Children. Optimism. Inspiration.
From the category archives:
Hello there! This is just a quick post to let you know I am guest blogging today over at The Homeschooler’s Guide to the Galaxy on various approaches to science and nature education. *Big* thanks to Alison for inviting me to post on her lovely site; you can read the article here. Come on over and tell us what you think!
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This is the fourth part in an ongoing series about finding the right preschool for your family; you can read the introduction here. The first posts covered Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio-Inspired schools.
And now for something a bit different: I know that many of you out there are either homeschooling or considering homeschooling your children, and while you can adopt any preschool approach and make it work for you at home (Reggio, Montessori, Waldorf, etc.), I thought I would highlight one approach that was developed specifically with homeschoolers in mind. So today, we will look at the Charlotte Mason approach to home education for preschoolers. Ready to begin?
Nature Journal Photograph by Deborah Brackenbury
The Charlotte Mason day begins in your home. The schedule is flexible but good habits are strongly encouraged, so you start with a healthy breakfast, brushing teeth, and getting neatly dressed. After breakfast, perhaps you read a few verses from the Bible aloud, and then you and your child venture outside. You pack up a few field guides, snacks, water, extra jackets, and a small flower press, and set out for the morning.
In the meadow, you sit down to read while your child explores – running, rolling down hills, inspecting leaves and stones, and hunting for bugs. You are there to observe, and discuss whatever interests your child, but mostly this time is for free play and fresh air. After an hour or two, your child has collected a few flowers and leaves that she wants you to look at. You sit down together on a blanket and look up the leaves in your nature guide to figure out what kind of trees they came from. After pressing a few flowers, you have a snack together and then walk home.
At lunch your child helps you set the table, and you encourage good manners during the meal. Afterward, you sit down in a comfy chair to read a few stories – “living books”, as Charlotte Mason called them, not featuring cartoon characters, but written by authors who are passionate about their subject. After reading, you ask your child to tell you about what she just read – then you simply listen, and let her tell you anything she wants about the story you were just reading. You do not prod or judge her, just listen with interest and gently encourage her to continue if she likes.
Next, you put on a Bach CD – you and your daughter have been listening to a different composer each month or so, to become familiar with their work. You leave the music on softly as your daughter takes a little nap. While she is sleeping, you set up a watercolor painting activity on the dining table: you arrange a few flowers in a vase, and set some other items from nature around the table. After her nap, your daughter sits down at the table and works on a few watercolor paintings.
In the late afternoon, you head into the garden, where you do some weeding and your daughter helps water plants. You have an afternoon snack outside, and read a few more stories before calling it a day. One of the books your daughter loves is about Monet, so you decide to plan a field trip to an art museum next week…
Illustration from the Charlotte Mason & Home Education Blog
For young children, the most essential part of education in the Charlotte Mason approach is simply plenty of time spent in nature. Whether it’s taking walks in the woods, hanging out in a local park, or simply going outside into your yard, time spent in the fresh air is vital, and should form a good chunk of the daily routine.
Other subject areas typically covered in the Charlotte Mason approach include art study, composers, poetry, folk songs, and the Bible – although during the preschool years, these topics will only be touched on during very brief lessons. Early childhood is seen as a time for free play and exploration of nature.
Good behaviors are calmly repeated and reinforced until they become habits – in preschool age children, the emphasis is on learning hygiene and neatness, as well as sticking to routines for meal times and bed times.
Charlotte Mason was a strong advocate of what she called “Living Books” – i.e., books written by a single author passionate about the subject, rather than dry textbooks or books that have been dumbed-down for children. Although for young children, the Charlotte Mason approach argues that much more time should be spent in nature than in the reading of books, even good ones!
Illustration from Homeschool Idaho
Charlotte Mason was born in Bangor, Wales, in 1842, and was educated at home by her parents. After her parents passed away, Charlotte went to school and earned her First Class Teaching Certificate. She spent over 10 years teaching and developing her ideas on education. In 1891, Mason moved to Ambleside, England, and established her own teacher training school. She was passionate about the need for parents to take a more active role in education, and created the Parents’ National Education Union to this purpose.
A gentle, natural approach characterizes the Charlotte Mason method. Unlike the Montessori method, Charlotte Mason did not see the need for specialized materials. Instead of creating a child-sized classroom, the Charlotte Mason approach uses the natural environment of the home and the outdoors.
