Catechesis & Homeschool Curriculum

[Michael Wilson]

My friend gave them all their religious instruction at home. As they became adults, she encouraged them to read good Catholic books to deepen their faith.

[Tales]

Have any of you come across the schole / restful learning concept as discussed by people such as Sarah Mackenzie or Dr. Christopher Perrin at Classical Academic Press?  If so, any thoughts on this?  It seems in alignment with the philosophy of companies like Memoria Press.

Similarly, this talk by Jenny Rallens titled "The Liturgical Classroom and Virtue Formation" (search in Google for video).

We just received our pre-k materials from Memoria Press and are looking forward to beginning this endeavor.

[MundaCorMeum]

I love the concept of schole.  I just learned about it over the summer.  I listened to a few podcasts from The Schole Sisters (obviously, these are directed primarily at mothers).  The Charlotte Mason philosophy advocates something similar, as well.  I think they go hand in hand, in my opinion.  In the CM world, she teaches that education is a life. So, education isn't just dumping information into a child from K through 12th, and then you are done educating...if you even want to call such a thing "educating"   Education is a lifetime endeavor, and we have a duty before God to always be better forming our intellect, to the best of our abilities; to continually filling our minds with truth, beauty, and goodness, no matter what our age.  Queue schole!  I've started taking up the habit of education myself again, apart from just what I learn in teaching my children, and it is wonderful.  I believe we owe it to our children to give them the best of ourselves, as parents.  But, you can't do that unless you actually fill yourself up first.  Which means, self-care is very important for parents, and mothers especially.  And, I'm not talking about what the world calls "me time".  It's not a selfish thing.  It is caring for oneself, mentally, physically, and spiritually, so you can serve those around you at your very best.  It is for the benefit of not only yourself, but for all those under your care and service.  So, yeah, I think schole is very important for all parent; not just homeschooling ones.  I'd like to continue learning and understanding it better.  I've only just scratched the surface.

Teaching from rest is a book that has long been on my list, but I've not read it.  I will say this, too...I've been very impressed with Classical Academic Press.  Both as a company and in their materials.  I worked with a rep last year to help me get some materials for a latin class I taught at our local homeschool co-op.  They were wonderful to work with.  Very helpful and accommodating to our needs.  I've used both their Latin for Children program and the French one.  It's excellent.  Very well done, and the kids enjoy it.  I highly recommend them.

Finally, I thought of you and your family recently when I came across a new science resource for very young children.  It's free online.  You can just print these little books from this website:  https://www.allthingsransome.net/literary/naturebooks.html  I'm getting ready to start 'Things in Our Garden' with my young ones.  I haven't read it, yet, though, but it looks like it will be very good.    Also, the Thornton Burgess series of books for children is fantastic.  I got the Bird Book, and it is excellent.  Very charming.  You might be able to find those online for free to print, as well.  Project Gutenberg website has gobs of old classics for free use.   

[Tales]

MundaCorMeum,

Thank you for the Ransome books.  They look refreshingly old fashioned.  How will your incorporate them into your teaching?  Reading out loud and then discussion, or reading outside, or something else?

The Teaching from Rest book was very worthwhile.  On an amusing tangential note, I was certain that Mrs. Mackenzie was an evangelical and so as I was reading it I was quite confused but pleased with her repeated references to teachings of the saints.  "This lady is going to convert any day now, I gotta write her a letter!"  Half way through I couldn't take it anymore and had to google it, and indeed she is Catholic (convert from long ago).

When you are teaching a book with your children how do you handle the post-reading part?  Worksheets, journal entries, round-table discussion, quiz, test, something else?  Or a mish-mash of the aforementioned?

God bless.
Davis

[MundaCorMeum]

MundaCorMeum,

Thank you for the Ransome books.  They look refreshingly old fashioned.  How will your incorporate them into your teaching?  Reading out loud and then discussion, or reading outside, or something else?



The Teaching from Rest book was very worthwhile.  On an amusing tangential note, I was certain that Mrs. Mackenzie was an evangelical and so as I was reading it I was quite confused but pleased with her repeated references to teachings of the saints.  "This lady is going to convert any day now, I gotta write her a letter!"  Half way through I couldn't take it anymore and had to google it, and indeed she is Catholic (convert from long ago).

When you are teaching a book with your children how do you handle the post-reading part?  Worksheets, journal entries, round-table discussion, quiz, test, something else?  Or a mish-mash of the aforementioned?

God bless.
Davis

They do look pleasantly old-fashioned, don't they?!  I can't wait to read them with my littles.  For the under 1st grade crowd, I won't do anything other than cuddle up on the couch with the children and enjoy the stories with them.  We might read them before nap time, or in between lessons with their older siblings.  I like to ensure the littles don't get neglected during school hours, so we reconnect halfway between lessons and read, play, or go on the swing set together outside.  They won't be required to do anything with a read aloud other than enjoying it.  If you watch your children carefully when they play, you will see that what they are reading with you comes out during play time.  They are very good at relating what they read to the real world, and this is where true education takes place, in my opinion.  So, these nature stories will help them connect with real nature.  You'll find that they will read about something, see it in real life, then come to you and say, "Mom, I just saw a cardinal!  Just like the one in the story where <insert retelling of story by child here>"  This where their comprehension skills are developing, and their speech skills, and their vocabulary skills, and their social skills, etc. 


