

 

This month, I'd like to bring you a piece called "Duty and Delight."  After that, I  want to share a few extra short things related to my children's "delights" in life, as well as a related excerpt from Farmer Boy.

 

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Duty and Delight

by Virginia Knowles

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[This article is adapted and excerpted from my book Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to Fifth Grade.   You can check it out at www.TheHopeChest.net/CSE.html]

We’ve used so many different methods over the years that I must say we use the Eclectic Approach: attempting to combine the interest and organization of unit study, the natural methods and love for beauty of Charlotte Mason, the order and discipline of traditional education, the freedom and imagination of relaxed home schooling, the scholarship of the classical approach, and the convenience and fun of computers. I cherish the freedom to pick and choose from whatever will work with each child. If you ask me what my philosophy of education is, I would say:

“God is the Creator of the Universe, the Author of Life, the Prime Moving Force in History, and the Ultimate Teacher. He has chosen my husband, children and me to be members of one family, to live and learn together. In his grace and wisdom, he has given parents the awesome responsibility to train and educate children so they can know, worship, and serve him in practical ways all of their lives. Our children can learn by being with us, watching us, listening to us, conversing with us, and working with us as we go about our daily lives. Through personal relationships, reading, and writing, they can acquire and share knowledge and skills with others. They can gain direct experience with the world around them through hands-on discovery and projects. They can learn self-discipline as they follow plans that are not all of their own choosing, but they will also enjoy the satisfaction which comes from individually pursuing their own God-given interests and talents.”

You might think that means I have it all together – that I am always organized, that my children are always productive. Not so! I must admit that we are not particularly self-disciplined. I find the constant necessity to regroup throughout the year and try to shape up some lax habits that easily creep in, especially toward the end of the fall semester. After spending the holidays relaxing and pretty much doing whatever we want, it’s sometimes hard to get back in the swing of things and do what we need to do!

The dilemma for many home school moms is: “Do I make my children learn what they need to know, or let them learn about what excites them?” The answer is YES... to both! It’s not an either/or situation. Education needs to be a balance of duty and delight. I think of duties as those things that must be done, the fixed expenses or work in our daily routines. Delights, on the other hand, are the things we naturally want to do, our discretionary activities, our play. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” the saying goes, but I must add that “All play and no work makes Jack a useless boy.” How do we find the optimum combination between duty and delight?

Realize the value of your work, and take joy in the accomplishment. The ideal is always to love what we do and do what we love, but it just doesn’t always work that way naturally. It takes attitude changes. As we think about the benefits of what we must do, then we can enjoy it more. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” He is also our blessed example in this, “who for the joy set before him, endured the cross...” (Hebrews 12:2) Let us be an example to our children!

Make your “delights” more productive. Use them to build relationships, serve other people, learn new skills, and improve health. Examples of “diligent delights” for children include cooking with mom, taking a brisk family walk around the neighborhood, planting flowers, making cards or gifts, or practicing math while keeping score in a game.

Balance the day to make time for duties and delights. Charlotte Mason always recommended doing the more structured lessons in the morning, and then leaving the afternoon free for “purposeful” delights such as pleasure reading, nature walks, art, music, tea time, etc. As I now tell my children: “Get my assignments done in the morning, and the afternoon is yours for anything at least halfway educational!” If they don’t get their morning assignments done, this can eat into their “delight directed” time.

Accept that learning can be fun, but it doesn’t always need to be fun. Yes, our children should have a sense of adventure and imagination in their studies. However, if they demand that school always be “a thrill a minute” without any drudge whatsoever, not only will you burn out trying to be their entertainment director, but they will miss out on some very crucial knowledge and skills that can only be gained by disciplined work. In future years, they will not likely have the perseverance necessary to succeed in higher education, career, and family life. A person who bails out when the going gets rough will not make a worthy disciple of Jesus Christ. He will be like the barren ground littered with rocks and thorns instead of good, fruitful soil that multiplies an abundant crop. (Matthew 13:1-23)

Allow your child to choose some studies, but oversee the results. In the unschooling model of education, the child chooses what to learn and when to learn it. Yes, it works for some people, depending on the motivation level of the child. I think this would be most successful if the child sets a plan for each day, instead of flitting aimlessly from one thing to the next without really finishing anything at all. He should also still be accountable to the parent for progress, especially in weak areas. Home school author Gregg Harris has often taught about delight directed studies, where the child chooses assignments based on his own interests. We have done this to a limited extent in our family, especially in the middle and upper grades. Younger children usually require more direct input from their parents with this. Those who have not yet developed self-discipline need intervention. If your child can stay busy doing what needs to be done, that’s great! But if he can’t motivate himself, he’ll need a little pressure from you.

