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"Starting the Homeschool Journey"
September 8, 1997
PHS Chat held on AOL
- Steve and Jane Lambert
- Tonight we want to talk a bit about "Beginning the Journey" of homeschooling which is indeed the "Journey of a Lifetime" for most of us. We've been homeschooling now for 17 years and learn more about it every day and so we want to spend a few minutes sharing a bit of our "perspective" after all these years!
We began in 1981- long before homeschool support groups, homeschool conventions, curriculum, etc.! In many ways it was far easier then than today! We weren't faced with the overwhelming choices and opinions that face each of you today. We simply began teaching out of obedience and trusted God to provide the how to's. We began with a simple concept that the Lord gave us ...
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Charged with teaching our children "Whatever things are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent or worthy of praise." That simple goal has guided us for nearly 2 decades. But at a practical level we began to interpret that in every day terms. How to teach. What to teach. Why to teach. What results to expect, etc. We began, and we encourage you who are new to the homeschool
journey to begin, by spending some time prayerfully setting goals.
- Why are we homeschooling??
- Educational reasons?
- Religous reasons?
- To avoid something evil?
- To promote something wonderful?
These are important questions to examine and the answers will help you shape the how and what of your unique homeschool.
Are you aware that no two homeschools are alike?? Our school systems today have one unique goal: To produce educated classes, or educated groups, large groups sometimes as many as 1000 or more each year who have learned to read, think and act alike.
But our goals are different...our goal is to produce educated individuals, each one uniquely called and uniquely gifted by God. It's our privilege as home educators to explore that call and those giftings and to respond. Let's take a brief break for questions. Anyone before we move on??
- Question:
- I'm new to FIAR - what types of activities are listed to correlate to the books?
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- I want to refer you in general to our website at http://www.fiveinarow.com/ for a more detailed answer, but, briefly, FIAR explores social studies, language arts, art, applied math and science over a period of 5 days each week.
- Question:
- I wanted to know how 5 in a row handles teaching reading does it have suggestions.
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- FIAR does *NOT* teach reading. No unit study, (to our knowledge) teaches the 3 "r's" because by definition Unit Study moves freely from subject to subject while reading, for example, requires us to move methodically from point a to point b daily. You'll want to supplement FIAR with a phonics/reading program.
Let's continue with our topic for tonight. As we began planning our own unique Homeschool 17 years ago, we began to explore several specific goals: We thought at some length about what we wanted our children to "look like" 15 years down the
FiveInaRow: line. We concluded we wanted our children to be analytical thinkers ....critical readers....creative, unique, educated individuals. Those goals helped shape the decisions we made along the way.
- Question:
- Do you go up as far as high school?
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- FIAR is for all children ages 2-12. Can we hold specific FIAR for questions for a bit?? We want to address them, but we're here to talk about homeschooling in general first.
We also began examining what we were *NOT* interested in teaching our children. We were *NOT* interested in creating children who were expert at filling out workbook pages. Nor were we interested in creating children who could memorize-regurgitate-forget information on friday exams, information that didn't change
their lives on the following Monday. We began to modify our teaching styles and techniques as we formulated our philosophy. We quickly discovered that workbooks and textbooks met the WRONG goals for us. We began exploring unit study as a vehicle for meeting the goals we had met out for our children.
One of our opportunities as Home Educators is to go on the journey *WITH* our children, learning the things that we missed along the way as we teach our own children!! Together, as a familiy, you'll begin discovering how your family learns best, the materials and styles and structure that works for your unique situation.
OK...let's take questions.
- Question:
- We are just beginning, the hardest thing for me is that she learns different than I teach. How do you ease that?
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- What a wonderful observation!!
That's an observation that will take many of us a year or two to sort out. If, for example, you are an auditory learner and your son is a visual leaner, you can tell him and tell him and *TELL HIM* 100 times and he still won't "get it". You'll think, "What's the matter with you..I've TOLD You 100 times!!??!?!?!" Of course if you had "SHOWN" it to him once or twice he would have gotten it immediately. We assume that if we learn visually, EVERYONE learns visually, etc. We make an enormous leap in effectiveness as a HS teacher when we grasp this vital concept!!
