Utah Vacation

In the end of July the kids and I went to a family reunion in Utah. We went camping on Bear Lake, swimming, rafting and kayaking in the lake. We drove up to Idaho and went on a tour through a cave and then one night we went to see a play-which my kids loved, and have begun reenacting with toys and props.

Real Life Discipline

The issue of obedience has been on my heart lately, probably because we have had a lack thereof the past month. With us moving, going on vacation, the children sleeping over at cousins several nights in a row things have not been in a normal routine. My husband and I have also been discussing the convention on the "rights of the child" lately, which may have something to do with it. One of my children may have overheard some of this and began using a few arguments when talking to me. "You know I have rights to and I should be allowed to do whatever I want." "I don't see why I have to do what you say all the time, I have my own mind and can make my own choices." "I'm not your servent, I shouldn't have to do any of your work." "I can't get in trouble for saying that, because I am just saying how I really feel."

As soon as I started hearing some of these statements I knew I had an issue that needed dealt with, before an attitude of rebelliousness or disobedience set in. So I crossed everything off my calendar that would seperate this child from me for the whole week. In other words she would not be going to cousins, friends or even Achievement Days Activities and I would be remaining home. This, of course, brought on tears and a tantrum. So now I got to deal with the problem head on.

The first issue was bringing her back to a state of respectfully listening, so that we could have a conversation. This meant that she got to stand in the corner. At this point she tried refusing, but after further discipline she learned I was serious and she did stand in the corner for ten minutes. This was hard on her partially because we were finishing the Shakespeare play and the other kids were really involved in it and she hates to not be included in something that is fun. I stood my ground until we were done and then set the other kids to work and brought her over to me. I asked her if she had thought about her behavior while she was in the corner, she was flippant and I sent her back. Two minutes later I called her to me again this time she reluctantly acknowledged that she should obey and not talk back. I had gotten outward obedience, but not reached her heart. I knew that without reaching her heart, she would continue to be rebellious inside and so I had to revisit this issue until I had her heart.

At the time I had to go on to something else. The next day she cried all morning, because it was the day she was to miss her activity. I explained to her that this was neccessary until she learned to obey happily. I told her my reasoning behind it and then invited her to come with me on errands. She reluctantly agreed. She then picked on her brothers, got in trouble and felt genuinely bad. I knew it was time to approach her again. So I took her in my arms, hugged her and talked to her about how she felt when she acted meanly and disobeyed. I then asked how she would have felt if she hadn't. We talked about all of the fun things one can do, when one obeys the rules. We talked about what it would be like if Dad and I refused to do things just because we didn't want to. She hugged me and then she went on.

The rest of the day was much better and she occasionally stole a hug and said, "I am trying to obey Mom. You know, it's like that story that says If you obey, you will be happy all day." She prayed that night that she would learn to obey. Yet, I knew the situation was not done, because I don't want her to obey me, because I say so. This kind of obedience can only last so long, like until I make my next parenting blunder.

So I waited and the next morning another opportunity for discussion presented itself. We were eating breakfast and started talking about God and how he wants us to return to him and how we will be judged after we die. We talked about how as we repented our sins would be washed away and at the judgement through Christ we would be found clean and be able to be with Heavenly Father again. After talking awhile, my son turned to me and said, "Mom, this is very important for us to know. Thank you, for teaching this to me, it is the most important thing in the world." I told him that is why God had set up families with parents, was so that parents could teach their children to follow God. He had commanded the parents to do this. I then took out my scriptures and showed them Moses 6:57-58 "57 Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or cdwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the fSon of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.
58 Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your cchildren, saying:" I then asked them if they knew what God had told the children to do. I flipped to Ephesians 6:1, which all my children have memorized, but when they began to recite, I slowed them down and said let's read it. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Then I said, you see, parents are supposed to be following God, they are supposed to be "In the Lord" and then when the children obey their parents, they will be "in the Lord" also. It's a pretty cool plan, isn't it? They agreed that it was and we talked about how Daddy and I were not perfect, but we were a little further along then they were, so we were allowed to be their parents and help them to return to Our Heavenly Father. I then asked them why else they think God might ask children to obey their parents. They thought for a minute and then my daughter said, so that we can practice obeying our Heavenly Father. Exactly. We need to practice obeying someone who loves us, and wants what is best for us even when we don't understand all of the reasons we are asked to do something. My children agreed that made sense and then willingly did their school and helped with the chores that needed done.

I followed this up with smiles and hugs and kind words when I've seen her doing kind things and extra things and peace has been restored. It is interesting to see how much happier and content she is versus a week ago. It is nice to again have her heart.

What is going on?

I have been reading and learning about some political stuff lately and first I was saying no way would that happen here. Apparently I am wrong, and I admit I am getting a little scared by all of the legislation that is attacking the family and the children right now. You can read a copy of SB 1322 here, http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1301-1350/sb_1322_bill_20080714_amended_asm_v95.html. This in effect, removes the ban on using schools to teach communism in California, with the intent to persuade others both in a classroom school and in the community to join procommunist groups and ideas.

Rob Reich is currently working on a piece legislation that would attempt to enforce homeschool students access to opposing worldviews and minimal autonomy and would attempt to limit value systems being passed on from parent to child. He says, "Children are owed as a matter of justice the capacity to choose to lead lives--adopt values and beliefs, pursue an occupation, endorse new traditions--that are different from those of their parents. Because the child cannot him or herself ensure the acquisition of such capacities and the parents may be opposed to such acquisition, the state must ensure it for them. The state must guarantee that children are educated for minimal autonomy." The link is here http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200204230.asp.

In a 1,200 page bill, there is a small paragraph that would require distance education students to be watched in there homes. The link is here, http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i46/46a00103.htm. Big Brother, here we come.

Of course, then there is the bill that is attempting to make preschool mandatory, even though the studies came back showing that most students did better academically if they were home with a caregiver until Kindergartener or later.

Well, we have already passed laws that allow children to have abortions without parents even knowing through the schools and laws that children must be taught sex and alternative lifestyles in school. It appears that many of the special interest groups that run the schools feel, we the parents, can not be trusted to raise our kids to have the ideas they want them to have and so they must take over. Oh, and the University of California just passed a requirement that says they won't count any classes that come from a Christian perspective when students are applying for enrollment. Other religious perspectives still seem to be okay, as long as it is not Christian. And the UN Convention on the rights of the child, has a lot of things in it that should scare parents. More information on that can be found here http://www.parentalrights.org/blog/. Okay, I'll stop with gratitude that my kids aren't in the immediate system controlled by antifamily special interest groups. Yet, I fear for those trying to get into our homes.

