In just about every education class I took, I was required to write a philosophy of education. I don't even remember what was in my philosophy of education, but at best, it was naive.
I found that being in the classroom helped to develop my philosophy more than any education class ever did. Maybe that's backwards, but there are things you can't quite appreciate when you live in the realm of the theoretical.
The same has been true of homeschooling. There have been plenty of hard things about starting right now, having three younger children chief among them. One of the blessings, though, is that kindergarten really requires very little. This has given me time and space to figure out what I actually believe about education. As a result, I think we have worked our way into a philosophy of education, or at least a dream of what learning could be.
Here is what we are coming to believe:
Learning should breed fascination. Children are wired to wonder. It seems to me we often hammer this out of them in a more formal setting. Sit there! Do this worksheet! Tell me the answer! Take this test! I want them to learn the fundamentals, but I also I want them to learn to appreciate beauty, to pursue what fascinates them, to wonder at the world God has made and the people he put in it. It seems to me that a good education finds a way to lay the necessary foundation and to allow a child to do what a child does best: wonder, investigate, ask, and dream.
Learning ought to be enjoyable. Not everything that everything we do has to be fun. Math facts will be learned. Words will be sounded out. Sentences will be diagrammed. They probably won't like all of it. Even so, I want there to be plenty of fun built into our schooling. Some of the most rewarding moments this year have involved an activity based on a book we read together. We made a quilted pillow from family fabric scraps when we studied The Rag Coat. We went to the Caterpillar museum in Peoria and played with the excavator simulator when we read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. There is an igloo going up in my backyard because we just read The Very Last First Time. We won't always be able to do so many activities, but it's been an enjoyable and learning-filled way to start our homeschooling journey. I hope we continue to enjoy our learning along the way.
A love of learning is very closely connected to a love of reading. My kids have learned so much this year just by reading good books. We've learned about topics ranging from robots to butterflies, from rocks to Arctic migration, from tide pools to the Statue of Liberty. Ava's been particularly interested in learning about people in history, and we've gotten great biographies of people like Pocahontas, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, the Wright Brothers, and Nellie Bly. We are all of us learning to be intrigued.
They ought to be building a foundation now that helps them to learn to think critically. There will be a lot of memorization at this point in their academic careers, and to be honest, they like it. They are good at it. In addition to that, though, I want to begin training them to think critically and solve problems.
Learning involves taking risks. Risks are a central part of the learning process. I don't want my kids to be afraid of them. If they are afraid to attempt something because they might fail, they will stunt their growth. I know; I did it. I want to create an environment where risk is ok. There's not a lot riding on whether or not they sound out a word incorrectly or write their sixes backwards. We gently correct errors as they happen and we move on. I assess them every day, in every activity we do. I respond to their needs and encourage them as they need it. I don't have to test them, and it's such a relief for school not to be about that.
Book learning shouldn't be all they do. Imaginative play, Legos, playing with your baby sister, and helping around the house are all important. Homeschooling isn't only about academics; it's about shepherding my kids when they are learning to read and when they're fighting with each other and when they are trying to give up because I've asked them to do something hard. All of it's important. It's about who they are becoming.
I think all of this most closely aligns me with a literature-based (specifically a Charlotte Mason) approach. Reading an explanation of the method, I found myself thinking: this is us. The focus on reading, the time in nature, appreciation for art and music--it's what I want for our kids. I think they'll enjoy it.
I'm thinking of using Ambleside Online for curriculum next year. We've been using Five in a Row, which we have enjoyed immensely, but it is unit-study based, which makes learning a bit more scattershot than I would like it to be long term. Ambleside seems to be a solid curriculum, and as an added bonus, it's free (other than buying the books/paying the library fines). We will adapt it; I still want to use Singapore Math and perhaps add a history or science curriculum. We will probably still use our own bible study materials. But I'm excited to have found something that fits so well with who we are as a family and as learners (and yes, I count myself as one of the learners!).
And this is who we are: we care about rigor, but more than that, we care about the child. We want them to be creative and playful and interested in God's world. We want them to have a beautiful education, one that will let them be children and fill them with the love of learning. Most of all, we want to shepherd well their minds and their hearts.
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