Learning at home is seen as more beneficial to children than being sent to school – Mason believed that children could benefit more from the positive example of adult role models and the calm, natural home environment than they could being in a large class of same-age peers.
The presentation of “Living Ideas” is key. Charlotte Mason recognized that children have an innate thirst for knowledge, and supported this by exposing them to great works of literature, poetry, art, and music. Textbooks are not used, nor are dumbed-down books for children, which she called “twaddle”. As children grow, parents are encouraged to read aloud from Shakespeare, and from the Bible – her purpose was to get children used to hearing the sounds of these older forms of English, so that in their older years they would not be so intimidated by it in their studies.
Narration is the main tool for learning and assessment of knowledge in the Charlotte Mason approach. Instead of giving tests, children are asked to narrate what they have learned or observed about a topic – in the early years, this is done verbally, and later on students are asked to do both verbal and written narrations. Charlotte Mason was very much opposed to testing, worksheets, and most typical homework.
If you are thinking about homeschooling your preschooler, the Charlotte Mason approach is definitely worth looking into – the beauty of homeschooling is that you are the teacher and director of your school, so if there are things you wish to change or other methods you would like to incorporate, you can do it! You can go all-the-way Charlotte Mason, or simply take what you like. There is a large Charlotte Mason homeschooling community out there, so if you want to look into it, there is a lot of support to be found online (see some of the resources below). As this is mainly a homeschooling approach, there are very few schools out there applying Charlotte Mason methods – in fact, I only found one elementary school and no preschools. As I have mentioned, nature study is a key part of the Charlotte Mason approach, so if this does not interest you or you are really unable to spend time in nature, it may not be the right approach for your family.
Ambleside Online – A free homeschool curriculum resource: book recommendations & weekly schedules, as well as full-text of Charlotte Mason’s original writings.
Simply Charlotte Mason – Online Charlotte Mason curriculum resource for homeschoolers, including schedules, books, tips, and helpful articles.
Charlotte Mason & Home Education – A wonderful blog & resource on applying Charlotte Mason principles to your homeschool practices.
“Nature Study – Charlotte Mason Style” – A fantastic article covering activity ideas, book recommendations, useful links, and loads of inspiration to get out into nature.
Handbook of Nature Study – A beautiful blog chronicling one family’s explorations of nature.
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When I was growing up, we always had lots of animals around – cats, rabbits, hamsters, fish, birds (and eventually a horse, but not at the house 
) and I loved it. Actually, I was the reason we had all of those pets; I was obsessed. I would have happily lived on a farm. I pitched in a lot to help clean cages, scoop poop, and feed our menagerie, although I’m sure my parents sometimes wondered what they were thinking. Pets can be instrumental in teaching children about responsibility and empathy, but they can also be a burden. And let’s face it: as the adult, you are ultimately responsible for the well-being of any animals in your home.
Photo by Blackangel
So, my question to you is this: What has your experience been with kids and pets? Have you ever gotten in over your head? Have you ever felt like the bad guy for saying “No” to that cute puppy/kitten/bunny rabbit? Did you grow up around animals? Let’s share some stories.
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As a very special supplement to my post on Reggio-Inspired schools (read the post here), I am so pleased to share this interview with you today – Lori Pickert was the director of a Reggio-Inspired school for many years and is currently a project-based homeschooling Mama, educational consultant, and the force behind three blogs – The Camp Creek Blog, In Heywood’s Meadow and Inspiration Boards – whew! Lori is joining us to shed a little more light on the subject of the Reggio approach to education. Welcome, Lori!
Global Mama: Can you share a little bit of your background with us? What got you interested in the Reggio approach?
Lori: I was owner and director of a small private school from 2000-2007. We had a Reggio-inspired, project-based curriculum with multiage classes for children age 3 through third grade. When we had to close our primary program, I started homeschooling my two sons (they were 5 and 8 at the time) using the same approach.
In 1999, when we were building the school and before we had opened, I started reading about the Reggio Emilia approach and immediately began to incorporate its principles and ideas into my plans. By 2005 I was working as an educational consultant training teachers across the country in this approach, including over 100 teachers in my own state.
Global Mama: What excites you the most about seeing the Reggio approach in action?
Lori: Reggio incorporates long-term projects but adds whole other layers of aesthetics and communication. Their ideas about children are inspirational and empowering – for children as well as adults. I love the collaboration among children, adults, and community. Watching children work together in groups, sharing ideas, learning from each other, and extending each other’s ideas is thrilling.