"The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us." Spencer W. Kimball Ensign, November 1980.

Do Homeschoolers Need a Credential?

I was asked if homeschoolers should be required to get a teaching credential, and replied as follows. No, they should be able to teach their children without a teaching credential. Look at the theory behind homeschooling, which is that one can learn outside of an institution, does this learning outside of an institution stop just because you are an adult. No, adults are also capable of learning the information they need to do what they need to do outside of an institution, so it makes no sense to require them to earn an institutionalized degree if they can get the information they need better elsewhere.

I am currently getting my teaching credential and homeschooling. I can honestly say that I will never use the two classes on English language learners, the class on classroom management, nor the student teaching of a classroom for three months, among other classes, in my homeschool. I did find the Learning and the Brain class interesting, but I also find I already know way more than all of the other students and most of the teachers about learning theory, how to teach multiple ages, and multiple subjects at the same time. I also am much more aware of different curriculum options and how they would work with different types of students, because of my own research. All in all my own research prepared me a whole lot more to homeschool than the teaching credential I am working on-it is almost pointless in a homeschooling environment.

Aubrey's Baptism

Aubrey was ready and very eager to be baptized last Saturday. She couldn't wait to be washed clean and to officially be a member of the church. She very eagerly and from her heart made a commitment to follow God. My older kids have both taken this step very seriously, which I am grateful for. She was very happy to have her daddy baptize and confirm her, as was I. It is one of those moments that make this Mom so happy to be a mother to these wonderful children. Aubrey got her scriptures afterward and was very excited about this. We have a kind of tradition in our family that the children get their first set of scriptures and case at their baptism and then they are invited to take turns with us reading scriptures at night. She took this right of passage very seriously and proudly reads to the family from her scriptures each night. She often stops to ask a question or to give an impromptu narration of what is going on. I encourage this as the conversation is a pearl in itself.

Our Lives as a Ministry

When I heard Sherri Dew speak at women’s conference, she said one thing that struck me, which I have often thought of since. She said to let our lives be a ministry. This idea has come up again and again in the weeks since then. Cindy Rushton did an online homeschool conference, and in one of the talks, she was speaking about how important it is to put our families first, but then also to enlarge the stakes of our tent. In other words, our family and our home is to be the example and we are to invite others into it, to allow them to have the benefit of the ministry we our performing in our own homes. I like the idea of teaching others how a family that loves and learns together works by opening the doors when appropriate and inviting them in. Of course, this presupposes that our homes are running in a fashion that others would want to emulate. This idea also means that our ministry does not ever interfere with our families, rather it is an extension of it.

Later in the week, I was reading Finding God in the Hobbit, by Jim Ware, and the idea came up again, from a slightly different direction. He shares how when he was young he would read books and then want to live them. One night he wanted to be like Tom Sawyer and so snuck out of his room to meet a friend and sneak down to the railroad tracks where several ramshackle old shacks stood, in the hope of getting a glimpse of some of the railroad tramps. He never made it, though, because his friend never showed up. He then relates this to one summer as an older teen he had a young teacher in Sunday School, who would spend his days trying to share the gospel and do God’s work. On Sundays this young teacher would share the scriptures as one long story of God’s love to us and his plan for us. One day it dawned on the teenage boy that his teacher was taking the story from the Bible and doing exactly what he had done with books as a boy. He was acting them out. He was recreating the story in his life by doing what God had done. He was living the story. In other words he was allowing his life to be a ministry.

Sometimes I have a tendency to want to stay in my home because I can create what I want there, but as a follower of Christ I think it is important to go out and share who we are and what He has done for us, and also to invite others in to our home and let them see how we are different from many other families, because we have the good news of Christ-the gospel.

The Pear Tree

Aren't these beautiful fruit?

Our Garden, or Lack Thereof

We didn't really plant a garden this year, since we knew we were moving. But we still had the grape vines, which are doing great. This is what my husband will miss the most about our house. I took pictures and thought I'd share. Also our pear and apple tree are producing fruit for the first time this year. My father-in-law grew a bunch of tomato plants from seeds which he saved from a tomato he liked last year and so he gave us some and I did put them in the ground.

In Praise of Dictation and Shakespeare

When Kamron was in kindergarten we had started one of those fill in the blank spelling workbooks. After having him diligently work through about three pages I scrapped it. To me it was not worth the struggle with me pencil-allergic son to get him to spell the and in and cat and dog. I figured he was sure to pick up these words on his own without figuring out which of the ten choices fit in the specifically shaped blank. Then last year, my slightly less pencil allergic son was writing an essay-his spelling was terrible. What had I done? Now, I still didn't fill bad that he hadn't been doing spelling workbooks, but clearly something had to be done. I thought of getting a high priced spelling program, but before I did that I decided to try what Charlotte Mason said to do, which is dictation. Maybe it would help with his spelling. So I began pulling the most interesting sentences that I could find from the books we were reading and I gave them to Kamron, one at a time. I told him he would have two days to study the sentence and then I would hide the sentence and read it to him and he was to write it down in his best handwriting, getting all of the spelling and punctuation correct. He studied and he wrote out words he thought were tricky. I coached him on looking at a word until he could see it with his eyes closed, and then we hid it and I read it to him. At first I made sure he got each word right by immediately correcting any mistakes. Within two weeks his spelling errors in all of his writing diminished by half. This last week, we did this sentence from The Hobbit -
"He dreamed that a crack in the wall at the back of the cave got bigger and bigger, and opened wider and wider, and he was very afraid but could but could not call out or do anything but lie and look."
his 'd' in dreamed was backward and that was it. I am so happy to have Charlotte Mason as a mentor, her methods are so often right on target.

We are also doing something else she recommends, which is to study Shakespeare from a young age. This term we are studying "Twelfth Night." We are not tackling his actual play, but the version by the Lambs. I begin by giving a little background information and then once a week we read about 3 pages and then act it out. This helps the children to keep all of the characters straight. We got to the point in the play where Orsino asks Viola, who is dressed up like a boy to go and help him woo Olivia. Aubrey broke down in laughter, and sits up and says, "Let me guess Olivia is going to fall in love with Viola, because she thinks Viola is a boy and then everything is going to get mixed up." Of course, this is exactly what does happen. They could not act it out seriously and so turned it into even more of a comedy than it is. Their cousin studies with us 2 to 4 days a week and has been here for the whole play so far. Aubrey is Viola and their cousin was the ship's captain at first and then became Orsino. Kamron on the other hand wanted to stay the long lost twin brother, who, last we heard, is still tied up to the mast of a ship. So he's over in the background, with his hands behind him like he's tied making blub, blub, blub noises. Aubrey began to do both parts of Viola and Olivia amid laughter and they never did get through it, but I'm sure they will remember it so that's okay. Who knew Shakespeare could be so funny? Oh, by the way, "woo" is apparently an absolutely hilarious word if you are between 8 and 10 years old.