We need to learn how our CHILDREN LEARN, as we also learn how WE TEACH. With that information we can modify our teaching style to meet our children's learning needs. You can still use some of your style, but you must accomodate your child's needs too. It's a compromise that will feel foreign to you at first, but will grow more familiar with experience.
- Question:
- Knowing that all students and teachers are unique, how would you two begin homeschooling if you were to do it over again, now, with a 5 year old? ... using FIAR?
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Interesting question ... Yes! <G> We'd definitely use FIAR! But we'd also spend more time exploring goals, learning styles, etc., the things we're discussing tonight, and less time being anxious about whether or not they were "LEARNING!" New HS moms have the *HIGHEST* anxiety level of anyone in the world!!!!! :-) And perhaps with good reason. But we now know from experience that homeschooling is a marathon...NOT a sprint!! It's a race that's won by consistency over a period of years and not a fast, frantic start.
Our goals were formulated as we discussed earlier, prayerfully asking what we wanted our children to be like at age 20+. What we wanted them to know. How we wanted them to act. And, of course, what the Bible said about it.
- Question:
- I'm overwhelmed with choosing a curriculum for my 3yob whose very interested in learning to read...the more I look into what's available the more confused I get. Where do I begin?
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Wonderful question!
Begin by reading to your child...reading...Reading...READING...and *READING* more... and then begin examining in detail the many phonics programs. Most phonics programs are able to transfer information to help a child learn to read. The best predictor of your success with any given program is not whether you've managed to discern the "PERFECT PROGRAM" but rather whether or not the program's approach makes sense to YOU! Do *YOU* understand it? Does it make sense to you? Are *YOU* excited about teaching it? Your enthusiam will transfer to your child and if you grasp the concept, you'll impart it to your child successfully.
- Question:
- My son loves to read and that is how he learns--only problem is that that is all he wants to do He doesn't want to try new things
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- How old is your son??
- Answer:
- he is 8
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Of course mathematics is essential and there's a whole world of hands-on experience that makes education "complete", but, at the same time, in our opinion, reading *IS* the foundation of all true learning and we'd be hesitatnt to discourage him too much. Look for ways to tie "real world, hands-on" activities to whatever he's reading about at the moment.
- Question:
- I really love that he want to read, but what about his interaction? he would rather do anything school related by himself--he is social
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Interaction is of course important. We do *NOT* want our children to grow up socially awkward, isolated from others...unable to relate. The challenge for you is to find the balance between drawing your son "out" into the world without crushing the wonderful gift that he's been given: a love of reading!
Perhaps you could explore a HS co-op with others in your neighborhood or church?
- Comment:
- Whenever I begin to feel anxious about what's being learned I try to remind myself, that my goal is to just expose them to as many things as possible and let them take off in the direction that interest them! I have control over how much i expose them to, but not what they actually learn.
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Thank you ...wonderful point!! We serve up "spoon sized bites" and see what flavors interest them! Well said!!!
Let's digest a few more concepts and we'll continue with questions.
We believe that the most important concept you can convey to your child, the foundation of all else in education, is a "love of learning". Teaching children to experience the joy of making discoveries for themselves and teaching them that learning is much more closely related to pleasure than it is to punishment. We want our children to make that discovery and know that our job, and their job, will be easier in the years to come.
But perhaps our greatest obstacle, our biggest challenge, as we begin the journey of homeschooling is to learn to relax and enjoy the journey itself. We somehow must learn to relax and rest in the knowledge that if God has called us to educate our children He is *NOT* going to humiliate us or embarrass us with failure. We need to remember ALWAYS that it is a marathon, not a sprint; that perhaps our greatest challenge with early learners is to "GET OUT OF THE WAY" and not interfere since God has created little ones as human sponges, little ones who "soak up" and "absorb" the world around them naturally. If we can avoid burying them because of our own anxieties and our own insecurities, they WILL learn.
No other challenge is greater, no other enemy more daunting, than the fear of failure. Ask God for the grace...the peace..the confidence...the assurance that He will help you in this venture, that He will be your constant guide on this journey we call homeschooling.
Break for questions.
- Question:
- What is FRIAR?
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- FIAR is "Five in a Row", a literature-based, unit study for children. We have curriculum for children between ages 2 and 12. For MUCH more information see our website at http://www.fiveinarow.com where you'll find sample lessons and much, much more.
