Warm Parenting & Delayed Academics

In our family, we chose to follow the Moore Formula approach to education. The focus on work, study, and service helped us keep a balance in our family life while presenting the value of learning to our children in every facet of our lives. I believe that the Moore approach, more than any other, allows learning to become integral to the whole child and the complete family system. With this approach, education is not placed in a box. Instead, the entire world is open to the child in a way that most other types of educational systems cannot replicate.

Sometimes parents who choose to follow the Moore Formula find that they can feel like a fish swimming up the stream instead of going with the flow. That's because they are thinking and teaching outside the norm. Our culture and the educational system are creating learning environments that take the parent out of the educational formula at an early age (preschool). One goal of the present public system of education is to do this at increasingly earlier ages. As homeschool parents, sometimes we forget that these are external, artificial pressures and we take them upon ourselves. Research shows that children who's parents practice delayed- academics later rather than early academics, catch-up with and exceed peers who have been educated formally and  starting at a young age. Not only are delayed-study children beneficiaries academically, but research shows that they exhibit more skills in inquiry and higher-level thinking than their traditionally educated peers. Traditionally "schooled" AND traditionally "schooled at home" children who are not taught by the work, service, study model of delayed academics that Dr. Moore promoted have been found to exhibit signs (across the board) of burn-out by 4th grade. These are only a few examples of the excellence that results in children who received an education with delayed academics.

"School Can Wait" is an example of a very well documented and highly researched book which proves Dr. Moore's educational philosophy. This book is highly research-oriented and the result of a $257,000 federal grant which thoroughly documented the importance of unbroken continuity of parental attachment wherever possible and the dangers of formal schooling until at least eight to ten. In it Dr. Moore states that:

"The preponderance of evidence indicates that the key role of a parent throughout the years of childhood is simply to be the kind of warm, responsive, and relatively consistent person to whom a child can safely become attached. Early development and learning are actively dependent on this relationship. Parents are chiefly responsible for a child's early learning by their attitudes and responses to the child in frequent interactions." [School Can Wait, page 47].

The Moore Formula encourages warm, responsive parenting and a delay in formal academics until eight or ten years of age. It is a plan that has proved itself over and over again. It really does work!

Recipe for Home Teaching

As a new school year starts for many, it seems timely to review the core "recipe" for homeschooling. I have always appreciated the one by Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore, early advocates of home education. Here's their recipe for home-school teaching:

"The requirements are not complex. Parents need only to be loving, responsive, and reasonably consistent, and salt these qualities with a little imagination, common sense, and willingness to follow a few simple suggestions...And don't worry about the opinions of neighbors who don't know or care about the real needs of children. Just be kind to them. Have your children be helpful in your home and in the neighborhood. Visit the old and infirm and ill. Do favors for others without asking any in return. Soon your 'strange antics' will be forgotten...or admired." 

They remind us that:

• "In one sense you are teaching all your waking moments --- as models to your offspring. Yet while some parents are more diligent than others, none need to formally teach a full school day."

And continue with this:

• "Much more important is your working with your children in physical work, helping them learn practical skills and the nobility of work --- building character qualities of initiative, industry, neatness, order, responsibility, and dependability, which are hard to find in even one of ten children or young adults today."

And there's more!

• "Along with these grosser values you can by precept and example teach manners and graces which today are rare --- kindness, thoughtfulness, tact, forgiveness, generosity, and a just plain kind of for-others love. This is seldom done in schools these days. Teach therm how to walk tall, how to listen closely, how to speak graciously. Paul was not gesturing idly when he wrote Philippians 4:8, 'Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report;...think on these things.'"

Using the Moore Formula of work, study, and service, children have been found to excel academically and socially. For more on this subject, it's recommended that you establish your foundation and philosophy for homeschooling by reading several of the books Raymond and Dorothy Moore have written on homeschooling. 

The quotes above are from the book "Home-Spun Schools" page 12 - 13.