Brothers

Hike

It started out wonderfully. Beginning by crossing a footbridge over the little stream. It was gravelly, so we opted not to push strollers and I took the baby on my back, while Kevin carried the water and supplies. We soon realized that we would have to slow our pace to about 1 mile per hour, so that all of the textures of sand could be felt, all of the bugs could be seen, all of the shady spots could be enjoyed and the trickling of the stream could be heard. We went about two-fifths of a mile and turned around. It fell far short of the two and a half miles needed to reach the falls, but we considered it a good attempt for the younger set.

Driving to the Hike

So Kevin and I have heard about a hike at Beale Falls and we have been wanting to do it for some time. We were enticed by descriptions of a meandering brook, varied scenery, easy trail and spectacular waterfall and swimming hole at the end. So we got in the car and drove.

Kamron Will Be Missed

Next Sunday is our last Sunday in our ward. I've been told I will be missed, but for each time someone has said that about me, I have heard ten comments about my children being missed. I have had several people admit to picking a spot to sit in Sunday School based on where my husband is sitting with Baby Seth. They all want to be in the row just behind, so that they can watch his smile light up his face and his eyes brighten at the slightest provocation.

Then there is my oldest. There is something about him that has developed over the last couple of years that I did not quite expect. He is quite innocent in many ways, and sometimes that will make other children be inclined to shun someone. For instance, he will create songs that go with his lessons at church and sing them for his class. I admit I was a little nervous as to how the other children would react as they can often be cruel when a nine year old does something that is percieved to be uncool, and his class has boys from nine to elevan. But this didn't happened, because there is something about Kamron that made whatever he did the cool thing to do. For one, he is so confident in himself and he feels so assured that everyone does and will like him. He has told me, "I don't know why everyone likes me, but they do. I am almost everyone's favorite." Hmmm. Yet, this has made him pretty forgiving of others also, as, if they are rude to him, he is sure they are just having an off day, or perhaps they just don't know how to be friendly. He, also, loves Sunday school, scouts and to sing and learns all of the new primary songs after going through them a very few times, this and the fact that he knows the scripture stories and can participate well in the lessons has made him loved by all of the adults.

Also, there is one thing that quite suprised me over the last six months or so. His class of six to twelve boys was often the most irreverent and hard to contain, then a few months ago their behavior underwent a marked improvement. They all began singing and really trying to learn the songs, participating in the lessons and staying on their chairs. We were all quite baffled as to the cause as neither we, in the Primary Presidency nor their teacher was doing anything different. Then after church one day one of the boys came up to me with a huge grin and said, "I got the pipecleaners today! It's going to be a dragon." I looked at him and said, "Oh, really," not having any idea what he was talking about. I asked Kamron, and he told me that he was trying to get the boys to listen better and behave at church, so he gives them points and whoever gets the most points gets a pipecleaner guy. I taught him last year to make little men out of pipecleaners and since then he has become quite ingeneuos at it, making crowns, dragons, soldiers, full costumes and hundreds of other things. I have even used some of his pipecleaner creations as props for my lessons at church. I didn't know before this that they had become the much sought after reward that was keeping all of the boys in line. Later, I suggested that we do an activity and teach all of the boys how to do pipecleaner sculptures. He looked at me and said, "Mom if all the boys can make them then they won't need to earn them from me." Ahh, point well taken, and I can smile as he stumbles across attributes of friendship, leadership and economics.

My Phases of Motherhood

When I had my first child, there was a learning curve, but for the most part I felt like I was on vacation as I had begun staying home and with the three of us there really wasn’t much to do.

When I had my second child we bought a house and that plus a toddler and a baby kept me busy, but I felt equal to it.

When I had my third child, we were back in a cramped apartment as my husband returned to school. My oldest was now a kindergartener and I did not feel quite equal to teaching him, and having a toddler and baby in 750 square feet of space with no yard. It was then that I realized that if I was going to succeed at this I would have to step up quite a bit and simply work harder. It was also during this time that I went to a women’s enrichment class. The topic was on getting children to do chores. I was astounded by the list she handed out of what children were capable of, broken down by age. I actually raised my hand and said, “Can you honestly expect a three year old to be capable of these things?” She smiled and said hers were, because she had trained them. Well, I decided if it was all about training then I would do it. Fruit was slow in coming and it was a bit bumpy like most of my first endeavors, but I persisted.

When my fourth child was born, we were back in a house and I was working hard and I was training hard. I also began for the first time home schooling two children at two different levels, and I had a baby and a toddler. Sometimes I felt exhausted-I took a lot of naps.

When my fifth child was born, life got easier. A lot easier. Incredibly easier. My oldest two children are such a huge asset that I admit sometimes, I’d rather they didn’t spend the night at relatives quite so often. My third child is beginning to bare fruit, and my fourth is in training. I am still busy and my days are quite full, but I find everyone gets what they need, our house is reasonably clean and the children are reasonably well behaved and I am not doing all of the work. Part of it, I’m sure is that my expectations may be a little more realistic. Also, it is helpful to me that I sincerely delight in my children almost all of the time. Not through conscious training, but by example my older children have learned to delight in the younger and even my husband has been known to copy some of my phrases and tell me cute and funny things that the children have done, if I ever miss any.

My Sister's House

I just wanted to share some adorable pictures from my sister's playroom. Her four daughter's rooms are all very girlish and adorable too. She is about to have a good reason to redo her decor, as she will soon be blessed with a little boy. He'll never want for female attention.

