Grace Week

In my post Education Is Not An Environment, I mentioned Mason's idea that students who are used to having others order their lives do not do the hard work of ordering their own. It reminded me of a post by Linda Johnson about "Grace Week."

Grace Week is a one week break every six weeks of instruction.  
During Grace Week, children take a break from academics, but not from learning.  At the beginning of Grace Week, each child sets specific goals (about a dozen) for what he or she wants to accomplish during the week, and submits the list to mom for approval.

Examples:
1)a handicraft
2)read from their independent reading list
3)write - book review, film review, blog, an essay, personal journal, poem, letters
4)practice musical instrument/master a piece/finish a composition
5)watch a film/film appreciation
6)kitchen project (bake, cook, add to recipe journal, preserve)
9)do for others (service project, making a get well card)
10)exercise
11)cleaning/organizing
12)art -sketch, paint a picture
13)play a game/practice chess
14)file schoolwork
15)science project
16)outdoor skill (learn archery, learn to ride a bike)
17)go on a field trip
18)book report alternative (examples: build something from a book, dramatic play from a book)

This is a great idea for teaching children time management and that they don't need someone to entertain them.

Typing on my phone. I'll add links later from my laptop.

Education is an Atmosphere

Mason believed that one-third of education is atmosphere. Yesterday, I posted a little about this. She wrote that atmosphere is different than environment. Atmosphere is invisible and intangible.

Learning happens everywhere. Today, grabbing lunch on the go, I witnessed a woman with two small children speaking rudely to the restaurant employees. Because I have been thinking about "atmosphere," I thought about how this was a lesson. A negative atmosphere teaches negative lessons. 

Being a mother makes me want to model patience, kindness, humility, forgiveness, and gratitude (and, and, and...) because these are the lessons I want to teach my daughter. (And these are the lessons being a mom teaches me.)

Atmosphere is not our physical surroundings. I have to remind myself of this. We live in a very small apartment with no lawn, the trade-off being that we live within walking distance of the beach and the weather is like being on vacation year-round. But atmosphere is how we live in this space, not what we furnish it with.

Education Is Not An Environment

In Volume 3, chapter 15, Charlotte Mason writes about the motto of the Parents' Union: Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.

While I don't agree with Mason on everything, I do agree with her on the following...

Education is not an environment.  At the beginning of each school year, I give a lot of thought to my "classroom environment."  I arrange the desks so that students will have a view of the whiteboards and be able to work in cooperative groups.  I post the rules and consequences and rewards (Mason was philosophically opposed to rewards, but I am required by administration to give them) to make students aware of my expectations.  My classroom environment must promote tolerance, safety, and responsibility.  Every choice I make must make the students feel organized, and teachers are told we can achieve this with cute bulletin boards and potted plants.

But education is not an environment.

“We are more ready to be done unto than to do[.]”  Mason wrote that when education is viewed as an environment (or - I will add - when environment is seen as paramount), it breeds listless students who let others order their lives, instead of doing the hard work of ordering their own; students require schedules and need to be entertained.  

Two anecdotes:

Friday, my students asked if they would be getting a reading log for Spring Break.  (I give them a reading log to fill out as part of their homework each week, something I disagree with but do anyway.) I said, "No, it's vacation." (This week - Easter Week - parents should be able to choose where their children's attention is focused.) One student raised her hand and asked, "But can we read anyway?"  I can't tell you how surprised I was by this question.  My students are so used to having their lives ordered for them.  "Yes," I said, "please do."

A couple of years ago, when the district I work for adopted new Language Arts textbooks, the trainer was demonstrating the digital textbook.  "This is what the students demand," he said.  Demand.  My jaw dropped.  Do we feed children candy when they demand it, or do we give them foods we know will nourish them?  Education is not an environment.


 

Caterpillars Day 5

The caterpillars are definitely alive.  Yesterday, I drew on the cup with dry erase marker, tracing each caterpillar. (I did this twice, once in the morning with one color and again in the evening with another color.) The one in the middle appears to have moved less than a quarter of an inch over the past day and a half.

Glue

We have several of these Kumon First Steps Workbooks (Let's Fold!, Let's Cut Paper!, More Let's Cut Paper!, and Let's Sticker and Paste!)  Each book includes more than 30 activities in full color.  The subject matter is happy and sweet.

Activities like folding, cutting, play-doh-squishing, and gluing all improve fine motor control, which is needed for writing.

Afternoon at the Beach

This afternoon, in lieu of a nap, we went to play at the beach.

A 2 Year Old Chopping Vegetables?

This is my still-two-years-old-for-another-month daughter chopping zucchini for dinner (Mommy and Daddy's dinner, since the only vegetables she cares for at the moment are baby carrots and cucumber slices).  The tool she is using is called a vegetable crinkle cutter.  I'd read about kindergarteners in Waldorf schools chopping vegetables with crinkle cutters to make vegetable soup.  The blade is blunt. It requires the child to hold the handle with one hand, and press down with their other hand (see the photo), so little fingers do not get in the way.  Again, she is carefully supervised.  We've had this tool for a year and I love it.