Charlotte Mason and Learning at Church

I’ve been learning a lot about Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education lately, and without having had an opportunity to put it into practice, I’ve fallen in love with a lot of her principals.  I do hope to use some of the good teaching strategies I’ve learned from her in my homeschooling, but that’s not what I want to write about today.  Today, I’ve been thinking about how to apply Charlotte’s philosophies at church - for myself, for children in my care, and for other church going families.

Right now I am a mom of just one small child, and so I acknowledge that any ideas I propose for families with multiples or older children are only hopeful proposals.  I know that as a parent you really don’t know what you’re talking about except with your own unique children and family situation, however I am passionate about children’s education and about helping families to train up their children in the Lord, so in setting forth my ideas here it is only with the hope that some might find it helpful, and with the intent of returning to it myself in the future when my own child (or future additional children) are older.

Currently I have a two year old who doesn’t seem very capable of remaining calm in a worship service for more than 5 minutes.  At home we’ve attempted quite faithfully to tell Bible stories to him, and sometimes this is successful, but other times it just isn’t.  On the other hand, he loves singing and dancing to Bible songs, so we try to capitalize on that for teaching Biblical truths.  He also, remarkably, does pretty well with short prayers.  He folds his hands and sits pretty still most of the time, so I try to keep our prayers together short, and to the point (so I won’t lose the good thing I have going) and also use it to sneak in some Bible truths here and there.  ("Thank you, God, for loving us," "Thank you for creating the world," "thank you for always being with us," etc.)

My son also loves to color with me for short periods of time.  This is something that I haven’t yet used much for spiritual instruction, except that sometimes while I’m in the nursery with him at church I will draw things from Bible stories and talk about it with him as we color.

My son loves to DO things physically, so this is something I’m starting to learn to capitalize on this for Biblical Instruction, but I need to sit down and brainstorm/plan for it better.  Recently I told him the story of the battle of Jericho, and we marched around his pack n play singing the song and then fell down at the end.  He loves it, and wants to do it every night now.  In between verses we talk about how it was GOD who made the walls fall down because GOD is POWERFUL.  Then we sing the song again saying “God fought the battle of Jericho…”  (instead of “Joshua fought…”)

As I said above, church hasn’t been easy with my son.  Because we currently attend a church without nursery staff so I (or my husband) have to stay with him in the nursery or bring him into the service - which never lasts long.  I’ve thought about being more persistent in attempting to teach him to stay still and quiet in the service, but at this point he’s SO squirmy, that I just don’t see it as worth the effort.  Maybe in a year or so we’ll give that more of a shot.  For now, we usually end up with him in the nursery through the whole service.  I do want to work on coming up with some reenactment tpye Bible lessons that I can do with him in the nursery, so we’ll see how that goes…  I just haven’t had time to put toward it yet.  I do think that over the course of the next year or two that sort of lesson along with active songs and picture drawing will be key to teaching him from God’s word.

Now, on to Charlotte Mason.

As I’ve been learning about Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education I have naturally related it to my experiences as the children’s ministry director at Cross Creek, and the many many Sunday School and Children’s Church lessons that I taught.  Also, I’ve related it to the battle that many parents encounter trying to help their children engage with the sermon, and, frankly, the battle that many adults like myself encounter when it comes to paying attention to and learning from sermons.  Listening for long lengths of time (and by long, I mean more than a few minutes at a time) is not something that people in our society tend to be very good at.  Life is so fast paced and varied now, with a million and one distractions vying for our attention at all times that sitting still and focusing for 45 minutes or longer on one speaker, can be quite challenging for us - regardless of the speaker’s talent or topic (though these things certainly do play a role in our propensity to focus).


One of the fundamentals of Charlotte’s educational philosophy was narration.  She advocated for a LOT of reading, and for reading to frequently be followed up by narration - orally, written, or even drawn or acted out.  Anyone who has every taught something to someone else knows that in order to explain a concept, you have to know it pretty well yourself, and that the mere act of explaining solidifies things in your mind.  So with a student who was new to narration she would begin by reading the first sentence of a book and then ask the student to tell her what the sentence was about.  Then she might read the entire first paragraph, and follow that by another narration.  Eventually she would be able to read him a chapter at a time before requesting that he narrate what he had heard.  She wouldn’t interrupt or correct during his narrations, but simply listen to what he had to tell her.  The point of the narration wasn’t assessment, but it was a tool to help the student pay attention and to help the information sink in as he recounted it to her.

