This January was a very exciting time for our 2nd child. He was turning 6 years old! And because of the way that we homeschool, I had some special ideas about how we were going to celebrate.
There are so many things I appreciate about Charlotte Mason's principles, ideas, and recommendations. Although not explicitly part of her 20 principles, she says very plainly that formal schooling should not begin until age 6.
When we began homeschooling, I wasn't knowledgeable or overly interested in Charlotte Mason or any other defined homeschool method.
Our firstborn is an extremely abstract and "academic" child. At 3 and 4, he would obsessively learn things like numbers, counting, mathematical concepts, reading, chess, and other complex games at his own insistence with very little adult input or structure. When he was in kindergarten, it was easy for me to be relaxed and only require 5-minutes of simple copywork a day. The rest of the time he spent playing as well as voluntarily doing other things that looked a lot like school, namely voraciously reading and learning math through Life of Fred, which was something that he begged us to do with him almost every night.
When first grade came around, I began having him do 30 minutes of math a day plus continuing his copywork, but that was all I required. We already had a very lovely and interesting morning time that we did 7 days a week, plus several read alouds going at all times, and he was still reading a ton of fiction and non-fiction daily, doing khan academy math for fun, and attending a science enrichment program at a local university.
As I read and learned more about the Charlotte Mason method, I was convinced that it would a benefit to him and an excellent education if we transitioned to a more regimented daily schedule with short lessons of various types, as well as more regular and systematic practice with drawing, singing, and nature study. Starting in his 2nd-grade year, I have fully embraced the Charlotte Mason method as well as many of the techniques and recommendations she put forward in her volumes on home education. And it has been absolutely wonderful. This method is a great fit for a very academic child.
But I have been even more excited to bring John into this style of learning.
John is a very different child than his big brother. He hasn't been overly interested in learning letters and numbers. He probably knows about 10 letters consistently and has just started recognizing a few words. He is naturally learning addition and subtraction but doesn't feel a need to rush ahead to multiplication and division at a breakneck speed. He loves fairy tales and plays for hours like a typical child. And I feel so sure that the Charlotte Mason method is going to work just as well for him. Yet another reason why I am so attracted to this method: I can see how well it meets every child exactly where they are at.
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So on the morning of his 6th birthday, he came to breakfast to find his very own set of grown-up watercolors and his very own nature journal at his spot. He basically hugged them and ran around showing them off to his brother and sister. Of course, he would want his own journal! He's been watching for months as his big brother records almost daily entries in his journal, along with watercolor pictures and other drawings.
I had also let him know that on the morning of his 6th birthday he would give his first required narration. I knew that he would be timid about it and, in fact, he had told me that he would not do it. Part of his personality is that he balks at trying something when he is afraid he won't be as good as big brother. Big brother and I reminded him that narration is not easy. And I gently reminded him that whatever he could tell back would be fine.
During our morning time, which happens during breakfast, I read the first story in Milo Winter's The Aesop for Children. John said he could not do it. I said that he would do it, but we could go back and forth telling back what we remembered. And he did a great job! He would do one sentence and I would do another sentence until we reached the end of the very short story.
He spoke very quietly but when everyone beamed at him and celebrated his first narration when he was finished, he seemed pleased. That was several days ago and every day since I have read another fable to him at breakfast and he has narrated back to us. I haven't had to help again and although he pretends to not like it when he sees the book some days, he has not complained again.
John would like to start formal lessons in all of the subjects I do with big brother Peter right away. But we will wait until 1st grade begins for him, which will be this summer.
I would rather give him more months to gain confidence and interest in his letters and numerical knowledge. I see this type of interest growing in him daily. Also, narrating is a much more difficult skill than it seems and months of daily narration will help him be much more confident when it is time to narrate many lessons each day.
Meanwhile, I will do a Life of Fred Apples chapter with him at his request, give him the option of tracing letters or writing numbers in his Kumon workbooks, and continue to include him in our weekly composer, folk singing, and artist studies, as well as our watercolor painting sessions. I will ask him to orally narrate short nature observations daily which mom or dad will write into his very own nature notebook.
He is anxious to start piano lessons using Hoffman Academy and we will allow him to begin in late May after we finish up our yearly homeschooling and have begun to adjust to the new sibling who is due in early May.
I am already planning his 1st grade Charlotte Mason style year. I can't wait to share all the wonderful books and ideas with my special little guy.
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