17 April 2010
No apologies for childhood
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: One From The Archives.
[Issues of child development and early childhood education continue to garner great interest, least of all to homeschoolers. In November 2002 I wrote this piece after attending a workshop on Theology of the Child (organised by Baptist Theological Seminary), and hosting a homeschool dialogue, both held on the island of Penang. It's reproduced here as part of our occasional postings from the Homefrontier archives].
WE HAD JUST FINISHED INTRODUCING OURSELVES when a gentleman at the end of the table asked, “Your sons are both ‘normal.’ So why are you homeschooling?”
We get that quite a bit, usually from parents who assume that only ‘special’ kids need home education. At our dialogue on homeschooling held in Penang, a good number of the 12 adults present were parents of children with learning differences or disabilities.
I tried to explain that while homeschooling is probably one of the best things you could do for children with learning disabilities, it works just as well with any child. Perhaps even better. That’s because homeschool recognises that every child is special, each requiring individual attention that is so critical to learning. In a secure home where love abounds, habits of heart and mind find fertile ground to flower.
When we first started to educate Ethan and Elliot – turning 13 and 11 respectively – at home all these years ago, our primary concern then was the state of the education system. The horror stories were universal. Not knowing any other options, many of our friends and relations ushered their children through a wretched rite of passage, setting aside their better judgment while keeping their fingers crossed at the same time. Could there be another way, we asked?
Thankfully we were introduced to homeschooling, and to quote Robert Frost, taking the less traveled road has made all the difference.
7 years later, we’re more a family now than we could ever imagine. We have reclaimed childhood for our children, and I am happy to report that they are both imbued with a lively curiosity and love for learning. They’re no angels of course, but there is a depth of character that we find encouraging. Besides simply fulfilling our adult roles as teacher, we are humbled by what our children have to teach us as well.
All this came home afresh to me as we sat through a workshop on Theology of the Child held in the Baptist Theological Seminary in Batu Ferringhi, Penang. The 2-day dialogue preceded our homeschooling meet during that long festive weekend and thus provided new insights that confirmed personal convictions. While children and childhood are nettlesome to many parents, I saw how the Bible itself was unapologetic in their affirmation.
For instance, after making a study of situations featuring children in the gospels, Dr W.A Strange in his book Children in the Early Church contends that, “The coming of the kingdom of God did not make children into adults, but affirmed their childhood.” Instead, they were held up as models for discipleship, he writes. Dr Strange also notes that “Jesus’ openness to children was for their own sake, not principally for their potential, and it was something unique to his ministry.” Now, there’s food for thought.
As participating theologians, teachers, pastors and care providers talked about the marginalisation of children, we questioned how the church – of all institutions! – continue to erect structures that put kids in their places without considering the negative signals they convey. The separation of children from adults (and their parents) in a worship service is one example, although there have been positive changes in recent times.
We also looked at how society (usually with the connivance of parents) view children as mere commodity to achieve personal ends. Is it any wonder so many fall through the cracks, sapped of all vitality and purpose? They join the ranks of the disillusioned who cannot reconcile belief with practice. Worse still, these same children grow up learning that ‘face’ matters more than faith.
On the other hand, there’s Jesus of whom Luke 2:52 declares, grew “in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.” When one looks at the broader context that includes v39, it is quite apparent those qualities were not birthed in the barrenness of good intentions.
Three parties were intimately linked here: Firstly, that Joseph and Mary did “everything required by the Law” provides a significant clue. I’d like to believe Jesus’ parents exemplified a lifetime of daily obedience beyond superficial rites that began with the dedication of their firstborn. To quote Eugene Peterson (who borrowed from Nietzsche), the first task of parenting involves ‘a long obedience in the same direction.’
Secondly, it is the Lord who through his grace and mercy ultimately gives growth. After all, it is the Spirit’s business we are told, to work transformation “with ever increasing glory” in His people (2 Corinthians 3:18). Finally and not surprisingly, the child whose heart is thus prepared grows strong, “filled with wisdom and grace.”