It seems to me that narration is something that could be incredibly useful for helping anyone to pay attention and learn from a sermon or a church lesson.  If I know I’m going to be telling someone about the sermon afterward, this will help me to pay attention, and might encourage me to take a few notes as well.  Then, through telling someone about what I heard, the ideas will take hold better in my mind and memory.

In a children’s class at church, a teacher could slowly develop this skill in her students by initially asking for short narrations after very short reading from the Bible (yes, the actual Bible).  As the students become adept at it she could go for longer readings.  Children will eventually learn from listening to the narrations of their classmates and come to enjoy the opportunity to narrate to the teacher and his peers.

For very young children, a teacher could help children to narrate via small pictures as she tells the story.  This is actually the sort of teaching style that I found to be the most effective with the 6 and 7-year-olds during my time at Cross Creek.  The teacher would draw small representative pictures while telling the Bible story, and the children would copy the pictures on their own paper.  At the end of the lesson, I would sometimes ask the children to use their pictures to retell the story, and they were usually very good at it.

So much time in Sunday School and Children’s Church tends to be devoted to busywork which is just that—something to take up time.  Yes, the busywork may be related to something in the Bible, but if it doesn’t require a child to think, or doesn’t accomplish something useful, then what really is the point?  Now admittedly there are times in life when teachers and parents really do just need to occupy their child.  No one can be on their game 100% of the time, so there is a time for busywork.  But reading, listening to, recounting, and discussing ideas that matter is so much more valuable.  Even very young children like to talk about things they are learning.  So much so, that many teachers find themselves devoting a lot of energy to getting the children to STOP talking.  Instead, what if we gave them opportunities to talk and tell us what they have heard.  If a child sees that he has your attention, he will likely be happy to start talking about just about any topic you want to discuss.

Now, the average children’s class that I led tended to be about 45 minutes long.  Another of Charlotte Mason’s fundamental principals that I resonate with was that young children should have very short lessons.  The lesson should end before their attention ran out so that they would be left wanting more.  That might sound crazy, but if we stop a lesson while the child is still engaged, they will be much more likely to mull over it’s ideas in their heads after the lesson ends.  They will continue to think about it and benefit from it after your lesson time is finished.

So how do we apply that to 45 minute Sunday School classes?  We stick to short Bible readings and short narrations, and then move on to another activity.  Very young children love to move and create, so having children get up to do a song with motions or act out the Bible story would be great ways to have the children stretch, move, and take a break from the listening/narrating activity.  Also, you could give each child a sheet of paper and a pencil to do some free drawing for 5 minutes or so.  If this is not the closing activity, however, I would strongly suggest agreeing with the children on a transition signal for when the free drawing time is completed.  After a short time of more kinesthetic activity, you could draw the children in again for a short story from your life about an answered prayer, and then take prayer requests and do a short prayer time (either led by the teacher, or by having each child pray for his neighbor after a short prayer is modeled by the teacher).  After this interactive prayer time the teacher could preview the sermon passage for the students (more on this below) and invite the students to tell their neighbor what they think the pastor will say about the passage.  At first, this type of discussion will probably need to be modeled by the teacher as well.

To learn more about narration, here are a couple of great free podcast episodes by some homeschool moms.  These podcasts are specifically talking about narration in homeschooling, but I think a lot of it could be applied to narration in a children's church class or after a sermon.

For the sermon, I think I would encourage a family to start out with just mom and dad learning to narrate.  The drive home from church (if it’s a long enough drive) or the supper table later that day would be great opportunities for mom and dad to practice narrating what they heard to the family.  Then, gradually, they could require their children to do short narrations as well.  They could encourage their children to draw or write anything that would be helpful during the sermon for use during their narration later.  All of this narration by the various family members would be excellent review and could potentially spark some great discussion as well.

