A short time ago, I had the opportunity to tutor some children during the summer while they were out of school. I had time to ponder a question I had been asking myself for years: How do you get kids to be interested in learning and obeying when they cannot to work hard without going into major crisis mode? With the help of books from Charlotte Mason and examples from incredible women I was able to put together a system that worked for me, and the children I was working with.
The answer to the question I had been asking for years was simple.
You focus first on teaching principles rather than multiplication tables and grammar.
Some of the principles I wanted these kids to know are
A) Honest hard work brings positive results
B) Obedience brings happiness
C) Everything must be done in virtue
D) Natural consequences come from everything, they can choose whether it be positive or negative.
E) The only way to be respected, is to respect everyone else first
To include this type of learning into their “summer school”, I first scheduled in plenty of time to work out in the garden. Because I expected their very best (virtuous) work, I taught them first how I wanted them to weed, then worked with them, correcting the little mistakes as we went along. Once I trusted they care enough to do it correctly, I let them go on their own.
One hard thing about weeding for them was that you had to pull out the root, not just the plant on top of the soil. What a hard thing it was at first! The boys thought, “If I just pull the top of the weed and I can’t see the rest, my job is done!” I quickly corrected this mindset by teaching them about virtue, and how even if a weed looks like it’s gone, but we know it’s not 100% gone, we should act on that knowledge by resolving the problem. By ignoring the knowledge that half of the weed is still hiding under the earth, we are dishonest with ourselves and those we are serving. Also, in the long run, our work gets done faster if we do it the right way.
No child would willingly make change without nagging or bribing right? Well, I am pleased to say that I didn’t have to use either. I was trying to teach them about natural consequences. One natural consequence that hits adults more than children is the awful result of procrastination. When the work isn’t done, the harvest has nothing to give. Many children are not used to completing a list of tasks in the time they are given without falling prey to dillydally and distractions. If they aren’t finished by bed-time, Mother wants them to get their sleep and feels she needs to complete their chores so the house is in order when they wake up.
How do you teach diligence to a child before he forms the entangling habit of procrastination?
Use neither bribes, nags, nor threats, but let them learn what it means to be self motivated. I did this by teaching yet another principle; Work comes before play. The kids knew they were free to do the activities they wished to do as soon as free time began. Free time has become invaluable to them. They often told me, “Elissa, I REALLY want to get everything done by free time so I can do this or that activity” This was music to my ears, because I knew that they would work extra hard to get their jobs and school work done quickly and efficiently.
What happens when they choose not to work efficiently? Well when I gave them a section in the garden to weed/water everyday, I estimated the time it would take a hard worker to get the job done, and set a mental timer. Some days they would work very well, avoiding distractions that came their way and finished up before I even worried about wasted time. Other days, they chatted and giggled, working at snail’s pace… or they might have observed bugs and plants (which I encouraged by saying “Oh! Isn’t that neat? Feel free to study that during free time, but right now we are hard at work in the garden!) Other days I might not even have remind them that they were wasting time, but instead, I called them back inside at the end of the 15 0r 30 minutes of weeding and say, “It looks like you have a little bit more weeding to do in your section. For now we need to move on with our studies, but you can finish it right as soon as free time starts.” To them, this may have felt like a death sentence, but without me putting any blame on them, they knew that only they were responsible for taking away their free time.
This brings me to the next principle I tried to teach; Everything must be done in virtue.
The temptation to be sloppy in school work is real. And really hard to combat. I decided to focus more on quality of work, rather than quantity. A perfect example of this would be our Penmanship Class. Penmanship last for 15 minutes. ONLY! But I required the absolute best from them during these 15 minutes. We copied one word at a time from a poetry book until it was absolutely perfect. If there was anything wrong, I had them erase the whole word and try again. At first we did one word at a time and sometimes ever rewrote the word 12 times! We then graduated to writing one line at a time.
Well, its about time for me to hit the haystack. More to come soon…
Until then,
Elissa
With Earnest Endeaver 