My Homeschooling Pilgrimage

I apologise for my absence, but we were away in the Lake District at a family conference. It was a great time of meeting up with other families who also live and work cross-culturally, and several of the mums were also homeschooling. It was so refreshing to be in a group of people who really 'get' you - do you know what that's like? Suddenly you don't feel so weird after all :-)

Anyway, some of you hard-core Charlotte Mason followers out there may have felt your heart flutter slightly at the mention of 'the Lake District'. For those of you who are going "Charlotte who?", let me explain..

CM (as I shall affectionately call her from now on) was a British educator who was born in 1841 and died in 1923. She developed a particular philosophy of education which centred around the premise that all children are born persons in their own right, and not blank slates upon which the adult is free to write as they choose. She also taught that 'Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life', and many modern day homeschooling curricula and homeschooling parents base their approaches on her methods. You can find out more about her here, or download her six volume Home Education series to your kindle here.

The town of Ambleside

It was in Ambleside, in the Lake District in England, that CM set up a training school for governesses, and you can understand her desire that children should spend as much time as possible outdoors when you see how beautiful the Lake District is! 

So, of course, I couldn't miss the opportunity to go and pay a visit to Ambleside while I was there. I found my way to the Armitt Museum, which houses all of CM's books as well as a little 'plaque' dedicated to her (see above). There was also a lovely display about Beatrix Potter, another famous resident of the Lake District. Unfortunately, CM's school, which later became part of the University of Cumbria, was closed a couple of years ago, much to the sadness of the librarian I talked to at the museum.

The Beatrix Potter display at the museum

A collection of Charlotte Mason's books

Well, I now feel suitably re-inspired to continue working my way through CM's Home Education series. It can be a bit hard going, but it's well worth it!

How many of you have heard of Charlotte Mason, or perhaps are even using her methods in your homeschool?

Abide in Him!

How to be Perfect!

OK, a quick disclaimer before you think I have an ego the size of South America - yes, I know I'm not perfect in the ordinary sense of the word. But it struck me the other day that when God sees me, he sees me as perfect. What do I mean? Let me try to explain...

Falling Short

Inspired by constant, repeat viewings of 'Narnia', my eldest daughter has been bugging me to buy her an archery set for quite a while. I finally came across one here in England, and she's been enjoying pretending to be Queen Susan in our back garden.

It was then that I had one of those sudden 'light bulb' moments. You know the ones... something finally clicks in your mind and you wonder why on earth you'd never thought of that before, it seems so obvious. In fact, probably the majority of you reading this post will no doubt in a moment be rolling your eyes and sighing 'Of course, Catherine, didn't you know that?'. But bear with me please....

In Romans 3 v 23 Paul says that we all "fall short" of God's standards. I don't know why, but for some reason I always pictured a ladder, with me on the ladder and not quite making it to the top...yet. In my mind, therefore, I just had to keep trying... keep climbing...try not to slip down too many rungs.... and perhaps one day, yes one day, I would finally climb to that top rung and get a big pat on the back from God. 

But that's not the picture at all!

There is no way that any of us will ever get to the top of that ladder. The Bible says that "None is righteous, no, not one.." (Romans 3v10)

Instead, God helped me to see the picture of the archery target. Now, there is some debate whether this is what St Paul had in mind when he wrote that we have all 'fallen short', but it seems to me to be a much better illustration. We're all shooting arrows. Sometimes the arrows fall quite near the target. Sometimes the arrows fall a long way away. But the point is that they always miss, they always fall short. And there is nothing we can do, no amount of target practice, to get our arrows to hit the bulls eye.

The most common word in the New Testament for sin is 'hamartia', which literally means 'to miss the mark', and therefore to lose and not win the prize in the archery competetion.

However, there is one person who did hit the target....and no it wasn't Robin Hood! It was Jesus, God in human form. Jesus never sinned. His life was complete, beautiful obedience to God the Father.

The Amazing, Humbling Beauty of God's Grace

Now, here's the amazing bit. Jesus came to die so that we could claim that we had shot that arrow that hit the target and not him! And he would take responsibility for all of those arrows that had fallen short and missed the mark.

Yes, if we have put our faith in Jesus, then when God sees us He doesn't see our sins and shortcomings but instead the perfect righteousness of Christ (Hebrews 10v14, 2 Corinthians 5v21). We've won the archery competition! There is a crown waiting for us in Heaven!

Being Released from Perfectionism

In my 'light bulb' moment I suddenly realised that God already sees me as perfect. Of course He knows how I regularly fail and mess up this side of heaven, but my eternal destiny is sealed - I have already won the prize. And knowing that God already sees me as perfect meant that a huge burden suddenly slipped off my shoulders. I don't have to keep trying to be perfect! I don't have to strive towards perfection! All God is asking of me is to love and obey Him. He doesn't mind if my kitchen floor is a mess, or if I haven't ticked all the homeschooling boxes today. 

