I grew up hearing the phrase "You can win a battle, but lose the war". This is something that I keep in the forefront of my mind in homeschooling. If Peter and Anne do not enjoy learning as adults, I will have completely failed! Learning is a process that lasts a lifetime. It is not an event or something that just happens when we do "school". Sure, not all aspects or every moment of school is fun. Math seems to be that way for us. At times I have lamented that I need a "Math Without Tears" program! (*If anyone has found one, I'd love to hear about it! LOL) Charlotte Mason wrote: "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire." I just love this quote! It sums up what my goals are in teaching Peter and Anne.
Charlotte Mason has really influenced me. Her ideas are very different from the way I was taught in school and even the way I was taught to teach. I've learned from her that children will form realtionships with what they are learning through using "living" or real books and real life as much as possible. This is so true! Although my children cannot directly experience the American Revolution, they have experienced it through the eyes of those that did. Earlier this school year we read biographies about Bejamin Franklin, Paul Revere, John Adams and George Washington plus several books of historical fiction. We watched a few carefully chosen documentaries about the American Revolution, we visited historical sites through the internet and went to an actual a pioneer homestead where we could see how the early settlers lived. In short, we experienced it. How can this compare to reading a chapter in a textbook and answering comprehension questions?
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