Global Mama: As a teacher in a Reggio-inspired school, I often found it difficult to begin a project when there were so many diverse interests in the class - how do you see the project approach working in a group environment?
Lori: In a group, you need to choose one project topic to feed, and that is difficult for teachers because they feel they are shortchanging some of the children by not supporting all of their different interests. But if all of the children are allowed to work freely each day on whatever interests them, they can still pursue their individual interests. You simply provide focus by creating the opportunity for all of the children to work on one large, shared project.
The key in choosing a project topic is to make sure that two or three students are incredibly interested; they will do the work of drawing in the other children.
Global Mama: What would you say tend to be parents’ biggest reservations/fears about the Reggio approach, and how do you respond to those concerns?
Lori: Parents’ concerns were always that their children wouldn’t learn the alphabet if we weren’t doing ‘letter of the week’ or that they wouldn’t learn other skills if they weren’t expressly taught. It helped that we had mixed-aged classes (preschool included children age 3 to 5), because the returning parents could assure new parents that their children had learned everything naturally, through project work. We also comforted them by explaining how we did regular assessments, built up student portfolios, collected regular samples of student work, etc.
Parents (as well as visiting teachers!) were also confused as to whether children would produce any work if they weren’t required to do so. The children had complete freedom each day to choose their own activities. We scheduled parent information meetings to explain how the culture of the classroom drew children to work without coercion.
Global Mama: What is your advice for home school parents who want to adopt this approach to education? I know you have spent a lot of time discussing this topic on the Camp Creek Blog, and it seems that home school parents often don’t know where to begin. What are a few simple first steps they can take?
Lori: I think parents need to read about the approach and think about some of the main principles – e.g., that children are strong and capable of constructing their own knowledge, that the environment is the third teacher, etc. – and how they might make changes to their routine to support those values. I recommend that parents try to relax and explore these ideas slowly and thoughtfully, journaling as they go.
Some online Reggio resources are listed on my blog: http://www.whiteoakschool.com/reggio-resources/
{Observational Drawing with Ink}
Global Mama: Could you describe what sets Reggio apart from other approaches?
Lori: Freedom. There isn’t a set curriculum. The children’s ideas and interests are the starting point for long-term investigations. Teachers observe and document what happens in the classroom. They treat the children’s ideas and thought processes seriously and respond to them thoughtfully in order to support and extend their work. Children make many choices – which activities to pursue, how to express their ideas, how to use materials.
Playfulness. Reggio educators say ‘niente senza gioia’ – ‘nothing without joy’. The classroom and materials are beautiful; the art studio is arrayed with gorgeous art supplies. Everything celebrates play and work. Because children are the architects of their own learning, the classroom is suffused with excitement, conversation, ideas, sharing, building.
Collaboration. Children work together in small and large groups. They make plans; they discuss how to solve problems. They show each other what they are doing; they build on each other’s ideas. Teachers work together in teams to share impressions and discuss how best to support the children’s work. They document the work to share with families and work to involve them whenever possible. Each child and adult has something valuable to contribute to the community of the classroom and the school.
Global Mama: I would love to hear about one of your favorite projects.
Lori: It is very difficult to choose a favorite project! I have special memories of the ‘ocean’ project our preschool class did when my younger son was four. Their project lasted a year and some of the highlights included building a child-size boat in their classroom complete with child-made fishing equipment and building a huge aquarium on our stage big enough for the children to ‘swim’ in (wearing the scuba equipment they’d made themselves) and populated with dozens of models of different types of sea life they had made from every type of material.
They painted murals, worked with clay, made costumes and props, build large models, wrote books … and it was all work of their own choosing. Every day they came into the classroom free to play and work however they wished, and every day they chose to explore these ideas and make these fantastic representations. It was truly inspiring.
Lori, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, and for all of the inspiring work you do! Niente senza gioia!
You can find Lori writing with passion about the Reggio approach, project-based homeschooling, and other hot topics in education at The Camp Creek Blog
All photos in this article © Lori Pickert, White Oak School, Inc.
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This is the third part in an ongoing series about finding the right preschool for your family; you can read the introduction here. The first posts covered Montessori and Waldorf schools.