So, am I saying that homeschool is the magic bullet? Of course not. A dynamic tripartite relationship between God-Parent-Child is what counts most of all. But if you are seeking a better way to realize these important goals than that which conventional educational systems offer, you might want to give homeschool some thought, and educate your own children at home .
15 October 2009
All eyes on preschool education…
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Child Development; Preschool.
Politics and by-elections grab so much of our attention some of us may have missed this remark by the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who is also our Education Minister. It appears the Ministry of Education is concerned that a mere 67% of children starting Year One have had a preschool education.
A news report had the DPM saying MOE was looking to increase preschool enrolment up to 87% by 2012. One way of doing it would be to make preschool education “a part of the education system.”
This was a follow-up to an off-the-cuff comment a month earlier that the Education Ministry may want all pre-schools to be absorbed into the national education system – take a deep breath now – to boost young children’s grasp of English.
“My idea is that we should make learning of English at pre-schools a thrust in the early education process,” he said.
Note that this came after the government announced it was reversing its 6-year old English for Science and Math policy.
It is not clear how preschool is to be absorbed into the school system or whether it would mean mandatory preschool for all Year One children; but it is this sort of news that raises red flags.
I’m sure the MOE means well. After all, the rest of the developed world is ahead of Malaysia with regard to education and we’re following their lead. Should preschool become mandatory, Malaysia would be in good company with countries that have lowered school starting age (England, Scotland, Netherlands) or have integrated early childcare and preschool education with compulsory primary schooling (Sweden, Greece, Northern Ireland). Sweden for instance is often held up as an exemplar with the highest quality of early childcare and preschool education offered by a state, including a well-developed after-school childcare system for school-age children (well, so UNICEF declares).
Is this supposed to make us feel good? 
It might interest some of you to know that I previously opposed talks of mandatory preschool in an NST article I wrote way back in 2000! Looking at it again, my views have not changed. Of course, since then more research have surfaced questioning the mistaken notion of separating children from their own parents at an ever younger and younger age. The prospect is just too horrible to imagine for parents who have had to deal with 2 or 3-year old kids traumatised by preschool education! Whatever happened to schooling readiness?
A UC Berkeley/Stanford report in particular finds that the earlier a child enters a preschool center, the slower his or her pace of social development. Cognitive skills in pre-reading and math do improve when children first enter a preschool program (at ages two and three) but this happens to the detriment of social and emotional development.(Read more here)
I do believe there are many ECE teachers who are wonderfully committed to helping young children succeed, and I say keep up the good work. Yes, make schooling – preschool, playschool, kindergarten, primary school, etc – affordable and accessible. Do everything possible to ensure care and education is available especially to at-risk children and disadvantaged families. But give parents a choice. Our children don’t need a nanny when they already have their own mother and father.
Related posts on preschool and early education:
A child’s work is play
Preschool for a headstart?
Kicked out of kindy
Life in the fast lane
Finding balance in a hurried world
8 October 2009
Playing with infants and toddlers
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Child Development.
PLAYING IT UP
by Jeanie Hurley
Playing is the most natural thing in the world, but there’s much more to it than just having fun. Jeanie Hurley investigates the role of play in development from newborn baby to boisterous pre-schooler to see why playing is never a waste of time.
CHILDREN JUST LOVE TO PLAY and the great news is that play is good for them. From four months old a baby will smile and giggle when you make funny sounds or cuddle them up close. By eight months they’ve grasped the ‘where’s it gone?’ theory and are delighted by peek-a-boo games.
Early days
Dr Julie C Coultas, a social psychologist at East Sussex University, says playing has an essential role in children’s mental and physical development and as such says parents should see their role in helping babies and children play as ‘parental investment’. She explains that before 15 months the games should be led by the mother or carer with little peer interaction.
Liz Attenborough, from the National Literacy Trust, has helped launch a campaign to encourage parents to communicate with their babies. She believes what babies and young children learn from playing, equips them with valuable skills later on, and that it’s never too early to start. “Babies are born social and need an adult partner to develop their social skills. Playing involves being engaged in an enjoyable activity and you can begin playing with your baby as soon as she is conceived. Your baby will already be familiar with your voice if you talk to your bump while you’re pregnant, and you can start interacting now, when you feel the baby kick, gently tap back to see if you get a response.”