- Question:
- What is your feeling about tests and grades, I am not really for them but we are enrolled in a private umbrella school that will require grades beginnning with 2nd grade and will have to take tests at the end of every school year to
advance. How can I help him prepare for tests without really subjecting him to
tests? I want him to be able to perform though for written tests when I am
not there.
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Good question. We believe in testing every few minutes ... you do it by looking in their eyes and seeing if they "get it!" <G> And of course reviewing, ongoing reviewing of the material you've covered, is essential to help develop long-term comprehension. We never "tested" on most subjects, only math and spelling, but we reviewed constantly and we looked into their eyes every few minutes for a pop "quiz". When the look in the eyes was vacant we went back over the material once more or from a different perspective until the light came on. When the eyes "get it" they just got an "A" on their test. Using this approach our experience suggests your children will excel on standardized testing. Our oldest daughter, for instance, took a GED at age 16 with NO preparation, a test that some people study for a year or more to take, and she only missed 3 questions out of hundreds. NOT because she was expert at test-taking, but because she had LEARNED and RETAINED a wide-variety of material for years!
No other questions right now so let's wind up then with a story that we hope wll help you all.
Several years ago we were at a homeschool show and a woman in a very expensive ($1000?) suit spent 90 minutes kneeling and talking with Jane in great detail about how to teach her son. What curriculum to use...how to teach reading..how to teach math...whether she should test...what about grade cards, etc., etc.,etc... She was a brand new homeschooler who had a child at age 40 and now, after 20 years as a career professional, had decided to HS her now 5-year-old son and was terrified with the prospects of beginning the journey. Sound familiar? It did to us!
The catch? She had a doctorate in education and was the head of a university
school of education. She had taught 1000's of teachers how to teach, but as she said, "That's different. That's someone ELSE's child. This is MY SON. I've never actually taught anyone before. I'm petrified. How do I begin? Will I succeed?"
The truth is that whether you failed to graduate from high school or have a doctorate in education all you can do is prayerfully ask the Lord for help, ask Him to give you courage...confidence...direction...and to be there with you in your classroom each day, and we promise you WILL succeed!!
- Question:
- I have 2 three yo boys that don't like to sit still for me to read to them. Help!
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Many 3-year-old boys are simply TOO YOUNG! Read what they'll sit still for and give them a few months! <G> Meanwhile, take them to the zoo or to a construction site to watch buildings being built!
- Question:
- What if you have a child that was in ps and no longer is motivated to learn? 7yo
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Finding children who are "flatline" and "nonresponsive" after classroom school is common. Your first goal, indeed your ONLY goal at this point, is to bring them back to life and if it takes a semester...or even a year...to do that you must complete that step before you can go on. Continuing to push information at them when they're nonresponsive only thickens the wall. Read, explore, do fun activities. Do whatever interests them at the moment until they rediscover the now-forgotten joy of learning. THEN you can begin to move ahead with purposeful direction once again. In the meantime...that is your mission- to revive...to bring back to life!!
- Comment:
- That is the problem. Nothing seems to interest him anymore.
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- There has to be something...baseball cards...model airplanes...army movies...you MUST find it and start from that point in our opinion.
- Question:
- Would Fiar work for a child with ADD/OCD.Unit studies kind of overwhelm me.
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- We've found that many moms of ADHD and ADD children find FIAR to be a useful tool, a vehicle to capture children's attention, though sometimes they have to break up the teaching day into smaller pieces. We've not had personal experience with the problems, but that's been the feedback.
- Question:
- Is it ok for a child who sit and fidgets while I read to him?
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- How old?
- Answer:
- 10
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- Some children who are auditory learners can color or build models or any number of activities and absorb every word of a story. Our youngest daughter listens and absorbs enormous amounts of information while "doing" something else. We directed her "fidgets" into other productivity while she was read to or during discussions. Undivided attention isn't always a requirement.
- Question:
- Do you ever have the children take notes while doing a lesson or even taking a nature walk to help them retain the info?
- Steve & Jane Lambert:
- If it helps them learn it's great, but we've never found it essential. You're going to find out what works best for YOU! If taking notes helps, go for it!!!!
Thanks to you all for spending part of your evening with us...we're honored!
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