I've been reading this book recently & absolutely love it! If you have kids & you ever plan on helping them learn something, you NEED to read it!! NEED TO! :)
It's called "For the Children's Sake" written by Frances Schaeffer's daughter (Susan Schaeffer MacAulay) & it's based partially on her own experience with education, as well as principles studied & carried out by a woman named Charlotte Mason. I'm re-reading the beginning since it took me a while to get through all of it (I'm usually reading 3-10 books at a time) but I zoomed through the last half.
I'll spare you lots of details - because there are a lot of them in the book - but basically, it takes a look at the purpose of education & shows how structure can often be detrimental, how sitting in a room for 6 hours does not produce the kind of education we want to give children & how children are living beings, ready to explore & learn in fun ways. There's so much more to it than that, but you'll have to see for yourself. I'm excited to implement suggestions in my kids' lives & see them be excited to discover new things.
My favorite suggestion was how to let kids learn to enjoy art. You give them a small print, like a postcard, of a famous painting. Let them look at it & then turn it facing down. Let them tell you what they saw. Ask a few questions like "What colors did you like?" & let them share. Then, have them turn it to see the "painting" again & watch them look at it more intensely. She recommends doing this with a new painting every few months. This is something she did with her kids and as they got older, they were so excited to go to museums & see "their" paintings! There are lots of ways you can make it fun. Have them paint their own interpretation, not a representation, just what the painting looks like to them. Susan also talks a lot about not putting adult expectations on children - don't give them a coloring book where they are expected to color inside lines that adults drew. Give them blank paper to create their own masterpieces from their own imagination.
The absolute core idea to this book is that education is life. As a person, you learn your whole life. If we treat learning like a one time accomplishment that you receive a piece of paper for, that's all students will achieve. Education is a tool to enjoy life going on around us! The more we can teach little ones to enjoy seeing, learning & exploring new things, the more they will get from life. And that's the goal right? To enjoy the life & breath that Jesus has given us, to share that joy with others! This book is obviously from a Christian perspective & there is a section on how God's truth permeates all of education. She emphasizes that teaching children about the world needs to be centered on teaching them the truth of God's creation & His loving kindness.
This books is such a wonderful balance of enjoying life & using necessary tools to work at learning skills that are useful. I have been on & off the fence about giving my kids an education at home. This book however, makes me want to do homeschool them. Not because homeschooling is easy, always fun or better (necessarily). But because it seems like an amazing opportunity to be a part of seeing my kids' minds grow in knowledge & beauty... I feel like it would be worth the sacrifice to take part in that. We'll see how I feel in the next couple years ;)
Anyway, if you are a mom at home, a dad who takes part in these kinds of decisions, or a teacher of children at any age, you really should read this book. It'll change the way you see children & life!
It's called "For the Children's Sake" written by Frances Schaeffer's daughter (Susan Schaeffer MacAulay) & it's based partially on her own experience with education, as well as principles studied & carried out by a woman named Charlotte Mason. I'm re-reading the beginning since it took me a while to get through all of it (I'm usually reading 3-10 books at a time) but I zoomed through the last half.
I'll spare you lots of details - because there are a lot of them in the book - but basically, it takes a look at the purpose of education & shows how structure can often be detrimental, how sitting in a room for 6 hours does not produce the kind of education we want to give children & how children are living beings, ready to explore & learn in fun ways. There's so much more to it than that, but you'll have to see for yourself. I'm excited to implement suggestions in my kids' lives & see them be excited to discover new things.
My favorite suggestion was how to let kids learn to enjoy art. You give them a small print, like a postcard, of a famous painting. Let them look at it & then turn it facing down. Let them tell you what they saw. Ask a few questions like "What colors did you like?" & let them share. Then, have them turn it to see the "painting" again & watch them look at it more intensely. She recommends doing this with a new painting every few months. This is something she did with her kids and as they got older, they were so excited to go to museums & see "their" paintings! There are lots of ways you can make it fun. Have them paint their own interpretation, not a representation, just what the painting looks like to them. Susan also talks a lot about not putting adult expectations on children - don't give them a coloring book where they are expected to color inside lines that adults drew. Give them blank paper to create their own masterpieces from their own imagination.
The absolute core idea to this book is that education is life. As a person, you learn your whole life. If we treat learning like a one time accomplishment that you receive a piece of paper for, that's all students will achieve. Education is a tool to enjoy life going on around us! The more we can teach little ones to enjoy seeing, learning & exploring new things, the more they will get from life. And that's the goal right? To enjoy the life & breath that Jesus has given us, to share that joy with others! This book is obviously from a Christian perspective & there is a section on how God's truth permeates all of education. She emphasizes that teaching children about the world needs to be centered on teaching them the truth of God's creation & His loving kindness.
This books is such a wonderful balance of enjoying life & using necessary tools to work at learning skills that are useful. I have been on & off the fence about giving my kids an education at home. This book however, makes me want to do homeschool them. Not because homeschooling is easy, always fun or better (necessarily). But because it seems like an amazing opportunity to be a part of seeing my kids' minds grow in knowledge & beauty... I feel like it would be worth the sacrifice to take part in that. We'll see how I feel in the next couple years ;)
Anyway, if you are a mom at home, a dad who takes part in these kinds of decisions, or a teacher of children at any age, you really should read this book. It'll change the way you see children & life!
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