Start a short seatwork time each day. While it is not wise to push massive amounts of written work in the early years, it does not hurt to sit down and write for a little while every day. This could be just five or ten minutes for a preschooler to practice writing a few lines of letters. In early elementary they might have a paragraph of copywork, or a short list of spelling words, in addition to a math workbook. These focused activities will help to lengthen a short attention span. Most children can, with proper discipline, handle at least a brief session of some focused work each day. It says to the child, “I have confidence that you can do this!”

Transition into more structured assignments as needed. In the primary grades, you can let children read just about as much as they want, knowing they will naturally pick up most of their language arts skills this way. However, they still need to be willing and able to complete whatever written assignments you deem necessary for them. This is especially true as they approach fourth grade, which is when many children can be expected to concentrate more on structured materials. Like it or not, you will need some sort of paper trail for their portfolios, including written language arts samples. When I determine that a child needs to make the transition to more formal assignments, I usually find it necessary to plan very specific lessons. I try to target the subjects which they typically neglect, while letting them continue autonomously in the areas where they excel. I might buy a small brightly colored workbook, or assign page numbers in an easy text, or design brief Charlotte Mason style grammar lessons somehow related to their favorite school subjects. Then we work one-on-one for several weeks until they are done. Children who are not accustomed to this will fuss about it for a while. Don’t let this deter you! It takes an adjustment to break into a new routine, but once they get there, it gets a lot more comfortable for both of you. You will need to be right by their side for a while until they can do it themselves. This takes a time commitment on your part, but it will pay off in the months and years to come!

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CLASSICAL MUSIC WEB SITES

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Rachel, who is almost 15, has found some web sites where you can print off classical music, which is a huge savings for us.  She oftens hears a snatch of something she wants to play, then hunts down the title of it, does a web search, listens to the music, downloads, prints, and presto, she's playing it within minutes! 

 

I'm turning this article over to Rachel now!

 

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I haven't completely searched the websites; I usually just check into the classical music sections.  Below are a few websites I've found along with a quick note describing it.  I would suggest checking all of these sites -- you never know what you might find!)

www.mfiles.co/uk (I checked the classical selection and they have a long list of composers from which to choose a piece to listen to or print.)

www.8notes.com (this has a nice selection; what they don't have, they send you to another site for)

www.sheetmusicusa.com (this doesn't have a HUGE selection, but you can easily find what you want, hear it, and print it.)

www.sheetmusicplus.com (I haven't looked around this much so I'm not totally sure if you can get much free stuff here; looks like a good site though)

www.music-scores.com (there are some pieces here non-members can download, but you are usually limited to a certain amount per day)

www.irish-celtic-sheet-music.com (as you can tell by the name, Irish music - haven't checked much into it though)

www.musicaviva.com (haven't checked much into this - you might want to browse through it.)

www.musicnotes.com (you can hear and print the first page for free -- nice to see what a piece is like.)

When you download a PDF file to print it, save a copy to your computer and your Favorites so you can have it for the future.  If the piece is just on a normal webpage, save it in your Favorites.  I find these two options very helpful for future reference.  Also, I would suggest downloading the Scorch player so you can see and hear the piece as you watch the notes played. You can download for free here: http://www.sibelius.com/products/scorch/ 

 

With many of these websites, you have to be a member to get a lot of the stuff - I noticed with Musicnotes, though, that if you're a member (I don't believe it costs much per year), you can just print off the whole piece (if it's in digital format) instead of having to buy it from some other seller and pay for shipping.  This should be especially great if you buy a lot of sheet music.  What you pay for membership is probably worth it, considering you won't have to pay for shipping and you can get it immediately at a low price.  The same is with Music-scores, to whom you pay membership but I don't think you have to pay for individual pieces on top of that.  I'm not sure which other websites do this.

 

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Thanks, Rachel!