Development skills
Child development falls into the two main categories of physical and neurological. Physical skills involve both gross motor skills such as rolling over, crawling and walking, and fine motor skills such as hand-eye coordination, grasping objects, drawing and later writing. Sensory development is also physical and includes sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. Intellectual and cognitive development centre on activity in the brain including use of language, smiling and giggling, imagination and working out. Our children’s emotional wellbeing also develops in the brain and comprises many areas such as self awareness, self esteem and the ability to interact with others. Playing in some form or another helps to refine these different areas of development in babies and young children.
Communication
Good communication makes for good and rewarding play, although in young children under two years this doesn’t necessarily mean having to speak with words. Facial expressions denoting surprise, pleasure, not knowing where something is and praise will all help your child find enjoyment in play. Talking to your toddler in simple language helps them learn to give their feelings expression. Use single words such as ‘Happy’, ‘Gone’, ‘Oh no’ right from the beginning.
How to help
Young children usually have short attention spans which adults can find frustrating. You can create a more beneficial atmosphere that encourages your little one to ‘stay with it’, by avoiding distractions such as the television or other people. If you lack confidence in how to play, start with a board book for a baby of around 6 months that you can look at together. Ask your son or daughter if they can see certain pictures and see if they can point to them. Your show them how, then let them try. Try covering things up with your hand to see if they can remember what’s there. As they get older you’ll notice how more perceptive they become. Simple games that have a clear cause and effect are good to being with.
As they grow
Psychologists agree that babies learn much through watching other babies and imitating their parents. Dr Coultas terms this ‘social pretend play’. She explains that from around 15 months a child is able to imitate, watch and comply with his mother’s suggestions, which means time to offer up plenty of ideas. Toddlers don’t actually play together properly until about 21 months when they being to learn independence. You should now take on the more passive role of spectator. Pretend tea parties are a favourite at about this age. At about 25-30 months your child will be able to develop a story with his friends. They love to mimic scenes from home, playgroup and television. From around three years of age children create pretend worlds together and enjoy embellishing them in greater detail as they get older. All this leads to the important social skill of the ‘theory of mind’, which simply means that they have now learnt that what they think isn’t always what others will think, and they are able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.
Age appropriate toys and games
0-3 months: Wind chimes, unbreakable mirrors (babies tend to look right 80% of the time so make sure you put any objects in their line of vision), high contrasting mobiles, cloth books
3-6 months: Baby play gyms, rattles, squeaky rubber toys, colourful teethers, socks with bells
6-9 months: Textured books, soft blocks to knock down, activity boards, toys that pop up when your baby pushes the button, balls – throw the ball and encourage your baby to crawl after it
9-12 months: Walker, rocker, toy, telephone, shape sorter, books with flaps, bucket and spade for natural sand play – your baby will love the texture
12-18 months: Simple puzzles such as cut-out circles and squares, stacking, pull toys for confident walkers; climbing frame, washable non-toxic crayons, ride-on vehicle, toy buggy
18-24 months: Musical instruments such as keyboards, drum, plastic tea set, play house or den (throw a blanket on the old baby gym), shopping trolley, gardening tools, building blocks
24-36 months: Illustrated books, dressing-up clothes, child-size household equipment, construction toys, eg Lego, wooden puzzles, dolls to undress
36 months +: Basic jigsaw puzzles, memory games such as snap, child-size pots and pans, plasticine, bats and balls, golf sets, reference books
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This article was previously published in Baby and Toddler Gear, Nov/Dec 2005 and can be accessed at The National Literacy Trust
6 October 2009
A child’s work is play
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Child Development.
The child’s play is important in his development.
As a matter of fact, play for the small child is his work– a means of achieving
better and better skills to do the things he sees older children and adults do.
Raymond & Dorothy Moore (Better Late than Early)
IT WAS OUR OLDEST SON’S FIRST VISIT TO THE DENTIST, and there was a form to fill. He was 5 years old. When it came to the part that said OCCUPATION, Mom told him the word meant a person’s job or work. Without any hesitation he said, “My job is to play.”