“Imagination” by naokosstoop
Full disclosure: I taught in a Reggio-Inspired school for three years, and overall I really enjoyed the experience. There are so many terms used to describe this approach to education, it can become horribly confusing – Reggio Emilia, Reggio-Inspired, emergent curriculum, the project approach, inquiry-based learning – enough already! For the sake of simplicity, throughout this article I am going to use the term Reggio-Inspired. So what is a Reggio-Inspired school? Simply put, it is a school whose practices are inspired by the now rather famous preschools in the town of Reggio Emilia, Italy.
In this article, I will walk you through a day in the life of a Reggio-Inspired class, take a look at the unique way curriculum is developed, the background, philosophy, strengths, critiques and resources. I am excited to tell you that I have also corralled Lori Pickert to answer a few questions for us – Lori is the former director of a Reggio-Inspired school, and currently is a project-based homeschooling Mama, blogger, and educational consultant – look for the interview later this week. Ready to get started?
Child working on a mural, Reggio Emilia, Italy; photo courtesy Reggio Children
The sunlight is streaming in through large windows, and natural objects are carefully arranged alongside art supplies and other materials around the classroom. Throughout the room is evidence of the children’s work: photographs of children working on projects, transcripts of conversations, stories, paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Each day is a new chance for exploration – you never know what will happen, or where the children will lead. The current project began with the children’s interest in flowers. A group of children really wanted to pick flowers to give to one another in bouquets. After several conversations with the children and with each other, the teachers decided that this was worth exploring.
Over the weeks, the flower project had taken them to a local Lavender Farm on a field trip, to a florist shop, and to the library, where the class checked out many books on flowers. In the classroom, the project has splintered into several groups – one group of children is very interested in planting and growing flowers, another is building a florist shop out of cardboard boxes, and a third group has veered off and become interested in creatures that live underground, especially worms.
The classroom is ever-changing, to meet the needs and interests of the class. A work table is set up in the room where a small group of children are examining seeds, digging in soil, and watering plants. A vermicomposting center (worm composting) has been established, and two girls are working with a teacher there, examining worms and gently turning the earth. In the center of the room, a group of five children are painting a massive cardboard box structure – soon to be the flower shop.
A boy begins to get hungry midmorning, and heads over to the snack table to fix himself something to eat. He carefully pours himself a glass of water, puts a few slices of cheese and a piece of apple onto a plate and sits down. Soon, several of his friends have joined him for a quick snack. When they are done, they clean up their dishes and get back to work on the flower shop.
As the children work and play, the teachers are making careful observations. The teacher sitting at the vermicomposting center is writing down the questions the children have about worms – she does not give them the answers to their questions, but approaches them with an attitude that says, “we’ll find out together.” The other teacher is photographing the work on the flower shop, and recording snippets of conversation going on around the building of the shop. The room is a happy buzz of activity.
At lunch time, the children wash hands and sit down together to eat. The table is set nicely, with small vases of flowers and real plates. After cleaning up the dishes, the afternoon light beckons many of the children out into the garden. One of the teachers accompanies the group going outside, while the other teacher stays in with the kids who want to paint.
After a while, one of the children painting suggests that they paint outside, in the garden. The teacher says “Okay, why not?” and so the children help their teacher carry paper, brushes, paints, and cups of water outside into the garden. This little group paints in the garden, laying on their stomachs, leaning against trees, for much of the afternoon. The two girls who were working with the worms inside have been bug-hunting under rocks in the garden. In the late afternoon, an impromptu story time starts up, and pretty soon most of the children have gathered around, tired from a very busy day.
Reggio-Inspired Preschool of the Arts, Madison, WI
There is no set curriculum in a Reggio-Inspired school. Rather, the curriculum is open to all possibilities, with topics for exploration based on the interests of the class. This is sometimes referred to as Emergent Curriculum, the Project Approach, or Inquiry Based Learning. Projects can last anywhere from a day to a year, and may end up somewhere completely different from where they began (for instance a project beginning with flowers may eventually turn into a study of stores and commerce by way of a flower shop).
Teachers carefully observe the children and ask questions to determine the direction the class will take. Communication is vital – teachers need to share their observations with one another and with parents, to keep everyone abreast of the constantly shifting curriculum.
No matter what the project, many modes of expression will be used: painting, drawing, storytelling, 3D sculpture, dramatic play, music, poetry, writing, map making, and more can all be used to express what the children are learning. These are what founder Loris Malaguzzi described as The Hundred Languages of Children.