 

 

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TEN KIDS, NO PETS?

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Micah, our first grader, is quite talented in drawing.   A couple of weeks before Christmas, he sketched a very elaborate scene from our kitchen -- down to the basket of hot pads sitting atop the microwave and the calendar hanging on the wall.  But right in the middle of the kitchen was a cute picture of a dog -- which we don't have!  I'm not much of a pet person, really.   All of our small pets (bunny, hamsters, gerbils et al) have long since died off, except the two fish that Lydia lovingly tends in her bedroom.  I don't like extra noise and mess (we have enough of that already with ten kids!) and can mentally calculate vet bills and pet food costs -- but this picture of Micah's touched my heart.  He and the rest of the kids all really wanted a dog.  I started thinking that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea, and in fact, I started getting excited about it.  A small cadre of us snuck off to the humane society and some pet shops to look, and.....  we didn't get a dog.   The sounds and smells brought me back to reality.  I'm not ready for that extra stress yet. So instead of finding a live puppy under the Christmas tree, Micah found a realistic looking stuffed dog, and he was thrilled.  Fast forward to yesterday.   He was on my bed kissing baby Melody, when suddenly he turned to me with adoring eyes and said, "She's much better than the dog I wanted!" 

 

Well, my Aunt Nancy must have heard that we were thinking of getting a dog, because she forwarded this joke:

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

One afternoon, I was in the back yard hanging the laundry when an old, tired-looking dog wandered into the yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home. But when I walked into the house, he followed me, sauntered down the hall and fell asleep in a corner. An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out. The next day he was back. He resumed his position in the hallway and slept for an hour.

This continued for several weeks. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: "Every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap."

The next day he arrived with a different note pinned to his collar: "He lives in a home with ten children - he's trying to catch up on his sleep."

 

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DUTY AND DELIGHT IN FARMER BOY

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As many of you know, the boys and I are using the Adventures in My Father's World curriculum (www.mfwbooks.com).  The literature selection assigned for this week (and the rest of the month) is Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  We were only "supposed to" read one chapter today, but the boys were "delighted" with the book and begged for me to read more.  Hence, we finished up chapter five while Rachel was working on her classical music web links above.  One passage particularly related to the theme of "Duty and Delight" in the teaching process, so I'm sharing it with you here.  I encourage you to think about how duty and delight factored in as Almanzo and his oxen calves each learned what they needed to know.  As a word of introduction, let me say that it is Almanzo's 9th birthday, and as a present he has received an oxen yoke handmade by his father.  He is allowed to stay home from school to start training Star and Bright. We pick up the story after the oxen have been yoked...

Father helped Almanzo push them, till they stood properly side by side again.  Then he said, "Well, son, I'll leave you to figure it out." And he went into the barn. 

 

Then Almanzo knew that he was really old enough to do important things all by himself.  He stood in the snow and looked at the calves, and they stared innocently at him.  He wondered how to teach them what "Giddap!" meant.  There wasn't any way to tell them.  But he must find some way to tell them, "When I say 'Giddap!' you must walk straight ahead."

 

Almanzo thought awhile, and then he left the calves and went to the cows' feed-box, and filled his pockets with carrots.  He came back and stood as far in front of the calves as he could, holding the rope in his left hand.  He put his right hand into the pocket of his barn jumper.  Then he shouted, "Giddap!" and he showed Star and Bright a carrot in his hand.  They came eagerly.

 

"Whoa!" Almanzo shouted when they reached him, and they stopped for the carrot.  He gave each of them a piece, and when they had eaten it he backed away again, and putting his hand in his pocket he shouted: "Giddap!"  It was astonishing how quickly they learned that "Giddap!" meant to start forward, and "Whoa!" meant to stop.  They were behaving as well as grown-up oxen when Fatehr came to the barn door and said: "That's enough, son."

 

Almanzo did not think it was enough, but of course he could not contradict Father.

 

"Calves will get sullen and stop minding you if you work them too long at first," Father said.  "Besides, it's dinner-time."

 

Almanzo could hardly believe it.  The whole morning had gone in a minute.

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I hope that this issue of the Hope Chest was a delight to you!  Please pray for me as I prepare the next issue, which is a special one!

 

In His Sovereign Grace,

 

Virginia Knowles

www.TheHopeChest.net