Please pray for homeschooling mother, Heather, who is going in for surgery tomorrow to remove a brain tumor.
She writes on her blog:
My prayer for every single person reading this is that you find the peace that floods over me. That you realize that there is a God who loves you so very much, and wants so badly to have a personal relationship with you. I pray that my story touches you and draws you closer to him in ways that you never thought possible. I pray that you hold your children a little tighter, and love your husband a little deeper. I pray that you hold your parents closer and realize that in the end- everything else is meaningless. Christs love for you is so immense and so encompassing. I have been asked so many times how I can believe in a God who brought this into my life- who threatens to take my children�s mother away and my husbands wife away.
I stand before you today and tell you that my tumor is not God�s punishment. My daughters terminal illness and autism and failing heart are not Gods punishment. My life is a living testimony of his grace and love. The 5 years that I have spent with this amazing child, who every doctor told me would be dead by now, is a testimony of His grace and love. Finding this tumor from an inner ear infection is a testimony of His grace and love. Being so young, and without any symptoms from such a large tumor is a testimony of His grace and love. Having 32 years of life is a testimony of His grace and love.
Read the rest of her amazing witness here:
Well Melanie, If you would like your enthusiasm for seeing boys energeticly playing with bugs renewed, you simply need to visit here.
On the other hand, sometimes those sorts of projects can spark an unexpected passion. Hannah took a zoology course in high school and one of the projects was to collect 50 different insects from the area. She had a very short time to do this as the class began in the Fall and cold weather (relatively speaking here in Texas) was coming.
However, she went from “creepy, crawly” to enjoying the different insects we found. Now she is studying at Texas A&M in the Wildlife and Fisheries department (after having tried zoology classes).
Thanks Julie,
That puts me back on track.
Of course, you’re right. Sometimes projects can spark an interest in something we’d never otherwise pursue.
I guess what I was grasping after was that what attracts me to descriptions I’ve read of nature study in the Charlotte Mason method is that is is much more organic, part of a lifestyle of nature walks and time spent enjoying the outdoors.
Her dictum of “masterful inactivity” means that the teacher capitalizes on opportunities as they naturally arise. So instead of saying: “Go collect 25 bugs,” the teacher says, “Ooo, that’s an interesting insect. I wonder what it is? And her own interest allows the child’s natural curiosity to lead to a learning experience. It’s about lighting fires. Which can happen, of course, in the project method. But it seems more hit-or-miss.
It’s not that assigned projects are bad in themselves; but all too often they can backfire. Such as stories I’ve heard of a child whose love of reading was squelched by a well meaning incentive program. Once reading became something that earned rewards, it ceased to be enjoyable for its own sake.
One of my goals as I approach homeschooling is to make the school experience as natural as her learning is now, to make learning a lifestyle and a life-long pleasure rather than a series of chores.
I think that the approach you mention is laudable and, of course, much more obtainable than what is often available to teachers in a regular classroom setting. Also, I think that in the case of “demovitation,” once the child is out of the teacher’s reach and the pressure is off then they can go back to their regular habits. In my experience, quite often it has been the problem of having a pushing parent (whose reach is never outrun) that has ruined many a good thing for their children. I suppose it just depends on the situation.