A part of what appeals to me about home educating the kids is having the time to further my own education and learn cool new things alongside them. As time goes by I am further affirmed that the kids will learn from every experience only I didn't always notice or rate what they were learning before when it didn't come under a "schooly" category.
I read A Thomas Jefferson Education last year and it really got me enthused and helped shape the way I wanted to approach things. I believe it is quite compatible with a natural learning style - only we don't structure our time as we have our own natural routine that works for us. The biggest thing I took away from the book was to read classic books - but not only for the kids, but for myself too. So I'm reading books that I've heard references to over the years but have never picked up. I have a longing to know what it is that I'm missing out on, but have never done anything about it until now.
So, from today (since visiting the library this afternoon) I decided I was going to bring classical music and art into my life. By exposing myself I will also be exposing my children. I am not forcing it on them, but I figure that if it's there in my environment because I enjoy it then the kids at least get the opportunity to take an interest or not. Both kids appreciate classical music anyway and we have a 12 disc compilation set that was gifted to us last Christmas that they often put on to listen and dance to, but it doesn't do much in helping me recognise each composer's style. So today I grabbed a Beethoven disc along with several art books in which each had a focus on one artist. I opened up the van Gogh book first and have propped it on the dining table and I intend to turn the page daily. The idea being that just having one constant artist or composer a week will give me (us) the familiarity with who we are listening to or observing.
Monday, October 13, 2008
My own education
Posted by Nik at 7:01 PM
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3 comments:
I like the idea of checking out different art books at the library.
As for the classical - this is a sore spot with me -- i've listened to Classical for years, and still am not able to identify different styles or sounds! Maybe it's because I can pick out so easily different music by the vocals - my brain doesn't pick up the subtleties.
hmmph.
Snap ha ha!
I was looking at art books at the library today too. I didn't really have a chance to have a good look but I did see one called "The Children's art book" or maybe it was the Art book for children...hmmm It had a yellow cover anyway lol and good questions/discussion starters. Really interesting but it was too big to fit in my bag and F2 was shouting for a fluffy...I like your idea of propping up the book.
Stephanie, yeah I'm not too sure how my experiment is going to work out lol, but I'm giving it a go. I figure one composer at a time might make it easier.
Anoushka, I will have a look out for that book. Our library had quite a cool selection of art books aimed at kids.
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