How to be Perfect

Have you spent the day loving God and loving other people to your best ability today? Well, then, it's been a great day and God is smiling at you! In fact He is singing over you (Zephaniah 3v17). In His eyes, you're perfect!

Abide in Him!

Linking up at: Beholding Glory, Time-Warp Wife and Women Living Well

Thoughts About Home Leave So Far....

I'm sorry I've been quiet on the blog for a while. Life has just been so busy recently, and I just haven't seemed to find the time to sit down and write a blog post....until now :-)

We're officially halfway through our 6-month home leave - gulp!

Highlights:

* Reconnecting with family and friends

* Everybody here speaks English - I don't have to worry about not being understood

* The huge (if not rather overwhelming at first) choice of food at the supermarket

* Being by the sea - yay!

* The chance to get a few health questions investigated by doctors

* Charis getting to take swimming lessons at the local sports centre

* Nathaniel's English is really taking off now that he's surrounded by people speaking it

* Sophie's reading is also really improving now that English signs and notices are all around us

* Having willing babysitters (a.k.a The Grandparents) just 15 mins away

* Getting away for 2 nights just the 2 of us - the first time we've been away from the kids from sunrise to sunset since Sophie was born 7 years ago

* Our trips to London, where we've seen

           * the dinosaur bones in the National History museum

           * the Wizard of Oz performed at the West End

           * the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace

           * lots of double decker buses (or ducker decker buses as Nathaniel says)

           * the Queen. Ahem... yes.....we saw the Queen!!

Lowlights:

* We've done SO much travelling as family, visiting various friends and supporters, that we actually feel EVEN MORE tired than when we first arrived, if that's at all possible!

* The children are missing their Russian friends (and our dogs).

* The rain. We forgot how much it rained in England. To be fair, it was the wettest April in the UK since records began over 100 years ago. Trust us to be here for that :-)

* Yes, we did see the Queen, but we stood in the freezing cold for 2 hours and endured 2 hail storms (in May!!) only to see her decide not to walk past us but to get into her car instead. Well, I can't blame her.

Qu: Are any of you on home leave at the moment? Or if you travel a lot, what are your impressions when you come 'home'? As always I love to read your comments.

Abide in Him!

Linking up here:

Ten Tips For Coping While Hubbie's Away

My wonderful husband recently had to go overseas for a nine-day training workshop. Thankfully I had some help during that time - a friend came to stay for two nights and then my mother came for the remainder. However, despite having some extra pairs of hands to help with washing up and to entertain Sophie, Charis and Nathaniel while I was in the shower or needing to pop out for groceries, I still felt absolutely exhausted by the end of the nine days. I realised that it's not just the physical tiredness (taking on extra chores that my helpful husband usually does) but it's also the emotional tiredness of being the sole responsible parent for an extended period of time.

Afterwards, when I'd had some time to reflect on this and other times when I've been looking after the children on my own for several days at a time, I put together some tips for coping in these situations - partly for myself, but also in case they're useful for anyone else reading this post. So, here we go.....

1) Before your husband leaves, make sure you're stocked up on groceries and petrol for the time ahead, as much as possible. Have meal plans and a rough schedule prepared.

2) Enlist the children's help early on. Explain how Daddy being away means you'll have extra chores, and that you'll be needing their help and support over the next few days. Try to foster a team spirit - "We're all going to pitch in and help each other through this!"

3) Don't plan to do too much! I often fall into the trap of making great plans for things I will be doing while my husband's away. It's true that there is one less person around to feed and clean up after, and those first couple of evenings may seem like you have more time than usual on your hands, but it's not long before the tiredness kicks in. Pace yourself. This is a time to shorten your to-do list, not lengthen it.

4) Watch out for temptation! For some reason, not having my husband around to keep me accountable means that I soon fall into the trap of staying up too late watching mindless TV shows, or reaching for those comfort foods that I wouldn't normally consider part of my healthy eating plan. Before I know it, it's midnight, I have a half-finished box of chocolates in front of me, I wonder if I really needed to stay to the end of that not-very-good film that I've already seen before, actually, and I start to panic about being the only parent around to respond to the early morning calls of children beginning to wake up. Late nights eventually have a tendency to replace early morning Bible reading and prayer times, which are actually even more essential during this time.

5) Get more sleep! Not only do you need more sleep during this time, but it's tempting to actually get less sleep because of the above two points. Try to go to bed half an hour earlier than you usually would.

6) Simplify where possible. Don't be afraid to cook simpler meals, including ready-made meals. This is not the time to be worrying about the kids' nutritional needs! Haven't got time for your usual 30-minute workout? Don't beat yourself up about it. Don't have the energy to bath the kids as often, iron their clothes or clean the house quite so thoroughly? It really doesn't matter. And it's OK to put the kids in front of the TV for an extra hour than usual :-) Do what you need to do to survive.