Home Schooling Thoughts from Holt

An excerpt from “Teach Your Own” by John Holt, the educator who promoted freedom for children to learn naturally and coined the term “unschooling”.
 
“I have used the words “homeschooling” to describe the process by which children grow and learn in the world without going, or going very much, to schools, because those words are familiar and quickly understood. But in one very important sense they are misleading. What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children’s growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools but that it isn’t a school at all. It is not an artificial place, set up to make “learning” happen and in which nothing except “learning” ever happens. It is a natural, organic, central, fundamental human institution, one might easily and rightly say the foundation of all other institutions. We can imagine and indeed we have had human societies without schools, without factories, without libraries, museums, hospitals, roads, legislatures, courts, or any of the institutions which seem so indispensable and permanent a part of modern life. We might someday even choose, or be obliged, to live once again without some or all of these. But we cannot even imagine a society without homes, even if these should be no more than tents, or mud huts, or holes in the ground. What I am trying to say, in short, is that our chief educational problem is not to find a way to make homes more like schools. If anything, it is to make schools less like schools.”

As you establish your philosophy and guidelines for the school year ahead, consider the benefits of home schooling rather than conducting school at home.  There is a tangible difference.  Can you identify them?  Comment welcome!

The Smithsonian Formula

An educational philosophy is important for your home school. If you have a home school philosophy that is specific to your family it helps to keep your goals and strategies in focus. The grandfather of home schooling, Dr. Raymond Moore, recommends that each family have a philosophy written and prepared as the basis of establishing a curriculum for each family that home schools. A successful family philosophy focuses HIGHLY upon the formula that Dr. Moore presents (Smithsonian formula) on creating a genius.

The Smithsonian Institution’s study of twenty world-class geniuses stresses three factors: 

1) warm, loving, educationally responsive parents and other adults; 
2) scant association outside the family, and 
3) a great deal of creative freedom under parental guidance to explore their ideas.

Peer pressure works to tell us that we must socialize our children by having them spend time with other kids. But, studies have shown that the greatest socialization takes place within the family structure and by association with other adults. It is perfectly okay for children to spend all week with their parents, associating with other children only weekly at church. As children reached the upper elementary grades, they frequently start asking for opportunities to spend with other children. At that point, teaming with other friends to start a ‘home school activity group’ that meets semi-monthly and provides structured field trips for a group of local, home school children can be provided. This frequently fills the ‘need’ of children to associate with others their age. Piano and other group lessons can also help meet this need. The structured environment continues to facilitate learning and prevents an opportunity for negative socialization.

A great deal of freedom to explore is important. In order to create creative children, time and resources to work with are essential. So is the ability for mother or father to put up with a mess! A separate space for learning can be helpful in containing materials for this type of exploration. Paper, glue, paste, scissors, computer printers, cameras, film, paint, glitter, etc. and etc. are much more important than coloring books and paint by numbers. A supply of art materials should always been readily available at all times. They are tools that can be utilized for every subject, not just art class.

It’s important to keep priorities in focus. If one chooses to home-educate, then the education of our children must be a priority. This includes their religious education and the development of their intellect and ability to think for themselves. This comes before: canning and freezing food; laundry; a clean house; shopping trips; visiting the neighbor; etc. Of course these other things are important — but the children and their education should come first. Assigning workbook pages for the children so that the parent has time to wash windows or clean the oven does not create a wholesome and productive school environment. Children become bored to tears and homeschooling can become a struggle with this approach. Instead, plan work into the daily routine, so the children work with the parent in establishing a tidy home structure. Make this process a part of learning. Then, continue to develop other kinds of learning events as a family team. Although it is important for a child to learn to work independently, busy work is not the key.


Lessons learned while creating, building, analyzing, and applying concepts are best absorbed and retained by children. A unit study approach that is developed by the parent teacher around the interests of the children being taught is interesting and grasped well by them. It is the role of the teacher parent to create lessons and learning experiences that spark the interest in the children being taught. A bored child does not learn well. It is the parents role to provide experiences that facilitate growth, learning, and interest in any subject. Mastery will result effortlessly if this principle is applied.

