Milemarkers
by Sandy Hancock

I am surprised by time. This is on both the short term and long term aspects. I have a terrible sense of time. Sometimes, I think time is not so linear for me. I'll get focused on something and realize that hours have passed instead of minutes. It goes the other way as well.

As parents, we have only a very limited amount of time with our children. Sometimes, I think, how did my 27 years as a homeschooling mom go by so fast? While I was in that time, it often felt like time was dragging its feet, and that the distance between Tuesday and Friday was forever. Now, I look back and am amazed how little time it was.

One thing I will never forget: my push for excellence in my students' work was a very good thing. While pursuing excellence was worth doing, it was also very hard to do. Yet, as we know, hard is good, so very hard is very good.

I started with an advantage. I was educated in the educational trends of my time, which all happened to be good. They disappeared because a difficulty in each one made each of them unpopular. As I worked to make education my career, I realized that each of those difficulties were not educational philosophy difficulties, but system difficulties. In other words, the ideas were correct, but the inertia and lethargy of the public educational system could not accommodate that change. However, I COULD use them in my own children's education because MY system had no inertia.

I knew that a great traditional broad education was what I wanted. I wanted to leave as many doors of choice open for each of my students so that they, as they discovered themselves, could walk through any door they wished in order to pursue their futures.

This approach meant that I would need to do many things. We studied the arts, music,and literature as means of expression of one's emotions and creativity. We studied math, science, and logic as ways to train the mind to sharpness. We studied reading as a means to acquire whatever knowledge one would eventually need. We studied grammar and composition, rhetoric and speech as ways to inform others of what we knew. We studied relationships and psychology and the Bible in order to live together with other people. We visited many places, both local and national. We even took two of the three kids abroad to different parts of Asia to use geography to show them how far God would take them if they were willing to try things outside their comfort zones.

We did rote learning. We did discovery learning. We did hands-on learning. We did concept learning. We pushed hard. We made memory work a normal part of education. We memorized Bible verses and passages, math facts, geography facts, timelines, history facts, game and sport rules, poetry, musical pieces, paintings and sculpture, etc. Recently, a young person asked me why bother memorizing when one could use even a phone to find facts when one needed them. I had two responses. The first was batteries. Enough said. The second was that one could only be as creative as the pile of facts in one's head. Scenario: Painter needs red paint to paint a cardinal. Fact: red. Fact: paint. Fact: brush or implement. Fact: cardinal. Fact: paper is better than mom's carpet. You see, even such a simple act needs a lot of facts.

Teaching memory work need not be odious. Select what you want them to memorize this week and divide it into 4-5 items. Print it out on a list. Post the list somewhere they will have to sit for a time: back of the driver's seat, bathroom, placemat, bottom of the bunk bed over them, etc. Have them read the list outloud once in the morning, once in the afternoon, once in the evening. They have to see it, hear it, and speak it. In no time, they will have the list memorized. It is not so hard for children to memorize as it is for adults. Their brains' file cabinets are not as full as yours, so things tumble in pretty fast.

As an educator, you do not have to choose between rote learning of facts, hands-on learning, discovery learning, or learning of concepts. DO ALL!!!

If you don't have a list of memory things with which to start, try New Covenant's list at http://newcovenantschool.com/page.aspx?id=693945


You can do it! Memory work will not only make your kids victors in Trivial Pursuit and such games, but it will also give them much material for later synthesis of new inventions, works of arts, and family loveliness. Need help? Just give us a call. 321-724-9603