Women's Conference

My oldest sister spoke at Women's Conference last month and all of my sisters and sil's on my side of the family, my aunt and my cousin all got to go. It was a lot of fun. A bunch of us from Ca drove out together and had a really good time talking the entire 12 hours, both ways. That was the first vacation without my husband or kids that I have ever taken.
Starr did a really good job. She spoke on embracing our roles as young mothers. She spoke of her struggles with her kids and how the scriptures have helped her to know what to do. She always amazes me at the depth of insight into the scriptures that she has. She then shared a memory of our Mom doing her hair and how we were able to do a last service for her when she died and we dressed her and did her hair. I cried and told her she should have warned me. But it is true, the service we give as mothers is a service they will give back to us as daughters.
She talked about how there is a time for some things and their is a time to let things go. She shared how she had developed her talents and had made money on them, but was now feeling prompted to concentrate on her children not making money. We will have time to do all of the things we desire or else the desires will leave us as we do the work that God has specifically appointed us.
We got to hear Sheri Dew, Sister Beck, the Prophet and almost John Bytheway. We didn't get into his, because it was packed and so instead we did service in the service hall which we found to be hilarious. Anything can be hilarious when you get that many women together.

We all went out to dinner together and had the tables next to us rolling when my cousin pulled out a neon blue doughnut and my sister proceeded to blow it up right there at dinner. Hey, sitting on bleachers all day ain't the best for a sore and pregnant tushy=).

A Reply to a Letter

Dear ,

I just wanted to encourage you and let you know you are not alone. I was married in the temple, but my husband left the church after about two years. It was hard, and I'm sure you know more about what that little word means than I need to express, but we finally came up with an agreement that since he knew he was marrying an active Mormon he must allow me to raise the children in the gospel. Then I prayed a lot and loved him a lot. I still shared a lot with him, just not very much about the gospel, yet it seeped in. I then sought preisthood blessings and had many special experiences and was told that this was my husbands trial, but that he would come back into the church while I was still raising my children. This then directed my path and my decisions-I simply lived life as if he would come back soon. About eight months ago, eight years from when he left, my husband struggled and we struggled and he reached a place where he was willing to pray and follow the answer. We were blessed with experiences so strong over the course of two and a half weeks that he prayed and asked God to slow them down, because his physical body was so exhausted. My husband is now actively striving to follow God, which at one point looked impossible, but God is faithful, I promise you He is, and God will keep what ever promises He makes to you through preisthood blessings if you are faithful. His promises to you will be different than the promises made to me, but get them and then rely on them.

We are in a fight, a war, in fact, but the blessings of God will far outway all of the trials, the turmoil and the heartche that we experience now. He'll bless you as you teach your precious sons and then, who knows, those sons may be an instrument in softening the heart of their father and grandparents.

As far as studying the gospel with your children I, too, have used the plan from this link http://www.schoolofabraham.com/storiedscriptures.htm. I find it best to just read and talk and let the discussions and the spirit take over. The children often ask questions and we talk. It really is that simple. We sing primary songs and sometimes read the Friend. We also have at least one religious book that we are reading aloud going all the time. Our Favorite was "My First Mission," by George Q. Cannon. The Gospel Doctrine lesson manual is good too. We have also gotten the "Faith Preceeds the Miracle" by Ezra Taft Benson on Audio and listen to it when we run errands. I personally love the surety and examples in this book.

I pray to God that you feel the Savior take the other side of the yoke as you do what you are feeling called to do.

Melissa, Mom to 9yos, 8yod, 4yos, 3yos and 1yos

Short Update and Reply to Question

A quick update as it is late. Life is busy, we are selling our house and moving to Yuba City. My husband just got a really good job in Colusa and we have been abundantly blessed.

I wanted to answer a question I received about which charter school offers the most money=). It is South Sutter, they currently offer $1800 a year per child in the lower grades. I am not sure how much they offer for high schoolers. Incidentally, we are switching to them this year, not actually for the money, but it is all part of that long story with many changes that I haven't told you about. South Sutter does not have a resource room or on campus classes. They do, however, pay for parks and rec classes in Yuba City and since Horizon does not have a campus in Yuba City It makes the most sense for us. Plus there is a possibility that we may move to Colusa and Horizon does cover that county, while South Sutter does.

A Random Cute Picture

Logan says I need to put this one up, because the one of him in the previous post looks sad. I guess this balances it or something.

Here is another random adorable picture of my baby who just turned one. I took him in to get his first year picture at the studio last Friday and a woman walked by looked at him, recieved one of his endearing smiles and said, "I don't know this child, but I want a picture of him to hang on my wall just because he is so cute." I have to admit, even if I am his mother, he is a feast for the eyes. I love to just sit back and watch all of their expressions. My husband did a photo essay of each of the kids with a bunch of expressions a few months ago. It is so fun to see and be able to save them in pictures.

Gymnastics

Brennen and Aubrey in their gymnastics classes. We only did the class for a month, but may sign back up in the summer, when I'm not working in the schools.



What Logan and Seth get to do during gymnastics=).

"I am still alive"

I am busy, but the truth is I lost my password and couldn't figure out how to log back onto this thing. I wanted to make a comment on another blog and so I finally went to the effort of getting my account info from blogger again.

My son, Logan, has starting saying to people he hasn't seen in awhile, "You are still alive!" So, for all of those in the blog world I am still alive.

Apple Hill

We had an opportunity to go to Apple Hill at the end of September. We went through a museum and the kids had fun seeing some of the old things that they had read about in stories. We saw a one room cabin and how it was set up. The thing that impressed them the most was a real bearskin rug.
After that we went to a little restaurant and Kamron had his first carmel apple, which he declared the best food in the world. We then went to another farm that had a place to eat in the apple orchard. The kids got to feed fish in the pond there and they got to see a whole pig being roasted. Brennen looked at that for awhile and said, "I guess I don't like meat anymore." (That has not lasted though, he is back to declaring that he is a meat eater and devouring as much as is offered).

Seth

Baby Seth is six months old now. He went through a fussy stage, but has emerged from it into the smiliest baby ever. Every time anyone looks at him he smiles. He is really one of the sweetest little things. It is really amazing how blessed our whole family is to have a baby again. It is hard to explain, but he gives us all so much joy to cue over and hold every day. Everyone of my other children kiss, hug and talk about how wonderful he is on a daily basis. What a blessing!

At the end of the day I always tell my husband all of the cute things the children did while he was gone. The older kids have caught onto this and now they can't let a cute incident go by without telling their dad and I. Aubrey does this the most and will even point out things that her other two little brothers do. I am just loving being a mom right now.

Seth was my earliest crawler and learned when he was barely five months old. He started at about four and a half months reaching for things and then wiggling to get them and then figured out how to get up on his hands and knees after that it was only a couple of days before he figured out the crawling motions. He is now six and a half months and can follow me around the house. He is much better at it though when his little toes are free. He got his first two teeth at five months also and he does bite. Sometimes I'll be sitting on the floor and he will just crawl up and bite, and it hurts!

Charlotte Mason and Brain Based Research

So my original project had to be abandoned, but I ended up doing the research paper that follows.



