What's Wrong with this Picture?

When my oldest child was in the Public School System, I never really gave much thought to who decided what he was going to learn in each subject.  I guess I just assumed that there was a standard store of information that every schooled person had to learn before they were declared "educated".  In retrospect it is amazing how many things I never really thought about in my own and my children's education.

Since I began homeschooling one of the big questions I am constantly asked is "How do you make sure your children are learning everything they are supposed to be."  This question assumes my early outlook that there is a certain amount of information that has to be gathered in specifically measured increments, or else your child will be "behind".  If they fall behind, good luck ever catching them up again.  The longer I have been homeschooling the more I have come to realize that education is a life-long endeavor, and no grade or certificate can identify a truly educated person.  The highest goal of any "teacher" should be to teach their students to love to learn and how to teach themselves.  Once that is accomplished the path is paved for life-long learning and you will have gotten them as close to success as any "third person" can.  Remember the adage, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."  A great teacher makes that water look so good that their students naturally want to drink and never turn back.

Unfortunately that is not the case with our current education system.  For some reason, the prevailing philosophy is that we can make a student drink and we need to shove it down their throats and make sure they can spit the right information back up when it's asked for.  Learning isn't looked at as an exciting adventure, with different treasures to be found by each individual who determines to seek for them.  Instead it is something the teacher holds in her hands and rations out to each individual in equal proportions at the same time, whether they are ready for it, or are even interested in it or not.

Yesterday I came across this article that reflects how truly arbitrary and ridiculous educational "standards" are.  I had never really thought about it until last night, but it struck me how silly they are when I realized that a handful of "experts" in Texas (each with their own political, social, religious, and educational agendas mind you)  are deciding what every child in the country is going to have to "learn" each of the 13 years they spend in a Public School Classroom.  Even if they are "experts" (please define that for me), and even if they aren't swayed by personal agendas (which they most certainly are. Who isn't?), how could they possibly know what my individual child needs to learn, with his varied interests and abilities?  The answer is, they couldn't.  It's hard enough for a teacher of 25 students who spends 9 months with her class to figure that out, let alone for some removed group of people.  It is hard enough for me as a mother of only 4 who spends practically the entire day, every day of the year with them, to know that.  Luckily I realize I don't have to know.  I just have to help them acquire the tools they need and spark the fires in their minds and stand back and watch them go.

In the words of Plutarch, "The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."

If all of us interested in educating children would spend more time trying to kindle fires, than attempting to fill vessels, this world would be filled with many more truly educated people.  Heaven knows we could use them.

1010 Challenge

This week I realized I had not done as much reading on my 999 list as I would have liked so I decided to start The Scarlet Pimpernel and finnished it on New Years.  I can't believe I had never read it before.  I thoroughly enjoyed the read, even though it was very predictable.  I hadn't added up the number of books I read last year until today, and interestingly enough, I ended up reading the same number as I did in 2008; thirty three.  Even though I have yet to come close to the reading goal for these challenges, I have really enjoyed having some direction for my reading.  I still tend to read way more from the classics category and struggle with getting through books in the non-fiction categories, but at least these lists remind me to branch out a little more.  I sat down today to see if there was a 1010 challenge and was pleased to find one hosted here.   The thing I love about this challenge is that the only requirement is to pick 10 categories to read from in 2010.  The number of books you read from each category is entirely up to you.  No guilt!  That was right up my alley with a new baby and major house renovation on the horizon this year.  I think I will start with four books in each category to see if I can break that 33 barrier, and then go from there.  Wish me luck.  Here are my 2010 selections so far:


I. Spirituality 
   
   1. The Book of Mormon
   2. Each Ensign from cover to cover this year. 3 of 12 completed. (I need to get back to doing this.  2 years ago when I accomplished this it made such a difference in my life.) 
   3. The Old Testament
   4. Gospel Principles
   5. Faith Precedes the Miracle *


II. U.S. Government/History


  1. The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution

2. An Enemy Hath Done This

3. The Federalist Papers

4. Democracy in America

III. Education

   1. The One Minute Teacher: How to Teach Others to Teach Themselves

2. When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today

3. Righteous Influence: What Every Leader Should Know About Drawing on the Powers of Heaven

   4. In My Father's House: The Years Before the Hiding Place
   5. Classical Writing Aesop and Homer


IV. Motherhood


   1.Created for Work: Practical Insights for Young Men
   2. Arming Your Children With the Gospel: Creating Opportunities for Spiritual Experiences
   3. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families
   4. Mothering with Spiritual Power: Book of Mormon Inspirations for Raising a Righteous Family


V. Book Club Books


   1. Mafia to Mormon: My Conversion Story
   2. Faith Precedes the Miracle *
   3. Mandy
   4. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
   5.
   6.
   7.
   8.
   9.
   10.