Wisdom from the mouths of babes, as they say. Few people would object that children are meant to play and almost all experts agree that play is essential to their development. Without the benefit of playschool or kindergarten, our two boys played endlessly – by themselves, and with kids who occasionally visited.
They pulled out their buckets of Lego, emptied them on the carpet, built things, and knocked them down with glee. Whatever they could lay their hands on were transformed into fortresses and castles, props for tales of adventure and epic battles, interplanetary spacecraft, and improbable mazes or bridges for marbles and toy cars doing an Evel Knievel.
When they were a little older, I remember how they would pick a CD, choose a theatrical score, turn the volume up, and argue if the soundtrack was appropriately triumphant or tragic for the drama played out with their toy soldiers. If they were not at their board games or making things up, they were scrambling in the playground and clambering up monkey bars. After they learned to swim, we couldn’t keep them away from the pool. Often theirs were the only chatter and laughter you would hear because everyone else would be at school.
I can imagine why our boys were the envy of their relatives and neighbours. They inhabited a kind of Neverland without schoolmasters looking over their shoulders or a report card dangling over their heads. It needs be said that far from resembling Toys-R-Us, our home was relatively deprived – all our children had were a few board games, several buckets of Lego, a mixed-bag of plastic toy vehicles, soldiers and figurines (the PC came later, but that’s another story!).
Like all children, what they lacked in an abundance of stuff, they made up with a lot of imagination. All we parents did was to provide the necessary space and time, and also play with them. Tragically and despite our effusion of warm feelings at a child happily playing in a world of his own, more and more parents are beginning to have second thoughts.
Today increasing numbers of anxious parents are resorting to competence programmes to give junior a leg up. The proliferation of preschool courses to build a superkid or a superior mind are staggering. More troubling is the fact that the loss of childhood is uncritically accepted as a necessary price of academic advantage and social mobility.
David Elkind, the author and professor emeritus of Child Development at Tufts University calls this miseducation. Parents have been misled and misinformed, he says. In fact the eminent doctor concludes that all this hurrying is never about the child and all about the parents. Unfortunately much of the pressure put on young children is often a projection of adult insecurity and parental competition.
Infants and young children are not just sitting twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their parents to teach them to read and do math. They are expending a vast amount of time and effort in exploring and understanding their immediate world. Healthy education supports and encourages this spontaneous learning. Early instruction miseducates, not because it attempts to teach, but because it attempts to teach the wrong things at the wrong time. When we ignore what the child has to learn and instead impose what we want to teach, we put infants and young children at risk for no purpose.
David Elkind (Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk)
I think we are not saying a young child should therefore forego any form of competence or academic instruction. It just means one has to take note of a child’s readiness and consider if any activity is developmentally appropriate. I’ll have more to say in a later post.
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Read more:
Here are two child development authorities whose books had a profound influence on my journey as a parent and a homeschooling father. You can’t go wrong reading their books. Check them out:
Dr David Elkind is a leading authority on child development and the author of several well-known books, including The Hurried Child and The Power of Play. Dr Elkind has a blog at Just Ask Baby.
Dr Raymond Moore and his wife Dorothy wrote the landmark book Better Late than Never and practically gave a new push to the homeschooling movement. Dr Moore passed away in 2007 while his wife Dorothy passed away in 2002.
Related posts:
My previous writings on the same topic-
Preschool for a head start?
Kicked out of kindy
Life in the fast lane
Finding Balance
28 September 2009
Homeschooler’s Guide: Math Thinking from Ages 4-8
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Teaching.
The developing mind from ages 4 – 8
Homeschoolers know from experience that development is very individual – patterns of growth can be unpredictable and don’t always align with a child’s chronological age.
Young children possess a rich assortment of mathematical cognitive abilities. Through play and everyday family activities, they have spontaneously compared, sorted, arranged, and counted objects, explaining what they did and challenging others’ explanations.
Young children are intensely curious about their environment and interact directly with it. What they know is filtered through their perceptions, which are particular to them and can be very unreliable. Children at this intuitive stage will believe that a quantity changes when the arrangement is changed, even if they have counted several times. As children’s brains develop, they become less dependent on perception and the quality of their thinking becomes more logical.