Introduction
Education is very important in America, but there is an educationalist of great value that is often overlooked in the academic discussions. Her name was Charlotte Mason and she collected the knowledge of how to educate children from the past. She also observed children in the educational field and then applied with great success her observations. Because the field of psychology was so new at the time little of what she did was backed up by formal research, but the research exists today and much of it gives us reason to take another look at her ideas in the hope of improving the education of our children. This paper will look at three of the principles that Charlotte Mason put forth as important to the education of every child, namely; narration, the use of living books, and scheduling of schoolwork. This discussion will follow a look at the peer reviewed psychology literature that provides us with the studies and the understanding of the need for these specific principles. It is hoped that this discussion will show that Charlotte Mason’s principles are sound and need to be further studied and utilized in the educational fields.
Statement of Problem
Recently an article ran in Education Daily that reported “America's lackluster performance on international tests have raised red flags at the United Nations group charged with gauging the nation's economic health. The UN Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found Americans performed at or below the international average across the board” (Sparks, 2007, pg. 1). To most who work in the educational field this is not news. The schools are doing poorly. They are not doing well on tests nor are they doing well in developing students known for their speaking, or leadership skills. Many of the ideas presented by Charlotte Mason will help students to improve drastically in their ability to think, discuss, relate ideas from one subject to another, and to lead.
This literature review and correlation to Charlotte Mason’s ideas is also important, because of the growing numbers of individuals who have begun to implement them in the nontraditional schooling sphere. Just one Charlotte Mason curriculum provider, Ambleside Online, has over four thousand families on their discussion list, trying to learn the specifics of teaching with this method. According to the Economist (2004), 1 in every 25 school aged children in America is home schooled. The Charlotte Mason philosophy is a primary method of teaching in this population. While the exact number of private schools teaching with the method is unknown there are at least twelve in the eastern United States. It is important that these principles of education are looked at from the perspective of current brain research and scientific study, so that those who are using them will be able to implement them in the best possible way. That is what this paper will begin to do, limiting itself to only three principles, which are offered as a starting place.
Literature Review
The literature reviewed in connection with the subject matter under consideration was obtained primarily from scholarly journals found in Pro-Quest and Academic Search Premiere data bases. Also a book, which has gathered and correlated much of the brain based research with the field of education will be discussed. This is in no way a comprehensive view of the subject matter as it is very vast, but it will serve as an overview.
The first article is one of many linking emotions to long-term memory. It is titled Memories of an Emotional and a Nonemotional Event: Effects of Aging and Delay Interval. In this article the authors conducted a study to see how well people would remember information that was more and less emotional in nature. They also correlated their results by age. In 2003 surveys were sent within two weeks of both the Super bowl and the Columbia shuttle explosion. They were sent again seven months later. It was found that both groups rated the shuttle explosion as a lot more emotional and both groups remembered more details about it in both surveys. The younger individuals remembered both events more accurately, but the difference was less great for the Columbia explosion.
The second article is The relationship between type of teacher talk and student attentiveness. A study was done in junior high, high school and university music classes. Classes were observed during productive rehearsal time with their normal teacher and scored based on how often and for how long the teacher stopped the music playing to talk. The type of talk was categorized. The students were observed to see how attentive they were to this teacher talk. It was found that The more a teacher talked in all levels the more off tasks the students became. They were most attentive to the talk when it was academic in nature.
The third article is not a report of a study, but a summary of some of the information we need to discuss the topic of this report. It is titled Brain-based Teaching Strategies for Improving Students’ Memory, Learning and Test-taking Success. In this correlational article Willis discusses what we have learned from the studies so far about the brain. She describes what we have found from experiments on lab rats in enriched versus non-enriched environments and says, “Dendrites increase in size and number in response to learned skills, experience, and information. New dendrites grow as branches from frequently activated neurons. Once these dendrites are formed, it is the brain's plasticity that allows it to reshape and reorganize the networks of dendrite-neuron connections in response to increased or decreased use of these pathways” (2007, pg. 10).
It has been found, mostly through studies done on rats, that when an idea or part of the brain is used often the mylination around the dendrites thicken and this speeds up the recall of the information. In essence, the more often you use information you learn the easier it is to remember. When you do not use information it is pruned. “Pruning occurs when some brain pathways and connections are selectively maintained and "hard-wired," while others are selectively eliminated, or "pruned." Since active cells require blood to bring nourishment and clear away waste, cells that are inactive don't send messages to the circulatory system to send blood” (2007, pg. 11).
Willis further cites the research that shows how learning something in multiple ways creates multiple pathways to access the information and helps the information to remain accessible. She then goes on to describe the different types of memory. “From the most basic awareness of our environment, our memory skills progress from rote memory, working (short-term) memory, patterning and connections to relational memory, and, ultimately, long-term memory storage” (2007, pg. 12). In order to get something from working memory to short term memory or long-term memory the student must pay attention to it. There are many ways to do this. By being emotional involved with a subject it is much more likely to go to your long-term memory. Also one can recall the information often and this too will move it over to long-term memory and then further thicken the dendrites to make future recall even easier. Another way to move ideas into long-term memory is to allow students to experience an ah-ha moments, a moment when they connect new information with old and both the new and the old are seen in a new way.
In Learning about Learning: from theories to trends Gail Bush discusses some of the changes that have taken place in the field of education. The author discusses the changes of the field of psychology as it relates to education. “There was a strong sentiment among leading scholars at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and elsewhere that if psychology was going to continue as a science of the mind, it would have to shift focus from observing behavior to studying mentalistic processes and concepts” (2006, pg. 14). As American educational psychology began to grow changes were taking place in other fields, which opened up new research possibilities. New demands were also soon made. “The education community was taking a hit from the space race, and along came cognitive science with much to offer education as a burgeoning body of knowledge ready for practical application” (2006, pg. 16).
Another article that is pertinent to our discussion of brain research and education is by Marcia D’Arcangelo. She interviewed some of the top scientists and researchers on the brain as it relates to education. Marion Diamond is a leading scientist in the area of how enriched environments affect brain functioning and physiology in rats. Eric Jensen is a leading researcher in the fields of both brain research and education. For the purposes of this paper I will focus mainly on these two individuals’ responses. Diamond was asked about the enriched environments of the rats she works with in her studies. She replied that enriched environments are environments where the rats have plenty of room, other rats with which to socialize and a variety of toys that are often changed for the rats to explore. The experiments are done with control rats that are isolated and only have bedding material and food, but no toys. “We found that the rats living in the enriched environment had developed a thicker cortex than those rats living in the impoverished environment. Their cortex had grown as a result of interacting with other rats and with objects to explore and climb upon” (1998, pg. 21). When asked to apply this to humans Diamond states, “No two human brains are alike. An enriched environment for one is not necessarily enriched for another. No two children learn in the identical way. In the classroom, we should teach children how to think for themselves” (1998, pg. 21). It is further hypothesized that a students individiual reactions with the environment is what will turn an educational environment into an enriched one. Diamond further explains, “There are some principles that drive learning. Every human being is driven to search for meaning. We all try to create patterns from our environment, and we all learn to some extent through interaction with others. Because ours is a social brain, it's important to build authentic relationships in the classroom and beyond. Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat. We want to deeply engage learners with their purposes, values, and interests. Thinking and feeling are connected because our patterning is emotional. That means that we need to help learners create a felt meaning, a sense of relationship with a subject, in addition to an intellectual understanding” (1998, pg. 23).
Eric Jensen adds several important points about education that are relevant to our topic. His research has shown that students must pay attention to something to learn it, but attention of young children is not anywhere the half hour to hour long classes that we want them to pay attention to. “The normal human brain works in periods of high levels of attention, followed by periods of low levels of attention. The brain needs downtime” (1998, Pg. 24).
The next important work I would like to discuss is not a peer reviewed article, but a book by Eric Jensen who was interviewed in the previous article. He has collected data on how the brain learns and written a book entitled Brain-Based Learning. This book discusses in more depth how the brain moves things from working memory to short-term memory to long-term memory. It further discusses the need for an enriched environment with a variety of things to study so that students can get out of it what they need in their own situations. There are many helpful ways to prepare the learner to receive new information. In essence a learner needs a hook to place new learning onto and it has been found that the hook should be given to the students well before the teaching of new information, but this is not as difficult as it seems as everything is connected or related. The student be allowed to develop these relationships in their mind to make the learning more meaningful. Jensen sites many studies about the need for downtime and for physical activity breaks in between focused studies.
These articles and studies give a good overview of the current understanding of the current brain research and how it relates to education. The next section will show that all of this backs up three of the principles of education that Charlotte Mason observed and set forth as the best methods for education. It is not within the scope of this paper to demonstrate proof for all of her educational principles only to show an example of their timelessness when the ideas of behaviorism are falling by the way side because they have failed to stand up to current brain research. The author will first discuss the principle of narration, then living books and last scheduling.
Discussion Narration
Narration is the individual process of taking what you have learned and putting it into words. This is of greatest importance in the Charlotte Mason philosophy. It sounds simply and when someone is trained in it, it is. When a child is six lessons begin. The child is read some interesting story or part of a story and then asked to tell what happened. The child then has to ask him or herself how it began and what happened next and so forth until the entire episode is recalled. A small discussion may follow, but never precede the narrations.