Developing an educational philosophy assists the home school family to teach and learn purposefully. Once a philosophy of learning is established, the resources selected to facilitate this learning fall into place. If workbooks do not play a role in promoting your educational philosophy, there is no need to spend money on them! Instead, use your resources to find the tools that promote the philosophy you choose to embrace. Children are a precious natural resource. Thoughtful care should be taken in establishing how we will help them learn.

Growing Children Naturally

It is natural for parents to want the best for a child.  So many resources are available which can help them grow and develop.  Opportunities range from classes in baby gymnastics, to early childhood music lessons, and instruction in how to teach your baby to read.  Although intentions are good, sometimes efforts to provide the best for a child are counterproductive.  Children grow naturally, and a parent who is in tune with their child and their individual pace and abilities will find a rhythm in instruction that best understands what the child needs.  Pushing too fast or in an unnatural way can cause frustration, stress, and missed developmental opportunities.  Thelma Beem in The Dignity of a Child states that forced growth is seldom beneficial to plant or animal.  Natural development is beautiful at every stage of the process.  Children are no exception to this law of growth.  The book, Education, speaks of this concept as well.  "Children should not be forced into a precocious maturity, but as long as possible should retain the freshness and grace of their early years.  The more quiet and simple the life of a child, the more free from artificial excitement and the more in harmony with nature, the more favorable it is to physical and mental vigor and to spiritual strength."  Children are only children once.  Give time time to savor the precious years of childhood, allowing for learning through life around them.  Through daily work, service to others, walks in nature, innocent play, and lessons by a parent's side, children can experience the full benefit of natural growth.  This natural growth will help them excel in all areas of development.

Harmonious Balance

Research in child development reveals that children receive the best foundation for future development and learning from a secure and responsive home environment in which understanding parents are the teachers. Although early childhood education is pushed and encouraged by many as a necessity for proper child development, many childhood specialists are assenting that most children are better off at home than being sent away to school at a young age. All things must be considered. The whole child is important, as each facet of his or her being works together to create an intelligent, well-rounded individual. It is important to harmoniously balance a child's faculties with his physical and emotional development. The development of the mind is important, but as Dr. Raymond Moore reminds us, "the body is the powerhouse for the young child's brain and central nervous system. A sound body and stable emotions provide a strong foundation for mental and social maturity. Without this soundness and stability, the child will not realize his greatest potential" [Better Late Than Early, page 9].

Being Happily Child Centered

Without professional training, simply by being herself, a concerned, loving mother usually can do more for her normal child than a teacher can.

Parents should, of course, be willing to learn new ideas.  But a mother need not be a trained teacher, nor does she need to teach in any formal way.

By using the framework of everyday home activities in a practical way, she can help her child learn as much as possible about the things around him.

The parents goal should be to respond to the child's questions in a patient, consistent and constructive way.  Forget about the pressures of achieving.

Cultivate the idea of being happily child centered, for the child is important.  Take advantage of his motivation of the moment.  Be happy that he is curious, and try to go along with his curiosities whenever you can.

Dr. Raymond Moore

Better Late Than Early, page 21

Taking Time for Make-Believe

This morning I read a most interesting comment about women and stress. So often we feel that we need to be diligent, busy, productive, and with it! We do, but we also need to take time to feed our soul's: to relax in God's word and to spend time in just 'being'. In the book "Women and Stress", Jean Lush makes this statment that is worth contemplating:

"Take time for make-believe. Abandon yourself in play. I think God gives us an imagination for a reason. Christ knows the pressures we endure. Perhaps this is one reason He encourages us to become "as little children."


As a homeschool parent, it is sometimes very difficult to allow ourself time to step away from the many duties and responsibilities of being a keeper of the home, a home educator, and one who ministers to her community as well.  Although these are important duties, this quote encourages us to encompass more than just our responsibilities.  Yes, life is serious.  But we must also model joy, vibrancy, and play.  