7) Pray more! The one thing not to simplify or give up on is your reliance on God and His strength. You might not be able to have as long a quiet time in the morning, but see if you can pray more during the day as you're going along. You're going to need to rely on His help more than usual.

8) Try to get out of the house more. Stress levels can rise if cabin fever sets in. Getting out for some fresh air, whether it's to the local playground, or for a walk in the local park, or even just down to the local library or to have a play date with some friends, can really help lift your mood. It helps the time go faster, and also helps to wear out the kids, especially if they're able to run around. Tired kids means earlier bedtimes :-) It also helps you to get in some healthy adult conversation and interaction with other grown-ups, which may be somewhat lacking. However, keep it simple. This is not the time for long day trips which involve long car journeys, missed naps and ultimately results in cranky kids and one frustrated, grumpy mum.

9) Don't be afraid to ask for help! Don't try to be supermum. Accept offers of help from friends and grandparents, as long as it doesn't actually cause you more work in the long run. If someone is able to watch your kids for an hour or two while you can get out of the house on your own and recharge your batteries, then that can be really beneficial both for you and the kids.

10) Finally, prepare the kids for Daddy's return. This is something you can all look forward to! Make cards and welcome home posters, go and pick him up from the bus station or wait eagerly at the door for his return. Have some nice food or even homemade cakes waiting for him. Let your kids know how important Daddy is to you and the family. However, you might want to give him some time to recover from the trip before you hand him the nappy bag and walk out of the house on a bee-line to the nearest coffee shop :-)

Qu: Does your husband often need to go away for extended periods of time? What other tips do you have for coping while he's away?

Abide in Him!

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Photo credits: Ducks: freedigitalphotos.net/EA, Monkeys: freedigitalphotos.net/Lavoview

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Learning a Foreign Language - Part 2

Hi, welcome back to Part 2. I'm linking up with the Charlotte Mason blog carnival, and the current theme is Foreign Language. If you missed Part 1 you can find it here.

Teaching a Foreign Language in Homeschool

I mentioned in Part 1 that, alongside Russian, we are also learning French. Now, I'd like to stress at the outset that we don't do this as regularly as we should in our homeschool, and I'm still investigating materials, but I'd like to share with you what we do and what I've learned so far.

Now, I possibly have a slight advantage over the average homeschooling mother in this area in that, before going overseas, my husband and I attended an SIL course on Language and Culture Acquisition, which involved learning how to go about learning a local language with limited resources. We used the method we had learned reasonably successfully to learn the local language where we live (not Russian) and I believe the method can translate (forgive the pun!) very well to the homeschool classroom.

Having read a little of Charlotte Mason's views on Foreign Language learning, I can see that her preferred method (the Gouin method) has a lot in common with our method: Total Physical Response (or TPR for short). Namely:

• It is most important to hear, listen and understand the language at first (by not requiring speaking you reduce stress).
• Then you gradually learn to speak it, using certain phrases over and over again and adding vocabulary.
• Finally, reading and writing should come last.

In fact, TPR is based very much on the way that children learn languages. So much so that they encourage you not to speak a word in the first month that you're learning, rather like a child spends up to 2 years just soaking in the language before it attempts to form the words itself.

Why is it called Total Physical Response, I hear you ask? Well, the idea is that the best way to learn new words and phrases is to do so in a context which involves physical movement, for example acting out verbs, or choosing between objects and pointing to them.

Here's how a typical lesson in our homeschool might go:

• I decide we're going to learn, for example, 6 different colours.
• I find 6 different objects, each coloured one of the colours in question.
• Using puppets (which just makes it more fun, and the kids love it!) I point to each colour and clearly say the name in French several times.
• I then call out a colour and Sophie and Charis have to point to it, or remove the object.
• They are not required to say the words themselves, just to understand them and react accordingly.
• We do learn certain greetings, such as 'Hello', 'How are you?', and role play those. 
• We also learn 'power phrases' such as 'What's that?' and 'Repeat that please', which the children can use if necessary.
• In addition, we listen to and learn some French children's songs, and read through some books in French, and occasionally watch a DVD.

Here are some resources I use for French:

Another resource I use is this website.  I'm currently working through the vocabulary suggested in the teachers guide, and then when we're ready we'll watch the corresponding film on the computer. The girls love the theme tune!

This is also a great site for finding and learning French songs.  

Finally, if you're interested to learn more about TPR, go here.

In conclusion, please bear in mind that my eldest is only 7 years old. This is what works for us now, but I'd be interested to read about other people's suggestions for resources for older students.

Abide in Him!