The Math Development Timeline
YOUR FOUR YEAR OLD
Math learning at age four
A four year old may easily compare sets of objects to know which is more, but have difficulty figuring out how many he actually has. He may recognize that how many? means to count, but may struggle to do this. There are hurdles in successful counting: (1) each object is counted only once; (2) the name of a number corresponds to each one counted; and (3) there’s a logic to the sequence: base ten has a predictable pattern. Four year olds are also fascinated with collecting and sorting objects.What you can do at home
Observe and listen while your child is playing to understand his mathematical knowledge. How does she count? Is it a sing-song or meaningful? Does she touch each object once? Is her voice in sync with her tag? Does she keep track of what’s been counted? Ask questions to help her develop counting strategies. Try to resist showing your child what to do so you don’t rob her of figuring it out on her own! When walking, collect objects she likes. At home find different ways to sort this collection.
YOUR FIVE YEAR OLD
Math learning at age five
A five year old is less dependent on matching strategies to determine one-to-one correspondence, and knows that for 5 kids she’ll need 5 pencils. When she counts she knows how many? but may not know that the last number counted means the total quantity. Once they can count on, five year olds may know which set is more and may sequence quantities from smallest to largest. But the question how much more? can be difficult. They may struggle with how much larger one quantity is than another.What you can do at home
If your child counts accurately you can help him think about the permanence of a set of objects. Put six pennies in a row, then change the arrangement. Will he think the quantity changed? Conservation of number is a big idea needed for addition and subtraction. Five year olds love repetitive patterns, which help develop mathematical thinking. Clapping patterns can help him discern sequences and predict what comes next. Recognizing the unit in a pattern is an important tool in his mathematical toolbox.
YOUR SIX YEAR OLD
Math learning at age six
The six year old is developing a more complex understanding of number. He knows that 6 can be 5 and 1, 3 and 3, etc. He knows that all sets of 6, no matter what objects, are equivalent. And the last number counted is the number of the set. These big ideas underpin more efficient counting strategies such as counting on from the larger number. He’s also developing the idea that “nothing” is represented by 0, and that any number in the system can be written with the digits 0-9.What you can do at home
Dice, cards, and board games are fun and can help a six year old gain fluency with addition combinations. Engage her thinking by playing “Hidden Counters” in which part of a set is hidden. Count out eight pennies (making sure she knows there are eight). Hide four under a cup, leaving the rest visible. Ask, “How many are hidden?” Notice her strategies for figuring this out. Does she know automatically that four are under the cup because she knows 4 + 4 are 8? Does she use her fingers to figure it out?
YOUR SEVEN YEAR OLD
Math learning at age seven
Because seven year olds can better understand space and quantity, a broader range of mathematical ideas become more accessible. They now have a repertoire of basic addition and subtraction combinations that they can use as tools in computing. For example, to solve 19 + 21, a child might think of a related combination, 20 + 20. Some may grasp reversibility, a big developmental shift needed to understand how subtraction is the inverse of addition (50 – 25 can be thought of as 25 + ? = 50).What you can do at home
Find ways to help your seven year old build confidence in her mathematical reasoning ability. Asking, how much money is six quarters? might help her realize that if she knows that four quarters is one dollar, she can figure out what six quarters is. To help prepare for multiplication, you can pose questions that help her think in groups. A question like how many fingers do five people have? may be hard or easy for her to solve. Your challenge will be to find questions that support her reasoning.
YOUR EIGHT YEAR OLD
Math thinking at age eight
At eight, children are using numbers and quantitative methods in advanced ways, such as reversibility — they understand subtraction as the inverse of addition. A major developmental shift occurs when beginning multiplication. In addition, 130 is two or more addends that make a whole, but in multiplication 130 is related to a unit that can shift. If the unit is ten, 130 means 13 tens But if the unit is 100, 130 means 1.3 hundreds. This is unitizing, the basis for future work with fractions, decimals, and percents.What you can do at home
Eight year olds may take on a lot, then feel frustrated when accomplishments don’t come easily. Help her break a task down: (1) what do you know? (2) identify the problem to solve; (3) identify one way to solve it. Help her develop confidence by not correcting a wrong answer, but try to follow her reasoning. Focus on the process, not the answer, to help her take risks. Eight year olds are developing more complex ways of reasoning — they like strategic thinking games like checkers, chess, Monopoly, and Clue.
