Mid-semester Encouragement

It's midway through the first semester of the 2013-2014 school year and maybe you're feeling a bit of the inevitable drag that follows the initial excitement of a fresh start. Those smartly sharpened #2 pencils no longer have any erasers. The brilliantly organized bookshelves and supply drawers are a muddled mess. One student is struggling with math and has fallen behind. Another student read all the great stories in his literature program and now has the daunting task of completing the neglected comprehension assignments. The science experiments keep failing. And there aren't enough hours in the day to accommodate the growing to-do lists. 

At BFB we know how you feel! And so we just want to take a moment to encourage you. When things start stacking up and it feels like you're going to doom your children to a lifetime of underachievement (don't worry, you're not!), sometimes the best thing you can do is take as step backwards. This may mean taking a day off from school and doing something with your children just for the fun of it. It may mean taking a break from Pinterest and the impossible standards it can set. It could be that you need a date with your spouse or a long chat with an encouraging friend. Whatever form it takes, it's worth taking a pause mid-semester. From experience we know that parents, teachers, and students can all start to feel overwhelmed at this point in the year. Pushing through without stopping to contemplate the good work that has been done, the obstacles overcome, the growth witnessed, can lead to drudgery and discouragement. So, take some time to look through your students's notebooks. Re-read some of their papers. Check out the progress in that math book. More than likely you'll be encouraged by the progress shown. And take time to affirm your children and students for their good work. Then go out for ice-cream or plan a scavenger hunt or spend a day doing nothing but enjoying one another's company. Homeschooling is an enormous task and it can often be messy and disorganized and chaotic. But, in the wise words of Jane Austen, "Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked." A shift in perspective can make all the difference for you and your children as you both expand your knowledge of the world and all the wonder it holds. Try to not lose sight of the fact that every lesson you are teaching is opening your childen's minds to the amazing and beautiful world we inhabit. Your work and investment in these young minds is a beautiful thing. 

For those of you who love reading with your children, sometimes you just need to spend an afternoon cuddled up reading a great story. May we suggest the following:

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson

The House of Sixty Fathers by Miendert DeJong

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Or any of the Caldecott Classics we outline in this article. 

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Meet Lisa!

Good morning! I am excited to introduce you to another homeschooling mom who is going to be sharing her experience using Beautiful Feet Books. Lisa Sulewski, like Samantha and Vanessa, made a switch from a popular curriculum in the classical method to our literature based study guides. Here Lisa shares her experience and I think you will all find it encouraging and inspiring. Lisa has included a lot of photos of her children's notebooks and I am so glad that she did because I personally love seeing what people come up with for the notebooking assignments. Lisa does a great job of showing how these notebooks can be a creative outlet for your children. Be sure to click on the pictures of the notebook pages to enlarge so you don't miss out on any details. And now I'll turn it over to Lisa:

“I love history and literature!” my daughter said this for the FIRST TIME after this year with Beautiful Feet Books! I love love love Rea and Beautiful Feet Books. They have changed how and what we are reading this year­–beautiful books that will stay in the hearts of my children forever. She has taught me a philosophy of teaching that has grown in my heart and I am so grateful. She guided me on the path to good literature and I am never going back!

My name is Lisa Sulewski and I have the privilege and sometimes just plain hard labor of homeschooling my beautiful and artistic daughter, Chloe (11) and my energetic, singing, dancing, all around funny man Jack (7).  I have so much to share about what we are doing with BF Books and how we got to this amazing place but I don’t want to overwhelm you all so I will give you some now and some later! I have fallen in love with books and I love looking for them. Here I am on my birthday with some friends who, of course, took me to a used bookstore!