So, here is what I do with reading passages for the older students, for all subjects.  This is all very new to me, so I am by no means an expert, but I will do my best to explain the how and the why.  I've combined alot of subjects this year, due to the quantity and age range of children that I have.  So, our school this year looks much more like a cottage school than anything else.  And I have to say, it feels like a breath of fresh air!  Itemizing each child's lessons last year got to be very taxing on both me and the children.  It was fine when I had fewer students, but as I added more, it got to be too over-whelming.  All this means is that we do a lot of read alouds together, then the older children who have good reading fluency will have additional readings in various subjects during certain scheduled reading periods.  After a reading is done, which is normally a short passage....no more than a chapter or part of a longer chapter at one sitting, I have one of the children narrate it back to me (or the individual child, if it was an independent read for him).  Which really is as simple as, "Ok, Sally, tell me what we read."  They are required to give narrations for all their scheduled readings.  Anything outside of their curriculum books are considered 'free reads', and they can just read and enjoy to their hearts content (I have some voracious readers here).  We do have a couple of read alouds going, just for fun, that they are not required to narrate, as well. 

For the middle schooler and high schooler, they are each required to give me one written narration per week.  As they get comfortable with that, I'll likely up it to two.  This is their composition.  I will go over their work, and correct any mis-spellings and mistakes in grammar/punctuation.  Today is the last day of our first week, so they have yet to do a written narration.

The narration (oral and written) replaces things like Q & A, fill in the blank, multiple choice, etc.  It fosters the habit of attention, because they aren't just looking for certain pieces of information to "get the right answer", then ignoring the rest (how many times in school did you look at the questions FIRST, then go to the reading passage to pick out the answers, just so you could get a 100%, then go on your merry way.  No real learning took place, other than learning how to work the system to your advantage).  Since they have to narrate the entire passage, they need to actually read and understand the entire passage.  It also fosters discussion.  And, it forces them to organize the information in their mind first, so that the narration isn't all over the place.  It doesn't make sense if they are constantly saying, "no, wait...that happened later. First, this happened.  Oh wait, I forgot..." yada, yada, yada.  That does happen as they are developing their narration skills, but it will naturally hone itself, with guidance from the teacher.  It is also good for their public speaking skills.

[Tales]

Madam,

Thank you for the detailed reply.  Pretty much what you mentioned is what I have in mind as well.  The concern with this approach is primarily a personal self doubt, which Mrs. Mackenzie hits upon in her book, of wondering if all of this talking is enough, what about the workbooks?  I strongly suspect the workbook / short answer / MC question format is not only non beneficial but actually damaging to the innate desire to learn.  And yet since that was all I (and most all of us) received for an education, and everyone else around us still learns from, we naturally doubt our methodologies.

I was one of those students who read the whole thing and then struggled with all the detail questions.  When I took up a job as a SAT tutor I was taught "the tricks" and wowza, going straight to the questions before reading the passage makes everything so much easier.  Despite my good grades I guess I was not too sharp to have figured that out myself.

I think how you focus on oral response (individual or group discussion) and essay response is the way to go.  A major part of doing well in the world is in being able to persuade others to do things for you.  Sure, money can persuade, but usually that is not enough.  To get an employee to do an excellent job it takes more than just an excellent salary.  Sometimes money is not even necessary, as we see persuasive politicians get people to donate time and money, just on account of how effective their rhetoric is.

And this is not confined to worldly matters alone, for we are all called to make saints (of ourselves and others).  Since we have no ability to give supernatural faith to others, we at best can work to persuade them of the veracity of the faith.  This comes through living it, but also through speaking and writing persuasively about it.

The focus on stories also makes good sense because the most persuasive and impactful rhetoric is the story.  See: parables.

Memoria Press has literature guides and I am yet unsure if they are your standard modern educational style, or more like the methodology we are in agreement on.

[Jayne]

Those who like the Ransome nature guides should also check out his fiction series "Swallows and Amazons".  This was my husbands favorite series as a child, probably because he, like the children in the stories, had a sailboat that he sailed during his summer holidays.

The children in these books have a degree of independence and responsibility probably unimaginable to millennials, etc. and are worth reading for this even if one has little interest in sailing.  It is recommended for ages 9 and up. 

Warning:  One character, whose name is Letitia, is normally referred to by her nickname Titty.  Be prepared to explain this to children who associate the name with vulgar language.

[Traditionallyruralmom]

The Browerville sisters (SSPX) offer a correspondence catechism, which is what we use.  It is nice because you get feedback from a real sister, and your child can send her notes and pictures 
You can get the mailing address for the sisters here and write them for more information if your local chapel does not have the flyers.
http://www.angelusonline.org/index.php?section=articles&subsection=show_article&article_id=3235

[MundaCorMeum]

The Browerville sisters (SSPX) offer a correspondence catechism, which is what we use.  It is nice because you get feedback from a real sister, and your child can send her notes and pictures 
You can get the mailing address for the sisters here and write them for more information if your local chapel does not have the flyers.
http://www.angelusonline.org/index.php?section=articles&subsection=show_article&article_id=3235

Hey!!  How've you been? I was thinking of you not too long ago.  Hope all is well =)

[Traditionallyruralmom]

The Browerville sisters (SSPX) offer a correspondence catechism, which is what we use.  It is nice because you get feedback from a real sister, and your child can send her notes and pictures 
You can get the mailing address for the sisters here and write them for more information if your local chapel does not have the flyers.
http://www.angelusonline.org/index.php?section=articles&subsection=show_article&article_id=3235

Hey!!  How've you been? I was thinking of you not too long ago.  Hope all is well =)

sweet of you to ask.  Very well, baby is almost 1 and I am managing to do school, Deo Gratias!