Attention is the cornerstone of education. Jensen says, “For years, many teachers have found that their Holy Grail has been attention” (D’arcangelo, 1998, p. 25). We have learned a lot about acquiring attention and we now know why narration works so well. “All learning is state-dependent. The physiological, emotional, postural and psychological state that your learners are in will mediate content” (Jensen, p. 125). Narration sets up the needed state required for attention, because the students know they will have to tell back what they are learning. This way the attention is not able to drift to other things and it is held to the topic at hand. The lessons are age appropriate in length so this exercise is not too taxing on the children, but it does stretch them so that their attention will increase as they get older and the subject matter gets more complex.
Narration is also a form of repetition. Daimond explains, “The important thing that we’ve learned is that repetition helps memory” (D’arcangelo, 1998, p. 24). Wolfe further explains, “the second time two neurons fire together, they become more efficient and fire more readily. That develops what we call long-term memory” (D’arcangelo, 1998, p. 24). The more often something is recalled the more often the neural pathways are accessed and when this happens they become stronger and more protected from pruning. When a child hears a lesson that may be the first time the content is heard, but he or she immediately narrates either verbally or in written form, this accesses those neurons again, and then when the subject is picked up again the next day or next week a short recap of where the students are is done, which accesses the neural pathway another time. Then as the lesson is continued new material is being built onto what has previously been learned and as these connections are being made the neural pathway is again accessed. This repetition works together to increase the long-term memory of the information.
Memory can be classified into working memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Certain things need to happen for the information to move from one category to another. Anything we notice may be held in working memory. “The challenge students face is to move information from working memory to their long-term memories. If they don’t do this in about 20 minutes, that information can be lost” (Willis, 2007, p.311). Repetition and relating new content to old content are two things that make this much more likely.
“Often (the facts presented to students) don’t have obvious or engaging patterns or connections that give them context or relationship to each other or the students’ lives” (Willis, 2007, p.311). In narration the child is allowed to build these relationships and find the patterns. When a child narrates he is telling the parts of the lesson that meant something to him. For instance, when we read Paul Revere’s ride by Henry Longfellow it is very likely that one child may give much more detail of the historical aspects, while another connects more with the horse. For both future lessons on the material will give them something real that he or she can connect with. The behaviorist idea that we can set up an environment, or a lesson, and every brain will react to it the same way has been found in education to be inaccurate. “Remember how the behaviorists thought that we all share the same understanding after learning new content? We beg to differ, say the constructivists. Learning is viewed as a search for meaning; we construct our own understanding of the world. Constructivism is a cognitive perspective to learning that at its core holds that knowledge is constructed by the learner and developed through experience. Information that is registered as input (we are bridging the information processing model here) is matched with previously stored knowledge. The new understanding is again stored for future use and now has more connections. The crux of constructivism is in the active construction of meaning through interactions with the social and the physical environment” (Bush 2005, p.15). This is also why we revisit material as educators. As we call on previous knowledge we add to it and the previous knowledge is further clarified according to the students new learning. As we are studying we are constantly personally relating to the material and connecting with the new and old material in our own way.
Narration is also beneficial as it relates to other subjects and gives many opportunities to learn. “Good language, like the synapses that make it possible, is gained only from interactive engagement: children need to talk as well as to hear” (Healy, 1999, p.88). Jane Healy author of Endangered Minds points out that most students are not given enough time to put their thoughts into words and are not proficient in doing this. Narration offers the child the opportunity to do this. The content is provided, but the child gets to develop the skill of taking that content and selecting what he or she feels is important and verbally putting it into words that are easily comprehended by others. This is also true of writing. As the child’s ability to narrate verbally increase he or she is then asked to narrate in written form. This is especially important in traditional schools where it is hard to give everyone an opportunity to narrate verbally, everyone can still narrate in writing. The same mental questions have to be asked of the student, by the student.
Narration is a highly valuable principle that is an effective method of meeting what we now through modern research to be what the brain needs to learn. It can be used in all subjects. Imagine how beneficial it would be if the students were consistently asked to tell how to do math, rather than just answer problems. The former would bring comprehension up to a much higher standard. That is what narrating does, it holds attention, develops easier recall of the information, helps to move the information to long-term memory, provides an opportunity to relate to information in an individual way and it can be used embedded in the other content areas.
Living Books
The second Charlotte Mason principle I would like to discuss is the use of living books. Living books are whole books that are written by an author who is passionate about the subject and clothes their story in literary language. Textbooks on the other hand, our current traditional schools, are often written by large committees of people in language deemed exactly suited to the particular grade the book is designed for.
Jane Healy gave an example of the difference. She visited a school to observe its language arts teaching. The school was under a great deal of pressure to meet state standards and the district had handed out grade level literature books with scripted lesson plans. In the first class the students were reading a carefully worded story that was considered developmentally appropriate. The students were bored. They expressed irritation through comments such as, “this is stupid,” and “who’s this creep anyway?” There daily readings were not connected to any others day readings and so there was a feeling of relief when the story was over. Little was comprehended and little was remembered. In another classroom the teacher had quietly scrapped the readers and bought some interesting unabridged novels. She only had enough for every three students to share, but the students eagerly sat around their copies and, though story was more difficult than the one in the other class, the obviously understood and eagerly discussed it. The story continued from day to day and so they remembered it and were eager to get back to it.
Living books have personality and enthusiasm. With it they engage the readers much more than textbook descriptions of an event or fact. Diamond says, “Every human being is driven to search for meaning. We all try to create patterns from our environment, and we all learn to some extent through interaction with others. Because ours is a social brain, it's important to build authentic relationships in the classroom and beyond. Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat. We want to deeply engage learners with their purposes, values, and interests. Thinking and feeling are connected because our patterning is emotional. That means that we need to help learners create a felt meaning, a sense of relationship with a subject, in addition to an intellectual understanding.” (D’Arcangelo, 1998, p. 25). Living books do just that. They allow a relationship with the subject matter to develop. They engage learners on an emotional level like a text book can not do. “Anything that is emotionally laden will get our attention quickly” (D’Arcangelo, 1998, p. 25). Sylwester adds, “And yet, our emotional system drives our attentional system, which drives learning and memory and everything else that we do. It is biologically impossible to learn and remember anything that we don't pay attention to. The emotional system tells us whether a thing is important-whether we ought to put any energy into it. We've basically ignored emotion for years. We didn't know how to regulate it, to evaluate it, or to measure it” (D’Arcangelo, 1998, p. 25). Yet in many educational environments we are still using books that have little or no emotion in them. Texts that only present facts rarely inspire interest, build comprehension and create long-term memory for students. Living books can do this. When a father who went through it and lost their child in it tells a history of World War I, then the reasons for it and the realities of it are going to be remembered by the reader much better than when a section in a text tells the date it took place along with other pertinent facts.
From what we understand of the brain living books are the most appropriate material to use to help students develop understanding and long-term memory, as they provide context, emotion and real ideas.
Scheduling
The last of Charlotte Masons may ideas that this paper will address is that of scheduling. Charlotte Mason used shorter lessons and a variety of subjects. Lessons were continued over many days. For instance, a 10-year-old child reads a history biography once a week for twenty minutes. This may spread the book out over about six months. Students read up to twenty books at one time. Spreading books out this way gives more opportunities to recall the information. “The more times one repeats an action (e.g., practice) or recalls the information, the more dendrites sprout to connect new memories to old, and the more efficient the brain becomes in its ability to retrieve that memory or repeat that action. Eventually, just triggering the beginning of the sequence results in the remaining pieces falling into place” (Willis, 2007, p.311).
Jensen summarizes, “The normal human brain works in periods of high levels of attention, followed by periods of low levels of attention. The brain needs downtime” (D’Arcangelo, 1998, p. 26). Charlotte Mason was very aware of the need for what is now called downtime in the schedule. This is the time that allows the brain to process the new material that has been covered. She suggested that lesson be kept short, no more than fifteen minutes in the primary grades and that they alternated between mental tasks such as a new grammar lesson and less mentally demanding tasks, such as handwriting practice. This going back and forth would give the child the processing time needed to secure the knowledge in the mind.
Schedules done this way are full of many subjects such as poetry, music, artists study, art expression etc. While our schools go through cycles of cutting back to “the basics” and attempting a richer curriculum there is evidence that a broader curriculum is more brain friendly especially during the younger grades. Sylwester puts it this way, “Part of our brain is set up to deal with music and art. It wouldn't be there if it weren't important. If you don't stimulate the language centers of your brain to master language, you are in a deficit for the rest of your life. What about the music centers of your brain? A human brain isn't just about staying alive, for goodness' sake. A human brain is about the quality of one's life. The arts are very central to the spirit and the quality of our lives” (D’Arcangelo, 1998, p. 26). It is just as important for the child who is not gifted in art to still study drawing as it is for the child not gifted in math to study arithmetic. The more opportunities in the curriculum for each child to connect to several subject areas the better. This variety provides an enriched environment, which maximizes the connections of the dendrites in the brain.
Conclusion
This paper has described the three principles of narration, living books and scheduling that Charlotte Mason suggested as valuable to education. It looked at the research on the brain and described how this research backs up these three principles. The works of Charlotte Mason have many other valuable principles that ought to be discussed and applied in our educational environments so that we can meet the needs of our many individual students. In many aspects our schools are failing and the application of this approach, it is believed, would help America to achieve its goal of again becoming a world leader in kindergarten through twelfth grade education. As educationalists search for how to do this the philosophies of Charlotte Mason should be part of this discussion.








