The Brimhall family is a homeschool family. Our kids are still young, but choosing to homeschool is a way of life, and a journey that has already begun. I decided occasionally to post my thoughts on education and homeschool and to post some of the things that might be considered educational in nature.
There are many different styles and methods of homeschooling. Our overall method is Thomas Jefferson Education (for info see http://www.tjedonline.com/), but I also use a lot from the classical method and the Charlotte Mason method. With Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd) there is a great emphasis on the need for the parent to be an example in obtaining an education, thus I have begun to post a list of what I'm currently reading (just for fun, for anyone who might care).
Through my extensive homeschool/educational research over the past 5 years I have formed several opinions. One opinion being that I believe a focus on academics is pushed much to early in children. There is growing pressure for kids to read early, be tested early, etc. What ever happened to learning through play? That is definitely a plus about all the methods of education I follow, they emphasize not pushing kids to begin formal academics early. That does not mean we don't ever talk about colors, numbers, letters, etc. just not in a formal setting. Anyway, this has led me to continue a tradition my mother started with me. My mom did Joy School (for more info http://www.valuesparenting.com/joyschool/index.php) with my sister and I when we in preschool and I have wonderful memories. So, I have begun doing it with my kids. We have been doing it for about a month, and they love it. Right now it is just us, but in the fall I hope to involve a couple other families. This preschool program focuses on character building and learning right from wrong, which is the first stage of education in the TJEd model. So we are excited:) Stay tuned for future posts of joyschool.
2 comments:
I did Joy School with a group in the Fall, and now just K and I on our own, and I love it. The thing that it has helped with the most is giving me a way to teach some of those things I didn't know how to teach. K and I have been doing Order and goal striving the past three weeks. I have loved it because we were able to make and work towards a goal, but also stress the importance of paying attention to how our actions affect the fulfillment of our desires. I've really enjoyed doing the Joy School on our own because I can see what she is learning and implement it in a way that works well for our family. You just don't get those kind of life lessons from formal education.
Skyler is in the middle of his second joy school year and we're having a lot of fun with it.
Post a Comment