Agnes M. Penny - Your School of Love: A Spiritual Companion for Homeschooling Mothers

Copyright Agnes M. Penny

All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in articles and critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever, printed or electronic, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress.

Cover design by Caroline Kiser

Cover image iStockphoto.com/kupicoo

ISBN: 978-1-61890-212-2

epub ISBN: 9781618905970

mobi ISBN: 9781618905987

Published in the United States by

Saint Benedict Press, LLC

PO Box 410487

Charlotte, NC 28241

www.SaintBenedictPress.com

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com
2014

T HIS is not a how-to-homeschool book. Nor is this a how-I-homeschool book. Rather, this is a spiritual companion for homeschooling mothers or fathers, both beginners and veterans, meant to refresh, inspire, and offer practical suggestions for those who dare to take charge of their childrens education.

Truth never changes and is the same for everyone, but not everyone will use the same method for communicating this truth. People have different personalities, learning styles, interests, and needs, and thus different families will find that different educational styles work best for them. As homeschooling parents, we shouldnt assume the educational method that was used to teach us, or methods weve seen others use, are necessarily the methods best suited for ourselves and our children. I hope this book helps homeschoolers to discover the best methods for their unique families. To that end, Ive made a lot of suggestions in the following pages, not intending the reader to follow them all, but hoping that if one suggestion doesnt work for one family, another suggestion will. My goal is to encourage homeschoolers to try a more relaxed, more natural, less stressful style of learning. This will look different in different homes, and will probably change in each home as the children grow and their needs and interests change. While this relaxed attitude towards education will be applied differently in different homes, it should diminish burnout and discipline struggles wherever it is adopted, and provide a fun, unstressful learning experience for the whole family.

Not every meditation in this book will apply exclusively to homeschoolers. After all, homeschooling is just an extension of parenthood, requiring all the same virtues and habits and attitudes of good parentingonly more so, because homeschoolers spend more time and do a greater variety of activities with their children than non-homeschooling parents. Some chapters will talk about topics like how to cultivate humility in ourselves or encourage creativity in our childrenissues equally applicable to homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers. Similarly, some chapters, like Homeschooling a Large Family, may contain some tips that could help both large and small homeschooling families. Each meditation is preceded by a quote from a well-known Catholicoften a saintwhich can help us keep perspective in our daily battle against cluttered rooms, soiled laundry, and misplaced modifiers.

Most of the books and resources I recommend in this book are ones Ive personally read or used; however, I did include a few that I have not read because I wanted to provide a variety of suggestions not limited to those Ive had the time or money to actually look over myself. However, either my children or I have read the majority of the books mentioned, and I feel confident recommending them to homeschooling families. I encourage readers to look up book suggestions online and to look over online reviews or even read a few sample pages before making a purchase. Many of the books mentioned are no longer in print, but I did not want to limit the selection to books which happened to be published recently, particularly since finding used books has become easier than ever before with used book websites, where the treasures of the past can be rediscovered and cherished by families of today.

Taking responsibility for a childs education is a huge and daunting task, sometimes frustrating and bewildering, often exhausting, but always rewarding. I hope to affirm you in your choice to educate your child at home and to assist you with spiritual reflections that have helped me in the daily grind of managing parenthood, discipline, laundry, cooking, cleaning, andoh, yesoverseeing the academic and intellectual formation of my children. I pray that God will bless you in your efforts to raise cultured, literate, and virtuous children, and that my book might assist you a little bit in your journey.

It is necessary not only that religious
instruction be given to the young at certain
fixed times, but also that every other subject
taught, be permeated with Christian piety. If
this is wanting, if this sacred atmosphere does
not pervade and warm the hearts of masters
and scholars alike, little good can be expected
from any kind of learning, and considerable
harm will often be the consequence.

PIUS XI, ON CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

The parents have been appointed
by God Himself as the first and
principal educators of their children
their right is completely inalienable.

POPE JOHN PAUL II

H OMESCHOOLING is what we make it. Thats why it is such an adventure. We decide just what our homeschool will look like. We determine the environment in which our children will discover the wonders of the universe that God has created, the amazing stories of the heroic men and women who have lived before us, the fascinating world of numbers and shapes, and the classic tales that the great minds of our civilization have written. We choose what books and resources to use, what atmosphere will pervade our home, and what crafts, games, artwork, and music will lighten the days load. We design our daily schedule, along with beloved family traditions, whether we read the life of the saint of the day aloud at breakfast, recite the Angelus at lunch, sing songs together in the car while doing errands, or pray the rosary as a family before bed.

Homeschooling is what we make it. We can imitate the conventional school system, buy a chalkboard, maps, textbooks, and workbooks, and keep our children busy all day with paperwork. Or we can follow the revolutionary lead of unschoolers and let our children initiate all their own learning experiences. Or, like most homeschoolers, we can choose a path somewhere in between, more or less rigid, more or less relaxed, more or less hands-on in our approach. Its up to us. We should take the time to learn about different educational methods to help us determine what approach we want to adopt. Our choice will depend on our own temperament and learning style, the temperaments and learning styles of our children, as well as the time and resources at our disposal. Most of us have experienced conventional schooling at great length; to attain a more balanced perspective, we need to give some consideration to the ideas of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, John Taylor Gatto, Raymond Moore, Mary Hood, Rick and Marilyn Boyer, Suzie Andres, and others. Whether we agree with these educators or not, we can learn both from our agreements and from our disagreements as we grope towards our own educational philosophy.

Homeschooling is what we make it. Homeschooling can be exciting or boring, fun or tedious, inspiring or discouraging. We can feel weighed down by the tremendous responsibility and complain about the enormous amount of work we have ahead of us, or we can treasure this precious time we have to spend with our children, exulting in the opportunity to be with our children as they first count to ten, sound out their first word, look through their first microscope, speak their first sentence in French, gasp over Treasure Island , and cry over Little Women .