Parental participation in learning supports academic success
By fostering a nurturing homeschool environment for math learning, and through fun, everyday activities, parents can help their children become math literate and prepared for success in a changing world.
According to research conducted by Greg Duncan of Northwestern University, the single most important factor in predicting later academic success is that children develop early mastery of math and literacy concepts. And math proficiency is most important. Mastery of early math predicts not only future math achievement, it also predicts future reading achievement!
You can read or download the full DreamBox Learning paper on our website: “A Parent’s Guide to the Development of Mathematical Thinking”
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The above article was previously published in Homeschool.com’s weekly E-zine. Used by permission.
23 July 2009
Why you should know Charlotte Mason
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Book Review; Education.
Charlotte Mason (1842 – 1923) was a British educator and a remarkable woman whose ideas were undoubtedly ahead of her time. As the only child she was largely educated by her own mother who I believed, influenced her advocacy for home education and to view children with greater respect than was fashionable then. She loved children, enjoyed them, and delighted in seeing them accepted as persons with a capacity to learn in ways adults denied them.
It has been said that her ideas would have been lost to us today if not for Susan Schaeffer Macauley who drew attention to Mason’s holistic ideals in Macauley’s own book, For the Children’s Sake. Incidentally Macauley’s book was my introduction to the Charlotte Mason method. ( Over 15 years ago, a US homeschooler I barely knew mailed me a copy of For the Children’s Sake after a brief email correspondence!)
Today Mason’s ideas and philosophy have become a major influence in the global homeschooling movement. I don’t think she started out to enact a programme for homeschool per se, but as an adjunct to children’s education – she was concerned how poorly children were raised and taught (either by their own mothers or governesses) that she began to put her own thoughts in writing.
In 1886, her book Home Education – which eventually grew into volumes! – was published with a prescient observation on education in the preface (“The educational outlook is rather misty and depressing…”) that it could almost have come from our own newspapers. She went on to write that,
[But] we have no unifying principle, no definite aim; in fact no philosophy of education. As a stream can rise no higher than its source, so it is probable that no educational effort can rise above the whole scheme of of thought that gives it birth; and perhaps this is the reason of all the fallings from us, vanishings, failures, and disappointments which mark our educational records.
In short, any educational enterprise must be founded on a philosophy that seeks to develop a whole person, to 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”. As you can see, absent are the soul diminishing end of ‘self-actualization,’ the flaccid leveling demanded of politics and ‘nation building,’ and the utilitarian anxiety of being properly equipped for the job market! 
There’s so much online about Charlotte Mason and her methods and books , so I shall skip the details. Let me share a few things that influenced our family and the way we homeschooled. The value of a stimulating atmosphere. By this she meant that we should never underestimate what a child picks up from the environment he is raised and taught in. The habits, the values, the priorities enunciated or displayed by parents and that surround a child are imbibed long before formal instruction takes root. She may not have used the term, but modern educators now refer to this atmosphere of influence as “socialization.”
And oh yes, Mason believed – and how she believed – in healthy unstructured play and nature walks and the outdoors. Lots of it, preferably in the mornings! Read her books and you’ll see abundant references to art, music, dance, and a wholesome attitude to life and learning. If she can only see how our kindergartens have been reduced to exam factories, Mason would turn in her grave.
The importance of real books (or living books)and not twaddle. Mason disdained the way adults talked down to children and dumbed down books for their consumption. Workbooks, disjointed facts abridged into unstimulating textbooks were “twaddle” that dilute and weaken habits of mind and learning. “If a child talk twaddle, it is because his elders are in the habit of talking twaddle to him… On the whole children who grow up amongst their elders and are not provided with what are called children’s books at all, fare the better on what they are able to glean for themselves from the literature of grown-up people.”
