I read "A Thomas Jefferson Education." Now what do I do?

We've all been there!

We read the book. It resonated deep down as truth and as something that our family needed to do. So we jumped off the conveyor belt, and.....

....Let's just be honest. It wasn't always very pretty. Knowing something is the correct path for our family, doesn't automatically make us good at it, or brimming with know-how.

Maybe your house looked like ours. We thought that we understood that this is a "child-driven" type of learning, so we invitingly placed lots of excellent books around the house, stocked up on worthwhile games, and re-supplied the art cupboard. Surely the children will naturally gravitate to entertaining themselves (screen free) with reading, creating, deep-thinking and utopia-like interactions with each other! Did that happen at your house? It certainly didn't happen at ours!!!

We had to learn. Lots! We read a lot, studied, haunted the online forums for TJEd-ers. (One of my favorites is the Facebook group, Leadership Education Homeschool Discussion (TJEd), moderated by Rachel DeMille herself!) And most importantly, you have to jump in and try. Don't let perfectionism dictate that you know everything before you start. It's impossible, and a sure path to feeling like you failed.

We have found over time that our ability to be effective at providing the type of education we envisioned, builds "line upon line, precept on precept." Try something. No matter if it works or not, you will learn something about yourself, as a mentor to your children, and about your children, as learners. You will have countless "debriefs" with yourself: 1. What did I do to prepare? 2. What went well? 3. What can I do to improve for next time? As time passes, you will be able to look back and see a path of progression!

You may need to begin your journey with some sort of formal curriculum. That may not be your ultimate goal, but for some, it is a place to start. We recommend that if you decide to start in this manner, that you use programs that are created to teach to all your children at one time. This style of teaching is known as the "one room schoolhouse" approach and will save you innumerable hours of preparation and teaching time. Another great benefit of this type of program, is the interaction of the littler children with the bigger. Always focus the lessons on the bigger children. The littles will absorb more than you know, within their own developmental ability. In addition, there is a synergy that happens over time, a type of positive peer-pressure, where the smaller children see that their older siblings can understand more and do more, and creates a desire in them to grow up to be able to do the same things!

Almost all subject areas can be taught in this way, with the possible exceptions of Language Arts and Math. (And even then, I would argue that there are many of those lessons that can be taught together as well.) For examples, some history programs that are excellent for one room schoolhouse use are: Story of the World, The Mystery of History or The Good & The Beautiful History. There are programs like those for most academic areas. 

But remember, don't allow the curriculum to become your crutch. Pay careful attention to what types of lessons "work" for your children. Allow yourself to begin to pick and choose which lessons to present. And ALWAYS allow the lesson to go off onto tangents, or "rabbit trails" as questions arise during the lesson. You will find that some of the best learning happens during those tangents, and that type of excitement is what fosters a true Love of Learning!!! If you are a personality that works better from a plan, rather than anything that seems chaotic, plan some tangents!!! You will have given yourself permission to go "off plan" and you will be teaching your children how real learning/discovery happens...from an "I Wonder...!"

Many future blog posts will give you snapshots into our homes, to see how we implement the TJEd type learning and some the ah ha moments we've had. We aren't perfect at it, and we have lots of fails, but we have lots of successes too! Our hope is that if we share what works for us, you can have more measurable success, sooner!!