 I had pretty much been following a classical education method and had a desire to do more with literature. We had been going along and reading for three years, drawing pictures and putting them all in a binder. I know, I know, I will get to the journaling part but that is after I met Rea! Well, I had this thought that I needed to do more. Maybe journal? During a home school convention, I was invited to go to Rea’s class by some friends. Mind you, I have no idea who she is and I get in line afterwards (this should have been a clue) and ask her about taking my literature to another level. She kindly invites me to spend time with her at the Beautiful Feet Books booth. I get there and am captivated. After many questions, discussions, and laughs, I am sold. I buy a few curriculums and I go home and later on buy one more! I am so grateful for that time of transition into what I am teaching now. Rea has done extensive work in this field with her Masters Degree in Children’s Literature and it shows!

Fast forward six months and we have are being filled with knowledge from all our beautiful books. I want to share with you some of our journals that we have been working on to go with our books. This was a new concept for me and was hooked when Rea showed me her children’s journals at a Literature Soiree she hosted in her home.  At the end of the year to have these precious journals with my children's ideas is priceless to me. It is hard work with much more time invested since my children can spend quite a bit of time working on a picture for their journal but it's worth every moment.

Jack's notebook pages on Owl Moon, a book read in the Teaching Character Primary Study Guide. 

First, I want to show you a journal from Beautiful Feet's Teaching Character Primary Reading Pack that Jack has been working through. I have enjoyed reading all of these books and in curriculum gives so many more books than is pictured! She lists authors and other favorite books which is so helpful for me as I'm starting on this “only the best literature for my kids" journey. Thank you Rebecca! These are two of the almost 40 stories that Jack has worked so hard in putting together. These were below his reading level but I didn’t want him to miss out on anything and we are talking about character, something we can all relate too! I know I need to be reminded of “hope never fails you”.

Jack's notebook entry for The Pink Tulip by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, a story read in the Teaching Character Through Literature Study Guide. 

Chloe has read through the some of the books in the Early American History for Intermediate Grades and here are her journal pages on the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. Reading Abe Lincoln Grows Up by Carl Sandburg brought history alive. Spending that time listening to the details of his life, we learned so much more than we would have in a short text on the subject. I also added her pages on Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Spending time reading, drawing/coloring, and writing has helped us to really absorb the subject. You get to know the person you spend time with.

Chloe's journal pages on Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman

Chloe's journal featuring a timeline of the Civil War and map of the United States

Chloe's journal entry on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Here is journal page from Jack’s Early American History books. We started with Leif the Lucky and are now learning about Benjamin Franklin. Here are two pages from Jack's work on The Matchlock Gun a story about a brave boy who obeys his mom. OK, so there's more than that but I like that part!

Jack's notebook pages for The Matchlock Gun

We love Beautiful Feet's Geography Through Literature study! I have a co-op of five kids and we spend our time reading, writing in our journals, and working on our maps. Here is Jack’s journal (below) from Seabird by Holling Clancy Holling. When we read the first book, Paddle to the Sea, I love that Jack noticed that the pictures were “amazing because they are very detailed. . . and look real and true.” I had him write that in his literature journal as well.

Jack's journal entry featuring the travels of Nate in Seabird from our Geography Through Literature Study Guide

Chloe is also part of an all girls book club where they are reading through the Teaching Character Intermediate books. The mom puts a spread of food and hot chocolate and the girls have a great time reading and learning together!

I have definitely put more hard work and thought into homeschooling this year but it is more rewarding! There is so much more I couldn’t share,  the best illustrators, timelines, summer reading lists, Christmas books, the influence is endless. Thank you for enriching us with good books and memories to last us a lifetime!

Thank you, Lisa for providing us with a window into your homeschooling experience and for letting us peek into your children's beautiful notebooks! I love the idea of your daughter's Teaching Character Through Literature book club. Does anyone else do that? Would people be interested in doing an online book club for their kids?

If anyone else is interested in their children's notebook pages being featured here, please send me a picture of them. I absolutely love seeing what sort of creative ideas you all come up with and know that other homeschooling families and educators would be inspired as well. Just email the pictures to rebecca@bfbooks.com and I'll let you know when they'll be posted. 

Thank you again, Lisa, for sharing your story with us. We look forward to hearing more in the future! 