References
Bush, G. (2006). Learning about learning: from theories to trends. Teacher Librarian. 34 (2), 14-19. Retrieved September 26, 2007, from Pro-Quest Direct database.
D’Arcangelo, M. (1998). The brains behind the brain. Educational Leadership. 56(3), 20-26. Retrieved September 26, 2007, from Pro-Quest Direct database.
Fogarty, R. (1999). Architects of the intellect. Educational Leadership. 57 (3) 76-79. Retrieved September 26, 2007, from Pro-Quest Direct database.
Healy, J. (1999). Endangered Minds. Simon & Schuster, New York.
Jensen, E. (2000). Brain-based learning. Corwin Press. Thousand Oaks, California.
Kensinger, E., Krendl, A. & Corkin, S. (2006). Memories of an emotional and a nonemotional event: effects of aging and delay interval. Experimental Aging Research. 32(1), 23-45. Retrieved October 10, 2007 from Academic Search Premier database.
Mason, C. (1989). The Original Home Schooling Series, Six volume edition. Charlotte Mason Research & Supply.
Napoles, J. (2006). The relationship between type of teacher talk and student attentiveness. Journal of Music Teacher Education.16(1), 7-20. Retrieved October 10, 2007 from Academic Search Premier database.
Sparks, S., (2007). International group faults U.S. schools. Education Daily. 40 (101). 1. Retrieved September 23, 2007, from Pro-Quest Direct database.
Willis, J. (2007). Brain-based teaching strategies for improving students’ memory, learning and test-taking success. Childhood Education 83(5) 310-316. Retrieved September 26, 2007, from Pro-Quest Direct database.

