I haven't posted here in a very, very long time, and I apologize for that. Things have been hectic, and this blog, unfortunately, was not really on the priority list. I'm hoping that things have settled down a bit (for now...) and maybe I can fit in a bit more time for homeschool blogging.
We are still following the Leadership model of education, and I will hopefully have more posts in the future about that. My son is on the fence, between Core phase and Love of Learning. Core generally is between 0-8 years of age, but sometimes for boys it is longer, and especially since the Chief is a little behind developmentally, we aren't rushing things.
Right now, we are organizing the Closet and the Bookshelf. It's a little weird having one kid, because the theory is that you are supposed to have books for the youngest set on the bottom shelves, the middle shelves are for the Love of Learners, and the top are for Scholars. Well, we only have one, but I'm finding that the same principles apply. The Chief will still go to the youngest shelf and pick up Horton Hears a Who!, then the next day, he'll pick up something from the middle shelf about science or history. He goes back and forth, and I think that is an important part of his growing process. Him having that freedom I think gives him more confidence. But we are trying the utilize the closet and the shelves in the best way possible. Rather than having a Family Room per se, we have our living room and, to a lesser extent, our dining room as our learning spaces. They are connected so it isn't a hard transition between them, and one is visible from the other. Hopefully I will explain more about that in a future post as well. I'm thinking about doing a series of some sort where I discuss how we implement the "ingredients" of a Leadership Education (see the DeMille's book Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning) in our home. Everyone's house and family are different, and no one should feel pressured because their setup is not exactly like what the DeMille's describe.
How funny and exciting to find that you're into TJEd, too!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking a lot about our bookshelves lately, trying to decide what books to buy and which ones to just check out from the library, browsing library supplies websites for book protectors so my kids stop (or slow down) destroying books by loving them too much, lamenting the high cost of good-quality bookshelves, etc.
I look forward to talking with you more about Leadership Education at home! (I just now bought the Kindle version of Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning, btw.)
Leadership Education is the best book, in my opinion, for the practical application of the TJ Ed principles in your home.
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember those days well... There were some books, not many, but a few, that we actually had to buy multiple copies of because my son would "love" them so much. And it really was that he just looked at them to bits. If we ever have another, I think library sales are the way to go for the books up to a certain age, at a quarter a piece, it's easier to let the kids...well, have the whole experience of them, shall we say? Even the board books weren't safe around here. Our collection of Eric Carle books ended up extremely creased. Yet, they were soft in a way that you could tell they had been very loved!
Don't get me started on bookshelves...It's astounding that something so simple could cost so much.