So, what can you to today to create some "play" in your life? Is it time for a dress up tea party with your son or daughter? Or how about an hour at your sewing machine, creating something from your fabric stash that defies sensibility  Is it time to take a break from serious schoolwork and produce a skit or play with your children?  How about taking the week off from regular school to write a book with your child?  Use your imaginations together and write as they dictate.  Whatever it is you find to do, enjoy it with all your heart!  I think you'll be glad you did.

Individuality and Power to Think

"Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator --- individuality, power to think and do. . . It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men's thought."

Education, page 17

The Value of Teaching a Child How to Think

Teaching children how to think can be difficult.  In contrast, teaching children to merely reflect the thoughts of others is simple in comparison.  Think about it for a minute.  Requiring children to memorize and repeat correct answers can be done by practice and repetition.  Sometimes it is necessary to learn this way, like in the case of memorizing times tables or equations.  But the way a child learns best and retains knowledge is when he or she can reason and comprehend why things happen.  Knowing how and why helps him or her understand and apply it to his or her field of knowledge and usefulness.  When a child learns to think for themselves, they achieve a level of growth and autonomy that surpasses students who simply memorize facts and figures.  Even the subject of spelling requires more than mere memorization.  Critiquing words and how they are spelled based upon phonics and rules of the English language requires reasoning abilities.  Teaching thinking necessitates several things.  Using an inquiry method of instruction, where problems are directed to the student and where the student is given time to think and solve is one of them.  Comparison and contrast, evaluation, and questioning are all necessary components in creating thinkers.  Giving the student the ability to evaluate and make judgments teaches them to think for themselves.  If you are asking your child to list, label, match, name, or recall information, you are teaching them to be reflectors of the thinking of others.  But, if your instructional technique leads them to interpret, discriminate, defend, critique, appraise, or explain something, you can be sure you are on the pathway to teaching your child how to think.  This is the challenge of educating the student, but one that reaps great rewards!

Learning in Ancient Israel

 

By contemplating how God led the Children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years, we can see a word picture of His educational techniques.  Before their foray into the wilderness, the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt.  Because of their years in slavery, they had become ignorant and untrained, without opportunities to develop their characters and minds.  After Moses led them out of slavery, God worked to provide opportunities for them to strengthen their characters and to expand their minds.   If we examine this period of history, we discover examples of some of the techniques God implemented in teaching the Israelites.  God used:


1)  Symbolism ~ God asked Moses to build a sanctuary so that He could live among the people, thereby showing them His character and of their need for Him.

2)  Hand’s on learning ~ God asked the people to work together, both intellectually and physically, as they planned and built the sanctuary.  Through labor they developed character traits that helped draw them closer to God and to one another.

3)  Character Development ~ God taught them cooperation and trust as they worked together on the sanctuary, thereby  developing Godly character traits.  Each experience they had in the wilderness taught them something that they needed to know and improved their characters accordingly.

4)  Expression & Singing ~ God taught them to sing as a way to internalize the commandments and lessons He exposed them to. 

5)  Exposure to Art ~ God taught them principles of art and symmetry as it was incorporated into the building of the sanctuary.  The sanctuary was not only functional and symbolic, but beauty of shape, form, color and symmetry was expressed using the finest of materials.

6)  Nature ~ God used lessons in nature, both natural and cultivated, to teach them of the patterns and lessons found in the cycle of life.

7)  Social contact ~  Through interaction with one another in a family and community atmosphere, God taught them sympathy and of the joy of fellowship with others.  Festivals and feasts were a means of providing for some of this interaction.

8)  Giving and care ~ God taught them responsibility and the spirit of giving through communal rules for the care and conduct of others within their community.

The education that Israel received during the years after their captivity included knowledge of God, time spent with him in work and study, and a multitude of opportunities and experiences that developed the character of each one.  God was the source of Israel’s education.