Infant and Teens

A couple of responses to discussion posts in my last class.


Infants

I find Dr. Diamond’s studies to be extremely interesting. She has also written a book called Magic Trees of the Mind with the author of this article. They go into more details about Diamond’s studies and then attempt to translate them to human terms. This can be difficult because an enriched environment for a rat is very different than an enriched environment for a child. I have studied various aspects of this topic in some detail as I have set up home and educational environments for my children. I strongly believe that the primary thing an infant needs is a loving adult who is thoroughly attached to him or her. “Recent brain research suggests that warm, responsive care is not only comforting for an infant; it is critical to healthy development. In fact, a strong, secure attachment to a nurturing caregiver appears to have protective biological function, protecting an infant to some degree against the adverse effects of later stress or trauma” (Shore, 2003, p. 27). The ideal learning environment would also include the following:
-A healthy, safe environment, where the infant is breastfed.
-Adults who respond to the child’s cues in a loving kind way.
-Playfulness and cheerfulness are given in frequent interactions throughout the day between the primary caregiver and the infant.
-Physical attention is given often. The child is carried, rocked, held, kissed and hugged.
-The adult understands basic child development, but also realizes the uniqueness of each child and that every development has a normal range.
-The environment is linguistically rich. The adult talks, reads and sings often to the child.
-There are a variety of activities that the infant engages in throughout the day. This would include such things as tummy time with toys just out of reach to encourage the child to learn to crawl, and pillows over soft carpet for the infant who has started crawling to climb over. Also a variety of colored objects would be available to the infant, but only a few at a time in a rotating basis.
-Routines would be in place although strict schedules would not.

To implement such an environment most parents could use a little counseling and shown the research as to why these steps are beneficial. Researchers could then observe and record the behavior of the caregivers and infants along with a control group of infants who in daycare centers with high staff turnover. Future records of the two groups could be made at five years, ten years and fifteen years to see how the two groups faired intellectually, emotionally, physically and socially. If the group with the nurturing attached caregiver faired better than the infants in daycare with high staff turnover then we can conclude that the suggested enriched environment is better at helping children to develop well.




Teenagers


I do not believe western civilization is the only civilization where adolescents have to figure out their identity and their direction. In many cases this has been decided for the youth already, as Hall says in our text (2007, p. 181), and so this aspect is different than many experience in our society today. At the same time I do think our modern society has created the “teenager.”
In our house we have defined teenagers from the examples of the many that we know who are self-inclined, lazy and often rebellious individuals between 13 and 19. Youth are the hard working youngster between 13 and 19 who know their parents have a purpose, they have a purpose and that we all must put in a great deal of work to figure out and accomplish those purposes. I have a friend that has informed me that all children sleep around and try drugs and rebel when they become teenagers and her oldest is now in those years and proving her predictions to be true. But I did not do any of those things and neither will my children. I was too busy as an apprentice to a horse trainer, riding instructor, nanny, leader in my youth group, straight A student and following my many other self imposed goals. The rebellious teen image is often the product of a generation of children who have been raised doing mostly what they want with too little supervision and too few goal setting sessions and heartfelt talks with their parents. When a parent is around and requires hard work and that the child pursue something of his or her choice that is of value then much of the tumult of these years is channeled into productive purposes and not allowed to fester unsupervised. Also rebellious acting out is limited when the individual has real responsibilities that no one else will step in and fill. For instance, my siblings and I were all required to buy our own extras, cars, insurance and in my case horse feed from the time we were 14. My parents had eight children and work was simply part of our family. This isn’t to say we didn’t get hormonal and moody, some of us did, but it never lead to all out inappropriate behavior. We simply loved and respected my parents and this kept us in bounds. All of this comes together to resolve Erickson’s view of identity crisis. But take a teen who does not set goals, is not required to work and doesn’t pursue anything that will help him the future. In this case the identity crises will not be solved and the person will go into the next stage still not knowing anything more about what he or she is to do here. This is when we get the twenty something who is still partying, living at home or off others and has no real direction. Not always, but more often now than ever before.
Other examples of youth versus teenagers can be seen throughout history. Benjamin Franklin became an apprentice to his older brother, a printer, at age twelve. He worked long hours and learned a lot. At seventeen he moved to a new town and set up his own printing press and newspaper. At 16 George Washington became a surveyor, laying out property lines for new settlers. At 14 Thomas Edison set up a chemistry lab on a short circuit train, where he sold newspapers and other merchandize, so that he could do experiments in between selling things. These men were reacting to an environment that expected them to work, which is in sharp contrast to the homes of many teenagers today who are given much with very little required of them in return.
For those who work with teens Sheryl Feinstein author of Secrets of the Teenaged Brain suggests that we help them make goals, identify obstacles to realizing the goals, find alternatives for overcoming each obstacles, rank the alternatives and then choose the best alternative (2004, p. 133). We should help them to make goals and pursue their goals as much as we possible to encourage more mature behavior and support in solving their identity crises’.

My Last Class!

I have just begun the last class in my Psychology BA. Five weeks left! I will try to write a little more often after it is done. In this class I get to do an applied project aka a study. I am going to correlate data between geographical areas and the comments that large families receive. Sound familiar =).

After this class I will be going to Rio Salado to get the teaching credential from there and then I will transfer it to California and then I will complete my Masters so that I can have the option to teach online. So I will still be in school for about three more years. Ahh, well, at least I will be in the education field of studies soon. I have already finished three classes at Rio Salado and found them to be very interesting so I have high hopes.