VI.  Family Read Alouds


   1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

   2. Just David
   3. Mary Poppins
   4. 
   5.
   6.
   7.
   8.
   9.
   10.


VII. Classics


   1. The Keeper of the Bees
   2. Little Men
   3.
   4.


VIII. Health/Fitness


   1. The Diet Solution: Weight loss, Wellness, and the Word of Wisdom
   2.
   3.
   4. 


IX. Home & Garden


   1. One Year to an Organized Life: From Your Closets to Your Finances, the Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Completely Organized for Good

   2. The Bacykyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!
   3. Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
   4. All New Square Foot Gardening
   5. 


X. Other


   1.
   2.
   3.
   4.


Books I am currently reading.
Books I have completed.
* Books that overlap categories.

'Tis the Season For . . .

Christmas parties,

making gingerbread houses,

and cookies,

and reflecting on Santa Claus.

After attending our church Christmas party a couple of weeks ago, which featured an appearance by Santa Claus, all the kids were talking about who it was that was "dressed up" like Santa.  G. Diddy came home and asked me "Mom, is Santa real."  Being a cautious mother I answered with a question (He is only 7), "What do you think?"  His answer, "Yes, but you'll tell me when I get older if he's not,  so I know if I need to buy my kids presents or not, right?"  Luckily my back was to him at the time because I had to try hard to stifle my laughter at his too cute answer.  That answer so beautifully captures the innocence and belief of children, and I have been enjoying it over and over for the past couple of weeks.

Ringing in the Season

This weekend was a busy, but festive one for our family.  Thursday, H. Man, I. Mac, their Grandma and I rode the train down to Salt Lake to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.

It was 10 degrees outside when we arrived downtown and the walk to the Conference Center was quite cold and miserable.  The performance was well worth it though.

The guest singer for the evening was Natalie Cole, and the guest narrator was David McCullough.  They both did a fabulous job.

The boys favorite part of the performance though was the Chrismas Around the World number.  They performed six different Christmas songs from around the world with dancers in costumes from those countries, and then at the finale they pulled a giant Christmas Tree out of the floor with a huge cable.  It really was breathtaking.

 

My favorite number was an organ solo of Good King Winceslas performed by Richard Elliot.  He started out with a slow, classic rendition of the song, and then on the second verse he began to weave it together with selections from the Nutcracker Suite.  It was amazing.  I am hoping that a video of it comes out on U-Tube soon so I can see his hands and feet up close.  It didn't seem possible for one man to produce so much sound at once.

The evening was truly magical.  Music is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas Season.  Nothing seems to capture the spirit and magic of this time of year like music can.  It was a great way to hasten the Christmas spirit for each of us.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were each filled with activities and celebrations as well, but I will have to post more on those events later,  as we are off to do more celebrating today.  I love this time of year!

What I've been up to lately . . .

I was realizing today that it has been a month and a half since my last post.  I used to apologize when I went a while without posting.  I have now come to terms with the fact that I am an inconsistent blogger, and I'm okay with that.

One of the things that consumed all of my free time last month was the fact that I got it into my head to make our family Christmas Stockings this year.  Now this may not seem like much of a feet to those of you who are blessed with the gift of "craftiness".  However, my crafting resume consists of . . . well, nothing.  I have attempted a few craft projects that were sponsored at church activities, but they always turned out as complete failures, so I never saved a single thing.  I have never sewn anything, unless you count tying quilts, which I have done a few times (with help).  I am just not blessed with this gift, nor do I usually have a desire to be (which may account for some of my deficiency in the area).  So why then was I possessed with the bug to make Christmas Stockings this year; 7 of them?

For one thing, our old stockings got ruined by a flood in our basement 2 summers ago, and for another we needed a new stocking for Little C. and for the new baby that is on the way.  I tried to find stockings last year, but have you ever tried to find 6 (now 7) stockings that match, but have a different design on each one?  I decided last year that it couldn't be done.  At least not in a price range I could stomach.

When I was little my mom made my brothers and I stockings with personalized felt designs on them.  I always loved my stocking and thought it would be neat if I could do the same thing for my kids, but I never got up the gumption to try it until this year.  I guess the old saying is true, necessity is the mother of invention.  I scoured the internet and found several different stocking designs that I liked and thought that I could possibly recreate (mind you, none of these came with patterns).  I then had my kids pick their favorite.  Next, I traced the designs off the computer.  Then I begged the help of my mother, who luckily is a gifted seamstress (unluckily she didn't pass any of it on to me).  We headed to JoAnn's to try to find the right materials to make them all come together.  After several hours of work, here are the fruits of my labors . . .

     

It was actually kind of fun bringing my ideas to fruition.  There were some set backs, and none of them turned out as perfect as they were in my mind, but I made them with my own two hands, so I feel a sense of accomplishment in that.  The baby's stocking is all cut out and ready to assemble, but I ran out of steam, and my back couldn't stand hunching over the kitchen table any longer, so it will have to wait for next year.  I realize they are not professional looking, but the kids sure were excited when we hung up their stockings this year, and hopefully they will be for years to come . . .