Freedom to Learn

Adults believe that freedom is an inherent right. At the same time, some adults believe that they are the keepers of their children and should be able to control them and tell them exactly what to do. There may be some merit in that way of thinking, but for children to grow and thrive, they need some degree of freedom and flexibility as well. This allows them to grow naturally and achieve much. The Moore Formula approach to learning teaches that within parental guidance and love, giving children the freedom to follow their creative instincts in work, study, and play allows them to find their own inventive genius! And that no one knows better than the teacher-parent where a child’s natural curiosity leads and what their interests are. Taking this journey of exploration together, as parent and child, is an opportunity that when implemented will be one that will be without regret. 

For more on this subject: Home School Burnout, Raymond and Dorothy Moore – Chapter 1

Applying Work, Study, & Service

 Applying the study, work, and service method of home education can require that a parent-teacher think outside of the box.  Most people think of schoolwork, textbooks, copywork, and the three R’s when they think of a home-school curriculum.  But, the development of the intellectual is only one facet of education.  When combined with work and service, the academic aspects of home-schooling become one-third of a whole.  In the beginning it takes effort and concentration to figure out exactly how to apply study, work and service.  It is generally recommended that each aspect receives equal time.  Planning purposefully to achieve this goal is essential, although there is room for an ebb and flow on scheduling.   Over time it becomes easier and how it is applied becomes natural and unique to each family.

A formula that works well for any homeschool where the whole child is being developed is:


100% study
100% work
100% service

Children should be encouraged to experience life purposefully. They should be encouraged to learn and given time and freedom to explore. They are to give it their all. If they are deep in a subject and interested, they should not asked to stop learning because their time is up.  Decide early on that it is a mistake to halt or stunt a child’s learning.

The children should be encouraged to work each day. Routine chores should happen daily and occur each morning and night teach children life skills. As the children grow older, study melds its way into gainful work as they apply their education to skills that earn them money during their teens. The dividing line becomes blurred. They should always be encouraged to do their best work.

The children should be encouraged to be compassionate and to always think of others. Service can be something done as a planned event, but mostly should become a way of life — thinking of  family members, friends, neighbors, and others around the world. It can be mixed with study (writing a note to a shut-in or drawing a picture for a sick child) — or service, by keeping a continuous prayer and praise journal during family devotionals each day — or work, in a grandparents or neighbors yard in an effort to serve them because they were not able to.

Each one of these traits blends with the other and together they create a whole. One some days, more time can be spent in study, while on others more time spent on work or service. During our homeschool years, I first kept notations in my plan book (study, work, or service) but over time, as it became a part of our life learning, it became organic and just happened because of habit and inculcation into the thinking of us all. It becomes easier over time. In the initial stages of applying the formula for study,work, and service, it is important to be purposeful about implementing all three aspects of the program.

Planning each segment of the whole creates a home-school where study, work, and service becomes an integral part of learning and the creation of the whole child

Work as a Part of Education

It is possible for a high school student to be complete academic classwork with three or four hours a day of study.  When using a true study, work, and service method of homeschooling high school students, the same principles of time management apply as they do for elementary children.  School is life and lasts during every waking hour!

By the time children are high school students, work is an essential element of their education. Instead of applying it daily, it works best to break study, work, and service into a total amount for an entire week.  Some days work best if heavier in academics while others were weighed more on work or service.

At the high school level, it seems that when using work for a meaningful part of education, it should be meaningful to the student.  There is some work that is required simply because a student is part of the family (cleaning their room, filling the dishwasher, mowing the lawn, etc.).  It is the work that happens because they are part of a family team. Other meaningful work happens because the student sets a goal and then works as a means to achieve it.  Parents can assist with this goal setting, but the student should be the main force in this decision-making process.  Simply giving the child more chores each week so they can get their time in doesn’t seem to work too well for teenagers!  But, if they get a vision for work, and it becomes purposeful for them — they will willingly stick to it and become involved in the benefits of work.  It may be that they establish a small business of their own (bread baking, housecleaning for a neighbor, babysitting, building computers, mowing lawns) or that they become employees in the business of one of their parents (generally they are allowed by law to work at a younger age if it is a family business).  For some children it may mean taking a job in town (working at a fast food restaurant, as a grocery bag boy or girl, or a daycare worker).  Their goal may start out simply as a way to earn their own money, but over time they generally become enthusiastic and cheerful in using work as a part of their education.

