Homeschooling Philosophy

As I begin to homeschool our daughters, I've already been asked by several people what our homeschool philosophy is. There are so many different ways to approach education and basic philosophy names help narrow down an understanding of how one particular family is approaching it. Although there's a tremendous amount of variety in each category, labels help us communicate generalities, like labeling a fruit "sweet" communicates the difference between the two fruits "cantaloupe" and "lemon". But I'm having a hard time identifying any one label for the vision that is still forming in my mind for our family.
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For me, the first step is our long-term vision. If we don't know where we're going, we'll never know how to get there. Of course, I don't know what careers my children will choose or whether they will marry or where exactly they'll live. But I do know I want them to be strong Christians; have deep relationships with the Lord, with their family, and with their Christian brothers and sisters; to have the mind and the character of Christ. Traditional school studies will help but they're not the primary focus in our home. They are the tools that help us achieve our true goals. Very, very important tools, but not the focus. Nor are they tools in a cheesey way: I don't think our math and science have to be explicitly in-your-face Christian in order to be effective. They show God's glory in and of themselves for those who have the eyes to see. With that long-term vision in mind, there's no reason to begin school in August or September when the child is 5yrs old. We began the day they were born.
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The very first course our children receive in their education is how to pray. We pray before every meal and often afterward as well. They see Mom and Dad praying individually every morning when they get up. We pray with them when we tuck them in every night. We pray most mornings together as a family and lead them through an "individual" prayer time afterward (though right now it's both girls together with one of us; but they know they're expected to continue on their own once they're old enough). We started this before they were born, with our own prayer lives, and started training them in it before they could even hold up their own heads. It will continue, developing over the years as they develop, throughout their childhood and adolescence. (Is this Montessori? Pent?)
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My husband says I'm addicted to reading. Wouldn't it be wonderful to skip all household cleaning and other duties and just read all.day.long?? Around the time our older daughter turned 1 we had to institute the rule "no books before breakfast". She wanted to be read to or at least look at the pictures from the moment she got up in the morning until she fell asleep at night. Her sister's desire for storytime is less obsessive, but still very strong. Reading is part of our family culture: I read to myself; I read aloud; 5yr reads aloud; books are taken to bed at naptime; books are snuck into bed at nighttime; guests are begged to read almost the moment they step through our door. When I picked up my daughter from a party this summer I found her with just one other girl her age listening to a book being read by a helper; all her other peers were in the basement playing with toys and each other. I help ensure that the books available are mostly high quality literature and often correspond to something I want the girls to learn (e.g. the letters and sounds of the alphabet for the 3yr). I like to have some small activity to interact with each longer chapter book we read, even if it's just coloring a picture. Eventually I will expect some sort of book report to follow most books they read, whether independently or assigned. Right now we've started with a picture sketched and colored in each girl's prayer journal following each day's Bible reading. (Charlotte Mason)
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We've started our math curriculum. All along we've taught our girls how to count, simple addition, use of an abacus, etc. Now we've started using an actual curriculum (Math-U-See): the first level, which is really for 1st grade. Eventually my 5yr will discover (or maybe I'll tell her) that she's a year ahead of her grade and the first lessons are a mix of review and understanding better what we've already taught her. Her 3yr sister (turns 4 this month) likes to sit in and play with the blocks; she might be ready to formally begin the program in another half year. I'm even wondering if I'll be able to do math with her at all or if she'll pick up everything from listening to her sister's lessons and skip worksheets altogether for another couple years and jump in at the 3rd or 4th grade level. Regardless of how quickly or slowly they understand the math concepts, right now my goal is simply to begin a habit: I want my 5yr to learn how to work with new concepts in math regularly--at least 3-4 times/week--a pattern which I expect her to continue for the next 13 years. She's building character; she's learning how to form good habits; she's learning to persevere; oh, and she's also learning math. My 3yr doesn't need to begin this habit for at least one more year, but she's welcome to join us if she chooses to, as so far she has.
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Most days I teach our kindergartner a phonics lesson or she can skip it by reading me a new book. At least 2-3 times/week this lesson is followed by copywork. 3yr sister recently decided that copywork looks fun, so I give the older girl a single line and her sister 1-3 words to write out on lined paper. As the work becomes easier (my former teacher husband says our 5yr's writing is better than many of the 2nd graders' he taught; but it's still WORK for her), she'll start writing out the verse each week for our Scripture memorization box. Eventually (3yrs from now? 2? 4?) she'll be ready to connect her thoughts to her writing and be able to write at least a page every day. But we'll start with copywork and the first couple years of creative writing/essays/reports/etc. will be in either words or drawings, student's choice. Maybe a year from now or maybe a little sooner this will be part of her daily work, with lots of help from me to understand what goes on the page each day and its purpose in training her ability to think, her creativity (as if she didn't have enough already!!), and simply improving her skills by practicing them daily. (Not Robinson, but elements from it)
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We're adding one Spanish phrase at a time. While I haven't given my children the fluency that perhaps I should have, we do include several prayers in Spanish every day which they also know in English. They can both count to 20 and accurately use several phrases such as "Let's go!" and "May I have some more milk please?" We'll continue with fairly low-key learning for another year or so, then start reading lessons once the girls know how to read decently well in English.
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Our 5yr will probably join our church children's choir this year. We sing during our daily family prayer time, during our weekly church service, and during various other activities. My husband plays guitar and our long-term goal is for both girls to know how to play the guitar and the piano. Of course, the second part of that will include a big enough house to hold a piano, but we can at least start on the guitar. We've planned our Christmas gifts to our girls already: a ukulele for each. I think my husband is planning on giving them lessons, but I don't know that he actually has the time to. So we might sign both up for formal ukulele lessons in the spring. We're not aiming for professional musicians but rather the knowledge to actively serve on the music team in our Christian groups. Since our small men's and women's groups can be as few as four members, each person who can lead the songs, whether just singing or playing a guitar, is an especially valuable asset to our worship. If our girls are interested they will have the opportunity to lead music in large group settings (300+ participants), or they might just have the ability and desire to lead in small groups when no one else is capable of starting a song in the right key. That will be up to them; our goal is to give them the training to decide whether to volunteer when there's no other option or to take their music much further.
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Besides all this there's household chores, cooking chores, gardening, playing, vacationing, physical activity, holidays, relationship building, daily life, and special events. There's no reason for anyone in our family to run out of things to do! While we may not have a single label explaining what our homeschool looks like, that's probably a good thing. We haven't adapted our family to our school; we're adapting our school to fit our family, which is far more important in the long run. I have no doubt that our kids are learning far more than they would have the other way around, and those lessons will stay with them for the rest of their lives (even the rest of eternity) rather than just until the next classroom exam.
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