 To learn more about narration, here are some great free podcast episodes by some home-school moms.  These podcasts are specifically talking about narration in homeschooling, but I think a lot of it could be applied to narration in a children's church class or after a sermon.
Narration, The Act of Knowing by A Delectable Education
Narration Q & A by A Delectable Education - particularly the 2nd half
The Mason Jar #2 with Guest Kim Neve 
The Mason Jar #7 with Katie Hudgins


Another thought I’ve had, which I actually had begun to implement at Cross Creek (even before all of my study of the Charlotte Mason method) was the practice of preparing for the sermon during Sunday School classes.  I would have Sunday School teachers take a few minutes to preview the sermon passage for that day with her students, to prep them for attentiveness during the following hour.  This practice certainly helped me with my preparedness for listening well, and I think it probably helped my students with this as well.  This sort of preview could easily be done at home as well of course, but due to the business and hectic scramble that so many families experience trying to get everyone dressed, fed, and out the door to church, I think facilitating this in Sunday School is probably a better plan.  This could be done in children’s classes and adult classes alike.

I’ve always found that I’m way more interested in seeing a movie that I’ve watched a trailer for.  I’m also more interested in ready a book that a friend has told me about (or that I’ve read a positive review on).  One doesn’t need a huge investment in a book, movie, or sermon, to listen to a short preview about it.  One would likely be more willing to commit his attention to a 3 minute preview than to a 45 minute talk.  However, after hearing the short preview, our minds begin to wonder about it and project what the full thing might include.  Then, as a result, we find ourselves more willing to listen to the real thing so as to find out what we don’t know about it.

The great thing about a sermon preview is that all a teacher really needs is the sermon passage.  You could preview it by giving a short intro to the plot if it is a narrative passage (like movie trailers do), or you could preview a more ideological passage by asking thought provoking questions about ideas in the passage such as, “why do you think Jesus would say to love our neighbors?”  “How do you think we’re supposed to exhibit gentleness?” and then providing a few minutes for responses and discussion.


Do any of you use narration or sermon previews with your families or church classes?  I’d love to hear about it!

- Laura

Easter in Arequipa

Our Easter season in Arequipa began a couple weeks ago when our school had an Easter Party.  During the party everyone participated in making the traditional Good Friday soup, and then while it was simmering we took turns sharing (in Spanish) about Easter customs in our home countries.  It was a fun and informative morning with our teachers and classmates at school!

Here we are chopping onions for the soup!

It was so much fun working together with our classmates from around the world!  In this picture you can see American, German, Swiss, and Peruvian friends of ours all working together to make the soup!

One of our teachers preparing to put the ingredients in the stock pot:

The recipe posted on the wall:

Team USA sharing about Palm Sunday, the Easter Bunny, and Easter Sunday church services!

Lase week, we were off from school on Thursday and Friday, and we were invited to lunch by Finn's sweet nanny, Celia.  We had a wonderful time eating with her and her family, and doing our best to converse in Spanish!

 

Finn enjoyed playing with Celia's granddaughter (above) and seeing the cows that graze near Celia's home (below).

 

Then on Good Friday, it was interesting to see the way the whole town puts out these little shrines in front of their homes or places of business (or even on the back of their vehicles).

 One interesting tradition that many of the Catholic people in Arequipa observe is a sort of pilgrimage on Good Friday to 14 different Catholic churches where they say certain prayers.  This custom is meant to call to mind the 14 stations of the cross.  I came across one group of people walking down the road that seemed to be observing this tradition, led by a man carrying a cross.

 

Later that afternoon, we had the opportunity to babysit for our missionary friends here in Arequipa, so that they could go out on a little date.  I had been wanting to do an Easter craft with Finn, so we decided to bring supplies so that he could do it with the other children.  We all had a blast painting together!

  

 

 

That evening we had a couple of American families from our language school over for tacos, movies, and games.  It was a lot of fun!

Saturday was a fairly restful day.  Apparently not a lot happens on the day before Easter here.  I guess everyone is resting from the Good Friday activities and preparing themselves for a super early morning of "burning Judas," an early morning activity that apparently kicks off with fireworks at 4:45 a.m. (I know this because it woke me up).  Read more about that here.  

On Sunday we enjoyed a lovely Resurrection Sunday service at La Roca (our church), and then lunch with the Gutierrez family afterward.  

All in all, it was a delightful long week-end and a wonderful time of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord with brothers and sisters in Christ.  This morning we returned to our Spanish classes feeling refreshed and ready to take on our final 4 weeks of school here!

- Laura

How In The World Could They Hate Jesus?