You may also enjoy these other entries written by homeschooling moms:

Introducing Samantha

Update from Samantha

Connection and Love, an entry from Vanessa

"I love homeschooling!" an update from Samantha

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Busy-ing ourselves to death...

American traffic jams always seem to represent the frantic and chaotic pace of modern day life. 

I am currently in the middle of an international relocation and while this may seem to have nothing to do with education or homeschooling, stick with me. For anyone who has been through this you know what a strange experience this can be. It's the third time in five years I've changed countries but this time the change is back to the United States, the country my husband and I said goodbye to five years ago. Looking back and thinking about the past years abroad I have been determined to preserve some of the live rhythms we've developed while living in Europe. One of the things I loved most was the slower pace of life. We haven't owned a car in all this time abroad and that one small change forces an entirely different lifestyle. Nothing goes fast when you are walking everywhere. Additionally, living abroad forced me out of the chaotic busy-ness that haunts so much of life today. It was a jarring change, one that I fought. I did not gracefully slip into a slower more meditative life with ease. No way. I hated it. I hated that I didn't feel like I had a purpose. I hated that I could not look back on each day and have a list of accomplished tasks neatly checked off on a to-do list. And I hated having to tell the people I met that at 28 years old I had no job or was working in a coffee shop wiping down tables and foaming milk. Moving abroad meant that all the things that kept me busy and gave me my identity were stripped away and it was a painful process. But, as we've discussed in the entry on boredom, it gave me a space in which to get to know myself much better–the good and the bad. And it was also a space in which I rediscovered creative aspects to my personality. I also came to rediscover the joy of time spent with friends in meaningful discussions–not just franticly sipped coffees in which we batted back and forth examples of exactly how busy we each were. There were a million sweet moments that could be savored when I wasn't rushing from one activity, duty, or obligation to the next. 

Now that I am four days back in the US life has sped up. My husband and I are driving in traffic in our rented car. We're grabbing meals on the go. We're meeting with realtors and employers. And we're frazzled. So, it was perfect to read The Busy Trap in the NYT and be reminded that while life is sometimes chaotic, it is so important to carve out that down time and open up space in our lives. The article's author Tim Kreider really takes on our modern obsession with being, or at least seeming, busy: "Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day." Isn't it so easy to fall into this obsession with projecting importance through busy-ness? 

Kreider goes on to remind his readers that empty space is the birthplace of creativity. We have talked a lot about allowing the children in our homes and classrooms time to be bored, bu't what about us? For the homeschooling parents and teachers reading this, I think it is just as important that you schedule time for yourselves to have that space where you can let your mind wander and where you can be reenergized. You need creative inspiration just as much as your children! "Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done."

In the midst of this move I have also begun reading For the Family's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. Macaulay makes the observation that "home" is essential for everyone and it isn't necessarily a place but an "atmosphere." I could not agree more. In the performance and production emphasized world we live in, it is so essential that our homes become refuges from these pressures. As Macaulay states: "Charlotte Mason valued home as the primary setting for a child's life and relationships. Just as she said that "education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life," so we can say that the home is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life." 

How can we protect our homes from the onslaught of chaos that afflicts our contemporary lives? How do we give ourselves and our spouses and children the gift of idle time? Is it even possible? Is Kreider being fair when he says: "It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence." That is a convicting indictment–one that strikes me close to home. And so I am thinking of ways in which to create a peaceful atmosphere in my family's new home. One that will be so much more important as we re-enter the frenetic pace of American culture. How that will look is yet to be determined, but I would love to hear from you as to how you preserve sanity in your home. Is internet time limited? Do you read together? Do you say "no" regularly in order to protect you time? As Macaulay states, creating that atmosphere of a home is a discipline, something that requires conscious effort and practice. While I attempt to create that in my own home and life, I would love to hear about what you do. What has been successful? Any failed attempts? 

I would highly recommend reading the article, it's very well done and a great reminder that while it may not always seem like it, our lives are often busy because we choose to allow them to be. In the words of Kreider, "Life's too short to be busy."

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