Another facet of work that can benefit the home school student is for the parent to establish internships for their teen.   It can be very effective in giving children opportunities to learn new tasks and to see if they were interested in a variety of careers.  To establish an internship:  choose a place the student is interested in working, then write a letter to the business owner or supervisor, requesting an internship for your child.  Be sure to emphasize that this is a volunteer position and that your child does not expect to be paid for their work.  Outline a schedule of 40 hours of volunteer work that fits into the schedule of the employer and the student.  When the 40 hours are complete, write another letter to the employer, thanking them for the opportunity they gave your child.  Along with the letter, send a form that evaluates your child’s performance in the tasks they were assigned.  Ask them to assign a ‘letter grade’ to your child for the work they did.  If you are using this as a part of a unit study (work/academics combined), this becomes their grade unless you choose to add a written paper or some other form of evaluation to the grade.   In that case, combine the grades according to percentages you establish.  Forty hours of work-study is equivalent to 1/2 high school credit.

Providing teens opportunity to use work as a part of their school program gives them the opportunity to apply bits, facts, and facets of information learned and apply them to their daily life.  Learning to work as a teen creates adults that have a strong work ethic, a greater sense of self-worth, and have a sense of incentive.

True Education Begins on the Inside

‎

‘The popular method of filling the student’s mind with that which is not practical and hurrying him through a certain course, in order that he may obtain a diploma, is not true education. True education begins on the inside, at the core, with that which is practical.’

                                    Goodloe Harper Bell, Review December 26, 1882

Essentials to Achievement

 
 
The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.
Thomas Edison

A Home School

The tutorial system has never been excelled in education.  And the home has been its coziest nest.  Many of the great geniuses of the ages were largely schooled at home.  In fact, no one has ever improved on the reasonably well-managed home school.

Dr. Raymond Moore ~ Home Grown Kids, p. 20

Free to Go Slow

“There is absolutely no reason for being rushed along with the rush. Everybody should be free to go slow.”

Robert Frost

Implementing the Moore Formula

 

The Moore Formula recommends a relaxed and natural style for homeschooling. Dr. Raymond Moore was an advocate of the homeschool, and discouraged teaching by the creation of a school at home. His approach incorporates children into the daily tasks of life, with a great deal of interaction between parent and child all day long. Learning tasks are selected purposefully, but approached casually and with fun. Basic skills are integrated and reinforced through games, verbal interaction with the parent, and by application. Academics are limited to one or two hours a day, even at the upper grade levels. According to Moore, “much of the day is framed around the children’s interests with work and service that builds genuine golden-rule citizens and successful entrepreneurs” [Home School Burnout p. 13].  His method encourages that children be allowed to grow as naturally as possible, with a guidance and discipline that promotes discipleship and self-control. [Ibid p. 13] His method incorporates a four-point formula which can be used by anyone dealing with the education of children. This informal approach to learning involves having the child spend as little time in formal education as possible. This includes eliminating conventional homework. Instead, children are encouraged to work with parents in family industries and in church or with non-school organizations like 4-H, Scouts, or hospital volunteers. Family time, playing games and learning skill building which capitalizes on writing, singing, and learning math facts, is encouraged as a positive and happy time. Programs like Math-It and Winston Grammar are helpful tools for accomplishing this. Scary? Yes, but possible? Absolutely! It has been proven over and over again that children not only learn and keep up with their peers by this approach, but thrive and surpass them in the long run. Additionally, children who’s parents approach learning by this approach do not suffer from educational burn-out and apathy. The Moore approach can be used successfully not only in the early elementary years, but through all through elementary and high school years. It is sometimes difficult for parents to break out of the box of traditional educational expectations, but once done success is key!

Inquiry and Curiosity

"It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
 
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."

Albert Einstein