* explanation of this picture below

I read Matthew’s account of Christ’s arrest and crucifixion this morning, and the thing that has gripped me on this reading is the total hatred that the Pharisees and Sadducees had for Jesus.  Even Pilot himself could find no fault in Jesus, and yet these people were so bothered by him that they wanted him dead.

I’m sure there are many things that played into it.  They were worried about Jesus messing up their fragile arrangement with Rome and ruining everything they’d worked for.  But it seems to me that one aspect of Jesus’ ministry which infuriated these guys was His constant offer of grace to sinners—the age old controversy of works versus grace.  And I think I experience this agitation myself.  Like the pharisees I tend to idolize my personal standards and plans for “pleasing God” so that when someone else gets in the way of these plans, I feel disdain for that person in my heart.  I disdain them for getting in my way and what’s more, I disdain them because it makes me feel better about myself. 

And I’m not talking about criminals and “pagans” here.  I’m talking about my family members.  Like the Pharisees and Sadducees I so readily find fault in the people I ought to love, and when someone extends grace as Jesus did, I’m quick to write it off as weak or foolish.  “They’re just being nice,” I think.  “They don’t really know this person like I do.”

Why do I feel such a strong need for wrong doing to be exposed and corrected?  Is justice a stronger human trait than Mercy and Grace?  Perhaps.  But ultimately I think it’s all about my own desire to accomplish my own salvation.  Like those “spiritual leaders” of Jesus day, who had it all figured out and had cleaned up their lives meticulously, I, in my subconscious, most instinctual part of me, have this notion that I can take part in my own salvation, and that you could too  if you’d just see yourself and your foolishness the way I do.  And every time my heart accuses someone in this way, I accuse Christ and spurn the mercy and grace that He offered.


How could the “good guys” have hated Jesus so much?  Couldn’t they see the good things He was doing and the kindness He showed? 


Here in Arequipa there is a traditional burning of Judas which takes place every year at Easter.  They hang up a life size, flammable (and sometimes pyrotechnic) doll to represent Christ’s betrayer, and after reading his “will,” by which they air their grievances against city officials, they burn him.

I find it a fascinating representation of how eager we are to accuse and extort justice from others rather than face our own guilt.  This is what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did, and this is what I do in my heart, if not always verbally, whenever my plans for peace, happiness, and productivity are infringed upon by those around me.  So what must I do?


Repentance.  Daily, constant, repentance, and acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice, forgiveness and grace.


- Laura


"But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."  Titus 3:4-7

Our Trip to Lima

Thanks so much to those who prayed for our recent trip to Lima to apply for our religious visas!  All things considered the trip went pretty smoothly.  I wouldn't want to do it again any time soon (though we might have to...), but as far as I can tell we accomplished what we set out to.

Here we are waiting at Interpol to get finger printed, questioned about body markings, and have our teeth examined.  They're pretty serious about knowing who is in their country!

 

One kind of nice thing about Peru is how they always offer "preferencia" to anyone who is old, pregnant, or with a small child.  Thanks to this policy I got to skip ahead in several lines provided that I had Finn with me.  Since we finished earlier than Derek we headed down the street to the 2nd largest mall in South America.  I enjoyed shopping for a few things that we haven't been able to find in Arequipa (crock pot, waffle iron, allspice, and garlic salt), and Finn enjoyed playing at this play place.

I learned that there's no point in paying for tickets or whatever to make the arcades and rides actually go.  As long as they're already lighting up and making noise he doesn't know the difference!

So hopefully in a few weeks we'll get word that our applications were approved and that we can pick them up and begin the process of getting one for Finn.  They won't let you apply for a visa for your child until you already have one yourself.  So there may be more trips to Lima in the near future, but hopefully there will be fewer lines and offices to visit since Finn is a minor (I can't imagine they'd want to finger print him too!)

- Laura

When last week's rain makes your internet drop

I'm pretty sure the few hours of rain we had a couple weeks ago just caused our internet to drop.  You see, rain in Arequipa causes big problems for the infrastructure.

 This is how our neighborhood was affected.

So due to some damage like this a little further down the road, some roadwork was begun a few days ago.

And I'm pretty sure they cut a line that brings in our cable and internet.

:/

So we are forced to entertain ourselves with archaic things like books, toys, and games for a few days.

At least the power and water only went out temporarily!

- Laura