The arts are vital to the schools in Reggio Emilia, and art plays a large role in most Reggio-Inspired schools as well. In Reggio Emilia, each municipal preschool has an atelier as well as an atelierista – a teacher trained in the visual arts – to help the children and teachers realize their ideas. Art techniques are taught, and children are encouraged to talk about their own and other’s work objectively. More collaborative artwork is done than in a typical preschool: groups of children often work together on a single mural and are encouraged to revise not only their own work, but their friends work as well.
Exploring the community is a regular feature. Field trips can be quite frequent, and spontaneously arise from the needs of the class. In a Reggio-Inspired school, a field trip is used as another method of gathering information and exploring a topic. For example, if a class wants to know more about trains, they may take a trip to watch trains come and go at the station or take a ride on the subway.
The classroom is seen as the third teacher. The schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, are beautiful – floor to ceiling windows let the light stream in, the classrooms open to a center piazza, and each classroom also opens to the outside. Of course, unless a school is built from scratch, we are usually not lucky enough to have such ideal conditions! Still, a Reggio-Inspired classroom should feel light, and great care should be taken to arrange objects, organize supplies, and display artwork and documentation. Also, the classroom is seen as flexible in a Reggio-Inspired school – throughout the year, furniture will be moved and materials will be rotated to suit the needs of the class.
Reggio-Inspired Learning Brooke Preschool, Cranston, RI
In 1963, Loris Malaguzzi founded the municipal preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, that we now think of as Reggio schools. Malaguzzi championed the right of children to express themselves in a multitude of ways, and stressed the need for parents and teachers to communicate and work together. These schools are a true collaboration between children, teachers, and parents.
Reggio-Inspired schools view learning as an exciting, creative inquiry process. This is very different from the traditional view that school is a place to be passively filled with knowledge. The teachers in a Reggio-Inspired school are not there to give answers; they are there to observe, to facilitate learning, and to learn right alongside the children.
Anything and everything is considered worthy of study, as long as the children are curious about it. The seeds for projects undertaken in Reggio-Inspired classrooms come from inspiration of all sorts: A new baby in a child’s family can prompt a baby or care-taking project, a new pet chicken at the school might ignite an interest in flight (why can’t the chicken fly very well, but other birds can?), while play in the block area could lead to a study of skyscrapers; the potential is limitless. Ideas are sometimes introduced by teachers, but it is the children who will determine the direction the project takes.
Documentation is a key part of any Reggio-Inspired classroom: Paintings, sculptures, photographs of work, written transcripts of conversations and stories should be readily apparent when you walk into the class. This documentation gives children something to refer back to when they are working on a project, and gives parents a window into the learning process.
Parents are often highly involved in Reggio-Inspired schools. Some are parent cooperatives, where parents regularly work alongside teachers, while other schools include parent volunteers. Parent outreach and education is also vital, and many Reggio-Inspired schools hold evening workshops and meetings to accommodate working parents.
If you are looking for an open-ended, creative environment for your child, a Reggio-Inspired school could be just what you are looking for. Reggio-Inspired schools thrive on curiosity, critical thinking, and free expression. If you are looking for a school with a predictable curriculum and teacher-directed topics, this may not be right for your family. There are not a whole lot of Reggio-Inspired schools out there – although the numbers are growing – if you are interested in a Reggio-Inspired school but cannot find one in your area, you might want to consider getting together with other parents in your community to form a cooperative preschool – if there is any interest in this, I would be happy to pull together another post with information on starting a parent cooperative preschool.
North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) – Background on the schools in Reggio Emilia, links to international organizations involved in the Reggio-Inspired schools.
Reggio-Inspired – An social network devoted to collaboration and communication among Reggio-Inspired educators.
Reggio Children – Information on the Hundred Languages of Children Exhibition, professional development, and background information.
“A School Must Rest On The Idea That All Children Are Different” - Article in Newsweek, 1991, describing the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Public Preschool Program in Englewood Uses Italian Approach – Article in the NYTimes, 2009, descibing a public New Jersey school that has adopted the Reggio approach.
Learning Materials Workshop – This online shop carries many books about and by the children of Reggio Emilia.
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Later today, you can expect the third installment in my series on hunting for a preschool, where I will be covering schools influenced by the municipal preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. What follows here is a poem by Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia schools:
No way. The hundred is there.
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.
~Loris Malaguzzi
(translated by Lella Gandini)
In the photo: Little fox mask from Abigail Brown
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