The earth split, the clouds rolled away; I dare say, this twaddle comment marked a genuine turning point for my wife and I. More than anything else, it was this illumination that moved us away from textbooks, workbooks, etc, and led us to subscribe to a literature-based system (Sonlight) for our family.
The significance of habit. Despite Mason’s belief in the innate goodness of a child, she had no illusion that children have no “self-compelling power.” The building of good habits – moral, mental, physical (she was also concerned about diet, exercise, and posture) – the efforts of training and discipline to give a child “control over his own nature” so that the acquired good will like growing muscles “take form according to the action required of them.” The easy philosophy that says, “It’s ok, he’s still young” or “Don’t worry, he will know better soon enough,” is the way to shipwreck as far as Mason was concerned.
As a homeschool parent, let me say the training of habits is by far the most challenging part of education. If you are reading this and if you are a homeschooler or thinking about home education, the fruit of your labour will be even sweeter if you pay attention to the inculcation of habits.
Now you can see why educators and homeschoolers should get acquainted with Charlotte Mason. It is wonderful that although she was a devout Christian, her education philosophy has found wide acceptance across religious and cultural barriers (Eg: Check out this Muslim group for Mason). Her ideas moved a generation and continues to shape the modern home education movement today.
Note: Some of her references to race and civilisations were products of her era and therefore should not be held against her otherwise enlightened views.
Just a few links on Charlotte Mason:
Wikipedia
Simply Charlotte Mason – methods and curriculum
Who was Charlotte Mason? About Charlotte Mason’s methods and influence on homeschool
Charlotte Mason & Classical Education – a review on Mason’s views on classical education by Susan Wise Bauer
A Charlotte Mason Education – Homesite, and also read the article by Catherine Levison
Charlotte Mason Research & Supply Company Dean and Karen Andreola’s site
28 January 2005
Letting God be God
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Devotional; Parenting.
Anyone starting out on a journey from A to B wants to know what’s in it for him or her, what to bring, what to expect. We want a map, some assurance from those who have gone ahead. After all is said, it’s easy to forget there’s only so much one can do or anticipate. In fact, the longer I homeschool, the more I realize how much lies outside my control. That’s not comforting to hear in our “take charge” society, but it’s exactly why it has to be said.
Take the growth stages of our children. I am just learning how to change and adapt my teaching and parenting styles as our children grow and adjust to changes in their bodies. What works with a child of 5 is not the same when he is 15. Just because we were fifteen once does not make us an expert. Then, as a girl or boy reaches the age of majority, the dynamics of parent-child relationship enters yet another phase.
Something happens in a child’s development from dependence to independence and before long, you realize how quickly your influence is diminishing before your eyes. Whether you have done a good job is not the issue. You learn – perhaps painfully – that a child’s self-awareness and spiritual awakening are matters beyond your schedule and direction.
The components of physical, emotional, and intellectual growth in children may be tied in part to genetic disposition and social conditioning, but our kids are individuals who alone must chart the course of their future. You can point the way but you can’t walk down that road on your children’s behalf.
I was reminded of this as I tried to make sense of the killer tsunami that wiped out almost 200,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands more. The heart-wrenching scenes of destruction in the papers and on our screens spelled this out to me: our lives are not ultimately in our hands.
The same applies to parenting and homeschooling. Things do go awry as good intentions sometimes do, and you’re overcome by a tsunami of conflicting emotions: is it my failure as parent, or is it the curriculum? Did not God promise me His favour, or did I not pray enough?
We may have been caught by surprise, but not our sovereign God. Indeed, all life is really in His hands. That includes our children. Like everything else we do, our heavenly Father asks only that we do the best we can “as to the Lord,” and He will take care of the rest. Someone once said that trusting God is like driving at night – you see just as far as your headlights, but it’s enough to take you to your destination.
That’s a good thing to remember as we homeschool this year. It’s also the easy part. The hard part is letting go of our need for control, letting go of our children, and letting God have His way with our family and us. Yet in letting God be sovereign, are we not placing ourselves in hands far, far, more able than our own?
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;you are exalted as head over all. 1 Chron 29:11 (NIV)